#this implies many things for a certain plot point of mine...

[firebirds-roost]

Pro tip if you ever need lore ideas: go browse the item database and read the descriptions for food and materials until you find a random snippet of crazy worldbuilding that appears nowhere else on the site

[helpfandom]

Yandere Stobotnik x Platonic Reader Warnings and Talks!

VERY LONG

CW FOR ENTIRE FIC: Kidnapping, Violence, Implied murder, Explicit murder, Swearing, Death, Trauma, and explicit / implicit threatening. I WILL PUT WARNINGS AT EACH CHAPTER AS WELL.

This is mostly going to be me talking about the book's plot and characters in detail, but if you don't want to know what I have in mind and want to go ahead and read, the first chapter should be up when I publish this just know that this(this being the overview chapter) is like ~4.6 pages. 

My hope is that my writing is realistic, the world is not a "perfect world" where the only thing wrong is the Yandere itself. I will try to make it be realistic in how people talk, stutter, need clarification after hearing sentences, have tics (verbal + nonverbal)  and have things wrong with them. A preposterous idea, I know, but I plan on the MC having trauma about Robotnik and [the plot of the book], I plan on people having a reaction out of things. In the second movie, some of what they wanted to do with the human characters honestly sucked, there isn't much of the human reactions to stuff that wasn't played as a joke [Wade being held hostage by a man who is honestly, much smarter than anyone else - it was just played as a joke, I get it, Sonic 2 was a comedy, but I plan on something a little different.] 

Anyway, I have way to many ideas for this, so it's less likely to be coherent the more this goes on unless I can make up my mind. I decided to make this because it's been on my mind and I haven't seen any for this man soo...  I honestly really love Platonic and Romantic Yanderes but Platonic Robotnik has been on my mind lately.

 Y/n ideas: What I have in mind for Y/N is that they are a little ambiguous depending on certain things ( Such as preference [Theatre kid, Band kid, Dog preferring, Cat preferring, etc.] or looks [Hair, Skin tone, Body type, etc.]) But have defined traits as personality goes;  a Chronically online or a bookworm MC, Y/n is in fact going to be a chronically online MC 1, for the fun of it, and 2, because I can't think of a different personality that may go along with the personality that of Robotnik and Stone. MC will also have 2 mental illnesses (both of which I have been diagnosed with) because I know that it will come out in my writing because of my basis of MC, which I reference to myself. I have been diagnosed with OCD, and anxiety.

(OCD has different types, mine is more pattern than cause related, ex: Hyper focus on a pattern [numbers, pages, days, etc.] or if I don't sit in the same spot everyday then I get bad luck. A good example of passive OCD would be Yes Man featuring Jim Carrey ( *Spoiler to Yes Man* as he notices when he says no, he either gets hurt [him falling down the stairs and the dog after saying no to the old lady] or something bad happens, causing him to notice such patterns and develop a fear of saying no). Sorry I just get mad when people say OCD is just washing your hands a lot or everything has to be neat, because they don't know or bother to learn. OCD is more than that, it is about having control in your life.

ANYWAY, as you may have noticed with the previous paragraphs, I tend to break them up according to how long they are or the information given, not 3-5 sentences, I also have a habit of putting a lot of commas in, but to me, they need to be where if you were speaking, you would take a pause because of how the English language is spoken. 

To bring me back to my point of Y/n's character, I said that Y/N would be a Chronically online MC, what I mean by that is they are not so chronically online that they start arguments for the sake of it, more so that they don't know how to talk or interact outside of it, so they bring the internet into their personality by: recreating memes that they found funny in order to seem appealing to the person they are trying to befriend, bringing up things that they found on the internet, specifically talking about fandoms and outside of that, have a hard time trying to talk to people and purposefully bring the subject back to something that they can talk about, and end up being more rude than they mean to because it's the internet, of course there are mean people, so you end up being more rude than you expect in real life because you expect the same hostility that people show online to show in the real world.

On the point of me trying to be ambiguous, I will try to be as ambiguous as I can when writing so that you can leave things to your interpretation of your version of Y/N, such as: "It's a glowstick from one of my performances … " This leaves it up for interpretation as to what performance it was, such as a theatre play, an art show, band show, choir, sports, etc. As to what Y/n looks like, I don't think I particularly care, or will provide such instances minus hair being mentioned occasionally. However, I must mention that I will be having the second language that Y/N knows / is learning is German, so that I don't have to rely on Google translate, I may mess up occasionally though, I am still learning.

I forgot to write the backstory so here's a general overview: Mom + Dad = dead. -So mom dies from a heart attack when you were three, Dad dies in service of the military so then Tom took you in and you have been living there for some number of years, Uh, Age is around 14-15. Smart enough to shut the fuck up when needed but not so smart that they are on Genius levels or anything. Tom, Maddie and Y/n's relationship is loosely based off of me and my parents, just going to force more awkwardness in because Y/n is a technical adoption, however Y/n is comfortable enough to open up, Y/n won't open up about their imposter syndrome or call them "Mom" or "Dad" because Y/n still misses their biological family.

I think that's it on Y/N for now.

Robotnik ideas:  Of course Robotnik will be OOC because of the nature of Yandere, but I will try to keep to both my idea of this version of Robotnik and the Fandom's version. In my head there is a clear difference between the two movies and their versions, The first movie version has a poised, regal villain, that slowly delves deeper into rage as the one opponent, one enemy of his that will not die (and also the fact that Sonic can be the one thing that can power the machines without needing batteries or man made electricity, thus creating the world that Robotnik wishes to have, a world with just him and his machines, but Sonic won't let that dream be fulfilled no matter how "righteous" the dream is.) - based off of previous aggression issues stated before from Robotnik threating Tom, as well as the bully and the one dude in the bar. The second movie, however, is much different in the way that he feels like a villain that has now had everything taken away from him and he is now on his last nerve and has snapped at some point in time. 

Stone Ideas: Of course, it'll be easy to stay with my version of Stone because a lot of fans agree that Stone is in love with Robotnik, this make him an easy character to stick with, especially with so few lines compared to others related to the plot.

Plot/ notes to keep me on track and not go off the rails with a sonic fanfiction 

This will go through both Movie 1 and Movie 2. 

We have some set up in the first chapter, show people what it'll look like with Y/N in the movie, also show what it was like with Y/N there, show some of Y/n personality and show off the personality with the rest of the cast. I guess Sonic shows up too-?. 

So Y/n is more of a scaredy cat; instead of Y/n constantly being 'sassy' to Robotnik or Stone, Y/n understands the amount of danger that they are in -especially after Tom is labeled as a domestic terrorist.- and would rather come out of this relatively trauma free which leads to Y/n being more of a doormat then intended. 

This means that Y/n will be quiet and less outspoken after a certain point because Y/n knows when to shut up and be a people pleaser - this does not mean that Y/n is submissive, just smart enough to shut up. 

After the interaction with Tom, Y/n gets scared of Robotnik a little, it is kinda scary to see someone who just threatened to torture your parental guardian, and seeing them have the power to call someone a domestic terrorist, therefore the ability to do virtually whatever to the little town or the people in the name of protecting the country, you of course, wish to not piss said person off, which kickstarts a little portion of why Robotnik gets obsessed with Y/n and Stone.

Something that I noticed about the second movie is that no one seems to care that Stone, someone who is working for the government, actively tried to kill the blue blur, gets to stay at town and everyone's fine with this? Sonic doesn't have any aggression or grudges against someone who wanted to take him apart? No, not in my fanfiction.

My apologies if you made it this far, I realize that I went Essay mode on this stupid sonic fanfiction. Thank you for reading (or scrolling) this far down. :)

[terriblechickenhousebuilder]

may i offer some yapping about the divine warriors? 🫣 partly from actual mcd and lots of my headcanons teehee

i've been thinking lots and lots about the fucked up early-irene timeline recently. it's nearly impossible to figure out how it's all put together even with how many times i've rewatched the show. maybe we're not supposed to truly understand it. idk. but i NEED TO.

so here's my take on the timeline:

some notes first of all:

i think jess unintentionally retconned a lot of the stuff we learn from season one given that it's never brought up again, i.e. xavier and the whole forgotten king thing, but that to me is the most interesting part ajfjejckke. we'll assume the confusing information we learn through the series is a case of history being muddled and changed to fit the narrative of the winners

(note after i finished writing this: i think "the king" was originally shad, and xavier was originally esmund before this was changed to what we know in the true story)

to make life easier i'll do a key for the divine warriors: irene, shad, esmund, kul'zak, enki, menphia, and xavier (look i know he's not technically a warrior but he's important here)

i'll try include some links where i can for information for certain episodes. any headcanons/speculation of mine will be written underneath the main plot points (you'll see)

ok so here we go:

ignoring my terrible handwriting here's my scribbled timeline incase anyone needs visuals for this like i do

Irene is born, blessed by the Gods with a power.

she's born in an unnamed village/settlement (that we'll come back to later)

she potentially has sibling(s), due to the existence of Malik & Levin (i like to assume she has a younger sister)

at this time, the land is under the rule of the King.

Irene becomes a traveller and gains a good reputation with the people, and along the way she meets her 'Guards'. She opposes the King's tyrannical reign, and forms a resistence to defeat him.

Xavier is the one she meets first! They meet when they're quite young (I have way too many headcanons about this and I don't want this post to be toooo long, so. yeah). Esmund she meets too (in my hcs he's the King's son... yes he's a perfect parallel to Garroth idc). and of course she meets Kul'Zak, and later Enki and Menphia when exploring some of the other lands the King rules over (later becoming Gal'Ruk and Tu'La, respectively).

They lead the resistence to end the King's reign and the battle takes place in O'Khasis. Esmund is the one to kill him, despite Irene not wanting to start the new era with violence.

The people want to crown Irene, but she denies this and instead creates the Lord system. After this she spends her time travelling the region (Ru'aun now) helping people in need, and forming Scaleswind, as a secondary city-state to combat the power of O'Khasis.

Esmund becomes Lord of O'Khasis to correct the King's wrongdoings, Xavier tends to flit between his home of O'Khasis and travelling with Irene. Kul'Zak, Menphia and Enki sometimes travel with Irene but often stay in Scaleswind as guards.

Irene and Shad meet! 💜❤️

Xavier forms the Jury of Nine and the Guard Academy.

Irene and Shad have 'their daughter'.

The Island (later, later becomes Phoenix Alliance Island) is formed, and is where Irene settles down with her family. This is also where she discovers the Celestial Canon and its uses, through Dem's Diary Entries. This is also where she discovers the Empty/the Void.

I mainly came to this conclusion because it was obvious Irene lived on the island, or many of her followers did (see: the temple ruins, Kul'Zak's remains being buried there).

In the Ruins there are hints of a major accident happening there, which implies...

Irene is desperate to save the world she saved once before, and so she sacrifices her daughter to make a relic. She the lures her followers/residents of the island and they become relics too. Overall, she creates six relics. And forms the Divine Warriors.

More hcs here, I think Irene's relic is the one where her followers are sacrificed (since they're devoted to her, they accept her easily, and this is why it lasts for such a long time compared to the others'.). for the other warriors it's more complicated, since in Myst s6 it's stated that a relic's soul must be compatible with the wielder. So in turn, here are my theories: Kul'Zak's is his sister, Enki's is his wife (the trauma from losing her later becomes the reason he forms love for Irene), Esmund's is also his wife (also Irene's sister, which means the Ro'Meaves and Levin are related as their descendents split off down the line, explaining Garroth and Levin's similar appearances)(yes this is fucked up since he married her because she essentially the closest he could get to Irene), and Menphia's is a close friend of her's. Shad's, as we know, is his daughter.

The Warriors don't know about this. Irene tells them their losses are due to the Empty, which means they readily agree to accept the burdens so others don't need to feel the grief. Xavier knows what Irene has done.

There's another peacekeeping period, where the Warriors fight off the Empty and 'seal it away'.

This is where Irene's descent into emotionlessness begins, her mind being unable to cope with all the responsibility now put on her, when all she set out to do in the beginning was create a better world for people. Alongside lying to Shad through his grief and being unable to process her own grief, it's a recipe for disaster.

Esmund and Enki come to the conclusion that Irene's inability to love them is Shad's fault. In their minds he corrupted her somehow. They attempt to murder him.

Kul'Zak is roped in too, mostly because he still grieves the loss of his sister and needs somebody to blame it on. Menphia refuses - i imagine her and Shad are somewhat close due to their title connotations not being as kind as the others.

The War of the Magi begins. Shad 'rebels' against the other Divine Warriors, and here we devle into Hyria's story.

Irene's Dimension is created after many other realms are destroyed by Shad. This is where the final battle of this war happens, and Shad is defeated. His soul is sent to the Nether, and his relic is split apart and scattered.

The Human/Wyvern War begins.

where i place this is muddled compared to the information we find out from the Wyvern Elder, but it doesn't make sense for this to be before the war of the magi since it's envoked by the shadow lord, who only becomes the shadow lord after that war. there's also mention of the King, which we'll assume is referring to Esmund, since he's the King's son (and rules O'Khasis somewhat similarly to his father).

during the course of this war some of the Divine Warriors up their relics to help defeat the wyverns, A.K.A their immortality and their reincarnation cycles begin (namely Esmund and Kul'Zak as retribution for Shad's downfall).

Xavier also falls during this war, but not by a wyvern's hand. In my headcanons he is sent to deal with Shad, and becomes the first Shadow Knight.

Menphia returns to Ru'aun to help fight this war but then returns to Tu'La.

After years of watching her Divine Warriors go through their cycles of reincarnation, Irene loses the little emotions she has left. Hence her decision to lock herself away in her own dimension. Dormancy begins.

Aphmau is born.

i want to yap and be yapped at about mcd

tell me about your rewrites and headcanons and OCs please

[saccharinemeat]

Elricest 👀

Send me a ship and I'll give my brutal honest opinion on it!

Ohoho for elricest my opinion is that it's just. the quintessential incest ship. THE ship that got many people open to the idea of shipping siblings, not because they're siblings but because of the inherent deep bond they share, and how much they do just for each other.

I'd say that, with my first exposure to FMA, in the 2003, I did enjoy the tinges of more open bait for shippers, as it was customary of the time. Certain lines from Al about missing feeling Ed's body heat, not go mention what people call the elricest ending (which i sort of disagree with,but I'll address that in a second)

And I'll admit it , i avoided brotherhood for a long while because i was in nostalgic denial and I honestly didn't like the opening episode for FMA:B

I still say that starting us directly in the plot of Lior with the boys in the desert is a much, much better start and I commend FMA03 for that. Also I'm sad about the whole... Roze changing skin color thing. At that point in the series it's not the most widely known thing that ishvalans have darker skin generally ,(in FMA03, she has a similar shade of skin as Scar) , and she lives in the gotdamn dessert, (and she doesn't even have red eyes anyway). So why whiten her. Makes no sense to me and she looks...less easy on the eyes.

Anyway! I do believe FMA03 has some good points but once i got the brotherhood ball rolling it was unstoppable, it's just so much more complete and the lore is way,way better than I could ever figure from the older adaptation.

Now onto the ending thing, i know a lot of people who ship elricest like the 03 ending, with Ed and Al separared and reunited in ghe conquerer of Shamballa movie. But honestly? I don't like that ending at all, it feels, well. Rushed,which i guess it's directly true as it's a departure from canon in the manga.

The brotherhood ending,however. now that's the true elricest gold mine. Recovering Al's body, seeing him in the white space waiting for Ed, the trust. and the recovery period as well, Al being so frail, laying there, naked and cradled by his brother,finally in the flesh. The sacrifice,oh the MASSIVE sacrifice of Ed's gate, making him unable to use the skill hes most undoubtedly known for. The only rushed aspect of Brotherhood's ending to me is the Ed/Winry thing, it just feels so...clunky and odd, a confession for the sake of confession, to leave no open ends on who Ed is ending up with. Because not tying off that thread would open up to him ending together with Al. You don't even need to mention that Ed and Al love each other in a way nobody ever else could. Hell, in THE picture they had to include, with Ed's implied children, he seems closer to Al than to anyone else,in my opinion.

And that boils down how i feel about elricest. I think that they are the only logical conclusion to such a journey. The only reason they're not canon is that they're forcefully needed to be appealing to a straight audience (okay im pushing it a bit, but let me dramatic!)

thank you for the ask!

[d0d0-b0i]

(SPOILER FILLED) alrighty, time for some more cohesive thoughts on prime for me (since my last one was written directly after finishing it and now its had time to sit in my brain) (long post btw, i ramble @w@)

overall, i very much enjoyed it! the animation had me positively salivating over the fact that its /actually/ using animation techniques and not just. moving characters from A to B without the time for proper stylization. the overall plot was enjoyable and i am excited to see what the rest of the season will offer.

the fact that it is only one-third of the whole season also makes me a lot more forgiving about certain flaws i found at first, like only showing three worlds and not giving the characters a lot of time to breathe. theres the very high likelihood that such a thing actually will happen, and we might even see more places and worlds, which is an exciting thought! nonetheless, going in i did not know this as i was sleep deprived and had forgotten how many episodes the season has, so i felt a little bit salty, ngl.

Devon Mack does a very good job as sonic, and it makes me feel warm inside hearing his portrayal! every actor does a great job honestly, and it truly feels like they all understand the respective character they voice act(especially considering they have to acclimate the character /and/ voice for each new world. very talented!). the eggman voice actor could use some rerecords at times honestly;; but he does a good enough job that i only notice it sometimes; and he is fun to listen to regardless, and is just a subjective thought of mine.

the different universes also intrigue me! :D i really enjoyed the first one the jungle one was interesting and had beautiful flora models, but it is with this one that a problem of mine arises (but ill get to that later). the waterworld was also interesting, but kind of boring worldwise, since its just. water. (i get that its a pirate world and thats fine! i just cant give a good description of my feelings besides just. water. yknow?)

ive seen that a lot of people think rouge shouldve been the captain in the third world and. honestly. yeah. i think we might get to see why later on? but idk. i hope they have a reason that makes sense as to why she isnt, like if the worlds stick around and dont fuse back, shed be the next captain? weh! (i do love knuckles in a captains outfit though, so bonus points for that!)

now. i only have a few “criticisms”, and although some can be attributed to not being intended for me(and i will therefore not include cus. duh), there is one thing i just cannot let slip by.

(CRITIQUE START) the issue i have is that it feels so empty. new yolk (i refuse the yoke) is populated, but later episodes only really reuse the same five models roughly multiple times and i think had at most like 30? of them at the same time, and obviously could not have had more due to budget and such (which is understandable, but that still doesnt mean i cant point it out).

the jungle episodes! THE JUNGLE EPISODES?? ONLY HAD 5?? CHARACTERS MINUS SONIC (froggy counts) AT ALL TIMES?? and even the flashbacks only show those, probably so as not to imply death but like. come on. not even a few background characters at all? am i meant to believe they will all die out anyway simply by being the last people on this earth? im sorry i just cant get over this. you can make sean mcloughlin, mr jacksepticeye, get a cameo and his own personal character model, BUT CANNOT EVEN FILL A JUNGLE WITH PEOPLE?? did i miss something? if theyd shown even /one/ bg character once in a single frame in the flashbacks, id forgive it but i. cannot. im sorry. im nitpicking but come on! this is like the only issue i have. you only have 11 of the original characters in the first place (sonic. tails. knuckles. amy. rouge. big. froggy. shadow. eggman. orbot. cubot.), and then half of them are pretty much gone most of the time.

i just. its so empty? DO NOT GET ME WRONG I HATE WHEN THAT HAPPENS. I DEEPLY ENJOY THIS SHOW! I LOVE THE CHARACTERS WEVE GOTTEN TO SEE !!! THAT DOES NOT MEAN I CANNOT COMPLAIN ABOUT SOMETHING I HAD TROUBLE PROCESSING. if its gonna be a show about sonic and his friendships. where the fuck are the rest of them? is all we’re gonna get homages to their characters? (jungle knuckles was just sticks. come on now. just put her in shes already canon to the mainline games now) sega, if youre going to make a show about his friendships, why wont you let his friends be there? why can you only license 11 of your characters to the show? please make me eat my words.

and yeah you could say that the reasons others arent there (in-canon, not because of legal issues) is because they werent hit close-up with the prism shatter, but neither was big? he was shown to be down by the hills when it exploded, and i dont know if that counts considering that orbot and cubot arent even in any episode besides the first one, and they werent visible in the blast, i do not know what the blast radius would be to affect anything else. eugh. idk man. this is like the ONE issue i have, and its so small it feels meaningless. yeah yeah the budget the tight grip on characters yadda yadda i get the reasons behind it but it still affects the endgoal and i should be allowed to point it out.                                                                                                                     (CRITIQUE OVER)

that being said. i am in love with the character designs! especially a big fan of sonics gloves and shoes in the pirate world. i fuck w/ that very much <3

anyway, thats it. show good. binge it if possible! we need netflix to know that we like this. and maybe theyll realize that one episode per week for this show would be perfect (im looking at you episode recaps)

[mx-mind]

I am SO GLAD YOU ASKED, Hit and Run In This Mundane World! is an isekai parody I'm kinda writing. So there's a hero named Shiko Fujita, he's initially a stereotypical shonen isekai hero (overpowered, average guy with little to no personality, has a large harem but is oblivious to any interest in him) but with a bit more conceitedness. He already saved the world before the light novel so he's just been the Sun King's silly rabbit appointed "keeper of peace" and killing anyone the Sun King hates. He dies and makes a deal to be brought back to life on Earth. If he sends 1000 people to the isekai world, he can return. To do that, he has to team up with a sentient truck named Neil. Neil has some stuff I'll get into under the cut but all Shiko knows is that he's forced to work with him, and they hate each other at first.

Anyways back to the original point of this post, the yaoibaiting would be implying Shiko and Neil are going to be a couple. The truth is there is no yaoi because a. Shiko is aroace and x-gender (x-gender is a third gender category in Japan. I definitely need to do more research on it but from my limited knowledge it's very similar to non-binary) and he hasn't realized it yet, and b. Neil has no romantic or sexual interest in Shiko despite being an allo gay man himself. They do eventually become a QPR though so you could argue that's platonic yaoi but if someone did say "at least they're queerplatonic" or something along those lines I would bite their head off

Spoiler stuff under the cut because I'm so autistic for my own stories. But again these are spoilers and not related to the yaoibaiting above

-Neil used to be human. He was accidentally hit by a truck, and since he wasn't supposed to be isekaid and there were already enough people at the moment, he got to possess the truck with the deal that he'd send a certain amount of people before being able to return to being human. Sound familiar?

-The Demon Lord is appears in another project of mine called Round and Round We Go. He's called Etienne in there and he's just a bit of an unemployed dude who hangs out with ver younger half-sibling and faer bestie when they go monster hunting. The only hint to this is him being like "You know I was a king once" whenever ve feels like bragging or trying to one up someone despite the trauma baggage with it

-There's a huge other plot happening simultaneously, which sets up the background of the isekai world. Basically the Sun and Moon Kingdoms were at peace until one day the Demon Lord took over the Moon Kingdom, starting a huge war. It lasted a very long time, with many heroes dying before Shiko finally appeared there. The Sun Princess (Alina) and the long lost Moon Princess (Katsumi) are yuri

-Katsumi is the antagonist at first, trying to stop Shiko and Neil from committing vehicular manslaughter. The two are warned that he's an old enemy of the Sun King and it's trying to stop them because she's trying to stop the Sun King. Turns out that's not such a bad thing!

-Shiko gets replaced by a clown named Trixy. No she really is a literal clown, she died as she was dejectedly walking out of clown school when she got kicked out. She's the Sun King's court jester now

-Shiko has a sister named Junko. Her original backstory is she was offered the chance to be a magical girl but rejected the offer, but I'm not sure if I'm using it anymore. She used to be his younger sister but when Shiko died she kept growing up and is in her mid 20s now. Fucked up to see your older brother the same age when you're an adult

-Katsumi is Junko's roommate and she had no fucking idea about the isekai shit

-There's another character named Hasedonia, she's Shiko's ex. People think she's half dragon but she has a curse that gives her horns and scaly patches and multiple eyes and fangs. The people in her village were terrified of her and thought to be contagious, so she lets people believe the half dragon thing to avoid ostracization. She also heard that curses could be cured with true love! That's why she dated Shiko. Neither of them were into it.

-The Sun King has very malicious intentions. This is really vague but you know Madoka Magica? Like that but worse

Uhhh I think those are the biggest plot beats and fun facts I have for now, I like to improvise answers to fit into the world if asked stuff so feel free to ask more stuff

Should I yaoibait with Hit and Run In This Mundane World (isekai parody where isekai hero has to commit vehicular manslaughter with a sentient truck on Earth in order to return to the isekai world after he died)

[officialinvisibleanon]

Hello. I was Wallace’s mod when the officalverse was still active (I still have things planned for the blog) and just wanted to put my imput. We do not care that you are all still technically using the universe that we mods established. What we don’t like is that you’re still using the same name, since 1, we had no idea y’all were still going with our world and would have liked at least a warning that you were doing big plot points and all that, and 2, you don’t even have anyone from the actual officialverse here. All I’m trying to ask is to not use them name, you can still use the established universe and all that. But call it something different so it can be considered non canon to the rest of the officialverse, like a spin off of sorts? I just personally feel more comfortable if you did that and I know probably some other would be as well. <:)

((...))

(("We"? "The Actual Officialverse"? Dude.))

((You honestly don't know your power here.))

((You have been gone for over a year. You chose to leave this world. Because we didn't do the same does not mean that our actions are "non-canon". You do not get to decide what will happen anymore.))

((I sympathize with you. Something you believed was under your control has gone to someone else. Many things may have gone through your group's mind, but I believe that you, no longer wanting anything to do with your practically living creation, want to separate it from anything that might relate to your time here. I could be totally wrong about this and you can tell me if I am but let's pretend I'm right for a sec.))

((However, to change the name of this reality, the Officialverse, to something else, like "the Unofficialverse" or something, is to imply all of this to be non-canon, or taking place in a similar parallel AU. I hope you understand that I can't allow that.))

((This IS the "actual" Officialverse. Come back, revitalize your characters, actually DO some stuff for a while, and we'll talk. But for now, you stand before one of the single most powerful entities in the Officialverse. I am its core. When I left, everything stopped. We could only resume because my character fought his way out of cancellation. I have had to repeatedly remind people to respond within a reasonable timeframe because people keep forgetting that the Officialverse exists. I may not be all-powerful, but this place is mine.))

((TLDR, I am fed up with all of you asking me to change the name of the Officialverse. The answer is no. This isn't even something that should make certain people uncomfortable. Cope with the fact that you left and missed out and are no longer in control because of it.))

[herinsectreflection]

I want to talk about this scene, from Bargaining when Willow kills the fawn. You might guess from my icon that I am a big fan of this scene. It's pretty short but it sets the stage for Willow's arc throughout S6 excellently.

It opens with her in this gorgeous riverside greenery, dressed in pure white, the very picture of fairytale innocence, bathed in bright sunlight. It's such an unusual shot for the show, which almost exclusively either has shots inside or at night (for obvious reasons of being a vampire show), and that immediately makes it quite memorable. Especially as the rest of the episode is almost entirely set at night, filled with demon bikers, dismemberment, fire, broken down towers and digging out of graves. It's like this little meditative moment of peace in between all that.

Or, it would be if it didn't include a teensy little animal sacrifice.

WILLOW: Adonai, Helomi, Pine. Adonai, Helomi, Pine. The gods do command thee from thy majesty. O Mappa Laman, Adonai, Helomi.

Willow says her words and summons forth a young fawn from the trees. The fawn is another symbol of innocence, like Willow's white dress. As she reaches out and and touches the animal gently, we're reminded of the soft innocent Willow of S1, who shied away from any conflict and seemed incapable of ever hurting a fly. She's like a disney princess, sitting in the woods singing to woodland animals. Only Snow White never stabbed Bambi in the heart.

The entire plot of the previous season revolved around the blood sacrifice of a child. This is what Glory was trying to achieve, and it's what Buffy has to stop. Buffy gives her life in order to stop it. And now, Willow recreates the same event, performing the blood sacrifice what is specifically an animal child. She steps into the role that the previous season's Big Bad performed, and so tells us that this season, she is stepping into the role of Big Bad. The fawn fills the role of Dawn - the situations rhyme as well as the names do.

Fun fact - the words that Willow uses are taken from The Book of Ceremonial Magic, a 1910 book that compiled various grimoires. In this passage, describing an invocation to request something from God, Adonai/Helomi/Pine are the names of angels - specifically the angels of the East, who appear in human form dressed in lily white according to this passage - another link to Willow's costume here. The invocation seems to involve requesting these angels to appear to the caster in an intelligible form.

ADONAI, HELOMI, PINE, Whom you obey, do invoke, conjure and entreat thee, N., that thou wilt appear forthwith. By the virtue and power of the same God I do command thee from thine order or place of abode to come unto me and skew thyself plainly here before me in thine own proper shape and glory, speaking in a voice intelligible to mine understanding.

In this case, Willow is symbolically killing an actual angel of heaven, which is probably pretty high up on the villainy scale. Just drives home the fundamental Wrongness of this scene. It's also good to remember that the idea of killing one to save other(s) is a theme returned to again and again throughout the show, and the first major example of that theme in action is a certain Angel.

(Credit to this user on BuffyBoards for finding the source of these words.)

So the fawn is Dawn, and the fawn is an angel. But most importantly of all - the fawn is Buffy. Willow, in her attempts to bring Buffy back to life, first has to kill "Buffy".

WILLOW: Come forward, Blessed one. Know your calling.

The fawn is described as having a "calling" that it must "know", just as Buffy has a calling of her own, which over the course of many seasons she learns to know and accept (and eventually revolutionise and reject). It is also described as "Blessed", which in some definitions is taken to mean "one who is with God in heaven". Buffy at this point is literally in heaven (or at least some kind of heaven dimension, the theology is gratefully vague). The structure of the phrase "Blessed one" also reminds of the more relevant phrase - "Chosen One", which again would be Buffy. The spell ingredient, which we know is the fawn's blood, is called "vino de madre" - wine of the mother, implying a feminine source of power, just like The Slayer.

WILLOW: Accept our humble gratitude for your offering. In death ... you give life. May you find wings to the kingdom. In death, you give life. You might say that death... is your gift... yeah, so this really drives it home for me. Using death to give life is literally what Buffy has just done. It was core to her arc last season. And finally the "wings to the kingdom" line again plays into that heaven imagery. S6 loves this kind of imagery for Buffy, even giving her angel wings in one of the most delightfully on-the-nose shots in the show.

Buffy gave her life to give Dawn one, and with it gave a warning about the struggles of life - "The hardest thing in this world is to live in it.". This is sad but lovely advice that Buffy herself must now spend S6 gradually learning to understand herself. She learns how to deal with the crushing despair of day-to-day existence. Willow, as the Big Bad of this season, doesn't understand this advice at all. For years now, Willow has used magic as a short-cut to avoid actually dealing with her emotions (see Lover's Walk, Something Blue, Tough Love). This goes into overdrive in S6, and it starts with her desperation to bring Buffy back to avoid really dealing with the reality of her death.

In fact it goes beyond magic - Willow is also the one who uses her tech knowledge to bring the Buffybot back online. She uses all her skills to desperately fill in the hole that Buffy has left behind. This is what Willow does, magic or no. And it's sympathetic - my heart breaks every time she talks about fearing where Buffy might have ended up - but it's not totally rational or healthy either. The main problem is that Willow, in doing this, is ignoring Buffy's final words, and misunderstanding the central theme.

As said earlier, by performing this blood sacrifice of a child, Willow is betraying the memory of Buffy, who died to stop one. (Symbolically of course. Morally there are light years between killing an animal and killing a teenager). Buffy gave her life to stop a blood sacrifice, and so Willow reverses the process - causing a blood sacrifice to give Buffy her life. And she betrays Buffy's final words with her refusal to accept the pain of life and live with it. And finally, she betrays Buffy spiritually.

Remember that Willow is Buffy's metaphorical Spirit, as shown in Primeval. It is a special kind of betrayal that Buffy's Spirit breaks her spiritually in this season. She literally rips her soul out of eternal bliss and contentment, causing an existential break within her. She beseeches the fawn/Buffy to find "wings to the kingdom", but in doing so robs Buffy of her wings.

Buffy suffers brutal depression this season, and describes it many times as feeling dead inside. This kind of emotional deadness is caused directly by her ressurection (though severely exacerbated by her unresolved trauma, grief over Joyce, and generally just living under capitalism). Willow has tried to give death to bring life, but because the action is a betrayal of Buffy on many levels, the act is tainted, and perverted, like a wish on a monkey's paw. She literally kills metaphorical Buffy, and so metaphorically kills literal Buffy. Buffy has life, but said life is causing a kind of death within her.

And what does Willow get for all this? Her pain isn't fixed by all this. She just gets blood on her hands (and later on her face). It sets off a chain of events that will end with far more blood on Willow's hands. She dips a toe into a darkness, but because she doesn't understand fully the emotions that have taken her there, she can't exert any control over it. She doesn't learn a lesson here that she shouldn't try to shape the world to deal with her emotions. Instead, she learns that she has power over life and death.

Willow is clearly deeply shaken by this, but it's not nearly enough to make her change her path. She ignores the very obvious foreshadowing here - her hands literally coated in blood - and carries on anyway. She takes the wrong lessons from this moment, which she clearly demonstrates in her argument with Giles in Flooded, where she ignores his anger over how she's warped the rules of nature, and instead focuses on how awesome she is ("The magicks I used are very powerful. I'm very powerful. And maybe it's not such a good idea for you to piss me off.")

This is a small scene, but it sets up so much for Willow. It shows how far she has come from the meek girl of S1. And it shows a glimpse of the future, how she has far to go but is now on a path to become the villain she is at the end of S6. She starts it by killing metaphorical Buffy in order to save her, and will end it by trying to kill actual Buffy in order to emotionally "save" her. At every point she can justify the blood on her hands as serving some greater purpose - but the blood is still there.

[slutforagoodsmut]

My thoughts on the Encanto movie/fandom

THIS IS LITERALLY MY THIRD TIME I TRIED TO WRITE THIS CUZ EVERY TIME I WOULD I’D ACCIDENTALLY REFRESH AND I WAS 5 BEAUTIFUL PARAGRAPHS IN AND I DIDN’T SAVE AND NOW I WANNA KILL MYSELF LMFAOO I’M SO SAD IT WAS BETTER THAN ANY ESSAY I’VE DONE FOR HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE

WELL

LET’S START AGAIN I SUPPOSE

To begin, I believe Encanto is a beautiful movie. There are so many likable characters and the soundtrack is awesome. Not to mention the beautiful colors and story behind it is very inspiring to those who feel lost or like they don’t belong anywhere. I think Encanto also gives tons of representation to the Hispanic community, specifically Colombian. Between the music, food, clothing and traditions, it gives insight to the culture that is surrounded around the movie. I also believe that the fandom is a safe outlet for those who don’t think they culturally belong anywhere. Just like Raya and the Last Dragon, it introduces the viewers to different parts of a culture, aside from the fictional events that happen. Before watching Encanto I had no clue what arepas con queso was and now knowing exactly what it is, I’ve thought about possibly making them myself, or at least going somewhere where they’re served. 

Alongside that, I also believe that the fandom is a safe place for poc who enjoy cosplay. In the past, there have been millions of people who’ve cosplayed a character that wasn’t their ethnicity or race and have gotten shit on for it. An example I can think of is the tv show Sailor Moon (idk if it’s more than a show I’ve never seen it). I’ve seen tons of awesome cosplays from African American men and women, and though there is an abundance of positivity, you always find the handful of comments that say “(character) isn’t black”, “why are you cosplaying them even though you’re black,” or “you don’t look like (character)”. Well no shit Sherlock, of course they don’t look like the character. But if they like the show and they like a character they want to dress up as, why are you hating on them? What fuels the need to stop them from wanting to dress up as a character they really like? These characters are fictional and take place in a fictional world based around a fictional plot. None of it is real. Another example I can think of is literally any white character to come out of Disney, like Cinderella or Rapunzel. But back to my point, I think it’s amazing that poc finally feel like they can take part in dressing up and cosplaying either Mirabel or Bruno because people won’t drag them through the dirt for it. There’s so many people who stopped cosplaying because they were bullied for their race, ethnicity, and even gender not matching the character. 

With that said, this doesn’t go for anyone. I think yes, you should be able to dress up as a character that you like, but if their culture is heavily implied in the show, movie or book, it’s not okay to do that. Take Pocahontas or Native Americans, their culture is made into a joke when people dress up in costumes or headwear or put markings on their body and face and don’t really know the meanings behind them. This statement is directed to those who are mostly Caucasian. There is a very thin line between cultural appropriation and being culturally ignorant/racist. Black face is not okay whatsoever, putting on grass skirts and leis and shouting words that you’ve learned and pretending to be an islander is not okay. I believe that yes, if you educate yourself correctly and genuinely want to learn then it’s okay to partake in certain ways. This isn’t meant as hate on anyone, I try to choose my words carefully because I never want to offend or come off as gatekeeping a culture that isn’t mine. I love all races, genders, ethnicities and religions and I think each one should be shared to those who aren’t educated or want to learn more, but there’s a certain point where there should be boundaries. I hope that made sense to someone. 

One little thing that I'd like to bring up that I really liked about Encanto is how it acknowledges mental health and its awareness. We are given quite a handful of characters who deal with anxiety, doubt, or having to deal with pressure such as Isabela, Luisa, Pepa, Bruno and of course Mirabel. I’d even include Abuela into that group, as it’s shown that she’s had to deal with the trauma of losing her husband and having to care for three children, as well as running a big family all on her own. The movie not only acknowledges how trauma and difficult events affect someone physically, but also mentally and emotionally. Encanto shines light onto the different perspectives of individual characters and how they grow, learn and overcome it and I think that’s super important.  

Now onto things that I absolutely despise about the fandom. Please for the love of God stop sexualizing the characters. And if you’re going to sexualize the characters, at least sexualize the ones who are adults like Bruno or Isabela. Even thinking about sexualizing Isabela makes me uncomfortable, but she is an adult, just like Dolores and Luisa. Dolores and Isabela are both in their early 20′s and Luisa is around 19-20 years old, making her a legal adult. I’m not gonna sit here and be a hypocrite and say that Isabela and Bruno aren’t attractive, because they are. They’re both very attractive characters but they’re also adults. This in no way is the same for Mirabel or Camilo. If you’re younger than 17 years old (though I think that’s even pushing it) and like them, then yeah that’s fine, but if you’re in your 20′s and 30′s and find Camilo to be sexy or hot, you’re disgusting. Stop. Just stop. You can’t go anywhere on social media now without finding sexually implied stories or art about the two, more so Camilo, and I believe that ruins the experience for a lot of people and makes them uncomfortable. Bruno is an awesome character and has there been a fantasy or two of him that I’ve had, yes there has, but I also feel like just sexualizing the character in general takes the whole message away from what Encanto really is and the message it’s trying to convey. 

(I’d also like to point out that I’m nowhere near perfect either. I’ve sexualized characters myself and have made sexual fanfics about them (they’re all adults). If you scroll past the post above and this post, you can find a handful of smut that I’ve made. I just want you to know that you shouldn’t feel ashamed, I guess? Cuz we’ve all done it in the end, and I’ll probably continue to do it as well, just like everyone else. Just stop sexualizing the minors. Even if this little add on seems hypocritical to what I said above, I guess I just wanted to put this in and get some more thoughts out).

Another reason I personally despise the fandom is because people put the characters into the categories of lgbtqia. I know someone is gonna read this and say, “oh well you’re being homophobic or transphobic,” when really, I’m not. We don’t know the sexualities of every single character, though I think it’s self-explanatory with the parents, abuela and Dolores, but who are we to even assume they're fully straight? I think it’s cool to create head cannons or stories of our own about Bruno, Isabela, etc, but to a degree. So many people are genuinely convinced that Isabela is a lesbian because she didn’t want to marry Mariano, but we were never given the reason that she didn’t like men. In the movie it simply explains that she just didn’t want to. I think it’d be amazing if she was as it would be super progressive for Disney like in the most recent years and for Hispanic culture in general, where a lot of people still believe that a sexuality other than heterosexuality is wrong, but unfortunately we don’t know her like that as a character. Like I said before, it’s totally cool to make up head cannons or ideas that Isabela is lesbian, or Bruno is ace or gay, but that isn’t a reality, or has yet to be reality if it is covered in the future. I believe that yes, even though the world has become more and more progressive every day, sticking these characters in categories and labels because it makes you feel included in your own right can be a bit regressive too. 

On a positive note, I love how creative everyone in this community is. Between the stories and the art, I think it’s absolutely awesome. It’s so cool to see where people take these characters and what kind of scenarios they put them in, alongside the own characters they create and the gifts they give them. I for one have created a few characters of my own and hope to share them with the Encanto community soon just like everyone else has!

Overall, these were just my thoughts on the movie and the fandom and even though they’re just opinions, I think it’s good to have a safe space like here to share them, even though many may argue that it is (honestly me too sometimes). If you’d like to add to my thoughts or give some thoughts of your own, by all means please do so! If I said anything that came off as hypocritical or mean or rude in any way I apologize, those are never my intentions. Like I said before, I love you no matter where you came from, what religion you practice if any at all or what you identify as. I think it’s amazing that a wonderful movie like Encanto has been able to bring so many talented and amazing people together to share with one another. Cheers!

Edited: I was on tumblr today and came across various posts about the things I was talking about in my post, like the sexualities of the characters, sexualizing the characters and the mental disorders they have, and in the comments I’ve seen tons of heated arguments about them. I don’t want to make my post out to be like a boxing ring for everyone to argue in, and thankfully it hasn’t yet. Just know on my end that yes, I have my opinions, but you also have yours. I may not agree what you think about a character and vice versa, but I don’t see the reason why to get so angry about it. I say do whatever makes you happy, write the fics you want to write and make the art you want to do, I just think sexualizing minors is super-duper wrong, even if they are fictional characters 

[wheelofmeta]

The Androl Problem

So! Something I’ve been meaning to get around to for a while.

Androl original appeared in Winter’s Heart with a few lines, reporting to Logain. Toveine had a point of view where she looks at him, thinking about for all he’s wearing a signet ring (traditionally something on nobles do) he looks more like he’s an apprentice who shaved off his mustache. It’s during a scene where the men loyal to Logain are reporting to him on things. That’s the only time we see him before Towers of Midnight. And easy enough moment to miss.

Excluding that moment he’d been named, everything else was a creation of Sanderson’s. 

So, you may be staring at me. Then what’s the problem?

The problem is Sanderson quite literally gave Androl too much to do. 

Androl was the result (in part) of Sanderson wanting to do something with a character who actually was, for lack of better term, a true teleporter. Someone who actually took full advantage of how to use Traveling. So Sanderson took a canon Asha’man (Androl) who’d had limited screen time and could serve as a blank slate for his writing purposes. Which is exactly what he did. 

Okay, neat, great. Honestly gotta agree a character like that needed to exist because wow. Was Traveling underutilized when it came down to it. Taking advantage of named character who had limited affect on the previous storyline to do that made sense. 

The thing with Androl is that in many ways Sanderson used him to fill in basically any hanging plot threads that Jordan hadn’t given to a previous character. So things like the fight for the Black Tower, he used Androl to lead that. He used Androl to save the Andoran forces. He used Androl to get the seals. He used Androl to do the double bond shit with Pevera.

Androl, Androl, Androl. 

Androl, a character who basically had no previous affect on the plotline now has an absolutely massive one. And we know, per Sanderson’s own words, that Androl and everything he does is his own creation, though he is filling in the blanks for certain plot threads that remained from Jordan’s writing, such as the Black Tower stuff. So yeah, Sanderson deciding to use what’s basically his OC to fill some of that makes sense. 

What’s aggravating is how much that then meant Androl overshadowed previously introduced Asha’man, such as Narishma. It’s heavily hinted early on that Narishma is going to be important in the future (he’s fucking mentioned in the Prophesies of the Dragon), but during the Last Battle we see him maybe twice, and he doesn’t do anything distinct beyond heal Lan post his fight with Demandred. On the other hand, Androl seems to have his hand in everything *but* the fighting at Shayol Ghul. Yes, that’s an exaggeration, but not as bit of one as it really should be.

Seriously. I understand the desire to have your OC do things, but you can’t over do it.

The other thing is, that in Androl’s ‘backstory’, Sanderson also had him have too many adventures. Seriously though, it seemed every time he and Pevera spoke, he brought up a different thing he did and none of them where anywhere near each other. She does too, but she’s also a hundred plus year old Aes Sedai, so she’s had the time to do a lot of shit. The issue there is, per Toveine’s point of view in Winters Heart, Androl should be only in his twenties. Based on her mental description of him (looking like he could be an apprentice), it means he looked young. Almost every apprentice who appears on page is implied to be under thirty. But if you don’t remember Androl’s original appearance, based on all the things he tells Pevera it would be fair to think he was closer to his late thirties, early forties. And men generally start channeling on the later side of things, so he shouldn’t even be slowing that soon (I think Androl may even have been specified as not starting to channel on his own but needing to be taugh, in contrast to Logain or Taim).

On top of that was a pretty common issue of Sanderson’s; namely, his habit of dropping and adding random character aspects (hello the fact apparently Mat can’t fucking write a letter that isn’t full of grammar and spelling errors, even though we’ve seen him write on-page before and it was just fine; obviously this is a major pet peeve of mine). Like, a really interesting thing he could have done with the original bits? Explain why Androl was wearing a signet ring, especially with the explanation that apparently he was a leatherworker. Was he pretending to be a noble? Was he actually a noble? Who the hell knows because Sanderson never followed up on that detail. 

I would have much preferred it if Sanderson had actually allowed the previous appearing Asha’man to play more major roles during the Last Battle rather than over using Androl (and he was overused). Narishima, again, should have played a bigger role. We never get an explanation for the ‘he will follow after’ stuff; is that supposed to hint he’d eventually lead the Asha’man after Logaine? Again, who knows since Sanderson never wrote anything about that.

(And before someone asks, at some point I will be doing meta about Sanderson’s penchant for dropping character traits/apparently forgetting certain plot threads. Like it wouldn’t be so aggravating for me if I didn’t like Mat so much and found Sanderson to just not be very good at writing him.)

[utilitycaster]

Do you think some of the criticisms of EXU have been more unfair than deserved? I don't entirely disagree that the plot has felt a little aimless, but I tend to side-eye some of the hyperfocusing on "she's DOING IT WRONG/NOT HOW I WOULD AS A DM" or "this is a professional media product and We As Consumers Deserve Better" as I tend to do for the main campaigns.

This is a weird question to me because actually my experience has been somewhat the opposite - I haven't seen much criticism on social media and actually I've felt there's been the opposite problem, of people congratulating Aabria for such basic DM-ing abilities (that she is doing well, to be clear) that it feels inadvertently insulting. I will note: I don't use Twitter much and I never go to Reddit, so if it's there...you should ask someone who does.

The overwhelming response on Tumblr, especially early on, was actually people saying "she's DM-ing exactly how I would as a DM"; I think this because she has a more casual style (as I said, she drops ooc and even out of DM mode much more readily than Matt, which is just a stylistic choice and equally valid), however; she's still, you know, a professional DM, and my concerns about the plot and pacing have been my only real criticism here.

There was a lot of gushing over really basic DM-ing stuff that Matt also does though, and I don't think it was the intent of people doing that but it felt condescending, like "oh! Aabria can also do this! good job Aabria!" as if she were in kindergarten or something.

I actually feel some of the defense of "oh, it's setting things up for C3! Oh, Matt gave her these plot points and she had to include them" are in the same vein; I think this actually is implying that either Aabria was not given free rein (which reflects poorly on Matt) and/or she's not capable of working within what is basically the barest outlines of an adventure hook, which a capable DM should be able to do (and which I think she can do). I think, honestly, the only issue here is an enthusiasm for the world that is pushing up against the time constraints, and I cannot fault her for that. It's the first season; there will be growing pains.

Which brings me to my point which is that I see constructive criticism as better than "oh whatever you do, it will be fine, I'm having fun!". I know this isn't a universal opinion, but its mine. Constructive criticism means I'm invested and I want more! "Whatever you do will be fine" to me indicates a lack of engagement with the story. I think I've made it clear on this blog that I am Opinions Georg and not everyone will feel this way, but vague praise to me is closer to apathy than passionate constructive criticism. Criticism means you think there is a higher potential within this group to be reached; vague praise to me means that you don't think they're capable of better.

For a good example of criticism I saw elsewhere and was referring to earlier, here's a Polygon article I mostly agree with.

I do however agree with you completely on side-eyeing the "we as consumers deserve better." Creators do not owe you the resolution you want (and, given that I've been pretty loud here lately on how many people confuse 'narrative satisfaction' with 'my ship became canon' or 'my favorite character was always the center of attention on an ensemble show'...let's just say I need a certain baseline before I deem someone to be a good judge of what counts as resolution). They do not even owe a resolution that is widely seen as good. That doesn't mean you can't express concerns or dislike, though, merely that it needs to be in the form of "I am not sure all of these plot lines will get the attention I was hoping for" rather than "THIS IS A BETRAYAL".

[phenomenalcosmicpowers]

MY LITTLE PONY: A NEW GENERATION (G5 Movie) THOUGHTS

It’s finally here. The beginning of Generation 5. Though before I get into the movie in some detail I’m going to reiterate one more time what G5 means for my content and a non-spoilery summary of the movie.

Again, I will say that the movie nor will the G5 series coming later have much of an effect at all on any of my blogs. The revelation in Secrets of the Dragon’s Tear that life itself is also magic means that a world that implied to have no magic for years would mean the extinction of all life (Perhaps resulting in the wasteland we saw in the Season 5 finale). There may be something I’ll probably do at some point on a certain different blog. But even then, that may likely be a one-time thing and probably come around the time the series is starting to air.

That said, just because I’m continuing with mainly G4 content doesn’t mean I disapprove of G5. In fact, my non-spoilers thoughts on the movie is I think it is a good start for this new generation. There are questions I have that I’m not sure will be answered (Though many of those questions are the same ones I had in my Trailer/Preliminary thoughts) quickly enough. But the movie is structured well enough, in fact it’s probably a better movie as a whole compared to any of the movies G4 had (The 2017 movie, Rainbow Roadtrip, and all 4 Equestria Girls movies). As the 2017 movie was fun, but it jumped around a lot, sometimes scenes transitioning too fast. And while Rainbow Roadtrip may have been this on purpose, the entirely slice-of-life story taking up a long length… made it something of a less interesting plot to follow. It feels like some of that special could of been cut to at least a two-parter length and keep the same beats they hit. And while i have a soft spot for the 3rd and 4th Equestria Girls movies, I’ll always say a full-length pony adventure feels better suited for what I want to see out of MLP then spin-off movies with high school movie cliches and weird pony/human world shenanigans.

So movie-wise I’m not a G4 purist. It’ll take some time to see how Gen 5 compares to Friendship is Magic when we get to the series. As I feel it’d take a lot for it to surpass G4 in my mind. But I’m going to try to be as fair as possible and judge on it’s own merits. The implied connection to G4 by referring to G4 being ancient Equestria is going to naturally get the staff and hasbro pressured by fans to tell us what happened in-between the generations. Because that’s the trap they put the writers in when they made it so they want to try to say it’s in the same universe. That’s the double-edged sword Hasbro chose to have, trying to appease the G4 fanbase and keep at least some of them around. But at the cost of questions both nitpicky (Such as character design being inconsistent) or actual honest questions that need to be known (Why did magic disappear, and what happened to the Alicorns) for some of us to truly see this as the same Equestria.

After the break, I’ll have more spoilery thoughts

Even for a brief moment, it was nice seeing the Mane 6 and 2D animation. The former because of course those are the ponies many of us that saw all of G4 loved. And the latter, because while the animation wasn’t bad in this movie. I’m one of those who’d prefer to have 2D animation in an animated film. As in most cases aside from Pixar, it’s just a strong preference of mine. If this had the animation of the 2017 MLP movie but otherwise everything else was generally the same here, I feel that would of have been great.

I wish they didn’t have to have Sunny’s dad die off-screen, as he seems like he could of been a compelling character. And not to mention if perhaps he has any connection the “ancient” days in any fashion. But *sigh* I get it, it’s an old trope where part of the character’s offscreen growth is not having their parent(/s) around.

On a side note there’s quite a few times during the beginning of the movie that somewhat foreshadow what happens to Sunny later. 3 times where she had a fake horn and wings on her. Once in the flashback, then 2 separate times when she’s doing her protest where she has her own costumed wings and horn. As well as the helmet and mechanical wings.

Also, there’s no way around it. Some of the discussions this movie are going to get quite political. (Namely one part of Sunny’s song that could be seen as having a double meaning of a jab at Trumpsts regarding “Building your wall”) From the very premise in the early times, we know that the inspiration for the story was last year’s Black Lives Matter protests. Which honestly, I do support the message they’re going for. Having an anti-racism message to tell kids from the very beginning and making a focus on it is important when in G4 it only got briefly touched upon in Bridle Gossip and the Heath’s Warming Eve play. Although it certainly rose up to some form of prominence with Season 8 and onward. Still, while you can argue if G4 executed the anti-racism message well. it does come with something of a problem that the series finale left Equestria in the least divided it’s ever been.

And personally, I feel it’s a terrible interpretation of time to say “Well, it’s a realistic take. Racism has existed for years in our world. Same should go for the ponies” and while yes, racism is still rampant in today’s world. That said, that ignores that if we went from The Last Problem to the start of G5. There’s a huge difference between our world and Equestria. There is no ancient civilization that we look at like “Yeah, those were the golden days of world peace” when normally the “Golden age” was reserved for the high classes of Ancient Greece or Rome. It was most decidedly not perfect, with slavery rampant and wars for the sake of expanding an empire. While if you look at The Last Problem’s Equestria, you not only have peace between the three main types of ponies. But you literally have non-pony citizens in Equestria. You can see a dragon handing off a flower to a pony which can imply cross-species romantic relations. With the Friendship school still going strong, and was the reason that the world was saved in The Ending of the End. While perhaps it may be too glowing to say that future is perfect for everyone even in-universe. It’s certainly a hell of a lot better outlook then comparing to how we view even the so called Golden age of ancient civilizations. The Last Problem’s Equestria implies it looks to ally with every country outside of Equestria, not conquer them.

So it should still be a valid question on just how this world collapses to the point it gets to where G5 is at the start. I at least assume that it’s not the fault at all of any of the Mane 6 nor Twilight. Or at least I hope it isn’t, as I’d rather the MLP fanbase not have to deal with a The Last Jedi Luke Skywalker situation. (Where after the joyful end of the original trilogy, things go wrong as Luke almost murders the son of one of his best friends and his sister despite trying to hard and succeeding at redeeming his father who at that point in the canon was a galaxy-wide known ruthless mass-murderer.) I assume we’re at a point where everyone of the Mane 6 sans maybe Twilight are presumed dead. And even in Twilight’s case, there’s a chance that G5 decides to say that G4 overestimated the whole Alicorn immortality thing. Though I wouldn’t put it past Hasbro to have some event where the Mane 5 of G5 meet the Mane 6 in some special event whether that’s a a Season finale or a sequel movie/special. Where either the Mane 6 return in a limbo situation similar to the Pillars at the end of Season 7 or Time travel gets involved. They may even string us along on answering just what in the heck happened until they involve a meet-up with the Mane 6 in that way. Though I hope they don’t, I’d really like the beginning of the series (Or I guess this supposed special coming up in Spring supposedly?) starts to answer some questions. G5 should get a chance to stand on it’s own, but I hope the writers are actually well aware there will be so many questions people have and address them in the show. A cynical part of me feels like they’re likely to string us along until at least the Season 1 finale.

Onto the characters for a bit. I think Izzy Moonbow was absolutely the most stand-out character in the whole movie. She was energetic, funny, and aside from “The pegasi are bad news” she along with Zipp and Sunny were the most averse to the way the world was. She was already the most popular due to the tennis ball memes. But now it feels like she legit stands on her own and most certainly deserves to be the most popular character of G5 thus far. Behind her in a bit of a surprise to me was Zipp, who I thought would be mainly a Rainbow Dash-expy. Though she really helps out Izzy and Sunny in Zephyr Heights. Despite having Twilight be my favorite pony from the very beginning of G4 all the way to the end, I didn’t feel as strongly about Sunny for some reason. So she’s in the middle of the pack, she could grow on me later. I just don’t know if I click with her as much as I did with Twilight. As for the last two, while I don’t hate either of them. Either one could be the lowest of the 5 for one reason or another. Pipp (Although I will say she's probably my favorite character design out of the 5) feels like she doesn’t do a whole lot in the movie and it takes until she’s forced to be an outlaw because the other choice was to get imprisoned like her mother was. So she may come off as quite pretentious, though it’s arguable Rarity was the same way early in G4. But she definitely grew later. Could be the same case for Pipp. And as for Hitch, he has shining moments in the film. But what might hurt him is the fact he was such a bad friend to Sunny up until the campfire scene. “I’m the last real friend you have. You really want to lose me too?” is not a healthy friendship. Hitch may have been Sunny’s friend the longest, but it definitely feels like Izzy connected immediately. I don’t know if this show will get into shipping any of the main characters between each other mid-show, but if they do. I hope it’s between Izzy and Sunny currently, cause Hitch and Sunny just gives bad vibes even with Hitch getting better later.

None of the songs I felt were particularly too special. Though I think the closest was Sprout’s “Danger, Danger” song that has similarities to Smells Like Teen Spirit in some parts of the song since I tend towards more rock/metal-esque music.

I touched upon it earlier, but there’s perhaps a stand-out reason for why the G5 movie outdid the 2017 MLP Movie. They have the typical “Our heroic group splits after a sad moment before coming together again for the climatic good end” in Sunny seeing that that the two crystals don’t instantly bring magic back, and when Twilight left the group after an argument that happened with Twilight trying to take a pearl. They perform the same purpose in the movie. But the crystals not working, crushing Sunny’s hope for a little while works better into the story. Where as Twilight’s part frustratingly brought the sea pony scene to an end too quickly and/or doesn’t feel right of Twilight to have done that. It felt forced in the 2017 movie, but works out in the G5 movie. Especially since a part of it is that it’s not the crystals themselves capable of bringing magic back. But it’s the journey going after the crystals that brings the ponies themselves their magic back.

Just a small note on dictator Sprout, he tries to cause a war. Though admittedly the film seems to treat him as a joke the entire time despite his seriously evil ambitions. With the only repercussions is he gets a wishy-washy answer on if he was a good sheriff from his mom. I don’t quite know how I feel about that yet, but I wonder what they’ll have in mind for Sprout given his actions. He and his mom are the only ones that feel like a true antagonist. Though they seem to be ok with things fast when the magic comes back.

But anyway on to the ending, we see that Sunny becomes an Alicorn. Which I guess with no other real Alicorns around, I guess it makes sense to alicornify her since she’s the real leader behind what united the leaders of each type of pony again. Though there is of course this weird thing where her horn and wings don’t seem like as much a part of her body compared to very obvious connected wings on Twilight when she got hers. Sunny keeps her horn and wings to the end of the movie, and has colored streaks in her hair. Though I do wonder if that;s truly permanent. If it is permanent, I suppose at least they got to have a headstart and have it established at the end of the introductory movie rather then have it shock people at the end of a shortened 3rd season. I still feel like Twilight had well earned her alicornhood considering that besides what she did in the series. She has a whole childhood and time as a teenager learning under Celestia. Which had to mean something, and I’m not sure Celestia just leaving her to live the rest of her days with her friends in ponyville was that. Sunny has no doubt been trying countless time to try to spread friendship throughout her life even after the tragedy of her father’s passing. So there’s no doubt she’s been through a lot, and may indeed be worthy of being an Alicorn at this point. Though in terms of screentime before Alicornhood it's definitely a lot less then Twilight had. And it is at least nice to see that it is possible for non-unicorns to become one. (The only case of that we sort of got was a children's book that may or may not be canon that implied Cadence was a pegasus before she ascended)

Though you have to wonder if the visual differences such as Sunny’s alicorn horn and wings, the cutie mark only on one side (Yes I know that’s how it was normally in the MLP generations before G4. But a distinct visual difference between shows is still noticeable even if the context of G4’s cutie marks on both sides of the flank was about it being easier on the puppets for Flash), and how animals can have wings or weird round shapes such as those bunnies when G4 has normal looking animals. There’s enough striking visual differences for any nitpicky G4 to say “This isn’t the same Equestria”. And if someone tries to say maybe some sort of evolution happened. That’s still trying to put a little too much real world logic on this fantasy world. And evolution tends to take millions of years to have such dramatic changes. Not 1000 years or so, there should still be normal looking animals at this point and time. And these small details are probably going to be the things most ignored but nonetheless can build a case that this isn’t the same Equestria. Even if they touch on the important questions like how magic disappeared and what happened to the Mane 6, there will be details they make different that will add to the case that this is it’s own universe if it doesn’t quite matchup with what was remembered about G4. There will be fans who will be that nitpicky to call G5 out of continuity for small details like that. That is again the trap they put themselves in when they decided to try to say it’s the same Equestria.

All-in-all though, I think that’s at least a good enough chunk about my thoughts on the movie to end off here. If there’s something I missed or something from the movie you’d like me to give a particular opinion about or elaborate on something feel free to ask me here. G5 is indeed off to a good start, just I will be along the many hoping some questions get answered sooner then later. And I’m not sure I’m confident in getting anywhere until a Season finale or a 2nd movie. And it’ll be a year before the series starts proper (Though again I guess there’s a 44 minute special coming in Spring to try to hold us over). But I could definitely see G5 finding it's own following, now there's just the inevitable clashes between some of the more vocal fans of each generation bickering at eachother. But hoping there will be enough that take the movie's lessons on divisiveness to heart and be able to enjoy both even if there may be preferences.

[jerepars]

Back again lol. Even though the writing just hasn’t been the best this season, I’m not really that mad about the way they’ve portrayed Jeresa. Just looking at this logically, I feel that they gave us 5x02 as our Jeresa episode early on and there really was a lot of sweet moments. Now, inevitably we had to have angst in between. But it’s been constantly cemented that James is in love with Teresa, and strongly implied that she loves him too. They can’t just build that up and leave it unresolved. Plus, with TV shows in general, a couple being together early on in the series just leaves it open for unnecessary conflict and the ship just loses its intrigue. If they give us the Jeresa ending we’re hoping for then it makes sense to have not got them together any episode earlier than the final 2. And despite everything, I think the writers have been a hell of a lot better than others in keeping their ship alive and not causing a irredeemable issue between them. I probably shouldn’t defend them before seeing the next two episodes, but I am hopeful. All that being said, there most definitely should have been more scenes and dialogue between them. We should’ve had a Tony moment between them (I’m so mad about this, especially since the writers acted like it was such a pivotal part of the season and then only showed Pote’s ‘grief’). I’m very sorry for rambling, just wanted to hear your take.

Oh, yes hello, back again, I see. Your ask made me sigh because I think it opens me up to be honest and critical of this season’s writing, and that kind of opinion may not always be favored around here, and also because it requires a response of essay length. But I’ll do it for you, anon, I will. Okay. So you want my take on the portrayal of Jeresa in season 5. Here we go. After the jump:

Let me preempt this by saying the show isn’t too serious (try and tell me this is still a serious show after the kerfuffle that season 5 has been), so you shouldn’t take this too seriously either. I have an opinion but I’m just…me. I encourage everyone to stick to their guns about what they feel about QOTS; what you like about it, what you love about it, what gets you excited, what you think has been done well, what is worthy of praise, etc. etc. etc. I go in pretty hard on the show in the next several (LOL, yes, really) paragraphs. But I am in no way the ultimate authority on all things QOTS.

I don’t think Jeresa would have unnecessary conflict and I don’t think the good ship Jeresa would lose its intrigue. In lieu of conflict, we’ve gotten…*crickets* nothing. No conversations of real value, no meaningful exchange of ideas, no arguments, nothing. If anything, the conflict between Teresa and James that is necessary had been absent. In seasons 1-3, there were always disagreements between Teresa and James. There was never a point reached where it created too much conflict, or unnecessary conflict. It created tension, which is like the very essence of Jeresa, and it showed the dynamic they have that made so many of us fall hard for Jeresa as our ship, as our OTP. I don’t think making them a couple or having them together early on in the season would create unnecessary conflict. I think it could’ve created different conflict than what we’ve seen before, and wouldn’t that be a beautiful thing, to have seen them evolve and deal with each other in ways we haven’t seen before?

So, related to what I said about different conflict, as far as intrigue goes…I don’t think presenting Jeresa as a couple or in a relationship would ever make them flat or boring. When I think back to season 3, when we got Jeresa in 3x05 and 3x09, I wish we’d been offered the chance to see them succeed and see what happened with them if they tried. Like I said, it’d be a different kind of conflict, a different kind of challenge for them to face and have to face together. That sounds so opposite of lacking intrigue to me, anon. That’s a side of Jeresa I would have loved to see.

You’ve pointed out that, in general, on TV shows, getting a couple together too early usually means doom and gloom and failure for them. One of my favorite shows ever was Veronica Mars, the first two seasons especially. When the showrunner, Rob Thomas, has talked about the first kiss Logan and Veronica have, he refers to it as being earned. For QOTS, and for Jeresa, I really felt that when they shared their first kiss in 3x05. It took so much and they went through so much to get to that moment. It was earned. So, with that idea—of the earned kiss, of the earned get together, of the earned relationship—in mind, to me, there is no point in season 5 that would have been too early for Jeresa.

Talking about TV shows and how they usually go in general leads me to my next point: as a viewer, is that what I want and is that what I should expect, to be given more of what’s typical? Maybe the writers and critics and people much smarter than me will tell me it’s my fault, I’m the fool, for wanting to critically engage in media that’s not meant to be consumed that way. Maybe I’m just supposed to accept and enjoy and be happy with what I’m given. No one claimed this wasn’t going to be typical. So okay. It’s on me. It’s my bad. But here’s the thing. If I’m supposed to accept and enjoy and love this as it is…well, give me something to love. I’m not asking for a revolution or anything life-changing here, just something I can appreciate (and this season, in my opinion, has really lacked things that I can hold on to and appreciate). So as for typical TV…I’m not down with merely accepting that because things usually go a certain way, that’s how they always have to go.

Why do Jeresa have to fail if they got together earlier in the season? Why is it so out of the realm of possibility that they might succeed together? Are they so emotionally stunted, do they lack so much compassion and understanding of each other that it would be impossible for them to listen and move forward together? What if they could discuss their issues, tell each other how they feel, stop hiding, and try? Who says there wouldn’t be angst and tension between them as they try to work through their issues? What if they’re actually supposed to be together and it would make them stronger—individually and as a couple?

Now, forget everything I just said. LOL. Let’s say we have to go by TV in general and typical TV rules. Let’s assume if Jeresa got together early on, then we’d see them struggle and fall apart and break up. Fine. Okay.

Here’s how Jeresa could have played out after the first two episodes:

5x03 banging honeymoon phase, probably

5x04 arguments and frustration with each other as T embraces being the white queen

5x05 J finds out about T’s coke usage and has to walk away from the relationship because he can’t stand to be complicit and stand idly by while she destroys herself

5x06 classic Jeresa angst and tension

5x07 KG’s death leads to T’s breaking point and J is there to support her

5x08 honesty hour, where it’s made clear that these two mean so much to one another and they’re running out of time to let each other know that, so they tell each other

5x09 one last united mission + they hatch the plan to get out and be free + a farewell with the promise and intent to see each other in another life

5x10 reunion in another life

Are these all headcanons? Of course they’re headcanons. Of course I would never expect the show to go exactly how I thought it would or with my own ideas. My point is that if they would’ve gotten together early on and we’d been given a glimpse of what that would be like, even if they failed, it doesn’t mean it would’ve been impossible for them to ever find themselves together again before season’s end.

“There’s not enough time,” the writers said. “It’s an action packed season,” the writers said. Okay. Why? There was enough time to spend on backstory of minor insignificant characters. There was enough time to introduce characters, tell us a bit about them, only to see them dead by the end of the episode. There was enough time to focus on Kote’s story, over multiple episodes, with not just a baby plot but a kidnapping one as well. So why? Why was there no time for Jeresa? Forget about them getting together and kissing and sex. If that was what it was (and it was) they wanted us to not have, then fine. Some of my favorite Jeresa moments were in the first two seasons, when Jeresa getting together was very much not a thing, when tension was high. So if it was just the portrayal of them not being together, if we still got the scenes of tension and them having no choice but to communicate, that would be completely fine. Like I said, I know I’m never going to get exactly what I want, my headcanons are mine, so that’s okay. Oh. But…no. Oh no. There was not even enough time for Jeresa to have more than short, throwaway, blink-and-you’ll-miss it conversations? Well. It’s the writers’ decision. They wanted it that way.

“It’s a Teresa-centric season,” Dailyn claimed. Like I’ve said before, James is a big part of Teresa’s journey and story. If you’re going to have a Teresa-centric season, it’s hard to accomplish that without shedding more light on James and Jeresa. This isn’t a Teresa-centric season. This has become the Kote show. Teresa is the main character but her journey has been pushed aside, diminished, and downplayed in order to make way for Kote ultrasounds and Pote grunting and Kelly Anne thinking “positive” and hopeful that Marcel will come to a party at the safe house. Instead of getting conversations that would offer insight into Teresa’s relationships with those in her family, we got an extended deep dive into the most chemistry-lacking relationship we’ve ever seen on the show. Well. It’s the writers’ decision. They wanted it that way.

“It’s Queen of the South, not Jeresa of the South,” the writers will insist. If by that they mean it’s Kote of the South. Imagine for a second that it actually was a Teresa-centric season but they were adamant about keeping James in this minor capacity. Okay. It would still be different than it is now because we’d be in tune with Teresa. We would’ve gotten a glimpse into her thought process. Was this not, at some point, meant to be a story about a strong woman? I can even extend that question to Kelly Anne. Was this not, at some point, meant to be a story about strong women? Then why do we keep seeing them make asinine decisions? Why are their most extreme actions in reaction to what the men have done?

Moreover, if this show is about the people in the cartel, in Teresa’s inner circle, rather than just the Kote side plot becoming the main plot, there’s no way this is the James we would be getting. James, our beloved reluctant assassin…who we know nothing about. He can’t even get a backstory on a show on which he is supposedly one of the main characters. Five minutes—five seconds—couldn’t even be spared on James and how he came to be who he is, how he got where he is. But Isidro Navarro? By all means, I need to hear his life story. Who’s Isidro Navarro, you ask? Right. Exactly. Apparently we don’t deserve backstory and explanation and conversation and introspection from our protagonists. But a character who is there for ten minutes or less on a single episode and will never be heard from again in any significant manner? Of course he needs his screen time. Well. It’s the writers’ decision. They wanted it that way.

“This is not a romance show,” the makers of season 5 said. Honestly? Fuck that noise. Fuck that sentiment. Fuck that ignorance. When has Jeresa ever been about romance? Where do the people who make this show get off saying something like that as if we are so stupid we don’t know that? A romance story and a love story are not the same thing. Jeresa is love. God forbid Jeresa ever experience love within a successful relationship. God forbid Teresa and James ever become mature enough to use love as strength rather than weakness. But pile on all the Kote. Focus on them and emphasize how Teresa and James can barely even look at each other. Well. It’s the writers’ decision. They wanted it that way.

So now here we are, on the cusp of 5x09. We got a spoiler in the last promo trailer. We know, after 7 episodes since their last conversation that actually meant something, after the writers missed the mark and didn’t have Jeresa interact in a way that was significant and necessary over the course of the season, that there is at least one kiss. They might even have a conversation. They might even share more than one kiss that leads to more (but also, don’t be surprised if we get a mere few seconds of a kiss and nothing more before fade to black). This is going to make us so happy because finally, finally, they’re giving us what we wanted. And then what? What does it mean if those things are true? Is everything forgiven? Is the instant gratification of seeing our ship sail for a scene or two enough? Does it make up for the character assassination of the characters we love? If we somehow get the ending we want, or at least one close to it, is it even believable anymore? Is what has been broken all season so easily fixed?

Listen, I already know the counter argument. I’m going to be told I’m crazy, that Teresa has to be on her own, that it wouldn’t be interesting, that it would diminish the payoff for Teresa and Jeresa in the end. I get it. Typical TV rules, right? We have to go with what people know, what they’re used to. But what have we gotten, really, to preserve these ‘rules’ for TV in general? Teresa has been dumbed down and is now lacking a lot of the intuition and street smarts she had before. She makes bad decision after bad decision and she doesn’t see what’s coming. The actions she takes are in reaction to those bad decisions. James hates so much of what he’s been made to do but for some reason he keeps going along and carrying out Teresa’s orders; he’ll just stew over it quietly in a corner without saying anything. Teresa and James don’t talk to each other, at least not about anything important, and when they do talk, they give each other heart eyes but never scratch the surface—how could they when they talk for like 10 seconds at a time? So. Has this been a good portrayal of Jeresa? You tell me. If it’s fine with everyone else, then I guess it’s fine. I’m probably the wrong person to ask.

[hekatepoetryxxwriting]

Experiments in Writing: A Critique of Creative Work Within Queering, Feminism, and the Work of Sigmund Freud

For my creative work that I undertook in this module, I chose to focus on the idea of Queering. As well as this, I found myself influenced by the theories and works of Sigmund Freud[1], as well as using several feminist texts, both literary and theoretical, to try and establish a connection between the three ideas within my writing. Due to the essay Freud wrote on The Uncanny[2], he theories and ideas are already heavily tied to gothic literature as a whole, which made connecting him to my work a lot easier. I focused on short stories based upon fairy tales and attempted to alter the narrative of each of the original texts to suit the concept I had come up with. Based upon some of the work from lessons, I used a form of metalepsis[3]within my stories, trying to shift the perception of gender and sexuality within a gothic literate format. I was inspired to take this route by one of my favourite authors, a feminist writer called Angela Carter[4]. Her work in The Bloody Chambers and Other Stories[5] was a major source of inspiration for my work and helped me to develop my writing format and style throughout this module. I chose to focus my work on these theories as I felt that they were somewhat contradictory of one another, and I felt that the juxtaposition of these ideas would help to elevate my writing towards something outside of the usual style I worked in.

For my first creative piece, a short story titled The Wolves in the Woods, I wanted to focus mostly on several of Freud’s most infamous theories. The creative work itself was heavily inspired by a short story written by Angela Carter called The Company of Wolves[6]. I had read this story during college and found the way she addressed gender play and sexuality a fascinating plot device. Not only this, but the way that she would take fairytales that were commonly known amongst readers and adjusted the story to appeal to a wider feminist reading. I agree that a lot of fairytales have subtle sexist undertones that usually place women and men in specific boxes, and I enjoyed reading Carter’s reimagining of this.

Because of the theories I had been researching for the module, I found that writing influences like Carter were juxta-positioned with theories like Freud. One of the main theories I hoped to translate into creative work was the three agents of Freud’s idea of the psyche, often referred to as the ‘id, ego, and super-ego’[7]. As Freud explains, the id ‘contains everything that is inherited, that is present at birth, is laid down in the constitution — above all, therefore, the instincts, which originate from the somatic organization, and which find a first psychical expression here (in the id) in forms unknown to us’[8]. The ego and super-ego, on the other hand, represented the more intelligent side of humans, made of ideas like common sense and cultural norms and opinions taught to children by their parents and the society they live in. This concept of basic instinct versus the laws of society was something I could instantly connect to the gothic literature of Carter, as well as feminism and Queering due to their association with being historically against society’s idea of normal.

When I began to plot out my creative work, I realised that the entire concept of a werewolf was a literary device for man’s inner turmoil between instinct and reason, aka the id and the ego/super-ego. I attempted to flout the tropes of romance writing by presenting a werewolf who, unlike many other fictional interpretations, does not ignore the basic animalist instincts for his love interest. Rather, they compromise, accepting equal shares of idand ego, whilst completely casting aside the rules society sets, therefore ignoring the concept of the super-ego. By casting aside the rules that are hinted at through the story, the protagonist is freed, as shown by the ending of the story being ‘amongst the howls beseeching the night, was a woman’s cries of joy entering the chorus’[9].

Throughout the beginning of the story, the structure of the super-ego is important to the world-building of the setting. Another of Freud’s theories that I used for my first creative piece was the Madonna-Whore complex, which suggests that women either fit the role of the pure virginal wife, or the corrupted succubus. The implication of the theory is that women can only be one or the other, with the Madonna being the ‘preferred’ female archetype. In The Wolves in the Woods I allowed my protagonist to undergo a narrative transformation using the Queering literary device metalepsis. Judith Butler’s point on metalepsis helped to carve the character development in my work through her statement that ‘the performativity of gender revolves around this metalepsis… performativity is not a singular act, but a repetition, a ritual’[10]. Through my first creative piece, I tried to show a progression from a Madonna-like character to someone who embodies the whore, which is summed up by the end of my story in a paragraph ‘She is not the trodden women of the village, with their heads wrapped in silk, hidden from men and from the world. Now she sits upon the lap of the wolf, who stares at her with pupils blown wide, ears open and perked’ [11]and separates her from the other women, transforming her in just two sentences and completing the metalepsis.

However, this is not the only instance of metalepsis in this story. Whilst this is more of a metaphorical sense of metalepsis, the actual idea of a werewolf is a physical form of this literary device. This was another way of connecting the two characters. They both undergo some form of transformation and simultaneously must learn to adapt due to their place in the world. To make this clearer, I used repetition in the way they were described to further suggest the idea that their roles in society were different. These sentences, ‘Lycanthrope: the ability to shift, to transform, to adapt’ and ‘Woman: the ability to shift, to transform, to adapt’ were written this way because they also implied that both Lycanthrope and Woman were ‘things’ rather than people.

A major point to the majority of my stories was taking traditional gender roles within fairy tales and adjusting the narrative around them, which is one of the entire concepts behind the literary device of metalepsis. I did research on masculinity within fairy tales[12]- and gothic literature in general- and found a few feminist articles that discussed how these male characters were influenced by the masculine ideals of the time, and how it affects the narrative of the novels they appear in as a whole[13]. An essay by Alice Neikirk found evidence that ‘Rather than being a mere reflection of societal ideals, these fairytales perpetuate Christian, patriarchal concepts as a means of maintaining the gender hierarchy’[14]. I find that exploring fairytales through Freudian concepts was easy, as a lot of Freud’s theories focused on societal expectations and the way they can shape the human psyche. To an extent, fairytales, including my own, are a prose form of rules and morals set by the society who shares them, usually used as a form of control over children, mainly young girls.

Therefore, when applying psychoanalytical theories to my work, I attempted to subvert some of the typical rules set in fairytales by changing the roles of characters. An example of this is my final story, Eilidh’s Prince, which featured a lesbian romance whereupon one of the characters assumes the role of a man for a brief period. I felt that this was the best choice for the plot because of the symbolism of castration anxiety that is prevalent throughout the story. This is something I made clear when I chose to write the line ‘A fanged rose, a vertical grimace they cower from, lest it bite back’[15]. The idea of castration anxiety[16] is another of Freud’s theories, something he viewed as part of the uncanny. The idea is that men fear castration, perhaps as a punishment for their lust or simply the idea of becoming women, but I attempted to transform this idea by having a woman become a man temporarily, knowing the ‘fanged rose’ was not something she had to fear. I wanted to create a sense of dramatic irony that also came from Carter’s work. One story in particular that inspired me for this was ‘The Erl-King’ where the title character is described as ‘an excellent housewife’[17]. Through this, Carter has transgressed the usual boundaries of gender, and attributes feminine qualities to her male character. I took my version a little more literally and allowed my love interest to dress as a male.

For the other story in my collection, The Fae Prince and The Pomegranate[18], I also had used The Erl-King[19]as my main inspiration. However, unlike my two other pieces, this one was also partially inspired by historical mythology, which is another passion of mine. The mythology I chose to use for my work was the story of Hades, God of the Underworld, and Persephone[20]. Greek Mythology lends itself to fairytales as they could technically be considered a tale of their own time. Not only this, but I find that the nature of the Celtic myth of Fae is similar to the rules of the Underworld according to Greek accounts of Hades and Persephone. The main rule that comes to mind between both is that eating in their respective territories, according to legends, will force the victim to remain there forever. However in doing my research I found that certain myths suggest that Persephone had in face willingly gone to the Underworld, hence her name changing from Kore (meaning ‘the maiden’) to Persephone, which means ‘the bringer of death’[21]. The use of the pomegranate as a way of tying the Prince to the mortal girl and by extension her world was my way of applying both Fae rules and still using the mythology that I had used to construct the story’s foundations.

In conclusion, I enjoyed using these theories and influences to create my stories. I found that the use of experimental ideas and writing gave me more freedom than the usual styles I had been writing in. Comparing feminism and queering with the likes of Freud proved to be quite a challenge, but I feel that it paid off, as I have been able to create an unusual set of stories heavily inspired by authors’ works that I have long looked up to as gothic fantasy literature with heavy symbolism and use of metaphors and euphemisms that made the stories more interesting.

[1] Martin Evan Jay, "Sigmund Freud | Biography, Theories, Works, & Facts", Encyclopedia Britannica <https://www.britannica.com/biography/Sigmund-Freud> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [2] Sigmund Freud, The Uncanny (London: Penguin Books, 1919). [3] "Metalepsis - Definition And Examples Of Metalepsis", Literary Devices <https://literarydevices.net/metalepsis/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [4] "Angela Carter", Angelacarter.Co.Uk, 2014 <https://www.angelacarter.co.uk/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [5] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [6] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [7] Saul Mcleod, "Id, Ego, And Superego | Simply Psychology", Simplypsychology.Org, 2019 <https://www.simplypsychology.org/psyche.html#:~:text=According%20to%20Freud%20psychoanalytic%20theory,id%20and%20the%20super%2Dego.> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [8] Sigmund Freud, "An Outline Of Psycho-Analysis", 1940. [9]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [10] Judith Butler, Performative Acts And Gender Constitution: An Essay In Phenomenology And Feminist Theory (Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1988) <https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3207893.pdf> [Accessed 19 April 2021]. [11]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [12] Alice Neikirk, "...Happily Ever After (Or What Fairytales Teach Girls About Being Women)", Hilo.Hawaii.Edu <https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol07x07HappilyEverAfter.pdf> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [13] "Masculinity In Victorian Gothic Novels", Ukessays.Com, 2017 <https://www.ukessays.com/essays/english-literature/masculinity-in-victorian-gothic-novels-english-literature-essay.php> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [14] Alice Neikirk, "...Happily Ever After (Or What Fairytales Teach Girls About Being Women)", Hilo.Hawaii.Edu <https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/Vol07x07HappilyEverAfter.pdf> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [15]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [16] Sigmund Freud, "Freud: On Narcissism", English.Hawaii.Edu <http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/narc/guide5.html> [Accessed 19 April 2021]. [17] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [18]Shannon Hutton, Experiments CW1 [19] Angela Carter, The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories (London: Victor Gollancz Ltd, 1979). [20] "Myth Of Hades And Persephone", Greek Myths & Greek Mythology <https://www.greekmyths-greekmythology.com/myth-of-hades-and-persephone/> [Accessed 18 April 2021]. [21] "Persephone: Goddess Of Spring And The Underworld", THEOI GREEK MYTHOLOGY <https://www.theoi.com/Khthonios/Persephone.html> [Accessed 20 April 2021].

[therealvagabird]

Dead Space as a Master-Class: Sci-Fi Horror and Cosmic Horror

An essay I wrote for some reason, after having had a sudden burst of recollection earlier this year that I couldn’t stop thinking about.

Read below or HERE on my blog.

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From 2008 to 2013, the Dead Space game (and multimedia) sci-fi horror series was one of the leading titles in the next-gen era. Competing with more veteran IPs such as Resident Evil at its peak, the imagery of Dead Space became synonymous with gaming and horror pop-culture of the time. Though not free from criticism, especially towards the end of its run when radical shifts in the industry economy spoiled the reception of its third game, Dead Space was a major phenomenon in its time and retains a strong nostalgic following.

Dead Space followed the personal hell of one Isaac Clarke, a spaceship engineer in the distant future. In a far-flung time when massive resource scarcity has devolved humanity into a society of corporate-fascistic planet-looters, Clarke and a team of peers are called to the mining ship USG Ishimura to investigate a distress signal activated while the “planet cracker” vessel was stripping an innocuous planet. What follows is the start of the original Dead Space title, a massive bloodbath. Discovery of a strange alien monolith known as “The Marker” (later the “Red Marker”) has unleashed some manner of alien parasitic infection known as “Necromorphs” on the ship, having been lying dormant since it devoured the original colonists of the world centuries ago. The parasite operates by killing and then reanimating human corpses, and is able to enhance its deadliness through recombinant properties, making monsters out of multiple bodies, as well as spreading a fleshy moss known as “the Corruption” around its environment as a form of hostile terraforming. As if these obstacles were not enough for Isaac Clarke, the Marker also appears to induce vivid hallucinations and violent insanity, having driven most of the Ishimura’s crew to suicide or homicide even before the parasitic outbreak, and continuing to wreak havoc on any human minds.

Dead Space 2 and 3 continue the plotline after Isaac Clarke is left as the sole survivor of the initial plot. It is elaborated on that the Earth Government wants the alien Marker despite the great danger it poses due to the artifact providing a source of limitless energy. However, despite its promise, the construction of a second Marker using memories burned into Clarke’s brain results in another, even more vicious Necromorph outbreak on a residential space-station in the Solar System. Attempts to stop the pandemic are exacerbated by both the greedy Earth Gov and the “Unitologists” – a massive sect of religious extremists who view the Markers as divine and, likewise, tend to aid in the undue spread of Necromorph infections. By the time of Dead Space 3, the conflict between Earth Gov and the Unitologists has exploded into all-out war, with Markers exerting their influence over most of earth. Isaac, with company, travels to the world of Tau Volantis following the promise of a way to stop the alien menace. It is revealed by the end of the final chapter that the history of the Markers is far deeper and darker than previously guessed, with the influence of the monoliths having led to both the rise and fall of numerous civilizations throughout galactic history as a way of both creating and feeding the Necromorphs’ final stage – the “Brethren Moons”. Though Isaac succeeds in destroying a half-formed Brethren Moon as the penultimate boss of the third game, the rest of the dormant Moons are awakened by the start of the final DLC expansion, with the implied ending of the series being the Moons consumption of all life on Earth and within human-controlled space, leaving the galaxy to once again be “Dead Space”.

With the outline of the Dead Space trilogy established, I will look at the ways in which – despite its reputation as being a semi-popular cultural phenomenon in its heyday – the Dead Space series is actually one of the best demonstrations of Cosmic Horror in gaming, and even in modern applications of the genre. Dead Space also displays a keen knowledge of its predecessors and draws on them for inspiration without undue copycat symptoms. Cosmic Horror has long been an elusive concept for modern artists, as the memory of H.P. Lovecraft and bastardizations through the action-RPG genre have rendered most executions of the genre as little more than “alien monsters induce insanity through their mere presence”. Though at a surface level Dead Space may seem to fall prey to these tropes, the overall result of the games’ lore and plot shows a much deeper and more genuine application of Cosmic Horror concepts than most.

The Two Enemies

Dead Space’s storyline revolves around two core enemies or obstacles, with the both of them being intertwined. Though government and Unitologists forces certainly have their spotlights over the course of the game’s storyline, the true flesh and blood of Dead Space’s appeal are the Necromorphs. Wherever the Necromorphs are, there is also the second enemy – insanity. Both of these are the result of the alien Markers, and they form a symbiotic relationship meant to make quick work of their human foodstuffs.

In the games’ lore, the Marker monoliths do more than just lure civilizations in with their abundant energy output. At a certain point, these artifacts will begin putting out an enigmatic signal which induces madness and violent outbursts. The concept is that this will provide a nice working base of corpses and disorganized resistance for the Marker to then began causing the creation of the Necromorph monsters. As the parasitic beasts further cause carnage, the Marker’s job of inducing insanity is made all the easier by the rampant PTSD most human survivors will be struggling with. From a practical standpoint, these two villains embody the two aspects of the series’ actual gameplay. The Necromorphs are the physical obstacles – the monsters and baddies to be dismembered, fled from, and the like. The insanity is the atmosphere – the illusory shadows moving at the ends of hallways, the hallucinations which drive Isaac Clarke and the overall plot along, and the displays of inhumane gore as survivors turn on you, themselves, and each other. Both of these enemies also show Dead Space’s understanding of its roots, and what drives audiences’ interest in the sci-fi horror genre over the decades.

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The Necromorphs take cues from many other examples of the “murderous alien parasite” throughout genre history. As recently as 2001, gaming audiences had been exposed to the infectious and disgusting Flood in the Halo series – the original trilogy of which concluded one year before Dead Space debuted. Resident Evil had expanded on the zombie archetype with mutant abominations going back to 1996. Of course, the most prominent influences on Dead Space’s design predate the video game boom. John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) and the Alien franchise (1979-1986 primarily) are perhaps the most noticeable contributors.

From Carpenter’s adaptation of The Thing we are given the visuals of gory, mutagenic, violent, and infectious alien monstrosities who live only to consume and convert all other lifeforms to their cause. Forgoing the Thing’s major aspect of being a shape-shifter, the Necromorphs instead favor a wide variety of monstrous forms which each function as a unique enemy type, while their “infectivity” is limited to the slow spread of their alien hive as they kill and convert human corpses into food. It is the Thing’s imagery (and sound design) which is its biggest contribution, with the blood-and-guts aesthetic providing the visceral backbone to Dead Space’s immediate horror.

From Alien is derived the setting, with the environment of a futuristic and brutalist human environment offering little comfort to the player when not being faced with mutant monsters. In the original Dead Space, cramped corridors, dim industrial lighting, hostile machinery, and vents which allow the Necromophs to stalk and flank the player all call back to the settings of the Nostromo and LV-426’s mining colony in Alien and Aliens. The Necromorphs also, despite their more zombie-esque and gory visuals, function on a closer level to the Xenomorphs’ “hive building” behavior, at least until they reach their later stages. Of course, the name “Necromorph” is itself a play on the blending of the “Xenomorph” aliens with human-derived zombies.

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As stated, the second “enemy” of the Dead Space series, and the biggest contributor to its horror atmosphere, is the insanity induced both by the Marker and by the trauma of being exposed to the violent Necromorphs. The insanity which Isaac Clarke is afflicted by its one of the main drivers for the trilogy’s plot, and the source of the first game’s (rather uninspired) twist. It also functions in the game’s backstory, as a precursor to Necromorph outbreaks meant to supply corpses. From an artistic standpoint, the insanity is itself a reference to the common tropes of Cosmic Horror dating back to H.P. Lovecraft – its most renowned contributor. It also provides a more human level to the horror that permeates each of the games. While it’s one thing to see alien monsters mutilating people, it’s another dimension to see humans doing equally terrible things to themselves or each other. It shows the emotional destruction of the Marker’s victims alongside their eventual physical destruction. It also – as pointed out previously – provides another layer to the games’ atmospheric design, with the largest effect on new players. The visual and auditory hallucinations Isaac experiences keep players on their toes, as they can never be sure they aren’t about to face off against another monster, or are simply jumping at shadows.

Yet there is a final dimension to the insanity of the Markers which culminates in the revelations of the third installment. It is hinted at by the Markers’ nature as alien artifacts, and the appearance of strange occult symbols, religious terminology, and repeated phrases going back to the first game. The Markers, and their entire purpose, are shown to be the products of massive, ravenous, and highly intelligent alien beings known as Brethren Moons – the end stage of Necromorph evolution and something of “gods” to the entire galaxy. Is both shown and implied, in different measure, that every aspect of the Markers are simply emanations of these Moons. The energy they release which can uplift the minds of various species to sapience, and in turn provide them with power to support their resource-strapped civilizations, are just brainwave signals broadcast from the minds of the monstrous Moons. The violence and insanity inspired in humanity is the simple result of human brains being subject to the thoughts of incomprehensibly vast and hungry alien beings. And moreover, while much of this madness could be viewed as human brains being overwhelmed by excessive traumatic input, there is also the revelation – very in-line with the most fundamental ideas of Cosmic Horror – that these Brethren Moons are unstoppable, inescapable, and responsible for the premeditated creation and destruction of all human civilization. To have a mental breakdown in the face of such a nihilistic state of galactic affairs is quite rational, and the precept upon which Lovecraft built the basis of his Cosmic Horror writings.

The Settings

Dead Space – Vents and Hallways

As with all good horror, and sci-fi horror as a rule, the setting of the Dead Space games is as important as any of the actual events which happen therein. While the basic gameplay remained the same throughout all three titles, with minor deviations in overall tone and combat approach, the settings differed drastically. Yet these changes did not compromise the core concepts of the series. Claustrophobia, hostile scenery, minimal visibility due to frequent obstacles, and other staples were retained. Yet over the trilogy, each new setting could actually be interpreted as an homage to one of Dead Space’s predecessors. Though the writing and delivery of the games was not the most refined of all examples in the genre, the creators had a clear concept and appreciation for what traditions they were building off of, and this is reflected in the physical space.

For Dead Space, the original, the USG Ishimura is the Nostromo, from 1979’s Alien. It is an industrial vessel sent to a far-flung location where its doom is sealed. Yet whereas the Nostromo was host to a small crew who were picked off by a solitary predator, the Ishimura is host to a compliment of full-time astronauts and workers, who are likewise consumed by a massive, spreading alien parasite. For major set-pieces, influences from later sci-fi properties such as Resident Evil, Halo, or System Shock can be seen. The major bosses take the form of huge conglomerations of corpses sitting at the centers of Necromorph “hives”, having terraformed whole sections of the environment. Yet for most of the game’s progression, Isaac Clarke finds himself in the bloodstained remains of human architecture. Tight corridors, vents which allow the Necromorphs to evade direct confrontation much like the Xenomorph in Alien, and hostile architecture. The latter is a major feature in the first and third games, though doesn’t fail to feature in the entire series. Visual cues ranging from outright hazardous industrial obstacles to propaganda signs and clone-vat medical bays portray a future which is not much brighter even without alien attack. It sets up a galaxy, quite like that of Alien or other dark science fiction stories, that is not at all suited to human life, both through humanity’s cruelty to each other, and the cosmos’ cruelty to humanity. The early introduction of the concept of “Dead Space” within the setting (separate from the pun of the main title) also hints at a gloomy reality: mankind has encountered no alien life before the Necromorphs. In their rapid expansion in search of resources, not once has humanity found any extraterrestrial beings in the vast, cold void of space.

Dead Space 2 – Cyberpunk Dystopia and Urban Carnage

Dead Space 2 would both intensify and relax the themes hinted at in the first game. The sequel takes place on Titan Station, or “The Sprawl” – a massive civilian space station built from the shattered remains of Saturn’s moon Titan. Set dressing in Dead Space 2 seeks to explore the actual universe built up in the first game, contrasting the life of an average person shattered by the alien attack with the existing brutality of the Sprawl. Players are greeted both with scenes of horror in the aftermath of an entire human population, families, friends, and the like all butchered in common by the Necromorphs, as well as the residual propaganda of a government who seemed to care little for its populace even during the station’s non-brutalized days. Next to the more isolated setting of Dead Space, and its own homages to properties like Alien, Dead Space 2 takes the route of previous sequels such as Aliens or Predator 2, introducing the threat to a more populous region and exchanging some of the tension and isolation-derived horror for increased action and more visceral looks at civilians being subjected to sudden traumas. The increased presence of the Unitologist cult, and their antagonism with both Isaac Clarke and the scrambling Earth Gov also brings in more elements of religious horror and human-vs-human conflict which were just a part of the backstory of the original game.

Dead Space 3 – Darkest Space-Antarctica

In Dead Space 3, the homages become much stronger, and provide both a nice divergence and yet return to the Dead Space setting format. After some introduction, the bulk of the Dead Space 3 storyline takes place on the alien planet of Tau Volantis – a frozen world of dangerous weather patterns and difficult terrain. Tau Volantis was once colonized by humanity in the days of their galactic civil war, but has been abandoned for some two centuries due to the terrible secrets they unearthed there. Isaac and company escape to this planet at the promise of finding the clue to the Markers’ origins, and a way to stop them and the Necromorphs.

The references to The Thing couldn’t be clearer in the sheer choice of setting alone. Throughout his trek on Tau Volantis, Isaac navigates the aftermath of arctic-style expeditions on this barren world which in years past succumbed to the Necromorph parasite. The first enemies faced in the game are, in fact, Necromorphs resembling snowsuit-clad humans with glowing eyes, just a few visual cues off of the theatrical poster for 1982’s The Thing. Once again the themes of isolation return, as the bitter cold of the planet is not much more welcoming than the alien-infested subterranean tunnels. Throughout the game, audio logs chronicle the fate of the previous expedition, offering something of an expanded version of the relationship between the casts of The Thing and its prequel.

Though the references to the 1982 influence are clear, by the third act of the third game, the full elements of Cosmic Horror become fully manifest, with distinct homages to the grandfather of the genre – H.P. Lovecraft. Deep beneath the ice of Tau Volantis, it’s discovered that the old colonial expedition had unearthed not the secret of the Markers themselves, but of one of their victimized races. The Tau Volantians are a highly diverse and highly alien group of advanced yet extinct lifeforms whose own civilization progressed in a similar manner to that of humanity’s in the present day. By the end of Dead Space 3, Isaac Clarke finds himself traversing the cyclopean ruins of their subaquatic cities, searching for a supposed device that will stop the Necromorphs for good. Evidence of the aliens’ reliance on the Markers is clear, and the ultimate revelation comes at last with the reveal of Tau Volantis’ true history. At the peak of the Necromorph outbreak on the alien world, the Markers initiated a “Convergence Event” to spawn their final life-stage – a Brethren Moon. The Tau Volantians, using all the resources left to them, instead activated a terraforming device to freeze their planet, killing themselves but trapping the massive moon-creature in a form of stasis. With Unitologists threatening to unleash the Moon, Isaac must stop this final and penultimate threat, which he does in fact manage to do, at the seeming cost of his own life.

The connections to At the Mountains of Madness are striking and well-executed. Exploring the ruins of a strange yet familiar civilization of ages passed and uncovering the horrible truth of its downfall – the parallels to the fate of Lovecraft’s Elder Things are all too prominent. Just as the inspiration for John Carpenter’s The Thing – Who Goes There? (1938) by John Campbell – derived its setting from the “Darkest Antarctica” obsession in pulp horror and sci-fi, so too did At the Mountains of Madness. In turn, Dead Space 3 shows its knowledge of its roots by grabbing inspiration from all three, with a high-sci-fi take on the “frozen hell” setting and the dark secrets which might be uncovered beneath primordial ice.

The Red Moon – A Rare Case of True Cosmic Horror

But in the end, all of these themes are just set dressing. They are decent executions of common themes within the sci-fi horror-action genre and cute homages to the predecessors of Dead Space as a whole. However, a closer look at the full storyline of Dead Space once we are shown the truth of the final game creates a picture of a much better Cosmic Horror story than most acknowledge. The centermost theme of Cosmic Horror is the insignificance of humanity – the idea that the entire breadth of human existence is ultimately so fleeting and fragile in an infinite universe, that experiencing phenomena that showcase this insignificance could drive your average human insane. Over time, this idea – pioneered by Lovecraft’s works most notably – was diluted and bastardized to the point that few executions of Cosmic Horror would have any resemblance to Lovecraft’s works, as the aesthetics of Lovecraft were co-opted for simple sci-fi/fantasy horror.

But the ultimate lifecycle of the Necromorphs does in fact provide a fantastic and chilling example of this concept. The evolution of the Necromorphs is tied up in their enigmatic Markers, and their effects of other species can be seen in both humanity and the Tau Volantians. When a Marker is sent out into the cosmos by the Brethren Moons, it will (through unknown means) seek out a planet with existing life. From there, the Marker will encourage the growth of at least one species on that planet into a sapient form. Thereafter, the life cycle of this species will play out in a manner that is held to be guaranteed in the Dead Space universe – the species will seek out resources, become strapped for power and supplies as their massive civilization grows and grows, and turn to any desperate attempt to gain more sustaining power. From here, the Marker will fulfil that role, as the alien artifact that first uplifted this species will then begin to provide them with infinite amounts of electrical output. The species will be influenced by the Marker to build copies, with the end result being the ultimate Necromorph outbreak and formation of a Brethren Moon, which will proceed to consume the entire victim race along with its awakened siblings.

In this context, not only are these Brethren Moons ancient, godlike, and possessed of a perfect batting average for wiping the slate clean whenever they want to, but in fact all of human history has been nothing more than a tangential state of affairs as the Brethren Moons have been waiting for our species to grow to a suitable size for “harvest”. The entire plot of the Dead Space games was in fact premediated by these cosmic monstrosities, along with all of humanity’s development. The revelation that the Moons are not just unstoppable by sheer power, but unstoppable in terms of holding all the chips from the beginning, is suitable grounds for a character to have a mental breakdown. Likewise, the existence of multiple Moons suggests the deaths of many species going back untold millions or billions of years. Once the Moons are awakened, the doom of humanity is sealed, as illustrated in the third game’s final DLC. Not unlike how in Lovecraft’s own works, the goal of the heroes is not to defeat great monstrosities like Cthulhu or Azathoth, but delay their attentions towards Earth, so too does Isaac Clarke learn too late that the time to have stopped the Brethren Moons has come and passed.

“Dead Space”

Though the title of Dead Space is itself just a basic pun, within the universe of the games it also acts a distinct label. As humanity spread throughout the galaxy in search of resources, they found that every inch of habitable space was in fact devoid of life. It was “dead space”. Though the implications existed as far back as the first game, it was not until the finale that the full reason behind this was revealed. All of space had been scoured clean of life by the predations of the Brethren Moons over million-year cycles. It provides context to the gloomy, lonesome feel that hangs over the rest of the series, and further solidifies the sense of hopelessness and insignificance that are trademarks of the Cosmic Horror genre. Humanity finds itself having been raised from the start in a galactic farm for terrifying alien beings, and it is only at the moment that they learn this that they also learn there is nothing they can do to avoid becoming a part of this cycle.

The Incomprehensible

Another aspect of Dead Space’s storyline that gains a new dimension is the consistent hallucinations and madness experienced by its various characters. At first, these breakdowns might be viewed as just being some manner of psychic attack by the alien Markers in the usual “madness ray” variety of explanation common in Cosmic Horror properties nowadays. Yet when we come to the revelation that all the functions of the Markers are just emanations of the minds of the Brethren Moons themselves, it becomes far more believable and terrifying. It’s possible that, rather than being some manner of directed and almost deliberate mode of attack, the insanity that afflicts humans is just the result of human brains being exposed to the thoughts of the Moons. Vastness of disparity is another common theme in the genre – that even if a human could comprehend the motives of an alien being (hunger, for example), they would not be able to comprehend the sheer scope of those motives. Rather like how humans can comprehend numbers, though numbers past a certain size remain inconceivable to standard thinking, so too could the violent, hungry thoughts of something as big as a Brethren Moon seem like reality-warping alien schizophrenia to an ignorant human mind. The fact that, in the games, it is stated that more “intelligent” humans are less susceptible to the Marker’s broadcasts could reinforce this. The size and depth of the thoughts of these Brethren Moons might be incomprehensible and alien to most, but perhaps to a scientist, the common threads of mathematics could bleed through in the form of the occult runes seen throughout of the games.

Dreams are also a recurring feature in Lovecraft’s stories, with the dreams of his Elder Gods and other outer cosmic entities bleeding with reality frequently. As the Brethren Moons are shown to possess some manner of psychic power, and certainly the ability to broadcast their brains’ electrical signals in a way that can manipulate reality and biology, it could be interpreted that humanity is almost living in the disturbing dreams of these malevolent gods. Though the hallucinations are just that – illusions – the fact is that the Moons have the power to raise up monsters from the bodies of the dead through their mere will. This “dreams-make-reality” in terms of a suitably powerful creature tilts the scaled even further from humanity’s favor, yet does a fantastic job of reinforcing Dead Space’s position as a true example of proper Cosmic Horror.

Conclusion

Cosmic Horror is not just about monsters out in the cold void of space. It is a very specific take on the sci-fi horror genre which seeks to evoke feelings of hopelessness and insignificance as a source of terror, rather than more basic fear. Dead Space, in the ultimate conclusion of its storyline and universe-building, nails this concept better than most pop-culture properties. Though the elements of monsters, insanity, and the like are there, the overall position of humanity in their relation to the Necromorphs is right in line with how a Cosmic Horror story should be executed. Combining this with the aesthetic influences from other sci-fi horror properties which stood out as paragons of the genre, Dead Space managed to – despite its flaws – present a very well-conceived package to popular audiences. It is strange then how fast Dead Space disappeared from the gaming scene at the conclusion of its run, whereas similar properties which were contemporary with it and similar in popularity were not so quickly forgotten. It’s likely that, due to the massive financial focus shifts in the gaming industry between 2011 and 2017, that Dead Space was doomed regardless of the actual quality of its products. Dead Space 3 was crippled by unpopular microtransaction practices which would not go away in the coming years, spelling a very ignominious end for a rather well-conceived IP. However, it could be said that, like the fate of its protagonist, the fate of Dead Space was something which was unavoidable, though for the more mundane existential horrors of capitalist practice rather than some cosmic doom.

[onebadwinter]

Magneto Tropes

Taken from here

Adaptation Dye-Job: In the comics, he has been shown to have had white hair for the vast majority of his adult life, presumably as a side-effect of his mutation. In the films, he's introduced with grey hair (though only because, lacking Comic-Book Time, the screenwriters had to make him the realistic age of a Holocaust survivor) and he has dark brown hair as a younger man in the prequels.

Adaptation Name Change: In the comics, his original name was Max Eisenhardt and Erik Lehnsherr was an alias. In the films Erik Lehnsherr is his real name and the alias he uses is Henryk Gurzsky. To be fair though, Max Eisenhardt was not revealed as his true comic book name until the 2008 miniseries X-Men: Magneto Testament, long after the first X-Men movie was released in 2000.

Adaptational Wimp: To varying degrees. Magneto's power set in the comics varies Depending on the Writer, but among his traditional powers are the ability to generate force fields and electromagnetic pulses, a resistance to telepaths and psychic attacks, and he's a genius in multiple scientific fields. In the film his powerset is scaled back to just control over metallic metals (though after Apocalypse's boost, he's capable of doing so on a global scale and maintaining a powerful forcefield), he needs his helmet to block out telepathy, and his scientific knowledge doesn't seem to be as extensive.

Affably Evil: With Xavier. They still play chess games together a good 40 years into their conflict with each other. Hell, if you are on his side, he is rather chatty and friendly to you.

Antagonist in Mourning: In X-Men: The Last Stand, he sincerely grieves over Xavier's death and cuts off his Dragon Pyro's irreverent talk about the deceased abruptly. As in most versions of X-Men, he and Xavier were very close friends who eventually found themselves on separate sides due to their ideological differences.

Anti-Hero:

Anti-Villain: Has an unquestionably sympathetic backstory and very good reason to believe that humans are out to eradicate the mutant race. However, he is a dangerous individual with few limits on his devotion and what must be done to ensure the survival of his kind. Even his best and oldest friend isn't safe from his extreme methods and beliefs.

The Atoner: Ian McKellen invokes this while discussing his character in the "Double Take: Xavier & Magneto" documentary on the X-Men: Days of Future Past Blu-Ray release."The Magneto that you see with me is a man of conscience, and a man with an unhappy life behind him. He's come through a great deal, and isn't taking on single-handedly, or even with the help of his Brotherhood, society as a whole. He's joined up again with his old friend, Professor X, and together, they're going to try to move things forward."

Badass Baritone: Both Ian McKellen and Michael Fassbender pull this off.

Badass Cape: Part of his supervillain outfit is his iconic crimson cape.

Played straight in Dark Phoenix, where he makes a point that the Phoenix is dangerous, but his methods involve injuring anyone who gets in his way as he tries to kill Jean.

Subverted in X-Men: First Class and X2: X-Men United, where he seems to join the heroes against a common foe, but is ultimately revealed to have ulterior motives and turns against them in the end.

Badass Longcoat: Magneto typically wears a long black coat in civilian attire, such as his appearance at the mutant hearings in the first film, the attempt to stop Mystique in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and his Roaring Rampage of Revenge in Dark Phoenix.

Berserk Button: Does not like people who 'just follow orders’. This is heavily implied to be because it was the excuse many Nazi officials gave for their actions during the Nuremburg trials.

Big Bad:

Big Bad Ensemble:

Big Brother Instinct: By the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis, he had already begun to view Charles as a brother figure. When the Blackbird spiraled out of control, Erik used his body to shield Xavier from injury, and he immediately halted his attack on the American and Soviet naval forces when Charles was shot. Even after they become enemies, Erik continously shows both respect and affection for Charles, consitantly referring to him as ‘Old Friend’. He was immensely saddened by his death in X-Men: The Last Stand, and deeply insulted by those who where disrespectful to him. He would also routinely put his own life on the line to help or save Charles, and the two kept very close in their later years, despite often being on opposing sides of the battle field.

Big Good: Old Magneto shares the role with Charles Xavier in X-Men: Days of Future Past, acting as the wise, protective mentor of the future team. This is in sharp contrast with his younger self, whose bigotry almost catapults the world into an even worse timeline than the one they are currently living in.

Byronic Hero: In X-Men: First Class—morally troubled, emotionally damaged, attractive, and very charismatic about his pro-mutant beliefs. Particularly to some of the impressionable younger characters like Mystique.

The Chessmaster: Invoked several times. He is seen playing Chess with Charles Xavier several times throughout the original trilogy, and references Chess during his attack on Alcatraz, to his benefit as Juggernaut was about to pull a Leeroy Jenkins and would have been depowered in the first wave had Erik not stopped him. Erik (stopping Juggernaut): In Chess, the pawns go first. (the defenders reveal their plastic dart guns filled with the cure serum, leading to the first wave of attackers getting depowered) Erik: Hmm, plastic. They've learned. That's why the pawns go first.

Color Motifs: He dresses up in various shades of red and purple.

Combat Tentacles: He can turn metal cables and pipes into such things, the most notable in X-Men: First Class when he uses a cable to snag the telepathy-blocking helmet and pull it off Shaw’s head, enabling Xavier to take control.

Composite Character: Has Juggernaut's helmet in this adaptation. This makes sense, as this Magneto's twisted, Cain and Abel relationship with Charles (Juggernaut's brother in the comics) is played to the hilt.

Cool Helmet: Wears his famous telepathy-blocking helmet. Technology wired into the helmet prevents telepathic intrusion, making Magneto difficult to control or impossible to find via Cerebro.

The Corrupter: Although he convinces Raven to accept her mutant appearance, he also pushes her into committing murder against human enemies and truly becoming Mystique. Charles believes Erik is a large influence for Raven leaving him.

Cultured Badass: He speaks several languages, passionately discusses philosophy, shows considerable knowledge of politics and foreign cultures, and enjoys the occasional game of chess with Xavier.

Curb-Stomp Battle: Dishes these out to Wolverine on a regular basis. Wolverine's metal skeleton makes him nigh-unstoppable against other opponents but is a huge liability going up against Magneto, who either immobilizes him or flings him away (or both) with ease every time they encounter each other as foes. Even when he faces a time-displaced Logan lacking the adamantium in his bones, Erik still dispatches him and nearly drowns him by impaling Wolverine with metal pipes and flinging him into a river.

Dark and Troubled Past: "Holocaust survivor" is about as dark and troubled as it gets.

Dark Messiah: In X-Men: Days of Future Past, his younger self prepares to kill Nixon while declaring mutant supremacy in front of a live broadcast.

Deadpan Snarker: The biggest one in the series, natch. X2: X-Men United is largely his snark-fest at everyone else's expense.

Death Glare: Young Magneto, portrayed by Fassbender, gives a calm murderous look killing the Nazis and Shaw, and also ripping a filling tooth from a banker in X-Men: First Class. Also, a good stare carrying the RFK Stadium towards the White House in X-Men: Days of Future Past.

Demoted to Dragon: He isn't the leader of the supervillain team in X-Men: Apocalypse; this time around, he plays second fiddle to Apocalypse.  He becomes The Starscream and pulls a Heel–Face Turn, though.

Determinator: In the '70s, he asks Logan how fighting him for years has worked out for him and Logan responds they're both "survivors" which only serves to motivate Erik to later demonstrate how much more powerful he is than the Wolverine later on when he runs metal pipes through his body and leaves him to drown, muttering contemptuously, "so much for survival."

Disappeared Dad: To Quicksilver. Despite them sharing a few scenes and Quicksilver entering the plot of X-Men: Apocalypse just to find him, Magneto shows no signs of recognizing him.

Dissonant Serenity: He's disturbingly calm, even cheerful, during the scene in the bar in Argentina, just before he murders three ex-Nazi's.

Doesn't Like Guns: His younger self uses guns when he needs to, while the older Magneto sneers at them. This is partly because of his background as a holocaust survivor, and partly because humans rely on guns to fight, and he sees it as a sign of their inferiority. Of course, that's a bit hypocritical when he has the power of magnetism, and those who don't possess such an advantage have to defend themselves somehow.

Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us: His motive in almost every movie is to wipe out humanity before they can do the same to mutantkind.

Emotional Powers:

Enemy Mine:

Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Despite all that he's done, his love for his mother is one of his defining characteristics. Unfortunately, it's also the reason why he killed Shaw in cold blood, truly becoming Magneto.

Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He does care deeply for certain characters - in the prequel films most obvously for Charles and Mystique. The memory of the good times he and Charles shared in their youth is enough to make him turn on Apocalypse, while Hank informing him of Mystique's death at Jean's hands sends him on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.

Even Evil Has Standards: Magneto always considered Xavier a friend and never wanted him dead. In X3 when Pyro says he would have done so if Magneto ordered it, Magneto is clearly angered at the idea. Whatever their qualms, neither wanted the other dead.

Evil Former Friend: Naturally while remaining on Friendly Enemy terms with Charles Xavier, the X-Men and Brotherhood are at great conflict in the majority of films regardless.

Evil Genius: With truly amazing schemes. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he was able to steal a file containing the details of the Sentinels, after reading it over he was somehow able to reprogram them while inserting metal tracks within the bodies.

Extra-ore-dinary: His impressive mutant ability to control metal. Guns are a joke to him and throughout the films he's accomplished feats capable of lifting a submarine from water, the Golden Gate Bridge, and the RFK Stadium, the last without showing any real sign of effort. In X-Men: Apocalypse thanks to Apocalypse's enhancement he's shown ripping practically every metallic structure on the planet apart via control of the world's magnetic field and with Jean, putting the Xavier Institute back together from scratch.

Fantastic Radiation Shielding: His helmet protects him from various mutants' psychic powers.

Faux Affably Evil: If you aren't on his side, he can be downright terrifying and still sound unfailingly polite. When Pyro expresses disappointment that he wasn't the one to kill Professor X, Magneto gives him a rather grandfatherly talking-to...with an unspoken, but very real assurance that the next ill words Pyro speaks of Charles Xavier would be his last.

First-Name Basis: In the films, just like in the comics, he and Charles Xavier always use their first names when speaking to or about each other. Only a handful of others are on a first-name basis with them.

Foil:

Freudian Excuse: A former victim of the Holocaust believing humanity will subjugate mutants the same way.

Friendly Enemy: To Charles Xavier. Their relationship stretches the definition of "friendly" about as far as it will go but it's there. They have the utmost respect for one another and used to be close companions but just about every differing point between them comes from a place of vitriolic and passionate division (to the point both refuse to see a future where the other's point of view can exist, it is a mutually exclusive matter of black-and-white difference in opinion).

The Fundamentalist: Without a doubt believes mutants are the superior species and humans will fight against their extinction.

Gaining the Will to Kill: When he meets Raven in X-Men: Days of Future Past, he appears noticeably distressed before picking up a gun and apologizing then claiming mutants will never be safe with her alive before shooting at her.

Heel–Face Revolving Door: His moral standing across the films has variously been Nominal Hero, Anti-Hero, Anti-Villain, The Atoner, and Well-Intentioned Extremist. Magneto is rarely a straight villain and even more rarely a straight hero, but in the meantime he wavers all the way between the two.

Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: In Dark Phoenix, he starts off as a neutral figure, and then dons his trademark helmet when he becomes an antagonist shortly afterward. He teams up with the X-Men at the beginning of the third act right after his helmet is destroyed in a fight.

Heterosexual Life-Partners:

He Who Fights Monsters:

Hijacked by Ganon: He has a tendency to hijack the plans of the villains of the films in retaliation against them.

Hoist by His Own Petard: Invokes this on so many occasions, such as threatening dozens of policemen with their own guns,  using Dark Cerebro to kill all humans after it was just used in an attempt to kill all mutants, as well as killing multiple soldiers by pulling off the pins on their grenades, hurling missiles at ships that just fired them, and  using the Sentinels during the DisasterousDemonstration in the past to attack the spectators.

Humans Are Bastards: Believing humans will continue to grow and despise mutants he maintains this belief. Though it doesn't really help his case when he keeps doing actions that make people fear him.

Hypocrite:

Magneto is responsible for the main conflict in X-Men, as he intends to sacrifice Rogue to power a machine capable of turning normal humans into mutants, but is unaware that the artificial mutations are unstable and will kill the affected.

In X-Men: The Last Stand, Magneto builds an army and prepares to attack Alcatraz island, where a cure for mutations is being developed. His efforts lead him to recruit the unstable Phoenix, who goes on a rampage during the film's climax and causes countless deaths.

Magneto shares the antagonistic role with Stryker in X2: X-Men United, but their goals are opposite of each other: the former intends to use the machine called Dark Cerebro to rid the world of normal humans, whereas the latter intends to do the same to the mutants.

Trask, Mystique and a younger version of Magneto are the main villains of X-Men: Days of Future Past. Trask invented the Sentinels, mutant-hunting machines that turned the world into an apocalyptic dystopia. Mystique goes on trying to get revenge on Trask by killing him after seeing the pictures of her deceased fellow mutants. Magneto opposes both Mystique and Trask by promoting his own ideals of supremacy, which only serve to amplify humanity's fear of mutants and push the Sentinel program forward.

In X-Men: First Class upon seeing the mansion Charles grew up in.Erik: Honestly Charles, I don't know how you survived living in such hardship.

In the original X-Men, when Magneto has the X-Men trapped and bound within the Statue of Liberty, he points out a foolish tactical error on Scott's part with withering contempt.Cyclops: Storm, fry him! Magneto: Oh yes, a bolt of lightning into a huge copper conductor. I thought you lived at a school.

He also really enjoys mocking Wolverine in general.Magneto: Why do you always think it's all about you?

In X-Men: First Class, he is originally only able to use his powers when extremely angry. The first two times, it involves maternal separation. However, he can't properly focus it until Charles coaches him to concentrate on happier emotions.

In X-Men: Apocalypse, his power hike into Physical God territory is initially assumed to be Apocalypse enhancing him like the other Horsemen, but Charles contradicts this, contemptuously asserting that all Apocalypse has done is tap into his rage and pain.

X2: X-Men United: He and Mystique team-up with the X-Men to stop a human villain from killing all mutants. Right up until he decides to invert the attack and have all the non-Mutants killed instead.

X-Men: Days of Future Past: He and Xavier unite against the Sentinels that threaten all of mutantkind with extinction. Although he ends up attempting his own plans for mutant superiority and, ironically enough, winds up jeopardizing the plan to save mutantkind.

Dark Phoenix: Magneto initially attempts to kill Jean for killing Mystique, but he and his lieutenants join forces with the X-Men to fight the D'Bari when they come for the Phoenix Force in the climax.

In X-Men: Days of Future Past, while the public and most other characters refer to him and Raven (Mystique) by their mutant code names, Charles and Hank still remain on a first name basis with both of them, and vice versa. This is also presumably true for Alex, who still addresses his former ally as Erik.

X-Men: First Class: He and Charles are juxtaposed in their respective Argentinian bar and Oxford pub scenes. The sober Lehnsherr is all business when he's hunting down Nazis, and he murders three men (including the bartender) in cold blood after taunting his prey. The inebriated Xavier is the life of a party when he and his fellow graduate students celebrate the successful defense of his PhD thesis, and he later tries to flirt with Agent MacTaggert. Producer Bryan Singer gives a very basic summary of their differences in the "Magneto the Survivor" featurette:"Ultimately, they come from different places. Erik Lehnsherr is a victim of the Holocaust, he probably left the war with nothing, and is very much a solitary man, while Xavier had a life of privilege, became a professor at Oxford, was surrounded by peers, has an intimate relationship with Mystique since childhood, so he's quite loved, and therefore quite idealistic, less embittered, and just has a very different view from Lehnsherr."

X-Men: Days of Future Past:

Both past and future Magneto contrast each other in the film. 1973 Magneto continues to move forward with mutant supremacy and attacking Charles and his group, while future Magneto was fighting to protect both mankind and mutants while lamenting his pointless struggles with Charles in their younger years. Past Erik is very much on his own, but his elderly counterpart is a valuable team member.

Past Magneto and Past Xavier were both inactive and isolated in between 1963 and 1973 (the former due to imprisonment, the latter due to depression). Erik shows signs of wanting to repair some of their previous friendship, but a bitter Charles isn't interested for the most part. Magneto tries to kill Mystique while Xavier tries to protect her. Hank remains unwaveringly devoted to Charles, but Erik loses Mystique's loyalty after the murder attempt. In X-Men: First Class, Erik personified "rage" while Charles embodied "serenity," but their roles are reversed in 1973. Xavier is now the one who is full of pain and anger, and therefore has great trouble wielding his telepathy, whereas Magneto is (relatively) calm and controlled, still possessing great mastery over his power despite being deprived of metal for a decade. (We even see Erik adopt a meditation pose in his prison cell, which makes him appear Zen-like.)

Wolverine and the younger Magneto are violent individuals who love Xavier, but whereas Jerk with a Heart of Gold Logan possesses Undying Loyalty towards Charles, Jerk with a Heart of Jerk Erik is quick to betray him, until he finally does the reverse and pulls a Heel–Face Turn in X-Men: Apocalypse.

X-Men: Apocalypse: After he loses his family, he's in so much grief that he's willing to follow Apocalypse, who convinces Erik that he's God, and God has granted Magneto a divine purpose.

The version of Magneto from the second timeline in particular embodies this trope, having changed sides eight separate times over the course of the series.note

Considering that his and Charles' friendship only lasted a couple months, at most, in X-Men: First Class, it was unusually intimate on an emotional level.

Played straight in X-Men: Days of Future Past, with his older self and Professor X (the moment where they're holding hands is the closest that we've seen them since First Class), but averted with their younger selves. In 1973, Charles never once calls him "friend" (although Erik uses the endearment twice), which goes to show how broken their relationship is.

X-Men: Director Bryan Singer explains in the September 2000 issue of SFX:"...the paradox in Magneto's character is that he was the victim and then becomes the aggressor. It's like he's slowly become these people who persecuted him and murdered his family right in front of him. He became embittered. You get angry enough and you start forgetting."

X-Men: First Class: He hates Shaw and wants to kill him, but he eventually embraces Shaw's beliefs about mutant supremacy. It's even spelled out through the villain wearing the same helmet that Magneto is associated with. Justified at the crucial moment because he separates revenge from his ideals, which is why he's able to compliment Shaw's vision while still hating the man to his core. Shaw the man wronged him terribly, but Shaw the visionary is inspirational.

X2: X-Men United: After stopping Stryker's plan to kill all mutants with a fake Cerebro, he decides to reprogram the machine to kill regular humans instead.

X-Men: Days of Future Past: Young Magneto hijacks the Sentinels to attempt killing both Bolivar Trask and President Nixon.

X-Men: First Class features a variation: once Erik kills Shaw, he basically embraces his evil nature and attempts to wipe out the American and Soviet fleets.

Despite claiming to help his fellow mutants, Magneto has no qualms on attacking and even killing other mutants who stand in the way of his anti-human crusade.

Magneto is motivated by his memories of enduring the Holocaust during World War II and believes mutants will be subjected to the same treatment as the Jews in Nazi Germany if they do not fight back. This leads to him falling victim to He Who Fights Monsters, becoming a genocidal racist just as bad as the Nazis.

In X-Men, he is willing to sacrifice Rogue but not himself in the advancement of his cause. Beautifully called out by Wolverine, who tells him: "You're so full of shit. If you were really so righteous, it would be you up in that thing." Erik levitates away without replying, but the expression on his face makes it clear the remark hit home.

At the climax of X-Men: Days of Future Past, his past-self sics a Sentinel on Wolverine and Beast, after a grand speech about how he will protect mutantkind.

In Dark Phoenix he tells Jean about the futility of killing for revenge, and how it never made the pain he felt go away. Then, when he finds out Jean killed Mystique, he almost immediately decides to kill her in revenge - though that could simply be the difference between knowing it intellectually and his emotional reaction.

   I-Y

Improvised Weapon: As long as it's metal, Magneto's powers let him use anything as a weapon. He has killed people with such things as a coin and a locket.

I Did What I Had to Do: In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he tells Raven he tried to kill her because he was aware of the impending Sentinel menace and came to the conclusion that the only way to prevent it would be if she was permanently dispatched.

I Hate Past Me: In X-Men: Days of Future Past right before Kitty sends Wolverine back in time, he worries that his and Charles' past-selves won't understand the nightmarish situation in the Bad Future and be able to fix things. Erik: It's not [Wolverine] I'm worried about, it's us. We were young, we didn't know any better.

Ineffectual Loner: Was one in X-Men: First Class until Charles convinced him he could do better with friends of his own, and in the ending he begins building his brotherhood of mutants.

I Was Quite a Looker: He was a classic example of Tall, Dark, and Handsome when he was a young man (and he has aged gracefully over the years).

Jerkass Has a Point: He did make the fair point towards Charles that he grew up with Raven, and shouldn't have entirely claimed responsibility for raising her, which did in part drive her away from him.

Just the Way You Are: In X-Men: First Class, he is able to persuade Raven to his side finding her mutant appearance to be "perfection" in contrast to Charles and Hank, who feel she should look more "normal" to gain acceptance within society.

Karma Houdini:

Kick the Son of a Bitch: Some of his victims include Nazis, Sebastian Shaw and the corrupt, violent slob in charge of his prison cell. He also chained William Stryker back up and left him to die at the end of X2: X-Men United.

Knight Templar: Wants to stop mutant prejudice... by subjugating humans.

Lean and Mean: Magneto seems to have little-to-no fat on his body. It makes sense, given that he's a Holocaust survivor who spent his early life on the road.

Loner-Turned-Friend: In X-Men: First Class when he met Charles Xavier and his group.

Made of Iron: His younger self is quite capable of taking a beating. In X-Men: First Class he gets thrown off a boat by Emma Frost in diamond form and was being thrown across a room by Shaw crashing into mirrors. In X-Men: Days of Future Past, he took head injuries from Beast and nearly drowned before restraining him only needing a head stitching after - a head stitching he performed himself while examining the schematics of the Sentinel's and without even twitching at the pain. His older self also survived a blast from Cyclops in the first film, and in X-Men: Days of Future Past continued to protect the group from the Sentinels with a shard having pierced his abdomen.

Manipulative Bastard: Best demonstrated as he convinces Pyro and in the prequel series, Raven, to defect to his side.

Meaningful Name: Erik means "ruler" and Lehnsherr can be roughly translated as "feudal lord" (lehn = fief, herr = master). Magneto's birth name betrays his ambition to rule over humans.

Mook Horror Show: Several films have him performing one.

Motive Rant: Delivers one to Senator Kelly after capturing him in X-Men.Magneto: Are you a god-fearing man, senator? That's such a strange phrase. I've always thought of God as a teacher, as a bringer of light, wisdom, and understanding; you see, I think what you really are afraid of is me. Me and my kind, the Brotherhood of Mutants. Though it's not so surprising really. Mankind has always feared what it doesn't understand. Well, don't fear God, Senator, and certainly don't fear me. (in an undertone) Not anymore.

My Greatest Failure: The death of Xavier in X-Men: The Last Stand, which he directly caused by awakening Dark Phoenix.Magneto: Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you'll ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.

My God, What Have I Done?: X-Men: The Last Stand features him saying the line, when he finds himself on the other side of the Mutants vs. Humans war he's been pushing for, and Phoenix finally goes crazy and starts killing people.

Nazi Hunter: He spends the first twenty minutes or so of his screentime in X-Men: First Class tracking down and killing Nazis. In fact, his reason for joining the X-Men is so that he can find and kill Sebastian Shaw, the mutant Nazi who killed his mother.

The Needs of the Many: In X-Men: Days of Future Past.Erik: Forgive me Mystique, as long as you're out there we'll never be safe.

Never Be Hurt Again: He is both a Holocaust Survivor and mutant "lab rat" which pushes him towards Do Unto Others Before They Do Unto Us regarding mutant suppression by the humans.

New Era Speech: Gets one in Days of Future Past, delivered on national television before the Presidential cabinet.Magneto: You built these weapons to destroy us. Why? Because you are afraid of our gifts. Because we are different. Humanity has always feared that which is different. Well, I'm here to tell you, to tell the world, you're right to fear us. We are the future. We are the ones who will inherit this earth, and anyone who stands in our way will suffer the same fate as these men you see before you. Today was meant to be a display of your power. Instead I give you a glimpse of the devastation my race can unleash upon yours. Let this be a warning to the world. And to my mutant brothers and sisters out there, I say this; no more hiding, no more suffering. You have lived in the shadows in shame and fear for too long. Come out, join me. Fight together in the brotherhood of our kind. A new tomorrow, that starts today.

Nice Hat: Occasionally wears a fedora while in civilian garb, as shown in X-Men when he attends the hearing on mutants at the beginning of the film and in X-Men: Days of Future Past when he raids the vault for his helmet.

Nice Job Fixing It, Villain!: Attacking Mystique at the Paris Peace Conference bought Bolivar Trask a couple extra days and gets Nixon to fund the Sentinel program, but his betrayal and attack on the White House sets up a situation where a mutant is seen saving Nixon's life on live TV. Mystique performs a Heel–Face Turn, Nixon cancels the Sentinel program, and the Bad Future is averted.

Nightmare Fetishist: Everyone in X-Men: First Class, tells Raven that her true form as Mystique is horrifying, but Eric tells her that she is beautiful as she is, and that taking on a more normal looking appearance is wasteful of her powers, and limits her concentration against unexpected attacks. In X-Men: The Last Stand however, when Mystique shields Magneto from being struck by darts containing the Mutant Cure, he coldly abandons her now that she's human, regretfully telling Pyro that she used to be "so beautiful."

Noble Demon: At his fundamental core, Magneto wishes to protect innocent minorities from genocidal persecution at the hands of murderous racists, no matter what it takes.

Not So Different:

Outliving One's Offspring: His daughter is killed by Polish policemen in one of the most heartbreaking moments of the whole film franchise.

Overarching Villain: Magneto is the central antagonist of the first trilogy. In the prequels, he usurps the role of Big Bad from Shaw and Trask, before pulling a Heel–Face Turn at the very end of X-Men: Apocalypse. However, he comes to oppose the X-Men once again in the following film, only to ultimately join their battle against Vuk during the climax.

Parental Abandonment: His father is nowhere to be seen, and his mother is executed before him by Shaw to try and induce his magnetism powers.

Pet the Dog: He was the first person in Raven's life that complimented and truly admired her natural blue form. Also, upon reveal he compliments Hank, although it isn't met with a kind reaction from Beast, who believed he was being mocked.

Physical God: While always immensely powerful, he becomes this in X-Men: Apocalypse, being on the verge of tearing apart the planet (as one character puts it, "destroying everything built since the Bronze Age") while maintaining an impenetrable forcefield. Moreover, Charles implies that unlike the other Horsemen, Apocalypse didn't actually enhance him, he just tapped into his rage and pain, meaning that he had this potential all along.

Power Floats: Can fly by manipulating the Earth's magnetic field.

Pre-Mortem One-Liner: He delivers one to Sebastion Shaw as Charles holds control of Shaw's body."This is what we're going to do. [holds up the coin] I am going to count to three and I'm going to move the coin. One. [moves the coin towards Shaw's head] Two. Three." [puts the coin through Shaw's head, Charles screams].

Protagonist Journey to Villain: X-Men: First Class revolves around him seeking revenge for the murder of his mother and his increasing acceptance of mutant supremacy.

Red and Black and Evil All Over: His outfits typically have a lot of dark red and dark grey. The dark grey is accentuated in the older Magneto's costumes.

Red Oni, Blue Oni: In X-Men: First Class, he is rather hot-headed while Charles is more level-headed. ''Empire'' magazine even color-coded the front covers of their May 2011 issue accordingly.◊

Roaring Rampage of Revenge:

Rousing Speech: On several occasions he's persuaded mutants to follow his cause and fight along himself. Most notably, when he attacked the white house and on a live broadcast declared mutants come out of hiding because they are more powerful than the humans who would try to eliminate them. This is after he discredited the Sentinel program and held the president cabinet at gun point.

Sensitive Guy and Manly Man: In X-Men: First Class, he is the Manly Man to Charles' Sensitive Guy. They display this dynamic in their personalities (Anti-Hero vs. All-Loving Hero) and physique (Tall, Dark, and Handsome vs. Pretty Boy) as well as their philosophies and methods (Pay Evil unto Evil vs. Wide-Eyed Idealist).

Shut Up, Kirk!: Delivered one to Xavier in X-Men: First Class.Xavier: There are thousands of men on those ships. Good, honest, innocent men! They're just following orders. Erik: I've been at the mercy of men just following orders. Never again.

Slasher Smile: He sports a brief one when he rips iron from a guard's body in X2.

Slave Brand: The tattoo number of a Nazi concentration camp he carries upon his forearm, which he has brought attention towards to serve as a reminder for human cruelty.

At the end of X-Men United, he escapes after attempting to wipe out all non-mutants.

At the end of The Last Stand, he sneaks away when the Dark Phoenix awakens and realizes on his own that the effects of the mutant cure are only temporary.

In Apocalypse, he murders a bunch of policemen and creates a magnetic field that caused a lot of damage across the globe, but is let off the hook because he helped kill En Sabah Nur. However, this could be explained by the fact that he's so powerful at this point that there's way to reasonably contain him.

In Dark Phoenix he instigates a battle against the X-Men in the streets of New York, including his ripping a subway train out the ground and using it as a battering ram against the D'Bari stronghold, all in an attempt to kill Jean, but later fights alongside the X-Men to save her after Charles manages to sway him. By the end of the film he's openly wandering the streets of Paris without any repercussions, and even invites Xavier to come to Genosha with him.

The Nazis at the bar in First Class.

The security guards in Days of Future Past when he reclaims his helmet, done while sharply dressed wearing shades and a fedora.

And in Apocalypse, he does it again to the policemen sent to bring him in after one of them accidentally kills his wife and daughter. With a locket.

In X-Men: First Class, when he confronts the villain Sebastian Shaw at the end: Erik Lehnsherr: If you're in there, I'd like you to know that I agree with every word you said. We are the future. But unfortunately, you killed my mother.

In X2: X-Men United, the first thing he does when he gets inside the second Cerebro? Instructs Jason Stryker to simply reverse the polarity on Professor X's mental attack to target humans instead of mutants rather than free Charles from Jason's mind control.

In X-Men: First Class, he hunts down Shaw and his Nazi underlings to exact revenge for the death of his mother. He succeeds in giving the latter ones horrific deaths, but is effortlessly defeated by Emma Frost when he tries to do the same to the former.

In X-Men: Apocalypse, he uses his family medallion to slaughter the whole Polish police squad that has been sent to arrest him after they killed his daughter and wife by accident. He then goes on to kill his co-workers at the steel plant after one of them denounced him. Apocalypse arrives just as Erik was about to kill them, and sucks them all into the floor.

In Dark Phoenix, after learning that Jean killed Raven in a case of Power Incontinence, he immediately grabs his old helmet and heads to New York to get revenge.

Slowly Slipping Into Evil: In the original trilogy, Magneto starts out as a Well-Intentioned Extremist bent on turning regular humans into mutants. Come X2, he instead wishes to commit genocide against mankind, but still cares about mutant lives. But he is at his worst in The Last Stand, where he recklessly chooses to sacrifice his troops in Alcatraz, comparing them to the pawns in a Chess game.

The Social Darwinist: He believes mutants are the superior species towards humans.

Start of Darkness: X-Men: First Class devotes itself to his gradual transformation into the human-hating supremacist he is today, courtesy of his past as a Holocaust survivor and his affinity with Shaw's ideology.

Stealth Pun: Michael Fassbender kept his natural auburn hair for the role in X-Men: First Class and X-Men: Days of Future Past, which makes him... Erik the Red.note

Super Reflexes: In X-Men: First Class, he's fairly confident he can stop a bullet shot point blank from his head. Later, he more or less holds true to his claim by stopping a horde of missiles fired by the US and Russian army within several feet from the air to him, and deflecting bullets while being shot at by Moira MacTaggert.

Sympathetic Murderer: In First Class, his target being Shaw, who killed his mother and tortured him.

Tailor-Made Prison:

Tall, Dark, and Handsome: In his youth, as shown in the First Class trilogy.

Team Dad: In X-Men: First Class he was the more stern and less nurturing parental figure for the proto X-Men, opposite Charles' Team Mom. This is what makes the "Beach Divorce" scene so much more tragic.

Team Member in the Adaptation: He was never a Horsemen in the comics. This version also forms the Brotherhood by taking control of the Hellfire Club after killing Shaw.

That Man Is Dead:Xavier: Erik, don't join them. Magneto: Whatever it is you think you saw in me, I buried it with my family.

Time-Shifted Actor: He has been portrayed by four actors in three note different stages of his life.

Tired of Running: Inspires mutant followers to stop hiding and accept themselves, while turning on the humans who would target them.

Too Happy to Live: His life in Poland in Apocalypse looks too happy to last as he is spotted and unmasked by authorities and both his wife and daughter die tragically.

Took a Level in Badass: In First Class after Charles unlocks his full potential and in Apocalypse when the titular character gives him a boost.

Tragic Keepsake: When he first met Sebastian Shaw, he was asked to move a Nazi Coin in exchange for his mother's life but was unable to do so and she was murdered. He carried the coin for most of his life until he moved it through Shaw's head, killing him.

Tragic Villain: Possibly the archetypal example.Charles: Listen to me very carefully my friend... killing Shaw will not bring you peace.Erik: Peace was never an option.Erik: Is this what you want from me?! Is this what I am?

Tranquil Fury: In X-Men: First Class, his powers are manifested through anger, until Charles helps by telling him "true focus lies somewhere between rage and serenity."

Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Shaw had Erik awaken control of his magnetism by murdering his mother.

Troubled, but Cute: In X-Men: First Class, pre-supervillainy, he is a Nazi-hunting Byronic Hero with an intensely Dark and Troubled Past (involving the Holocaust, loss of his parents, and being a victim of human experimentation) and bucketloads of trauma and cynicism. He also wears a leather jacket on a few occasions.

Villain Has a Point: Magneto believes humans and mutants can never co-exist and fears the crimes of the Holocaust will be repeated against mutants one day. The Bad Future in Days of Future Past shows he's absolutely right; humans have created the Sentinels to hunt down and exterminate mutants, who are being herded into camps to be killed or experimented on en masse. Far before then, however, in First Class the U.S. and Soviet fleets open fire on the assembled mutants at Cuba simply because they are mutants, making no distinction between the ones that just fought to save them and the ones that were trying to kill them. Even when mutants do things right by humans (Mystique saving President Nixon in Days of Future Past), humans still screw them over, as shown in Logan when the mutants are on the verge of extinction again.

Villainous Legacy: He ends up killing Shaw out of revenge, but he fully agrees with Shaw's goal; that is, Mutants needing supremacy over humans to thrive, and carries it over from him.

Visionary Villain: He wants to create a world safe for mutants by any means necessary.

The Unfettered: If it means the safety of mutants he'll kill anyone from the President or even Mystique.

Was It Really Worth It?: His future self ultimately regrets fighting Charles for so long, and wishes he had some of those years back.

We Can Rule Together: An open door he extends to any mutant willing to see things his way, all the way up to and including Professor Xavier himself. Some accept and the ones who don't usually swing to Xavier's point of view.

Well-Intentioned Extremist: He has always been the archetypal example in comics and the films faithfully live up to that. He puts forth a big effort to allow mutants to come out of hiding and gain acceptance of themselves but at the same time opposes humans who would threaten them, believing war is inevitable. His plan in X-Men, is actually rather benevolent and would finally end the division between Mutants and the rest of Mankind, while sacrificing only Rogue to make it work. It's a good plan (though not necessarily one that would work in the long run), it's just a shame his machine doesn't work!

We Used to Be Friends: The whole premise of X-Men: First Class is to show how he and Charles Xavier became friends and then ended up on opposite sides with different ideals.

What the Hell Are You?: In X-Men: First Class, we have the following conversation:Former Nazi Officer: [in German] Who—what are you?Erik: [in English] Let's just say I'm Frankenstein's Monster... and I'm looking for my creator.

What the Hell, Hero?: In X-Men: Days of Future Past, his past self goes into an outburst about how fellow mutants were being killed left and right while Young Charles has been in hiding with Hank. Erik: Angel, Azazel, Emma, Banshee. Mutant brothers and sisters, all dead! Countless others, experimented on! Butchered! Where were you, Charles?! We were supposed to protect them! Where were you when your own people needed you?! Hiding! You and Hank! Pretending to be something you're not! You abandoned us all!

Wicked Cultured: Mags always enjoy a good game of chess with Xavier or listening to classical music.

With Us or Against Us: Concerning the mutants who choose to fight with him or against him, namely the X-men.

Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Each film of the new timeline keeps piling on the trauma that fuels his rage. In First Class he was a Holocaust survivor who had to watch his mother die in front of his eyes, and worse, it was because he couldn't consciously use his powers at the time. In Days of Future Past the Brotherhood were killed and experimented on by Trask Industries. In Apocalypse, after giving living in peace a chance, his wife and daughter are killed after his cover is blown as a mutant. All of this leads to him becoming an extremist willing to kill countless numbers of people. Highlighted in X-Men: First Class and arguably even more so in X-Men: Apocalypse, since he's quite literally out to destroy the world.

Worthy Opponent: He and Xavier have this relationship. Magneto: Charles Xavier did more for mutants than you will ever know. My single greatest regret is that he had to die for our dream to live.

Would Hit a Girl:

Would Hurt a Child: In X-Men: The Last Stand, he orders Juggernaut to kill Leech.

You Are Number 6: In X-Men: First Class, he outs himself as a holocaust survivor to some Nazis he was amicably chatting with (and planning to kill). When they asked for the names of his parents, being from the same town, he answered that they "had no names—they were stolen from them" before showing his own concentration camp number. Violence ensues.

You Are What You Hate: He hates Nazis due to being a survivor of the Holocaust, but ultimately embraces racism against non-mutants, this is highlighted in X-Men: First Class.

You Killed My Father: In X-Men: First Class, when he kills Schmidt/Shaw despite agreeing with his Mutant Supremacist ideals because Schmidt killed his mother in front of him as a child.Magneto: I want you to know I agree with everything you just said. We are the future. But, unfortunately... you killed my mother.

Younger Than They Look: In X-Men: First Class, Erik is around the same age as Charles (late twenties/early thirties), but the former appears considerably older because Michael Fassbender looks older than his actual age (he has a lot of lines on his face) while the baby-faced James McAvoy looks younger despite there being a only two-year age gap between the two actors. This can be Handwaved as Erik ageing prematurely because of the trauma and starvation he experienced during World War II.

Also, an alias Magneto himself used once, during the "Trial of Gambit" debacle. And one a Shiar spy on Earth used. Not so much a Stealth Pun as a Mythology Gag.

As an older man, however, his reflexes have notably slowed, as shown X-Men: Days of Future Past, when it takes him several moments to respond to and restrain a thrashing Logan - long enough for him to gash Kitty - and he doesn't quite catch all of the X-Jet's shrapnel.

At the end of X-Men, Magneto is locked in a cell made entirely of plastic. He got out in X2: X-Men United, thanks to Mystique giving one of his guards an "iron supplement," actually at least half a pound of the stuff, in liquid form. In real life, this would have given him iron poisoning, but he didn't survive long enough to find that out.

Subverted in X-Men: Days of Future Past. The concrete cell under the Pentagon was not built specifically for him, but simply constructed that way because steel was being rationed at the time. It still holds him quite well, though.

X-Men: First Class: The film ends with him outright proclaiming that he prefers his new moniker: Magneto.

X-Men: Apocalypse: Charles pleads with him not to join Apocalypse, but Lehnsherr has already reclaimed his Magneto persona.

Even when he genuinely tries to find peace in X-Men: Apocalypse,  his family is killed triggering an epic Rage Against the Heavens moment.

X-Men: He forcibly places Rogue into his machine, knowing full well that it will kill her.

X-Men: First Class:

X-Men: Days of Future Past: He would have murdered Mystique if it weren't for Beast's timely intervention.

Dark Phoenix: He attempts to murder Jean when he learns she killed Mystique. Later on, he finds himself alone against Vuk on the Mutant Containment Unit's train, uses his power to pick up every remaining gun, and empties them all into her at point-blank range. Thanks to Vuk's innate Healing Factor and getting an upgrade from absorbing the Phoenix, she blows this off without a scratch.

He cracks Emma Frost's crystalline neck after she refuses to cooperate.

He nearly strangles Moira to death with her own military dog tags, although Xavier manages to talk him out of it.