#was thinking about the ascended ending and no spoilers but like. that technique can be used for other purposes right

[fjordfocused]

scene where, through his romance’s eyes, Astarion uses the tadpole-connection to see himself for the first time in 200 years

[pinky-the-elephant-room]

Exhilaration

⊙ AN: I came out of my cave to write after I got inspired by Jujutsu Kaisen

⊙ Warning: Spoilers for Season 2. Explicit sexual content with degradation. A bit of an age gap of about 2 or 3 years. Senpai Gojo Satoru x Kohai Fem Reader

⊙ Summary: He attained more power than anyone could have ever imagined - to use to better society. So why is his first thought to use it to have you? AKA the fic where Gojo has a near-death experience, develops a superiority complex, and fucks you.

⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙

Exhilarated. 

That was the word to describe the state he was in.

His breath, shaky, due to the sheer excitement coursing through his veins.

His eyes no doubt if he could see himself- the usual brilliance enhanced ten folds over as if his red and blue techniques actualized themselves within the depths of his irises. 

He had ascended, no longer a mortal. No longer just a sorcerer. As though the heir of the Gojo clan could just be meer chattel. He would be a pretense for a God-like perfect being. If only God himself could reach the pinnacle of his power now. 

Death was the inevitable end but for Gojo it instead became the catalyst of power. Power no being could have realized nor will ever realize. 

Speaking of death, he had been just a hair length away from the experience as the former Zenin proceeded to slice and dice him into pieces as if he was just another nameless target. 

He would have slaughtered them all. Every single one of those…. Monsters

If it wasn’t for Suguru. He would have. Until their brain matters were indistinguishable from the asphalt rubble. 

⊙⊙⊙⊙⊙

Gojo tilted her head up, his thumb pressed firmly in her mouth.

She gasped, “Ah, senpai.”

Cute, cute Y/N. Why couldn’t he also have her? Out of respect for his best friend, he was contrite to leave the first year alone. Suguru was exasperated with him for trying to mess with another colleague after the last one had gone spectacularly well. 

By well he means dead.

He remembered their first meeting well. On seeing him for the first time as if unable to help herself Y/N blurted, “Oh wow, you’re so handsome.” And then proceeded in utter embarrassment to melt into the ground. 

He had laughed it off thinking it as no more than a slip of the tongue from a newbie. 

But he had made a mistake. By dismissing Y/N he made her uninteresting and therefore assumed her weak. 

She would be considered weak simply going by her cursed energy yet the difference between Y/N and weaklings was the self-awareness she had.

She was cognizant of how much energy she had and how much she can afford to use. It made her fascinating to watch. 

There was no wasted effort nor cursed energy expended. She saw the problem and figured out how to handle it while keeping her person intact. 

Which was why she kept surviving and kept returning mission after mission.

Gojo figured she would succumb sooner or later to a curse. As was the harsh reality of their world. 

So, imagine to his surprise when his adorable kohai was still around months later to bask in his handsome face. 

He could have had her months ago if he wanted to. At least that’s what he thought. She was aching for it- her eyes persistently seeking him out whenever they happened on each other.  

The blessed awareness he had so praised a few moments earlier was also the reason she kept herself safe from him.

It was like she had a rule of ‘you can look but don’t touch.’ 

His colleagues and friends alike shared the same wariness. But they assumed with him being an ally they were safe. She however was conscious of the fact that no one was truly safe with him. 

When Gojo bemoaned shared Y/N’s reluctance with Suguru- his friend in return praised Y/N’s intelligence unlike the ones he lured to his bed.

The same friend whose eyes reflected malice and disgust when faced with the ugliness of the masses. 

⊙⊙

He showed up at her door room, unexpectedly hours after the failed mission—his uniform still torn and ragged, caked in his own blood. 

“Senpai,” she gasped, reaching out tentatively to grasp his shoulder as if to make sure this was reality and not something from her nightmares. “Are you ok? Should I call Ieiri-senpai?”

He grabbed her hand with his own. Taking a moment to caress her hand and appreciate its softness before kissing it.

Y/N swallowed and squirmed, uncomfortable at the show of affection.

“I’m fine. In fact, I’ve never felt so better in my life.”

Tugging her hand, Gojo pulled her into his embrace. 

“Except for the moments when you’re with me.”

That line would have gotten a blush from anyone else but Y/N only stared at him contemplatively. 

He ignored her unspoken inquisition to lightly press his thumb against her bottom lip. Whatever momentary conflict that was brewing within her was pushed aside as he felt her teeth nip at his thumb before licking it in consolation. 

Taking the action as permission, he pressed his thumb into her mouth. 

She whimpered, cowed by his dominance. 

Gojo glanced down and noticed her aroused nipples poking through her soft cotton t-shirt which she had worn to bed no doubt. 

He tweaked it with his other hand, invoking a groan- and reached down to grab the hem of her shirt to pull it over.

Perhaps he was mentally unprepared to see her full tits look so invitingly captivating. Gojo couldn’t help himself when he maneuvered her cunt to grind on his thigh while at the same time reaching down to suck.

Her nails dug into his shoulders as Y/N without any further prompting started to writhe and grind on his thighs.

Arousal seemed to permeate through their skin. Egging each other on concurrently. 

Gojo smiled widely almost a bit deranged-like at the sight of Y/N helping him pull her shirt off completely.

He pushed her to the ground and slid the boy shorts she had on until it pooled around her knees loosely. 

He admired the curvature of her spine, giving quick kisses along the way until he was met with the sight of her cunt being exposed from her kneeling.

She wasn’t quite wet yet. He wasn’t disappointed though he could change that quite easily.

Gojo took his time, preparing her one finger at a time. While keeping her mouth occupied with his own, his hands in her hair allowed him to control the pace of their kiss.

Only when he could hear the wet sounds as his fingers entered back and forth did he give her a reprieve.

Relieving himself of his pants, Gojo placed himself over her. He lined his member at her entrance and then pushed slowly.

He let out a low groan and closed his eyes. She was squeezing him tightly almost like she wanted to push him back out. A shiver of pleasure goes down his spine.

“Ah!,” she cried out. “Don’t stop. Please.”

Gojo picked up his pace and basically started shoving himself inside her. A resounding sound of flesh slapping against another became evident along with the muffled screams of Y/N as she in vain tried to suppress as she bit down on her finger. 

“You’re so filthy, Y/N. Aren’t you a virgin? Letting yourself be taken in this way for your first time,” he leaned over and rasped into her ear.

He hadn’t imagined fucking her doggy style right at the entrance of her dorm room.

Just like Fushigoro Toji hadn’t imagined being killed by the brat he thought he had already finished off. But life makes exceptions for Gojo Satoru. 

At that moment he bites down on her shoulder as he feels pleasure takeover his mind. He did have the foresight to pull out and spill down the juncture of her thighs. 

There was sick satisfaction from watching his essence coat her cunt and thighs.

Y/N slumped from exhaustion and turned on her back to watch him.

Her cheeks flushed and hair mussed, Y/N had never looked so beautiful to him.

Feeling the sting of want bubble up in his stomach again, Gojo bit the inside of her thigh and settle himself nicely in between her legs.

He would remake the very foundations of their world. Recreate and shape the world as he saw fit. As was his right. And in his world- the rules, the tradition, and the elders would be no more than a relic of the past. In this same world, he would take what he wanted without any hesitation and right the wrongs no one ever could. 

In this world, he would never hesitate to have and keep Y/N. Fearing one day she too would be gone from a curse. 

And now he had the means to make it a reality.

[chalkrevelations]

Back, finally, with Word of Honor, Episode 11, which involved a lot of waving my hands around over precious button Zhang Chengling and his concern about whatever ridiculous argument between his Murder Dads left his shifu in a snit and must be solved right this minute. I really think if he could’ve just pushed their heads together like two Ken dolls to make them kiss and make up, he would have. Didi, I could eat you up with a spoon, although not in the creepy way that Du Pusa threatens. I promise.

First, though, due diligence: Spoilers, possibly likely for the entire show, not just this ep, so scroll away and come back later if you are still, at this point in the game, trying to watch the whole 36.5 eps unspoiled. Also, this is hella long. Strap in. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

First thing I actually want to do is point out a couple of scenes that I found particularly striking for various reasons. The first one is not quite the opening scene - which is super-brief and involves Yueyang’s prep for the Heroes Conference, Gao Shan (AKA Chengling’s bully-in-chief) being smug about Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance (oh boy, are you in for a surprise, you little schmuck), and Gao Chong’s extreme weariness at the idea of Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance. Gao Chong is very tired, y’all. It’s been a long 20 years. There’s also a ginormous sword on display, like Yueyang is now having a dick-measuring contest with who they think is the disciple of the Changming Sword Immortal (and oh boy, are you guys in for another surprise. I’m not sure what part of “immortal” y’all don’t understand). But I digress - as I said, this is a very brief scene, and then we cut back to Luo Mansion, where we left Ghost Valley and Lunatic Wen at the end of the last ep. Everyone is gone except for Wen Kexing, who’s still plotting, Beauty Ghost, who’s trying to stay tf out of this current shitshow as much as possible (good luck with that), and Tragicomic Ghost, who is totally and completely Done With This Shit. She berates WKX for acting crazy, he gets snappy back – I feel like their relationship is maybe a little bit fraught at this point – and Beauty Ghost attempts to soothe the waters, leading to an eyeroll from Tragicomic Ghost with a directive to stand the hell up and stop being scared of this idiot child throwing his weight around. WKX dismisses Tragicomic Ghost so he can plan a Very Secret Mission for Beauty Ghost in secret. WKX is … he is super-tired at this point. Painfully, achingly tired. I would almost say weary. We can see it in Gong Jun’s face. It’s a nice subtle bit of acting, and it definitely says something about WKX’s relationship with these women that he’s willing and able to show it in front of them, even as he’s still throwing his weight around.

Anyway, Liu Qianqiao proves her smarts by showing her hand just enough for WKX and us to see that she’s seen through the Lunatic Wen act to the utility of chokin’ out a dude as a warning, to try keeping Changing Ghost in line (good luck with that), but she also assures all of us that she only wants to serve the Ghost Valley Master and has no agenda of her own. WKX assures her that he has everything under control (Uh … huh. OK, my dude) and tells her he has a task for her, before detouring into a quiz about her disguise technique (learned from Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu’s shifu at Siji Manor, and this is probably a tipoff that the Very Secret Mission will involve disguising herself), about Siji Manor, and about why she never visited there. We get some interesting vague hints about her past, including the fact that she met Qin Huaizhang when she was “little” and he took pity on her “disfigurement,” according to both the Youku and Netflix English subs. @coralcoloratura pulled out 童年时 (tóngnián shí) from the Chinese subs for me, which does mean “childhood.” Given that the going story is Yu Qiufeng’s wife threw acid in LQQ’s face over their affair, this opens up some questions about how old LQQ actually was when all that happened. Viki subs, per @janedrewfinally, add that she says she treated Qin Huaizhang to a meal, so she couldn’t have been too young. But Qin Huaizhang dies when ZZS is just 16, and LQQ can’t be any older than ZZS, and is likely younger (good lord, I just checked actor ages, and Ke Naiyu is 7 years younger than ZZH, so that’s probably not a good age gap to port over to the show, because just. No.). All this leads me to place LQQ at somewhere between Zhang Chengling’s age and Gu Xiang’s age (at most) when this whole tragic backstory happened, which is still pretty freakin’ young, and I can see why she would consider herself a child, at least metaphorically, in terms of naïvete, if not literally. I don’t know how much exploration has been done about this, on the fannish side of things, but it seems like an area rich for exploration. Also, I CANNOT TELL YOU how much I now want to read the AU of WKX and LQQ both actually being brought to Siji Manor at various times by Qin Huaizhang and staying there. I suspect that with those two shidi backing him, ZZS might never have had to go to Prince Jin in the first place. (Clearly this makes some things problematic, including A-Xiang, but I keep thinking about ZZS, WKX and LQQ growing up together … And anyway, I’m ALSO willing to read the AU(s) where WKX’s storyline stays the same, but LQQ does come to Siji Manor – both the AU where she and ZZS together manage to save the sect, and the AU where she goes with them to Jin, and the kind of weapon she could be for ZZS there, as he runs Tian Chuang. Who’s writing all this? Anyone? Anyone?) Anyway, when WKX asks why she didn’t visit Siji Manor, LQQ tells WKX that she’s a ghost now and doesn’t want to think about the living world anymore, which is probably a way of saying she wishes she had gone there and doesn’t want to talk about her many and varied bad decisions back in the day; it also acts as an unknowing reinforcement of that bright line WKX is desperately trying to maintain for himself between the world of ghosts and the world of humans. Plus it gives him the chance to speak the very portentous line that “Yes, we’re ghosts, and ghosts disappear in the light,” pulling the theme of light back in, again and giving us all kinds of foreshadowing. Cut away as he leans in to whisper her mission to her.

The other really striking scene, for me, happens near the end of the ep, when Gao Chong visits the shrine room, with the memorial tablets of his various brothers and friends. This hit me not just because of Hei Zi’s acting (which is great, don’t get me wrong) but also because this is a scene that reflects both backward and forward in the show - back to ZZS in Ep 1 and forward to the two scenes that Zhao Jing will have in this same room – as well as giving us all sorts of subtle clues about relationships throughout the show. So first of all, we see, in a shot that will mean more the deeper we get into the show, tablets for Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao (or, “his wife,” as the Youku subs call her, and this is me, rolling my eyes), who were apparently close enough to Gao Chong that he keeps memorial tablets for them on his home altar - which helps explain why WKX is so incensed that none of these Five Lakes Alliance assholes helped his parents when they were turned out of the Healer’s Valley, although that’s not something we would have known yet on a first watch through the show. Gao Chong lights some incense and apologizes to the tablet of Zhang Yusen for letting Zhang Chengling get kidnapped. He talks about waiting 20 years to learn the truth – which is kind of cryptic, but probably means the truth about who poisoned his sword before the spar with Rong Xuan, which we hear about in a later scene this ep – and gets a little bit salty about the fact that it doesn’t matter if everyone else doesn’t believe him, but why didn’t Zhang Yusen believe him? Again, I’m assuming this is about Gao Chong’s protestations that he’s not the one who put poison on his sword. We also learn in this same ep – from Chengling – that Zhang Yusen’s break with the Five Lakes Alliance seems to have at least started that far back, and that Yusen would have been at Mount Qingya to stand with Rong Xuan against his other Alliance brothers, if Yusen’s shifu hadn’t broken his legs so that he couldn’t travel there. (Yusen clearly had some strong feelings about this, if that’s what it took to get him to sit still for it. Also, it makes me wonder how Ye Baiyi’s feelings about Chengling might change if he ever learned that Chengling’s father intended to defend and stand with a guy who Ye Baiyi considered his own child, as well as his disciple.)

Gao Chong then proceeds to have a little crisis of faith – he’s very tired, y’all, it’s been a long 20 years – and talks about how no one understands him, and he’s old, and everyone’s dead. He also yells at Rong Xuan’s tablet, calling Rong Xuan da-ge but also saying he’s sorry he ever met him, but then there’s this brief little moment after, when he seems a little bit shocked at himself for saying it out loud, which reminds me, honestly, of the moment in CQL (we’ve all seen The Untamed, right, I don’t have to put spoiler warnings for it, right?) when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in the Yunmeng Jiang memorial hall and Wei Wuxian talks about Yu Ziyuan’s punishments back in the day, then pats his own mouth and says “My fault, my fault, my fault” before bowing to her tablet. Like, yes, their relationship was multiple levels of fucked-up, and his reaction is not out of place given some of his continuing neuroses, but also, this is just not a thing you do, speaking ill of the dead to their faces. I’m sure Gao Chong does regret ever meeting Rong Xuan, and the way that led to the building of the Armory and the Five Lakes Alliance to guard it, and the position that ultimately put Gao Chong in - not to mention that if he never met Rong Xuan he never would have accidentally killed him. But you can’t say things like that OUT LOUD to the MEMORIAL TABLET. Then contrast this to Zhao Jing, who literally takes a piss on the tablet in one of the later episodes. Because he’s the worst. And THEN, Gao Chong kneels and talks to the tablets of Zhang Yusen and Lu Taichong, his dead Five Lakes Alliance brothers, saying they must have met again in the netherworld, and that they’re probably swearing about him right now, and this is the point when I sit straight up and exclaim, out loud, “Fuck. Me. This is Zhou Zishu’s breakdown at the mirror in Episode 1.” When he talks to Jiuxiao about how Jiuxiao and Jing’An must have met again in the afterlife by now and are probably discussing what an awful shixiong ZZS is, right? And then Gao Chong even laughs bitterly like ZZS, and cries like ZZS, and I just. OK. FINE, show. I’ll try to go a little easier on Gao Chong, because you’re clearly linking him to ZZS, here, and I’m willing to forgive ZZS for anything. I suppose I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t try to extend just a little bit of the same grace to Gao Chong.

So, that’s a lot of verbiage, and I haven’t even gotten to Wenzhou yet, but trust me, I have some things to say about them. While WKX has been terrorizing the troops, ZZS left Han Ying’s place and immediately started drinking again, because that continues to be the best way – in combo with his Nails – he knows to kill himself by increments, but so sad, he’s run out of wine as he wanders the marketplace, alone and zhiji-less. Inside Yueyang, Chengling finds a note purporting to be from “Xu,” instructing him to meet at the North Gate that night, and like the little idiot they keep calling him (he really is too pure for this world), he takes it at face value. On his way that night, he runs into Gao Shan, who inadvertently almost saves him by interrupting his sneaking around to try to bully him back to his room. Something something food as bonding, because the lie Zhang Chengling comes up with is that he’s hungry (he’s not eating Yueyang’s food, and it’s not nourishing him), and he’s on his way to find something to eat (because he and his Murder Dads are in a mutually nourishing relationship, and that’s who he wants to be with). Also, no, he would prefer going to find something to eat for himself and not eating whatever Gao Shan will bring back to Chengling’s room. (A little bit, I’m sad there’s never any place to fit in some canon-complicit long-form enemies to failboats to lovers fic for these two. I have to admit, I would read it. Someone should do something with the tension between them, although I don’t really want it to be anything that will make Best Boy permanently sad.) Anyway, A-Xiang shows up just as Gao Shan is about to frog-march Chengling back to his room, and Gao Shan never sees her coming before he’s knocked out on the ground. A-Xiang is confused about the note but nevertheless helps Chengling get to where he’s supposed to meet “Xu,” whereupon she gets beat up and gets her didi took by the Scorpions. (There’s an interesting moment here where Pretty Arhat is fighting with A-Xiang and asks what her relationship is to Beauty Ghost, which whaaaaaat? THERE’S some backstory I need more on. I’m assuming this is based on A-Xiang’s hand-to-hand fighting style, which I think is the only thing Pretty Arhat has seen at this point, and exactly WHEN has she gotten so familiar with Beauty Ghost’s fighting style? Also, I like the apparent nod to Beauty Ghost’s influence in raising A-Xiang (and we’ll see more of this).) Meanwhile, ZZS has been inexorably drawn to the place he left his child disciple child and is moping right outside of Yueyang, so he sees Pretty Arhat fly away with Chengling. Murder Dad 1 springs into action.

Yueyang disciples run around like ants whose hill has been kicked over, looking for Chengling in town, and two of them encounter Wen Kexing, out for a midnight stroll in a fetching pastel blue and green combo. They ask him about seeing a guy. With a pipa. Or maybe without a pipa. So maybe just a guy. Wen Kexing correctly deduces they’re asking about Phantom Musician Qin Song, who covered Pretty Arhat’s getaway by incapacitating everyone with his magic music. YY disciples are excited and tell WKX yes, this dude was involved in kidnapping Zhang Chengling! Y’all. WKX’s face when he hears that. He is not happy. Almost immediately, he spots Qin Song on a rooftop. Murder Dad 2 springs into action.

So, WKX the Ghost Valley Master finds Qin Song, asks him where Chengling is, crushes his playing hand, threatens to break every single bone in his body one at a time (meanwhile dropping the tidbit that he learned the number of bones in the human body from his dad), and tells him a little story about a time when – apparently – he asked another guy the same question (about WHO? has A-Xiang been kidnapped in the past, because that’s about the only other person I can imagine him being like this about?) and only had to break 80 bones before he got an answer. Meanwhile, ZZS actually finds Chengling, in the Scorpion lair where Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat have variously been molesting him (srsly, I feel like I should probably say something to a trusted adult Murder Dad), torturing him with unpleasant magic pixie dust, smacking him around (he loses a tooth, y’all), and waterboarding him. During all this, Pretty Arhat says she’s yet to meet a man who can stand up to waterboarding, and I’m kind of reminded of WKX’s scene threatening Qin Song, and I don’t know if that’s on purpose or not. Chengling literally spits in her face and proclaims that he’s the son of Zhang Yusen, none of whose sons are cowards, and about then, ZZS busts down the door like he’s WKX (by throwing Monster Jiang through it), tells the Scorpions he’s their daddy, and gets into a big fucking fight with all three of them. He flags a little bit somewhere in here as he starts having some Nail pangs (which, yeah, it must be getting about midnight, which is when that’s supposed to happen) and spits some blood, but he reassures Chengling and then tells the Scorpions no one can stop him from killing who he wants and getting what he wants (OK, Wei Wuxian …). Then he shoots some projectiles from some little contraption up his sleeve that we get a quick look at that I did not remember AT ALL from my first watch of the show but is literally like the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act. Huh. Anyway, he kills Monster Jiang, and Du Pusa (who didn’t give a shit about Monster Jiang OR Qin Song earlier), wants to capture him alive, supposedly so she can get revenge for them by teaching him how it feels “to want to die more than live.” Joke’s on you, lady – too late! That’s literally his constant state of being!

About this time, Qin Song comes flying through the doors – or what’s left of them – gasping his last breath as WKX makes his dramatic entrance. Chengling not only calls him “Wen-shu” but also has already figured out exactly how to manipulate Murder Dad 2 and tells him that in addition to kidnapping him, they also hurt ZZS. WKX is predictably murderous, and Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat run away and hide behind the skirts of Xie Wang’s robes as the Zombie Drug Man Army approaches. WKX tells ZZS to take Chengling and leave, ZZS refuses, and Xie Wang LITERALLY SAYS “IN LIFE AND DEATH YOU WILL NEVER PART. WHAT A TOUCHING MOMENT.” and I am DYING. Also, this will not be the last time ZZS/WKX will exhibit what Xie’er wants from his Awful Yifu. Anyway, Xie’er calls ZZS “Leader Zhou,” then tells WKX that he’ll tell them who he (Xie Wang) is if WKX tells them all who he is first. ZZS is Very Done with all of this and smoke bombs the Scorpions to escape. Xie’er shows he actually does know who both of them are – even though each of them doesn’t know everything about the other’s identity yet, and won’t for a while – by telling Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat that they’re the leader of Tian Chuang and the leader of the Ghost Valley and wondering “How did these two devils end up together?” Like calls to like, I guess.

OK, this is getting super-long, so I’m going to attempt to wrap up with the actual Wenzhou material. We cut to Murder Dads and Chengling sitting in the forest, around a campfire, and Chengling is in heaven, back with his family. He’s super-emotional, and ZZS is all, come on, be a man, don’t cry (OK, crybaby). WKX gives some campfire-cooked rabbit? maybe? to ZZS, who starts a precedent by passing it to Chengling. Please, A-Xu. WKX wants to feed his laopo, will you eat something, ffs? Chengling, still emotional, tells them that he knows they’re the only ones who are sincerely kind to him, that Five Lakes Alliance has all kinds of agendas and none of them care about him, and nobody has asked him what he wants. (I know, bb, they were awful.) ZZS asks what he wants, and Chengling says he wants to learn martial arts, to get revenge, and to not be a useless child anymore. Oh god, the cut to WKX here. His face, y’all. He is not cool with the fact that Chengling thinks he can’t be a child anymore, and probably with whatever role he (WKX) had in it. He is so sad. It’s killing me. However, it’s not as if WKX has lost his edge, and he also pounces, asking Chengling if something happened that made him suspicious of the Alliance. Chengling spills that his dad already didn’t trust them and also told him not to trust anyone ever, but he trusts his Murder Dads! This kid, I tell you. He tells them that his dad hid the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor in his stomach and starts getting ready to cut it out for them before ZZS stops him. He tells them Yusen gave him a letter for the Changming Sword Immortal detailing Rong Xuan’s injury (and we get our first iteration of the story of the battle between the Five Lakes Alliance brothers and Rong Xuan, the poison on the sword, and how that turned Rong Xuan evil). Per Chengling, the original argument was about the Combined Six Cultivation Method. Also per Chengling, the Alliance bothers should have been responsible for Rong Xuan after that, but no one stood up for him – I mean, Zhang Yusen would have, but his legs were broken. We learn that the poisoned sword that injured Rong Xuan belonged to Gao Chong. ZZS looks taken aback, but this all just CONFIRMS WKX’s SUSPICIONS.

Cut away for another scene. Cut back. ZZS has suddenly remembered that he’s pissed off and that someone (else, not him) is sleeping on the couch tonight. Earlier, they were sat in order of Chengling, ZZS, WKX. Now Chengling has been put between them. WKX asks for wine, A-Xu is being passive-aggressive and ignoring him before finally handing the wine gourd to Chengling to pass to WKX. He won’t even look at WKX. It is hilarious, particularly as he only remembered he was mad after they’d all eaten dinner, which WKX cooked, and the pair of them made sure their child was OK. Chengling wants to know if they fought and tells them there’s nothing confidants can’t resolve. He’s in full puppy mode. He tells WKX to hurry up and comfort ZZS, because you know he looks tough on the surface but he’s got the softest heart! Didn’t you teach me that tough women can’t resist clingy men? ZZS’s indignant little face at this is a picture. Chengling offers to apologize for WKX. WKX’s face is all fondness for Chengling, except for the eyebrows, which are doing the Tragic Sadness Eyebrows at ZZS. ZZS is all, OK, fine, although he immediately changes the subject and starts talking about the kidnapping attempt. He tells Chengling that the world is dangerous right now, and the safest place for him is Yueyang Sect. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS? Chengling sadly nods. My little dude, c’mon. ZZS’s Nails are bothering him and WKX takes the chance to feed him qi, which ZZS accepts – might I note - without complaint. WKX waxes rhapsodic about A-Xu’s shoulder blades, and says he once saw a dead body with beautiful shoulder blades. Smashcut to a flashback of two people who we don’t yet know are Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao dead on the ground. Although this takes place immediately after the scene of Gao Chong at the altar, when the first tablets we see are Zhen Ruyu’s and Gu Maiomiao’s, we also don’t know yet to connect those names to these bodies. Tricksy, show. We see Zhen Yan place his hand on Gu Miaomiao’s back, and WKX’s voiceover talks about how he could tell she was a beauty despite the blood everywhere. ZZS interrupts this morbid tale to say they should let the past stay in the past, and then tells WKX, “My condolences,” even though WKX hasn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the story about this dead body that it was even anyone he knew, let alone someone he was related to. Because A-Xu isn’t stupid. Immediately after this - after saying they should leave the past in the past - ZZS asks WKX who he is. WKX goes into his Philanthropist Wen evasion spiel. ZZS shakes his head, visibly steels himself, and apparently comes to the decision to model the behavior he’s trying to encourage by coming clean about his real name, his relationship to Siji Manor, all of his bad decisions, his choking guilt over the deaths of all the Siji Manor disciples, and his reign of state-sanctioned terror as founder and leader of Tian Chuang. Notably, the very first word Chengling speaks to ZZS after hearing this rundown of supposed and actual crimes is to call him “Shifu” again to get his attention before asking for more info about the Scorpions. THIS CHILD. MY HEART.

ZZS tells them both, “I spent half my life alone, doing things I didn’t want to do and killing people I didn’t want to kill,” and I literally want to reach into the screen and shake WKX, because OMG LAO WEN. You are reflections of each other, and he’s baring his soul, and you’re going to continue to be so afraid that he’s not going to accept every part of you that it’s going to be episodes and episodes before you open up, and even then, only after he figures it out on his own. :hands: To make things even more OBVIOUS, ZZS then asks Chengling if he still wants ZZS to be his shifu after learning all of this, and Chengling doesn’t even hesitate, he says “Of course,” and ZZS and I are both about to cry. UGH. Zhang Zhehan, your face. It’s killing me. This is a man seeing the hope of resurrection for the sect he was convinced he had ground into dust. ZZS and Chengling are both so busy being emotional at each other that WKX has to take matters into his own hands, encouraging Chengling to bow, and we get a real bow to shifu this time, in a scene that once again mirrors the later scene when Zhen Yan makes his bow to Qin Huaizhang to become a Siji Manor disciple.

ZZS tells Chengling, all right, then. You are the first disciple of the sixth generation. (SHIXIONG. NO PRESSURE.)

End ep.

[dragonofdarknesschaos]

Shadow Young: The Ultimate Heylin Warrior

So I was rereading some old theories about Shadow, and I realized that I completely overlooked such a blatant coincidence!

The Yin-Yang Paradigm | Parallels between the Goddess Jiu Tian Xuan Nu and Shadow

The Yin-Yang Paradigm can take a backseat. It's an interesting read, but the only part we need is the line from the Xiaolin Chronicles Special Edition Preface.

In ancient China,the great Xiaolin Master Dashi unlocked the secrets to supreme martial arts powers.  He became a Xiaolin Dragon–a force of light–defender of good.

Where there is yang, there must be yin.  The evil witch Wuya stole Dashi’s secrets and molded herself into the embodiment of darkness–the Heylin Dragon.

Why is assigning Wuya, the original Heylin Dragon Warrior, as an embodiment of yin energy important? Because the Chinese Goddess, Jiu Tian Xuan Nu, is also known as "The Ultimate Yin." Shadow shares almost all her aspects with this deity. This means that Shadow was (or is?) destined to become The Ultimate Heylin Warrior.

What does that even mean? [Spoilers under the cut]

Dashi was the first Xiaolin Dragon Warrior. Wuya stole his techniques and molded herself into a Heylin Dragon. At the end of XC it is stated that Chase ascends to the level of a Heylin Dragon, quite literally.

While Wuya doesn't possess the same literal transformation that Chase has associated with the title of "Dragon," it still bears mentioning that both achieved this level of skill.

How Xiaolin Dragon Warriors--warriors of light--differ from Heylin Dragon Warriors--warriors of darkness--is that Xiaolin Warriors ascend to the level of Dragon when they successfully ride and pair with an actual dragon.

Chase was never able to do this, and he despised his fellow Monks (and brother) for moving on without him. In addition, as part of being a Xiaolin Dragon Warrior, one must give up part of their unique abilities and channel them into a mystical item for future generations of Xiaolin Warriors to use--these are the Shen Gong Wu. Chase had worked so hard for what little power he had, that he didn't think it was right for him to suddenly give it up for the sake of posterity.

While not much is known about Wuya, we do know that she craved power. Before Dashi defeated her in the first Xiaolin Showdown, she might have been well on her way to taking power from the whole world. It's purposefully left ambiguous and we are never truly meant to know. What is certain is that Wuya definitely could have done all, or possibly more, than Chase did in this Heylin Dragon Form.

So how does all this yin and yang relate back to Shadow?

As stated in the title of this post, I believe Shadow was destined to become the Ultimate Yin. In this context of "Xiao-yang" and "Hey-yin," this means that Shadow is slated to become the Ultimate Heylin Warrior. But Jiu Tian Xuan Nu is very much a positive, good, and balancing force in the pantheon. How can an ultimate evil be that too?

Throughout XC Shadow is shown checking and attempting to balance Chase's evil acts. The strongest example of the imbalance within Chase & his brand of Evil and how Shadow reacts to that imbalance can be seen in "Chase Lays an Egg." Not only does Shadow roll her eyes at Chase's gluttony early on, insisting that there are better (and more Evil) things to do, but she also shows extreme disgust over Chase's affection for the Egg. After the Egg is stolen, Chase prompts Shadow to go into the Xiaolin Temple and get back his Egg. Shadow refuses, and Chase darts off to get it himself. Shadow cooks up her own plan to destroy the Egg and revert Chase back to his usual, Evil self. Shadow's whole motivations towards Chase after episode 8, "Out of Ping Pong's Mind," can mostly be summed up as her trying to get him to be the most Evil version of himself. Over time she gets annoyed that he doesn't change and that eventually motivates her in part to leave ("Shadow's Role and Abuse" 2017).

So early on, Shadow already has an ideal of the Evil Chase should be living up to, but isn't. This is likely why Wuya and Shadow quickly and easily bonded--both possess extremely powerful yin energy. It's strange that returning Wuya to a solidly form is all Shadow's idea, but then Shadow seems surprised when her vision leads her back to Wuya an episode later ("Back in the Flesh Again," "Call of the Dragon Spirit"). I think it's only natural that Wuya would want to eliminate Shadow from the competition to be the strongest Heylin force. Wuya might not know that this is even coming, however.

The only real reason Wuya gives to eliminate Shadow at the end of the series is that Wuya saw Shadow as a tool to lead her to Princess Kaila, who Wuya believes was involved with her wrongful imprisonment by Dashi inside the spring inside the puzzle box for over 1500 years. Wuya doesn't need Shadow any more, since Kaila is right in front of her, so Shadow does something a little out of character. She turns around on Wuya and is last shown running for her life with Princess Kaila. It's implied that the two are at least traveling together, but it's unknown if Shadow is protecting Kaila or not. Since Shadow feels a connection to Kaila, I would argue that she is protecting the princess ("Fly the Dragon!").

So if Shadow is supposed to become this Ultimate Heylin force, why is she, presumably, going to be trained by Princess Kaila--a force of good--on how to use her powers? Shadow, Kaila, and Loniani-Nui--a dragon lady shapeshifter, Dragon Partner to Chase's older brother, and Chase's Monkhood crush--all have a yin-yang symbol somewhere on their body. Nui's is on her throat chakra, Kaila's is near her heart chakra, and Shadow's is on her third eye chakra. You can read more about the significance of these placements here.

All you really need to know about the significance of these placements is that the highest chakra--and thus enlightenment--is at the top of the head. Shadow, having her yin-yang on her third eye is the one closest to reaching that enlightenment of these three women. Xiaolin is based on Shaolin Buddhism, the main goal of the religion is to attain enlightenment. Since Dragon Warriors are able to fuse and link with their dragon partners, they definitely get very close to entering the state of nirvana. Or since it's a nonsensical kid's show, it might be better described as "an empowered, altered state of being one with the world and its' knowledge." There's not enough to go on at this point unfortunately.

To back up Shadow being secretly super powerful, @p-r-imeday had an exchange with series creator, Christy Hui, on instagram where Hui casually revealed that she just likes characters with really "big hair." Which explains a lot of the design choices in XC. The Heylin characters with the longest hair are Shadow, then Wuya, and then Chase. Chase even gets slightly longer hair when he goes super size and absorbs all the chi he possibly can. Wuya's hair is still slightly longer due to the tight curl at the end.

So Shadow already has some construct of what Evil is supposed to be in her mind, and she is willing to reinforce that ideal. Wuya, the only other major embodiment of yin, sees Shadow as a threat, albeit by association with Wuya's real target. And Shadow is the closest to enlightenment because of the placement of her yin-yang being so close to the crown chakra, in addition to her having the longest hair in canon, which makes her the most powerful being.

Shadow's role as the Ultimate Heylin Warrior would be to enforce a strict view of Evil onto the Heylin side. While XC did greatly limit the number of visibly active villains, the series as a whole is well known for having a plethora of antagonists who operated in evil areas, but relatively outside the Xiaolin-Heylin conflict. Shadow would essentially be out there saying, "Hey, if you're going to use that Wu you gotta fight the Xiaolin Order. Or Else." She would also be required to show up to fight Evils that don't fit her strict interpretation of what "Evil" is, thus aiding the side of good.

I describe it best here, in that the best way to paint the world grey is to start with pure white and pure black, and constantly have them mixing with each other. Because at the end of the day, the world Dashi has created through his actions is one in which very few dots of black are allowed to exist, while the Xiaolin Order stands blinding in its' light.

Without Shadow forcing people who want to use Wu to enter the fray, XC leaves us with Jack, Wuya, and... Tiny Sim? Sim isn't interested in Wu at all, and Jack was only in it due to Wuya (Salvadore serves Wuya, so I'm not mentioning him in this list). The Xiaolin Order has five Monks being trained to become Dragon Warriors. It's grossly imbalanced. Shadow is needed to correct that balance. And thus, a proper, balanced world order would be achieved.

TL;DR:

Shadow is the most powerful being in all of XC because she has really long hair.

[mychemicalficrecs]

While making the last list (Angsty Frank/Gerard), I realized that I have my own tag for works that give me feels. Several of these are on the angst list as well, but these are specifically works that make my heart hurt. For everyone who needs to feel something, let me recommend:

Frank/Gerard That Gives Me Too Many Feels

Can Never Wrong this Right by theopteryx, 24k, Explicit. Written for the hc_bingo challenge, for the square of 'forced soul-bonding.' It's 1949 and Dr. Way is a professor of Archeology and Frank is his constantly exasperated (and secretly pining) assistant. When their latest trek takes them to South America to locate the fabled Blood Stone, however, they both find more than they bargained for.

In the Music of Time by greedy_dancer, 13k, Explicit. It’s Frank’s last day off before the North American leg of the World Contamination Tour begins, so he’s not particularly happy when his nap is interrupted by a frantic phone call from Gerard. Gee’s clearly upset about something, but the urgent instructions he gives Frank as he rushes back to their hotel room are not making much sense. And why does Gerard keep asking Frank if he’s alone? Frank’s confusion only grows from there. The next thing he knows, Gerard is right there, kissing him - which should be impossible, considering Gee’s still on his way, and talking to Frank on the phone. It is Gerard kissing Frank, though. A blond Gerard. Gerard, circa 2006. And if that wasn’t enough to give Frank the mother of all headaches, it appears that there are actually not only one, not even two, but three Gerards come from various dark times in Gee’s past, congregating in the hotel room, looking for hints of a brighter future. This is the tale of Frank and the four Gerards, and of the afternoon that set everything in motion.

What Ships Are For by mwestbelle, 22k, Explicit. Gerard is most concerned when he finds that, while away at university, his father has taken in a new ward of his own brother's age. But upon his return home, he finds the young man to be particularly enchanting; unfortunately, according to the High Society he lives in, not only is Frank entirely too poor to be considered, but they might as well be brothers.

Bread and Butter by jjtaylor, 18k, Mature. Frank unfolds the extra blanket at the foot of the bed and quietly drapes it over the outline of Gerard under the covers. It’s Tuesday and Frank is headed into the bakery to do battle with brioche.

The Circuit by stoplightglow, 24k, Mature. In the world of competitive motorcycle racing, nothing is more prestigious than the Grand Circuit Tour. Americans everywhere gather to watch as the twelve best racers in the nation compete for the title of Circuit Champion and $100,000. Gerard Way is no stranger to the race. When he was a teenager, his name was practically legend - but after disappearing without explanation six years ago, he's become little more than a relic of the past. Now, at age twenty-six, Gerard is back on the Circuit with something to prove. It's Frank Iero's first year on the tour, but he's more than ready. No one has seen a kid blast through the ranks so fast since Gerard Way first appeared on the scene a decade ago. With a cocky attitude and the whole country swooning over him, nothing can slow him down. The stakes have never been so high. Welcome to the Fourteenth Annual Grand Circuit Tour.

In Repair by autoschediastic, 33k, Explicit. "Shit," Frank mutters, and shoves both hands through his hair. He looks around the kitchen like he's gonna find what he should do scratched into the old linoleum, then looks back at the bot. He gnaws on his lip. Fuck it. He already knows what he's gonna do. He's just gotta do it. Getting down on his knees, he braces a hand on the edge of the crate and leans over the bot. It's dressed in a plain white tee and matching drawstring pants like an escaped mental patient. Frank rolls his neck and cracks his knuckles, shaking the ache out of them before carefully laying his palm against its cheek. He's pretty sure his voice is steady when he says, "Activate." Nothing happens. Fucking shitty packaging-- the thing's busted. But Frank keeps his hand where it is, jumping a little when he feels the surge of energy beneath it. The robot's skin goes from room temperature to lukewarm, then warm. Frank watches it open its eyes, the light behind them adjusting until they're a pale sort of brown. It looks at him and asks, "Am I dead?"

You Only Hear the Music When Your Heart Begins to Break by Solarcat, 14k, Teen And Up Audiences. Frank has high school figured out. His mom has given up arguing about the amount of time he spends in Gerard's basement, and he doesn't actually care if people think it's weird that he and Gerard hold hands in the hallways and go to the bathroom together. The only thing Frank cares about is figuring out why Gerard's suddenly avoiding him -- because what's the point of losing your virginity on Prom Night if you can't tell your best friend about it in the morning?

Fit to be tied by maryangel, 56k, Explicit. Frank is a bartender. Gerard is an alcoholic. They were clearly made for each other. Also, Frank is a werewolf.

Love: The Package Deal by jjtaylor, Frank/Gerard, Gerard/Lindsey, Frank/Jamia, Lindsey/Frank/Gerard, 30k, Mature. Gerard gets a special kind of amnesia. Frank gets to reexamine his idea of acceptable relationship structures. Lots of people fail to communicate effectively, but they all sure remember how to kiss.

Gerard Way's (Vampire) Detective Agency by jjtaylor, 43k, Mature. Pete, in Decaydance Mansion, with a yarrow stake. Frank and Gerard, in the greenhouse, with a plant of questionable origin. Bob, everywhere you look, with a gang of assassins for justice. Vampires, valets, pamphlets, haunted furniture, dub-thrall, disembodied voices, zombie couriers, and sinister rituals.

The Detective's Secret and the Mystery of the Dancing Flowers by jjtaylor, 84k, Mature. Wanted: Replacement Valet for high profile Midnighter household. Must have excellent references, believable reason for leaving former place of employment, all Clan paperwork in order. Experience in filing, housekeeping, carriage driving, men's grooming, bookkeeping, scheduling. Highly desirable skills include: basic gardening, Daylighter legal practices, first-aid, hand-to-hand combat. Please contact Frank Iero for more information.

You'll Always Feel This Way by wakingup, 14k, Not Rated. It's Frank's birthday and he's gonna A) get drunk B) hit on Gerard C) get laid. Yeah, it's definitely going to work out like that. (Spoiler alert: it might not be that easy)

Rock and Roll Never Looked so Beautiful by corruptedkid, 58k, Explicit. Gerard Way is a rising solo artist, set to become the next big thing in the alternative scene. Frank Iero is a trashy punk with a reputation of his own as the frontman of Pencey Prep. When their paths cross, a love story is born, only to come crashing down when Gerard hits it big. As Gerard ascends to the A-list, Frank adjusts to life on his own. He almost manages it - until two years later, when fate puts him face to face with Gerard once more. Everything has changed, but the connection between them is still there. Their story has ended once before, but if they're lucky, they just might make a new one.

What Are You Made Of? (What Do You Dress It Up In?) by stoplightglow, 2k, Teen And Up Audiences. “How’d you learn this?” Frank hears himself saying, words spilling out just to distract himself. God, it’s so fucking itchy, and Gerard is taking forever. “What, makeup?” Gerard says, not really a question. “Do you mean, like, how I got the techniques, or how I started wearing it in the first place? Because technique-wise, I mostly just stole my mom’s magazines and did whatever they said was right.” “How you started wearing it in the first place, then.” The pencil freezes, and then Gerard takes half a step back so Frank can see his eyes. “I haven’t told a lot of people that story.”

[aion-rsa]

The Silence of the Lambs and Clarice’s Lifelong Battle Against the Male Gaze

https://ift.tt/3tKs3GZ

Special agent Clarice Starling is breathing heavily as she forces herself to turn the next tight corner. Between deep breaths, she knows somewhere in the back of her mind that she’s being watched. And she can assume those invisible, cold male eyes are making a judgement of her five-foot and three-inch frame: She’s in over her head. Yet she pushes past any condescending skepticism, and she perseveres  through the proverbial dark.

At a glance, this could apply to the climax of The Silence of the Lambs, Jonathan Demme’s masterful psychological thriller which finishes with a cat and mouse game of Starling (a peerless Jodie Foster) crawling through the dungeon created by Ted Levine’s Buffalo Bill. In that blackness, serial killer Bill most certainly watches her, playfully (mis)judging her aptitude for handling his house of horrors. Yet all of these elements are also evident in Silence of the Lambs’ very first scene.

On a sleepy late wintry morning in Virginia, we’re introduced to Starling already overcoming another manmade trap meant to exclude her. At the FBI’s Quantico obstacle course, we witness the quiet and earnest determination which defines Clarice as she ascends up a rope line and when she flips over a cargo net. She’s acutely aware that the deck is probably being stacked against her behind her back, but she remains unfatigued and undaunted. She doesn’t even wince when the FBI instructor who emerges from the shadows to summon her down to the office mispronounces her name: He calls her “Sterling.”

It’s only a few minutes at the top of Silence of the Lambs, but it’s shot with Demme’s signature attentiveness and subtlety. While the director never draws direct attention to his filmmaking and blocking techniques, his visual language is pristine and unmistakable.

From the jump, Clarice is in a maze, a labyrinth of manmade systems and challenges that appear to reject her very presence. And she never once steps away from their course. They’re with her at the finale in Buffalo Bill’s portal to hell, but they also manifest in the bureaucratic cages and then literal holding pens Dr. Frederick Chilton (Anthony Heard) ushers Clarice through as a power move—a brusque display of authority and arrogance after Clarice rebuffed Chilton’s sleazy pick-up line a moment earlier in the film. “See what an important man you missed the chance of getting to know?” he projects through a curdled sneer.

Chilton is, of course, taking Clarice to meet the man he calls “the Monster:” Dr. Hannibal Lecter (a mighty Anthony Hopkins who demonstrates the eviscerating power of stillness). And one doubts Dr. Lecter would disagree with that title. It’s easy to imagine the disgraced cannibal psychiatrist musing that if Clarice’s life is a series of mazes and evaded dead ends, then her lifetime amounts to a single, titanic struggle against a minotaur—the ultimate monster of Greek mythology who devoured young men and women fed into his maze.

Yet in Silence of the Lambs, the all-consuming Dr. Lecter is hardly the only monster in Clarice’s life, even if he is the creature at the center of Chilton’s labyrinth. Rather the real Monster (with a capital “M”) pursuing Clarice is just about every man she meets. Among them, Dr. Lecter is but an urbane drop in the ocean.

This is again foreshadowed during the film’s opening moments when, after coming down from the obstacle course, Clarice loads onto an elevator with a half-dozen other FBI trainees, each towering over her by at least a foot. Once more, Demme’s simple but eloquent framing of Clarice’s universe is devastating. In a snapshot, we can understand the white bread, buttoned up skepticism of the patriarchal institutions she’s attempting to join and improve. After all, in the next scene, her new boss Jack Crawford (Scott Glenn) admits she caught his attention when she grilled him in a classroom over the FBI’s sordid history in the civil rights era.

Crawford welcomes Clarice’s earnestness and repudiation of the good ol’ boys’ club in law enforcement. Still, he only picks her for this assignment because he sees her as a proverbial honey pot meant to entice Dr. Lecter—a pretty face meant to appeal to the lonely and incarcerated cannibal. Hannibal takes it a step farther too when he asks if Clarice has considered that the kindly Jack Crawford is attracted to her? Dr. Lecter relishes planting the idea of Clarice’s boss fantasizing about her in the young agent’s mind. How else would Crawford think to pick her to interview the monster?

But these taunts, which are intended to embarrass, are rooted in Lecter’s two most powerful weapons: acute observational skills and the ability to speak uncomfortable truths. He uses them again during their final encounter before his escape, when Hannibal asks Clarice, “Don’t you feel eyes moving over your body?” Don’t you feel the male gaze objectifying and defiling?

One of the most remarkable things about Silence of the Lambs 30 years later is its intelligent and (much like Clarice) frank way of addressing the overt sexism and misogyny in society. This is not done in the sometimes ham-handed way of modern media, with didactic speeches and easily defeated abusers who get their deserved comeuppance. Instead this problem is shown to be the uncomfortable truth of our reality, and a truth that’s sadly changed little in three decades.

Even before Dr. Lecter verbalizes the oppressiveness of the male gaze, Clarice and the audience know it’s there in the elevator, and perhaps also with Crawford’s more smiling friendliness. It’s sometimes not even unwelcome, as when Clarice flirts with the gawky bug specialist at the Smithsonian (he even gets to attend her Quantico graduation later); but it’s constant, and mostly insulting if not outright predatory. Whether in the gaze of all those criminally insane patients whom Hannibal shares a cell block with or in a dozen hard stares from a West Virginian sheriff’s department, it is always menacing Clarice.

It’s fair to wonder whether it was harder for special agent Starling to draw a gun on Buffalo Bill or for Clarice to tell all those country bumpkin deputies to take a hike earlier in the movie so she and Crawford can examine the body of one of Bill’s victims. When she entered the funeral home with her boss, once again all these other law enforcement types had a foot above her in height, and their eyes closed that distance to cover her body. No one says an outwardly sexist or sleazy remark; they don’t have to. In fact, the only cruel word comes from her own boss when Crawford preemptively bends to the local prejudices by marking Starling as soft and lesser by virtue of her gender while chatting up the sheriff.

Later Crawford offers a halfhearted apology, saying he only did that to ingratiate himself with the regressive rube he needed information from. But Clarice is never one to let the right thing go unsaid.

“Cops look at you to learn how to act,” Clarice respectfully but assertively pushes back. “It matters.” Crawford smiles and shrugs, “Point taken,” before dozing off. But obviously the point is not taken, and the patronizing tone of even a decent man like Crawford belies his kindness. It demonstrates why the insidiousness of patriarchal double standards persists. Hence how at the end of the movie Crawford gets to go on the ill-fated raid of where the FBI thinks Buffalo Bill is living—leaving Clarice behind to actually crack the case on her own.

Even from his cage, Dr. Lecter can see this perpetual struggle within the moment Clarice steps before his plexiglass. She is, after all, a woman trying to advance in the FBI. Not that Hannibal is immune from this nastiness or is some kind of “ally.” In the same scene that Lecter asks about men’s eyes, his own stare attempts to consume Clarice whole. Long before Demme’s camera puts Foster in an extreme close-up, Hopkins’ baby blues are dominating the whole screen as Hannibal demands to know about the screaming of the lambs. Unblinking, they’re like the eyes of a deity. Or a devil.

And yet, Clarice can at least appreciate Hannibal’s bluntness and honesty about it, as well as the fact he always shoots straight with her, even when he lies or obscures the truth beneath word games. He’s the only man who admits to the double standards, and he points her in the right direction to capture Bill, albeit by leaving Clarice to put the clues together herself.

At the end of the day, Silence of the Lambs is Clarice’s story. Sure, Hopkins is spectacular as Hannibal, but even with her Oscar win for the role, Foster is often overlooked for her contributions as Starling. It’s a role that’s been imitated a thousand times since 1991—including with several other actresses playing Clarice—but it’s never been duplicated. There is a steadfast resilience here, sure, but also a quiet awareness that’s just as observant as Hopkins’ supervillain. She sees everything, including her own insecurities. Dr. Lecter brings them to the surface when he extracts the story of the screaming lambs from her memory, but she already knows what the crying lamb sounds like. She hears it almost every night.

Read more

Movies

Hannibal: Did Author Thomas Harris Try to Destroy Dr. Lecter?

By Don Kaye

TV

Clarice Review (Spoiler Free): No Hannibal, No Problem

By Tony Sokol

It’s all there in Foster’s own eyes, which is what gives her steely determination to overcome staying power in our minds. By the movie’s end, subtexts become text inside Buffalo Bill’s dungeon. For here is a basement that a man retrofitted into a torture chamber for women, members of the gender he covets and despises. As with the obstacle course, Clarice enters this space brazenly and defiantly, finding its labyrinthine center where Bill has turned off the lights.

Hidden behind his night vision goggles, the killer thinks he’s master, and Clarice is his next victim. One more sacrifice to feed upon. Finally, the male gaze we’ve spent the whole movie dreading from Clarice’s vantage is flipped, and we watch her through Bill’s green tinted voyeurism. This is the metaphor taken to its most extreme, with the camera sharing headspace with a serial killer. Yet it’s not too far removed from the Monster that’s stalked Clarice all her life. The grossness of Bill’s hesitant attempt to touch her hair, to take possession of Clarice’s body and personal space, is a reach every male in the film, save for Clarice’s father (the only other male the camera shares eyes with in a flashback), has made.

When Clarice once again turns the tables on this assumed authority and shoots Bill dead, she’s slayed one version of the minotaur and earned her perch in a system that’s resisted her. We see her triumph via the graduation at Quantico. Now she is a celebrity among the FBI. We also see it in Crawford’s genuine affection and admiration for the young woman.

Nevertheless, the maze he helped maintain persists, and the Monster takes another form. Thus even in her success, Clarice ends the film still framed in tight shadows, hanging onto the words of Dr. Lecter, who’s just put down the phone. She has the respectability and authority Hannibal lost long ago, but he can still move through this world in a way more liberated than any path Clarice has ever known.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post The Silence of the Lambs and Clarice’s Lifelong Battle Against the Male Gaze appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3rDUWT8

[rirururu]

Why Zenitsu is my Favourite Character in Kimetsu no Yaiba

NO SPOILERS FOR THE MANGA

Yeah, it’s pretty cool that the guy can one-shot anything he sees. Let’s just get that out of the way. It’s hype. He’s like a Pikachu version of One Punch Man but with his personality in the supreme opposite end of the spectrum which consequently makes him just as funny and badass to watch. I think that’s initially what draws most people to his character on a surface level. Heck, that’s what made him so endearing when I was introduced to the series as well. But he’s evolved into so much more than that for me over time.

AKA. That in-depth analysis post that I make every year that is way too long because I want to talk about something so badly but no one else is doing it.

I remember catching up to the manga a few weeks ago and not being able to choose who my favourite character was. They’re just all so good. It was at some point that I realized while flipping the pages, to my (pun intended) shock, Zenitsu was and probably always has been the character I looked forward to seeing the most. It’s like he snuck up on me and was already clinging before I even noticed he was there. Sure the running gag where he fights while sleeping is amusing to watch. Sure the Thunder Breath is an amazing technique. He has a great design to back all of that up, not to mention that his backstory tugs at the heartstrings. But change a few words around and you could apply that reasoning to basically any character in the series.

There lies my dilemma where I couldn’t decide on a favourite of the cast. What stuck out to me and started setting Zenitsu apart from the rest was how he fought. Of course, this isn’t the only reason I like him so much. However, I feel that a lot of people misinterpret his fighting style so it seems best to use that as a starting point.

Sadly, the fact that he needs to be unconscious in order to battle and that his conscious personality is so abhorrently pathetic compared to his sleeping one isn’t new to anime and has been done countless times. Like many people, I expected the usual revelation of Zenitsu having a split personality or alter ego or “dark yandere side.” I’ve seen either it or some variation of it so many times in anime, manga, and video games. I mean, how else would anyone explain his ability to fight while sleeping? It’s the easiest way to have any of it make sense and is the route most stories like to go.

It very quickly seemed like the path his character was taking would be entertaining but ultimately not unique in any way. Seeing as most characters of his type rely on the gag / fighting style in order to remain zany and popular, he most likely wouldn’t develop much past it either. But as the series progressed and very early on (ie. where the anime is now), you come to realize that this simply isn’t the case.

To begin with, it’s apparent just by watching episode 17 that there is no crazy side of his mind at work here. When Zenitsu sleeps, he fights. When he fights, he's dreaming. He states here immediately after waking up that he had such a wonderful dream about being powerful like he’s always wanted. He had a dream where he was strong enough to defeat the demon and brave enough to make decisions. But evidently, that’s exactly what he was doing in reality. When he dreams, he’s the one controlling his own body in the outside world and making judgements on what to do in battle.

How does he do this without say, ramming into a tree about 5 seconds in? He reveals pretty early after his introduction that he’s always had amazing hearing. It was so advanced that it creeped others out and drove them away. One statement he makes in particular is that he can recognize entire conversations that are happening around him even as he’s sleeping. Now, that’s interesting. Why did the series bring that up if it wasn’t important? He can sense someone’s presence, emotions, and even intentions based on sound alone. It’s perfectly logical that, just like Tanjiro, he’s able to detect his surroundings except using his ears instead of his nose. He most likely goes one step further to project that into his dreams in order to fight without any eyesight.

In other words, there is no alter ego. It’s all him. Zenitsu’s just that good. When he sleeps, he’s culminating everything that he trained and all of his hopes and wishes towards becoming a better person who doesn’t run away into that one moment. When he sleeps, he rids himself of all of his fears and doubts so then his body can fight completely on instinct and clear-minded focus. He can do it. But his low self-esteem and fear of dying alone gets in the way. It’s only inevitable that it does. After all, he’s been told his entire life by everyone except one person about how useless he is until he actually believed it. He can’t even stomach accepting compliments on his strength.

That isn’t a normal reaction to being told that one is strong. That scene did a pretty good job of highlighting the contrast between how Zenitsu (very happily) embraces praise on being great versus how he completely rejects the idea of anyone thinking he isn’t a useless coward. It says a lot that his image of himself is so bad that his own body and mind developed this unique way of fighting and force him into losing consciousness as a defense mechanism whenever there’s a threat of death nearby.

Of course, the series makes it no secret that this “running gag” has taken a toll on Zenitsu’s mental health. He always awakens believing that everything he just did only happened in a dream, which explains why he clung to the idea of Shoichi being the powerful one so vehemently. He never gets the chance to confront his fears properly. Subsequently, his hate for his cowardly self grows even bigger each time it happens and so does his belief that he just can’t do it. And that’s what really gets to me. The sleep-fighting is not just a running gag. It’s a snowball effect. The series uses what seems like a gimmick that is so worn down in anime to the point of becoming a troupe and turns it into a young boy’s ongoing uphill battle against his own mind and hate for himself.

That’s why it’s so important that by the end of the series, Zenitsu learns how to fight without sleeping at all.

Yup, that’s right. His character seems to be heading the exact opposite direction of where I thought he’d go because of how counter-intuitive it is. For the sake of his own growth, he has to overcome and be rid of the zany gag that was what initially drew watchers to him in the first place. Eccentric traits such as this are usually a safety net for stories that aren’t confident enough in their plot or characters. It’s how authors get more sales. But Zenitsu isn’t written out to be a butt monkey badass for views. He’s written as a real person. He’s failed. He’s succeeded. Some people believe in him while most don’t, but what really matters is that he starts believing in himself.

Zenitsu as a character really speaks to me in that sense. He can only do one thing. After all these years of training, he can only perform one single attack. It’s discouraging to work so hard and only be able to achieve one goal while others can reach triple the amount with half the effort and time. It’s easy to start running away and thinking you can’t do anything right because of that.

Despite the poetry that shounen anime like to wax, that’s the reality for most of us when our lives are on the line. We complain and laugh about how annoying Zenitsu is when he imitates a whiny baby that screams in fear at everything, but the fact of the matter is that the way he acts is the most realistic given his upbringing of people looking down on him, his past filled with failures, and the effect that his continued sleep-fighting is having on his well-being. Why should he die in this war if it’s inevitable that he can’t win and there are other people much better for the job? It’s a chillingly accurate impact that living in a world where it’s so easy to die at the hands of a demon can have on someone.

However, because Zenitsu never gave up, he managed to hone that skill with the intent of at least becoming the best at that one thing. Thunder Breathing First Form is meant to be a straight one-strike attack. If driving school has taught me anything, it’s that the faster you’re going, the more the most minuscule of mistakes can spiral into gigantic deviations in movement. Yet he’s taught himself how to use Thunderclap and Flash six times in a row (hence six fold) and in six different directions / distance of his choosing in such quick succession that it looks like he's using it continuously. We even saw how his fifth step landed him perfectly on a thread so he could bounce off of it for the finishing blow.

Just imagine how much dedication and training it takes to have that kind of control. He grew up with nothing. He’s trained so hard just to be able to do one thing. Now he’s going to make his “dream” of being powerful enough to help people into a “reality” on only that and that alone. His eventual development away from relying on sleep-fighting is a representation of it. And that’s when he officially started ascending into becoming my favourite character.

[kierongillen]

Writer Notes: The Wicked + the Divine 40

Spoilers, obv.

The first issue of "Okay." I've known for quite some time that it was likely the final arc would use the word "Okay" in some way. The unpacking phrase "It's going to be okay" has been a backbone of the series. Due to the first year on the book, that's been a loaded phrase, all the way through.

But when signing a first volume of the book, I've added the dedication "It's going to be okay." There's lots to unpack in that, and I suspect I'll wait until later in this arc to say any more. But knowing that eventually we'd like have an arc called "Okay" was definitely part of doing it.

The quotation marks are key. It's a move I've done a few times in my career, in terms of showing it's a story that wants to highlight something, and raise awareness that the word should be approached with conscious consideration. This is a choice. I want you to know it's a choice. Let's talk about what that actually means anyway, right?

It's a technique I first lifted from Bowie's "Heroes". Which, of course, is doubly appropriate to use it at the end of WicDiv.

We knew they'd be a gap between the end of Mothering Invention and the start of this. The remaining five issues of the arc were tightly plotted, but in the document, this is the one which I left a lot open. I knew what I wanted to be, and it was a chance of finding an execution to make it work. It was a last chance to do a big concept issue.

(Which isn't to say there isn't conceptual stuff elsewhere in the arc. There just isn't a whole issue of it.)

This is something that I've been trying to do since issue 6. As in, a purely fan-centric issue of mainly talking heads. Every time, it's had to be cut for space. The talking heads shots of realistic footage, showing a lot of fans views on the matter. You get ghosts of it – any time Beth turns up, you get some, basically, but all of those moments could have been issues in another version of WicDiv.

(The one we won't be doing is the whole issue of literal talking heads. As in, Tara, Lucifer and Inanna just telling stories. That's fun, but we just don't have the time, and when I realised I had to stop them talking, it was definitely out. Oh, Minerva. You spoil everything.)

Equally, WicDiv's a book with two poles – the modern fan pop cultural part and the mythological grandeur. We swing one way or another, and it's easy for the latter to mug the former. I suspect that's because that's the easier stuff. Especially as Laura has gone down her hole, she's been incapable of seeing the good parts of fandom. An issue of that before the end, seemed necessary.

(Equally, with where it goes. Like, we start with Laura as a fan, and end with her on stage, saving people. The Bowie Saved More People Than Batman of WicDiv. It's a book about cycles, and ever more so here.)

So! The other side is this apocalyptic final scheme, and give a perspective on that – the necessary plot. Equally, keeping Laura off stage as long as possible.

So we end up with this.

I knew wanting to pick up and run with minor characters in WicDiv was something I wanted to do, and merging it with a disaster rapidly led to something else – this is clearly an inverted Watchmen 11. There, they gather the supporting cast together in the b-plot and then with a I-did-it-35-minutes-ago kill them all. We flip that. We imply everyone we're watching is dead, reintroduce the whole cast and then have Laura save them.

Suffice to say, formally, this was tricky.

Jamie and Matt's cover:

Meet Tom. We surveyed the whole supporting cast and picked someone who was present enough in a scene to be likely to be remembered but minor enough to be a surprise. In the end, there were less options... and the kid who asks Persephone about what to call her obviously has some strong thematic elements. She told him something. What did he make of it? It also gave a supporting cast of friends.

It's fun doing a cover like this and people going "who the hell is he?"

I wish he wasn't white and male – if I realised I was definitely going to use him in issue 24, I'd have likely have suggested otherwise. But, on the other hand, there is a point that white male guys should have heroes who aren't white male guys. So maybe I'm okay with it. Comics!

Claire Roe's Cover Well, this is monstrous. You do get the image of Minerva, like she's in Home Alone, trying to smuggle skulls. Just some great images here.

Ray Fawkes' Cover

For the Heroes Inititative Charity. The theme was "Giving" which immediately jumped to a "Lucifer giving an apple." Giving is very loaded for us. Ray is amazing – he's been an incredible support throughout all of WicDiv, and we love him. Go buy his books. My favourite is THE PEOPLE INSIDE, but for something more genre, the UNDERWINTER books are fascinating, horror. UNDERWINTER: SYMPHONY is the adult gothic sister of Wicdiv, if you squint.

IFC

Flipping "Ascended Fangirl" into "Descended God" was sitting in the script for this issue before anything else.

Page 3

Black page with white text is something that's come to the fore in the last year of WicDiv. In here, the exact word choice was key. While this feels like a documentary in terms of how it arranges information, the text doesn't tell you that. It tells you it's just footage. This means that it's not necessarily an in-world document.

Page 4-5

Working out the exact panel dimensions was a nightmare, and led to a couple of rewrites to move some pages from eight panel to a more accurate six panel. You can also see Jamie start to wrestle with the unique horror of drawing stuff that is slightly distorted, choosing angles which are less traditionally interesting and so on.

Unboxing videos are a fascinating phenomena. It's fun to see culture happen which I fundamentally don't get on an emotional level. That's what culture should throwing up.

The details on the ticket do make me smile, in an awful way.

Yes, the "change the orientation" panel is clearly us showing off. This is the sort of issue I did a lot of doodles for. It also led to a bunch of lettering challenges for Clayton, in working out whether to put balloon tails off-camera to signify the other speaker. In the end, Clayton talked us into the other approach, noting it worked fine in Mister Miracle. Hey, if Tom King does it, I guess it's fine with us.

It's worth noting the way the off-panel speaker is orientated, to ensure you know who they are. See the "Tom" in the dialogue in the second panel, to ensure you know it's Nathan.

"The front row if it kills us" is very us. This issue is a mix of awful tension and strokes of equally awful gallows humour. His smile is also adorable.

Page 6

Sometimes the most beautiful thing in the world is a page of exposition via the medium of power-point. We're all big fans of the 1960s kirby superhero maps, and this is kind of the same thing.

Page 7

This is also a masterclass in a "Naturalism is hard" sort of page layout. The choice of the greys by Matt is really nice too.

Page 8

And back with Tom and friends. Worth noting the planning on this issue – I had this list of scenes, and tried to work how much I can cut between them to create a rhythm, which obviously accelerates the further we go in.

"Shitting them whole"? Nathan is totally right. Tom, you re NASTY.

Trying to get a subplot which fit in the space for them is key. Like, friends navigating a space. That Tom and Nathan are both far from perfect in this is also important. I just realised this is totally an alt-dimension Kohl and Kid-with-knife scene.

Page 9

The greatest tragedy of WicDiv is we never got around to doing the WicDiv calendar with all the dates on. Will we get around to it for Christmas 2019? IT COULD BE POSSIBLE.

The problem in terms of story here is getting the multiple lies – Woden doesn't know what Baal has had him to do, and Baal doesn't know what Minerva is making him do. So trying to set that information up so is clear, while also in a naturalistic fashion is a trick.

We were having LOC CAPs on some of this footage, but decided to cut them all. Only some of them had it, and having it on them all would create a mess. This is the one I regret though – there's one tiny bit of information I'd like to have got in here. C'est la vie.

The colour banding on this is fascinating – the late night recording. Also, Jamie's burn on the calendar is golden.

Page 10

This was another one where the lines were worked hard. What happens BEFORE the image, what happens AFTER the image and all that.

Anyway, some good thinking here Tom.

The chat between the two, in terms of fans-beliefs and minor pieces, and hot takes and their own beliefs. Also re-introducing certain takes.

Page 11

This page is hard. The silent third panel is amazing – what Jamie does with the panning between the two. The caption would have revealed who's filming it – the Sister – but that isn't essential information.

"You soppy twat" is something I'm oddly pleased with getting in. It's a very naturalistic issue, and the tenderness is very real.

There has been a tendency for people to take Baal's fight against the Great Darkness solely to save his family, and understandable why. This scene and what follows shows that no, it's not just that. He actually believes he's saving the world, because if he didn't, he certainly wouldn't fucking do this.

Page 12

And Minerva reveals her side of all this. The little callback to 1373 does make me smile.

The stylistic nature of this is key – Jamie doing the fish-eye, Matt working the blues, giving that night vision creepiness.

Page 13-14

This issue was definitely me trying to look for ways for Jamie to not just draw a million crowd-scenes. The first two is definitely me lampshading it.

In passing, this two pages is basically all of Young Avengers in sixteen panels.

The last panel is a thing of love, and definitely inspired by a Glastonbury festival, circa 1998. I'm there alone, as it was one of the infamous wet years, waiting for Nick Cave to come on the main stage. A highly high and/or drunk guy stops beside me, after pushing through the crowd. He's clearly very excited, to the level where a group of younger women start to join in and/or mock him. He is very entertaining.

Nick Cave comes on stage, doing a half-speed From Her To Eternity.

"From her."

"To."

Eternity."

Murmurs Nick.

Our new friend hasn't actually noticed and howls at the top of his lungs...

"FROM HHHHEERRRRR TOOooOOOOOOooOOOOOOoo ETERRNNITYYYY!"

...at at least twice the speed of Nick.

At which point, he's decides he wants to be further front. Turning to the people around him, he suggests we all go forward. "Yeah?" "Yeah!" the girls scream, and immediately they all form a conga and start pushing through the crowd, with him chanting "NICK CAVE ARMY COMING THRUUUUUU!"

I join in, as clearly I want to follow this journey. It leads us to the front, where I believe I stay for the rest of the night?

On the way to the front I step on the shoe of a guy who, a year or two later, invites me to storm the stage on a Saturday morning TV show. I turn it down, and then he only goes and does it anyway.

Pop music!

Anyway, that panel is for that guy, wherever he is.

Page 15

Okay, I can't hold off crowd scenes forever. Sorry Jamie, but not too sorry, as this looks amazing. Matt pushing the controls completely into the red, with the distortions going on. This is everything. It's also the panel where the conceit of watching television is lowest – the panel shape is wrong, and it's unlikely a camera would be on Baal's mum on the top of the pillar... but they are deniably so, I suspect.

I look at this page and smile. This is some comics. Nice work, us.

Page 16-17-18-19

And we're off. This is... oh, god. There were diagrams for this, in terms of working out panel flow. There's multiple routes through the two pages, which cascade together. The backbone is the "Baal" story arc, across the diagonal on both spreads.

The second panel reads across both pages – notice the orange band leading you to the right – where a talking head explains what's actually going on at the gig, and why everyone is being immersed.

When you finish this row, you get the presenter giving the context for the remaining talking heads. On the first spread, you get a talking head talking answering the question... and then placing them in the crowd. When that ideas's been set up, in the second spread we have multiple talking heads answering it, which all gather around a single group shot showing them all by each other, unknowing. And then there's Tom, and his friends, mixed in, with Tom's own answer stumbling towards his own truth, and his friends together, joined in this.

I'm getting excited here, clearly, but this is some engineered machine monstrosity, and I love how it collaborates with the reader.

This made it a nightmare for the guided view on Comixology. We contacted them in advance, offering to help a little. In the end, I wrote my suggested route, and they went with it. Moving from a non-linear sequence to a linear sequence clearly changes it somewhat, but I think it keeps a lot of the percussion. So don't blame them, blame me.

Oh – I had a list of people to possibly include in this sequence, and selected from them. There's been some impressive attempts by readers to ID everyone. Clearly, I tried to signal who they were in their dialogue a little. My personal hero is the guy from issue 19 who saw Dionysus before Baph nabbed him. You're a fucking legend too, mate.

Tweaks we did was realising it was three hetero-reading couples on the first page, which was heteronormative. We changed that to avoid it. And, yes, that's Jon's mum.

The one I wished I could get in, but lost, was the guy standing to the right of Laura in Issue one, who jizzed to Amaterasu. His line would have been something like "I hope I enjoy this one as much as that time with Amaterasu!"

This is an awful book, in many ways.

20-21

And just let the awful moment linger. Do it naturally and show it. All that rush and then this. Once more, Matt Wilson for Eisners. The hyperbright is one thing, but the flicker on the aftermath another. And the hint of the giant in there is also carefully worked – it's something we needed there, but also was a small part of it. What was important just imagining all those people dying.

22

Inevitable Total Eclipse Of The Heart reference, the go-to song for ending WicDiv dance parties.

23-24

And then, after all that, we get this moment, building towards that final image of Laura.

Honestly, this got to me when Jamie first sent it to me in a burst into tears way. You've come a long way.

I also like the idea that Laura, before heading out, looked through all her stuff and decided "Yes, Hoop ear-rings are the look for saving 20,000 people."

Next issue is out on Wednesday.

Thanks for reading.

[ultraclops]

I Can't Think Of A Creative Title [Mao Mao Spoilers]

SUGAR BERRY FEVER

BULL MONSTER? YEEHAW GIDDY-UP

Oh the Hero's Code IS a real book! Made by Mao's family no less! Cool

I'm gonna say it now. The pirate aunt's kinda cute.

I don't know much about cobbler but I'm pretty sure you don't put it in a trough

*screaming interspaced by cobbler eating*

Why exactly is eating cobbler against the Hero's Code? Did the first person in the Mao clan really hate cobbler or something?

"If I could have that cobbler, I would do things to it that would make my ancestors cry in shame." JESUS CHRIST HOW'D THEY GET AWAY WITH THAT

"Buuut I can't!" Am I the only one who thinks he sounded like Thomas Sanders when he said that

"Has anyone told you that you have issues?"

(Mao ominously hovers into the kitchen with glowing eyes while creepy wails play in the background) Nothing to see here.

The thing Mao's eyes do when he goes 'Oooooo' like if you agree

Apparently Badgerclops' biggest fear is 'crushing self-doubt'. Oooooo.

Tbh I had the same reaction as Mao when the cobbler started talking

I don't like where this is going...

UNCLE JIM-JIM?!

OH NO IT'S THE SCRIBBLY EYES

Okay but if Mao passed out in the kitchen how'd he get in the living room? Badgerclops couldn't have moved him because then he would've known he ate the cobbler

And that's, what, the second table Badgerclops has destroyed?

Cool, HQ has security cam - oh nevermind.

If Badgerclops and Adorabat saw the cobbler on Mao's mouth why didn't they assume he ate it? It wouldn't be there otherwise

"Ah know ah wooould :)" Sassy Adora

"And you're going by yourself. That's okay, I'm emotional anyways."

NYAAAMN NYAAAMN NYAAAMN

So the Sugar Berry Fever is literal? Like, an actual condition caused by eating cobbler? Is that why it's against the Hero's Code? And why didn't Badgerclops and Adorabat get it?

DOUBLE JOINTED BABEY!!

BEARCLOPS HAS RETURNED for like 2 minutes.

I know we makes jokes about Mao going feral but he ABSOLUTELY went feral in this episode. CBS incarnate.

Ok that's really sad. Why would you make a child destroy the thing they love and force their siblings to watch?! At least one of the sisters looks a little hurt over it.

Aaand the Bull Monster's back of course. And it has the fever too? Suspicious.

I don't wanna say where my mind went here but you probably know what I mean

ADORABAT BARKING I'M

B!TCH WENT SUPER SAIYAN - I mean GOLDEN TRUTH

If only fighting your demons was as easy as shoving a cobbler down their throat.

Are we gonna see Golden Truth Mao in the future? I like the he

Mao probably crashed the moment they got home ngl

CAPTURED CLOPS

Those stealth boots look like weird cleats.

"Stealth boots aren't toys." "Then why are mine colored like toys?" "I found them at the toy store." Isn't that a contradiction-

He used to be a villain what did you expect

HE DIDN'T SAAAVE

If BC's chores are fixing the Aerocycle and grocery shopping, what do Mao and Adora do?

"I need to be away from you right now before I LOSE IT on you." Is that a callback to The Truth Stinks or Legend of Torbaclaun? Both?

Yay another BC song, with some casual boulder-chucking

Aww the Sky Pirates are swimming together. Fambly.

BADGERCLOPS GETTING ATTACKED BY A TITMOUSE IN THE BACKGROUND ASDFGHJK

Yes, follow the cute but suspicious puppet that totally isn't trying to murder you

What's with the glowy eyes and creepy autotune?

So running away and cry-singing into a lake is normal for Badgerclops? Damn why isn't HE in therapy

MOM-MOM

You heard it here folks, BC is canonically depressed

That was quick

HOUSE MUSIC ELECTRONICA! And can we get uhh Orangusnake in the 90s?

Dang they still don't have any food? What happened to Mama Ratarang's meatballs?

ORANGUSNAKE WHAT THE HECK

I know it's supposed to be kinda sad but the imaginary food is really shiny.

So he'll fix the Sky Pirate's ship but not the Aerocycle? Priorities, priorities...

Mao and Adora Have Become Ninjas

HOSS WATERBOARDING THE PUPPET I

*Jaws theme*

"I love house music!" Trust me, I know.

DON'T HURT YOUR CO-HERO AND KID BC LET'S TALK ABOUT THIS

They're gonna take the Pure Heart? Weren't they trying to destroy it a couple episodes ago? Oh god what if Badgerclops DID get the Ruby Pure Heart's powers... that'd be scary

I can see the Badgersnake fics now

Mao fixed the Aerocycle - oh nevermind.

VIVA LA REVOLUTION

"How'd you get over here so fast??" "Badgerclops, I walked over here. Casually." Reminds me of a girl I used to know.

Hmm. Should've known the Sky Pirates not eating anything would've had side-effects

So the Sky Pirates could've just. Bought groceries. But chose not to.

"Aren't you forgetting something BIG?!" "*sighs* Thank you for having me" I mean at least he's polite??

How'd he manage to plug the ship into Benny and Penny's house though? And how'd it WORK?!

"Those guys are a little too relaxed" -cuts to the Sky Pirates panicking-

FLYAWAY

Aww, family training exercises - OH NO ADORABAT

Nevermind she's okay she just chipped a tooth.

'Physics...recital?' Do 5-year-olds even study physics? Is Adorabat a child prodigy?

Adorabat can face giant monsters but can't stand the dentist? Is she secretly Goku?

Aww, Mao still has one of his old plushies and he kisses it

I like that book it looks like there's a gemstone on it

Meditating Melvin, because you can't have enough alliterative names.

STAHP IT >:(

(Insert ASCENDED meme here)

Adora: *masters a technique that should take years* ight i'mma head out

WHY WOULD YOU DROP HER FROM THAT HIGH? BAD PARENTING BC

OH GOD THEY'RE GONNA KILL HER. good thing her soul isn't in her body huh

Oh look it's the Meditating Melvin guy. And he gives me strong Wander over Yonder vibes.

Being in the Astral Plane causes you to lose your memories?? Dang Adora better get out fast

Time for a song that TOTALLY isn't a desperate cry for help!

Bugs, smoke bombs, and popping balloons with pikes. These are the things used to summon Adorabat.

Wait, how come Adorabat doesn't feel any of the pain she sustained when Mao and BC were trying to return her soul to her body?

Yaaay Adorabat got over her fear and is ready to go to the dentist - OH MY GOD THAT IS UNCALLED FOR

THAT ENDING I

Wait a minute. If Mao said the technique took years to master, but Adorabat and Badgerclops both achieved it in under a day...does that mean they're more spiritually inclined than him or there's something preventing him from ascending?

BAOST IN SHOW

If I'm honest, I misread the title as 'Boast in Show', which made more sense at the time.

Why is Snugglemagne playing discus by himself though? Where's Quinton?

OH $H!T IT'S BAO BAO

Snugglemagne: it's free dog (and royal pet show)

"You're my new best friend!" Ooh boy.

"If he leaves me a third time, who knows what could happen? I might explode, LITERALLY" Mood

Literally everyone in PHV knows Badgerclops, how does changing his ear shape and putting on a leash count as a disguise. The guards could tell who Penny and Benny were why not him

Adorabat has a pet fly asdgdgffkh

Hey Chet's back

I don't want to imagine all the weird fanart and fanfics that'll come from this scene. Actually from this episode in general.

Whoever wins keeps Bao AND BC?! WHAT THE F-

Aww bento - OH NO ADORA ATE THE FLY

THAT 'DON'T STOP ME NOW' PARODY

IT'S THE SUIT FROM THE CONCEPT ART!

"I'm not actually a pet." "I know." Then why didn't you say anything??

Yay, Mao and Bao are reunited - nevermind Bao just wanted BC's snacks.

HE ACTUALLY EXPLODED and took it shockingly well I'm surprised

Well Mao, you did it. You pissed off Snugglemagne again.

Those combo attacks are freaking GENIUS

I'm tempted to make a "Long live the king" joke when Bao Bao bites Snugglemagne's arm

"I TOLD YOU HE'S TRAITOROUS"

At last, Mao truly forgives Bao and is willing to let him go

"Until next time." Is Bao Bao gonna come back??

Snugglemagne tortures people by forcing them to listen to his harpsichord? Does that even count as torture? And is Mao gonna get them out?

[ciathyzareposts]

Waxworks – Zombie

By Deimar

Diggie McGravery’s Journal “Oh man, I love this new job!. The town is already very quiet, but in the week I have been working as a gravedigger here, nobody has come to the cemetery. Well, only the priest, but he mostly keeps to himself. It was a bit weird seeing him for the first time, with his uncanny resemblance to me and always wearing a black robe with a red five pointed star but hey, what do I know about these quirky monastic orders, am I right? There are only two things that could spoil this experience for me. The first one is the continuous odor. I know, I know. Silly me. I work at a cemetery. It is normal that it smells like rotting corpses. It is only that this one reeks of it, you know what I mean? There is that, and the gigantic bat that comes every night at dusk and heads right for the church. It always scares some poor women there, because we hear the screams. I hope it will fall onto my new friend, the gardener, to clean that mess.

Hum, I just noticed I am missing my trusty shovel. Better make a quick run to the cemetery and get it before some rascal steals it from me. Maybe we can even pay a visit to the priest while we are at it and kill him. That’s what Boris wants”

Two gone, two to go. And the next one by popular demand is the cemetery, which in many reviews is recommended as the perfect waxwork to start the game. After having played it, I can see why. It is very small and focused, with very little in the way of puzzles and surprisingly, at least to me, it even gives more insight into the lore of the game. But it is frustrating as hell.

The source of that frustration is both exploration and combat. This is the first waxwork I have encountered where enemy spawn is random and limitless. And it gets to a point where you can be fighting 3 or 4 enemies one after another to keep advancing. It gets tedious. There is not a lot of variety in enemies. They are all zombies and you need to kill them by dismembering them. You have to cut their arms and then their head. But it seems to me like the combat here is not exactly working as the manual states. I have the feeling you have to click over the limb you want to cut instead of simply clicking in the third of the screen that makes your attack from that direction. Which is silly, because the arms are dangerously close to the middle third of the screen, and thrusting at them does nothing at all.

Just a flesh wound!!

The other source of frustration is the exploration of the map. The “walls” of this map are graves, but the graphics make incredibly confusing knowing when you can turn left or right or when will you reach the wall at the end of your way. In the other maps, the distance you can see is two squares, but here it seems to be longer. In the end, you absolutely need to map this level, and to do that I had to keep turning right and left in every square to check for side paths.

After my traditional initial complaining, let’s get back to the waxwork. The story here is that there is this twin that got into necromancy. He became immortal with practice and eventually set shop in a graveyard, posing as a priest. He then started gathering the corpses of the previous good twins to enslave them and offer them to Beelzebub. He even has a vampire bodyguard, because we all know how much Horrorsoft loved putting a vampire in their games. Luckily, he got defeated by a gravedigger that forgot his shovel and turned out to be his brother.

We start as said gravedigger with nothing in our inventory. Soon after leaving the initial area, I came into the body of the gardener, that apparently was murdered with his own sickle. Which I took, as it is the only weapon in the level.

I think this is the goriest image yet

I used the right hand technique for solving mazes and soon came to a corner where a broken railing can be seen in the fence, so I took it. This is another complain of mine, as there is absolutely no clue that is there other than looking directly into the south wall of that corner. And I only did that because I as completely unable of knowing if there was a right turn there or not. I think I was lucky, because it seems quite easy to miss.

The game doesn’t even bother to put it on the spotlight

Following the path, I then found the tomb of our ancestors. Which is a tomb like any other of the ones found in the map, only this one explains that is our family’s. These are simply obstacles in the way, but they are usually in the center of a 9×9 squares area. This one seemed special, but even after contacting uncle Boris I got nothing on it. But he did explain a bit about the level. Particularly, how to fight the zombies and that for this level he would need a human heart, still warm mind you, for healing. And lo and behold, not long after I got to find the corpse of a dead girl with her chest open.

Well, maybe it was the second goriest image

After some more exploration and fighting I found a stake that I could sharpen with the sickle and finally got to the church. I said finally because you can see the bell tower of the church lurking in the distance as soon as you step on the north or west side of the graveyard, as a reminder of your final destination. The final path to the church is constantly spawning zombies, so you have to keep going ahead as soon as you defeat one to advance. And on my first try I would swear that I was being thrown some kind of spell, some sparkling in the screen that ended up killing me. But in following tries to cross that path I didn’t get shot, so I am not sure.

And in one of them I even got the game corrupted. Funky Waxworks!

Anyway, once inside the church, there is not that much to do. There is a door to the north, protected by some kind of force field that hurts us whenever we try to pass through. The other thing in the room is an altar. The infamous vampire bodyguard appears as soon as we get near it, but it is quickly dealt with by using the stake. The altar contains a cup, some bread and two candlesticks. Next to the altar there is a statue whose head can be twisted to remove the magical blockage.

Our evil twin should hire a better HR director. What a waste of an employee

And that’s it, quite an easy level. We can cross the door to ascend the tower and meet our evil twin. And he got to beat the crap out of me. Quite a few times until I understood I was missing something, as I could not damage him nor use any of the items I was carrying. After thinking for a bit, I either had missed something in my exploration or I had to do something with the tomb of our family, as it was the only special place in the map.

After going back to the tomb, this time I found a crack in its north side. Using the railing breaks the wall and allow us entrance to the tomb. Inside, there are four coffins called “The First”, “The Second”, “The Fourth” and the “The Last”. Inside the first one we can find the corpse of Druec, the first good twin and brother to the impaler, the evil twin that killed Ixona, the witch that threw the curse. And I know all of that because the corpse talked to me.

Quite chatty for a 400 year old corpse

According to Druec, the only way to defeat the curse is for it to never have happened, which can be done after I defeat the trapped souls in the waxworks. Buf first, I should make sure to free the three of them, which have been imprisoned by the current incarnation of the evil twin to draw from their power. For that, they need a spellcaster that can free them and then they will help me kill the necromancer.

The Second is quite less chatty, first believing we were going to torture him and then sending us to talk with Druec. The Fourth doesn’t even have the option of talking. There was no one to turn to but uncle Boris, so I contacted him and told me that he can help the twins but needs something with absorbing qualities. I got the option to offer him the bread and he freed the three twins and put them in the ball, ready to help me fight the necromancer. This all seemed to me like artificially extending the played time, as the tomb is in the complete opposite end of the level, but what do I know? In any case, a quick trip back to the church and level completed.

I don’t think this counts as killing the twin. Unless he later died of malnutrition or thirst…

DEATH BONUS ROUND (SESSION DEATHS: 4, TOTAL DEATHS: 18)

Session Time: 1h24m Total Time: 10h50m

Note Regarding Spoilers and Companion Assist Points: There’s a set of rules regarding spoilers and companion assist points. Please read it here before making any comments that could be considered a spoiler in any way. The short of it is that no points will be given for hints or spoilers given in advance of me requiring one. Please…try not to spoil any part of the game for me…unless I really obviously need the help…or I specifically request assistance. In this instance, I’ve not made any requests for assistance. Thanks!

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/waxworks-zombie/

[cherry-jaxalope]

Cartoon Theories- Svtfoe  Eclipsa and Heinous/Meteora

*WARNING- SPOILERS AHEAD* 

Star vs the forces of evil Season 3 has finally reached it’s midseason finale. So far, this season is probably the best season yet. From Star and her battle to unify mewmans and monsters to Marco leaving earth to live with star to all the breakups and makeups, Season 3 has delivered twist after twist after another shocking twist. Perhaps the most shocking twist of all would have to come in the half hour midseason finale “Monster Bash” where star throws a party for all the youth of mewing, mewmans and monsters alike. It’s during this party where Heinous shows up to capture Marco, however things soon spiral out of control and in a shocking turn of events, It’s revealed that Heinous is actually the daughter of Eclipse Queen of Darkness and her still unnamed monster husband. (can I just say OH MY GOODNESS) Which makes heinous not only a mewnmen princess but a butterfly. Not only that, She’s a butterfly/monster hybrid, as by the end of the episode, she’s sporting pointy ears and a monster arm. Now this brings up a lot of questions, How did this happen? How was she separated from eclipsa? Did anyone on mewni have any prior knowledge of this? And perhaps most important question of all, what does this mean for Star, Eclipsa and Mewni? Well this is what this theory is for. First off, I believe (unless Eclipsa’s trial episode proves otherwise) that Meteora was Eclipsa’s big crime. Meteora is the reason she was crystallized 

 Let’s imagine we’re back in Mewni when eclipsa reigned as a young queen. Now she already fell in love with a monster, which is considered unspeakable enough. But she runs away with that monster. Now the next queen (or anyone for that matter, but for now I’m sticking with the queen who likely ascended to the throne after Eclipsa fled mewni) ascends to the throne and tracks eclipsa down only to discover that not only has she run away with the monster, but had a child with him. (whether or not Eclipsa fled mewni because of meteora or if she decided to have meteora after she left still up for debate but for the rest of the theory, lets say that meteora came into play after eclipsa left.)

Now we have this child by all stretch of the imagination should not exist. A child who’s not only a mewnmen/monster hybrid, but a princess, a butterfly. Meteora is royalty. What would the rest of mewni think if this child was in existence? Would they turn on the royals? Would the monster see this as there chance to rise up? Could meteora one day be eligible as an heir to the throne? What if everyone wanted the child dead? (maybe a tad too dark for svtfoe but we’re just speculating here) Eclipsa knew this and so did the queen. What what could possible ensure the safety of Meteora and Mewni alike? 

What if Eclipsa struck a deal with this new queen? She would willing be crystallized for all of eternity and no one would know that she had meteora so long as meteora be able to live. That would explain how she doesn’t appear to be mad at being crystallized for all these years and she didn’t flinch at the thought of being crystallized again in “stranger danger”. She might not have wanted to but she knew she had to for meteora. When moon came to her asking about a dark spell, Eclipsa saw this as the only way to ensure her freedom (also you could judge by Eclipsa’s reaction to being crystallized, she could have assumed that meteora was dead by then. So her contract was up regardless)  So you might be thinking “what about the magical high commission?” well I don’t think they knew about Meteora. What if the queen at the time did what moon did back at the end of season 2, trying to solve the problem herself without the commission’s help? After she found out about meteora, it was too dangerous to let even the commission know, so she opted to share that eclipsa ran aware with a monster to keep the secret safe and being the segregated world mewni still is, they went with it as a good enough excuse to be crystallized. That explains why they don’t seem to have any real reason to crystalize her now other than “she ran off with a monster”. (However, Heinous was wanted by the magical high commission in the Star and Marcos Guide to mastering every dimension book, so the jury is still out on the high commission). I have no explanation on how mina knew but now she’s certainly the great warrior star was preaching about in her debut episode (how ironic it was used against Star though) 

There’s still the question of eclipsa’s dark magic. I feel that they emphasized it to add more cover to the whole eclipsa is evil image as to further justify her crystallization should any suspicions arise. I’m not sayong eclipsa’s magic isn’t dangerous or dark, as evidence by moon and the dark spell. However it is easier to justify the crystallization of the “dark magic queen who ran off with a monster” then the “queen who ran off of with a monster”. When Eclipsa asks “oh so that’s what they’re calling my chapter now?” in ‘Moon the Undaunted’, and she says this less as a question and more as a statement, like she expected that to happen. She knew after she gave herself up, her legacy would be warped and twisted to cover up for meteora. Another point I want to mention is “does moon know?” and honestly I’m not sure. We know that moon is capable of keeping information from star and subsequently the magical high commission. And it would make sense why she would want eclipsa recrystallized immediately to protect the secret of meteora. But theres one key point i’ll mention in a minute that puts a wrench into this part of the theory.

I want to return to meteora for a bit, so eclipsa made the deal and is recrystallized. Now what do they do to the child? Well that’s where St. Os comes in. Now they send Meteora to live at St. Olga’s (you can also theorize that meteora is the reason they made St. Olga’s but lets go with the first point for this theory) and the founder of the school was tasked of hiding the princess and doing whatever it takes to keep her a secret. Well what if the same techniques Heinous used on the other princesses were used on her? Meteora was essentially brainwashed into forgetting who she was to the point where she internalized all properties of a proper dull lady. It’s up into the air the extent of this conditioning, as she is aware of her mewnman check marks and tries to hide them at all cost. Maybe she was condition like how elsa was in frozen “conceal don’t feel”. So she becomes heinous and one day takes over the school and shares what was taught to her to the other “wayward” princesses (talk about painful irony). It became her control. Her life. The thing that kept her from becoming Meteora. Now switching back to Moon, the one thing that confuses me as to whether or not moon knew about meteora is her attitude towards star attending St. Olga’s school for wayward princesses. In the beginning of the show, Moon and River we’re in agreement about sending star to earth instead of St. O’s, even explaining to star that they weren’t sending her there before Moon added “yet.” Now if moon knew the heinous was eclipsa’s daughter, I don’t think she would ever risk sending star to a school ran by her no matter how brainwashed she is. Maybe she was giving star a halfhearted threat? Did daron have heinous/meteora in mind when the pilot was in production? Who knows. But for now, it seems that the jury is out on moon knowing about meteora.

So were back to monster bash and now the truth is out about Meteora. What now? Lots of questions that need answers! I would be very surprised if eclipsa’s trial isn’t in the next episode after the hiatus cause it looks like she’s the only one who can give Star, Moon, the magical high commission and the rest of the main cast some answers. Also I feel that with Meteora’s return and if this theory is correct, this is where we’ll see Eclipsa take on the role as the season antagonist. So far, she’s been patient and bidding her time, but with her daughter back there’s no telling what will happen. Im not sure how she’ll react to learning about what they did to Meteora. I mean Eclipsa seems to be all about being a free spirit as it’s been heavely implied that she’s exactly like star in the respect. When she finds out her own daughter has been brainwashed for years on end into hiding who she is, it won’t end well. Meteora might also want revenge on Mewni too. I mean she just remembered who she was and it took her losing the school, the very place that was keeping her as heinous, to realize it. Meteora is gonna be what causes eclipsa to her dangerous mode. She’s going to want to stand by her daughter and protect her. I also have another reason why Eclipsa and Meteora will be the antagonists and that is the monster mewnan conflict. At the end of monster bash, star’s plan for mewmans and monsters living together has taken a huge step back. One thing about movements like this is that there’s always someone who tries to achieve the same goal but in drastic way. That’s where Eclipsa and Meteora come into play. The conflict between mewmans and monsters is why Meteora became heinous and why eclipsa was branded as evil and crystallized. When star’s efforts fall flat, they take up the cause in the wrong way. Maybe they try to take out the magical high commission. Maybe they try to steal the throne from Moon and Star. There’s no telling what these two can do together and if everyone was scared of what eclipsa could do, they should be terrified at the thought of what meteora can do. And how does Star fit into this? I feel like she’s gonna be put into a difficult situation for sure, but she’s going to end up doing what she does best, make her own solution. She’s not going to give up on the monsters but shes not going to let anything happen to her family and her kingdom.

So heres my theory that ill be holding onto for dear life until the hiatus ends!

[high-lady-of-dreams]

“Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before.”

The Queen of the Tearling is a YA Fantasy novel written by Erika Johansen where we get to follow the story of Kelsea Raleigh/Glynn, a princess to be made queen in a kingdom called the Tearling. After her mother´s death, she was taken to be brought up in a small cottage. But, on her 19th birthday, things change and Kelsea faces new challenges as she is taken to New London so she can ascend the throne.

Going into this book, I didn´t have that much in mind for what it would be like. I had seen a fair amount of good reviews but also some 3-star ones so I didn´t set my expectations too high which it turns out was probably a wise choice. All in all, I thought the book was okay but I definitely have some problems with it as well.

THE REVIEW WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT

So, let´s start by checking off my dislikes, that being pacing, worldbuilding, certain jokes and the topic of beauty in this book.

Firstly, this book feels like it´s a lot longer than it actually needs to be and the pacing (except for the last 100 pages where it gets better) could definitely use a kick in the butt in my opinion. While I really liked Johansen’s writing (her descriptions and techniques I have nothing to fault on), much of the book felt like it dragged a little and it wasn´t until about the 200/630-page mark that I felt I was past the introduction. You might argue that some might be able to pull this off with a big and rich enough world and/or plot which brings me to my next point.

The worldbuilding and background for the magic are probably my two main problems in the book. If I´m to be really harsh, I´d even argue they are non-existent. We find out that some person named William Tear once brought a bunch of people to this place called the Tearling and there´s a few other countries around it (which I believe are all called “the New World”) but there is NO INFORMATION WHAT SO EVER as to where this Tearling place is – just that it´s on earth and has random connections to America and England – and even such a simple thing as building the world with scenery and descriptions of their surroundings is done very sparingly, resulting in something very flat and quite frankly, plain confusing. The magic has the same problem as it occurs very conveniently and while I like the idea of how it works and the abilities given to the sapphires Kelsea has, there is no background or anything as to how this works or -again- where it comes from. At least when it comes to the magic this could still be explained in the later books.

When it comes to some of the things we do know about the world and the society in the Tearling, it´s that it´s very harsh and while it´s supposed to be in the future, because of the wars that have raged their ways and technology are set back and look almost like something of the middle-ages. While I´m fine with that, I was surprised to see how mentionings of rape and raiding felt kind of thrown in there for some kind of sensationalism. I think it can be fine writing something where those things exist and it can even be helpful if your trying to deal with social problems, historical information or something like that but for the most part it just didn´t feel like it quite belonged here. Instead of pushing a message or setting a certain tone, it just kind of left a strange taste in your mouth. There is even one point where Kelsea is stuck with the Fitch and she jokes about him having impregnated her in her sleep (basically making a rape joke) which just infuriated me and confused me.

Another quote Johansen managed to confuse me with was this one Kelsea gets in her head as she sits before the nobles of New London:

“Kelsea saw now that there was something far worse than being ugly: being ugly and thinking you were beautiful.”

Okay, can we just step away from this – without even considering the context of the book – and marvel at an author putting this in a book made for young adults. What happened with empowering people, empowering and promoting people being who they are and loving who they are no matter what? What happened to beauty not being everything and focusing on the personality – even if the particular character she speaks about doesn´t have much – and the other qualities of a person?

And even if one would want to argue that the society they live in value beauty more and etc. etc, not even that argument holds up if you ask me. The theme of beauty and it´s importance has been quite obviously put into the book as Kelsea is supposed to be this very plain and even bordering-on-ugly girl who still is made the queen. Towards the end of the book, before Kelsea´s crossing and the whole “showdown”, she even has to cut her hair – making her even more “ugly” – but she is still just as respected, just as powerful and her personality and desire for justice is the same, so what is that quote doing here? 

—

But, looking away from all that, there were still some points in the book that I really did like, that being the premise, the magic in itself, Kelsea’s personality and the fact that the plot isn´t revolving around her having to find herself a king or prince or lover to rule her kingdom.

The premise of this story is really good and I really loved the idea of a story about a young girl becoming queen who wanted justice and who wanted to empower women and get her people back on the right track after all the bad decisions her mother made. I also really love the idea of her jewels having these powers and giving her visions – but both kind of fall because of the execution of the story which I think is just a pity.

Kelsea, as a character, was also something that I actually really enjoyed. I think she felt a little different from a lot of the endless YA heroines that exist today. She already knew she was going to become queen and she´s not just described as plain because she´s ~secretly~ the most beautiful girl in the country. She just happens to not look like a model and that is totally fine which I think was really nice (obviously not counting that quote she made…). I also really like how headstrong she was and how she really fought to have books brought into the castle for all her servants and herself to read so she can some day distribute them back to the common people, even if the whole main-character-who-happens-to-love-books is a little cliché.

One last thing I liked – and that was likely what pulled me through these 630 pages – wasJohansen’ss writing and technique. While I think she has work to do with worldbuilding and scenery, the things she does describe and done so beautifully. She has a nice flow in her language and I think her use of symbols was really nice. It´s a bit of a theory of my own but I don´t think William Tear being so similar to Noah´s arc and Kelsea being a kind of symbol for justice was made accidentally.

Then again, studying literature can just sometimes make you look into things a little too deep… ;)

So, all in all, I did like it, but because of the problems I had with it and the pacing it brought the whole thing down a little for me and stopped me from enjoying it quite as much as I felt I could have. It´s made me curious enough to read the second book, but I´m probably not going to rush to my computer and kindle store to get it.

2,75/5 stars.

Review: The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen "Time stretched years back and years forward, but nothing that came afterward ever had the power to wash away what came before."