Heading southwest of Fodlan, a young Dimitri and a small fleet sail toward Dagda. Along the way, their ship comes across a mysterious girl, floating on driftwood. When she’s brought on board, Dimitri finds a curious artifact on her person, one that only belongs to pirates, though it’s not one he’s ever heard of before. Who is this mysterious girl, and why does she have an unknown pirate artifact?
Well folks, here it is!! Chapter 1 of my Pirates of the Caribbean Dimileth AU fic!! I’m really pleased with how this chapter turned out, and I’m excited to start working on the second, though because I’m working two jobs, that probably won’t be for a while.
Any guesses on who the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow will be?
Something that I think is important about Wyatt as a character is how he highlights the stupidity of the district system. I know that the human love of sorting ourselves into categories meant that every YA series for a while had a bunch of different groups with associated traits that tweens could take uquizzes about, but The Hunger Games isn’t like Divergent or Harry Potter where young adults get grouped based on their personalities. Sure, the districts all have industries they’re known for and the tributes are clearly shaped by wherever they grew up, but being born into District Four doesn’t actually mean that you’ll like fish. Wyatt is brilliant when it comes to numbers, but in District Twelve he can only channel that into gambling. Imagine if he’d been born into District Three with a father like Beetee, what he could have done with his mathematical talents. There’s mention of it with Maysilee too, how she doesn’t want to run the candy store but her options are that or the mines.
I guess what I’m saying is that the district system is great for keeping people oppressed because they see their fellows as “other,” which is why it is a tool of fascism and not a practical way to run a society. It doesn’t matter who is in what group, it matters that they internalize their group identity to the point that they ignore the similarities between them.
The (un-fucking-hinged) conversation that Snow had with Haymitch REALLY puts Peeta’s hijacking (SPECIFICALLY against Katniss) into perspective. Snow could have hijacked him to hate the rebellion, or district 12 or even himself. But no, that old loser just HAD to finally prove to one of those district 12 boys that their girl didn’t really love them, JUST like his didn’t really love him. Was it a smart move to potentially have Peeta attack Katniss on sight? Yes. But more importantly, it allowed Snow to control Peeta in a way that let him live out his own fantasies about being unloved and having power over his girl.
some of my fav ‘inconsistencies’ between the prequel trilogy & the OT and by fav i mean i genuinely think these were good calls:
it is NOT normal for Jedi to become force ghosts when they die. that’s like a brand new skill Yoda just unlocked. if Luke tried to tell ppl about Obi-wan’s force ghost literally no-one, even ppl who were familiar w the Jedi when they were around, would know wtf he was talking about
R2-D2 knew everything that went down during the prequels and just opted not to tell anyone ever which is fully in-character for him
becoming a Jedi was a whole process involving 15+ years of training and formal trials to determine if you were ready for knighthood and then with Luke Yoda was just like 'yeah fuck it you’re a jedi knight now. burn the jedi temple did. made up all the rules are. gives a shit who does.’
everyone just kind of forgot who the Jedi were within the span of a generation. love that.
Castlevania and Non-Attachment, Part Three: Isaac and His Quest for Revenge
Another one of the larger character arcs we follow is in regards to Isaac and, side note, MY MAN IS SO FUCKING UNDERRATED!!! Y'ALL ARE TELLING ME THIS MAN ISN’T FINE??? THAT HE’S NOT AN INTERESTING, WELL ROUNDED, AMAZING CHARACTER???
Y'ALL ARE FAWNING OVER A DUMBASS WHO GOT MANIPULATED BY HOT VAMPIRE WOMEN TWICE- (lowkey relatable tho tbh) -AND A HALF-VAMPIRE WITH DADDY ISSUES, WHEN ISAAC—KIND, INTELLIGENT, LEARNING TO LOVE HUMANITY, BADASS, LOYAL, CURIOUS, AMAZING ISAAC—IS RIGHT THERE???
Put some respect on his name.
*cough* anyway-
His character arc, after Dracula is killed, revolves around him essentially learning to love humanity and accept his own, as well as learning that not every human is a terrible person and humanity as a whole shouldn’t pay for the sins of the shitty minority.
Another aspect of his character arc and story, however, follows him wanting to get revenge for Dracula’s death—blaming Carmilla, who came to Dracula’s castle with the intent of killing him, and Hector, who was manipulated by Carmilla into betraying Dracula even though that’s not what he wanted.
Isaac’s anger is mostly at Hector, however, since Hector was supposed to be loyal to Dracula and—by letting Carmilla go through with her plans and act without Dracula’s knowledge—he’s essentially the reason that Dracula died, in Isaac’s mind. And his betrayal cuts deeper because he swore his loyalty to Dracula, whereas Carmilla had always made her opposition to him clear.
So Isaac goes on a journey to find and then kill Hector, as well as Carmilla.
But once he finally finds Hector and Hector makes it clear that he won’t put up a fight, and that he agrees that he should die, Isaac says this:
Isaac: I am not here to kill you.
Hector: What?
Isaac: You and I, Hector, we have been children. Revenge is for children. It is our duty to grow up, don’t you think?
And, in this one sentence, Isaac proves himself better than a good chunk of SW fans and Anakin Skywalker himself. Because, instead of letting hate and anger and pain control him, Isaac lets go of all of that and forgives Hector for what he did—even helping him.
Which, believe it or not, is exactly what the Jedi teach.
They teach that, while the emotions you feel are valid, you cannot let them control you or make your decisions for you.
Which, frankly, is one of the reasons why I love Isaac so much.
Castlevania and Non-Attachment, Part Two: Saint Germain and His Lover
Another plot we follow, mostly through season 3, is Saint Germain and his quest to find his lover—whom he lost in the infinite corridor. Now, in my opinion, I think Saint Germain and Anakin are pretty good parallels to each other—an unreliable source with an agenda tells them that the only way to “save” their lovers is to kill a bunch of people and gain influence over a great power using dark magic, at first killing makes them upset but they keep killing anyways for “love,” they then become eager to kill—again—for “love,” and in the end they fail in their mission and end up turning their loves away from them.
So let’s see!
Saint Germain is told by Death- (who is in disguise) -that the only way to find and save his lover from being trapped in the Infinite Corridor is to dedicate himself to alchemy, which will involve killing lots of people.
Similarly, Anakin is told by a Sith Lord- (who is in disguise) -that to save Padme from her death—which isn’t actually happening—he needs to turn to the Dark Side, which will end up killing lots of people.
At first, Saint Germain doesn’t like killing people and is shown crying over having to kill, although he still does it by choice, but then he doesn’t mind killing anymore and gets drunk on the power it gives him.
At first, Anakin doesn’t like killing people—as shown when he’s crying while storming the Temple—and yet he keeps on making the choice to murder innocent people, and later on he’s shown to enjoy killing and the power the Dark Side gives him.
Saint Germain’s lover, seeing what he’s done and what he’s become, walks away from him and chooses not to validate his actions.
Padme, seeing what Anakin has done and what he’s become, begs him to stop and run away with her—excusing his actions in a way—but once it’s clear that he won’t stop, Padme says that she can’t follow him down that path.
Eventually, Saint Germain is convinced by an outside force—the main trio—to stop this madness and he ends up dying in an attempt to serve the greater good, having realized his mistakes.
Anakin is convinced by an outside force—his son—to kill Palpatine after Palpatine tries to kill his son, he does this for selfish reasons and doesn’t really realize his mistakes, but he ends up dying in the process.
Both pieces of media make the point that what their respective characters are doing is wrong and selfish, and that doing these horrible things for “love” doesn’t make their actions any less heinous. They also make the point that the person they love, who they’re using to justify these actions, doesn’t approve of them and that their actions are essentially meaningless—since they can’t overcome death anyway.
Castlevania and Non-Attachment, Part One: Alucard and His Father
Ok, so Alucard having to kill his father is pretty much the main point of the first two seasons—obviously—and throughout those seasons, as well as the third and fourth seasons, we’re shown that Alucard is incredibly pained by this fact and that it continues to hurt him long after his father is already dead…and yet, despite it causing him great pain, he still does it.
Why?
Well, because Alucard understands that his father is too far gone—he’s hurting innocent people, he’s taking things too far, and he’s not willing to listen to reason. So he needs to be stopped.
Does this mean that Alucard doesn’t care about or love his father?
Does this mean that killing him was Alucard’s first choice?
Of course not.
We’re shown throughout the show that Alucard loves his father and cares for him deeply, that he misses him and wishes that things could’ve been different—and we’re shown very early on that Alucard tried reasoning with his father, but that his father refused to listen and only hurt him in response.
Alucard loved his father, but—in the end—he recognized that he couldn’t let that love blind him from the fact that his father was committing atrocities and that he needed to stop him.
In a way, I think this story interestingly parallels Obi-Wan’s reaction to Anakin turning to the Dark Side.
Alucard sees his father has done and is doing terrible things, and first tries to reason with him—telling him that it’s time to end the bloodshed.
Obi-Wan sees the same from his former padawan, all the terrible things he’s done, and tries to reason with him—asking him what he’s done and telling him that Palpatine has lied to him, acting on the defensive throughout their duel rather than actually fighting him.
Dracula, in turn, reacts violently to Alucard’s words—harming his own son, both at first and in their final battle, because he can’t let go of his hatred.
Anakin, similarly, attacks Obi-Wan in the same way—constantly trying to kill him throughout their duel, despite Obi-Wan not doing the same.
Alucard then understands that there is no saving his father and the only way to stop him is to kill him, no matter how much it hurts to do so.
Obi-Wan, too, realizes that the only way to stop Anakin is to kill him, no matter how much it hurts to do so.
And so both Alucard and Obi-Wan make the killing blow*, putting their own feelings aside in order to save their worlds from monumental harm.
*Yes Obi-Wan doesn’t actually end up killing Anakin, but he thought he did and the intent was there, so I’m counting it.
It’s gut wrenching and painful, both emotionally and physically, but both Obi-Wan and Alucard both understand that protecting the lives of the innocent is more important than their love for one person.
Ah yes, the Jedi fell because they were Diplomats and had to deal with Bureaucracy, which led them to be able to work with the Republic for Thousands of Years since it was slowly starting to come together, twenty five thousand years ago.
Yes, this is TOTALLY the reason why the Jedi fell, and not the extremist cult with a boner for genocides planning their downfall for one thousand years and slowly corrupted the Republic+ the citizens of said galactic government becoming Lazy
Ok, so I’ve been rewatching Castlevania on Netflix and I’ve noticed something that’s actually pretty funny…
Castlevania gets Star Wars.
The show that includes a hefty amount of cussing, dick jokes, sex jokes, sex scenes, blood, gore, psychological manipulation, blasphemy, and like 50 different very gruesome fight scenes…gets the PG-13 space opera and the Order of peacekeeping warrior-monks that are at the center of it.
Hear me out-
———
In Castlevania, we have a few basic storylines that we follow throughout each of its 4 seasons—with each one centering around a specific character.
There’s quite a few of them, but these are the ones that specifically mirror exactly what Star Wars says regarding attachment.
1. Alucard — his whole storyline regarding his father.
2. Saint Germain — his story regarding the woman he lost to the Infinite Corridor.
3. Issac — his story around getting revenge for Hector’s betrayal.
4. Carmilla — her story about wanting to take over the world.
5. Dracula — his story about killing the entire world for his wife.
So I’m going to be queuing and posting my breakdown of each character’s story and how it relates to the Jedi’s practice of non-attachment because I really want to analyze these characters and non-attachment in the same post.
In case you haven’t noticed in this blog, I do not like Palpatine. I think he’s a massive jerk and I like him as a character of a bad guy so count me in the camp of I will never justify anything he’s ever done and so therefore, he is the worst and he deserves all the bad days.
Also, in this blog I would like to point out that while I am a fan of Anakin Skywalker I no way justify excuse or even condone his evil actions both as Vader, and in the times where he’s lost his temper and done horrible things. See the episode two massacre. And in that note, I will never justify the actions of the Sith because they are the bad guys or the empire since they are the bad guys they represent real world philosophies that are awful and therefore I can’t condone or justify their actions. Screw the empire and screw the Sith. And the same goes for the first order as well screw them.
Also screw the Empire of legends which authors bent over backwards to make into a “legitimate government” and also try to make cool and the good guys in Star Wars Legacy. No, I’m not gonna forget the fact that the Empire was literally formed because of genocidal dictator decided to destroy an entire republic, and the Empire was based off the oppression of beings and people. Legends may have forgotten, but I haven’t forgotten so therefore anybody who tries to justify the empire in Legends or real life…nope.
This blog is pro Jedi and Pro Jedi order and if you have a problem with that go follow the other anti-Jedi people running around because I will not vilify the Jedi in anyway shape or manner. They are the good guys and they are right. Can an individual Jedi make a mistake? Absolutely. But the order has a whole? Nope. Even the last Jedi movie admitted that the order was right it was Luke who failed the teaching of the order and he was using his failure to project upon the entire order. Luke even said “I will not be the last Jedi.”
We love a good “tell me you didn’t watch the show without telling me you didn’t watch the show”
My guy here (guy said gender neutrally) saw that a Jedi had a love interest and remained a good Jedi and made the classic mistake of “love vs attachment”
Now anyone who has watched Rebels the way through would know that literally Kanan’s entire arc is about him letting go of his attachments
How does Kanan beat the Grand Inquisitor in the Season 1 finale? He lets go of his attachment to Ezra (primarily fear of loss) after believing him dead
How does Kanan become a Jedi Knight? He accepts that he’s trained Ezra the best he could and lets go of his fear of Ezra turning to the Dark Side (a bit of dramatic irony in hindsight)
And what happens in Kanan’s final episode? He’s let go of his attachments to the Ghost Crew and accepts that they will be fine after his death
What was his final lesson to Ezra (delivered by Ms “Jedi in everything but name” herself)? It was for Ezra to let go of Kanan’s death and accept that some things can not be changed
It’s worth noting that Kanan says “I love you” to Hera for the first time after he’s realised that she doesn’t need him anymore
it’s really weird having a first dog be blind and then getting a second who can see…like how was I supposed to be prepared for this.
this creature can perceive when I put the treats up on the high shelf. or when I hide stuff behind my back. I can’t fool her!! she’s always watching me and she shouldn’t have this much knowledge!!!
I walk around at night and I shine my flash light directly into her eyes and I’ll just be standing there staring at her weird blue orbs for like 5 seconds until I realize it’s probably extremely annoying to her, because she has eyes!! I’ll turn on the light in the room and she gruffs and grumbles like ?? oh right!! light wakes you up!! the fuck??
the absolutely wild implication of this, that god was previously playing fast and loose with his own acts of good and evil but then had to start being considerate about what he was doing because now mankind is watching and we know.
God’s worst mistake was opening our eyes and mouths, for now we can turn to him and name his sins
that last comment is one of those things that’ll wind up on a graphically designed poster and people will wonder who said it, was it shakespeare, was it martin luther, was it euripedes, but alas no, it was tumblr user @villainessbian on a post about blind dogs
