Yeah, About That Plate...

Yeah, about that plate...

I think everybody has felt the punch of feels because of Bruno’s plate drawn on his little table, but there’s something that caught my attention since the first time I watched the movie and I wanted to talk about it: where he drew that plate.

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Bruno’s table is a direct extension of the family table, it’s in perfect alignment with the one his family uses every day. And he didn’t draw the plate beside that crack in the wall to actually see his family while he’s pretending to be sat with them. He didn’t draw it at the head of his table to face the wall either, which would be like sitting right behind Alma. He drew it on the right side.

Except Alma, who always occupies the head of the table (obviously), there’s no way to know if they always sit in the same order or not. We only see them eat two times: breakfast in the morning of the fateful day and dinner with the Guzmán for Isabela’s proposal, and both times the table has a different arrangement. But I think each Madrigal has indeed a specific seat assigned, and their usual order is this:

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Antonio, Dolores, Isabela, Camilo and Agustín at Alma’s right, and Félix, Pepa, Mirabel, Luisa and Julieta at Alma’s left (let’s remember that in this moment abuela had moved Mirabel to her side, but she was originally sat between Pepa and Luisa).

During the dinner, there’re guests there occupying two extra seats and altering the order, but each movement can be easily tracked.

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Mariano and his mother have to sit next to Alma, and Isa has to sit beside Mariano, so Pepa and Félix move to the opposite side of the table. Julieta, as the bride’s mother, sits in front of Mariano’s mother too. Luisa could’ve kept her seat, but Mirabel has to sit in front of Dolores to keep an eye (or both eyes) on her, and Agustín sits beside Mirabel for the same reason. But everything else is more or less the same. Camilo, Dolores and Antonio remain in their side of the table, as well as Mirabel; in fact, Camilo is occupying his seat, he hasn’t moved at all.

During the breakfast outside (and during dinner), they’re not using their plates, but we can see Mirabel setting the table with them at the beginning of the movie, right before the Family Madrigal song. And she’s arranging the plates in the same order. More important: in this moment, after the disastrous dinner, we can see the plates arranged in that same order again.

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Those plates are there for no reason, the Guzmán just left, everything’s a chaos, it has no sense that the family has removed the dinner to set those plates and leave them there. This is just a narrative device, because Mirabel is peeking through the crack from Bruno’s hideout, she’s seeing what he sees, and she’s seeing a table in which every member of the family has a specific seat with their name.

And what’s Bruno’s seat?

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At Alma’s right. He has always sat at his mother’s right, and he has kept doing it even from inside the walls, because that’s his seat (probably the one Antonio occupies now).

To be honest, it’s not just about Bruno’s plate. What I love the most about this thing is all those combos with the rest of the family: if that was Bruno’s seat, that would mean Dolores used to sit right beside his tío; Dolores and Isa always sit together; Antonio always sit beside his big sis; Pepa and Félix always sit side by side, and Julieta and Agustín always sit face to face; Mirabel always sit beside Luisa. Agustín was the one who took care of Camilo when they were eating, and Pepa was the one who took care of Mirabel. And I think every single one of these combinations, as a reflection of their family life, is just wonderful.

More Posts from Khayltille and Others

7 months ago

WHAT LURKS BENEATH Comic

It's the spooky season...! To celebrate, please enjoy this 7-page horror comic featuring Brook that I made for "WHAT LURKS BENEATH", a One Piece horror zine full of incredible talent. After sales are only open until the end of October so please consider checking it out and grabbing a digital copy absolutely PACKED with amazing art & stories, and some of the nicest merch I've seen from a zine!

The Thousand Sunny is silhouetted against a stormy sea. Brook: "Stormy seas and dark clouds are no cause to frown - come pick your noise-maker and let's boogie down!" Usopp with a banjo: "Be real with us Brook, something doesn't make sense!" Chopper with a flute: "Do you swear you can play all these wild instruments?" Brook: "Cross my heart hope to die, were there one to be found- though it's not half as hard as you're making it sound. Given time any bonehead can learn any part, and time did I have on that grim Thriller Bark; Always gloomy, no sun, nor a moon, scarcely rain, so! To mark passing days I decided I'd train. I pledged I would master the tools of my crew-!" He stage-whispers to the boys: "Though step number one was divining who's who." In a flashback, Brook plays a wind instrument by a skeleton. "Clarinet means it's Charlie; Oboe, and it's Chet." He plays a note. "An old English horn? But that means..." He shakes the skeleton and yells, "Bernadette!?"
Brook borrows Chopper's flute. "I practiced and practiced, and practiced some more! Every tune I knew soon back to front without flaw." He dances while playing the flute. "Fingers worked to the bone til I couldn't deny;" he pauses, arms lowering. Fog has started to enter his frame. "I had learned all I could. It was time for goodbye." He looks down at a long-haired skeleton in a tattered dress. "I'd retire each piece with its player below." Brook's words appear on a sheet of music paper along with shadows of his bony hands tying strings around a wide variety of instruments. He has now tied the flute to the skeleton with a red string and carries her through the fog and drops her over the side of the ship into the ocean. In the present day, Sanji and Robin watch in perturbed silence. Brook continues - "Though it seemed to these eyes not all wanted to go." A haunted long-haired face blending skeleton and flesh takes one last fearful look at Brook as it sinks below the waves.
Brook gazes emptily down against a foggy sky. "As captain, I ought to have joined them." Several bony hands appear to claw at him from the choppy sea. "I stayed. Like the piper in convoy of rats, on I played, and prayed to the devil whose fruit I'd dared eat, 'If I'm never to wake from this dream, may I sleep?'" He imagines himself as a human again, trapped on the ocean floor, straddled by the skeleton of his old captain Yorki who taunts him with his own violin, other skeletan crewmates and band members dancing behind them amongst coral and seaweed like orange licking flames. "But I feared I would pay tenfold more if I tried it, in the dark, and the deep, and the deafening..."
"Quiet." Brook alone is in the same position as before, now a skeleton pinned to the ocean floor by his devil fruit, his tattered violin resting on his chest. The seaweed is inky black around him and the darkness of the composition surrounds the singular word "quiet", emphasising how utterly alone he is. The panel fades into his tattered shoes and legs standing on the railing of his old ship, violin held loosely in his hand, the torn sails flapping amidst the fog surrounding him and obscuring almost everything. "But I waited. And waited. For what, I can't say."
Technicolour panels overlay different sections of Brook's skull, showing what expressions he might be showing if he still had a face; a forehead wrinkled in agony, eyes wide in a thousand yard stare, cheeks split in laughter, a chin dimpled and streaked with tears; "In that miserable twilight between night and day. No world beyond fog, nothing left that could prove -" A singular panel cutting back to the present day shows Nami, Luffy, Usopp, and Zoro all watching him with varying looks of apprehension and horror, but Brook continues unbothered - "If I wasn't some needle left spun in its groove!" In Brook's memory he turns around and sees a figure emerging through the fog; as he recognises it as Yorki his flesh seems to return and he jumps down from the railing back to the deck, running towards him with joy; "Words heard on the wind, in an endless refrain."
Brook breaks through the fog on the ghost ship into a clearing of rain that immediately soaks through his clothes and breaks his illusion, returning him to a skeleton. In the present day, too, Brook is also silent, contemplative, everyone else watching him. He remembers looking up at the drops pouring from the sky under the torn sails of the Dutchman, and looks out the Thousand Sunny's port hole at the storm, tapping the flute against the glass. "Forgive me, I err," he says.
A double-page spread finishes the comic on a single shot of Brook soaked in the storm back on the Dutchman and he finishes his poem - "On occasion, it rained." Water is pooling and spilling from his empty eye sockets and down his skull to give the impression that he's crying, even though he has lost the ability to actually emote as such.

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1 year ago

I cannot properly express my love for the fact that Rincewind is a wizard not because he does magic or is particularly intelligent, which he doesn’t and isn’t, but because that’s who he knows he is, it’s an integral part of himself despite his not fitting any wizardly criteria other than wearing a hat with WIZZARD written on it, and all the other wizards think this is fair and don’t question it.

1 year ago
Lieutenants’ Working Space, Coloured

Lieutenants’ working space, coloured

2 years ago

Snape Fic Recs

@scverussnape, I hope you enjoy these!  

Mentor/Teacher:

Harry Potter and the Enemy Within and Harry Potter and the Chained Souls by Theowyn of HPG - aka the holy grail of fan fiction, the first HP series I ever read and thought “I wish this was canon”.  The characterization is so good, it feels as though I’m reading a different version of the actual books. I re-read this series at least once a year.

A Place for Warriors by owlsaway - the caption for this story does not even begin to do it justice.  I cannot do it justice.  The way the relationship between Snape and Harry grows is just *chef’s kiss*.

Emerald Eyes, Emerald Eyes: Fate’s Hand, and Mindful Eyes by JadeSullivan - Snape takes on a mentor role for Harry during his 2nd year.  This author has an incredible way of describing the feelings in each moment that I find captivating.  She hasn’t updated Mindful Eyes in a couple of years, but I have high hopes for her return!

O Mine Enemy by Kirby Lane - Snape is injured and ends up spending some time with Harry at the Dursley’s house.  Once they are able to leave, Snape reluctantly takes on a mentor role for Harry.  Harry begins having dreams predicting the future, causing him to question just how much he actually trusts Snape.  Not only is this story excellently written - the writer just posted two new chapters for the first time in several years!

Walking the Line by hairballl26 - Snape is badly injured and turns up at the Dursley’s.  He intends to hide from the muggles as best he can until he can recover or until help arrives, but inevitably, there is a terrible confrontation, and both he and Harry go on the run, trying to get to safety at Hogwarts and avoid the agents of the Dark Lord.  ROAD TRIP FIC my favorite.  Hasn’t updated since 2011, but I keep re-reading it anyway because I love it so much.

Behind Doors and Masks by dragonwriter24cmf - Headmaster Snape has decided to personally handle the troublemaker Neville Longbottom, but Neville uncovers his secret agent status.  Now he has to help the boy survive an increasingly hostile Hogwarts, and train him to fight back.  Ooooh boy is this fic all of the things I love.  A close look at Snape during his time as Headmaster, and I love love love how she writes Neville.

Sectumsempra Splits the School by thegoldenfirebolt - Harry faces severe consequences for using the dark spell sectumsempra on Draco Malfoy.  He has to work closely with younger students and the staff as part of his punishment.  I didn’t expect to enjoy this fic as much as I do, but it offers this wonderful peek into the daily lives and relationships between the staff members that I greatly enjoyed.

Kept Behind and Dark Influences by LAXgirl - Harry is killed by a death eater, and only Snape can see his ghost.  Through their connection, they try to find out if there is way to bring Harry back.  I just really love any story that has Snape and Harry having to trust each other and work together, and these are really well written.

Severitus/adoption:

All the World’s a Stage by Alexannah - In a bid to gain control over the Boy Who Lived, Cornelius Fudge serves notice that he intends to adopt Harry Potter.  Snape receives the notice, and since no one else is available, he manages to submit the paperwork just in time to adopt Harry instead.  Now they just have to learn to live together.  I very much want more of this story, and it hasn’t been updated in a couple of years, but it ends at a place that isn’t terrible.

The Unexpected Snape by Imablack - Harry Potter arrives for his first year at Hogwarts, but he doesn’t look like James Potter - he looks like Snape.  It takes some time for them to address this fact.  This has the most lovely slow growth of their relationship, from respect to trust to love.

Reading the Signs by goldencompass - During his first year, Harry is attacked and hurt by some older students holding grudges against the Boy Who Lived.  Snape helps in his recovery, and Harry begins to trust and respect him, leading to a deeper understanding and relationship between them.

General Snape Fics:

The Pawn by ReeraTheRed - a short AU version of Snape’s confession to Dumbledore and the growth of trust between them in their early days working together.  Makes me cry actual tears every time I read it.

The Wendell That Wasn’t by opalish - Snape’s ghost is stuck haunting Harry and Ginny, and they (or really Ginny) get their revenge.  Absolute crack fic, hilariously funny.

The 11th Day of Hogwarts by lyras - This story is on livejournal, and is a short look at Snape’s time as Headmaster.  He is supported by the portraits of the other headmasters, and trying to do what must be done under terrible circumstances.  Very bittersweet.

5 months ago
Image Description: Digital Art In Saturated Tones Of Orange, Pink, Blues, And Purples Of Humanized Hollow

Image description: Digital art in saturated tones of orange, pink, blues, and purples of humanized Hollow Knight characters. Quirrel and the Knight sit on the sandy shores of the Blue Lake. Quirrel smiles, relaxed, with his cheek resting on his hand. He is visibly aged, his face lined and his hair sprinkling with white. The Knight holds their helmet in their hands, expressionless. Both watch the waves of the lake out-of-frame, neither facing the other. End ID.

there is no death


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6 months ago

This part of Snape's memories that he gives to Harry has been talked to death, but please indulge me while I dig it back up because meta rests for no man. Emphases in the below excerpt are mine:

The corridor dissolved, and the scene took a little longer to reform: Harry seemed to fly through shifting shapes and colours until his surroundings solidified again and he stood on a hilltop, forlorn and cold in the darkness, the wind whistling through the branches of a few leafless trees. The adult Snape was panting, turning on the spot, his wand gripped tightly in his hand, waiting for something or for someone … his fear infected Harry, too, even though he knew that he could not be harmed, and he looked over his shoulder, wondering what it was that Snape was waiting for - Then a blinding, jagged jet of white light flew through the air: Harry thought of lightning, but Snape had dropped to his knees and his wand had flown out of his hand. ‘Don’t kill me!’ ‘That was not my intention.’ Any sound of Dumbledore Apparating had been drowned by the sound of the wind in the branches. He stood before Snape with his robes whipping around him, and his face was illuminated from below in the light cast by his wand. ‘Well, Severus? What message does Lord Voldemort have for me?' 'No - no message - I’m here on my own account!’ Snape was wringing his hands: he looked a little mad, with his straggling, black hair flying around him. ‘I - I come with a warning - no, a request - please -‘ Dumbledore flicked his wand. Though leaves and branches still flew through the night air around them, silence fell on the spot where he and Snape faced each other. ‘What request could a Death Eater make of me?’ ‘The - the prophecy … the prediction … Trelawney …’ ‘Ah, yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘How much did you relay to Lord Voldemort?’ ‘Everything - everything I heard!’ said Snape. ‘That is why - it is for that reason - he thinks it means Lily Evans!’ ‘The prophecy did not refer to a woman,’ said Dumbledore. ‘It spoke of a boy born at the end of July -‘ ‘You know what I mean! He thinks it means her son, he is going to hunt her down - kill them all -‘ ‘If she means so much to you,’ said Dumbledore, ‘surely Lord Voldemort will spare her? Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?' 'I have - I have asked him -‘ ‘You disgust me,’ said Dumbledore, and Harry had never heard so much contempt in his voice. Snape seemed to shrink a little. ‘You do not care, then, about the deaths of her husband and child? They can die, as long as you have what you want?’ Snape said nothing, but merely looked up at Dumbledore. ‘Hide them all, then,’ he croaked. ‘Keep her - them - safe. Please.’ ‘And what will you give me in return, Severus?’ ‘In - in return?’ Snape gaped at Dumbledore, and Harry expected him to protest, but after a long moment he said, ‘Anything.'

Firstly what stands out here is that that Snape is the first one to refer to Harry and James and not just Lily, not Dumbledore. Snape says, "he is going to hunt her down - kill them all" showing that from the outset he was aware of not just Lily's fate, but her husband's and son's as well. His warning to Dumbledore takes them into consideration too, so from the outset we see that Dumbledore's assumptions are likely biased.

It's Dumbledore who assumes Snape is only thinking about Lily and doesn't care about her family. Although Snape is clearly more invested in Lily, focusing on her as Voldemort's target when he first speaks, he doesn't exhibit the selfish tunnel vision Dumbledore accuses him of. In fact, immediately after Snape says "them all" it's Dumbledore who changes the conversation to be specifically about Lily again. It's understandable that Snape is more concerned about Lily - she's the one he grew up with and was friends with, although it's likely Dumbledore doesn't know this, and may never learn the full extent of Snape's relationship to her, not even to the extent that he shares with Harry in his final memories. Snape refers to her as Lily Evans, not Potter, likely because he's so used to Evans being her name, having spent his whole childhood knowing her by it. His relationship with James was one of victim to abuser, so it's understandable that in this moment of panic and anxiety, James Potter isn't the most important thing in Snape's mind.

It's important to how the dynamics between Snape and Dumbledore play out in this scene that Snape is terrified. He's described as "panting, turning on the spot" and his fear is so palpable that even Harry feels it, though he knows he's safe and in a memory where he can't be harmed. Snape is coming into this conversation out of desperation, and trusting a man who didn't seem to care much when Snape's life was threatened by a fellow student in his fifth year at Hogwarts. To Snape, Dumbledore is the man who let Sirius' prank slide even though it could have killed him. Years after this scene on the hilltop, when Sirius escapes from Azkaban, he still asserts with viciousness that Snape deserved to die just for being too nosy about him and his friends. So to Snape, Dumbledore is the man who let that attempt on his life slide, and who invited Sirius and James - both his attackers, as far as he's concerned - to join the original Order of the Phoenix.

To Snape, Dumbledore is someone who doesn't care if he lives or dies, and who trusts and respects people who, as far as Snape is concerned, are violent and ruthless. This is compounded by the time he's spent in Voldemort's ranks, where's he's seen firsthand what people like that - violent and ruthless - are capable of. He likely sees Dumbledore as a leader who is just as volatile as Voldemort. Since we know that Voldemort doesn't believe in light and dark, good or bad, only in power and weakness, we can assume that Snape has taken on some of these ideas. His perspective may also be informed by his experiences with the bullying of the Marauders, who claimed to hate his proclivity for "dark" magic while perverting innocent spells like scourgify to enact violence (if you've ever tried to eat soap as a kid, you can imagine how vile that might be, let alone if it's blocking the airflow in your trachea). So in Snape's eyes, Dumbledore is probably not the light to Voldemort's dark, but a rival wizard fighting for power, and therefore someone he likely assumes will resort to similar brutality.

As far as Snape is concerned, Dumbledore could strike him dead just for being there. And yet he walks into this meeting, the arrangement of which is already a mortal risk, knowing he might not leave it alive. His first words to the man are, "Don't kill me." Even if he were there just to plead for Lily's life and not care about her family, his willingness to sacrifice himself to save her is already an act of bravery and frankly, I think it's a much more complicated moral dilemma whether one can choose who to give their own life for than Dumbledore's harsh condemnation makes it seem. Can we expect a man to risk his life for a friend? That's a question with a complex and multi-faceted variety of answers. Can we expect him to risk his life for an enemy, or an abuser? That's a long and complex answer with even fewer clear conclusions.

Dumbledore, meanwhile, sees himself in Snape. We see through the HP series, especially in this reveal at the end, how intertwined his relationship with Snape became. We learn that Dumbledore spends his life carrying the guilt and pain of his sister's death and his direct or indirect role in it. It's a pretty common reading of his and Snape's relationship that Dumbledore understood the depth and irrevocability of Snape's regret and guilt firsthand. Knowing all this, it's hard to read Dumbledore's judgment of Snape on the hilltop, and his immediately conclusion that Snape is only interested in protecting Lily - despite warning that Voldemort intends to "kill them all" - as being objective. I read it as Dumbledore projecting his own guilt and anxiety onto Snape in that moment. In addition, as @said-snape-softly pointed out to me very aptly, the prophecy was overheard in the Hog's Head, which is run by Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, adding onto Dumbledore's personal baggage coming out in this moment. Dumbledore's own feelings are loaded and he makes assumptions about Snape's goals and motivations out of his own anxieties about himself.

And Snape lets him. He's been under Voldemort's thumb, a murderous sociopath who throws unforgivable curses around like most people sneeze. He's desperate and terrified and isn't going to argue with Dumbledore. Dumbledore says, "Could you not ask for mercy for the mother, in exchange for the son?" and Snape replies that he has. But as we've seen already, Snape has included Harry and James and Dumbledore - as the person with all the power and leverage in this conversation - has changed the subject to focus on Lily. Snape is in no position to argue about semantics in this moment. The same way he brought up Harry and James to Dumbledore only for them to be ignored by him, he may have brought them up to Voldemort only for him to react similarly.

Given what we know about Voldemort as a character, once he has decided to go after Harry and not Neville, there's no changing his mind. Any effort made to sway him would fail and only add the asker to the pile of bodies Voldemort leaves in his wake. James and Lily are both targets, because canonically they have defied Voldemort three times and are members of the Order fighting against his cause. Snape may be able to beg for Lily's life - and we see that Voldemort assumed it was because he "desired her" - but James' is almost impossible to argue on behalf of, even if he wanted to. Snape can't claim any intimate connection even if it's a lie, because James is in the Order and enough of an enemy to Voldemort that he was targeted on the basis of Trelawney's prophecy. The fact that Snape went to Dumbledore means that he is asking for Lily's whole family to be protected, not just her. It's not just extra insurance in case Voldemort decides to kill everyone in his path to Harry, it's an effort to save Lily and the people who matter to her as well. Snape knows that Dumbledore will give them a fighting chance where Voldemort won't.

When Dumbledore accuses Snape of not caring if they live or die, Snape says nothing. He doesn't confirm or deny this accusation, and as we've seen, he's terrified and Dumbledore has already twisted his words and judged him, so it's reasonable to assume Snape is worried that if he says the wrong thing, all will be lost. Dumbledore could have just accepted Snape's warning and told him to leave. He could have accepted the warning and asked why Snape gave it. Instead, he jumped to conclusions and threw them in Snape's face, a frightened man risking his life who learned quickly in this conversation that Dumbledore hates him and is judging him, and who learned while still at school that Dumbledore doesn't value his perspective or even his very life.

And then Dumbledore asks him, "what will you give me in return?" Snape is caught off guard, because as far as he knew, he was already doing Dumbledore a favor. He's offering him free information that will enable him to protect two of his Order members when the Death Eaters already outnumber them twenty to one, as Lupin said in OOtP. Again, Snape is risking his life - if Voldemort finds out he had this conversation with Dumbledore, he's definitely dead. As far as he knows, Dumbledore could kill him, as his opening sentence in this scene shows. And yet, Dumbledore turns this around - like the tactical, manipulative military leader he is - and posits the situation as being one in which he's doing Snape a favor by heeding his warning. As if he were choosing to protect Lily and her family for Snape's sake, not his own, and not theirs. Many years later, Dumbledore will ask Snape how many people he's watched die, and Snape answers, "lately only those I could not save." But in this moment on the hilltop, that's already what Snape is doing.


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1 year ago

Can we appreciate how Bumi and Kya went to find comfort at their father's statue in the Southern Air Temple after having an argument with their brother.

We found Bumi first, talking to their father's statue and how he got so emotional, how much his father meant to him and how much he wanted to make him proud.

Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air
Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air

and somehow Kya was there, in the same place, either she was looking for her brother or wanted to take a look at their father's statue too. And after hearing Bumi's emotional speech, she reassured him that Aang was eventually proud of him, of them. Both being there in the Southern Air Temple, taking this trip with their brother, being around their father's statue and talking alot about him, proves how much they miss him, this loss wasn't easy for their mother but also for them.

Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air
Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air

Also, I have to point out how Aang is a role model to his sons, Aang had spent his whole life, keeping the world safe. Bumi and Tenzin have been following his steps in every way they can, they both became leaders, they both wanted to make their father proud by protecting the world, both Bumi and Tenzin want to be a man like their father, a man they are both proud of and admired. Plus, their father would want them to follow their own path.

Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air
Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air

meanwhile Kya has been following both of her parents' steps, she had been travelling around the world like them and being one of the greatest healers the world has been gifted just like her mother.

Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air
Can We Appreciate How Bumi And Kya Went To Find Comfort At Their Father's Statue In The Southern Air

These episodes, Civil Wars from the Legend of Korra, we have explored Bumi, Kya and Tenzin's childhood and seen their anger towards each other, their sadness, the jealousy and expressing how their childhood wasn't easy since their loving father was busy protecting a world and rebuilding a nation, what they've been feeling, are signs of grief, they are still coping of their father's death. But at the end of the day, they are still a loving and happy family.

The three of them are proud, continuing their parent's legacy, and have immense love for them, even though their father is gone, it won't stop them of making him proud.

1 year ago

Snape smoked from age fifteen to twenty and then stopped but he started again after Harry decked that mountain troll in the girl’s bathroom

1 year ago
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument
“I Am Aware That This Request Is Fundamentally Selfish. I Can Offer No Justification For It, No Argument

“I am aware that this request is fundamentally selfish. I can offer no justification for it, no argument in its favor. It is simply the outcome I desire to see the most.”

2 years ago

THE BOX IS NABOO

That’s it, I’m doing it, I’m writing that stupid meta I’ve had in the works for two and a half years, I’m sharing it with the world. I promised it for last Thursday, my poll was forever ago, but whatever! I’m writing that freaking thing.

(super duper long post, press j to skip)

Enter my rabbit hole.

image

First thing to establish: the Box makes no sense whatsoever in-universe.

Recap of the context for the “Box” episode (s4e17): Palpatine is planning his own kidnapping. It was never meant to succeed, and while the plan would obviously benefit him (making the Jedi look bad, pushing Anakin closer to the Dark Side, making Republic citizens more afraid -> more docile, etc…) his actual goal is never explained, and it’s weird that he’d go to such extreme lengths for results so minimal that we’re never told what they are.

So Palpatine asks Dooku to kidnap him at the Festival of Lights on Naboo. Dooku hires Moralo Eval to design a giant box-thingy to test bounty hunters to hire the best of them to kidnap Palpatine. Moralo then gets arrested to alert the Republic that something is afoot, and hires Cad Bane to break him out. Obi-Wan - undercover to learn Moralo’s plan - goes with them. They evade capture and go to Serenno, and Bane and Obi-Wan have to pass the box-thingy test. The level of brainkarked logic here… Truly on par with Megamind, Gru and Heinz Doofenshmirtz.

Setting aside the insane plot holes and utterly nonsensical behavior of the villains, the Box itself is moronic from a plot perspective. It’s insanely complex, obviously incredibly expensive and would have taken months (more like years but it’s a short war) to make when it’s not even needed for the dastardly plot! Just hire some guys who have already proven themselves against Jedi! Throw cash at Bane and Embo and a few others! Maybe attack them with your saber and see how they do! 

And after all that, Dooku still ends up trying to kidnap Palpatine on his own. I can’t even… 

So why does the Box exist? Well, apart from giving us a good thrill and being generally awesome to look at, it has actual narrative purpose.

The box is Naboo.

What the Box lacks in plot relevance, it makes up for with its heavily symbolic meaning. It very closely follows Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon’s experiences on Naboo - but only certain parts, which I’ll explain later.

We start with clean, sterile environments, SW’s favored way of showing villainy.

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Then we have the protagonists locked in a room as dioxis, a poison gas, pours in.

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And then they escape… this way.

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(Okay, here the shaft is down, not up. And it’s not a ventilation shaft per say, it’s the designed escape route. Same difference).

We then skip most of TPM (namely, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon discovering the droid army, finding Padmé, leaving Naboo, landing on Tatooine, going to Coruscant, etc, etc) to come back to Naboo and go directly to the lightsabers and catwalks.

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(Note: in both scenes, Obi-Wan has to propel himself from a catwalk.)

In TPM and TCW, the catwalks are immediately followed by ray shields

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And we finally end with the last scenes. Now, they don’t look the same but they are structurally identical. 

Obi-Wan is faced with a challenge unsuited for his abilities (facing Darth Maul // shooting three moving targets when he’s far more skilled with a blade than a blaster) on a narrow space above a melting pit/pit of fire. 

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

He first watches someone die failing to complete the task…

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

 … and has to do it himself, faring much better than expected (holding his own against Maul // shooting all the targets easily). 

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

He then almost falls to his death and gets saved unexpectedly.

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

And then there’s the final showdown.

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

In both scenes, Obi-Wan is angry. And in TCW Dooku eggs him on, banking on his anger. (More on that later.) In both cases though, he centers himself and is able to overcome both his opponent and his own unbalance. But in TCW, he doesn’t go for the kill, because he doesn’t need to. 

The Box, as a literal character-explorator ex-machina, thus shows us Obi-Wan’s growth.  

In TPM, Obi-Wan follows Qui-Gon’s lead. In TCW, he is the leader. He identifies the gas, makes the plans. He doesn’t fall from catwalks anymore - he runs atop moving ones. He doesn’t stay stuck behind ray-shields, he finds the solution. (Btw, how did Moralo know what blood type Derrown the Exterminator was? There was a 50% chance of him dying - thus killing all of the bounty hunters. Was that an acceptable outcome? TCW I need answers!) He doesn’t slay his foes, because he’s become powerful enough, skilled enough and wise enough to survive (and win) without needing to kill.

He’s grown - and, even more interestingly, he’s also stayed the same. In the previous episodes, we see some of the dark aspects of Obi-Wan. How he - like all Force-wielders, all people - could lose himself if he stopped maintaining absolute control.

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

But in the Box, surrounded by the worst criminals of the Galaxy, the most ruthless, worthless people, he’s still kind and tries his best to keep them alive.

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

The Box is a reminder and a reassurance for the audience that Obi-Wan Kenobi is still there under Rako’s face. He hasn’t lost his compassion, his restrain. He’s still a Jedi. And he’s an awesome, badass one. 

And now, for what it tells us about Dooku! 

It’s much shorter, don’t worry. Basically, Dooku considers that the best way to pick “the best of the best” of the deadliest people in the Galaxy is making them go through what killed his Padawan. There, I’ve broken your hearts, you’re welcome. 

More seriously, Dooku is a manipulative ass. It’s pretty clear that he knows Rako is Obi-Wan, or at the very least suspects it. 

He has an interesting reaction upon learning Rako’s identity, he keeps praising him despite his usual distaste for low-lifes, he smirks secretively after Eval says “I’ll show you who’s weak” (not included there because it’s a close-up of Dooku’s lips and no one wants to see that) and he tells Rako he’s very disappointed when he doesn’t finish off Eval.

THE BOX IS NABOO
THE BOX IS NABOO

[Later]

THE BOX IS NABOO

(Look at this smug asshole - I can’t. YOUR GRANDSON IS THE BEST, WE KNOW, STOP ACTIVELY RUINING HIS LIFE ALREADY.)

THE BOX IS NABOO

(Dooku… why…)

Now obviously Dooku couldn’t have made the Box specifically for Obi-Wan, because it would have to have been designed months before the Council ever decided to send Obi-Wan undercover, but he has no qualms trying to use it to push Obi-Wan to the Dark Side. Ffs Dooku, making your spiritual grandson relive one of the most traumatic events of his life on the off chance that he’ll join you and (desecrate his Master’s memory in doing so) is not okay!

Final tidbits of analysis: I mentioned that not all of TPM is mirrored in the Box. What’s omitted is the droids (even though Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon fight B1′s and droidekas between the dioxis and the ventilation shafts) and anything pertaining to Sidious (all the political stuff on Coruscant). You’ll also note that the fake lightsabers are orange.

=> The Box distances itself from anything that connects Dooku to Naboo. Red lightsabers are the trademark of the Sith, so they’re not used. The bounty hunters will be facing Jedi, so logically the fake sabers should be green or blue - but no, they’re orange, the color closest to red. It fits with Dooku’s special brand of dishonesty - he always tells bits of the real story but twists them just enough to absolve himself of any fault and to justify his choices. 

(”We can destroy the Sith” -> fails to mention he’s a Sith Lord himself; “the Viceroy came to me for help, that’s why I’m attacking the Republic” -> fails to mention he’s Sidious’ underling and is playing the Viceroy like a fiddle; “Qui-Gon would have joined me” -> fails to mention he’s working for the man who ordered Qui-Gon’s death; “I told you everything you needed to know” -> never said that Palps was Sidious; “Sifo-Dyas understood, that’s why he helped me” -> doesn’t admit to killing Sifo-Dyas right after getting his help)

So we have a twisted version of Naboo, droid-free (as droids are now irrevocably associated with Dooku) and with sabers that aren’t quite red. Keep in mind that Dooku had already fallen by TPM. (We know this because he killed Sifo-Dyas and created the Clone Army - part of Sidious’ plan - when Valorum was still Chancellor, as per the episode The Lost One.) That means Dooku was (in)directly complicit in Qui-Gon’s death. And the Box doesn’t (refuses to?) acknowledge that. 

(Also omitted in the Box are the Gungans and Tatooine. It makes sense, because Dooku probably wouldn’t have the full details regarding those parts of TPM, and would see them as irrelevant if he did. He utterly despises Anakin, and Gungans are the type of people he always dismisses out of hand). 

Anyway, that’s my two cents about the Box. To quote Lucas…

“It’s like poetry. It rhymes.”

Thanks to @lethebantroubadour @impossiblybluebox​ @nonbinarywithaknife @ytoz​ and @kaitie85386​ for voting for this one. Next up is a compilation of the Jedi being casually tactile with each other (because they’re a warm and affectionate culture, dammit).

Also thanks to @laciefuyu​ for giving me gifs I ended up not using ^^; you rock anyway!

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