You remember one of the reasons why Nesta hated her father? Because of this:
“He let Mother die— he had a fleet of ships at his disposal to sail acros the world for a cure, or he could have hired men to go into Prythian and beg them for help. But he let her waste away."
"He loved her —he grieved for her." I didn't know what the truth was—-perhaps both.
"He let her die. You would have gone to the ends of the earth to save your High Lord."
-Acotar chapter 30 pg 266-267
I’m just thinking of how she was willing to die for Cassian in ACOWAR. She would’ve gone to the ends of the earth for him. Would’ve killed for him.
And then again in ACOSF
How triggering it would’ve been seeing Rhysand withhold information from Feyre, letting her risk her life and almost dying whilst pregnant.
I don't think that fact is stated enough. They were on the brink of DEATH. Basically DEAD but the Troves together, thanks to Nesta, stopped literal time as she made a bargain and gave back whatever she took from the Cauldron to SAVE them.
Rhysand allowed Feyre to die, but he wouldn't even suffer the consequences of his (stress induced, worried, anxious, paranoid, wanting to keep her calm and whatever other excuses given to him 😒) actions when he'd be going with her (and the kid), too. They'd die together as one, but Nesta prevented that.
They BOTH escaped death for a SECOND time due to outside interventions and from characters we're not meant to like, at that.
And now, to think, Nesta is stuck with Cassian, who is no different from her father and Rhysand. Nesta is better off finding a home away from the NC before she ends up dead due to another male's incompetence.
The only thing Cassian could be somewhat congratulated for was not choking the shit out of Nesta while under the influence of the Crown, but even then, I think that's more linked to mates not being able to kill each other than his own will as an individual who actually loves her.
It's so weird that, in a way, that quote solidifies the old saying: "daughters marry their fathers". Feyre married someone who basically was going to let her "waste away" without telling her about the risks like her father "let" their mother die of illness. The other weird part is that Feyre seemed ok with how that all played out with her parents, because she rationalized it with her father showing his love through his grief like she rationalized it with Rhys when she finally learned the truth of her pregnancy.
The mirroring of the cycles of trauma that Beulah, Oreana, and Beth is fascinating. Especially in the finally. I will need to put my thoughts to paper (or screen?) soon once I really think it through.
Beulah: Not much to go on from the flashbacks and her exposition but from those moments, her father seemed to be a hard man, who expected her to be the perfect successor to the family ranch. This caused tension in their relationship to the point that Beulah states that she hated the man to the day he died.
Oreana: Tension and distance is present in her relationship with her father Rob-Will due to the fact that he is selfish with his affection and his addiction to the party lifestyle of sex, drugs, and bad decisions which ends with him leaving for long periods of time to either rehab or chasing the next rush. However, there still some tenderness and love between them as seen in the finale where they connect to her wanting to leave home and the shared frustration of trying to be what Beulah wants. Showing this to maybe being the first time they "got" each other and a door opening to the possible opportunity of repairing their relationship until that was taken away by Juaquin.
Beth: Genuinely loved her father to the point of being his dark knight/ bulldog when it came to the financial/market stability of the Yellowstone, however showed frustration with him not wanting to evolve the land and make it more profitable. After the death of her mother, felt that no woman was good enough for her father and made sure that they knew it. While brusque with her, he truly wanted her to be happy and gave his blessing to her marriage to Rip. Upon his death, Beth became his avenging angel, dedicated on finding a way to save the land he loved and bring the people who killed him to justice. Before coming to Texas, hers and Rips ranch had some of the Yellowstone cattle to continue the genetic line of the cattle her father cultivated.
Their Relationship with Their Mother (Or Lack Thereof):
Beulah: Unknown Mother but did not see her in flashbacks nor did she talk about her. Either the mother died in her youth or she left her father.
Oreana: Unknown Mother, possible on again/ off again relationship with her father until she got pregnant. She doesn't talk about her so we can assume she is no longer in the picture; Beulah seems to be the only female role model she has.
Beth: Complicated relationship with mother. Loved her, but once she hit puberty, her mother told her that she will be treating her different now because of it (to make her stronger for this lifestyle). Tragically died when a horse crushed her after Beth's horse, being skittish from Beth's nerves, caused the horses to rear up and run off. She sends Beth to get help because in her words "this is her fault so she will go" to Kayce. However, Beth was not able to point to the exact location, resulting in them being too late to save her. This led to some resentment on John's part with Beth's role in his wife's death, but that resentment eased over time. Beth still puts her mother on a pedestal, saying that she was the backbone of the family and when she died, the best part of her dad died with her. This leads to animosity to any woman who became romantically involved with her father.
In Regard to Their Pregnancy Trauma
Beulah: A night out leads to her meeting a man who talks her into sneaking off with him, which leads to her being SA'd by that man. Pregnancy was the result. She later kills the man who hurt her (👏). She then keeps the baby (Rob-Will). Oh, and to add insult to injury, her father blamed her for what happened to her.
Oreana: To be determined: learned that she was pregnant (probably Carter's but as to her answer to Carter at the party (if true) she had relations with the other guy from the party after Carter so it up in the air) and decided to run away with Carter, but was deterred by the murder of her father.
Beth: Got pregnant with Rip's baby as a teenager; scared that it would jeopardize Rip's place in Yellowstone and how her father would react to her being pregnant, Beth asked Jamie to take her to get an abortion. Jamie took her to a clinic on the reservation which led her to have a full hysterectomy without her knowledge. She wanted kids in the future, but now that was taken from her.
Their Love Interests
Beulah: Never married but has an old flame with Everret McKinney. He seems to be a sanctuary and calming presence for her, but due to her life and complicated history, they never made it official. Over the years, they have circled each other's orbit, but it wasn't until Beulah's heart attack that they both decided to truly be together. However, with her revelation about her dealings with the cartel and her willingness to let the Dutton's take the fall, that future is now in question.
Oreana: Has had boyfriends but is drawn to the "genuineness" that Carter brings into her life. Both are drawn to each other and have a fiery relationship with Carter skipping school to be with her and her sneaking off from home to be with him. But when Carter confesses that he loves her, she pulls away, basically ghosts him, and goes back to the rich boys she usually dates, ultimately hurting both Carter and her. Once she learns that she is pregnant, she goes back to Carter and both plan to run away together (but she doesn't tell him about the baby). I honestly don't think they are right for each other and bring out the worst in each other, but I digress.
Beth: Was drawn to Rip from the start and they have a relationship when she is a teenager but ends when she leaves for college. Their relationship resumes when she returns to Yellowstone, but it is rocky with unsaid truths and past hurts. After confronting those past situations, they begin to reach equilibrium in their relationship to the point of getting married and adopting (informally) Carter. Like Everet is the calming presence and sanctuary for Beulah, Rip is the constant in Beth's life. He can take her crazy and mercurial ways, while also grounding her to reality by telling her what she needs to hear BUT he protects her from outside forces and in some cases, herself. In Dutton Ranch, the viewers can see how Beth has softened and that can be credited to Rip and how she wants to help him reach his dreams of having his own ranch and how she hates that that dream is being threatened because of the Hoof and Mouth outbreak.
Conclusion:
After writing this all down and breaking it down into parts, it is evident that the show is trying to portray how these different generations of women are mirrors to each other with their similar family histories in ranching and the survival instincts that come with that history and their lived experiences/dynamics within their families. However, it also shows how my first hypothesis of the Dutton/Jackson similarities, while a bit off with the motivations of the Jackson's (Beulah at least) was still going in the right direction. From what I wrote down in the past and now, the main difference of these two families is how they looked at legacy and family. They both wanted a legacy, but one was willing to tie family to that legacy and that was the Dutton's.
Meaning, just from what we saw of Beulah's father, he was a man who was willing to let his daughter hurt as long as the 10 Petal name was not tarnished. He was a selfish man who refused to comfort his daughter for the sake of looking successful to the crowds. While John could be deaf to the words of his children, when the need arose (i.e Tate being kidnapped, when his son was killed, comforting Monica after she lost her baby, and telling Beth he loved her and wanted her to be happy with Rip) he was able to prioritize what was important. He knew that legacy *was* family. It was the ability to raise a family to help keep tangible and intangible legacy together. He was not a perfect man, in many cases he was a hard man as well, but he had a steadfastness about him that caused people to be loyal to him and his family; as of right now, I don't think the Jackson's have that with their ranch.
I bring this all up because it does show the influence that these dynamics had on the women, Beth and Beulah especially. At the end of the day, Beulah, while hating her father, is her father's daughter. She was willing to kill her own workers (and their families) and refused to really bring her son to heel for the sake of keeping the appearance that 10 Petals was prospering. She was willing to let Beth and Rip get the short end of the stick while she got off scot-free when it came to the drug cows. And, in a way, she is leading Oreana down the same path. She is hard on her to a point where she is actively balking at her tight hold on her (like her younger self, she has a bodyguard that she ditches in order to do what she wants) and just acts like she is a disappointment when she doesn't do what she wants her to do.
Beth is also the sum of her lived experiences, but at least she had the assurance (sometimes) that her family did love and care for her (except for Jamie) and she had Rip to ground her as well. Also, I feel that the events of Yellowstone and the loss of her father has made her more than happy to find peace with the people she loves instead of looking for the next big conquest.
Oreana is tricky to pinpoint. On the one hand, she is being raised by her grandmother and that leads to inevitable influences on what she thinks she can do. On the other, I do see a melancholy spirit in her that is very reminiscent to Beth. In the end, she is a blank slate in a way and if I were to choose who she should seek advice and guidance from, its Beth because she was able to get through to the other side mature and wiser and is willing to see the hurting girl in front of her that her grandmother can't seem to see. Only time will tell though.
The mirroring of the cycles of trauma that Beulah, Oreana, and Beth is fascinating. Especially in the finally. I will need to put my thoughts to paper (or screen?) soon once I really think it through.
Is Carter and Oreana supposed to be the next generations "Rip and Beth"? If so, it's not working...at first, I was liking it, but they are both ticking me off now...
I am genuinely confused about some of the reactions about the upcoming God of War game, "God of War: Laufey". While I understand fans not wanting to get the bait and switch from another gaming studio, where many think they are getting a certain character as the protagonist through marketing and then be surprised when another character is actually the protagonist (LoU Pt 2 is a good example- while players knew Ellie was the playable character, some feel that they were led astray by how Naughty Dog did their promos. Again, just my opinion), I feel that this game is catching strays for having Faye as the frontrunner.
Some of the critiques on the gameplay and the 21st century-esque dialogue I can get behind and understand, however I did not get into the games until GoW 2018 so I have no horse in that race to compare. But the critique I mostly see is that they were making Faye into a warrior.....
But she always was a warrior.
Again, I get the apprehension from fans that studios are going to shoehorn characters into roles that they never were meant to fill. I don't like that either, but of all the characters to be suspicious of, Faye is not the character to be suspicious of in my opinion.
We learn in GoW 2018 that Faye was the wielder of the Leviathan Axe before she willed it to Kratos, she taught Atraeus how to hunt and that she was a formidable warrior and guardian of Midgard (even Kratos tells Atraeus that his mother "fought beautifully" when he asked him about their first interactions). Even the Huldra brothers (well, Sindri at this point) knew that the only way Kratos would have the axe is if Faye was dead and was ready to throw hands with Kratos.
We also learn in GoW:R that Faye not only was a warrior/guardian, she also led a rebellion in Svartalheim against Asgard's hold on the dwarves (it failed but it's the thought that counts) and she had a one v. one fight with THOR in Vanaheim to the point of a stalemate (and made a giant crater in the landscape so....)
And if all that is not enough, she is the catalyst that gets Kratos and Atraeus to leave their wood. She is the one that brings all this to motion in GoW 2018 and it is her values and teachings that helps Kratos and Atraeus change their fates on Ragnarok in GoW:R. Also, there are the loose story threads that we still need answers to that seems only Faye knew of (how did she die? who blew the horn to second time to call Jörmungandr? where do the gods go when they die?). It's like what Kratos said "your mother harbored many secrets" and "answers only your mother had. She withheld."
All in all, I just think (until proven otherwise) that this game will make a great stepping-stone for the next main God of War game in the universe and with Faye being such a pivotal character, it does make sense to see more of her and the universe through her eyes since she is in a unique situation of being dead. Like I said, until proven otherwise, I will be optimistic.
Karen left New York to kick butt in the Everywhen in the God of War universe. Seriously though, I am excited to see Deborah Ann Woll add more definition as Laufey.
So I’ve been working on this for quite a while, but after looking at luna-whiskers’s post here, I thought I should really try and finish it up to add to the conversation that’s been going on. Naturally, there are major spoilers, so if you haven’t read the Stars arc of the manga you shouldn’t read this! Super long post too!
For me, the most important thing to remember when reading Sailor Cosmos’s narrative is to think of how it works as a part of Usagi’s narrative; I don’t believe that Naoko would introduce a new and important character only to keep her story completely apart from Usagi’s story. Then I started piecing together the two biggest in-text clues to Sailor Cosmos’s identity: Chibi Chibi and the way Usagi approaches her powers.
IF Sailor Cosmos is Usagi, she CAN’T be from the future we know
So there’s this persistent myth that I often see floating around the Sailor Moon fandom. The idea that Sailor Cosmos is Usagi’s ultimate form after she rules over Crystal Tokyo for a while.
Let’s break down what this would look like, if it were so.
The events of Stars occur.
In the year 2000, Usagi becomes Neo Queen Serenity, Crystal Tokyo is formed, and Chibi Usa is born soon after.
900-odd years later, Nemesis attacks, Chibi Usa is sent to our present.
Some time after that, Chaos returns, and Neo Queen Serenity becomes Sailor Cosmos in order to fight this threat.
Now, let’s look at each of those points more closely.
THE EVENTS OF STARS OCCUR
And everybody dies.
But everbody comes ba– no. Not in Sailor Cosmos’ timeline. That is not possible.
Everybody dies in Stars. The senshi die. The cats die. Mamoru dies, and Chibi Usa fades from existence.
Then Usagi goes to the Galaxy Cauldron, the birthplace of all star seeds, and finds their star seeds have already been merged with the Cauldron, along with Chaos itself.
So let’s be clear, here: the star seeds are gone. There is no known way to bring any of them back to life. And even if she does retrieve them from the Galaxy Cauldron, they are already tainted by Chaos.
Here Usagi is given a choice. Destroy the Cauldron, and end Chaos for good, while stopping all life in the galaxy from ever being born again. Or allow the Cauldron to remain as it is, corrupted but still alive, and hope to defeat Chaos in the inevitable war. Neither choice would allow her to save the people she lost.
Future-Cosmos-Usagi chose the second option. She chose to let the Cauldron exist, and therefore to fight an endless war forever.
What does the Galaxy Cauldron tainted by Chaos mean? Does it mean all that will ever be born from it are monsters? Does it mean that every new life will now be altered by Chaos, that every baby ever born is now tainted by evil?
Regardless, that is how Cosmos’ existence begins. With the death of everyone she knows and the galaxy pretty much screwed as of the year 1998.
USAGI BECOMES NEO QUEEN SERENITY
DOES SHE? Let’s go back to point one.
Theoretically, Usagi could return to Earth, live peacefully for two years, save the world from catastrophe again, and rise to power, alone, as Neo Queen Serenity.
She could. But would she? Usagi’s dream is to be together with everybody she loves. Would she choose to build a world with herself as the solitary ruler, knowing she will live 1000 years without her friends, without Mamoru, without Chibi Usa?
And then there is the fact that Neo Queen Serenity loses the ability to fight. She specifically says that by becoming queen, she gave up being a sailor soldier. Now, aside from the fact that it makes it improbable that she would later completely break that rule and become Cosmos anyway, it also seems unlikely that she would make this choice knowing that another war is coming.
Crystal Tokyo symbolizes peace and an end to war, and Neo Queen Serenity laying down her arms is a reflection of that. If there is no peace, not even hope of peace, then there should not be a Neo Queen Serenity at all. Sailor Moon continues fighting as Sailor Moon before her eventual rise as Cosmos.
NEMESIS ATTACKS
So in the unlikely event that Usagi still goes ahead and founds Crystal Tokyo and makes herself queen, here is another problem. If Neo Queen Serenity had the ability all along to become Sailor Cosmos, or a sailor soldier by any name, then why did she not do it when Wiseman nearly destroyed Earth?
And if she doesn’t have that ability, as canon says, then she’s screwed here. She can’t fight herself. There is no Chibi Usa to steal the ginzuishou and make her vulnerable, but there is also no Chibi Usa to go back in time and get help.
SO HERE’S WHAT HAPPENS
Note that this all of this is the case regardless of whether Sailor Cosmos is Usagi of the future or Usagi’s descendant or some other future sailor senshi. The only explanation that makes sense is if Sailor Cosmos is from an alternate future. And it all goes back to that one choice that Usagi made over the Galaxy Cauldron.
Destroy the Cauldron, or let the Cauldron remain tainted? This is the choice that splinters the future off into two horrific possibilities. A future of war, or no future at all?
Sailor Cosmos went back in time because she thought she made the wrong choice. That an end to birth is better than endless suffering.
Usagi chooses a third option. She chooses to throw herself into the Cauldron instead, uniting the star seeds and purifying it of Chaos.
That is what brings everybody back to life. That unknown third option. That is the future that brings Neo Queen Serenity and Crystal Tokyo. The return of peace, and balance, and life.
Thus, the only future that we know in Sailor Moon, the only one that can possibly exist with canon as we know it, is the future in which there is no reason for Sailor Cosmos to exist. Chaos was defeated before Crystal Tokyo ever began.
