Random Mess

I love reading, writing and TV.

[oswildin]

Looking In A Mirror: Loki & He Who Remains

Loki: “In the end, you will always kneel.”

Man: “Not to men like you.”

Loki: “There are no men like me.”

Man: “There are always men like you.”

Loki described He Who Remains to Mobius as “terrifying”, and this begs the question, why? At surface level, whilst He Who Remains has power over the multiverse and is able to dictate the flow of time to his will, beneath it all, he is just a man.

This fact is what unnerves Loki so much, not because He Who Remains is immediately scary or intimidating. This man was a variant, a mortal, but he has the power of a God. He has the very thing Loki had been seemingly searching for his whole life - power and identity. He Who Remains achieved what Loki had sought to do during ‘The Avengers’. He Who Remains is a being who Loki had once sought to rule over, only to find out he, a God, had been ruled over by a mortal this whole time. Loki realises that, indeed, there has always been, and will always be, men like him.

The quote that really drives this point home is from He Who Remains: “Oh, I've been dubbed many names by many people. A ruler, a conqueror, He Who Remains, a jerk. But it's, it's not as simple as a name.” Loki has himself been these things. He has ruled Asgard, he has tried to conquer Earth, he has been the one who remains the same…

Even Miss Minutes describes Loki as a ‘jerk’ during Episode Two of Season One. The addition of the sentence regarding names also reflects Loki’s character. Loki has been Odinson, Laufeyson, The God of Mischief… But his identity is far more than mere names or titles, it’s far more complex and nuanced. It is clear that He Who Remains is written as a mirror to Loki and designed to make the God rethink his own sense of self, his own beliefs on freedom and his purpose.

He Who Remains views his position as a necessity. He views his actions, his choice to create the TVA and dictate the flow of time as the lesser of two evils; a necessity to protect the people who live on the Sacred Timeline from his power-hungry variants. In a way, He Who Remains views himself as a saviour, guiding the souls of the universe down the right path, towards his own idea of order and purpose… 

(In this scene they also deliberately have He Who Remains eating a green apple. The apple is likely a reference to the biblical story of Adam & Eve, a story that speaks of temptation, ‘sin’ and its consequences — which also relates to the offer he has for Loki & Sylvie. It’s about obedience. But also in Greek mythology, apples represent immortality - leading to assume it was used in this context to show the godlike nature of He Who Remains.)

Isn’t that exactly what Loki planned to do for the people of Earth?

(Whilst this is a deleted scene, it was still written with intent. Loki’s words are ambiguously vague here and also reference his speech in Stuttgart regarding his sentiments towards mortals — and subconsciously, himself. He is then asked ‘how will you rule them?’ to which Loki answers ‘unmercifully’. He Who Remains wasn’t exactly known for being merciful either: ‘we’re all villains here’. One’s own definition of ‘merciful’ may differ from another’s.)

Yet, this whole time, Loki himself had been subjected to that exact plan by another… Loki’s own perception of freedom, of himself, was changed and challenged by witnessing the outcome of such actions from another. Loki had once again falling into the same cycle unknowingly, and this time he chose to break it.

Loki: “A cruel elaborate trick, conjured by the weak to inspire fear. A desperate attempt at control.”

Loki’s need for power and control stems from his feelings of inadequacy and his insecurities. Loki continuously attempts to reinstate himself as strong, powerful and worthy to disguise the fact that he perceives himself to be quite the opposite - weak. He states that he rejects sentimentality, that he rejects notions of love and trust, instead wielding them as a weapon to manipulate and gain the upper hand. Yet, he seems blind to the fact that he is also using them as a weapon against himself.

At surface level, Loki comes across to the audience as someone with a God complex, a being with a sense of grandeur, which makes him the perfect character to fulfill the villainous role. Just as He Who Remains is also a character with a God complex. However, when we dig deeper with Loki, we come to understand that these traits are merely a shield, a mask he wears to hide the truth… The truth is, Loki doesn’t view himself very highly at all and struggles with his self-esteem: Loki: “I crave attention... because I'm.. I'm a... I'm a narcissist. And I suppose it's... it's because I'm scared of being alone.” He proclaims he is a ‘narcissist’, when in reality, it isn’t narcissism that solely drives Loki’s choices or actions; it’s fear and self-loathing. There’s a common misconception that being a narcissist means a person cannot hate themselves or be critical of themselves, but Loki’s narcissistic and egotistical habits are essentially his way of compensating and disguising how he truly feels.

It’s a part of the illusion.

Whilst the costuming between He Who Remains and Loki at the end of S2 is similar in its regality and richness of colour, it is also designed very differently.

Neither of them are wearing armour, the fabrics are much softer, more comfortable and delicate. And whilst Loki has a cape too, the way it is draped is different to that of He Who Remains. He Who Remains’ cape is draped solely over his shoulders, whereas Loki’s is draped around them and hangs loosely around his neck. He Who Remains’ cape does this to make him appear stronger, more authoritative — almost preacher-esque, whilst Loki’s looks more soft and wise.

Purple can symbolise royalty, luxury, mystery and creativity.

Green can symbolise growth, harmony, nature and rebirth.

He Who Remains built/chose to reside in a grand Citadel, whereas Loki chose to build a chair from the ruins of the Citadel, with nothing but space around him. Loki has abandoned his need for luxury and grandeur in favour of something simple and modest - something natural and raw. This is also reflected in his new attire, where no armour is present, and no display of his status as a Prince or God. Even Tom Hiddleston mentioned how his attire is more ‘monk-like’ in comparison to Loki’s more rigid, restrictive and imposing clothes from before. The only things that remain of Loki’s previous life is the use of the colour green and his signature horns, that are now black in colour, no longer gold.

The difference between Loki and He Who Remains is how they own their conviction. Loki is known to have moments of doubt, especially of himself and his actions, whereas He Who Remains stands by his actions and would likely ‘die on that hill’ in his belief that the TVA, the sacred timeline and the loom are the only way to keep ‘peace’ in the universe. He is a dictator. He is unmerciful.

Whereas Loki…

He eventually understands that to beat the system, he has to destroy it and start again… He enacted the final stage of Sylvie’s plan to ensure that it succeeded, that it was cut at the root. He knows that the TVA is not the problem, it is the result of the problem. He Who Remains, his variants, and the loom was the core problem: “I know what kind of God I need to be.”

Merciful.

He did what He Who Remains refused to do… He was giving everyone a chance.

“In the end, you will always kneel."

Loki will always be the one to kneel, to make the sacrifice… Because he shows mercy when it is needed. In sacrificing himself, he finds his purpose.

Loki doesn’t kneel for men like him, he kneels so that others can challenge men like him.

[trungroi2]

#ONEPIECE1186 SPOILER ALERT!!!

I wonder if Shanks didn't pretend to willingly go to Garling (or Roger failed to protect him when he was younger), he'd have been Domi Reversi like they did with Shuri. In another universe, Shanks killed Roger in front of Buggy 😭.

(It's 10000 miles of delulus under the cut + the last half i didn't post on Twitter)

In this AU, DR-ed Shanks quickly became the ideal Celestial Dragons knight &the only time he glitched was when something reminded him of Buggy & the time on Oro Jackson.

Buggy wanted to revenge Roger while trying for years to understand Shanks. Was it all an act? Did he hate us all?

We know Buggy, he's unexpectedly capable & lucky once he's determined enough. So a CrossGuild-like org might be found sooner, or CrossGuild + Revolutionary Army because the enemy of Buggy now is the Celestial Dragons.

"Why didn't u kill me?" That question still haunted Buggy, who only lived for vengeance for years. He had to hate Shanks. Focusing on the hatred was the only way to move forward.

Shanks - the next Pirate King in Buggy's dream vs Shanks - the monstrous Celestial Dragon that murdered his father. Buggy's brain hurted every time he tried to overlap those 2 images.

Shanks wounded Buggy, but not fatally."Did Shanks do it intentionally? Why...Did he still have some sentiment for me? No, Shanks just wanted to watch me like a miserable cockroach burning in rage trying to climb to his place in the sky to kill him. That's must be a Celestial Dragon twisted amusement."

Image them finally being face-to-face after years of pending up twisted feelings.

Before Buggy could ask "Why didn't you kill me", Shanks had already said "Please kill me"(because it's the only way out of Domi Reversi) while actively attacking Buggy. That's when Buggy realized something was deeply wrong.

To Shanks, everything was repressed to the depth of unconsciousness. Repeative nightmare of the day he hurted his most beloved people, the heavy feeling of guilt, the nauseous feeling of disgust sometimes churned inside his stomach when he witnessed how Celestial Dragons treated their slaves. He was suffocated without even realizing it (while still high-performing as always lol)

His brainwashed mind tried to justify his obsession with blue hair slaves:"That co-apprentice, he had this hair color too, we never got along, actually I never felt like I belonged there. Of course I must hated him. He was loud, greedy, a coward, always insulted and was angry with me without any reason. A typical filthy pirate. All i wanted was to get revenge, to humiliate him, make him pay for the time he dared to treat me as his equal. If only i get my hand on him..."

No matter how ridiculous his mental gymnastics sounded, it actually worked and motivated him to work hard to break down Buggy's anti-gov organization. He literally kicked Shamrock out of any mission involving Buggy, & jumped on any opportunity to go to the 'mortal world'.

Shamrock:"If i didn't know you, i would have thought you got some special feelings for that clown"

Shanks:"Don't ridicule me! I just want him to be my slave."

This didn't stop Shamrock from poking his nose into his brother's business though.

Shamrock: "I just want to see what masterpiece could almost break the power of Domi Reversi for several times."

Buggy:"WTF is Domi Reversi?"

Shamrock:"Conversion Therapy"

Conversion Therapy of Omnipotent Sky Daddy could make Shanks evil but couldn't make him be less gay for a certain clown though.

Anyway, all this misunderstanding ended once Buggy stabbed his knife in Shanks' heart. "He died with a smile" Tears was running down Buggy's face. He should be laughing. He has waited for this day for decades. But all he felt was an agony in his chest, as if the knife wasn't on Shanks' chest but his. Finally he heard himself crying out loud "Shanks, what have you done? Why did you make me do this?"

He laid his head on Shanks' chest. Blood smearing on his cheekbones, blending with makeup and tears. The heartbeat has gone but the warm was still there. Finally they could hug each other again. As how everything should be, before everything went wrong.

Then Buggy heard a heartbeat. Maybe it was his, maybe a Hallucination of an exhausted mind. But no, it repeated.

"Buggy, i guess i got a lot to explain to you."

[killin-kel]

🗡🗡🗡

[tish-illustrations]

The sky’s kindest, most radiant star ☆彡 ough they make me ill,,,

[gatatigre]

Comic about rumors (featuring little orufreys)

[falling-star-cygnus]

ok buf if Bel knows about the silverwood curse? Maybe one day before travel Qifrey had sit down and talked with him about it...and that is the reason of Bel respect his son space so much...

i've been thinking about this too, because Qifrey only really says that Beldaruit doesn't know about his vision [and granted, in the context and earliness of the chapters- he couldn't have really said or thought more, but... hm]

it would be devastating if Qifrey only talked to Beldaruit before he took off, i think- and if he didn't even really mean to. I fully think Qifrey was planning to just vanish forever if he could- and honor Olly's sacrifice by living as long as he was able w/o succumbing to the tree

if he broke down one final time, in front of the man that practically raised him, before he had to leave... ooough..

[millenni-em-tauk]

"Sharing a Meal" - Young Qifrey and Olruggio cook a meal for Beldaruit!

Inspired by Witch Hat Atelier Kitchen - in particular, the bonus chapter between 49 and 50. It was delightful to draw them again! :)

[myuminji]

the giver

[yhwcomeback]

Sunny day!

[searivvver]

au where easthies experiences random visions of the future (because he was subjected to forbidden magic) and the future he sees is always tragic. the only one capable of changing that is coco because she's the anomaly made by brimhats

all easthies' anxiety about magic balance comes from his visions of the world succumbing back into pre-pact crisis and coco has important but vague role in them. despite him not knowing exactly what role she will play in the 'apocalypse', he perceives her in advance as a danger but she'll prove him wrong

[reblog-cat]

I agree with you so much op!

Now the specific reason why I theorize visions of future too is because we still don’t have any explanation for why Easthies handed Qifrey that scroll with lock wax seal on it in ch 50 to the point where Qifrey even wonders (in ch 69 I think) how Easthies knew it would be useful because Qifrey mentioned that he used it to apprehend Engendale.

I have so many theories on Easthies but the future sight one in particular feels plausible due to the lock wax sealed scroll. One day I’ll make a list of these theories.

[searivvver]

omg i didn't even think of that you're a genius

whole scene is so cryptic and strange for no reason now that i reread it

i also want to point out (not for this theory but in general how strange easthies as a character is) that for some reason as a kid he was brought to godley right after a big tragedy with several deaths had happened? even if he was a genius at his young age, it's really irresponsible and strange to take a child on a field trip to take care of mass death

his ch 78 psychosis was triggered immediately after the leech was defeated (meaning immediately after he had a chance to lash out at everyone he took it instead of helping the injured or just resting), and some time after vinanna said about the cold wind

probably the same wind that started the deadly blizzard in godley

atp he's just appearing in people's lives in convenient moments (and very inconvenient for coco)

[pocket-size-cthulhu]

Romeo and Juliet retelling but it's a married couple who are planning to carve time out of their busy schedules to go out together, but she decides to take a little nap to try to get more energy to stay up later, and when he finds her asleep he assumes she's gone to bed for real so he goes all the way to sleep (I'm talking sleep mask + vaporub + white noise + melatonin, or whatever routine people do for a REALLY good sleep) and when she wakes up from her nap and finds him out cold she just goes to bed too. Tragic 😔

[bethanydelleman]

I need to build a collection of these low-stakes Modern Shakespeare retellings

[tinyyellowflowers-blog]

Was talking to a coworker today who explained that her grandfather was like Snow White “but Californian. And an old man.” in that the creatures of the forest would follow him around and presumably duet with him.

“When he died the ravens sat in the trees outside for a week, watching. Taking turns. A horde of raccoons tried to break into the house every night, tearing at the siding. Eventually they gave up, but it was unsettling.”

“Aww. They were checking on him!” I said, like a normal person. Internally, I thought “Maybe you could do the thing you do with dead pets, where you show them to the living pets so the living pet understands they’re gone. But I guess if you did that to a bunch of scavenging species, they’d be like “Well, that’s very sad but he IS food now.” So what you’d need, for human sensibilities, is some sort of transparent corpse barrier. Like a see-through coffin oh that’s what the dwarves were doing! You’ve stopped paying attention to this conversation about the loss of a beloved family member you gotta phase back in.”

[sun-ni-day]

oh that's what the dwarves were doing

[praguegirl]

they just don’t do any classic homophobic children moments like this anymore 

[coughloop]

There was really no winning that one

[stardvstbby]

Theory:

Iguin is Coco’s father. Qifrey is a clone of Iguin (which is why he has no memories of his youth). What the brimmed caps failed at in experimenting with Qifrey they will try again with Coco.

This could contribute to the theme of acting according to your own moral center rather than following your family or society. It would also parallel Agott’s journey with developing herself outside of her family ties.

[bamboo-is-a-lie]

love the fact that iguin did NOT have to charge coco jack shit for that book but decided to anyway. My man how are you so fucking broke you need some change from a toddler who was gonna buy strawberries like what the hellllllll.

ik they probably did it to seem like an actual merchant to a regular person but he could've done the whole "I'll make a special deal just for you" thing and given out his books for free but his penniless bitch decided that they needed to bargain with a child that was 2 apples tall for some goddamn reaosn

[evanvison]

WHA Idea/Theory

So I was scrolling through Twitter and looking through WHA posts. I read this post.

I was interested and thought about how that would make for a good twist that can keep Qifrey alive and the story interesting for future stakes.

Then I saw this post just a few minutes ago.

The art is stellar, go like at the post if you can.

This art piece got me thinking about how if the twin theory is true, especially with the recent knowledge that Qifrey was used as a base for splitting off other potential clones. Then we could get a scene maybe not exactly like this but the same concept.

story idea/theory time:

What if Qifrey tries to run away so he can both stay alive but also to keep the others safe from him if he were to become a tree? That way, Olly or the kids wouldn't try anything dumb to turn him back. Then, while he is gone, Olly and the girls, of course, go searching for him, and they eventually find who they assume to be him. But, plot twist, it's Iguin who is using this opportunity to get into the Atelier and try to influence Coco to do forbidden magic. It would be such a cool arch and it would cause the characters to show just how much they would be able to notice if Qifrey was replaced or started acting strange. Would they think it's becasue of the I'm a tree reveal that he would be acting weird or would they put two and two together? That is not Qifrey.

I may have to write a fic like this soon.

[jumpscart]

Like a plant split, then replanted