#the dag

Going back to Fury Road, the same goes for most of the women whom Joe kept locked up in his harem, with a little variation. The Splendid Angharad, Toast the Knowing, The Dag, Cheedo the Fragile.

All of which made me think about Furiosa, who's tried for years upon years to escape the world of the Wasteland and service to the warlords; finally both surrendering to and drawing upon what power and authority she's amassed during that service, in order to have a chance at getting her revenge. How she mutters 'Praetorian Furiosa'. And then when she's ignored, she screams

In a kinder world, Furiosa and Jack are happily married and living in a peaceful working class neighborhood. They've recently started dating a twitchy loner named Max; the three of them get on like a house on fire.

In a kinder world, Joe Moore runs the multinational corporation Aqua Cola with the help of P. L. Eater and M. Kalashnikov. Furiosa and Jack both work for him; Furiosa's building a record of sexual harassment and OSHA and EPA violations he's responsible for. He's about to go down.

In a kinder world, Rictus got a better upbringing and lives with his brother Corpus; they're each other's caretakers. Corpus has a degree in astronomy and contributes to several major publications. Rictus collects Happy Meal toys and harms absolutely no one.

In a kinder world, Angharad and company are sorority sisters going to college. They all have bright futures.

In a kinder world, the Organic Mechanic is a critical care paramedic in a big city. He's exactly the same, he just has better equipment to work with. He still has the tree of evolution tattoo; the tally marks on his arm are successful codes he's worked.

In a kinder world, Dementus is happily pursuing a career in the circus between stints in jail.

In a kinder world, Mr. Harley and his husband Mr. Davidson run a well-known local motorcycle dealership. Mr. Harley is also a chapter president for Bikers Against Child Abuse; he's done time for beating a pedo half to death.

In a kinder world, Smeg is a popular DJ and standup comedian. He runs a blog about the art of mime and physical comedy.

In a kinder world, Hamish "History Man" Campbell still gives the occasional lecture, despite being retired. He spends most of his time with his wife Francesca since she beat cancer years ago. ( @thebyrchentwigges )

In a kinder world, the Octoboss enlisted in the Air Force and is pursuing a degree in aerospace engineering, with an eye on becoming a pilot. He can't seem to let go of his childhood friendship with Dementus; he keeps telling himself this won't come back to bite him in the ass.

In a kinder world, his kid brother Ramboss runs a guide service and competes professionally in motor cross. (This one's for AnimationFan2006)

I would say, "would you believe I've had this post in my drafts for a year," but the truth is you would. You absolutely would believe that.

Here is an explanation of the system I am using ( @wisteria-lodge ). And a friendly reminder of fuck JKR.

MAX ROCKATANSKY starts this film off by telling us he is "Haunted by those [he] could not save," and that he "runs from both the living and the dead." Max is burnt, and at the start of the movie is focused on nothing but survival. It's not really until they've reached the Vuvalini that he decides it's not about survival anymore and he quietly offers Furiosa redemption.

But before he was burnt, he was a Badger (forgive me I have not seen the three films before this one-but from what I've read it looks like he's a Badger in those as well). Max is haunted by the people who he has failed to save and runs from communities as much as possible. But, at the end of the day, he still really cares about people. Once he has the face mask off of him he kinda slots perfectly into the group dynamic as their quiet enforcer. Ten minutes after Nux has apparently reformed Max doesn't even question him as part of the group. One of my favorite small details is after he kills the Bullet Farmer he brings back Nux a wheel (very important in the Citadel culture, but also they needed one to drive), and a boot (since Max stole his).

He also has this thing with material objects that people usually associate with Snakes. That's my jacket, that's my car, that's my boot. And I think with his backstory these are the tiniest bits of connection he has. He's lost everything and these are reminders of what he had before. His things are his tiny community at the start, but at the end he can let his interceptor go out in a firey blaze because he has formed a new community. A community he leaves by the end, but it's fine, he's totally coming back.

As for his secondary, he is a LOUD Lion secondary. Burnt Badger primary, Lion secondary, is basically your stock older male protagonist sorting (Geralt of Rivia, Wolverine, Trevor Belmonte from Castlevania...). The first scene of him in the Citadel is just him running around trying to get out with no plan in sight. The end sequence is him just trying to get back to the War Rig with no plan in sight (which goes better than the first time they did it). Any moments where he looks a bit Bird honestly just come off as he's been around the block so many times he knows instinctively what to do (comb the War Rig for hidden guns, retaliate first, use the People Eater as a human shield).

FURIOSA meanwhile is an actual Bird secondary. The War Rig is just one big tool for her. Every single inch of it is covered in weapons, and even after Max thinks he's gotten all of them there's still one left in the gear shift. She's gone around in this rig so many times that she uses it as a weapon. She's very Crowley coded in that sense (another Bird secondary with a car as their main tool). The plan with the wives is also very much that, a plan. She waited all those years to be able to do a supply run with her war rig, sneaks them out in the middle of the night to hide them, and then knows she'll lose the war party in the dust storm because the rig is heavy enough, which will give her enough time to make good on her deal with the Rock Riders. Of course, Max ruins all that by existing, but it was the thought that counted.

Speaking of Max, that Bird secondary is why the two of them make such a good team. Furiosa can just give him orders and he'll do it no questions asked.

She does model a Lion secondary, because I don't think you can live in the Citadel without at least performing one. But Furiosa seems to know that sometimes you cannot have a plan you just have to attack (like in her first scene with Max where she just comes at him). Once she's been stabbed during the final chase she leans heavily into her Lion model, because she thinks she's dying.

We see her Bird secondary even more on display in her solo movie, where everything she does is a mastermind plan. She starts it off by making sure to cut the guzzoline from the motorcycles (but she's a kid so she gets kidnapped). Then later in the Citadel she knows that Rictus: A. Has a fascination with her, and B. More importantly has a fascination with her hair. So she cuts it off, turns it into a wig, and uses that to escape from being one of Joe's wives. She tattooed a star map onto her arm as her way home. And if the History Man is to be believed her ultimate fate for Dementus was to plant a tree on his nuts which is METAL as FUCK. This is all working toward her master plans of getting back to the green place (which she indefinitely puts on hold) and getting revenge on Dementus (and damn if she doesn't get it).

The Furiosa we see in Fury Road is burnt, just like Max. She says herself she's looking for "Redemption." Getting the wives away from Joe to the Green Place is equal parts revenge on Joe for being a terrible person, and her saving them from their horrible fates. When Furiosa finds the Vuvalini we see her the happiest and most open she ever is because she thinks she has accomplished her goal and that they will go to the Green Place (which doesn't happen). There's a badgery look to her, but I think that's because she sees the Vuvalini and the Green Place as redemption, as freedom, as an ideal. I think she's a Burnt Lion.

Furiosa could've gone home SEVERAL times. She tried with Praetorian Jack and it failed, and then she doesn't try again until she steals the wives, until she can make a difference. That's what it's about with her, and by the end she has found that redemption. There are other parts of her that scream more Lion to me than anything, like how she can just betray her crew at the beginning of the film or how different her energy is from Max.

IMMORTAN JOE is an exploded Snake primary ala Caledon Hockley. EVERYTHING with him is about possession "That's my property!" (in reference to his unborn child). We get to see the People Eater criticizing Joe for losing them so many resources just to get the wives and the Bullet Farmer thinks Joe is pathetic for getting together an entire war party for "a family squabble...healthy babies."

As for his secondary, he's coasting through the film for the most part, but he's clearly a Bird secondary. Immortan Joe is more a character he plays than anything, with a costume to boot (ab armor decorated with medals, talc for his sores, a horse teeth skull mask). He at some point figured out there was water under the citadel that he could pump up, and used it to become a dictator and cult leader. Everything about cult of V8 is so engineered, it's big bird secondary vibes.

NUX was the hardest character for me to sort since he spends most of the film parroting the rhetoric he's been fed and in freefall mode. But I think he's a Double Bird. At the beginning he is a true believer in Immortan Joe and the Cult of V8. His life's goal is to "die immortal on the fury road" and go to Valhalla. And after he believes he can never go back and that he has failed, he has a talk with Capable and she convinces him that he wasn't supposed to die and that he can stay with them. After that he's all on team War Rig.

He looks like a Lion secondary, and he definitely has a model, but I think the realest version of him is a Bird secondary. Nux is a black thumb and driver, he fixes things, he's not doing the fighting exactly. Nux comes up with plans, he's the one who gets to the war rig first, then later comes up with a plan to blow his car up to stop the rig. In the way that the war rig is one big tool for Furiosa, so is Nux's car. He's then able to get on the Immortan's car by showing he has fabric from the wives. He's the one who has the plan to get the rig out of the swamp, and during the chase back to the citadel, he's not manic like he was at the beginning, but surprisingly calm and level-headed.

THE SPLENDID ANGHARAD is the beating heart of the wives. She is the one who asks, "Who killed the world?" She is the one who told Furiosa, "No unnecessary killing!" She is the leader and the one who speaks for the wives. She is a Badger primary, through and through. And a lion secondary. She uses her body as a shield, and doesn't hesitate to go back to the rig when Max is threatening him. She's an unburnt Max, and it's why he likes her so much and gives her the thumb of approval.

CAPABLE matches Angharad's Badger primary. She is the first to accept Nux despite laying into earlier, it's barely an issue. He's crying and needs someone in that moment, and she learns to see him as a person. Later, she instinctively uses the Vuvallini hand gestures for when a person dies when he sacrifices himself.

As for her secondary, she doesn't get a lot of moments to problem solve outside of a group setting, but her character trait that is meant to describe her is "seductive." And I can see the Snake secondary in her, the way she keeps Nux a secret, the way she can coax things out of him. She even says while they are planning to take back the citadel, "And we'll be with Nux. He's a war boy. He'll be bringing us home. Bringing back what's stolen, as he's meant to." That's a bit of a sly way to frame that.

THE DAG is a weirdo and I love her. Bird primary, no question. She is the one who questions The Keeper of the Seeds (probably a Double Bird) on how she can kill people and still be from the green place, and when she explains it she gets it. She is also the only one person to pray in the movie. As for her secondary, she could not give a fuck. She just says the first thing on her mind with no care and drifts through the movie mostly doing as she pleases. Lion secondary.

CHEEDO THE FRAGILE is not here for the cause, or the people. She was here for Angharad, and when Angharad dies she tries to run back into Immortan Joes arms. She says he gave them "the high life" and wonders what's so bad about that, which is probably because she was the only virgin left in the group, but also shows where her priorities were. In the end she seemingly goes back to Rictus and Joe, but actually does this to check on Furiosa (even taking off her vuvalini clothes to sell the bit). Showing that Furiosa is now one of her people, and also that her secondary is a Badger one. She's not actually a liar, she instead uses her social cache and to get what she likes. She's also the one keeping track of everyone's status at the end.

TOAST THE KNOWING is a bird secondary. She's the one who knows how to load a gun, she is the one who counts the bullets, and the best strategist of the wives. As for her primary, I see a Lion. Dag and Capable are the ones who convince Cheedo to stay with the group, Toast stays back. She's quietly resolute for the most part, never wavers or questions, and also does not reach out. She even spits on Joe's face when he's dead. This is sort of process of elimination, but also makes sense to me.

So...

Max Rockatansky - Burnt Badger primary, unburns by the end of the film/Lion secondary

Furiosa - Burnt Lion primary, unburns throughout the film/Bird secondary

Immortan Joe - Exploded Snake primary/Bird secondary

Nux - Bird primary/Bird secondary, Lion model

The Splendid Angharad - Badger primary/Lion secondary

Capable - Badger primary/Snake secondary

The Dag - Bird primary/Lion Secondary

Cheedo the Fragile - Snake primary/Badger secondary

Toast the Knowing - Lion primary/Bird secondary