#‘hate a pregnancy arc. kill that baby’

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

Crimes against Stephanie Brown:

Getting only 24 issues of her run as Batgirl. I wish she had more, after all isn't Cass getting now a new run as Batgirl again?

Not appearing at the boy wonder comic when it was specifically Robins related and instead they put Barbara as Batgirl (like if you wanted a Batgirl use the fucking Batgirl who used to be a Robin).

Not being included at birds of prey with Cass and Babs.

Getting 2 heroes team projects with her included rejected. (In one she was with Supergirl and Damian, denying us that is a hate crime)

Not appearing in Damian's drawing of people who loves him when she is canonically the first big sister figure he had and she helped him be a kid and have fun.

Getting her character denigrated by Tim's bisexual actions like: dumping her without giving her a reason or having a proper talk, ghosting her for months, only talk to her after their friends force him to do it and then without warning or asking her introducing his new boyfriend to her and make her react like a fujoshi 13 years old wattpad writter saying that "the best day ever" Is meeting her ex' new boyfriend in the most cringe way ever.

The time they tried to erase her time as Robin and Batgirl in the new 52 reboot

Only let her be Robin for 2 months and was fired for doing something every Robin has done more than once.

Dying so fast in DCeased when she became Damian's Robin and never coming back even after Taliah said she would use the Lazarus pit on her.

Not having a visual reaction of Selina, Cassandra, Dick and Babs to her being alive.

Jason not mentioning her to rub it on Batman's face when he came back to life for revenge or mentioning her to black mask, what a wasted opportunity!

Never had the realistic representation of the trauma she should have after being tortured by black mask.

Never hanging out properly again with huntress (well I think they were seen together again once but not enough), Supergirl, Black Canary or Green Arrow junior after the reboot.

The fact that in my opinion she never got a proper apology from all the people that wronged her and treated her badly, like a lesser fighter, like she was a bother, like she wasn't made for vigilante life, I think I saw Tim apologizing to her but it felt shallow.

Not showing us Tim visually crying for her death.

Completely ignore how was her very first interaction with Catwoman, in which Selina was extremely kind and sweet with her only to screw it in the second meeting in her run as Batgirl and later in the new 52 reboot making Selina be a jerk to her.

Making Alfred be cold and dry to her in their first interaction, yes he later cries on her death and then he is very happy when she comes back and later he stands up to her against Batman's stupid tests but it doesn't erase the fact that he was mean to her when he met her and I think that was out of character with Alfred.

Her teen pregnancy arc, some people might think this was a way to make her character more tragic and deep but that pregnancy arc didn't bring anything good to her character because it was all about Tim not her and it makes my blood boil. This arc was just a cheap "easy" Way to make Tim and Steph become closer in their relationship by making Tim be there for her and taking care of her even though he wasn't the father and help her and that and I suppose it was also to make more dramatic her death telling Batman that she had a daughter and Batman be all like: "I'll make sure the baby never has to ask for anything" And then Steph dies... Seriously this is the one thing I wish they could erase from canon FOREVER, making Steph go through that just to make her deepen her relationship with Tim only for getting killed off and eventually dumped with everything she already had on her plate was CRIMINAL

Jason not meeting her properly before the stupid new 52 reboot and still not having the trauma and dead Robin talk with her.

[greenqueenhightower]

ok so I saw that alicent is pregnant… and she'll give birth to Maelor or take moon tea and abort the baby…pls tell me that it’s all a bad dream :(

*Spoilers Ahead* Oh, dear anon, I wish I could tell you it’s all a bad dream 💚

I saw the leaks as soon as they came out and for days I’ve been discussing them with friends and mutuals. If it gives you any consolation, we know only that Alicent will feel her stomach in episode 4, ask the maester to prepare 🌙 ☕️ , and then drink it secretly. I’ve read all kinds of interpretations for this, but please be reminded that this is all we’ve got in terms of the leaks; the rest is speculation. Three scenarios are floating around:

a) Alicent takes the moon tea as a form of birth control. This implies that it’s not the first time she’s taken it, and it’s her regular habit to take some after she’s had sex with Criston. I think the way the scene is set up and delivered in episode 4 will determine whether Alicent has asked for moon tea before (What is her reaction? Does the maester seem to have prepared this before for her? Does he speak as if she’s asked him to make moon tea for the first time?).

b) Alicent takes moon tea as a form of abortion. The way “Alicent feeling her stomach” is interpreted is that her pregnancy is advanced (although idk how that can make sense given that Alicent and Criston have been having sex for a few weeks?) or that she fears she might be pregnant because she has failed to take moon tea this whole time and she might be experiencing the early symptoms of pregnancy like nausea, fatigue etc (which would make her pregnancy around 2-4 weeks, but certainly not at a stage when she can feel anything in terms of movement. Perhaps she’s touching her stomach out of concern and fear for what she has to do.)

c) Alicent takes the moon tea, but she stays pregnant nonetheless, and this pregnancy results in the birth of Maelor. The speculation gets wonky after that. I’ve read all kinds of things, that Alicent tries to kill herself by the lake as we see in the trailer (I’d hate that!) and even that she marries Larys to conceal the bastardy (since Criston’s vows as a white cloak are for life and they can’t get married, and if he’s found out to be the father he’ll be executed).

My overall reactions:

I would be fine with Alicent taking the moon tea as a form of birth control or abortion if the show does not melodramatize this moment or exploit it to give Alicent further reasons to resent herself and additional “sins” to atone for the whole season. Please, writers, let her move beyond that characterization and give us further insight into her psyche and a well-rounded portrayal of her character.

In case her pregnancy is advanced, taking the moon tea can be extremely dangerous (we know this because it almost killed Lysa) so I wouldn’t want to see this pain inflicted on her. We also know that there are religious qualms for those who adhere to the faith of the seven regarding moon tea (Margaery was convicted because Pycelle confessed he brewed her moon tea six times) so I wouldn’t want my girl to go on hating herself for something like that.

Most importantly, giving Alicent a bastard child and making Maelor a bastard would be character assassination for me. I’ve read that the writers might go down this lane for the Rhaenicent parallels and to further highlight the tragedy and her “hypocrisy” but it just doesn’t make sense to me. It also highly affects both Alicent’s and Maelor’s arcs in S3. Therefore, I am hesitant to believe that the writers would so deviate from canon to show us Alicent pregnant with baby Maelor. Does this mean they can’t if they want to? No, it doesn’t, but the chance, at least to me, is very slim.

I hope I’ve alleviated your fears somehow! Let us see what actually happens.

[strangesmallbard]

i’m seeing such takes about the baby lmao. smiling happy shauna with her living baby was in the dream world—the same eerie dream world that offered jackie warm cocoa and the acceptance of her best friend, that ghost laura lee/the Wilderness made sure lottie left. we don’t know a lot about the dream world, but we know it offers warmth, nourishment, and simplicity. cloth mother, if you will. (there’s a connection between the dream world + accepting nourishment + death that someone pointed out already, but i’m pivoting away from there right now.)

but like, we never see shauna with a living baby in the real world, trying to feed him in the freezing woods, knowing she cannibalized her best friend’s corpse for the chance that he would live. we also haven’t seen her recovering from the first birth—she could very well still get postpartum depression. in-between scenes of the dream world and the birth, however, we do see shauna as a parent to a living child; she’s resentful, she’s full of guilt all the time, she loves callie but never wanted to be a mother. it comes down to that.

shauna is an 18 year old who just gave birth to a dead baby in the most traumatic circumstances. she never really processed the fact that she’s giving birth to an entire human child. there’s also some fucky supernatural shit afoot. i think it’s perfectly aligned with what we know about shauna—and like, birth hormones—for shauna to be devastated when taissa hands her a dead baby. she didn’t want him, but he’s dead and she almost died, and she feels like not wanting this baby literally killed him. she would have likely had a real abortion back home. this is literally traumatic stress.

i feel like i’m repeating myself, but i keep seeing posts that deride yellowjackets for having shauna express any love for that baby as if the writers are promoting tradcath motherhood, when the show literally shows the psychological ramifications of forced birth. i do wish there was slightly more body horror (side note: if you’re craving a body horror take on pregnancy, i highly recommend the new dead ringers remake) but tl;dr yellowjackets is definitely not writing a story where shauna meeting her baby would have inspired a newfound love of motherhood, stopping her resentment or any other negative emotions. the supernatural elements + the adult shauna scenes work in tandem to create a pretty nuanced depiction of birth, motherhood, and all the complexities therein.

(i’m also hesitant to equate feelings about fiction to feelings about real life situations, but i do think it’s uhhhh. a bit callous? to go “yayyy no more pregnancy arc i hate babies! shauna should be more relieved smh” like we recognize how traumatized these girlies are but won’t extend that to shauna and childbirth? hmm)

[canonmisogynyvictimstournament]

PROPAGANDA

NATASHA ROSTOVA (WAR AND PEACE) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) Natasha is one of the MCs of the novel and for the majority of it she stays an incredibly complex, flawed and fleshed out character but then THE EPILOGUE COMES. In the epilogue she marries Pierre Bezukhov (who I talked about in my previous propaganda) and essentially loses her personality. The point of her existence now is to serve Pierre and be his 24/7 baby machine. The narrative puts emphasis on how important singing is for her (Natasha expresses herself through it) but after she gets married she stops singing (the other moment she stops singing is after her failed elopement with Anatole Kuragin, when she's depressed and basically at her lowest point) because she doesn't need it anymore since she has a husband UwU.

Natasha is described as a perfect and understanding wife for Pierre and yet she's allowed only to soak in his views and thoughts without adding anything from herself. ("Now that he was telling it all to Natásha he experienced that pleasure which a man has when women listen to him—not clever women who when listening either try to remember what they hear to enrich their minds and when opportunity offers to retell it, or who wish to adopt it to some thought of their own and promptly contribute their own clever comments prepared in their little mental workshop—but the pleasure given by real women gifted with a capacity to select and absorb the very best a man shows of himself." (c) Book 15, Ch. 17).

When Natasha's cousin Sonya tries to stop her from eloping with Anatole, Natasha screams that she's now his slave and will do anything he wants and although she and Anatole never meet again after the elopement fails, she never escapes the fate of becoming a slave to her man.

To be honest I dislike Natasha (there's no excuse for how she and her family treated her cousin Sonya) but the way she portrayed in the epilogue infuriates me. Her marriage to Pierre cancels out her character arc and personal growth she had before it completely.

2.) After 2k pages detailing her unique way of thinking, lust for life, hyperactivity and love of freedom Natasha is married and therefore summarily shunted off to being jealous and incapable of understanding her husband's higher purpose, no longer singing and having no other preoccupation in life but the color of her children's pov

3.) oh my god. so shes this young girl (literally shes like. 13 to 17 throughout the main story). as natasha makes her way into society, she gets more and more hated by tolstoy. (because tolstoy hates society & women). if im remembering correctly the first time she flirts with a man & uses a fan she gets scolded. all of her love interests are considerably older than her. when natasha is 17, she gets engaged to andrei (who at this point would be around 27). he goes off to war! because he loves war. while hes away, anatole (who is vaguely around andreis age) seduces natasha. he knows she's engaged & impressionable and does it anyways. anatole plans to kidnap & elope with natasha, but the plan gets found out. natasha learns anatole is already married and tries to kill herself via arsenic. she gets better. pierre (27) who has known natasha since she was 13 & is close with her family and is also andreis friend, visits natasha. he comforts her and she's like "no what i've done is unforgivable and deplorable". pierre then kind of proposes to her ("if i were free"). natasha stops singing for a while. this is significant because singing is very important to her. well fast forward his wife dies. then theres the epilogue where pierre and natasha get married. natasha is miserable and is basically a baby pumping machine and she also stops singing again.

GWEN (BBC MERLIN) (CW: Mind Control, Adultery)

1.) She was one the main 4 characters in the show and basically the leading lady as the show went on and YET. She was literally treated like an object to make her pain a point of conflict and angst for the male characters and then SHE WAS BARELY EVEN THERE. FOR THE SEASON FINALE. THE LEADING WOMAN. so that the writers could focus on their male characters more. Also in season 4 the writers forgot that they had to make a Guinevere/Lancelot affair happen (to follow the Arthurian canon that they ~totally~ were following before. this is sarcasm btw). But at that point Gwen as a character was not in a place where she would do that. So instead of writing something actually good they decided to just have Gwen end up with an Enchanted Bracelet That Makes You Cheat On People. I’m not joking. So it wasn’t even her choice to have an affair and they never explore the implications of this. And it’s never even revealed to the characters that she didn’t choose this. She’s just. Never vindicated. Evil and terrible.

2.) At the beginning of the series there was on episode when Gwen was like “women should be allowed to fight” (in a battle that was happening). A big part of her character at the beginning was also knowing armor and weaponry bc she was the blacksmith’s daughter. But then in the series finale they had her say something along the lines for “I’m not meant to fight” just so she could be gone so that the writers could just write about the two male leads

3.) Okay also in the last season they didn’t know what to do with Gwen’s character so for almost half the season they made a plot line where she was mind controlled (again :)))) after being kidnapped and tortured. And like. Again instead of focusing on her and the effects it had on her they made the whole thing an excuse to get Male Lead # 1 and # 2 angsty about it. They had to like. Knock her out and throw her into a lake (magic baptism???) to reverse mind control and then they literally never her reaction to the whole situation ever. Literally objectified for the plot.

[chokingonfeelings]

Gender Swap AU idea (aka TLJ gets pregnant and bingqiu are girls)

TLJ and SXY fall in love, TLJ gets pregnant, SXY refuses to betray TLJ (not knowing of the pregnancy) and is locked up and tortured in the Water Prison forever while officially getting kicked out for "having ties with demons."

Meanwhile, TLJ is ambushed and sealed under a mountain, barely managing to protect the baby in their belly despite the sharp sting of betrayal. TLJ manages to slow down the baby's growth for a while and lengthen the pregnancy time while they try to heal a bit, but eventually runs out of energy to keep that up and ZZL has to help them, uh, get the baby out. It's a gory process, what with being under a mountain.

TLJ struggles emotionally and physically to care for the baby, so ZZL eventually decides to abandon the child in the forest, arguing that the baby would probably die one way or another anyway, and at least this way TLJ doesn't have to watch it slowly happen.

Instead, a rogue cultivator (SJ) stumbles upon the demonic baby and, at the whims of her beloved disciple NYY, decides to spare the demon spawn and let NYY care for it much as if it was a pet, assuming NYY will get bored sooner or later or the baby won't make it to the year.

The baby, against all expectations, manages to survive and grow into a energetic youth, who SJ treats more like a personal servant than a child/grandchild. That is, when SJ isn't mistreating LBH (NYY named her that bc she liked the Luo river in winter... Look, she was like 9) for being half demon and taunting her about being abandoned to die/being generally abusive. This eventually culminates into SJ throwing LBH into the Endless Abyss during the immortal alliance conference, where SJ reunites with her long lost childhood friend and, aware that she is a shady ass rogue cultivator with a half demon for a """disciple""", decides to clean up her image a bit (or at least avoid getting blamed for the attack) by uh. Quietly getting rid of said demonic disciple.

Abyss arc, LBH fully blackens, goes to the demon realm, hunts down info on her bio parents, visits TLJ to ask them why they abandoned her/even had her in the first place if they didn't want her, TLJ tells her that SXY betrayed them but TLJ couldn't bear to get rid of the baby... And then the baby looked exactly like SXY and TLJ couldn't bear looking after the baby either. LBH comes to the conclusion that all humans/cultivators are Bad, breaks her parent out of mountain jail as a first and last act of filial piety, and they raze the human world to the ground (separately).

CQMS and SJ oppose them, with YQY dealing a killing blow on a weakened TLJ but almost dying in the process. LBH walks in, realizes YQY and SJ have some sort of bond, and kidnaps/tortures/kills YQY to hurt SJ. (People assume it's in vengeance for the dead parent thing but uh, no, she just fucking hates SJ and wants her to suffer)

SJ meanwhile hunts down and acquires Xin Mo as a last resort to avoid the end of the human world as they know it, learns YQY has been taken, and fails to get there in time to save the woman from being kicked into the Endless Abyss in a "fuck you" parallel (already practically dead, since YQY expended what little life form she had still in her to temporarily cripple LBH via self-detonation). LBH and SJ fight, SJ gets the upper hand through Xin Mo's corrupting influence, and SJ "finishes what she started" by decapitating LBH. Then Xin Mo turns against her and she dies horribly of a qi deviation that rips out all her limbs and melts her internal organs.

The story finishes with red and teal flowers growing where their puddles of blood coalesce, and a lotus blooming from the bloody flesh of LBH's severed head. The Endless Abyss rift, still open and active under Xin Mo's passive power, further corrupts the nearby lands and it's left ambiguous whether the rift will ever close or if the monsters there will start escaping it and spread over the lands, potentially dooming the human realm anyway.

......So of course when SY transmigrates into the main villain SJ her first order of the day is 1. Love and cherish the tragic figure of LBH 2. Be a decent mother figure 3. Not yeet her child into the Endless Abyss. 4. Maybe try to orchestrate an early meeting with YQY and get a cushy job at CQMS and some decent cultivation education for her disciples/kids. She needs that job security, goddammit.

(Spoilers: LBH gets the mommy kink of the century and enough mommy issues to make Freud rise from the grave dick-first. And yes, she gets together with SY/SQQ in the end and it's a bit weird for those who Know but nobody has the balls to say anything because LBH has always been Like That... And her life's dream since childhood has always been to be forever with her shizun so like! Good for her???)

(Also, through a series of convoluted events and plenty of face slapping, the Old Palace Mistress is eventually outed as the Bad Guy All Along, and a very fucked up but barely still alive SXY is rescued from the Water Prison. TLJ either gets released or gets a plant body, and SXY and TLJ get the opportunity to start anew with a LOT more shared trauma this time. ZZL is just glad he got to take his pound of flesh when SXY and TLJ rained unholy vengeance on the old palace creep.)

[frankencanon]

I saw someone's modern AU fanart of some Naruto characters and when I saw Gaara it made me wonder...

How might we adapt Gaara's canon backstory into a modern no-powers AU so that he goes through a fairly similar character arc, with his relationships with his siblings and other characters being as faithful as possible to the original series...?

And I'm tentatively leaning towards untreated schizophrenia and subsequent insomnia to explain the lack of sleep and other characters' fear of him, followed later by his improved mental health and social relationships.

The insomnia would of course be caused by the schizophrenia (Shukaku won't stop screaming), and as for the schizophrenia...

In addition to the the obvious (talking to people who aren't there, etc)—I know television isn't the best source, but...

From what I remember of Fight Club and Mr Robot, from the outside the schizophrenia would sometimes appear like Dissociative Identity Disorder instead, where actions taken by the hallucination (Shukaku) would in reality be performed by the individual who is hallucinating (Gaara).

So Shukaku attacking people or saying creepy shit would manifest as little Gaara doing that instead—hence his siblings', father's, and the other townspeople's fear of him.

The only issue would be Gaara's Sand Defense...

Part of what made him so scary to everyone was that he was untouchable. Nothing you did would ever phase him; there was way for you to hurt him.

And for that, I am also tentatively considering giving him congenital insensitivity to pain—also known as CIP.

Something you've probably heard of before, CIP is when a person is unable to feel pain.

It's actually incredibly dangerous—imagine having appendicitis but not realizing until it's already too late because you're unable to feel it—but the reason I'm considering giving it to Gaara is because while it would not make him invincible—far from it, actually—it would instead give him the appearance of invulnerability.

Can you imagine seeing a kid get stabbed or break an arm or something, and he just stands there, completely unaffected, completely unfazed...

A little kid, just five years old or something, and he just looks down at the knife in his wherever and just...pulls it out. Without blinking.

An adult would find that creepy. But a kid, the same age as him? They would probably think him immortal or something. Invincible. Unkillable.

Little baby Gaara, unable to feel pain and suffering from untreated schizophrenia and subsequent insomnia... Why is it untreated? Because his father's an asshole, that's why.

Luckily when he's twelve his father gets murdered and him and his siblings are taken in by family friend Baki.

In the wake of the murder and subsequent scandel, Baki ends up deciding that it'd be a good idea for them to move—to get away from all of this.

They go to a new school where no one knows Gaara but they quickly become wary of him anyway because of his behavior...

Enter Naruto.

Naruto, who was put on medication for schizophrenia just a few months ago or so.

Naruto, who grew up hated by those around him because his similarly schizophrenic mother killed his father and herself after someone snuck into the hospital, into the private VIP section reserved for the president's wife (this is going a bit off the rails, whoops), and slipped some strong drugs into her IV which induced severe hallucinations and caused her paranoia to skyrocket—

(She was already at risk because she temporarily had to go off her meds since they would mess with the pregnancy and put both her and the baby at risk, but it should've never gotten to that point, it never should've gotten that bad, that out of hand—it was entirely That Man's fault, not that anyone acknowledged that afterwards...

Damnit, Obito.

No, they found out Kushina was schizophrenic and they all automatically blamed her, assumed that her being schizophrenic made her dangerous and unsafe to be around, and that her son would be just like her...)

Naruto, who grew up with the adults around him constantly expecting him to snap—their wariness causing a similar wariness (distrust, distaste, avoidance) in their children.

Naruto notices Gaara, and he gets him help—tells Kakashi-sensei who tells Baki who had up till now had been warily avoiding the child, taking notes from Gaara's shitty father, and not bothering to consider why Gaara behaved the way he did...

Gaara is taken to get help. He's prescribed medication and eventually starts to get better, bit by bit. Shukaku quiets and Gaara is finally able to sleep—which surprisingly (it really shouldn't be surprising) does wonders for his mental health.

And throughout all of this, Naruto is an invaluable presence—the wonder that is having a friend who understands, and who isn't afraid of him...

Anyway, yeah. That's how I think it could work—just replace jinchūriki with schizophrenia basically... Plus some other stuff.

—

※ Quick reminder: I do not have any of the disorders listed—schizophrenia, insomnia, or congenital insensitivity to pain.

My knowledge of these conditions mostly comes from television and the internet; please take it with a grain of salt.

I repeat:

I am not a reliable source of information for any of this.

Thank you for your time.

[themonotonysyndrome]

Hey, hope your doing okay I was wondering if you could write about Celica not being able to eat during her pregnancy again? I’m sorry but I just live for worried castin being ready to kill everyone that ever told his wife to eat poison

Hello, Anon! I'm okay. Thanks for checking up on me. My writing progress has been slowed down lately. My muse... where has she gone!? 😭

Lol, but seriously, let's take a crack at this and expand more on one of Celica and Castin's most challenging trials during the pregnancy arc - her lack of tastebuds and, consequently, her appetite due to the side effects of poison withdrawal.

-

Castin says nothing. To be precise, he doesn't know what to say exactly.

His wife, his darling beloved Celica, is playing a new game he dislikes from the get-go. This causes Rhett to rear back in surprise when he admits it during their hunting trip for the King, and literally everyone in Intacia has heard of how their strongest warrior is besotted with his Imperial wife.

So what change? Castin Hammer likes - no, loves - everything about Baroness Anesidora. He loves how her golden hair shimmers with the early light of dawn as she turns around to greet him good morning. He loves the quiet hums of her voice whenever she's lost in a good book. He loves her no-nonsense tolerance for bullshit, cutting straight to the meat of the matter even in the face of hardships. He loves how pliant and soft her body is to his touches, as if she's subconsciously known that she will always be safe with him.

Right now, though? Castin Hammer dislikes - no, hates - how obtuse Celica is deliberately playing just so she could pacify him.

Enough is enough.

"Celica." Castin begins sharply, and he hates how his wife grimaces at his tone, but he has to press on. He has to make her see reason. "You can't continue drinking that... that special tea of yours after our babies are born. I didn't say anything when you insisted it was tradition, even when it slowly killed you. Guess what? It's still killing you even when you're not taking it now."

The Baroness juts her chin up in defiance. There's a small dining table worth of space between them here in their bedroom. She felt too exhausted today to leave her personal sanctuary, so it's been transformed into a makeshift office and dining hall. "I'm fine."

Enough is enough.

Castin abruptly pushes his chair backward. He swipes his untouched bowl of chicken shorba, rounds the dining table, and places it gently, as if it were a newly hatched chick, in front of Celica. "Then finish it, baby." His voice is equally soft, but there's a hint of coldness behind it. This is the most furious he has been for his wife. He knows it. Celica knows it.

Celica's lips pressed into tight, thin lines. The broth smells divine. The shredded chicken meat looks soft to chew. It's the perfect dish for a pregnant woman. She picks up the spoon and scoops the broth to her lips...

And it tasted absolutely nothing. Her stomach, growing with hunger, now cries in dissatisfaction. It hurts, and she can only imagine -

"You can't, can't you?" Castin answers for both of them. Some of his anger (never at his wife. Never anger. Only sorrow) abates. Sighing, he pulls his chair nearby to sit beside Celica instead of across to her. "You know... if I'm not 5 seconds away from tearing my hair out in a panic, this would be hilarious. I've seen you down a hill of raw, marinated crabs all on your own like a competitive eater, baby. Now though? Now you can barely finish a soup because of your missing tastebuds!"

"Tastebuds or no. I will not jeopardise the health of our babies. I'll force myself to finish this." Celica resolutely says, eyes hard. She continues eating slowly. Ignoring how distressed her husband is.

"Like how Zeke forces you to eat fuck all back then?"

"Castin, we've been over this - "

"You're right, we did. We agreed to help you look for a therapist once the children are a bit older. But we didn't talk about your poison intake. So, let's start now. Let's take that cat out of the bag."

"Castin..."

"No, no. Food and conversation. You like those, right?" Castin stonewall his wife and snatches back the bowl of food so he can feed his wife. He grins painfully wide when Celica glares at him and opens her mouth. Castin waits until the bowl is almost empty to ask, "So who do I gotta beat up for making you think that grape flavour arsenic is appropriate for kids?"

"It was Belladonna. Not arsenic." Celica sneered, and for that, she found herself a mouth stuffed with soup.

Castin rolls his eyes despite the fact that everything in him is raging on behalf of his wife. He'd learned a thing or two about playing an actor from Celica over the years. "Of course, you'd go for the fancy flowers. Also, don't get sidetracked. Who, Celica?"

"Is this an interrogation?"

"Nah. Take it as your obsessed and highly protective husband wanting to unravel everything about you."

"Really? That's your excuse?"

"What can I say, babe? You made me into a lovesick puppy that may or may not need the muzzle after this. So?"

It's Celica's turn to sigh. "My first governess - Madam Bianca - took it up with Ezekiel. It was a day after my tenth birthday, and by customs, I was only enough to practice mithridatism. The rest is history."

"What!? No, not history! Babe, that's insane! And after your birthday, too!?"

"It is what it is, Castin - urk! Will... you... stop it!?" Celica chews and swallows furiously. She bats away Castin's hand before he can shove the last bit of the food into her mouth.

"You being all nonchalant like this freaks me out, you know? Are you finally full?"

Celica immediately rubs her tummy. The pregnancy swell is starting to show. "Yes, darling. I'm genuinely satiated for now. Please, believe me."

"Awesome!" Castin stands up once more and steals a startled kiss from his wife. Mm, chicken shorba with a faint taste of cherry; more things to love about Celica. "You want some ice-cream? Cake? Ice-cream cake? Lemme get you some, actually. You just sit tight and look pretty."

"...Why are you grabbing your sword? Castin? You're just going to the kitchen!"

"You'd never know if a rebel is gonna ambush me from the bathroom, Celly! Or if a certain head butler is in the hallway. It'll be nice to have a quick chat; man-to-man. Husband to his abusive father-in-law."

"CASTIN, NO!"

[edwin-paynes-bowtie]

i know you hate sjm already but just wait until you read the nesta book and get to the arc where rhysand knows that feyre’s pregnancy will kill her because her fae body isn’t designed to give birth to a baby with wings but he doesn’t tell her and he makes everyone else keep it a secret from her too and there’s a whole scene explaining that feyre can’t shapeshift into her illyrian form, which would allow her to give birth safely, because they don’t know whether that’ll affect the baby (because apparently the risk of repercussions to a fetus is worse than 100% fatality to the mother), and that there’s no safe way to surgically remove the baby from her body (because for some reason magic exists in this world but not C-sections). and finally the only reason feyre finds out that she’s about to die giving birth next month is because nesta gets mad at rhysand and tells feyre out of spite. and everyone acts like she’s the villain for it. like that was insanely fucked up we all moved on too fast from it

Um.........

What the fuck!?!?

Does she die?

[maya-matlin]

7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 on my pinned list of Degrassi asks - only if you want to, of course!

Oh, thank you! I'll have to send you more asks in a bit. <3

Characters I'm most similar to:

1.) Ellie Nash

2.) Grace Cardinal

3.) Terri MacGregor

Three things I would change:

1.) The mishandling of practically every black and POC character. It's no secret that almost all of them were either sidelined or barely given a fraction of the focus the white characters were given. Ex: Liberty's pregnancy was almost all about JT, Jimmy's reaction to the shooting and his paralysis is minor compared to the focus on Spinner and his redemption arc, Chantay doing precious little for eight seasons straight, Tiny exists only as a love interest and Zig's sidekick in spite of his rich background involving addict parents, Vince, and previous gang ties, Shay's mostly only prominent during a story line specifically about racism compared to Frankie and Lola.

2.) Inadvertently making multiple main characters rapists because the writers were uneducated about what healthy consent looks like (Sav/Anya in season 9, Holly J/Declan in season 10, Drew/Katie in season 12)

3.) Queerbaiting the Zoe/Grace romance in Next Class to prove a point about stereotypes by punishing the one character not stereotyping or making assumptions about Grace. Straight up, they didn't need to have sex. That was hurtful and way too far. All this specifically told from Zoe's perspective, meaning the show deliberately kept Grace's feelings and motivations a mystery.

Characters I once loved but then disliked:

1.) Declan Coyne (Season 10 originally turned me off, but rewatching season 9 only reinforced that he was always an entitled, self involved person with a flimsy grasp on respecting the word "no")

2.) Owen Milligan (Love is a stretch, but I easily accepted him as a boyfriend to Anya and protective brother to Tristan presumably because I thought Daniel Kelly was hot with longer hair. I know myself, and 18 year old me had no shame. Owen Milligan had zero redeeming qualities.)

3.) Johnny DiMarco (Not full on dislike, but I've lost a lot of respect for the character and feel he spent a lot of time being a malicious asshole and involving himself with a much younger girl well past the age of knowing better. Just because he acknowledged JT four seasons after his death doesn't make him a good person)

Characters I once disliked but now like:

1.) Mia Jones (She wasn't that bad. She just came onto the show during an awkward era, and I was then a big fan of JT/Liberty and Peter/Darcy. While the modeling arc wasn't great and Degrassi could have done a better job showing her struggles as a teen mom, she was well intentioned and people liked her because she was nice. It's that simple, but I had a visceral hatred of her LOL)

2.) Campbell Saunders (It wasn't him. It was the overwhelming fan response. Now that it's been a decade since his character was killed off, I can admit he was a good character. Just not a personal favorite)

3.) Drew Torres (I'm aware there's a lot wrong with him and that he deserves an award for the consecutive amount of bad decisions he made, but there's something endearing about the character. I'm a big fan of his growth, particularly in season 13 and during the first half of season 14. He got screwed so that the baby could be Eli's, and I hated it)

[saintsenara]

Hi! First of all, Happy Saint Patrick’s day! Second of all, I have been binge reading ‘One Year in Every Ten’ this past week and I have been absolutely captivated by it. In particular, I’m interested in your characterisation of Delphini, I liked the parallels between the portrait of Bellatrix as a young girl and the photo of Delphini on her birthday. I’m curious as to what your characterisation of Delphini would be if she was to appear as a more prominent character in a work of yours, things like her temperament, feelings towards her parents (particularly in One Year on Every Ten with a dead-but-not-actually Tom), interests etc. She’s a character I typically don’t have great interest in, since I’ve never been particularly interested in The Cursed Child, but you’ve piqued my interest!

I’d also be curious as to how you think interactions between Tom and Delphini would go down, and what you feel Tom’s feelings would be towards her? I think you’ve mentioned before that he wouldn’t be a particularly hands on father, but his behaviour at the end of Chapter 28 makes me wonder about that apparent lack of paternal nature.

anon, thank you so much! i am absolutely delighted that you’ve enjoyed one year in every ten, and i’m particularly thrilled that you’ve managed to do so while being a member of delphini nation. it will come as a shock to nobody that there are plenty of readers who are having to grit their teeth and suffer through the concept of a bellamort baby - and even more, i’m sure, who have dipped altogether at the first mention - and so it’s very refreshing to meet someone with taste…

the hill i will die on is that delphini’s existence makes sense not only in contexts such as this - which you will never find me claiming feature one-hundred-percent-canon-accurate representations of its stars - but within the canonical voldemort and bellatrix’s character arcs. the big theme of the series for voldemort is that his attempt to outrun his humanity is ultimately futile, and so him fucking around [literally] and finding out that even his body - cobbled together from snake blood and dark magic - is capable of getting his mistress pregnant fits that in a really interesting way. the canonical voldemort also has a really quite profound sense of honour - the most striking example of which is that he detests wormtail for having betrayed james and lily, even though that betrayal was literally what he wanted to happen - and i think this provides an explanation for why he wouldn’t just kill bellatrix [or give her an abortifacient against her will] when she refused to end the pregnancy.

[and i do think he’d be under no illusion that delphini was his - not least because the most canon-plausible time for her to be born is at some point in spring 1997. bellatrix appears in half-blood prince once, in a scene set in early july 1996, and then doesn’t turn up in the text again until the opening scene of deathly hallows, which takes place in early july 1997. if we say she’s born in march or april, this would have her conceived in summer 1996 after all the evidence of canon suggests that rodolphus is back in azkaban. voldemort’s not wheedling his way out of that one!]

this does not - obviously - mean that i think he’d give a solitary fuck about the progression of bellatrix’s pregnancy or his daughter’s early life. as he tells us in one year in every ten, he has never actually seen delphini in person - rodolphus forcing that photograph on him in c.21 is the first time he’s ever laid eyes on her, and i think he was genuinely quite surprised to discover that she had turned into something he could think of as recognisably human rather than just a potato that screamed.

because i don’t think he’ll ever stop hating babies - the trauma of his childhood runs too deep, and a spoiler i’ll give away for free is that there’s no way on god’s green earth that harry is getting a riddle child of his own - but i think he won’t find it particularly difficult or traumatic to interact with a delphini who’s eleven and can, therefore, speak at a reasonable volume and sit still when required. i’ve written in a meta about the canon voldemort’s capacity for fatherhood that i think his relationship with delphini is best thought of as akin to the relationship a child might have with their parents’ family friend, and i think that applies to the tom of one year in every ten too.

[not least because this is exactly how i imagine his relationship with rodolphus and rabastan…]

which is to say that i think they will absolutely get along - i am committed to the idea that they are very similar personality wise, that delphini shares lots of his little quirks [marzipan and crosswords coming in clutch], and that the parts of her which remind him of bellatrix are something he refuses to let bother him because he’s never going to be able to properly acknowledge that he misses her - but that their relationship will always be cordial and superficial rather than resembling anything actually familial.

and i think that’s fine! it’s obviously a damning indictment of tom that he’s been beaten to a pulp in the paternal role-model stakes by… rodolphus lestrange, but it’s also better for everyone if he isn’t expected to assume sole responsibility for delphini’s welfare and if she isn’t expected to have to rely on him for any sort of emotional guidance. she can accept that he’s not dead any more [which i think she probably won’t find too hard - she’s inherited her father’s canonical predisposition towards mysticism], he can have his fortnightly trips to see her - not not something he’s keen on because he can lie on the terrace of roddy’s safehouse like a snake on a big, flat rock - and they can make fun of harry in parseltongue and that can be that.

and yet…

tom is of the opinion that he is very much lacking in paternal instinct and that he and delphini will never have a normal father-daughter relationship. he is also a hypocrite, a pathological liar, and a human being incapable - no matter how much he hates that he can’t - of going through the world as an automaton. the tom of one year in every ten has also obviously had some… experiences which have given him a slightly more stable sense of self than he had when harry blasted him in the head with his own killing curse [which means, i think, that he is able to not resent the fact that delphini wasn’t dragged up in an orphanage, as well as to find it faintly amusing, rather than rage-inducing, that she looks exactly like him]. and so he has found himself - while, of course, he would say that this doesn’t indicate anything at all - invested in the idea that his daughter is safe and happy, and vaguely aware that this is something it’s his responsibility to contribute to.

and maybe - although i think it might take quite a while - he might one day actually be able to interrogate that feeling…

stranger things have happened.

when it comes to delphini herself, something i really like that you can do with her as a character is show how both bellatrix and voldemort’s traits can be read much less negatively than they are in canon in someone who doesn’t doom herself in the narrative’s eyes by continually trying to murder its hero. i like her being just as single-minded and sly and brittle and prone to monologuing as her father and as haughty and loyal and hot-tempered as her mother - and i also like her being as clever and [and this is something i feel gets left out of a lot of fanon versions of bellamort] funny as both of her parents - and this being something which just makes her a fully-rounded and interesting character rather than an irredeemable villain.

but something i’m really wedded to in her characterisation is the idea that the person she’d remind harry of… is tonks.

it seems to be really common for andromeda to be written in fanfic as quite cold - and, sure, the only time we see her in canon she’s not exactly rolling out the red carpet for harry and hagrid - and for all of tonks’ personality to come via ted. i’ve never really vibed with that - and so i’ve always preferred to imagine andromeda [and bellatrix] as being, in their youths, very much like the tonks we see in canon: bolshy and rebellious and messy and cheeky and possessed of a very eclectic fashion sense. i think it’s a really important counter to the black-and-white divide between good people, who are nice, and bad people, who are horrible, in the series for harry [and ron and hermione and ginny etc.] to have to realise that someone who unleashed as much destruction on the world as bellatrix could have been so similar to a woman they all adored; and for tom to have to confront the fact that delphini’s only living cousin is draco - who we know he takes quite a dim view of - and it’s entirely his and bella’s own fault.

[and - some shameless self-promo - i’ve actually written a fic on this topic - everlasting ink.]

of course, the other interesting one year in every ten question is what's going to happen when tom meets harry's children. and the answer... is coming sooner than you think...

[kiddstellas]

I’m going to slightly disagree with anon about the Fire fandom being obsessed with biological children but I see where they are coming from. I do agree with people wishing Brett was pregnant before leaving so “they could finally be a family” was weird. That would’ve been so strange in my opinion. They just adopted Julia. She’s like 8 months old. They don’t need another baby right now. I also don’t like the idea that only a biological baby will complete Brettseys family. Feels icky, especially knowing that Brett herself is adopted. It gives the vibe that an adopted child can never be as loved as a biological child.

But, I don’t think it’s right to say we prefer biological children over adopted. With Stellaride, yes we want them to have a baby. But keep in mind that of the 4(?) main characters that have gotten pregnant, 3 were miscarriages across all of One Chicago. Natalie was the only one who had a successful pregnancy and she was pregnant before the show started. I just want one main couple in One Chicago to have a successful pregnancy because their track record is awful right now. If One Chicago had a better track record, I wouldn’t care if Stellaride adopted or if they had a biological baby. I’d be fine with either because they’d be terrific parents either way. I could personally see them fostering an older troubled teenager who they both can relate to.

Also, I think it’s just a very interesting storyline for Stella to be pregnant and then come back to work. Because that happens in real life. Women in the fire industry, even a firefighter, get pregnant, give birth, and still come back to work. It would be very interesting to see Stella being temporarily stepping down as Lieutenant, how she and Severide deal with the pregnancy, and how Stella deals with the aftermath of becoming a firefighter again after having given birth. I think it would be an interesting arc for Stellaride.

I don't interact much with fandom anymore so I'm not sure what was going on before the ep aired but the narrative that a family is only "complete" with a biological child or that an adoption should be last resort is disgusting. Yes, there are many problems with adoption as it's conducted in most countries but that's also due this whole narrative in the first place. And as you said, Brett was adopted. Julia is her child. Matt agreed to that when he asked her to marry him. That should've been the end of the story. It's a good send off. Just take the win and leave it at that. We all know how One Chicago exits can be controversial and badly executed so this one (and again I'm not a fan of them so this isn't biased in any way) is a great one.

As you pointed out and I've said before, I don't trust One Chicago writers with pregnancies storylines. I'll admit that I'm scared if that's the direction they'll go with Stellaride. Would I love to see them have a family? Yes. Would I love to see them tackle a woman in a male dominant career be a mother and still kill at her job after birth? Absolutely!!

Personally, I don't think Stella is there? With Gallo leaving she's building her team again. I think I'm also a bit against it right now because of how much drama plots they've given them lately with both Miranda's and Taylor's absences. I hate both (which is the same) reasons they've given. It's super out of character for either Stella or Kelly to go radio silent on the other. It's even more out of character for Stella to be this distrustful of Kelly after EVERYTHING they've been through, after how much Stella suffered from her last relationship. It doesn't add up. But since that was their way to explain the actors time off, it'd be super quick to throw a baby in the mix. A couple who didn't know whether the other would return home wouldn't in their right mind decide to have a baby. I'd prefer for them to build their trust and relationship back up before getting to that.

But after that, I'd love to see them form a family in any shape or form. I think it's important to show a female firefighter tackle all of that as you pointed out, specially as she's the only one in the show. We had Dawson and she stepped down as a paramedic right before the miscarriage if I'm not mistaken.

In my opinion, I believe Kelly would be far more ready to have a family and a baby than Stella. The man almost had one with his gay best friend like he wants it, it's clear and he's meant to be a dad and heal and break all the generational traumas his dad passed on to him.

[mermaidsirennikita]

ARC Review: Highland Beast by Heather McCollum

3.75/5. Releases 4/25/2023.

For when you're vibing with... hard on the outside, soft on the inside heroes, healer heroines, babies babies babies, and historical romance with a good dose of old school vibes.

Bas Sinclair, the youngest of the Sinclair brothers, was raised by his maddened father to be an embodiment of death--the literal Horseman of Death, in fact. As an adult, he abhors his role as the executioner of the land, but fulfills it anyway, living isolated and lonely. That is, until, he discovers a mysterious young woman named Shana in the woods, with a newborn baby that isn't hers...

I liked a lot about this one. I also had some issues. While I would say that I enjoyed it, and I'm totally gonna read the final book in the series, I wanted a little more for Bas.

Quick Takes:

--First off, I loved Bas. I'd been looking forward to his book through the first three installments of the series, and he didn't disappoint. He's huge and scary and trained to dispatch people easily... But he really just wants to plant bluebells and carve his little sculptures and tend to literally every animal that could come across his path. He's threatening and intimidating, but he's also a deeply awkward and shy precious angel who never did anything wrong, in his life ever. And I hated how he'd clearly been traumatized from literal birth... But I did also kind of deeply enjoy how that trauma manifested itself.

--The thing about this series is that you will not enjoy it if you don't enjoy... a bit of cheese. I say that affectionately; it's not a bad thing to me. It reads very old school. The heroes are hulking big men who almost pass out when their wives are in labor because they're too stressed. They throw around weird little jokes that sometimes make you go "a weird moment to make that comment, but okay". There's a big emphasis on FAMILY. The heroes recite apocalyptic Bible passages before killing people. Normal historical romance shit.... but maybe not so common today?

--I kind of love the unusual setting of late sixteenth century Scotland. It ain't medieval, it ain't Regency/Victorian. You get references to King James (who was, like, a supporting character in the third book). This book is more of a true insular Scottish romance, but the setting still feels very different in today's market.

--There is a lot of childbearing in this novel, and honestly, in the series in general. Shana is a midwife, and I do enjoy a midwife heroine. Two of the heroines of previous books are pregnant; one gives birth in this book, which gives you a lot of my series-favorite couple, Joshua and Kara (of Highland Warrior). There's discussion of birthing animals, and to be honest? The first book had a horse birth, the second book had a human birth, and the third involved a woman who'd just given birth (not the heroine). So maybe Heather just likes that, and that's okay. Normally I feel like that would annoy me, but for some reason the general vibe of this series make me... okay with it?

--What bothered me more was how Shana reacted to Bas. Her being scared of him in the beginning? Totally real and normal. Then they have this lovely romance, they have sex, there's a lot of emotional intimacy, and a Thing happens. And it's like... kind of obvious. Why it happens. And Shana is suddenly acting like this man she's fallen in love with could be a monster again? It just felt cheap and out of character, considering how common-sensical she'd been in the entire novel. To me, it read as a last minute attempt to inject drama. And I'm all about drama; but the drama has to make sense. A lot of the drama in this book did. That bit didn't.

The Sex Stuff:

There are a couple of sex scenes in this book, and they're good. Nothing crazy. I actually think that we could've gone further, as Bas, while not a virgin, is very inexperienced. I would've liked to see him try some other stuff. Also, to be fair to all the birthing scenes and pregnancies in this series--the Sinclair brothers NEVER pull out ever.

Mixed feelings, but I did enjoy it, and I really love Bas as a hero. Just keep all of this in mind if you decide to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Entangled for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

[pleasantspark]

Forever & Ever - Chapter Four (…Baby One More Time) Frieza x Fem! Frieza Race OC Genre: Horror/Romance(?) Tropes: Yandere Part of The F&E Series Warnings: Possessiveness, Frieza (Because he's a whole ass warning in of itself), Sexism, Forced Gender Roles, Misogyny, Internalized Misogyny, Stalking, Implied Offscreen Death, Death, Yandere Behavior, Canon Divergent, Impossible Logic, DBZ Logic, Forced Pregnancy (Offscreen), Abusive Relationships, Gaslighting, Toxicity, Implied Sexual Assault, Actual Sexual Assault (Depicted under the cut) AUs Utilized: Frieza Redemption Arc AU (Separate Arc, a COMPLETE different whatif) Frieza Race Overhaul Doc Used! Please check for it here: x A/N: Although it's not sexual assault (graphic at least) it's still something that the victim does NOT want, keep in mind, I write macabre and dark things, just because I do DOESN'T mean I am a labelled Proshipper, people can write dark things and also be a good person, dark stories and macabre things shouldn't be offlimits or seen as weird in your writing because some things on the internet seems too extreme, if you don't like it, then you can skip it. Also, I am aware Frieza's personality isn't a yandere as the story suggests, but the thing is, he's not meant to be one, at first he was but as the story progressed, he's far from a yandere, but a complete and utter sociopath and psychopath. That feels no remorse for his actions and would continue to hurt others, a far more extreme personality then his canon. I plan to have atleast 6 more chapters, since I only have little ideas planned, but I assure you, Cooler isn't going to be written off as a one time character, he's planned to be reused, and this series has a good ending. Enjoy.

Cooler walked down the hallways.

He couldn't believe it, he just couldn't.

After nearly a decade he decided to speak to his brother and meet whoever decided to become his Stockholm Victim.

It was quite puzzling to understand how someone of Frieza's type can find someone willing to be his mate, let alone someone not crazy. Cooler was tense as he walked down the halls and into the entrance of his ship. He exited, and heads down to where the meeting was taken place.

Scanning the area, he saw Frieza exit his ship, Cooler could sense something off about his brother. He watched as Frieza walked with Dodoria and Zarbon. He turned to face Salza who kept a smile on his face, but it was clear, his nose turned up at the sight of Zarbon.

"Hello, Brother." Frieza said in that obnoxious voice he oh so hated.

"Frieza." Said Cooler curtly and disdainly.

"Let's not waste anymore time." Frieza turned his back towards Cooler, and Cooler mustered the energy to not try and strangle his brother. He just opted to stare daggers at the back of his brothers head.

Oh how he wanted to kill him.

It's been six hours since Frieza locked her in this room, he said he was going to take care of "business" and by the time he returned, he wanted her to "accept him" she was not feeling the feelings required that Frieza wanted from her and she much rather kill herself then fall for him.

Then, he arrived back, after hours and she felt scared. The tyrant looked at her. And kneeled to her height (Which wasn't needed as he was equal height as her, but I digress.)

"You had all these hours to think of what you want and it's about time I take what I want." Frieza sneers.

Orion knew what he wanted, and she wanted to refuse. To scream, to resist, but he vastly overpowers her in every way. Frieza walked up to her and made out with her passionately she pushed him off and Frieza pulled back and made out with her. Orion whimpered and wanted to scream, Frieza groped her body especially her breasts and tweaked her nipples.

He ended up spending the few minutes groping her and after he did all that, he pulled away his eyes lingered over her small frame, it was definitely clear to him of her female form. She was most certainly a female in every sense of the term.

He viewed her as below him, below the males of his race, and only viewed her as a way to expand the race. Even after she gave birth to their child, he wouldn't stop at trying again and again. He knew that one child wasn't enough. He needed multiple. He needed females as well. If they were to expand their genetics beyond just them.

Orion was quivering, she didn't want this at all. She was sobbing, Frieza found this to be annoying.

"Oh, shut the fuck up." Frieza snarls, he cupped a hand under her chin.

"Be glad I decided to keep you as mine, most of our own kind will just pimp you out and dump you on the side of the road or even auction you off to slave trades. This is a better option then those." Frieza hisses.

That didn't help with her situation at all, and she wanted to sob even harder. But Frieza's grip on her chin only tightened and he released her roughly as she fell back.

"Now be a patient little doll and let daddy play with you. Dress you up, and rearrange you." Frieza coos, and his hatch* opened up.

Cooler stared at the back of Frieza's head, as he was chattering with Zarbon about plans with the Saiyans, while Cooler has a disdain for them, he never vocalized severe hatred for them much like his father and his brother. While his mother never really cared for those affairs. So he much rather chose that over hearing those unhinged racist rants his father went on against King Vegeta and his kind.

Cooler past by various portraits of Frieza which only consisted him and no one else, there was not any pictures of their family, with how King Cold treated him he expected for a hint of their father on the walls, but Cooler suspected he only viewed their father as a pawn in the game he was playing.

Cooler didn't expect for him or their mother to be on the walls, given their history. So he didn't seem surprised that his brother didn't include him.

But he supposed he shouldn't have been surprised that Frieza didn't include any of them, Frieza's raging narcissism knew no bounds. He was just that full of himself. That the only thing he'd rather have on the walls is himself.

"Father, what is wrong with Frieza?" Said a younger Cooler, looking at the incubation bedding occupying Frieza's small form in, King Cold briefly looked up from the documents he was reading before staring at Cooler.

"Frieza's in critical condition, Cooler." Queen Frigid said. Cooler didn't understand.

"Critical Condition?" Cooler questioned, he never heard of that before.

"Yes, that means he needs attention, medical to be exact, he was born really early. Way then he should have." Frigid said.

"Is he supposed to be that small?" Cooler's nose scrunched up.

"He's premature. He's small, small little icijins that are born before they are supposed to end up being small." Frigid said.

"Will he be bigger?" Cooler asked.

"Yes, he'll eventually grow." Frigid said.

Cooler pressed his face up to the glass that housed his little brother. Frieza looked normal upclose for a icijin he was very small and quiet. Hooked to an oxygen tank and seemed to be so fragile.

He at first didn't seemed thrilled with the aspect of being an older brother, but the thought grew on him. He could teach his brother things their father taught him. Leading, reading, astrology and... More things. He was exited.

Cooler found himself walking through the hallways of where Frieza kept his prisoners.

"You keep your wife to be where your prisoners are?" Cooler asked.

"Yeah, wouldn't you want her to not leave?" Frieza asked.

"...That's not a good idea." Cooler mumbled.

"Anyways, we're here, Cooler. You better not try anything." Frieza snarls.

Cooler just rolled his eyes.

Cooler watched as Frieza ripped the heads off of his expensive Collectibles in abject horror. They costed over 600 Galactic Space Credits. He was collecting them to sell them later on. Frieza knew how much they meant to him and did this. He kept the little figurines in their casings and boxes. He made sure the casings were locked in a box with a padded lock.

His father must have given Frieza the key after Frieza pestered their father for it, his heart hurt. He was happy with those figures, it was something their mother and him mutually bonded over. He couldn't do anything with Frieza to snitch on him. So he stomped out his room, and headed to their father.

Upon arriving in their parents room, he knocked loudly and rather roughly causing King Cold to grunt and swing open the door.

"What? Can't you see me and your mother are busy, boy?" King Cold asked.

"Dad, I need to speak to you." Cooler said, trying to keep calm. King Cold grunts and sighed.

"Fine, you have 6 minutes." King Cold opened the door, and he saw his mother sitting on her bed with a concerned look on her face.

"Dad, why did you give Frieza the key to my locked box with my Figurines?" Cooler asked.

"Because he wanted to look at them, he wanted to see what they looked like." King Cold responded.

"He destroyed them!" Cooler said.

"It's not that big of a deal, Cooler we can just get-" King Cold began.

"You can't get me new ones, Dad!" Cooler argues, "They were limited edition! You couldn't get them ANYWHERE else!"

"Limited edition?" King Cold asked.

"You knew how much I spent my time talking about it, I always talked about it at the table, Berryblue told you about it, and Mother did too!" Cooler said.

"Cold, why did you give the key to Frieza?" Frigid spoke up.

"I assumed Frieza had good intentions." King Cold said.

"You knew his intentions were not good, remember all the books we've given to him only for them to be completely destroyed within a week or so?" Frigid asked.

"Frigid, please, they are books not rare figurines. We could replace them." King Cold defended.

"Is that your way of thinking? You can replace those books, but once a figurine that I spent nearly all of our money on is destroyed by our undisciplined spoiled brat breaks that is limited edition, then I can't rush to the store to replace it. King Cold, you fucked up badly." Frigid said, Cooler wanted to break down in tears, but tried to remain calm.

When King Cold refused to respond, Frigid rose to her feet. "Cooler, wait in the docking bay, I have to discipline your brother." Frigid said, Cooler nodded and headed to the docking bay.

Needless to say, after that incident, Cooler and Frigid went to the store to by 10 Figurines which totaled over 900 GSC. And after that Cooler left the key with Frigid who made sure to not tell Cold where she kept the Key nor did she tell Frieza and gave it over.

Cooler still had those Figurines, realizing they were special and held a priceless memory.

Once they arrived in the room, Cooler noticed a female Frieza Race chained to the wall, she seemed to have a dead on the inside look, she seemed to not want to be here.

"Cooler, meet my soon to be wife." Frieza said. With an almost proud look.

"..." Orion barely looked at Cooler. Cooler's heart hurt for her.

"I'll be right back, you better not try anything funny. Dodoria and Zarbon come with me." Frieza commanded. The two elites followed their superior outside, leaving Salza and Cooler alone with Orion. It was an awkward silence before Cooler broke it.

"I'm Cooler, your soon to be brother in law. It's nice to meet you." Cooler said kindly. Orion didn't respond, and Cooler felt weird talking to her then after a few minutes passed, she responded.

"H-Hi, I'm Orion." She said.

Cooler was taken aback by this response, and smiled. "Nice to meet you, I assume you're having my nibling, huh?" Cooler asked. Orion nodded sadly.

"...It's okay, I promise you it's going to be okay." Cooler said, he knew it was false, when you're with Frieza, it was most certainly not going to be okay. But he felt like she needed some words of encouragement to atleast have a peace of mind in a hell beyond her comprehension.

"If you say so..." Orion quietly responded. Cooler sighed and smiled.

"I promise you, I really promise. I can get you out of here, out of his clutches, and I'd do anything to ensure you're safe, you got my word." Cooler said.

Orion looked up, hope was in her eyes, and for once...

Cooler felt hope too.

<Last Chapter >Next Chapter

*Hatch: a place where a Frieza Race's genitalia is stored.

[sgt-mark-smith]

Who's gonna whine about the pregnancy arc yet again? That's right, it's meee!

Spoilers, as always

We're going in bullet points cuz with every rewatch I hate the pregnancy subplot more and more, buckle the fuck up:

It helps vilify Cissy for not liking Arthur and frame his later rejection of her as a kind of karma. She should be allowed to just ... not be into a guy, and it shouldn't be a sin for which she's essentially punished by the narrative! It really feels like the show's out here saying "lol she thought she was too good for a nice guy who liked her, now she's pregnant and needs him for convenience and he gets to dump HER stuck up ass!" Not cool, show, not cool!

It's got some uncomfortable race dynamics, at least for me as a Black American. That it's her brown lover who's the only one who has sex with her (one time, at that) AND gets her pregnant? Maybe this isn't a problem for Maori men in New Zealand, but where I live, Black American and Latino men's imagined hypersexuality (down to stereotypes about fertility and even dick sizes) are a racist cultural myth that helps fuel their dehumanization. In keeping with the 'white womanly purity' bullshit, it helps set up this image of the brown male predator who deflowers and impregnates chaste white women. I also don't like that it now makes Manaaki guilty of the same sin as his own shitty father, even if by accident! God I hate it.

The way Awa suddenly gets weirdly male-centric about it. Yes, it was Awa who suggested an abortion, but that was before Cissy told her the baby was Manaaki's. After that you'll notice it's all "My brother's son has a new father" or (after Cissy admits to being desperate enough to CONSIDER ATTEMPTING SUICIDE) "And kill my brother's son?" What the fuck! If there's any woman in this show who hasn't centered men, it's Awa, what's up with this? Yeah I get that a lot of women 'make exceptions' for the men closest to them and Manaaki is clearly Awa's exception, but this feels like a really weird extension of that and it rubs me the wrong way. It's giving enmeshed boy-mom behavior?

(How the fuck do you even figure the baby's gonna be a boy, Awa?! The fact that it turns out to be a boy later is by authorial fiat, it's not like you have foresight or something!)

Anyway! That's what I don't like about the pregnancy subplot. God I hope I can actually get people in this fandom to, like, debate me and point shit out to me that I'm getting wrong or smth.

[everythingsinred]

Navigation Continued! I hate Tumblr :)

GA Ask Games:

ruka, natsume, & mikan character ask game (~50 questions each)

natsume & mikan character ask game (3 questions each)

character bingos: Natsume / Youichi / Mikan / Yuka / Kaoru / Ruka / Hotaru / Narumi / Aoi

ship bingos: NatsuMikan / HotaRuka (i think i misunderstood some of the squares lol)

character headcanon ask for natsume (25 questions)

salty fandom ask for gakuen alice (3 questions)

GA Character + Ship Opinion Asks:

GA (general)

Shiki / Sumire / Persona / Kaoru / Tono / Nobara / Yuu / Narumi / Kitsu / Koko / Sakurano / Hotaru / Natsume / Subaru

NaruMisaki / TsubaSaki / Kaoru&Yuka / Yuka&Luna

Plot/Analysis Questions:

opinions on hotaru x ruka as a ship: x x

mikan sports headcanons

thoughts on aoi staying at the academy past chapter 70

main 4 school and post-graduate headcanons

natsume as a catboy? (just in general, i hate ga being included in cross fandom polls bc ga characters will never beat better known characters even if they do fit better, and i hate my babies being used as nothing more than an extra round. but i cant do anything about that.) (also see my "natsume is a cat" posts below)

thoughts on the student x teacher elements in ga

clarifications on ch 44 narumi and yuka scene

natsumikan pregnancy thoughts

who fell in love with mikan first: natsume or ruka? OR when does natsume fall in love with mikan?

because of time travel shenanigans, do people remember natsume dying?

thoughts on queer hotaru and koko's alice

did natsume dance with or kiss other girls before he did with mikan? ALSO would natsume kiss another girl to make mikan jealous? ALSO would natsume have had sex with someone else under different circumstances?

would natsume worry about mikan falling in love with someone else during their separation? OR what would their relationship be like if they'd never separated?

in chapter 50, does natsume kiss mikan once or multiple times?

"actually the best ship dynamic is i would kill for you. i would kill anyone who layed a hand on you. please let me kill for you. please let me show my devotion by dirtying my hands, it’s the only way i know how. let me destroy anything that hurts you. i’ve hurt you too. i’m destroying myself." does this dynamic fit natsumikan?

on mikan's ability to hurt natsume and natsume's jealousy ALSO would natsume still get jealous in the future?

why doesn't mikan like her hair down?

should an anime watcher start the manga over or continue where the anime left off?

thoughts on the ending: x x x x x x (also, just read pt 39 of the mikan nm essay lol)

child abuse in ga: x x

fanfiction questions: x x x x x x (check out my "fic recs" tag)

Original Analysis/Tangent Posts

natsume's inevitable death

why i'm a natsume apologist and unashamed

natsume's "ambition" (just an indirect way of saying cxg greg is an adult natsume stand-in for me)

thoughts on jealous!mikan

love letter to the ga fandom

thoughts on my fav au ga fanfic

family and the institution of alice academy

natsume is left-handed

natsume is a cat (part 1, part 2, part 3)

kimono design significance (new year's arc)

~~

i'll keep this updated! since i know i'll be posting more... way more...

also if you want to read through my ga-related original posts, you can find them all under my gakuen alice tag.

Also, here are my AO3 and Fanfiction.net accounts! I write plenty of GA fanfic!

~ essay navigation ~

Have you ever thought to yourself, "Anya's essays are interesting in theory, but I really don't wanna read ALL of it! I just wanna read the analysis of my favorite parts!" or maybe "I DID read all of Anya's essays but now I wanna reread one specific thing she talked about and I can't remember which post it was in because there's too many of them!" ? Me too! Don't even worry about it! Today I am addressing those issues with a TABLE OF CONTENTS!

This is for essay parts AND in-depth character questions related to GA that I've answered. I get a LOT of questions about GA's ending and thus I feel like I've talked about it exhaustively. This is how I make it all digestible. <3 Love ya!

Anime NM Essay (6 parts/includes a self-contained and easy to navigate table of contents so I won't go into it again here)

NatsuMikan Essay (Natsume's Version) (30 parts. This is the one people actually read I think):

Part 1 (covers ch 1-4. corresponds to pt 1 of mikan's/ mikan entering the academy and the northern woods game)

Part 2 (covers ch 5-8. corresponds to pt 1+2+3 of mikan's/ northern woods game and mikan's intro to academy life)

Part 3 (covers ch 9-12, corresponds to pt 4 of mikan's/ dodgeball, letters, culture fest announcement, and central town)

Part 4 (covers ch 13-16, corresponds to pt 5 of mikan's/ the reo arc)

Part 5 (covers ch 17-20, corresponds to pt 6+7 of mikan's/ culture fest up to anna's shop)

Part 6 (covers ch 21-26, corresponds to pt 7+8 of mikan's/ rest of the culture fest)

Part 7 (covers ch 27-30, corresponds to pt 9 of mikan's/ exams, kaname & bear's story, beginning of z arc)

Part 8 (covers ch 31-35, corresponds to pt 10 of mikan's/ part 2 of z arc up to going through the tunnel)

Part 9 (covers ch 36-40, corresponds to pt 11+12 of mikan's/ part 3 of z arc up to the discovery of z's headquarters)

Part 10 (covers ch 41-44, corresponds to pt 12+13 of mikan's/ part 4 of z arc up to its conclusion)

Part 11 (covers ch 45-47, corresponds to pt 13 of mikan's/ natsume's bday and christmas ball prep)

Part 12 (covers ch 48-52, corresponds to pt 14 of mikan's/ christmas ball and winter cleaning)

Part 13 (covers ch 53-55, corresponds to pt 15 of mikan's/ part 1 of new year's arc up to n&m sleeping together)

Part 14 (covers ch 56-61, corresponds to pt 16 of mikan's/ part 2 of new year's arc up to yakumo and natsume's fight)

Part 15 (covers ch 66-70, corresponds to pt 17+18 of mikan's/ part 3 of new year's arc up to conclusion and aoi's departure)

Part 16 (covers ch 71-76, corresponds to pt 19+20 of mikan's/ transition arc including alice stones and valentine's day)

Part 17 (covers ch 77-80, corresponds to pt 21 of mikan's/ part 1 of sports fest arc up to the equipment mishap)

Part 18 (covers ch 81-86, corresponds to pt 22+23 of mikan's/ part 2 of sports fest arc up to n&m's masked hug and conclusion)

Part 19 (covers ch 89-91, corresponds to pt 24 of mikan's/ soul swap arc)

Part 20 (covers ch 93-95, corresponds to pt 25 of mikan's/ transition arc including swimming up to n&m hugging to comfort each other)

Part 21 (covers ch 96-100, corresponds to pt 26 of mikan's/ beginning of escape arc, natsume's confessions)

Part 22 (covers ch 101-116, corresponds to pt 27+28 of mikan's/ part 1 of time travel arc up to izumi's death)

Part 23 (covers ch 117-123, corresponds to pt 28 of mikan's/ part 2 of time travel arc up to conclusion & mikan's decision)

Part 24 (covers ch 124-138, corresponds to pt 29+30+31 of mikan's/ high school arc up to conclusion)

Part 25 (covers ch 140-143, corresponds to pt 32+33 of mikan's/ yuka's funeral, christmas ball and shiki's gift to mikan)

Part 26 (covers ch 144-145, corresponds to pt 33 of mikan's/ rapunzel arc)

Part 27 (covers ch 146-149/ natsume and ruka developments and new year's planning)

Part 28 (covers ch 150-163, corresponds to pt 34 of mikan's/ new year's concert and natsume's death)

Part 29 (covers ch 178-180, corresponds to pt 39 of mikan's/ final chapters, which we all know by now i despise)

Part 30 (covers the nm content in kageki, corresponds to pt 40 of mikan's)

NatsuMikan Essay (Mikan's Version) (40 parts. Longer and stole more of my soul but got less engagement) :

Part 1 (covers ch 1-2, corresponds to pt 1 of natsume's/ mikan entering the academy)

Part 2 (covers ch 3-5, corresponds to pt 1+2 of natsume's/ adventure in the northern woods)

Part 3 (covers ch 6-8, corresponds to pt 2 of natsume's/ mikan's intro to academy life)

Part 4 (covers ch 9-12, corresponds to pt 3 of natsume's/ dodgeball, letters, culture fest announcement, and central town)

Part 5 (covers ch 13-16, corresponds to pt 4 of natsume's/ the reo arc)

Part 6 (covers ch 17-19, corresponds to pt 5 of natsume's/ culture fest throughout the SA event)

Part 7 (covers ch 20-22, corresponds to pt 5+6 of natsume's/ culture fest up to imai sibling meeting)

Part 8 (covers ch 23-26, corresponds to pt 6 of natsume's/ culture fest up to conclusion)

Part 9 (covers ch 26-30, corresponds to pt 7 of natsume's/ exams, kaname & bear's story, beginning of z arc)

Part 10 (covers ch 31-35, corresponds to pt 8 of natsume's/ part 2 of z arc up to going through the tunnel)

Part 11 (covers ch 36-39, corresponds to pt 9 of natsume's/ part 3 of z arc up to mikan falling in the sand trap)

Part 12 (covers ch 40-43, corresponds to pt 9+10 of natsume's/ part 4 of z arc up to pengy's death)

Part 13 (covers ch 44-47, corresponds to pt 10+11 of natsume's/ conclusion of z arc, natsume's bday and christmas prep)

Part 14 (covers ch 48-52, corresponds to pt 12 of natsume's/ christmas ball and winter cleaning)

Part 15 (covers ch 53-55, corresponds to pt 13 of natsume's/ part 1 of new year's arc up to n&m sleeping together)

Part 16 (covers ch 56-61, corresponds to pt 14/ part 2 of new year's arc up to h+r+m chasing after natsume and ruka deciding to tell his and natsume's tale)

Part 17 (covers ch 65-67, corresponds to pt 15 of natsume's/ part 3 of new year's arc up to mikan getting hit by persona's alice for the first time)

Part 18 (covers ch 68-70, corresponds to pt 15 of natsume's/ part 4 of new year's arc up to conclusion and aoi's departure)

Part 19 (covers ch 71-73, corresponds to pt 16 of natsume's/ part 1 of transition arc, including alice stones and valentines day)

Part 20 (covers ch 74-76, corresponds to pt 16 of natsume's/ part 2 of transition arc, including the graduation concert and hoshino)

Part 21 (covers ch 77-80, corresponds to pt 17 of natsume's/ part 1 of sports fest arc up to equipment mishap)

Part 22 (covers ch 81-84, corresponds to pt 18 of natsume's/ part 2 of sports fest arc up to the borrowing race)

Part 23 (covers ch 85-88, corresponds to pt 18 of natsume's/ part 3 of sports fest arc up to kibasen and conclusion)

Part 24 (covers ch 89-92, corresponds to pt 19 of natsume's/ soul swap arc)

Part 25 (covers ch 93-95, corresponds to pt 20 of natsume's/ transition arc including swimming up to n&m hugging to comfort each other)

Part 26 (covers ch 96-100, corresponds to pt 21 of natsume's/ beginning of escape arc, natsume's confessions)

Part 27 (covers ch 101-110, corresponds to pt 22 of natsume's/ part 1 of time travel arc up to n&m/kaoru&yuka parallel)

Part 28 (covers ch 111-123, corresponds to pt 22+23 of natsume's/ part 2 of time travel arc up to conclusion and mikan's decision)

Part 29 (covers ch 124-131, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 1 of high school arc up to hotaru's farewell)

Part 30 (covers ch 132-134, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 2 of high school arc, including mikan getting 3 love confessions and returning 1)

Part 31 (covers ch 135-139, corresponds to pt 24 of natsume's/ part 3 of high school arc up to conclusion and yuka's death)

Part 32 (covers ch 140-142, corresponds to pt 25 of natsume's/ reuniting with mikan in labyrinth)

Part 33 (covers ch 143-145, corresponds to pt 26 of natsume's/ rapunzel arc)

Part 34 (covers ch 150-163, corresponds to pt 27 of natsume's/ new year's concert, escaping with persona, and natsume's death)

Part 35 (covers ch 164-166/ mikan trying to save natsume)

Part 36 (covers ch 167-169/ mikan's widow arc)

Part 37 (covers ch 170-172/ memories lesson)

Part 38 (covers ch 173-177/ mikan's departure)

Part 39 (covers ch 178-180, corresponds to pt 29 of natsume's/ final chapters... this part is just me ranting actually)

Part 40 (covers nm content in kageki/ corresponds to pt 30 of natsume's)

To be continued because Tumblr hates me and I hate it back <3

[ribbonsfallaway]

For some reason I had a sick curiousity to binge/rewatch SLOTAT. I know it's bad. as is the acting, but I was still curious since it's been years since I've seen the show, and I really just wanted to get to that epic "God killed my dad because I had great sex" story arc. Amazing. Anyways...

When watching, I had this feeling from what fans have said that Ricky would develop into this amazing character/boyfriend/father that Amy should be so grateful to have, and Amy was so selfish unbearable shrew.

Now season 2 Amy sucks. Season 1 Amy was nice albiet bratty at times, but she was a pregnant 15 year old so I was willing to give her some slack. But season 2 Amy really was unbearable, and selfish as hell. I will agree I hated her then.

Come season 3 there's a shift, and I think there was this really nice progression with her. When she went to New York she really matured a lot. She wasn't dangling custody issues in front of Ricky anymore, and now trusting him more, she reached out to Adrian. Adrian whom slept with Ben to get back at her and Ricky when she found out she was pregnant with Ben's baby, because Amy's done the whole teenage pregnancy thing, and gets it. I was usually Team Adrian but I shifted when Adrian kept constanty being catty to her despite Amy extending a very undeserved olive branch.

For about a season and a half Amy was very likeable, and mature, and the character progression dropped again come season 4B-5. Mainly her reaction to Anne being a lesbian. That was bad. She was even annoying me with Ricky sometimes.

But come season 5... I was confused on how people were deeming Ricky this great guy who deserved better. When the biggest crime Amy committed prior to the finale was dare to maybe want to go to school in New York.

Ricky was an ass in season 5. Wanting to/at least thinking of cheating on Amy especially with Clementine, talking down to her, and always opening her mail, etc. He was always so... Aggressive?

I think they were trying to tell it from a perspective where he just wanted her to say waht she wanted because Amy was very meek about her wants in season 5, but they did a terrible job at showing it. Cause when she did say maybe, yeah she wanted to go... He demanded the wedding ring back, etc.

Amy could be annoying and bratty, but she wasn't this evil shrew fans and the show tried to push her as, and Ricky certainly wasn't the saint fans and the show tried to push him to be.

I he to wonder if Brenda Hampton hated Shailene the last coupe of seasons, because the way they wrote her, and had others speak about her is...Gross.