#(even though her whole arc is about not being so caught up in the past and reaching out to the people around her)

[rustedleopard]

What astounds me about the whole "you need a pure human SOUL to perfect the serum" thing is that so many people take Chujin's conclusion at face value. Chujin Ketsukane? Chujin "Winner of the 'You Tried In Engineering' Award" Ketsukane? Chujin "Fumbled Inventing Robots So Hard He Earned The Ire Of The Usually Pretty Chill King" Ketsukane? Chujin "I Accidentally Killed A Human Child By Overshooting The Parameters On My Guard Robot" Ketsukane? That Chujin Ketsukane?

[pennyblossom-meta]

L Lawliet: a deep dive into the expanded universe pt.01

EDIT (07/04/2024): Added some imgs.

Apologies for being so late to give this a follow up to @maevearcher's meta which can be found here and here. As usual, she’s made excellent points and I'll try to answer the ones which caught my eye.

Since this post ended up gaining a life of its own and becoming a bit too long, I’m splitting it in 2 or 3 parts. The core of the content for part 01 starts after under the button to Read More.

Here we talk about L's humanity.

I'll start with a disclaimer of my own: while I consider the manga as the base for the story, I'm very much open to the expanded DN universe as a complementary study of the characters and their motivations — sometimes even filling in the blanks for some of the background mysteries, such as the dynamics of Wammy's House and how L's successors view him.

To further clarify: by canon I mean the manga and any works by Tsugumi Ohba as the base material. I think @maevearcher and I are more or less in agreement on that, from what she mentioned in her own posts. As she said, the written word is indeed the baseline truth.

The expansion of the DN universe also has its own very special set of problems; for example, in many ways, L:CtW (L: Change the WorLd) commits the sin of overindulgence by throwing in considerations that, arguably, go against canon. Besides the ending where L lives for a final 23 days and Watari dies, the portrayal of Near in the movie (though in the novel he's also walking a fine line between becoming partially and very much OOC) is also a point of contention. I confess that I really wasn't fond of the way they portrayed Misa as a potential crush of L given canon insights on his opinion about Light whether in the role of Kira or as a person (pg.64 of Vol 13: How to Read, henceforth referred to as V13:HTR), but aligning L to become more humane and forgiving was at least interesting.

The same happens with the live action movies, the 2015 series, and the musical. At least the game Spiraling Trap isn't clashing with canon elements — that I could tell. The main plot is separate from the events of DN and the dating sim is a little slice of heaven into L's thoughts and emotions which I dearly love.

However, while L:CtW does indeed overindulge, the novel AN:LABB (Another Note: LA BB Murder Cases) gives us a singular glimpse into L through the eyes of Mello while keeping the events mostly accurate to the main plot, even with its slight deviations. It's certainly an optional perspective to the core of DN, but one that I always found very insightful. In V13:HTR, Obha mentions how he would’ve liked that there were more novels about L and how he solved previous cases, in a similar fashion to how Nisio Isin approaches AN:LABB. Here’s what Ohba says in pg.61 of V13:HTR:

(...) I didn’t think up much for [L’s] past. For him to be in such an influential position, he must have solved an amazing amount of cases, but I have no idea what kind of cases they were or how he solved them. But I would love for NISIOISIN, who wrote the Death Note novel, to write more stories about that (...)

This means that, to some extent, even the original author, Ohba, accepts AN:LABB as close to canon — or rather, as canon as it can get given the creative liberties allowed to a third party writer. To that point, Nisio Isin took L’s capoeira demonstration during the Yotsuba arc and made it a whole thing in the novel, with L taking inspiration from Naomi Misora’s skills. However, given the importance of that event, in the main story, L takes a while to even remember Misora so we can infer that either the stress of the case is getting to him OR learning capoeira and subsequently Misora’s role in it didn’t leave that much of an imprint on him because true canon didn’t really put that much emphasis into it. Either way, it’s an extrapolation that works. The technicalities can be overlooked given how ambiguous the scene is, as there is more than room to deduce a different past.

At the same time, I am an apologist that there are shared characteristics to L throughout the different mediums. My own interpretation of L's character has the manga as a baseline, but the expanded universe has taught me that there are sides to him that might not be so easy to perceive in dialogue bubbles or illustrations alone. Little things like L's addictive personality or the way he represses feelings are visible in the manga but caught beautifully in the novels, for example.

Going from the written word into the screen also represents a loss of the purity achievable only within the narrative in-book, where you can extrapolate and reach your own conclusions without being subject to the bias of sound and movement — though manga aggregates the visual to words and with it an altogether different dimension of meaning. That's one of the many things I enjoy about elements of fiction introduced through books; the stillness of the images and the narrative are more complex. Every time the baseline gets adapted, it loses something or that something shifts to fit into the perception of others. It ceases being pure and its essence is fundamentally shattered. Like the concept of a musical score on paper that gets played by an orchestra, there will never be an adaptation as good as the source material because it breaks the illusion.

While I can certainly extrapolate and accept the loss, I find that the written word from the novels, the tone of a VA's voice and the body movements in a live action still complement the manga well, despite narrative clashes.

About L’s humanity

Recently I've been re-watching the anime and it's incredible how Alessandro Juliani's understanding of the character resulted in such a well-rounded voice for L. I actually prefer the EN version to the JP because of the voice acting. It's superbly brilliant, even if L becomes less listless. He's certainly still aloof, but his aggressiveness is portrayed more vividly; in contrast, L in the manga feels a bit more dangerous and scary to me due to the range of expressions that the anime didn't manage to add in due to time and budget constraints. If anything L tones down how dangerous he can be. He does this on purpose so that he can trick and trip his adversary, as can be seen during his earlier interactions with Light. At times, L makes a mockery of himself, apparently placing himself in the position of a more demure individual while sharply observing the world around him and forming conclusions.

As to @maevearcher ‘s first point:

(...) An image of this lonely autistic genius, locked inside the confines of his ways, waiting for the right person to come along and save him from the banes of his solitary existence…until he meets Light and realises there’s someone out there who he can relate to, for understanding and stuff. I personally don’t buy too much into that.

The depth to which L relates to Light can be overestimated, but not without reason. Theirs is mostly an adversarial relationship with varying deviations throughout the expanded universe, but if we solely consider the manga then we get this comment from Ohba regarding whether L has any friends on pg.64 of V13: HTR:

Nope. And when he says that Light is his first friend that’s a big lie. He never considers him a friend. He probably secretly thinks really negative things about him.

During the Yotsuba arc, L is at a disadvantage. Light has turned the tables, tricked him into what Beyond Birthday could not do and thus gained a solid position into rendering L almost powerless to charge him. To elaborate on the latter point: BB wanted to create the perfect, unsolvable crime to humiliate L, making him lose, and thus “spend the rest of his life trembling in fear of B’s shadow” (pg.163, AA:LABB); L would know who the guilty party was but wouldn’t be able to prove it or bring that person to justice. As such, L would not be able to solve the mystery. At the end of the novel BB fails due to Misora’s quick thinking and that’s that. However, Light has several advantages that BB lacked, starting with his own social position, charm and the impeccable reputation of a model student and the prized son of a police chief who helps solve cases every now and then.

We can argue that, what truly happens in manga canon, is L and Light showing how much they respect each other for their detective skills, forming a sort of strange kinship within the cat and mouse game, especially when Light loses his memories of the Death Note. The game thrills them and they enjoy pushing each other’s buttons. No one else has ever challenged them like this. That being said, the first time they meet up for coffee after the tennis match, L is observing Light like a hawk, keeps testing him for a reaction and seems somewhat irritated at how much Light talks. I would venture a guess that L doesn’t actually like Light that much, even when he loses his memories. He might even find Light a nuisance when he waves the flag of morality — though this is a common problem L is confronted with when dealing with the Task Force, in particular Chief Yagami and Aizawa. This also places him at another gruesome disadvantage, as he’s surrounded by people who openly dislike and criticise his methods. The Task Force is also extremely wary of the way L pursues Light and think he’s being stubborn without proof to substantiate his reasoning. Ironically, it’s Aizawa, one of L’s most critical subordinates, who initiates Light’s downfall years later once he starts to consider L’s suspicions in light of Near and Mello’s tactics. 

Both L and Light respect the game, no matter where it takes them. I would further make an educated guess that Light even preyed on L’s vulnerabilities during the Yotsuba arc, predicting how L might fall into depression for failing at the game. Light was more than capable of understanding that L’s competitive and childish side would make him a sore loser, especially given that he had already “lost” the first round of battles just by showing his face. Even if there is a sliver of friendship between both during Light’s months of amnesia, it’s dead and buried the moment he becomes Kira again. 

My conclusion here would be that, while what happened with Light was extreme, it was also somewhat similar to Beyond Birthday’s eternal enmity towards L: the challenge, the need to humiliate and take down the greatest detective, one of the most brilliant minds to ever walk the Earth. There are some notable quotes from AA:LABB that reference what it is to be L, surrounded by future challengers and individuals who both look up to L and want to prove they’re better than him:

Pg.69

By simple arithmetic, L's ability in 2002 was the equivalent of five ordinary investigative bureaus, and seven intelligence agencies (and by the time he faced off against Kira, those numbers had leapt upward several more notches). This is easy to think of as a reason to respect and admire someone, but let me say this as clearly as possible: that much ability in one human is extremely dangerous. Modern danger management techniques rely heavily on diffusing the risk, but his very existence was the exact opposite. In other words, if someone was planning to commit a crime, they could greatly increase their chances of getting away with it by simply killing L before they began. That was why L hid his identity Not because he was shy or because he never left the house. To ensure his own safety For a detective of L's ability, self-preservation and the preservation of world peace were one and the same, and it would not be correct to describe his actions as cowardly or self-centered.

Pg. 117

L was the goal of everyone in Wammy's House. Everyone of us wanted to surpass him. To step over him. To step on him. M did, N did, and B did. M as a challenger, N as a successor. B as a criminal.

Pg. 160:

B approached Naomi Misora, calling himself Rue Ryuzaki. Rue Ryuzaki - L.L.  For anyone from Wammy's House, there could be no higher goal than identifying yourself with that letter - and Beyond Birthday seized this case as his chance.

One of the biggest problems with these quotes is that they paint a very complicated — and, ultimately, suffocating — picture of what it is like to be L. Ohba himself mentions Watari’s predisposition towards collecting geniuses from all over the world and what Wammy’s House has turned into, under the snippet for Watari’s character (pg.60 V13:HTR):

He’s a guy who cultivates detectives for fun. That’s kind of terrible, isn’t it?

Everyone profits from L. Watari becomes richer than ever. Wammy's House becomes breeding ground for geniuses who end up dreaming of a life where they enjoy constant thrill and challenge. However, in order to do so, the dream cannot be complete until the successor crushes the original; until M, N, B and A defeat L. At least one of L’s successors couldn’t handle the pressure and committed suicide. B, known as Backup, runs away from the orphanage and goes on a murder rampage. Having never met L in person, he deduces several personality quirks that the “original” demonstrates, going as far as exacerbating them in order to be creepy and repulsive. Mello, who boasts of having met L in person and being privy to stories about how he defeated several other detectives (then taking their aliases as a trophy) both fervently admires L and wants to step on him. 

Step on him. That’s quite the turn of phrase. It does sound scary, doesn’t it? To be surrounded by people who would take the opportunity to pull you down, no matter how much they admire you. They want to be you, to prove that they’re better than you. It’s game and ego. Life and death. Winner and loser. 

And that’s perhaps the most blatant summary in approved canon of what it is like to be L that we’ll ever get. We can, of course, argue that Watari cares about L. He’s not only his handler, but also the one who brought him into Wammy’s House. It’s fairly clear that he nurtured (and even enabled) some of L’s most distressing character traits, though I wouldn’t necessarily say it was with a purely utilitarian agenda. It’s perfectly acceptable to extrapolate how Watari might’ve wanted to keep L, a child of great intellectual genius, happy by allowing him to be challenged and properly educated. In fact, AN:LABB (pg. 145-46) even gives us L’s perspective on the kindness that justice can achieve, which is confirmed within the expanded universe to be similar to Watari’s teachings as L confronts Kujo in L:CtW. 

"I have nothing to do with him," L said. "To be completely accurate, I do not even know B. He is simply someone I am aware of. But none of this affects my judgment. Certainly I was interested in this case, and began to investigate it because I knew who the killer was. But that did not alter the way I investigated it, or the manner in which my investigation proceeded. Naomi Misora, I cannot overlook evil. I cannot forgive it. It does not matter if I know the person who commits evil or not. I am only interested in justice." "Only... in justice... " Misora gasped. "Then ... nothing else matters?" "I wouldn't say that, but it is not a priority." “You won't forgive any evil, no matter what the evil is?" "I wouldn't say that, but it is not a priority." "'But..." Like a thirteen-year-old victim. "There are people who justice cannot save." Like a thirteen-year-old criminal. “And there are people who evil can save." "There are. But even so," L said, his tone not changing at all. As if gently admonishing Naomi Misora. “Justice has more power than anything else." "Power? By power ... you mean strength?" "No. I mean kindness." He said it so easily. Misora almost dropped the phone. L The century's greatest detective, L. The detective of justice, L. Who solved every case, no matter how difficult... " ...I misunderstood you, L." "Did you? Well, I'm glad we cleared that up."

I would, once again, venture another educated guess that, while Watari’s primary reasons for starting a program of successors to L was noble, it ultimately backfired on an individual level. Society wise, the letters, as L calls them in L:CtW, are a force for good. They solve crimes, help law forces around the world to keep peace. Some of them even become scientists like Dr Kujo — though she becomes the main antagonist in the spin-off novel. However, the pressure this kind of lifestyle fostered creates a group of individuals who are highly competitive and manipulative. Some, like A, can’t handle it. Even L has his own troubles, being called a reclusive sociopath, possibly by the police forces who treat him as a utility rather than a person. He’s someone they admire and resent, who is tolerated given how effective he is at cracking down cases. 

This passage from L:CtW paints a grim picture of the way L suppresses his own feelings as he breaks down for not being able to prevent Maki from being kidnapped (pg. 150-51):

"Light...it hurts. My heart--" It was a hurt that L Lawliet had suppressed, that he had to suppress in order to continue his existence as the peerless Detective L. How had the world's top detective been described in regard to facets of his personality rather than his ability as a detective? He had been called a kinky detective who relished bizarre murders, a human computer capable only of measuring mass murders in terms of cold numbers, a reclusive sociopath. What L thought of such estimations of his personality only L could know. But no one could truly understand L. How L did not and could not forget the faces of thousands of victims. Who could comprehend the man who had lived his life, and had to live confronting all the lives that ended prematurely, the tears of grief-stricken survivors, the devaluing of life as a daily reality. How was it possible to measure the pain of such a man? Was it a strain so heavy that L's back curved under all its weight? Was it an agony so terribly to leave the indelible dark circles around his eyes? Was it a feeling so bitter that every bite he took needed to be coated in sugar? The chronically rounded shoulders, the inevitable dark circles, the eccentric tastes--L suppressed the pain of being a champion of justice, but the evidence of the pain was moulded into his very body.”

Even within the clear disparity from the official canon, this passage slaps. It humanises L further, making the detective become a person and not just a machine who is content with his lifestyle. I know there’s a tendency for those who prefer the manga to see L as someone who is unabashedly himself and perfectly alright with the life he lives. I would argue that the Kira case was not only the most difficult challenge L ever faced, but also a series of moments where he had to be at his best — and at his worst. He had to do everything within his power to solve the case, not only because of his pride but because of what he considers to be his sense of justice. Saying with such confidence ‘I am justice’ is a rather cheesy and childish thing to say out loud, though I read it as both what started as a child’s stubbornness and what L became, as he positioned himself as a barrier to prevent crimes. 

L suppresses himself, represses his emotions; he tries to control them, as Fu Takashi says in an interview, he is “dependent on games or battles of the mind”. Perhaps this is a consequence of the foundations of his personality. Despite L’s innate stubbornness, it could be argued that this is as much his fault as it is Watari’s, who didn’t nurture L’s social skills as he should have when he was a child. By not having an outlet outside of his hobby, L is trapped in a prison of his own making. Superficially, L is a “smart guy who hates losing”, but what about the rest? What about the things that make him human, the connections with others? In the same interview, it is mentioned how L feels lonely and needs affection. But what affection can you get when you isolate yourself from the world and keep everyone at arm’s length? He’s not a machine. Even machines become obsolete with time, and need outside help to keep functioning.

As for the latter point, if everyone around L is trying to step on him, humiliate him and surpass him, then it’s only natural that his emotional defences would be up. Aside from Watari, whose loyalty he can count on, he’s alone. L has no one else. And everyone around him will have a dangerous, significant probability to betray him.

Next in part 02: About romance, having someone close and intimate, the meaning of the Monster speech.

Tagging @rinneroraito and @sharkiethrts who might be interested in this meta.

[chuluoyi]

A suggestion: a drunk Satoru! Maybe in the middle of his slurring he delulu seeing Suguru, the rest is up to you! <3

wasted

- gojo satoru x reader

your boyfriend is a very uncooperative drunk, and chaos (read: innuendo) caused by it ensues.

genre/warnings: a crack fic, takes place during gojo's past arc because i just love that setting so much, slight profanity, mildly suggestive

notes: okay nonnie, i have some ideas regarding this *wink*

series masterlist | oneshot masterlist

Gojo Satoru is straight up a bad drunk. He even said so himself, and everyone could attest to that.

So why did you let him drink at this godforsaken bar?

"Shokooo!" Satoru flailed his glass, wobbling on his feet. He sounded so unhinged that made the people next table gave him stink eyes. "Give me anoth-er! Anotheeeer!"

"Hells," Shoko winced at the sight, her hands moving the beer bottle away from his reach. "No, you're positively wasted."

You plucked the glass out of his hands. "Cut it out, Gojo. You're making a scene!"

"Anooo—" he hiccupped, his weight dangerously leaning on you in an attempt to get his glass back as well as forcing Shoko to grant him another cup. "—theerrr! Anotherrr! Shokooo! C'mon!"

"Do something about him! Or else we're going to be stuck here."

"I'm trying!"

This whole night was a total mishap. None of you are of age, and therefore neither of you should have gone out for drinks by falsifying your IDs. Shoko initially just invited you and Nanami, until the latter promptly declined when Satoru sprung out of nowhere and declared himself going.

He whipped his head so suddenly when the bell in the entrance of the bar jingled. A customer walked in, and he was a total stranger—neither you or Shoko recognized him.

“Oh my… isn’t that…”

But Satoru, teary-eyed in his drunken haze, seemed to see far beyond you did. "...Suguru? Suguruuuu!"

"Oh God, no!" You kept your hands on his waist tightly as he almost leapt out to barrel towards the poor stranger. "Shoko! Help!"

"Gojo, you shithead! He is not! Stop it!"

"But he is! Suguruuuu~!"

And so his thrashing and the ruckus he caused got the three of you kicked out of the bar. Shoko immediately washed her hands off him by saying that she was hopping to the next bar and left you struggling to keep your balance, with Satoru heavily leaning on you as the two of you trek across the road to Jujutsu High compound.

"Gojo—don't do that! Keep walking!"

"Mmmmm~" he slurred, swaying to the left and right as he pleased and you swore, one more time and you would fling him to the asphalt. "Why Gojo? It's Satoru! Sa-to-ru!"

"Come on you ass, we need to go back!" you hissed.

"Say my name first!"

And when he deliberately swayed dangerously to the side, you really let him go—and then he hit the sidewalk.

You wanted to scream. Satoru merely burst into a fit of giggles though.

Somehow, you managed to get him back. But this whole disaster didn't end there as right after you unlocked his door, he suddenly pushed his whole weight on you, making you bump into the counter.

"It hurts! Satoru, you idiot!" You scowled, rubbing your stinging shoulder—it would probably leave a nasty bruise. And it caught his attention. Satoru turned to you, his sparkly eyes boring right into yours.

"You're pwetty," he jabbed a finger at your face, slurring. You flinched at how close his finger to your eye socket was.

"Thank you." You swat his finger away, not in favor of the possibility of being blind tonight. "Now we must get you to the bed. Come—"

You apparently didn't know that alcohol could mess his system so much that it came as a total surprise when he crashed his lips onto yours without warning. "Mmfh!"

Satoru grabbed the back of your head and entangled his fingers in your hair, deepening the kiss. It was searing, his tongue attacking your mouth and sometimes bit your lips and he was so good—

He then led you to his bed, and tore your shirt open, his deft hands caressing and fondling everything your body had to offer, and for a moment even you felt drunk too. It was intoxicating how quickly he rendered you putty, how the blue in his eyes darkened with desire, and it was all for you—

"Sweetheart," he whispered in a low, scratchy voice. "Now, open up for me, yeah?"

You barely caught the meaning of his words when a finger inside you made you see stars. Your eyes widened, and your moans were muffled when he shoved his mouth again against yours. It was dizzying, and you felt lost in his arms, as he kept twisting his finger inside.

This certainly wasn't what you imagined it was going to be. You two were a couple, and couples fuck. But this... you had half a mind to push him away, and you were really going to, when he suddenly pulled away from the kiss, gazing at you with half-lidded, unfocusing eyes and sloppy grin.

"... really... you are..."

And to your horror, he suddenly collapsed, his full weight squashing you.

You blinked in disbelief. What just happened? You felt like a starfish pinned under a rock.

And all you could fathom now was that this grown-ass man child had left you aroused and wet down there.

When Satoru woke up the next morning, he was in a shocking amount of hangover. There was this dull ache in the back of his head and forefront of his temples, and he felt nauseous. He braced himself against the headboard, willing it to pass.

He had been drinking. He took a mental note not to ever drink again. He always feels so miserable afterwards. What possessed him to go for it last night? Darn him and his impulsivity.

He remembered thinking the world had became such a happy place. He remembered seeing Suguru and thinking he had come to give him a hug. He remembered you sulking against him, and you looked so freaking cute that he couldn't help but pounce on you altogether.

And that's where his memory blanked out. What happened afterwards?

Then he realized that you were beside him on this very bed. He looked at you, who had barely cocooned yourself in the blanket. Your hair was in disarray, a few buttons of your shirt loosened—missing, even? And is that what he thinks it is on your neck?

Did he bite you so hard that you bled?

Dread pooled at his gut at the possibility of what he had done.

"Hey," he muttered, shaking you, in a state of half-panic. "Hey—wake up, please."

You whined at the rude awakening, cracking one eye open. "Satoru..." your voice was still thick with sleep and a deep frown creased on your face. "...what is it?"

And Satoru shuddered. The way his name rolled from your lips so languidly seemed to ignite something feral within him, but he ignored it.

"Hey, uh—are you... are you okay?"

"Huh?" you shot him an annoyed grunt. "It's still early, Satoru. Please, I need sleep. I'm tired after the shit you pulled on me last night."

"What shit?" he tried to sound unconcerned with the way you referred it, but he still gulped.

"...you don't remember?"

"Sorry," he muttered.

"Gods..." now you were frustrated. You buried your face in the pillow. "You put me through hell, Satoru. And not to mention—"

"Did I force myself on you?" he asked with a lower tone. "If I did, I'm... sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to."

"Hu—what?"

Satoru felt another wave of nausea at his gut, and he tried to suppress it. "I didn't mean to wreck you. I know I'm lousy, but that definitely wasn't what I planned."

Confusion was palpable on your face, even though you were still half-asleep. "Sure... it's okay..."

"I..." Satoru was at a loss of words. You were all but confirming that he did rail you in the worst way. He wasn't exactly the type who would make the first time memorable or such, but he certainly didn't want it to be a forceful act on a spur of a drunken night. What could he say to that?

"Satoru? You don't seem well," you furrowed your brows, noticing how restless and pale he was. "Are you having hangover? Do you want some water?"

He wanted to kick himself as his sanity eaten away by the sheer guilt and shame. He pressed both hands to cover his face. "I'm so uncool..."

"Finally you're realizing it. Would be better if you do it during the day and not—" You checked your phone. "—at freaking five in the morning. But seriously, are you doing okay? You drank quite a lot last night."

No, he wasn't. The urge to puke was still there and his head was still pounding.

"What's gotten into you?" now worry was present in your tone. "Satoru, please. You're acting strange. It's still to early for whatever it is that you're plotting. Just tell me if you're not feeling well."

He stayed quiet for a while, trying to remember to what extend the damage he had done. But you seemed to translate it as him not feeling well as you let out a sigh and begrudgingly sat up to get him a glass of water. Poor you, he thought. Should he take an advantage of you fully and unashamedly just like he usually did?

You handed him the glass. "Here, drink this." He took it, but just stared at it. His crestfallen expression made you twitch in irritation. "Drink already. What are you thinking anyway?"

"Don't you... resent me?" Satoru mumbled with resignation, finally having the courage to look at you.

"For what? Last night?"

"What else? Why are you still worrying about me?"

"That's..." you faltered, bewildered. "You feel that bad about it? Satoru, you were a pain but it's your everyday thing already so be grateful that I'm not holding it against you."

"Everyday thing?" he asked incredulously. "Hey, it's—that's not something I do everyday!"

"It sure is! You are always whining, being dramatic and causing trouble!"

"Hey, but it's not about that! I'm talking about how I almost did you with violence!"

"Do... me?"

"That!" he pointed at your bruised neck, then looked away with guilt. "I... don't know how it escalated to that, but I'm truly sorry."

You reached to the bruise, somewhere between your neck and shoulder, and winced a bit. "Ah this. You pushed me and I crashed into that cupboard."

"Oh?" Satoru blinked in surprise. "And that, your shirt? Your missing buttons?"

"You tore it, but then you fell on me, you idiot."

"So... I didn't rape you?"

Your face immediately burst into the shades of red. You scrunched up your face in exasperation. "I'll blast you if you did it without my consent, Gojo Satoru. But thankfully no."

A whole load of self-blame dissipated from him and he almost laughed had the urge to throw up not this overwhelming.

"Apparently you're decent enough to think if you've wronged me. It's a surprise," you mused with a smug grin.

"Of course I am!" he scowled. But suddenly his queasiness shot up, and his vision blurred. And what came next was the contents of his stomach.

"Satoru! What the hell!? Don't vomit on me!"

Epilogue

"And that's what happened," you explained with contempt. Satoru puckered his lips in indignation, meanwhile Shoko threw her head back, wheezing in a fit of laughter.

"Gojo, you're such a baby," she cackled with satisfaction. "Losing against mere alcohol. Not the strongest, after all, huh?"

He rolled his eyes. "I hope your liver rots from drinking and smoking so much."

[talesfromawannabejournalist]

Furry Companion

welp here it is, ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce of the storyline of arc 1 written by @talesfromawannabejournalistand and @kittenfangirl20

also special thanks to @rius-cave for giving me some inspiration for the plot, and thanks to @helluvahazbins for giving me inspiration for the Hellhound character and her appearance from their own art.

@kittenfangirl20 see at end of notes

Lucifer knew there would be a day like this would eventually come. Since the moment Adam woke up in Hell as a sinner and fallen angel Lucifer had vowed have him protected and happy at all times. It was the least he could do after all he did to him. In the beginning it was easy to keep him entertained as he mainly stayed in his room. He stayed in the hotel all the time so he wasn’t worried too worried about it.

But now, especially since they officially got together, Lucifer’s been busy more with his work as King, he can’t be by Adam’s side all the time and Adam was wanting to go out more. Plus Adam needed someone, a companion. Sure he had Angel Dust but that was about it. It didn’t help that the other residents, beside Angel and Charlie, were outright hostile towards him. Lucifer swore that if it wasn’t Hell itself Adam needed to watch out for Vaggie and Alastor and maybe even Nifty but for a whole other reason.

In any event Adam needed a companion, his own hellhound, which is why they were both at a an adoption clinic with the head director walking past kennel after kennel of teens with her going on about the different potentials of each hound. Adam was growing bored and to be honest a bit annoyed at being dragged here by Lucifer. He thought this whole adoption process with Hell hounds was weird, they were treated almost like pets. Yes, they had an animal appearance but they were sentient just like the rest of the demons in Hell. As he was thinking about it in the corner of his eye a movement caught his eye.

There in the back was a young hellhound, who appeared to be female, she appeared to be 12-14 years old. She had the appearance of husky and wolf dog mixed together with dark fur and and long black hair that covered a part of her face. However, when she looked up he saw both her eyes as they flashed red and she growled at him.

Director: sir please stay away from that kennel specifically we’ve had incidents in the past where some male adopters got too close and lost a hand to her. Let’s just say she’s just too unstable to be a good guard for you

Lucifer: come on my dear I’m sure there are plenty others for you to choose from

Adam: yeah you go ahead Luci I think I’m just uh gonna go to the bathroom

Lucifer raised an eyebrow but ultimately shrugged following the lady in charge as she showed Lucifer the other hounds. Adam waited till they were out of ear shot then turned his attention back to the girl who was just glaring at him waiting for him to do something

Adam: um hi

She didn’t respond

Adam: my names Adam, what’s yours?

???: Lydia

Adam gave her a smile

Adam: it’s a pretty name

Instead of a smile she instead bared her teeth and scooted even further deep into her kennel

Lydia: the fuck did you just say!?

Adam: I said it’s a pretty name

Lydia: Get the fuck away from me before I tore open your guts for all of Hell to see!

When Adam didn’t move away from the bars she let out an intimidating bark

Lydia: what the fuck do you want!?

Adam: Nothing I just wanted your name

Lydia: well you know my name now you can go back to your royal boy toy and pick out a good hellhound, just just please go away and leave me alone

Adam stared at Lydia, even though she was telling him to go, deep down inside he knew that’s not what she wanted. Looking at her was like looking at himself when he was in a similar position not just when he revived here in Hell but when he was left abandoned over and over again in his life. Scared, confused, and lashing out at everyone because it was the only way to express how she was feeling. At that moment he knew that he couldn’t let her stay here. Exhaling he stepped away from the bars and crouched a little to make himself appear less intimidating to her. Adam: Lydia, you can say no to this, but…I can take you away from here, would you like that?

Lydia stood up from her cot and took slow small steps over to him. Adam could see her full height being at 5’7. As she got closer he could see her guard was still up until she was standing right in front of him. Lydia stared down deep into Adam’s eyes and even though she didn’t know why, she didn’t feel in danger by this sinner. In fact she felt her walls tore down as she saw nothing but earnestness in them as he seemed like genuinely wanted to help her. Tears started to form in her eyes as she looked down and gave her answer

Lydia: …..yes

alright Kitten, hoped you liked it now it’s your turn

[soleminisanction]

The thing I keep coming back to, now that I've wrapped up the first part of "Batgirl, Repentant" and am starting to outline the second, is how much the book's hyper-focus on Steph hamstrings the story I think they're trying to tell.

I say I think because obviously I can't read the writers' minds so for all I know they taped the random lip service about hope and justice and fighting for the little guys onto the Stephanie-love-fest in a half-assed response to criticism, but I'm trying to give them the benefit of the doubt and believe that when the first arc ends with:

And that gets followed up two issues later with Steph telling Damian:

I want to take them at their word that that's what they're going for. But it's not the story they tell at all because, for all the lip service paid, there's not a single plot point that actually backs those themes up. Every single narrative element is instead 100% oriented around Stephanie, her feelings, her desires, and her ambitions, none of which involve helping or protecting other people.

Batgirl's first appearance in issue 1 isn't about bringing hope or protecting anybody, it's about, "Ooooh, who is this mysterious new Batgirl who's such a badass but looked down on by The Man for being a little chaotic? Ta-da, it's Stephanie Brown!!"

When she talks about promises being made to her mom (by which of course I mean lies, she's just lying to her mother) or the supposed "promise" she didn't actually make to Tim Drake, it's all framed as unreasonable expectations that other people are piling onto Steph's shoulders, without so much as a second thought for how the person she supposedly made these promises to might feel.

When Cass leaves her the Batgirl costume, it's not with requests to carry on the legacy or protect Gotham in her absence or even to look out for Barbara, it's all about Cass's relationship with Bruce (as though that was ever her motivation!) and then "Now the fight is yours, Stephanie" while she vanishes into the rain in her underwear. Like Batgirl is a toy she's letting Steph have her fair turn with now that she doesn't want to play anymore.

When Steph thinks about the symbolism of the Bat and of Batgirl, it's not about how it can be a symbol of hope and protection in the darkness of Gotham, it's about how it makes her feel powerful. Even when she worries about messing up it's framed as, "Nothing I do ever ends well" and "It's just a matter of time before I get caught," not concerns about the harm her previous attempts that "didn't end well" wound up doing to other people.

And despite the fact that there's a riot going on in the next few pages, she's not inspired to go out and help with that, but to assist a single dumbass cop who got in over his head.

And then again when Babs shows up to chew her out in the next issue, it's all about Steph and her safety. "You already died" this and "You have a death wish" that. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, only gets to talk about the symbolism of Batgirl as it relates to Stephanie Brown -- "Wearing that Bat on your chest might scare off the smaller thugs, but you're literally asking, no, begging for attention from more dangerous criminals. You're a mark for anyone who wants to make theirs."

Again, even the fact that she fucked up in the past and hurt people is framed around Steph -- "The last time you tried being helpful, you accidentally brought Gotham to its knees." And while Steph pays lip service to "doing this instead of sleeping" because she "thinks it's right," she doesn't ever elaborate on what exactly is "the right thing" she thinks she's doing, and it's not like she's gone out to protect people. You can't even argue, like you maybe could with the street race, that she's doing a flashy display to show ordinary people there's someone on their side -- she's beating up random goons in an isolated chop-shop.

Then of course there's the fact that nothing about Scarecrow's whole Thrill plot makes any sense because he's not being written with any kind of coherent villain motivation, it's all just being done to set up moments for Steph. Why do some of his goons decide to spike the punch at a random college party and then run away at just the right moment to make themselves look as suspicious as possible? Because Stephanie's going to be there and they need to hook her into that plot.

And when Steph argues with Babs later about why they should work together to solve this case, does she express concern about her classmates or her university, or even point out that Barbara isn't working with an on-the-street agent like she has in the past and hey, maybe you'd be a little less stressed if you had someone to share the load?

Nope. It's just "I'm just as much a part of it now as you are!"

To say nothing of my eternal, teeth-grinding frustration over Barbara's characterization. "I'm only being so hard on her because I'm jealous that she's Batgirl and I'm not anymore." Fuck all the way off, Bryan Q. Miller.

This whole thing is so bad that when you get to the climax of this arc -- when they've tracked Scarecrow and his goons to their creepy hospital lair -- the stakes aren't that anyone is in danger, or that there's any chance that Scarecrow might be able to escape in the next five minutes before the police arrive. In fact, if Steph's actual motivation was to make sure Scarecrow saw justice, it would've been a better strategy for her to stay outside watching the exits so she could jump him if he tried to make a run for it.

But she doesn't do that. Because the actual stakes for the climax of the first arc are that if she doesn't swing in and beat the shit out of Scarecrow right the fuck now, the police will beat her to it and then Stephanie won't get the credit for saving the day.

They even try to clumsily raise the stakes by implying that Scarecrow works for Black Mask, a plot point that goes absolutely nowhere because -- whoopsie -- Black Mask is dead at this point and has been since before Steph came back to life. He only ever showed up again as a Black Lantern in Blackest Night, at which point Ivy fed him to a plant.

(They did not fix this in the trade paperback version BTW, I checked)

There's some effort to turn Steph's fight with Scarecrow into something more by having him spout some weird nonsense about how he's controlling people with drugs because, "Nobody truly has a choice little girl" while she represents free will fighting back against attempts to take it away, but that's seriously hamstrung by the fact that writing is all over the place.

Like, at the start of Steph's big dramatic speech, she's all but arguing against the concept of free will, echoing an earlier classroom discussion I've bitched about before, saying that people (by which of course she actually means herself) stay when things get tough "Because we don't know how to do anything else."

But on the very next page she poses the question again and answers it with... frankly complete nonsense.

Because the point isn't actually 'control vs. free will', the whole thing -- all of the forced, misunderstood philosophy that fills out this entire arc -- is actually just repeating the same question Babs was asking earlier, this time in metaphor -- why does Stephanie keep throwing herself into danger, why doesn't she just quit?

And her answers, apparently, are, "because this is who I want to be" and "because I don't know how do anything else." Neither of which spare even a passing thought for anyone but herself, which is kind of a problem if you're trying to present Batgirl's mission statement as bringing hope to the people around her.

Then there's the bit about "facing your worst self," which refers to slightly before this, when Scarecrow drugs Steph with Thrill (a move that makes no sense in-universe because again, Scarecrow is only here to set up set pieces for Stephanie and has zero internal logic of his own). What Steph sees during that sequence is her ex-boyfriend and previous identity tearing her down and telling her that she's not good enough to be a superhero, which implies that her 'worst self' is self-doubt, or possibly "letting other people make you doubt yourself." Again -- all about her, with other people framed as nothing but obstacles to her happiness.

And just to remind you-- she has no actual reason to be here. She's not "saving the city," the city is not under threat. She's not doing anything heroic by throwing herself into this fight. She's only doing this because she wanted the credit for saving the day. That's the only stake the story ever establishes.

It's like there's this standing assumption that she must obviously want to be superhero for selfless reasons, therefore they don't need to bring that up ever and can just focus on how much she wants to be one and how noble it is that she's willing to fight through pain and hardship to be one.

But that's just not how it works? Maybe if you were still writing for the Golden Age when the storytelling was simpler and characterization was optional, but not in 2009. Part of the purpose of a solo book's first arc is to establish/re-establish the core hero's motivation and, if it's changed, explain how and why.

Just as a contemporary example -- Red Robin sends Tim Drake off on what's literally a personal quest and spends its first arc establishing how he's darker and more alone than he's ever been before... but it still opens with him rescuing a kidnapping victim, reaffirming that, whatever he's going through and whatever he has to do to accomplish his goal, he's still, at heart, a hero who will put his own needs aside to protect an innocent. That's also the role that Tam Fox essentially plays in the second arc, giving him someone to protect even when he's isolated from the normal push and pull of the DCU.

Whether you're approaching Batgirl (2009) as a new reader who's never met Steph before in your life, or as someone who read her previous material, there is nothing in this first arc, or those that follow, that establishes her motivation beyond, "I want to be Batgirl and I won't let anyone tell me no." She'll occasionally say she's being selfless and heroic, but it's not backed up by her actions or her thoughts.

Perhaps the most blatant self-contained example of this "It's all about Stephanie and obviously she's a perfectly selfless hero so we don't need to bother establishing it," mindset comes in the denouncement of the first arc. They recreate the vow in the dark -- not the most iconic scene in Batman history but still one that's well-known, a moment that goes all the way back to the first appearance of Robin, when Dick and Bruce vowed an "undying oath" to fight together against crime and corruption and never to swerve from the path of righteousness, symbolically committing themselves to act as a light in the darkness and protectors of the innocent.

Batgirl (2009) recreates this scene... by having Barbara vow to support Stephanie Brown and only Stephanie Brown in everything that she does "for as long as she wants it" so she "won't go out alone" and end up in a chair like Babs did. Meanwhile, Steph's response boils down to, "Oh yeah totes me too," because, according to the book, she doesn't need to take an oath, it's just completely self-evident that she's already made her right choice and will obviously continue to do the same forever and ever, no doubt about it.

Two extra little details scattered throughout:

Through the entire series, Steph is constantly doing this obnoxious humble-brag thing of, "I'm Stephanie Brown, and I'm just a normal girl tee-hee" over images of her doing badass Batgirl things that are obviously supposed to be ironic, and she always uses her full name. The trade paperback version is literally called, "Batgirl: Stephanie Brown" because there's nothing else to say about this story. Tim Drake: Robin didn't use his full name this much and it was actually in the title.

And that's not even getting into how often they waste entire pages on splash images of just... Stephanie. Not Stephanie doing anything special, just, Stephanie, and we're supposed to be very awed and impressed by her because she's Stephanie Brown and she's Batgirl now wowie wow wow.

That one tiny little caption box in the upper-left corner of the last page of the storyline? That's literally the first and only time that the concept of "Batgirl makes sure everyone gets home to see tomorrow" is ever mentioned.

This his is all just the first storyline. This same pattern continues on into the rest of the book, only getting worse as they add in other Batfamily member guest-stars for Steph to show up and prove wrong, and stock civilians who do nothing but shower her with praise and adoration. The tiny little sprinkles they offer up of, "Oh yeah I'm doing this to bring hope to the people of Gotham!!" just don't compare to deluge of "Steph gets to be Batgirl because she wants to be Batgirl, that makes her the coolest motherfucker on the planet, and if you disagree you must be sexist."

---

TL;DR (and sorry this got so long) -- Bryan Q. Miller et. al seem to be either under the impression (or want to give the impression) that they're telling the story of Stephanie Brown, the plucky young girl who never gave up on her dream of being a superhero no matter the haters or setbacks she faced, and how seeing her succeed despite being so average and relatable inspires other average people to have hope and fight for a better tomorrow.

But the story they actually tell is of Stephanie Brown, a teenage girl utterly obsessed with becoming a superhero to the exclusion of all else, including her own well-being, future, and relationships with her friends and family, apparently just because she likes the way it makes her feel, has no self-control and can't imagine herself doing anything else, who is applauded and cheered for this by everyone she meets, save for a small handful of haters who are just there to be proven wrong, beaten up, or both.

The first could've been a good-ish story -- ish, because it doesn't actually engage with Steph's previous characterization, but that's a different post -- but it's just not the story they told.

[ghostofskywalker]

Not Lost, But Not Yet Found

Crosshair/Fem!Reader

Fictober Day 16 of 31

Words: 1,193

Summary: After returning to his brothers, Crosshair finds himself wondering about the new member of the team. Once he finds out the reason you're acting so withdrawn, his view of you changes completely.

Note: this fic can be read as both something that will be eventually romantic or something more platonic, it's up to you :)

Clone Troopers Masterlist

Crosshair was still getting re-oriented with how things worked on the Marauder now, and one of the many things he had questions about was the newest member of the team. Not Omega, as he had spent enough time going through the Republic-turned-Empire’s files to know her story, but you.

You weren’t rude or abrasive, but you kept to yourself on the ship, and Crosshair rarely found himself in the same room as you. Even when the rest of the team was gathered together, if the meeting was not mission-related, you were not present. At first he thought it might be because you were uncomfortable around the others, but from the snippets of conversation that he caught from the rest of the his brothers when you weren’t around made it sound like you hadn’t always acted this way around them, and that your current state was a new development.

He probably shouldn’t have cared as much as he did, but it wasn’t hard to tell that there was something going on. Of course he wanted to be able to know whether or not he could trust you, but he also wanted to know what role his brothers had played in your past, and what had changed to make you this much more secluded

Hunter and Tech probably wouldn’t give up much about your story, especially if they were unsure about Crosshair’s intentions, so he decided to ask Wrecker. The most openly empathetic of the batch, he knew that Wrecker probably felt the strongest worry for you (if there truly was something wrong), and he was most likely to admit to it when asked.

“I haven’t seen the new member of the team around too much,” Crosshair said as he drank a cup of caf in the cockpit of the ship. No one else was up but him and Wrecker, and that wouldn’t change for a while, which made it the perfect opportunity to get some information.

“I know what you mean,” was Wrecker’s response. “She’s around, but I think her sleep schedule is all messed up.”

“Is she alright?” Crosshair asked.

“She’s not sick, but I think her heart is a little bit broken,” Wrecker said. “After Echo left and all that.”

Echo. He had obviously noticed the absence of the ARC trooper that had spent time traveling with them before Crosshair fell victim to the Empire. He knew that Echo had left to travel join a more organized sect of the Rebellion with Rex, but he didn’t quite understand the what connection that piece of information had to you. “Echo?”

Wrecker nodded. “Don’t tell her I told you, but she got all smiley when he was around and he never noticed.”

Okay, all of this was starting to make sense. Although Crosshair hadn’t experienced what was being described, he knew that heartbreak was a powerful adversary, and that it would likely be a while before you truly recovered. “Did Echo feel the same way about her?”

“He never said anything about it, but I think so,” Wrecker said. “He always looked out for her way more than he did any of us, even though we all knew that she could take care of herself. But he felt we should be doing more to fight, and Hunter wanted to find somewhere to settle down.”

Deep down, Crosshair felt the same way Echo did. He didn’t think he would ever be truly able to settle somewhere if he knew that the greedy hands of the Empire were continuing to reach towards the every end of the galaxy. But he also understood the fear that was probably consuming Hunter’s brain, the worry that they would be the ones responsible if Omega got hurt. He had always been the one in charge, and that meant he felt it was his responsibility to care for the whole squad.

Having learned a lot from his conversation with Wrecker, Crosshair didn’t change the way he went about his days, but he always kept an eye or an ear out for you. He noticed when you spent the day in your bunk and said something offhand to Tech, who made sure that food was set aside for you when you wanted it, and every once in a while he would mention something in passing to Omega, and she would spend a little time trying to cheer you up. Obviously it never completely changed how you lived, but you could never resist the infectious smile of his little sister.

When they decided to spend some time on Pabu, you started to come out of your shell a little. Maybe it was the sunlight, maybe it was the food, or maybe you were just starting to get a little better, but whatever it was, Crosshair was happy to see it. You were always kind to him, even though you didn’t interact with each other too often, and he could see why his brothers cared about you.

The first real conversation that he had with you happened to be in the middle of the night. He was sitting on the shore of the city, staring out at the waves as they crashed in and pulled away on the sand, all illuminated by the light of a moon high in the sky when he heard something behind him. It was only when he turned around did he see you, looking a little shocked to see anyone else but otherwise generally okay.

“Sorry,” you said quickly. “I didn’t realize anyone else was out here.”

“Don’t worry about it,” was Crosshair’s response. “You can stay, if you’d like.”

“Thank you,” you said, sitting down next to him.

The two of you sat in relative silence for a few minutes before you broke the silence, and the next thing he knew, you were having a full-on conversation.

Talking to you wasn’t stressful or annoying, Crosshair realized, like it could sometimes be with people he didn’t know too well. It was clear that his brothers had talked about him to you, because you mentioned things in passing that you would have no way to know about, like the way he took his caf or the fact that he had a sweet tooth worse than anyone else on the ship (even though he still claims Tech’s is worse).

It broke his heart even more knowing how you must feel, thinking that Echo never noticed you and then just got up and left. And unwittingly, he felt his ice-frozen heart begin to melt just a little bit faster after speaking to you. Maybe he did have a permanent place among his brothers, and he would certainly want to stay here if he found out you were staying too.

He didn’t bring up the fact that he knew about why you were withdrawn, instead trying to give you a reason to break free from the haze of melancholy that followed you around.

It wouldn’t be an instantaneous switch, that he knew, but Crosshair liked to think that when the two of you finally went your separate ways (after hours sitting there on that beach), you were feeling a little bit less heartbroken.

- the end - 

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[jonsnowunemploymentera]

The thing about Bran's intended importance (supposedly kingship of all no less) is it falls flat as far as this due to the lack of hinting of... what that even is supposed to "do" in the grand scheme of things? The show's version of some totalitarian regime with 24/7 surveillance from the magical King is fucked up, and it's hard to understand what else would make Bran special otherwise.

The only people interested in the idea (and only as surface level) are big Stark only Stans who just see it as "Starks get everything because" and that's as deep as it gets.

The idea of who would have leadership to rebuild the world is too much built on stanning as a whole. The only ones with an actual leg to stand on are fans of Daenerys simply because her entire arc is trying at different things to restructure an oppressive elite based governing only to at this point end up with the realisation that their class simply cannot exist in a society without seeking to opress so they have to go. That's also what we see in Westeros, so both monarchy AND lordship power must be evaporated. So there's that.

But Martin isn't even angling for that as far as it seems (which would mean even Targaryens and Daenerys relinquishing power by the end and all, even if it would be the system she is currently trying to develop to be applied), but angles for a 'King'. One whose power is magic, which makes one think it is what would make him King, hence angling for the show end which is frightening as a form of government. And in the 'political' sense he's a nice kid who means well for others, but that's it. It's just the whole having a nice lord now and then without guarantee for the next.

So while it might be little page time and some unfairness for Bran, outside of people just stanning "Stark supremacy" in vague terms, it's hard to think of why and in what direction people would 'root' for Bran in the specific intended importance of role he's apparently meant to have.

Whew, you sent a big one. So I’ll try to break it up and answer in parts.

The thing about Bran's intended importance (supposedly kingship of all no less) is it falls flat as far as this due to the lack of hinting of.

I disagree. I think GRRM has been hinting at Bran being a return to the past - more specifically, a greenseer king. And even before that, Bran’s royal status has been front and center the whole time. It’s just ignored.

We as a fandom get so caught up with the magic part of Bran’s storyline (though we can’t be blamed really!) but forget that Bran’s book chapters often place his magical arc right along his identity and status as a lost prince. I’m gonna make a bit of a generalization here and say that the majority of Bran’s chapters since Robb’s ascension mention his status as the current heir to the Northern crown. He is the Prince of Winterfell. But not only that, he is the prince of the woods and the hills and the greens (we see this language being used for Bran once he begins his greenseer training). This princehood is actually extended to Bran’s direwolf, Summer. Bran’s princehood extending to Summer is quite poignant too, since the direwolf is directly named to be an opposition to winter, and Bran’s mythological parallels rule as summer kings.

Bran’s magical arc doesn’t remove him from his royal heritage. It only reinforces it. Again, think of how he becomes a prince of the natural world in an almost literal sense. And also the motifs used for his royal status: e.g., when Jojen and Meera Reed swear fealty to him, as their royal prince, through ice and fire (in addition to other natural elements).

The show took the route of placing Bran squarely in the magical arc, forgetting that first and foremost, he is an exiled prince. After Robb died, Bran became an exiled king. The main point here is that Bran is royal! He always has been, always will be. Heck, his very name literally means “Prince”.

And there’s other things about Bran’s storyline that aren’t very clear with the show’s depiction; I’m mentioning it here since people’s aversion to king Bran is mainly the show’s fault. Bran is a retelling of various Arthurian myths. You might have seen various meta on his similarities with the Fisher King, for example. I’ve written before about how Bran is also very similar to T.H White’s Wart from The Sword in the Stone (sorry, can’t find the meta link). Because the show removed the royal elements from Bran’s story, viewers weren’t able to catch that he is intended to follow the King Arthur trajectory, albeit with various twists.

When I first joined the fandom, the consensus among Bran fans was that he would be King in the North (a big theory at that time was that Westeros would split back into its pre-Targaryen markups). The idea was that there are way too many hints about Bran’s princehood, especially in relation to the North, so the only endgame that made sense was for him to rule it. And Bran does have a mini ruling arc in Winterfell in ACOK, which was good ammo for this theory.

So Bran’s relation to kingship has always been there. For years in fact; I joined this fandom over a decade ago. It’s just that no one expected his kingship would extend to all of Westeros. And I think that will be GRRM’s task, tying in why Bran will take not just the North, but the south as well. However, I have the inkling that Bran the Builder’s legend ties into this (and we know that he had a legacy all over Westeros).

what that even is supposed to "do" in the grand scheme of things?

Blame the show runners for this. They do not at all understand Bran’s importance to the narrative. And I don’t think a majority of readers understand it either. I mentioned Bran the Builder above. Well, he’s a legend that crops up sometime around the Long Night. Now we have a new war with the Others coming up, and little Bran Stark is Bran the Builder come again. Plus Bran has parallels with the last hero, who is credited with ending the Long Night. We still have two books to see how things shake out but given that Bran is following the trajectory of perhaps two of the most important legends from the War for the Dawn - one who ended it and one who rebuilt Westeros after - it’s easy to tell why he is important “in the grand scheme of things”. But we still need TWOW and ADOS to see how it all plays out. Remember, we only have a published 5 books, and Act II is barely finished!

The show's version of some totalitarian regime with 24/7 surveillance from the magical King is fucked up, and it's hard to understand what else would make Bran special otherwise.

I 100% agree that Show Bran’s ascension comes with some very problematic undertones, in addition to being totally stupid. But again, blame the showrunners for not understanding greenseeing and Bran’s relation to it. Greenseeing is, as I understand it, nature magic. It’s not just that Bran gains the ability to see through ravens and trees, but he can speak to nature as well. He can even shape it (ref Hammer of the Waters). This is going to be really important when Westeros is decimated in the War for the Dawn, and needs to be rebuilt. That’s why Bran being the prince of the “woods and the hills” and being the reincarnation (so to speak) of Bran the Builder is so important. He can rebuild Westeros. This is a very unique skill set that literally no one else has because once Bloodraven croaks, Bran inherits the mantle of the Last Greenseer.

The only people interested in the idea (and only as surface level) are big Stark only Stans who just see it as "Starks get everything because" and that's as deep as it gets.

I’ll join you in being annoyed with that particular brand of Stark fan (we all know who they are). But I just want to remind you that so many of us Bran stans (in fact the vast majority of us) do not fall within that group. Bran stans who advocate for Bran’s kingship do so because we have noted his Arthurian parallels, in addition to noting his arc as a prince in hiding/exile. None of us book fans even remotely believe in him being an all seeing autocrat, nor do we want him to be. It’s a certain type of Stark fan (again, we know who they are), who likes the idea of King Bran because they also believe in an independent North. I think an independent North (with a separate six kingdoms) as endgame is a rather ridiculous idea, and I haven’t got around to detailing why in my blog. But as far as I’m concerned if Bran is to be king, he will be king of everything.

The idea of who would have leadership to rebuild the world is too much built on stanning as a whole.

Super agree! I think the POV structure exacerbates this issue. So a majority of “who will be king”, “who deserves to be king” is solely dependent on who the reader likes best (i.e., who has the biggest fandom) and not who is most narratively suited for the role. Ironically, Bran is hurt but this because he has a pretty small fandom; by far the smallest out of the Stark POVs. So he does not benefit much from solo stanning. Again, the typical Bran stan does not believe in Starkception. If readers chose to theorize the endgame king based on who is most narratively/thematically suited for the role, wouldn’t the boy whose animal familiar is named to be the opposite of winter and likened to a prince of nature be among the most popular options?

The only ones with an actual leg to stand on are fans of Daenerys simply because her entire arc is trying at different things to restructure an oppressive elite based governing only to at this point end up with the realisation that their class simply cannot exist in a society without seeking to opress so they have to go.

Agree with Dany, but I think you’re also forgetting about a young lord commander whose entire rulership arc was about being a revolutionary in a rotten and backward system…

P.S: Jon stans can be really annoying too (I would know, I am one), but they’re not wrong when they say that he actually is the one character with the most foreshadowing for “endgame king”; he is literally King Arthur through and through, so 🤷🏽‍♀️

That's also what we see in Westeros, so both monarchy AND lordship power must be evaporated. So there's that.

It’ll be interesting to see how Martin’s critiques on feudal structures plays into the endgame leaders. Especially when we begin to factor in the thematic relevance of stories like Brienne’s and Arya’s among the smallfolk, as well as the upcoming war with the Others and how the feudal structure might do more harm than good.

I tend to have a more optimistic outlook tbh. Winter means death, and I think that will also ring true for a lot of the problematic elements in Westeros’ political and social structure. And let’s not forget that we have a bunch of civil upheavals coming up with Aegon and Daenerys both invading Westeros. I think a lot of these petty lords will die either in battle or during the long winter that’s sure to follow, so what’s left when all is said and done is having our heroes (Bran and Dany and Jon etc.) pick up the pieces. I tend to believe that a massive shake up is in the works such that while it might have been impossible for a crippled boy to rise to kingship in the AGOT era, it just might be the one remedy in ADOS.

But Martin isn't even angling for that as far as it seems (which would mean even Targaryens and Daenerys relinquishing power by the end and all, even if it would be the system she is currently trying to develop to be applied), but angles for a 'King'. One whose power is magic, which makes one think it is what would make him King, hence angling for the show end which is frightening as a form of government. And in the 'political' sense he's a nice kid who means well for others, but that's it.

This is another thing that I blame the show for: people thinking Bran can only be an all seeing tyrant. I’ve already touched on this above but again, Bran’s greenseeing magic is so much more. It’s about nature…healing….Summer! I’ve been meaning to write at length about why the resetting of the seasons will fall to Bran, and why that means healing for Westeros as a whole, but I’ll abbreviate my thoughts for now.

Let’s once again consider Bran as a Fisher King, whose very life is tied to the healing of the land. Now, I think Martin is going for a rather “fairy tale” or fantastical resolution to ASOIAF; an ending closer to Tolkien and Arthurian myth. Bran’s magic, as healing magic, is then meant to be a positive. He sets the world back to rights, as a Fisher King would. He quite literally drives the darkness (winter) away, and GRRM has stated multiple times that the Others are the true threat.

In my write up about Bran’s similarities to Wart, I mentioned that Bran’s ascension could end up being similar to Aragorn’s in LOTR (and we know that Tolkien has heavily influenced Martin). Aragorn became king not because of his swordsmanship or his politics or even his royal claim, but because he had hands of healing. And people said that there was a king who returned to them because he healed them. Healing and kingship is really not a novel thing, and they’re tied to medieval understanding of rulership. So it’s not hard to see why Bran’s magical ability to bring back summer, so to speak, can be taken as a positive of him being a rightful king.

It's just the whole having a nice lord now and then without guarantee for the next.

I get what you mean, but tbh this would be a problem with Jon, Dany, etc. Monarchy and inheritance are unpredictable. We can only hope that the king/lord trains his heir well so that prosperity follows with the exchange of power.

So while it might be little page time and some unfairness for Bran, outside of people just stanning "Stark supremacy" in vague terms, it's hard to think of why and in what direction people would 'root' for Bran in the specific intended importance of role he's apparently meant to have.

Hopefully it’s been quite clear in my reply why Bran as king is so thematically rich. He’s connected to summer, has greenseeing magic which is connected to nature and potentially the healing of nature, and he is already royal. Him being a “nice kid” is just the cherry on top.

[ericeffiorg]

it’s taken me 3 seasons to realise this but the only people on ted lasso that are allowed genuinely complicated stories are the white characters and it’s been the case the whole time, this third season just kind of confirmed it.

as nice as sam’s story felt, it was really nothing more than surface level and just felt like a replica of what we’ve already seen in the media. portraying real stories is what can makes television really compelling, but when the televised story is basically a cut and paste of a news article or a documentary without giving the characters depth and long-term storytelling, then what is the point? it was a surface level story to get the clicks and the viral moments that can capture the heart of people who watch a random clip on tiktok or twitter and don’t need any more context, because there isn’t really much else needed. unlike the build up of jamie and roy’s hug, ted’s panic attack, keeley’s first kiss with a woman, or ted being betrayed by nate, sam’s story can literally be chopped up into a single clip at a time and no more context is needed to get what’s going on because it really wasn’t given any detailed aspects. and to be honest that’s what sam’s character has been this entire time.

the notion of the show is to fight evil with kindness and that works when your friend is being mean to you or your mentee betrays you like it is with ted’s stories. but it doesn’t work that way with someone like sam. his role in the show since the beginning has been “the good immigrant” that fights violence with kindness, despite being confronted with more violence than anyone on the show. he was told to stop speaking about his people by the prime minister and his restaurant was vandalised, yet it only made up to no more than a 1/3 of the episode. other much less important moments had more screentime in an episode that depicted a very real scenario that we literally saw happen a year ago. and even then, ted got to interrupt his moment with his dad and steal the shine, and then it was made about the entire team coming together rather than the deadly discrimination against immigrants and violent racism.

the people of colour on this show are only really used for quick gags and to show that men can be silly and goofy too and to have a big middle finger to toxic masculinity - which in turn is kind of just repeats the same toxic masculinity points because other than jamie and roy, the other men’s “anti toxic masculinity” messages are just covered in humour and never taken seriously. isaac’s journey to becoming the captain of richmond was all about roy and we never really saw his point of view other than a few scenes. and then it felt rushed. dani is just like sam, except the only time he ever speaks is to have a funny moment where his kindness is the butt of the joke. and even though he’s not a person of colour, colin’s coming out story has been so incredibly surface level that i don’t even know why they bothered to do it. nothing new was given, it was just a white man in the closet who has a boyfriend and gets caught. you can describe his story to a stranger and they could probably find it done on riverdale but with more screentime.

and nate’s redemption arc is about a white woman finally seeing him as a human despite the fact that he was never actually mean to her and just wanted to please his parents in a place he never really felt welcome. he was horrible to ted and richmond, but that jade lady was horrible to him from the get-go and we’re now supposed to see this as very sweet and sentimental.

the show is written for white audiences and doesn’t do anything daring, and i feel like it never actually did. maybe it was because it premiered during such a dark time and it was nice to see grown men in typically toxic environments be the opposite, but i don’t think the show is nearly as clever or as groundbreaking as it has gotten the credit for.

[extasiswings]

As someone who never watched bones, the bones blueprint???

What is the Bones blueprint? WELL, LET ME TELL YOU. So Bones is the show with one of, if not THE hetero slow burn ship of classic Fox procedural shows in the mid-2000s-early 2010s. (Pretty much every main network had at least one major procedural slow burn at a time. Fox had X-files, then Bones. ABC had Castle. CBS had NCIS and The Mentalist…you get it). So, let me set the stage with our characters:

Seeley Booth, played by David Boreanaz. Booth is an FBI Agent and former Army Ranger (with a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart and a certain amount of PTSD that he doesn’t like to discuss). Catholic. Complicated relationship with his family. More than a little repressed. Definitely needs therapy (and gets it eventually—at first when he’s required to go, and voluntarily in later seasons). Good at and devoted to his job. Single Dad who feels like he missed out on a lot of the early years of his son’s life and worries about being a good father (he asked his ex to marry him when she got pregnant, but she turned him down even though she loved him—at least early on in the series even though they aren’t together it’s discussed that they have a tendency to fall into bed not infrequently) [I swear I’m not making this up]. Anyway, you get the picture.

And behind Curtain No. 2, we have:

Temperance Brennan (Bones), played by Emily Deschanel. Brennan is a forensic anthropologist. Super smart, super scientific, doesn’t have great social skills, but definitely has the whole “perceived as cold but actually feels things very deeply” thing going on. Tragic backstory. She’s also a novelist.

So! Booth and Brennan. They work together, they’re partners, they solve murders. And, naturally, they have the whole opposites thing that works for them—she’s very book smart, he’s very street smart, she believes in facts and science and logic, he believes in intuition and gut feelings and faith, etc. etc. As is often the case with the aesthetic of the crime procedural slowburn ship, they start out sort of reluctantly working together, but eventually develop a real partnership built on trust and friendship (and love!).

Early on, she has some things in her past with her family that she asks for his help investigating so that she can get answers. There’s also a time in the second season where Brennan gets kidnapped by a serial killer and buried alive while Booth is stuck trying to find her, which in addition to still being just An Episode(™) remains one of the great, classic, early-in-the-slowburn “I almost lost you and it made me feel Some Kinda Way, but no no we’re just friends really, nothing to see here” defining arcs, especially since Brennan starts dating someone not too long after. The same serial killer returns in season four and snatches Booth that time, and then it’s Brennan’s turn to find him (with the help of Booth’s younger brother). Anyway, classic slow burn—there’s a lot of Implication that you could read into if you wanted throughout the first several seasons, but not necessarily super concrete (although they get caught under the mistletoe once), and there are several rounds of saving each other in various ways as over the years they just become closer and closer until they’re Partners(™) in every way (even when they’re dating other people).

What’s making me yell and scream today though, is: the S4 finale and S5. In the S4 finale, Booth is in a coma after having brain surgery. He has a wild coma dream where he and Brennan are married and they run a nightclub, but there still ends up being a murder—ANYWAY, irl Brennan basically spends the whole time he’s in a coma at his bedside, but then he wakes up and he has no memory of who she is. Pivot to S5, Booth remembers her again, and also feels like he might have romantic feelings for her, but (in part because of some third party commentary) questions whether they’re real or just a side-effect of the surgery. He sort of tells her anyway, but flubs it massively. Later in the season, we get Booth’s son being concerned that his dad doesn’t have a girlfriend, both Booth and Brennan separately getting relationship advice from third parties, and Brennan getting asked out by a new guy. And then! The 100th episode.

The 100th episode, which reveals the start of the series wasn’t their first case, they worked together once before and kissed and almost slept together, but hadn’t ended up going all the way. And after they’re done telling their story, Booth finally stops and kisses her and gets to give his big damn love confession, lays it all on the line, tells her he’s always known she was the one and wants to really try…and she freaks out and cries and turns him down, and he accepts it but says he has to move on. And then they both date other people before fully running away from each other for many months (Brennan on an anthropological dig, Booth back to Afghanistan for the military). (And then, when they come back, she’s ready to put on her big girl pants and give it a shot, except that he went and got a girlfriend who he seems happy with so we all get to suffer through a season of angst and pining while he proposes to someone who isn’t Brennan etc while everyone else is like “you’re still in love with her though” but they do sleep together by the end of S6 and ultimately get married and have two more kids (not in that order)).

So, yeah—the blueprint! Making me especially crazy because here we are with Buddie on a Fox procedural, 4 seasons since they really started trying it seems to make Buddie something potentially real, and Buck is heading into a coma where he's about to hallucinate another life, and the 100th episode is coming up near the beginning of next season (and I really hope Fox learned from Bones that there's such a thing as dragging out the slow burn too much and just lets them be happy after the big damn feelings reveal but XD).

[bihanspookies]

I’ll probably never do anything for them since I don’t really have them fleshed out but I wanted to post my 2 demon slayer oc’s since I caught up with the latest season and I’m living in fear for the movies

Making two sep posts since there’s minor spoilers for Infinity Castle in Azusa’s ⬇️

Name: Azusa

Age: 22

Height: 5’8

Breathing Technique: I originally had her as the Lotus Hashira but then I read the manga and found out about Kanae and went OOP gotta change it lmao. I thought about her being a Crystal Hashira, derived/trained from Gyomei but I never fully decided.

Personality: She’s very calm, cool and collected, kinda like the mediator and has a “mom” presence about her. Whenever inosuke was being Chaotic, she’d walk over, place her hand on his head and go “Now, now, let’s calm down a little hm?”

And as much as inosuke wants to be like 🤬🤬🤬, she has this calming presence around so he grumbles and is like “I’ll try my best I GUESS.”

History: im 100% Just copying and pasting with minor edits what i sent to my friend bc i don’t want to write it properly lmao.

So her family and the Wisteria estate were close friends. When she was 10 her family was killed by demons but she survived and the Wisteria family took her in bc: Friendship™️ and they had a son who she was really close to and they were best friends and whatnot.

Growing up he always said he wanted to become a Hashira bc that’s who his family protects and he wants to honor them, so it was his ultimate dream. And when she was 16 the son admitted to being in love with her but she didn’t reciprocate. So even though he was hurt, he accepted her decision and went off by himself at night to have some alone time.

W E L L He dies By demons And Azusa blames herself bc she tells herself that if she just told him she loved him back then he wouldn’t have gone off on his own and gotten killed. Which is one of the reasons she went off to become a Hashira so she could protect her loved ones and also fulfill the son’s dream . So she goes off, joins demon corps And it’s all good and dandy.

She’s super focused on achieving Hashira status And then she meets: Rengoku And at first she was friendly with him, ya know being civil but then he kept being extra nice to her and just treating her so sweet etc etc etc that she could not help but fall in love with him even tho she was scared bc she’s just reminded of The Son.

They eventually start “dating” but in secret and the only person who’s aware of it is Ubuyashiki.

First Kiss: Their whole relationship, they’re basically dating without actually saying it. One night they’re alone and Rengoku just suddenly asks “my love, will you do me the honor of being mine?”

And Azusa just looks at him and goes “if you’re calling me “my love” then you already know the answer. I’m already yours.”

And then she gently grabs his face and gives him a Kiss™️

Mugen Train Arc: I decided that Azusa is not there on the train but back at home. I also decided that they were engaged and her ring is on her finger while Rengoku’s is a necklace. Rengoku tells Tanjiro to tell his wife that even though they weren’t officially married, it felt like they were every second they spent together. Tanjiro doesn’t understand at first but then Rengoku pulls out his necklace and he recognizes it as the same ring on Azusa’s hand.

Very much movie scene in my head when I pictured this but when the other Hashira find out about Rengoku’s death, Azusa’s crow is the one to come tell her. You never fully see her face, just her walking with the camera stopping right under her eyes or an aerial view from behind as her crow flies next to her head. She gets the news and clutches her ring to her chest.

Infinity Castle Arc: Tanjiro and Giyu are the ones that go and fight Akaza and Azusa is there too. So when Akaza sees her he’s like “and who might you be?”. And she’s staring at him and says “my name is Azusa Rengoku, you killed my husband”

She’s about to just go straight in and murk but then this other demon shows up like “no no sister, you gotta go through me first”. So Azusa ends up fighting that demon while tanjiro and giyu fight Akaza.

But long story short the demon incapacitates her and is all “I think you’d make a good edition to the team, let’s see how you handle killing your teammates” and then forces her to drink muzans blood, turning her into a demon. She’s struggling to not fight tanjiro and the others but either he or someone else has to kill her bc it's too much to fight her/keep her away while also fighting Akaza.

They successfully kill her but right before she dies she sees Rengoku above her and holding his hand out for her to take.

[mournivaldisco]

Just having chaotic/sad thoughts about my blorbos again (Spoilers for the whole Loken arc)

In the later days of the Siege, Kyril and Euphrati are both released from imprisonment for proto-Inquisition/morale purposes. They have their own important plot threads and both survive the Siege.

If Mersadie hadn't been caught up in a demonic possession plot to kill Dorn (😭) would the same have happened to her? There's an AU in there somewhere, I'm sure.

I'm never really sure whether I like her Solar War plotline or not. It leaves her with no agency of her own (although that is the point of possession, I guess) right up until she throws herself into the reactor to destroy Samus. It doesn't really have any impact on the wider plot at all.

It illustrates more about Loken. (Certainly not my favourite way for a female character to impact a plot, but here we are.) Samus actually mocks him for his refusal to give up hope, and to think the best of others:

Before this, in The Buried Dagger, he's ready to try and believe that a ceasefire message from Horus might be real:

It's a very 'Oh, Loken' moment. But that's who he is as a character. He has to have hope. And he's even right, in the end.

Back to Mersadie - he is "silent, hollow" immediately after her death. He sees her ghost on Terra, inquisitively asking questions as he remembered her doing. Shipping wise, though he may not have registered them as romantic feelings he certainly had a strong attachment to her, or at the very least what she represented as one of the last innocent survivors from his past. He physically attacks Iacton Qruze when he finds out that Qruze didn't tell him she was alive and in prison (even on direct orders from Dorn). He confronts Malcador himself about the kill-order being issued for the prisoners including Mersadie:

Then there's that gorgeous extract where they hold hands in the prison (which I will never stop posting):

So anyway. Whether you want to go down the whole shipping route or not, Mersadie is Important to Loken. Maybe her horrible death would be the thing that finally destroys his tendency towards optimism that Samus found so funny?

Nope. He's still at it up until the moment of his death - sincerely trying to persuade Abaddon to discuss terms with Dorn. At this point Samus has literally grabbed Loken, forced him to gaze into the Warp storm around the Vengeful Spirit and witness all the horror of existence. And the boy is still like 'we can achieve peace 😊'

His murder by Erebus symbolises the death of that hope that Loken carried for so long, the last vestige of the pre-Heresy era. It's his end and death as much as it is Horus'. Now (deep voice) there is only war.

Damn, I nearly forgot to mention Samus, who ties it all together. He is the daemon birthed by Loken's murder at that specific moment that he is still expressing hope. Samus' catchphrase?

"I am the one who walks behind you. I am the footsteps at your back. I am the man beside you. Look out! I am all around you. Samus! I am the end and the death."

[thefourchimes]

Talking more about The Four Chimes AU because yes

so there’s been an interesting surge of apocalypse four (though most people call them vecna four) content recently, which i am very much thrilled to see

in line with that, i’m gonna share a bit more on the au that has been built from the ground up ever since last year, having definite arcs and various aus and sub aus of it already

the four chimes au

this universe has been mine and @lumaxramblings 's blood, sweat, and tears for the past year, ever since July 14

i've made a few posts about it, and shared some snippets on it in some wip weds and weekends, but i never fully explained the universe beyond the little bubble of the discord thread in the discord server im in

so let me explain now. we know this already but the apocalypse four are vecna's four sacrifices to make the four gates, but in this au, they're not just the four sacrifices. they're the four chimes too.

you see, vecna had a vision. he had remembered the story of the four horsemen of the apocalypse from a time victor creel had brought him and alice to the Church to listen

the four horsemen of the apocalypse, he had mused...and inspiration struck him.

he had a vision, and he saw it through.

and he got them all. he won.

and now he has his four horsemen of the apocalypse, or in this universe rather...his four chimes of catastrophe.

you all know who they are, but the question is, who is who? well, as @lumaxramblings has said in that fateful ask that started this whole universe in the first place, it would be:

chrissy = famine

fred = death

patrick = war

max = pestilence

as for the reason, canon itself gives some details and evidence to point out who would be who. (tw ed mention on chrissy's part)

chrissy is famine because of her eating disorder and her "hunger" to be free in a sense. fred is death because of his survivor's guilt and all the constant grave and death visuals. patrick is war because of his home life and how he's always in constant conflict. and finally, max is pestilence because of her thought process on being something that plagues others...and vecna!lucas' "you are sick."

there's quite a few more points that can be brought up, along with how some of the canon scenes actually fuel this universe, but i'll talk about that another time

so now, vecna's sacrifices are no longer who they were before everything.

now, they are his soldiers, his little experiments, his four chimes of catastrophe.

and just as they had been broken, they will now be the ones to break the world.

...

(but then...you remember, the apocalypse 4 weren't the only ones who got caught in vecna's curse and vision.

you know who else did?

nancy wheeler.

and in the four horsemen of the apocalypse lore, wasn't there something going on with the white rider of the horsemen? the fact that...there's a bit of confusion on whether the white rider is pestilence...or conquest?

...in another universe, nancy is conquest, the fifth chime of catastrophe.

an incomplete chime.

...but maybe that's a story for another day...)

—————————————————————————————————

i actually had started the fic of this already, but it's been a few months since i've updated it, oof :")

anyway, that's a bit of an explanation on the four chimes au.

it kind of becomes a s5 alternate universe in a sense? finnthony and i already have an idea on what happens all throughout the main story, complete with arcs already lmao (and that's not even talking about the sub-aus, like the conquest au...)

its lots of angst though, lemme tell you

i dont want to reveal too much but there is a lot of platonic and romantic dynamics here

platonic being the party's friendship (heh), the teens' friendship, best friend soulmates stobin ofc, and all other platonic relationships that can be connected with each member of this ragtag, traumatized group

for romance, we got lumax (with future elumax), byler, duzie, ronance, stongyle (aka steve x jonathan x argyle), jopper, and...well. a few others too, but i'll be keeping those quiet for now.

i’ll likely post more stuff at some point, to get it out here lmao and because this au is just <3

tagging the people who’ve been here all through out:

@laurienotteddy @mitski-slope @itsanotheridiot @hellsfireclub @history-of-stories @she-wont-miss

[crappy-homestuck-confessions]

When it comes to Vriska "hate" and discourse, I can't help but feel quite a bit shaken up. Gamzee, who was mind controlled and influenced by an immortal buff green skeleton demon into doing what he did, someone who is incredibly malleable and easy to shape into a pawn, specially after he was given absolutely nothing to latch onto with his religious beliefs deconstructed and absolutely no purpose in life, is treated like he deserves to be stomped into the ground for the shitty things he did in acts 5 & 6, meanwhile Vriska who CHOSE to do the things she did, wasn't mind controlled, yes influenced but not mind controlled, is let off the hook and treated like she deserves to be forgiven and have her actions look past.

The thing about Vriska is yes, she DID become the way she is due to the environment she was raised in and a bit of influence from Scratch, but she CHOSE to do what she did, she omitted details to June in order to give herself a better look, and while I don't TOTALLY doubt she genuinely feels bad for what she did, she kinda skips the detail of her ensuring Bec Noir's existence by ensuring Bec is created in the first place. Why did she do this? Because she has a fucking complex. Instead of making up for what she did by being a better person, she tried to make up for the shitty things she did by creating a monster that threatens the lives of everyone around her, so she could kill said monster and "fix" everything she did. She's a villain who desperately wants to be a hero and takes things way out of proportion. And the end to her arc in act 5 was perfect, she was a well written character, a pretty good antagonist with a hint of tragedy and a fuckton of personality, the consequences of her actions caught up to her in both timelines, one being killed by one of the people she's deeply wronged, and another being shown that her whole plan of forcing a situation where she's the hero was stupid and she was painfully shown that by Jack rejecting her challenge and doing what Terezi said he'd do, blow up the meteor and kill everyone on it, bringing two of the trolls to Vriska to further hammer it home.

She was a bad person who definitely had a reason to end up the way she did who ended up paying for the things she did, she served the story well as an antagonist and was enjoyable while she was onscreen (except the ableism. That part wasn't fun.)

... And then act 6 ruins that! She's revived and SUDDENLY she's amazing at planning, everything she does goes right, and she's never in the wrong, and she gets to be a hero like she always wanted to. This makes NO SENSE, she's suddenly amazing at making plans even though during act 5 every single plan she made blew up in her face, she fixes everything going on in the meteor like she's a master psychologist and relationship fixer even though she's barely got anything together on her own, and overall she's handled horribly. This is why I have a problem with people excusing Vriska's actions with act 6, bc what she does makes NO sense and is just Hussie being fucking weird about Vriska bc she's his pet favorite character that never does anything wrong.

I mentioned Gamzee earlier and part of the reason this all annoys me so much is Vriska stans keep bringing up her past to justify the way she is, while stomping the poor clown into the ground and treating him like he's always been a horrible person, even though before the Meteor Murder Incident he had never been implied to kill anyone or be violent at all, in fact he was just a religious stoner that wanted the best for his friends, until he had his faith ripped away from him by accident and then stumbled upon a puppet that's LITERALLY KNOWN AND STATED TO BE ABLE TO CHANGE PEOPLE'S PERSONALITY AND MORALITY ON AN INHERENT LEVEL. HE'S MIND CONTROLLED. BY LORD ENGLISH. but do you see anyone waxing poetic about him because of that? Because he's a victim of circumstance that did horrible things as a result? No!!!!! He's just dunked on over and over again specially the longer the story goes on, culminating in his PQ route where they just go "haha murder clown" EVEN THOUGH THAT'S COMPLETELY ASININE AND HE NEVER DISPLAYED ANY OF THOSE TENDENCIES PREVIOUS TO BEING INFLUENCED BY LORD ENGLISH. I'm not saying what he did was JUSTIFIED, no, god no, but the Gamzee we knew from before and during Sgrub is long gone, and in his place is just another pawn to LE like Scratch, Kurloz and Bro. He COULD have ended up better had he not been mind controlled and gotten to improve his mental foundation, same way Vriska could have ended up a good person had she not grown up as a blueblood with a shitty lusus, but does anyone care? NO! NO ONE DOES! BECAUSE IT'S NOT VRISKA!

Again, to clarify, they're BOTH good characters previous to Act 6, the downhill trend comes in at Game Over, they're both well written and have depth, I DON'T HATE VRISKA, it just severely annoys me seeing what kind of severe double standards this fandom has.

And to cap this off, I'm a polyamorous bi trans woman. So don't you fucking bring the whole "people hate Vriska because she's a woman" shit here.

This was very very long and I'm sorry for that but I HAVE to let this off my chest.

.

[adreamthatsworthkeeping]

I've learnt my lesson from BBC Ghosts where I dove into immediate reactions without thinking things through.

Having finished season four of TUA, I definitely can see where all the criticism comes from, but at the same time, it wasn't as bad as I feared (despite still being bad).

The main thing was the fact there was very little character arcs/plot for most of the siblings. Klaus got one, but at the same time he doesn't grow, he also gets stuck back where he was and he and Alison resume relying on one another and learn nothing.

As far as I could tell Alison had no plot, side story, or arc. She gets back into Klaus' codependency and that's about it.

Viktor had one where he gets acknowledgement he has great skills and should have been allowed to be in the team, so there's great closure there for him. But his main thing was trying to save Ben with closure on the side.

Luthor was the butt of jokes when he had anything to say at all. His whole life seemed depressing and he had no growth and would have gone back to doing the same thing powers or no powers. He was also a bit of a loser in the main one, but being a dag is different to being a loser.

Diego finally pulled his finger out and managed to realise his wife was great and he shouldn't have a one person pity party about how much his life sucks. It's a typical bored hero, kinda like where Mr Incredible could have gone if he blamed his wife for his boring life. His resentment on Lila for having a hobby when he didn't was stupid and I'm annoyed they did the boring suburban life bickering couple for these two. After seeing them kick arse in season three it was a shame to break them down like that. The CIA stuff was just embarrassing.

The time on the train could have been done better for Five and Lila. More bickering, conversations, more dialogue between the pair as they fought to escape. That would have eased off the weird vibes of them suddenly getting close. You need to see the struggle, even if we stayed underground, show the conversations, have them talk about their old life more, about missing birthdays and regret the fights.

I see that Lila wanted companionship, but she needed to go on about how much she missed her family and realised she didn't want a break from Diego. She needed that, we needed that to give her some depth and show us she didn't get with Five flippantly, but kinda got lonely and lost and feels bad.

Five I think was hard because after growing up alone in an apocalypse and having to come back, grow up again, and get caught up in the world ending, he didn't have a lot of relationships so Lila might have been his first real feelings and he was lost and confused himself. He didn't have a love interest to fall back on, but the fact he doesn't realise how Lila's looking at things is ridiculous considering his attachment to Delores. He knows what being alone does, he should be the one who understands the most. Not have his puppy dog eyes at being hurt. But I do get how he feels rejected because it was a long time, even if they weren't together the whole seven years, the emotional dependency is hard to break. But the writers brush over it, use your words and maybe just once say what you're feeling instead of starting and looking sad.

As for the rest.

The entire thing in the car with the vomit was insufferable and it's a miracle anyone pushed past that episode to even see the other episodes.

The actual plots they had made no sense and didn't connect. Klaus' had nothing to do with anything, it was a reasonable side plot at least, every one had a smidge side plots that barely connected so there was no flow in the season because it was just mashed together. Klaus' was the closest to being a good plot though, even if it's sad he had to regain his powers.

The whole Jennifer thing could have been good, was it to give Ben more time after being missing/dead for the other seasons? But it didn't make sense and was poorly explained. So Jennifer and Ben were drawn together because...reasons? They didn't have the same powers, they assumed Jennifer was one of them but she didn't show powers (or they were repressed like Viktor?). How did Reggie know to keep them apart? Did they meet as kids?

Jean and Gene were great though. Good work there, that was a nice addition. The weird side addition of the dead wife possessing people was odd but kinda worked in a MIB style.

But so much wasn't explained, I didn't need things to be spelt out, but the fact it came from nowhere and had to be worked out as a fan group means it needed better execution. I can pick up clues and inferences, but some stuff didn't have anything to hold onto to even work out.

As for the Care Bear Stare ending. It wasn't as bad as I had heard. I understand the 'better if we weren't born' idea. but it didn't come across that way. It was 'we need to prevent more disasters from happening, we are stuck in a loop and this needs to break'. Not, 'our lives are meaningless and we shouldn't have been born'. There is a difference. They save the world one last time with sacrifice, not admit they shouldn't have ever been born and their lives are meaningless. I didn't get that vibe. Plus they get their closure, they feel better, and still get to save the world. They don't die feeling like soldiers or puppets.

[greenerteacups]

What do you think of Tonks and Remus? Wrong answers only 😒. No really, I mean he was older than her and he didn’t seem to love her half as much as she loved him. What are your theories, canon-fitted and otherwise, on their relationship? Do you think he used her?

Oh, they're beards! Next question.

I appreciate the prompt, because you've handed me a shiny free pass to go on a rant I've been holding in since reading Half-Blood Prince. Taking my preferences aside, I don't think he used Tonks, although I think the age gap ads a really unnecessary layer of skeeze to their relationship. To be clear: I like Remus with Sirius, but I don't need them to end up together to be happy. I just don't see why it's Tonks. We don't see their natural chemistry; there's no scenes of banter, I don't know what she likes about him or vice versa. I do know that she's desperately in love with him after Order of the Phoenix, and he... isn't, honestly. Or at least, he doesn't act like he's in love with her. I'm not saying this just to shit on Remus and Tonks; I'm saying this because if I did ship Remus and Tonks, I would be mad as hell at how hard I got short shifted in Book 6! I would not have been fed! That is not a romance arc! Which makes me think, you know, okay, then why are we here? Why is it this woman, i Ask Thee, Remus Lupin, whom you have decided to marry, even though you frankly have more chemistry with Severus Snape? Or, to reframe from an authorial perspective: the HP world is wide open, someone from childhood could walk back into his life, or someone from another school, or you can introduce another Marauders-Era character, or you can just come up with someone from whole cloth — why is it Tonks?

But then I thought: Tonks is intriguingly similar to Sirius in several ways. She's a disgraced Black, she's charming and charismatic, she's a skilled fighter, she's a jokester, she's generally kind and doesn't take herself seriously, she's a shapeshifter. There's a line in OOTP that says she never made prefect because she didn't have "the temperament," which suggests she might've been a troublemaker (not hard to believe). As someone who ships him with Sirius, and believes that their relationship is at least a little bit coded romantic, that all reads like Something to me. But even for strictly canonical purposes, those similarities are still hard to ignore, especially since Tonks begins pursuing Remus in the same year as Sirius dies. So it's a handful of months after he watches his last childhood friend get murdered that Remus is deflecting her advances, meanwhile he's in the middle of fighting a war, meanwhile everyone in his life is pushing them to get together Because Love or whatever the fuck, @ Molly, @ McGonagall for some reason, and it's not hard to imagine that he just... gives in.

He's lonely, he's scared, and here's this person who reminds him of his friend and is willing to freely give him affection and care, and like... to be real? I don't think Remus believes he's going to live that long past Sirius's death, anyway. He's talking about giving Tonks children, but that's stuff he says to her when he's trying to deter her from pursuing him; when he talks about himself, he uses a lot of words like "damaged" and "broken" and "[not] whole." Added to the fact that the First and Second Wars are both very bloody and he's an active fighter in several notable battles; added to the fact that if he's caught, his lycanthropy means he's a target for killing, since taking a werewolf prisoner is the kind of smart move that begs to lose wars; added to the fact that he's been undercover with werewolves for part of this year, which, though we don't hear about it outright, is obviously a move to isolate himself from his friends and cannot do good things for his mental health; all these things point to him being in a Very Dark Place during HBP, and puts him in a headspace where he might marry Tonks essentially to make her happy, because he can always console himself that she'll end up a widow and be free to go live her life after the war.

Is that using her? Yeah, I guess, in that he's entering the relationship on slightly less sincere terms than she is, and I think what he's getting out of it is much more basic and unsentimental than what she's getting; but in his defense, Tonks has sort of marshaled the Order of the Phoenix behind her on this, and we also don't see that she altogether... cares if he's in it for her? He rejects her like, twice at minimum, and she keeps pushing, which is— like, girl, do you honestly want to be in a relationship with someone who's rejected you twice? Who you had to badger into giving you the time of day? Why? We don't know; she just wants him. Which, again, is a very 23-year-old thing to do: it's object-oriented, it's not based in compatibility or long-term happiness or even mutual affection. She's acting like someone who hasn't been in a relationship before. Which, by the way, she might not have been! She's 23!!

Whether or not the Age Gap implies mistreatment, I don't really think it does; I mean, it is a Not Great Situation, and if I were Tonks's friend I would be yelling at her very loudly about why she should wait to date someone that much older than her, but Tonks is an adult. The fact that Remus was already at Hogwarts when she was born carries a certain squick factor (YMMV) but ultimately it's not accompanied by evidence of mistreatment or manipulation on his part. This is helped by the fact that we never (ever! at all!) see Remus pursue or flirt with Tonks, or give her any encouragement, which means their relationship feels DOA for a lot of readers, but also means that the element of older-man-seduces-younger-woman is nowhere in their relationship.

(That being said, while I've been trying to humanize/rationalize Remus's decision, he's still responsible for it. He's a grown ass man, and whom he dates is his choice. It doesn't matter if Molly Weasley's being annoying about it. You're 35. Act like a grownup. Don't date 23-year-olds.)

Tonks is a much less thorny case, because she's younger, and the books are more sympathetic to her. Plus, I mean, seriously: if you're a freshly-minted college-age guerrilla soldier in a horribly traumatizing war, probably haven't been on a date in a while, you've Been Busy, and this hot 30-something war veteran comes around a lot and laughs at your jokes, then — yeah! Girl, I get it! I'm on board with Tonks having a crush on Remus because it could have been a springboard for all sorts of ruminating about age, and power, and "want you" vs. "want to be you," and the social allure of older men, with all the potential for manipulation that opens up. None of that was explored, but that's a problem of execution, not concept.

In conclusion, I like Tonks a lot, and I think she's a pretty realistic rendition of a young woman in her early twenties who, like all young twenty-somethings, is exercising her inalienable right to make stupid-ass decisions and fuck up her love life. I will defend her for that seven days a week. I will not, however, defend the authorial choice to make everyone in her life complicit in that bad decision.

[blimbo-buddy]

You know what?

I'm actually happy that Henry was mentioned in passing and never brought up again. He deserves to be obscure and not because I don't like him. I actually do love him to bites and wish he and Purdy met.

I am happy he's never brought up because this series is an absolute train-wreck and we were taught to hate kittypets and dislike anyone from the outside and love the clans despite glaring flaws.

Also, despite the clans being treated like a community, so many cats in the clans are like strangers to each other and don't have any form of connection and it's weird because they're all trying to survive and it's like, "Oh hey! You met Vineslash yet?" and they're all like, "Oh them uhh.. never talked to him outside of patrols and stuff."

Like I get it but also don't get it?

Also, I'm so excited to see Henry again from your sneak peek art!!!

I love your art and you give justice to the deserving and it's so goood!!!

Yeah I get that, as much as I would have loved more Henry stuff, I know that they'd only use him for more fatphobia. But it's funny you mention him and Purdy because I headcanon that they're brothers, Henry is the eldest brother and Purdy is the youngest brother. Not from the same litter though.

It's definitely odd that while they're viewed and treated as a community, they barely know each other. This is a fault of the writers of course, remember how much the deaths of characters impacted everybody in Arc 1 compared to TBC, remember how devastated FireHeart was when he sat next to a dying YellowFang and spent her last dying moments sitting by her and talking? You do? Good, now remember when RosePetal died and BristleFrost was just like "Oh no, RosePetal!" and didn't go beyond that. Do you notice the whiplash between the two comparisons? The Erins never write any meaningful relationships anymore and we're reminded of that anytime a character dies.

And it's so funny because when we see more into Twolegplace, they feel like more of a community than the clans do, cats actually know each other, they have pasts with each other, cats have reputations good or bad. Even with Warriorclan, you feel that great sense of community. Bone actually knew Boulder beforehand, most cats still knew about each other in Bloodclan. It's ironic that the biggest senses of community we get in Warriors are from groups of cats that are both not even real clans and have either brief appearances (Warriorclan) or an entirely antagonistic role in whatever story the Erins want to write (Bloodclan). The Twolegplaces we briefly see have more community than the clans ever had, which is sad because the entire series centers around the clans.

Also thank you so much! Henry is a major insignificant favorite of mine and I wanted so badly to integrate him into PineStar's Choice. I wish that book was a SE instead of a Novella because I would have loved to see more stuff in Chelford, we could have gotten a Henry appearance, we were robbed. Henry and Pine have a close bond with each other in the rewrite, and it's funny because it started out not the best. Basically, PinePaw scented a Kittypet and when he found the source of the scent, it was Henry who had caught a robin. PinePaw was furious and chased him out of the forest. Later on they meet again and Henry goes "Oh wait, I know you! You chased me out of the forest over a robin, haha!" and PinePaw's sitting there sweating nervously. Henry apologizes for taking the clan's food because he didn't realize it wasn't good to do that but PinePaw splutters out that Henry shouldn't be apologizing, and he says sorry to Henry. PinePaw, well, to say the least, feels really bad about that whole thing. But they grow closer nonetheless! If making art of insignificant Kittypets was a job I'd be rich, thank you so much again dude, I appreciate it!