#(it just fits him so well narratively i will die on this hill)

[suzukiblu]

do you have any kryptonians hcs that you think would be fun to see incorporated in more fics out there? like cultural stuff & biology

Ones I've seen before and really like:

Kryptonians purr

Kryptonians are built physically harder/denser/heavier than humans and don't have much "give" in their bodies

Kryptonians can tell that humans aren't the same thing as them, but humans can't QUITE tell that Kryptonians aren't the same thing as them; there is just the tiiiiiniest bit of uncanny valley there when they aren't deliberately trying to pass for humans, though

Kryptonians immediately just "recognize" other Kryptonians as being Kryptonian ( though maybe this one is at least IMPLIED in canon, though I've never been totally clear on that one--but like, a stronger version of it, if that makes sense?? )

Ones I've been slooowly forming myself for personal use:

Kryptonians have different voices and different hearing, in the sense that a Kryptonian has more tones/nuance in their voice and can HEAR more tones/nuance in a voice, and a lot of other species' voices sound flat or toneless to them because they lack those additional tones

"chiming" as a way for children to get their parent/caretaker's attention; basically a specific musical little sound that they make

Kryptonians typically only being physically expressive or emotive with close family members/friends, and vocal communication frequently being more emotive/descriptive for them than physical is

Kryptonians come in just sliiiightly brighter colors than humans do--eyes, hair, skin, etc

it takes a long time and extended time together to "learn" someone's heartbeat

food is generally served on specific complementing dishware, in terms of color/shape/specific meal

most clothes involve multiple layers, mainly a fitted undersuit that covers as much skin as possible, and then an overrobe or two that hide(s) the shape of their bodies as much as possible; specific cuts of drapery are a big thing in their fashion

wearing house crests is a Big Deal all the time and involves certain rites of passage/ages/etc

diet being fairly simple and minimalistic; they have rice but not really bread, eat more fish than red meat, and cuisine tends to concentrate on very subtle and natural flavors; there's not typically a lot of different things on their plate and they don’t generally use chemical preservatives in daily life

to a Kryptonian it'd be a LOT more normal that Kon and Match got made in test tubes than it'd be that Jon and Chris got made via natural births, and there would absolutely be a "is cloning worse or is just leaving your kid's DNA up to chance worse??" kind of argument going on there, culturally speaking

( also I could go on for a fucking MINUTE how Jon being a successful and healthy hybrid who is also apparently fertile enough to have at least one descendent alive and well in the thirty-first century is an insane and weird thing that makes very little sense that I DESPERATELY wish came up in more of the fics/canon that I see involving or mentioning him; seriously, Kryptonian DNA is so complicated that Bizarro syndrome is a regular thing in clones produced from it even by people who SPECIALIZE in cloning, but the kid who just got whatever random genes won the random race is the one who came out perfectly stable and healthy and has ZERO health issues/concerns? like, EVER?? hOW, canon. HOW. )

I will actually live and die on the hill of "Lex is more genetically compatible with Kryptonian DNA than Lois is" because fuck a) biological determinism and b) loving couples DO frequently have to deal with genetic incompatibility and that's just much more interesting to me narratively, and also I love the weird little not-quite-tragedy of that concept, both in how Lex refuses to be an ally to someone he actually is so naturally “compatible” with and in how Lois would have genetic compatibility issues with someone she loved so much and was loved BY so much

ONE DAY I will write the fic where Jon is actually NOT a healthy hybrid and has a ton of health issues from birth and can't even use any Kryptonian powers without having a freaking asthma attack or HEART attack, resigns himself to it just being an unavoidable Kryptonian-human hybrid thing and that he'll never live up to his dad or grow up to be "Superman"--and then one day an oblivious newborn bb clone Kon shows up out of the blue in perfect health with EXTRA superpowers and very publicly declaring that HE'S gonna be Superman someday, and everyone in the Kent family has to just deal with that and how they all feel about it. ONE DAY.

[monochromatic-heartzz]

Man. I am in a roll lately.

I've been having so much Sampo on the brain but let's discuss a stupid concept i thought up. This probably won't be long dw. (<- Future Heart here, hi. I lied.)

Could 5 Star Sampo be a Preservation unit?

Now. I know what some of you are thinking. "Preservation!? It doesn't fit him! He should be a very strong dps or an irreplaceable support! Why preservation????" And to that i say, maybe he should be.

But. It's just... i've talked about this in a post before but it was a very short jokey thing that was the first time i'd done an analysis in a while.

Belobog. The planet where its people follow the preservation. They want to preserve humanity and civilization. So they fight to survive, just enough until the Astral Express gives their assistance and they can be free from the pain the Stellaron has given them.

Well, you know, there's a biiit of an outlier in the Belobog cast. And it's, as you know, our old Sampo Koski, Masked Fool who came here to help drive the plot forward. He follows the path of Elation, as all Masked Fools do, and as far as we're concerned there should be no connection with him and the Preservation, and no indication that his views align with it.

WRONG!!!!! Masquerade Duet. Sparkle guesses that the reason Sampo wants his mask back is because of a catastrophe in Jarilo-VI, and judging by his reaction and later words, she hit the nail square on the head.

So?

That's. Kinda it? He wants to preserve the civilization in Jarilo-VI, and all the work he put would be undone if this catastrophe were to happen without interference. All the work he put into helping preserve humanity in this planet. Mmm does anyone remember what happened to an outsider who helped preserve civilization on Belobo- Fire trailblazer.

Yes. It's because they are the protagonist. And they will get every playable path one day, but. Canonically, they become a pathstrider after their views and feelings align with the path.

Let's be real, Sampo loves Belobog. Pretty evident from context clues and dialogue even outside of it. He clearly helped preserve it, though it was from the sidelines and really nothing major.

So. How would he earn being a preservation path thingy?

The catastrophe in Jarilo-VI. His mask.

Gang. I think we found our way.

And yes. Gameplay paths don't equal canon lore paths, we've known for a while. But sometimes narratively ingame paths can be used to deepen a character in one way or another, even if its not stated.

Even though it would be a bummer if he got his big 5 star form and it was a preservation unit. I think it sounds sweet. After probably helping it so much, it would be a nice way to say "Yeah this is more his home than Epsilon ever would be, he has the will of the preservation to show it!!"

I do not know. I am. Once again: spitballing. Don't take this too seriously we have nothing about this guy and im working hard on not crying because i see no new content of him.

This is definitely not a hill i would ever die on. But i rarely see people talking about him being a preservation unit, and i wanted to show the idea a little love

[ancha-aus]

What if when classic falls he like read a future article ‘his wonderland’ cus he’s a curious little guy and hear abt the original Alice in wonderland. So like the article was on Dream’s diary and how it talked of what the book was abt and what he wa using the money for, nightmare being missing and how mad he was at the makers of Alice in wonderland for trying to make money off his brother horrible story, and how their mother, and just stuff like that.

But when he mentions it suddenly nightmare drops something as he easedrops on the convo and just quickly excuses himself as he hears the dream had to be dragged away from where the tree was. And he blames himself for it, because DREAM WAS LOOKING FOR HIM, all that time he was looking for him. All this time he missed him for nothing, they could lived in wonderland TOGETHER. But now he’s long dead and that can’t happen and he so brokenhearted 💔.(can you tell I like angst??)

-📖

ooooh very interesting idea!!

I do love some good angst :3

and an interview with dream would be interesting! As he goes through a lot as well and he refuses to let others alter the story his BROTHER told him. Dream will die on this hill as he keeps people from changing it to fit their narratives (because that is what ALL those people did. lie and change facts to make it seem like nightmare was the bad guy.)

The thing is though... I got this headcanon... that skeletons live for a VERY long time. Ngihtmare being alive? Not as much a wonderland thing as a skeleton thing (He grew older after all. he grew up in wodnerland. so it doesn't freeze aging.)

but happy to hear you enjoy the backstory i wrote them and it give you ideas!! I love hearing ideas and having people tell me them! <3

I myself like the ideas of adding like.. bonus chapters? after specific endings. Dream and ngihtmare's story could be part of one of those...

Though I will have to write the whole damn thing first and like... make the actual interactive story hihihihi

[cuephrase]

10, 11, 12, 13, 17, 25, 26, 27, and 28 for the comics ask game! (feel free to break up or just the ones you want to)

coming from this ask game

i'm going to skip 26 + 27 because when i tried to do it i realized a) certain art styles have grown on me and b) i was hard-pressed to find a comic that fit bc i don't collect books i don't enjoy, unless i'm getting it purely for the variant cover...at which point i like neither the writing nor the interior art lmao. sorry!!

10. The prettiest cover

from top to bottom, left to right Red Hood: Outlaw (2016) #27, Batman (2016) #150, Tim Drake: Robin #10, Nightwing (2016) #94

-est's are sooooo hard for me, and i'm so indecisive, and there's so many art styles...so i picked these four lmao. i have so many pretty covers okay, i tried.

this picture does not do it justice, but the red hood issue is foiled and i just love it. foil is fun in general, but i feel like it makes the blood more...bloody? wow i'm so eloquent. IT'S COOL IMO OKAY. not that this is shocking to anyone, but i am v obsessed with pink...the batman cover is pink. but also!! bruce is smiling. and the motion of the cape feels so lush. it just makes me happy. um. so. the tim cover. listen. the color palette is pretty, i love the early dawn + his bright colors. also. he's pretty. NEXT. i adore this nightwing cover. it's so soft, like it kinda looks like it was done with, crap idk my art mediums, oil pastels? the texture is so smooth. plus, i love like the scene and all the details, like it's just so satisfying.

i'm realizing i may have defined 'prettiest' strangely. oh well.

11. The ugliest cover

Teen Titans (2011) #18

ngl i probably have uglier covers but like WTF why does his face look like that. (the struggle here was that i either buy covers i like or the cover is completely irrelevant, so then i was neutral about like...pretty much every book i bought for content not cover lmao.)

12. Your favorite comic you have

Robin (1993) #10, 13, 46, 156

just for you, i did the tim drake edition version of this question hehe. hang on, lemme compose myself so i can be mostly normal about these comics. *muffled screaming* alright!!

first!! ROBIN!DICK AN ROBIN!TIM ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! with jason-haunting-the-narrative angst?! to die for. then we have tim being robin to dick's batman, so fun, with a healthy serving of bruce and dick angst and they actually communicate a bit. so frickin good. i've talked before about how much i love love love #46, and that has not changed- i revisted it recently and *oh my godddddd*. tim struggling with robin vs. tim drake, and then utterly failing despite his best efforts when he was already questioning if he even makes a difference? fuck yes. sorry. and then!! super-depressed!timbo talking a would-be jumper into not jumping and then calling dick? words cannot express the sheer !!!!!!!!!!!!!! i feel about these issues. this is me trying to be normal about them, that's how bad it is. as with the previous answer to 12, i have pages of these comics eternally memorized.

13. Your least favorite comic you have (and why you originally grabbed it!)

Red Hood: The Hill

allow me to explain my comic buying method. first of all, i try to buy only comics i've read + liked, unless i like the cover or it's a current release. so this is a little bit recency bias, but also current stuff is pretty much the only thing i'll be buying blind for the story itself.

i picked up this mini bc it was marketed as a jason run. HA. you could completely cut him from the story and like. so little would change. his only relevance was marketing. the story itself was also like, super boring to me, but in the spirit of fairness + acknowledging bias, i was enticed by a jason story and not given one. so. if i'd come to the run expecting an oc + batman i might've had a very different experience.

if this had been out on dcui, i would not have picked this run up. maybe the dan mora covers if i saw them when digging through boxes. but purely for the covers.

17. comic you picked up just for the cover art

Batman (2016) #50, Nightwing #81, Task Force Z #8, Robins #3

have not read the issue yet, bc i have not kicked off my Big Batman Read Through, but i am fairly certain it will upset me when i get to it lmao. i have a soft spot for sketch covers, i think they're so neat. plus this one is so evocative. technically, the nightwing cover may not count bc i'm sort of collecting all of nightwing, but at the time i bought it purely for the cover. the graffiti is fun, dick + tim + milkshakes = cute!! i enjoyed task force z, but not enough to buy the run, however when i saw this cover i had to get it. idk how to express it but the composition tickles my brain in the best way. ugh so cool. MARCUS TO TIM?!?!?! HELLO?! WHAT MORE NEED I SAY?!

25. The comic with the coolest variant cover

Nightwing (2016) #107, Red Hood: Outlaw #35, Batman and Robin (2023) #1, Tim Drake: Robin #2

i do not yet have the comic(s) with the coolest variant covers i want, so i decided to do a cover for each robin! dammit tim and damian are in the wrong order. dick through the ages by dan mora? amazing. just. so cool. so fun. enjoy the atmosphere on the red hood one + his reflection being in a puddle of blood, very classy. dami and bruce just look so 🥹🥹🥹. love the lighting/composition. and now is when i joke that i almost just did all the dan mora tribute covers lmao. very much love them all, but the dick and tim cover is my fave. like. it's just so sweet. the brothers. the homage. the !!!!!!!!!! of it all. gah i love them sm fr

28. A run you have completely collected (trades, singles, or mix!)

Red Robin (2009)

it has literally just occured to me that i could have also done TT's nightwing run but...eh. much prouder of this!! this is the first run/title that i decided to collect completely and it was so much fun hunting the issues down. man, i felt so accomplished when i brought #25 home. and i got it for a steal too, so like bonus happy points 💅🏼

brief story time, so i picked this up fairly early on into my comics collecting when i was really trying to be very, very selective. i think i maybe was looking specifically for #17, where bruce is back and tim gets a hug, and the vendor had that one + a bunch of others and i was geeking out a little bit showing diff panels to my spouse and they were like, "so we're getting them all, cool." "no, it's fine-" "dude. your whole face is so lit up right now." i lost (won?) that argument. it is still so mind-blowing to me how supportive they are of the things that bring me joy. completely antithetical to my upbringing. anyways!! so yeah, this is also the run that spurred me to collect the way i do today. i tried to be more restrained. i was ✨enabled✨

tysm for the ask!! i had such a blast answering, i hope you enjoy the answers!!

[rustyvanburace]

nanananan nanashi 4 ask game🥹

favorite thing about them: NANASHI HAS STYLE, and I will die on that hill. People bitch and moan about Nanashi's "ugly" design, but he is PUNK and that fits really well with IVA's themes. I'd rather have a protagonist with a totally unique appearance than yet another bland kid. Maybe that is antithesis to the roots of SMT (they've always favored bland "nobody" characters), but I am nonetheless sticking to my stance. I love that he is dressed for the part as a Hunter, but still embraces his own sense of identity and style -- which frankly is important and natural for teens. I feel the same way about Asahi's own style. I love that Nanashi's design incorporates aspects of the two Akiras from IV. HE. HAS. GOOD. DESIGN.

least favorite thing about them: Once again this is more of an issue I have with IVA's writing and it is not solely about Nanashi, but I do wish that IVA did explore Akira's motivations more (especially with rescuing his sister, which is just absent in IVA) and how his actions and choices would've later impacted his later reincarnated self. There's a lot of stuff that Akira did in the background of IV that only barely gets examined IVA. Akira's "betrayal" toward the Hunters and Nanashi falling into that same fate makes for an interesting foil, but is just another foil that gets resolved way too quickly for my liking. Nanashi saves the day by repelling the Tokugawa Mandela and is immediately forgiven and praised by all with almost hardly any skepticism. Again it's an issue I have with IVA at large, but it still leaves me wanting more out of the characters and their development.

favorite line: Can I even say I have a favorite line from a silent protagonist, lol? I can say that I do like how "extreme" Nanashi is with his answers, either being very openly kind to downright crass and cold. It's much more extreme than some of Flynn's answers in IV. Arguably it makes IVA's alignment choices too obvious, but I like that it gives Nanashi a polarizing personality and it fits with his design too. Plus some of his anarchy answers are downright hilarious.

Additionally, I'm also amazed at Nanashi's "Dagda!" voice clip in the massacre route. For most of the game, he calls for Dagda in such a high-pitched voice. But as soon as you're locked in massacre, his voice suddenly turns really gruff and deep. Lmao??

brOTP: HE IS BROS WITH EVERYONE. But especially with Asahi, Hallelujah, and Navarre! I love his caring sibling relationship with Asahi, I love him being best of buds with Hallelujah, and I love that Navarre is basically like the cool fun uncle to him.

I posted that stupid edit of Morcedai and Rigby earlier, but actually Nanashi and Hallelujah are WAY more like Morcedai and Rigby. That's them for realll.

OTP: Nanashi x Hallelujah NATION LET'S GO. I will absolutely ship them both as bros and as a pair! They have the best ever chemistry.

nOTP: Yeah so, I really do not like Asahi x Nanashi and I hate seeing Nanashi get shipped with adults. Stop it. Enough said.

random headcanon: I like to imagine that, even before the events of IVA, Nanashi has always had dreams of his past life -- just not as frequently or as "unusual" as they later would be, stuff that he'd just brush off and keep to himself. I also like to think that, partly cause of that, he feels a closeness or yearning towards the Sky Tower and Firmanent but cannot put into words as to why.

unpopular opinion: Nanashi's concept design (the one where he's older, has glasses, and the giant robot arm) sucks and I'm tired of people saying it is "superior" than Nanashi's final design. Maybe the older design would have worked better for an earlier story concept, but for the way IVA is now, it fucking sucks. You can't just switch Nanashi's design with that and expect it to seamlessly work with the game's narrative. People complain about Nanashi being a "discount Demi-fiend", but actually Nanashi's design is much more subtle and it HAS to be in order to work with the narrative. A giant robot arm is the very opposite of subtle.

God I'm just, so pissed at people saying Nanashi's design is "bad". I'm pissed I'm pissed!!

song I associate with them: I'm just gonna cross these out with all asks going forward, I am not good at picking songs lmao.

favorite picture of them: Once again, it's Nanashi's precious smile~!

Thank you for the ask!!

[madwomansapologist]

notes on A Unexpected Party

"In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit." — The Hobbit, Chapter 1.

Bilbo is the moment. I would die for him. I would kill for him. I would not eat the last cake so he could. Bilbo deserves a million praises.

He's so polite, even when it would be better if he wasn't. He would pretty much rather all the dwarves and Gandalf to explode, but he keeps getting food for them and preparing more tea. Relatable.

Talking about food... He ate three cakes. Three cakes. And Bilbo was like "to be a good host, i will make the sacrifice of not eating anymore." BILBO YOU JUST SAID YOU ATE SUPPER AND BAKED MORE TWO CAKES? So iconic of him. You go boy, you deserve all that food.

He loves guests, he just would prefer to be the one to invite them.

All I can do is imagine the other hobbits seeing a lot of dwarves entering the house of most respected of them. Imagine the gossips. The rumors. Oh, that's so exciting.

Also, he didn't want to be included on the dwarves narrative, but when he them saying he wasn't fit for that.... He suddenly became Bilbo, the killers of dracos.

He is the moment.

The fact the he has rooms to clothes is amazing for me. You can totally see that it would be so easy to read hobbits as tiny fat guys who only think about food and not moving, but since the first page you know than way better than that. They care about their looks, about others opinions, about having a good life to enjoy. Isn't it the dream? To be able to live confortably without shame about your desires?

It was surprise to learn that he loves flowers. Wasn't expecting that. Good detail.

I love that little guy. Can't wait to see him suffer.

About other characters (since we didn't spend a long time with them — not when compared to Bilbo — i don't have a lot to say about them. Not yet):

Gandalf is so funny. All the exchange about the "good morning" is so good, it taught you a lot about him. My first experience with Tolkien was LotR, but imagined the people reading Hobbit in 1937. It's such a great scene.

Also, his hat is blue.

And he could have explained to Bilbo what would happen, explain to the dwarves that Bilbo didn't knew a damn thing, but no. Of course he wouldn't. I respect him for that.

The explanation did not seem to explain.

I just read the first chapter, so understand that I'm talking about the few first scenes: Thorin was kind of made dirt in the movie. Now, thinking in hindsight, I do still enjoy how he was introduced. Is just that the book showed more courage to make fun of him. Yes, he is important and respected, but that didn't change he fell into Bilbo's house. Yes, his journey is dangerous and he is showed as a great leader, still he could talk amenities for hours without even noticing.

Tolkien clearly had so much fun writing this book.

The two songs can show a lot about his writing. While the first one show that the dwarves could see throught Bilbo's facade, they still were more polite than Bilbo would expect. And the second was so emotional that for a second Bilbo pictures himself fighting dragons.

Also, the way he handle the informations about what isn't present in the scene is so great. Tolkien isn't stopping the scene, making you get out of that good feeling of a new story beginning to form, to tell you something that happened to someone's cousing. No. He does it so well. You learn more about Bilbo's parents, about the Shire, the Hill and The Water, without ever feeling like you were "interrupted."

I feel like an asshole trying to "judge" Tolkien.

Also, some thoughts about the world so far:

The dorknoob was in the middle of the door.

Hobbits created golf.

Now I wanna talk about that book edition I have. First things first: the preface and introduction were on the point. The explanations about the language and maps were amazing.

That part may only interest portuguese speakers. So, apparently in english is more common to say dwarf and dwarfs than dwarve and dwarves. So in portuguese it would be more common to say anão e anões, but to keep that sense of weirdness they made it into anão e anãos, which is right but is just so fucking weird to say. A really great change.

I'm sick right now, and that book was a great company.

[seriouslysam8]

I love everyone getting so worked up about Sirius’ height 🤣. It all started with Wolfstar fandom and making Remus the “dominant male”, therefore Wolfstar fandom concluded Remus has to be tall and Sirius has to be a shorty. It makes no sense to the hp book fans. The only thing I disagree on is Harry’s height. He was taller than James and I will die on that hill! If he was the same height as James in DH he outgrew him! I don’t care if it was by an inch or 2 he was taller than James!!!

On another note since James and Sirius used to be mistaken as brothers, can you imagine random people mistaking Harry for Sirius’ biological kid in Brumous… 🥹

I know it started as a Wolfstar thing. Another reason I dislike Wolfstar. Everything about Sirius and Remus is changed to fit this narrative until they’re not even Sirius and Remus anymore. Everything from their looks to personality to, well, fucking everything. I hate it.

The only person in my mind taller than Sirius is Ron. Just by like an inch or two.

I am dying at Harry needing to be taller than James. I view them as basically the same height but I can be okay with Harry being a tad taller than his dad. As long as they’re both tall boys too!

UH DO YOU REMEMBER ELEANOR AT THE EYE DOCTOR?!? She was old and senile and had no clue who Harry and Sirius actually were but she called Sirius Harry’s dad because they looked like they were!!! I need to find more way to fit that in.

[goodolreliablejake]

Okay, I'm on the last day of Unlimited Blade Works now, and I've got some shipping thoughts...

I like the way each pairing corresponds to its respective storyline. I don't necessarily think that having the best relationship means having the best story, far from it. With that in mind...

Shirou and Rin feel like the best match to me. They seem like they can meet each other on the same level and are at the same place in life. Even though Rin is supposedly the perfect school idol and Shirou's magical tutor, Shirou is still able to challenge and surprise her. They learn together. They're the same age. They're both mages. Their differences feel complimentary. And even their issues with intimacy seem well-matched. Shirou struggles to see himself as worthy of life and love, and Tohsaka feels isolated by her legacy and unable to be vulnerable, but this allows them to open up to one another slowly, to work through these issues together. And that seems fitting for the storyline that kind of ends on the note of, like, "well, I don't know if this will end badly or not, but I'm going to dedicate myself to doing my best on the path I have chosen for myself."

Contrast Sakura, whose relationship with Shirou inevitably becomes one-sided. Sakura is more than willing to give everything for Shirou, to silently pine for him, to sacrifice herself for his happiness, but she is so hurt and vulnerable and volatile that in order to be with her, Shirou has to repeatedly choose to give up everything else. He's her senior, her brother's friend, it's unbalanced, and it plays into his martyr-hero complex, even when he has to compromise his ideals to protect her. Sakura needs to heal, but she can't, so instead she gets a codependent savior. It's a toxic drama worthy of Heaven's Feel, and it's part of why I love Sakura so much.

And speaking of enabling, we have Shirou and Saber. Now don't get me wrong, I love Saber. In fact, she's really become a comfort character for me over time. But I don't think the narrative really paints her "ideal hero" shtick in the best light. She is what Shirou longs to be: the Hero of Justice who has sacrificed herself and her wellbeing, even her humanity to save others. And as we know from Archer, that's the Bad Ending for Shirou. When they are together, it reminds me of two kids experiencing their first crush, not necessarily sharing much in common beyond the extreme circumstances that have brought them together. Not the best hill to die on. Also, the fantastical elements kind of give me the ick in terms of power imbalance. Saber is a magically bound servant who must obey her master. Saber is mentally an adult who has already lived an entire life. Saber is physically a young teenager who cannot age. It's just a bit weird, isn't it?

My favorite part of the Fate route was learning about Saber, but it definitely wasn't the most satisfying ending. It felt like a starting point to get beyond, and maybe that's why the romance feels so much like a first crush to me.

[mtab2260]

Okay, first off, before I go off on a rant I must state that I am a man. So I could very well be an absolute uneducated dick right now but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway.

The THIRD time in THIRTY-TWO movies and ELEVEN tv shows is not fucking bad

That is not fucking bad at all

Things like this happen and just because it happens to be a woman this time is not a sexist act. It's storytelling. All characters dying serves a purpose whether it be to further the plot, further another character's development, show the gravity of the situation to the viewers, show bullshit poetry, finalize the dead character's story, or a bunch of other shit that I can't think of right now so I won't name. Characters die, that's the story.

Maria Hill being a woman in this case truthfully has nothing to do with it as her death already fits into three of those categories. Her death further's the plot, because now Fury is gonna do shit that he wouldn't have done before, and her death is motivation. And no, that is not furthering another character's development as it is considering choices that lead the plot. While her death definitely does further Fury's development though, I give you that. Hill was his... one of his hands or eye, I don't remember-- for years and she just got fuckin shot in the blink of an eye by a Skrull wearing his face, it's motherfucking personal now.

And finally, her death shows us the gravity of the situation. You saw how seamless that was? Three seconds of Fury literally just saying Hill's name and raising his hand in greeting, then seeing the relief on Hill's face after seeing her friend in the chaos and immediately going towards him because it's instinct and then just getting fucking shot in the gut because it's not Fury and that's the point. Anyone could be anyone. They took the opening scene and made it have gravity on another level because a character we have cared about for years is now dead because of how severe this threat is.

But my point to this is, they didn't kill her off to follow a sexist narrative. They had a legitimate (stupid bloody-ass damn) reason.

Besides, are they now never allow to kill off a woman because it could be considered sexist? Now this is me genuinely trying to understand here, what are they supposed to do so that someone out there doesn't consider it filling that sexist narrative?

Because if you reverse the rolls, no one ever complains or points it out in anger. And I'm not saying they should. But it has happened in the reverse and if you're talking about this why aren't you talking about those times?

For instance, Trip dying in season two of Agents of Shield. That was totally for furthering Skye's development and guilt. And yes, everyone was outraged but because his death was fucking bullshit and people complained that they couldn't keep more than one black character on at a time. But it did further Daisy's plot and guilt and making her run away from SHIELD at the end of season three all that more believable. Plus it sent Simmons into a "hate everything alien" mindset because it got personal from a close friend dying. So that fits two of my purposeful death categories. But also, it was a man dying to advance, hah get this, TWO Women's plots.

Then also, more recently, Peter Parker from Spider-Gwen Stacy's universe in the Spiderverse's death also furthers Gwen's plot. I mean, it is literally stated so specifically that these deaths need-to-happen to build spider-person development. And in also simple terms, it is a man dying to further a woman's plot.

So that's two examples in the reverse and I'm sure there's more, but those are the only ones that have come to mind in the small five minutes it took me to write this.

But, still, regardless, that's okay? But the other isn't?

I don't understand.

I cannot believe Marvel once again advanced the Man’s plot by killing off a Lead Female. This is what, the THIRD TIME now?

[excidium]

this blog is a senti!adrien theory supremacy zone.

[anniemal2004]

the eleanor vance to will graham stan pipeline

[thyandrawrites]

I don't really do predictions but I want to put this out there in the very off chance that it might turn out to be true

Conspiracy theory: Touya always had the genetics to regulate his internal temperature, though on a smaller scale than Shouto. We know that Phospor works with Shouto's heart as a catalyst

That brings balance to both halves of his quirk.

And the thing is, Dabi doesn't have an ice quirk (and likely won't pull one out of his ass now of all times), but he's a chimera too. He has an ice constitution and a fire quirk. His body is already engineered for the cold. Who's to say he cannot circulate chilled blood to counter his internal heat as well?

I think that's how he survived Sekoto Peak, and how he remained alive even after sustaining expansive burns all over his body a second time. Horikoshi went extra out of the way to point out the oddity that was his survival, so there's definitely something more to it than just... A spite strong enough to best death.

I think that Touya, too, has a trigger to cool himself down, but neither Touya nor Enji consciously realized it yet.

Quirks can evolve, if the right "catalyst" triggers a change in their inner workings.

A catalyst like... Touya's crazy strong will, for example. A will so strong not even AFO could bend it. After burning up at Sekoto Hill, we see Touya chant "I don't want to die. I don't want to die, " thinking of how he's yet to show his dad what he's really worth. I guess what I'm saying is: if quirks can get "liberated" and unlock a next level under the right circumstances, like an extremely stressful situation, then what best stressor than burning yourself alive and finding out in a panic that you cannot turn off the heat? Being on the brink of death has already worked as a catalyst twice now: think of Tomura and Toga in mva and the power ups they unlocked as a result. It wouldn't be too farfetched if Touya, too, got a quirk awakening in such a circumstance.

I can see this fitting into the Todofam narratives for one major reason.

Enji was really quick to discard Touya as a failure. I have a different post dissecting this but it happened over the course of a handful of months. Touya manifested his quirk around 4, and had already been replaced months before his 5th birthday.

Enji's rushed judgement makes sense when you consider that what he was after was a heir that could counter the overwhelming heat that builds up within his body, thus nullifying the flaw that Enji felt was responsible for never being strong enough to beat All Might.

In light of that, it's obvious that dissuading Touya from using his quirk was not the real reason Enji kept having children. That was just an excuse. It's Enji himself that admits the real reason: Touya will never be the one to surpass All Might, because Touya not only inherited Enji's overheating, but he also reaches an internal boiling boint much sooner than Enji.

Adding to that, Enji was pigheaded about besting All Might through brute force, and as such, he only ever taught Touya how to turn up the heat:

So it stands to reason that with this type of training, even if Touya did have the genetics to cool down his internal temperature, he simply wouldn't know how to.

I think there's a chance that by the end of the series, Horikoshi will turn the narrative that Touya was a doomed failure on its head, and show us that it was less adverse fate and more arbitrary choices that ruined Touya's bright future. This idea has already been introduced by chapters 351 and 352, with Shouto's stress on choosing your path and Dabi's stubborn belief that you can't change the tracks of your life once they're set for you.

Building off of that, if it turned out that Touya had the "right" potential to become "a masterpiece", then it doubles down on the idea that it's Enji's choice to discard him so easily that doomed his son to this much suffering, and not some inherent "flaw" that Touya has no control over. It's not a predetermined fate but a choice, and choices can be corrected.

This would work in favour of both Dabi and Enji's character arcs: it would prove Dabi wrong about predetermination, it would give him a way to eventual recovery, and it would teach Enji that forcing his kids to do things his way isn't necessarily what works best for them. In fact, it almost certainly never is. Shouto reached peak self actualization when he explored his way of doing things, independently of his father; Touya never had that chance. Enji could've realized that Touya had the ability to cool himself down after all, if only he'd let his eldest train in a way that wasn't an exact replica of his own moves. If only he didn't focus so hard on turning up the heat.

So. I think we might be on the way to discovering the true extent of Dabi's quirk. Chapter 353 shows a glow appear on Dabi's chest where Shouto's Phospor hit. It's not over Dabi's heart, but it's the middle of his chest, just like how it was for Shouto; it could be symbolic to the two halves of his own quirk.

Or maybe I'm reading too much into this and it's just an addendum of Shouto's move, lol. Maybe Shouto's attack has some medical properties like everyone's been speculating lately, and it triggered some tissue regeneration in his brother. That's a possibility! I'm not completely discarding the regen route, but if that's what's happening, I don't think the source is necessarily Shouto. If it was, then that still wouldn't explain how Touya survived Sekoto Peak and the years after. He didn't have his little brother, then. No, I think, and I might be completely off base of course, that Touya always had this dormant side of his quirk inside of him, but he never actually used it intentionally, or was even aware that he did possess it.

It doesn't even have to be the ability to cool himself down; I'm leaning towards that because it's the only thing that explains his survival. But it might just be that his chimera genes give him the chance to make fire that doesn't burn him, just like his little brother. If that's the case, then one way to recovery for him could be Shouto teaching him how to summon it consciously. I would greatly prefer this to the route of Touya never using his quirk again "for his own good." That never sat right with me — it just seems another way to reinforce the abuse he suffered as a kid, and imho it negates the idea that society was wrong to force him into giving up. And while I'm a fan of Dabi receiving treatment for his injuries, I also think the regen route doesn't provide a long term solution for the problem that his fire burns him. It would only work like a safety net in case he exceeds his body's limits again. He'd still need to either give up on using his quirk, or get support gear and limit its use as much as possible. But Horikoshi never struck me as the type to say "hurting yourself is fine so long as you can get healed afterwards." Look at Deku!

On the other hand, if Dabi learned a way to make fire that doesn't involve self-harm, he could be free to explore his identity the way Shouto was able to, and find worth in himself and his quirk that isn't attached to his father's legacy. That's what I'd like to see, personally, so that's my prediction

That's not to say I think it will 100% happen! I just think it would be really neat if it did

[mamawasatesttube]

@batgirlfriends said: you are being SO brave. go to class and then write the essay later king <3

I DID IT I WENT TO CLASS!!! i have another one in half an hour but in the meantime.

do you ever think about how stupid it is that geoff johns was like "this is a clone! he's 50% from two parents." geoff do you know what the word clone means? geoff i am going to manifest in your walls. that's not cloning that's just a regular baby grown in a weirdass test tube. geoff this is not rocket science (or i guess the genetics equivalent thereof? geoff this is not crispr cas9) i am going to gnaw through your doors geoff

now, granted, since the earlier comics themselves are full of contradictions as to whether or not kon does or doesn't have kryptonian dna vs whether he's a regular human with a kryptonian-imitation metagene... there's several ways to interpret him, certainly. i, personally, live in the camp of "he's like, 99.7% kryptonian, with a bit of human dna thrown in there bc they had problems and issues for w/e reason with full kryptonian dna". to me, this is the best bridge between all the various kon origin canons - he originally thought that bit of human came from paul westfield, then later found out it was actually lex luthor, so there can still be some crisis there, but he's MOSTLY kryptonian, as (sometimes) stated in sb94. i'd go find citations but i'm on a time crunch here.

(i know there are also parts in sb94 and also iirc reign of the supermen that state he's Just A Guy w a kryptonian-esque metagene, but at least to me that's unsatisfying bc like... i KNOW comic logic is bonkers, but cmon. he's weak to kryptonite. he gets supercharged by solar energy. if he didn't process sunlight the same way a kryptonian does, kryptonite should have no effect on him. and if the argument is that a metagene mimics the kryptonian condition to THAT EXTENT, it just... feels like. really. occam's razor baby, it's easier to simply say He Is At Least In Part Kryptonian.)

SO. THAT ALL BEING SAID. a) geoff stop being like "lex is his father" again do you even understand what cloning MEANS. b) geoff aside, it's absolutely so bizarre that there's a whole chunk of comics that call lex kon's father in any way WITHOUT doing the same for clark. it's been said before and i'm sure it'll be said again, but... seriously that's just wack i don't even need to get into it bc. hello.

but the point is, this all leads into the "what is kon to clark" debate, right? bc if genetically, he's like clark's twin but a bit to the left, maybe that's more "little brother" ish, etc etc. but on the other hand, given that the comic narrative does keep trying to push a parental role on kon's human dna donor (once that donor is retconned into being lex), it's Strange not to let clark into that role as well. and people can go back and forth on this until we're all blue in the face but i think it comes down to just...

there is no one cut and dry nuclear family role that fits the two of them. there just isn't. to insist kon is just 100% clark's son and point at the post-retcon comics as evidence is reductive; to insist kon is just 100% clark's little brother and point to the pre-retcon comics as evidence is also reductive. kon is somewhere in between. he's neither. he's both. there is just no equivalent nuclear family role that fits him and clark to a T.

which i know i've said before and i'm SURE i'll say again but sue me, this just lives in my mind rent free. mostly kryptonian kon who is an undefined family member to clark and who is NOT family to lex (oh god i can write a whole other essay about this) is the hill i will die on.

(also, largely unrelated side note that has just been bugging me since i read tt03: that time kara's fighting titans of tomorrow kon and is like "you may be half kryptonian, but i'm the real thing!" or whatever that was. do you ever read something and go Wow! There Were Literally No Mixed People Involved In The Creation Of This 😬😬😬!!!! i have soooo many gripes w the tt03 interpretation of kon and his genetics but this is a HUGE ONE. any and all focus on his genes in this way automatically becomes allegorical for real life mixed ppl and its just. yikes, scoob! stop trying to do any sort of mixed kid narrative and meet me in the fucking pit geoff johns)

holding myself back from typing up a mini essay on kon and clark and paul westfield vs lex luthor. im waiting for my starbucks and im gonna be late to my chemistry class i can't do this right now but what if i did anyway--

[detroit-grand-prix]

Wildest Dreams Chapter 23 - Miss Americana and the Heartbreak Prince

Chapter summary: A dramatic doubleheader in the desert. Bee runs two races in Bahrain, and considers what her future is in the sport.

Content warning: Mentions of Romain Grosjean's crash at the 2020 Bahrain Grand Prix. There is no graphic description, but it is mentioned.

Chapter word count: 4,498

Author's Notes:

Just a reminder that the italic text indicates spoken German! I know, it's been a while since I've actually used it.

This was a dramatic pair of races, so I felt like I'd be remiss not to give them their own chapter. I think this will be the last chapter that has to do with the 2020 season, though, so we are getting closer to the end? Maybe? You'll find out. And again, the timeline deviates here a bit - the Williams family is staying on for one more year, despite the buyout. After both this race and the 2022 British Grand Prix, I will absolutely die on the hill that the Halo is one of the greatest safety innovations in auto racing. It saved Grosjean in 2020, too.

Here is a video with all of the details of the crash then. I'm not going to post an actual video of it, you can find that on your own if you so choose.

And here is an article detailing how the tire mix-up happened in the Sakhir Grand Prix. I kind of wish Netflix had spent more time on this whole thing for Drive to Survive, but it didn't really fit in with their narrative for the Sakhir episode that mostly focused on the Racing Point/McLaren rivalry. Oh well. But I do enjoy this humorous fan edit of the George plotline that turns it into a Star Wars movie.

Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Kingdom of Bahrain November 29th, 2020

There came a point in the season where Bee asked herself if she really wanted to do this anymore. If it was all worth it.

That point was after the opening scramble in the Bahrain Grand Prix, when Romain Grosjean clipped Daniil Kyvat on the straight after the third turn of the first lap. His car left the track, wedged itself into a metal barrier, and immediately burst into flames.

For twenty-eight agonizing seconds, Bee thought she had just witnessed the death of one of her competitors. The fireball from the crash lit up the entire track, like a split-second of daylight.  Bee thought there would be any way he could be okay. Nobody did.

Against the odds and any common sense, Romain emerged from the inferno alive and only a little worse for the wear with some burns on his hands. The relief that seeing him walking to the ambulance from the medical car brought Bee was short-lived. She had the same thought that likely all 18 of her compatriots had - what if that had been me?  

Instead of the numbness she’d felt when Anthoine Hubert died, she was gripped with raw terror as she pulled into the pit lane for the red flag. It was worse this time. It felt more visceral, even though the driver had survived. She saw it happen this time. She was driving by Grosjean going into that turn, Anthoine’s crash was on the opposite side of the track from her position. She couldn’t remember the last time a Formula 1 car had burst into flames like that.

She felt her hands shaking a little bit as she detached the steering wheel. She pulled herself up out of her seat with the halo and clambered out of the car. She had been sitting in it in the pitlane for a few minutes, trying to steady her emotions before having to go back to the garage. She wanted to look brave in front of the crew, she didn’t want to let them see how shaken she was. She wanted to keep her helmet on so nobody could see her face, but she felt like it was suffocating her. She kept it on. 

Emilia was standing by the entrance door, and wordlessly grabbed Bee by the arm, leading her out of the back door of the garage area, across the paddock, into the motorhome, and straight up to her driver’s room. Emilia opened the door and practically pushed Bee onto the small futon inside. Bee pulled her helmet and her balaclava off, now that she was in the privacy of her driver’s room. It didn’t matter if Emilia saw how ill-at-ease she was, because she’d already seen Bee at her best and at her worst over the last year. 

“I -” Bee stammered, taking her earbuds for the radio out of her ears.

“I figured you would need some time to yourself, somewhere quiet. I messaged Natalie already. You can call her if you need to. I will go get you a towel and some cold water, and then I’ll be outside your door to make sure nobody bothers you, and I can come in if you want to talk. I have my radio on me, too, so I will tell you if there are any updates with the session stoppage.” Emilia spoke quickly before she turned on her heel and left the room.

Bee sat on the futon for a few moments, staring at the floor between her feet. She felt a lump forming in her throat and tried to swallow it down. She knew that she would somehow need to get back in that car once the red flag ended, unless they canceled the rest of the race. It was a possibility, she supposed, but it didn’t feel very likely. She was trying to beat the fear back, trying to compartmentalize it. She could worry about it later. She couldn’t worry about it now - fear was of no use to a racing driver - it had a way of compounding itself to make things more dangerous. Bee felt it gnawing at the edges of her mind, and heard something that Susie told her a long time ago - “the day you become afraid of what you’re doing is the day you need to stop”. Paradoxically, she didn’t want to stop. She’d already gotten this far. Her thoughts swirled, an angry maelstrom that was only interrupted by the click of the latch of the door. 

Emilia let herself back into the room, closing the door quietly behind her. She handed Bee a clean towel and a bottle of water and opened the door to leave again.

“Wait - please stay -”

Emilia shut the door again, sitting down on the couch next to Bee, not saying anything until Bee did. Bee was leaning over, elbows on her knees, her face covered by the towel that Emilia had brought her, scrubbing the sweat off of her face. Emilia heard her making soft, muffled sniffling noises, her face in the towel. She rested her hand on Bee’s back to comfort her. Emilia’s touch seemed to dissolve the wall that Bee was trying to build in vain, as the sniffling turned into crying.

Emilia started rubbing Bee’s back to soothe her, but Bee leaned into Emilia’s body, burying her face into Emilia’s shoulder. Emilia simply wrapped her arms around Bee and let her cry.

“I’m sorry,” Bee said, her voice quavering.

“Hey… it’s okay. I got you. I know, it’s scary.” Emilia said softly, continuing to stroke Bee’s back with one hand. “I’m right here as long as you need me.”

Bee had told her a long time ago that she generally didn’t show a lot of strong emotion around someone unless she trusted them, especially emotions like anxiety and sadness, so it felt good for Emilia to know that Bee trusted her - it was essential to them having a good working relationship. It was a holdover from her karting days, apparently, when she was afraid of seeming like she was weak. Bee had explained all of this when she said that Emilia would need to be okay with working in tandem with the sports psychologist that Bee had started seeing after her accident in Formula 3. 

“Do you want to give Natalie a call? She said she was ready if you needed her.”

Bee shook her head. She still had it in Emilia’s shoulder. “I will in a few minutes.” It already seemed like she was starting to calm down a little after being able to cry for a few minutes, like a dam holding back a river had burst and the flood was starting to settle. Emilia let her stay there as long as she needed to. 

Eventually, she picked her head up and said, “Okay. I’m… okay. How long do we have?” 

“Just about an hour. We’ll get you warmed back up about 20 minutes beforehand.”

“Okay.” Bee said. “I’m going to give Natalie a call, then.”

Emilia nodded. “I’ll wait outside your door. I’ll come get you when it’s time.” She got up and closed the door behind her, and went to sit at a table in the hospitality area.

Claire came back to the hospitality tent while Bee was still talking to Natalie.

“Is… she okay? You brought her back here in a hurry.” Claire said, tipping her head towards the motorhome.

“She will be.” Emilia said. “She was pretty close to the accident when it happened and I knew she’d get anxious about it. I brought her back here to give her some quiet. I thought that the crew in the garage would just be talking about it during the entire red flag, and I don’t think that’s good for anyone to hear if they have to go back out in the car again.”

Claire sighed. “Yes, that’s true. I really don’t think we should be restarting after… that, but it’s not up to me. If it were any worse, I’d be breaking down the FIA’s door to get them to stop. You’re a good egg, Emilia Kalbach.”

Bee emerged from the motorhome a few minutes later, having finished up her conversation with Natalie. 

“Oh… Hi, Claire.” She said. It was obvious that she hasnt expected Claire to be there. 

Emilia stood up. “Are you okay? Did you talk to Natalie?”

“Yes.  I think I just needed to cry, or something. I feel a lot better after I did. And Natalie was a big help. I thought about withdrawing, but… I can’t do it. I came here to race. I love racing, even if it scares the shit out of me sometimes. And I can’t let everyone working their asses off in the garage and the factory down, all of them are so passionate and give it their all. I can’t let her down,” she said, pointing at Claire.  

Clare looked surprised, not being able to understand German. She knew Bee was talking about her, but not what she was saying.

“Okay, then.” Emilia said, smiling. “Let’s go get you warmed up. ”

The rest of the race didn’t help Bee’s nerves. Immediately following the restart, Lance Stroll’s car flipped because of a collision, but thankfully he was not hurt - the second time that night someone’s life had been saved by the halo. Sergio Perez had an engine failure on one of the later laps, and his car caught fire.

Thankfully it was in a much less dramatic fashion than Romain’s. He was able to get out safely as well.

George and Bee finished in 12th and 14th. Nothing to write home about, but Bee was just happy she was able to finish the race. She cried again afterward, in her hotel room, but she got to sleep in the next day, which helped her feel a bit better. She had long phone conversations with Natalie and Susie about the race, about how she felt about it. It was important to sort these things out over the week, because they would be racing again at this same circuit a week later, on a different layout.

Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Kingdom of Bahrain December 3rd, 2020

Late Wednesday night, Bee got a WhatsApp message from George.

“Lewis has COVID,” it said. “Toto called and asked me to sub for him this weekend. Jack is going to sub for me with you.” 

Bee was thrilled for her friend. “That’s amazing!” She replied. “I’m going to miss you this weekend :( But I’m really happy for you, you deserve it.” She wasn’t surprised that Jack Aitken would be his sub - he was the current reserve driver for Williams, having taken over for her last year when Bee was signed to a full-time seat, and he was in Bahrain for Formula 2 anyway. 

Bee was happy for George, but not everyone was so thrilled.

“I don’t know why Toto didn’t ask you,” Emilia told her, while they were doing a workout in the hotel’s health club on Thursday morning. 

“I mean,” Bee grunted, finishing up her set of upright rows. “He can’t have both of us do it, and George is the first reserve, so it makes sense to me. Plus -” She stood up from the weight bench and took a long drink from her water bottle. “He has different goals and is on a different path than I am, and it just makes more sense for him. He very well could be driving for Mercedes in a year or so.”

Emilia looked visibly annoyed. “And you couldn’t be? You’ve been one of their juniors just as long as he has, and you’re not even that far behind him in the standings. I think you’re every bit as capable of a driver as he is!” 

“I know, but, he’s going to be competing for championships in a few years, I don’t think I -”

“And why couldn’t you?” Emilia snapped. “I know you get anxiety about things like this, but I really just wish you’d stop selling yourself short!” It was the first time Bee had ever seen Emilia like this - it wasn’t necessarily anger, just passion, maybe frustration. “You don’t think you could be at the front of the pack in a decent car?”

“I’m not selling myself short! I’m just… trying to be realistic about what my goals are!” 

“And your goal isn’t to win the championship?” Emilia said, flabbergasted. “Isn’t that everyone’s goal?” 

Oxfordshire, England, United Kingdom October 5th, 2020

Bee was at the Wolff’s Oxfordshire home on the Monday between Russia and Germany. With such a condensed season, there hadn’t been much time for pleasantries like stopping over for lunch on a free weekend, but that’s not what this was.

The silly season of driver trades and contracts was upon Formula 1, albeit a bit later this year because of the initial upheaval of the delayed season. For a while, it wasn’t even a guarantee that an independent team like Williams would be able to survive the effects of the pandemic, but they’d pulled through. However, it wasn’t clear until recently that Williams were interested in re-signing Bee for another year. Claire affirmed that they would be doing that, so now it was time for Bee and Toto to meet ahead of negotiations to discuss what they each wanted out of Bee’s new contract.

Toto had ordered lunch for them. Susie, unfortunately, was not there - she was in Monaco, busy with work for the Formula E team she was team principal of.

“So, you’re almost a year into your first season in Formula 1, you have the…” he paused, trying to think of the English expression for what he wanted to say. “...lay of the land, even though it has been a strange season. Have you thought about your goals for the next season? Maybe for your career?”

Bee leaned back, crossing her arms. “For next season? I’m not sure. It’s hard to say. I’d like to be making points consistently, and be fighting for podiums. I think the progress on next year’s car is good. If I’m honest, I think it’s my goal to be on the podium next season.”

“That’s a good goal, of course. What about beyond that?”

“I’m not sure. Would it sound bad if I say that… I don’t think I’m really ever going to be seriously in contention for a championship? I mean, I don’t want to sound like I’m not competitive, that I don’t want to do the best I can, but -” Bee sighed. 

“The group of guys I came into the sport with - like George, Charles, Lando - they’re just all incredibly talented, and I only ever wanted to just get here. I guess I never really considered what I wanted beyond that. The world was finally ready for a female driver, but I think… a female champion is a few years off, yet. I’m glad I’m in this position so I can bring some visibility to the sport for other women, too, but I don’t think I’m going to be the one to break the championship barrier.”

Toto smirked. “I think you are one of the few drivers I know of that can be that realistic about things. I’ve been in this sport for quite a while. I have seen so many drivers destroy their careers, relationships, reputations - in the pursuit of a Championship, when in reality, only one person gets it a year. So, no, I don’t think you sound uncompetitive, just more pragmatic. It’s funny, it sounds like something Susie said when she was considering retirement. You and your mentor are absolutely cut from the same cloth.” 

Toto also told her something Bee had already known - that Williams would be selling the team to a venture capital firm from the US, and Claire and Sir Frank would be stepping down at the end of next season, after a transition period between the new management and old management. 

For now, Bee told Toto that she only wanted another one-year agreement, because she was not sure how the team would change under new leadership. She liked the team, and the Williams family. It was a shame they were selling, but it was understandable - they’d weathered rough waters this year, and even though George and Bee had managed to turn the team’s fortunes a bit, it had still taken its toll on the family. Plus, Sir Frank wasn't in the greatest of health these days.

“We’ll decide what I’ll do from there, if there’s another drive that opens up, if I stay with Williams… I don’t know. But I know my goal is to give the Williams family at least one podium finish before they’re done.”

Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Southern Governorate, Kingdom of Bahrain December 3rd, 2020

Emilia calmed down once Bee explained that, actually, it was not her goal to win a championship, and why that was. 

“I’m sorry, I just didn’t want you to start doubting yourself now, especially when you’ve just re-signed, and we’re so close to the end of the season, and after the race you just had -” Emilia said. They’d finished their workout and they were in Bee’s hotel room. Emilia had brought her portable massage table and was working on Bee’s back to reduce post-workout soreness ahead of free practice tomorrow. 

“I appreciate it. I know, sometimes I am very hard on myself, but I don’t think that’s going to change any time soon.”

It was strange, not having George in the garage with her. It was even stranger still in a pair of black Mercedes overalls, driving the black W11. “I’m surprised they managed to get your gear together so fast.” Bee said, as they drove back to the hotel after free practice. They weren’t teammates today, but they still carpooled to the track together.

“I know, Puma apparently had to overnight the suit with the current sponsors, and I’m wearing a smaller shoe size because my feet won’t fit on the pedals otherwise. And I had to have a new seat made and all of that. It’s been a busy two days.” 

For George, qualifying was spectacular. It was truly inspiring to Bee to see how quick George was when not constrained by the car. They both outperformed their car every week, and it just made Bee want post-season testing to come faster so she would be able to try putting the W11 through its paces, as Toto had already promised her a test session with it. George qualified second, just fractions of fractions of a second behind Valtteri. Bee managed to wring out a Q2 placement by the skin of her teeth. 

Bee didn’t really like this outer circuit track - it was too short of a lap, the shortest in the F1 calendar. Even too small for 20 cars - it was creating a lot of issues with traffic and during qualifying, drivers trying to set lap times were constantly having to lift in the middle sector for drivers who were backing off between runs to cool their tires. It would also be a long race as far as lap count went - 87 laps. It was no longer than any other race by distance, but the circuit was so short that it had to be a lot of laps instead. 

When it came time for the race, Bee couldn’t believe what she saw going into the first turn - the W11 with the fluro-yellow marker on its airbox was behind, meaning George had made an excellent start and broke away fast. However, an incident happened almost immediately, causing the retirement of Verstappen and Leclerc, and leading to a safety car. On the 7th lap, the safety car was withdrawn and George started widening his lead ahead of Bottas.

“Gaetan, can you keep me updated on George’s position if there’s no chatter? Just curious.” Bee said. It wasn’t really normal operating procedure to get updates on the race leader’s pace if you were at the back of the pack, but she wanted her friend to do well.

She was doing her best to fight in the back with the Haas cars and the Alfa Romeos. Nick Latifi was in the Haas, making his F1 debut, covering for Grosjean after his accident. Around lap 51, though, she felt something strange happening with the revs. 

“Something feels weird, feels like I'm losing power.” She told Gaetan. She was in 13th, and was aiming to end up in the points. 

“Yes, it’s the radiator, Phoebe. Possibly a leak. We will need to box and retire.” 

“Fuck,” Bee said to herself. She was able to limp back to the pit, but it triggered a very brief virtual safety car. 

She took a seat at the engineering station once she got back to the garage to watch the rest of the race with a communications headset on. Jack was doing well, and George was still clear in the lead. Bee was thrilled for him, but Jack spun out on the next lap, triggering another Virtual Safety Car as his wing was knocked off. The VSC changed to a full safety car, and Mercedes brought both George and Valtteri in for fresh tyres. 

“Bad luck for us tonight,” Bee thought, watching Jack pit for a new wing.

She watched George go into the pits, and then Valtteri - an extremely long stop for Valtteri, almost 30 seconds, and for some reason they didn’t even change his tires - he was sent back out on the same set of hard tyres he’d come in on. 

Just as Bee was wondering why they’d do that, she heard a message through her headset from their strategist that chilled her to the bone.

“Mercedes is pitting George again. Apparently sent him out with a mixed set of tires.” 

“Oh, no.” Phoebe thought.

They’d given him two of Valtteri’s tires. No wonder Valtteri had such a long stop and went out on the same tires he’d come in on. 

Still, George came out of the pits and rallied, the only driver on fresh tires, driving like a man possessed. By lap 73, he’d managed to claw his way back up into second, and was chasing down a Racing Point to get his lead back. He had the pace to get it, too.

Until… 

The strategist came back on the radio. “George has a puncture. They have to pit him again.”

The mood in the Williams garage was palpably downcast after that. He may not have been driving for them this weekend, but everyone wanted George to do well. He managed to get back up into 9th after emerging from the pit in 14th, but it was still heartbreaking. 

Bee saw George sitting on the ground near the press pen. He was by himself and looked absolutely dejected. Bee wanted to go talk to him, to try and offer him some comfort, but Emma stopped her. “Come on, we have to go talk to Sky Germany. He’ll be okay. He probably just wants to be alone anyway.”

Later that night, Bee ordered a pizza and a bottle of sparkling white grape juice from the hotel's room service (while a lot of hotels in Bahrain offered alcohol for non-Muslim guests, this apparently wasn’t one of them) and marched down to George’s room, pounding on the door until he answered. Thankfully, he had some clothes on.

“Blimey, do you know what time it - Oh, Phoebe.” He said as he opened the door. Bee shoved right past him and put the pizza box on a table. 

“I thought you could use some company tonight, and some junk food. I don’t care if Aleix kills me later on, you’re going to eat some and enjoy it. And I know it’s not a bottle of victory champagne, and I’m not going to spray you with it, but… you deserve it after that drive tonight.” She said, handing him the bottle of juice. 

He smirked as he looked at the bottle in his hands. “Well, I appreciate the thought, but -”

“Nope. I don’t want to hear it.” Bee said, handing him an enormous, greasy slice of pizza on one of the paper plates she’d brought with her. "You were amazing and I was so excited watching you after I had to retire. I just… can’t believe that they shat the bed like that in that pit stop. What even happened?”

“Radio failure, apparently. The call didn’t come through on my side of the garage so the wrong crew came out with the wrong tires and put them on the wrong car. And then I got a slow puncture later from having to run off the line so many times to overtake. It wasn’t the crew’s fault, shit just… happens, I guess. And it’s funny, you know - if I got ninth in our car, I’d be absolutely ecstatic. Shows you that it’s all about perspective, I guess. Toto and Bono came to tell me how much I have to be proud of after the race. It helped, a little. But… I could have had my first win, and that’s what hurts.”

“They’re right. You ran a hell of a race. I bet you’ll definitely get the Mercedes seat after next year, after that performance. I feel bad for Valtteri, but… anyway, maybe by then I’ll be able to get on a podium with you. Though maybe not, if I’m still at Williams at that point, or even still racing.” Bee said, a little sadly. 

“What do you mean? I think you’re good enough to be with Mercedes too, or maybe another team -” 

“Eh,” Bee said. “Of the teams that are in podium contention most of the time, I wouldn’t join Ferrari, and I definitely wouldn’t join Red Bull even if they asked me, and given my history with Doctor Helmut Marko, it’ll be a cold day in hell before that happens. And I don’t really want to leave the Mercedes program, so that limits my options. I don’t know, maybe Toto will have a seat for me someday, if Lewis retires or something, but I don’t see that happening any time soon.”

She poured the sparkling juice into two plastic cups - the courtesy cups that were in the suite’s kitchenette, handing one of them to George. “It’s okay, though, I’ve made my peace with it - the fact that I’m not likely to ever be fighting for championships, or if I even want to. You will be, though. I know it.” 

She raised her glass to toast with George. 

“To one more race in this fucked-up season, and on to the next. Hopefully it’s a bit more normal.” 

They were both already confirmed and signed to Williams already. They had been announced to be staying a while ago, keeping them out of driver market-related headlines.

George raised his glass, tapping Bee’s with it, making a quiet plastic crinkling noise.

“To next season."

[sanktyastag]

What you said about Aleksander not telling her what happened and why he left and I'll add to that not telling her how the fold was an accident etc is so blatantly a narrative mistep, there is no way to logically conclude "oh he didn't tell her because" what? it's entirely because her knowing those things would make her side with him or at the least understand his pov or worse make the whole "darkling is evil incarnate" while my kind is being murdered hunted and experimented on from 4 sides(cont)

[(cont) And it makes the fact that the hill these writers chose to die on is the fold which was accidental and then the only thing preventing even more atrocities to grisha used by the only person doing anything at all about it including their heroes who instead choose to support an absolutely corrupt monarchy who's done nothing but use an abuse them in numerous ways and then leave said minority even worse than they found them make even less sense than it already does.]

Oooh now here's a spicy take. I agree with you, anon, I feel like there's quite a bit of dissonance between how the show wants the characters to feel about the events that take place on screen, versus what it wants the audience to feel about those same events. Which wouldn't, necessarily, be a problem, except it never resolves the disparity between those two viewpoints, so we're left feeling disconnected from the goals of the protagonists.

I'm going to write an essay now, so it's going under a cut, lol.

The pitfall of SaB, I think, is that it often feels like the writers are trying to address and flesh out areas that the books themselves aren't really concerned with, whilst simultaneously staying true to the story as it's written on the page. And normally a show fleshing out an underdeveloped book concept would improve the story being told, except for the fact that the books are... almost wholly reliant on those things never being addressed in order for the events to take place the way that they do. The showrunners chose to engage with those dropped characters elements, so we now have conflict between the characters as they're presented to us, and the actual story being told.

Which is funny, because they had two different directions they could have expanded on Aleksander's character, and I feel like the show accidentally expanded on the wrong ones? I mean, I sure like what they had to say, but it doesn't really fit the story that they're trying to tell.

Because here's the thing. The books actually want Aleksander to be a sympathetic and well-intentioned character. The issue is that he's so disenfranchised with life that he's turned to extremism. He's caught up in this idea of saving his people, but "people" have become an abstract concept to him. He's looking at the long game so intently, he's blind to the real people in front of him who are suffering for his actions. And that's an interesting narrative to play with! It's so niche to the circumstances of having a character live through centuries of conflict, and distancing himself from the people he's trying to save as a defense mechanism to the endless trauma he's facing. Unfortunately, the books have no interest in engaging with that belief, so it's presented as an immutable fact of his character, rather than a flaw to be challenged, which renders it... much less interesting to read about.

So the weirdness lies within the show, then, expanding on the sympathetic aspects of Aleksander's character, instead of his flaws. They actually made him more involved with the lives of the Grisha he commands, they gave him more reason to attack Novokribirsk, by establishing Zlatan's army. They removed the layers of calculation and distance his book-self had, and made him very human and emotional, but then they continued to treat him as if he still had those book traits of being manipulative, ruthless, and amoral. Which is... disorienting.

Like, if they wanted to make him sympathetic while simultaneously demonizing his character, all they would have had to do was rearrange some scenes. Make it so that Aleksander's backstory is him explaining the creation of the fold to Alina. Throw the events into doubt by having it be told through an unreliable narrator (Aleksander himself), and bam, now it can be both backstory, and a way to manipulate a girl into feeling sorry for him. Same with the assassination attempt. Have him explain what happened and also have him use it as a way to engender trust with Alina, by instilling it with an us vs them agenda.

And then, just... let them have a full conversation. Instead of having Alina say that he's a monster beyond saving without ever discussing anything with him, give Aleksander a chance to explain, have Alina disagree with his methods, and have him force her to go along with them anyways. Bam. There's the story they wanted to tell, wrapped up in a neat little bow.

Of course, all that that fixes is the contradictions in their own story, not actually the quality of the story itself, imo. That's still a storyline that's only engaging with Aleksander's points at the most shallow, baseline level, which would allow them to tell that bland "radical freedom fighter is correct, but also burns down orphanages, so unfortunately we're going to have to side with the right-leaning centrist alternative" narrative that every corporation-run television show is so fond of these days.

But I mean. At least then I could consistently disagree with the story that's being told, instead of being left staring at my screen, trying to figure out if they want Aleksander to be redeemable or not, lol.

[cappymightwrite]

This is a non Jonsa but Asoiaf ask . What do you think of SweetRobin's future ?

I think what stumps me is if Sweetrobin dies... and Harry the Heir also dies... who inherits the Vale? The way I imagine things ending, which I talk about in this post, has a lot to do with this idea of new powers, or specifically a new generation, picking up the mantle of rulership.

I very much don't believe that 'the Young Falcon' is going to inherit the Vale, as I've discussed previously. So... that would leave Sweetrobin, and there would be a nice irony if the sickly child everyone thinks is doomed turns out to disprove that theory. I'd certainly be happy if that happened, but I'm not 100% on it because... what is the significance of the slow poisoning with sweetsleep? Littlefinger's power in the Vale is dependent on Sweetrobin's continued survival, yes, but what is going to be the narrative payoff of this subplot?

Hmm, could be that Sweetrobin does continue living, despite his medical issues exacerbated by sweetsleep, thus defying the odds, and this is something that will come back during Littlefinger's trial — i.e. Maester Coleman gains some courage and testifies against him? I don't know. I just know that this sweetsleep drama has to amount to something, though that doesn't necessarily have to be death.

But then again, there is that theory that Timett One-Eye is possibly a long lost Arryn heir — the maybe son of a Waynwood née Arryn (daughter to Jon Arryn's sister, Alys), who was captured by the Burned Men, incidentally the elder sister of Harry's mother.

That's an interesting idea and it would certainly represent a new power taking over, though one that is still tied to the Arryns. Moreover, kind of interesting then that a fair amount of these 'new powers' that will likely take up rulership by the series' end possibly also fit well into these notable categories mentioned by GRRM:

I am attracted to bastards, cripples and broken things as is reflected in the book. Outcasts, second-class citizens for whatever reason. There’s more drama in characters like that, more to struggle with. [source]

For example, we know that Bran will be king, and I suspect Edric Storm may become a legitimised Baratheon too.

You could also make a case that any women in a position of power and/or influence by the end (Arianne, Asha, Sansa, Arya) also fit into this as they fall into the "second-class citizens" box due to Westeros' patriarchal society. Indeed, even in Dorne, Arianne faces challenges due to her gender, believing her father to favour her younger brother for the rulership of Dorne over her — this turns out to not be the whole story, but it's a significant aspect of Arianne's arc nonetheless.

So, Timett One-Eye as presumably a bastard, as well as a member of a socially Other group (the Burned Men) could fit nicely into that. Yet, equally so could Sweetrobin as a "broken thing", to use GRRM's rather blunt terminology 🤔🤔

That's all I really have at the moment. Ideally, I don't want any children to die, obviously. But I can't hand on heart say with confidence that I think Sweetrobin is 100% safe. I do feel like I've just stumbled upon something new to add to my ending thoughts though... that it will be the specifically disenfranchised who will succeed to power in the end:

Bastards — Storm to Baratheon, Snow to Stark, Burned Man to Arryn(?) etc. Isn't there also a Larence Snow who is likely to become the next Lord Hornwood? Also, depending on how the Lannisters fair by the end, could Joy Hill become Joy Lannister?

Those with physical disabilities — King Bran, Willas Tyrell as Lord Tyrell, Sweetrobin(?)... possibly Hand of the King Tyrion...

Those with emotional trauma — ALL OF THE STARKS, lmao

Outcasts — Wildlings/Clansmen to Lords, eg. Sigorn to Lord Thenn, Timett to Lord Arryn (?), re-settlement of the Gifts, likewise the legitimation of bastards, plus anyone who doesn't conform... e.g. Samwell to Lord Tarly/Grand Maester?

Secondary citzens (women) — Arianne to Princess of Dorne, Asha to Ruler of the Iron Islands, Sansa to Queen (Regent? if Rickon lives) in the North, Arya to Chief Councillor, etc.

I'm just working with GRRM's basic categories here — obviously not everyone who can be defined as one or more of these things is going to come out on top — but I do find it kind of compelling...

Thanks for the ask! 😊