#A matter of Perspective

[violet-moonstone]

this scene in "a matter of perspective" was so funny to me

hiccup's trying to talk vaguely about dragons getting old and dying so as not to upset toothless and toothless just stares at him sarcastically like - my guy i know what death is, you dont need to baby me

[nanaminokanojo]

Sukuna is a "badly written" villain because he "doesn't have a tragic backstory"? He's only driven by power so he's "not interesting"? 🤨🫨

I can name a lot more of those so-called "badly written", "uninteresting" villains who were acclaimed in the anime realm then, if Sukuna falls under that category for those reasons.

Maybe I'm biased, but from a literary standpoint, I must ask, why does a "good villain" according to these standards need to have a "tragic backstory"? Why does that have to be the reason why they're villains? Or why does tragedy have to be the motivation behind them being "bad"?

Why can't their drive for power (or whatever else) be the story itself? Why can't that be interesting?

Genuine questions out of curiosity. I just feel like it's a very traditional formula for villains when they can be written the way they are without the excuse or limitation of tragedy befalling them prior.

They came from something "tragic" or sad so it makes it easier to root for them? Who needs that excuse to like them/root for them?

*Garou from "One Punch Man" shaking in his boots for just wanting to hurt heroes 'cause he roots for villains, period*

Okay, Sukuna doesn't seem to have a clear-cut origin story in JJK apart from (A) apparently having to eat his twin in the womb while their mom starved herself in order for him to survive (his words in the manga), and (B) being this defeated sorcerer/curse, and deity slash monster people revered and feared at the same time (somewhat like hearsay in the story if it weren't for his fingers).

I don't know, but I feel like it's a unique approach to writing a villain and that vagueness about where he really came from makes him interesting to me. This is especially when I consider the proximity of his character to the Ryomen Sukuna in reality from which he was based

All the origin story of this minor god in Japan is also unclear and varied. He came from a cave, he's really not a person but a clan that resisted the ruling class, "Sukuna" is not a person but a term used for these people who were demonized for the same reason, he's an iteration of a Hindu god, he's the boogeyman parents used to scare their kids, he loves hotpot.

Either way, he's calamity personified and whether in reality or in Jujutsu Kaisen, he didn't need the excuse of human tragedy to be the way he is. Well, frankly, I think he's also incomparable to villains of human origin (which apparently equates to and stems from tragedy *cue The Bee Gees*).

So, does that make Sukuna a badly-written, uninteresting villain?

[ashleybenlove]

Hiccup, probably, after learning about the Wingmaidens' divine mission from Freya herself: Yeah I’ll add that to my belief system

[landinrris]

☔️ and 🌧️

👀👀👀hehe

I do love some good mid-plot angst 👀👀👀

Ask me about my wips!

🌧️Share something angsty from your WIP. This is from the Lando PR fic, also titled A Matter of Perspective because I love a double meaning. This is also a full-fledged snippet but every angst scene is too long, so just have the whole thing of this one

When Max and Pietra get into town on Wednesday afternoon for the race weekend, Lando expects Carlos’ run of form to continue. They’re due to get dinner together for the first time in nearly a month, Lando feeling just a bit giddy at the prospect of seeing one of his best friends again for the first time in what feels like a stupid amount of time.

Carlos doesn’t say anything about their evening plans until later that afternoon.

“Do we know where we are going for dinner?” Carlos asks, walking into the living room. He’s busy toweling his hair dry, goosebumps immediately rising on Lando’s arms at the thought of what his own hair would do if he did that now.

He shakes himself and looks down at his phone where Max had texted him Pietra’s idea while Carlos was in the shower.”Uh, Max said Pietra wanted to try this new place. I mapped it, and it’s not too far from here. Near that new highrise they just finished building. Apparently, it’s all the rage and she needs to get her plug in.”

Lando looks up in Carlos’ direction when he doesn’t get an immediate response and sees Carlos looking uneasy. His hand has frozen with the towel against his head, looking like he’s glitched or something.

“Have you heard bad things? I’ve only heard about it like fifteen minutes ago.”

“Do we have to go to this one?” Carlos asks. He seems to reset, returning to drying his hair before draping the towel around his neck.

Lando’s not sure he knows what’s going on, feeling like he’s missing something fairly obvious. “I mean, I guess I can suggest somewhere else. Why, what’s wrong?”

“It’s just so public, no? That new highrise is down near the casino and the coast. Lots of people and shopping and things.” Lots of cameras, he doesn’t say. The pieces click into place in Lando’s mind, and he sucks in a steadying breath. 

“I mean, yeah, but all the good spots are out there. You didn’t have an issue being down there the other day when we were with everyone.” Lando thought Carlos was over whatever stick had been up his ass, but maybe that was wishful thinking after all.

“But that was with other people— a group. This wasn’t what looked like a…”

“Like a date?” Lando finishes. “Carlos, we’re still gonna be with people, what are you talking about? It’s not like we’re both dressing up and going somewhere one-on-one and telling everyone what we are. It’s Max and P for God’s sake.”

He doesn’t mean to raise his voice because he knows how skittish Carlos is about other people outside their circles knowing about them. Hell, Lando feels the same, ultimately. But there’s something about Carlos seemingly not even willing to go out to a casual dinner with Max and Pietra. If Lando was interested in a boyfriend who only paid attention to him while there was foolproof plausible deniability, he wouldn’t have given Carlos a key to his flat.

Carlos flinches subtly, but that’s one downfall with them— they know each other so well that Lando clocks the movement from where he’s sitting on the sofa. “Yes, but we will be with two other people who are in a relationship. We will look like we are on a double date, and with all the people who will recognize everyone hanging around waiting to get pictures, Lando can we not go somewhere else, please?”

Lando’s annoyance cracks at Carlos’ pleading, his eyes wide with anxiety. It’s not Carlos’ fault that he feels like this, and yet Lando can’t help but be annoyed with him anyway. He doesn’t want to lock all of his personal life behind the doors of their flat or whatever hotel room they’re in for the weekend.

He bites his lip and looks down at his phone for a few seconds. How many times would they get away with going out together before people seriously asked questions? How close are they to that point now that the broad world knows Carlos’ permanent residence is Monaco? Maybe they should be more careful considering Lando’s privacy is so lacking that someone could pretty accurately map out the days he’s in the country based on when his photo is taken. 

And yet… he’s not ready to let fear of social media completely rule his life. “Pietra really wants to go to this restaurant, my hands are tied. If you’re so afraid then don’t come, I guess.” He pushes himself up from the sofa, his throat tight with a mix of sadness and frustration. He barely looks at Carlos as he walks past him and into the direction of his room. “I’ll just see you when I get home and we’ll do dinner another night or something.”

“Lando, really? You are going to do this?” Carlos calls after him sounding like Lando’s the one who’s being unreasonable here. 

Lando rounds on Carlos where he’s standing in the doorway. “I’m scared too, Carlos! But that doesn’t mean I want to put my life on hold, yeah? If you don’t want to come out tonight because you think the internet is suddenly and unironically going to think we’re on a double date, then I can’t help you. I’m gonna go to dinner with my friends I haven’t seen in a month, and I’ll just see you when I get home. Maybe we can have dinner together in public again when we’re in Barcelona for the race in a few weeks and you decide that’s okay.” He doesn’t mean to blow up and promptly storm away, shutting the door in the hallway leading to his bedroom a bit harder than he’d meant to, but he does and he’s not big enough to immediately apologize for it yet.

He only has about forty-five minutes until he’s meant to meet Max and Pietra anyway. Plenty of time to get in the shower and pretend he doesn’t let a few tears slip from his eyes in anger. He should’ve said something to Carlos when he noticed the pattern last week— when Carlos decided he wanted to whisk Lando up into the surrounding villages outside of Imola for “an authentic dinner” without a care as to the rest of the world. 

Instead, he’d let it fester. He’d taken Carlos’ attention as freely as he’d been given it— taken the kisses Carlos had pressed to his lips pressed against the car door before opening it like a gentleman and letting Lando climb into the passenger seat.

The issue is Monaco and the public eye— a detrimental detail they've likely realized too late if they have any hope of surviving until they're ready to come out on their own terms. 

Carlos doesn’t come and check on him in the half hour it takes Lando to get ready. With all of Carlos’ belongings in Lando’s bedroom and bathroom, the lack of his presence sends as strong of a message as anything. They’re both at a stalemate, and Lando’s a little afraid of where they go from here.

He pokes his head into the living room as he’s about to leave and sees Carlos seated on the sofa where Lando had been earlier scrolling resolutely through his phone. The towel is still around his neck, his feet propped up on the coffee table like he’s casually and calmly waiting for Lando to be finished in the bathroom.

The sight does complicated things to Lando’s stomach.

“I’m heading out. I’ll see you later.”

Carlos looks up from his phone, a carefully controlled expression on his face that does nothing good for Lando’s stomach. “Okay. I will see you later. Have fun.”

Lando fishes for something to say, and upon coming up with nothing, turns and walks out the front door.

---

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

I really feel like the Lando to Red Bull fic that I picked up from a fic fest was a missed opportunity that I let slip through my fingers right at the edge of McLaren going from zeros to heroes back in Summer 2023. Basically, the prompt was that Carlos was at Ferrari still, and Lando makes the jump to Red Bull after giving up on McLaren. They aren’t together romantically yet, but they're both mega hardcore pining and just being Them. They get into a few scrapes, and Lando begins to think Carlos hates him now that they’re battling much more directly across teams. Meanwhile, Carlos is just pulling away because he’s struggling to hide his feelings. Lando getting to show what he's capable of is too addicting, and he doesn't trust himself like he once could.

But McLaren literally went from being like 6th/7th fastest team to 3rd/4th in one race weekend, and with it went all the inspiration for me to want Lando to leave McLaren 😅. I would love to potentially rework this somehow. Maybe have it be that Lando's rise in McLaren puts him and Carlos much more on that level playing field, so you still end up with the false angst with them both properly at the front. We shall see maybe... the PR fic the previous angst scene is from might have enough angst for awhile.

[paintingspaceghosts]

I love how ep34 is just the guys being like so would you kill me if you had to? yeah. and the girls + Hilbert are playing 6 hours worth of cards.

[small-witch-big-hat]

Excerpt from The Magnus Archive, Episode 106: Matter of Perspective

I refute it thus:

[fractal-voidling]

MAG106 - #0081002 │ A Matter of Perspective

Melanie still claps before recording the statement, lol

I hoped we'd get another perspective on the Personal Space statement!

love me a nice Eldritch abomination

cosmic horror is definitely beyond your paygrade, Darling

so it wasn't just me, the girls see Martin's crush(?) too

Basira you coward, just own up to being a gossipy bxtch, just like everyone else

Mr. Brutal Pipe Murder thinks there are always other options? that's rich

Ivy Meadows?!

Elias, what the fxck

why are all the avatars so casually psychotic, godsdamn

[evilwriter37]

This is pretty random but I’d love to hear your thoughts on the episode A Matter of Perspective

This is the episode where we’re introduced to Vanaheim, correct? I personally really like this episode. Hiccup shows just how devoted he is to dragons, and, like @ashleybenlove has said many times, it kind of shows that, if Hiccup does have religious belief, that belief is dragons. I think it’s really deep for Hiccup in a lot of ways, having been able to see this place. It’s sacred to him, so sacred that they’re going to keep any evidence of it secret. It also makes me teary-eyed.

[themagnustournament]

Round Two Part Three - Match 22

Breathing Room, like, genuinely fucks me up. Something about a guy who kills you in his dreams is just… really spooky to me. Breathing room is against A Matter of Perspective, which received 182 votes!

MAG 113 - Breathing Room | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Statement of Adelard Dekker, regarding the near-death and subsequent activities of Justin Gough.

MAG 106 - A Matter of Perspective | Spotify - Acast - YT | Wiki | Transcript

Jan Kilbride’s account of his time spent aboard the space station Daedalus.

[yoshimickster]

...so do we just... NEVER resolve how the doctors wife from "A Matter of Perspective" LEGITIMATELY believed Riker tried to assault her?

And even weirder, according to Troi, neither her NOR Riker were lying, what the hell happened?! Screw the legal plot holes, what about that INSANELY big regular plot hole?!

[nightcycles]

a matter of perspective sequel where after multiple ‘training sessions’ with slade, bruce thinks its time cut the middle man out and test dick himself… ;)

@/thesubtextis mentioned that bruce would only be satisfied with the training if he verified the results for himself and yeah 100% that’s how things would end up if dick doesn’t get out!

not sure if i’ll ever end up writing it but i always welcome other writers to create fics of my fic if inspiration strikes!

[violet-moonstone]

theyre so cute its ridiculous

[datagirl14]

@rikerxworf

Another late posting. Will try to get tomorrow's up earlier before I have to go to work. Hope you enjoy this. Rated T for some mild sex talk.

[ashleybenlove]

I love Hiccup's little whisper + hand hiding his mouth from Toothless: "Especially as they transition over to the afterlife."

Toothless can hear you. He's not impressed.

[landinrris]

A Matter of Perspective- A Carlos Interlude

A Carlos pov from the Lando PR fic, in which Lando and Carlos let the internet make their own assumptions about the (purposeful) presence of a new girl in the friend group.* This snippet is based primarily on these photos from yesterday with Lando driving his Ferrari and who is most likely Ed following behind in the Urus (x). *Technically an original female character because I am not name-dropping my girl MC quite yet

Carlos isn’t sure he’ll ever get tired of seeing people make fools of themselves— of seeing how they fumble for their phones and stick them so far out into the road towards the cars they’re trying to film that the drivers could reach out of the window and pluck them from their hands.

He especially doesn’t think he’ll get tired of seeing them do it when it’s in Lando’s direction— Liliana in the passenger’s seat. Like today, for instance. The three of them are going down to one end of the city for lunch, Liliana having arrived the night prior partly for a short weekend holiday and partly to rile people up.

The thing is, Lando has cars that will comfortably fit three people. Carlos does as well. Nice, luxury cars that many people could only dream of having. But Lando’s a little shit at heart, and he’s apparently desperate to get his fill of the Ferrari while they’re home for the week. The Ferrari that only has two seats— not like Carlos’ own four-door that’s sitting snuggly in the garage beneath their flat.

And well, Liliana is also a shit-stirrer at heart, Carlos learned very early on. She and Lando might as well be the same person in some regards. She’d taken one look at their collection and proclaimed that Lando was right, he should get his fill.

Carlos smiled despite himself and rolled his eyes. “Fine, I will follow behind. Try not to run anyone over,” he called over his shoulder, already moving towards the Urus.

“Love you,” Lando called back. Carlos raised his middle finger over his head and reveled in the cackle he received in response.

Now, as they sit in the ever-present traffic, Carlos knows why the two of them are so eager to drive one of Lando’s flashier cars. It’s recognizable and gets attention— draws the ridiculous phones out of people’s pockets that practically upload to social media in real time.

The pictures of Lando in Monaco will not only spread to Lando’s swath of fanpages— with Liliana in the front seat, they’ll spread around the gossip pages as well. The pages that have well and truly convinced themselves of her and Lando’s relationship. The ones in “denial” have suggested maybe Carlos is the one dating her. A few crazier still suggest maybe they’re in some kind of throuple.

There was a time where the thought of the general public connecting him to Lando in a romantic sense raised his hackles. It terrified him to the point that they found themselves resorting to this situation in the first place. Those people who he was afraid of have been drowned out over the last six months, leaving Carlos amused more than anything when he goes online.

He’s less afraid now, especially after his and Lando’s heart-to-heart over Summer Break. He knows their end goal— knows that they’re both comfortable in moving towards a future where they’re both out and transparent about their relationship. Not that it’s still anyone’s business, but so that they don’t feel the need to hide behind assumption more than anything.

These six months have given him a lot of things— a glimpse into what life without Lando might look like, a future that solidifies he never wants to find out, and above all an unlikely friend who seems to be Lando’s Spanish twin who separated at birth.

Carlos can see the people lining the sides of the street as they get closer to the center of the city and feels his latent shit-stirring side awaken. It’s a non-race weekend. No friend hangouts. Not particularly warm outside. A small, microcosm of people are going to lose their minds.

Traffic stops, and Carlos reaches for his phone in the passenger’s seat to shoot off a message to Liliana. “Level 10 chaos engaged.”

She hearts the message and sends back a saluting emoji followed shortly by, “Lando said ur gonna be begging for mercy tonight. My message is please wait til I’m gone tomorrow.”

Carlos probably looks crazy to anyone who’s clocked him, laughing out loud to himself in the car alone, but he truly couldn’t give less of a shit in the midst of delicious chaos.

[filmjunky-99]

r e m e m b e r i n g

Mark Margolis

26 November 1939 – 3 August 2023

⚘️

[pic: margolis as dr. nel apgar, a matter of perspective, tng]