#Also lord death is also a baddie in my heart too

[spongebob-connoisseur]

I'M SO FUCKING STUPID THIS IS LITERALLY SOUL EATER WITH LORD DEATH AND HIS SON DEATH THE KID

[thecarelessvoice]

My new hyperfixation is Lee Do Hyun (not surprised bcuz exhuma 😞👌👌🥵)

So it was a given that i'd checked out his other works, and now I'll give each of his dramas that I've seen my personal rating ^^

- 18 again - 7/10 ~ watched this one with my mom, immediately knew it was based on 17 again with zac Efron (god I'm old TT), had great laughs and tons of funs, i knew kim haneul and yoon sang hyun from before, he was super cute and his acting was solid.

- death's game - 10/10 ~ very good plot, his episode was also very good, amazing setting and also seo in guk??? God he broke my heart in this

- the glory - 10000/10 ~ I CANNOT EXPRESS IT WITH MY WORDS HOW MUCH GOOD THIS ONE WAS!!!! I honestly had heard its name but i was busy at the time the hype for it was going on (I'm not a big kdrama watcher) anyways started watching it and IT DID NOT DISAPPOINT!!! like not only he was great in it but the other??? Song hye kyu and lim jiyeon!!! My goddesses!!! They slayed every scene!! Tbh everyone were fantastic in it. Like I see myself to go back and rewatch it.

- melancholia - 4/10 ~ I'm not sure how to put it but this one was just not for me, again he did a good job on it, i liked some of the characters like the professor and si wan, it did get slightly more talorable by episode 8 but... i just didn't really connected to it. I kinda hate student- teacher romantic love and the chemistry between the leads were a bit off and honestly i would've liked it better if they'd decided to ditch the romance plot and make it platonic. (I liked the found family trope)

- the good bad mother - 8.5/10 ~ this mf reaally went all in!!! Like he really did it all for this drama. Loved a lot of scenes, him and the twins were so cute, him and mi-joo? Chef's kiss!! Amazing chemistry ❤️❤️❤️ but i just hated the mother's character and it's cruel of me but i was kinda glad for her ending, also too much heartbreak and frustrating scenes.

-sweet home- watched all the seaons and boy we had another umbrella academy/game of thrones plot fuckery 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

Season 1 - 10000/10 ~ i loved every-single-episode!! Fantastic actings, very very good plot, enjoyable characters, good soundtracks. His character??? One of his bests!!! Which is awesome cuz from what i know season one was from his earlier works. His chemistry between lee si yeong and song kang??? My goddddd

Season 2 - 3/10 despite knowing that he was not in it i watched it anyway cuz i'd ended up immersed with the whole thing not just his character(same with glory ig) and it was... yeah not good at all, i think the problem was the gap between the seasons (probably covid 19 was the factor) but yeah they had all this time to work on it but they just blew it

Season 3 - 5/10 bittersweet and very very rushed ending, so many unanswered questions and honestly i felt empty after i finished it. But he was super hot and again his chemistry with song kang and min si is top tier. (I'm thinking of reading the manhwa to heal my soul cuz I've heard it was way more better and different)

I haven't watched youth of may and i probably won't cuz it was unfortunately heavily spoiled for me so I'll put it away for now, also for some reason i ended up watching a lot of tik tok edits of it XD. (Aaand I'm kind of tired of romance dramas)

P.s : (added it later)

- Beyond Evil - 10000/10 ~ only lord could stop me from not pulling an all nighter and watch all of it in a sitting.... honestly i think this one is my favorite crime kdrama of all time, and yes.... I'm all in for dong sik x joo won... they own me now.... also ldh was really good and pls ppl give him a proper baddie role like i need it yesterday.

[martyrbat]

7 8 & 9!! 🫶

7. One DC death you'd like to make permanent—or alternatively, one you'd erase so it never happened?

if i was in a room with the joker and jason with a gun that had two bullets i would shoot jason twice <3 i think his character has good potentials however, being realistic with dc comics as a whole, they're never going to explore it in a way that has significance or is interesting. plus itll retcon the outlaws existence so its a win for the roy & kory girlies too <33

8. Is there anything about post-Flashpoint canon you prefer to pre-Flashpoint canon? Be honest.

i jump around in comics i read & their timelines A LOT so my canon and what i like is me just picking and choosing elements so trying to remember what came from where is difficult, especially because i considered flashpoint itself boring and new 52 is. new 52.... but I'm pretty sure its where willis todd was set up by oswald. i like the idea of him gooning (😌) for the penguin rather than his backstory being just a throw away line that he was working for two face because of the extra class commentary it can provide—especially if hes a poor man who just had to resort to petty crime and his desperation to provide for his family was being exploited. and him being thrown under the bus and arrested for something he wasnt responsible for in a cover-up for the crime lord who he was working for, resulting in being separated from his family and what eventually led to his family's homelessness—having his entire life ruined by a rich man who saw his life as nothing valuable and the unfair system that put him in that place to turn to crime and then punishes men like him rather than oswald... i think it has more depth and potential if any writer was capable of providing it, although i don't care for him now being wingman (?) and secretly still alive... but thats dc, one good idea forward, five steps back.

9. Superman in space or Superman in Metropolis? Does this change if I say Smallville instead?

oooh,,, ill have to say metropolis purely because it allows more nuances and better stories!! i think his adventures in space are grand and can be so fun but part of the reason why i love superman so much is that he IS this alien capable of major feats and he's powerful but, more importantly than that, hes just a lonely man whos scared to lose those he loves and wants to protect people. he has these abilities and he immediately wants to use them to help others and that hes based in that with all his actions. and because hes so people focused it also brings to a point of that sense of loneliness and guilt and identity crisis that he frequently had in 80s/90s comics and how he sacrifices a lot of his own happiness and self in the thought that he must to protect them or be the hero they deserve, allowing for stories to have more emotional weight and his character to be a silent tragedy that a lot of people overlook (literally what i was vaguely talking about last night on [this] post)

also i think a lot of people have gripes that hes boring because of his powers and the scale of his abilities but by having him in metropolis, it shows the heart of his stories and character (and it usually involves more than just out muscling the alien baddie since he has to be smart about his actions and what hes doing to reduce the possibility of civilians being hurt) and who he's supposed to be and what he represents by existing. by having him in such an earthly setting it constantly emphasizes that his character has always been to be a symbol of hope for the people, especially for the oppressed. what use is him having these big powers if he doesnt use it to protect those who needs it? again, his space adventures are fun and can be interesting!! but i think that if thats all superman was and what his stories focused on, itll get tiring quickly since itll be just making up new power-scaled characters to give any sense of conflict and loses such a big part of who he, as clark kent AND superman, is

(also i think him being so messy as clark is very entertaining and theres more possibilities of that soap opera drama in metropolis—i love when hes so painfully human and doesn't his shit together despite being one of the most powerful heros in existence. im still eagerly waiting for the inevitable clois divorce arc & for him to be a little cunty and have a ponytail again <33)

dc ask game <3

[rpmemesbyarat]

Avoiding Stupid Villains

Wow, your lead villain has it all! A great motive, a well-written backstory, a complex personality, a terrific hideout/lair/etc, armies of goons to do their bidding, resources galore, they’re set to take on the protagonists! Except one thing: Their plans have holes big enough to drive a truck through. So many times, I see an otherwise good villain ruined by the fact that their plans are often very flimsy, or seem to be missing a step, or are just plain STUPID. And while lots of flaws can work for a villain, being stupid really doesn’t, at least not when they’re a Big Bad instead of, say, a lower-level brute or Dragon. Maybe a school bully or rival fighter in a boxing match, but I’m thinking more comic book supervillains and fantasy dark lords here, or, for more mundane equivalents, evil CEOs and mafia bosses and the like. A lot of times, the mistakes that writers have this sort of baddy make, makes simply no sense for this type of character, and will usually have the reader asking “wait, but why didn’t---” For example, the Evil King learns of a prophecy about a baby that’s going to kill him when it grows up. When the child is discovered, the Evil King promptly. . .has it sent far, far away? Why doesn’t he kill the kid? That child is GURANTEED to come for his head in time, and he KNOWS this. Does he have qualms about killing, perhaps, or at least about killing babies? Well, that’s an interesting angle for a villain, and I’d be interested in seeing a bad guy who is anti-killing, but there’s still any number of non-lethal options that would be better insurance than just sending the kid out of the kingdom. Chop his limbs off, for instance. Or poison him so that he’s paralyzed for life. Keep him in the dungeon and too malnourished to do much more than moan. Do SOMETHING suitably nasty! Some people try to make this fly with “well, he had the child abandoned in the wilderness, thinking that would surely kill it” and that doesn’t work for me. Maybe that flies in old fairytales, but I say, if you’re going to do something that passively kills the prophecy child, why not do the active route and be SURE? Kid’s dead either way. A slightly better reasoning I also see in a lot of stories is that one of the people tasked with carrying out the murder couldn’t do it, so smuggled the child away in secrecy. I like this one considerably better; it doesn’t rely on the Evil King being either stupid or too moral too kill children (which, again, could be a neat angle, but a lot of works don’t play it like that and he’s later shown as being EXACTLY the type who would kill children, so what gives?) but instead on an underling, who has far less reason to be invested in this kid dying than the Evil King he’s prophesied to kill. Throw in him bringing back some fake but convincing proof that the kid is dead (like the Huntsman bringing the Queen the heart of a pig in Snow White) and I think we’re good! See how that process worked? As a writer, I of course want my protagonist baby to live in order to grow up and actually be the protag. But I also want to show my villain Not Being Stupid. So, if you want your baddy to do something, be it slaying a Chosen One in the cradle or turning a death ray on the city or unleashing evil sentient laundry, walk yourself through it through the bad guy’s shoes, from the POV who WANTS the outcome that you, the writer, do not. Why *would* I spare this child? Why would I give them any chance at growing up? Do I have moral limitations against it? If so, what other options can I take that will still be effective? If I’m having henchmen carry out a task that literally has my life on the line, what is the minimum proof I should reasonably require? And then you, the writer, after giving the best answers from the villain’s perspective, have to then figure out how they fail anyway. That is definitely a lot tougher than just going with the first option, but it’s better writing, because it doesn’t leave your reader asking “why didn’t the villain just---” Here’s another example. A pretty common trope is the Big Bad sending wave and wave of goons after the hero, and the hero just mowing them down every time. Ninjas, guards, robots, evil spirits, bodyguards, mercs, whatever they may be, it’s all basically the same. So, it leaves you to wonder. . .why does the Big Bad keep doing that after it fails the first few times? That sort of repetition can work pretty well in kid’s shows, like the Monster of the Week in Sailor Moon, but in works for older audiences, the readers will usually be asking why the villain doesn’t try something different. Which. . .is a really good question. Why DON’T they try something different, instead of something that’s both ineffective and wasting a lot of resources/henchmen? Perhaps they up the ante and start sending a higher quality of enemy, or perhaps they start thinking outside the box and go for ways to “get” the hero that doesn’t involve fighting. For instance, threatening someone the hero loves, or turning that person against them. Or the classic honeypot trap, sending someone to get close to the hero, then lead them into a trap or eliminate them while their guard is down. The “honeypot” in question doesn’t even need to be a sexual/romantic interest; after all, if there’s one thing that holds true for old gruff badass loners, it’s that they’re ALWAYS going to adopt the orphan they come across by chance even while saying “stay away from me, kid” Villains who are self-destructive and who WANT to be defeated or killed, consciously or unconsciously, and therefore will self-sabotage in some way, can certainly work. And it’s par for the course for villains to be very flawed in ways that can be their own downfall. Many of the greatest villains in media fall into these categories. But that still shouldn’t be an excuse for just plain stupid shit that gives the protagonist an unearned victory.  Because that is how victories feel when they’re only won because the bad guy was a fool---unearned. It won’t feel like your protag actually accomplished anything. This is not to say your bad guy can’t make errors, or that your heroes shouldn’t exploit those errors. Far from it! But that these errors should be deliberate decisions on your part as a writer and that make sense for the villain in question, not just oversights you didn’t think about or things that exist just to make things easier on the heroes.

[yostresswritinggirl]

heart!reader: no thoughts, head empty

the treasure hoarder one must have been quite long ago, considering if reader still haven't learned to fend for themself by now then cyno would have eye bags from worrying all night haha

their combat prowess doesn't compare to the traveler or cyno of course since they're just a researcher, but it's enough to fend off hilichurls, treasure hoarders, and some fatui as well

or if we're leaning towards more personal headcanons, maybe they would have a vision as well? they'll either get one from just doing their research or another near death experience, unless there's other ideas that would make sense

personally i really like how catalyst users fight so im imagining them using a catalyst

besides that, i've started playing genius invokation from the new update and it's actually pretty fun so here's some headcanons about heart!cyno and reader with tcg

reader i would feel like they're behind the current trends since they're doing research most of the time or just doesn't play games a lot, until one of their colleagues gave them some tcg cards as thanks for helping with a project

they didn't wanna let the cards go to waste and plus, they're a little interested in this game and why it's so popular so they went off and put in some time to actually play

most likely a casual player who just plays during free time, they think the illustrations of the cards look nice so they'll choose the ones they like the best to add into the deck and if they managed to obtain character cards of cyno or collei then they're having them in their deck 100% of the time

so you know there's cards of like the actual characters right? well what if there's like a card of reader that's quite rare due to limited production of the card (no idea how character cards are actually made so this is all my imagination), so you can bet that cyno would go out of his way to obtain it and he'll be having it in most, if not all of his decks

would proudly flex the card as well whenever he duels

let me know what think because never would i have thought i would be into card games until now

-cyno lovebot anon

Remember, Akademiya researchers usually employ Eremites for company and protection, treasure hoarders are baddies and all over the place. I thought about this while exploring around and encountering a lot of treasure hoarders in the forests/woods

So not only is it a chance encounter, reinforcements are far and few between, it was like a long chase scene to fend them off before Cyno finally got there to rescue them. That was indeed early on so reader wasn't theorizing about how Cyno saves them all the time, it's a scary experience when it's actual people hunting you down so it left quite the trauma in their mind for a while, to the point that they get scared meeting people in the forests so

Yesss TCG! More characters will be added so I don't doubt they'll put Tighnari in there too! Also I think what could happen is the reader becomes a summon card (or event card) instead (lmao imagine their name is the Akademiya loser, tho Cyno would probably hunt down who made that card) their undying hehegetit reputation must have earned them the right to be made into one

So yes Cyno would proudly flex the card, always uses it on the field when he can, and when the opponent destroys his summons he gets really really personal about it pfft he turns from Friendly to Serious in just a snap. "You'll pay for that" "Lord Cyno, please it's just a game!" When that happens, it's always a guaranteed win for him

I like to think he has it as the first card in his tome so that if he wants to he can just pop that shit open and look at his lover's card <33

He might even have a spare copy which he would put a sleeve on and place in his wallet for safekeeping

[kkeidawrites]

Castlevania spoilers!!!! If you don’t want to know how the show ends in season 4 please refrain from reading the rest of this post because I’m not holding back! Also I’m writing this as I watched so, this is my raw review!

Okay, so first off I want to say personally, I loved how season 4 brought heat to the finale of the show. Although I’m sad as hell that this is the last season for a great show.

Episode 1: Murder Wakes It Up- I thought that it was cool to see Trevor and Sypha fighting again after what happened in S3, obviously they are tired from the long four week journey of fighting night creatures, skeleton zombies, vampires from different countries, etc. but clearly the end game is that humans and vampires alike are working together to bring back Dracula. Like seriously, y’all might not know this but I hate, HATE when children become involved in stupid shit like human sacrifices like I can’t. Not the children. Please, not the babies. Sypha complaining she’s becoming like Trevor, and she’s so cute when she curses lol. Then when they arrive in Targoviste we have some new faces as potential enemies. I thought they were lame honestly lol I couldn’t take Barney-Larney whatever his dumbass was; he was mad annoying.

Then they shift over to Alucard…I have never seen a more broken beautiful drunk man in all my life. Like I had S3 flashbacks. He’s asked for help from a messenger who ended up dying on the way to the castle but his horse made sure he continued the journey and Alucard received the message for help in Danesti. Alucard fights with the horse, I thought that was funny. He was thoughtful enough to bury the rider, that was very sweet of him.

Also, shirtless Alucard will be engraved in my mind for life. Whew, chile that’s one fine man. He’s beginning to talk like Belmont and I can’t help how hilarious that is.

Episode 2: Having the World: Quite honestly this episode to me was meh. Hector talking with Lenore about how he needs this and that to create his hammer to continue forgemastering then Lenore talks with Carmilla and the white haired bat talks about how she is going to rule the world and what not, clearly losing her sanity.

Then it shifts over to Trevor and Sypha and they are fighting in a barn and new character Zamfir. Her character for me was also meh, but it’s nice to see more PoC in the show.

Episode 3: Walk Away: I liked this episode a lot. Issac altogether was nice enough to sit down and talk with a night creature and tell him/them that they were free of their original program, which was: eating humans, causing destruction, used as tools to forge masters. But man when he received that berry from Issac he realized that there is still some kind of humanity in them.

Issac is contacted by Varney to bring back Dracula but, Issac wants no business with that; he doing his own thing and seeing him being sassy again is so refreshing.

Morana and Striga scenes!!! I loved them, and then there was Striga’s day armor, man listen…I have never felt more closer to watching Berserk again than in that moment. They are hesitant to return back to Styria when Carmilla calls them, and it puts them in a bind to return home to continue through with Carmilla’s plans.

Sypha being annoyed by Zamfir was me the entire time. How you gone run a kingdom again with out a kingdom. Like girl, help the people instead of the royals, my god.

Episode 4: You Must Sacrifice: A cute little Trevor and Sypha scene. They decide to investigate Targoviste more before helping Zamfir. The scene shifts and Alucard is riding towards Danesti, donning a shield and a longer cape. Monsters are attacking the walls of the village, villagers are on the other side waiting to defend themselves. Some Castlevania popular screenshots appear here.

Then we meet Greta…Miss thang…that’s one beautiful woman okay. And she’s the chief of the village, cares for her people? Y’all I present. Her. And the fact that she is sassy too? I rock with her heavy as hell.

Saint Germain meets Alucard and I have a weird vibe coming from him. We see Saint Germain’s backstory or what little it will show us; he had a whole girlfriend, she a baddie too. Apparently she was like him? And she was the silhouette we saw in S3. Cool scene, inside the Infinite Corridor and I liked the library scene a lot too. Now he’s on a rampage trying to find access to the Infinite Corridor again to find his girl and he also wants to bring back Dracula? The fuck?

Refugees arrive at Danesti, and Saint Germain is acting very strange indeed. Like he’s desperate to go to the castle to help with the village “defenses”. Alucard agrees I guess? And he says another Belmont comment which I was happy to see again in the season.

Episode 5: Back in the World: Alucard leads Greta, Saint Germain and the villagers to his castle but, encounter a couple of night creatures on the way. Greta does Saint Germain y’all and I’m with her 100%. Alucard’s powers have definitely improved from last season. It was kind of interesting how Alucard willing told Greta what happened with him and you know who, kind of early in my opinion. Greta is bisexual?!!!! I love her 1000% now! I sense some chemistry between Greta and Alucard. I like that a lot.

Lenore really like annoys my soul, I do not like this mini bitch. I didn’t really care what Lenore and Hector talked about🤷🏾‍♀️🤷🏾‍♀️sue me. Bruh Greta, beating that monster’s ass with just a hammer and a sword?! And Alucard impressed by it?! I’m here for it!! Some cute moments between Alucard and Greta got me gushing over here😝😝. Poor puppy😢😢. Alucard decides to “grow up” which I think is a nice step forward. Saint Germain is really making me mad.

They arrive at the castle and here goes Saint Germain acting like a fan boy, I mean who wouldn’t but you know…Greta killed me when she said the castle was ugly as hell lol. Another little cutesy scene between Alucard and Greta. Like I really like their chemistry y’all I’m sorry.

Trevor and Sypha demand that Zamfir take responsibility to help the people and I forgot what it was called but, before that they are attacked and Zamfir has something placed on her neck by a night creature.

Then Issac, he’s ready to fuck some shit up. And I’m here for it. Get em, bitch!

Episode 6: You Don’t Deserve My Blood: Carmilla’s castle is attacked by Issac’s night creatures. Lenore old punk ass running away does not surprise me in the slightest. Hector betrays Lenore and locks her in a cage. Hector has contact with Saint Germain like what? I don’t understand but, Issac comes in and it looks like Hector has given up, wanting to die honestly. Issac decides against killing him and Hector asks for his knife. This boy cuts his ring finger that the Lenore placed the ring, in front of her. That scene was meh, I thought he would get pissed at her for what she’s done to him in S3 but, I guess not.

Issac literally stole this episode, from his fight with the vampires and night creatures to Carmilla that shit was -chef’s kiss- magnifico! I loved the animation the fight scenes, yooo I was hyped the whole episode.

Morana and Striga make their decision to go their own way, living their own lives in the west so, bittersweet ending with them, I wanted to actually Striga fight the main trio but, whatever I guess.

Hector still has plans to bring back Dracula and asks Issac if he’s doing the same. Issac has other plans obviously, and tells Hector that they need to find their path in their lives. I feel Hector never knew where he was supposed to be placed in the world but Issacs words are very inspiring in my opinion. May have woke Hector’s dumbass up a bit.

Episode 7: The Great Work: Varney and the other guy, I really forgot his name found out about the catacombs and head there. Trevor and Sypha demand Zamfir take them underground, which to me I think it’s nothing there but her shit. Sypha gets mad at Zamfir and I’m with her, how you part of the royal guard when the people above need your help girl my god.

The cutest scene ever in this episode, was when the kids from Danesti wanting to play with Alucard and this boy jumps off the highest part of the castle just to show off. There should be more scenes of soft Alucard with children. Saint Germain is placing these weird stones it looks like in the castle walls. What is going on with him?

More Alucard and Greta moments please and thank you. The artwork in the castle is fucking phenomenal work. Saint Germain just gave the location to a vampire it looks like, from episode 4 maybe? He looks familiar.

There is a freaking army coming to the castle…lord Jesus. Like can they catch a break please? The kids just got settled.

Trevor and Sypha go to the catacombs and it’s just as bad as the people above grounds. New weapon acquired for Trevor, pretty dope. The king and Queen are dead and Zamfir is officially insane. She really thinks that the king and Queen will come back alive and protect their people like she’s done them. Sypha tries to talk to her, that puts her in a weird daze, Trevor is just being Trevor. Varney and his lackey, come to the catacombs looking to kill I really do not know that man’s name y’all so I apologize for not giving a damn about him lol.

The castle is about to be under siege, I’m not ready. Having a whole heart attack over here from nerves.

Episode 8: Death Magic: Varney and his partner attack the people in the catacombs, Varney is looking for a giant mirror? Why I don’t know. Poor Trevor and Sypha they are soooo tired, I feel so bad for them. Zamfir is actually not bad of a fighter, I like that. Sypha still the goat, no cap.

The castle is under attack, it’s actually nice to see how diverse the vampires are in this show, you can tell what countries their from and I think that’s dope as hell. And then every time a human dies their souls are transferred to Saint Germaine? So is this another S3 human sacrifice crap again? Omg…I’m so sick of that. Saint Germain uses the key he received from the woman in the Infinite Corridor and it creates the symbol of the corridor’s portal.

Here goes Alucard being a badass again, I never tire of him being one. Greta holding it down too is really cool, I don’t care what nobody say, she is that bitch. Her and that hammer, a force to be reckoned with.

Everyone is overwhelmed and have no choice but to evacuate to the castle, right before those doors closed Alucard nods to her to leave him out to fight and she looks at him like boy bye. Get yo ass in this castle. Greta pulling Alucard in just shows they are compatible for one another. Even the playful banter between them is cute.

The discovery of the stones in the walls leads Greta and Alucard to his childhood bedroom and they find Saint Germain where he reveals he’s opening the Infinite Corridor to bring back Dracula by using death magic. Petty Saint Germain, I do not like him bro.

They have to deal with him later though to fight off the night creatures that got into the castle. Greta still holding it down.

Trevor and the vampire guy is still fighting but, Trevor being so tired he’s slowing a bit, and honestly I don’t know how he’s still able to function at this point. Sypha shows off her powers like a G that she is and Zamfir is doing some great damage with the knives she’s got and that’s crazy how little knives can do to the body.

Did Sypha always have lightning powers? I don’t remember. If it’s new I love it! Trevor’s almost killed but a woman and child save him in time but, unfortunately Zamfir is stabbed in the stomach when the vampire moves to kill them both. I’m going to be honest I didn’t really care for Zamfir’s character she was just…there lol.

Then that scene with Sypha basically incinerating the rest of the monsters is fire!!! No pun intended lol. Varney finds the mirror and steps through it where Saint Germain is. Trevor and Sypha goes through the mirror as well but in a different location in the castle.

Episode 9: The Endings: This whole episode was literally the best of the best in any other seasons. The fight scenes, the banter, the main three…oh my God I loved it all. Noooooo, the dolls!!!!!! You bastards!!!! Trevor and Sypha’s entrance was perfect. Muah! Perfecto! The rock monsters really confused me on how they were killed but you know what who cares?

Alucard has wings?!!!!! What?!!!!!!!!! The general of the caravan have brought in the man woman thingy to Saint Germain. Death has appeared. His character design is dope af. Noooo not mom and dad!!! Nooo! Poor Alucard had to witness his parents literally in pain and of course Trevor ends it again, somehow Saint Germain redeemed himself almost?

The four vampires fighting the main trio had me running for my money. I liked the whole scene it was nice to see at least one or two vampires almost have the upper hand on the main trio.

That general vampire? His fight was wild, throwing his arm as it was about to explode and use it against Trevor was genius. And main trio…they don’t need to have a plan to fight they just work so well together that it works out in end.

Trevor vs. Death. Also was that the first time Trevor told Sypha he loved her? I can’t remember. Anyway, back to the final battle. The quality of the fight, the sheer power between both characters, and then he goes and sacrificed himself like Trevor are you deadass? You deadass died? Unacceptable. And then episode just ends.

Episode 10: It’s Been a Strange Ride: Lenore died so lame, and she was drunk as well when she died. I really won’t be missing her because she was just a character I very much disliked. Hector is finally free, little dumbass.

I wanna see what Issac is up to and Morana and Striga seems appropriate. But oh well, I hope they are happy wherever they are.

Tombstone for Trevor, it’s not real. He ain’t dead, I don’t believe that. Omg, Greta and Alucard are together?!!! Whoooooo!!! And the village kids are calling him father? Yasssssssssssss!!!!! I’m here for it. Alucard saying he’s not used to people is 100% me in public I don’t like being around a lot of people and it doesn’t help I have anxiety either. Sypha being pregnant was a given she looked a little thicker in the hips from episode one. She can’t leave…we need her. Really Castlevania creators? Y’all gone play with all our hearts? Thinking Trevor was dead and he gone pop up on a horse?

And look at this⤵️⤵️

He’s smiling, happy, soft, has a boo thang I’m….😭😭😭I’m so happy.

Y’all….all in all this was a great ending to the show…a great ending…

Oh wait…wait…wait wait wait, mom and dad are alive?!!! But how? You know what I don’t care their going to travel to England and their heart shaped embrace is everything. Oh no I’m crying again….

[greatneedtotakeanap]

i binge read

the finale, episode 15 - the tower of nero

!!!SPOILER ALERT FOR THE TOWER OF NERO!!! this post under the cut will be completely riddled with spoilers, as it is a personal account of my views on the book as a whole. 

it will be spoiled!!

(obviously.)

I’m almost too heartsick to write this omg. It’s been such a long, heartwarming journey, and it came to such an electrifying ending.

I’m quite proud of Apollo. I knew I was going to be, but the way he realized it, the way he realized everything... how Nero’s abuse mirrored Zeus’ and affected him just the same, how much of an asshole he’d been because of it. He made the conscious choice to change, and he decided he could love. He was capable of true love, he was capable of moving forward and being better. And he was. I was just,,, I was so proud of him. Seeing him mature was a really eye-opening experience, especially in this book, when he talked so much about the small complexities of Nero’s abuse, how every move was calculated and how it affected Meg. We’d seen wisps of discussions of abuse before, mostly in the lightning thief (smelly gabe) but we’ve never before gone into the complexities of emotional abuse. The way it was described was fantastically clear, in a way that undoubtedly painted Nero as the true villain, but also gave us the chance to see him try and convince his children that he was good. Apollo breaking down his every move was good for the audience to distinguish the meaning behind his words. Fantastically portrayed. The way it helped him realize his own abuse, too, was good.

And Meg. My sweet darling Meg. What an absolute baddie, I swear. She made the same decision - she went back to Nero to fight him, to test her own strength and power of will. Her decision to drop her rings and refuse to dual wield anymore was strange to me at the very beginning, but I understood it later. It was her refusing to use the weapons he forced her to use, to even defend herself against him. It was her turning her back on the methods he’d armed her with and deciding to take her own path. “The Beast is dead” is the rawest f-ing line in this entire novel, the Beast representing Nero’s psychological abuse. “I killed him” - she liberated herself by believing she was better. I’m so insanely proud of that girl, too. She’s come a long way as well.

Okay. After that analysis, let me just say:

THE GAYS WON.

I spent this entire book terrified that Will Solace was doomed. There was a line in the prophecy about the terrible ending of ‘Apollo’s flesh and blood’, and I figured that meant his offspring - his son, rather than his human form. I kept muttering to myself ‘Will’s gonna die Will’s gonna die and it’s gonna BREAK Nico’. I was just so worried. I didn’t think anyone, even William Andrew Solace, could survive Rick Riordan’s patented Blond Boy Curse.

But he was fine in the end! As fine as you can be. Solangelo boyfriends lived to fight another day. And their development as a couple was also quite nice. I loved their dynamic. We only saw a little of it in the hidden oracle. Though it was great there too, we were able to go more in depth and explore how they truly function. Nico’s dry sense of humor combined with his whole lord-of-the-darkness aesthetic x Will’s genuine compassion and joking nature combined with his glow-in-the-dark-ness was fantastic to see.

Speaking of Solangelo - they not only got stronger as a couple, but as individual people as well. To be completely honest, we really haven’t seen much in the way of Will Solace. He healed, he was nice, yeah, sure, but what about him? What was his personality like outside from other people? In this book we find out. He’s kind, compassionate, easily flustered, overly protective. He craves parental approval, hence him repeatedly referring to Apollo as ‘dad’ and being so watchful over him. He gets embarrassed when asked to glow on command and upset when people mistake him for a lamp. He’s impulsive and a little hypocritical - he follows his instincts (being led off into the tunnels by a random voice) but gets very worried when Nico pulls the same thing. He’s a fantastic character, and his contrasts to Nico and the rest of the ton crew were great.

Nico - he seriously was the hero of this book. Or at least the secondary hero. He saved them all so many times over - he took everyone through shadow travel away from the bulls, he met the troglodytes, saw an opportunity, prepared an offering to said troglodytes because he saw an opportunity, became an underground ambassador, later saved Apollo’s life again by turning a germanus into a skeleton. He led this quest, and you can pry that from my cold dead hands. And that one paragraph about him enduring all this shit?? MASTERFUL. He’s had such a boatload of trauma and still he stands. One of my very favorite consistent Nico traits is this: no matter where he is or what he’s doing or how he feels, he ALWAYS takes the chance to talk with those who feel alone, because he knows what it’s like to be truly fighting one’s battles alone and he’d never wish that on anyone. It’s consistent, too: him being the only one to talk to Hestia at the hearth in Camp Half Blood, him talking to and befriending Bob the Titan, him talking to the troglodytes. And I have really gotten to see his progression firsthand, sped up - I read the Titan’s Curse in my binge read series maybe two weeks ago, back when he was this hyperactive ten-year-old with a Mythomagic obsession and now he’s this prince of darkness saving people with an adorable glowstick boyfriend and man. I love this kid. If he wasn’t my favorite character in this universe, he is now.

Also, even though with this book Rick has closed the gateway to this world (sad), the end alluded to a possible journey through Tartarus again to look for what’s been calling him, but this time he’ll have Will. Rachel Dare even whispered a prophecy at the end, probably pointing to it (but we’ll never know for sure). Will and Nico through the depths of Tartarus - now that’s a series I’d want to read for sure. It’s really too bad we’ll never get to see it in canon. Sigh.

SPEAKING OF CANON.

Another way the gays have won: Piper Mclean.

She has a canon girlfriend!! We really struck gold. I figured she was aro//ace when reading the Burning Maze - her whole monologue about being forced into love - but it turns out she’s just wlw!! I love this, I love this. We seriously won with this book.

Other noteworthy thoughts I had while reading below:

- The scene with Apollo defeating Python and hanging on the edge of Chaos was great. Especially when the goddess Styx came out. I was wondering how all of his broken oaths would serve him and come back to haunt him. It was quite well portrayed. A serious rip to the Arrow of Dodona though. I always loved it,,, a lot. It made me laugh and sometimes grind my teeth in frustration, but it was always a nice presence.

- Apollo’s return to Olympus was better than anything I ever could have hoped for. I was really hoping that returning would give him a new insight, not just of being mortal, but of Zeus as well. And it did. It did! I’ve said it before but I am quite proud of him. His new perspective on the Olympians was refreshing. You can really see the change in narrative if you go back to the Hidden Oracle.

- It is always always always nice to see Sally Jackson. Woman of many talents, including novel writing, blue chocolate chip cookies, and excellent seven-layer dip. She was my favorite character at the beginning of this binge-reading frenzy (as stated in the first post). Now she is still very up there. Definitely top 5.

- Why does Estelle have Percy’s green eyes?? I thought Percy had his father’s eyes????

- Grover knew about Jason dying. If Grover was on the cross-country field trip with Percy and Annabeth, and they didn’t realize Jason was dead until they got to New Rome, then was he just sitting on Jason’s death this whole time??? Rip to Grover, he must have been seriously traumatized for THAT to have happened.

- The last two chapters were basically just Apollo making his rounds and wrapping everything up, so Percabeth isn’t just in a perpetual cross-country ride and Piper doesn’t live out her life forever in a grief-stricken taxi. I’m glad those chapters were there, though. Nice to see everybody again in their element.

Okay but you don’t understand the fear in my heart. I seriously thought Will Solace was a goner. I cried out of relief because he DIDN’T die. It just makes me love the two of them all the more.

This post has been way too long already, but I gotta add an obligatory outro - I read these books once as a little kid, and the past two weeks has been amazing getting back into them. It’s been magical and wonderful, falling in love with these characters, and I’m so sad to leave it.

[theliterateape]

Wonder Woman 1984 Couldn’t Save the Story

By David Himmel

I’ve been looking forward to the sequel to 2017’s Wonder Woman since the film ended with Wonder Woman herself leaping from the top of a building and soaring into the credits. So when it was announced that Wonder Woman 1984 was going to be available on HBO Max Christmas Day, I went to bed each night with visions of indestructible bracelets dancing in my head.

Then it finally arrived. Christmas. WW84. 

My wife and I settled into the couch with a bucket of Cherry Coke, a cornucopia of candy, and two obnoxious bowls of fresh popped popcorn soaked in butter. It was the movie-going experience I had been missing this year.

I love Wonder Woman. I didn’t grow up on the source material. I grew up on Lynda Carter. Reruns of the campy Wonder Woman TV show, which originally ran from 1975–1979 were a favorite of mine as a little kid. Not only was it an entertaining show for a preschooler in the eighties with the jumping and bullet-blocking and running, but I was also in love with Lynda Carter both as Diana Prince and Wonder Woman. 

You see—sounding all Freudian alarms—my mother is a brunette and, from what I could tell at that young age, she could do anything and everything, so I grew up likening my mom to the Amazonian goddess. I also thought any pretty lady with brown hair was my mom including the woman on the Sun-Maid raisins box. (Despite my mother being a beauty queen and model—just like Lynda Carter—the real Sun-Maid Girl died at age 90 two months before I turned four.) From my vantage point, my mom was completely capable of saving the day and harvesting yummy raisins. A true wonder woman. 

I wasn’t a big reader of the Wonder Woman comics. Blame that on my time as a boy in 1984. Wonder Woman comics didn’t make their way to me and by the time I was old enough to choose my own reads, I was too deep into graphic novels about the Vietnam War, X-Men comics, and other Marvel titles. But I always knew Diana’s story and powers, and recognized her as one of the most powerful characters to grace the pages of comic books.

Settled into the couch, we hit play and HBO Max glowed to life to give me the Christmas gift I’d been waiting months for.

The opening scene set the tone. A thrilling action scene showcasing the abilities of Diana’s people back on Themyscira. It dropped a few hints of what challenges Diana/Wonder Woman might face and the lessons she will learn or be reminded of. Good opening. And then the film fell apart and Christmas was ruined.

Nah, Christmas was fine, but Wonder Woman 1984 was a disappointment. And not as much for me as for Diana and Wonder Woman. And for actor Gal Gadot. She was robbed of an interesting story. There is no character development in WW84 for our hero. Diana is in the exact same place as she was at the end of the first film. She picks up a few new abilities along the way, but one, like flying in an invisible jet felt like director/writer/producer Patty Jenkins was force feeding me a MacGuffin only to throw it away after I agreed to swallow it. Flight is a big thing in this film but Wonder Woman learning to master it seemed wasteful as I was convinced she was learning to fly based on the way the first film ended. That’s on me.

When we left Wonder Woman in the first film, she was heartbroken for Steve Trevor (Chris Pine). When we meet her again in 1984, some seventy years after his death, she still pines for him. (See what I did there?) By the end, she’s the same. Closed off, unwilling or unable to open herself up to people, most notably to people who could love her and she could love in return. This, despite that Steve tells her that’s a stupid thing to do—remain closed off. When he comes back to life through a wish, he is filled with a zest for life, a chance to experience something again. Pine plays Steve with an almost childlike wonder and it’s fun to watch.

They missed an incredible opportunity to build an interesting story tying in time, the struggle and pain of being ageless—timeless. Maybe that’s how Steve comes back. He exists in a tear in time. What is the hardship of a god living among men? Not her challenging duty but her struggle.

And why 1984? For the fashion jokes? The nukes? Missed opportunity there. Especially since the year is in the title.

Kristin Wiig is great. She’s surprising as she anchors her Ghostbusters (2016) character into Barbara Minerva/Cheetah. But I wanted more form her relationship with Diana. When Barbara wishes to be like Diana, “Sexy, cool… special,” there’s a chance for her to also face the backlash of being an ageless goddess. That opportunity was dampened when Barbara cartoonishly chooses to become a full baddy. But you can’t blame Barbara, she was written that way.

Everything was written as a MacGuffin. One little thing to get us to the big moment with the big baddy—a Donald Trump-ish huckster played by Pedro Pascal. Pascal as Max Lord at first is a slimey but sympathetic character. That quickly devolves into him being a super-duper bad guy bent on world domination that overcorrects in heightening the stakes. The manner in which he goes about dominating the world is trite but also is based on a lazy Orwellian approach to what technology would be like in 1984. It gives the sense that the film was written during Lynda Carter’s heyday where 1984 still seemed futuristic.

There’s so much opportunity squandered. Diana/Wonder Woman is an ageless goddess with a lonely heart and incredible powers. How does one live like that? In the first film, Diana is learning what it means to be human. This film could have had her learning what it means to be a god among humans. Instead, the character is a pawn. She’s not driven by anything. And that’s what gets me.

Diana could be relatable. Make her the troubled messiah. She lives among us so long, she longs or struggles to be like us. And maybe losing her power—the unknown risk she takes when Steve comes back—is attractive to her so she can live and love. And if they had to bring back Chris Cline, the could have dipped into the mystique and magic of Diana’s world. Something more than a silly wish. Something more interesting that pushes Diana to face new internal struggles while working to defeat the external forces of evil.

The film sets itself up as movie that’ll deal with time. There’s a date in the title. But why 1984? For the nukes? For the broadcast Max Lord needs to tap into? For the fanny pack jokes? Jenkins and Co. could have given the theme a little more oompf by leaning into their own ideas of time and address the hardships a an ageless, nearly all powerful goddess faces. Instead, we get a joke about modern public art being trash and a WWI watch coming to life because… because the ghost of the man who owned it has come back from the beyond. Two completely unrelated things. But they didn’t have to be.

The film takes its time with the wrong beats. There are many big moments, often in the middle of the action, where Wonder Woman’s face is the focus. The only takeaway from these slowed down moments of intensity are for the sake of empowerment. And, okay, fine. That’s cool. I get it. Wonder Woman is empowering. The movie, however, is not empowering. It’s a vehicle that reduces Wonder Woman to a physically strong woman who does not develop as an individual. She’s the most dimensional inspiring cinematic female character since the offensive Captain Marvel.

Time proves to be a major influencer in the film in the way it’s wasted. When they have to fly to Cairo, they do so by stealing a jet that Diana has access to thanks to her job at the museum, and allegedly will face no consequences for hoarking a fighter jet for personal reasons. Regardless… They have to get from Washington D.C. to Cairo, a trip of just over 5,000 nautical miles. A modern Boeing 747 can fly 8,255 nautical miles on a full tank of gas. A fighter jet with a smaller tank would likely need every last drop and the wind at their backs the entire time to make the tip without refueling or plummeting into the ocean. Instead of being concerned with that, Steve and Diana choose that time to have their romantic scene. Flips and tricks and dawdling through a Fourth of July fireworks show. And why was Steve surprised by the fireworks and it being July 4th? He just arrived in a new body the day before. He certainly checked the date on a newspaper or heard something on the radio or a TV. And the Fourth of July was already a holiday before he was killed in World War I.

These gripes would be nitpicking if they weren’t so easily remedied by giving the main character an actual story arc.

Wonder Woman 1984 was a fine superhero movie. Far from the best (Captain America: Civil War). Better than the worst (Justice League). It had its share of fun action moments, but even in an action film, the action must be secondary to the story.

After watching the film, we turned on the old TV show. There’s not much character development there either. But it’s a 1970s network television procedural. It’s meant to be campy. And it was more than enough.

Following the three-hour Lynda Carter bender, I realized that you could totally edit scenes in WW84 to make a trailer about a woman who takes care of, then falls in love with, a mentally handicapped man. And that would be a great story to tell. Wonder Woman with Hollywood blockbuster money behind her deserves something interesting.

[eponymous-rose]

Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E78 (September 24, 2019)

Tonight’s guests are Marisha Ray and Travis Willingham!

Announcement: No episode of Critical Role on Thursday, October 3rd! In place of Talks the following Tuesday, Sam will be running a one-shot (I think? I’ll be honest, I got lost in all the dates)! Tomorrow will be a major update for CR’s upcoming programming! Sam and Matt will play M:TG Arena at 4PM on Thursday for Everything Is Content! Please double-check all these dates before making any life-changing decisions based on them.

Distract yourself from my inadequate transcription skills with...

Episode 78: Between the Lines

Stats: “TO ZADASH!” was declared 12 times. The M9 have had a total of 21 steeds, 5 of which are still with them. Jester and Nott are now tied for second-most natural ones, with 52. Beau still holds the number one spot with 60. Marisha: “The best at fuckin’ failing.” Beau and Fjord have the 1st and 2nd-most natural 20s in the campaign, with 78 and 55, respectively. 

“She’s still running from a lot of her past and not trying to confront it, so when things happen that smash it in her face, it throws her off a little bit, much as she tries to not care.” Travis points out that it’s interesting she didn’t try to bolt for it. Marisha: “She’s still... two ends of the magnets. The ones... the sides that deflect... reverse math. The reverse magnets.”

Fjord “didn’t take it lightly” that the Wildmother reached out to him. Paladin seemed like a natural choice. “How do we incorporate the previous warlock parts of it? I think there’s maybe an interesting solve there.” The swap to Paladin was about taking agency. Marisha reminisces about how gung-ho Fjord was about the Soltryce Academy. “Oh, you’re shoving shards in people’s arms? Sign me up!”

It was weird for Marisha to hear Beau’s dad’s voice for the first time. “I was like, ‘Oh fuck, my dad kind of sounds like a schmuck.’”

Fjord hadn’t thought of another god until Taliesin mentioned, “Let’s go god shopping.” He liked “the warm elements and imagery she was hitting him with. I love the idea of deep ocean waves, and just the calm of it.”

On Beau’s dad being superstitious---made up on the spot? “Oh no, that’s part of the backstory.”

Travis hadn’t thought about how Fjord’s now worshiping an illegal religion. Brian: “Now’s your chance to reflect.” Travis still isn’t too sure where Fjord/the group stands in the Dynasty-vs.-Empire conflict. Marisha: “None of us are really sure what’s happening.” Marisha also points out that the group is being a bit overwhelmed by the Superman effect right now, where there’s too many voices vying for their attention.

Cosplay of the Week: a very fancy Percy (by 89Styles on Instagram, photography by Weneals Photography)!

Someone asks if Thoreau’s encounter with the fortune teller has to do with Beau keeping Molly’s tarot cards. “Very astute. You have a good eye.” Brian: “All right, so you’re going to give him half a villain speech?”

Travis has “no fucking idea” what kind of plans Fjord has to serve the Wildmother specifically. “I’m just winging it.”

Travis doesn’t want to meet Oban, the Laughing Hand, etc. “Boy, we better have a get-the-fuck-out-of-Dodge ready.” Marisha: “We... should’ve gone and talked to the Gentleman.” Travis thinks it will have been worth it if they can get the Heart first. If not... Marisha notes that this felt like the most immediate threat, and they had a sense of urgency about it.

Marisha and Travis make a pact to just spar in the woods if the baddies are already gone.

Marisha is asked if she thinks Yasha’s recent actions are irredeemable. “No.” She knows Yasha’s got external influences going on. She’s only really irritated and suspicious because they don’t know how much Yasha knew about this before the fact.

Travis gets asked if Fjord would fight Yasha to the death. “Fjord doesn’t know---I also don’t know---what are the limits of this thing that’s happening to Yasha? If she just fights the whole time...”

Beau isn’t really worried by being seen as “a disaster” by the Soul right now. “She was really on team egg-it-on.” Brian: “Agennon? Is that another god?”

Fan Art of the Week: a tragic Yasha (ViolaSwimmer on Twitter)!

Fjord’s tusks having grown back in the new character art are related to Jester calling him out and positively reinforcing him, and “I was definitely moved by what Nott and Sam said” about not being comfortable with her appearance. It was also related to getting rid of the sword. “I don’t need anything but me to feel good about me.”

Beau’s opinion on the harshness of the ban from the Cobalt Soul: “Fuck your authority! Whatever, it’s fine.” She knows what they’re doing is more important right now.

Brian, after everyone dissolves into giggles for the tenth time: “Do you have any idea how high people think we are right now?” Travis: “This is root beer! This is Barq’s!”

Travis hasn’t used the new sword yet, so technically he doesn’t know yet if it talks.

Sam Facetimes in. He’s holding socks. “Are you guys smokin’ the dope???”

On going back to their first meeting spots, Marisha: “Aw, that was nice. For the five minutes we were there before Sam yelled, “TO ZADASH!””

Marisha gets asked if there was a reason Beau didn’t mention her mom in this latest lore-drop. “My mom was the rich girl, and so my dad was chasing this rich girl. So... yeah. He went to the fortune teller. Fortune teller was like, ‘Go do these things and then you’ll succeed and be recognized amongst the lords and ladies and you’ll be able to marry this woman you’re in love with.’ I envision Beau’s mom as being one of those moms where she had Beau’s back... up to a certain point.”

On the book Caleb gave Fjord: “It’s a cool book. Still not sure whether to use it or hang on to it.”

We end on Brian ascending. As you do.

[darkstar6782]

1.12: Faith - My Rewatch Review

This episode has always been one of the true standouts of the series, both in the subject it deals with and the way it chooses to do so, and also in the way that it only grows in importance and narrative complexity as the Winchesters’ story unfolds throughout the series. This early on in the show, it can be seen simply for what it is; a deep, emotional look at the consequences of ‘miracles’ in a world where the supernatural exists, and an amazing character turn for Dean as he is forced to confront his own mortality, the consequences of going to supernatural forces for help, and the fact that doing the right thing is sometimes just as hard and can hurt people as badly as doing nothing would. But as the series goes on, and the boys are confronted with their destiny, and they begin to cheat death on the regular, the dimensions of this episode expand. Roy’s words to Dean, about how the Lord chose him, and about how he is a young man with unfinished work to do, are more accurate than Dean knows in the moment: angels, demons, and God himself are looking down on him and Sam, and even though he doesn’t know it now, and even though he may believe that this first death defied was nothing but a coincidence or a mistake for many years, I like to think that it wasn’t just Roy’s or Sue-Ann’s desire to further seal their flock to them by healing a non-believer that led them to heal Dean. I think that God really did interfere in this instance, and influence Roy to heal Dean, because Dean is part of the greater story, even though he doesn’t realize it yet.

And it is because of the parallels between Dean’s first brush with death here and his eventual death in the series finale that I am able to accept that death, as tragic as it was, as the ‘right’ way for Dean to die. Because, like his death in that barn, his death in this episode would have come about, not because of some evil force, or even directly because of some monster, but because of a tragic accident during a hunt. Like his eventual death, there was no baddie on which Sam could take out his revenge, and no entity for him to make a deal with, and it was only the fact that Dean was dying slow and Sam was still too raw and desperate as a result of losing Jess and getting Dean back that led him to seek out such desperate measures in order to save his brother, whereas, in the finale, he was experienced enough in the consequences of trying to cheat death and mature enough in his understanding of loss and sacrifice to acquiesce to Dean’s wish to not be brought back, no matter how painful a choice that was.

It’s also interesting to note, as far as my memory allows, that I think this is the only time until the series finale that we ever see Dean (almost) die simply as a consequence of an ordinary hunt, and not as the result of a battle with some Big Bad, as the consequence of some cosmic force (such as the Trickster or as a result of his deal for Sam coming due), or from him killing himself in order to communicate with entities on the other side. And I think that that, more than anything else, is what allows Dean to accept his death when it finally comes, and what allows Sam to accept it as well, because they both recognize that it is different, in a way they never could before. Because in the end, that death was what this one should have been, and I like to think that the guilt they both felt over Dean’s avoidance of death here at the beginning of their journey, and the understanding of the consequences of trying to defy the natural order, once it truly is natural for them, were written on their hearts and in their souls, even if not present in their conscious minds at the time, and helped them find peace with the ultimate outcome of their journey together and everything that came after.

The fact that the series is bookended on this end by Dean’s first brush with death, and on the other side by an almost identical mishap that does end in his death, is what really cements this series and its finale as one of the best, in my opinion. Because as we follow the Winchesters through the next fifteen years of their lives, as they battle the forces of good and evil and come to realize that their entire lives are being written and planned out for them, we eventually come to realize, as they do, that the signs were all there from the beginning, and it is only once they throw off the shackles of destiny and are able to live and die on their own terms, that they are truly free. 

[jcmorrigan]

When I was a kid, I feared animated baddies who did things that unsettled me personally. Belittling the heroes, kidnapping, grabbing someone by their clothes, etc. I like to call these moments my ‘villainous red flags’. One can imagine how many that went off when I 1st saw Boxtrolls. It’s not that I’m scared of villains like Snatcher now, but as an adult, I like rewatching these animated films to get inside their heads; to wonder why they’re like this, & who they might be when no one’s looking.

Hey, that’s super valid! I know when I was a kid, I was unsettled and/or scared by...everything. It’s pretty hilarious now, because I’m that 90s kid who would always go to the bookstore to pick up a new fantasy series but have to avert my eyes from the section where they had the Goosebumps books because the cover art alone freaked me out too much. And now I’m that grown-up who has read about 25% of CreepyPasta Wiki’s archives and found half of it boring.

I’ll say my relationship with villains is pretty weird in that it’s NOT really complicated. At this point, I have very little I’m uncomfortable with. I think Jerome Valeska in Gotham (mass murderer) is legitimately humorous. I think Junko Enoshima from DanganRonpa (terrorist, organized the apocalypse, made her friends kill each other for fun) is a treasure. My favorite show tune to sing in the car is “Meant to Be Yours” from Heathers: The Musical, but the icing on the cake is I actually like film!J.D. better because he’s LESS sympathetic. I want to be a good person and do good things, but I’ve got a dark part of my brain that just likes when characters have fun doing horrible things. The most uncomfortable I ever was with a villain for being too vile was Ramsay Bolton (most of you know him from Game of Thrones, but I did the books, and I only say this because he is WORSE in the books than the show). And I’m gonna tell you right now, if you don’t know what Ramsay Bolton did that was so horrible, DON’T look it up because it’s probably gonna make you VERY uncomfortable. But then I had a friend who loved his simple bottom-of-the-barrel-ness and eventually, though this friend’s fandom, learned to enjoy Ramsay for just being The Worst and a good target to hate, and once you like Ramsay Bolton, all hope is lost for you (and by “you” I mean “me”). Like, it’s not JUST about if they’ve done icky things for shock value, but if that comes along with a dynamic personality. I like villains who enjoy doing bad things and have fun with it, and are quippy or energetic about it. I recently went back to the only three episodes of Code Geass I actually ever liked because I had to affirm that Mao was in fact the best character. He’s a yandere who wants to chainsaw one of the heroines to death so he can keep her where he wants her, but he’s very quirky and sassy, and I mostly bring this up because HEY, TUMBLR, WHERE IS MY MAO CODEGEASS CONTENT?

So honestly...Snatcher looks like innocent small potatoes compared to some of the ones in my deck. Remember, the only actual murder he ever committed was of a pile of empty boxes (if not for the lack of trying). But again, he has that juicy personality with quirks and flair that I just eat up.

I’m not saying that has to be you, though! We all have different things that squick us out and make us uncomfortable! And if certain villains can do that just by grabbing at others’ clothes, that’s a valid boundary. Just be aware of it and that it’s not going to be the same boundary on everyone else.

Myself? I know I just said I have no flags as far as villains being bad or gross goes, but the closest thing I have is when a character does horrible things in canon that I think no good person should ever do, but the narrative either lets them off without consequence (Lord Portley-Rind) or outright hails them as a hero despite the horrid things they did (Master Eraqus, Kingdom Hearts). I’ve come to call this archetype the “White Hat” because guess why, except now I kinda also use that as a blanket term for any type of villain who hits the Lawful corner and uses conservative politics to spread bigotry and obtain money. Actual enjoyable examples of this are Jacques Schnee (RWBY) and the entire villain cast of Tales of Berseria. But where I might be okay watching Jerome Valeska shove a bunch of people off a roof to spell out the name of his faction and get news media, including one extra because he wanted an exclamation mark, and even find this darkly delicious, on the other hand, I’ll look at an essentially kid-friendly character like Eraqus and see how he got in a swordfight with his son over disobedience in the name of doing what was actually right, and how his arc ended in him being martyred and fought for, and THAT is gross to me. But other people interpret his arc as not so dissonant, and that’s okay too. We all have different lines in the sand.

But I definitely agree it’s worth the time to see what makes villains tick! That’s why I write so many fanfics about villains. Snatcher in particular, I did “Of Hats, Rats, and Mechanical Doohickeys” (shameless self-advertising!) because I wanted to figure out what collusion of factors could have forged into his philosophy, and when I hit upon some ideas about Eggs’ dad and put together some throwaway moments from the film that seemed to make more sense if those two knew each other, boom, I had a fic that required writing. TBTC exists because I have this fundamental need to know what villains are like when off the clock. Can they make villain buddies? Can they fall in love? Do they do weird stuff like karaoke night? What would my faves think if they traded stories with each other? What would happen if they teamed up and we saw the adventure from THEIR point of view? And then the multitude of shipfics I have of villains (or at the very least good-aligned criminals) because I love the freedom that comes with writing characters who just go against the law as well as exploring what it’s like to have romance on that setting. Writing villains is one of my favorite things - I don’t really like to make them more redeemable, but I do like to see if behind the curtain, they could be PEOPLE who are occasionally dorks.

I’d be interested, if you ever wanted to share, in what your take is on Snatcher and, as you said, “why he’s like this and who he might be when no one’s looking.”

[amepcrdue]

Questions about Villainous Muses…

1. What would it have taken to prevent your muse from becoming a villain?

Raph started his late teens as a villain, having been molded by an uncaring environment with parents who dealt more with stately affairs than with him. It taught him not to trust nor care about others and it reflected in every move he made. Amy saving him had changed so much inside him that his heart grew three sizes that day. I think the start of spiraling back into villainy was when he poisoned Lord Dumas because he asked Raphael to send Amy away to an orphanage in order to be officially made his son. Raphael would have done anything for her and murdering the old man was so easy. And it tapped back into that darkness that lived in his heart and left him more susceptible to the influence of the sword. While his mind had to be utterly torn to shreds for his body to become the host for Soul Edge because Raph’s will was too strong, even in death, it was still able to poison his mind and Azwel was able to manipulate Raphael further. Everything from there went downhill. Had Azwel never outed Amy as a non-noble in front of Lord Dumas, Dumas would never have figured out Amy was not Raphael’s biological daughter and Raphael wouldn’t have felt compelled to kill him. He rather liked the old man and everyone in the citadel up until that point. Afterward, the only ones he showed any kindness to, or any regard at all were Amy and the governess Maelys.

2. Despite their villainy, does your muses subscribe to some sort of ethical/honor code that guides their behavior?

I think Raphael, for as heartless and cold as he is when at the peak of his evil, I don’t think he would kill a kid. Even in his destined fight with Talim he says time for your nap, and I choose to believe he incapacitated her, not killing her. I think Amy has a lot to do with that. She was his moral anchor, he strived to be a better person because he had another to care for. But outside of that? He was otherwise utterly reprehensible. 

3. When was the last time your muse cried for someone else’s sake?

I think he was wracked emotionally about never being able to provide Amy with what she needed, and while he cried when he met her, it was more relief that she had helped him survive, so more for his sake than her’s. I think the first time he cried was when he returned home from his fight with Nightmare and after almost a month on death’s door and as his body malfested and his mind further rotted into darkness and madness, his first bit of clarity in that time was realizing Amy was gone and that he had failed her. He wept then for what her uncertain fate was and then the darkness took him completely. 

4. Are there any ethical/moral lines your muse will not cross?

Again, he wouldn’t kill a child, but he would fight them if they tried to stop him (re: Talim). I mean listen, this guy was bent on causing utter chaos and mass death to stop the feuding nobles when he was stuck in his soul edge induced madness. And then he malfested the Romanian Valley of Wallachia out of grief for losing Amy (in my blended timeline, since we aren’t getting malfested Amy in the revised timeline) and had them finish decimating an army that tried to stop him. The man has very few lines he won’t cross.

5. Mun, you could have spent the time and effort you dedicate to your museIf roleplaying as a hero. Why did you decide to roleplay as a villain?

I truly truly love heroes, and anti-heroes too, but when I played MKDA (the konquest mode and later the tower) I thought that Frost was a good guy… and turned she wasn’t, but I’m okay with roleplaying a villain. I mean, it is kind of different from writing a muse with heroical intentions, perhaps my decision is more attached to the fact that I love the character but don’t care much about her moral decisions (and some of them worry me). Part of me enjoys writing her as the villain she is supposed to be in canon, and another part of me wishes for her to settle down and think clearer.

6. If questioned about their evil behavior, what excuse would your muse give to justify it?

He was sick on the idea that he could make a better world if he got rid of the warring nobles, no matter the body count that ensued. He thought he could justify it (a lot of it was also the sword needing more souls but he wouldn’t have realized it at the time). And then later as he wreaked havoc in Wallachia? It was all because he was suffering and inflicting his grief and anguish on those who lived in the valley below him. He spread his sickness. He was their plague. 

7. Does your muse have the potential to be a loving parent? The question addresses their ability to feel a child’s emotional needs, not the muse’s ability to physically procreate.

I MEAN... WE ALREADY KNOW HE IS A DEEPLY DEVOTED DAD SO...

8. If your muse could feel the emotional pain of the people they hurt, would this deter their villainous behavior?

I don’t think he had the capacity to feel much beyond his own suffering. It blinded him to much else. I think there were potentially moments where his humanity would show through, but they were brief, fleeting.  

9. What punishment does the mun think would be justifiable for the muse?

Considering he lost everything 3 times, each as a result of horrendous behavior and each behavior worse than the last... canon did a pretty good job. After SCIV he died and his mind was ripped asunder while his corpse was used as a vessel for the very sword that cursed him in the first place and set his life in ruin all three times (okay, i genuinely believe he was killed by siegfried with soul calibur not soul edge, but soul edge still got him in the end so stay with me). And so reclaiming his body with all the skills he had before but none of the memories except a strong need to find an unknown entity named Amy has been a continual punishment. Made worse as he unravels his own mystery and learns that he was once a good man... and once a very very very terrible one as well. Learning that this was who he was, and the painful flashes of memory and the debilitating pain that rips through his right arm (the one that became the nightmare arm), he continually faces his punishment. Canon really set up some good shit for this and then did nothing with it. And the fact that while his body was being used and going by the name of the man he poisoned all those years ago, Soul Edge had sent constant barrages of assassins after two who rebelled against him, Z.W.E.I. and Viola. Viola who was once Amy but no longer knows who she is either. So like yeah, he’s not having a good time post-resurrection. At all. 

tagged by: stole it from @pxlariis​

tagging: hey baddies do the thing.

[ghostofbambifanfiction]

Can you be more specific on why you like Arya and Sansa? So many people like Arya for being strong and fierce, but for some reasons so many hate Sansa for what she was like in the earlier seasons. Can you give specific instances why you like both of them? And why not Daenerys? Thanks! (I'm just really curious, please indulge me :) )

I’m going to talk about Dany first (and I’m sticking to the show here, though I have read the books, but they’re never getting finished, let’s be real), and then I'll put my thoughts on Sansa and Arya in another post (hey, you asked, so I’m delivering) because otherwise this will go on forever and it’s cleaner this way. Putting a ‘read more’ here because this is long (lol I’m at work I should be working)

To preface, I would not dislike Daenerys as much as I do if she didn’t want to be queen. I’ll touch on this when I talk about Arya, but I appreciate characters who have the self-awareness required to know who and what they are. Since Daenerys does want to rule Westeros, I have so many issues.

I also think the eighth season is going to see her turning on most of the people she’s currently allied with and I think the catalyst for that is the discovery that Jon is the legitimate child of Rhaegar and Lyanna, and therefore his claim to the throne supersedes hers. I’ll gladly admit that I’m wrong if I am, but right now I don’t think I am. Here’s why.

1) She is an ineffective ruler

After Dany liberated the slave cities of Astapor, Yunkai and Meereen, she stayed to rule and did a terrible job of it. Nobody in particular was better off, the majority of the slaves she freed were homeless and scraping for food in mess halls, and she killed elders who had spoken out against slavery without even listening to what any of them had to say. She has the mind for conquering, not for ruling.

(side note: why does she even want to be queen? It’s something she just seemed to jump on in season two without ever reasoning it out, and from there on in it’s like an obsession that has grown inside her. Now she says she wants to make the world a better place but she hasn’t the skills to do it. It should be enough for her to liberate oppressed societies and allow somebody qualified to fix them. But it’s not.)

The truth is, Meereen saw no real improvement until after Dany skipped town on Drogon, because Tyrion had the idea to replace the slave trade with actual trade. He made changes that impacted the city’s economy and allowed its residents to start supporting themselves, so of course, the slavers attacked just as Dany came back, at which point her bright idea was to decimate an entire armada when she needed ships. Tyrion had to talk her out of it. Which brings me to her next point.

2) She requires constant babysitting

It’s ironic to me that Tyrion told Cersei that “the difference” between Cersei and Daenerys is that Dany knows herself well enough to hire advisors who tell her not to do dumb, impulsive things, firstly because that is such a low bar, Tyrion! There are people out there (Sansa) who do not require that kind of monitoring! Secondly because Cersei is far more self-aware than Dany.

Cersei knows that the things she does are bad and does them anyway because fuck it, she knows she wants power for power’s sake. Dany has such a narrow view of justice that actually thinks she’s being righteous when she burns people to death (more on that later) and that is the most dangerous mindset a leader can have. Compare that, if you will, to Sansa, who quite sensibly told Arya that chopping off heads might feel good but that’s not the way to make people work together. Jorah, Tyrion and Jon have all had to speak out against Dany’s more violent predilections and she’s fast running out of people she wants to listen to. She and Tyrion are certainly hanging on by a thread. Which brings me to my next point.

3) She mistreats her own Hand

The relationship between Dany and Tyrion absolutely reeks of Aerys and Tywin, their respective fathers, who were the best of friends until Aerys’ jealousy and paranoia forced them to opposite sides of a bloody war. Dany is all too happy to take credit for Tyrion’s best ideas when they work (and he is happy to let her) but as soon as one of his plans go wrong she whirls on him and berates him like he’s a piece of trash. Everything’s his fault when a plan goes wrong.

When he brought up the matter of the succession she accused him of plotting her death with his brother, which not only is batshit insane but proves that Daenerys gives far less of a shit about the future of Westeros than she claims to, because if she cared that much, she’d care about planning to carry on the legacy she wants to build. She can’t seem to forgive Tyrion for the heinous crime of…loving his siblings? Trying to broker the most peaceful end to the war? Not wanting his brother to die?

Honestly, her treatment of Tyrion is one of the most telling aspects of her character and I am aghast that nobody seems to be talking about it.

4) Like all of the maddest Targaryens before her, she gets off on burning people

This one isn’t subtle at all. Sorry to drop the intellectual veneer for a moment but she fucking loves that shit. It doesn’t bother her a whit to watch people scream as they’re being burned alive. She takes pleasure in burning people, you can see the satisfaction on her face, and a good leader should never take pleasure in something like that.

(FYI people like to mention how Sansa smiled when Ramsay’s dogs ate him when I make this point and to that I blow a raspberry. That was her personal moment of justice against her rapist and abuser, not the lord of some house who wouldn’t submit to her, there is no fair comparison)

Dany was smiling like a satisfied cat when she burned down the temple of the Dosh Khaleen and killed everybody inside it, which was something she did to seize power, by the way. She didn’t do it to stick it to a bunch of misogynists, though I’m sure that was an added bonus. She did the exact same thing Cersei did to the Sept of Baelor and for the exact same reasons, yet only one of them is painted as a villain by the viewing public even though you can argue that Cersei was also sticking it to misogynists when she killed the High Sparrow. The only reason for that is that Dany was given humble origins while the narrative told us that Cersei was bad from the very beginning.

Theon is still beating himself up for killing and burning those two farm boys — as he should. Stannis burned his daughter and everyone was horrified. Jon was so repulsed to watch Mance Rayder burn that he defied Stannis and shot him in the heart. How many times is the show going to have to tell us that burning people alive is a terrible act of evil before people stop cheering Dany on for it? When Ned Stark was Lord of Winterfell, he understood and felt the weight of executing a man. Jon feels the weight of it, too, as we’ve seen on a couple of occasions. Sansa clearly thought long and hard about executing Petyr — that’s what her moment of reflection on the battlements was meant to show us. Dany just… doesn’t care. I think she cared a bit when she had Daario execute Mossador, but I can’t think of any other occasion where she has been directly responsible for a death and been remotely bothered by it.

So. yes.

I think the reason a lot of people – and in particular a lot of women – support Daenerys is because she has a girl power narrative. She does have a girl power narrative, it’s true, but that is not a good enough reason to support a character who on so many occasions has proven herself to be unqualified for the job she wants, not to mention bordering on dangerously unhinged and increasingly paranoid. In that sense I think her season 1 narrative was genius, because her origins and the way in which she started to gain power (as well as her gender) has granted her a kind of automatic forgiveness for behaviours that several male characters – and Cersei, most importantly, because she also has a girl power narrative (and she and Dany are two peas in a pod) but the show told us she was a baddie from episode one – would be dragged through the mud for. And I’m sorry, but it’s not good enough for me. I’m not going to support a powerful female character just because she’s a powerful female character who did some good things once. Powerful women can be good or bad.

Some other points re: Daenerys

The dragons are weapons of mass destruction and need to be killed. They’re nukes with wings. She’s burned her own people with those monsters because fire doesn’t fucking differentiate. Sorry not sorry.

The Targaryens are literally GRRM’s interpretation of the Aryan race. It’s practically in their name.

“I have tried to make it explicit in the novels that the dragons are destructive forces, and Dany has found that out as the tried to rule the city of Meereen and be queen there. She has the power to destroy, she can wipe out entire cities, and we certainly see that in Fire and Blood, we see the dragons wiping out entire armies, wiping out towns and cities, destroying them, but that doesn’t necessarily enable you to rule – it just enables you to destroy.” – George R R Martin, folks.

One of the show’s directors, Jack Bender, made a reference to Hitler when talking about her. He said we should be “horrified” by her. No shit, Jack. No shit.

“Do you wonder if the gods ever get lonely?” Just… this line. Get a grip, woman.

[emzamozeby]

(contains spoilers) GOT finale

Can we just talk about Game of Thrones for a second? (Because, let’s be honest – who isn’t? – sorry to all the non-watchers who really couldn’t care less) There’s been so much disappointment surrounding the last season, and I don’t want to say rightly so – but rightly so? I didn’t hate this season, but I also didn’t have any overwhelming feelings towards it at all. I would have preferred to hate what happened with a burning fury, or to be so overwhelmed with joy that I would be forever satisfied, but instead I didn’t really feel anything.

I actually felt more towards the last episode, in particular, after. Thinking about the first few seasons for these characters, what had happened to them and where they ended up – but I did not feel that during the episode, it was more of a reflective afterthought. Like, ‘huh, that’s over.’

Like I said, I did not hate how it ended, it just felt almost...too real? It ended logically? Logical is a very forgiving word for the ending, but the idea that all these people suddenly agreed that the wisest (and most moral?) amongst them should be King, (which yeah does make sense) didn’t seem to work in the world of Thrones. Technically the ending was completely correct, that’s how it should end up; goodies win, baddies don’t. But that’s where my issue is! 1. It’s a show with dragons, we ain’t got time for logical and “reasonable” endings. And - 2. The whole point of thrones was that there were no goodies or baddies, we saw everything from the characters’ perspectives - all the characters -  you were never really meant to believe a character was wholly good or bad – just human. The finale definitely wanted its audience to believe the “goodies defeated the evil”

There were so many seeds planted in the show, not just in this season, but previous seasons, that were left to die. One that springs to mind is Dany claiming she can’t get pregnant, and scenes and scenes of discussions about it, about how Jon wants a family, and that fear that she can’t give him one. Arguably it could be seen as how Dany’s rise for power made her forget her wishes for a family, (or if she ever did really want one) or more tragically, just when it finally crossed her mind again, the hope of love and power, is when her love literally stabs her in the heart.

I know the writers probably wanted us to feel most sympathetic towards Jon – but Dany is the tragic hero of all this. Her death had been predicted by majority of viewers, and we all knew it needed to happen – but it still fucking hurt. Cause she’s a great character, a great flawed character, (who despite everything still believed her and Jon could work, because love is always what fuelled her) and who deserved a better ending – AND THAT’S WHY HER DEATH WAS A GREAT MOMENT! 

This is what a lot of the season was missing, tragic endings that were necessary, and not just ‘cause they had nowhere else to go. A lot of the deaths this season felt a little too “perfect,” yes they were sad/tragic, but they all died how they probably would have wanted to go out? E.g. Lyanna taking down an undead giant, Jorah protecting his queen, The Hound finally getting his revenge, Jamie dying with the woman he loved etc.

With Dany though, it was the worse way she could have possibly died – and that’s why it worked. I hated how she died, but that scene was the one moment where I actually felt something, the one time the writing lended itself to some emotion – reminding the audience of how far she had come, this little girl just wanting to rule the world, because that’s all she had ever known. A woman completely ruled by her emotions to the very end – and that’s what did it - her love killed her. Not just literally in the form of Jon Snow, but her love for Missandei, her love for her lost family, her love for change – she was forever blinded and it was her undoing. Just when she’s about to get everything she’s been working towards – she dies.

To the people that said all the seasons of Dany doing good was for nothing, and that she suddenly snapped into becoming the Mad Queen, I do disagree with; this was building for a long time. It was incredibly well put by Tyrion about wherever she goes, she kills bad men, and that people cheered her on. As just as it may have seemed at the time, (I was all for the burning of the khals, thinking how badass she was), they were tyrannical ways of ruling. She “liberated” people by brutally murdering others – all she had ever known – and had always been successful with. We were just blinded by her “goodness.” Yeah she had good intentions, so we kinda forgave how she got there. 

She didn’t become the Mad Queen suddenly; I don’t think she ever became the “Mad” Queen. Dany had her own perception of what was right and wrong, she always knew what choices she was making, she always knew the weight of them, and she always had a clear purpose, as wrong as it may be to others, it was never because she suddenly snapped - she was always going to destroy King’s Landing. But she often, if not always, lay the blame of the destruction she caused at the feet of the other rulers, whether it was the slavers or Cersei – she never actually took full responsibility – because she thought was right. (Others may justly argue that that does make her mad, but I never viewed her as insane, just blinded by her perception of the world).

I think Jon should have died. (As well as Dany, not instead of). I genuinely do think I would have been more satisfied with the ending if he had. It made little sense how the Unsullied, and especially the Dothraki, were happy to keep him as a prisoner FOR WEEKS, for KILLING the QUEEN they all followed and fought for. Surely they would have executed both Tyrion and Jon, without a ruler telling them what to do, especially Tyrion as that was what Dany had ordered. Yeah Greyworm is tactical, so maybe he realised killing them without consulting the houses was a bad move – but also, why would he consult the houses? (Did he send ravens out? Cause Tyrion and Jon sure didn’t!) Greyworm didn’t respect the Western Lords or lands, he was only following Dany, who was now dead?! So actually, why would he care to consult them?

(Maybe Bran “saw” what happened and was like, I’ll be sure to invite all the people that will definitely say ‘aye’ when I’m crowned).

If Jon had died, been executed – whatever, I personally think it would have made Tyrion’s choice to support Bran make more sense, seeing as he’s been raving about how Jon should be the rightful king, basically suggesting he do the deed of killing Dany! Yeah, maybe he had time to reflect, but you think he’d mention it?

I think there should have been more of a threat, more tension! Maybe they planned to execute Jon, but the North, (yeah the whole north!) and other Lords, come riding up being like ‘oi, stop that!’ and the Unsullied and Dothraki are ready to fight the North etc. And maybe Jon’s death is what warrants peace, maybe Jon’s death is how Sansa negotiates the freedom of the North, to stop the Unsullied coming to kill them. It’s terrible for them to lose family, to lose the old King in the North, but if it means peace and liberation etc – he accepts his execution for treason – because at the end of the day, it was treason – welcomes it even, hating he had to kill the woman he truly loved. And maybe the whole reason he came back was so he could die to “save” the world from Dany, and to ensure peace after it. I don’t know, it’s a bit farfetched, and yes, there are loads of issues with this idea, but we needed something! Not just, off you pop back to the wall – bye. Maybe cut the hand he killed Dany with off – another one-handed monarch-slayer. Just something!

Speaking of Jon, addressing people’s views that his whole heritage arc was wasted, and what was the point of it? The point was that it was the undoing of Dany. She would never have felt betrayed by Jon, for his choice to tell his sisters the truth, she would never have felt completely lost and alone because of it, she would never have doubted the people around her, believing they would always love him more. (Of course, Jon always did have love of the people, but the point was, he became a HUGE threat to Dany because he suddenly had the only thing she had over Westeros – that she was the rightful heir – and just like that, she wasn’t – and she knew they would pick him over her). If Jon’s heritage hadn’t been revealed, there is a possibility (small, I know), that Dany wouldn’t have acted as she had, she wouldn’t have felt as helpless? So she may not have burned down King’s Landing with Jon by her side, with complete trust and love in each other. So yeah, there could have been more done with this plot arc of Jon being a Targaryen, (wasted opportunity for Drogon not to burn him and for him to remain unscathed – just saying), but it was never pointless.

(Though I do believe Varys was completely wasted! Where did all those scrolls that he sent out go? His death seemed to be only for a petty “told you so” moment, rather than propelling the plot forward?)

There were plenty of missed opportunities throughout the season and in the finale, and unfortunately it didn’t leave the audience wishing it wouldn’t end, but merely wondering when it would. It was a neatly wrapped up finale, with a feeling of content left in Westeros. Bran the Broken, (and unknowingly wise) is King, Tyrion is his Hand, the small council are full of the fun characters that the audience have always loved, (oh hi, Bronn, by the way, nice to see you), Brienne gives Jamie a just ending, Pod’s a knight, (his first duty is to wheel his king around), Greyworm heads to Naath, as he planned with Missandei, Arya gets to travel as she’s always wanted, Sansa is Queen in the North after fighting for its freedom for so long, and Jon finally pets Ghost.

Too many happily ever afters – even if they were terrible and difficult to get to, with tragedies along the way, it suddenly felt too easy, even though as an audience we know how far all the characters have come, and how much they have fought – it still felt a little too perfect, with the characters all ultimately getting what they wanted. 

It would have been great if the series ended with Jon walking into the forest, with the distant sound of three horn blasts – giving the audience a little more intrigue and tension to end the series. (Yeah, I know, that doesn’t make sense, the whitewalkers are dead – but would have been a great moment).

The season has been flawed, but there have been some beautiful moments, some great acting, particularly from Emilia Clarke and Peter Dinklage, (the heart-breaking scene of Tyrion finding Jamie and Cersei this episode broke me), amazing cinematography, and the overall production value has been ridiculously high and mind-blowing. It unfortunately wasn’t the final season everyone wanted, but that didn’t make it bad. We weren’t shocked by the ending, as maybe the writers hoped, but merely surprised and at times confused, with a feeling of lacklustre. I personally was still very much invested to the end; I was never bored during the episodes. But ultimately, I was not as connected to the characters as I had been in previous seasons, which is where this season’s greatest failing lied.

Game of Thrones has always been about the characters, and when the audience stop feeling a true connection to them, that is where, and why, it lost its impact.

[porscheczar110]

Another Modern Rayllum AU

Been looking for a Narcos Rayllum AU? Probably not. But my sister in law wrote one anyways. This is a series of comical vingnettes im which Callum comes to terms with the fact that 1) he was born into a Narco family and 2) his best friend/girlfriend is a sicario.

Summary: Sicario- Noun. sicario (plural sicarios) hitman, hired killer (especially when referring to Latin American drug cartels).

A collection of snippets that offer a glimpse into the life of Callum after the mysterious assassin, Rayla, barges into his life. He may not have signed up for it, but he wasn't going to complain.

Read Part 1 here.

1. Of Meeting

“I’ve come to kill you.”

Callum looked up at the woman standing over him in awe. She was framed by the light of an abnormally large full moon, silvery hair tied up and swaying in the wind. He scrambled back from her, confused. His interest was piqued. This had never happened before.

She advanced on him, and he jerked to his feet with a snort of laughter. His fear seemed to dissipate as adrenaline spiked through his veins, giving him a clear head. “Okay, very funny. Who hired you? Was it Soren? How much did he pay you? His jokes are getting worse and worse.” Callum was no stranger to his friend’s wild antics. The blonde lived to torment him, although it was mostly good-natured. This was a bit morbid, even by Soren’s standards.

“I—Soren? Who’s that?” she asked in confusion. “I can’t just give up my employer because you asked . Now, lay down, and take your death like any honorable person would.”

“Oh, you’re a real hoot. I’m sure you’re a great hit at parties. Here’s the deal,” Callum said, wiping dirt from his shirt. “I’m going to go home, and you’re going back to your ‘employer,’ and let him know the job has been done. I’m spooked! Yay for you. I have an exam tomorrow. That’s why I’m walking home so late. I don’t exactly have time for a punk prank right now. We can meet up later, and try this again, okay? See you soon!”

“But I—”

Callum spun on his heel and continued toward his house.

He would think back on the interaction later when his grade wasn’t on the line.

2. Of Kingpin

Callum pushed his textbook and notes away in disgust. His groan echoed around the study room he and Rayla were currently occupying. “Enough, enough! The numbers aren’t making sense anymore. I can’t do this, Ray.”

She laughed, continuing to copy down equations from the PowerPoint in front of her. “Don’t you have a tutor for everything?”

“No,” he denied vehemently. “My father tried to get one for everything, but I refused. I wanted to do this on my own. I’m going to ring the cook up. Did you want anything to snack on? I’m thinking jelly tarts.”

She finally paused her writing and pinned him with a stare. His breath caught at her amethyst orbs. No one should be as lovely as she. It had to be some sort of crime, being so deadly and beautiful. Although, if he called the cops, he was pretty sure they would be in more trouble than her.

“Tutors for days. Personal chefs and butlers and nannies and—”

“Do you have a point?” He felt his cheeks heating. It wasn’t his fault he was born into money. And he wasn’t very conscious about it. His life was as it was, and that was that.

“Cal...”

“Yes, Rayla?”

“Do you even know what it is your dad does?”

“Uh, I’m not sure. Something with oil? Or was it pharmaceutical distributions? Maybe both?”

Rayla smacked her forehead and looked as if she wanted to shake him. “Your father is the biggest drug distributor in the continent . And you’re telling me you don’t know?”

“So he does work in pharma?”

“No, Callum,” she sighed heavily, clicking onto the next slide on her laptop. “Not pharma drugs. I’m talking about illegal, recreational drugs. Your dad is a king pin. A drug lord. A narco . Where do you think all your money came from?”

He sputtered, grasping for an answer. “Investments?”

She snorted and gave him a sardonic smile. “Oh, he sure invests alright. Invests in all sorts of things. Like guns and drugs and lawyers and—"

Callum cut her off, not wanting to hear the extensive list of places his father funneled money into. “Don’t you think I would’ve found out by now?”

“Yes. Hence why I’m surprised you didn’t know until I brought it up.” She raised a brow, and damnit if his heart didn’t skip a beat. Did she have to be so magnetic?

Stop it, he chastised himself. Gotta focus.

“If my dad is the head honcho of some big baddie drug operation, why were you sent to kill me ? Shouldn’t you go after him?”

She suddenly stiffened, hand twitching against her laptop arrow keys. Callum scanned her face, looking for a slip in her mask. The slight twitch in her eye gave away her stress.

“You were going to be bait. Your death wasn’t going to be on that sidewalk that night.”

“Oh,” he said weakly, not really understanding what she was implying.

She failed to meet his stare, shifting to fumble with her highlighter.

He glanced down at her backpack, cringing slightly at the barely concealed handgun peeking out from a slightly unzipped pocket.

Oh .

She was talking about extortion.

Torture.

Hostage.

She was, after all, a sicario .

And Callum found he minded that less and less.

3. Of Sicario

“So you’re telling me… You’re a what ?”

“ Sicario . I’m a hired hitman. Or I guess hitwoman? Or maybe hired assassin is easier for your brain to process.”

“Call it whatever you want. It’s not like I’d be able to pronounce the word.” Was that him laughing? It sounded borderline hysterical.

“Repeat after me. Slowly. See .”

“ See .”

“ Car .”

“ Car .”

“ Eeo .”

“ Eeo .”

“ Sicario. ”

“ Seecareeo ?”

“Eh, close enough. Not much we can do about your accent, really,” she teased.

“Okay, okay. So then… You’re a sicario ?” Callum couldn’t help the way his voice cracked at the word. It didn’t help that his Spanish was nonexistent.

Rayla barked out a laugh and shook her head at him. “The first thing I ever said to you was that I was going to kill you.”

“Oh, I’m sorry that my first thought wasn’t ‘ hitman’ ! I was running on no sleep and stressed out of my mind. What the hell, Ray? You were going to kill me!”

She shrugged and unlocked the car doors, and he hurried to the passenger’s seat. “Multiple times actually. I didn’t decide to keep you alive until Janai tried to kill you, too.”

“ What? That was months after we first met!”

Rayla gave him a wicked smirk. “Yup! You are very good at annoying me. Too good. What else was I supposed to contemplate?”

He shook his head in disbelief. She knew exactly how to get under his skin, too. The only other person that could get him riled up so quickly was Ezran, but Callum attributed that to a sibling kind of thing. “You could’ve contemplated a million other things.”

“Are you… Are you butthurt?” The disbelief in her voice was obvious.

“No,” he snapped, staring out the window.

“I was just doing my job,” she reminded him. There was no mistaking the glee in her voice.

“Oh, yeah! You did a fantastic job seeing as how I am still right here.”

She snorted and patted his shoulder. The contact had him whipping around to watch her profile as she drove. “Just know I wouldn’t have it any other way.” She leaned forward and turned up the volume of her music, mouthing the words along as she sped along the highway.

Now what did that mean?

4. Machetes

Callum kicked a rock away from his path, muttering obscenities into the dark. He’d lost three out of five rounds of rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock, and he was not a happy camper. Rayla had a bunch of junk in her car, and he was the lucky one now tasked with shifting through it all for some obscure USB. He glanced down at the pen marking on his hand, unable to help the small smirk at her chicken scratch.

And the drinks , the barely legible words reminded him. He also had to carry a too-heavy pack of drinks back to the party which was too far away for his comfort. He was an artist by trade, not some beefy powerlifter. Normally, he would’ve dragged Soren out with him to do the transporting, but his friend was out of town that weekend, watching some type of sports game.

He grumbled as he unlocked the car, digging around through her junk. He must’ve been outside for at least half an hour before he moved onto the trunk. And with some more extensive searching, he ran into a pair of really rusted machetes.

“Rayla really is strange,” he muttered to himself, slowly sliding them out of the trunk. He couldn’t decide if they were real or not, and he didn’t feel like touching the blade to find out. The handles were like a mix between plastic and wood which was more than enough for him to make a judgement call.

Eh, fake then.

He twirled them around clumsily, and a plan began to form. A devious little smile began to spread across his face, and he closed and locked her car. He snuck back to the house, careful to stay in the shadows. As luck would have it, it seemed like Rayla had stepped out to take a call.

Perfect.

With her back to him, he began rustling the bushes. She whipped around, free hand slipping to her back. He jumped out, hollering and floundering with the blades.

“Holy hell , Callum! Put those down! No, no— Stop waving them around. And take them back to the car! Jesus , dude. Are you trying to kill someone?” She stayed tense for a moment more before sliding back into a regular, if not enraged, stance. She pulled the phone from her ear, presumably muting it to yell some more at him.

Callum couldn’t help but laugh at the horror and redness creeping across Rayla’s face as he finally let his arms fall to his sides. “It’s just a joke, Ray. You’ve gotta relax.”

“You are so lucky I’m the only one out here! What if someone had seen you? I just—” She ran a hand through her hair roughly, and Callum felt like maybe he was the only one that found the situation funny. “Whatever. Go take them back to the car right now. Then go say bye. We’re leaving.” She turned back to her phone and continued speaking sternly at whoever was on the other line.

He couldn’t understand a word she was saying, but he knew it wasn’t good. He stayed rooted to the spot a few more moments, unsure of what to do. It was getting late, but he wasn’t sure if he was ready to go just yet. It was the most logical thing to do, but he hated that she was dictating his actions. Although she was the one with the car today. And he didn’t really know anyone inside anyways. He’d much rather have another movie night with her, Ezran, and their dog, Zym.

“ Seriously , dude. Go .” She jerked her finger in the direction of her vehicle, and he tried his best not to pout. At her worsening glare, he probably didn’t do a good job at schooling his features.

“Fine, fine ,” he snapped. “But I’m going to pretend to be fighting off a wicked dragon the whole way back,” he called. She opened her mouth, but he hurried off before she could get another word out, slashing at invisible enemies with the machetes and tossing in an occasional theatrical grunt.

“ Callum,” she roared, and he heard rushing footsteps behind him.

Oh, heck no! He thought stubbornly. She wasn’t going to catch him, and she sure wasn’t about to ruin the fun for him. If he wanted to run around and flail with her machetes, he was going to. And she was going to be powerless to stop him. “You can’t catch me!” he hollered back, darting forward into the night. He had gotten too much of a head start, even for a trained assassin. She’d catch him eventually, when he was too tired to do much else but sway around.

For now, he’d enjoy the chase. And something told him she did, too. Regardless if she’d ever admit it or not.

[sassycassie-s-writing]

Mr. Neptune

By: SassyShoulderAngel319

Fandom/Character(s): DC, BatFam - Jason Todd/Red Hood

Rating: PG-13/T

Original Idea: I can’t remember the original idea... because this is an older one...

Notes: (Masterlist)(By Character)(About Me) Another early one that got lost. @welovegroot @batboys-and-other-messes @haylo4ever

^^^^^

“Jay! I need your help!” Bruce called, jogging up to his second eldest.

Jason sighed and looked up from the gun he was cleaning. “Let me guess, Bruce, you need me to infiltrate and spy on some baddie’s operation so we can take them down.”

“Yeah, actually. A new up-and-coming crime-lord called Mr. Neptune. He’s out in the warehouse district.”

“No way. I already tried that with Black Mask and it was a catastrophic failure.” Jason looked back to his gun, cleaning the barrel.

“Please, Jason. You’re the only one who can do this. You know your brothers. They won’t.”

“Liar.”

Bruce sighed. “Jay… he’s got Tally.”

Jason froze, hand on his gun going slack so it slipped. “… Wh-what?” he stammered.

Bruce took a deep breath. “He’s got Tally,” he repeated. Jason shoved out of his chair and took off through the Batcave. “Wait! So you’re gonna do it?”

“I have no choice, now! B, you don’t end with your most convincing argument. You start with it! Don’t you know anything about writing argumentative essays?” Jason ran into the darkness. A moment later, the roaring of his motorcycle’s engine filled the cave and then receded.

^^^^^

Jason rode down the streets at top speed, weaving between the traffic. His helmet glinting off the streetlights as he sped by underneath them. His jaw was clenched so hard it was pressing against the sides of his helmet. “Remember, Hood, this isn’t a rescue mission. You’re infiltrating and gathering intel. Don’t free Tally until you have everything we need. She’s strong enough to withstand whatever they might do,” Bruce said in Jason’s comm.

Jason wrinkled his nose in distaste and shut it off without even replying.

He’d reached the warehouse his Heads-Up Display—HUD—said was the right location. Which he only knew because it was the one Tally’s phone’s GPS signal was broadcasting from.

“What kinda amateur nonsense…” he muttered under his breath. He killed the engine and parked his bike in the shadows where no one would notice it. Shoving his keys in his pocket, he strolled right in.

At least twenty guns pointed at him in seconds.

He smirked, grateful the helmet concealed his entire face so no one could see he was amused.

“Stand down! I’m here in peace,” he called. “Take me to your leader, earthlings!”

^^^^^

I looked up from where I’d been staring at the floor for… however long. I recognized that voice. Jason…? I thought.

Yup. Standing there, large as life and realer than real, was Jason Todd, all decked out in his Red Hood getup with the most powerful handguns known to our planet strapped to each thigh. The moment I looked up, the dried blood that had dripped down my neck from the split on my cheekbone cracked.

Mr. Neptune stepped between me and him, blocking my view. “Well, well. The infamous Red Hood. The mercenary. The leader of the dark trinity. To what do we owe the pleasure, Outlaw?” he asked, voice smooth and nonchalant. He put his hands in the pockets of his slacks.

Jason folded his arms and shifted all of his weight onto one leg, going for a casual look. “Here to watch. See if I wanna join. The other Outlaws are on vacay and I’m bored.”

Neptune scrutinized him—I could tell by his stance.

Jason leaned to the side, catching sight of me for the first time. I could tell by the way his hand twitched toward his gun before he relaxed back into his casual stance. “What’s with the hostage?” he asked.

Mr. Neptune glanced back at me. I flinched away. “Oh she’s just here for fun. A little toy to play with when I'm bored.”

Jason’s trapezius muscles flexed under his jacket. “Hmm. Interesting motive for taking a hostage.”

“Got a problem with that?” Mr. Neptune snapped.

Jason shrugged. “I personally have a code against taking innocent women and children as hostages. If she was a dangerous vigilante or a villainess, I would understand but I personally do not take innocent women and children hostage.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re not the one in charge, boy,” Mr. Neptune snapped.

Jason’s folded arms flexed. “Boy?” he asked curiously. I wondered if Mr. Neptune could hear the dangerous, murderous edge in Jason’s tone. “I assure you, I am no boy, Mr. Neptune.” He raised his hands and removed his helmet to reveal his bare face. He didn’t even have a domino mask on under it.

He looked so handsome. Strong face, black hair with a single streak of white, gunmetal blue eyes. Which were trained on me for a brief moment before looking back at Mr. Neptune. He was, truly, a man. I’d known him a long time. When he first became Red Hood, he was eighteen and had only returned from the dead three years before. He’d been a boy then. We were a bit older than that now, and I saw a man in front of me. A young man, to be sure, but with his muscles and scars, anyone calling him a boy was just plain wrong.

I barely had any energy to notice Mr. Neptune grunting out a, “Huh. I suppose you’re not,” before he strolled off into the shadows of the warehouse. “Come with me, Red Hood. We’ll talk about filling your time with something meaningful.”

As Jason followed Mr. Neptune, he approached me. The entire time, he stared at me pointedly, ignoring the other goons in the room. I could see blood already clouding his eyes—he was going to hurt Neptune for taking me.

As he passed me, he barely brushed my hand, leaving something behind in my palm.

A pocketknife with a switchblade release. A small one with a Batman logo carved into one end and a piece of masking tape with two words written on it in Sharpie. Get out. There was also a tiny heart drawn. I pretended it wasn’t there, sagging in my chair. I was too tired to get out. Even if I could cut the ropes and duct tape holding me to the chair, I didn’t have the strength to fight my way out. I didn’t know if I even had the skill to get past Neptune’s goons.

I was no vigilante.

^^^^^

“Tally? Baby? What are you still doing here?” Jason hissed, his gloved hands fumbling with the duct tape binding my wrist to the chair. “I told you to go! To get out!”

“Can’t,” I mumbled.

The duct tape strap fell off my wrist. “Why not?”

“Too tired. Too weak. Don’t have any fighting training.”

Jason pulled the pocketknife out of my hand and slit everything else off me. He closed the blade, removed the tape, and pushed the thing back into my hand. “Go. No one is here right now. No goons. No Neptune. Nothing. Go!” He pulled me to my feet and pushed me gently towards the doors. “C’mon, baby. You gotta get out of here. Bats and I will take this guy down but I can’t do that if he has you. So go!”

I stumbled out one of the doors and staggered down the street.

Wandering aimlessly, I somehow made my way out of the warehouse district and into the suburbs before I collapsed on the sidewalk. Bruised, bloodied, exhausted. I had no strength left in my arms and legs. So I just laid there. I’m not sure for how long.

At some point, everything went black.

^^^^^

I woke up on a gurney.

“You’re lucky, Tally,” Bruce said, “that Jason called ahead of time to let us know he was breaking you out before going through with the rest of the plan so Nightwing could come get you before Mr. Neptune’s men could find you.”

“Yeah,” Dick agreed, strolling over, suit on but mask off. “He really loves you.”

“That’s nice,” I mumbled.

Bruce put his hand on my ankle for a moment before leaving. “Get some rest, kid. You’ll feel better when the sun rises.”

“‘Zit still nighttime?” I mumbled, voice slurred from exhaustion.

“Yes. For now,” Nightwing said. He put his hand over my eyes. “Sleep, kiddo. Everything’s going to be fine.”

I nodded tiredly. My eyes drifted closed.

^^^^^

Mr. Neptune stopped in his tracks. “Where’d the hostage go?” he demanded.

The goons all looked around in confusion. “We were here all night,” one said.

Neptune shot the goon in the leg. “THEN HOW DID SHE GET AWAY?!” he roared. “She had no combat training whatsoever. She’s not one of the Batlings! That much was obvious when we kidnapped her! So WHERE IS SHE?!”

“Sir, if I may,” Jason piped up, rolling his helmet between his palms and invisibly fighting to keep his temper in check. “Gotham has seen some strange things. This girl could possess some sort of latent metahuman power that causes those around her to fall asleep when she is in a stressed state. If the men fell asleep, they wouldn’t notice she was gone until later because they wouldn’t realize they blacked out.”

He was lying but no one knew that except him. Tally had no metahuman abilities whatsoever. She was just a civilian whom he loved deeply.

“You took over Black Mask’s empire after he disappeared. Why are you even here?” Mr. Neptune snapped. “Trying to steal my territory for your own empire?”

Jason shrugged. “Nah not really. Like I said, the other outlaws are on vacation and I’m bored. If I thought you posed an actual threat to my empire I might have had a different reason for dropping in but I'm pretty sure I’ll be just fine.”

Jason, don’t sass the bad guys, Tally’s voice reminded him in his mind.

Mr. Neptune narrowed his eyes, not entirely sure if he’d been insulted or not—Spoiler alert, Jason thought, he has. “Right.” He turned to his men. “Find that hostage! Sweep the city!”

“Yes sir!” several voices chorused. They all thundered out.

Jason swung his arms back and forth. “Well. I guess as I'm technically part of the competition you won’t want to tell me how you run your operation, will you?” he asked.

Neptune snorted. “Absolutely not.”

“Shame. I was looking forward to folding you into my network and expanding on our business practices.” Jason shrugged. “Oh well. Good luck building up your own rep. And FYI: anyone dealing to kids in this town gets a death sentence, so don’t even think about it unless you want your small little empire to crumble faster than a sand castle in a hurricane.”

“Big words for a man who can’t be much more than twenty,” Neptune said.

“These guns aren’t for show, Neptune,” Jason said. “But if you don’t want to work with me, or rather for me, that’s your loss. I’m out.” He gave a sarcastic salute and strolled off.

Once he left the warehouse, he activated his comm. “B. I have everything you need. I’ll be back at the cave in a half-hour. Tear him down.”