#Cant forget him saying “Hit me!” “harder!” “yeah more! haha!��

[chara-55]

This was like 2 weeks after watching the movie

-Soup rambles in tags-

[zontiky]

au where lila is adopted imto the umbrella academy

*rubs my gay little hands together* heehee hoohoo

first off im gonna say sorry diego :/ 

KJRWKESFDHK JOKING IM JOKING SORRY

so lila grows up to be less of a manipulative shit bc she doesnt need it to survive or gain love from her parent

no thats not right

she receives real/”real” love from grace and reggie doesnt even pretend to give them love so unlike the handler who used love as leverage

so while lila is still cunning and sly and shit she also doesn’t try so hard to manipulate the hargreeves, bc, theyre her family

controversial take but i think lila and five would be close

this take is also hilarious but maybe only to me

both of them are good at getting things done and getting their way and also maybe it has smth to do with lila really liking how fives powers work?

it would really hit her hard when five leaves. bc that was her friend right there. maybe she and ben and/or vanya form a bond based on being bitter five left them behind

lila and ben would be a good friendship i would like to see it

six seven eight hanging out... hhh

OOOH MAYBE VANYA WOULD BE 8? because she’s powerless now? no no the number system existed before their powers came in nvm

its arbitrary so w/e lila’s #8 kjshssd

i think it’d once again be harder to blank slate vanya because,,  lila can use vanyas powers. she knows vanya has powers. maybe im not making any sense but also i just think it’d be nice for vanya to catch a break

maybe when little allie tries to rumour lila into forgetting lila pulls out that uno reverse card

or uno DEFLECT card lmao

but assuming vanya is still powerless, i still think vanya would have a bit of a better upbringing than canon

1) vanya has TWO other girls in the house who hang out with her and do girl things and yay sisters! 2) lila... gets it. her powers are reliant on the other’s powers. without them using their powers first, she basically has nothing. she gets it! vanya may be completely powerless but lila doesn’t have powers unless they’re training or they’re fighting and so vanya and lila would be close too

maybe vanya still gets some training bc of that! because if lila, part-time powerless, trains, and doesn’t use powers for half of battles, maybe vanya, “powerless,” can train and fight too

and i know this isnt a good thing bc like. hellooo child soldiers lmao?? but also vanya would feel like shes more of a part of the family and would have a friend by her side and maybe wouldnt even want to write the book in the first place

but also at the end of s1, when it’s discovered vanya DOES have powers, and they’re the most powerful of them all, actually, maybe lila grows bitter

i mean wouldnt you? the one person who was “less” than you, who you were better than in even the slightest way, is suddenly the baddest bitch around

so that sets up some interesting stuff for s2 haha

maybe ben doesn’t die

with another person on the mission, maybe somebody has his back. maybe ben doesn’t die

that’s assuming ben’s death was accidental tho bc we’ve all seen the death-by-horror-suicide theories

but anyway maybe lila stops ben’s death just by being there and fighting other people so ben has one more person covering him. maybe she’s there and it doesn’t matter and ben dies anyway. idk

if ben dies anyway then i think lila would be Extra Bitter but also really sad

five left her and now ben too? the people she cares most about keep getting torn away from her

and that’s not a good way to think because obviously her other siblings are hurting too, and theyre there with her too, and theyre there to do their best to support her in their own shitty way, and lila cares about them too...

but still. 

also tho lila and diego friendship... this is jumping back up a couple bullets back to before or right after five left

in s2 lila and diego both being in the asylum together would still be funny. lila pulls the bacon out of her sock and diego rolls his eyes and takes it, not even phased, because she’s been doing this for yearsss

ok if five doesnt leave and ben doesn’t die i think they might have a bit of a better life post-academy? but also if five does and ben does then i have no idea what lila would be

maybe she opens a shop

yeah i think that would be nice. lila’s store au JHSFKJHKSD

i think she might follow one of the siblings (diego or vanya) in their career paths bc its been drilled into her from the beginning that shes nothing without someone else to copy

maybe diego bc he still has powers... maybe she’d want to keep at least some powers

but if vanya didnt get suppressed or still got trained at least i think she’d go with vanya because they just do better together and diego is a bootlicker anyway /j but no seriously i get why he chose the police academy but also why not a fucking firefighter bitch?

FIREFIGHTER LILA. I LIKE THAT

maybe vanya plays in the orchestra and lila plays in a band

OK BUT IF BEN DOES DIE. maybe she follows klaus around for a bit because she cant bear to let ben go and when she copies klaus’ powers she can see him... even if just for a bit

that would impact ben’s arc a lot too because he’s not completely alone with only klaus, who is high out of his mind most of the time to keep him company, but also lila too, who i dont think would mess with drugs

so basically lila being added to the mix would mean everyone is just a little less alone i think

maybe luther is also less... mm idk how to put this

maybe he’s disillusioned a bit earlier regarding reggie? because he’s supposed to be #1 and the best but lila can do just what he can too. she can lift cars and throw people from buildings too. so how special is he really?

GOD i love thinking abt this. lila would impact all of their stories, in major or minor ways, and its really cool to explore how that would transpire

i think allison might also be a bit humbler before stepping into marriage in regards to using her powers

because if someone uses her own power on her as she’s growing up i feel like she’d learn that doing that has big consequences faster? maybe she’d still rumour her way into some roles or some classy interviews or just in general use her powers to help her career a bit... but i think with her knowing what its like to be rumoured she wouldn’t use it in personal situations. so maybe she wouldnt rumour claire.

maybe claire doesn’t exist at all bc it’s implied she rumoured patrick into falling in love with her :bonk: or maybe she still married patrick but later on because their relationship needs to develop first

oh also maybe pogo would be less of a BITCH in s1 because lila is persuasive tm 

yeah um thats all ive got alsfkds

THIS IS A FUN GOOD AU. i hope u like my Thoughts

[casually-inlove]

aah i agree im vry disappointed in this chapter ! like its good like usual, but its kind of a let down after the last 5 chapters... ht rly exposed himself minutes before, and comedy aside, MGS answered him by ignoring him, and then saying "were not friends, were not as close as you think we are". it must have been hurtful for HT, its basically a rejection of recognizing HT vulnerabilities. and its totally In character for MGS to say this, so im not disappointed by it 1/?

i mean HT lay his heart down for Mo to see and theyve known each other for 15 DAYS, its too soon for anybody and especially for Mo who have mistrust problems to respond in the same way ? so running away and deflecting the declaration is cool, i wasnt excepting a "ill never abandon u!!" lol. but then HT being cool with this rejection and having a slapstick comedy just after doesnt feel right. mb show HT swallowing and being disheartened, and then put his usual facade and only then have comedy 2/?

would have been good, bc we would have known "oh ht is actually hurt by MGS reaction but doesnt know how to say it, so he plays it cool and change the subject bc hes still not at ease with being vulnerable". a realistic situation would have been "ht tried to be vulnerable but it was too soon, too much for mo who rejected him, so it confirmed ht biased thinking that showing vulnerabilities is bad and it will prevent ht to be vulnerable in front of someone in the near future". 3/?

i mean it could have been a nice although sad conclusion for this mini-arc, especially since ht have been grieving (?) his mother just this morning. a little step back, and then smth else happen and cause ht to crack completely but then mo is able to respond present and its a step forward. ok im daydreaming but that would have been climatic lol. instead this..ah i dont know i feel cheated, i know its ox' work but still haha ! like when they do an abrupt change of scene after an emotional page 4/

its a trick ox use often and after 300 chapters it feels old n cheap. when u engage in a emotional scene, u cant just do "oops i change my mind!!" and put slapstick comedy or ignore totally what just happened and dont have a progression. u have to stay on this road : u cant put traumatizing backgrounds and mafia affairs and mature problems (kidnapping, mother being threatening into prostitution,etc) n just.. not stick with it and making ur characters not traumatized by it and just 'lol comedy'.

sry im kind of monopolizing ur askbox lol, i guess im kind of frustrated ! it just the last chapters were so good and it was a while since ox use this cheap trick of not going through an emotional scene that i kind of forgot how terrible they were at handling transition between drama and comedy. theyre a good artist all in all (or i wouldnt be this disappointed!!), but they have this failing in their writing an it drives me nuts each time lmao. haa i hope next chapter will be better...5/5

Hell yeah, DEFINITELY, that sums up my thoughts. Also, you don't have to apologize, it was an interesting read and I can tell that you feel strongly about it. While I can’t say that I’m flat-out disappointed, as I wrote in my original post, I’m definitely feeling lukewarm and indifferent about the recent ch.

OX touched upon a few serious matters a couple of chapters before: namely She Li’s fucked up goading and the way it unsettled He Tian -- unsettled in no joking manner as follows from his reaction. Then we get He Tian swearing to beat up anyone who dares bully Mo, and the whole profound monologue from the previous chapter. Just as you say, He Tian truly laid himself bare there. One could argue that He Tian listed the reasons he was enamoured with Mo, or one could argue that he subtly commented on the milieu he grew up in, or one can even read it as He Tian admitting/reflecting on his flaws out loud. There are many ways to construe this scene, each of them is extremely meaningful. Not to mention it took HT visible effort to say these things out loud.

The problem which both you and I noticed is that OX left this mini-arc/mini-subplot unresolved. Instead, they abruptly switched to comedic relief. Much like you, I wasn’t expecting a big reaction from Mo -- no grand verbal declarations at very least. What I expected was a panel (maybe a close up of Mo’s face as I mentioned in my original post) that indicated he actually HEARD what HT told him, that it gave Mo some food for thought. 

As you mention, Mo getting disconcerted and doing the tsun-tsun escape is fairly in character for him. Still, a panel like this would have been very welcome to emphasize his confusion and to justify him not gracing the other boy with an answer, ignoring HT showing his underbelly (which is something that doesn't come easy for him, as we readers know). Okay, sure, OX handled it differently this chapter -- we get Mo silently running away and blurting out the first comeback he could think of. No problem. It works to show that HT’s words had an effect on him, albeit it’s much less pronounced, than, say, the Aquarium scene -- again one would have to wonder why: HT’s “don’t abandon me” is just as strong, if not stronger, than “I’m afraid you’ll forget me”, so it follows that Mo should have been just as affected.

The problem is the way an emotionally charged moment quickly fizzled out into comedy. As you said, Mo blurting out “we are not friends, we are not familiar enough, so I don’t care what you think (of me)!” SHOULD have hit HT harder. Just minutes before we had HT being genuinely disturbed by the idea of someone looking to intentionally hurt Mo, seeking physical comfort, being disquieted by the idea of getting abandoned and losing someone he likes, confessing that he admires the other boy -- yet when Mo utters yet another curt rejection of sorts, we are not shown HT’s reaction, which, logically, should have been there. 

And all of that emotional build-up is cheapened by an accidental dick slap comedy. 

Indeed, showing HT being hurt (disquieted? deflated?) and then putting on a cool guy mask, and ONLY then switching to a slapstick humour would have been more appropriate. It wouldn’t have taken a big or an overly dramatic scene either -- just, IDK, show HT’s eyes widening, or his throat clicking, or his posture slumping, anything to indicate that Mo’s words affected him -- that the whole thing mattered to him. Otherwise, it leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth: “so Imma confess to the person I like and swear to protect them and beg them to put up with me -- oh! forget anything serious that I said, Imma touch some dick now”. While I don't have an issue with comedy coming into focus again, I do wish it hadn't been this abrupt. Had there been a better transition between these scenes, there wouldn't be this "lol jk" vibe that I’m getting.

So yeah, I, too, feel a little cheated. OX certainly has an issue with drama-comedy transitions, which are sort of hit-and-miss for me. Sometimes they work well to alleviate the grave mood, other times they appear to be out of place. The recent chapter is the latter case. Dangling a possibility of climatic resolution for the subplot and then intentionally subverting it just doesn’t work in favour of the plot here. It cheapened the emotional part and made the comedy feel much less fun for me. Of course, no one says that writing is an easy task. Plenty of mangakas, for instance, work with writers to strengthen their script and plots, so it’s challenging when a single person is responsible for both drawing and planning the story. OX is undoubtedly doing a tremendous job. Still, I wish they wouldn’t stick to using the old trick this monastically because it's becoming a trite writing device and works against them on occasion. It’s totally fine to keep the comic light-hearted yet it’s not good to ignore the needed dramatic development.