#God forbid I want to see characters face some actual consequences for their actions | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

hezuart · 3 years ago

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That anaversary aizen looks absolutely fabulous, he looks like a figure skater xd.

I heard along time ago the last arc of the anime was being animated finally bc they pulled a 90s sailor moon were the last season was not either animated or dubbed untill decades later.

I recall near the end of the current 366 episodes there was an episode were the creapy demon ppl woke up in hell and we're all bitter, and there was the other guy who was like, iM cOmEiNg FoR u IChIgO, but then is never mentioned again after and I'm like,why? Why is lt there just plopted randomly into a different arc that seams unrelated.

And locking aizen up underground seems ok, but It deff won't hold, and he will. Escape, and he will kill, you either need that one spell from star, dubbed, the darkest spell of moon the undaunted, a powerfull dark spell that killed immortal beings, that came from best character, eclipsa, the queen of darkness.

We need that.

Or stick him I'm crystal like eclipsa was in star. Is there no one who could trap him in ice or crystal for all eternity.

How about throw him into the centre of a volcano trapped and caged , forverr being killed by heat?

I assume there's space travel, send I'm into a black whole, were a black whole don't fuckin care if your immortal or fat, you will die

Yes, I love anniversary Aizen. His original octopus-butterfly hollow design was ugly so I'm glad he's back to being the fashion icon he is.

Locking Aizen up underground once is one thing, doing it twice after saying he got more powerful by just sitting there, and he escaped to battle the Quincy Soul King God... is another. I think he should have escaped at the end of the Quincy arc. That is the only feasibility.

I heard the anime is coming back for the Quincy arc as well, but because of COVID its probably going to be delayed. (I'm not gonna watch it until the Rain section of the arc then I'm dipping out. I'm only here for Zangetsu)

and funny that you mention that hell scene in the manga :)

-> spoilers for the new BLEACH 73 page anniversary chapter / thoughts/critique on it

So hey you had a premonition! Syazel .... returned? And his hole is outside of his body??? for some reason???

(I didn't understand the explanation or why / how that happens and what that means for the hollow)

And my friend and I were laughing because out of ALL the things. Kubo could do in this anniversary. He gave Syazel his dick back after going to hell. That is iconic. (that's where his hole was located, and now that its not on his body ... well...) This is the funniest thing Kubo has EVER pulled. Kudos to you, sir.

The entire internet is freaking out over Ukitake being in hell. Honestly Kubo has done far worse, and we've established that Soul Society is a corrupt system that hasn't changed, so I'm not surprised he would pull something like this.

At the same time, Kubo 1. cheated his audience. 2. continues to prove me right that he cannot bring himself to kill his characters

1. Hollows who have commit murder in their human life are sent to hell. Syazel and Aaorniero are two of these hollows, and yet, when they are killed, there is NO gates of hell scene. We see them there later in the hell chapter (which was more of a promotion for the fourth movie and I didn't believe it would hold any merit)

But the same goes for Ukitake. We never see the gates of hell take him. What, was hell late? Did hell's gates get lost like an uber before picking him up? It's bull. Withholding such vital information from your audience, not showing the gates of hell when they should pick up this soul IMMEDIATELY is ... I mean its a lie. Kubo lied to his audience.

2. Now we are told powerful shinigami are sent to hell when they die. First of all that sounds like a security threat. Wouldn't shinigami want revenge for that? Or attempt to escape? Why would they still hold loyalty after being sent to a prison of eternal suffering?

Also "Yhwach and Aizen" were the only ones keeping Hell's gates closed is way too convenient and doesn't really make any sense. I feel like Aizen should have deliberately gone to hell to retrieve powerful shinigami / hollows for his army instead of keeping it /closed/.

This is definitely a Kubo-doesn't-know-what-he's-doing-and-is -making- stuff-up-as-he-goes, but it might have a pinch of merit because of previous plot lines.... but either way, there's some big plot holes here, but again, its Kubo, so I expected nothing less.

Again, he can't kill off his characters. He introduced zombification, he introduced immortality through the hougyoku, he has Orihime and Hachigen's reversal / rejection abilities. He brought back Luppi, friggen.... a character who's entire upper half of his body was incinerated. Like.... come on. No. He's dead, you can't bring him back like that. That's a cop out and just weird. You're taking away consequences and grief.

(Also Yamamoto and Unohana deserve to be in hell far over Ukitake, they've done some fcked up stuff in their pasts unlike him)

Also Kubo's favorite character is Mayuri, which.... you're allowed to have a favorite problematic character. But Keeping said character alive and bared from the consequences of abusing his daughter, murdering innocents, and experimenting on your own squad members? Nah. Nope. Kill him, Kubo. Kill this dude.

(his weird attachment to Mayuri is probably why he keeps bringing Syazel back, since Syazel is Mayuri 2.0, but Syazel is the bad guy who does face consequences for his actions while Mayuri is not)

Also, I'm certain Kazui and Orihime are going to be THRILLED that their precious husband/dad is going to hell when he dies :)

(I just... Rukia teased Ichigo about leaving Orihime at home. She teased him about having a house wife who he leaves all the chores to. Orihime had two panels. She checks on her son who promised he would be at home and sleep. Kazui fcking breaks his promise like it never mattered to him and JUMPS out the window after pretending to sleep in front of his mother. ... An 8 year old... alone... in the middle of the night.)

Orihime is abandoned. She is not invited to SS, she is not informed of what is going on, her son leaves her.... I...

Orihime is a side character. She doesn't matter anymore. She hasn't mattered for a long, long time.

A part of me is glad she had little screen time, since she tends to waste it, but another part of me is embroiled with rage.

I've even see people try to defend this. "Orihime and Ichigo can't be together ALL the time, that's an unhealthy relationship!" and I'm like guys... that's not the point. The point is Orihime is not part of Ichigo's other life. Any shinigami stuff from now on is none of her business. She's going to stay at home while Kazui and Ichigo go off and save the world. Ichigo is going to be fighting by Rukia and Renji while Orihime watches from the sidelines, or worse, doesn't even know what is going on with her husband and son. Orihime is going to be uninformed and abandoned, because she has not proven she is capable of fighting by their sides(go on, @ me. I will fight this. She's a failure.), and also because she prefers a human life over a dead one. Which is ironic, because she married a dead man. Ichigo is a shinigami, and he will be one forever. god forbid she ever meets his Zanpaktou. She would tremble in fear at the monsters her husband harbors in his soul, especially when she realizes they don't care about her and would rather see her dead. (Zangetsu would absolutely kill Orihime. Not sure about Kazui, but Orihime has not accepted Zangetsu, she does not like either of them, and the feeling is assuredly mutual.) frick now I want to make a comic about this

Also still frustrated over Zangetsu's shikai / bankai regression. Kubo once again lied to his audience. Ichigo has no bankai. How ridiculous is that? The main character of BLEACH doesn't have a bankai. Insulting.

(RIP to Chad. He doesn't exist anymore. He's just gone. No mention, no cameo. Gone.)

Kazui is a demon child. That character from the novels? Hikone? They're the same character. Literally same personality, same power level. Its worse because Kazui is a liar. He constantly goes behind his parents' backs. He can summon creepy fish and creepy eyeballs and open portals like is ANYONE aware of this? How has SS not kidnapped Ichigo's son and experimented on him / locked away his powers yet? All substitute shinigami require a reiatsu controlling / spy badge to keep them in line. Where is Kazui's? Or is he just a weird fullbringer?

I was worried Kubo was gonna try and pull a knock off Boruto but luckily he kept the focus on Ichigo and the others. But that being said, Ichika and Kazui are now just... sort of there? Kazui was kinda just.... having his own adventure that doesn't matter to the plot at hand, and Ichika had some nice characterization at first but she just hid behind her dad the whole time.

I have a feeling Kazui is gonna step in at the last minute or do some major behind the scenes thing that indirectly interferes with the main plot so no one will realize how powerful and dangerous he actually is. Its sad because Ichika is the superior character in personality and likability, but she clearly is not going to have a bigger part in this.

Ichigo having a normal life after everything still feels extremely boring and uncomfortable to me. Everyone's like 'I'm still bLEACH!" but.... BLEACH just... doesn't feel like BLEACH anymore. It hasn't for a while now.

~~~

There's two new shinigami characters. Didn't care for the girl, but the Sign Language kid who talks to animals is adorable ... however... he just reminds me of Chad, and I just... it hurts knowing Chad has essentially been deleted. Chad and Orihime are officially benched. They have chosen the human world, and Orihime has given Ichigo his spawn so she has no more use/purpose to him anymore... ////sigh

~~~

Also. This is claimed to be a new "arc". So is the BLEACH manga coming back? What is happening. I thought Kubo was tired and didn't want to do BLEACH anymore. I thought Shounen Jump cut him off. People made so many excuses for Kubo and why the past two arcs have been so badly written the past 6 years and now almost everything they've attempted to defend him with has been revoked.

BLEACH is going to continue to screw up its plot lines and characters, so Its probably best for it to stay dead but I've seen a lot of Kubo stans drooling over this content, they're desperate for BLEACH's return, but its already given out all its possible revelations. There's really nothing else to top here. It's just going to make things up as it goes along ,and I'm not really here for half-assed writing like that, especially since the damage of rushing the previous manga has already been done. Kubo and Shounen Jump are riding off a money nostalgia. None of this was planned.

Honestly though.... overall feeling of this chapter, not as bad as it could have been.

Syazel stole the spotlight, and he's my friend's favorite character, so that's all that really matters.

#bleach #bleach spoilers #spoilers #text post #anti bleach 686 #anti ichihime #ask #tite kubo #technically anti renruki too but #ichihime destroys the plot more than renruki #renruki feels like an after thought #they're only together for kazui and ichika's existence #but if these two are lacking in use if BLEACH were to continue then why have them at all #even tho ive tagged this as anti ichihime #interestingly enough there is no ichihime interaction or really mention at all in this chapter

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anika-ann · 4 years ago

Text

Attached - Pt.1

The Words of Doom

Type: (mini)-series, college AU, professor AU (technically)

Pairing: Steve Rogers x reader Word count: 1880

Summary for the series: You messed up. Your very sleep-deprived Self attached the wrong document when emailing a professor and sent him one of the stories you wrote instead of an assignment. It should be embarrassing, really, but it wasn’t. It was worse.

Why did it have to be the smutty one? Why did it have to be the one starring his best friend, Professor Rogers? You were so screwed.

Aka the ‘you sent the wrong attachment to hot professor A that just happens to be about his friend hot professor B and now professor A is not able to look at professor B without wheezing in laughter anymore and you are unable to look at either of them’ AU

Warnings: swearing, literally one mention of a possible daddy kink, double entendre

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Your eyes felt like on fire, burning hotter than the sun above Sahara Desert; the metaphor your sleep-deprived mind came up with was only perfected by the huge dunes of the bags under your eyes.

You were running on disgustingly strong coffee and three energy drinks, but you summoned the rest of your strength and clicked on ‘send’, slumping so heavily into your chair that when your back hit the backrest, it almost toppled over—but never mind, you made it!

Penny, your gracious roommate, would inform you that had you started earlier and were writing the actual essay instead of wasting words on steamy stories that somehow filled the desired wordcount with considerably less effort, you wouldn’t have been turning into a zombie sending assignments several minutes before eight a.m., the actual deadline.

Yeah, well, sue me, I prefer romance to the World War II., no matter how important history is.

You were certain Professor Barnes would understand if you told him that anyway – he was a pretty easy-going guy for a scholar after all. Then again, you sure as hell didn’t want to test the theory out and so you tended to hand in your homework perhaps ‘minute to midnight’, but still in time.

You grinned as you checked the sent e-mail, proudly reading it had been sent at 7:56. You mentally patted your back, not having the energy to actually move to do that.

And then your Sahara-dry eyeballs fell lower on the screen and you let out a shriek of horror.

Your heart stopped in your chest before kicking in faster than it had been pumping after three Red Bulls.

The attachment.

Oh no.

OH FUCK, the attachment!

Now, it happened on occasion that people forgot to attach the files they spoke of in an e-mail, right? Sometimes shit like that happened.

But this… this was so, so much worse.

“Oh no,” you uttered under your breath, shooting up and suddenly sitting with back straight as a ruler just to look at the screen from shorter distance to-- nope, still there. “Oh fuck.”

You quickly scrambled to send another e-mail with similar text but the right file, along with a swift apology.

Sent 7:59.

You should be relieved. Perhaps Professor Barnes would notice the correct one first and automatically deleted the one that obviously must have been wrong.

So why couldn’t you find it in you to think you would have such luck?

At least if he opened the wrong document, he would understand very quickly that it was not what he had asked the students to do and would delete it before diving in fully, right?

But a worm of doubt – or intuition, whatever you wanted to call it – told you that it wouldn’t be the case.

You covered your mouth with your palms and screamed at the top of your lungs.

Penny, sleep-deprived considerably less than you because she was an actual responsible human being, walked from her room to the bathroom and blatantly ignored you, probably thinking you had missed the deadline by a minute and were now freaking out.

Oh, you wished.

“Pennyyyyyyyyy!” you cried out in a whiny tone, but she clicked the door shut as if nothing was happening. As if your whole life wasn’t in shambles because of one single e-mail. “Penelope, you get your ass back here! I need to know how to switch schools without having to repeat a year!”

Her wild black curls peeked from the bathroom, followed by an annoyed sleep-raspy voice. “Why? You accidently called Barnes a daddy in your message or somethin’?”

Your heart was still beating its way out of your chest, a low ominous hum in your ears. Gods above, you wished. Still would be easier to explain, like… you could claim it was a dare or something.

No, this was much, much worse.

Penny, apparently taken aback by the lack of your response, left the safety of the bathroom and approached your lair (probably stinking of sugary drinks and caffeine) and peeked over your shoulder, searching an explanation for your antics.

You only gulped, moved the cursor to the title of the document you had sent in your first e-mail and closed your eyes, actually feeling tears of humiliation stinging in them.

The silence that followed spoke volumes until-

“OH SHIT.”

You had just shared your smutty one-shot with your history professor, but that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was that it was starring his rumoured one and only best friend he shared an office with. One who had acted like a substitute for two weeks when Professor Barnes got a particularly bad case of cold, but wouldn’t leave you without a lecture. Needless to say, Professor Rogers had also starred several of your steamy dreams after that and became a source of inspiration for your occasional writing streaks.

And now your history professor could read all about it and, god forbid, share it with the man who was the template of the main character of the story. You weren’t dumb; you alternated the names, just in case of you didn’t even know what (and it might have made you feel better about writing filthy stuff about a prof), but you went with the same looks including hair and skin colour, hairstyle, Rogers’ glorious beard and you certainly didn’t omit his surprisingly ripped body.

So, yeah. Penny’s ‘OH SHIT’ was pretty accurate.

You were so screwed.

Yes, once again, you wished.

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You had handed in your work on Friday morning and had been jittery all weekend, practically unable to focus on any of the studying you desperately needed to do. Normally, you might write some comforting piece to relieve your frustration, but that was not an option right now as simply opening a text editor gave you palpitations.

The all-nighter you had pulled didn’t exactly help your already non-existent ability to get your head on straight either.

You were looking forward to Monday and dreaded it at the same time – Professor Barnes was to give your assignments back with a mark and commentary. You were praying for Monday to come already, because you just needed to know the consequences of your actions. You were freaking out about Monday for very obvious reasons.

You had no idea what was happening in your first Monday class. Your lunch consisted of half bottle of coke.

And now here you were, seated in the second row of three, because that seemed like the safest place, a seat where Barnes couldn’t approach you from any angle.

When he entered the class, you decided to stubbornly watch the desk in front of you. Under any circumstances, you would not make eye-contact, wouldn’t raise your gaze. There was no fucking way anything would force you look his in the eye.

Or you thought so.

You hadn’t realized he would call out each of your names and would say the necessary commentary about doing well, missing something, excellent work, this one feeling a bit sloppy… out loud, which would made it truly impolite to keep staring ahead. With each work sent through the sea of people to hand it to those in the second row, your stomach was turning heavier, your heart beating faster.

And then Professor Barnes said your name and you winced in your seat, squeezing your eyes shut on instinct, the childish if I can’t see you, you can’t see me either kicking in.

He called out your name again as if there was a chance you missed it the first time and with a huge lump of panic in your throat, you blinked your eyes open and raised your gaze, only to meet his neutral face with just the tinniest twitch to the corners of his lips and a barely visible twinkle to his eye.

Your stomach dropped to the floor, your face burning with embarrassment and humiliation.

He held out the papers to the person in the first row in front of you, whose name you didn’t care for at the moment, and nodded his head.

“Not bad at all,” he said and that was the end of it.

Your essay landed in front of you and you finally breathed in properly, your hand trembling slightly as you noticed the circled B+ in the corner.

You were deaf to his next words, your heart jumping as you read the note by the mark.

B for the cliché used, + for the originality.

Huh. What a strange way to word an evaluation… but hey, you wouldn’t complain. For one, no one had filled a harassment complaint for your stupid ass so far and you had written this shit during an all-nighter and still got B+. This was the best outcome you could hope for; Barnes didn’t even give you shit about your... error.

A smile slowly found a way to your lips, a shy little thing, but definitely present, your mimic muscles, so stiff from trying to keep a poker face, relaxing.

You browsed over the other notes in red ink scattered over the pages, some sentences and phrases unlined and commented on, sometimes corrected, sometimes complimented to.

It wasn’t until you reached the red note that had one word from it actually crossed out and replaced.

Really hits the spot mark.

Your smile froze on your lips, your heart ceased to beat before kicking in with furious pace, loud pounding humming in your temples.

Oh god. Oh no.

Hitting a spot? He could have written it was ‘spot on’ or that it ‘hit the mark’… he made the mistake deliberately, you were certain of it – all of his other notes were so neat and thought through-

You checked the individual notes, your stomach twisting when you re-read them in a new light.

Nearly all the wording he had used was referencing to your… special assignment you had handed in.

Oh god, please, let the lightning hit me. Let the floor swallow me. Let the cardiac arrest momentarily trying to kill me actually kill me.

Interesting work for certain with a winky face?! Really? That would be innocent enough on its own, but it was feeling like a conspiratorial wink. The I know more than I let on and you know what I’m talking about wink.

The next one was a blatant double-entendre and you could bang your head against your desk for not realizing it first time reading it. Good writing, nice flow, clearly heading to the climax.

Your face was set aflame once more and despite your better judgement, you glanced at the professor momentarily showing whatever in his presentation.

He caught your gaze and had the audacity to wink.

You snapped your head away and silently whined, sliding down your chair nearly enough to lie on the floor.

OH. MY. FUCKING. GOD.

Why did it have to be the smutty one you sent? Why couldn’t it be a cute one at least? You had loads of those! Why did it have to be the one about Steven damn Rogers, his friend?

Why, just WHY?!

Professor Barnes had definitely read it. And for some reason, you had a hunch that he had showed it to his friend slash colleague he shared an office with too.

You whined some more and pretended that this day was the apocalypse and that you would never have to face either of the professors ever again.

Of course, you could not have such luck.

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Part 2

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There it is! Shorter chapter for starters. Just you wait ;)

I’m pretty sure something like this have been written before, but plot bunnies are little shits that refuse to leave no matter how much you kick them and beg them to go away.

I blame @pies-writes-and-more @kayteewritessteve and @queen-kass-the-writer for supporting bad behaviour, but they are not the only ones. You know who you are, don’t YOU? I am a weak human being and you are corrupting me. Thanks, sweeties ;)

Thank you for reading!

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Tags: @scentedsongrebel @patzammit @donutloverxo @annathesillyfriend @orions-nebula @iheartsebastianstan @wxstedhexrt

If anyone wants on the taglist or out, lemme know via DM or an ask :)

-.-.-

ALSO. A friend of mine created a perfect artwork for this chapter/series and I wanted to share 😍🥰🤩:

Thank you, @chase-your-dreams-away 🥺

#marvel #fanfiction #steve rogers x reader #steve rogers x you #steve rogers imagine #college au #professor au #professor!steve rogers #professor!bucky barnes #bucky barnes #captain america x you #captain america x reader #captain america imagine #student!reader #mcu #steve rogers #steve rogers fanfic #attached #anika ann

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piracytheorist · 4 years ago

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What are your thoughts on Dark Hook and Dark Swan in ouat in general?

To preface my thoughts, I want to first talk about how the writers of OUAT may have had good ideas for a show, but they lack the ability to execute them well. I think the main reason most of us loved the show was because seasons one and two were quite good - and those were the seasons that the writers had years in front of them to plan out - and then we were just into it. From season 3 onward, you can see the writing quality decline, from the occasional wtfs of s3 to the outright out-of-character, pointless, even backpedalling decisions pretty much all the characters took in s6 (I believe that the main reason s7 worked was because they had a lot of clean-slate characters, even Rogers had a different path to expand from). So there’s the theme of the writers having great ideas, but they can’t work on a very small time frame and develop a whole season in the span of a few months, so their ideas fall flat.

Onto Dark Hook and Dark Swan.

Again, Dark Swan is a great idea; Emma facing her strongest fears, just at the time that she’s fully ready to accept her future and move on from her past pain. But what they failed to realize is how complicated of a concept that is, and how to give it justice, it needs more than a half-season with a limited screentime because of the development of other characters, as all ensemble cast shows have to do. Add to that the fact that the writers wanted to pander to the audience with ANGST! for CS and the obligatory SQ-but-no-homo storyline... with a group of writers that can’t execute their ideas... on a limited screentime... you get this.

And this is a magnificent failure, not only by itself, but most importantly its consequences.

The Dark CS storyline has zero consequences. As proven by the horribly-written s6, Emma doesn’t learn to trust in her family. She doesn’t learn to stop working on her own, to recognize her work - I mean, when she comes back from the Underworld, she’s all “Boohoo I should never have gone there” like bish you saved Killian? You helped souls move on? Bish? - or learn from her own mistakes. Killian... he just falls deeper into self-loathing, and I’m not sure how that’s a positive development from him. He was already on the path of making himself better, of wanting to repent; he didn’t need to assist in nearly killing Emma’s entire family, close and extended, in order to have a development.

And of course, there’s the matter of the heavy things both of them did; Emma ripped out Violet’s heart to force her to break Henry’s heart in order to get his tears. She literally manipulated things and people’s - her own son’s! - emotions to get to the final point. Which may have been a noble cause, freeing Merlin from his prison, but immoral acts for a noble cause? That’s the work of an Anti-Hero character, not a Hero character. And that’s not something the writers realized let alone admitted in the narrative.

Same with saving Killian’s life, against his own dying wish. I actually recently remembered this exchange they had:

Killian: Do you have any idea how it feels to not be in control of yourself? [...] Emma: I know exactly how it feels! Everyone I’ve ever loved abandoned me!

And like, what’s the connection between point A and point B? Killian is talking to her about becoming a puppet to someone, not having free will of choice, and Emma is talking about how she had no control over when people would leave her. One is a terrifying matter, and the other is something everyone goes through. You can’t choose when the people you love will die, and you will meet people who will hurt you.

But because Emma has had that latter a little too much, she wanted control over it. And with the Dark One’s powers, she was even more inclined to use them to make sure it doesn’t happen. Ergo, her taking away Killian’s consent, when he was choosing to die. And then again by hiding Excalibur from him, lying to him about it, forcing him to talk to her by summoning him when he had chosen to go away because he was enraged over the previous three betrayals, and then by taking away his memories when she concluded that he was “too far gone”. Again, manipulation and control, in order to save Killian’s life - when he didn’t want to be saved, btw - all acts of an Anti-Hero character.

And then you have Killian. I’ve said before how I think most of the things he said and done as a Dark One were Killian’s actual deep fears - that he had become a lovesick puppy dog, that Emma was eventually going to push him away and revert to her “orphan” state, that he had no hope of making amends for his villainous past, so might as well give up trying, and making sure Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t hurt him again - so having him say both things like “That’s why you’ll always be an orphan” and “I might have given you your wife back. Soiled, but returned” on the same episode, you kinda wonder, how much of that does he mean? What the hell is going on?

The fact that right after waking up, he desires to die because he thinks he deserves to more than Emma does, the fact that after Emma rescues him he’s a mess with guilt... those kinda point to the fact that he had some control over what he was doing, or at least his feelings behind them - that, for example, he regrets allowing the Dark Ones to nearly kill Emma’s family and friends just so he could have his revenge on Rumpelstiltskin.

So, you’ve got some heavy issues. Manipulation, betrayal of trust, controlling and disregard of consent on the one side, and humiliation, degradation and homicidal attempt on the other side.

What are the consequences of all that? Nothing. The Dark CS storyline is forgotten, Killian’s guilt over it is mentioned once in the later episodes and then never again.

All those required at least a moment to sit and talk about. Killian feeling guilty over it for about one episode - and just for the things he did! God forbid we have Emma face the emotional consequences her actions had on other people - doesn’t even begin to reach enough.

So overall, it was a very interesting concept, with a less than promising introduction and execution, and an outright disappointing and unrealistic conclusion. And I’m saying this as a CS fan - I’m not saying nothing of this should’ve happened. It was interesting to see how they happened, to see Emma’s and Killian’s deepest fears surface and take control of their actions, but it was disappointing to see that it lead to nothing. It was emotionally taxing, especially if you connected to the characters, and then it was nothing. It never happened, please look away and look! Cruella’s back and we got a villain with blue flaming hair please keep watching the show despite the fact that we disregard one of the oldest rules of storytelling by not providing Catharsis!

So yeah. Disappointing, 0/10, wouldn’t invest in anything A&E write again.

#lillpon goes meta #ouat #Captain Swan #Emma Swan #Killian Jones #ouat criticism #Anonymous #ask and ye shall receive

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counterspelling · 5 years ago

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Why do you think Lucasfilm hates Luke Skywalker so much?

You know, the baffling thing is I think if you asked Abrams or Kennedy or Johnson that they would say they LIKED Luke. They clearly see nothing wrong with the way they treated him or his legacy. Part of is it that they were afraid of prequels backlash, and the only way they knew to get around that is to remake the OT. But to do that, Luke has to fail at rebuilding the NJO, even though we all know Luke would never give up on the order, or abandon his friends, or isolate himself in the middle of nowhere and leave the galaxy to its fate. So this trilogy was set up to fail Luke from the beginning, because under no circumstances would he behave that way.

I think part of the problem is that George is a very straightforward storyteller. He's talked openly about making the movies for kids, how they're fairy tales. He's not throwing out a million red herrings so he can yell "GOTCHA" at the end. He's not out to shock anybody. And then they bring in people like Abrams and Johnson, who are so enamored with mystery and intrigue, and trying to trick viewers so that at the end they can say "oh you thought that was foreshadowing??? Actually, no." So George made a male lead character in the 70s who didn't get the girl, who won the day through empathy and love, who rejected violence, and then Disney came in and tried to say the male lead of their franchise is a nazi, who spent his entire adult life as a nazi, who became head nazi, who we've watched on screen torture and slaughter billions of people, and somehow that lead to a girl, who's spent her life dreaming of family and a place to belong and who’s only ever suffered at his hands, falling in love with him.

The new trilogy had to be about new characters, which is fine, it's a new gen. But again, they wanted to remake the OT, and the only way to do that is undermine everything they accomplished so that they can reset the galaxy back to ANH. And they chose the worst possible way to do it, for all of them, and ended up assassinating all of their characters. So Han and Leia break up, when they're quite possibly the most affectionate couple ever to be in movies, Han goes back to smuggling and is apparently shitty at it, Leia abandons her jedi training because of ~visions of the future~~~~~~~~~ even though we all know that doesn't mean it will come true!!!!! the future is not set in stone!!! and she can better protect herself and everyone she loves as a jedi!!!!!!! it's bullshit!!!!!!! And Luke. Not only does he just fucking give up and abandon everyone and everything he’s worked for, they're so enamored of their straight boy nazi that they change the onus of his fall to try and make it LUKE'S fault that he's a nazi, because god forbid kyle ron ever be forced to face the consequences of his own actions.

If they'd followed through on the promise of TFA, and made Rey his daughter, at least there would have been SOME explanation for Luke saying fuck the galaxy. If we knew he'd spent years searching for his stolen daughter, and eventually reached the conclusion that she'd been killed, that's literally the only even halfway decent explanation for Luke exiling himself for years when the galaxy was still so at risk. I would still hate it and think Luke would never do that (since, y'know, he DID watch a student slaughter millions in the EU including some of his new jedi order recruits, and yet he didn't give up. he started again, because that's who luke is) but it would be a better explanation than what they gave us.

And as much as they completely and utterly failed Luke, they might ACTUALLY hate Anakin, because they fucked him over even more. 1-6 is the story of Anakin's rise and fall and ultimate fulfillment of the prophecy by wiping himself and Palpatine from the galaxy, thereby ridding it of sith. And with literally zero explanation, they bring Palpatine back after we watched him fucking EXPLODE, and say Anakin didn't actually do the one thing he was destined to do. The fact that they would do that, on top of completely eroding the legacy of the OT by making everything Han and Luke and Leia fought for completely meaningless, and doing it with a HANDWAVE, not even bothering to explain HOW Palpatine survived or has been in hiding all this time........ it’s such bad storytelling.

The ST as a whole is just about the worst possible example of storytelling. The fact that they were originally going to just let three separate dudes tell three separate movies, with no oversight, that they didn’t set out the trilogy’s major plot and character points and emotional beats from the beginning, that they were all going to work from SCRATCH. It’s mind-bogglingly stupid. George got away with that because ultimately he was in total control. He had final say, and he was one person. Disney buying a billion dollar franchise and throwing it to the wind and trusting a bunch of people with different goals and visions to somehow pull together a coherent story... no wonder they failed so completely.

#star wars #sw negativity #Anonymous

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veliseraptor · 5 years ago

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Speaking about Tony and Steve - why do you think MCU let Tony to get away with so much? I admit I love him a lot but I feel like you in terms of his faults towards Steve and co. getting shrugged off. And why do you think Cap was placed in the wrong by narrative in CW (what with him being the symbol and all)?

Man, I don’t know. The only answer I have is general narrative favoritism. The MCU really likes Tony, and seems to want to vindicate him in most things, and protect him from real consequences of his actions and choices. (Because God forbid you let a character you like face consequences for their actions. That might give them character growth.) It starts to do that - but then it pulls back from really committing, with the exception of in his own movies. (See - Tony makes a mistake in building Ultron, but then he does it again and it works out great.)

Which is actually why I like Tony best in his own movies - he gets to make mistakes, have consequences for them, and course correct. That doesn’t so much happen in the team movies (Age of Ultron and Civil War stand out on that front.)

On the other hand: I don’t know that Steve was placed wholly in the wrong in Civil War - I actually think the narrative itself was sympathetic to his position, and let him make a lot of very good points. It’s just that he ultimately ended up on the losing side, and Tony’s speech to him in Endgame undermined a lot of the feeling that Steve (as the saying goes) Made Some Valid Points. It made Tony look like the victim, and his comments about Ultron - while I don’t know that they were meant to affirm his choices - did feel like they were just left to stand, especially because Tony’s vulnerability was the focus of that scene, not the content of what he says. And the reconciliation between Steve and Tony never actually involves Tony admitting any wrongdoing.

#tony stark negative #the great avengers slap fight #anonymous #conversating

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teamlarl · 5 years ago

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Su.yin Bei.fong is Cancelled - A Masterpost

A collection of my many, many, rants about Suyin that I’ve gone on in the past.

November 3, 2017

“Suyin motherfucking Beifong I swear to god... Like... Ughhhhh I can't go on a full on rant because you all don't know the context of it, but fuuuuuck. I have never seen a more self-absorbed character, that refuses to take responsibility for their actions, will blame everyone else, and just sticks their head in the sand.

And the kicker? The narrative always portrays Suyin as being in the right. Always. Without fail. Even when Suyin is being a complete bitch about everything.

She is a woman that outright refuses to believe that her precious baby boy could fall in love with someone she doesn't approve of. That Kuvira must be fucking manipulating Baatar Jr., that's clearly the only reason why he would ever love her. Not because, oh I don't know, they grew up together and Kuvira is the only god damn person to treat him like his own person, and not an extension of his father.”

---

April 25, 2018

“Kuvira has a LOT of mommy issues when it comes to Suyin, and frankly I don't blame her. Suyin is one of those characters that the narrative always frames as in the right, but when you really think about it is super fucked up.

They briefly acknowledged one aspect of it, with her whole drama with her sister, Lin, and then they didn't really do anything with it. Suyin never really got better. Hell, Lin is the one that's framed as the bitch for not wanting to get along with her self-admitted shit of a little sister after reuniting. Suyin Beifong is an extremely selfish character. She puts herself and her immediate family first, everyone else be damned. And it has to be HER vision of what she wants for her family. If a single one of them steps a hair out of line she lashes out; she's extremely controlling.”

---

October 5, 2018

“I want it stated for the record that if it wasn't for her being such a MILF then I wouldn't let her get away with as much shit as she does.

The worst part is that the show doesn't even acknowledge how most of the shit she does is super problematic, everyone's expected to acquiesce and apologize to HER for being VERY RIGHTFULLY ANGRY WITH HER. It's not even one time either. It happens TWICE. WITH DIFFERENT CHARACTERS. PEOPLE THAT SHE'S SUPPOSED TO BE VERY CLOSE TO.

Oh woops. My dormant Suyin button got tripped.

LIN BEIFONG DOESN'T OWE SUYIN SHIT. But no, I guess because FAMILY and all that, Lin has to apologize. I guess Suyin ruining their mom's career counts for nothing. The thing with Suyin is that for all her claims about how she's grown up since she was a bratty teenager SHE REALLY HASN'T. She's STILL selfish. She's still convinced that she always knows best. She doesn't give a shit about the rules except when they benefit her.

Don't even get me STARTED on the dynamic she has with Kuvira, Because JESUS CHRIST THE IMPLICATIONS.

"She was like a daughter to me."

PROCEEDS TO TRY AND ASSASSINATE HER AN HOUR LATER.

"She was like a daughter to me."

Kuvira isn't in any of the family photos, she's not there to meet Korra and friends when they arrive for the first time, Suyin never introduces her or anything. Kuvira's just a guard. A prominent guard, but just a guard.

So don't give me that fucking bullshit about how she was like a daughter to you, Suyin. Your fucking actions speak VOLUMES otherwise. Suyin would fucking MURDER for the sake of her family. She can't claim that Kuvira is a part of her family and then TRY TO ASSASSINATE KUVIRA HERSELF.

"Baatar sweetie it's not your fault, the evil Kuvira manipulated you." "Kuvira is irredeemable."

LIKE WOW OKAY. BAATAR HAD JUST AS MUCH TO DO WITH THE EARTH EMPIRE AS KUVIRA DID, BUT THERE SUYIN GOES! SWEEPING IT ALL UNDER THE RUG FOR HER BABY BOY WHILE BLAMING IT ALL ON KUVIRA.

"She was like a daughter to me."

---

November 28, 2018

“I mean fuck. You pick this girl up off the street. You give her a home, you train her, you be her mentor, but you hold her at arm's length. You never allow her to be part of your family. Wait, scratch that, you let her be part of your family when it's convenient for you, when you're trying to gain sympathy for yourself. Teasing her with something she never had and you do not intend to give her. Never making her role clear, whether she's an apprentice or a daughter figure, because it's not defined, and it flips flops based on your mood.

And Suyin wonders why Kuvira resents her so much... Ah, but of course, it's the evil Kuvira, what am I saying?

A rotten apple from the start, am I right? She was like family, and she abused that trust, right? Manipulating your precious baby boy and taking him away from you, corrupting him. It's all her fault. But of course, it's never your fault, eh Suyin? It's always someone else to blame.

It's all Lin's problem that she can't move on and forgive you. Forgiving you for ruining your mother's career, for being a shit kid that gave your sister scars that would mar her for the rest of her life, for generally getting off scot-free because you're just such a fucking free spirit. But of course that's not your fault Why would it be? You're Suyin Beifong. You're never at fault for anything.

You know what's fun? I've never made any secret that Ren was heavily based on Kuvira. His entire backstory of being an orphan from nowhere adopted into this prestigious family comes from her. That his resolve and passion and issues comes from the tragedy he suffered as a child, similar to Kuvira.

But the thing is... The person I had fill in the role of Suyin, Ianus... is a far better "parent" than Suyin ever was. Like, ignoring the rest of the Beifong family and focusing purely on the dynamic between Suyin and Kuvira. It's fucking telling when I can say Ianus, fucking IANUS BASILIUS, is a better parental figure than Suyin motherfucking Beifong.

Ianus, who actually fully adopts Renatus as his own son and treats him as such. Ianus, who is wholly responsible for the glorified trauma conga line that is Addie's childhood. Ianus is not a good fucking person by any stretch of the imagination, but at least he has the decency to actually make sure the orphan he takes into his home is loved and cared for. He makes sure they know they're wanted and that they are family.”

---

September 18, 2019

“Suyin Beifong is the dictionary definition of "fuck you, bitch, got mine" and I hate her for it. God damn hypocrite.

"Kuvira is like a daughter to me." FIVE MINUTES LATER, SUYIN IS TRYING TO MURDER KUVIRA IN HER SLEEP.

"You're going to pay for everything you've done!" BITCH YOU JUST IMMEDIATELY FORGAVE YOUR SON FOR EVERYTHING, LIKE, AN HOUR AGO. AND HE IS JUST AS RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING AS KUVIRA IS.

"Kuvira is like a daughter to me." THEN WHERE IS SHE IN THE FUCKING FAMILY PHOTO?

For some godforsaken reason... Suyin is always portrayed as being in the right. Even when she does really fucked up things and isn't sorry about it. I mean, god, I'm still on Lin's side regarding their reunion. Lin had every right to be angry and Suyin is just like, "it doesn't matter, that was in the past, I'm a different person now."

Are you, Suyin? Maybe on a surface level, but when you scrape the surface at all, I don't think you are. Suyin Beifong is someone that never fucking has to deal with the negative consequences of her shitty actions. Everyone else around her has to deal with it instead.

Girl commits a crime, gets caught, and in the process both physically scars her sister and ruins her mother's career. Her "punishment" is being sent to live with her rich as fuck grandparents, which she runs away from anyway and proceeds to have a grand old time, having an adventure of a life. She is never sorry for her actions and how they affected others. And life seems to keep rewarding her for it.

Settles down, has a family, creates her own city and places herself at the head of the totem pole so she never has to answer to anyone. Basically becomes the epitome of a socialite wine mom, except with political power. Takes in this orphan kid because she sees potential in her. Great! Calls her a part of the family, despite never actually acting like it and never telling her this to her face, only to others. A difference which becomes really fucking prominent when Suyin only ever displays unconditional love for her biological children, but as soon as the "adopted kid" (put in quotations because of course Suyin never actually adopted Kuvira despite her being "part of the family") questions Suyin's decisions and strikes out on her own, taking the eldest son with her.

Ohohoho! Obviously she's an evil bitch! Who manipulated her darling baby boy into going with her! Because obviously her eldest son could only ever be happy at home! He wasn't. He always felt like he was in the shadows of his parents. But god forbid you ever tell Suyin that. Suyin and her perfect little family. Until you look under the facade and see how unperfect things actually are. But that's obviously all that Kuvira girl's fault. She's such a bad influence. AND HEY MAYBE SHE'S RIGHT!

After all, Kuvira is the one that takes the most after Suyin.”

#;ooc #;aeneas rants about su.yin #i decided i should give myself a tag #considering how often i do this #oh boy i really hope this doesn't show up anywhere near her tags

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dcbicki · 6 years ago

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God forbid a woman who has worked at one single goal her entire life and went through actual hell and back and sexual assault and slavery just to have some guy who doesn’t even WANT to be king potentially stand in her way of that one goal, obviously she’s going to be scared and upset about that. As much as she loves jon she doesn’t want another king for Westeros she wants a queen. Everyone needs to stop unnecessarily demonizing Dany

People aren’t unnecessarily demonizing her, though. Contrary to what her diehard fans want to believe, she’s not a flawless character. None of them are. It’s just all down to how you interpret her actions, reactions, and the writing itself. I’m not anti-D*enerys because I 100% think she’s going to go mad and become the villain we know she’s capable of becoming (because Targs are known for it, because she’s shown a tendency to act impulsively before thinking about the consequences of her actions, ie burning thousands of wagons). I’m personally anti-D*enerys because, while she’s clearly a great conqueror, she’s a terrible ruler — and the problem is that she wants to rule seven kingdoms (or, rather, what’ll be left of them after the war.)

Her main problem now — and this is what the wider audience is picking up on — is that, yes, she’s joined the fight and she might think she means well, but her reasons for doing so are a little ~unclear~ for the most part. She agreed to help before Jon bent the knee because she realised the gravity of the situation, and she agreed with him that titles weren’t important for now. So why not, in the meantime, allow Jon to remain King in the North, and present a united front alongside him in Winterfell — and try to win over the people and his family with open ears — instead of marching North and declaring herself their “Queen” as soon as she touches base, and damn near threatening those who don’t want her? And did she really agree to fight to save of ~her~ people, and for Jon, or because she knew the Iron Throne would be unobtainable without it? Imo, this war is just a stepping stone for her — something she thinks they can easily win because ~dragons~ (hence her apparent nonchalance so far this season) and ~Jon~. She doesn’t bat an eye when Sansa mentions food shortages. Instead, she makes a snarky comment about her dragons eating “whatever they want”, with no obvious concern for the people she wants to rule. She cares (mostly) about her dragons, her Throne, and her man — the best interests of the Westerosi people would be entirely dependent on her mood.

She acts up when her counsel disagrees with her, throws a bratty tantrum when someone (God forbid) doesn’t like her, and she has little to no care for the wellbeing of anyone other than her close entourage or her fire-breathing “children”. Not to mention her idea of ~justice~ is ridiculously skewed given she spent her most formative years with a sadistic brother and a Dothraki husband... and she doesn’t exactly listen to her new, wiser counsel now, does she? Just because she’s suffered as a person doesn’t mean she should automatically be forgiven for her fuck-ups. As characters on Thrones go, she’s been relatively fine. She grew (somehow) to love her rapist — and it’s interesting that she only refers to him as such in conversation with Jon (as though the audience is meant to forget just how much she adored Drogo in favour of Jon being her new beau.) She freed slaves, then willingly enlisted them to join her forces because she’s not that much of a saint.

She’s allowed to have dreams; nobody is saying otherwise. Her face when Jon told her the truth though… that woman isn’t happy. That woman’s dream just got stomped on by someone she thought would never betray her, however unintentional (and she’s no reason to assume Jon would because next to nobody has ever has). And the issue is that her dream is — and has always been — more important than the people to her, and that’s why she comes off as power hungry, especially as of late. But it’s easier to see if you rewatch the show with a different mindset. That’s what I did and I can’t unsee it.

And you’re wrong; her goal isn’t for just a woman to sit on the throne. It’s for her to be the one that does.

#anon #answered #anti daenerys

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seeaddywrite · 6 years ago

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this was ... not what i wanted to post next at all, but this is what i wrote, so what the hell? this is set in the Aftermath ‘verse, about six months after the Michael & Isobel fic, but can absolutely be read as a stand-alone. i have a few more fics planned in this universe, so we’ll see how it goes.

i was too impatient to get anyone else to look at this, so read at your own peril; typos likely abound.

warnings for discussion of canonical character death & grief. title from P!nk & Wrabel’s song 90 Days, which you should absolutely listen to for some angsty Malex feels.

let me down slowly (i’ll be okay)

When Alex’s phone goes off in the middle of sorting through data from yet another of his father’s top-secret bases, he almost ignores it. He’s been searching through the Project Shepherd files for any information on alien powers — anything that might give Michael or Isobel an advantage on learning how to harness the energy that Max did to resurrect Rosa so they could save him, too. Locating that information is far more pressing than anything anyone can be texting him, as far as Alex is concerned. This is the one contribution he can make to the cause, the only way he can help, and Alex is determined to do it to the best of his ability and as quickly as he can. It’s a way to make up for the pain his father caused these people, a way to atone — and, as selfish as it is, a way to show Michael that he’s not making a mistake by trusting Alex again.

Six months of working together to bring Max Evans back from the dead has done wonders for Alex and Michael’s relationship. They’re friends, now, the kind that support each other and listen while the other talks, and have been slowly moving toward something more — but aside from one desperate kiss when Alex was too drunk to restrain himself about a month ago, they haven’t really stepped over the line. Alex knows that there’s too much going on right now to push it; they’ve got Rosa to keep hidden and Max to save, and after that, Jesse Manes and the rest of his bases to take down. He shouldn’t be worrying about romance or sex, not when he’s lucky enough to have Michael back in his life at all — but Alex can’t help but want. He’s proud of himself for supporting Michael through all of this, even before he and Maria called it quits, and he’s glad to know that he’s been a comfort, but he can’t help but feel that if he was only allowed to hold Michael, to tear all of his defenses down and really be there, he could do more.

Alex shakes himself, determined not to get lost in the minefield that is his and Michael’s relationship. He turns his attention back to the monitors in front of him, tracking information and entering his own effortlessly. Codebreaking in the military while under fire was difficult; sitting in a secure bunker with no one after his life is almost boring, especially when one considers the pathetic cyber defenses his father uses. He forgets about the text for another half an hour as he delves into files on test subjects and gets lost in the horrors contained there.

Eventually, Alex runs into another firewall. His father’s defenses aren’t complex, but they are numerous, and it takes some time for the codes he’s running to find away through. While they work, he checks his phone, frowning at the brief message from Liz that lights up his screen.

I think Michael could use some company at the cave tonight.

There’s nothing else, no explanation or greeting, but that’s not unlike Liz, these days. Her thoughts are constantly preoccupied with keeping Rosa hidden or bringing Max back; there isn’t much time for friends or small-talk. He’s done his best to shove into her life when she needs a reality check, and he knows that Maria has, too, though he hasn’t quite been able to bring himself to join the two of them. Things between himself and Maria have been strained, at best, despite the fact that she and Guerin broke up less than a month after Max’s death. According to Michael, the truth had proven to be too much for Maria — she doesn’t want to be included in the dangerous stuff, though she’s been excellent support for Liz and Rosa through all of the madness.

His phone dings again, and this time, it’s GPS coordinates. Alex assumes they’re for the cave — he hasn’t actually been there, for all that he is doing his best to help Max. It doesn’t feel like it’s his place to go. After all, he only knows Max through their interactions in high school, and a few polite encounters since Alex’s return to Roswell. It feels wrong, somehow, to intrude in a place so full of grief and hope for a man he barely knows, so he hasn’t asked to be included. He’s on the periphery of the group, despite his contributions; Isobel still watches him warily, her green gaze discontent whenever she sees him with Michael, and even Kyle gets a warmer welcome from Michael’s sister than he does. Guerin treats him the same as he always has, with more carefully defined physical boundaries, and tells him not to worry, that Isobel is just trying to look out for Michael — but it still stings.

But none of that matters if Liz is right, and Michael actually needs him. Alex has been determinedly fighting for another chance for six months — because he meant what he said, the day before his hopes got crushed by an entire morning spent waiting for a visit that never came. He’s done fighting his father’s battles. He’s going to fight for himself, for what he wants, and damn the consequences. The first time he walked away from Michael, he was a scared kid, but now, Alex is a fucking warrior. He’s hacked into terrorist weapons’ caches while his base in the Middle East was under fire, and he lost a leg keeping the communications array up between his squad while running for his life— if he can face those things and win, he can damn well face some time waiting for Michael to disentangle his love for Alex from the pain the Manes family had caused him. It’s only fair, after all; Geurin had given Alex the time he needed to pull himself together, after Baghdad.

Meanwhile, Alex has adopted a holding pattern, a ‘wait and see’ ideology that he knows he can’t maintain indefinitely. It’s too hard, and it hurts too much, to see Michael stumbling through crisis after crisis and be kept on the outskirts of his life. Sometimes, on the bad days, he wonders if this is revenge for his own actions after enlisting — if this is Michael giving him a taste of his own medicine, rather than trying to piece together the shattered remains of his secrets to form a normal life. Usually, when that thought strikes him, however, Alex can identify it as his own anxieties talking. Guerin had been honest, when they talked after the end of his whatever with Maria. He can’t commit to anything except for helping Isobel bring Max back. Anything else would distract from that goal, and he’s not willing to be selfish with Max’s life on the line — and, he admits later, when neither of them expect the words, that he’s scared. It’s so unlike Guerin to admit such a thing that Alex can only stare, but it makes sense. Alex’s father, his family, has caused so much pain, and all of it, one way or another, had ended up falling on Michael’s head. Alex was scared, too, when he considered it.

So instead of pushing the way he wants to, Alex accepts the boundaries Michael lays out. Meanwhile, he reconnects with Rosa, a friend he’d believed he’d never see again, and supports Liz as best he can while she grapples with the guilt she feels whenever she’s happy to have her sister back, since it cost all of them Max to get it. He goes to PT and continues to work on his endurance with the prosthetic, and even adds some decor to the spartan interior of his cabin. He hangs out with Kyle, who’s turned out to be a damned good friend, despite their history, and he researches. His enlistment period is over in a few weeks, and he’ll lose access to some of his resources then, but Alex knows that he’ll never stop working to keep the aliens — to keep Michael — safe. Because no matter where they end up, Guerin is Alex’s family, and no circumstances can change that.

Alex, seriously. I don’t want to have to send Isobel out there. She’s finally getting some sleep, and Michael will just end up trying to make her feel better, instead of the other way around.

The second text brings Alex out of his reverie, and he responds quickly with, On my way.

Just as Liz offers no explanations, he asks no questions — talking about Michael behind his back isn’t exactly friendly behavior, and he knows Liz is probably either knee-deep in her own research or being forced into bed by a worried, over-protective big sister. And if Michael’s actually acting strangely enough for it to sink through the distracted fog Liz has been in for the last six months, there’s definitely good reason to go make sure that he’s all right. If this was before Max’s death, he might guess that she’s trying to meddle in his love life, but Alex knows better than to think Liz capable of thinking like that, now. He wishes she could; then, at least, he’d know she’d be okay.

But no one is really okay right now, are they?

*******

Less than an hour later finds Alex sighing down at a map on his phone. The cave is two miles back from any roadway, and there’s no alternate route that won’t require hiking two miles after a full twelve hours on his bad leg already. It figures that Liz wouldn’t think to warn him about the walking — even when she wasn’t constantly distracted by trying to hold herself together, Alex had been damned good at making it seem like he could do anything he could have done before he lost the leg. Alex hates to admit that he can’t do something, or to ask for help, and he makes sure that he is perfectly self-sufficient around his friends at all times. He doesn’t want them to worry about him, or God forbid, pity him.

So, in true bull-headed fashion, Alex parks as close as he can get to the cave, makes note of the car’s coordinates so he can find it again later, and starts out through the desert with his backpack slung over one shoulder. He spares a minute to wish he’d left his crutch in the car for emergencies, but doesn’t waste time on it. Almost two years out from his amputation, Alex knows he’s capable of making the journey, and that’s all that matters. Afterward will likely be a different story, but he’ll deal with that when forced. For now, his mind is focused on Michael, and why Liz would think he needed Alex tonight.

The walk takes him a little more than an hour, and the sun is starting to sink in the sky, bathing the desert and entrance to Noah’s hidden cave in golden light. Just outside the opening, Alex pauses, the sound of someone strumming a guitar catching him by surprise. He knows that one of Max’s last acts was to heal Michael’s hand; he has complicated feelings on the subject, and suspects Michael does too, though it’s impossible to deny that good has come out of it. Guerin needs the guitar, needs to play music, in a way that Alex wants to understand, but can’t. He loves music, and always has, but the moment Guerin’s hands touch guitar strings, the tension bleeds from him instantly, and Alex was never that lucky when he played in high school.

He lingers there for a few moments, letting the complicated melody carry him back in time, to a cramped tool shed and the beautiful, guarded boy that Alex wanted to kiss more than he’d ever wanted anything else. They’d both been so different, then. While young Michael had been far from open, those prickly, defensive barriers hadn’t grown so tall Alex couldn’t climb them, and the omnipresent warmth in his eyes when he looked at Alex hadn’t yet become clouded with hurt and grief. It had been so easy between them, then. Just two boys, figuring out how to love for the first time and finding refuge in one another.

Until his father had ruined it, ruined everything.

But Alex isn’t there to stand around cursing Jesse Manes; he can — and does — do enough of that on his own time. So, subconsciously straightening the front of his leather jacket, he walks into the small space of the cave. Michael’s sitting cross-legged on the ground with his back to Alex, the guitar still in his lap, fingers strumming idly more than picking out a specific melody, and even from this angle, Alex knows his eyes are closed as he searches for the peace the guitar usually brings him.

It doesn’t seem to be working today, though. Guerin’s shoulders are tense beneath his thick flannel shirt, and Alex hates himself a little for appreciating the way his muscles flex every time his grip on the guitar shifts to change chords. He clears his throat after a long moment, surprised that Michael hasn’t noticed him already. He’s gotten a lot more in tune with his mental powers, lately, since he and Isobel began working to strengthen their abilities, and sneaking up on Michael had become as difficult as fooling Isobel.

Michael doesn’t turn. “Liz called you,” he guesses, and Alex has to strain to hear the words over the echoing thrum of the guitar. “I told her I was fine.”

Alex is far from convinced by that statement. He takes a couple of slow steps toward Michael, grateful that the cave is small and mostly flat, because his leg is already starting to get stiff and achy from the hike through the desert — and also because he’s not sure of his welcome. Guerin doesn’t seem particularly pleased to see him, and it’s awkward to be in this cave, where Max seems to be resting peacefully in the glowing orb in front of them while they all work frantically to get him back.

“Well, I just walked two miles through the desert, so can I stay anyway?” Alex asks, aiming for levity. “I could use some rest before I take the return trip.” Sitting on the cave floor isn’t exactly his favorite idea; getting down there isn’t going to be graceful, and getting up will be worse, but it’s not like there are any chairs out here. There’s a tiny cot shoved against the far wall, covered in floral blankets that suggests its mostly Isobel’s resting place, and Alex doesn’t want to be that far away from Michael, even if he’s willing to sit on it.

When Michael doesn’t answer him, Alex sighs inwardly and levers himself awkwardly to the ground, his bad leg extended so that if he falls, it’ll be on his ass rather than the residual limb. His shoulder bumps Michael’s as he sits, and Alex winces at the unintended contact, even as it finally gets the other man to look at him. “Sorry,” he mumbles, the urge to apologize for his ungainliness one that’s hard to suppress, even after all this time. He lifts his gaze to meet Michael’s though, because he refuses to be that embarrassed, and nearly gasps.

Guerin is a mess. His eyes are red-rimmed and surrounded by blue bruise-like shadows and bone-white skin, making him appear more like a corpse than Max, who floats peacefully in the pod in front of them, his features obscured by the glowing surface. And the lauded quiet that comes from holding a guitar is conspicuously absent in his eyes — instead, the brown orbs hold only desperation and loneliness, and an isolation the Alex never, ever wants to see again.

“Michael, what —?” Alex doesn’t know how to ask what’s happened. Michael’s been working as hard, if not harder, than the rest of them to bring back his brother, but he hasn’t looked this bad since the first week or so directly following Rosa’s resurrection. He’s been doing better, lately — at least, Alex thinks so. Maybe he’s missed something?

The idle strumming stops, then, and Michael’s gaze shifts to the pod in front of them again, his fingers clutching the neck of the guitar so tightly that his knuckles turn white. “Mrs. Evans called me, today,” he says tightly, and Alex is struck with the feeling that Michael doesn’t want to answer, even as the words spill into the silence between them. “It’s been six months, and Max isn’t the unreliable type, right? He always calls her back, because he’s a fucking Boy Scout, and she hasn’t heard from him in half a year. And Isobel’s been dodging her calls, because she keeps hoping we’ll figure this out so she never has to tell the truth.” He swallows, and Alex watches as his throat works in the pale light from the pod. “But six months? What was I supposed to say? That he’s fine? That he — developed some kind of drug problem and went to rehab, or chased a girl around the globe and abandoned his family? No one who knows him is going to fucking believe that! Especially not the people who raised him!”

The air in the cave becomes tense with barely leashed power, and Alex finds himself holding his breath. He’s not afraid — Michael has never hurt him physically, not once, no matter what was happening around or between them, and he doubts he’ll start now. But it’s impossible not to share the other man’s tension when they’re this close, and Alex wishes he knew how to help.

“I didn’t know what to tell her,” Michael continues, his voice raw as he visibly grapples with the tears threatening to spill from his eyes. “I couldn’t tell her that he’s dead, because it’s been six fucking months — plus, they’d want to bury him, see the body.” He’s still staring straight ahead at the pod, so intently that Alex wonders if he’s trying to will Max to open his eyes and fix all of this. “I ended up saying I hadn’t heard from him, either,” he finishes with a hoarse laugh, and Alex winces at the sound, hating the bitterness that echoes in it. “I told her he and I haven’t really talked in ten years, and I’d be the last person he’d tell if he was taking off.” The guitar seems to bend under the force of Michael’s grip, and Alex, unthinking, reaches out to rescue it from the explosive power of Guerin’s grief before he shatters it.

Once the instrument is safely put to the side, Alex turns at the waist to face Michael and tentatively rests a hand on his forearm, half-expecting to be brushed off immediately. He understands, now, why Michael is upset. He had to have a difficult conversation, and then lie and pretend everything would be fine. And then, on top of that, he was forced to invalidate his own grief to keep the truth hidden. All of that in addition to the stress he’s under daily, now, is a lot for anyone to bear alone.

“You did the right thing,” Alex promises quietly, even though he wishes he had something better. The right thing for the Evans’ is clearly not the right thing for Michael, and Alex wonders if Michael will ever get to be selfish and protect himself, rather than someone else. It doesn’t seem likely, and that fact makes Alex resentful. “None of us are giving up, Guerin. We’ll figure it out, one way or another, and then Max can set things right with his mom himself.” The optimism isn’t exactly Alex’s milieu, but he knows what Michael needs to hear right now and gives it to him with as much certainty as he can conjure.

“What if we can’t?” Michael is the first one to voice the doubt. After six months, none of the rest of them had dared — even Kyle hadn’t questioned the possibility with Rosa standing in front of him after he’d seen her autopsy photos. Isobel and Liz would have sliced them to ribbons with the sharp edges of their tongues, at least — and they’d all just fallen into the reality that was the aliens could bring someone back from the dead, even ten years later. “Max would never forgive us if we killed someone just to bring him back, and I won’t let Iz try it, no matter how much she says she would, if we found someone who ‘deserved it.’”

Alex swallows. As a soldier, he’d believed himself to be fighting people who deserved death for their crimes. He’d gone to war to fight and win battles, and he had — he’d been responsible for the deaths of man, whether with his own gun or by hacking into their own systems to detonate their own weapons to use against them. The nightmares came whether or not the people he killed were terrorists or not, though, and he lived with the knowledge that he’d fallen to their level — that really, he was part of the evil, too. No, he wouldn’t wish that knowledge on Isobel, or anyone else.

“We don’t know that’s the only way,” Alex says, keeping his voice level as they both stare forward at the glowing pod that is the crux of their most pressing problem. “Max may have needed to kill Noah to bring Rosa back, but there are thousands of files full of data on my father’s data bases, and all of those people were capable of doing incredible things. We might be able to find something, still — it just takes time to look through everything. And you and Isobel working together might contribute more power than just Max, so it could just be a matter of finding the right combination of-”

When he chances another look at the other man, Alex finds that Michael’s staring at him, his expression impossible to read in the dim light of the cave. He trails off, self-conscious under that inscrutable stare. There was a time when Alex believed he could read every flicker of emotion in those features, back when the world still made sense and aliens were a cool villain in action movies, rather than his reality. Now, Alex knows better, just as he knows that it’s stupid to remind Guerin of all the work they’ve been doing to help Max. He’s been spearheading most of the attempts with Liz and Isobel; it’s not like Michael doesn’t know what their options are, and their chances of success. He shouldn’t have recapped it all when he’s got nothing new to offer. Blind optimism is hardly useful, and Michael won’t appreciate —

Suddenly, they’re so close that Alex can feel Michael’s breath on his face, and his own stutters in his chest, effectively ending the inner turmoil their proximity creates. This is the closest they’ve been in so long that his body doesn’t know how to react; he feels flushed and cold simultaneously, aroused and terrified of making the wrong move all at once. He swallows, the noise loud to his own ears, and slowly pulls his gaze from where it lingered on Michael’s lips to his eyes. This is not what it feels like, he tells himself firmly. He’s not ready. He’s not going to kiss you. Stop getting your hopes up.

But Michael is oblivious to Alex’s inner monologue and only leans closer, one of his hands lifting to rest against the side of Alex’s jaw. “You never give up, do you?” he asks, and the wonder in his tone tells Alex that they’re having two different conversations. It’s enough to make his heartbeat pick up the pace, and Alex tries to give himself another reminder that this can’t be what it seems, but months of patience and repressed desire makes him reckless.

Slowly, Alex lifts his own hand to cover the one still cupping his jaw, and he smiles, small and hopeful, at Michael. He knows that the other man will be able to see everything he’s feeling if he cares to look; Alex is good at hiding his emotions when he has to, but Michael knows him too well, and he’s too tired of fighting for nothing to even try. It’s time to be honest, both of them — and if this goes sideways, maybe, at the very least, Alex will be able to break the holding pattern he’s been stuck in for half a year.

“Not on things that matter,” he whispers, and despite all the stern warnings he’d been giving himself a mere moment ago, Michael is touching him like he hasn’t in months, in the way no one has in just as long. The unintentional isolation was enough, several months ago, to drive Alex to excess drinking and an ill-advised attempt at a kiss. Michael had rebuffed him — kindly, of course, and with an explanation that had given Alex hope for the future — but it had still stung, still translated in his mind as Guerin doesn’t want me. So as much as Alex aches to haul Michael in by the collar of his flannel and kiss him senseless, he doesn’t.

Instead, Alex waits, all of his most vulnerable parts on display, and hopes.

Michael’s so close Alex can count each of his individual eyelashes, and he takes a moment to appreciate that the haunted, lonely look has vanished from his face. In its place is a crooked smirk, a more honest approximation of the expression that has gotten Alex in his bed more than once in the past decade. It’s so good to see him smile, to see the tension begin to ease from his shoulders, that Alex nearly forgets the want building in his gut — nearly.

“You matter to me, too,” Michael murmurs, and then there’s no more waiting. There’s a hand at the back of his head and another at his collar and rough lips against his, moving tentatively and so unlike Michael’s usual gestures of affection that Alex has to take control for a moment. He tangles his fingers in the curls nearest his hands and pulls, trying to remind Michael without words that he doesn’t need to hesitate, that Alex has been here this whole time, waiting, and there’s no chance of rejection. No walking away.

It’s all too easy, then, as soon as Michael takes the cue and deepens the kiss, to forget where they are and why. As always, as soon as their lips align, Alex forgets everything but the way Michael tastes on his tongue and the feel of their bodies pressed against one another. Reasonable thought goes up in flames, burned to ash by the heat they generate when they share space, and Alex is half in Michael’s lap before he even realizes how he got there, bad leg extended to help him keep his balance. It’s heady and overwhelming and everything he’s been missing since the last time he was allowed to this, and Alex never wants it to end.

A firm hand on his stops the exploration beneath the hem of Michael’s shirt. “No,” a rough voice tells him, the word spoken against Alex’s lips. Instantly, Alex pulls away and all but falls out of Michael’s lap and into the dirt, kiss-swollen and breathless and suddenly nauseous with anxiety. Michael said ‘no.’ Michael stopped him, pushed him away. Again. Michael still doesn’t want him. Fuck, when is he going to learn that Manes men don’t get happy endings? When is he going to stop doing this to himself? How many times is he going to have to piece himself together when he and Michael can’t make this thing between them work?

“Hey, stay with me,” Michael says, and there are gentle fingers on his jaw, making him meet Michael’s gaze. It hurts to do so, but Alex is done being a victim. He’d said six months ago that he was only going to fight his own battles from then on, and fighting for Michael Guerin is the only one that’s ever really been worth it.

“Look,” Alex starts, his voice harsher than he’d intended. “I know you’re still figuring things out, Guerin. I know you’ve got a lot on your plate, and everything between us is complicated — but both of us being miserable and alone isn’t going to solve any of that! It’s not going to bring Max back, and it’s damn sure not going to help you deal with what my father did. But I’m not my father, Michael! I’m not, and it’s taken me six months to realize that there’s never any chance of becoming him.” That revelation had been a long time coming, and hard-fought, but Alex isn’t worried about becoming Jesse Manes anymore. He may not be a good man, and he may not deserve forgiveness for the mistakes he’s made, but Alex is no genocidal maniac, and he never will be.

Michael shakes his head and opens his mouth, his eyes wide, but Alex cuts him off. “No. I need to say this, okay? Just — let me. I’m in love with you, Michael. That hasn’t changed. You can date a hundred other people, and it’ll still be true. You could take another ten years to figure out if you can be with me, and my feelings won’t change. You’re my family, my safe place, and I —” Much to his shame, Alex’s voice shakes. “I need you. But if you can’t do this? If you really, honestly, don’t think we’re ever going to be able to work this out, I need to know. Because I can’t keep waiting around and breaking my own heart forever.”

The words hurt so much to say they may as well have been burned into his skin, but Alex pushes them through gritted teeth anyway. He doesn’t want to hear that it’s really over, isn’t sure he’ll be able to keep it together long enough to escape Michael’s presence before he breaks completely, but maybe, if he finally hears the truth, he’ll be able to do something. Move out of town, maybe. Find a city somewhere to start over. Do something other than take turns walking away with Michael Guerin.

“Alex, what are you — I just kissed you,” Michael reminds him, the genuine incredulity in his eyes making more of an impression on Alex than the words. “What the hell did you think that was?”

Alex blinks, taken aback by the question. “I - you said ‘no,’” he protests, though it’s weaker than it should be. He’s realized, belatedly, that he jumped to conclusions without giving Michael a chance to say anything, but he absolutely refuses to get his hopes up again.

“I said ‘no’ because we were about two minutes from having sex in front of my brother,” Michael says dryly, and gestures with his chin to the pod. “Not that he’d notice, but —” he shifts uncomfortably, eyes lingering on Max’s still form beneath the cloudy glass. “Doesn’t exactly feel right, you know? Plus, we’d have sand in all sorts of uncomfortable places, and I’m not a big fan of chafing.” He shoots a grin over his shoulder at Alex, but he can read the nervousness in the expression. Michael’s just as unsure as he is, and neither of them are handling this as well as they could be.

Alex exhales shakily, and nods once. “That . . . makes sense.” Chewing at the inside of his cheek, he shifts, trying to get comfortable on the ground again. “So, just to be sure we’re on the same page, that kiss meant --?”

“That kiss meant that you matter to me, too,” Michael repeats his earlier words immediately, a fond smile on his face, that temporarily masks the exhaustion and grief of the past half a year. “And that I’m just as fucking tired of waiting as you are. I can’t promise I’m going to be easy to put up with —”

“When were you ever?” Alex tosses back, and despite his best efforts, hope balloons in his chest.

“— and I have to make Max my priority. I owe it to Isobel and Liz, and him,” Michael continues, as if Alex never spoke. He’s running the pads of his fingers over the back of the hand Jesse Manes had once taken a hammer to, obviously remembering one of the many things he wants to talk to his brother about, but can’t. “But if you’re sure you want to sign up for this, then I’m not going anywhere.”

This is something that Alex has been hoping to put up with for the last six months. Michael sees himself as an outsider, as someone not worth the love that he so richly deserves, because that’s what life has taught him. What Alex has taught him, inadvertently. And there are plenty of reasons for them to not be together — Jesse Manes and his alien crusade at the top of the list. But Alex isn’t afraid of aliens or his father anymore. His only fear is living a life without Michael Guerin in it, and if he doesn’t have to face that reality, he can face just about anything else.

“Sign, huh? Is there a dotted line somewhere?” Alex asks, his heart pounding so loudly he’s sure Michael can hear it. “Or is this the kind of deal we seal with a kiss?”

Michael laughs, unrestrained and genuinely happy, and every insecurity and doubt Alex feels melts away in the warmth of that sound. Because if he can make Michael happy, even for just this moment in the midst of the madness they’re enduring, then everything has been worth it. He leans in close, trusting Michael to support him, and presses their lips together in silent promise.

#my fic #malex fic #roswell new mexico fic #roswellnm #hurt/comfort #x. Aftermath

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senttotheshadowrealm · 6 years ago

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Imelda Rivera: A Character Study

Big rant under the cut. Just some venting I’ve been holding in for almost a year. Do note if you choose to read on that this is my opinion. If you like her, that’s totally fine with me. I just had to put this out there.

As it is now out there, I really don’t like Imelda Rivera. But I’d like to explain why. A lot may jump to a conclusion that I don’t like her because I’m a butt-hurt Hector fangirl, and while that certainly doesn’t help, it also has nothing to do with why I originally didn’t like her. But let’s break it down piece by piece:

1. Imelda’s attitude towards Hector

It’s completely uncalled for. Now I understand that she was hurt, but what she does is so extreme and so crazy, I refuse to let that be an excuse. As @disgrxced-luminxry pointed out, it seemed that she completely banished a man she supposedly loved because he had different wants than her. It would be a different story if it actually did unfold the way the beginning of the movie presented it. It said “One day, he left with his guitar...and never returned.” Yes, this makes what Hector did sound very one-sided and selfish, but remember that Miguel is telling this story. He only knows it the way his family, and therefore Imelda, told it. She didn’t mention the oodles of letters that he continued to send home for Coco, which I have no doubt that she opened and gave to her daughter. After all, Coco was only three. This tells me that Hector was writing frequently to her and most likely sending whatever little money he could to them. He was still trying to support his family and keep his dreams. This pissed her off. She said it herself.

“I wanted to put down roots....He..wanted to play for the world...we both made sacrifices to get what we wanted...,” In her mind, because Hector didn’t just stop pursuing his dream and do what she wanted, he choose music over his family. The letters sent home prove otherwise. She choose to exile him because of his different opinion. That’s called fascism, folks.

And knowing that he, at the very least sent a bunch of letters home, why did Imelda just...not seem to give a fuck when they just stopped coming? Giving her the benefit of the doubt, let’s say she didn’t really think he abandoned them until after the letters stopped. Why was she not curious at all? This is a man you supposedly love. Why did she not press into what happened to him? I refuse to still believe it was hurt if she didn’t in fact believe he abandoned them yet. AND to compound this, we recently got confirmation that the white guitar that is so pivotal to the film was actually a gift to Hector from Imelda. When?...IDK. Apparently before Imelda made the decision that she was done with music. But music ban or no, she had to have seen Ernesto pictured with that guitar somewhere between 1921 and the 1970s when she most likely passed. Did that raise no questions? Seems to me like she just didn’t care what happened...She just was still pissed that he had a different opinion than her own.

Now let’s jump to the next time these two interact, after they’ve both passed away. Or at least attempted to interact. Imelda once says herself in the move:

“How many times must a turn you away!?” This was not the first time Hector had tried to explain what happened. She just didn’t want to hear it. She could tell how young he was when he died, given his hair is still pitch black while hers has grey streaking. She wasn’t interested in what he had to say. But I’m sure she was quick to tell him how awful he was. What a horrific person he was, just as she did in the scene we actually did see. But this isn’t the first time Imelda is abusive.

When Hector finally does get to say what happened, she responds with, “AND SO WHAT IF IT’S TRUE!?” Actually it matters a lot. I don’t know if she was just back-peddling because she realized how ignorant she had been, but it’s still plenty cold-hearted to say to someone who was murdered trying to come home to you.

Finally, can I mention how super horrible it is that she NEVER, not even ONCE, showed any remorse for almost making Hector suffer the Final Death? And, sure, she didn’t understand the consequences of the music ban when she did it, but once she found out, after her own death, she STILL is able to say to Hector’s face:

“I wanted to forget you. I wanted Coco to forget you too, but...” She knows that’s the equivalent of telling someone you wanted them dead. This line is actually what made me really not like her...But speaking of Coco...

2. Emotional/Mental abuse of Coco

Yup. Yes she did. More obvious in the book though. There is a particular flashback scene where Coco as a young woman wants to dance but has to go to a secluded place so her mother can’t see her doing it. Mind you that Imelda also refuses to make shoes for dancers because music. But that aside, she even forbids her daughter from doing something she loves because she disagrees with it. So Coco gets injured dancing in the middle of nowhere so Imelda won’t see her. Imelda uses the fact that she got hurt to push that dancing and music is evil and that she was making her daughters upset. This makes Coco give up dancing for good. Imelda has taught her that showing support for your family must be to give up what you love.

Even bigger so, Imelda forced Coco to not talk about her father. She couldn’t with the music ban. This decision didn’t only affect Imelda when it was put in place. It affected a little girl too. A little girl who was already so confused as to what happened to her father. How much that must have hurt her...She clearly loved her father, she kept all of his letters and even the picture Imelda ripped out. She clung to the memory of her father, which Imelda tried so hard to force out of her over the years. She, “wanted Coco to forget him too, but...” But...she didn’t. She wouldn’t. And thank God she didn’t.

3. Legacy on the Family and Miguel

This point isn’t as important to me as the others, but Imelda’s legacy left quite an imprint on the family. As you recall, the story told at the beginning of the movie is Imelda’s version of events. “Hector up and left. The end.” This is the story Imelda told her granddaughters, poisoning them against a man they never meant. Elena then went on to pass down this misinformation to her children and even to her children’s children. Thankfully, Miguel shared his great grandmother’s fight and ambition. If he hadn’t run off to pursue his dreams, he would never have found out the truth. And it’s not only Miguel who suffered from the music ban. As we see at the end of the movie, Abel and Rosa are playing instruments too. Lord knows, they might have had the same struggles Miguel had, enjoying music in private, they just weren’t strong enough to bring it up like Miguel was.

What does matter A LOT to me is that Imelda was ready to let Miguel die in the Land of the Dead before she let him play music. This is so sickening to me that I can’t dwell too long on it with stooping to calling her more names. I’m trying to avoid that here. It’s really fucked up. That’s all I’ll say.

4. Vs. Ernesto

This is a more personal point. When I first put it out there that I was an Ernector shipper, I got A LOT of comments with people saying: “But Ernesto MURDERED Hector...How could you support that?” Allow me to explain. I don’t believe for even one moment that they actually loved each other. I more so like the tension between the two. I also like Ernesto having super confusing feelings toward his best friend that in 1920s Mexico is so taboo that it just makes it more inciting. Ultimately, I like Ernector because it’s fun. The problem with Imector is...it’s canon. It happened and is currently happening. But people seem to ignore that Imelda is not that much different from Ernesto, both in personality and action.

Both of them over-reacted when Hector tried to change their plans with plans of his own. They both moved to get rid of him. Ernesto was successful. Imelda was not. That’s really the only difference.

In conclusion, I don’t like Imelda because she took her hurt and spread it to everyone around her. People could have died or disappeared because of her bitter, spiteful attitude. Others suffered mentally and emotionally because of her words. In Hector’s case, he was both. I actually believe that her continued belittling lead him to have such low self-esteem that actually caused him to forgive her in the end. She taught him that he was garbage over nearly 40 years of him begging to her for her to toss him aside.

But if you still like her after reading this, that’s perfectly fine too. She was strong in opening up her own business after all. Actions of a character can mean different things to different people. I just wanted to put my thoughts out there :3

#Coco #Imelda Rivera #LONG POST #RayWrites #A damn novel I guess

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bigskydreaming · 6 years ago

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Seriously, for fuck’s sake, I know that post was AT LEAST as far back as December, if not more, and it literally had less than ten notes just two hours ago.

But remember! I’m on a fucking CRUSADE! I just want to take away peoples’ rape fics and harmless kiddie porn fantasies and I just can’t respect the fact that as long as people just TAG their ‘herein lies my advertisement of the fact that hahaha, omg I think what happened to you is actually kinda hot and sexy giggle giggle aren’t I so TABOO????’ smut like lol okay, well that doesn’t affect me at all, I’m not remotely bothered by having to spend every single day wading through reminders of how much more fascinating people find rape than actual survivors of said things.

I’m the one who has no idea how to live in a society with other people and suck it up and deal with the fact that sometimes, people do and say things that make us uncomfortable and we wish we could avoid, but just shut the fuck up and keep that to yourself, right? Don’t like....TELL people they’ve made you uncomfortable and are doing things that you wish they’d think about more critically, gosh, all that’s gonna do is make THEM uncomfortable then, why couldn’t you just kept it to yourself, how dare you think TALKING about problems is the solution?????

Yup yup, I’m clearly the one who has no boundaries and no regard for other people and can’t let people just have their harmless fun, their different opinions that don’t actually affect me, I’m the one who just can’t seem to stop from hunting down posts I don’t agree with and hopping on other blogs and resurrecting weeks or months old posts just to make sure EVERYONE KNOWS THIS POST WAS WROOOOOOONG. Lmao.

Well I’m very sorry for all that, now that mine eyes have been opened! Rape fics are harmless and this is all just fictional, nobody is actually affected in a negative way by anything being talked about here yaaaaaaay!

Anyway, I’m off to spend the rest of the night trying to calm down lolol because fun fact for people who love to talk about being triggered but have no real clue what they’re actually talking about and how that word was never meant to describe being like...upset or angry but rather the stimuli or situations that put survivors and people with PTSD and other mental disorders into actual goddamn panic spirals and attacks. And thus like, triggers are not as fucking obvious as some of you seem to think they are.

Like lol guess what, I actually can read a scene wherein someone’s raping someone in a scene that looks or sounds EXACTLY LIKE MY RAPE and it can be heart-wrenching and it can be graphic and it can be emotional and I can still not be triggered by that! Know why? Because shockingly, I AM aware that this is just fictional! That these are just fictional characters! That no fictional character and no real person has been harmed in the writing of this scene, because FICTIONAL CHARACTERS CAN’T BE HARMED! Know what else fictional characters can’t be? RAPED. Because rape is not a VISUAL, rape is not an ACTION, rape is not a SPECIFIC SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. Rape is a THEFT, it is one person STEALING another person’s ability to control what happens with their body, taking what they have no right to take, just because they WANT to, just because they CAN. And thus NO rape scene, no matter HOW well written or realistically depicted, is ever going to BE a rape scene, just like no ‘rape fantasy’ roleplay is ever going to BE rape because without an actual DYNAMIC of one person taking something the other person has no power to stop, when its two equally consenting partners or two flat fictional characters on a page, it is still nothing more than a SIMULATION of rape, and NEVER ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT.

And guess what? I can handle THAT just fine. THAT doesn’t trigger me no matter how much it reminds me of my own trauma, because I KNOW DAMN WELL THAT ISN’T REAL.

But you know what IS real? You know what DOES trigger me? The CONTEXT of the scene. The REASON it was written, the intended REACTION of the reader.

The part that makes me lose my fucking shit is when I’m forced to face the reality that this scene exists, was written, because somebody found it HOT and SEXY and wanted to share it with people who’d see it the same way. The reason I lose my goddamn MIND and my adrenaline ramps up and my whole body starts shaking as my fight or flight instincts kick in with no actual outlet because there’s no actual threat, just the phantom reminder of a threat I couldn’t escape from....THAT fun little adventure comes from looking or hearing about things that remind me of my rape, take me back to that fucking room and make me a terrified out of my goddamn mind dumbass nineteen year old all over again.....and knowing that this is HOT to the writer and readers, that this is intended as sexually gratifying, that this scene, this depiction, this simulation of one person STEALING from another powerless person SOMETHING THEY WILL NEVER EVER FUCKING BE ABLE TO GET BACK AS LONG AS THEY LIVE, THE SENSE OF SAFETY AND SECURITY THAT COMES FROM BEING THE ONLY PERSON WHO GETS TO DECIDE WHO HAS ACCESS TO YOUR BODY....knowing that this little smutty fic exists so people can read this and be TURNED ON by this, so they can GET OFF to this, this thing they’re looking at in their mind, reading about, picturing as they stare down at their screen getting all hot and bothered....

JUST LIKE MY FUCKING RAPIST LOOKED WHEN GETTING OFF FROM TAKING THOSE THINGS FROM ME.

THAT is what fucking triggers me, THAT is what makes me feel unsafe and panicky, THAT is what traps me all over again in that fucking goddamn room and leaves me STUCK there no matter how many years its been and HOW far I’ve come in getting past it...

THE CONSTANT NEVER ENDING REMINDER THAT PEOPLE THINK ITS TOTALLY NO BIG DEAL TO FUCKING AGREE WITH MY RAPIST ABOUT HOW FUCKING HOT AND SATISFYING THE VIEW IS FROM UP THERE.

And all the fucking trigger warnings in the world don’t protect me from THAT, they just emphasize how little people actually give a shit, they just want the magic answer to how they can have their fun ‘harmless’ little rape KINK without having someone make them feel bad for the fact that the rank goes FUN RAPE FANTASIES YAY first and survivors who have a problem with that way the fuck last.

Anyway, so that’s what I’ll be doing all night! Links to my paypal and my ko-fi are on my main blog page if anyone’s ever felt informed or learned anything from any of my many, many, MANY posts about this stuff or any form of gratitude for the effort I DO or at least once DID put into sorting through my thoughts and making my points in some kind of way that actually addresses the usual conversations around all this.

Because guess what? It IS goddamn fucking emotional labor. It DOES take work! Its EXHAUSTING. It HURTS. I would give anything in the world to NOT pick at that giant fucking scab as often as I do, but I DONT HAVE THAT OPTION. Because not talking about it DOESNT MAKE IT GO AWAY. It doesn’t make LESS for me to have to navigate through every goddamn day of my life and you know what the suggested response to problems that you can’t fix on your own are? Problems with SOCIETY?

HAVING GODDAMN CONVERSATIONS ABOUT IT.

So excuse me for SAYING that as often as I do especially cuz every time I DO I get maybe ten notes of acknowledgment that anyone’s even fucking LISTENING but meanwhile here’s another fucking five hundred on a Batfam or X-Men shit post, now THAT’S the content people want from me!

Guess what! I WANT THAT TO BE MY CONTENT TO!

I would LOVE nothing more than to just be able to happily and comfortably shitpost about my favorite superheroes and write stuff I enjoy and that doesn’t have the flaws I rant about seeing in so many shows and books. I could talk for HOURS about fun thoughts and ideas I have in my head, I could banter back and forth with my friends about nothing of substance at all for DAYS, I don’t NEED to fucking retraumatize myself every goddamn day screaming into the void about this shit so I can feel IMPORTANT or have something INTERESTING to blog about or whatever the fuck people think is my reason for ranting about this shit. ALL. THE. GODDAMN. TIME.

But I can’t do that, because there is not a fucking day that goes by, not a DAY where SOMETHING doesn’t cross my dash, or SOMETHING isn’t on an Ao3 page I’m searching through for fic about a fave character, that doesn’t set me off and make my body start shaking with how deeply, fundamentally UPSETTING it is to constantly be bombarded with reminders of just how easy people find it to reframe my trauma as something hot and sexy and WAY MORE WORTH DEFENDING than the very thought of me going ONE FUCKING DAY without having to stumble across bullshit like that. Because I CAN’T ‘dont like/dont read’ as much is out there. I don’t need to click on a fic to see this is smut fic by an author who thinks rape is hot and judging from the number of kudos and comments and hits is definitely on to something! GUESS I DID MY RAPE WRONG THEN, cuz it wasnt fucking hot for me!

I would love to just ‘avoid’ it so I can actually ENJOY my fucking time on the internet. But I CANT. Because its EVERYWHERE. And god forbid I try and start fucking CONVERSATIONS about that so that maybe, someday, after we’ve done the work as a society to examine WHY PEOPLE ARE SO FUCKING INVESTED IN THIS STUFF, I or at the very least people like me, can someday enjoy one day on the internet where they DONT have to constantly wade through an endless swamp of that shit.

Honestly. Seriously. I have said it so often I can not count. I do not want to censor anyone. I do not want power over what people can read or write. I just. want. to TELL people that when they write this stuff, it has CONSEQUENCES, that there are people it DOES hurt, and have them LISTEN, so that at least, at LEAST the ones who are bothered enough by that realization to NOT be comfortable writing it when faced with the awareness of the fact that their writing HAS THIS EFFECT WHETHER WE SAY IT TO THEIR FACES OR NOT, that THEY at least can decide....hey. What if I just...wrote something else instead?

But what the FUCK am I supposed to do with the constant, incessant reminder that people would rather dig in their heels in defense of their RAPE FANTASIES than roll up their sleeves and do a little fucking examination of WHY they and society at large are so fucking invested in this shit that the very IDEA of ‘giving up’ content like this for the sake of people who have actually LIVED through it, is just....INCOMPREHENSIBLE to them? That they feel ATTACKED by the very idea?

(And don’t fucking come at me with that ‘some survivors use it to cope’ stuff. Yeah, well I used to get in bar fights as my coping mechanism. Didn’t fucking mean it was healthy, and it wasn’t fucking harmless to anyone I punched in the goddamn face, now was it? Also, if you’re not a survivor and you hide behind that line, FEEL FUCKING ASHAMED for thinking of it as a kneejerk response to another survivor telling you your “kink” fucking hurts).

I’m out. See you all later.

#rape cw

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goddessfavored · 6 years ago

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“You are the Night Warrior herself, in fact,” Illidan continued smoothly. “I hear you’ve been put in charge of a band of your sisters.”

Well now she will be the Night Warrior herself indeed and I find this amusing

but anyways I intend this to be a rant about the Night Warrior, as it was presented in the War of the Ancients trilogy and why I actually love that Tyrande is going to represent this darker side of the moon in a time of war.

(Ayy this got super long, so it’s under the cut.)

To Malfurion, she looked more like the priestess of a war god and evidently Tyrande could read such in his expression. With a bit of defensiveness, she admonished him, “You may excel at your new calling, Malfurion, but you seem to have forgotten the elements of Mother Moon! Do you not recall her aspect as the Night Warrior, she who takes the courageous dead from the field and sets them riding across the evening sky as stars for their reward?”

The first time the Night Warrior is mentioned in the trilogy is this one. It doesn’t tell us much about it but, to me, it presented some interesting points:

1. Elune isn’t a peaceful goddess, in the sense that her philosophy isn’t one of being dedicated solely to peace and healing. She has a warrior facet, that might not be her most known face, is a part of the goddess nonetheless. The fact Tyrande points this out to Malfurion as something he may have forgotten indicates that this part of Elune wasn’t something only those devout to the goddess and dedicating their lives to her would know, so I’d say that while not primary, it would still be one important aspect of Elune.

2. The idea that Elune “takes the courageous dead from the field and sets them riding across the evening sky as stars for their reward” is indicative that this aspect of the goddess glorifies war, even rewarding those that show bravery in the field of battle. It reminded me of the concept of warriors being rewarded with Valhalla for glorious deaths in battle, to some extent. If Elune has a face to her that is devout to war and that rewards warriors, this only reinforces the idea of her not being a goddess of peace, the way I see it.

Malfurion gaped at them, only belatedly realizing that they were not the soldiers of Jarod Shadowsong. Their armor was more silver and—he looked twice—shaped for more feminine figures. The song he heard was in praise of the Night Warrior, the fearsome battle incarnation of the Mother Moon.

The Sisterhood of Elune had come to their rescue.

For the first time, Malfurion saw the quiet, gentle priestesses in their wartime roles. Many carried long, curved swords, while others wielded short lances with points on both ends. A few even had bows no longer than their forearms, from which they swiftly shot dart after dart.

The effect on the demons was immediate. Felbeasts dropped, riddled. A priestess swung her blade with the ease of a soldier, decapitating a horned warrior. Two night sabers dropped upon another hound, slashing it repeatedly from both sides until all that remained was a bloody carcass.

1. Let’s ignore Malfurion’s perception that the priestesses can’t be awesome warriors because they should be “quiet and gentle”.

2. In spite of the character’s biased views, I think this passage makes it quite clear that martial aspects are important to Elune --- the priestesses are trained, they don’t just fight “with the ease of a soldier” they are soldiers too. The Legion is attacking and while it is part of their duty to heal and help those in need, they actively participate in the fight, and are a considerable force on their own.

3. Malfurion now refers to the Night Warrior as “the fearsome battle incarnation of the Mother Moon”. I find this interesting because it is one more quality we now learn about the Night Warrior -- when Tyrande talks about it, she mentions only courage, and when Illidan mentions the Night Warrior, it is as a compliment towards Tyrande. Malfurion, however, brings up “fearsome” and I think that it can add to this form of Elune not being solely that of a warrior connected to bravery and the usual ideals of “nobility” but of an aspect that is also imposing, powerful, and even scary to some extent.

Direct mentions of the Night Warrior end there, so there isn’t much. Let’s see what we have about her on patch 8.1 now.

There are mentions of a ritual, but the first time someone talks about the Night Warrior is Maiev, and she’s explaining why the ritual Tyrande intends on doing is dangerous.

What ritual do you speak of, Maiev? Who is the Night Warrior? She is the incarnation of Elune's wrath. Even witnessing the ritual to become her would put our lives at risk.

Maiev doesn’t talk of the Night Warrior as a warrior aspect of Elune, but rather as an embodiment of her wrath. Of course, wrath is suitable both to the current situation of the story (as it makes all sense that Tyrande, in her own wrath, would seek to become an embodiment of her goddess’ rage) and as important part of a warrior aspect in general.

Legend says that long ago, Elune bestowed her fury upon our greatest warriors to secure Kalimdor.

Maiev continues to explain the Night Warrior, saying that they came to be through Elune’s fury, which furthers the notion that Elune’s warrior aspect is more tied with anger and even vengeance than with the more noble aspects such as bravery.

Now, I will serve you only if you grant me justice! With ancient words, I invoke your most ruthless phase. With this offering, I demand to wear your darkest face.

Elune! Make me the instrument of your vengeance! Now, we shall have justice.

I am no queen. I am the kaldorei's vengeance.

When Tyrande calls to Elune to ask for the Night Warrior’s powers, the Night Warrior is connected to justice, but also to ruthlessness and vengeance. She even says it is the goddess’ “darkest face”, which is completely coherent with the “dark side of the moon” theme, and with everything Maiev said, too. In the end, she does demands to be made an instrument of the goddess’ vengeance, and later, when she talks to Nathanos, this is what she claims to have become.

It is time we reclaim our home. You, Maiev, must command our forces. Me? What will you do? I have known these woods all my life. The Night Warrior's wrath must be sated.

By the end of it, Tyrande passes on the command of the kaldorei forces to Maiev. The very last sentence indicates that being the embodiment of Elune’s fury comes with consequences, and that the Night Warrior demands the blood of her enemies to be spilled. This, of course, is just speculation, and there are many blanks to be filled (such as why Maiev cares if she lived or died in the ritual, or why they are even working together without any apparent distrust? idk).

Anyways. When it comes to the Night Warrior itself, the content we seem to be getting in game seems to be quite different from that of the books. Here, this face of Elune isn’t connected to simply being a warrior aspect of the goddess, or to courage; it is only tied with wrath, fury, vengeance. I don’t think the two representations are incompatible, though. When Tyrande links the Night Warrior to courage in WotA, she does so immediately after Malfurion seems judgmental about her war outfit -- she’s defensive, and would of course not talk about Elune’s warrior facet in any way that would further his apparently bad impression of it. The other “positive” mention of the Night Warrior comes in Illidan using it to compliment Tyrande, and is actually quite simply explained: she’s a priestess of Elune, and it is a logical conclusion that she would feel flattered to be compared to an aspect of the goddess she’s devout to. Not only that, as he is portrayed in the books, and in a time of war, I don’t see a reason why he would find Elune’s warrior aspect to be a bad thing.Praising bravery isn’t mutually exclusive with ruthlessness or wrath, either; and it is very likely that the Night Warrior was both of those things at once.

I’m genuinely looking forward for Tyrande to assume this role; first, because the lack of Night Elf response to the burning of Teldrassil has been bothering me ever since it happened, second because I find this to be a very in character response from her. I like Elune not being a goddess of pure good, and I love that her followers not only are aware of that but would benefit from this side of her as well. I love that all that happened would make Tyrande question her goddess --- and that it isn’t quite her faith that is in question, but Elune’s actions as their goddess. Tyrande didn’t stop believing in her, but got angry that she would have allowed this to happen to her people.

Tyrande isn’t the sort of character to await permissions, and she often acts accordingly to what she feels is right, even when others disagree or try to stop her. It is through disobedience and following her convictions that she “adopted” Shandris, but also that she freed Illidan from his prison when she thought he could help them fight the Legion*. That she sought the Alliance’s support and chose to act even when denied is very much a Tyrande thing to do. That she sought Elune as a source of power, too. In Seeds of Faith, she recalls her superior questioning why she chose to join the Sisterhood of Elune, to which Tyrande replies she wanted to protect others, specially the ones she loved; her desire to protect others was extended to protecting her people once she became their leader, and she failed to do so. Now, she comes to Elune not seeking power to protect, but to bring justice to those who harmed them. I really like that they are giving the Night Elves a chance to answer to what the Horde did to them, and that it comes through Tyrande. This entire scenario feels much more like that character from Warcraft 3 than that questline about saving Malfurion in Legion.

(*not that she owed obedience in this case, but Malfurion did try to forbid her and was awarded with a fuck you husband I’m doing this with or without you)

#I'm going nowhere in particular with this #which is why I called it a rant #it's just a lot of text with me talking about info we have on the night warrior #and about tyrande and why i think this isn't unlike her #anyways #&&. why did you choose this path Tyrande Whisperwind? [ ABOUT / CHARACTER STUDY. ]#&&. just your local anxious nerd [ OUT OF CHARACTER. ]

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toughguywithbossygirlfriend · 7 years ago

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Batman #40 - Writing mistake ?.. or not ?..

I have to say that I was half angry, half pleased with Tom King’s Batman Issue #40 ... because of some bad story telling... maybe(?) bad story telling ?

There is a lot of good stuff in this one, for the BatCat of course but for WonderBat as well and more than you could have expected... all in all a good Issue except for the “Mistake”.. (if it is one)

Pretty much like with Batman #39 Tom King treated neither of the three character with disrespect, Bruce and Diana could show their exceptional chemistry and Selina could be pictured as an intelligent and compassionate hero.

This is quite long, as often with me and focuses mainly WonderBat but on Selina as well... it may be more wonderbat but it definitively isn’t anti-batcat. There is an interesting point I didn’t really explore but who will surely have some incidences in later Issues : the exchange between Selina and the GM about “Hope, Love and Marriage” ... it could contains some clues about the wedding, but I didn’t check it out.

Anyway, If you read this, read it till the end, don’t go ballistic if you are only half way through, … and If you did go through to the end but you still feel the need, then … as Liam Sharp said “so be it”… It is not my purpose to hurt any character fan or ship with this and I don’t think I’ll do it … anyway remember I did not write the Story, Tom King did ! so if you feel the need to blame someone about anything you know who to blame.

Everything starts with the one big important question that I mentioned in my previous post “Batman #39: ...WonderBatCat ...” :

(DC Rebirth’s Batman #40) Selina and the “Gentle Man”

here we go ..

“WonderBatCat” when I wrote that one ... I wasn’t really thinking Tom King would even play with that idea ... but we’ll see at the end of this post the little wink ;) he made about it.

And, as expected, the answer to the question was : “No” ... otherwise both Diana and Bruce would have refrained their temptation for as long as needed - so far, it’s OK, no mistake and in line with the outcome of Batman #39.

In the very similar “Action comic” story with Supes and Wondy fighting in the realm of Walhalla, both Clark and Diana knew about the differences between the speeds of the timeflows, and they expected either to Die in the realm or to return to the normal world (and to Lois for Clark ... I think Diana was single) once the battle ended. It may have lasted nearly 1000 years but it was not supposed to be endless, unlike the battle against the hordes of Gehenna. Knowing that, Wonder Woman and Superman had all the reasons to refrain any temptation and they succeeded.

But Tom King didn’t choose that path, ... on purpose ... he wanted them to hook up ... or at least to look like they did ... it was all part of the teasing plan : Trapped in a realm with no escape, no way to get help or even ask for it, fighting an endless and hopeless war that could only have one end: their own deaths. And on top of that, the desperation of having been abandoned and forgotten from all the people they cared about ... quite a Nightmare !

Selina’s POV

Selina understood the consequences, the moment she learned about the Time flow speed differences ... even if some BatCat and WonderBat fans have a hard time to accept it ... Selina knew in that moment that Bruce and Diana where trapped in that realm for over a decade or two, maybe three, and that both had necessarily come to the conclusion that they have been abandoned by herself and the GM forever ... she knew, even if he was still alive, that he had to hate her for that, ... she already had lost him and if they were both still alive they would have had to comfort each other, ... by now they would be together ... of course she gets angry at the GM, the guy just destroyed her relationship with Bruce for selfish reasons ...

But then (again like I already suggested in my post about Batman #39) Selina shows she is a real hero, with a compassion that can compete with Diana’s, ... Selina allows him to see his wife ... even after he just destroyed her future with Bruce, she lets him meet his loved one, ... I have to say Selina is admirable of selflessness ... Her own life is yet broken again but what would be the point of punishing him because he did that for love, his love ... and the guy sacrifices himself endlessly for all other people, all other lovers ...

Selina gives him some more time knowing that in the realm, at least one of them is still alive and fights with no hope only to prevent the hordes from coming ... it may be Bruce alone, it may be Diana alone or both and if they are together , then they only had each other’s arms to comfort them... only a few hours passed but she knows that she’d lost him ... and that is the reason why Selina cries the moment they return even if they didn’t exchange a single word...She doesn’t smile ... this isn’t are not tears of happiness.. She must think that is the moment where her nightmare is gonna come true and Bruce is going to say her that it is over.

But against all odds ... Bruce still wants to marry her !! ... ??

That would be related to the “Writing mistake” that we will look at later ...

This Selina has not much to do with the one I used to read about when I was a young boy ... this one is really adorable ... I can just feel the claws of BatCat trying to catch me and drag me into their world of bliss ... but, enough with the love for Selina and lets check out ...

Diana and Bruce’s POV

(Edit of DC Rebirth’s Batman #40)

The main difference between BatCat and WonderBat is that Catwoman will drag him into Darkness, to the Night, to the Batman, while Wonder Woman will push him into the Light, the Day, to Bruce Wayne.

Someone said Tom King used a puzzle metaphor to explain the BatCat relationship ... After reading Batman #39 and Batman #40 it is pretty obvious that even for Tom King (a puzzle piece has more than one side), if Selina is the perfect fit to Bruce “Batman” Wayne’s puzzle pieces “dark side”, than Diana is the perfect fit to his “bright side” ... not even the BatCat master denies that ...

That is visible even in the way they call each other in their intimate and tender moments... for BatCat it will be “Bat” and “Cat” while for WonderBat it is “Bruce” and “Diana”.

When BatCat are together the passion and sex takes over, on roof tops, in the bedroom, in the love boat, when WonderBat plays out, the hearts and souls take over, sitting at the fire place, her hand on his knee, comfortable and safe with each other, they are like a settled married couple who made love countless of times and where Tenderness, Love and Care replaced the Passion and Excitement of the discovery.

No matter how much the BatCat are cheering and sending trash posts because of the wedding ... WonderBat still got the most beautiful artwork ... and the deepest feelings ... so it is hard to be really angry with Tom King ... he could have played out Diana with a totally platonic friendship ... but he didn’t ... and I think DC doesn’t want it either. A relationship with Bruce and Diana has too much to offer on so many levels, and I think they know it very well. But so far Batman and Wonder Woman don’t need each other to sell comics ... other characters on the other hand need some strong boost ... and what better publicity than to share a comic with one of these two ? ...

(Edit of DC Rebirth’s Batman #40)

So far Tom King’s story was solid and coherent ... having been trapped in the Realm for over 10 years they were convinced that this was all they had left for the rest of Eternity (as clearly explained in Batman #39) ... for them there was no more BatCat and no more WonderTrev to consider and because of that, they could do nothing wrong, giving into their feelings for each other...

So why stop this intimate foreplay ? ... it didn’t make any sense...

An Anon asked @fyeahwonderbat why Diana mentioned “ever” ?

“No, we can’t.” you could imagine this is about Selina and Trevor but “ever” ? ... what if Selina and Trevor, both Die ? “ever” ?

the reason suggested by the Anon is a valid one imo : there could be some kind of reason, a powerful spell, idk forbidding them to get together. doomed to stay apart no matter how much they love each other. That could explain why they stopped even if there were no more over valid reasons ... In the JL#90:Revelation Diana had to ask her Gods the permission to carry Bruce’s children and it was refused ... The “Batman who laughts” said that in the worlds where Bruce and Diana where together they had Kids that where so Fierce creatures that he did write down all their names to remember them like some kind of trophy list - could the Gods be afraid of WonderBat ?...

It wouldn’t be the first time DC hints to the fact that there may be some deeper relationship between these two even if they have other loved ones with them ... during the New52 era, Trevor was supposed, because of his bond with Diana, to be able to use the Lasso of truth to save them all, but he wasn’t there and J’onn told Batman that he could use the Lasso as well and that “he knew why” ... the reason remained a mystery but Bruce actually used the Lasso without any problem... Catwoman was quite jealous that Batman had obviously the same “bond” with Diana than Trevor ... (so you had a bit BatCat, a bit WonderTrev, but a mysterious underlying WonderBat ) ...

The other reason that comes up to mind is much like in JL#90 that : “they just don’t want to risk their incredible friendship”... but that was already the wrong reason in JL#90..

(DC Rebirth’s Batman #40)

He leans into her more than the reverse and rubs his face and nose with hers, But she doesn’t back off, and on the contrary, makes sure for good skin contact, grazing her lips over his nose, half kissing it ...

This doesn’t feel like a “Oh My God !! what are we doing ?? this cannot be !! Back off !!” but rather like a “Dammit! ,why can’t we be happy .. I need you so much ...”.

Be sure Tom King was fully aware of the content of the Issue ... He is responsible of the Batman serie and wrote this after all ...

And That is were Tom Kings writing gets out of track and becomes incoherent ... the Writing mistake !! : why would they suddenly talk about Selina and Trevor ? why should they suddenly think that they would go back when they were so convinced earlier that they would not ?? ... that doesn’t make sense ...

Tom King literally created the perfect conditions to push them together, and then he forgets some of these same conditions just to pull them apart again !!

Or ... and that would mean it wasn’t a Writing mistake after all ...

They both secretly knew from the beginning about the time flow differences ... even if the “Gentle Man” didn’t tell them ... (like Clark and Diana in the “Action Comic” story)

Why and How could that have been possible ? ... easy

for Diana: How ? She is a supernatural creature and has connections to creatures that could have surely given her all the “need to know” informations about the Realm, the GM, the Hordes ... Why ? She’s intelligent : wouldn’t you want to know everything you can if you are supposed to take such risks ??

for Bruce: Hell, the guy is a Paranoid Detective , so the question not Why but only How ... Zatanna, Constantine, Dr Fate, Etrigan, Deadman, ... he has countless very competent allies who could have made some research for him ..

And they surely talked about it together ...

So maybe it isn’t a Writing mistake after all !! ... but then why wouldn’t Tom King explain that reason until the end of the Issue ? After their return ? ... unless they are rooting for each other, hard, but something keeps them from acting on it, and that information is a DC internal “need to know” information until it gets exposed. And we return to the little word “ever” from earlier. Dammit, could there be something real about that idea?

Some of you may think “No, you’re wrong there is no writing mistake, they wouldn’t have hooked up anyway because after 10 years there was still hope ...”, well OK !!, why not ... but then let me ask another question : What about 35 years ?...

If they didn’t knew about the time-flow speed differences, but still wanted to stay true ... that means that they were consciously hoping to return to their loved ones and resume their previous relationship. right ? ... Bruce Wayne would actually hope to marry a Selina Kyle who is 37 years older then she was when he left her ? ... and Trevor would surely be around 70 years old ... ? ... is that the theory ? ... I am not that cheesy ...

I think Tom King knew what he did with this two Issues ... I am pretty sure the durations (10 years, 37 years) were thought through as well as the rest.

(Edit of DC Rebirth’s Batman #40 and from a JLA comic of 1960, I think )

It is somehow disturbing to read that speech about how Selina and Trevor are “good” and thus they “deserve to have good people” as well ... so now it isn’t anymore “about what you believe” but “about what you deserve” ... Dammit, I am so confused... Joking ! XD

You just get the feeling she meant : “Bruce, Love, ... we are not allowed to be happy together, ... so lets at least do our best to make other good people happy ...”

Did you notice : Diana uses Selina’s first name (as with Bruce, or Clark/Kal, or the other leaguers ... ) but still uses Trevor’s full name, the same way she did a long time ago when she wasn’t really in a hurry to marry him. want to keep some distance here ?

Of course there is always the less “pure and innocent” solution ... maybe Tom King choose the 10 th year just to show us that they did resist ... they tried... as long as they could ... but ... 2 weeks later ... they had to get it out of their system ... it happened ...and again, and again ... until year 37... They just never talked about it again ...

Not good enough ... Yeah you could say that ...

So where is the truth ?

Did Tom King make a ridiculous mistake in his story ?? is there a well hidden secret that keeps two lovers apart ? or wasn’t it that “pure and innocent” ?

Your choice ...

after their return from the realm, Batman’s sentences may give you a hint thou... much like the wrong comparison between Lois as a reporter and Cat as a thief in Batman #35 ... another mistake... TK seems to be better in psychology then in logic ...

At least it seems that with all the BatCat promotion there is an obvious will from DC to keep WonderBat strong and alive with all that teasing, in Batman #39 and #40 but in Dark nights metal as well ... maybe to capitalize on it with the next reboot ?

And for the fun ... Last but not least ... I made a “Gasp !” when I read that one after posting “WonderBatCat” in the title of my Batman #39 post :

Diana thinks about Selina and herself, when she means “Us” and its possible consequences, because Selina suggested they go all three the next time ... Now, let me just resume : two very attractive and supposedly Bi-Sexual women, both very compassionate and obviously very very close to the same Guy, trapped for much longer (more like 300 years, to give the GM at least a few days with his Love) with only each other to comfort .... and much more time to spare because the Hordes may not be so everlasting...

Hmm ... temperature is gonna rise in the realm ...

#batman #bruce wayne #Wonder woman #diana prince #wonderbat

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retro-friki · 7 years ago

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Utena manga recap: To Plant (part I)

In this episode, Utena gets a new outfit. This is the best part of the whole thing, really.

For lots of fans of the “Revolutionary Girl Utena” anime, Juri Arisugawa is one of the most beloved characters of the series. She is in fact a formidable rival for the protagonist and possesses a complex psychology and backstory that has made many people feel identified with her. However, if you have only read the manga you wouldn’t believe anything that I just wrote, since manga!Juri is a completely different character. I’ve known about anime fans that refuse to read the manga because they’ve learned that one of Juri’s most prominent traits was changed, I’m sorry to inform you that this is in fact, correct. But this isn’t the only change, if you’re interested to find out, then keep reading this story I want to call:

To Plant Part I or Unappealing Juri

Last time on the RGU manga, we finally got some plot, we were introduced to the main characters, our hero attained the Super Saiyan Pink transformation and consequently got engaged with Anthy Himemiya, then some boring stuff happened and now Utena’s about to get sliced by a rather unstable Saionji. That escalated quickly as it’s the custom in Ohtori… (seriously, no one there has any chill).

So Utena gets damseled for the second time now only to be saved by valiant prince Touga who seems to be more concerned for the goshdarned dress than for Utena herself.

God forbid anything happens to the dress that HE chose for her! That would be a tragedy!

Why are we supposed to care about this guy, again?

Touga gets hospitalized and it will take him 3 months to recover from his injury, meanwhile, Saionji, who smuggled a weapon and hurt a fellow student with said weapon on an attempt to kill a defenseless eight-grader…only gets a two-week suspension. Makes me wonder what do you have to do to get expelled from that hellhole of a school…

With the main guys from the Student Council out of the scene, it’s time to focus on the other two members of the Student Council that we know nothing about: we’re talking about Juri Arisugawa and Miki Kaoru, of course! All this volume will be about them and then they’ll go back to obscurity, but for know we’ll let them enjoy their time in the limelight.

As we see, both Miki and Juri are talented members of the fencing team, Juri is particularly skilled and, unfortunately for our protagonist, she doesn’t seem to like Utena very much. After Touga gets injured, Juri doesn’t do anything but antagonize Utena, she slaps her (take a drink), trows away the bouquet that Utena bought for Touga, stabs Utena’s baseball…

Yes, seriously…

And generally acts as a petty girls from elementary school.

Utena being at Juri’s level of maturity doesn’t know how to react, meanwhile, Anthy couldn’t care less.

Utena is confused because she can’t imagine why Juri being a woman, would want to duel her to claim Anthy (seriously, Utena? You don’t have any idea?) Anthy says that there are always other reasons.

Now, if this manga had a better storytelling, then all of Utena’s rivals would have compelling reasons to antagonize her, that would turn them into stronger characters and we as readers would be conflicted because sometimes we would even be cheering for the rivals or at least we would feel bad for them. This isn’t exactly the case of this manga since Juri’s reasons for hating Utena are limited to mere jealousy. That’s right, Juri has been jealous of Utena ever since Saionji told her that Touga might be in love with our pink haired protagonist.

So yeah, in the manga, Juri Arisugawa is in love with Touga Kiryuu, of all people. I have so many questions. First, if manga!Juri knows that Touga is a playboy who sees all people as pawns and whose moves are always calculated towards getting what he wants, why is she still in love with him?! She knows that the chances of him changing are very unlikely, however, she’s filled with jealousy when she starts thinking that Utena might be That One Girl That Will Win The Bad Boy’s Heart. This isn’t reason enough for Juri to act the way she acts and we don’t get to go deeper on her feelings for Touga. Does she hopes that Touga will eventually figure out that she’s Not Like The Other Girls and will reciprocate her feelings? Or maybe she’s sure that he’s a terrible person but she feels irremediably attracted to him and that’s tearing her apart? And while we’re at it, how on Earth did she fell in love with him in the first place? Surely his playboy act didn’t work with her… so why is she so obsessed with him? We will never know because the story doesn’t really care about Juri.

Meanwhile Touga is taking as much advantage as he can of the situation. I believe that Touga didn’t plan to get injured while saving Utena, Saionji’s attack was unexpected and that forced Touga to do something that wouldn’t benefit him at all. As Saionji said, this kind of actions are unusual for him and he might be falling for Utena, however, he still has other ambitions and this means he will try to turn everything to his own advantage.

Touga makes his move and takes Utena to the dueling arena in the middle of the night.

This is supposed to be romantic and I guess that it actually is because soon enough, Utena opens up to him and reveals everything about her prince.

Great job hero, know he knows your weakness.

Utena is surprised when Touga tells her the same words that she heard from her prince many years ago. This prompts Utena to start wondering if Touga might be her prince, because she’s not very bright, you know? However, when she’s about to ask him about it, she’s interrupted by Juri who is very jealous and very angry.

Juri challenges Utena to a duel and if Utena loses she’ll have to give up the Rose Bride but also, she won’t be able to talk to Touga ever again!!

Who cares?

Utena has grown fond of Anthy, and knows that she won’t be able to help her if she loses, so she’s determined to fight with all her might.

Just kidding, Utena’s main motivation for fighting this duel is that she wants to ask Touga if he’s really her prince. Such high priorities you have there, girl.

Predictably, Utena’s pure-hearted determination prompts her to get possessed by her prince and win the duel.

Juri faces an humiliating defeat and to add insult to injury Touga tells her coldly that it’s all her fault.

What did she sees in him? We will never know.

Miki confronts Touga for acting like such a jerk even when he knows that Juri is in love with him. However, Utena interrupts them because she just has to know if Touga is her prince, you guys!

Priorities, girl! Priorities!!

Sigh. And this is all for today. I have no idea why they changed Juri’s character in the manga, but it was a change for the worse. I don’t want to tell you the deal with anime!Juri because I’d prefer that you find out, I will only say that if you really want to meet Juri Arisugawa, you should watch the anime.

Notes:

*I’m using the scanlations to illustrate this recaps, but sometimes I put the dialogues from the Viz edition because they are better. If you’re going to read the manga, I recommend you to get the printed version, the scanlations are terribly translated.

*At the end of this month we’re getting a new manga by Chiho Saito in which Juri would be the protagonist, it seems that this Juri will be more like in the anime. We’ll see how this turns out.

#revolutionary girl utena #Shoujo Kakumei Utena #shoujo manga #utena manga #recaps

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