#He really is a loving and caring dude he just internalizes his anger and it Explodes

[wodniars-void]

Since you asked for questions about What Once Was Mine: what's been your favorite part about writing it so far?

thanks for the question, Cori!!!

Definitely the excuse to watch Tangled over and over again, I do really like the movie and I think I notice something new every time.

Writing-wise though, I'm having a really good time writing Lauriam? I think he's a fun mix of "role model older brother" and "guy a little too ready to get into a fight". He's the kind of guy who is genuinely just so nice and polite and kind but underneath it all is a violent simmering rage and god help you if you get on his bad side. He doesn't become Marluxia out of nowhere, after all :3

[kitkatpancakestack]

Just re-watched some eps in s4 and I know it's all been said before but I'll say it again. My favorite thing about one Evan Buckley? His anger. He has so much pure, burning anger in him. This man is not just a "hothead," he has some mfing demons. The scene when he blows up at his parents? All of his flashbacks in Buck Begins, especially when he crashes his motorcycle? Up until season 4 we just see Buck as this idealistic, kind of ignorant and gullible, boneheaded frat bro with somewhat good intentions. But Buck has been egregiously hurt throughout his life. Also he's enormous. He could be a really mean dude. He could be rough and aggressive and violent and spiteful.

But he isn't.

We are all paradoxical but damn do I love the flavor of paradox that is Buck.

And I know we all like to bemoan Buck's screen time and his storylines but tbh he did start the show in such a place (age, demeanor, kind of an impressionable blank slate) that afforded him an advantageous position. And nothing is perfect but like, his story kind of slaps though. And season 4 cracks him open in such a fantastic way and I honestly wish they would explore the internal struggle of that more. I mean, what would it take for him to snap? How much does he have to battle those demons? Was he always like this or how did he learn to quiet his anger? Show me THIS. The entire lightning strike arc was a big ass flop to me sorry.

Anyway, long story short, the best part about Buck is that he isn't this pure uwu baby that needs to be taken care of and coddled, and I won't let the growing faction of Buck stans who just get hard-ons for pouty white boys, and who have clearly never watched the source material, permanently defile his character. He has some serious darkness in him, and he could have so easily turned out different. Buck is the master of facades no matter how mature he becomes. Choosing kindness and goodness is always more work than the other way around. And that's why Evan Buckley will always have a special place in my heart. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[sepublic]

I remember hearing that Dana was inspired by True Crime, amongst other things and people IRL, when writing Belos. And it seems that contrary to the notoriety of True Crime fans, she actually understood the assignment.

Because she opted to demystify the serial killer as this dark, unusual psychology that operates outside of societal borders and rules, disturbed by some secret reason, and instead literally pull off the mask to reveal he’s just some white manchild who hates women and minorities to a violent degree, because he feels threatened by them and their ability to say No in his entitlement. There’s nothing special or unique about his motives.

He’s no exception to the status quo, he is it unmasked of the veneer of civility, he’s the lynch mob and the cop (all of whom inherit the violence of white supremacy and colonialism) and fittingly a lot of serial killers were clocked by women and PoC as dangerous, but cops —largely white men— dismissed their claims because look at this dude, he seems like an upstanding citizen! And that’s really how he got away.

And because his victims were people the system was less likely to believe because they both operated on the same biases, you see why a lot of cops who commit brutality are drawn to an institution where they’re given violent power over brown and/or queer communities who are labeled as ‘suspicious’, because they enjoy easy targets they know the system doesn’t care about, and are enraged by body cams and accountability.

It doesn’t matter if they’re intentionally bigoted, their support of an inherently bigoted institution makes them the same; Internalized biases and “I don’t see race” and all that. You see how Philip wanted to be a witch hunter —the prototypical cop who is not exclusively violent towards women but still has a clear slant— or colonial savior so bad, because his violence could be legitimized by the authority of the state.

He leans into it hardcore when he feels threatened by the presence of an outside girl who challenges the Christian narrative of Gravesfield, to the point of violence; It’s a position that validates killing anyone who doesn’t agree with him in general, hence Caleb and the Grimwalkers, but of course his and society’s biases slant towards women and PoC. And while it ultimately doesn’t matter whether he’s intentionally racist/misogynistic, it’s worth addressing that he very much does have the intention due to his blatant Conservative backdrop.

And seeing how charming Philip is and the portrayal of him as a little kid playing games in his youth, a perception Caleb might’ve still had which led to his death, I can see the direct line to families who find out their sons are school shooters and are in disbelief because he was such a nice kid! While ignoring the obvious Red Flags because white men are allowed to express these without being immediately scrutinized by the community, by having it brushed off. On some level cops don’t suspect him because he’s the same type of guy as them.

Part of that denial comes from the fact that he’s not an “unfeeling sociopath” who’s wired differently. Philip can feel empathy and guilt like anyone else, but he’s still a hateful prick and these aren’t mutually exclusive; Not when people can be perfectly selective about who they extend these feelings towards, or even do things in spite of these feelings, because other ones —anger and pride and hatred— exist and they choose to prioritize those. There’s an assumption that empathy and guilt inherently make you a good person, but they don’t; That ultimately comes from what you do about it, not how you feel.

You could even say Dana and the other writers wrote him too well, because true to life, we have a similar issue but on a micro-scale via the abstraction of fiction regarding a very dedicated fan base who loves to romanticize him and his actions, attributing his issues to some secret trauma in childhood, a young man failed by society! While also scrubbing him of his racism and misogyny and reliance on the status quo, to make him ‘apolitical’ and you can see the same not just with fans but also in society.

Because society doesn’t want to acknowledge serial killers as just the truth behind their white sons and the system that absolved and encourages them, because that would require them to admit their guilt in how they’re structured. Rather, they’ll say these men reflect some dark truth inherent to humanity, and don’t exist within a certain sociopolitical framework.

And so he was a ‘loner’ whose problems can be pathologized via mental illness, his trauma can be traced back to a specific incident in his youth he just couldn’t get over. So you see how school shooters are made into victims, how serial killers are also made apolitical and even alien to distance them from the status quo.

And then you can lean into how unusual they are by writing characters like Dexter or Hannibal Lecter, you can not just defend the system but feed into it via the commodification of their violence as entertainment and consumption, and thus fuel the white supremacy train by letting their violence towards women and minorities be praised as something fascinating and interesting and conveniently clean of bigotry. This is the dichotomy of the hypothetical, romanticized Fantasy Serial Killer, and the banal IRL Serial Killer.

Thus we have the same cycle of white men’s violence being praised and validated by the system, and white men feeling entitled to this fame as a delusional fantasy. Because you’ve never heard of a black serial killer; Because black people are violent, that’s just the way they are, right? But if white men are violent, this is sensationalized as somehow unusual and fascinating and worth dedicating countless books and shows and movies towards. Obviously.

And even going back to witch hunters, sometimes I wonder about the constant consideration of, What if witches did exist? What if they were evil? Things like The VVitch or The Conjuring series, which have some framing of the Salem Witch Trials’ IRL violence towards women as legitimate in another universe, because of Satanism’s genuine predatory threat towards women, and how evil women sacrifice theirs or others’ God-given gift of a child, and now threaten another white Christian family.

And again there’s the the demystifying of the real life witch hunter too when we have a historical reenactment declare verbatim that IRL witch hunters were motivated by economics and other banal factors, not by any genuine belief in the dangers of demons; And even in a setting where the demons were real, they were not the predatory threat IRL witch hunters made them out to be, and so their very real biases and ulterior motives still apply in cumulative insincerity.

Hence, the Titan correcting Luz by explaining Belos as someone who only cares about being the hero in his own delusion; The fascist wet dream of a hidden invader here to corrupt even young white men, an outside monster to vanquish and whose destruction justifies the state, when in reality the monster IS the state, and before he was even presented as a witch (much less the human truth), his system’s destruction was called for.

Ultimately, a lot of True Crime and similar narratives are criticized for focusing more on this apparently inevitable mystique behind the perpetrators, who warrant far more attention than their victims. So when the villain is an example of True Crime, it’s worth noting how the show is so much more focused on the ‘weirdoes’ he targets, on women and/or PoC. The lives of Luz Noceda and her friends, them getting along and their psychologies, are just so much more important, and it really isn’t about that guy, who is informed as much as he needs to be.

But again, the True Crime fans dilemma; People genuinely salty at the show for not focusing on their favorite serial killer and his troubled backstory, his tragic motives and Puritan repression. The framing of his murders and motives isolated through the lens of his violence on undeserving white men, and not on the out-group he is specifically targeting and has committed much more violence on, esp if you look at the narrative’s actual framing of his impact on our protagonists, but also other victims who are witches or demons, and even his own self-professed motives; Hence, ‘Fratricide Georg’ as a joke depoliticized of his colonial violence, a violence that is not just adjacent to but fulfilling racism.

Because he hallucinated only those white men out of guilt, but that’s his biased perspective and priorities; And so you see how this is contrasted with a refusal to empathize with people like the Collector or Luz, who are put into the same situations as his white male victims via shared cinematography, yet are just as rejected. Luz is only put into this situation as convenient to Belos’ narrative, the closest replacement to a white male human he can get, but again if this girl of color says No, he tries to murder her and even does.

Yet again, people take genuine, personal insult at the creator for finding Belos to be her least favorite character to write, while ignoring that she still found him necessary to the story she was trying to tell; She just found the framing and focus should’ve been shifted to his actual victims’ deep and meaningful lives, how they matter. So people hate that S3 cares more about Luz Noceda’s relationship with her parents of color, as well as her female mentor and demonic brother, or her queer relationship with her girlfriend, etc.

And even when they get a bone of white boy Hunter, it’s still not enough; Fans inevitably gather themselves into an almost frenzied state of personal victimization, rallying into harassment of PoC who criticize their portrayal and discussion around their colonial serial killer fave, organizing dedicated trends and months to giving their white men the focus they ‘deserved’, because this is just White fandom in general.

Look at the entitlement campaigns regarding Ben Solo or Billy Hargroves deserving better, these young white men violent to women and minorities. It’s just the same thing but on a micro-scale, at least filtered via fictional characters. But Jesus you see how internalized biases bleed into everything. You’ve never heard of a black serial killer and fandom doesn’t fight for characters of color.

[xanderjkz]

Charlie Dalton- Misery Behind Walls

I finally figured out what makes Charlie's character such an interesting one (from my perspective)

There are alot of interpretations of his character but what the fandom can agree the most on is that this mf cares about his friends. Almost in a way that is above regular standard.

Okay sounds weird but why did I say it when it's never really shown? Well he often is in the moment when the other poet has a breakthrough in the movie. When evil Tom literally made Neil's day worse, he was the first to speak to him. But to base this little theory on a bigger proof I'd like you to remind the only scene where this big care is vocalised:

"Fiete you're going insane!" I'll be not be misinformed about my state of mind! Let's move on! He literally asks so many damn questions that Knox gets annoyed with it. And the tone Charlie uses in that scene isn't one to mock him or put Knox in question. He's just curious if Knox has thought this through. Because he cares!

But why? What is so damn interesting about this dude caring? What makes Charlie the way he is?

Charlie somewhat hides his care for his friends behind the nice wall of Humour. Humour is beautiful, it's Twistingly and contently a nice way of escapism. Humour is provoking a peal of laughter out of someone and that's what Charlie does. But over the years when you use this way of coping you start to twist in the wrong way. It's a wonder how anyone who uses this type of coping mechanism can even recognise themselves in the mirror. After a while, you hide your internal feelings behind a wall too. For yourself you become unrecognisable.

But why?

It's established in the first 10 minutes of the movie that Charlie is from a family of bankers who are fond of him continuing the legacy. And we know that he is from a wealthy family. And most wealthy kid trope in media follows the structure of pressure and unobtainable views. Wealthy people don't want to be touched by anything lower. So they have to obtain this image of untouchability. This is probably the way Charlie has been raised. Money is more important. And like most wealthy kids, they get neglected for that money.

Every kid wants love. And this is what Charlie probably chased. And still is. And love can be interpreted in lots of ways but as I see in myself, I always tried to get attention so they think of me. If they can't love me, then I should at least linger on their minds. So what's the quickest way to gain attention and potential Recognition?

(Here he more tries to loud than funny but the need for the same thing is still there)

He started to build his personality in a way that would later bring him to complete self-isolation. He doesn't give a fuck about money. And he most definitely doesn't want to go down the same way his father did. But something in him always wanted that recognition, so he didn't go against anything.

But then Keating happened

So we made clear that something inside him can't separate personality from coping, right? So what happens when a teacher comes around with the opinion to go against the system? Doubt? Anger? Or fascination?

Visionary

Charlie, if asked, def would've told you that life comes to him how it wants to be. As long as he makes his friends happy, then he is fine. Not happy but fine. So when Keating tries to bring new things into the mix, everybody began to rethink their story.

Todd got more comfortable

Neil pursued something he always wanted

Knox got the guts to ask a girl out

So what's up for Charlie? He becomes vulnerable with himself. As he lost his personality in humour so did the familiarity with himself. So every lesson he becomes more bold and Indulgent in poetry and the revolution.

But a journey to find oneself takes long. God a 16-year-old won't find it within 4 months. But for what it's worth he tries. Throughout the movie, these boys drift apart from tradition and self-destructive ideologies. The first time Charlie makes this change in his consciousness is this one:

(Love how he looks in the angle)

Doing poetry doesn't bring attention to himself, not in the way we established he needs. So why is he doing this now?

"You yap too much, we get it" well fuck you, I'm getting to the better part

The reason for his somewhat impulsive reaction is the way he saw himself in Keating. Keating is a poet, but Charlie at first doesn't care about that. What he does care about is the cheeky way Keating moves his lips. From the comments about Meeks and Pitts names to the way he openly makes a name for himself. He thinks of Keating as this older version of himself. And he doesn't know what to do with it.

(Again this is going on in his head without him actually verbalising it to himself. Everybody does that, just writing it down)

So now this boy is chasing something he thinks can bring him to the Keating kind of level. In this path, he slowly becomes more radical with his thoughts, in a way that is pushing things over the edge. But in a boiling kind of way.

First, we have him ripping out the page. Then, the playboy scene and then this one:

I'd like to believe that this was the first time that his inner self formed a sentence. In scenes before that one, he is fidgeting around, trying to really get into it. He liked what he heard. And while he is still clinging to this version poisoned on humour, he's getting out of it. BUT

This scene is where he lets himself go. And it's safe to assume that something must have happened between the pic before and now. What is it? Heck, I know. All I know is that he tested the water and realised it's alright. (Again he is a 16-year-old boy, every 16-year-old has doubts) so everytime we do see him in the cave, he's wearing the damn hat.

So what have we established:

He cares deeply for his friends

He hides his need for recognition behind jokes

He somehow lost himself in it

He sees himself in Keating

Then learns how to be his inner self again (partly)

And he's doing poetry! Or Poetrusic...

But why did I say partly? Well, this movie is called DEAD Poets Society. And who died at the end of the movie? Ofc His CHILDHOOD best friend Neil. (This is heavily implied but even if they aren't, Neil was the closest to Charlie). He was probably the first person to know about it and definitely jumped into impulsiveness. In a way where he takes over the responsibility. Let's be real if this was at the beginning of the story he would've been one to be non-functioning but after he got his punishment and faced his worst, he knew that there are things to not be self-centered about. It's obvious that Charlie told the others. I mean, these boys look so distributed that they definitely couldn't form any sentence to the others. So it is Charlie. It had to be.

But he does let his emotions out. Not vocalising them but he shows the others that he understands. Particularly in three scenes:

1.

2.

3.

( I literally wrote something AMAZING BUT FFS TUMBLR DELETED IT)

These scenes show him care and breaking. He let's his voice break while shoving snow into Todd's mouth. To clean Todd and to drown his thoughts aswell. He has to be there but God he breaks. Because he cared

He cared so damn much for Neil. And it was that stupid system that took him away. His inner self is caring, Poetic and confronting. But how?

With all his emotions that are directed at the system regarding Neil's death, he does his first rebellion. And that not singing. The singing is only a recognition of the fact that evil Tom isn't at fault. Being in the front row and not singing? Fucking provoking.

So what's next? Now that he has found his last finding piece? The confronting kind? Not the part hiding behind humour? (If you notice he hasn't cracked a joke since Neil offed. Ofc bc the times are dark but he could've said one after the funeral. But he didn't, he was just angry)

Well....

His last scene.

He knew what would happen once Cameron walked away. He knows his roommate too much. But the reason why he punched Cameron wasn't for the fact that they couldn't work it out on the remix but more for the fact that he saw Cameron as the system. As Cameron kept digging, Charlie thought that this was the way out. Every person who experienced grief knows it's all over the place and often not understandable. If I could explain it, I would say that he had the hope of starting the rebellion needed. But he couldn't.

He failed at confronting it to its most effective stage.

He managed to comfort his friends, he managed to change his mind. But sometimes confronting ends at the start.

But it was he who failed, not the mindset. It was the rest but most importantly todd who continued it...

It's sad to not hear anything after his expulsion but I think it would be even more heartbreaking. Charlie is a lot of things but the most important one is that he is a boy. Utterly experiencing things he shouldn't have. To think that he ended his time at Welton, disproving the thing he mostly cared for (which was attention to himself) just to find himself while so is...beautiful. He broke free and now has to be alone to find his future. This is both tragic and hope-fulfilling. Wherever he ended up, I hope Charlie learned to deal with Neil's death as well...

Or I'm delusional and he's just a 16-year-old boy without depth.

Again characters are always up for debate and everyone has their interpretation. I finally wrote down mine and think it's important to share. Do with it what you want but please remain polite. Except when you crack a joke

I want jokes 🔥

[lowkeyrobin]

Mike wheeler with a trans bf? It would be weird at first for him, not because the reader is trans or something, maybe because the reader is a man (Mike would consider him a man, btw) and then Mike with his internalized homophobia and that would stop a little bit until he finally accepts himself having a nice relationship with the reader

oooo yesss!! ; thank you for requesting, hope you enjoy!!! ; also sorry that this is so like not great, I tried it's just like idk LMAO I didn't have many ideas where to take it ig?

MIKE WHEELER ; transgender

summary ; Mike's internalized homophobia almost ruins your relationship

warnings ; language, internalized homophobia

disclaimers ; reader uses he/him

word count ; 700

masterlist

Mike loved you, more than anything in the world even. He'd go to Hell and back to protect you, to honor you, he'd let the world burn for you.

But he'd been having some issues after you'd come out to him.

It didn't involve you or your new identity in any way, he still loved you whether you were a boy or a girl, he didn't care.

It was more of issues involving him instead.

He wasn't homophobic, so to say, he didn't have a problem with Will being gay, or you, for that matter. It was more so he had a problem with himself being gay.

He didn't know why he felt so disgusted when he thought of it now, that he was dating a boy. He was making out with a boy. He loved a boy and he was a boy.

After a while, he'd grown distant. He'd make up excuses not to hang out with you, just to avoid the fact that his internalized homophobia for himself was eating him inside out.

"Oh, me and Dustin have D&D tonight"

"I can tag along?"

"It's fine, bye"

"Lucas and I have plans"

"What plans?"

"Plans that were scheduled"

"Max and I have to study for a geometry test"

"Can I come?"

"No"

You'd had enough after he tried canceling on your movie night. You already rented the VHS, you had the snacks ready, you had your whole bedroom set up and then he had to call with some excuse that he was sick. You couldn't even remember the last time you'd seen his face, weeks, maybe a month by now.

"Micheal Wheeler, you get to this fucking house before I find you playing Atari at home with a bunch of chip bags around you."

"Yes, sir"

Safe to say he was biking over to your house ASAP. When Karen saw him walking down the stairs, she asked why he wasn't already at your movie night, which he replied with, "Just running late." Mhm.

You instantly sat him down, his head tilted down, a look of shame on his face. You sit on the bed next to him, reassuring him that there was no anger behind your words, just worry and concern.

"Dude, what's wrong? You've been making excuses for weeks to not hang out with me. Do you wanna break up because I transitioned? You don't have to stay with me if you don't want to, or if you're not gay," you speak, trying to find any thought behind his eyes.

He quickly looks up, an almost hurt look in his eyes. "No, no, I still wanna be with you. It's just, like, it's hard"

"Hard?" You question. "I haven't seen your face in a month, like, literally, you were fine for one then didn't wanna see me for another, Mike"

He looks down at his fidgeting fingers resting in his lap. He looks nearly scared of you, yet more scared of confronting his feelings.

"I don't care that you're a boy, in a sense, I care that I'm a boy. I care that we are boys doing this, and..." He pauses. "I don't know how to accept myself, I think"

Your eyes soften as you pull him into a hug. "I'm sorry"

"Sorry for what?" He asks, a little confused as he shakily rests his hands on your back, having not expected the hug.

"Making you feel like you couldn't come to me to talk-"

"No, no, I promise I would've talked to you! It's just a little hard when you aren't actually the third party, and I didn't really know how to... yknow?"

You nod. "Can we still be together?"

He nods. "I just... need to get used to being gay, I guess" He shrugs, "It's not like, I ever really realized it before now. Like, I promise I see you as a dude, cause you are, it's just-"

"Yeah." You cut off his rambling with an understanding smile and nod. "It's okay, I'm sorry"

"Cool"

"Cool..."

"Wanna watch that movie now?"

"Yeah, why not, you're already here"

"I'm gay," He mutters in a tone of realization and acceptance.

"Welcome to the club, Queerler"

[orangenekooo]

Trolls BroZone Headcannon / Extension / Analysis

Bruce was the most popular member back in Brozone.

What do you expect? He is the heartthrob after all! Fans used to scream and faint after his smiles and moves. Bruce has always had the most stage presence too. He does not just sing well. He knows how to command the stage. He knows the best angle to face the fans, the best chore to fit with the lyrics and the best spot to stand on stage to let the light shower on top of him. He even makes sure his clothes are slightly tailored to showcase his abs! He is confident and effortless on stage, and super hard on himself. This is partially due to JD's perfectionistic demand, and partially due to Bruce just being that hard-working. Really, JD didn't have to push Bruce at all.

Clay is the most emotional one in the family.

People would assume this is Floyd. However, he is sensitive yet very emotionally mature. On the other hand, Clay doesn't know how to deal with emotions. He's trying though! Even if subconsciously. Clay would mask concern in anger, mask hurt in humor, mask love in silent touches and quick glances. He really doesn't understand them, but he's trying! He's like a feral little kitten, who would brandish paws because he got so confused, yet would never scratch you intentionally.

Floyd is way too forgiving and thinks the goodness of everyone too much.

Floyd always was the mediator back in Brozone days. He needed to understand everyone's point of view, and he did that effortlessly. He is in nature very non-judgmental and emphatic, which makes him hard to dislike anyone. Even when he does feel any slight displeasure toward any brothers, he is quick to squash the feeling down. He would think from others' shoes and would convince himself to let go. He does this because 1) he is way too emphatic, he just feels kindness toward others. 2) he feels he can not add into the constant argument that is within the family. He has to stay calm. He almost never got into any arguments. This mentality almost made Floyd naive, as some would say. He thinks of the world as everyone tries to do the right things, it's just different perspectives. This makes him an extremely kind troll who can bond with anyone. Yet also makes him extremely vulnerable, like when he lets his guard down to Velvet and Veneer.

(Just look at this dude, being kind to Crimp while being imprisoned, and even to Venner after he tortured him... Needless to say, the four other brothers are very protective of Floyd after the whole mess)

Every brother looked up to John Dory at one point in their life.

JD is the superman! baby Branch would say. Why not? He brings food to the table, he chases away the monster under the bed. He seems to have endless energy. Even his laugh is always the loudest! He is a radiant leader who can do everything! baby Branch wanted to be just like JD.

When Bruce tries to become a Dad, the only figure he can come up to model from is JD, who took on the role of Dad too quick, too early.

In the very beginning, for the first couple of shows, when Bruce wanted to act cool on stage, he would also try to act like JD ;) —— ah all those carefree laughs and smirks...

Clay never wanted to disappoint JD. He tried all kinds of things he didn’t like just to get that proud pat from JD. He wanted to take care of the family just like JD did. He became quite well in taking care of others with the Putt Putt trolls, wouldn't you agree?

Floyd would think “how would JD handle this?” whenever he feels himself is not being rational enough.

Floyd is the most emotionally mature of the family.

He think himself as overly emotional and remind himself to stay calm at all times. However, he doesn't realize, disregarding his internal turmoil, he usually is the calmest one in the family.

Floyd is the type to cry silently, just letting tears fall.

Branch is the type to cry without realizing he had cried.

In terms of ability to fight physically, if there's a ranking among Brozone, it would be

JD > Branch > Clay > Bruce > Floyd

Let's just say wilderness has made JD quite tough. He can be really badass if needed. He got weapons on him at all times :).

Branch is paranoid. He has learned. Even though all the brothers still feel protective of him as he's the baby of the family, he is more than capable of handling himself.

Viva is the true badass here. Have you seen her fight in that final scene in the movie?? She definitely trained Clay here and there.

Excluding Floyd, I feel all four brothers can put up quite a fight. Back in Brozone days, Bruce is definitely the top 1. He’s still quite good now, just not as good as the other 3.

Floyd. He is one of the mentally strongest ones in the family, but also the physically weakest one, especially after the V&V torture. However he can definitely try to outsmart someone in a fight.

Bruce was quite a playboy after the band first ended. However, he soon met his soulmate. And boy he fell for it hard. The heartbreaker got domesticated quickly.

Out of the five brothers, Clay gets angry easiest, yet he is also the easies to placate. Just sincerely tell him sorry. He would cave in immediately.

Outside of the family, JD has a nonchalant attitude toward others. He’s still kind, outgoing, and charming. However his softness and silliness seem to only shown to his family. “John Dory can you stop worrying for one second!?”

Floyd was the baby of the family for about ten years before Branch was born. At first the other three have hard time adjusting to that fact: their former baby brother is apparently taking care of the current baby brother, and is doing an amazing job.

Bruce has the best hug.

JD has the safest hug.

Clay has the tightest hug.

Floyd has the softest hug.

Branch has the hug that all other four brothers desperately trying to get. (Let’s just say someone values their personal space…)

Clay is the most intelligent one in the family.

JD might be joking called the old one back in Brozone days, but he got a very solid and loyal fan base. Hey, if it wasn’t for Bruce, he’d be the heartthrob!

Bruce got some dubious fan letters before. Don’t worry, JD took care of them.

In most public coverage, Floyd was always the youngest in the band. Branch only appeared for one show, the last show.

Branch was the secret member of Brozone that every news outlet was trying to get info on. He has appeared in albums yet never in any of the shows. It was quite a stir when they announced Branch was going to be on a show at last.

…TBC!

[kalcifers-blog]

Can you also talk about how the fandom also has a tendency to infantilize Jameson (the only character with a confirmed physical disability)? I loved your piece on Chase, I too find it kinda odd how people portray Chase. (Especially if they want a silly soft boy Jackie is right there!)

Oh absolutely this is something that's pissed me off for a really long time.

Jameson Jackson is a fully grown adult man and it is just weird how people infantialize him and just in general make it out that he's completely innocent and can do no harm.

While I do think that JJ can definitely be a sweet guy who's nice and caring I don't think he's the innocent guy everyone portrays him as. I think he has the ability to be just as much of a dick as the other Egos. If anything I could imagine him to be generally unimpressed and not seeing an issue of blatantly letting people know that.

JJ deserves the right to be angry and he deserves to not be nice about it!!

This is my interpretation of the man. So enjoy to anyone who is interested:

(the reason for the cut is that this is fucking LONG dude)

My view on him was that he was the very first person to come into contact with Anti- back in the 1920s. My personal theory is that Anti is attacking very specific individuals because of their abilities, whether they know of their abilities or not. JJ is unaware of his. He often introduces himself to each of the Egos based on what is most likely to affect them the most (for Chase it being a home intruder there to attack his family etc)

Anti took the form of an unknown stranger seemingly stalking him, he didn't really know what to make of him at first, he was just a stranger in the shadows, seemingly just appearing out of nowhere just to stare with eyes that are covered in shadow. Only to walk away calmly, not too long after being noticed, Jameson can't help but notice the stranger getting closer each time he sees him. (There would be weeks or months between each sighting, just long enough for Jameson to almost forget the man before he sees him again)

Everything went wrong during one of his puppet shows. When Anti appeared in the audience and despite the lighting he was still entirely encased in an impossibly dark shadow.

I like to think that JJ was possessed through the rest of his puppet show- yet no one notices. He's internally screaming for someone to notice something is deeply wrong and yet not one audience member can see it. Something about it angered him more than anything- how could any of them, most of them claiming to be close friends of his, not see that something is so horrifying wrong. Except the one audience member obviously.

I think after that experience JJ went out searching for anyone who would listen to him. His story was unbelievable and was often over looked- which lead him to the likes of IRIS, an extremely new company that was the first to hear him out, to actually listen to him.

Jameson Jackson hasn't left IRIS since- he made a deal with them, they'd help keep his tormentor at bay if they are allowed to understand the power he possessed- which turned out to be time manipulation, allowing him to effectively be unaffected by time but being forced to watch as the world moves on without him several times over. He's not immortal? Like he's able to die and other than his ability to warp time he's still extremely human.

He prefers to stay in IRIS, the entire time he's been there Anti hasn't found him since. And he definitely isn't going to be happy when he finds out he's been released.

Since he's been in IRIS so long I think he's very well respected amongst the staff. Especially since a lot of them know just how dangerous a man with nothing to lose and the ability to warp time can truly be. Like Chase he doesn't want to be a danger, he doesn't enjoy harming people but I think he has spent lifetimes worth of living in so much fear of his tormentor and seeing it spread and effect so many other people that he's willing to do whatever it takes at this point to snuff Anti out for good

[anonymous-dentist]

dude i just would love to see you write some sorta off role swap of qsmp like i think is such a fun concept and i really like you writing, you always make it so expressive, so enjoyable to read!

in my mind i feel like the mystery twins would swap with rivoier - and idk maybe jaiden could swap with baghera? would pac and mike swap with each other or would pac swap with fit? it opens so many possibilites lmao

See, I personally would start with something small for my own sanity:

After Tilin’s death, Roier took his anger towards Slime and Aimee it towards Cucurucho because, like? They brought Flippa back? Why can’t they bring Tilin back??

Double that anger when Flippa dies just inches away from Roier only a breath later.

He doesn’t go the more overt route that Quackity did in canon, no. He keeps playing along, but he starts converting his torture dungeon in his basement into a multipurpose torture spreen dungeon and a torture cucurucho dungeon. Because, like, okay, Cucurucho can say no now, but Roier’s sure he can be… convinced.

(He is a man of many talents)

So, by the time Cellbit and the Brazilians crash on the island, Roier has started tagging along with the Theory Bros. Not because he really cares about the mysteries or whatever, but because he needs information on Cucurucho

Now let’s see what Roleswap Cellbit gets up to, and I’ll say this now, he’s still super into enigmas, especially once Felps gets kidnapped

But the important thing here is that Cellbit is sticking by his intention to keep his head down and raise Richarlyson… while still kinda trying to figure out what that flying green thing is. Sure, he’s vaguely murderous, but who isn’t on this island ngl

Cellbit Does Photography. He gets a picture of Felps and Cucurucho just before Felps is taken, and that’s the first time he and Roier really interact because Roier’s like “Bro fuck that guy, he stole your friend, he won’t bring our kids back to life even though he can. What a dick”

And Cellbit’s like “The kids can die for good???”

And thus, out of worry for Richarlyson, he starts tagging along with Roier when Roier goes Cucurucho Hunting with the Theory Bros

Sure, Cellbit is still royally pissed at Cucurucho, especially when Richarlyson loses both his lives and permadies in a dungeon, but he keeps it all internalized and dedicates himself to building his castle and the paranormal entity rooms in extreme detail in Richas’ honor

[jenanigans1207]

“With Cas,” Sam presses on, but his voice has gone gentle, like he knows that he’s dangerously close to cracking every facade Dean has worked so hard to maintain for so many years. “You don’t have to do anything different. You don’t have to give anything up, you don’t have to change anything about yourself. He’s already seen what an asshole you are before coffee, and how goddamn messy you leave the bathroom,” That earns a surprised laugh out of Dean and he’s finally able to look up again. “Hell, Dean, the dude’s seen your literal soul. If he knows you that well and he’s stupid enough to stay by your side the way he has, that’s meant to be.”

Dean clears his throat, but it doesn’t do anything to make the lump that’s formed there go away. “Yeah, he’s pretty great.”

“He is.” Sam agrees. He pauses for a second, like he’s contemplating whether or not to say one more thing. Dean can see it in his gaze, the exact moment he decides to go for the kill. “And I can trust him to take care of you, you know? He’d do anything to protect you and keep you safe. He gave up the entire Heavenly Host for you, Dean.”

“For us,” Dean tries to correct, because if he doesn’t , he might actually lose the ability to speak completely.

“For you.” Sam corrects back. “I’m just part of your packaged deal. But if I hadn’t been here and it had been just you, he still would’ve done it.”

It’s not often that Dean allows himself to think of what Cas gave up— not because he doesn’t appreciate it or recognize the magnitude of it, but because it makes him feel completely and utterly inadequate. Because Cas gave up literally everything for him and he’s— he’s just some guy. For all that every God, Monster, and Demon seems to love the taste of his name on their tongue, he’s really not anything special. He’s just some guy who was too weak to sustain the never-ending torture of hell and instead gave in to the worst side of himself, turning himself into the kind of monster he would kill if he ever ran across it. He has trust issues, he has anger issues, he has— a whole hell of a lot more than that, to say the least. He’s not a good person, not an honest or honorable person.

He’s not the kind of person an Angel of the Lord should even look twice at, let alone the kind of person an Angel of the Lord should choose.

Cas could’ve had it all— every happiness heaven had to offer. He could’ve stayed in God’s good graces, in the good graces of the other angels. He could’ve had anything he wanted and instead he chose to sit in the backseat of the Impala, to watch over Dean and Sam while they sleep in every shitty motel the country has to offer. He chose to never eat a homecooked meal, to barely even have a place to call home. He chose what Dean would describe as the worst possible life and honestly? He doesn’t seem like he’s ever looked back.

And when Dean examines that too closely, he just feel like absolute shit. Because Cas deserves everything. He deserves every happiness he gave up, every opportunity he turned down. He deserves more than Dean can ever give him. And Dean often feels like a selfish asshole— dragging Sam back into the life because he didn’t want to be alone, selfishly trying to keep people close to him the they were better on their own— but he’s never felt like more of a selfish piece of shit than he does when he realizes that he’s glad Cas chose to stay down here with them— with him.

“Yeah, well,” Dean’s voice is rough, raw. He feels like he’s bleeding somewhere internally. “It wouldn’t be the right choice.”

“Choosing you is always the right choice, Dean.” Cas’ voice sounds from the doorway suddenly and both Dean and Sam whip their heads in that direction when they realize he’s there. “I understand that I have my work cut out for me in terms of making you realize that, but I will never regret choosing you.”

Dean clenches his jaw and looks away at the same time that Sam breaks out into a smile. It’s small, but it’s genuine and grateful, and Dean thinks that maybe he could just sock both of them in the face and this unbearably vulernable moment could finally pass.

“Cas,” Sam says after a second, “I’d say welcome to the family, but you’ve been part of the family for a long time already.”

God, every part of Dean aches. Everything inside of him feels like it’s bending and then snapping completely as Cas walks fully into the room and meets Sam for a hug, as they smile at each other. The two people who mean the most in the entire world to Dean, and they care about each other in a way Dean could only dream that they’d be able to. It’s absolutely unbearable, how happy he is. He’s so fucking happy that it hurts, a deep ache, a brittle and tender feeling. He doesn’t think his bones are strong enough to withstand it and he thinks that soon he may just fall apart completely.

“Your blessing still means a lot, Sam.” Cas is saying with a hand clapped on Sam’s shoulder. Neither of them are directly looking at Dean but he knows that they’re both paying attention to him anyway, their gazes fixed on him out of the corners of their eyes.

“Hey, I had no choice. I was stuck with him from birth. But he’s alright, all things considered.” Sam is joking and Dean thinks that maybe if he just starts screaming, it would do something to dull these emotions. “So if you’re dumb enough to choose him, well, I’m not going to say no to that.”

Cas shakes his head a little as he lets out a huff of a laugh. “I am.” Is all he says.

It’s such a simple answer, but it encompasses so much. It encompasses every fight they’ve had, every betrayal they’ve managed to pave over. It encompasses the taste of bad blood that stained the space between them so many times as much as it encompasses all the times Dean dropped to his knees and prayed— to Cas, to God, to whoever the hell would listen— begging for Cas’ safety, for his return, for the knowledge that he would always be there. It encompasses every time they’ve been the cause of each other’s wounds as much as it encompasses every time they’ve tenderly and carefully dressed the wounds caused by other people.

It’s only two words, but it says multitudes. Dean had done his part in confessing, in prying every last word out of the shadowed corners of his heart, even with the curse had lifted and the ability to lie has returned to him. And Cas had certainly returned the confession, though it seemed to physically pain him much less to do so. And despite that, hearing Cas claim him to Sam like that, openly and easily acknowledging everything they’ve done through with words that are meant to be a promise for the future— well, Dean really thinks he might be at the limit of all he can bear.

“But make sure you take care of him, alright?” Sam adds, more somber. Even though he’d already expressed his knowledge that Cas would, unfailingly. Even though Cad had, over and over again. But there’s something in the brotherly codebook that demands Sam verbalize it anyway. Dean knows because he would’ve done the same thing.

“I mean,” Cas pulls his expression back into something serious, too. One of his angel faces that gives away very little emotion. “Your brother is reckless, and self-sacrificing. He’s stubborn, too, and almost never listens to reason.”

“Alright, alright—“ Dean tries to interject.

But Cas keeps going, the corner of his lip quirked up, giving away his amusement and sarcasm while Sam laughs openly. “He shoots first and sometimes asks questions later, and I honestly am not yet certain if he knows what a vegetable is.” And then Cas turns his eyes to Dean and the other half of his mouth turns up, too, so he’s actually smiling, and his voice is much softer when he adds, “but I promise to try my best.”

Dean meets his gaze like he has so many times in the past, but it’s completely different now. He’s much better at reading and understanding the emotions in Cas’s eyes, in the lines of his expression. But he also doesn’t have to turn away as the warmth blooms on his chest. He’s allowed to feel that now, to embrace it— if he ever figures out how.

“You’ve got good points.” Sam claps Cas on the shoulder, back to full-blown amusement. “I should probably be wishing you good luck with him instead.”

Cas nods solemnly, “I will need it.”

[toki-is-the-king]

Toki Mental Health Headcanons:

(No hate please, you can disagree with me on this it’s just a headcanon I have + our Toki has autism so it makes sense to us).

-Toki most likely has autism but it’s undiagnosed because he was so neglected as a child; he never went to the Dr for anything, not even when he’d get fevers so bad he hallucinated. His parents didn’t care and also didn’t believe in going to the dr as it went against their religious beliefs; only God could heal. Often times when Toki was displaying signs of autism along with being physically ill all the time from abuse and neglect, his parents just locked him in the punishment hole for even longer, saying he needed to resist the devil or that Toki was disobeying God and was being punished by evil spirits. Toki has a highly stressful response anytime he’s sick now but does nothing much about it. And now he sees no point in going to the Dr, let alone a therapist or psychiatrist. The only times he really goes to the dr for check ups are when Charles forces he and the other guys or if his diabetes gets out of whack. Sometimes he still tells himself he has to ‘pray away’ his mental or physical afflictions due to his parents strict teachings, but it doesn’t work and he sometimes worries he’s actually possessed or evil. It hurts him so badly inside. He still doesn’t understand why they insisted he was evil, he still loved them but was terrified of them.

-That being said because he doesn’t have his ptsd or autism diagnosed or even know he has it, it just lingers for years and Toki doesn’t understand why he always feels so different from everyone else. And why people think his interests are childish and dumb or why he has meltdowns when somethings overstimulates him like the time he ‘accidentally’ might’ve murdered that dude at the Snakes N Barrels concert. He knows he’s fucked up but he lies to himself that he’s okay because that’s what he always had to do. Never having anyone to comfort him expect his straw clown doll and his imagination, he often regresses to a younger age to cope with his trauma and overall stress. He has panic attacks frequently too as well as nightmares and had social anxiety when he was a teenager. He beats himself up a lot, feeling the most fucked up out of everyone and having undiagnosed autism just makes him feel like he can’t even handle life. He talks to Skwisgaar about his internal struggles, knowing that even if all Skwisgaar does is nod and make brief eye contact, seeming half distracted with his guitar practicing, that he does care. Skwisgaar has his own personal issues and an ego, but he really does care about Toki and the two have a very close bond.

“Why’s Toki gotta have so many stupid problems things…”

-Toki doesn’t ever end up getting diagnosed, his distrust of the American medical system is part of it, also he’s just anxious about Dr’s in general, but he’s learned to self soothe and calm himself down over time. He enjoys having quiet time alone, focusing on a project, like building model airplanes or coloring, he likes to keep his hands busy so his mind has something to focus on. sometimes he just sits alone on his bed and hugs himself tightly or rocks himself until he calms down. Deddybear always brings him some relief.

-When nothing else works sometimes Toki gets explosive bursts of anger and destroys things, but he doesn’t have to be angry to break shit, it’s fun to break shit. Like lamps! Sometimes Skwisgaar or Pickles find him sobbing with bloody knuckles outside after fist fighting a tree or breaking random shit in the yard. Pickles always takes a brother like approach and brings Toki inside to bandage his hands, while Skwisgaar just takes Toki by the arm silently and walks him to his bathroom. He awkwardly helps Toki clean himself up and doesn’t say much. He lets Toki cuddle with him afterwards and it always helps Toki calm down.

-While some people with autism dislike being touched as it over stimulates them, Toki is the opposite. He always feels under stimulated. It could be because he was isolated for so long that now he can’t handle being alone for extended periods of time. He always wants physical contact with those he cares about. It’s hard being in Dethklok sometimes because none of the guys are affectionate towards each other and none are very touchy unless it’s with a woman. It makes Toki sad because he wants hugs all the time or to hold hands or play with someone’s fingers while sitting together on the couch. It’s all platonic (except with Skwisgaar, they’re more than friends but it’s complicated). Toki needs constant stimulation or else he’s anxious, bored, or fidgety. Being neglected made him even more clingy and now if anyone shows him an ounce of affection he is overjoyed and doesn’t want it to end. He loves long tight hugs and snuggling close to someone, glued to their side. Over the years Skwisgaar has eased up a bit and lets Toki cuddle him or hug him, they hold hands a lot when the guys aren’t around. Skwisgaar likes to play with Toki’s hair and it makes Toki the happiest guy on earth. He loves the smell of Skwisgaar’s hair and always presses his nose against his head when the cuddle.

Feel free to share any other Toki headcanons!

[devastatinglygreen]

The change in the Polin dynamic from book to show always made me think the betrayal of Whistledown would be different and lead to a different reaction from Colin. Show!Colin my baby boy, not needing to be told to go dance with Pen and also “seeking her out at every social assembly” 🥹 He didn’t need 12 years to realize she was great company. I’m not too upset at Pen/LW reading him for filth for story purposes bc I don’t want to imagine a scenario where they leaned more on the S1 of it all. It’s just unfortunate that they amplified his hate/anger to give something for Pen to be punished over. That’s where I think the “girl boss” writing fails bc the show clearly likes LW as a narrative concept but Pen has to suffer consequences for it.

I also don’t mind that they wanted to keep LW for the story but how are they gonna pull off her getting info now? Everyone knows her identity and girlie is married to a Bridgerton. Unless they’re going to argue no one sees her bc of how short she is, I can’t see her just blending into the wall anymore.

oh yeah for sure.

they have a much closer friendship in the show from the start which is good, tbh. so there was always going to be a different reaction to him finding out that she was LW. book!colin being aware that she has some feelings for him so him treating her extremely appropriately makes sense. he likes her and doesn't want to lead her on so there's no fun flirting like he does with the other girls he's also not interested in but i always found that a little sad for penelope since the man who is probably the friendliest with her still maintains some distance to spare her feelings until she finally "lets him off the hook" when she is pretty firmly on the shelf. which, of course, immediately annoys him, ha. protesting too much, my guy.

show!colin having no idea is great and i love it, ha. also he's got no concept of propriety with penelope most of the time and that just makes for fun scenarios.

yeah, leaning into his anger over it was wild but also the show trends towards internal conflict over external, which is a weakness in the writing when it comes to polin because their conflict was a mix of both. there's nothing to really punish colin for and all of pen's biggest fumbles have been both colin and eloise related so i get it but it was overdone in my opinion. bringing in the queen as a foil was a wild choice since the whole "LW has as much influence as the queen" is lip service at best.

i think it also throws people because there's no 3rd act breakup (which i appreciate actually, i think that's overdone because if you tell me these people are desperately in love and then at the first struggle they break up, uhhhh are they in love? you sure?) so there has to be some sort of issue/angst to cause emotional distance over physical distance and with colin having more reason to be distant vs penelope, you get a dude sleeping on his sofa.

you know, i think that's going to be the biggest thing for the LW storyline from now on. outside of the queen or whatever, she's got a husband who never lets her alone and people will be aware of who she is now. maybe she has a network, there's no way the servants aren't loyal to her and you know they knew what she was up to. rae was on screen for less than 2 minutes before you knew who she was loyal to. and penelope has been shown to care about the working class and be fair minded so if they're smart, they'll use that to their advantage.

[danny-chase]

Ok I’ll just send a few of my unpopular opinions for you to react to later lol

1. I think a lot of Jason Stans act like Tim Stans as of recent and say he’s the smartest bestest batfam member. The smartest Robin thing is stupid because they’re all smart and it depends on who is writing.

2. As much as I want it to be true I don’t think Dick is queer-coded or bi in canon. I can’t speak for the stuff in the 80’s and earlier but most of the stuff I’ve read makes him so straight (especially Tom Taylor) 😭

3. Dick was not the angry Robin or an angry person in general and so many people take his angry moments out of context.

4. I want Clark and Lois to have another kid because they robbed us of Jon content and I think giving him a sibling would be neat

Pls don’t hate me 😭

1. I don't really pay attention to that so I don't know

2. Recent stuff? Yeah no. Outsiders 2003? Maybbbe? Winick explicitly had Grace call out the sexual tension between Dick and Roy, and call them a cute couple, it definitely felt like he was flirting with the idea, haven't looked at his intentions. Devin Grayson, a writer on Nightwing in the 00s also said in an interview she headcanoned him as bisexual. It's also worth mentioning Inheritance was officially put out by DC which is probably the most intentionally queer coded Dick's ever been in anything, i haven't read it, but seen some quotes and yeah. When most ppl refer to old stuff in the 80s they're talking about ntt, which yeah discowing outfit is camp, Marv Wolfman i believe was trying to write Dick as straight and accidentally added some gay moments in (like Dick meeting Joey i was like??? Marv are you bi and never realized you were into men??? Because that's how your Dick internal narration comes off). Either way, while i joke about those moments I don't consider them queercoding because to me they didn't seem intentional

3. I feel like this one's pretty popular among Dick fans. Dude started out as angry, calmed down, stiffened into a rigid little guy (teen titans 66 era Dick my beloved, he's such a square i love him). In canon generally his anger has a cause, not unlike the rest of us shshsh

4. I don't like what they did aging up Jon, and i don't really care if they have another kid 🤷‍♀️

I'm not gonna hate you shdhhdhdhdh it's just opinions

[pain-is-too-tired]

Okay-

1- completely didn't remember that he was more vocally aware of what it would really be like for humanity and other demigods if Kronos won. Like I always written him to have ignore the fact that Kronos and the Titans didn't really care about demigods. But to actually bring it up as the fact "of only those who the strongest and serve him-" MY DUDE. WTF.

2- Proving himself and hubris i think are very big contenders for his fatal flaws. Because he wants to prove he can do all of this, he wants to be remembered in the way the classical heroes were. By doing something knew to be remembered for. His prideful enough to until it's too late to think that Kronos would really give him any room in his new era after he destroys the gods. The gods suck, but Luke where you think they got it from? Titans see demigods much more like pests or entertainment than the gods do. But he ignores all that to get to his goal. Even demigods around him are constantly getting killed or worst for it. Which-

3. Another thing, he's at least complicit in buying demigods for the army. We don't know if the situation in TCC where the Di Angelo's nearly get kidnapped and taken to the army were include Mr Thorn getting paid after, but we do know that the ranch guy in BotL was ready to give Nico in exchange for money. So.

That means that a few, if not a lot of the Titan Army, might've been kids who never even went to either camps. Who found themselves finding out about the gods and such from the Titan Army. From Luke's army.

Can you imagine? Suddenly being told you're a demigod, and then immediately being pressured or maybe even threatened to fight against the gods. You don't even get a chance for maybe find out who your godly parent is. You lived your life thinking a normal mortal abandoned you and your mortal parent. Then it's like "nope! It's actually a immortal god with likely many other children like you! Okay here a sword and armor, let's go kill other kids who might be your half siblings! Yeah!"

Just. Wtf.

4. Luke, to me, is interesting because he's an example of falling into the generational cycle. He was angry at Hermes for a lot. But as he got older, and as he wanted to prove he was better than Hermes and other heroes, he lost his touch with his humanity.

His mom was driven insane and left on her own, he was scarred after being sent on a fetch quest.

Then he send multiple demigods on a fetch quest for the string, most of which are driven insane and left for dead.

He was fine with asking for someone else to lead when he knew he'd be used as Kronos' vessel. But he never thinks to send non demigods into the labyrinth instead to find a way through? Even though he knows their chance of survival is low.

He honestly it's such an interesting antagonist, who took his trauma and internalized his anger to the point he didn't really care who got hurt as long as he got to prove himself that he could take his dad down a notch.

His redemption was hardly a redemption. There wasn't any proper build up. No evidence of him questioning his decision outside for his own sake. His death just seems like a pathetic attempt to back track and try be remembered in a better light then just Kronos' vessel.

I think it he stayed an antagonist, it would've been much more interesting. Like him pretending to change his mind to get to Annabeth and Percy or something. Or being a lesson that just because someone claims to regret their actions and want to do better, doesn't mean you have to forgive them. Annabeth and Percy have every reason not to forgive him. And I think then acknowledging that would've so interesting.

Its kinda what I explore when I write Chris. That feeling of "i used to love and trust him. He was my brother but I lost so much of myself due to him and I'll never fully forgive that."

And, maybe it's cause I'm sucker for sibling angst, but exploring those he left behind would've been interesting. He hurt so many people and I think it does a deservice to them and his character to ignore everything he's done.

The Luke Castellan problem in PJO books and Fandom

I just finished rereading the pjo series for the dozenth time and I have so many thoughts about Luke and how the fandom woobified him.

Like no Luke did not have the right idea and executed it in the wrong way. He wasn't a misguided victim, although there is no doubt Kronos manipulated him. But him being manipulated does not absolve him of his wrongdoings. Hurt people can still hurt people, you can be abused and still become an abuser.

Most of Fandom's idea of Luke being a 'hero' because he did the right thing in the end is extremely doozy like ok he killed himself to stop Kronos but that does not absolve him the blame of killing innocent people.

While Luke's main goal was the destruction of Gods, that was not because he wanted the demigods to have better lives. He actively killed demigods.

In the Sea of Monsters, when Percy, Annabeth and Tyson snuck into Princess Andromeda; they saw 12 year olds being trained how to kill a 'dummy in camp half blood tshirts'. He was actively exploiting children and manipulating them into killing other children and saw nothing wrong with it.

He only considered deflecting from Kronos when he found out that he was going to be possessed by him.

He only worked and cared for him, he was so lost into power and revenge that HE became a monster.

"Oh but he cared for Thalia and Annabeth!!" I'll get into that later too

I think Luke's fatal flaw contrary to the opinion of fandom is The Urge to Prove Himself.

He had one conversation with Hermes which made him angry and bitter and Thalia even notes that after that conversation Luke got into more and more fights with monsters like he had something to prove which Annabeth didnt seem to see as a problem since he was her hero. They got into more skirmishes because of his recklessness, fighting more monsters since Luke wanted to pick a fight with each one he came across.

(Conversation from PJO, The Last Olympian)

His fatal flaw being to Prove Himself would explain why he took the failure of his quest so hard that the night he returned from the quest was the same night Kronos started speaking to him for the first time. It didn't help that when he returned from his failed quest, the campers treated him with pity.

He wanted to pull Olympus down stone by stone because He failed his quest that he didn't want to do because it was already done by Hercules once. 🥴

His endgame has nothing to do with wanting to help ANYBODY. He wanted to take down gods because he had a grudge against them and wanted to Prove that he could do it. Everything else comes secondary if it fits his agenda.

This is one of the reasons why it bothers me so much when people say that Luke had the right idea or that Percy would have joined Kronos if Sally had died like you fundamentally misunderstood the character of Percy if you think he would have joined Kronos.

He talks about "driving humanity back into caves, all except the strongest - who would serve him" THIS IS LITERALLY FASCISM???

(According to Merriam-Webster, Fascism is a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression)

Now onto the topic of Thalia, Annabeth and Luke

First of all, I absolutely hate that 'Thalia and Luke had a thing before she got turned into a tree bit' because Thalia was 12 and Luke was 14 when they met and Thalia was 15 and Luke was 20-21ish when they meet again in TTC ugh hate that.

Now TTC, where to begin, here I used to believe Luke had already bathed in river Styx as there are some narrations where Percy notes that Luke looked worse and like his scar was reopened and would certainly explain how he survived the cliff fall but on my rereading I realised that Thalia and Luke fought when Percy was holding the sky and Thalia injured Luke so nvm then.

It is however in this book that Luke began to realise Kronos's plan for him as it is implied by the General and he starts to fear for his life.

Mind you, what did Luke think would happen if Thalia did agree to join Kronos when he knew Kronos was looking for a host of body...

Luke is many things, he is cunning, manipulative, a great swordsman but what he is not is stupid. If Thalia would have agreed then Kronos would have used Thalia as a vessel 😬

And oh boy the can of worms that is Luke and Annabeth. I've seen many Luke fans/apologists deny that there is no canon evidence of Luke being romantically interested in Annabeth BUT THERE IS?? they refuse to believe and call Annabeth an unreliable narrator because otherwise their uwu white boy would be a Pedophile. Even if he wasn't a Pedo, he manipulated Annabeth so many times to make her sympathise with her and use her emotions against her.

(excerpts from various books: TLO, TLO, BoTL, MoA annabeth's pov)

^ Annabeth was 15 almost 16 or already 16 I believe when Luke asked her to run away with him in a romantic sense and he was 21-22.

also another evidence adding to the theory of his fatal flaw having proving himself.

Now, onto the topic of CHB and Luke:

Luke being hesitant to attack camp half blood in BotL has less to do with him suddenly growing a spine (as some fans suggest) and more to do with the inevitable possession.

When Kronos informs that he will himself lead the attack, Luke advises to use Hyperion instead because he knows for Kronos to attack it in person, he would finally possess Luke.

(first one is from TTC, the other two from BoTL)

One of the last things I wanna talk about is Silena Beauregard & Luke and Luke's portrayal in the new Percy Jackson series:

Luke was 17 when Kronos started speaking to him and 19 when he left the camp. Silena was 17-18 when she died which makes her 13-14 when Luke left the camp in TLT and 11-12 when Kronos first started talking to him. Adult Luke charmed an underage girl, and promised her that she was helping the demigods and then when she tried to stop, he started blackmailing her. [excerpts from TLO]

According to the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children UK, Grooming is when someone builds a relationship, trust and emotional connection with a child or young person so they can manipulate, exploit and abuse them. The relationship a groomer builds can take different forms. This could be: a romantic relationship, as a mentor, an authority figure, a dominant and persistent figure. They might use blackmail to make a child feel guilt and shame or introduce the idea of 'secrets' to control, frighten and intimidate.

So canonically, Book!Luke is a fascist groomer pedophile.

Now on the new Disney+ Percy Jackson show, it seems that Rick Riordan is subtly rewriting the character of Luke and removing the more problematic aspect of him (pedophile and grooming). Let me explain why I think that:

Even though in TLT the book, Luke describes Annabeth as his little sister we know how well that lasted but I don't think they are keeping Annabeth's crush on him on the show from what I've seen (though I could be wrong).

Secondly, the casting of Dior Goodjohn as Clarisse puts Clarisse on the same age range as Luke, maybe a year or two younger but in the first book Clarisse was 13-14 and she was 17 in TLO, so they have aged her up. It is my assumption that they will also age Silena by casting a 17-19 yr old actress as her.

And they have made Luke far more sympathetic in the show than the books (him not calling a hellhound during capture the flag and no pit scorpions in the finale), but we wouldn't know how sympathetic or villainous they are making him until season 2 comes out. Charlie Bushnell gives an excellent performance imo

Though this again reflects the double standards it comes to PJO, they have given much grace and praise for the changes made to Luke's character and little to no complaint for ageing up Clarisse but the hate Walker and especially Leah are given is so cruel. Leah has been so much racially targeted though I think she's an excellent Annabeth, just something to think about.

Also, before I forget-

We don't give enough flack to Rick Riordan for writing two weird age dynamics without recognising as grooming and pedophilic nature. (Lukabeth and Caleo/Capercy)

The characters are never made to realise (especially Annabeth) that an older person having feelings for them as a minor is not a normal behaviour.

Especially in regards to Calypso who may take the form of a 15 year old but is actually more than 4612 (according to the riordan wiki) and her having a crush on 14 year old Percy and 15-16 yr old Leo Valdez, not to mention how rudely she treated Leo. Also her cursing Annabeth because Percy left her. Not only is it plain nasty but she's never called out. Its actually so disgusting🤕.

Anyways this turned into a long rant but I would love to read your opinions, especially on Luke's fatal flaw.

I know for some people it may seem like I'm too hard on him but this is just my opinion.

IMO I have no problem if you like a morally bad or gray person, an antihero or a villain as long as their bad deeds aren't swept under the rug and pretend they never happened or glorify their good deeds.

I actually think villian's bad things make them more interesting.

Luke is an antagonist and a villain of the PJO series and a part of being a villain is that some people are going to hate you and that's ok.

Me personally, I was never a fan of his and that's ok.

I know some people are going to bring up the fact that Percy in MoA sympathises but the PJO characters are complicated and Luke was very skilled at making others think of his reason to destroy the Gods the way they would sympathise the most and we see that multiple times.

[kaashikuroo]

Heyyy could you please do a part 2 to when you meet your abusive ex with Bokuto and Ushijima. Thank you, I love your work!!!

I’ve already done Bokuto so I’ll only be doing Ushijima here. :)

When you meet your abusive ex -Haikyuu scenarios

Character: Ushijima Wakatoshi

Genre: Angst to fluff

Warnings: Mentally & physically abusive ex, tears, minors dni (even tho it’s sfw)

Part 1: Kuroo and Akaashi | Part 2: Iwaizumi and Bokuto | Part 4: Oikawa

MASTERLIST

Requests? Send ‘em here!

Ushijima:

Olive boi isn’t the best at expressing his emotions but his love language is a balance of words and touch.

He just really likes to take you out.

So here you were, with your lovely olive boi, at the arcade.

Idk- he strikes me to the type to like video games.

Ushijima didn’t know about your past relationships. Not because you didn’t trust him, not at all. You trusted him 100%. But you just didn’t know how to bring it up without breaking down.

He has certainly healed you but you didn’t know that that would be put to test today.

You were roaming around as wakatoshi went to explore the place for some games you two could play together when suddenly you felt someone tap your shoulder.

“Ye-” You were cut off.

“Hey, y/n! It’s been a while.”

You couldn’t understand the situation.

Here your ex boyfriend was, smiling at you all carefree as if he didn’t torture you while you two were together.

“Hello.” You greeted emotionlessly.

“Didn’t think I’d be meeting you of all people here!” He smiled at you innocently, making you gag internally.

“If I did I wouldn’t have come here in the first place.” You said, walking away.

But, of course, he didn’t let you do so.

Now you were scared.

Cuz he had your arm in his hand.

“I do not wish to be touched.” You said in a stable voice, trying to push away all those flashbacks of him abusing you.

“Come on, Y/n. We should catch up, yeah? Maybe we could even start dating again.” He pulled you closer, holding your jaw. “I’ll take good care of you.”

Thank god the arcade wasn’t busy. People would get the wrong idea.

You started to tremble.

“Please let me go.” You pleaded as your eyes filled up with tears, mind flashing back to all the times he’d beaten you up for the smallest of mistakes.

“I just want to take care of you.” He whispered, leaning in.

“Wait. No!” You tried to push him with all the strength you could muster up.

But to no avail.

“Still as weak as ever, huh?” He smirked at you.

Now, you were sobbing, pleading him to let go as you felt your arms bruise up.

You couldn’t leave him for the longest of time because he was well built. Which meant he could break your legs if he wanted to.

You suddenly felt yourself being pulled away from his grasp.

You looked behind you to see Ushijima.

He looked….scary.

It was the first time you saw this much anger radiating off of him.

“You mustn’t make a woman feel uncomfortable with your presence. I can call the police on you.” He said sternly.

Your ex laughed.

“C’mon dude! We were just having a fun conversation!” He said as he smiled at you.

“Fun…?” You whispered, lost.

“What part of this conversation looked fun to you?” You looked at him with blank eyes, tears still spilling out of them.

You felt Ushijima snake his arm around your waist as he glared at your ex.

“We’d appreciate it if you left right this instant. Your presence is not required.” He said, pulling out his phone. You could tell Ushi was livid.

“Fine, fine. I’ll leave. Just make sure your girl isn’t whoring around.” He said nonchalantly, walking away.

You felt his muscles tense up, as if to run towards him and beat the living shit out of him for talking about you like that.

Which was exactly what he was planning to do.

That is- untill you held his clenched up fist.

After feeling him relax after a few seconds, you let out a breath you didn’t know you were holding.

“Honey, should we head back home?” He asked you, needing to know if you were still okay with being in this place.

He could care less about the date. If something happened to you, he’d be damned.

He was curious about the guy but he knew your comfort came first.

“Yeah. That’d be good.”

You two went back home and situated yourselves on the couch. He made you sit on his lap, hugging your waist.

“I’m so sorry I left you alone. I shouldn’t have. I’ll never leave you alone form now on.” He said, hugging you tighter.

“It wasn’t your fault, Ushi.” You patted his head.

You could still feel him all tensed up.

“Baby…that was my ex.”

He nodded a bit against your shoulder.

“Please don’t push yourself into telling me. I just want you to be happy. I couldn’t contain myself when I saw you crying. It was a new feeling to me. Something I don’t ever want to feel again.” He whispered, voice laced with emotion.

“Please tell me about this when you’re comfortable. I’ll wait for as long as I have to. If you don’t want to, that’s fine too. It’s all in the past, honey.”

Your heart swelled at how considerate he was being.

“Ushi…”

He looked up at you.

“Yes love?”

You rested your forehead on his, letting your bottled up tears go.

“I love you so much.”

“I love you too. Please let it all out. I’m here for you.”

You two ended up falling asleep, cuddling on the couch.

He’d remind you of how valid you are and how much you meant to him after that by words and subtle actions.

Would always keep you around him whenever you two went out.

He really does love you with all his heart.

babie just unlocked new emotions 🥺🥺🥺

[aq2003]

ok the reason i think silver is such a good villain isnt because of his cartoon-evil cheesiness or his character theme (although those certainly do contribute to it). the reason i think hes so good is what his presence means for daniel's character. throughout the tkk movies (and you can see it continue in ck) there's this really heavy importance put into the lessons that the students learn from their teachers. you see it with mr miyagi and daniel, you see it with kreese and johnny, you see it with sato and chozen. in the latter two cases, you can see the negative light of this, how a teacher with an inherently bad philosophy can carry over to how their student acts. kreese teaches johnny to be unforgiving and merciless so that's what johnny ends up being. sato is fueled by his anger at mr miyagi even years later and thus chozen is an all-around angry little dude that wants to kill daniel.

but in tkk3 you do not get a two-part villain dynamic like this! instead it's daniel who learns under a bad teacher and is taught all the wrong lessons from them. i think this theme is particularly hardlined by the fact that silver deliberately tries to separate daniel and mr miyagi so that he can become a presence in daniel's life. "there's no such thing as a bad student, only a bad teacher" is something that daniel hasnt experienced at all up until silver takes mr miyagi's place. and this sets up a really interesting internal conflict for daniel that you dont see in the previous movies. you have his inherent kindness + what he's learned from mr miyagi vs the conflicting things he's currently learning from silver. and it causes him to doubt/be frustrated with himself as he isolates himself more and more; he doesnt know whats right anymore, he's angry at himself for how he doesnt know, and thus a part of him doesn't trust himself to be around the people he cares about .

essentially: in tkk3, daniel isn't fighting against a fellow karate student that might have turned out different if they had a better/more forgiving teacher. barnes has always been like that™ from the beginning, even without silver hiring him. daniel's main battle in the movie is with himself, because he is the one that takes the role that was filled by chozen in tkk2 and johnny in tkk1 before that. and it's actually kinda heartbreaking to see bc, again, daniel is a really nice kid and he's unknowingly being manipulated into becoming someone he's not, and he has to struggle to find the person he is again through the midst of all of this .

i think from the beginning the entire reason silver wanted to train daniel wasn't just so that he could separate him from mr miyagi or cause daniel to hurt himself or even teach him to be more like him. it was mainly to construct the internal conflict that i talked about earlier. he knows that his and miyagi's philosophies are fundamentally incompatible and that daniel doesn't really want to hurt anyone. so when daniel takes enough of silver's training to heart to punch a dude in the nose, silver is ecstatic—not because daniel took out his rage on someone, but because of the meltdown that daniel has afterwards. it's why when daniel confronts him about it silver has no qualms about revealing that he's the one that hired barnes and that surprise daniel its been me thats been ruining your life all along. because that part of his plan is essentially done. he has already caused the big emotional damage and from there on out its only a matter of "beat the shit out of this child at the karate tournament". yeah his intentions are kinda weird and muddled (thank you to ck for clearing it up and saying he was high on cocaine the entire time) but you cant deny that his character does a LOT for daniel's arc in this movie .

also kinda unrelated but. love how daniel ends up following silver in the first place primarily bc he got manipulated into thinking "mr miyagi will get hurt if i don't do this/i'm not strong enough to defend him against barnes". it makes me feel feelings and emotions. like daniel just loves his karate dad so much he'll give up being his student if it means his stupid dream tree business can succeed. daniel my son /affectionate. im about to fall over and die

[pro-anomalocaris]

My mom is a psychologist and she has gotten dudes to go to therapy just by telling them softly, one hand gently resting on their arm, "You deserve to go to therapy. You deserve to have someone help you and you deserve to feel better than this. You shouldn't have to go through so much alone."

When I tell you she's made men cry with this, I mean it. I have never seen anyone get a man to go to therapy by making it another task they have to do in order to be a Real Man (TM). I have seen full grown badass, shredded truckers and professional businessman and toughened good ole boys get teary eyed or freeze or cry silently when shown an ounce of compassion because men are starving for it. Men are so used to everything being yet another burden to carry and thing to do in order to earn manliness points in the eyes of the world that being told sincerely, "you deserve to be happy" just about short-circuits most of us. One time one of my bullies' dads went from yelling at my mom to trying not to cry because she just listened to him rant about how stretched thin he was being a single dad, put a hand on his and said, "That sounds like a lot to carry alone. I can't imagine how hard that's been." It was like she'd flipped a switch and suddenly he had permission to feel what the anger was disguising. (She then told my bully to try to think about his dad a bit more, because family needs family. And when I tell you this boy looked like he'd been called out by God Himself, I mean it; he had several revelations and stopped a lot of toxic behavior after that.)

I really hope this isn't derailing with personal anecdotes but I just. I really think it's baffling how tumblr will post all these quotes about kindness, compassion and love and then not extend them towards men. I just don't get it. Because men react to any of it extended towards them like someone in the desert presented suddenly with water.

One of my neighbors is known as the grumpy old guy who hates everyone. He is not grumpy or hateful towards me because I did the very Southern thing of making food for everyone and introducing myself when I moved in. I listened to him rant about how no one does that these days and how no one knows their neighbors and agreed that that's awful and we all need people and it sucks that we're all so isolated from each other. I told him it's cool that he still does stuff like foster cats and didn't let the world drain the kindness from him and y'all, that one tiny piece of acknowledgment that life is hard and his kindness in spite of it took work has made the "grumpy old guy who hates everyone" my bestie. He and I chat whenever we see each other in the hall. He is starving for positivity and gentleness.

One time on the bus, coming home from shopping, I got to talking to a guy in his 50's riding across from me. He wanted to know why I had a bunch of flowers. Snidely, he asked if I was giving them to my boyfriend. (I had on a vest with Pride pins at the time.) I explained actually, they were for my French professor, whose mother had died. He was confused that I said my professor was male. Nobody gave him flowers when his mom died a year ago, he said. I took a flower out of the arrangement and handed it to him as my stop approached. He looked at it as if I'd given him an entire flower store.

A chunk of the internet seems convinced that the way to stop hateful men is to meet hate with hate. I have yet to see that work. I have yet to even hear anecdotes that state that it works, only that it satisfies some internal desire to lash out in response to someone lashing out at you.

But I have seen a construction worker on a bus hold a single white hyacinth with the utmost care and be unable to meet my eyes as he said "thank you".

part of the reason i love how bell hooks talks about masculinity is that she shows real compassion towards men suffering from the effects of toxic masculinity. she was conscious of how we need to unlearn the ways we talk about men + masculinity just as much as we need to unlearn the same for women + femininity. so many times ill see someone talking about toxic masculinity like (hyperbolizing here but only slightly) "these FUCKING STUPID BABY BITCHES won't MAN UP and go to a therapist!!!" and like. i get the anger. but you see feminists recreating patriarchal manhood by only promoting good behaviors through patriarchal frameworks. any use of the term "real men" is bad because it reifies the idea that manhood is a special title you must earn, and it is something possible to fail and fake. & as important as it is to promote sexual equality + the pleasure of non-cis-men, lots of people are essentially still working with the idea that men need sexual prowess to have worth but just shifting it slightly so there is more emphasis on women's pleasure. but I want cis men to think about their partners' pleasure because they care about their partners, not because they need to check a box in order to keep their man card. and don't get me started on small dick jokes– and the absolutely pitiful excuse people will use that "well, I don't believe it, but misogynistic men get upset when I say it, so it's okay!"

basically bell hooks is so fucking right. in order to create loving men we need to love men, simply for being alive, whether or not they are performing. as much as we need to actively unlearn misogyny (and we do), it's equally vital we unlearn patriarchal ways of seeing manhood. we can't just assume that taking a feminist perspective automatically means there is no work to be done there.