#He's a dictator in a position of power even in canon

[bonefall]

I read dotc in like. Fourth grade I think? And the Only scene I can remember now is one in the book with the snow on the cover, where clear sky is heavily injured by a bagder or whatever and thunder looks at him like. God that pathitic guy is my dad. That's so sad. I Have to help him, but because he's a senile old man and Not because hes My Dad.

And kid me was like omg he's just like me fr

And anyway I guess I just was that scene to be included in the BB rewrite. Idk if it even actually exists but it would he cool

I know the exact scene you're talking about and I'm sorry; no, you read it wrong. That's A Forest Divided and Thunder was massively guilt-tripped and abused by Clear Sky before they get attacked by a badger and forced to go back to the moor.

The full context is that Clear Sky has conveniently misinterpreted the words of his dead sister, Fluttering Bird, in a bizarrely specific way that would put him in power over everyone again. Everyone points out that he can't be trusted, and dismisses his shitty idea.

Clear Sky then throws a tantrum about how everyone is so mean to him and doesn't like him after all he's ever done for them (absolutely nothing). Thunder feels awful that he was "too harsh" to his dad, the violent dictator who shoved his face in a drippy, infected wound.

I went over the scene here, but only mention the badger at the end because it's really just a quicktime event they fail so they can get sent back to the moor.

If you ever read DOTC in a way where Thunder was feeling pity for a fellow man and not guilt from his abusive father creating a new tactic to control him with, you need to look again. It's guilt they're writing. Guilt guilt guilt.

It will probably not exist in BB because the story is very different. ThunderClan exists by Book 3, so Thunderstar isn't going to be going back to SkyClan out of guilt. It could happen to Tiger Sky, though.

[tobi-smp]

you know, with hindsight now what it is I really do think a more literal reading of c!techno's chat would have helped his characterization a Lot

and mind you, this was originally intended to be the case, and very well may have been intended all along even if it wasn't usually emphasized within the lore

and don't get me wrong, I Get why it fell out of favor within the fandom. it coincides with a Very storied ableist trope that demonizes DID and disorders adjacent to it, and Can be spoken about in a way that is essentially indistinguishable from it depending on the word choice.

but the thing is ! not only does it not Have to be an allegory for DID, I straight up don't think it is At All.

because we Know what it's an allegory for. It's His Chat. there's technoblade playing the game, and there's the thousands of people watching with expectations and wants that he's compelled to meet (or, at the very least, pacify through Entertainment).

and this makes much Much more sense when conceived of as Supernatural. be that spirits, gods, demons, or anything that could fill that role. separate entities that, for whatever reason, only techno can sense the presence of and be affected by.

and of course, to an extent this is true for all creators. everyone had an audience that they were meant to entertain and the choices they made were influenced by that fact.

but technoblade came in with a Very distinct set of expectations that heavily impacted the choices he was Expected to make and the kinds of stories that he could tell. he was more or less a living legend in real life just as much as he was in roleplay, and these things were inherently connected.

and it's like !

when c!technoblade says he was peer pressured into killing tubbo at the red festival he Is technically talking about what happened within the roleplay. schlatt was demanding it from him, there's a sort of pressure there. but schlatt was also the dictator they were set to kill, and techno has never had any trouble fighting people he considered a dictator before, and certainly not Schlatt of all people.

but he WAS being peer pressured By His Audience. by thousands of people, most of which were demanding blood Because It Was The Expectation, because it'd be Fun.

out of universe technoblade made the decision he thought would be the most Entertaining, and he was right! consistently he made choices that would let him do the most bombastic Spectacles possible. And It's Great. he's Excellent at pulling dramatics and making a compelling scene that give other people room to work off of. in that sense I'd consider techno an Excellent actor, and I have to imagine that he was fun to work with.

the problem is when you then have to justify it from an in character perspective, grounded in those mushy things like Feelings with characters that can be traumatized and sustain lasting damage, Especially Without acknowledging the out of character incentive.

mind you, it's not Impossible to Create a backstory that could justify it. why a character as consistently powerful and feared as technoblade would feel pressured to kill an ally by someone he not only Can kill but Wanted To Kill. why a character as seemingly secure and in control as technoblade would lash out the way that he does to perceived betrayal, and yet consistently puts no weight onto having killed and permanently scarred an ally that trusted him.

what that'd need is tragedy. a storied history of being hurt and having to survive. building up To an untouchable god from a much much more vulnerable position. Long Lasting trauma that's lead to this deep insecurity and paranoia. and that's Possible and that's Compelling.

but it's just not in the text.

not only did we never learn basically Anything that c!technoblade was up to pre-series, we actually know Less by the end than when we started because of the sbi retconning.

it's a Theoretically Possible interpretation that's technically never Contradicted by canon, but would have to be created by scratch. it's a compelling idea for a fan fic (and one I'd like to read) and it's compelling for a theoretical recontextualization of the character, but it's just not In The Text.

meanwhile, we have the video above.

we have the Objective Fact that technoblade's decision making was often subject to the rule of cool (very Very effectively) to entertain his audience.

and most compellingly, these concepts Don't Need To Be Separate. in fact, in my opinion they're Stronger when you put them together.

because the thing is. it's Difficult to imagine techno as ever being in a vulnerable position. he is just Objectively more powerful than everyone else on the server, both in real life And within the lore. How could he have ever been afraid when he was stronger than anyone and everyone combined? when we saw with our own eyes that techno could face nearly the whole server at once and win.

but he Is a tragic character, at least he's meant to be. and that tragedy makes much Much more sense as something Inward.

technoblade as a character who Needs connection, who Needs stability, who Needs security, who Needs friendship and community and Love. but Lashes Out, Obliterates to the core of the earth, because of something that's not only out of his control but that other people Cannot Understand.

how do you explain to a child that you killed their best friend because a chorus of the undead called for his blood and you (in all the glory that he'd idolized) were unable to do anything but comply? how do you explain to that child that you beat him senseless in a pit as the restless dead jeered and laughed?

That's interesting. That's Compelling.

technoblade is idolized like a god, feared like a force of nature, and in an instant cut himself off from nearly everyone who'd considered him an ally. and that seems to be a pattern, over and over and over again. he's left isolated, and in return he faces retaliation, and in return he's always Waiting for retaliation.

and what do you say to someone who wants to kill you for being a monster? that it's Fine Actually because you only did what you did because you have a curse that compels you to? that the supernatural guided you to destroy their homes and kill their people? (rip jack manifold you will be missed)?

That Doesn't Quite Help Your Case.

technoblade as someone who is beholden to this literal cycle of violence and Loses those things that could ground him, community, stability, People, as a result. who Tries to overcome this very fact (to become a better person, in his own words as per the clip above), but is pulled back into it as a consequence of his own actions.

that's a tragedy !! that Makes Sense. that allows him to be Both this force of nature that other characters have to survive And A Person Who Is Hurt By The Same Conflict.

"I'm a person!" that fear of dehumanization makes So So Much More Sense when you see technoblade as someone who Already fears himself. who fears being a monster, who fears losing control, who has faced isolation again and again and again.

and, importantly, it doesn't have to be anyone else's Fault.

by making the source both Internal and Completely External (something that none of the other characters have any awareness or control over), you can Have techno as a tragic character without demonizing anyone else Or erasing the impact that c!techno had on them.

and in that sense, it Can be an allegory for mental illness, but not in that direct "oooooh how scary he hears voices" kind of way that people fear it looks. but in that sometimes people Will do things that can hurt others while not feeling in control. anger and mania and paranoia, things that you can't always Control and yet that impact that you have on other people still Matters.

and the answer to that is, often, vulnerability and accountability.

I think a lot about technoblade isolating himself so near entirely from the rest of the server, and slowly gathering a support system Back by the end. and I Really Do think that framing of it through this lens is a Very impactful way of breaking it down.

tubbo, tommy, wilbur, ranboo, niki, I think they'd All understand not feeling in control. lashing out, maybe even feeling justified in the moment, but hurting people they care about and furthering their own isolation.

There's Something There, and it's already In The Text. it just needs to be expanded on.

and why not do that ourselves now?

[syndrossi]

You brought up this AU idea from way back where Jon and Rhaegar were born earlier as Aemon and Jocelyn's sons, and thus Rhaenys' little brothers. How old would that put them compared to Daemon? Would he like having more cousins? For that matter, would Rhaenys like having little brothers? Would Aemon live in this AU, or would we get child!King Jon? (The sheer panic, lmao.) If so, would Viserys become his regent? I was just wondering about it and could not resist the curiosity. How do you think things would have changed in this sort of verse? 🤔

I sort of like the idea of them being right around Daemon's age, plus or minus a few years. I'm sure he would be thrilled about having cousins his age, too. Rhaenys is cool, but she's a girl and older. The age gap between her and Daemon is pretty significant in terms of being peers. Rhaenys meanwhile may find it a little disappointing at first. I expect she had dreams of her own that she might be queen someday after her father, long before she got her cold shot of reality at the Great Council. Twin brothers pushes her back behind both of them in the succession.

But Rhaenys is also a seven or eight-year-old, so it's not like politics and the succession are the primary things on her mind when the twins are born. Twins are fun, and the boys are cute/sweet, so I'm sure she warms up to them quickly and bossily assumes control over their education even though she's pretty much a child herself (Jocelyn, amused, lets her). She probably wishes at least one of them had been a girl, especially when she has to deal with the brat pack that is Viserys, Daemon, and the twins running around like hooligans at Dragonstone or the Giant's Toe.

If Aemon dies at his usual canon time and the twins are roughly Daemon's age, then Jon would be thirteenish, which isn't TERRIBLE. (The other alternative is the twins being born much later, aka when Rhaenys is married. Jocelyn gets pregnant, Aemon dies shortly after their birth, and chaos ensues. They'd be contemporaries of Rhaenyra in this case, and I expect Jaehaerys betroths Rhaenyra to Jon and plans for Baelon, and later Viserys, to be Jon's regent.)

Or my soft heart wins out and Aemon gets to live, who can say! That could be an interesting inversion--where Baelon dies, and it's Aemon who has to live on, only unlike Baelon, he has no enemy to strike down in vengeance, since it was sickness that took him. Viserys and Daemon both leaning on him in their grief, Daemon claiming Vhagar(???) instead.

It's hard to say what changes, exactly, without settling on some details! Is this a setting with or without warlocks (aka with or without messy Essos politics)? Does Aemon live or die? Are the twins contemporaries of Daemon or Rhaenyra?

I do think that Jaehaerys is faced with an interesting, difficult choice in the case of Aemon dies + the twins are babies. Because he has a grown son as a very valid alternative, even if standard male-preference primogeniture dictates that Jon and Rhaegar should be above Baelon in the succession. Then again, he did not immediately declare Viserys his next heir after Baelon's death, which shows he was open to Aemon's line stepping back into the position, even if the rest of the realm wasn't.

Things are much more stable if Aemon doesn't die (obviously) or if the twins are born earlier and Jon becomes a thirteen-year-old heir to the Iron Throne. Jaehaerys would have had enough time to get a sense of Jon's capability and know that he's an excellent option.

Otto's not sitting nearly as pretty as in canon (the daughter of a second son is no worthwhile match for the king's heir or his spare), so he may be driven to more desperate measures in his grasping for power.

(I'll bet the twins are Corlys's #1 fans. It is likely joked that no one was more excited when he wed Rhaenys, not even Rhaenys herself.)

[casscainmainly]

An Analysis of Duke Thomas in Wayne Family Adventures

I've been seeing a lot of posts and comments recently concerning Duke Thomas in WFA. I know WFA discourse has been done to death, but these comments were about how they'd only read WFA, felt Duke lacked a personality, his powers weren't distinctive, etc. Out of the main WFA characters, I think Duke has the least-read comics and the least understood canon history. This post is going to dissect WFA!Duke, compare it with canon!Duke, and address whether WFA is a fair representation of Duke or not.

This is not a WFA hate post. A lot of comics readers love WFA and vice versa, and I'm not going to dictate what people should like or dislike. Check out this post I made yesterday about the origins of WFA, which really aren't ill-intentioned. However, judging by the comments/posts I've seen, a lot of people don't know the difference between WFA!Duke and canon!Duke. This post exists to clarify those discrepancies and hopefully encourage more people to read Duke's comics.

The Positives

Let's cover the pros of WFA!Duke first! The sheer fact that he's one of the main characters and present throughout is amazing, allowing more people to learn and get interested in Duke. Since he doesn't have his own ongoing, WFA is about the only place to get consistent Duke content.

Plus look at how cute he is:

His presence also means we get fun interactions with other characters that Duke doesn't get to interact with in canon, such as Steph and Dick. As a diehard Duke-is-Dick's-successor believer, I appreciate any page-time they get together, even if it's not substantial.

Also, WFA season 3 confirmed that Duke can turn invisible without his suit, which is just fun!

Framing

Duke is introduced in the very first episode, and in some ways is the framing device for the entire webtoon. He is "Gotham's Newest Vigilante," learning about the family and the manor.

Many episodes of WFA have Duke asking a question that the others respond to. You can see this in Episode 2 ("The Last Cookie," he asks about their tradition), Episode 7 ("Vigilante Bingo"), Episode 30 ("Driving Lessons"), Episode 39 ("Secret Identity"), all the way to one of the latest minisodes (Mini Episode 3 - Super Friends).

This framing is not completely incorrect, since Duke is the newest addition to the family. The problem with this framing, though, is that Duke's personality and problems are never the focus - in these episodes we learn a lot about the other Batfam, and nothing about Duke.

Take "Vigilante Bingo". We learn so much canon stuff about Dick, Jay, Tim, and Cass, including who's died/come back (Cass and Tim chime in here, which is not very well known in fanon). However, because Duke is the one asking the question, he doesn't get to participate in the answers. This framing makes WFA-only readers learn shockingly little about Duke's prior activities, and they only cover his backstory in episode 76.

Personality

Because of his perpetual outsider status, WFA!Duke's most prominent traits are confusion, timidity, and insecurity.

(I found all these by literally clicking on any thumbnail with Duke in it. He exhibits confusion/timidity/insecurity all the time).

The first two traits - confusion and timidity - is completely antithetical to Duke in canon. Just compare these panels from We Are Robin #6 to a panel from WFA:

Canon!Duke gets shot and thinks to himself: "how baller is that?!". WFA!Duke hears about a booby-trapped lawn and makes that face. This reaction is basically the opposite of the way WAR!Duke would react. I have legitimately no clue how anyone could read We Are Robin or The Cursed Wheel and come away with Duke being timid.

More examples of how canon!Duke acts when confronted with dangerous situations, just for fun:

From We Are Robin #2, we have Duke mouthing off to people he's just met; from Robin War, we have the iconic jumping-out-of-cop-car scene; from Robin War again, we have Duke standing up for one more battle against Damian with absolutely no hesitation.

Duke in canon is headstrong, stubborn to a fault, outspoken, and brave. These qualities just don't come through in WFA.

Insecurity

The third component of WFA!Duke's personality, insecurity, is the only one with some canon basis. Check out this panel from Batman & The Signal #1:

Here, he's struggling with his place in the family, something WFA!Duke also deals with in Episode 75 + 76 ("Worthy"). But I think WFA misconstrued where this insecurity comes from.

Duke's problem is not that he's a meta, it's that he's a meta with "powers no one understands yet". A "walking detective case," so to speak. His insecurity stems from his lack of understanding around his powers, because at this point he doesn't know about Gnomon. WFA somehow turns this into a problem with the powers itself:

This is simply not supported in canon. Duke has no problems using his powers; even in Batman & The Signal, the peak of his canon insecurities, he literally says "go, go ghost vision" (god I love him). Moreover, his powers come from his mom. Saying that Duke feels he needs to prove he's worthy "in spite of" his powers is a complete misreading of Duke's canon feelings. Which leads to my next point:

Family

"Worthy" positions Duke's powers in opposition to Bruce's approval, and though the episode ends with Duke accepting himself, it's clear throughout WFA that his biggest parental figure/source of approval is Bruce.

WFA!Duke talks and thinks about Bruce more than he does his mom and dad, which is genuinely mind-boggling. Canon!Duke talks about his parents basically every single page. It's one of the most consistent aspects of his character!

From We Are Robin #2, Batman & The Signal #1, The Cursed Wheel Part 1, and Batman: Urban Legends #19. Duke's parents are only mentioned in "Worthy" as part of his traumatic backstory, but Duke's parents aren't backstory - they're alive. By neglecting the importance of Duke's parents, WFA is ignoring a fundamental aspect of Duke's character and making him seem like just another orphan.

This panel from Episode 118 is hilarious in the context of canon!Duke waffling on about his parents 24/7. But the erasure of Duke's parents is symptomatic of another problem with WFA.

Supporting Cast

Duke's first multi-parter is Episodes 8/9/10, "Crush". In this episode, Duke asks a girl out, and then she breaks up with him.

First of all, compared to other two-parters (all of Cass', Dick's "Big Brother", Steph's "Belonging", hell even Tim's "Better and Brighter"), this two-parter is incredibly detached from Duke's character. All you learn is that he gets crushes and doesn't like break-ups, which isn't character-specific at all.

Secondly, using an OC as Duke's girlfriend is so bizarre given Duke has 1 canon love interest. Here, I googled it:

Imagine the story we could've gotten with Izzy instead; with them having canon history, this two-parter would've been a lot more impactful, and introduce We Are Robin characters to a WFA audience. I'd also like to point out the difference in how these relationships begin:

Another example of WFA introducing timidity into a scenario where canonically, Duke played it extremely cool (from We Are Robin #9).

WFA uses none of Duke's supporting cast. To be fair, Duke's supporting cast isn't well known, but isn't WFA a perfect low-stakes place to spotlight unknown characters? Harper gets appearances, and she's been neglected by canon for ages. Tim gets to have Bernard, Jason gets literally all of his Outlaws, and there's even a KonCass cameo!

There's a reason why the top comment on every single one of the Crushed eps doesn't even mention Duke.

Shouldn't Duke-centric episodes have comments about Duke? The story is so vague and widely applicable that there's nothing about Duke to comment on, so the spotlight is shifted onto the other Batfam members. If the story had included Duke's supporting cast, think about how much more we could've learned about Duke himself.

Side note: why on Earth is Luke Fox Duke's go-to mentor? They have next to no canon interactions, and while having a Black mentor is something Duke probably needs, he already has one. Batman and The Outsiders sets up the Duke and Black Lightning relationship really nicely. Not to mention in "Worthy," Duke's problem is about having powers, which makes Luke Fox's inclusion (as a non-meta) baffling. Black Lightning would've been perfect!

Conclusion + Wishlist

This is the top comment on Episode 76. I think I've demonstrated how untrue this is, because WFA!Duke doesn't even touch the worst of canon!Duke. WFA!Duke has next to no defining characteristics, which contributes to him being the 'boring' or 'sane' one. To any WFA-only readers, please don't think this is representative of Duke as a whole; reading even just the first issue of We Are Robin shows how interesting and full of personality he really is.

It's disappointing because WFA is a lot of people's only exposure to the Batfam, and portraying Duke like this has only caused them to misinterpret his character. However, there has been improvement - they're beginning to mention his backstory a lot more, which means they've read some of his comics. I still believe they can turn it around!

Here's some improvements they could make, along with some things I want expanded upon:

Stop using Duke as the outsider/newbie character. It's been over 100 eps, he doesn't need that anymore!

Mention his supporting cast, or at the very least mention his parents more

Expand on his canon relationships with Damian, Cass, and Jason, they deserve to be close!

Use his detective abilities/affinity for puzzles

Mention his dislike of heights

Involve him in more shenanigans

I don't have FastPass but please bring Duke back into the fold of S3!!

[15-lizards]

Worldbuilding wise do you think the ideal woman and ideal man flickers from kingdom to kingdom? I can’t see the reach and north having the same ideals and I cannot see the Stormlands and vale or westerlands and dorne.

Yeah I mean it’s like every culture, where morals and ideals vary from place to place due to their history and surroundings etc etc. also prepare for a long tangent as I force you to listen to my sociology and psychology training

1. It’s canon that Northerners are rougher and sterner people, due to their way of living and the ever present threat of years long winters. Life is first and foremost about survival, so being frivolous and carefree is more looked down upon. Men and women have roughly the same moral standards placed on them I think. They’re both supposed to be more serious and frugal, though ofc men have expectations of dominance and strength while women are expected to be stern matrons. However the patriarchal ideas of the south are not as strong up north, bc in a place so often barren and hard to survive in, everyone is needed to put in 100% to keep their families alive. Which also leads me to thinking ab more of a collectivist culture in the north

2. Riverlander culture is also very family oriented. They are steeped in traditions of their houses, and old stories that happened centuries ago still resonate with them. Thus an ideal man is a staunchly good man, one who cares for his family and raises his children well. He is practical, he values the advice of his old advisors and he must be a father to his men, especially the ever-suffering peasants. Women are considered the hearth of the home. She is loyal to her husband, father, or brothers, and must give them the sound advice of women (when appropriate, of course). She is gentle voiced and soft, frequently gives out alms to the poor and passes down the traditional tales to her children.

3. Westerland culture is incredibly individualistic. You are fighting for yourself and your house instead of the collective good. So in both genders, ambition is positively regarded, and men and women are often expected to have sharp wits in order to survive cutthroat politics. However the patriarchy is still like. A thing. So women are often confined to the domestic sphere, but powerful ladies are definitely expected to wield their influence within it. Overall just a very harsh vibe to live up to and stern gender divides despite the opulence and decadence of the culture itself.

4. The Reach is very similar to the Westerlands in terms of morals and ideals, but covers them up far better. It still rewards ambition and cunning, but you have to be incredibly graceful throughout. Manners and courtesy are very alive here. Men are told to be valiant, courageous, and outgoing, and are expected to charm their way into what they desire. For women, it’s a standard for them to be lively and sweet, and there’s an unspoken expectation that they be able to navigate the court politics with grace. A far more charismatic version of Westerners, if you will.

5.The culture of The Vale is ruled by stuffy social codes. Tradition, honor, and frivolous rules dictate everything about a persons behavior. The ideal man is gentlemanly and noble, who is even handed and respectful in his behavior. He is friendly, but there is a certain aloofness about him that is not to be breached, as it would be a violation of the social code. The model woman is even more aloof, as too much friendliness tells one of her loose morals. A good woman must be above suspicion, withdrawn and just a little bit cold, but still empathetic and devoted (to the gods, her family, and subjects).

6. Dorne is fairly equitable in how they view their men and women, this is true in canon. Oftentimes one of the harshest places to live in Westeros, I feel like there's little time for divisive gender roles when every person is needed to work and help the collective survive. Both Dornish men and women tend to be sociable and friendly, due to their collectivist culture. An ideal man is considered to be outgoing, someone who treats their subjects and friends in a familiar manner. And they must be a least a little bit hot blooded, being seen as a sign they will defend the land Nymeria fought for. Women are supposed to be equally as friendly, frequently having guests over and creating community. They must be bold too, have a will to live in the lands. However, their customs often are mistaken for promiscuity by the non-dornish.

7. The Iron Islands ideal people probably have more of a stereotypical Norse/Viking mindset. It's not an easy land to live in, and both men and women have to be hardened in order to survive, the weak are left behind. For men, it's all a battle of dominance. If a man wants respect, he has to take it. He must be the strongest, the most violent, the man who can lead others to bloody victory. A lot of crass, stubborn personalities exist in turn. Women, even though looked down upon, still have to be as hardened as their men, despite the lack of respect they receive. A "respectable" woman is stubborn and unshakable, with a temperament that can take whatever is thrown at her. However, she is still jeered and disrespected by the men who call her a good woman.

8. The Crownlands are interesting, because there is no one defining culture, it's a real melting pot. The ideal is whatever is popular during any given time, which is dictated by whatever king sits the throne or noble whispers in his ear. So, men have to be very gregarious, able to get along with everyone, incase whoever they are loyal to suddenly falls from grace, and they must curry favor with someone else. Women are expected to be flirty and coquettish, an accomplished girl who can catch the eye of prominent noblemen that can secure their future. Basically a city of snakes and backstabbers looking for footholds into power.

[farosdaughter]

There's no rule that says Coriolanus Snow can't be a romantic and a gentleman to his girlfriend while at the same time as being an evil dictator villian with the blood of millions of teens and children on his hands. He can be both. It makes him more intriguing that he can be both. That he has empathy for a certain number of people, but can't spare more than that(I headcanon that he was a good grandfather to his grandchildren)

PREACH!

If things had gone slightly different in canon, I’m convinced Snow would’ve had a loving marriage while still becoming the villain we know in THG. After all, his decision to forsake romantic love after the events of TBOSAS is in itself a testament to the depth of his feelings for Lucy Gray.

Love doesn’t equal redemption or goodness, and the fact that he’s a fundamentally selfish person in a position of power doesn’t mean Snow isn’t also capable of human emotions and attachment. Especially when the prequel makes the opposite argument. I agree with you that in canon he seemed like a loving grandfather even as he reached unheard of levels of cruelty as President.

His innate possessiveness would on the contrary make him a very doting and protective husband (to the right woman, sorry Livia). Whether the relationship would have stood the test of time (and of his thirst for power) is another matter entirely. Most AUs where Coryo and Lucy Gray go back to the Capitol and he goes into government have her betraying him in the end, and I also think that would the most likely outcome. Theirs is a monstrous love, etc etc

[electricprincess96]

anti Talia rant incoming, specifically about the topic of Talia being a abuser. Very all over the place, ignore if you must.

To reiterate what you've said in your "Talia sexually abused Jason" posts, It's so completely a gender thing. They infantilize Talia to such a degree to minimise her actions (and blame her actions on another characters such as Ra's or Bruce) and act like Jason, a literal teenager (who I always though was younger than 17 when he was resurrected), has the agency of a fully grown adult. This is such a dirty tactic because they're basically erasing Jason's victim status and rewriting Talia to be either a victim or a saviour depending on their mood.

Even if ages weren't a problem (even through they are), Talia was his captor and had been isolating him while purposely lying about/omitting important details (Bruce did try to avenge Jason...promise) that would have lead to Jason making radically different decisions and seeing Talia in a different light. There is no way that anyone can. in good faith, say that Jason was fully capable to firstly consent to sleeping with Talia or secondly was on the same level of power that Talia had in their relationship. (and they wonder why they get called rape apologists)

Jason was a vulnerable child and Talia was an abuser who was in a position of power over him who decided to take advantage of him. End of story. Nothing more.

It reminds me of every single last post where Talia is posited as the victim/passive one of any situation (someone tried to act like Bruce slept with her when she was nineteen or something despite the comic they were referencing wasn't canonical since it was released *wink wink* and her being age being revealed to be 150 during the Lazarus Affair which is also non-canonical now due to the Crisis event) and that Bruce held all the power in their relationship ignoring that fact that she: lied to him on multiple occasions, withheld information, played both sides, ignored/overstepped boundaries etc. Or they act like the reason the relationship fell apart was due to Bruce's wrongdoings. Not that Talia would always side with a terrorist organisation that obviously disagreed with Bruce's morals.

Another thing that pisses me off in relation to Brutalia (I know Jason's your favorite guy, but Bruce's mine so a lot of Bruce from here on out) is just how they have no self awareness when posting "cute" moments about them. No the moment between them in No Man's Land wasn't cute, no that moment wasn't cute either. Like the whole marriage between them was creepy. I'm tried of downplaying it to avoid annoyed fans and I'm tried of them being oblivious to it.

She drugged him, kidnapped him, held him on a boat and married him without his consent (all while ignoring his rebukes when he came to). That is Grade A creep behavior. It wasn't cute, romantic or something people should be posted acting like it's a step closer to Brutalia being canon. Are my modern sensibilities strong, yes, (and I absolutely understand that "innocent" things can age badly) but that doesn't mean it wasn't creepy.

Then the whole Bane debacle *slaps face*. I hate it when someone is like "Well, Talia was abused by Bane, meaning that what happened to Bruce/Jason doesn't matter because she'd never do that in the first place cause she's the only victim". (Never mind she abused Bruce before Bane happened) That isn't a point. Anyone, past victim or past abuser, can be abused. There's no rule book dictating how can or cannot abuse.

Something else which is funny to me is that for no other character, except Poison Ivy and Harley, will stans do Simone Biles mental gymnastics for their character. Like I do remember people saying Doctor Light was character assassinated but no one every accused people that mentioned the fact that he was a serial rapist of ableism or hatred of abused characters or something stupid. I never see Slade stans come out of the woodworks to accuse Tara of seducing him or consenting to her abuse. I never see anyone try to educate fandom on the history of Deathstroke to try and act like it was such a horrible thing they made a mercenary who on multiple occasions tried to kill teenagers, forced Tara to be a double agent, abused his kids and Cass (I'm pretty sure) also be a child molester.

Like did people forget that Talia was a part of a eco terrorist organisation that had multiple plans to cull most of the Earth??? What's not clicking? Why is the idea of sexual abuse soo out there for her, it's not her worst crime by a long-shot. It's that fucking meme. Y'all can excuse genocide but you draw the line at rape???

*sigh* sorry for this long-ass brain vomit.

Please rant away, we've all got to at times.

And yeah, Jason may be my main fav in the BatFam but unlike a lot of Jason fans I love Bruce, I hate the bad writing that's circled both Jason and Bruce basically since UTRH (it set up something fantastic... and then Bruce "died" and we got Ginger Jason which... less said about that the better).

As for Jason's age if memory serves me correctly he was 15 when he was properly resurrected and dug out hus grave but closer to 17 when she throws him in the Lazarus Pit cause he spends a close to a year on Gotham Streets(how'd he survive, don't know, comic logic) and at least a year being cared for by Talia before Ra's tells her to stop playing nursemaid. But I could be wrong, regardless he was definitely under 18 and regardless as you point out the power dynamic makes the ages irrelevant anyway, there's no version of this story where he can reasonably consent because he can't reasonably say no. Coupled with the fact she does in fact fill Jason's mind with all this bullshit about how Bruce didn't seem to care enough to avenge him when Bruce thought the Joker was dead after the UN incident and was basically suicide for months after that until Tim came along (and even then, he was never really the same after Jason's death).

Talia is absolutely just as much an abuser of Bruce as she is Jason, I bring Jason up more because he's my fav and also it is a bit more generally known by fans than ALL the shit she did to Bruce throughout the years so it's easier to point to it when trying to articulate my overall issues with Talia.

Like Talia is an abuser of men, and that predates her supposed "character assassination" and has always been a thinly veiled part of her character. On top of all that she is a literal terrorist, and whether they like it or not the very environment that is fostered at the League would result in her always been at the very best a mediocre mother. Now, yes, Ra's is also an abuser, but being a victim of abuse does not allow someone to then become just as abusive. Ra's is not entirely responsible for Talia's actions. She's a grown woman, in many ways more capable than her father, she can say no. Likewise, the Bane shit, as you say, happened after a lot of her abusive behaviour towards Bruce, and still doesn't justify HER abusive actions. Talia can be both a victim and a victimiser.

And yeah, Deathstroke fans will admit they don't like the Tara stuff, they'll often choose to ignore it, but they won't blame the underage girl for it. I don't mind Slade myself, don't love him, don't hate him. His fans are a lot less obnoxious that some others I've met so they don't make me hate him the way some other fans do with their favs.

It really is simple if Talia was a man and Bruce/Jason were women no one would argue it was abuse. And the single worst thing for me is that fans will depict her as some deep love of Bruce's life when I'd argue a lot of his other love interests, not just Selina, are all much better written with more chemistry with Bruce and he doesn't have to be wildly OOC to justify the relationship. OR they'll depict her as a surrogate mother figure for Jason when she literally raped him. Like Jason absolutely needs a surrogate mother figure, one that doesn't take advantage of him, but like... he could go talk to Diana, or Dinah, or Selina, or almost every other female Bruce has ever spoken to because they are all significantly better options than Talia.

[neophytepagan]

25 for caecade?

25. one to five tropes they embody or could pull off in an AU.

mostly thinking of the canon verse and im giving more than five because i dont wanna cut down any

unrequited love/one sided - pretty self explanatory, caesar likes arcade and arcade despises him, making caecade one sided and more nonconny is fun sometimes but doesn't have that drama that i like in arcade's shameful attraction.

corruption - over time arcade slowly grows accustomed to caesar and living in his close proximity. he starts tolerating more than he probably should, growing numb to the tragedies around him until caesar pushes him to be a player in it rather than just a victim or a bystander, elevating him to a position of power. maybe arcade tries to do good, but he still becomes complicit by extension

caretaker/ing - emphasizing on the doctor/patient dynamic, despite caesar's atrocities seeing him vulnerable and weak still activates those parts of arcade's brain that makes him want to help and care for him. it makes caesar far more human, seeing him afraid, exhausted, in pain. arcade can't bring himself to deny him any treatment, tenderness, soft touches, words of encouragement

slow burn- arcade isn't breaking that easy, but caesar has all the time in the world to chisel away at his defenses. caesar doesnt even know arcade likes men at first, and feels somewhat ashamed of like, "forcing" that affection upon him. in caesars eyes arcade is the closest thing to an equal to him and after being lonely for... years. pushing away this new and wonderful thing because of his desires would be a shame. then he finds out arcades gay and he wont stop flirting with him

arranged marriage - is always fun especially with a side of political intrigue. this would mostly have to be in an au, but arcade being offered up in a political marriage after being found out as gay and refusing to wed a woman and continue to family line, so his parents will use him as a bargaining chip instead, throwing him at the slaving dictator. arcades afraid for his life and safety given the rumors about caesar... but caesar is so astonishingly different than what he'd expected that he's almost glad for the marriage so he can get away from the enclave

mutual pining - one of my favorite parts about this pairing is when arcade is pining for caesar and really isnt happy about it. he catches himself eyeing caesars body or feeling giddy and butterflies in his stomach over something sweet caesar says to him. its kind of a game. caesar seeing how openly affectionate he can be before arcade puts his boundaries up and gets angry and hides again. he gets to say some pet names but touching is too much... then after some time he gets to stroke arcades hair or caress his cheek but the second he leans in for a kiss arcade yells at him and pushes him away. one night arcade is the one who leans in and presses his lips to caesar, but the second he starts tugging at arcades clothes arcade says no and goes to sleep. progression like that. caesar daydreams abt arcade whenever he's not around him, gets him gifts, even blushes (caesar getting flustered is so good to me) when arcade flirts back

sharing a bed - a pretty cheesy trope but caesar only has one bed in his tent and it would be a fun way for him to try and get arcade to like him. hes being so nice offering his huge comfy bed to arcade. the soldiers have to sleep in sleeping bags on the floor. come on arcade... don't you see what an honor it is...

ruler/consort - i fold this in to like, everything i do with them. arcade always becomes something more than just a slave or a doctor. he becomes caesar's closest advisor, his sole confidant. he also becomes a little voice in his ear pushing him and manipulating to do things (for the good of the wasteland) and caesar lets him because he's both so head over heels and damn it's sexy when arcade is playing with him. arcade being officially recognized as caesar's consort or spouse... its so goodddd

[acourtofthought]

Is High Lady a legitimate position? or was that just made up to make Feyre legitimately the most powerful fae (like her mate)? Does being a high lady require a different set of socio-political functions than any lady in Prythian? Or are they just ladies in positions of power who are really really powerful?

Also, should Elucien be the main couple in the next book, how do you want SJM to explore other courts since Lucien is connected to a lot of them?

Lastly, idk if you answered this but what attributes from Feysand and Nessian made you shy away from them becoming high king and queen? After seeing your posts about characteristics of Elucien that make them suitable to rule, I'd like to hear more from you!

This is not a hater question if you ship the canon couples. Hope you have a great day.

High Lady was a legitimate position at one point though it seems to have fallen out of favor as of late, probably because certain "dictator-like" High Lords who wed had / have the mentality that their wives are not their equals (i.e. Beron, Rhys's father).

I imagine the way Sarah has written it is that High Lady is different than other Lady's in society in that they are the rulers of a court. They share in the same decision making process / voice of authority for a court that a High Lord would. I actually think it has less to do with power and more to do with being the ones to set the laws, where those who work for them are expected to follow their orders when they do issue commands (a sometimes necessary thing).

Where their purpose is to ensure the safety and well being of their people.

As for as Elucien exploring other courts, I feel like Spring is where they'd spend a good bit of time because Spring is the court that needs the most work. The people have been ignored, the land is beginning to die and it's army is something the NC needs as an ally (not to mention a strong force against Beron).

Day I think they'll travel to in order to learn more about Elain's powers.

I think Autumn will be where they visit after Beron is defeated so Lucien can reconnect with his mother.

The human lands to meet with Jurian after Vassa is forced to return, I think we'll also see Elain finally put Graysen in his place.

Feysand are decent enough leaders.... To the Night Court. Everything they do is to protect the people of Velaris (not even so much other territories there) and while it can't be denied that they do love their citizens, they have proven they are willing to use the people of other courts as collateral to prioritize their goals.

Yes, they fought for all fae and humans during the war but Rhys's first priority during Amarantha’s reign was Velaris. Feyre was willing to displace innocent people in Spring in order to get revenge on Tamlin.

So while they do often care for many, they are still willing to sacrifice them at other times. A High King and High Lady will not make good rulers if they're already showing favoritism.

Nessian, I think it's a bit of the same not to mention Cassian is clearly uncomfortable with the political game which is territory being in charge comes with, like it or not. Nesta does fight for others but that character trait typically comes out only when she sees someone truly in need of a fighter and only when she deems it to be something truly unjust. I.e., she did speak up in the High Lords meeting but only after Beron declared the meeting was over. And Feyre initially asked her to tell her story during the meeting and Nesta refused. Nesta is a lot nicer to those she considers weak than those who are equal to her or more powerful. And she chose to ignore the people of Velaris after the war, choosing instead to drink and gamble for a year. I'm not faulting her for that, I understand she was depressed. But I think someone who is a leader tries to move forward and focuses on the needs of the people rather than letting themselves get sucked into themselves. It's kind of why Tamlin isn't the best leader, he let his depression overtake the needs of his court.

But Elain, after losing her father and Graysen and her humanity helped the fae in Velaris rebuild their gardens after the war even though we know she was still struggling. She made an effort to learn what fae traditions meant to them though she grew up fearing their kind. She became invested in the people rather than focusing on her losses. Her personality makes it possible for have decent a relationship with all personality types versus her her sisters who at times come off as combative towards others.

And Lucien? Though he's loyal, we've also been shown that he cares about the needs of the many. People get so caught up on how he didn't do more for Feyre but that's because to him there were many who also needed something. The people of spring, it's High Lord being able to help the court get back on its feet. Not to mention his choosing to help the humans rebuild after the war and sort out their politics. His willingness to help the NC.

Lucien doesn't have blind loyalty to just one place, he cares about many and to me, that is the kind of personality that would make for a fair and just High King.

[doux-amer]

@atlasblue85 and I are talking about the Ben Daniels interview where he mentioned that Rolin asked if it was okay to make Santiago straight and Ben went "I guess so" to "nvm no<3" and how that corresponds to his acting. As much as the fandom immediately clocked Santiago as queer, it's more interesting to me to consider that's not the impression Santiago wants to make (this is not to say that he has massive hangups about his sexuality that would make him go "no homo" if people made the assumption that he's gay, bi, or pan, but the image he's constructed for himself, or one of images anyway, is a ladies' man). Sure, he's flamboyant, but that doesn't necessarily mean that he's not straight; both of us have come across many a theater kid like Santiago who is in fact firmly straight. And initially, that's the vibe we got, other than the fact that he's only seen with women which, like his diva persona, doesn't necessarily mean anything either.

If you consider Ben's interpretation of Santiago, I think it's a deliberate decision that we canonically only see Santiago with women in the show. @atlasblue85 said that makes even more sense in light of what Ben said because "of course he's making a big show of [being with women] to repress these other feelings that he was probably taught to be ashamed of in his human lifetime." This slots in perfectly with what we find out about Santiago's history too, where he's a small, insecure man hiding behind the larger-than-life persona he built, and I love the idea of Santiago being a man of masks, with repression and performance dictating his behavior and navigation of the world, something that Ben mentioned in this TV Insider interview ("I think with Santiago, in the way that I created him, it’s that everything is a facade. He is not that person you first see, I mean, you maybe get glimpses of it along the way").

Ben talked about that seething vitriol masking his desire for Armand and Louis in that first interview I linked and in the TV Insider interview, about how he immediately picks up on Louis's pretense and hates him for it because Santiago himself puts on a façade (I assume he feels the same way about Armand for the same reason). Coupled with his complicated feelings about his attraction to Armand and Louis, I think he hates that they found other ways to move around the world and they're not only able to get what they want, but they do it so openly unlike him too.

Obviously there are more reasons as to why he covets the maître role, but part of why he wants Armand's position is because it instills him with the power to be less restricted. It fuels part of his animosity towards Louis too; there are multiple reasons why he doesn't like Louis, but here comes this guy gallivanting across Europe and through Paris, unbeholden to a coven, unbeholden to any expectations. He sees Louis free of the rigid hierarchy that he's in and he sees Louis be so open about his sexuality—and sees Louis get Armand's interest and affection so quickly.

Meanwhile, Santiago thinks he's made it, that he's become the man he's always wanted to be or convinced others that that's what he is at least, but Louis disabuses him of that notion and makes him come face to face with the fact that he's playing by the Great Laws, the Paris coven rules, human societal expectations that he hasn't unlearned and shaken off entirely, and his own insecurities and weaknesses. He's forced to reckon with the fact that that confident, free-spirited bon vivant persona is an illusion and a prison of his own making, and he loathes Louis for it.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

You Should Watch Wiseguy:

The show that changed the face of television while no one was paying attention

If you've ever watched and enjoyed anything that gets tossed around as “prestige television—”  you know what I’m talking about— long form narratives, high stakes, actors with something to prove— shows like The Sopranos, Breaking Bad, The Wire, etc.— you have Wiseguy to thank. While largely forgotten by mainstream audiences (for a variety of reasons, including sheer lack of availability), Wiseguy was one of the first non-soap-opera shows with a fully serialized story— one that expected you to see every episode, in order. When it began airing in September of 1987, really the only other thing on TV like it was Michael Mann’s Crime Story (also worth a watch), and Crime Story would be canceled before Wiseguy even hit its second season.

Writers, actors, and industry types of all kinds cite Wiseguy as a major influence— Vince Gilligan and Tom Schnauz credit watching Wiseguy in the 80’s as why they cast Jonathan Banks as Mike— Chris Carter hired writers from Wiseguy when he started the X-Files— actors like Stanley Tucci made their names on the show— and hell, David Chase wrote an angry letter to the New York Times claiming he was absolutely under no circumstances at all influenced by Wiseguy ever, which feels like the kind of thing you don’t need to write a letter about if it’s true. 

Of course, just because something is influential doesn’t mean it’s good. 

Wiseguy is really damn good.

Much like Miami Vice (and some of the later shows that took influence from Wiseguy), Wiseguy takes the position that there’s very little difference between criminals and the police, and that the justice system is wildly ill-equipped to create justice. Mafia movie blood, with all its inherent moral ambiguity, runs through Wiseguy’s veins, and then after episode nine, it asks you to think about how that blood would pump in a different milieu— corporate espionage and the destabilization of the global south by American capitalists, insular rural politics and the easy rise of small-time dictators, congressional politics and Twelve-Angry-Men-worthy courtroom drama, the music industry and the cutthroat disposal of talented young people. Money and power structures are always suspect, and good-hearted tough guy lead Vinnie is constantly torn between doing his job, doing the right thing, and doing the thing that makes sense to him emotionally.

The show is heartfelt, tense, funny, and above all else, incredibly human. The characters behave irrationally— they self-sabotage, they struggle with moral decisions, they lash out at people they care about— because they’re people, not plot devices. Little things will come back to haunt them, often many episodes later, in believable and sometimes gutting—but rarely shocking— ways. Despite this realism, and a deep sense of cynicism about our institutions, Wiseguy never falls into the trap of wallowing in grim bleakness. The writers and the actors clearly believe in people— it’s a show that says— ‘yeah, the world sucks. So how do we keep going, together?’ The characters are lovable not because they’re all good, but because you feel like you could know them, with realistic flaws and foibles and senses of humor. Sometimes it’s a little silly, and sometimes it’s a little melodramatic— but it works, because sometimes that’s how real life is, too.

Wiseguy is four (well. three and a half) seasons [cross out— and a terrible TV movie that disregards canon], and is notably divided into 4-11 episode arcs within those seasons, and occasional “breather” episodes between arcs. It’s actually a brilliant bit of plotting that I wish more shows would do today— it allows for overarching narratives and real stakes without running into DBZ-like “the next threat has to be BIGGER and MORE DANGEROUS” power level bullshittery that’s common to a lot of long running serialized shows. One of my favorite aspects of this design is that the cast partially rotates every few episodes, but the show still expects you to remember what was going on with the characters from the previous arcs— because they often return later in unexpected and narratively satisfying ways.

The three characters that remain more-or-less consistent throughout the show are Vinnie Terranova, an undercover agent for the Organized Crime Bureau, Frank McPike, his handler, and Dan “Lifeguard” Burroughs, the OCB call-center operator who gives Vinnie field instructions. 

Vinnie Terranova is just on the border of thirty when the series begins, a gregarious kid-from-the-neighborhood, just out of a cover-establishing 18-month stint in prison. He is a bundle of contradictions— quick to fall but slow to trust, a practicing Catholic who chose a job in the field of lying and murder, a 50’s hood irritated by bigotry. Vinnie is both far smarter and more sensitive than anyone gives him credit for, which is both his greatest strength and his fatal flaw— empathetic undercover agents burn out fast. He spends a surprising amount of the series trying and failing to quit his job. He has a marshmallow center, a steel-trap mind, and the general affect of your cousin who dropped out of college to marry his pregnant high school sweetheart. He also has no idea that his type is “angry asshole” and keeps being surprised when he falls for them. 

Frank McPike is a curmudgeon's curmudgeon, a career fed with a chip on his shoulder, a fathoms-deep sense of cynicism, and a collapsing marriage. He and Vinnie begin the series at odds, and as you watch the first few episodes, you're going to seriously struggle to believe me when I say that the affection between Frank and Vinnie becomes the absolute thematic and emotional heart of the series. Frank is also a genuine oddball failing to pose as a tough guy; he makes noises, he lurks in strange costumes, and the words he chooses when he’s irritated beggar normal human understanding.

We don’t get to know Dan as quickly or as deeply as we get to know Vinnie and Frank (in fact, he’s introduced as “Mike”), but he’s the man behind the curtain, a guiding moral and emotional star for Vinnie, a talented musician, and a cheerful face with a lot of anger bubbling just below the surface. He offers life advice even as his own home life is in constant meltdown, and loves both Vinnie and Frank with a fierce, sarcastic weariness. Dan is also an amputee, and his disability is portrayed with respect and without pity— a rarity for television even now, but especially in 1988. 

You’ll absolutely fall in love with these three, but one of the things that makes Wiseguy so special is its fantastic supporting cast. The world is fleshed out and lived in, and you get the distinct sense that all the recurring characters have their own lives we don’t get to see off screen. There’s Carlotta— Vinnie’s mother, as contradictory and sharp as her son, Pete— Vinnie’s brother, a progressive basketball-playing priest, Roger Lococco— a killer-for-hire who refers to every person on the planet as Buckwheat, Rudy Aiuppo— an elderly don with the heart of a trickster spirit, and a whole host of others who enter and exit the narrative throughout the arcs of the show. There are also a whole host of wonderful arc-based characters played by incredible actors, journeymen and and famous alike— including turns from Tim Curry, Debbie Harry, Jerry Lewis, Stanley Tucci, Patti D’Arbanville, Stephen Bauer, and Billy Dee Williams. You can tell everyone involved in the show had a fantastic time working on it, and nearly every actor who comes aboard really puts their whole Wisegussy into it gives it their all.

You notice that as I’ve been speaking, the lights have dimmed slightly, and the strains of an organetto have started to play quietly in the background. A man in a rumpled suit is smoking nearby, though you are fairly certain smoking indoors hasn’t been legal in a number of years. I pass you a plate of espresso and biscotti. 

Let’s talk arcs.

The first arc of the show, known as the Steelgrave arc, is a lot of fans’ favorite arc of the show, and for good reason. Vinnie infiltrates a New Jersey mob organization, and gets very, very close* to this man:

Sonny Steelgrave, human Knife Cat, is a complicated man, and Vinnie has complicated feelings about him. He’s very nearly a co-protagonist to Vinnie in this arc, and the show artfully toes the line between condemning him and making it clear that he’s not always entirely wrong. Vinnie’s goal is to get Sonny into prison and take down the entire family— how and whether he achieves this goal is best left unspoiled. Sonny may not have been the first complicated, likable villain on television, but his arc is intense, heart-wrenching, and splendidly morally grey. I don’t think it’s an overstatement to say that the Steelgrave arc is the best nine hour mob movie ever aired on television.  

*I’m really not kidding about the closeness. There’s an episode where Sonny announces he’s getting married and literally all the other mobsters are like ‘oh, now I understand why Vinnie has been in a bad mood all day.’ They are as close to canonically in love as a federal agent and a mobster have ever been portrayed on screen.

Lest you get Kevin-Spacey-jumpscared, the following arc unfortunately has Kevin Spacey in it. Thankfully he plays a slimy sister-kissing coked-up hypercapitalist, so it’s fairly easy to just hate his character in the same way you hate the actor and move on with your life. 

This arc, the Profitt arc— in which Vinnie is tasked with taking down a wealthy business mogul who is suspected of drug-and-gun-running— is, for many fans, a close second to the Steelgrave arc. It’s an interesting change of tone and locale, and introduces Roger Lococco, who is a really stellar supporting character. Personally, I rank a bunch of other arcs above Profitt, because no matter how much I like Roger, Mel and Susan are bananas, and they wear out their welcome before they exit the narrative. Regardless, it’s a stylish arc— one that rather  kicks truth, justice, and the American way in the teeth— and Mel’s machinations have serious reverberations later in the show. The Roger subplot is also genuinely excellent, and good old Corey Matthews’ Dad plays him with aplomb.

Back home, after trying to quit his job and failing, Vinnie has to deal with a threat with much smaller, but far more personal stakes. A white supremacy group has moved into his neighborhood and is attempting to recruit working-class Italians to their cause, pitting an older immigrant group against a newer one, pitting Catholics against Jews, and pitting a previously “ethnic” group’s newly acquired “whiteness” against people of color. I have mixed feelings about the Pilgrims of Promise/White Supremacy arc, because it’s truly quite good, and it pulls no punches about the kind of people fascists are and prey on, but it’s also exceptionally fucking upsetting that nothing has changed at all since 1988. Literally you could remake this arc word for word today and a) it would be exactly as believable, and b) your show would be immediately boycotted and canceled for being too “woke.” Great writing, great stakes, great character motivation; so, so uncomfortable to watch.

And then Ken Wahl breaks his leg in real life, and they have to replace him for a few weeks. 

The Garment Trade arc starts off pretty promising— Vinnie meets with the son of a clothing manufacturer, they have great (borderline meet-cute) chemistry, it’s a wonderfully New-York-in-the-80’s kind of storyline, Jerry Lewis is there, and I think it’s the only time I’ve ever seen Sukkot represented on TV— and then Vinnie has to leave for the next four episodes because of Wahl’s broken leg. They rewrote the arc on the fly, and considering that, it’s pretty good. Jerry Lewis is still there, and he gives the serious, dramatic performance of a lifetime, and Stanley Tucci chews scenery as The World’s Slimiest Businessman. We meet Vinnie’s childhood bestie, “Mooch,” whose actor, delightfully, starred beside Ken Wahl in 1979’s The Wanderers. My beautiful and talented wife Joan Chen even shows up for an episode. However, all of this is undercut by the lack of Vinnie; his replacement, a semi-retired agent named Raglin, is… a bit milquetoast. He’s okay, and he’s given some interesting backstory in his final episode, but he’s no Vinnie.

Once again sporting a functional leg, Vinnie returns, and my favorite arc other than Steelgrave follows. 

In the Dead Dog arc, Vinnie has to pose as a music producer, because the OCB traded an airplane for a music label. It’s the dumbest, most fantastic plot device of all time, and brings me incalculable joy. I literally made Dead Dog t-shirts because I love this stupid fake music label owned by a fictional government agency so much. 

The Dead Dog arc sees Vinnie at his happiest (the poor man really, really just wants to quit undercover work and stop being involved with Murder Organizations), and the crime he’s investigating is… wait for it… bootleg CDs. You would think this would be a ridiculously boring premise for an investigation, but the Dead Dog arc has Tim Curry, Debbie Harry, Glenn Frey, and Patty D’Arbanville playing a cadre of unhinged music industry moguls all attempting to stab each other in the back, and it is exactly as chaotic as you would expect based on that cast. This arc also had a bunch of original music produced for it, which is extremely fucking cool, except that then the studio lost the rights to the music it created and this arc became inaccessible and unwatchable except through circulating the tapes, so to speak, of early 90’s TV rips. (The irony is not lost on me that the arc about the Evils of Piracy is the arc that one must pirate.) Miraculously, in the last year, Wiseguy’s rights have been renegotiated, and the newest sets of the show have Dead Dog restored. Accessibility via streaming is still a bit of a mixed bag— the episodes were streaming on Tubi and Youtube briefly, but now appear to have been taken down again.

After his turn as a surprisingly successful music producer, Vinnie returns to his roots: the mob. In the Mob Wars/Trash Wars arc, Vinnie unintentionally becomes the temporary leader of the local mafia commission (I will not spoil how.) The OCB wants to use this as an opportunity to take down the entire organization from the inside out, and Vinnie must deal with mafia backstabbing, pressure from Frank and the OCB, and surprisingly personal stakes. It’s an unspectacular but solid arc that regrounds the series, and the interpersonal aspects of the story— and its examination of fathers and sons and generational inheritance of social rules and expectations— are excellent. The Mafia Wars storyline won’t blow your pants off, but it’s thoughtful and well-executed and reminds us of who Vinnie is and where he came from.

What follows is another of my favorite arcs, referred to as the DC or Counterfeit Yen arc, but perhaps better described as the Mr. Terranova Goes to Washington arc. Vinnie is summoned by the federal government to investigate counterfeiting, and thus unfolds a multinational conspiracy that ties back to the Profitt arc. Much like the White Supremacy arc, this arc is distressingly current— Vinnie is a patsy for a group of corrupt republican senators who want to destabilize the currency of a perceived East Asian economic rival. It’s Yen here, but all you’d need to do to bring this arc into 2023 is swap out references to Japan for China, because the American government has changed very little from the 80’s and has to be awful about some country somewhere or, I don’t know, a bunch of horrible old racist politicians will shit themselves. Vinnie enters talking like Jimmy Stewart, and leaves with one more thing to be crushed and disillusioned about. We get some riveting and stomach-churning courtroom drama, the bad guy turns out to be capitalism all along, and Frank threatens to shoot a Howard Hughes stand-in on a ski lift.

And then somehow we end up in Twin Peaks. The Lynchboro arc predates Twin Peaks by a whopping two months, indicating a total coincidence of premise similarities, but it does take place in a corrupt rural Pacific Northwest town unduly influenced by one large family/company, wherein an outsider has to investigate a tangled conspiracy and deal with strange townsfolk and some spooky happenings. There’s no way either show could’ve plagiarized the other— they were assuredly written and in production at the same time— but it is deeply bizarre. In the Lynchboro arc, Vinnie goes undercover as a local beat cop, and finds himself faced with both a serial killer and a land-rights and building-contracts espionage plot. He also has to deal with Mark Volchek, the ostensible “owner” of the town, and his eccentricity and decreasing grip on reality. Roger returns, and Vinnie must finally confront the enormity of his trauma. One major character is literally brought back from the edge of death by another character’s crushing love for them, expressed via church bells. It doesn’t exactly end on a cliffhanger, but it doesn’t not, either.

And then Ken Wahl quit.

Season Four begins with a deeply depressed, heavily bearded Frank struggling to find the will to live after Vinnie has disappeared. (I don’t think I’m really at risk of spoiling anything serious by saying that we are “supposed” to think Vinnie is permanently gone, but that there are a huge number of blatantly spotlighted contradictions in that story. Wahl left on decent terms, and I firmly believe the Wiseguy staff was expecting to eventually win him back to the show and have his absence turn out to be a ruse. Unfortunately, Wiseguy got cancelled before this could happen.) Frank spends the first (and only complete) arc of this season investigating his partner’s disappearance, eventually working with the supposedly-corrupt DA who helped establish Vinnie’s cover back before Season One. 

It’s not an uncommon opinion to say, ‘hey, just skip S4’— and honestly, if you chose to watch S1-3, you’d have consumed a wonderful story with a reasonably coherent ending. But I don’t actually hate Season Four. The “new Vinnie—” Michael Santana, played by pretty-boy Scarface alum Stephen Bauer— is exceptionally likeable, and he brings with him a new set of characters who are also quite compelling. Furthermore, if you’re a Frank fan, he really gets the spotlight in this season, and if you’re a Frank/Vinnie fan, Vinnie may not be around, but Frank’s despair is really fucking something else. It’s almost worth it just to see him lie to the FBI and tell them he “never crossed the line” of professionalism with Vinnie.

Unfortunately, the next arc sets up something really compelling and unique, but it’s only 3 (unaired on TV) episodes, and ends on a complete cliffhanger, because the show was unceremoniously cancelled. After his niece is shot in the midst of teenage gang violence, Michael teams up with Billy Dee Lando Calrissian Fucking Williams to investigate red-lining and racist underfunding of schools. Oliver Stone shows up in the last like, ten minutes of the last episode?? I would be all over this storyline if it wasn’t just dropped like a moldy tomato, but I guess that’s what fanfiction is for. It’s not how Wiseguy deserved to go out, but hey, it was really aiming for the stars even as the plug got pulled.

Oh, and if anyone tells you there’s a 1996 TV movie, no, there isn’t.* 

(*The movie is so deeply mediocre that it’s worse than any of the controversy surrounding Season Four. It essentially retcons all of S4 and, frankly, really the last few episodes of S3, and presents a bland, uninspired “getting the gang back together” story that retreads thematic materials from the show without saying anything new. Vinnie has apparently been doing wiretapping for 6 years, which is completely at odds with everything we know about his character, and he and Frank are treated as “dinosaurs” that the OCB doesn’t know what to do with, and yet they are also simultaneously the only ones who can take care of a nearly-kidnapped child. It’s rushed, it’s emotionally hollow, the actors are phoning it in, and it ignores all of the character development from the series in a way that renders its plot nearly nonsensical. Furthermore, Ken Wahl had been in a seriously disabling motorcycle accident a few years before, so his apparent discomfort and stiffness throughout the film is because he’s genuinely in significant pain. Don’t watch the movie. You can always write fix-it fic for how Vinnie manages to come back after Season Four. It’s much harder to write fix-it fic for boring character assassination written by the 'due-process-is-for-pussies-and-torture-works' 24 guy.)

One of the other delightful things about Wiseguy is that Vinnie is both a big softie and yet is also saddled with a bizarre sort of erotic smolder, and therefore he has ridiculous chemistry with basically half the cast of the show. Vinnie very much seems a guy like you could say some blandly nice things to and buy him dinner, and you’d wake up, exhausted and satisfied, the next morning to him cooking breakfast. You’d think, wow, this guy is so thoughtful, he must be the one— and then you’d turn your head and he’d have immediately been seduced by the next schmuck down the line. He’s a good boy, but his “acceptable romantic target” sensors are so wildly mistuned as to render him, affectionately, a tragic slut. Will he end up with a mobster? One of a number of widows? His boss? No one knows but god.

Vinnie is also heavily bi-coded— his relationship with Sonny is almost explicitly romantic, he calls out Roger for homophobia (in 1989), one of his old friend asks if the reason he’s not married is because he ‘likes boys,’ and he doesn’t say no, and he has a borderline I-love-you moment with Frank. The boy just wants someone to love him, goddammit. 

I’m also really not kidding about Vinnie and Frank developing into the emotional core of the series. They live together for a period of time. They both imply they can’t live without the other. They go shopping for Dan’s birthday together. They pick up Frank’s ailing father from the nursing home together. Frank picks out Vinnie’s tie.

You pick at the plate of spaghetti that appeared in front of you, unsure of either its provenance or why it came after dessert. It’s the best spaghetti you’ve ever had, and that frightens you, somehow. 

I lean in close to whisper to you about crime. You note that at some point I changed into a pinstriped suit. You don’t remember me changing, or even getting up— you console yourself with the notion that maybe I’d been wearing it from the start, even though you know that isn’t true.

So, the thing about Wiseguy is— well— it’s more available than it used to be. The whole series was recently released on blu-ray, and both that set and the most recent DVD sets actually have every episode, a change from the previous releases. As of August 2023, all of the series except Dead Dog is available, legally, on Youtube. This is a vast improvement from even two or three years ago, when multiple episodes weren’t available through any means but blurry, VHS-tracking-laden downloads of TV rips. 

Unfortunately, the most recent renegotiation of the series home video and streaming rights still failed on the music rights front. Dead Dog has been spared the hammer, but there are still places where the series has gaps. Notably, there’s an episode (Stairway to Heaven) where Frank murders a jukebox, and looks completely fucking insane, because the original (thematically meaningful) music the jukebox was playing was replaced with generic elevator music. Worse, the final episode of the Steelgrave arc (No One Gets Out of Here Alive) is missing two musical cues: in one instance, Sonny himself is singing, in a fit of mania, and the footage has straight up been cut from the episode because they couldn’t get the rights to The Young Rascals’ Good Lovin’.  Equally egregious, The Moody Blues’ Nights in White Satin, which originally played over nearly a minute of sustained, silent eye contact between Sonny and Vinnie— has been replaced with the Wiseguy opening theme. It renders a scene which should be quite clearly devastating and unsubtly romantic instead utterly awkward and bizarre. It’s hard to demonstrate just how jarring the change is unless you’ve seen the scene, but suffice to say that everyone I know who has seen both versions— in either order— has expressed horror and bafflement at the substitution. 

Which is to say: there’s a couple of episodes of Wiseguy you’re probably going to want to locate those shitty old TV rips of. It’s worth it, even if it seems like it wouldn’t be.

I place my hand over yours. You jump a little. I have a number of large, dark-stoned signet rings, and my hand is strangely cold. 

I make you an offer you can’t refuse.

You’re going to watch Wiseguy. 

[falbrightsplace]

Everything You Never Wanted to Know About My Sonic OC

“I don’t know how to give up.”

(Full Credit to @Sonci_05 on Twitter for the comm!)

Name: Rook

Voice Claim: Yuri Lowenthal (as Yousuke Hanamura)/Still deciding on an alternative that may be too on the nose.

Age: 22

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Occupation: Archaeologist/”Relic Hunter”, Part Time Teaching Assistant

Affiliation: The Restoration, Independent

Hometown: ??? – “This big world of ours is home! Why choose one place when there’s so much out there?”

Powers(?): The ability to get up from things he absolutely shouldn’t.  It’s a sheer willpower/tenacity/stubbornness thing more than any aspect of his physiology though and he -will- pay for it if he pushes himself.

Values: The preservation of ancient knowledge, freedom, passion, justice

Dreams of: Making a monumental anthropological contribution, exploring the Starfall Islands, mapping out all the secrets the world has to offer, being acknowledged as a hero in his own right

Skills:

·       Ancient Text Analysis

·       Extreme Gear Handling (Bike Type)

·       Spelunking/Excavation

·       Demolitions/Pyrotechnics

·       Maintaining a Positive Outlook (!)

·       Fancy Footwork

·       Quick Thinking/Improvisation (We hesitate to use the word tactician)

·       Moderately adept at operating and repairing machinery, even heavy machinery.

Strengths:

·       Good at all forms of improvisation

·       Tenacious

·       Knowledgeable

·       Surprisingly good listener

Weaknesses:

·       Doesn’t think things through

·       Could be considered off putting/obnoxious (depending on who you ask)

·       Absolutely no self-preservation skills

Kit/Tools:

·       Grapple gun

·       Scarf (uses it as rope, sling for various objects, even a means to grab an opponent)

·       Small grade explosives (fireworks, smoke bombs, flash bombs, all home-made!)

·       Close range EMP devices (limited on hand)

·       Scooter/Bike style Extreme Gear (Section and Name tentative)

·       All sorts of matches and flints tucked in pouches and even the folds of his gloves.

·       Bits and bobs

·       Whatever the environment has that he can use.

·       Goggles

Likes:

·       Adventure

·       Making new acquaintances

·       Libraries

·       Museums

·       Comic Books

Dislikes:

·       Being cooped up for too long

·       People profiting off the exploitation of historical relics or the suffering of others.

·       Not much else!

Favorite Food: Asking him will cause him to malfunction as he goes through all the possible options and works through raw, unfiltered indecision.  Raspberries are good though! But so is…! And oh…! But what about…?!

Superhero Most Likely to Get Along With: Spider-Man - Nerds who can’t shut up when nervous.  Both have a tendency to put a foot in their mouth.  “Bad luck”/”PUBLIC MENACES”.  Fellow Determinators and improv combatants! …and maybe a “You sound so familiar” joke.

Dynamics/Relationships with Canon Characters:

(Note: I prefer to think of these as potential ideas, organic roleplay or writing usually dictates these things seeing as our outlook on a person is by and large determined by experience.  Soooo…snapshots!)

·       Sonic the Hedgehog – The young man reveres Sonic, thinking of him as the hero of heroes.  Sonic himself usually gets a kick out of it for a bit, though he can get a little impatient when Rook starts rambling about things and might nudge someone else into the conversation if it gets too technical or long winded. Their carefree, off the cuff nature can work pretty well together in a pinch.

·       Miles “Tails” Prower – These two can get along quite well.  Admittedly Tails can get a little sheepish around Rook’s tendencies to overload gear when tuning it to get a little more “oomph”.

·       Knuckles the Echidna – Has a complicated relationship with Rook.  There’s a deep respect shared between them for wanting to preserve history rather than just sell it off to the highest bidder and the both of them can get into the finer points of cultural cornerstones…but Rook is too energetic for Knuckles’ liking much of the time.  He just talks too much.  And moves too much.  And gets too nosy. They could make a heck of a team if their temperaments didn’t bounce off of each other in such an odd way.  If the archaeologist can help, Knuckles is grateful, he’s equally grateful to get him off his island.

·       Amy Rose – On a personal level, the two could get along quite well due to appreciating the finer points of life and love (Rook would egg her on, be her cheerleader).  He could also step on Amy’s toes at times and see that fierce side with how much of a ball of energy he is.  Things would smooth out, though!  Most of the time!  During her time as temporary Director Amy probably needed aspirin every time she saw him due to some incident coming up.

·       Rouge the Bat – Rook doesn’t approve of her.  He respects her skill and can be impressed by her but the outlook she has on treasure goes completely against his own code.  They would butt heads if going after the same prize and Rook would, by any measure, probably frustrate her on some level due to how much he insists on never giving up.

·       Shadow the Hedgehog – These two don’t really interact.  Or at least I can’t imagine Shadow hanging around long enough for Rook to give him a pep talk.  Though if the fox was to know anything about him somehow, he probably holds a special kind of admiration for the Ultimate Lifeform beyond just thinking he’s awesome.

·       Omega – Rook thinks he’s amazing, that he’s just so cool!  And Omega…probably acknowledges the collateral damage to Eggman’s property and robots?  That sounds about right.

·       Vector the Crocodile – The loud music crew is here! Rook probably has run into the Chaotix a few times both as allies and rivals depending on the nature of the case.  Still, I imagine there’s no hard feelings.  At least not on Rook’s part.  Maybe on Vector’s if it cut into the team’s bottom line, but he’s used to dealing with eccentrics in his line of work.  And in his direct vicinity.

·       Espio – Difficult to say, overall.  I imagine that Rook probably freaks out over a shinobi and how inherently awe inspiring that is though!

·       Charmy – DO. NOT. ALLOW. THEM. TO. HANG. OUT. A typhoon of good intention and destruction’s bound to follow.  They get along too well.

·       Cream the Rabbit – Rook’s actually really good with kids due to his own uninhibited connection to his sense of whimsy. He would do anything for Cream to make her smile or help her out if she was in trouble.  Good friends, even if Rook’s probably too rambunctious for any of Cream’s guardians.

·       Gemerl – Rook’s fascinated by Gemerl for so many reasons. For starters he just thinks that the robot is cool.  Gemerl, on the other hand, probably is constantly calculating risk assessments for allowing Cream to stick around him for any extended period of time.

·       Vanilla the Rabbit – Rook’s probably exceptionally polite with Cream’s mom, though I imagine she could occasionally develop a tic around him due to his shenanigans.

·       The Babylon Rogues – If there’s someone who’s even deeper on Rook’s list of people he doesn’t get along with, their names would be the Babylon Rogues.  Basically being thieves for hire make them the opposite of everything he stands for.  Jet being the most vocal and abrasive of the bunch doesn’t help things.  Storm probably sees Rook as a pencil neck nuisance who’s just getting in the way of the crew.  Wave’s probably the friendliest of the bunch towards him, but I imagine even that comes with a lot of dry jokes while keeping her eye on the prize.  That said, if they were attempting to specifically collect a Babylonian artifact, Rook could be persuaded to help due to feeling for their lost culture (the fox’d be in tears, but he’d try to hide it).

·       Silver the Hedgehog – I feel like there’s a friendship to be had here.  Rook always believes in the best future possible and will never stop supporting Silver in achieving that.  He also knows what it’s like to carry the weight of your mistakes in light of something greater.  They both want to prove themselves and they could both help one another where they struggle.

·       Blaze the Cat – I don’t imagine they’ve interacted much, but Rook’s probably a bit too loud for Blaze to open up to immediately.

·       Doctor Eggman – The villain of villains.  Rook has a begrudging respect for the doctor’s genius, his esoteric knowledge and the way in which he unearths so much.  The methodology and energy behind it though is utterly deplorable.  Eggman himself probably sees the fox as nothing in the grand scale of things, only giving him brief attention if he’s a particular nuisance.  Rook is more of a distraction than anything noteworthy to the ruler of the Empire.

·       Professor Pickle – Rook has a massive respect for the Professor’s work and considers him one of his greatest mentors.  The professor in turn supports and is often delighted by the fox’s own sense of adventure and curiosity.  They can quibble about the finer points of sandwiches, though.

·       Jewel the Beetle – Surprisingly, the curator and current head of the Restoration’s efforts gets along quite well with the rambunctious relic hunter. This is probably due to their shared interest in geology and the pursuit of beautiful specimens to share with the public. There may also be a bit of understanding given Jewel’s long-standing friendship with Tangle.  On a purely professional level, Rook has been a source of piles of files and reports which can be exhausting.

·       Tangle the Lemur – These two get along like nobody’s business.  They’re both expressive, rambunctious and find delight in the world around them.  If there’s ever been anyone to geek out and bounce around about something being so cool it’s this pair.  The hero worship can be off the charts, so can their tendency to rush headlong into things.  There’s a lot of heart and fun in their friendship.

·       Whisper the Wolf – Rook tries a little too hard with Whisper, often coming out of nowhere and trying his best to cheer her up without knowing her on a level the Tangle does.  They just can’t quite connect, a fact that Rook feels guilty about.

·       Lanolin the Sheep – Oil and water.  Lanolin sees Rook as a liability on the best days and will actively avoid him.  Rook often wants to bridge the gap by chatting or being friendly after something goes sour.  This usually strikes a nerve whether he realizes it or not.

·       Belle the Tinkerer – They work well together when it comes to fixing things.  Rook’s always very supportive of Belle’s every attempt, often being moved to tears through sentiment alone.  Which no doubt can be a little overwhelming.

Inspirations: Vash the Stampede, Taichi (Digimon Adventure), Kamen Rider, Bang Shishigami (Blazblue), Indiana Jones

Personality: Rook’s the kind of guy who enjoys making friends wherever he goes.  And can annoy anyone in equal measure due to his enthusiasm for…enthusiasm!  He’s passionate about many things.  Chief among them being the study of all things historical and the ability to glean something truly beautiful and beneficial from it.  This includes absolutely gushing about the artistry to be found in architecture, relics, even geological strata!  His specialty lies in ancient scripts and deciphering them.  As such, one of his homes (which he claims several due to his nature as a drifter) is the University in Spagonia.  He’s often just happy to be on the grounds, attend the lectures of a certain distinguished professor, or pore over books in the library.

That said, the same overarching passion gets the better of him a lot of the time.  He’s quick to act without much forethought for consequence, has a tendency to ramble once given an opportunity and gets so excited it’s been known to test the limits of peoples’ patience.  Combine this with a very strong personal sense of justice and he’s what you’d call an eccentric on the best of days.  This extends to what he thinks is cool: things like dramatic entrances and poses!  If he gets too worked up he can be a mile-a-minute chatterbox.  Rook’s always looking to squeeze a little more out of life or get some more oomph out of anything he’s working with, it all goes with his enthusiasm!

The fox is, at his core, super sentimental.  He’s a big softy who can be swayed by any story that moves him to tears (which there are many!).  Surprisingly, in spite of his nature as a chatterbox, Rook is an eager listener to those who need it.  He will go out of his way for someone who’s feeling down, trying anything from becoming a cheerleader to making a fool of himself if it’ll get a laugh or even the ghost of a smile.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.  Sometimes the poor guy is just woefully unaware of things, but his heart’s always in the right place no matter what.

Unsurprisingly that same tender hearted nature can leave him open to being manipulated with the right tale.  It can also lead to decisions that he previously wouldn’t have considered ‘just’ under certain circumstances.  He’s shockingly open and fair for someone who claims to fight for an absolute justice, empathy being more important to a hero than rigidity under his code.  He does bristle and take it personally when someone burns him, though.  More than that he has a habit of blaming himself for leaving that possibility open in the first place.

He has a love/hate relationship with the term “treasure hunter.”  On the one hand he thinks it is -so- cool sounding and that it has a romantic vibe to it, on the other he despises the thought of anyone using artifacts for personal gain or seeing them as mere prizes worth a pretty penny.  It is one of the only things that truly pushes his buttons in a meaningful way.  You can imagine how this goes with the likes of Rouge, Fang, and the Babylon Rogues.

Rook is an optimist, for better or worse.  He can accept the bad in things, he can see when a situation is dire, but he can’t bring himself to let the best outcome fade from view.  In his mind, if he does that then the people who depend on that outcome are being let down.  There’s a deep sense of responsibility to others that comes with all of his actions.  This extends to others but he rarely allows himself the same grace, often coming off as personally reckless.

That fact becomes all the more apparent when his tenacity comes into play.  If it comes down to a cause he believes in or a goal he thinks is worthwhile, he won’t back down.  No matter what. When life, or an opponent, knocks him down, he will get back up as many times as he can to ensure that the best possible ending to any story is brought about.  It’s this stubbornness that serves as one of his greatest strengths and weaknesses.  He’s open to just about anything but gets tunnel vision when it comes to having eyes on the prize or when others are involved and the scope of it just happens to end before himself.

He is a terrible liar.  It will show on his face, or he will start sweating.  Or stammering.  Or his jaw will start trembling.  Or his ears will start twitching or fall back.  He just can’t sell anything with a poker face.

He can also be a bit spacey.  People often think he’s weird enough to be from another planet or off on his own world when deep in thought.  Combined with the way he hops from topic to topic it can be a little hard to keep up sometimes.

Rook definitely has an idea of what a hero is, but he also has a severe case of hero worship.  He gets star-struck when around people who have saved the world, or if someone does something he finds to be cool. It never fails to bring out the kid in him, he’s just a big dork in a lot of ways.  That said, the relic hunter wants to be worthy of the title himself.  It leads to a lot of comparison, a lot of the feeling that he must live up to grander visions or accomplishments or do more.  He’s a bit hard on himself at times.

He can be a bit clumsy if inertia works against him and he’s already put enough energy behind himself and the ways in which he can turn around a situation are not only unorthodox but at times…unwieldy.  As a self proclaimed harbinger of peace and preservationist, Rook can be described as a walking hurricane.  Collateral is and has been a possibility when he figures out a plan and charges with it.  He’s a high risk, high reward off-the-cuff improviser.

The very idea of a rivalry is enough to get him fired up! It’s the hallmark of a hero who’s made it! If someone is the heel to his face, he will play into it without a second thought and give it his all.  If he thinks they do something cool he’ll often react before trying to hide it beneath a pouty veneer before gushing again.

Overall Rook is a fun loving, friendly guy who may appear to be a little (or a lot) off at times but has a heart of gold.  He’ll do anything for the people or ideals he believes.

[cryptidanathema]

if not already asked, leon for the character ask :) basic but opinions vary!

(Also asked by @shinekittenace)

Why I like them: I fully expected this guy with his John Cena-esque go getter attitude and aggressively marketable ace to annoy the shit out of me, but the truth is is that hating Leon is like hating a puppy. You just can't. He's just a nice fuckin dude that wants to keep everyone safe even though he's just one man. There's also the fact that he's essentially a grown up ex-protagonist which the game delves into a little with his complicated emotions surrounding losing the title he's had since he was eleven by the end of the game and the fandom's done some FASCINATING psychological deep dives with. 

Why I don’t: I feel like GameFreak failed a bit with show don't tell with him. Some of the ways GameFreak try to make him seem really intelligent and capable are...a little on the nose to say the least. Like for instance him estimating how much Hop has grown during his introduction scene COULD be taken as a hint they don't get to see each other often but nah I really do suspect they wanted the kiddies to be like WOW THIS GUY IS SO SMART HE CAN DO MATH lol. I do kiiiind of suspect the fandom put more effort into analyzing the guy and the kind of havoc being a massive celebrity since the age of 11 can wreak on your personal life than GameFreak ever did but that's very much not a bad thing IMHO. I'm not one of those IF IT'S NOT STRICT CONFIRMED CANON IT'S OF THE DEVIL people (and honestly rather detest them) 

Favorite episode (scene if movie): I...don't think the Anime showcased the better sides of his personality well (he loses the protective streak and just kind of comes off like a self-absorbed manchild that everyone loves because he can defy basic Pokemon battle logic in the same way Ash can. He's a protagonist But Annoying This Time) so I'm not terribly interested in seeing more. 

Favorite season/movie: See above. 

Favorite line: Tbh I don't have one particular standout one immediately coming to mind and I'm feeling too lazy to go through his quotes page rn. His catchphrase IS fun to meme about I will say. 

Favorite outfit: He absolutely kills everything that's not the Sponsorship Cape tbh. The guy has GOOD fashion sense despite the memes, corporate was just holding him back. 

OTP: Raihan/Piers/Leon for reasons I already went into in the Raihan response lol (the vibes between him and Rai are interesting and pretty damn hard to deny but Piers is holding up 90% of my mental health on his bony little shoulders rn and also I wanna see him and Leon interact more) I'd also love he and Sonia to work thier shit out, they are cute as FUCK together in Pokespe 

Brotp: The platonic Raileon enjoyer strikes again. Id also certainly take he and Piers being bros too. Also he and Nemona would be absolutely insufferable together and I'd love to see it someday lol 

Head Canon: One thing that was inspired the anime and a certain infamous wall punching scene is that through no real fault of his own he and Raihan's relationship was actually dangerously close to fraying for a bit. He WANTS to be a good and supportive friend to his favorite person but he's gotten fame and empty adoration pretty much handed to him for long enough that he can't REALLY understand what's going on in Raihan's head, the immense pressure he's putting himself under and the frankly unhealthy behaviors he's starting to develop. It's gonna take the pressure of the championship being gone for Leon to stop being the impossible standard Raihan's harming himself with and start being an uncomplicated source of companionship again. On a brighter note he's a good enough guy that once he becomes Chairman he's gonna prove he deserves that position by taking steps to reverse Rose's power consolidation to make sure no one person can cause that much trouble for the nation of Galar again. He'll prove his worthiness to rule by NOT being a total corporate dictator. 

Unpopular opinion: I've bitched about finding him annoying in the anime enough so instead I'll say I actually don't mind how involved he was in the game plot, it's honestly kind of weird other adults HAVEN'T been like "why are we letting random ten year olds go into very dangerous situations unaccompanied" before if you think about it

A wish: The same as the others, I'd love to see him again IF he's not miserable or acting like an ass. 

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen: Don't get lost in spacetime my neurodivergent king you've been through enough 🤞🤞🤞

5 words to best describe them: The tragedy of Superman, Pokemonned. 

My nickname for them: Lee suffices.

[habeascorpseus]

👉👈 can you tell us more about the fnc angel/demon au? 🥺 pretty please?

oh CAN i? okay first things first. this is entirely because of good omens s2 and particularly uses concepts from episode 3 about "angels/demons who go along as best they can". also canon gillion and chip are very azi/crowley coded to me (cmon, gill's a literal paladin sent to the oversea to portend the rapture that he's now doubting the need for and chip is a mischievous little bastard with too much charisma and until recently no concrete stake in anything except for protecting his crew) so yeah. anyways the information will be delivered in bullet points for each person

CHIP

was an angel. a pretty young one, at that. possibly came to existence around the 3rd millennium of mana's society

pretty mischievous and self interested for an angel. lets just say he fucked around and found out, and for it he was kicked out of heaven and fell into hell, but managed to crawl out like the stubborn bastard he is

the form he fell and crawled back to earth in was a young human looking boy. involuntarily, of course. but he often struggled to change his form in the past, instead letting it be dictated by his emotional state (another fairly chaotic and unangelic thing to do), and right now he feels small, weak, and vulnerable

he's picked up by the black rose, and, desperate to belong, he goes along with their assumption that he's just a normal kid, too weak to use much power or even change his form. for the couple years he lives with the crew, he doesnt grow. (this is chalked up to malnourishment.)

unfortunately, now that he's a demon, he has an Energy. and that energy attracts things. in particular: bad shit, and other demons. niklaus takes notice of this crew claimed by a seemingly inexperienced demon and decides to sink it for fun and to see what chip will do.

chip washes ashore on another island with two thoughts: one, he doesnt think he's allowed to be attached to anything good anymore without poisoning it, and two, he needs to be scarier in order to not be fucked with.

so he spends ten years hanging around ruben price, a man who acts so comically, stereotypically evil that chip occasionally doubts how mortal he is, but it seems like price just Like That. a handy trick of being a demon now is that chip can Sense types of energy- positive, negative, etc. what's scariest about price is chip gets nothing off of him, which is why he's the perfect person to watch

things come to a head when price forces chip to kill a man. and, well, its kind of what he's supposed to do, as a demon- but he hates it. in particular, he hates not feeling in control, and it angers him enough that hes finally able to use some demonic power to set price's warehouse ablaze and disappear into the night. (his hands are now blackened from where they caught fire and he now has a tail, being so unused to using magic that using it burnt away his human form to reveal the true form beneath it. he cant really disguise them back to normal because, again, bad at form shifting)

he sets sail on the sea and lands on an island where he follows a particularly strong negative energy to a tavern where he meets...

JAY

girl who's family basically run the navy.

her older sister was just mysteriously murdered around a year and a half ago, and she's going through it

by which i mean, She's Pissed. she wants whoever killed her to be found and brought to justice, preferably with the business end of her own pistol, but her father (an admiral) has fucked off to gods-knows-where and there's not really any leads at home beyond being surrounded by what her sister left behind... she's getting desperate.

she's bartending at her mom's tavern one evening when a guy her age walks in but he's.. wrong. somehow. there's dozens of lanterns and candles in the room, and yet he seems to cast a long shadow behind him no matter where he turns. also his hands are dark claws. she's pretty sure he's a demon honestly.

she's getting desperate and she wants leads. his appearance makes her feel almost irrational in how suddenly she remembers she needs to find her sister's killer.

so, with some part of her screaming that she is being very, very stupid, she offers a deal. vengeance for her sister in exchange for her soul. the demon looks weirdly surprised at this and tells her that her soul won't be necessary, that he needs a crew on his ship and all she needs to do is travel with him. so she accepts, they shake hands, and jay tries to ignore how much her instincts are screaming this is a bad idea.

they set sail two days later on the demon's dingy little ship and begin sailing towards where jay thinks the next largest navy outpost is, and on the way they meet...

GILLION

gillion is an archangel. he's pretty young, all things considered. he's not sure when he came into being, but he's pretty sure he's a replacement for.... someone.

gillion has a destiny, that's for certain. the heavenly council has been training him since his creation for some kind of destiny, though he hasn't really thought to ask what it is. he's sure it's good, though. the heavenly order would never mislead him into committing morally reprehensible acts in the service of a greater cosmic good, right?

his "life" is pretty rigid though. all training, no play, and certainly no contact with the mortal realm, that is, until he follows some of his superiors on their way to bless some admiral of some mortal navy. except... this guy is evil. its written in his the fake smiles, his body language, the way he listens to them with greed in his eyes.

and gillion was destined to smite evil, so he attacks him.

heaven, of course, doesn't take kindly to this, but instead of kicking him from heaven outright, they propose a test of faith: be stripped of most of his divinity and fulfill his destiny within a year in the mortal realm. it's not like he has a choice, so they kick him down to mana with only his sword and a little bit of armor.

he falls into the sea, deep, deep into an undersea trench, where the first thing he sees are a couple tritons. and, yeah, tritons seem pretty cool. so with the last vestiges of whatever divine energy he carries, he becomes a triton and uses his wings (oh thank gods he still has his wings) to propel himself to the surface of the sea.

for a while, he floats adrift, taking in the feeling of being wet and having the sun burn his body where it rests above the waves and the taste of salt on his tongue and the dark spots in his eyes that appear every time he stares too long at the sun. but that's fine. it's.... nice. he can almost forget it's a punishment.

after a day of listless floating, Something appears on the horizon, and then grows closer. its large, and brown, and honestly kind of shabby looking. but it looks cozy, a bit more hospitable than the ocean, and he sends out a dozen silent prayers and thank-yous when the ship suddenly changes course and begins heading Directly for him.

a man pokes his head over the railing of the vehicle and asks if he's okay. his hair is a really pretty color. his eyes kind of remind him of the fires lit to burn sacrifices that he's seen humans make a couple times. a blackened, clawed hand reaches out to grab his, and when they touch, it the crackle in the air feels like the moments just before a smiting lightning strike. he feels forbidden. but gillion's beginning to appreciate the idea of a rebellious phase, so he grips him tightly and lets himself be pulled onboard.

ITEMS OF IMPORTANCE

chip knows what gillion is, gillion does not know what chip is. chip is completely fine with this and is deciding to use it to his advantage in order to do minor devilish activities

what follows is basically the same plot until episode 14, though chip leans a lot more heavily into trickery and temptation

when it's revealed What chip is, gillion is not only Pissed but afraid for jay's soul, convinced that chip has been traveling with her in order to prey and feed upon it. he and chip duel, and gillion wins, as good so often does against evil— but before gillion can smite him and send him back to whence he came, jay steps in and stops him long enough for chip to slip away below deck. she tells gillion she made a deal with him and he blatantly refused her soul, which is why she's travelling with him instead. gillion, now hopeful that he can redeem chip, lets it slide, but. has chip promise to cool it on the demon shit.

the reason why gillion couldn't sense chip being a demon for so long is because he, for some reason, doesn't feel fiendish to him. unfortunately, gillion is too stupid to further entertain this train of thought.

both gillion and chip regain power at the same rate, though their progress is accelerated whenever gillion feels they did something good, and when chip is feeling angry. (this will eventually change)

chip is very bad at being a demon, to the point where he's begun talking jay out of vengeance entirely because it makes him feel bad about making her worse. gillion, ironically, says she should hold herself to her principles and seek justice, in a comical subversion of the angel and devil on her shoulders. they have many an argument about this.

nobody knows chip is Fallen. its one of the main sources of his insecurities and hed rather not have gillion judge him harder, thank you very much.

when chip is offered to have a memory removed by blangus, he attempts to remove his memory of being an angel. this doesn't work, because the memory is a core part of What he is and forgetting that would unmake him. he decides to give up killing a man instead.

gillion's destiny is to bring the rapture. kind of a bummer! gillion's a little in denial about it and the longer he spends with humanity and witnesses their good and their bad and the hope they all carry within them, the more reluctant he is to fulfill his purpose. (it's fine. he has 6 more months to decide. its fine. it's fine. time goes painfully slow for mortals)

eventually the truth of chip's past is revealed, and gillion is Pissed, though not at chip. in hindsight, it's obvious that he was created to replace chip when he Fell, meaning if not him, chip would have been the one to end the world, and that thought sits worse for him than imagining himself doing the deed. perhaps when he gets back to heaven he will demand chip's status be reinstated.

chip is caught between encouraging him to forsake his destiny (he likes humanity, and he likes fucking with heaven's plans) and going along with his destiny to not get kicked out of heaven. falling is painful and awful and he cant imagine gillion playing any role other than good, and he doesn't want him to, because if you're not With heaven, you're a victim of the rapture, and he doesn't want that.

gillion is already halfway on his way to letting himself fall on purpose the more he spends time with jay and chip. he wants to be with chip as long as he can be but every time they touch gillion gets the feeling hes skating on thin ice.

jay is the safest pirate on the sea in terms of other demons and angelic presences trying to fuck with her, both gillion and chip have a deal to smite her father next time they see him.

in chips solo mission with price, he ended up sending him to hell instead of giving him the eye. it is not at all disconcerting that chip can do this

edyn is an angel who helped raise gillion and gave him an immortal soul as a pet. when he was sent to earth it manifested as a frogtopus, and after gillion was sent away edyn followed him to earth and settled down in allport to keep tabs on him through the navy

caspian is Lizzie's guardian angel

anyways theres more but thats the long and not-at-all short of it. hope you like!

[corellianhounds]

Putting this one under a cut because it’s more off-the-cuff complaining/rambling about my opinions than it is a well-worded/edited breakdown of my criticisms of a character:

The way that I’ve taken to writing Anakin is that I’m going off of the effect his character should have had on the audience and rewriting the circumstances that would have made him that person in canon. Reverse engineering him if you will

George Lucas’s intention was to write a (somehow fun) war trilogy showing this man’s origin, rise to power, and fall from glory, ending on a tragic conclusion but one with the people around him having some hope for a possible future despite the outcome of the war and what Anakin became

Anakin’s character is supposed to be the person who became Darth Vader, a genocidal dictator and evil sorcerer serving/compelled to serve another evil sorcerer, so you have to have more compelling visual evidence foreshadowing and laying the groundwork for that inevitability. If you want to make the person Vader used to be impressive, sympathetic, and tragic with that inevitable, narratively compelling, logical bridge to his subsequent character of Vader, you need to write a story that shows the audience a strong, personable, intelligent, charismatic but ruthless and impressive warrior who is a cut above the rest, placed in a truly unique position and forced to react to the circumstances both in and outside of his control.

We don’t see an impressive visual evidence of Anakin doing anything somebody else who is an expert in that field couldn’t do; yes he’s an impressive pilot and mechanic and was impressive at a young age, but those are skills that can be learned and I’m more inclined to think he was just a prodigy. If he’s some incredible fighter, military tactician, and martial artist, you need to show a more involved part at the front lines of the war, and you can’t just hold all of that to a cartoon you won’t make until years after you’ve finished that trilogy. If he’s supposed to be a prophesied Chosen One and the most powerful Jedi the galaxy has ever seen, you need to show him using Force powers stronger and more impressive than the rest of the Jedi around him, and you need to show him doing things nobody else can do.

Have him creating and controlling weather on Tatooine, his and his mother’s home surrounded by this inexplicable greenery and midday rain showers. Have him using the Force to command a rock slide during the Boonta Eve Classic, pulling canyons down around his opponents, summoning sandstorms that bend around his vehicle while sweeping the rest away. Have Shmi talking about the uncontrollable, unexplained phenomena that happens when he loses his temper. Show him levitating massive objects with ease with no training at all while the rest of the Jedi struggle.

And then when he’s older and he’s starting to rely on darker or even just more dubious uses of the Force when in tight spots or pivotal battles, bring that back. Have him at the eye of a wind- and thunderstorm, lightning crackling around him as his eyes glow and he shields several hundred soldiers and civilians, narrowly cutting through their enemy’s defenses and wiping them out. Show a clear use of clairvoyance when he casts his sight across a battlefield and takes control of the minds of enemy generals from miles away, puppetting them against their will to destroy themselves before they’ve even reached the Republic army. Show some definite and clear foreshadowing to the man he’s going to become. Ruthlessness is a necessary quality in war, and an intelligent and capable tactician like he was supposed to be will make the difficult calls and snap decisions other people are spending time debating the ethics of. Time is of the essence, and Anakin’s going to make judgment calls based on the information he has, and when he’s able to back his argument up with evidence and sound reasoning, everybody else is going to be left wondering “Maybe he IS right.”

Add to that that he’s charming, sociable, good with people, and genuinely wants to protect those who can’t protect themselves, and you’ve got a hero of the people the Jedi council and military have a hard time pushing back against, especially if all of his calls either turn out to be right or he has incredibly sound justifications for what he does. Give us hints of his temper, his anger something simmering just below the surface, and show him regaining an eerily quick control over it when he does lash out. Have him smile and apologize, give a politician’s answer to the argument, smoothing the mask back into place until the other person’s back is turned, but then show him also charming diplomats, soothing tensions between bickering parties, playing and laughing with little kids, being chivalrous to people of every station. A true white knight. Someone genuinely good but with understandable flaws who tries to do the right thing, and just happens to fail because the circumstances he’s in are ones that truly force the best and worst out of people. If you want for Vader’s turn to be tragic, you have to show that AFTER the audience has seen the polar opposite in what he used to be.

All of this sets him up to be strong, admirable, down-to-earth, likable, and capable, a guy’s whose qualities are at the ROOT of who Darth Vader is as a character. You have to lay the groundwork of impressive powers, intellect, strategy, cunning, ruthlessness, and skill in order for that guy to become the already established character your audience has seen.

Additionally, once you’ve made him a more interesting and likable person, you’ve also made him into a better love interest. He’s a white knight who’s also a bit of a bad boy, BUT he’s also been hopelessly in love with the same girl his entire life. This Anakin always politely rejected the interest of other people interested in him, chided the padawans and knights flirting with propriety and shirking their duties, never spoke of romantic interest at all as a teenager, so OF COURSE the council doesn’t see a problem pairing him with this young, beautiful, influential woman as her bodyguard. They have no idea he’s been harboring the same crush/obsession for ten years, and if he plays his cards right and keeps that love close to his chest, maybe they won’t suspect a thing.

Making Anakin interesting, intelligent, and physically impressive/capable makes him a more understandable and compelling choice the audience can obviously see Amidala is falling for from the beginning of their reintroduction. You want to have circumstances keeping them apart, building tension because something always inevitably comes up and interrupts them? Keep the assassination plot on Coruscant for the second movie where there are always people watching, there’s security cameras and social decorum and both of their ever-present responsibilities right at the forefront. It’s a whole lot hotter when people CAN’T act on their desires. Have an assassin trying to kill her in broad daylight, ‘forcing’ Anakin to physically shield her with his body (protective, valiant, shows quick reflexes and a willingness to put himself in harm’s way, forced proximity, hot pose with one hand against the wall she’s backed up against as he surveys their surroundings and all she can see in front of her is him). Use the setting to your advantage, have their conversations outside the door to her quarters just baaaaaarely this side of propriety as they hide what they can’t say within what they can. Show Amidala watching him in a crowd of a thousand, and him turning to find her exactly where she is across the room. Show the reactions of Padme’s body doubles, include them in the plot. Keep Obi-Wan around as a complication for Anakin, show his friendship with Padme too and introduce the idea that Obi-Wan already has his own suspicions, and that Anakin will have more reason to think Obi-Wan is capable of turning her against him at the end.

The war and their respective stations and their obligations to others and the people around them are keeping them apart. It’s a classic storytelling device. Use it to create tension and you’ll automatically be able to come up with more interesting events than frolicking around Naboo doing whatever in seclusion with a narratively unnecessary “will they, won’t they,” considering there are no people or circumstances or limitations keeping them apart and nothing that really makes 19-year-old Anakin all that appealing to a woman several years his senior who allegedly still sees him as a kid.

For this entire trilogy, we should have seen more hints that the Dark side is bleeding through him. The Tusken massacre is only one (contrived) event that isn’t mentioned again and doesn’t carry through in a narratively compelling way. If you’ve shown him to already have that temptation towards needing control, if you’ve shown him making selfish decisions in secret and being quick to wrath and ruthlessness, and if you’ve shown him as capable and willing to wield the Dark side, thinking he can control it and won’t fall prey to it’s temptation or power over him, then you’ve set him up with the pride and arrogance that drives all of his negative qualities to their breaking points. By the third movie the war is much more serious and the circumstances of all of Anakin’s relationships are under constant strain; Padme telling him she’s pregnant is the fault line that drives his actions from that point forward.

The Chancellor shouldn’t have had complete control and orchestration over Anakin’s entire life because taking that active involvement from Anakin isn’t narratively interesting and makes for a weaker character. Palpatine’s an opportunist with contingency plans upon contingency plans; all he really needed to be was in the right place at the right time, picking up on this guy’s exact weakness and exploiting the flaws Anakin was responsible for in the first place. The best analogy I have for writing a more compelling Anakin is if you characterize him like Boromir, a true hero of the people on the front lines defending one of the last kingdoms of men, a man who thinks their side should be willing to take advantage of any resource available to them in order to end a war that’s been raging for years, who thinks he’s strong enough to resist whatever negative side effects this corrupt source of incredible power might have on him because he thinks he’s different, he can control it, he’ll use it for good.

Reverse engineering Darth Vader to figure out the Anakin (I think) George Lucas was going for shows a different person than who he is in canon, which means his canonical character and those circumstances need rewritten since I find Vader in the original trilogy more compelling than Anakin in the prequels. Setting Anakin up this way creates a much farther fall from grace and really drives home the tragedy of his character because up until the point he truly chooses to go all in, we should have seen a compelling argument for how he could have resisted the call of the Dark side, if he made that conscious choice. Characters driving a story is almost always stronger than circumstances moving those characters around and taking out their involvement in the cause and effect of the plot.

And that’s difficult to do with a war/story that happens the way it does. It feels like Lucas had an outline of “These are the plot points that have to happen to get to the point of the original trilogy, and now I have to write my script around that,” which in my opinion doesn’t usually result in very smooth or organic writing if you aren’t willing to throw things out that don’t work as you go along

[tiny-wooden-robot-fics]

Against the Tide - One

Rating: Explicit Pairing(s): Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez x Original Female Character, Silvio Ricci x Original Female Character Characters: Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez (Bleach), Silvio Ricci (Ikemen Prince), Olivia DuBois (Original Female Character of Color) Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergent, Pirates and Princes, Slow Burn, Action/Adventure, Worldbuilding, Angst, Some Subtle Racism, Sexual Tension, Political Subplot

Next Chapter: Two

Summary:

Olivia is the only one of her parents' children old enough to remember when Vora was home. Her mother was only newly pregnant with Olivia's younger sister Thalia when the long war between Vora and the much-larger country of Clario came to an end. It wasn't a victory for Vora, merely a truce, and one which dictated Vora cede its ruling power to the bigger country and its former Prime Minister and his family relocate to Clario.

It has been twenty years since she last saw the shores of home, and she still misses it.

A/N: AU wherein Silvio is still the Crown Prince, just not of Benitoite. The female love interest is an OC of color. Grimmjow is human. Please mind the tags and any warnings posted at the beginning of chapters, as they will tell you important things you need to know about the content within.

Finally getting around to finishing the rewrite of this - if you've been following it to this point, I sincerely appreciate you!

Read on AO3

The familiar ship is in the docks again. 

It is one of the ways that she knows autumn is coming to its graceful yearly end and that winter is upon the port of Clario: the mornings are chilly, and the Hellcat has come back to roost. 

“It’s so noisy down here, Livvy,” Thalia complains. “And it stinks.”  

Olivia shrugs, offering her younger sister a grin. “You said you wanted to see where I spend all my time,” she points out. “This is where I spend all my time.” 

“I can’t for the life of me understand why,” the younger girl groans, her voice coming out high and thin as she pinches her nose. She looks around, and Olivia can see the exact moment a realization dawns on her. “And there are nothing but men down here.” 

“Mmhm,” Olivia murmurs in agreement. “Men that don’t care if I wear trousers and belch and swear.” 

Thalia looks positively scandalized. “Surely you don’t,” she gasps. 

Olivia offers no response save a half-hearted shrug, but there is a twinkle in the older woman’s eyes that says everything her mouth doesn’t.

They continue walking through the docks, and Thalia is amazed at how many of the men working there call out to Olivia. There are big, burly men with biceps the size of Thalia’s head. Most are shirtless, even in the crisp autumn air. Some have tattoos and piercings. Some are missing limbs. Still, they all seem friendly enough with her sister based on the smiles they flash and the generally non-threatening way they greet the two women. Olivia even stops to chat with a few of them, introducing Thalia. 

“This guy here,” Olivia starts, motioning to a tall, wiry man whose dark beard is almost as long as the braid that hangs down his back. “He’s the man you want to come see if you need dyed fabrics. He travels all over the world and brings back some of the prettiest colors you’ll ever lay eyes on.” 

The man in question laughs. “Oh, I do alright, I guess.” He holds out a hand, and after a moment’s hesitation Thalia shakes it. “The name’s Josiah Murphy, but around here it’s just Murph.” 

“Thalia DuBois,” she answers, dipping into a curtsy once Murph releases her hand. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Mr. Murph.”

He looks at Olivia with raised eyebrows. “DuBois, huh? I saw the resemblance but wasn’t sure. Is this one of your little sisters?”  

“It is,” Olivia nods. “She said she wanted to see where I spend all my time.” 

“Yeah, Livvy’s like a bad penny, Miss Thalia. We throw her back towards her palace, and she just keeps showing up.” He laughs good-naturedly. “But everybody here loves her, so we don’t mind it when she comes back.” 

Olivia laughs with him. “Don’t let his tone fool you,” she retorts, her words directed towards Thalia. “They all joke about trying to get rid of me, but the truth is that they’d be lost without my help.”  

“I can’t argue with that,” Murph nods. “Swabbing decks, mending nets, tending bars, transporting cargo. Speaking of cargo…” He trails off, his eyes drawn to the hulking ship at the end of the docks. The sails are furled, but the telltale turquoise color is a clear indication of whose ship it is. 

“I saw,” she murmurs. “Does… he know the Hellcat is back at port?” 

Murph shrugs. “I assume so. That man knows everything that goes on down here.” 

“Any trouble yet?” 

Murph opens his mouth. His gaze darts to Thalia, and he closes it again. “You know what Livvy, why don’t you come by a little later? Got some fabrics from Selani you might be interested in looking at.” 

“Yeah, sure,” Olivia agrees casually, casting a discreet glance at her sister. Thalia has been following their conversation with interest, and Olivia knows that Murph’s reluctance to talk around her means he has something to say that the younger woman shouldn’t hear. “See you later, Murph.” 

“What was that about?” Thalia asks as they walk away. 

“Nothing,” Olivia answers breezily. “Just that he was probably busy and we’re keeping him from his work.” 

Her sister looks at her dubiously, but says nothing. 

“Well, look at that.” The voice comes from behind them. Olivia would know it anywhere: deep and gravelly, with a hint of amusement. “I was hopin’ I’d run into ya. And it looks like you brought a friend.” 

Olivia turns to face him, and has to catch her breath. He’s even more handsome than she remembers from the last time she saw him six months ago. Tall and lithe, with the clearest and brightest blue eyes she’s ever seen. His pale blue hair has grown long since she’s seen him last, and he has it braided down one shoulder beneath his hat. He’s also sporting a new scar: a thin, vertical line on the left side of his mouth. Though it has very obviously healed from the wound it once was, it looks painful, and she wonders how he got it. 

“Captain Jaegerjaquez,” she nods. “I saw the Hellcat. Welcome back to Clario.”

“‘Captain Jaegerjaquez?’” He raises one pale eyebrow, closing the short distance between them. “Why so formal, Livvy? Is it because of your guest?” 

He’s standing only a hairbreadth away from her, and even though she’s braced herself for this interaction with him, her heart is still beating faster than she’d like it to be. “This is my sister Thalia,” she says. “She wanted to see where I work.” 

“Pleased to meet you,” Thalia offers dutifully, supplementing her words with another curtsy. 

“Cute,” he drawls lazily, a smirk curling the corners of his mouth. “She looks just like you.” He turns his attention back to Olivia. “So, what you been up to since I was here last?” 

She clears her throat, hoping the few extra seconds will help her clear her head as well. “Nothing new since the last time you were here,” she starts with a shrug. “Just working, same as always.”

“Hm,” he grunts, his smirk still firmly in place. He reaches for Olivia’s left wrist, pulling her hand up to his face and inspecting it. “Still no ring, huh? Guess I didn’t have to worry about that rich bastard after all.” 

Olivia pulls her wrist away, ignoring the lingering warmth from his rough, calloused hand. “I’ve told you it’s not like that,” she mumbles. 

Thalia looks at him, then up at her sister curiously. “Like what?”

Before Olivia can even open her mouth, Grimmjow is speaking again. “Oh, you didn’t know? The docks ain’t the only place your big sister is popular.”

“Grimmjow---” Olivia cuts herself off, inwardly cursing her slip of the tongue. 

“And there it is,” he purrs teasingly. “Ya know, I don’t hate it when you call me Captain, but we both know we moved past that kinda formality a long time ago.” 

Olivia ignores him, turning to address her sister. “It’s nothing,” she smiles down at Thalia. “Tati, I have to work now, so I’ll walk you back to the road and call you a carriage to take you home, okay?” 

Her younger sister pouts. “But we just got here!” 

“I know, and I promise I’ll bring you back another day so you can stay longer. But I don’t want Papa and Mama to be angry with me for keeping you out so long the first time. You’ve no idea how hard I had to fight to convince them to let you come with me.” 

Thalia’s bottom lip is still poked out, but she nods her head anyway. “Fine,” she says reluctantly. “But you have to promise me I can come back soon.” 

Olivia raises her eyebrows. “Oh? You mean you want to come back? Even though there’s nothing here but dirty, smelly men?” 

Her younger sister shrugs a little sheepishly. “Well, they all seemed nice.” She pauses, casting a furtive glance over Olivia’s shoulder at Grimmjow. When she speaks again, her voice is barely above a whisper. “And some of them are quite handsome.” 

This makes Olivia laugh. “That’s it, I’m definitely sending you home now.” 

--

He’s standing in the same place when she returns, leaning against the wall of the Sundance Inn and Tavern. He doesn’t say anything as she approaches him, but his blue eyes watch her like a hawk. 

“You could stare less,” she says, once she’s within earshot. 

“I could,” he shrugs. “But staring is more fun.” 

Olivia rolls her eyes. 

“So?” He looks her up and down. “Haven’t been called back to your other life yet?” 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

The corners of his eyes crinkle with mirth. “You know exactly what I’m talkin’ about,” he laughs. “I didn’t figure on you bringin’ your little sister down here. Tryin’ to turn her over to your wild ways?” 

“She wanted to see where I work, that’s all. Besides,” she adds with a chuckle, “if you knew Thalia, you’d know this kind of place is the last place she’d want to be. She’s different from me.” 

He raises an eyebrow. “What’s that supposed to mean?” 

“If my parents were looking for someone to cement diplomatic relations between Clario and Vora, they should’ve wished for Tati to be born first,” she explains. “She’s a proper noble lady, with perfect manners and impeccable etiquette. She wears dresses and curtsies and doesn’t belch or swear. As far as being betrothed to royalty goes,” she shrugs, “Tati is the one they should aim for.” 

Grimmjow pretends to snore. “Boring.”

“Depends on who you ask,” she laughs softly. 

“Oh, you mean like that rich bastard?” 

“I am not interested in him,” Olivia says emphatically, pushing past him to duck through the door of the tavern. Grimmjow follows behind her. “And he’s certainly not interested in me.” 

The dim lighting of the tavern is a drastic change from the glare of the late-afternoon sun, and Olivia blinks several times to allow her eyes to adjust. The tavern is empty save Prisca, the older woman who owns it, and her one and only patron. He’s sitting in a corner of the room, by himself at a round table meant to seat at least seven. 

His eyes are a different color blue from Grimmjow’s. They’re darker and cloudier, more like the sea than the sky and infinitely more difficult to read. Wisps of silver bangs obscure half of his face even as he looks up at her. The cloak he wears is draped over one of the empty chairs around him, its spotted fur collar greeting them like some tired Dalmatian. 

“Guess I wasn’t the only one looking to catch up with ya,” the man behind her whispers, his voice low and soft in her ear. “Looks almost like he’s waitin’ for ya.”

Olivia pretends not to hear him. 

“There you are, Livvy,” Prisca greets her warmly. “Murph told me one of your sisters was here with you.” She peers around Olivia. “But all I see is a troublesome pirate.” 

“Oi,” Grimmjow protests, holding his hands up. “Keep slanderin’ me like that and Livvy here is gonna start to think I’m a bad guy.”

“She knows what you are.” This comes from the man sitting in the corner. He barely looks up from his drink, but the acid dripping from his words is clear. “Still, she doesn’t seem to mind being seen with you. I wonder why that is.” 

All the amusement drains from Grimmjow’s expression. Those sky-blue eyes of his go hard as ice chips, and Olivia can feel the temperature in the room plummet. “Don’t recall askin’ you,” he replies. His voice is quiet, but there is a deadly edge to it that wasn’t present before. 

Olivia tenses. Her eyes aren’t on the man behind her, but she can see clearly in her mind the angry scar on his lips. She doesn’t think a prince would let himself be provoked into a bar fight, but she isn’t sure - Silvio has never been just any prince. “Grimmjow, please,” she says softly, turning her head to face him. “Don’t make this into a dick-measuring contest. I just got to work.” 

He shrugs. “Then tell the pretty boy over there to mind his goddamn business.” He moves past her to saunter over to the bar, and Olivia tries to ignore the way he brushes up against her. “Say, Prisca, how ‘bout a whiskey, hm?” 

“You got it, Grimm.” Prisca spins a glass onto the bar and fills it a third of the way with a dark, amber liquid. 

Olivia glances at the man sitting in the corner. His eyes are on her again. It’s impossible to tell what he’s thinking. 

“So was it true?” Prisca asks, once Olivia has settled herself behind the bar. “Did you really bring one of your sisters down?”

“I did,” she nods. “She only stayed a little while because it took me forever to convince my mother to let me bring her in the first place. I told her I’d show her around more next time… but I needed to make sure there would be a next time.” 

Prisca shakes her head with a smile. “Don’t know many nobles that would let their eldest daughter do whatever the hell she wants… especially when what she wants is to work down at the docks with a bunch of stinky men.”

Olivia shrugs. “He has five other daughters - all of whom are better suited for nobility and the royal life if it comes to it.” 

“You hear that, pretty boy?” Grimmjow calls loudly over his shoulder. “I’m sure Livvy’s family ain’t the only one with a daughter suited for royalty. Why don’t you go chase after one of those, hm?”

The man sitting in the corner says nothing in response to Grimmjow’s provocative words. Instead, Olivia’s ears are met with the sound of jangling and scraping as he pushes his chair back and tosses a few coins down onto the table. He stalks out, ignoring the three of them and slamming the door behind him. 

Olivia watches him go, her eyes following him all the way to the door. Her gaze lingers even after he’s slammed it shut. 

“Not interested, huh?” Grimmjow’s voice is just a murmur, but she hears it anyway. 

She shakes her head, putting one hand on her hip. “What did he ever do to you?” 

“He breathes,” Grimmjow shrugs. “Walks around here with his nose up his own ass, thinkin’ he’s better’n the rest of us. Thinks he can do whatever the hell he wants just because his daddy’s the king.” 

“I think that is what that means, Grimm,” Prisca laughs teasingly. “He’s next in line for the throne. Means the entire country is in the palm of his hand once the king passes away.”

“Well the king ain’t dead yet,” he growls. “And I ain’t gotta lick his boots like everybody else around here.” He motions to Olivia. “She agrees with me, she just won’t say it.” 

Two pairs of eyes turn to Olivia, but she keeps her gaze trained on the rag in her hand. She swipes it along the bar top, catching non-existent crumbs. 

“I don’t know,” Prisca counters thoughtfully, studying Olivia. “She’s being awfully quiet for somebody who’s usually so opinionated. Maybe she feels differently.” 

“This conversation doesn’t concern me, so I don’t have an opinion at all,” she says breezily. “Prisca, you have stock you need me to put away?” 

--

Olivia is the only one of her parents’ children old enough to remember when Vora was home. Her mother was only newly pregnant with Thalia when the long war between Vora and the much-larger country of Clario came to an end. It wasn’t a victory for Vora, merely a truce, and one which dictated that Vora cede its ruling power to the bigger country and its former Prime Minister and his family to relocate to Clario. 

It has been twenty years since she last saw the shores of her home, and she still misses it. 

She respects her parents enough to abide by their wishes for her not to go back. A part of her, however, still resents their willingness to relinquish their country’s independence. 

“Hey.” That deep, gravelly voice pulls her out of her thoughts. Grimmjow is leaning against the door frame of Prisca’s stockroom, hands in his pockets. 

“You shouldn’t sneak up on people that way,” she mutters halfheartedly. 

“Didn’t sneak,” he fires back. “You just don’t pay attention. All these years workin’ around a buncha men and you still don’t know how to look after yourself.” 

His words are harsh, but she knows he’s teasing. “Did you come here just to scold me?” 

“I don’t scold,” he laughs. “Nah. Came here to ask if you wanna see what I brought you this time around.” He leans just outside of the doorway, revealing a large parcel.  

Her eyes light up. “Yes!” She reaches excitedly for the parcel he’s holding, and he snatches it back and hides it behind him at the last second. Olivia nearly topples into him, catching herself by grabbing onto a nearby shelf. “That was mean,” she glares at him. 

He smirks, one eyebrow raised. “You didn’t say please, Sae.” 

Her heart jumps in her chest at the name. “Grimmjow---” 

“What?” He’s still smirking at her. “You said I could call you that as long as nobody else is around.” He motions to the empty stock room. “Nobody else is around, Sae.”

She almost lets it slip. You don’t… know how it makes me feel when you call me that. Outside of her family, Grimmjow is the only person on earth who knows her middle name, and he is the only person allowed to call her by it. “I never should have told you,” she grouses. “Now it’s just another thing you can hold over my head.” 

She is tall enough to only have to raise her chin a few inches to look him in the eye, and he smirks down at her again as she does. “Ain’t holdin’ it over your head, Sae,” he drawls, making the name sound much more special than three letters have any right to. He pulls the parcel from behind his back and presents it to her, this time letting her take it. “Just takin’ advantage of my special privileges.” 

She looks down at the parcel, feeling how heavy it is in her arms. The weight of it makes her think of that little island on the other side of the sea, the one that Grimmjow makes sure he passes through every time he leaves Clario, even if doing so takes him out of his way. Warm tears well up in her eyes, and she blinks furiously to keep them at bay. “Do you think I’m crazy?” She asks softly. “For missing a place I haven’t lived in twenty years?” 

In a way that is much more gentle than she would ever have given him credit for, he touches one knuckle to the corner of her eye. When he draws it back, there’s moisture there. “Home is always gonna be home,” he starts simply, flashing her a genuine smile. “No shame in fondly rememberin’ the place you were happiest.” He drops her a wink. “Old lady Hudson said she put somethin’ special in there for ya. Wouldn’t let me see, but she said you’d know what it was.” 

With one last smile and a casual wave, he saunters out of the stockroom, and Olivia is left alone to open the parcel and immerse herself in a little taste of home. 

Next Chapter: Two