#I feel I must clarify

[sokkathebluewolf]

Hi Im the same guy who asked about if ozai loved azula, and wanted to ask a follow up question if you dont mind. Does Azula love Ozai?

Against her better sense and all logic, she does, unfortunately. This doesn't blind her to the truth of the man her father is, but it's safe to say that Azula loves her father, and she might even be the person who ever loved him most, outright (feels a little difficult to decide between her and Ursa, but honestly, Ursa is a lot more ready to lose Ozai for good, in a final way, than Azula is).

This is, of course, part of the tragedy of their bond: Ozai is effectively destroying his connection with the one person in the world who truly cared about him, who didn't want or demand perfection from him, who idolized him as a child, who still cherished him without that kind of worship as a grown-up, someone who, even when she knew her father was a menace to the world who needed to be stopped, wanted to believe there was another way out besides having him killed. And as much as it hurts them both to see their bond collapsing as it has, Azula still cares about him, no matter if she knows she shouldn't.

Soooo yeah. It's a messy relationship. Ozai doesn't have the slightest clue of how to have a healthy relationship of any nature with anyone. It makes it extremely difficult to forge a bond like that with him... but Azula has always been attached to him, since her childhood. Breaking free completely from her father when he used to mean the world to her is much easier said than done, no matter if she deserves that kind of freedom.

[slidehead]

hello online feminist do you hate men as an extension of the hierarchical class they create, uphold and coercively enforce in society or do you hate men because you genuinely believe they are evil through an inherent biological heritage that cannot be mended

[frownyalfred]

All the conflicts Ollie has with Bruce over the years stem from the fact that he never truly got over Batman not having a contingency plan for Green Arrow (Bruce does have one, it’s just breaking all the bones in Ollie’s hands. which is pretty pedestrian, all things being equal, and not really worth writing down)

[buwheal]

Not sure if you ever mentioned, but what IS your favorite flavor? I can't tell from looking at the cake.

[r0b0t1me]

[javierduffy]

sometimes i make myself emotional by thinking about how special it must be to javier that the gang at the very least somewhat learned cielito lindo for him so that they could sing along but now im doubling it by thinking about how kieran may gingerly wander up when javier is quietly plucking at the strings of his guitar, tuning them by ear and relishing in the comfort of the body vibrating hums through the meat of his thighs. kieran will politely sit on a nearby unused bedroll, knees tucked close to his body as though taking up less space is the respectful thing to do, and he’ll point to the instrument in javier’s lap.

“where’d you learn that, mister ?”

javier finds the spindly finger in his peripheral vision, follows it up to the brunette’s nervous face. he offers green eyes an extra glance, and he can see them soften like he’d given himself away already. damn.

“i learned it at home. in mexico, music is a very special thing. we use it to tell stories, history, to communicate with one another. mexico speaks music first, and spanish second. nearly every mexican can play at least a handful of instruments- i couldn’t tell you which one i played first and who it was that taught it to me. by now, it’s like a part of my body, just like it is a part of my soul.”

kieran nods along as javier continues to mindlessly poke and prod at the strings of his guitar, and he finds himself relaxing in a way that he’d never been able to around the man. maybe because javier himself seemed to be so content with his guitar in his lap. like a chef in a kitchen or a mariner at sea, javier brought home to him when the sounds he played echoed through wood and sang loud to his typical audience of outlaws. the crease around his eyes tells kieran that he asked about the right subject- though it seems that escuella is just as good at playing heartstrings as he is guitar strings, with the way that he can feel his blood loudly thrumming in his chest.

“could you maybe… teach me sometime too ?”

the way javier rears his head at the question makes kieran jolt- prey spooked wild in the dark eyes of a predator- though the recognition of excitement (as much as javier attempts to conceal it with apprehension) smooths his bristles back down again.

javier teaches kieran every song he knows, from the ones with all the lyrics he soothes or excites the camp with, to the lulls of wordless melodies that sailed the boat north with him. kieran is good with his hands, and attentive to his every action, so he learns quick and easy, though he’ll never sing a word, even if he could memorize the spanish (and even though he already has a lot of them simply by having dutifully listened to javier sing every night that he could). considers himself a flat dud when it comes to singing. javier is curious, but he’ll never press. often he’s too busy reveling in the sound of home emanating from kieran’s fingers plucking desert lullabies, songs javier thought he’d only ever get to hear from himself.

it hits different, to simply get to listen. to put your boots up on a log and enjoy the ride. he’d been the driver for so long that javier forgot how beautiful the scenery was. he’s grateful that kieran asked him to teach him how to play guitar- he finds himself nearly indulging the idea that when kieran practices or plays, he’s playing javier’s music for javier, and not because it’s the only music he knows. he finds it all too romantic, but the warmth that the idea brings to his skin is just as familiar as the mexican sun, and it aches in his heart how comforting those moments are.

kieran, on the other hand, in his soft, sunken heart, is absolutely playing javier’s music for javier. he can see how the notes have always danced along his smile lines as he sings or hums along to the sound. he’s always seen how protective of his guitar he is. he watches closely as javier plays even when no one is listening, and kieran more than anyone understands just how special something has to be for it to never grace the stage of another’s perception. and kieran, so knee-deep in his affection, wants to give javier the gift of comfort- a form of it so free he may feel he just robbed it from a corpse.

kieran becomes quite good, and javier becomes quite comfortable. often, in the direction of a billow of campfire smoke, you will hear the wordless song of guitar strings, accompanied by the howling gritos of love and grief.

[saints-who-never-existed]

One thing I always feel with Fitzjames is that he may well have been happier if he hadn't tried so hard to build himself that great gilded life.

He may say otherwise but clearly it's a life that does humiliate him to live in many ways - he feels forever inadequate, forever a fraud and a fake right up until almost the end of his life when he reaches the end of vanity and is finally free. Perhaps an un-gilded life would have suited him better? Perhaps he ought to have forgone much of that emotional turmoil and continued just being the fighter/deadly weapon/balls-to-the-wall adrenaline junkie madman that life and the military saw fit to make him?

I would never in a million years condone his actions or condone violence and colonialism in general. But you can't deny that he was extremely fucking good at it and derived significant pleasure and purpose from being extremely fucking good at it.

Which is all to say that I'm now thinking the same thing about Hodgson...

We know of course that the real Hodgson appeared to be cut from a similar cloth to Fitzjames - distinguishing himself under heavy fire in battle and earning his commission during the Opium Wars. And there's much to indicate that his fictional counterpart shares that backstory right from his E01 dinner-table reminiscing onward.

Hodgson in the show really does often seem to be at his best under bloody, chaotic, and extremely high-stress circumstances in a similar way to Fitzjames. We see it in E05 when he's able to stop, assess the situation, rally the men around him, and lead them back towards danger to no-scope poor Tuunbaq in the arse in the middle of a blizzard. And to some extent we see it right at the end of his life when he's once again ready and willing to charge forward and make that desperate grab for Armitage's keys, even with chaos and death all around him.

Maybe Hodgson wasn't a Captain. Maybe he wasn't 'made of that'. Maybe he was just made to be a weapon and nothing more.

[anastacialy]

i know everyone's sour about colin's "i am a man of honor, and we were... intimate. perhaps that was another part of your planned entrapment." line but we all say things in anger. my main qualm is that pen didn't get to snap back at him. like.

"i'll remind you that you crawled into my carriage."

you know. i know she feels that she's in the wrong here but i just think it would have been fun

[moonmoonthecrabking]

"i've done so many terrible things. like touching myself and lying to the police." grace don't worry. acab; you've only done one terrible thing

[musical-chick-13]

Regarding the whole "Fandom Is An Escape, so why should I have to care this much about misogyny/racism/ableism/transphobia/etc." thing. Idk about the rest of you, but it gets kind of hard for me to "escape" when I keep seeing people say the same vile things about characters who share aspects of my identity that I hear all the time in real life.

[law-lighto]

i could bench press both of you, i'm not afraid of you coming to my house. bring refreshments -RLY

Light: The only refreshment I’ll bring is a nice glass of cyanide just for you :)

L: ... i'll.. bring the biscuits...???????

[transloumand]

i feel like i just need to remind y'all that louis did actually deal drugs, probably not personally but he does make two mentions of it (ep1 confessional scene - "i profit off the miseries of other men and i do it easy, drugs, liquor, women," and when he meets daniel at mary's - "i know you're struggling, i have what you're looking for, high quality, befitting a man of my tastes" said to an addict looking for drugs) i saw something the other day where people were getting mad at someone for assuming louis deals in drugs but like..he does/did, it's just not his main enterprise

[verifiablebot]

i found a guy who does tiktok skits of mafia dudes and it reminded me of something

[billiebustup-confessions]

Can I be the 200th confession pls

unfortunately not, as there’s already a 200th confession queued up. but you can be an honorary one next to the 200th. like a participation trophy.

[icewindandboringhorror]

More misc. daily life pictures and such

[championsandheroes]

I've started fatigue/burnout rehab, which mostly means chilling on a farm in the middle of nowhere with a few other people who are there for the same reason for four hours a couple of days a week. There are a couple of horses, sheep, a massive dog, cats, ducks, chickens… and bees. Bees that are too curious for my liking.

Day two one tried to take a closer look at my eyeball. I had a… normal reaction. Absolutely normal. Please, people I've just met, I assure you that there was nothing weird about my sudden shriek at all.

I can't guarantee that we're as polite when we panic over at Patreon or society6 but you'll at least get an apology afterwards.