#I have the need to put him through the same arc about lying but also to make it more indepth

[spork-supremacy]

Had an inspirational burst of writing but when doing so I realised that I heavily characterise Jay as a compulsive liar and I actually can't tell how canon compliant that is.

I swear I have possession/skybound tinted glasses when it comes to him

[dykealloy]

spoilers up to the end of dressrosa arc here but. I can't stop thinking about how Law takes on Rosinante's will. Corasan freed him from Doflamingo and the marines and the world government and everyone that ever could have touched him at the time, but has Law really felt free? “Everything I do until I die represents what Corasan achieved” is sweet until you recognise that Law is willing (and planned) to go to the grave for that belief. Until Doflamingo dies there is always a part of him stuck in that treasure chest, constrained by what Law felt happened to Corasan due to him that day.

It's crazy how textbook survivors guilt victim Law is (I’m new here so I wouldn’t be surprised if this isn’t the first time this has been brought up), but let’s just quickly go over some symptoms:

Obsessive thoughts about the traumatic event ✅ (will go over this in greater detail below)

A sense of disconnection or detachment/need to isolate oneself from others ✅ (Law doesn't fully isolate himself but he definitely has his walls up at all times, though there are often subtle hints of him enjoying the company of the people he chooses to surround himself with. He is notably more reserved, emotionally unavailable, cold and distant than others around him, and watching closely you'll notice that even physically he has a tendency to situate himself three steps behind the group)

Insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks of the traumatic event ✅ (if we can assume some of his backstory expressed in Dressrosa are flashbacks, and also assuming that the perpetual eyeliner he wears are covering some pretty heavy eyebags. Also mention that the only time we see him resting is against Sunny's mast on the way to Dressrosa - and that was 1. a filler episode, and 2. if he was sleeping, it was very quickly interrupted by an attack by petplay guy - a nightmare in of itself)

Irritability and anger ✅ (though elements of this could just be attributed to Law's personality or a natural response to the straw hat's shenanigans, as well as Luffy's total inability to stick to a reasonable plan)

Feelings of despair and thoughts of suicide ✅ (that's Law's Dressrosa arc babe)

Now, there's many reasons why Law is unable to move past this guilt (an apparent lack of therapists in one piece being one of them) - but his inability to believe in unconditional love is likely the biggest offender.

Law may have started off (initially) with one of the most fortunate, stable beginnings, with a loving family and a big house in a rich country (wealth of which was built off the back of lies and corruption and the murder of innocent future generations - we'll get there). But he had a mother and a father who loved and nurtured Law (and were both highly respected doctors in their own right who citizens trusted and relied on). Law's happy beginnings really juxtapose the unfathomable horror that had been lying in wait in Flevance.

Even when shit started to hit the fan, at a very young age (<10 yrs old), Law was already stepping up and showing love for his little sister (lying to her when she was on her deathbed, knowing full well he would likely face the same fate after reading his charts, putting on a brave face for her so she wouldn't be afraid when the screams began to reach their front door, hiding her away when soldiers sieged their home and rushing to check on his parents). Given everything that happened in Flevance, it's completely understandable that, while Law will likely never forget the love his family gave him, remembering it became twisted in the lasting memories of his home — parents riddled with bullet holes. a closet holding a sick little sister waiting for him in a house engulfed by flames. stumbling through a town of friends, neighbours, just... people he used to pass by on the street, now all dead.

Seeing hell, knowing why and how it transpired, who were responsible (spoilers, the World Government; the same body that most citizens believe exist to protect them — yeah, sister "a merciful hand of salvation waiting to help" were perhaps the worst possible combination of words you could have left Law with here. Likely instrumental in having him lose his faith "I don't believe in anything anymore."), knowing he is the only survivor, and fated to die anyway due to the terminal illness that is slowly killing him because some figureheads years back were greedy and the governing powers above the figureheads were willing to cover up everything if it meant garnering a portion of wealth and maintaining influence and control. It's beyond grief, beyond rage. And there's absolutely nowhere Law can put it. No one he can retaliate against. Who could come out of hell knowing this and not want to see the world burn?

So, smart little Law escapes under a pile of bodies and goes to the one person infamously revered for being in the business of that kind of thing. And boy oh boy I can only begin to imagine how a young and impressionable Law - fresh from a genocide, with a hole in his heart and a hatred for everything still alive - had his concept of love warped whilst surviving those two years around Doflamingo and his family. A family where members are only welcome so far as they are useful to Doflamingo and his aspirations. Of course Law's going to pick up some fucked up ideas about how love works outside this little white fence he grew up and watched burn down.

Then. Enter Corazon.

Their relationship may begin on shaky legs (near-juvenicide via defenestration in a failed attempt to ward Law away from sticking around) but Corazon quickly becomes the one person in the world Law can trust and rely on again. And Rosinante can only do so much in terms of healing and guiding this broken kid (yes, his position both as Doffy's brother and as a double agent made things difficult, but need I mention he was only 26! 26 when he died!) but he showed Law kindness and compassion when he was at his lowest. He had faith in the existence of a cure that Law was long past believing. Was determined to help him, even against Law's wishes, even if it meant having Law relive his trauma over and over again. Corasan becomes incredibly important to Law, giving him a reason to live beyond just destruction and revenge.

After the rest of the world had long turned his back on him, when he had been nothing but a dying puddle of rage and self-destructive nihilism, Corasan saved Law. He told Law "Aishiteru" - a very rare way of saying "I love you", never used casually due to the depth of its meaning and the massive connotations behind it - in essence translating to "I love you so much I cannot possibly imagine life without you". There's a high likelihood that at his age, Law had never heard these words before, and probably didn't quite understand the weight of Rosinante saying it at the time.

Corasan frees Law, then he dies at the hand of Doflamingo, Rosinante's own brother.

All Rosinante wanted was for this poor kid to go on and live his life unburdened by his more than turbulent history and his connection to Doffy, but I think for all his planning, Rosinante's one critical error was well and truly underestimating how much him loving Law, and loving Law to the extent he did, would mean to that kid. Law really went from that ten year old hollow void sentiment of "why does anyone or anything at all get to exist when everything that was important to me is dead, burned to ashes and wiped off the map" to "I should have died at age thirteen and every second I've lived since then, I've only lived as a result of Corasan's efforts and as a personal affront to Doflamingo." This time, Law has a tangible, heinous 10 foot monster of a target to direct 1. his grief and anger and 2. justice for Cora towards, and this time he has the power and will to follow through. More than that, he believes Corasan sacrificed himself for him because he's a D. (someone destined to rain down destruction on the gods - Doflamingo, in this case). Corazon becomes a saint that Law dedicates the rest of his life to. Which is something that Law is not vocal about to just anyone he comes across, but is so unbelievably obvious once you know what you're looking at — his tattoos, his jolly roger, his crew, his ship, his ambitions, his beliefs, his fucking. custom-made Corazon jacket. all of it for this man that showed Law - at a time when he hated the world and everything in it - love. For all of six months. max.

And his whole life and personality and behaviour CONTINUES to be guided by this trauma — the way he's reckless with himself, his borderline self-destructive actions, the way he keeps telling himself that none of it would've been worth it unless Corasan's last wishes are fulfilled, the way he surrounds himself with bright people and soft things, the way it doesn't register that his crew genuinely loves and cares about him, the way he's terrified of losing anyone important to him again (and I would say this is one of his biggest downfalls as a Captain compared to someone like Luffy - who is just as reckless as Law is but trusts his crew, doesn't try to send them away, isn't afraid to let them grow and risk their lives for him like Law is with the heart crew), his inability to take a damn compliment. The way he doesn't understand Luffy AT ALL.

Doesn't understand that this alliance that he's brokered means nothing to Luffy because he sees him as FRIEND. No transactions or mutually beneficial pacts necessary. Doesn't get that he's the one that inadvertently asked Luffy to be his friend, thus breaking a long chain of people (mostly parental figures and siblings) abandoning or leaving Luffy behind/no one taking the first initiative to ask to be around him. Law is complete and utterly in the dark as to why someone would ever bat for him when the stakes are this high for no other reason than because they like them and care about them as a person.

Luffy, with his playground rules where he loves unconditionally and will take on the world for a friend he made five minutes ago, perplexes Law with his sheer simplicity.

When Sengoku tells Law, "Don't try to find a reason for someone's love", I do NOT think he takes it well. Because there must be a reason. There has to be. Between the two options of Corasan saving Law's life and freeing him because he believed in the will of D., or Rosinante saving him for no other reason than because Law was a kid that was loveable, and because he loved him unconditionally... everything we've learned about how Law functions up until this point suggests the former will always make more sense to him, and after everything he's been through, is most likely less painful for him to accept.

[eccentricallygothic]

|| Bliss ||

Description: What happens when a spoiled and disgraced Princess is handed off to an ex-Winter Soldier as a strategy for the royal family to be rid of her and ensure the Soldier's loyalty to them at the same time?

Pairing: Dark Ex-Winter Soldier!Bucky Barnes | Brat Princess!Reader.

Disclaimer: I (unfortunately) do not own Bucky Barnes or the Winter Soldier arc. This story contains dark and mature content so browse at your own discretion, please. Minors do not interact.

Warning(s): Dub-con, Dark!Bucky, arranged marriage, Brat!Reader, Brat Tamer!Bucky, spanking, exhibitionism, degradation, fingering, hair pulling, dumfication, pet names, blow job, gagging, choking, cock warming.

Note: Thank you all so so much for the love on this story! You have no idea how dear I hold it and each and every one of you to my heart! Muah!! <333 The chapter is unedited, I am sorry </3 Also, I did my best to tag everyone and if anyone got left out I am very sorry this story is my first time doing these lists and I am not very good at them 🩷

STORY MASTERLIST 

IV

"Did you put on that show at breakfast for the Queen to see, sweets?" James raised an eyebrow at his wife after he joined her at the backseat of the SUV that would drive them to their part of the Kingdom. 

She had refused to bid farewell to anyone after behaving quite well at breakfast upon his order, or rather, threat that he had given her when they had had their bath in the morning.

James would not tolerate being husband to an out of control wife. He knew exactly how to put a leash on little deviants such as Her Highness.

Then Y/n had acted like nothing was out of the ordinary, nodding obediently when he informed her that the cars were ready for them and his men before exiting the Palace whilst her family had watched her back expectantly.

"What are you talking about, James?" The bride from last night was barely there anymore as she lied through her teeth. His jaw ticked. "I have no idea whatever you mean." 

The man sighed, sitting back as he shook his head and hooked an arm around her back. "Now, what did I tell you about lying to me last night?" She was staring out the window but he could tell she was pouting. 

"I am not." 

Oh, he was going to have so much fun crushing this pathetic little brat of his.

James clicked his tongue. "So you are lying to your husband after you used him like a disposable pawn in your little game with your mother-"

"Step-mother" the Princess corrected him, turning around to look him in the eyes with her agitated ones.

He raised an eyebrow. "So you are admitting it, then?"

"I didn't do it to disrespect you" her eyes turned soft and eyebrows furrowed worriedly. "I just-"

The Chief clicked his tongue. "Come on up" his vibranium hand patted his lap. "Little girls like you cannot just make and execute their own decisions. You need to learn your place." 

Her bottom lip jutted out. "But–"

"Butts get spanked and fucked, come on" his words made a blush and giggle burst out and into her shy hands unexpectedly. For both. He hadn't meant to say it. It was out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

James wasn't a boy that said things like these.

But he still did.

And her response made it worth it.

He could get used to this.

"James!"

Was he trying to compensate for the centuries long generational gap?

For her?

"I haven't even done anything and you're already this worked up" the embarrassment on her shy face worked him up in the best way. Her real self was so different from the facade she put up. So easy. So soft. So fragile to crush and plunder. "Tsk, Mrs. Barnes. What am I going to do with you, hm?" His hand pushed at her ass. 

"Not too painful, please?" Y/n batted her lashes at him prettily. 

The driver was so uncomfortable James could sense it. But he dared not glance at them through the rearview mirror. He wouldn't. If he cared to keep his eyes and head. 

"Stalling will only add to your punishment, sweets." A small whine left her as she pouted and crawled his lap begrudgingly with her head lowered. 

"No fair" she whispered so softly under her breath that it made her gasp when he responded. 

There would be a lot of getting used to to an enhanced man.

"I'll tell you what isn't fair." Pushing her dress up to her waist, James placed his non-human arm over her back to press her in place. "What isn't fair is lying to me when I have been nothing but a good husband to you" spanking both her clothed cheeks at the same time, he peeled her underwear off. "What isn't fair is you using me as a pawn to deny your step-mother her satisfaction" a loud whine filled the air when he rained down spanks on her already hurt and bruised bottom. 

"James, please! Husband, please! It hurts so much!" Y/n's legs kicked in defense, ass trying to dodge his hits. 

"It hurts, does it?" He feigned surprise, removing his arm from her back to hold her by the hair at the back of her head, pulling it closer so he could whisper in her ear. "Then why are you so wet, baby?" James' eyes were trained on the rearview mirror, watching the nervous driver carefully to make sure he wouldn't steal a glance. 

No one except him could see his wife in this state.

"You've made such a mess on my hand, look" moving her head by her hair to allow her an easier view of his hand that he had been spanking her with, the Chief showed her his wet fingers. "Tsk, what a dirty little girl I have here."

Y/n blushed and bit her lip, embarrassed yet aroused. "Please…"

"Please what, hm?" Letting go of her hair, his hand now reached for her throat for a better grip, still holding her face close to his lips. "Need husband to take care of you?" A smirk made it's way on his face when she whimpered in response to his other hand caressing her sensitive ass. 

"... Y- Yes, please…" Biting her lip, the Princess pushed her ass up and into the Chief's fingers when they travelled down the crack of her ass, resting at her wet entrance. 

"Here?"

"Yes!" It was pulsating with need. "Yes, please, James! Right there!" 

The man's digits circled and rounded her entrance like a beast does its prey, coating themselves in her slick before spreading it over her touch-starved folds. Lewd hums and moans started to flow out of the girl's mouth in response, hips swaying and fingers gripping the man's thigh.

"You love being dominated and put in your place, don't you?" The super soldier snickered, feeling a shiver run down his spine at the erotic gasp that ripped it's way out of his wife when he finally allowed her the aid of a finger inside her wet ring of muscles. "I knew it, it's always naughty little brats like you who rile people up desperately just so someone can come along and beat some manners into their pathetic holes." His dirty talk was making her insides flutter, droplets of cold sweat decorating her temples as one ran down the side of her face.

The girl was too far gone to care or notice whe her husband moved her out of the way, momentarily letting go of her neck which made her collapse against his thighs, fucking herself on his fingers softly as her eyes fluttered shut. 

"Come here" grabbing a hold of her head by her hair again, the man guided it to his hard cock. "Look at what you do to me, sweets." Her confused and surprised face was inches from his thick and tall cock as James peered down at her. "Now you must be a good wife and take care of it."

"What-" 

"Tsk, aren't you the most precious and dumb little wife?" Y/n was starting to like how he crooned at her. "Needs her husband to teach her everything." Clicking his tongue, he added a second finger to her tight pussy. "Open up, baby. Let me see that pretty sucker" holding her cheeks between his hands hurriedly, the man pushed them open, causing a tiny O to form between her lips through which he pushed the tip of his cock inside but moving his hips. 

"Princess…" James called out warningly when she jumped up in response, trying to move away only to freeze at his tone, peeking up at him through her lashes with questioning eyes as he explored her oral cavity bit by bit till he was properly inside. "That's it, baby" the man praised, biting back a moan when she gagged in response to his tip tickling the back of her throat. "Fuck. This is perfect. You're such a fine set of wet little holes." 

Speeding up the movements of his fingers inside her pussy, he guided her face up and down his cock by his other hand, hips aiding the process as he tried not to but still made her gag and choke with each thrust. 

The car filled with sounds of slapping, choking, squelching, gagging, cursing and moaning as it ran smoothly on the highway roads, the driver using all his willpower to not look back or act bothered, ignoring the headache hurting his eyes. 

"Hnnnmmmm~" The Princess moaned against James' cock, hips bucking up as she finally climaxed, her shudders and grunts sending vibrations down the man's cock and adding to the heat that was settling in his own abdomen. 

He was close but it wasn't until Y/n unintentionally placed her hand on his ballsack to try and brace herself against the face fucking that had turned quite brutal that her husband collapsed, cursing loudly as he came down her throat, causing her to choke which made her nose ooze out some of his seed. 

"You better… fucking… swallow every drop." The man warned, his chest burning at how perfect she looked with mouth full of his cock, mascara smudging her face and nose decorated with his cum. Keeping his fingers buried in her cunt, James put her worked up face down against his lap, a hand gently placed behind her head to keep her in place with her mouth still stuffed full of him. 

"Keep it there and don't move" he panted, feeling her widened nostrils exhale out overwhelmed breaths as she had no choice but to cockwarm him with her mouth. "This will teach you your true place." Pressing a kiss to the exhausted girl's head, he whispered in her ear. "Between my legs with your cute sucker full of my cock."

Tag list <3: @darkserenity24 @darkghostfairy @bonkybarnes106 @gloriouspurpose01 @salvatoreitmeanssaviour @kandis-mom @jjmaybankslittleslut @braverthanthenewworld @princezzjasmine @angiestopit @nd264 @yourdryadwife @ireneop @marvel-fandom23 @imsonick @smut-reader @ashovertheriver @candybabysworld @sebastians-love @jessicaloons @neeezza101

[kadextra]

having many thoughts about “you have only seen me when I’m crazy” because. yeah

q!Bagi doesn’t have the frame of reference everyone else does. she never knew q!Bad when he was red colored, and the responsible calm egg babysitter. she isn’t aware of how drastic this shift in him is. yet this new island arrival is SUPER worried for him, even more than the islanders who knew him before and got to watch his descent into madness in real-time. there can be multiple reasons for that

all the islanders have a prior perspective of q!Bad being the person who they rely on to help with anything. even if they see him going kinda crazy exploding mines & the changes of his appearance, this is q!Bad we’re talking about! the resident capable & put together guy, he always helps so they may think he knows how to handle it.

and you bet they have so much faith he will recover from… whatever is happening to him, as he always does from any difficult situation. this faith is why they have always trusted q!Bad with the lives of their kids. just gotta give it some time, because everything will be okay once the eggs return, right? (nobody knows the extent of the damage and the lines he crossed. he will have severe consequences)

the majority don’t continue prodding q!Bad with questions when he puts on the denial mask and starts lying to their faces, because they are also doing the same thing. everyone is going through their own unique sorrow, pain & self-isolation arc rn, so the focus/energy in worrying for others is kinda dulled… it’s understandable. the entire island is experiencing grief, so they accept q!Bad is too and don’t bug him much. however, even if they aren’t in the trenches always pushing him for answers, there’s still many people (like forever, baghera, etoiles) who are keeping a watchful eye on his declining condition. <3

q!Bagi is a very different situation though. “you have only seen me when I’m crazy” he’s right. Bagi is the only person on the island to have this unique perspective & understanding of q!Bad. she lacks all of the points above: doesn’t see him as the reliable guy, has no reason to put extreme faith in him, and isn’t emotionally damaged from grief. arriving with nothing, she sees the facts presented in front of her- a kind person she has spent lots of time with and considers her best friend, who is spiraling out of control and needs help.

it’s amazing how quick she adapted to his behavior and doesn’t accept his lies. Bagi is an investigator at heart and puts hard pressure on him to open up, the only other person doing that is q!Foolish. she doesn’t believe Bad is in a state that can be easily recovered from, rather that he is getting worse, and is scared that one day it’ll become too late and he will literally fade away if no action is taken. so she has been running around with urgency, catching onto any piece of relevant info about the eggs, his condition, anything she can use to help him ASAP.

…I want to really stress again how she has never known a version of q!Bad that isn’t flawed and broken. but she still sincerely says “I care about you and will do everything in my power to help you.” and that’s just. ough :(

of course q!Bagi would be the only person who he openly admits not being okay to <3

[allwormdiet]

Buzz 7.11

I was so caught up in the euphoria of not having to read about the Empire that for a minute I lived in this world where Coil didn't exist

And so we arrive at The Coil Bunker. Heard this sucker come up once or twice in my time on the periphery.

Somehow I got the impression that it was more established than this. Sounds like a recent development rather than a long-standing stronghold, with the construction going on inside as well as out.

They are already so done with Coil's shit, there's nothing to be impressed by with this guy

It really is a rapid acceleration of their workload, yeah. Even setting aside that the Wards did basically nothing during the gallery job, they've gone against every hitter in the city except most of New Wave and the ones under Coil's employ, and frankly I'm willing to guess that changes down the line.

Coil's value to them as a boss has nothing to do with himself and everything to do with his resources. If he keeps putting them in more trouble than he's worth, then a coup would almost certainly be in order.

"Do you need reassurances that I'm not going to fuck up like some kind of moron and condemn you all to a pointless death in order to work for me?"

"Uh, yeah? It'd be nice?"

I'd talked about this elsewhere, but Coil's fuckup here breaks in two possible ways:

Either he genuinely could not think beyond pulling back the curtain on the Empire's identities and forgot his subordinate villain team who both have a member famous for knowing things she shouldn't and also publicly beefed with the Empire maybe a week ago, or

he actually did realize that the Undersiders would be caught in the blast radius of this plot, figured he'd roll the dice on their survival, and is now lying in a way that makes him sound shortsighted and careless

Like yeah no shit they don't have much faith in him, either he's a moron or a liar willing to look like a moron. Worst-case scenario he's both.

I hate this part. Fuck Coil, truly.

Hate.

Let me tell you how much I've come to hate Coil since I began to read Worm.

There are one million, six hundred and eighty million words in the web serial Worm. If the word "hate" replaced every character within those words it would not equal one one-billionth of the hate I feel for Coil in this micro-instant.

Hate.

Hate.

So this is actually a genius bit of writing, but it's also ironclad proof that Coil has loose gravel in place of a brain. The chances of success are lowering because "the Undersiders" are increasingly unlikely to include Skitter as a member, because she's sickened, horrified, and outraged by what her boss is doing and absolutely will not do what he asks of her at this rate. I'm willing to bet Tattletale knows what's going on, provided that she managed to tear her eyes away from the horror show in order to check on her teammates, but Coil, resident criminal mastermind, apparently doesn't realize that the odds for his pet villain team are getting worse because he's making one of the strongest members of the team hate him more with every second of this exchange.

We know what's going on in Taylor's head before she can even say anything because of this exchange. That's really well done.

I hope Coil dies screaming.

I was going to post a line from Arc 5 or 6 that I'd noticed, about the offhand news of a girl missing presumed dead, but I couldn't find it when I was going back through. I knew about it well before starting my liveread, though. Dinah Alcott. The twelve-year-old girl Coil keeps in his basement, gives drugs, and calls "pet."

Maybe I could've liked Coil more if he was just a kind of ineffectual mastermind and lousy boss, or maybe I wouldn't have felt such an active revulsion towards him, I dunno. But this puts him on a different layer of evil than just some kinda shadowy puppet master or gang boss or whatever. This isn't cops and robbers, this is the same kind of foul play that Heartbreaker operates on, and everyone hates Heartbreaker.

Also not sure exactly what emotions Tattletale is dealing with here but I don't know if people can make the blood drain from their face on demand so she's probably not fronting? She's had me nervous ever since she started more openly cooperating with Coil, but here's reassurance she's got a standard that he doesn't.

Current Thoughts

I will clap and cheer when Coil gets what's coming to him.

[mikami]

"Did Light love his family?" Anon - Catch-All Answer

Since these are six asks that are all about in the same vein, I am gonna just put the responses into one post for organization's sake.

Light begs his father to kill Mello because he wants his father's death to have been good for something. Nothing pains him more than the idea of having let this happen without it even accomplishing his goal.

Light is the physical manifestation of the lost cost fallacy: he needs to keep going because he sacrificed too much to stop and allow those sacrifices to be rendered meaningless.

And Light rationalizes. It's one of his most prominent character traits: instead of acknowledging his own emotions, he tries to filter his thoughts into nothing but emotionless pragmatism.

This is consistently portrayed through the 'hidden eyes' visual key - Light is excellent at lying to himself, in his own thoughts, which is why Obata gave us this clever way of seeing when this is happening even as Light's own internal monologue doesn't reflect it.

I have an incomplete list of these instances here, especially as pertaining to his family.

Ultimately, if we disagree that Light rationalizes his feelings rather than allowing himself to fully feel them, then none of my arguments are ever going to make sense to you and vice versa.

As a short addendum, here's Ohba's own words on this chapter (HTR13 p.80): "Even if there was acting involved in Light's tearful performance, I don't believe the tears are 100% an act." (も し月の涙に演技入っていたとしても、100%演技の涙では到底ないと思います。)

Soichiro already made the eye deal, which is an absolutely horrifying sacrifice to have made. Light wanted it to be as useful as it could possibly be, in order to justify the magnitude of the price.

I hate to say it, but you're really gonna have to take this one up with Ohba himself. On Page 65 of HTR13, he literally says that he picked Sayu as a kidnapping victim because Light loves his family and wouldn't kill her. (Unlike Misa, whom he would have just killed in this scenario rather than letting the plot progress.)

The panel you are thinking of is this one, where he is panicking, but you're not putting it into perspective.

In a previous chapter (62) Ide was about to inform the whole police force that Sayu Yagami was kidnapped. Soichiro was about to agree to this.

If Light had let this happen, he could have killed Sayu without narrowing down the suspect pool at all. They already know that Kira has ties to the police. He would have removed the leverage the mafia had held against them and gotten off entirely scott-free.

He does decidedly NOT do that. It's LIGHT personally who stops Ide from giving him the perfect alibi. EVEN RYUK CALLS OUT HOW ODD THAT WAS AS A MOVE.

And sure, Light says 'oh yeah, now nobody will suspect us!!' but nobody was really suspecting them to begin with.

This is what I mean - Light never allows himself to just feel things, he always rationalizes himself to justify his actions to himself.

His father dying. Dude.

.... literally why would he? Like, even if they don't accept Kira they also pose absolutely no threat to Kira.

I've covered all of this above, but I am including the ask to say that yes, I've seen it. The core issue here is that we disagree on Light's relationship to himself - you take his internal monologue at face value, while I think there is ample evidence that Light manipulates himself most of all. (As made completely manifest in the Yotsuba-Arc where he literally mindwipes himself into an incredibly emotionally and physically painful experience just to use himself as a pawn.)

[fandomwe1rd0]

RICK REDEMPTION ARC IS ACTUALLY SO GOOD GUYS LIKE OH MY GOD

Now just to make myself clear, by "redemption" I mean him being a better person, don't get me wrong he's still an abusive, toxic, manipulative, asshole but he's trying you guyssssssss. Like he started going to therapy when he says he doesn't respect therapy in season 3 you guyssssssssss. He's spoiling Morty you guyssssssssssssss. He's treating Morty like an actual human being you guysssssssssss.

Ok onto the actual post- His redemption arc is actually so good omfg- Now to be fair, he's still in the process, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't at least a little optimistic about where it's headed, I mean so far it's going really well, he started changing after season 4, which makes sense considering in the finale he said "Holy shit I'm a terrible father." and sat alone in the garage, which is what he deserves but I'd be lying if I said I didn't cry at that scene even though it's exactly what he deserves considering what an asshole he's been in that season. Now after this realization, seeing what a terrible father he truly was, he started changing, for most of season 5 he was still mostly the same ol' Rick. He was still an asshole, was still insulting Morty, y'know much of the same, he wasn't as bad as he was in season 4, but he wasn't exactly good, then then we get to the finale, he actually feels guilt for coming back to Morty after the crows left him, when Morty asked, he couldn't even give Morty a straight answer, he just looked to the ground and sighed. He couldn't even look Morty in the eye. Season 4 Rick would probably just say yes and brush it off with some sarcastic comment, but season 5 Rick couldn't even bring himself to do that.

In season 6 we can see that he stopped his hunt for Rick Prime, even if it was just temporary because Morty sees him as his grandfather and not Rick Prime, you can tell that meant a lot to Rick since his angry expression melted away as soon as Morty said that. (Also yes, this scene makes me cry shut up)

He's also a lot gentler to Morty here, is he perfect? No but a lot of his actions seem more like him being a goofy grandpa then him actually being mean, he gets closer to Jerry, lays off of Morty a bit, and actually puts in effort to spend time with the kid, and he actually goes to therapy on his own accord, sure he didn't want to call it therapy at the beginning but he still kept going even after Dr. Wong said it was therapy and is now going every week, I mean could you imagine season 3 or season 4 Rick going to therapy? Actually scheduling his appointments and paying for therapy? Need I remind you that this is the man who turned himself into a pickle so he doesn't have to go to family therapy? Who pretending he was disintegrating so he wouldn't have to go? Who literally programmed his garage to have a "family therapy mode"? Who programmed the therapist's office with voice activated commands in case he needed to leave? This man, the same man, is going to therapy.

At the end of the season when Morty called him "boring" he regressed and continued his self-destructive hunt for Rick Prime again. Now I may have poked fun at him for this in some of my other posts, but it was more than that, that was the moment where he thought Morty just stopped caring about him. He thought the most important person to him, the only thing holding him back from a mental breakdown *cough* codependency *cough* didn't care about him at all. When we know that's not true, sure Morty lashed out, but he earned the right to after everything Rick put him through. So he left and built a perfect copy of him to take his place. He could've programmed it to be just as mean as him, or even more mean than him. But he literally programmed it to be a good grandpa to, love, and make Morty happy. That was it. He did this for someone who he thought didn't care about, someone he though, in his own words, had become "dogshit" to. Yet he still put in the time and effort to make a robot designed to make Morty happy, when it would've just been easier to just make the robot the same as him. And here's the kicker, when Rickbot reveals it, sure Rick is frustrated and sends Rickbot an angry glare, but he doesn't deny it. Could you imagine season 1-5 Rick doing this? I couldn't. Also in this scene, he manhandles Morty significantly less, I honestly think this may have been the season where he stopped manhandling Morty, correct me if I'm wrong.

Now in season 7, in all the episodes he never treat Morty all too bad. Let's analyze how he treats Morty in each episode shall we?

Episode 1 ~ How Poopy got his poop back

They don't really interact in this episode, Rick just gave Morty a sarcastic response when Morty said "Hey buddy, got you a coffee" and when Morty asked "Have you found him (Rick Prime) yet?" which while it isn't nice, it's better than how he treated Morty in season 4, since he never insults Morty directly.

Episode 2 ~ The Jerrick Trap

Another episode where they don't interact a lot, and when they do it's not really Rick it's like half Jerry half Rick. Buttttt he does have a new "Touch my grandson and die policy" and it's confirmed in that episode that both Rick and Jerry love their family, even if they are horrible at showing it. He does snap at Morty for literally no reason at the end, but still. Comparing it to say, Mortynight Run, the second episode of season 2 where he constantly insults Morty, it shows progress.

Episode 3 ~ Air Force Wong

Again, they don't really interact a lot, man they really ignored Morty in season 7, but he does stand up for Morty when the president insults him, when the president said "Tell Morty to shut up!" Morty says "Tell him he can't talk to me like that!" And season 1-4 Rick would probably just ignore Morty, he actually listens and tells the president "You can't talk to Morty like that." This episode also reveals that he's still going to therapy every week, which is a huge thing!

Episode 4 ~ That's Amorte

He's pretty rude to Morty in this episode, even straight up telling him "The only reason why you're still alive right now, is because you don't turn delicious when you die." Which we all know is a lie, but that doesn't make it better. But I'm pretty sure this was supposed to mirror Mortynight run, which is why I at least found Rick to be pretty out of character in this episode, but he's still physically gentle with Morty, with putting his hand on Morty's back instead of manhandling him like how he would in earlier seasons, and even if it's wrong that he was feeding the family people, he didn't do it out of malicious intent like how most would expect, he just genuinely thought it was good and wanted the family to try it, does that make it right? No, but still. He also (Like everyone else) lost the taste for it when he saw exactly what they were eating.

Episode 5 ~ Unmortricken

Honestly besides his sarcastic comment at the beginning of the episode "Thanks buddy, means a lot that your bar for mental health has gotten lower than mine." and "You should count chickens professionally, Morty." He's pretty sweet to Morty, he was worried for Morty and didn't move until he made sure Morty was ok when they were all in the box, and when he finished making the portal, he made sure Morty got in by pulling him in by his shirt to be sure that Morty was safe, these are all very small details but they say a lot, he also doesn't let Morty come with him because he was worried about him and wanted to keep him away from a very dangerous adventures, which considering that he took Morty on a traumatizing adventure in "Rest and Ricklaxation" It's nice to see that he's actually starting to worry about taking him on dangerous adventures and wants to keep him out of them, this was confirmed when Evil Morty replied "I'm not worried about him, I'm evil!" when Rick angrily said "You brought Morty with you!?" and he even lets Morty hug him without pushing him away

which is a step up from him softly pushing Morty away when Morty attempted to hug him in "Solaricks"

We can also see that he fakes a smile in the end, which is, again leagues above what he would've done in seasons 1-4

Episode 6 ~ Rickfending your Mort

Ahhhh he's so sweet to Morty in this episodeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. We see in this episode that his inner grandpa comes out with Morty and that he spoils Morty, he gives Morty basically whatever he asks for with no resistance or complaining. They do argue, but Rick really mellowed down and didn't insult Morty like at all during the argument, really the only insulting things he did was when he called Morty a little gremlin and accused Morty of lying about the punch cards. Even when Morty fessed up, he didn't rub his nose in it or brag about it like usual. He just said one thing "Hah! Can we playback that confession?" but that was it, and he still accepted the punch cards anyway and is extremely excited when him and Morty are going on adventures again, and smiles when he sees Morty excited about another gun, don't give guns to kids. But when Rick does it, it's his way of spoiling Morty, he just doesn't really know how, but he's tryinggggggggg. He also genuinely thanks Morty for keeping him on track with the punch cards instead of giving some back-handed thank you like how he did in season 1 episode 10. which is nice to see. He also is genuinely bonding with Morty with the pet cemetery scene.

Episode 7 ~ Wet Kaut Summer

Another one without many Rick and Morty interactions...man Morty gets pushed away a lot, butttt we do see more of him spoiling Morty, which is always welcome, and he does try to get Morty back which is sweet, I also thought him bragging to Summer about how he saves Morty a lot was kinda cute in a pathetic way "I save Morty 8 times per season!" We also see him be nice to Summer and open up to her about Diane "I treat you like an equal because I respect you! You remind me of your grandmother."

Episode 8 ~ Rise of the Numericons the Movie

Eh this one was just a weird fever dream, Rick wasn't in this episode like...at all. He wasn't even mentioned once.

Episode 9 ~ 90s fad toys

Rick is just really sweet to Morty here, when Morty messed up by releasing Bigfoot, he seems more worried about how him and Morty will get home rather than mad, and listens to Morty explain without interrupting, unlike other seasons the only mean thing he says was "I could probably teach these idiots how to hit a red button!" which is really pretty mild considering some of the other stuff he said during his arguments with Morty in seasons 1-4 including but not limited to: "You're a piece of shit Morty!" "I'll let you know when I have a point, and the world will know when I try to hurt you!" "Morty, you little lying world-ending pervert!" "I'm really glad you insisted on getting that Fart home, at least all the death and destruction wasn't for nothing y'know?" "I'm going to take a biggg fat Morty, that's my new word for shit due to today's events." "Okay Morty, you big party-pooper buzzkill! Boo!" and is pretty sweet to Morty during his fight with Bigfoot, even encouraging Morty not to help him due to a fear of Morty getting hurt, even when he was getting brutally beaten "Don't worry Morty, I got this under control" and he even cried in front of Morty instead of pretending like he has no emotions, which is a lot more significant when you consider that Morty was the only person (In the smith family at the very least) to see Rick cry

Episode 10 ~ Fear No Mort

Rick isn't in this episode for the majority of it, since this is a Morty centric episode! Finally! Buttt we do see that he brought Morty to a carnival just to spend time with and see a haunted house with Morty, that was literally it.

He also eats with Morty at Dennys (Well was about to before they hear about the fear hole) and really only said two mean things to Morty "You little turd!" when Morty actively didn't listen to Rick, which is a step up from season 6 considering he didn't just ditch Morty and replace himself with a robot. "I mean...define 'irreplaceable'" when Morty asked if he was irreplaceable. But he did sounds genuinely happy and excitied when Morty was back, happily calling out his name as soon as he moved, and he doesn't immediately backtrack on sounding happy or smiling which is a step up from season 1 episode 9 Something Ricked this Way Comes where he was happy, but immediately backpedaled and tried his best to sound like an annoyed grandpa. and he did attempt to awkwardly hug Morty back after Morty hugged him, it was half assed but he still tried. He didn't even seem mad when Morty pushed away, he looked more worried that he messed up more than anything. Also yes, this does still bring me pain.

AND WE LITERALLY SEE THAT HE NOT ONLY LISTENS TO MORTY'S ADVICE BUT ALSO HAS A PICTURE OF MORTY IN HIS WALLET AND LOOKED SO PROUD OF HIM! HE ALSO CHOOSES MORTY OVER A FAKE VERSION OF DIANE

Uh so yeah Rick's redemption arc is amazing, and no I do not regret that I spent an embarrassing amount of time gushing over an abusive old man's redemption arc.

[softest-epilogue]

doing an entire Eddie Diaz analysis because I keep seeing so much about the most recent episode/recent interviews about the episode, and what this means for his character, and it’s all annoying me. sooo here we go. spoilers for up to 911’s 7x07

with the cheating arc that’s on our doorstep, there’s so much I want to say. Ryan’s now mentioned it in the articles that came out post-episode how Eddie’s had this idealized version of his relationship with Shannon in his head & has been searching for that ever since she died. he fully calls it a delusion, which it is. everything he went though with Shannon was so intense. they were so young, it was mixed in with having Christopher & the trauma from Afghanistan, as well as him running away & then Shannon running away — it was a lot, a whirlwind. they got married on a technicality, because he felt like he should, like he had to with her getting pregnant. and because Eddie has historically put Christopher above everything else, wanting his mother to be in the picture, wanting to be that all-american nuclear family has been drilled into his head, so even despite her asking for a divorce right before dying, he still had this vision of what they should have been in his head. he’s been fully stunted since she died relationship wise. he’s trying to find what he thought he had with Shannon (& he feels he was supposed to have had). so we had Ana — who he both jumped into head first by introducing her to Chris as his girlfriend so soon, while simultaneously feeling so wrong about the idea of committing to her to the point of panic attacks. it felt wrong, he knew that, but he was trying to fit it into a certain box that just wasn’t happening. and then with Marisol, it’s honestly so not well thought out with the writers that it’s ridiculous at this point but we see him doing exactly the same thing — jumping into something (presumably) very quickly, having her move in when on screen we’ve barely seen or heard anything of her, haven’t seen Christopher with her, etc, while then also having the full freak out when she moves in & he finds out about the nun thing (cue catholic guilt/repression being actually said by Eddie despite it clearly being an overarching theme since the beginning with him). we know he’s stuck. he’s so stuck on this fantastical idea of him & Shannon in his head that it makes absolute sense that when he sees a doppelgänger of her, of course he’s going to do stupid shit. he doesn’t think relationships through deeply — yes, he overthinks so much to the point of panic, but he never actually does any introspection into it because he’s still so stuck on this idea of Shannon in his head since she died. I get people hate cheaters but like 1. it’s fiction and 2. it absolutely makes complete sense in this moment. he’s spiraling, has been spiraling for a long time. this is going to break apart in a very intense way for him (look at what Ryan said about how Eddie has always had someone to run to, but how he might not have that in season 8). however it happens — whether he accidentally calls her Shannon, or Buck sees them together and obviously calls Eddie out on his shit (both for lying to him & Chris, and also ya know, all of it) or some other big thing that happens that completely obliterates both what he has with Marisol & what he���s trying to do with Kim — it’s going to unravel. Ryan also said that season 8 is going to be almost like a “refresh button” for Eddie & an opportunity for him to finally let go of his past so that a new future can enter. we have to see this through. he has to unravel & spiral in a way that leads to real consequences for it to fully sink in for him. like I 100% think Chris is going to be involved in this, as well as Buck, but definitely Chris. he needs to disappoint Chris so much to the point where he’s smacked in the face with the reality of what he’s doing & has been trying to do for years in terms of relationships/finding a partner/finding a substitute mother for Chris. he needs to hit bottom before he can come back up stronger & better. people are focusing a lot on buddie in regards to everything with Kim & Marisol, and I do love them with my whole heart, but now isn’t the time. we need to see Eddie break down first. be by himself, realize he’s enough as a father, see what he really wants.

[wesleysniperking]

Usopp and Conqueror’s Haki | part 2 (TL;DR)

previously;continuing on...

Sad backstory

Usopp’s mother died when he was very young. His dad left him and his mother prior, leaving Usopp alone to fend for himself. That’s how he developed his knack for lying.

The ability and gift to lead others

Despite how small, Usopp did create his own pirate crew and lead three little boys who wholeheartedly admired and respected Usopp. But let’s not forget to mention Enies Lobby and Dressrosa. Kashii and Oimo followed Usopp after he told them their former superiors were free, alive, and still kicking. The Tontatta kingdom were more than willing to follow him when planning their attack on Trebol and Sugar. Which lead to his ‘God Usopp’ moment.

Out of everyone in the crew besides one or two (Luffy and maybe Zoro), people have at many points in the story wanted to follow Usopp and be led by him. No matter the situation and pretense.

Take that as you will and must.

People gravitate to them naturally and want to follow them (Charisma)

Same as above. But to be more precise in this instance, Usopp is a great storyteller and through this skill alone, he really does attract others. Heck, he got the Romance Dawn trio involved in saving Syrup Village when they necessarily didn’t have a reason to.

And there are the giants. They always gravitate towards Usopp, and converse with him. He always keeps them going.

Had a moment where they hit rock bottom

Water 7, baby. That was probably one of the worst moments in his life. Like, he deserved a hug during that period. Usopp was isolated, reeling, and filled with so much grief. He was walking around in bandages (from being jumped and punched right in the gut), he and his best friend weren’t talking, and he was under the impression that he was inadequate. It was a true “Young, Dumb, and Broke” moment for him.

Kingly ambition

This is probably one of the most disputed things when it comes to Usopp and Conqueror’s Haki speculation. But it’s easy to squash the doubt when you realize that Usopp does indeed have that “kingly ambition” baby.

First of all, when Usopp read about Ace’s death in the newspaper and started crying over the fact that he couldn’t be there for Luffy, bro promised himself (and Luffy, in spirit) that he’d become the king of shooters for his captain. That’s what he said. Heck some argue that the Sniper King alter ego supports this bit as well.

Secondly, Usopp does have something he needs to “conquer”. And what that is, is his fear. His natural cowardice continuously puts him at odds with his dream to become a brave warrior of the sea, yet his low confidence and anxiety work against it.

Knock people out to the point where form is coming out their mouth (seen in the manga)

Perona and Sugar. He left both women passed out with foam coming out of their mouths.

He knocked both girls out.

Courage

Despite Usopp’s ongoing bouts with cowardice and pushing for bravery. He’s shown it in spurts, bravery that is. But you know what? I sound like a hypocrite. I truly do. Because what is courage? Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. And he continues to do this, gag or not (in terms of the corwardice).

It took courage to want to defend Syrup Village and declare to do so despite having to do it alone.

It took courage staying to fight when facing off Chew in the Arlong Park arc, and Miss Merry Christmas and Mr 4 in Alabasta.

It took courage to fight Luffy and be willing to go at it alone when leaving the crew (not expecting anyone to follow him), it took courage to put on a mask and fight alongside friends you left after a nasty dispute, it took courage apologizing to the crew (when there was also some reasons not to) and asking to re-join, it took courage to fight ghosts, it took courage having to rely on faith and determination alone when making a snipe shot with very little to go on.

Empathy

Usopp showcases this well given where he’s come from and how he helps others. If there’s one thing people really don’t highlight about Usopp, and do actively look over, is the fact that he lies to make people feel better and find hope. He never does it to cause bodily harm to anyone. Usopp is a very misunderstood individual but naturally possesses the ability to encourage people in his own way. Like when Luffy was down and out when Lucci had him in the first half and he encouraged Luffy to get up and fight, or making Nami the climatact because she felt inadequate when fighting alongside the crew, or when he gave the giants (Oimo and Kashii) the push and courage to stop working for the World Government, or when he took care of the Going Merry, or when he told Robin to trust in Luffy, or when he helped the little girl perfect (or was it make?) that firecracker that her late parents failed to finish, or when he indirectly gave Chopper the courage to keep going when fighting Miss Merry Christmas and Mr. 4, or when he always ran around the village and woke the villagers up by running around early in the morning shouting the PIRATES ARE COMING! to make their lives worthwhile…you see where I’m going with all of this?

Note: Usopp tells his stories to make people feel better.

As a sniper he offers that backup, that backing and support during battle to make sure the crew is safe (like with Robin on the Tower of Justice, or in Stampede when Luffy is fighting the Big Bad)…and how he fought Perona? How could he have fought her without being in tune with his emotions and self-perception?

Then how devastated he was when he found out Ace died and could understand how affected Luffy was by that, declaring he’d become The King of Shooters for him.

continue here

[oyasuminto]

wait you played mouthwashing?? what did you think of it

I'm gonna just copy/paste some of my rambles below. Warning: I love to yap. Also massive spoilers.

Also this is very disorganized.

Because of Jimmy, everyone is under the impression that Curly is an insane asshole who purposely collided with an asteroid in an unexpected murder-suicide attempt. Curly is still conscious and aware of what's going on. He can hear whatever the crew are saying about him, he has to spend several months paralyzed, being forcefed pills by people who despise him.

The crew still know that Jimmy is an asshole. Daisuke is the only one who hasn't realized it yet because he's so new. Curly could've been seen as a tragic hero, but Jimmy was so desperate to play the hero that he thought he could force people to look past everything he's already done.

Jimmy is a violent egomaniac, impulsive, cruel, demeaning, irresponsible, and, most importantly, delusional as all hell.

The closest he comes to admitting his wrongs is in the scene with Polle where he admits he fucked up and apologizes to Curly for what he's done, but doesn't even think about the months of torment he put everyone else through

He is dangerously obsessed with Curly. He needs Curly to survive because he has imagined some kind of redemption arc for himself with Curly in the middle.

Much like Anya, he is incapable of treating Curly like an autonomous person, but unlike Anya he pretends to see him as an equal.

The men all appear at least once in Jimmy's hallucinations; Curly constantly appears, Jimmy is entirely fixated on him. Daisuke makes appearances after his death. Swansea acts as a constantly pursuing enemy in them.

Anya… really the most we get is group delusions like the party, aside from that it's just body/pregnancy horror, because that's all Jimmy cares about. All Anya is to him is another cheering subordinate, if she's not that then her pregnancy is a terrifying reality looming over his head.

But she is not allowed to be her own independent person.

ALSO!!! while Anya is clearly the main target of Jimmy's abuse and control, he doesn't seem to care about the boundaries of any of the crewmates. Curly is just a puppet he can project his rage, fear, and guilt onto. Daisuke is put into horrifically dangerous situations. Swansea is drugged, and it leads to Daisuke's death because Jimmy used up the last of the isopropyl alcohol.

even during the drugging, Daisuke is terrified that Swansea is dead. Jimmy just shrugs and says that Swansea has a high alcohol tolerance.

Meanwhile Jimmy has already shown he'll just take what he wants. He might tell himself that he cares about Curly, that he's giving Curly a chance, that he's somehow redeeming himself. But he isn't. He's just continuing that same pattern of selfishness that left Curly so grievously injured in the first place.

Jimmy has deluded himself into thinking he's somehow breaking the cycle he started, when he's only making things worse and worse because he can't fucking own up to anything he's done. It's never his fault, not fully. He always finds a way to redirect blame from himself.

it's actually a pretty realistic depiction of an entitled abusive man. He doesn't actually feel bad about anything he's done. He just fears facing the consequences of his actions. If Anya hadn't gotten pregnant and never told anyone what happened, Jimmy would've continued on without a care. Maybe he could've controlled the narrative and told people that she's lying, or that it was consensual. He could've walked out of her life and left her to pick up the pieces.

But a baby is tangible proof of what he did to her. It ties the two of them together, forever. Pony Express doesn't have the budget nor the foresight to stock abortion pills on their ships, and this trip has 8 months left. He would have to take responsibility, one way or another.

Everything hits so much harder when you're hit with the realization that the character you've spent most of the game playing as is a monster

You spend a good amount of time certain that Curly is at fault for all of this. He crashed the ship on purpose, he got himself burned up. He's the reason you're all slowly dying, so when Jimmy is angry at him you feel inclined to agree and sympathize with him. It must be so difficult being shoved into a leadership position while also being stuck in an awful unwinnable position.

He's rude to Curly and Anya, but he's stressed, he's scared, their deaths are basically inevitable. Curly crashed the ship, right? He deserves it. Jimmy basically tells you that Anya is kind of incompetent, she can't even give a patient painkillers! Of course he's growing impatient.

You become like Curly, excusing and brushing off Jimmy's behavior until it's too late.

Jimmy is a deeply pathetic and cowardly person. He thinks that he can save himself by "saving" Curly. He promises that he'll fix things right before murdering Swansea. Even his "selfless" acts are entirely selfish. In the end, all he cares about is soothing his own ego. He tells Curly that they'll both be heroes. He still things he could be a good person. Killing himself was just one more way he escaped responsibility.

He is someone with an awful victim complex. Nothing is ever his fault, and he is always capable of redemption. Any push-back he gets just gives him more ammo to claim victimhood.

Through Jimmy's eyes, it's everyone else who's at fault. Anya is whiny and annoying and useless at her job (she's a deeply traumatized woman who is terrified of Jimmy), Daisuke is a spoiled nepobaby who can't do shit (he's a young adult who wants to please his parents and doesn't always think before he speaks or acts), Swansea is just some drunken asshole (he's a grouch but he's probably sick of Jimmy's shit and just wants to go home to his wife and dog), and Curly is an arrogant ladder-climbing bastard who doesn't care about his crew (he's a closed-off man who takes on more than he can handle and gives Jimmy too much credit).

He needs to maintain that illusion to continue justifying his actions. It's okay that he berates Anya, she's incompetent. It's okay that he gets aggressive with Swansea, he's awful. It's okay that he looks down on and manipulates Daisuke, he's spoiled. It's okay that he beats an incapacitated and barely alive Curly, it's his fault they're in this situation.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I apologize in advance because this is about the unreliable narrative topic, but I did have a question/thought and I hadn't really seen it quite discussed in this way, but it is very possible that I missed it.

At this point, we have multiple confirmations that Louis is unreliable, that S1 will be viewed differently after S2, and that at its core Louis' memory is the way it is right now to try and protect him in some way. These are just facts. The only real speculation left is what he is unreliable about. So, if it isn't about whether Lestat deserved the events of ep 7, what could his unreliable memories actually be about? Even trying to play devil's advocate to be fully prepared for S2, I can't really think of anything that would logically fit.

There is a big difference between Louis being a little biased in his own favor or not having Lestat's perspective (and there are many examples of this sort of "unreliableness" from Louis in S1) and Louis' memories being wrong to the point that he knows they are wrong and he is seeking help to discover the truth. That being a major plot point has to be something big in the narrative. It can't just be if it was raining.

The biggest issue to me really does come down to if Lestat deserved what happened to him. If the S1 narrative remains exactly the same then I do think he deserved it and whatever other suffering he has to go through on his way to the redemption arc they would have planned for him. However, if that core remains the same, what horrible truth does Louis need to be protected from then? We know ep 5 and 7 have specifically been named for the revisits. I guess Louis might need to be protected from the truth that he didn't kill Lestat himself, but then why the need to revisit ep 5 at all? I have seen the idea that Louis is actually in denial about just how abusive Lestat was, but that doesn't make logical sense to me for a variety of reasons both already in the text (like the changes from the first interview) and the way they are currently promoting the show. Would Louis just need to be protected from the truth of not doing everything he could to stop Lestat and protect Claudia, as in he didn't really help directly in ep 7 and he feels guilty about it? Again, that doesn't change how viewers see S1 overall; it would just change the ending, and it doesn't make sense with a lot of other elements. It also doesn't really fit Jacob Anderson's recent discussion of the books and show either.

This all comes with the disclaimer that I don't believe Lestat will be retconned into the perfect husband or theirs a perfect marriage or that the actual mutual fight in ep 5 didn't happen at all. It is really the difference between what events deserve or even require Lestat's murder and what events mean that Louis and Lestat really needed vampire marriage counseling for lack of a better way to put it.

To return to my main question, what could Louis be unreliable about to the extent he needs protection from the truth if it isn't about why Lestat "died" and by extension Claudia and her true nature. I want to be prepared, but I can't really think of anything else that fits all of the evidence and fits with the books and what has been said about the books by those making the show.

I hope my thoughts make sense. I just really wanted to discuss this, and your analysis is always so thoughtful to me.

Hey! (sorry this took a moment)

Okay, so first off - Louis being unreliable is a mixture of a few things.

First, there's memory. It's a "monster", and that is what the raining falls under, imho. Little details. Dates, too. All the dates are off on the show, the speech on the radio given twice, etc. Details. Even vampires do not have perfect memories.

Secondly, there's the things Louis is (maybe still) bitter about. Jacob called that Louis being a "bitter ex who presents their former partner as a monster", so that is still a factor as well. (This is the only part where actual "lying" may come into play, but all in all it's not that huge of a factor in this second interview, imho).

Thirdly there are parts Louis is (still) doing intentionally - like protecting Claudia's image. Painting her in a more favorable light, because he loves her. (Rather understandable!)

And lastly - there is the fact that his memory has been "tinkered" with (I'm not going to pull up all the quotes here, I think you know them by now^^, let me know if you need them.) THAT is the part Jacob referred to at the panel, with Louis trying to regain his true memories.

Now, given what we know already will be in s2, and given the further seasons and their content I also doubt that whatever retcon they'll do in ep5 will be to make Lestat worse.

Like, how could it be worse. Seriously. And where and how would you go to what's to come from there.

It would also contradict Rolin Jones' various statements, which I am also not going to pull up again here^^.

But no, Lestat will not be retconned into a perfect husband and father, lol. He made mistakes, and probably lots of them. There are reasons why Louis is a bitter ex.

So.

To (try to) answer your question:

I have talked about ep5, at length, let me know if you need the various posts and source, but in real quick, I think that part will be revisited to show that while the fight happened (and it did show this utter power discrepancy) it stopped upstairs. When Claudia looks into the mirror. That is a deliberate shot, with meaning. The drop will likely be something Armand planted, because it is eerily close to something he does to Lestat - and Lestat later does to him. The dragging outside... IF it happened then a hint in ep6 will play into it. Though if they reveal that already?! I'm not sure. But the discussion there with Claudia, and Lestat's words can easily also have been part of the actual fight. Or when it stopped.

Episode 5 and the aftermath serve to "prove" that Louis and Claudia needed to kill Lestat. And that is the crux of the matter, right there. Because while Lestat says in his own novel that he never blamed Claudia, and might have done something like that himself... (and I am aware that a lot of people see this as proof for what the show showed there) - in the book context he refers to damning her to darkness in such a small body, and making her so utterly reliant on them. Because he is aware of what he did to her through that fact alone.

Which brings us to episode 7 and the "kill". I think it will be Claudia who wielded the knife, and Louis standing by, as in the book. There were some bts photos of that shoot, with the twins, and Sam and Claudia, and somewhere there is a statement that Jacob had already left. It makes sense that they would have filmed that already.

Louis... is trying to protect Claudia (as he should). And Armand... is trying to protect Louis (by now), and influencing as he sees fit. Not everything, no, but of course his own experiences with Lestat (and we will get to see some of those in s2) have left their own marks.

Armand literally thought Louis would snap out of his grief over Claudia’s death. He says he protects Louis from himself.

I think the tinkering is an attempt to try and free Louis of that grief. And his longing. Parts selfishly to keep Louis ro himself, parts in a desperate attempt to help Louis.

Armand cut the pages of the diary, imho. The ripped out ones may yet come into play for the trial. And, given the Merrick revelations of those pages… those pages might very well be what will bring in the retcons. Because Claudia’s diary in Merrick brought huge revelations.

I concur with you there that the things Louis needs protection from are likely things that pertain to Lestat and Claudia.

The shifts will reveal imho that Louis did not want to kill Lestat (we already know that, imho), and that not everything was as dire as told. And that Claudia was not as pure as Louis wants to remember her as. Which is in line with the books.

Anything else will be details.

Armand in Dubai is trying to keep Louis from suicide. Because Louis knows that things are not adding up, he’s not stupid. And Armand (rightfully) fears the (repeated) impact of the truth. A truth he is not exactly uninvolved in either.

So to close this - actually it boils down to what you already said^^. There will be details maybe. But the main parts will be the already mentioned parts. The rest… will click into place in further seasons.

[wispforever]

1, 7, 10, 13 and 16 for the ask game pls!

1. Most Overrated Character?

I'll answer this question more than once, cuz I'm a hater and I have a few. First one first, I'm just gonna say it. I've never understood what everyone sees in Obito. Do I understand his narrative role? Yes. Am I sympathetic to him as a character? Very much. Do I like him? No. I've seen piles and piles of fanart, of meta, of aesthetics, and playlists. NO HATE, everyone likes who they like, they see something in him I don't. Just do not understand it.

I find Obito annoying and frustrating as a character. He doesn't fascinate me, which is odd because I usually am drawn to characters with a heavy backstory. I think it might be that he decided to kill Kakashi about it. Idk. Just seems like if he really believes all the things he believes, if he really has risen above Madara and the Shinobi system's influence like he says he has, he wouldn't fucking do the same thing Madara wants to do and also try to kill Kakashi who endured the same trauma. Just don't really get him. Glad he came around though. I wish he didn't have to die, I find it unnecessary. The Leaf needs more Uchiha jesus christ

Also I think the obsession the fandom has with Rin THROUGH Obito is more than a little uncomfortable. Rin should have been explored via an avenue that wasn't him. In addition to him, maybe, but not Strictly Obito. Just another female character becoming a plot device.

7. Should Naruto have become Hokage?

I think a better ending for Naruto would have been a personal decision on his part that he doesn't HAVE to be Hokage. In my opinion, it would've been more thematically satisfying. Why do I think this? Because Naruto wouldn't even like doing the actual Hokage job, seeing as it's mostly paper-pushing, strategy, and talking politics with the other Kage. This is what I said to myself before the end of the series. *watches Boruto* I was fucking right.

Being Hokage doesn't suit Naruto. He wanted to become Hokage originally so the citizens of the Leaf would praise and admire him. It was a child's dream born out of unrelenting hate and ostracization. As he got older, Naruto never put two and two together that what he'd set out to accomplish was not actually being Hokage, it was finding people he could belong with and feel loved by. He'd done that by the end of the first arc, and he only went up from there.

After Sasuke leaves, Naruto abandons this dream. Whether he says so or not, Sasuke is more important to him than being Hokage. This could be because Sasuke is the one who makes Naruto feel the most at home in the Leaf. I think of it like this: if Naruto wishing to be Hokage is really a wish for belonging, Naruto pursuing Sasuke instead of pursuing becoming Hokage implies that Sasuke has filled this emotional role for Naruto (or Naruto wants him to, at least). In the end, he is made Hokage because he saves the world and is the most exceptional Shinobi in the Leaf; it's what makes sense. Naruto never really wanted to be Hokage. He wanted to not be despised by literally everyone. And in the end he wanted to be with Sasuke.

No, I don't think Naruto should have become Hokage. I don't think Naruto likes being Hokage.

10. Is Sakura a shitty character or shitty-ly written?

I don't like this question. I see it thrown around a lot. I don't really understand it, honestly. What is a character? It's a fake person written by a real person. It's called a character bc its characteristics and shape are decided by the writer. So what then is the difference between a shitty character and a character that's shittily written? Maybe I'm not conceptualizing it properly. Anway

I think all of Kishimoto's female characters are written like shit. There are zero female characters in Naruto that are given the focus or development they deserve. None of them are treated as if they have the same agency, drive, intelligence, or autonomy that the male characters do. Sexism is alive and well in this writing; there isn't anything else to say.

Do I think if these characters were written by someone who wasn't sexist/a shitty writer/unable to understand women, they would be better? Absolutely.

13. Was Kakashi trying his best? Was he a "good" sensei?

answered here :)

16. Is Tobirama racist against Uchihas?

Racism is defined by google as "prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism by an individual, community, or institution against a person or people on the basis of their membership in a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized." 

The Uchiha is a group in the Leaf that is a minority and also marginalized, as the governing body at this point is made up of Senju, a richer clan and one that has always been at the top of the ladder socially, politically, so on and so forth.

Tobirama, before he becomes Hokage, is unwilling to trust the Uchiha becoming a part of the Leaf. Seeing as the clans have been at war for some time, the concern that he and his clan won't be safe trying to make peace with the Uchiha is not an unreasonable one. However, after Tobirama becomes Hokage, he imposes special laws specific to the Uchiha. He confines them to their own compound, so they will be contained and separated from everyone else. He puts up extensive surveillance, so that they are monitored 24/7. He creates a police force of only Uchiha under the guise of granting them "governing power", what it's really doing is alienating the Uchiha even further from the rest of the populace. He spreads rumors and creates "scientific" evidence that the Uchiha will turn evil with the evolution of their sharingan- something that would be considered a trait distinct to the Uchiha as an ethnic group. Mind you this is presumably years after they have cultivated peace, as Tobirama can only become Hokage after Hashirama is dead. At this point, his fear of the Uchiha has no basis in reality, as they have given him no reason since the war has ended to believe they are a danger (much less inherently evil). He is perpetuating the stereotypes that existed during the war- stereotypes that were born out of fear of the enemy, dehumanization of the other that you must kill or else be killed yourself.

So in short, not only was he racist against the Uchihas, he practically invented racism against the Uchihas.

Thanks for the ask :)

[kevin--of-desert-bluffs]

What the heck happened to Kevin?

EDIT: newer version with updated info here!

-straps you in against your will- (it's long and I'm not sorry lol)

tl;dr: Kevin isn't an purely evil antagonist (at least not the entire way through the show). He did found the religion surrounding a Smiling God but no longer controls the version of it in NV. He did not found Strex. Strex did use the religion to control people and Kevin had some importance because of his standing. Kevin lies to us and himself but his tone and other things betray the truth. Charles might be good for him actually because of this??? More Kevin please.

WTNV is a great podcast because it highlights a truth about stories that people forget: protagonist just means 'the person whose point of view the story is in' and not 'the good guy'. Nor does having a protagonist who is good necessitate a continuous and obvious antagonist.

When Kevin is our protagonist we get the same unreliability we get with Cecil, but Kevin's brainwashing is overt and obvious whilst Cecil's is a subtle result of his upbringing in a conservative place like NV.

So just who is Kevin of Desert Bluffs? What are his ties to Strex? Ep.73 gives us the context we were terribly lacking during the Strex Arc.

Ep.73 - Past Kevin: “Strexcorp? That faux-friendly big business corporate monster? Don’t talk to me about them. Strexcorp is the worst. […] I actually tried to stop them from buying it! I tried very hard. I put my own body, this fragile thing, in between the Strex representatives and the entrance to the building but they forced their way past me using ethically brutal methods that left me forever physically changed."

Future Kevin: "Oh, what StrexCorp and their Smiling God did to my wonderful little town. What they did to me. I’m not myself anymore. I’m a smile, and a twitch of the wrist. It has been years, Cecil. I’ve drifted away from myself. Sometimes I am one me, and then again I am the other. What they did to the sentient heat trapped temporarily in my body."

In this episode, a Kevin before Strex has any power in my opinion doesn't have any reason to lie to Cecil about his involvement in Strex, unreliable narrator or no. He also emotes differently in the further-past, having a genuine flare of annoyance at the mention of Strex. He simply does not talk like this at all later on when Strex is in power. Something changed. And if he were lying about hating Strex to stay on Cecil's good side, why mention this? -

Ep. 73 Past Kevin: [...]You know they’ve been trying to buy the radio station? Can you imagine how awful that would be? They’d probably try to take me off the air, and replace me with someone else. Or, worse, try to change my personality completely. Oh! I would never let that happen[...]"

That is...basically what seems to have happened to him. In his 'present' form (which is really more of a recent past version of himself) during this episode when Cecil talks about Night Vale and Strex, Kevin happily talks about Strex despite Cecil again clearly not being happy about it. He shows no need to side with Cecil's opinion here because he's under Strex himself now.

As an aside, Kevin also states he's never heard of NV in the further-past whilst his recent-past self during that episode and his first appearances in the Strex Arc do know what NV is but has never been there. This is either an oversight by writers or a different Kevin or he just genuinely hadn't heard of NV then.

In the future, he once more speaks of how awful Strex was when they hurt his town and once more, in my opinion, has no reason to deny his involvement especially when he's been isolated for years and is clearly depressed and miserable and has nothing to lose.

Also, with dubious-canon, there is this from a patreon listener questions session:

Kevin:  “So I smile over and over until the version of me in the mirror stops smiling along and starts looking scared and exhausted and then sits on the edge of the tub, muttering about the life he used to have before Strex got a hold of him.”

Which could be like, a literal alternate Kevin he can see through a mirror or just Kevin pretending it's just a mirror version of himself whilst it's actually him feeling negative emotions/effects of trauma he doesn't want to admit having.

And during the podcast, there are hints that something terrible did happen in DB which could have been Strex's takeover and which Kevin (by his tone more than his words) has been negatively affected by. For the life in me I cannot remember the exact episodes to quote it, but I think they're early episodes. The gist is that he mentions an 'incident' that 'some of them never woke up from again' during which Intern Vanessa died.

All of this evidence cannot be ignored. We can say with some certainty that the Kevin we hear the most from started out as a man who was ordinary by whatever ordinary in DB ever was, and was taken in and changed by Strex.

It also can't be ignored that later episodes and It Devours! increase Kevin's involvement in both Strex and the worship of the Smiling God, at least in theory.

But some of it just never sits right with me. In particular, this quote:

Ep. 137: “The mayor and I have been close for a long time. We’ve had our ups and downs, but I think our more difficult times were back when we used to run a company together. We had some typical disagreements over who was in charge. She thought because she was the president of the company, she should have final say on all decisions. Whereas I knew that I was one of the Smiling God’s chosen prophets, and our all-loving devourer would not choose a prophet who made mistakes.”

There's...inconsistency here that I can't ignore. Lauren was promoted from executive to vice-president as of episode 49. She was never promoted to president in our timeline. Also, Kevin only states that he should have more power than her because of his Smiling God connections, not because he was actually important in the company.

But did that hold merit, or did it only hold merit to him? Lauren is not in agreement during these later All Smiles' Eve to Mudstone Abyss episodes. And why not? Just because Strex was using the Joyous Congregation to help control DB (theocracy and capitalism do go hand in hand!) doesn't mean that Kevin had any real power BUT it may have led him into thinking he did. If he really did i.e. was Strex's founder or something and they were really fighting about it, he could easily have demoted or fired her. It wouldn't have been difficult.

Strex does not mind 'disappearing people' when necessary and there's no reason we can see for Kevin to have special affection for Lauren. They have a tumultuous relationship at best. If she had no power over him, he would have always treated her with the same disposability and control he does when he runs Desert Bluffs Too.

It Devours! ch 8: “You see, our prophet Kevin found an old oak door[...]"

We never really get to see how Kevin reacted to being in the desert otherworld after Old Oak Doors. But I theorise the reason he was able to start building so fast was because he had, genuinely, already been there and brought back a religion revolving around a Smiling God with him. (The book is new though, he's been in the desert otherworld ten or more years compared to NV time which is plenty of time to write it and get it sent back).

And what about the religion surrounding a Smiling God?

The nature of the Smiling God and what it is is...difficult. Kevin mentions in All Smiles' Eve and the Mudstone Abyss that the religion has been around since he was a child. He says he's celebrated All Smiles' with his family, and that he's dreamed of creating the MSA since being little. If we're taking this as truth, then if Kevin founded the religion he founded it as a child. Or he's lying. Again.

But also there isn't just one Smiling God. It's always referred to as a Smiling God (in the podcast at least), not the. Dana sees a Smiling God which is just a vast light and it's this which is dangerously trying to get into NV through the Old Oak Doors. But also, Kevin writes about a giant centipede as if it were a Smiling God (the movements of such a creature is also observed by either Dana or Carlos, I forgot I'm sorry ;; ) but only Pastor Munn/Gordon know about Kevin's book on the centipede and believe in that version of a Smiling God.

It was genuinely not known by other congregation members, even those like Darryl who grew up with the religion and members who lived in NV previously. Kevin also once said that a Smiling God has teeth and a tongue, which neither a centipede nor a light have. Congregation members also question whether Huntokar is a Smiling God and softly admit they're not sure what a Smiling God is.

It Devours! shows us a differing interpretation of their religion from the side of Darryl and other 'ordinary' congregation members and those actually running/leading it and deciding what the regular members are and aren't allowed to know. It's clear that it's very much like a cult at that point. But was it always? The Joyous Congregation exists happily without Kevin there to guide it and even after learning the weirder and more negative aspects of it they choose which version they like the best and follow that instead. Could the religion had also started out differently? Different ideals? Different ideas of what a Smiling God was? What did Strex influence in it, if at all? Is the version followed by NV citizens before any DB interference different too?

Kevin definitely hides things to show everyone (even himself) only the best things. (That's why Charles' has the potential to be really good for him, I get that now lol). But I don't get the vibes of 'mastermind perfectly in control of himself' from the man who was too brutally honest about his hatred of pasta salad and said this:

ep. 73 'recent past' Kevin: "I remember being a real grumpster, just a grouch and a half about everything! [...] But Strex bought out my radio station, and everything changed for the better. [...] Once Strex entered my life and showed me the power of the Smiling God, why, nothing was the same for me ever again! I felt so much happier. I did terrible things. I felt so much happier! I tore and bit and growled…I felt so incredibly happy! My skin rent, blood drops on the ceiling, someone’s throat in my hand! So deliriously happy!"

And he sounds a bit delirious whilst recounting this. Kevin's tone only ever changes when experiencing something genuine and that is not often.

So what do I think? I think that WTNV is written as socio-political commentary and Kevin reflects that. He is made to represent the influences a theocratic-capitalist society has on a person. He is made to be complex, and not just 'simply evil'.

Maybe there are many Kevin's we are hearing from even when we aren't made aware of such (but this feels like a cop out) and thus many Strex's and many religions surrounding a Smiling God.

But most likely:

DB was a mirror or close enough of NV. Kevin and Cecil were very similar pre-Strex. Strex was directly established in DB. Kevin spent some time in the Desert Otherworld and either discovered people there who already worshipped/observed the vast light which is a Smiling God which exists there or founded such a group of people based on others already lost there (evidence is found by Dana of there once being a civilisation doing such worship in the desert otherworld).

He brought that knowledge back with him and despite it being incomplete/not very solid/based mostly on his own interpretations, the religion really took off in DB and either dripped a bit to NV or the NV version is what created the otherworld version when some of them got lost in the dog park and ended up there. Anyway, Kevin becomes pretty important because of this.

Strex adopted that religion, changing it to suit them as they saw fit and even adopting it's triangle symbolism into their company logo, and used it to gain more power over DB and it's citizens so they could take total control (they also canonically invented control collars...).

Strex beat down and brainwashed Kevin but kept him in his job because people already looked to him as a prophet of a Smiling God. It works like this for years, with belief in a Smiling God becoming a mandatory part of the StrexCorp regime and Kevin himself still having some influence over it. He incorrectly believed this gave him power over StrexCorp and it's employees too. He would fight with Lauren about this and she was actually the one in the right hence why she never gets reprimanded, but also why she can't get rid of Kevin without destabilising the control they have.

The Strex Arc for NV happens. Kevin is returned to the desert otherworld and does research on a giant creature he sees there and mistakes(?) it for a different form of a Smiling God. He finds a way to send this book back, and since time works differently in NV (i.e. many years have passed in the desert otherworld but not in NV) the book looks 'old-ish'. Pastor Munn only shared the book with Gordon and they change the religion subtly based on what they gleam from it. This may or may not have been Kevin's intention as it seems more like general notes or even scientific research (gasp!) than any kind of dogma.

Kevin continues to believe and insist on his own version of events, maybe even to help him through his trauma, and eventually gets to live out his fantasy of control by running Desert Bluffs Too. He has a small religious crisis during this time (canon, mentioned during the All Smiles'-Mudstone Abyss arc), likely because neither the vast light nor the centipede he assigned a Smiling God nor any other version he imaged seems to be in the desert otherworld any more. Charles enters the picture and starts to challenge Kevin's perceptions of his own importance, what is correct emotional regulation and what his religion might actually mean. He has all but forgotten Strex at this time, but is unable or unwilling to look back on those times as completely negative especially because his religion (which he very well likely founded) became so linked with the company.

More Kevin please.

[enkisstories]

On Batuu John Spilph had only ever known Rey Palpatine as a shining beacon of hope, who swooped in, saved the day and returned to being an elusive enigma again. And Armitage Hux had at best been a scary face on TV, not even a real person. It had been doubtful whether Hux had even been aware of Batuu's existence.

But now that John was sheltering both in his factory, the larger than life hero and the looming menace had turned human to the point where the entrepreneur felt comfortable to casually chat with them over meals.

John: "Caroline once said that I bring out the best in her. Am I right in assuming it's the same for you? Is there a certain someone for whom you put the General aside and looked what else there might be to you?"

Armitage: "Wouldn't that be a story? But, no. I allied with the Resistance to bring down Kylo Ren. Working together with them turned out to be a greater challenge than fighting them, though. For the first time since I was three years old, there were no demands or expectations, just acceptance. Such a soft lifestyle! Laughable, really. I mean, corn syrup on a stick and chocolate Vaders? C'mon! But it also was enticing, in a way. I felt… sheltered."

John: "That's how Daniel must have felt when he came into my household. I bet he was at his most vulnurable when the crystal started to whisper to him, making it easy to corrupt him."

Armitage: "You started to rub off on me... a little. But then Rose bared her fangs, did what needed to be done, with no regard to my feelings in this matter, and the illusion of a happy rebel utopia in the woods got pierced. I wasn't even angry at Rose, but at the way the world works, after all."

Rey: "It doesn't have to remain an illusion. We can make it real. I'm working my ass off to make it real."

Armitage: "No. You can't. A military victory over the First Order is impossible."

Rey: "That's not decided yet!"

Armitage: "Is, too. My words just now didn't come from pride alone, I told you a fact. When we camped at Moonwood Mill, I managed to gain full access to your network. I saw the truth, but never told you. You have zero chance."

Rey: "Armitage, you... I see that you are not lying. I can feel it in the Force, too. But that only means that we have to find a different way to win!"

Armitage: “Hm... How determined exactly are you in this regard?”

Rey: “You still need to ask?"

Armitage: "Alright... To defeat the First Order, you need to free us from ourselves first. Are we in agreement about that?"

Rey: "Yes. We never fought for territory, or resources, or from a thirst for power, but always first and foremost for the people!"

Armitage: "Good. Then I will tell you now what Ben hasn't shared with you guys yet: The First Order is breaking apart over Ben's redemption arc. We are in a state of civil war. As Grand-Marshall and third in the command chain, I hereby propose a formal alliance between our faction and the Resistance."

Rey: "Allying with the rancor's claws against its fangs?"

Armitage: "It's that or anihilation at the hand of whoever wins the civil war, because we won't toss our weapons to you guys' feet. But if you help us through this crisis, then after the civil war we will listen to you... blood of Palpatine and rightful successor to our throne."

John: "So it'll be the Second Order all over?"

Armitage: "The what now?"

Rey: "That's what Governor Sonderan named his movement, back on Batuu, when the planet was under First Order rule. He introduced reforms, a slow change, that would leave nobody with the impression of having lost. Reality forced him to abandon that path, though, and to go full on rebel."

Armitage: "Why can't I shake the feeling that when you say "reality", you really mean Kylo Ren..."

John: "Yes, him.”  (turning to Rey) “ I can’t stomach the idea of the Resistance I, however briefly, fought in myself, joining forces with Kylo Ren. But if you have claims to the throne? And those shitheads would voluntarily follow you? Rey... Princess Palpatine... you should seriously consider that!”

Rey: “I refuse to act as a figurehead, so I’d stay in power for like two hours.”

Armitage: “Considering that I needed three and a half minutse to finish off the New Republic, two hours is something I can work with.”

Rey: “That comment was more than inappropriate!!!”

Armitage: But you didn’t outright tell me “No”, either. Let’s bring this up again at a later time.

[gyroshrike]

if there r no filler episodes in avatar then what about the great divide

Oooooh, I don't know if I want to go sticking my nose into potential Avatar Discourse, but I will just for this because I actually love this episode AND I have strong opinions over what people complain is "filler."

This probably isn’t going to be very organized or concise because if I try to make it too fancy, I’ll take forever to write it and never post it ahaha.

So, for starters, the only kind of episodes I refer to as "filler" is usually for when an anime series catches up to the manga chapters and the production team has to stall by making up new episodes to tide the audience over. To literally fill up empty space.

For example, Naruto episodes 143 through 219 are "filler" because they were never in the manga and they needed episodes while they waited before jumping into Naruto: Shippuden. Then they completely returned to the canon plot.

Filler is what I use to categorize new content written to act as a pause or spacer between canon plot arcs when they don't have enough canon content to work with. AND I usually tend to refer to episodes as filler when they are entire arcs, not just one episode or scene added for fun or to flesh out plot or characters. I'll elaborate on this later.

If a writer goes in, writes a script, and consciously makes the decision to have an episode as part of the story... that's not filler.

People seem so caught up on the Main Plot that they jump to label anything that doesn't technically contribute to moving it along as filler. These people aren't considering that it's not just Plot that makes up storytelling. Every episode of Avatar contributes to the overall experience in some way.

They flesh out the characters—either themselves as people or their dynamics with each other. We get to see motivations, how they think, how they handle different conflicts, who they are as people.

They contribute to world building—the world of Avatar is so rich and interesting, on it's own, but also in its current state of transition as a land shaped by war and refugees.

Immediately this episode visits 1.) the themes of Aang's role in solving conflict and 2.) Katara and Sokka's differing ways of doing things.

Aang is not above simple motivations. Custard tart. He's not some all knowing wise man, he's a person who gets hungry, gets driven by silly things. We also get to see something very important. Aang gets angry, but not very often, so it’s impactful to see what makes him angry. He's not above getting fed up with bullshit. He's realistic and rounded! He gets a chance to get angry at people selfishly putting lives at risk.

There's two rival clans who have the same goal and Aang agrees to protect them on their journey and help keep peace between them. The conflict between the two clans have origins so long ago neither of them can prove which origin story is true, but they are determined to cling to their hate for the other and refuse to work together to the point of endanger their own lives and the lives around them. And right when the fighting is about to come to a head, Aang steps in to say he knows the TRUE origin story and the conflict was actually just a big misunderstanding.

He... He LIES. Aang LIES to end this conflict that doesn't matter! And I think that's so cool. The first time I saw this episode, I thought to myself, "Ah, well that's really lucky that Aang knew those guys. I guess Being 100 Years Old plot point saves the day again. That doesn't bother me, but wow, it sure is a convenient thing." Then, out of earshot, AANG REVEALS THE TRUTH. He totally made up that story! There was no coincidence! That blew my mind as a kid! And that is so much more realistic and it gives us such cool, interesting insight to Aang's character. Aang's moral compass is very strong and he will fight for what he thinks is right. But he's also not unreasonable or stupid to get so hung up on what's "good" or "bad" on paper because, "Oh nooo, lying is baaaaad. We can't do thaaaaat it's wroooong." Which is something I feel like we expect out of characters like him. We see him lie, we see him steal, we see him cheat.

I really think this is a great example of how Aang believes in spreading joy and reducing suffering in the world above all else. Not black and white morality and rules of what a good person is or is not supposed to do.

I feel like shows that have morals to teach often rigidly set their "good" characters (especially characters like Aang) to Never Do Bad Things Ever (which is why Avatar is so good, because it challenges that.)

Lying was the right choice there! It was the smart choice! Aang's job is to keep peace and he made a choice to tell a lie that wouldn't hurt anyone in order to create peace. Between two rival clans! Who have been rivals for a century! And it having such a stupid solution really reflects how stupid the conflict was. It's also a good example on how history can get totally warped until no one knows the truth anymore, but these clans would rather cling to forgotten half-truths and hate each other than seek a solution for a better future.

This episode even lets us see a bit into Katara and Sokka as characters too. Katara sided with the Gan Jin because she believed they were the victims and had the moral high ground. Sokka admits to taking the Zhang’s side, "Because they fed [him]." That's still the show taking time to flesh out these characters for us and deal with a type of conflict they haven't before. We now understand the siblings better as characters!

This episode also gave us more inside into the lengths that people of the world have to go to in order to escape the war. It’s not just this one town or this one group of people. It’s everyone who is feeling the effects of the Fire Nation. We see examples of it over and over and over again and I feel like that is important.

The argument about fun, silly, or side plot episodes being "filler" makes me angry because if those episodes DIDN'T exist, people would complain about the reverse. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people critiquing shows or other media for having too many characters and not taking time to develop them all, for being all action and not taking time to breathe, for not showing us the characters domestic sides or letting them have fun.

Shows deserve to have down time, as do the characters, either literally or from the main plot. It lets us see fun new sides of them, see them dealing with situations we haven't before and in almost all episodes that I see people calling filler, but were written intentionally, we get so much fun character development or insight which is a GOOD THING.

Revisiting the anime thing, let me be clear, I don't think ALL extra episodes or scenes added that weren't in the original iteration is filler. In the Boku No Hero Academia anime, we see a whole pool scene added that wasn't in the manga, along with a scene of Bakugou and Kirishima walking together afterwards (I THINK that wasn’t in the manga, sorry if that’s wrong). These scenes give us just a bit more sense of the class's dynamic outside of school and the growing friendship between Kirishima and Bakugou, which becomes plot relevant later. These kinds of things help better establish the emotional ties between the characters and make it more believable and satisfying when high stakes emotional conflict happens.

In Spy x Family, the anime made a much bigger event out of Anya's school acceptance celebration, a whole episode. Just because they close to drag it out and give it fanfare it didn't get before doesn't mean it's filler. It was just fun! It was just breathing more life into what was there! And that scene gave us an exciting way to see the lengths Loid, Yor, and Franky are willing to go to make Anya happy, (even if Loid frames it as being part of the mission) while giving us the audience a darned good time.

The Owl House production got cut down and basically all the "filler" episodes had to be ditched. Luz pretty much says in the show that we lost out on a beach episode! And we were pissed about that! Everyone would have loved a beach episode! That's what happens when you cut "filler" stuff. We lose out on fun shenanigans and seeing our heroes and how the operate in domestic settings, because people can be very different people in the "battlefield" verses in a home. Or in a dangerous situation verses a fun or safe one. Hunter basically didn't know what to do at first in a safe environment. That's an important thing to learn about characters!

Characters just doing things has meaning. It has use. It has weight. Your story is as much your characters and world as it is your plot. Fleshing out any of those is worth taking the time to do so.

[Aang hate is not welcome on this post]

[bunniefaery]

My Thoughts on Sakura Haruno & Hinata Hyuga

I do like both characters, but, I'll never understand why some fans of Sakura hate on Hinata/why some fans of Hinata hate on Sakura, as well as other characters in the same series... I feel like, if you have the need to talk crap about another character in the same series to uplift your fave and to say they're so amazing, then they probably aren't...

Design wise they're both very cute characters. Personality wise, they both have their flaws, and that's okay...

Now... While I do like them, they do have their flaws.

Sakura:

She isn't the best of friends (and no I'm not talking about her betraying Ino when they were children, but that was mean). Her wanting a guy to call her so-called best friend ugly isn't a very nice thing to do; lying to Naruto about her feelings in an attempt to manipulate him into abandoning his desire to bring Sasuke home; drugging her friends/team and leaving them exposed, she basically put them in danger, in a foreign country, when she went to try to kill Sasuke. Constantly hitting Naruto, I hear it was a whole lot less in the manga, but still, hitting someone isn't comical, like during the Pein Arc.

When she gets the byakugō seal during the war arc, she insults Tsunade, saying she doesn't have to "waste" any chakra to maintain a youthful appearance. Like, Tsunade figured out how to maintain a youthful appearance using her chakra, something that, for the looks of it, no one else figured out or has bothered to do, so why is it bad that she does it, it's not like Tsunade is weak because of it, she is very strong while also using her chakra to maintain her appearance. To me it was just perfectly dreadful of Sakura to say such a thing about someone who invested their time in teaching her, helping her to get stronger and more skilful, while also being the Hokage and one of the three Legendary Sannin. Why try and shame Tsunade? I'll never understand.

She's not a great mother (Sasuke isn't a great father either, he prefers to spend time/teach Boruto than his own daughter, or is gone for 10+ years on a mission with no contact and that was shameful)... From not telling her daughter anything about the Uchiha Clan (since her dad is gone on a long mission (even though he could keep in contact with them)) (she didn't even know if her dad had the sharingan), to yelling at her and right after that, using her psychical power to break the ground underneath her, causing the house to break apart and collapse in the process, in order to silence her daughter for asking too many questions about Sakura and Sasuke's marriage.

Hinata:

She was a slave owner... The Hyuga Clan (main house) enslave other members of the clan (branch house) by placing a cursed seal on their foreheads (caged bird seal) that the main house can control, Neji got his on Hinata's third birthday. To "protect the byakugan from getting stolen" they say, meanwhile Ao has had a stolen byakugan since the Third Shinobi War

Taunting Neji during the Chunin Exams, telling him to be at peace (at peace with what exactly?) And telling him that he is the one that is suffering, more than her (who is no longer the heir to the Hyuga Clan)(I am not trying to diminish the pain Hinata has had to endure, because of her father. He sucks), because of their clan, but at least she acknowledged that it's him who is torn and suffers because of the clan dynamics. (Side note: Why did 4 Jōnin have to intervene during that fight anyways? Was 4 even necessary at all? And why did she go through with the fight to begin with? She knows, that if he hurts her, he will most likely get punished, just as we saw in Neji's flashbacks from when he was younger)

She never did anything to honor Neji's memory and sacrifice. And by that I mean, she never tried to reclaim her position as clan heir, in order to abolish the gross slavery her clan has placed the branch family in since before she was born. Nor did she talk to Hanabi/father about getting rid of the cursed seal forever. (And no, Hinata and Naruto's children not being subjected to the caged bird seal doesn't prove that it's not performed anymore, Hinata is a princess and member of the main house/former clan head's daughter and now sister of the clan head of the Hyuga Clan and Naruto is the Hero of the Village/The Kyūbi's Jinchūriki/Saved the whole world and also, now Hokage, why would their children be subjected to that...?) (I don't know if that putrid practice was banned, if it was, please do tell me where it says so, like manga or novel, so that I can read it)

I also wish they had both ended in a better relationship, with more a attentive, loving and present husband... Especially Sakura.