#I love Cordelia however she's made her mistakes throughout the series

[helenofblackthorns]

How does Cordelia come off worse than Lucie when the kiss was unexpected, she made it clear she still had feelings for james before going to Paris & she didn’t tell James or Lucie about her love for him because of his constant proclamation of love and loyalty for Grace. I don’t get that, what else has she done?

I am so so sorry about how late this reply is (I assuming this is about the other ask I answered on who was the worse friend, Cordelia or Lucie)

Cordelia is proud, something she admits herself in the series, and the main reason she never tells anyone her true feelings for James. But Cordelia has been in love with James for years, and she only found out about Grace at the beginning of ChoG. Lucie had no idea at the beginning of ChoG, when she was theorising Cordelia was the girl James was in love with, that Cordelia had any feeling for him at all. Cordelia kept that a secret from Lucie well before Grace even came into the picture. However, since Lucie also keeps Jesse a secret, you could argue that they're equally in the wrong for that.

Cordelia also didn't tell Lucie about her troubles with Cortana, or her road trip with Matthew & swearing loyalty to Wayland the Smith. All things she probably should have told her future parabatai before making any rash and reckless decisions you can't take back.

[anarmorofwords]

Why Cordelia going to Matthew's and leaving for Paris made perfect sense

I've been thinking about this a lot, and I know it's a hot topic in the fandom. When I initially read ChoI, I was very on board with this - yes, it wouldn't help them and was reckless and selfish and all that, but story-wise and character arc wise, it was a decision I enjoyed.

After some time in the fandom I sort of changed my mind, focusing strongly on the negative consequences and Sona/Alastair.

Not so long ago, I was whining with Lela @alastair-esfandiyar-carstairs1 about the "If he hurts you, come back home" quote and the lost potential there. You know I live for Carstairs siblings content.

And to be fair, I'm still mad about that.

But just as making all the good decisions wouldn't make for very compelling storytelling, judging these poor dumbasses' choices too harshly makes little sense to me, especially when we're dissecting their actions while forgetting the circumstances, the emotions, and the fact that these characters aren't aware of all the things readers are aware of.

And thinking about Cordelia's pov, it's actually pretty clear to me why she would go to Matthew of all people, and why she did leave for Paris.

We're talking about how selfish it was to leave her heavily pregnant mother and brother who's been through so much and would really use her support, and when you put it this way, it sure sucks.

But it's not at all the way Cordelia sees this.

At the end of ChoI it's clear just how heavily she's crushed by being Lilith's paladin. That's her main focus, something that occupies - haunts - her thoughts all the time. She's not only ashamed, she's scared. She's scared she will hurt people (she already got dangerously close to that once), and she wants to save her family from possible negative repercussions. So she's not abandoning her family - she's removing herself from their vicinity, to make sure they won't become casualties of her mistake.

Obviously that's not her one and only motivation. She's a 17 year old girl whose heart has just been broken, which, frankly, would have been reason enough. But then there's also things she's been through before that - from the complicated marriage (that she's awfully young for), the constant threat of a serial killer, and her father's tragic death.

Then there's her seeking comfort from Matthew instead of Alastair, and the more I thought about it, the more it made sense, too. I used to think "home" should be her first instinct, where she heads immediately, because that's the most natural thing. And her home is obviously her family, her brother.

Except... her relationship with Alastair is still a little shaky and unsure, and regardless of their efforts, they still aren't particularly close when it comes to sharing their feelings with each other.

Moreover, when it comes to the marriage/James... Cordelia doesn't want to dissapoint her mother - being a good daughter, upholding/saving family's reputation and overall living up to the "golden child" title is basically one of her main drivers throughout the series. And in her eyes, the truth behind her marriage to James is a big failure in all those areas. Add cheating to that? She thinks admitting that to Sona would break her mother's heart and also cause her shame, which she wants to avoid. I think she's partly ashamed of admitting all that to Alastair, too. We know she likes making her brother proud, and he warned her against being with James, which she didn't listen to. And if her pride wouldn't be wounded enough by that, there's also the fact that she still loves James. I think she fears Alastair would judge her for that. And if there's anything that might keep you from seeking comfort from the people you love, it's the fear of facing their dissaproval and causing them pain.

Matthew, however, is someone whose presence allows her to feel free and comfortable, and be herself, with no expectations attached. Most importantly though, he's the only person who already knows everything - not only about the nature of the marriage, but about Cordelia's true feelings for James, too. And he feels for her, understands her, and offers support with no judgement or pity. Like him or not, Matthew's been a steady friend - perhaps the closest one - to her for the past four months.

Now, to get back to the Paladin point once again, Matthew is someone who's also made a terrible mistake, which consequences still haunt him. Someone who considers himself a monster - and although Cordelia doesn't agree with that, that means he will understand her own guilt and terror. I don't know about you, but I personally sometimes forget just how horrifying the whole Lilith ordeal must have been to Cordelia - while she almost killed her best friend. That's awful, traumatising, and absolutely a valid reason for her to be slightly out of it.

Lastly, a small but not insignificant thing that might have also played into her decision, in my opinion - this girl deserves a break, goddamit. Through lonely, uneventful childhood, to the stressful time she spent trying to salvage family's reputation, constantly keeping herself in check and plotting, and finally to an emotionally draining marriage she's never had a chance to let go and have fun and feel free. We see the longing for that clearly during her car journey with Matthew - the longing to escape the weigh she herself - and others - have put on her shoulders. She wants to just breathe for a moment, instead of being a golden child, a respectable heiress of a famous family, a perfect wife.

So in a way, she is running away from her mistakes, responsibilities, and consequences, but doesn't she have every right to do that?

disclaimer: this is mostly my attempt at organizing my own thoughts on the matter, and, in case it's not obvious, everyone's totally allowed to disagree and have their own opinions; as long as you keep it civil, we can discuss that, or just agree to disagree and keep on scrolling

[stevenuniversetanzanite]

The Angel Among Us (Cordelia X reader) part 5

Wrote this at 12 am this morning. Hope it's not too rushed, I tried to move the plot along. I didn't expect to write 5 parts for this series but I like the plot of oh well. Probably 1-2 more chapters for the prequel before we go to the outpost.

Warnings: Murder

Parts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 , Part 4,  Part 5 , Part 6 (will be added when done) 

Cordelia had been working all hours to find ways to protect the girls. She had piles of protection spells but they all detailed different ingredients and served different purposes. Some only worked on an individual, others on blood relation. She knew the correct one had to be somewhere. A couple of the books were missing from their spot on the bookcase. The last user had not placed the books back in their rightful spot after use. She groaned, using her powers to find the location of the book. She found the book, accompanied by similar titles in your ‘study’. She settled her candle down on the floor as she rested on the floor wincing at the contact. She went to open the book when her cell phone rang. She jumped as the sound rung throughout the room. She left her work phone on the bedstand, her personal on dead and with no power to charge it, it would remain that way until the power grid fixes the electricity.

“Hello, this is Cordelia Goode Headmistress of miss Robichaux's academy for exertional young ladies speaking, how may I help you this evening?” She said when she picked up the device.

“Cordelia, this is John Henry Moore. I have found something that might concern you…”

The man thought you had looked familiar which led the man into a search to see why he thought you recognised your face. John was going through the old archives when he found an old journal about a being described as divine in nature.

The tale, in summary, goes as followed: A woman birthed from light wandered the earth in search of an item she lost. She stumbled on a wounded woman in the red dust. She offered her aid in return she must help the woman of light find what she lost. Without options, the wounded accepted the help. The being of light protected the other woman from the red sand under her feathered wings. As the story goes on the woman refused to help her causing the woman of light to undo her end of the deal. The woman of light left the woman buried in the red dust. The story ends the same way as it began, the woman wandering the earth.

By the warlocks who recorded the story, the woman of light was dubbed the She-devil by some and only seemed to be a threat to woman. The name itself didn’t work to well, as the word has connotation to being a malicious or spiteful induvial while the book displayed her as fair and just, however like the devil loves deals and excepts both ends of a bargain to be upheld. The woman was compared to one of the 19th century who was seen as the living female eqiverlant of the devil making the name more literal.

For a time, she was seen as a goddess among that ill willed men prayed when their wives got to be too much. But do not pray to not call for her if the woman is wounded, a redhead, or the emotionally damaged for you will never see her again.

“I might be missing something but how is this story important enough for me to hear at 10 pm?”

“It’s the drawings that accompany it. In all renditions of the same story all the drawings are the same.” They were all of her girl. The man told her to check her emails for all the photos he took of the book. “I don’t want to accuse people of being someone they’re not but if there was a chance the antichrist was on earth, there’s more of a chance he isn’t alone.”

It didn’t necessarily mean the person was bad and if this hypothetical person was her girl than wouldn’t be it fair to offer her the same that she did with Michael? She would have to make sure the boy didn’t get to her first. She wouldn’t make an offer until she could be sure.

“Is there anything you can tell me about this ‘woman of light’? How to call her? What she wants? Or, how to stop her?”

He left her for a moment to scan the information he had on her. “Nothing was recorded. The men who summoned her never saw her but new of her visit when their wives were gone. One tale mentions an indication of a visit; she steals trinkets from the men and for her favourites, she had been known to steal articles of clothing form the woman. A few accounts of her say not to argue with her and never lose her trust.”

Crap. If they are the same- may not have been the best time to being having a fight… or withholding information from her. Everything would be fine; she was only at a slight disadvantage. She was your girlfriend; she had a higher chance of winning by those odds alone. You had a long history together and what did you have with Michael? Nothing.

You were brought back to the academy in the school’s van driven by Madison. She wasn’t pleased in being forced to drive the school’s van and even less impressed on having to pick you up from the hospital.

The results of your tests were messed up, they blamed them being screwed up due to the power outage and had to retake them. The results were the same, a doctor came into the room to tell you that you should have been dead. Your body tempter was way below that of a person suffering from hypothermia. A few doctors begged to do more research, their sudden eagerness coming off made you feel more of a science experiment than their patient. Not to mention with knowledge of the dangers of being out in the open, you needed to protect the girls now more than ever. Michael knew you by name, claimed you knew his father. What a load of horse shit, you would remember if you knew his father, right? His voice was the same from that night at the gas station. He made you watch the man burn.

As the van grew closer to your destination, you were closer and closer to suggesting places the two of you could go to prolong the drive.

Your mind drifted back to the last night you saw your girlfriend. You should have been angry for yelling at her or withholding information, but you weren’t anymore. She didn’t bother to tell you about problems that would affect you so why bother sharing yours with her. She had no need to know about your interactions with Michael. The boy hadn’t threatened any of the girls as far as you were aware. It seemed to be a personal vendetta against him and Cordelia. Once again you were left out of the loop. You had no clue what the boy was or what he was capable. You knew he was powerful if the warlocks would mistake him for the ‘Alpha’.

The boy spoke to you as if he trusted you or at least needed something from you, ‘You have no need to fear me Y/N, I come here as a friend.’ And suggested that Y/N L/N wasn’t your real name, ‘But you’re Y/N M/N L/N or at least that’s the name you go by on Earth.’ Few knew your middle name, not even Cordelia could recall it from memory.

You decided to keep this information to yourself. It might help you save the coven if you were seen as his friend. If you wanted it protected, then would he harm it?

Sat in Cordelia’s office, you twiddled your thumbs. The two of you had been silent from the moment you’d returned. She had requested for your presence, sending one of the students to fetch you. She was treating you like a student who’d gotten in trouble and was not sure what she was going to do or say to you. You stared at her directly waiting for her to make the first move. You didn’t want to see her, you were back here to do your job, protect the girls from the threat your girlfriend didn’t care enough to tell you about. Clearly you weren’t important enough to her and thus shouldn’t waste your time which you only found out is limited.

The blonde faced her back to your, her vision focused out the window she stood in front. The curtains were pinned back to allow the cool breeze to fill the room to remove the slight stench of decay in the air. It wasn’t something you noticed before, but it lingered around her person. Your senses were heightened ever since the serge of energy you got before the power out. Reading the woman became more predictable. She would wait in hopes that you’d start the conversation, when you don’t she would force herself to being on something minor then the discussion with grow into the major problem on her mind. It would start out as distant but by the end of the night you’d both be cuddled up in the shared bed.

Cordelia moved over to her chair across from you. It too at a distance. Where to even begin with you? Cordelia thought. With your powers? Telekinesis, Transmutation, Divination and Pyrokinesis, three out of four she didn’t know you had until the last couple of days. Or how about your newfound smoking habit? She told you she didn’t approve, was she going to scold you for that first?

“Has she passed all the tests?” You snapped the woman out of her train of thought. You never started the conversation first.

“Who?” You started talking to her like you had been having a conversation for a while now and expected each other to be on the same page.

“Mallory.” Was this the only thing you’d been thinking about since the last time you spoke? Cordelia pondered.

“Yes. There’s only a mattered of time now.”

“Then what? The coven moves on like normal?”

“Eventually,” Cordelia answers plainly. “Yes.”

“Unbelievable.” You rolled your eyes shifting your body to face aware from her.

“We can talk about this later, for nor there are more pressing matters.”

“Like what? What’s more important than your eventual death.” You snapped. “The stench of death surrounds this coven and that bloody window isn’t helping anything.” You point at the window. “Seriously light a candle or something.”

“Maybe it’s from all your cigarettes. And for more pressing matters, you and your dangerous behaviours. Smoking, Y/N, really?”

“You found out? Who snitched?”

“No one had to Y/N-”

“No~ someone told because it took you too long to figure that out otherwise.”

The two of you fought back and forth, the conversation got heated. You were face to face shouting at each other. She compared your behaviours in the conversation to a child when she was wanted to talk to you like an adult. You told her she had no say over what you do, say or act and if she cared more, she would be around you more. She blamed her lack of time on being the supreme and that you wouldn’t understand responsibility or the threat of danger because you hadn’t had to deal with witch hunters or warlocks who want you dead. You had dealt with people wanting you dead, hunting you down for sport. She called you bluff. Inches apart, you towered over the other woman, but she didn’t find you intimidating for one second.

“We need to be honest with each other-”

“That’s rich coming from you.”

Once you were both done tearing each other to shreds, you were both out of breath. The blonde kept eye contact. Your eyes, that were still staring daggers at her, were fully dilated.

“You want to-” Cordelia went to ask.

“Bedroom or office?”

Cordelia thought for a moment. No one would dare go into her office without permission while her office was free ground and she didn’t want to be disturbed. “Bedroom.”

“Good choice.” You picked her up and she wrapped her legs around your waist. She cupped your face and pulled you in for a long kiss. In was only a matter of seconds before she was lying on her back as you shifted your hands were from when you were holding her. Your hand found it’s way to her stomach when she hissed out in pain. You recoiled back, an apology slipping from your lips. The words didn’t register as her main priority was the sudden pain.

“You alright?” You asked when you didn’t receive a response.

“Yeah,” she groaned, hunching over, her hand cupping the area in pain.

“Show me.”

“What?”

“Show me the area.”

“Y/n”

“Show me, please,” you begged giving her your best puppy dog eyes. Anxiously, she unbuttoned her blouse. The mood died down with your concern for your girlfriend.

“Oh. God,” you gasped. One hand covered your mouth, the other reaching out to touch the one of the many wounds. They’d spread over her torso, in all the most frequently touched places you’ve touched. The wounds were shaped like cracks in a wall that were never maintained. The largest and most discoloured one was the on the left side of her stomach. It was the same one that got her researching in the first place.

“Y/n.”

“Delia.” you shook your head, in a state of shock. “Delia-Delia.” You crawled away, keeping your distance from the woman, in fear that a single touch of her and she’d shatter. “I didn���t mean to touch it- oh god, why didn’t you tell me it’s gotten worse?” You choked up, eyes darting between the woman and her body.

“I’m fine Y/n-” She tried to console you even though she was the one in pain. You should be helping her. Stop being a cry baby and comfort your girlfriend. “You didn’t mean to-”

“No, you are not Delia. You’re in pain. I can’t even touch you anymore without-” You stopped mid idea. “I didn’t mean to?”

“Yes, baby, it’s not your fault.”

“Not my fault?”

“How about we call it a night and try again another night?” Cordelia smiled weakly and you felt completed to nod in a similar calibre.

“Sorry, I ruined the night.”

“It’s fine, love and you didn’t ruin anything.” Cordelia paused for a second to think of her next move. As much as she wanted to, she didn’t think she could physically sleep next to you tonight. Her body ached at the contact of anything, she didn’t need you acting as a catalyst for a more painful and sleepless night. As much as it tugged at her heart, she needed to distance herself in order to work. By tomorrow, she can figure out a way to solve this and have everything back to normal. “I do need to speak to you about something. You know how I suggested we be honest and keep each other informed about our lives?”

“Yes.”

“That warlock I told you about, he threatened the coven. I need your help as well as the others to prepare some of the more skilled students to perform a protection spell.”

“Of course, I can do that tomorrow-”

“It would take half a day to get the ingredients-”

“-and you want it done as soon as possible?” Cordelia nodded. The woman rarely condoned your eagerness to work on magic, that’s why you offered to do it tomorrow. You weren’t going to complain that the woman wanted you to work but it made you sceptical. “Alrightly then.” You bounced up and dashed to her side to plant a kiss on her check. She bit her tongue.  

By one in the afternoon the next day, the spell was ready for casting. You were put in charge of overseeing the protection spell while Cordelia had a meeting with Mallory. You weren’t happy about the news of her replacing your girlfriend, but Cordelia assured you everything would be alright. She knew that with you and Myrtle helping Mallory, the coven would be in safe hands. You wanted to believe her. It would take a long time to move on. She isn’t dead yet, calm down and focus on the moment, you thought.

“We can’t always control the energies around us. Negative emotions, sickness, toxic people, unwanted spirits. These things are unavoidable,” Zoe said.

“But the guardians chalice is our first line of defence against all of that,” Queenie said.

“Uh~ a bear trap for bad juju. You just stash one here and around a space you want to protect and-”

“-and that's not even enough, not without this dope ass mantra to recite before. That's going to put all this power into these jars of junk.” Queenie handed out papers with the incantation on them. She offered you one, but you passed already knowing the spell. “Everyone repeat after me. We’ll do it together.” Everyone joined in. “Any unwanted spirit, with negative energy, you must leave now.” Something was off, you stumbled back towards the wall, grabbing onto it for support. No one noticed, thank god. “Any evil presences must leave now.” The front door called out to you. You needed to get out of here. Have a smoke or anything, just not be in this house. “Only light presences and healing energy is allowed in here.” They repeated the mantra again.  

Slowly, you slid against the wall, crumpling at the floor, fighting against the small part of you that wanted to leave. Suddenly, the urge died down and you blurted out, “It’s broken.”

Before the others could comprehend what you meant, Michael made his grand entrance.

“Clearly that mantra’s bullshit. Oh, come on. You can’t be that surprised to see me.”

“Fuck no you were prophesied, darling. Up yours.”

“I told Cordelia what I was going to do to all of you. I have deaths to avenge.”

Zoe and Queenie used telekinesis to fling glass shards towards Michael but he reversed it, hitting the girls and Bubbles. You sprung up, leaping out in front of the table to protect the remaining girls. You raised your hands on guard and recited a protection spell for a barrier. Mead walked out.

“Mead! How the fuck are your here?”

“I was built for this,” she said, removing her arm revealing a gun. Mead gunned you down before you could finish. You dropped to the floor. You felt the warm blood flowing out of your body. The man smirked while observing the death of your sisters.

She shot down Zoe. Queenie reached out, grabbing a shard and slitting her throat. A large gash formed at Mead’s throat, white liquid pouring out. Queenie was shot as well as any girls trying to get away.

You clenched your stomach, applying pressure to the wound. “Nice show.” Michael’s attention brought you. Michael offered out his hand to you. He registered you had no idea what he was talking about.  “You're fine. You're not bleeding.” What was he on about? Of course, you were. You looked down to prove it. Your clothes are stained red. “These witches have done a number on you.” You were still confused. “Take my hand and I’ll explain everything.” Hesitantly, you take it. You were scared he would gun you down again and unlike last time you’d remain down.

“What am I?”

[ice-cream-nekogirl]

BNHA x Witch!Reader: Quirk Flu

Okay! Just bear with me, this is still part of my BNHA x Witch!Reader series but this is based off  the godawful cold I’ve had all week lol... and now Reader-chan must help her fellow classmates (and Shinsou lets just say that he was allowed to get into Class 1-A cuz he deserves to be in there!) ! Chapters will be split into some of the characters such as Shinsou, Izuku, Bakugou,Todoroki, etc.

PLZ forgive me for any OOC-ness I’m terrible about that!!

Summary:

A nasty strain of flu known as ‘Quirk Flu’ breaks out and creates an outbreak at UA (causing the school to close temporarily) and because Reader-chan is immune with her witch heritage and lack of a quirk, she has to take care of her sick classmates, and her two favorite teachers, with the help of a less than helpful Madison who does more of a half-ass job at taking care of the others.

Notes:

(F/D): Favorite drink

(Y/N): Your Name

(L/N): Last name

Prologue: Outbreak

“Ahhh…” You took a deep breath of air after having a nice drink of your (F/D) as you let the pleasantry of morning caress you. However, because of the recent news, you had a little something special in your drink…

10 Minutes Ago

“Wintertime is officially here, but don’t let the snow distract you, because flu season is still present and has increased dramatically throughout Japan, to prevent contracting flu, doctors have urged citizens to be wary of what they have touched and recommended wearing face masks when going outside.” The news quickly caught your ear as you watched the small TV you had hooked up in your dorm.  

“Flu…?” You asked yourself nervously in your dorm-room, and you cringed just thinking about it, there was NO way you were going to let yourself catch the flue, the last time you were sick you swore you had a near-death experience because of how terrible it was!

Your horrible memories of being sick however were thankfully interrupted when Madison suddenly opened your door and invited herself in. “Yup, but there’s no way I’m catching that shit. Especially not with the amount of losers and lame-ass teachers that live and teach at this shithole. It’ll spread like the plague.” She quickly stated, having heard the news and what you said.

By some miracle, Cordelia managed to influence Nezu and the rest of the staff of UA to allow Madison to stay and watch over you during your time to protect you and to an extent, your classmates, but at this point you knew that they instantly regretted that decision. Your classmates sure didn’t enjoy her….  not even the ever-so-sweet Midoriya, Kirishima or Uraraka liked her… she was just too mean for their liking… well Kaminari appreciated her beauty at least, but he wasn’t fond of her attitude…

And they each knew Bakugou. Who was no prize either. The difference between them being that Bakugou at least wanted to prove himself to be a hero and wasn’t one to be cruel just for the sake of being cruel, Madison on the other hand… abused her powers for her own pleasure and did bad things just for the sake of being bad. Bakugou was difficult, but Madison was horrible. You were her only friend and even YOU liked Bakugou more than her, and pissing him off became one of your hobbies, and at times you were pretty sure he couldn’t stand you.

Come to think of it… the only person who liked Madison at all was that douche Monoma from Class 1-B…

“Madison… you can’t just barge into my room unannounced and… oh who am I kidding why am I even asking…?” Shaking your head you sighed, you knew better by now, Madison never did anything anyone said, not even the people who somehow managed to become her friend. However… deep down, way, way, WAAAAY deep down, you knew she wasn’t completely, totally and one-hundred percent horrible… pretty close, but not to the core… for the most part.

“I’m with you on that I don’t wanna catch no fucking flu but how are we supposed to do that? There’s nasty shit everywhere… the air we’re breathing right now could have some nasty germy shit right now and thereby infecting us, and it’s gonna make us all gross and infectious and sick and boogery…” You rambled a little bit as Madison just grabbed one of the spellbooks in your bookshelf.

“Yeah bitch I know, the flu is bad. Trust me, I’ve seen a bunch of people get it back when I did HR bullshit at hospitals for publicity photos and charity, totally freaked my shit out…” She shuddered at the memories in disgust, and you shook your head again at how awful she could be…

“No wonder the others like Bakugou more than you…” You muttered in disapproval as she began flipping the book and she scoffed. “Please. Like I give a shit what these little newbs think of me.” She claimed, but you knew that it wasn’t just a claim, it was pretty true… Madison never cared about what other people thought of her, and she really didn’t care about what Hitoshi and your new friends thought of her. Except for this mystery guy she was dating... you were sure it was that one villain in the League of Villains… Dabi… that was his name.

However, once she finally found a page that was said to be for a ‘Disease immunity’ potion, you were quick to start reading it with her. Once you saw the list of ingredients, you discreetly snuck downstairs to take some items and food from the kitchen that the spell had required as you saw Mina chatting away with Yaoyorozu and Jirou, along with Hagakure, Tsuyu and Ochako, and the guys Kirishima, Kaminari and Sero were busy laughing about something.

Good… they were just being normal and didn’t recognize you for once.

Quickly, you ran back to your dorm and shut the door, locking it so no one came in. They were used to you casting spells and making potions, but since it was a witch thing this was still something you preferred doing behind closed doors unless one of them wanted to watch for themselves.

“Good, now I’ve got the rest…” Madison said, having a few other ingredients from her own bag. Both of you always kept unconventional items with you for spellcraft and potion-making, and some of the things you needed from the kitchen were thankfully there. Including orange juice, garlic and a ladle.

You got a small cauldron and began by pouring water first into it, and it miraculously began boiling with Madison’s incredible energy and expertise in pyrokinesis allowing her to control the temperature of the water. Sometimes you forgot how powerful she was because of her attitude…

“Okay…” She put the book down with the Latin words as you set up the candles and both sat across from the boiling cauldron, and the Hollywood star brought her palm out above the steaming water.

“Praesidio nobis ex malus viribus. Praesidio nobis. Praesidio Nobis! Praesidio Nobis!!” The two of you began to chant the incantation together in unison, gradually raising your voices to call upon the power from light as the water bubbled even more and became frothy. The smell giving you an indication that it was working as Madison threw in a couple of strange but brightly colored green leaves into the potion, quickly you gave her a questioning look.

“Vanilla. Right from the orchids to make it easy to go down.” She briefly explained as you grabbed the ladle you took to start stirring it, and you were relieved that the vanilla already kicked in and made the potion smell actually pretty sweet. After about 5 minutes of stirring, you stopped and the potion was still quite hot but not boiling as Madison grabbed two glass vials and used the ladle to pour some of the potion into both of them.

“Here. Drink it with a drink and it should protect us from catching any bad shit, that’s if it works, but I’m sure it did, I mean I did nothing wrong, but I’m sure you probably did.” She gave you the vial and you rolled your eyes, “Tch I don’t make mistakes…” That was a total lie, but you weren’t going to admit it if you DID somehow mess up that potion. But instead of arguing, you got some of your (F/D) and were getting ready to pour the potion in, until you remembered something and quickly set it down and got up from where you were sitting.

“Wait! I need to give some of this to Hitoshi…” You were about to exit but Madison used her telekinesis to make you stop dead in your tracks, making you grunt and gasp lightly as you were trapped in her force and then she made you turn back around through mind control.

“No way, there won’t be enough for you if you share with anyone else. This is for us. Witches look out for witches only.” She stated, and as oddly kind that was of her, it made you feel a little bit selfish since you and her were the only witches here. It just didn’t entirely feel right to you. Yes witches looked out for other witches and you would literally kill for one of your dear sisters and to protect your beloved coven, but dammit you really came to like, no… you really came to love your classmates and teachers here at UA. Witches or not, you loved them. Even Bakugou.

And you loved Hitoshi the most. You didn’t wanna play favorites but he was your best friend first… if not more than that…

“Madison as much as I love flaunting my good health to people and laughing when they sneeze funny, it wouldn’t feel right if Hitoshi got sick too… or Izuku… or Denki, or Kirishima, or Ochako, or Tsuyu… or Todoroki or even Bakugou, those poor things… I think I’d actually hate if they got sick and I did nothing to stop it…” You mumbled as you thought about your closest friends, and hated how Madison managed to make you feel so meek compared to your friends, who got the full brunt of your lively, smart-ass attitude.

However, her smirk startled you a little bit. “Oh come on, think of this way (Y/N). If Purple-head gets sick, who’s gonna have to take care of him? You. Nothing’s better than having someone depend on you for living and you having the power to decide if you want them to get better or suffer. But the rest of them can blow their own noses and wipe off their own vomit.” Madison explained, which SORT of convinced you, but not that last part…

“You are… something else…” You sighed, feeling reluctant and horrible as you went back to your bed…

“Sorry Hitoshi… sorry… guys…” You quietly apologized as Madison was quick to pour some of her potion into her water and she took a drink.

RIGHT NOW

You couldn’t lie. You felt pretty good and confident now that you took the potion. No stupid flu was going to infect you today or any other day! And you just kept telling yourself that so you didn’t let the guilt of not giving your friends the same kind of immunity eat you up inside.

“All righty… time to get ready and eat some breakfast before having to go through another dumb day of listening to Aizawa’s dumb lectures…” You grumbled slightly as you put the orange juice back in the refrigerator and left the kitchen. You were positive you were going to be disease-free most of the time, it didn’t mean you wanted to go to class and actually like… pay attention. The man was your favorite teacher but good God the lectures bored you sometimes… and his assignments… ugh…

“How do you think I feel? I have to actually shadow that old dick. Not like he can teach me anything… I’m stronger than him.” Madison rolled her eyes as she followed you out, and began to light one of her cigarettes.

“And he can’t express just how happy he is to have you here…” You snarked with a bit of a smirk. Aizawa wasn’t the type who cared much about things and he often pretended that he didn’t care much about people and was always discreet about the people he cared about and disliked, but if there’s one person he absolutely hated, it was Madison. Madison definitely replaced Fiona as the woman he hated the most. Not just because of her overall bitchy attitude, but she represented all the things he hated about fame and entitlement. And on top of that, he was sick of her cigarettes stinking up his classroom. How he let Cordelia convince him that having Madison shadow him to protect you and the rest of his students was a good idea, he’ll never know.

“He should be. Least he can see what a real woman’s ass looks like.” She smirked and you rolled your eyes with a chuckle. “Wow…” She was so amusing, you were almost glad she stood here with you.

As you both walked, Bakugou was coming your way, and the first thing he made sure to do was glare at you as he often did. Naturally you didn’t fear him, but today the glare was a little off… “Good morning Lord Explosion Bit- whoooooa…” You paused as you took his appearance in, the guy actually looked kind of tired and groggy, which was odd because Bakugou always had energy to the point where you thought of him as almost hyperactive given his temper and drive.

However, he growled at the way you were looking at him. “What the hell are you staring at Witch Bitch?” He asked you harshly, his normally rough voice just a bit scratchier than normal as he glowered at you. Yeah, he was always pissy but he looked and sounded extra pissy to the point where you were mildly concerned.

“You look kinda out of it…” You got a little bit closer to him, seeing what appeared to be faint shadows under his eyes, but he backed away and shoved you away from him. “Don’t get so fucking close idiot! I’m fine! I just woke up what do you expect?” He narrowed his eyes at you, and you just gave him an annoyed look. 

Typical Bakugou, never appreciating anyone’s concern for him.

“You don’t look fine asshole, or at least, you look worse than normal. Which is a miracle, you always look terrible.” Madison quickly retorted, crossing her arms and smirking. Obviously that was a lie, since Madison did think Bakugou was an attractive teenager but she hated his attitude and thought of him as just a boy with a fragile ego that needed constant coddling. Needless to say, Bakugou returned the hatred as her insult immediately sent him into a rage.

“What did you say Hollywood Bitch?!” He got ready to get up in her face with one palm sparkling, but since you weren’t in the mood for bullshit, you used your telekinesis to restrain him from attacking the other witch, and he angrily snarled at you for doing that. He HATED it whenever you used your powers on him. “Okay, okay cut it out you mooks… forget I asked… he’s fine, a picture of health, right Bakugou?” You deadpanned and shrugged your shoulders and let him go, but he still looked annoyed with you as he ignored a smiling Kirishima coming your way and giving the three of you a wave. “Morning Bakugou, (L/N), Madison.”

“Mornin’ to you Kiri.” You happily waved, but Madision didn’t uncross her arms nor did she return the politeness as she just stared at him indifferently. Bakugou at least gave him an annoyed look of acknowledgement, that quickly contorted into something you couldn’t identify. The explosive teen’s breathing started to hitch but it concerned you and Kirishima. Madison however… looked concerned for a different reason and she was quick to walk backwards, and contrarily Kirishima moved a little closer to his friend.

“Whoa, hey… Bakugou, are you all right you don’t look so-” Before he could even finish his sentence, Bakugou’s eyes shut as he suddenly let out a very loud and uncovered sneeze that sprayed onto you and Kirishima as the two of you quickly covered your faces with your arms. Though the disgusting wetness you both felt on your arms was enough for you to realize that this son of a bitch just got you all boogery…

“Ewww…” Madison backed away even further and proceeded to just walk away from the three of you, nope, forget it, she wasn’t going to be around a sick person again��� she couldn’t and wasn’t doing it!

“OHHHH SICK!!” You exclaimed, whining in disgust as you wiped the spit off your arm in vain with your tie.

“Eww dude… maybe cover your mouth the next time you do that?” Kirishima was so sweet, trying to awkwardly smile that off as he wiped off the spit that got on him, as if Bakugou’s gross sneeze didn’t bother him.

“Shut up you idiots! It wasn’t that bad!” If you didn’t know any better, you’d say he was a little bit embarrassed, but he was making sure he didn’t show it.

“Yes it was! That warrants a ‘sorry’! You got my fucking arm all boogery!” You were much less understanding and didn’t hesitate to yell at him the same way he was yelling at you. Any other classmate in the vicinity audibly sighed or looked on in amusement. The two loudest students of 1-A were at it again as Kirishima acted fast and held back the explosive barbarian who was shouting profanities at you and you just snickered until the red-head eventually got the former to calm down somewhat… emphasis on somewhat.

“Fine… I guess you can’t help being gross… well I gotta go find Hitoshi... I’ll see you guys in class… see you Kiri~. And you too Bakugou.” You smiled sweetly at your red-headed classmate but you weren’t as friendly with Bakugou as you waved to the two of them. “Right! See ya (L/N)!” Kirishima grinned as he waved you off, but Bakugou just growled at you in response before storming off in your opposite direction, trying to stifle a sudden coughing fit. “W-Wait for me!” Kirishima called for him as he quickly followed him… or at least as quickly as he could when he got almost a little bit dizzy. “Whoa…” He made sure to steady himself as he walked, but paused in his steps when he felt the tell-tale signal of a sneeze coming on.

“H-H... Heeeh...” His breath began hitching as he walked a little bit slower, even when he saw Kaminari coming over to greet him and Bakugou, smiling wide as he often did, “Mornin’ guys!” He cheerfully greeted them, happily oblivious to Bakugou’s foul mood and Kirishima’s issue as the sneeze finally made it’s presence known with a loud “Hehcchhhhiuuuu!!” with the poor teen trying hard to make sure it got in his elbow, remnants of spittle had managed to fly and get onto his friend ahead of him.

“Ewww… come on man really?” Kaminari shamelessly groaned in disgust, though Bakugou was much more openly disgusted, “What happened to ‘cover your mouth’ dumb-hair?” He asked abrasively, glowering at him and backing away, much to his classmate’s embarrassment.

However, instead of arguing Kirishima nervously tried to laugh it off, “M-My bad, but you know in your defense it can’t be helped sometimes…” He scratched the back of his head, earning a grumble and a scoff from the louder boy as he made his way off without him, but as always, Kirishima followed him, despite the fact that he was starting to feel rather tired…

“Wait up guys!” Once they left, Kaminari saw no other option other than to follow them but he paused for a moment when he was starting to feel a little bit dizzy himself…

“Ugh…” He let out a low groan when a wave of fatigue suddenly slapped him in the face as he slowly diverted from the path Bakugou and Kirishima took and stumbled to the kitchen and quickly grabbed the same carton of orange juice you had used, hoping that it would perk him back up. Not bothering with his usual manners in his sleepy state, he opened it and drank straight from the mouth of the carton and set it aside once he was done, and gave another groan when it didn’t do anything to give him any sort of energy as he stumbled back to find Bakugou and the rest of their squad.  

Meanwhile…

Madison had left you yet again, but thankfully you ran over to the one person you WANTED to be around.

“Good morning Hitoshi~.” You cheerfully greeted your sleepy-looking best friend, and gave him one of your ‘morning hugs’, which never ceased to annoy him a little bit.

“So clingy, even in the mornings hm?” He asked you somewhat teasingly, even though he adored your hugs and never found you clingy given your history together.

“Hey I just got back here, I need to make up for lost time and spend more time with you, even if we are in school.” You defended and giggled a bit, and his small smile indicated that he was happy with that. “I see Madison isn’t around you for once… can’t lie I’m very happy about that…” Hitoshi REALLY didn’t like Madison because of the way she stuck by you, but more like a parasite than a friend. She was bitchy and rude, even to you, and he absolutely hated that and he hated that she was pretty much the WORST third wheel imaginable, always butting into yours’  and his time together.

However, hearing that made you laugh your ass off… in fact, you were laughing so hard Hitoshi had to stifle any chuckles or snickers that wanted to leave him. “Y-Yeah uh… she ditched me again, and… you know I’m actually pretty happy about that too…” You giggled and admitted, his smile growing a little bit more as you stood beside him while the two of you walked to the common room. “Just means I get to actually be with you without her making some bitchy comment.” Now that made him chuckle. He couldn’t agree with you more there, since Madison made it her job to be your’s and Hitoshi’s WORST third wheel.

“(Y/N)! Shinsou! Good morning!” Uraraka’s high, bubbly voice was music to your ears as you waved to her, “Morning Uraraka!”

And there was Izuku and Todoroki too! “Hey Greenie! Toto! My bros~! Good morning to you guys too!” You grinned and waved at your two other guy-friends, Izuku being the first to smile and wave to you, blushing a little bit as he shyly greeted. “A-Ah G-Good morning (Y/N).”

“Good morning.” Todoroki said, but politely and even gave you a little smile. After the eventful semester you have all had so far, you could say that you and Todoroki had managed to get on good terms with each other. Which kind of annoyed Hitoshi, in fact… it also annoyed him with how you were on good terms with Izuku, Kaminari, Kirishima and even Tokoyami…

But since he was on good-ish terms with Midoriya, he somewhat partook in the conversation you were currently having with him and the cheerful Uraraka. Of course, he and Todoroki spoke the less as you happily chatted away. Neither one of you noticing Iida walking into the kitchen.

And once he got inside, he nearly flinched when he saw something quite irksome. A perfectly good orange juice carton just left out not put back into the refrigerator where it belonged…

As to figure out this mystery, he took the carton of juice and walked outside of the kitchen with it in his hands. “Classmates! Who left this perfectly good carton of juice out instead of putting it back in the refrigerator?!” He asked everyone in close proximity, only seeing Izuku, Ochako, Todoroki, Shinsou and you, even though he knew neither you or any of them would be so careless to do something like that. It didn’t hurt to ask.

“Not me.” You quickly replied, and Todoroki and Shinsou also shook their heads in reply. “Hm? Oh no it wasn’t me.” Ochako then said, followed by Izuku. “N-No, I wasn’t even in the kitchen.”

That checked out, and the bespectacled teen gave a sigh when no one else was around to give him an answer. “Very well then, it couldn’t have been either of you, but I will have to be sterner about this to the others.” He muttered, but then he got something of an idea. “All of you follow me!”

That was sudden… but you all shared confused glances before following him, you and Hitoshi chuckling quietly in amusement at his enthusiasm.

“What’s up Iida? Did you want to show us something else?” Ochako thankfully asked what you were all thinking, and that led to Iida pouring the same orange juice in several glasses.

“Yes. You see, according to the news this year’s flu season is the worst it’s been, not helped by the fact that we are currently in wintertime, and it’s a highly contagious disease that I would not want to risk anyone in this building catching. And orange juice is not only a delectable drink for energy and health, it can boost your immune system and hopefully prevent illness.” He explained, and that made sense to all of you. Of course Iida would be so openly concerned about his classmates health, that was the class rep for you.

“Oh that’s right… so many people in Musutafu have already gotten sick, it’s not an epidemic but I’ve heard that the ones who have gotten sick are pretty bad off.” Izuku spoke up, having heard the news and was pretty concerned himself, the last thing he wanted was to get sick while he was training, and any of his other classmates and friends get sick too. “And we can’t afford to get sick while we’re training… that would seriously put a hamper on our progress if we had to be bedridden…” That worried him the most, catching the flu would be the WORST thing to happen to every hero-in-training here. And he earned a small squeaky cringe of agreement from Ochako. “T-That’s a good idea Iida… I definitely don’t want to sick, or any of you to get sick either… I’ve had colds before and then there’s the drawbacks whenever I overuse my quirk… hee-hee, so I guess what I’m saying is, being sick is just the worst!” She said while smiling. Such a sweet girl you thought… she clearly knew what being sick was like and how awful it was.

“Rara’s got a point dudes. Me and Madison have already taken some precautions as soon as I heard the news…” You quickly agreed with her, and you could very much see the looks of mild annoyance from Hitoshi, Iida and Todoroki once you mentioned Madison.

Todoroki shared the sentiment as he gave a nod of agreement. “We should be more careful about the things we touch then, because the flu spreads mainly through contact.” He informed, as a means to let everyone take caution for the disease that had been going around Japan and infecting a lot of people and heroes for that matter.

“Wear a mask too. It could be airborne since some people are careless enough to cough or sneeze without covering their mouths.” Hitoshi then offered some advice, and you cringed at the thought… sounded like Bakugou…

“Hey… you know you don’t look too awake… you’re not sick are ya ‘Toshi?” You had to ask him, sure he always looked like he didn’t get enough sleep or sunlight, but you had to make sure…

“I always look like this.” He deadpanned in response, and you, Izuku and Ochako tried not to snicker as the six of you grabbed the glasses of orange juice Iida had given you all.

“I will have to advise the rest of our classmates to take more precautions today in class. Mr. Aizawa should understand since health and wellness is a big priority for the students of UA.” He said, as the rest of you all agreed with that, especially since everyone was sharing dorms together.

“Cheers.” You raised your glass to your closest friends, and you were surprised that they all clanked their glasses to you before each of them taking a drink of their juice…

Their infected juice that slowly made their way into their systems and began infiltrating their bodies to quickly corrupt any healthy cell in their bodies…

You? Well… nothing was affecting you… you were one lucky witch.

Note: Praesidio nobis ex malus viribus. Praesidio nobis roughly translates to “Protect us from the ill forces. Protect us.”

Next Chapter: https://chocolatekitsune.tumblr.com/post/181420740494/bnha-x-witchreader-quirk-flu-down-with-the

[hervisions]

cordy meta: cordy being a 'powers the be' being?

—————–  MORE META

     to be completely honest, this is something i don’t think about too often. the reason being is that it was a prelude to the events of season four, which as a general rule, i try to forget ever happened. but when i do think about it, my thoughts are messy and confusing, so please bear with me while i try to fit all of them in some type of order that doesn’t make me sound like a total crazy person. also, i can almost guarantee that other people have different thoughts on this that are probably more valid and that address cordelia’s characterization better than i do, but this is just how i personally reflect on it.

       i’ll jump right in with the season three finale. my first thought stems from skip saying, “it’s not the end. it’s the beginning. you’re a great warrior, cordelia. the battle that we’re all a part of is fought on many different planes and dimensions. you’ve outgrown this one. you’ve become - a higher being.” there’s clearly a lot wrong with this, if you ask me. cordelia’s characterization from the very beginning of welcome to the hellmouth seems to depict her as not being able to really empathize with others. it’s even joked that she’s not human. i’m not personally saying this was her problem, but it seems to be how it comes across. her friends were practically worker bees beneath them who she was striving to impress, she dated primarily for the social status, and basically ruled. now, that almost does align with being a ‘higher being’ if you think of it in high school terms.

       HOWEVER, her character progression goes against that. a lot. even as she nears the end of her time on buffy the vampire slayer, she begins to shift. she’s able to better connect with those around her and she’s beginning to learn about the importance of the battle skip is referring to. again, that would appear to align with what he’s telling her… if she didn’t get the visions. if she wasn’t forced to feel the pain that everyone else felt. if she didn’t, with absolute certainty, know her purpose in “THIS world” which included the visions. that’s her own words, from not even an entire season before she became a higher being. this all happens in birthday, where she becomes part-demon just to stay in this dimension, fighting the good fight. so how, just a few episodes later, did she suddenly feel so out of place; feel that she’s suddenly outgrown the very purpose she accepted wholly? 

        i get that with becoming demonized, she got new powers. i get that it might have been something she needed to adjust to. i also get that a character has the right to change their mind and grow… if it happens organically. this didn’t. for me, at the heart of cordelia’s character was her humanity. it was her ability to empathize with the people in her visions. it was her choice to keep the visions, as she had ample opportunity to rid herself of them throughout the length of the series. they hurt like hell – mostly physically, but emotionally as well. they made her vulnerable all while giving her strength. the one time cordelia chose to lead a life without visions, it was because she was manipulated into doing so. and even then, she recognized her mistake. in a world where she didn’t even know about the visions or have any memory of her time at angel investigations, she chose the visions. she chose to help people.

          i’m not saying that she couldn’t help people as a higher being. from her understanding, that was kind of the whole gig. however, the way i see cordelia chase as a character, she wouldn’t have made that choice. not at that time. not when she’d just found the person she’d been trying to be. not when she’d just found her purpose – her true purpose. not when she just realized she’d fallen in love with her best friend. not when she’d found a family with angel investigations that she’d never had before. it even goes back to her “it beats being alone all by yourself” quote. being a higher being meant being completely alone. isolated. able to see everyone else live their lives, but not being able to join them. 

           that isn’t who she is. cordelia thrives with others. she needs the company of others. she loved everyone on their team, from being in love with angel to her quirky bond with fred, she loved her team. she would and had risked everything multiple times to save them. i’m sorry if this sounds harsh to anyone that’s reading, but  cordelia chase would not have turned her back on the only family she’d ever truly been apart of without so much as a goodbye  and no one can tell me otherwise. it’s something that can even be seen in you’re welcome. i know there’s a lot of arguments that people make about it being a bad sendoff or whatnot, but again, it gets at the heart of who cordelia was. someone who used their last day on earth to help her friends.

            if given the choice she’d always choose them. she would choose angel. she’d choose gunn. she would certainly choose wes. she’d choose fred. she’d choose lorne. she wouldn’t choose immortality. she would not choose to ascend. she would choose to stay right there in that large, empty hotel fighting the good fight because there was more love and acceptance there than there was in any heavenly dimension skip would have sent her to.

[shewhotellsstories]

Your Fave is Problematic Pt. 10: Incubators With Legs

Friendly warning, this post will be very critical of Cassandra Clare’s handling of pregnancy in The Mortal Instruments.

As a general rule, pregnant protagonists are few and far between in fantasy stories, babies usually come after evil’s been vanquished. So as a reader it is safe to assume if there’s a pregnancy before the epilogue it’s probably not going to go well for the pregnant person. In fantasy from Bella Swan in Twilight to Cordelia Chase from Buffy the Vampire Slayer many a female character has had their reproductive abilities abused for a backstory or to move the story along. Similar to tropes that deal with sexual violence, the way that pregnancy is treated excludes the experience of those most impacted by a pregnancy as it becomes about other people. Now from a storytelling perspective and from a purely biological perspective, everyone has to come from somewhere and some women are capable of having children. But when women in YA are pregnant the experience is usually a horrifying one, the thoughts and feelings of the pregnant person are usually entirely absent from the narrative. All too often women are reduced to incubators whose stories end once they’ve given birth.

In The Mortal Instruments, Celine Montclaire is a classic example.  The readers are told she was a fragile young woman. She was also in love with the married Stephen Herondale. That is until Valentine insisted that Stephen divorce his wife Amatis because he felt her familial relationship to werewolves made her impure. Although Stephen and Celine’s marriage is a brief one, Celine did become pregnant. However, upon learning that her husband had been killed overcome with grief Celine, eight months pregnant, slits her wrists. This isn’t the end of the story. In the nick of time Valentine Morgenstern manages to save the baby she was carrying by cutting him out of her. Not out of the kindness of his heart, without her knowledge Valentine had been feeding Celine pure angel blood for months in hopes of creating a super-shadowhunter child. He could not let all of his work go to waste. The baby boy that Celine was carrying would grow up to be Jace Herondale.

Celine is a blank slate. The audience knows very little about her except these four things: she was twenty when she died, she loved Stephen, her family was abusive, and she always looked according, to Jocelyn (Clary’s mother), vulnerable. Two out of the four details we know about Celine are things are all explained on the author’s twitter upon questioning from fans and through deleted passages. We don’t really know who Celine was or what she felt while carrying Jace or about impending motherhood. We don’t ever really have a clear idea of what her final moments were like. We don’t know how she felt about being married to a man who was clearly in love with another woman. Celine is in short a walking incubator, she’s a way to explain Jace’s existence and importantly why he and Clary are not related after all and it’s okay for them to date. Throughout the series through letters and anecdotes after the revelation that Jace was biologically not Valentine Morganstern’s son, Jace gets to learn who Stephen Herondale was for better or worse. And yet, he never learns or seems interested in learning anything about his birth mother leaving her feeling disposable.

The argument could be made that Jace is happily adopted. After the presumed death of the man, he believed to be his father he was adopted by the Lightwood family at the age of 10 and feels deeply connected to them. Even while living with Valentine, Jace has been told from a young age that he didn’t have a mother, until Maryse Lightwood. When asked by readers why Jace is utterly uninterested in learning about the Montclaire family Cassandra Clare would say that it’s because Jace already has a family that he loves. And yet, Jace read Stephen’s letters. Because he has been lied to by every adult in his life about who they are and who he is for years, he understandably has an identity crisis.

“I don’t know who I am,” he said. “I look at myself in the mirror and I see Stephen Herondale, but I act like a Lightwood and talk like my father—like Valentine.” (City of Fallen Angels 798)

Trying to understand himself better he learns about the Herondale family. His opinion of his father is understandably not a high one, and yet he takes the time to learn. By the end of the series, he finally decides to take on the Herondale name. So what makes Jace more interested in understanding his father than his mother? Stephen Herondale was weak. He had overbearing parents. He joined a cult out of a desire for freedom and a sense of superiority. He lacked character and allowed himself to be convinced to divorce the woman he loved. He loved Latin and poetry. Towards the end of his young life, he regretted the mistakes he made and accepted that the price for them, forever trusting Valentine would be his death. Importantly we learn that even though he regretted the marriage, he loved Jace and didn’t want him to resent Celine.

“The third and hardest thing you must know is that I was prepared to hate you. The son of myself and the child-bride I barely knew, you seemed to be the culmination of all the wrong decisions I had made, all the small compromises that led to my dissolution.” (Clare, “Stephen’s Letter to Jace”) Stephen is not a prominent character and yet the audience is given enough information to understand him and his feelings about his son. The same is never true for Celine. She is absent from the narrative surrounding her pregnancy and the death that it ended with. Celine’s pregnancy and death were about Jace��s true parentage, it was about Valentine’s positively immoral behavior, it was even about Stephen’s mistakes. Oddly enough, even though Celine was the pregnant person and she is biologically Jace’s parent too she is not truly Jace’s mother, she is just an incubator whose life and experiences were ultimately irrelevant beyond her ability to carry a child.

This is a trend in The Mortal Instruments. Clary Fray the protagonist herself and her biological brother Sebastian stem from mystical pregnancies. Valentine Morganstern who is Clary’s biological father experimented on his pregnant wife, Clary’s mother, Jocelyn Fairchild with demon blood without her knowledge with the hopes of creating a super shadowhunter and instead the exposure to demon blood killed his soul and created a sociopath: Sebastian Morganstern.  When Jocelyn was pregnant the second time she never informed her husband, as she was planning his downfall, so when he was again dosing her food and drink with angel blood to lift her spirits he inadvertently ensured that an unborn Clary Fray would have special abilities. In the case of Jace, Valentine was also drugging Celine with angel blood hoping to create the perfect warrior. Jocelyn Fairchild’s character arc is better because through flashbacks and her own anecdotes the readers know her story and all of her feelings about what her then-husband did to her. It is very clear that she felt betrayed and violated by Valentine’s actions and is traumatized by them years later. Unfortunately, the way that Jocelyn’s pregnancies were written were the exception and not the rule.

[itsclydebitches]

Buffy’s “Empty Places”: Deconstructing Merit, Luck, and Betterment

Anyone who’s spent five minutes with me knows that I love ranty metas, and Buffy’s “Empty Places” is something I’ve wanted to tackle since I finished it. However, rather than try to unravel the entirety of that shit-show conversation I want to focus in on what Anya says near the end.

You really do think you're better than we are. But we don't know. We don't know if you're actually better. I mean, you came into the world with certain advantages, sure. I mean, that's the legacy. But you didn't earn it. You didn't work for it. You've never had anybody come up to you and say you deserve these things more than anyone else. They were just handed to you. So that doesn't make you better than us. It makes you luckier than us.

Here Anya lays out three important questions that I think are crucial to interpreting the Buffyverse.

Did Buffy “earn” her power? 

Is she “luckier” than her friends? 

Is Buffy “better” than her friends? And what exactly does “better” mean in this context?

Honestly, I still stand amazed that Anya can even voice the first two questions among Buffy’s friends and not get immediate, wicked backlash. Admittedly her use of “luckier” could be interpreted to mean “randomly,” but her word choice is still significant. Buffy is by no stretch of the imagination lucky. Does her calling give her purpose? Yes. Does it give her cool superpowers? Absolutely. But none of these benefits are free gifts—they’re balanced, even outweighed, by her responsibilities. This calling means that Buffy has no other options in her life, no career or family as a ‘normal’ person would experience it. Her powers are to keep herself and others safe, not to have fun with. Buffy didn’t win the freaking lottery here, this life was forced on her.

Throughout the entirety of the series we see the others’ (realistic) jealousy of Buffy: Cordelia views her as a threat to her popularity, Willow as the ‘cool’ girl she always wished she could be, Xander resents that Buffy always has the power to help, and Faith has a whole damn plot-line devoted to her jealousy, yet at no point does anyone acknowledge that Buffy is only the “lucky” one when things are going their way. They want to help, but they know she’s the only one who can finish things. Buffy announces that she’s the only one who can finish things… and everyone’s hackles go up. They don’t want her responsibility; they also don’t want to acknowledge that her responsibility makes her different from them. You can’t have it both ways. To say nothing of the fact that the rest of the Scoobies can leave any time they want. They can walk away from this life. Buffy can’t. She’s not the lucky one, she’s the one who’s trapped.

Now, did Buffy earn her power? Oh boy. Again, I don’t know how Anya can even ask that. Did she earn the power prior to receiving it? Perhaps not, but Buffy has absolutely earned her right to it since. She gave up the social life she desperately craved, a college education, she killed her boyfriend for the greater good, was ready to kill another friend (Anya) if the need arose, Buffy died, twice, and stuck around after she was wrenched out of Heaven to keep fighting the good fight. I honestly wanted to ask in that moment: what more do you expect of this girl?

Furthermore, there’s evidence that Buffy did ‘earn’ the Slayer power right from the start. She was chosen. Why? We don’t know exactly, but out of ALL the other Potential girls in the world Buffy was the one the legacy activated and I personally think she was chosen for a reason. It’s also telling that Season 7 throws Buffy into a houseful of other would-be Slayers and essentially let’s us compare them. One girl runs away. Another commits suicide. The others force out their leader and walk into a trap. Did Buffy make a lot of the same mistakes at their age? Yes, but it’s also worth considering that these girls aren’t ready in the same way she was at fifteen, that some might not possess the fortitude to be the Slayer, that seven years ago the magic chose Buffy for a reason. She was the one most suited for the position.

So is she “better” than her friends?

After Anya gave her little speech I had one, significant sentence running through my head:

Buffy is the only one who hasn’t been corrupted.

To lay out just a few examples:

Giles rebelled as a teenager by summoning a horrifying demon that eventually killed his friends. Buffy rebelled as a teenager by demanding that she get to go to the prom or out on dates with Angel.

Willow takes away the consent of her girlfriend, her friends, nearly kills Dawn, and when she suffers the loss of a loved one immediately seeks revenge, going so far as to try and destroy the entire world (something I think the show let’s her get away with far too easily). Buffy loses her mom and though there’s no person to seek revenge on, she also doesn’t release her anger on other innocents.

Years ago Anya happily chose to be a vengeance demon. She spent a thousand years torturing and slaughtering who knows how many. After being left at the alter she immediately turns back to those ways and attempted to seek revenge on Xander (and please picture for a moment how she might be received if that episode hadn’t been played for humor. If the whole ‘you can’t seek your own vengeance’ rule wasn’t in place and Anya had succeeded in killing Xander). She proceeds to murder a group of college boys before turning back to the good side.

Faith’s entire storyline revolves around her going dark. We can come up with endless justifications for her—from a terrible childhood to not fitting in with the Scoobies—but the fact remains that she is a clear foil to Buffy: the ‘bad’ Slayer to Buffy’s ‘good’ one. Ultimately, no one forced her to adopt that role.

Andrew very happily goes along with all the tormenting Buffy/killing women/taking over the world stuff, showing not an ounce of true remorse. Despite all his claims of ‘coming over to the light side,’ the only reason we’re given for him joining the gang was because he killed his only friend, was kidnapped by them, and literally had nowhere else to go. He’s not necessarily a ‘good’ guy now, he’s a lonely guy sticking with the only people capable of protecting him.

Xander and Cordelia are outliers in that neither ever achieves any real, formidable power (at least not on Buffy), but what power they do accumulate they don’t use well. Xander casts love spells, the magic equivalent of roofying a girl, deliberately falls asleep while he has the responsibility of watching Oz, or lies to Buffy to help get Angel killed. Cordelia uses her social power to harm everyone around her, as often as possible. 

What I’m getting at is that most of Buffy’s friends go through the same sequence of events: free will + power = a decision that harms others to an extreme degree. The free choice aspect is important because I think there are only three core group members that don’t fit this pattern: Oz—who resists being a wild werewolf who would kill others if not locked up—Tara—who carefully controls the type and extent of her magic—and Spike—who never does anything of his own free will, if we buy into the Angel/Angelus dichotomy that the show initially set up (and then admittedly muddled with Spike). But if we go by that lore, everything he did post-vampirism was the demon. The women he killed with his soul was the First’s doing.

Notably, none of these people are in the room with Buffy to back her up.

Instead she’s surrounded by others who at one point or another are corrupted by the power they’ve attained. Buffy is living with a group of people who have willfully committed heinous deeds - deeds she’s forgiven them for - while they’re more than happy to toss her out the second she makes a mistake with actual consequences. Importantly though, Buffy never goes down the road they did. To my recollection the closest she gets is with Faith—“We are better than them”—but even then all Buffy does is loot a deserted store, playing at the ‘bad girl’ role without ever actually becoming her. Does she make mistakes over the years? HELL YES, but unlike the others they’re always made with good intentions. Buffy releases Spike because he’s needed and she honestly believes he’s not a threat anymore. She gets some of the Potentials killed because she’s trying to save the world. She pushes everyone away and acts ‘cruel’ because she’s told time and time again that that’s what they need—an unfeeling “general.” At every turn Buffy puts the greater good above her own needs and desires, from the small (dropping out of college) to the unfathomably large (killing Angel, dying twice). Is this ‘realistic’ characterization? Perhaps not, but it’s what makes Buffy the hero of the tale. No matter what she’ll always put others before herself and do whatever is required of her to keep them safe. 

Honestly, her friends can’t claim the same. 

So yeah, in this respect I’d say Buffy is “better.”

(Anyway, this all makes it sound like I hate these characters when in fact I love them all lol. Forgive the new Buffy fan still working through drama 20 years late. @thepinkrvnger​ I’m tagging you again not with the expectation that you’re gonna read any of this shit, but to let you know your previous Buffy response got me laughing. Kudos 👍) 

[sulietsexual]

I've seen people constantly asking about buffy/spike/angel!!! But what about Cordy and angel? Thoughts?!? Any meta? I love ur meta

So, I personally don’t ship Cangel, for me the chemistry was never there and the ship felt very forced. Butif you’re after an in-depth meta on the ship, here is an old meta of mine never published on Tumblr,polished up a bit, exploring what I believe went wrong with the Cangel ship.Warning – this is a loooong read.

Angel are a ship that, in theory, reallyshould have worked. The audience watch them evolve from strangers to friends tofamily, growing closer and learning more about each other in the process. Theyhave amazing chemistry as friends and are addictively watchable in theirinteractions. Moving their relationship into romantic territory seemed like themost natural step for the writers to take. Unfortunately it all went terriblywrong. The question is why? It doesn’t seem right that this particular pairing,with their chemistry and history, didn’t work onscreen.

The initial seeds of the Cangelrelationship are sown throughout the early episodes of Season 3. Season 1introduced their friendship, Season 2 established it and Season 3 is where itstarts to move towards something more romantic. We start to see the small hintsthat Angel’s feelings may be changing when Cordelia starts receiving physicalmanifestations of her visions in 3.2 That Vision Thing. Angel’s concern andrage over what is happening to Cordelia are similar to the emotions heexpressed when he was with Buffy. We also see a change in Cordelia’s feelingsas she tearfully tells Angel of her fear that he won’t need her anymore.Whereas in previous seasons she may have said that the group didn’t need her,or she didn’t know her place in the world, she now focuses on Angel and what itwill mean for him not to need her.

In 3.5 Fredless we are given more smallbut priceless gems to indicate the furthering of Angel and Cordelia’s feelings.Just watching Angel’s face when Cordelia calls him over to be patched up isadorable and her affectionate look along with her teasing “What adork” comment are equally touching. We are also treated to thedelightfully droll “I could sooth your ass off, pal” comment fromCordelia, along with Angel’s petulant “You think I’m fat?” line. Allof these separately do not indicate more than friendship but when put togetherstart to form a picture of what’s to come.

Episode 3.6 Billy gives us one of themost natural and beautiful scenes in the construction of the Cangel relationship.The episode opens with Angel and Cordelia working out in the basement as Angeltrains her to fight. As Cordelia brings a sword up over her head, she and Angellean into the blow together, moving in perfect synchronisation. Angel touchesher hip as he moves with her and she leans into him. The scene is notoverflowing with sexual tension (although there is enough to please viewers)but rather showcases the naturalness with which Cordelia and Angel interactwith and touch each other. This one scene shows the beauty of Cangel and theconnection that lies at the core of their relationship, highlighting how intune the two are with each other.

With the return of a very pregnant Darla,Cordelia and Angel’s budding relationship is sidelined. Not only does Darla’sreturn bring up Angel’s unresolved feelings towards her, it cuts through thetrust that has been building between Cordy and Angel since Season 2. Cordeliais horrified at what Angel has done, not from jealousy but because of the trusthe has betrayed. She is deeply hurt that he lied to her and equallydisappointed by the way in which he treated Darla and it’s only natural for herto take a step back from him.

With the next few episodes focused onDarla’s pregnancy and the birth of Connor, little attention is paid to Cangel.It is not until episode 3.11 Birthday that we are tossed another scrap. Twovery small moments underline the growing feelings between Angel and Cordelia.The first comes when Cordelia is being shown the moment she first encounteredAngel in L.A. The love and affection on Cordy’s face as she watches the replayis beautifully understated and needs no further exploration. Her eyes say itall. She is looking at a man she loves and respects and it shows on every inchof her face. Likewise, Angel’s quiet moment with Cordelia as she lies in a comais equally understated and touching. In angry tones he tells her off for nottelling him how badly the visions are affecting her. Underneath his anger isthe very real fear of losing her and realising what she has come to mean tohim. At the end of the episode his joy when she wakes up is beautiful.

If things between Cordelia and Angel hadcontinued to unfold in this manner they would have ended up in a beautifullyconstructed relationship, built on trust, friendship and mutual respect, whilestill keeping their core personalities in place. It could have been thestrongest ship on AtS. Unfortunately the writers had other ideas.

Cue 3.13Waiting In The Wings, the episode which kick-starts the assassination of thispairing. Waiting In The Wings is not a strong episode to begin with and theridiculous route that they take Cordelia and Angel down only adds insult toinjury. All the way back at 3.7 Offspring, Fred introduced the term“kyrumption” in reference to Cordy and Angel, explaining to Angel howit means that he and Cordy are destined to be together. In Waiting In The Wingsthe writers’ felt the need to echo it, this time from Lorne. What’s problematicwith “kyrumption” is that it takes away the audiences’ enjoyment ofdiscovering where the relationship is heading, opting instead to push the relationship onto the viewers.It’s almost as if the writers were worried that they were being too subtle anddecided they needed to make it absolutely clear that Cordy and Angel were meantto be. This was completely unnecessary, as fans were already on board withCangel as a ship and had so far enjoyed watching the build-up. To drop an anvilso obnoxiously onto the viewers lessens the connection between Cordy and Angeland the connection the audience has to the pairing.

Waiting In The Wings continues to murderthe Cordy/Angel dynamic with the plot involving the “echoes” of theprima ballerina and her lover. At this point in the relationship Cordelia and Angelhave not even admitted their feelings to each other and have only just startedto display physical tendencies that would indicate growing romantic feelings.The relationship was not ready to be taken to a physical level, much less thelevel this episode took it to. Laced with obnoxiously dramatic dialogue, Cordyand Angel get hot and heavy in the ballerina’s dressing room, in a scene souncomfortable it’s a wonder the actors didn’t demand a script rewrite.

While it’s not the first time a potentialrelationship has gotten to a physical level before its’ time, the way the scenewas written made for very difficult viewing. Overdramatic dialogue has no placein the Cangel relationship, even via a spell (more on this later). If theepisode had played out in comedic fashion, along the lines of Spike/Buffy inBtVS episode Something Blue, it would have been easier to handle. However, thewhole scene in the dressing room comes across as just another way for thewriters’ to say “Look! Look at how these two are meant to betogether!”. It’s made even worse by the fact that Charisma and Davidseemed to have lost all their chemistry when filming the scene. Whether that’sdown to the dialogue, the storyline or the actors not being comfortable withthe scenario is open to debate.

The cherry on top of the awfulness thatis Waiting In The Wings comes right at the end of the episode. At first we aregiven hope that maybe Cordelia and Angel will finally get to start arelationship, as Angel tentatively starts to tell Cordelia about his feelingsfor her. He is unfortunately interrupted by the arrival of the Groosalug andwith him a ridiculous plot point designed to throw a spanner in the works. Whythe writers’ felt the need to turn Cangel into a love-triangle is beyond me.Bringing Groo back onto the show seemed to serve no purpose other than keepingCordy and Angel apart, a curious move for the writers, given how strongly theyhad been pushing Cangel onto the audience in the very same episode. Whatfollows the Groosalug’s return is an almost complete demolition of therelationship that has been building between Cordelia and Angel. Cordy is senton vacation and Angel is left to brood silently until the biggest tragedy ofhis life occurs; losing his son.

It is completely unforgivable that thewriters’ left Cordelia out of the episodes that centre on Angel losing Connor.She is the one person who has been with him from the beginning and the oneperson who has always been there for him. He has now reached a point where he lovesher and she him (even if they haven’t admitted it) yet she is not present whenhis son is taken from him. That is a travesty and underlines how badly thewriters’ had lost the plot (pun intended) when it came to the Angel/Cordydynamic. To remove the heart of the group and the woman Angel loves during sucha pivotal time in the series was a huge mistake and furthers the destruction ofthe Cordelia/Angel relationship. They have been through everything together yetthey are separated during one of the biggest losses in the show and that hasnever sat well with me.

The tail end of Season 3 takes the messalready created and, if possible, seems to make it worse. When Cordelia returnsfrom vacation she is out-of-character and veering dangerously towards Mary Sueterritory. She has traded in her sarcasm and bluntness for “wiser”, softerstatements, which are very jarring. Her romance with the Groosalug seemsincredibly shallow, her interactions with Angel and the other characters areawkward and she is used as a Deux Ex Machina in several episodes (3.19 ThePrice comes to mind).

In the midst of being treated to an OOCCordelia, the writers resume their campaign to show us how much she and Angelare meant to be together, with Groo now weighing in on their relationship. Thewhole tail-end of the season comes across as being rushed and badly written,including the awkwardly set-up meeting between Cordy and Angel which, ofcourse, neither of them makes it to. Season 3 ends with the completeassassination of Cordelia as a character as she suddenly decides that leavingeveryone she loves and everything she cares about to go and float around in theHeavens is a good idea. The fans were left on a cliff-hanger, wondering whatthe hell happened to their ship and fervently praying that Season 4 wouldresolve all the issues. Unfortunately this was not to be the case.

Season 4 opens with Angel at the bottomof the ocean and Cordelia floating around in the Heavens. For the first threeepisodes of Season 4 we are treated to (very small) doses of the old Cordeliaas she bitches about being bored and fruitlessly yells at Angel to help her getback to earth. When she finally descends back to earth, she has convenientlydeveloped amnesia and stays in this state for several episodes, thuseliminating any hope the fans had that maybe their ship would be repaired.

4.4 Slouching Towards Bethlehem treats usto uncomfortable and slightly hostile interactions between Angel andAmnesia-Cordy. In trying to find out more about her former life Cordy grillsAngel about her identity and Angel in turn decides it would be best to lie toher for her protection. In a very OOC manner he seems to ignore the fact that,memory or no memory, this is Cordelia Chase, an incredibly strong and capable womanwho is one of the least likely people to need protection. Cordelia is, rightly,pissed off by his lies and ends up rejecting him and going to stay with Connor,creating the first of many rifts that occur between these two over the courseof Season 4.

4.5 Supersymmetry shifts the focus fromCordelia/Angel and onto Fred/Gunn, however a scene at the end of the episodebrings us back to Cordy/Angel, in an exchange which smacks of the writers onceagain trying to push Cangel onto the viewers. Cordelia sits Angel down to askabout the nature of their relationship. Rather than ease in with a mildquestion such as “Did we have feelings for each other?” or “Werewe a couple?” Cordy is given the God-awful line “Were we inlove?”. No subtlety, no hedging. The writers just can’t seem to grasp theconcept show don’t tell and decideinstead to shove this relationship down our throats. This question is onceagain brought up at the end of 4.6 Spin The Bottle, with Angel this time posingthe question to Cordy just after she receives her memory back. With a tearfulchoke in her voice she replies “We were” thus smacking the audiencein the face with the obvious (yet again).

Season 4 continues the slow destructionof Cordy/Angel as Cordelia once again rejects Angel in 4.7 Apocalypse Nowish.In a scene overflowing with ridiculously dramatic dialogue and wangst thatrivals the Buffy/Angel relationship, Cordelia informs Angel that while sheloves him, she can’t be with him because of all the horrifying things he did asAngelus.

Time out. This scene is one of the mostdamaging in the entire Cangel destruction. I previously mentioned that dramaticdialogue has no place in the Cordy/Angel dynamic and this scene emphasisesthat. Cordy and Angel have always had one of the most natural and drama-freerelationships in the Buffyverse. Their exchanges are usually quick, intelligentand razor-sharp, bouncing back and forth and staying refreshingly real. Eventheir more intense discussions stay very close to earth, reminding the audiencehow in tune they are with each other and how well suited they could be as a pairing.

This makes the scene in Apocalypse Nowishextremely OOC for both of them. The dialogue comes out sounding unnatural andstilted, leaving the audience cringing. Additionally, everything Cordy isactually saying to Angel is OOC. Cordelia has always been aware of what Angelcan become. She lived through Angelus’ reign of terror in Sunnydale, so sheknows exactly what he is capable of and she will protect herself and othersagainst him without hesitation were he to lose his soul. However this has neverclouded her view of him nor has it ever changed the way she feels about him.She knows that he is a good man who, yes, has a dark side, but she acceptsthis. For her to turn around and claim that Angelus is standing in the way ofher being with Angel is ridiculous, to say the least.

Season 4 then offers us the biggest andgrossest OOC moment for Cordelia, as she seduces and sleeps with Connor.Thousands of fans were left wondering what the hell just happened as theywatched Angel stumble onto the sight of the woman he loves having sex with hisson. The rift that this action causes ensures that for the rest of the seasonCordelia and Angel don’t stand a chance of reconciling and the dozens of Cangelshippers out there were left stunned and outraged. Of course the biggest revealwas yet to come.

Over the course of the next severalepisodes, the focus is shifted away from Cordy/Angel and onto the group as theyface battle after battle, strip Angel of his soul, recruit a Slayer to save himand finally bring in Uber Witch Willow to re-ensoul him. In the midst of allthis, two bombshells are dropped in quick succession ““ Cordy has turnedevil and is pregnant with Connor’s child. Both of these plot points furtherdrive Angel and Cordelia apart, leaving the fans with little to no hope forthis pairing.

The revelation that Cordelia isn’t evensteering her own body brings both relief and anger. On the one hand, at leastwe now know why Cordelia has been so OOC for the entire season and a reasonableexplanation is given for all her indiscretions. On the other hand that meansthat Angel went through all of this pain for nothing. The woman he loved nevertruly came back and once this discovery is made Angel is then faced with makingthe decision to kill her in order to save the world. In the end he escapeshaving to do so however Cordelia is left in a coma with Angel not knowing ifshe will ever return to him. The ship was seemingly sunk, with fans leftdevastated. Luckily the writers were busy gift-wrapping one last offering.

Cue 5.12 You’re Welcome, anappropriately-named episode which finally restores the natural and beautifuldynamic of the Cordy/Angel relationship. Cordelia returns, completely back incharacter and does what she always does best – steers Angel down the rightpath. Everything is restored, from their sarcastic banter, to the realness oftheir more emotional scenes, to Cordy being back in Action Girl mode. The scenewhere Cordy bluntly but beautifully reminds Angel of who is his, of what hestands for is played out in the most natural and understated way, with bothcharacters struggling to express their feelings but still managing to get theirmessages across. The final scene of the episodes is possibly the most amazingand wonderfully written Cangel scene in the entire show. Cordelia reaffirms herbelief in Angel before quietly explaining that she can’t stay. Their final kissis truly the only Cangel kiss that really shows how well they work together,being natural and full of chemistry. Their relationship, which went through somuch destruction at the hands of the writers, is allowed to end on abittersweet note and fans and shippers alike are finally given closure.

[medea10]

My Review of Sakura Quest

As luck would have it, she was able to find work. And best of all, she gets to play the role of a Queen. However, she’s Queen of a very, very small kingdom known as Chupakabra in a small village named Manoyama and has to remain there for one year. Of course she was highly against doing this. But after meeting some of the interesting people in this town, she’s slowly getting into her role as a queen. Plus, this isn’t the first time she’s been a queen in this town since she was a “Queen for the Day” when she was much younger. Coincidence or not?! Well, let’s see Yoshino take on the task of Queen of this rural village But Yoshino was able to get by with the help of four other ladies like the local buff, Shiori, the quiet introvert, Ririko, tech specialist Sanae, and actress enthusiast, Maki. BETWEEN THE SUB AND THE DUB: FUNimation, you hop on new animes faster than Bill O’Reilly jumps on…Okay, that was a bad analogy! I have yet to check out the dub, but I am well familiar with the entire main cast for the dub. All I’m gonna say on the matter is that once again, Brina Palencia is type-casted into another girl character with a monotone. As for the sub, I’m glad to hear many new voices here. And especially happy to hear Reina Ueda more considering I’m happily hearing her on Pokemon currently. And one more note, I’m liking how more diverse Japan is getting with certain voice roles in anime. Normally, when an anime has a token outsider character, they’ll get a regular seiyuu to voice that character and occasionally spout out “Engrish”. But with a character like Sandal-san, they have an Indian. Then again, Free! Eternal Summer had actual Australian to play Rin’s host parents. This shouldn’t surprise me at all. Here’s what you might recognize these folks from. JAPANESE CAST: *Yoshino is played by Ayaka Nanase *Shiori is played by Reina Ueda (known for Mallow on Pokemon SM and Jiro on Tokyo Ghoul) *Maki is played by Chika Anzai (known for Mina on Attack on Titan) *Sanae is played by Mikako Komatsu (known for Mairin on Pokemon XY, Seishirou on Nisekoi, Wy on Hetalia, Eternal Feather on Soul Eater Not, Tori on YGO Zexal, and Kate on Code Geass: Akito the Exiled) *Ririko is played by Chiemi Tanaka ENGLISH CAST: *Yoshino is played by Alexis Tipton (known for Millianna on Fairy Tail, Honey on Space Dandy, Himeji on Baka and Test, Kazakiri on Index, Moka on Rosario to Vampire, Musubi on Sekirei, and Saya on Blood-C) *Shiori is played by Tia Ballard (known for Happy on Fairy Tail, Beast on Black Butler: Book of Circus, Komari on Little Busters, Megumi on Shiki, Ku on Sekirei, and Mizore on Rosario to Vampire) *Maki is played by Leah Clark (known for Cat Witch Blair on Soul Eater, Mavis on Fairy Tail, Mur Mur on Mirai Nikki, Saki on Eden of the East, Ruby on Rosario to Vampire, and Minami on Baka and Test) *Sanae is played by Elizabeth Maxwell (known for Ymir on Attack on Titan, Jenny on Fairy Tail, Ayano on Code Geass: Akito the Exiled, and Cordelia on Gosick) *Ririko is played by Brina Palencia (known for Ciel on Black Butler, Yuno on Mirai Nikki, Juvia on Fairy Tail, Chopper on One Piece, Nina Tucker on FMA, Vorona on Durarara x2, Toka on Tokyo Ghoul, and Saten on Railgun) FAVORITE CHARACTER: Amazingly, I really liked two of the old people more than the main female cast. That's not to say I didn't like the main female cast. If I could choose my favorite from the girls, I would pick Ririko. But my top two choices are... Kadota and Chitose. Kadota was just that special category of quirky. Even in his youth! He’s prone to making mistakes and has many comedic moments, but there are moments that are touching that you can’t help but like the old guy. But he’s that special kind of crazy many in the town either like or despise. Plus, you gotta love it when he's in a wacky costume. And that’s where you have Chitose. At first, I didn’t know how to feel about her. Especially since she was very protective of Ririko and gave Kadota and Yoshino a hard time! But later in the series, I grew to like her more and more. And you definitely have to admit that she’s a wonderful grandmother to Ririko. DISLIKED CHARACTER: Here I go again picking on little kids! I choose Erika. Throughout the series, I tried not to let her bother me that much seeing as she wasn’t part of the main plot and just saw her as an annoying side-character that works in a restaurant with her family. But then this brat wound up with her own two-episode arc. She reminded me so much of Megumi from Shiki where everything in the small town disgusts her. SHIPPING: I gotta give props to this series. This story is sticking to its guns on trying to revive a rural town. And that’s it! No side-stories where one of the main girls falls for some pretty boy. The most we get with the shipping category are side-stories involving minor, minor characters like Shiori’s sister or some townspeople. ENDING: Throughout the series, Yoshino and the girls have made great strides to get some much needed attention to a seemingly-dying town. And one of the things that the girls have been preparing for is a festival that hasn’t been performed in over 50 years. And even a few happy surprises were coming as a television crew from a previous arc wanted to come and film this festival. And a new store could be opening up in town, quite possibly giving the shopping district a much needed boost. However, things take a sad turn when the town learns that Manoyama would be absorbed into another town. Manoyama will cease to exist eventually! So what do these townfolk do? They murder a bunch of people and throw cotton in the water! No, no, no! It’s too late in the game to go down the Higurashi route. They decide to enlist in trying to get a sister-city. And get chummy with someone from another town. The town went on with their festival and things were going okay. With the exception of Kadota almost getting arrested while wearing his trademark Chupakabra mask and running out of gas, he was able to make it in time to be in Maki’s play. And that play went very well. Ririko sang her dragon song perfectly and the whole town celebrated on a job well done with this festival. Now comes the reality of these five girls and what they’ll be doing since Yoshino’s time in Manoyama is almost up. Shiori will of course still stay in Manoyama. Sanae is gonna continue staying in Manoyama and will open up a business in the shopping district. Maki will continue with plays and acting troops. And Ririko has decided to leave Manoyama and travel around, like her Mexican friend she made during the series. The five girls gave a last cheer together and also planted a tree together as a reminder of what this past year meant to them. And now comes the time for Yoshino’s departure as queen and Manoyama. And with that departure, she will be known as the last Queen, as Kadota decided to disband the Kingdom of Chupakabra. Yoshino’s leaving brought out the whole town to say goodbye to her passing train. They will always remember her. As for Yoshino’s next move, she went to another town and help out their town the same way she helped Manoyama. This was an interesting series. I can honestly say I didn’t know I what I was getting into and didn’t know what to expect. But because of it’s slow-pace and lack of romance, this anime is definitely not for everybody. But I enjoyed it! You know, not every story has to have romance or love interests. There are more important tasks at hand with certain stories. Currently, Crunchyroll and FUNimation have these episodes available to stream. And FUNimation also has the simulcast dub available.