#I truly believe that all of this was to try and indoctrinate him into their cause. They saw someone with star power (very rare)

[ghostsandfools]

Okay I’m about to write a LOT of tags-

Also sorry if it sounds like I’m arguing, I don’t wanna argue with you cause you’re my friend- we are having a ✨civil debate✨

That laes episode… WOWZA

It’s becoming increasingly clear how much of an effect the astrals’ indoctrination has had on Lunar. He can’t think of any good reason to get his powers back, but he wants to do it anyways. He hates having powers, he hates how stressful it is, he hates the idea of leaving his family behind, but he wants to do it anyways. He feels like he has to, like it’s his purpose. Even if he isn’t happy, he doesn’t ‘deserve’ happiness.

Why does he have to leave his family behind? Genuinely, why? Because he’ll be too ‘busy’ to see them? Because they could ‘interfere’ with his work? No!

The reason why Lunar can’t see his family if he gets his powers back is because he will be fully indoctrinated into the astral cult. People who join cults often cut their families off or rarely interact with them. Cult leaders don’t want their disciples getting too friendly with outsiders, because they may realize that they’re being manipulated. The astrals don’t want Lunar interacting with his family because they’re worried he’ll get too distracted from their main goal.

The astrals aren’t evil. They may not even be purposefully indoctrinating people. I don’t think Gemini’s goal is to manipulate Lunar or isolate him from his family. Their goal is to protect the universe from dark star power. But that doesn’t change the fact that they have had an extreme negative effect not just on Lunar, but his family as well.

They’ve made him fear for his life, his livelihood. It feels like everything he has could be lost in an instant.

Without his powers, he feels useless. He dedicated himself to the astrals, training himself every day just to become one of them. The idea of losing his powers is so stressful to him that he’d consider leaving his family behind just to pursue becoming an astral.

He asks “Why do I have to make this choice?” And it’s a good question!

Why was he EVER put into this position? The astrals could’ve taken his powers from him at any time. Why didn’t they? Why did Gemini say he was at risk of DEATH after he killed Eclipse? Why didn’t they put him through this torment, why did they threaten him like that? Because they want him to stay loyal to their cause.

[solelyseeking]

AITA for trying to bag the new kid at my school? PART 3.

Due to the continued lack of progress, I am back, seeking help from the vagrant scum of this subreddit.

Dear basement dwellers and unwashed perverts: If even I, Tom Riddle, cannot get a date, then there truly is no hope for the rest of you.

Time to freshen up your cleaning charms and “lock in”.

For those of you whining about how I ought to just ‘approach him like a normal person’- I am not a normal person. I am a God, baptized in the blood of my enemies. Stop giving me meaningless platitudes, and start helping me smell his hair!

His little sycophant has been following him around everywhere, which has only made approaching him harder. Orion calls himself Harry’s ‘best friend’, but everyone knows Harry only hangs out with him because he feels so sorry for him. (Generations of inbreeding made one ugly baby lol!)

Harry’s very charitable like that. All the more reason to indoctrinate him into my cult, but he’s being weirdly stubborn about the whole thing?

“I don’t wanna learn dark magic, Tom.”

“I don’t believe in blood surpremacy, Tom.”

“Stop trying to take me into your murder dungeon, Tom.”

Isn’t that ridiculous? Anyone with half a brain would love to be invited into my murder dungeon the esteemed chamber built by my lineage!

Harry is very lucky to have so many muscles, as no one expects much brilliance from him. Still, I know he’s cleverer than he lets on. Just the other day, he noticed me cursing Grace Bell for lingering too long outside of the Quidditch changing rooms.

I was just looking out for him. And clearly I was right to do so, since I caught her creeping around while I was waiting for him to emerge, shirtless and damp, from his post game shower. Imagine the kind of obsessed weirdos he’d have to deal with if I wasn’t there to curse them all!

Still, other people would have been totally fooled- but not Harry. He gets me.

Clearly, he’s paying a lot of attention to me, so how can I capitalize on that? I tried spilling a bit of my potion on him in class the other day, so I could remove my shirt sensually and dry the liquid off of him. Only, then he started shouting at me about how I “wasn’t going to get away with this like I did with Myrtle.”

See- another example of how well he knows me! (That’s a girl I killed near my murder dungeon lol)

As you can see, this is a dire situation. Hurry up and provide me with some useful information before he kisses the incest baby.

Harry is very handsome, and I cannot afford to waste time. I have enclosed a photograph of him so that you wastes of genetic material understand the stakes.

[Harry_Potter_Riddle.Jpeg]

suziehiggins: oh, i get it. that guy is adorable

| OP: Stay away from my man, Susan.

Orion.Black: @harryjamespotterr

| OP: You will rue this day, you incestuous hellspawn.

harryjamespotter: Tom, is this some kind of prank?

| OP: Who is Tom I’ve never heard that name in my life.

| harryjamespotter: you literally posted a picture of yourself in the last update…

| ed_hardy: It’s okay, he was just catfishing

| OP: NO I WAS NOT

goonermachine: did you doodle Tom + Harry = Soulmates all over his picture?

| OP: I know you have eyes so I don’t see why you’re asking me such a stupid question. Yes

[burst-of-iridescent]

The Choice of Compassion: A Scene Analysis of Aang vs Zuko

should aang have killed ozai?

the age old question. the discourse secondary only to the infamous kat.aang vs zutara ship war. the argument that's been raging for sixteen long, long years and inspired dozens upon dozens of thinkpieces on either side.

so naturally, i'm here to add one more that no one asked for.

now, this debate keeps getting mischaracterized as The Side That Respects Pacifism vs The Side That Wants A Preteen To Commit Brutal Murder when, for the most part, i don't think anyone is really staking their life on the homicide hill. the real issue most people take with aang's arc in the finale isn't him sparing ozai, but rather the deus ex-machina mechanism through which he's able to do so. i agree with that, but i would also take it further to argue that the real problem is that aang's ending is not thematically and narratively consistent with the rest of his arc as set up in the show.

to illustrate this, let's take a look at another scene that plays with similar themes: zuko choosing to save zhao in the siege of the north.

the basics of both scenes are the same: both boys choose, against all logic and common sense, to spare someone who would never show them the same mercy. when it comes down to compassion versus violence, they choose compassion, even at risk to themselves.

but where the siege of the north differs from sozin's comet is that zuko choosing to save zhao is thematically consistent with his arc in season 1, and aligns with where it will go in seasons 2 and 3.

zuko's journey throughout the show is one of rediscovery. he has to find his way back to who he used to be, before his family and his nation warped his perception of right and wrong, and forced him into believing he had to become someone he didn't want to be. it's clear as early as the storm episode that zuko is fundamentally kind, and the person he is now is as a result of being indoctrinated in a culture that perverted violence and cruelty into honour and strength.

in trying to save zhao, the personification of the fire nation's worst qualities and most twisted teachings, zuko turns against the values he's been raised with most of his life and instead chooses to remain true to himself and what he believes is right. it's a triumphant moment because it's zuko returning to the heart of who he is, and who he's truly supposed to be.

and even though his decision may be logically unsound (why risk yourself trying to save someone who tried to kill you?) you don't see anyone complaining that zuko shouldn't have tried at all, because his choice here is a direct - even if brief - resolution to the internal conflict the show has previously established for his character. the narrative consistency of the set-up and payoff allows the audience to recognize the thematic cohesion of this moment in zuko's arc - which is what makes it so powerful and satisfying.

so, the question is: does the same apply to aang's choice not to kill ozai?

the argument supporting aang's decision is usually something as follows: "aang sparing ozai is his way of remaining true to his people and making sure they aren't forgotten. it's a powerful symbol of how he's keeping their culture and beliefs alive even though the fire nation tried to wipe them out."

now that's not a bad argument, in theory. the problem, though, is that if this is the resolution of aang's arc, it has to be a direct response to a conflict established in said arc... and remaining true to air nomad values is not a struggle the show ever set up for aang until the finale.

not once in any of the previous seasons does aang seem to be forgetting his people's ideals, or losing his identity through assimilation, or struggling to reconcile his air nomad beliefs with the ideas he's encountering in this new, changed world. there isn't a long-term, sustained arc about him being worried or concerned about air nomad culture dying out completely, or about taking on the burden of keeping it alive. in fact, the only episode that does reckon with this theme in any capacity - the northern air temple - seems to push the opposite message: that aang should move on and adapt to this changing world instead of remaining mired in the past, and protecting the culture of a people long gone.

(note: i don't like how the NAT episode handled this theme, but for the purposes of this post, we will take it as it was written.)

both zuko and aang are characters whose arcs revolve around change, but if zuko's arc is about moving back to who he truly is, then aang's arc is about moving forward. it's about going from the last airbender to the avatar - about drawing wisdom from different places, about immersing himself in the practices, beliefs and cultures of the other nations, and learning to value them as he values his own.

it's the classic want vs need: what aang wants is to be nothing more than a goofy, peaceful airbender but what he needs is to become a fully-realized avatar, the embodiment of four nations in one. and this conflict is established and re-established repeatedly over three seasons, most especially in his struggle to learn earthbending and firebending, both of which called for him to adopt new perspectives and beliefs contrary to his own.

this is why aang refusing to kill ozai feels so narratively unfulfilling, because it's the complete antithesis of what the show established for aang's narrative over three seasons. the plot point of his absolute pacifism not only comes out of left field (where was this problem when he was going to battle ozai during the eclipse?), it's also incongruous with the depiction of other air nomads in the series (both yangchen and gyatso don't seem to practice absolute pacifism) and with where aang's own arc appeared to be leading.

additionally, it also conflicts with the thematic clash that the aang vs ozai fight is supposed to represent: what was meant to be balance and harmony vs dominance and supremacy now turns into... air nomad beliefs vs fire nation beliefs, which runs contrary to the fundamental message of the entire show. not exactly what you want for the final battle between your protagonist and antagonist!

all of this is not to say that aang should have gone turbo avatar state on ozai and singlehandedly yeeted him into the spirit world. but there were a dozen other ways to handle ozai's end: give him a disney death, let aang learn energybending of his own accord and incapacitate him the way katara took down azula, or - my personal favourite - bring in the spirits in a neat parallel to the book 1 finale, and have ozai's death be a consequence of the imbalance he propagated in the world (i've always felt the avatar being the spirit bridge was a plotline that kinda got shafted in book three, and bringing back someone like koh, for instance, would've slapped).

the point is that for the resolution of aang's arc to be thematically consistent with the established narrative (the validity of this narrative, and whether it should have been different, is another point entirely, but it cannot be denied that this is what the show chose to go with), he needed to place the values and beliefs of the other nations on equal footing with his own, and win because of this willingness to draw from all nations instead of relying solely on his own.

ultimately, remaining true to his compassionate, peaceful nature is not a struggle in aang's narrative the way that it is in zuko's, which is why him choosing to spare ozai doesn't have anywhere near the emotional resonance or satisfaction of zuko reaching out to zhao. meanwhile, the conflict that does characterize aang's arc - being forced to become the avatar - never comes to a meaningful resolution the way that zuko's does. rather, it's thrown out the window in favour of a last minute plot point that robs aang of both agency and development, and destroys the thematic cohesion of his narrative for nothing.

[tojislibrvry]

★ ︵ @ toji / reader , missionary , unprotected, religious imagery , manipulation , religious indoctrination , biblical themes but no allusions to any certain religion

you don’t believe in God. God is not a word that is familiar with your tongue nor is it a concept familiar with your soul. even when your mind had been destroyed, life in shambles had you turned to religion to bring you to normalcy. faith was never salvation to you.

you were simply an atheist — a fool they would call you, who proudly believes there is no God. they tell you, you lack spiritual discernment, that the holy words of God are lost to your ears. your rooted anti-belief in the existence of any God runs deep, so why are you listening to the stranger outside your home promising you heaven ?

your values don’t waver, your beliefs don’t change yet you are hooked onto every word that spills from the strange man’s lips hooked like a subdued snake dancing along to the snake charmer’s tunes.

you take notice of how he looks, unbelievable both literally and figuratively in the sense he looks beautiful enough to rival eros but deceit threaded through his black suit making him as unreliable as the serpent in paradise. he flashes a smile at your disorientation holding his hand out for you to trust him.

you try to remember how you got yourself into this, previous encounters with those wanting to talk about religion of any kind met with your defiant roll of eyes and the door slammed on their face. this man, toji, he introduced himself as, was quick to place his feet between your doorframe ( not that you noticed ).

“you don’t believe in heaven do you ?”

huh, breaking out of your reverie, you realise that he had stopped talking a good two minutes ago. smiling nervously, you shake your head.

“even if heaven was real, wouldn’t everyone alive be in hell ? aren’t we all sinners ?” you step forward a little braver, “can you look me in the eye and tell me God would let you step into heaven?”

he laughs boisterously at your line of questioning. “my God would.”

“he has witnessed my very descent into hell, watched the way my hands shook the devil’s and yet used his holy palms to pull out my blasphemous ones out of the netherworld. if my treacherous soul could be welcomed to heaven, he would wait with open arms to invite you in when you pass.”

you take a good look at his face, one look and you knew this man was not a child of God. his hair pushed back neatly, his face clean shaven like he had eliminated any hint of shabbiness right before he stepped foot into your world, a smile plastered on his face but none of it truly reflected in his piercing green eyes. despite the very prominent signs of danger like the scar on his lips that ran vertically across or the way his arms bulged under his suit like it was built to be a weapon, no, it was the way mirth danced in his eyes that wouldn’t let you believe him.

if eyes were a window to your soul, toji was a man with sacrilege running through his veins.

“sure buddy. i think it’s time you leave—” “there is none who does good. all of us fall short of the standard God has set, do you think he expects perfection from us? does a mother not know the follies of her children ?”

you tilt your head, trying to come up with an answer that you know you wouldn’t be able to come up with. “uh— i’m not sure what you are talking about.” you are beyond nervous now, anxiety creeping into your blood, heart beating faster than it should.

“am i scaring you sweetheart, fear not.” he steps into your house, your final boundary between him and your own personal haven breached. “all i'm saying is think of all those times you’ve felt alone, felt wrong in your skin. i come here as a sign for you, to show you you are never truly alone. our God does not see sinners, he does not see sin, he sees you and he sees love.”

he grabs your soft, much smaller hands and places it on his broad chest while placing his palm right on top of your beating heart. “feel that? listen to the way your heart calms down, notice the way it syncs with mine. embrace the way that our God is showing you.”

you nod, swallowing the lump in your throat, pupils blown black with how utterly enamoured by his words you are. you can hear the slowing of your heart, the thump-thump softer than ever, the stress you constantly feel in your shoulder leaving you.

you try to break yourself out of the daze you are in, “i don’t think this is right, i think you should leave, you are messing with my… head.” you weakly and begrudgingly try to push him out the door, trying to erase the mark he has left on your soul.

“i'm not messing with your head darling, i'm trying to enlighten you. do you want me to show you a taste of heaven ? to feel the eternal bliss that is guaranteed if you listen to me ?”

“what are you talking about—” “let me guide you through what is heaven on earth, to let you experience a little death in this very mortal realm.” he closes the door behind him as he steps closer, his tall stature casting a shadow upon you barring the sunlight from hitting your skin.

“let me show you what our God put us on earth for, why he made you and me. allow me to show you the virtues of the flesh, the way God intended for us to fit perfectly together.” he bends down to match your height, revelling in the way your breath hitches when you feel his apple scented breath on your face.

“do you want to see how God forgives our sins— for we are never pure before our maker ?”

you nod.

toji leads you to your own bedroom with practiced ease like he had been there before. he guides you with a palm splayed against your lower back, with the kind of insistence that blurs the lines between gentle and rough. he lets you watch him undress in the dim lit room, the way a stray sun ray falls on his tan skin as he unbuttons the white shirt.

you cannot take your eyes of the display of skin and flesh, feeling like an animal that wants to sink its canines to its poor prey. he has the slightest smirk painted on his lips when he's done stripping himself naked, his body in the nude as he presents himself unabashedly.

he does not chide your wandering eyes. he does not question the way your eyes travel down to his cock, fixated on the heavy muscle bobbing between his thighs. he rather encourages it, walking closer so he can strip you now.

hands gentle, as gentle as scarred and calloused palms can be, when he pulls down the straps of your slip dress. the lace showing very less resistant as it pools around your feet on the carpeted ground. he watches you grow shy under his unwavering gaze.

he calls you beautiful, your mind registers late. he admires the gooseflesh that has erupted on your skin, the way you resemble a sweet fruit ebbing with the weight of blood. he looks at you, like you are the apple and he is eve. he looks ready to defy his very God for the taste of knowledge, oh rather the knowledge of your taste.

you pull him to your bed, the soft sheets with white lace trim like you were God's true virgin. he does not judge you when you pull out the condoms from your bedside drawer, no he does not care if you joined and became one with countless others before. he only reserves the right to be the first to desecrate you with his cum. he wishes to be the first that gets to feel your tight walls close on his cock, to feel you warm him from the deepest crevices of your body.

he crawls on to the bed, pushing aside the contraceptive you hold in your hands to cage you underneath him so he can kiss you with ferver and passion, he licks your mouth open and tastes the rich wine that coats your mouth. the taste of your pliant mouth and the way it glides against his teeth and lips is enough to let him moan.

he focuses on kissing you while a single hand travels from your navel to your chest, so he could play with the soft skin around your sensitive nipples. he does not shame you for crying out loud when he pinches you, the way your body arches of the bed when his mouth replaces his hand. he is meticulous in the way he is precise in bringing you satisfaction, but he is messy in the way spit trails and dries in streaks on your skin.

he takes his time worshiping your body, though idolation is a sin. he treats you like fragile glass as he leaves open mouthed kisses from your mouth to the wetness pooling between your thighs. he grins with pride when he takes sight of the mess that greets him, dripping with need at simply a few kisses.

"you worry too much, God will not punish you for feeling this way about his messenger." he says before kissing you in places that you are sure God would never approve of despite his saccharine words.

he pulls you closer to his mouth, licking and worshiping you with his tongue in a way that makes your eyes roll back. he lets his finger ghost around the edge of your awaiting hole, letting you suck in a harsh breath before pushing it in. the resistance around his finger does not stop him, he continues his assault with both his mouth and finger, loosening you up for the devil in between his thighs. he goes on with his ministrations but stopping every time he gauges you are close, constantly edging you like he is gatekeeping your orgasm.

his finger is coated with the myrrh like essence of your arousal but he does not seem to mind it. after what he thinks is the appropriate amount of preparation your hole needs to accomodate his throbbing cock, he spreads you upen both your legs spread apart on the either side of his corded thighs. he places a gentle kiss to your forehead and mutters an apology against your lips, when he pushes himself in.

simply taking just his tip in, the mushroomy cockhead, spurting pre nudged inside your feverish hole is enough for the both of you to let noises of pleasure echo through the room. he wishes he could refuse the way you feel, but he cannot deny you are the best he has felt around him in the longest time.

"toji, you— you can move!" you give the man permission, your hand traveliing down to his arm that holds your legs apart so you can tug on him to consume you closer. he grunts past the resistance of your walls, your feet pressed against the small of his back trapping him in the blessing of your sultry hole.

all toji needs is your honeyed voice to consent to his debauchery so he begins to punish you with harsh thrusts that make you see stars. he is an experienced man that takes thirty seconds to find that gooey spot in you, abusing his knowledge to make you loose lipped and empty brained. he devours the spit that drools from your mouth, cherishing the way you began to pray to him.

incessant "please toji! please, please, please!" ringing in his ears as sweat from his forehead threatens to hide the image of you getting unravelled in front of him.

despite the pleasure you feel, you arent convinced there is a God that would forgive you for the way toji bites into your shoulder drawing blood, using the very bloodied mouth to kiss your mouth to preach what he believes is true. you can't find any rational thought as to why you are letting a near stranger make his imprint guts deep, ready to paint your insides white. you want to argue against it, but you can't.

toji for the first time encourages your arriving orgasm, he does not pull out nor does he stop. instead he focuses on all your weak spots and gives them special attention so he can encourage you.

"come on sweetheart, make a mess on my cock. let me deliver you from your sins."

he holds you down, slamming against you loud and proud, the sounds of skin slapping the only noise left in your near static brain. you let him violate you but you also let him cleanse you. he holds your throat down as he spits in your mouth. you take it because you a good little thing in need of absolvement. toji likes to pretend that the way he is penetrating you is his way of showing you the way to salvation, you are not sure that it is just pretend.

he looks at you with near black eyes as he fucks you hard with a single thrust, burying himself so deep he covers your guts in his sacriligeous release. you reach your peak the same time he does but you realise he wasn't lying when he said he'd show you heaven.

you try to stay firm with your beliefs but the way your eyes see white like you can feel the winds from the pearly gates beconing to enter almost almost makes you change your mind. you've had sex before, you've made yourself cum before, you've thought for the longest time that you had achieved every kind of hedonistic depravity that is there on the planet.

yet, toji's cock nestled deep inside you while you mewled holding on to him, about how he was too big while in missionary stood taller than any sort of experience you thought you had. he kisses your tears away, gently pulling out as you begin to settle into peaceful slumber, mind void of any worries.

you no longer care that you left your home vulnerable to a religious stranger as you fall asleep, last thing you remember is a soft towel cleaning up the remnants of toji's spit and cum.

you wake up early in the morning as sunshine streams in through your blinds, leaving you alone in your empty bed. you get up on wobbly feet to find any sign that the man was ever in your home except for the bruises that covered your skin.

your eyes fall on your wallet thrown across your floor, and you drag your sorry self to pick it up. in place of the money that you had hard earned, you find a single white card with the words — for Our God will not judge the sexually immoral and adulterous and an address on the back.

[vexwerewolf]

Felicitations, comrade! We had our session 0 for the IGF campaign im running, and one of my players wants to be a moonlighter pirate "infiltrating" Hell's Gate militia. He was initially thinking of being affiliated with the Hell Hounds, which for obvious reasons would present some challenges. Do you have any advice for making this happen, what with the very first mission putting him up against his true boss? I dont know that he'd have enough time to have truly built up camraderie with the rest of the SRT to truly make his character have conflicted loyalties.

I mean, he'd have to have been with the militia a while to build up enough trust to be seriously considered for the SRT.

But moreover, let me tell you what being a Hell Hound is like.

CW: psychological and physical abuse

So one thing I want to make it clear that the Hell Hounds are basically an incel cult without the weird gender-sexual overtones. I imagine there ARE women and enbies who join it but in essence Andros Capella is a creepy weirdo who preys on disaffected, primarily male youth with no prospects and indoctrinates them into his worldview of nihilistic violence.

Andros doesn't really have a philosophy, or at least not one that he could describe in words (and even if he could, he wouldn't), but it could be summed up as "the weak exist solely to create things for the strong to take." You are worthy of having things if you are strong enough to take them, but only so long as you're strong enough to keep them.

The closest political ideology I could ascribe to him would be "stateless fascism." Andros is certainly sadistic, devoid of empathy and believes himself to be supreme, but he's too intellectually lazy to bother engaging in justifying why he's supreme. He makes the most basic of naturalistic arguments (i.e. "this is just the way the world works") but feels it's beneath him to actually justify or provide evidence for his claims.

He hates the minutiae of day-to-day life, and derives no joy from anything that doesn't involve someone else's discomfort or pain. He will steal your food for the sheer thrill of having taken something that you wanted to eat, but he won't enjoy eating it because he despises the physical sensations of chewing and swallowing.

And if you are a Hell Hound who, god forbid, enjoys something, he will bully the shit out of you. He will verbally and physically abuse you until you learn to hate the thing you liked just to make the pain stop.

Lemme tell you what the average night on Fort Cerberus looks like when you're not on a raid: you and a couple hundred other sick fucks lurk around the corridors drinking and gambling but you sure as hell better not actually look like you're having fun because you're all desperately trying to avoid becoming the bossman's next chew toy.

Some poor fuck catches Andros' eye. You're not sure what for, but from the sounds of things he might've been counting his poker winnings too loud. He gets a hand on his shoulder from the big man, who tells him that he's being too selfish - gotta learn to share a bit more, yeah? Now, way Andros sees it, guy's got ten fingernails that he's keeping all to himself, so here's a set of pliers - redistribute.

You jeer along with the rest of the room, loud enough to drown out his screams, because you're so very, very relieved that it isn't you. But you fuck up. You look a little bit too enthusiastic, perhaps, or maybe it's the opposite, maybe you weren't forcing it enough. Either way, the bossman's eyes land on you and your blood turns to ice in your veins.

"You," he says. "C'mere."

The room is dead silent all of a sudden, quiet enough that the pitiful whimpering of the first guy, (currently on his second thumbnail) is the only sound you can hear. You walk over, as a prisoner does to the place of execution.

He takes your hands, inspecting your fingernails, and then your hands, then your arms. "No ink yet? You not pulling your weight? Am I payin' to feed a fuckin' leech?"

You say you're not a leech.

"Those pricks over at the Gate are gettin' too clever. Learning too quick. Gettin' the jump on us too many times. I want someone over there learnin' what they know. You 'avin' no ink makes you a good choice. They'd sniff out any of these boys in a second, they would, but not you. You look soft. Don't he look soft, boys?"

The room jeers at you just as you jeered at the first guy (he's on his ninth nail, now, and his throat is so hoarse he can't make sounds anymore). You try your best to remain composed.

"Normally soft'd be fuckin' worthless. But soft'll let you blend right in with the Gaters."

So, to avoid whatever horrific torture he's currently ideating, you agree. The next time they go out on a raid, they pick a ship full of people who don't know each other and slip you in with the passengers when nobody's looking. You don't go to Hell's Gate directly - you do a couple of hops through the Thousand Habs, just to throw off suspicion.

You sue for residency on the station as a refugee from a failed habitat. They give you your own cabin, and they make sure you're fed and clothed. You smirk to yourself - they really are as soft as Andros said they'd be; they have food and water and clothes and they're just giving them away!

You don't have all that many marketable skills, so after a few rotations scrubbing air filters, you apply to take the militia aptitude test. You try to play it down so they don't get suspicious, but if nothing else you're a damn good pilot, so you get fast-tracked. These fucking idiots just give you a mech! God, it's gonna be so easy to tear them apart from the inside.

They put you in a team. You train together, building up hours in the simulators. Then something weird happens. They... trust you? They want to... spend time with you, outside the simulators. They want to drink with you, play games with you, hear about your life. Well, is it more suspicious if you say no? You have to maintain your cover.

You don't always fit in well. Sometimes you crack jokes that are... a little unpleasant, a little off, a little worrying, and you learn to bite those down because it's bad for your cover. You also have this odd air about you, like you're constantly on guard, like you're waiting for the other shoe to drop (like somebody's gonna make you rip your fingernails out if you're too happy). People figure you must've gone through some trauma and are kind stupid enough not to pry.

You feed information about the militia back to Andros - carefully, so as not to blow your cover. Some members of your team get hurt - nobody dies, but they get hurt. You feel... bad. Why do you feel bad? They're soft, they're weak, they don't mean anything. They're not your real friends. You don't have any friends.

Months pass. Jerry says he wants to tap your team for a long-standing project he's working on. This is your chance. Sabotaging this will prove to Andros that you're strong, that you're not weak, that you're not a leech, that you can pull your weight.

Sure, a bunch of your team will have to die. The only people who've ever put their trust in you, the only people who've ever believed in you. But that's fine, right? They don't mean anything, they're not real people, right? They're idiots for trusting you, right? They deserve it, right?

Right?

... right?

[grntaire]

good omens is an allegory for queer deconstruction from an abusive fundamentalist religious environment.

i've talked about it on here ad nauseum, probably, but i haven't fleshed my thoughts out on it fully. this has been my interpretation since season 1, and season 2 just solidified it for me. so here goes.

it's about the choice that all queer people in an environment like this have to make, and both choices suck and end with loss.

choice 1: stay with your church community, your friends, your family, the world you've always known, but never be true to yourself. because they will never fully accept you if you are true to yourself.

choice 2: embrace your queerness, live your authentic life, and leave it all behind. you're torn from everything you've ever known, everyone you've ever loved. but it's what you have to do to be happy. aziraphale is stuck between choices. crowley never had a choice. his was made for him.

heaven are the church elders. the protectors. the ones who say they have your and god's best interest in mind, always. they don't. to them, hell are the blasphemers, who are both unworthy of redemption yet can only be saved by it. they are the arbiters of what is good and right and bad and wrong.

aziraphale's story is one of both learned faith and earned faith. learned, in that he's been indoctrinated his whole life. been to church at least twice a week since birth. earned, in that he's seen the good that the church can do–they feed the hungry, shelter the unhoused. how could people who do such good be capable of cruelty? and surely, when they are cruel, there must be some greater good to come out of it?

crowley was faithful once, too. he loved god. loved church. but he knew he was queer from a young age, and asked questions about it. not because he wanted to make trouble, but because he wanted to understand. to understand why something he knew about himself to be so innately true could be wrong. but the church didn't see it as that–they saw the embodiment of sin, questioning them. their authority, their virtuosity, the fibre of what holds their organization together, and he was cast out. was kicked out of his home, alienated from his family, his friends, his community. he fell. and he now sees the church for what it truly is.

as for aziraphale, he's accepted the fact that he's queer, but had faith that his elders had his best interest at heart when they spewed homophobic ideology. he never believed the ideology, not really, but he had to believe (made himself believe) that the people who spread it meant well. that they meant it out of kindness, out of protecting queer people from damnation. he wanted to believe that not everyone in the church was like this, that not everyone in the church thought all queer people are inherently people of sin. that is, until a mentor, someone he trusts, perpetuates it too. he's had moments in his past that chipped away at his faith: he'd stayed friends, or whatever you want to call it, with crowley, and crowley had tempted him into trying new things that the church wouldn't approve of. things that aziraphale loved. but this moment with his mentor is when his faith is truly shaken. it's the beginning of his active deconstruction.

and so he leaves. he leaves and finds crowley and they build a semblance of a life together with what they have. they're happy. he's learning that he doesn't need to go to church to be holy. that he doesn't need to be holy to be happy. that he's allowed to indulge in the things he loves without guilt and shame.

that is, until that mentor shows up at his doorstep, offering him everything he's ever wanted. insinuates that he knows him and crowley aren't just friends, and assures him that they can come back to church together. that they're going to change things in the church, and that aziraphale can help. that they need aziraphale to help. (they don't. they want a pious gayboy to help repair their image. it's performative activism at its finest). aziraphale is being offered his family, his community, everything back, and crowley can come too. preying on his wants and desires, manipulating him back into their control. so of course he says yes. they'll get to be together with everything they've ever known and aziraphale doesn't have to make a choice between losses anymore. (deconstruction isn't linear, and abuse is cyclical.)

but crowley makes it for him. crowley tells him no. he doesn't want that life and doesn't want to go back to those people who hate him so much. who hate them so much. crowley knows what the church is about and sees it for what it is. they're not about god, or moral good or doing what's right. all they want is control. it's about the optics of the organization. it's about influencing what serves them and their agenda, and crowley knows that aziraphale is just a pawn to them. ("Why would we go back to them, when they think that who we are is wrong? Is vile? They think us the embodiment of sin and you want to go help them with their PR campaign?")

but aziraphale doesn't know that, can't know it, and crowley can't make him see it. (aziraphale knows that they cast crowley out, that he was kicked out of his home. crowley never shared with him about what happened after. the nights on the street, the things he'd endured to survive.)

and so crowley kisses him. he kisses him to tell him not that he loves him, because of course he does. he kisses him to tell him "This is what you leave behind. We would never be able to do this there, to be this there, even if they say we could. Our lives are here, our safety is here. this is what you're giving up."

crowley has been through it and experienced their cruelty firsthand. aziraphale won't be able to see it until he experiences it, too. he won't be able to realize he's being played if he doesn't even know that there's a game happening in the first place.

i can't recommend watching the show through this lens enough. it makes aziraphale's story that much more heartbreaking, because there's this intense duality of indoctrination vs. deconstruction that lives within him constantly. (imo it's also the main difference between book aziraphale and tv aziraphale: book aziraphale is significantly further along in his deconstruction journey. it's why he's a bit more of a bastard. tv aziraphale is set back a bit further, which sets up his deconstruction arc beautifully across three seasons.)

it's why aziraphale has the ability to peel back layers of himself and his train of thought depending on the situation at hand–he literally has two trains of thought happening at once. the indoctrinated one, and the deconstructed one.

and when crowley kisses him, it's the first time in his existence that both trains of thought have been that present simultaneously. it's both trains colliding full speed with each other. it's why we see both livid, hesitant frustration and fierce passion and longing at once. it forced him to confront something that lived so deeply within himself that he wanted to bring to light on his own terms, but crowley was desperate. the kiss wasn't i love you, please stay. it was look at what you're leaving behind. we could've been us, we could've been this.

and i think that whatever happens in season 3, whatever heaven does that makes them finally irredeemable in aziraphale's eyes, it'll be a beautiful ending to his deconstruction arc. not that deconstruction ever ends, not truly, but for the first time in his existence, he'll be able to see heaven, hell, and the system as a whole clearly for what they are: a bunch of self-righteous dicks.

[if you're curious about religious deconstruction and what it means, this video by therapist and social worker mickey atkins talking about deconstruction in reference to shiny happy people, a documentary about the duggar family, is a good place to start. cw for pretty much all types of abuse imaginable, fyi.]

[umalvie]

what iroh should have been, and how it would've impacted zuko and azula's arcs

in terms of canon atla, aside from my criticisms of the orientalism woven into the show's fabric, its pattern of telling not showing, the tumor-like presence of filler episodes that don't do enough as character studies or dynamic studies (mostly in book 3; in book 1 i'm more forgiving of these since atla was still finding its groove), and my issues with zuko's redemption arc not challenging his political beliefs in a meaningful way, the thing that i would consider its biggest failure writing-wise is the fact that iroh is not intentionally portrayed as a morally gray character.

the thing about iroh is that he is a longtime war criminal. they try to soft retcon some of that in book 3 by making his nickname "the dragon of the west" about him pretending to have hunted the dragons into extinction and by making him a part of the white lotus, but this to me is not only grievously boring but also a waste of his character.

i understand why the idea of iroh as little more than zuko's loving, wise, and kooky uncle makes people happy. it means zuko gets to have a father figure who loves him unconditionally and makes him feel safe. that's a lovely concept! but not a very interesting one in terms of the narrative, nor is it one congruent with iroh's initial characterization.

think of the absolute contempt and terror he struck into those earthbenders who tried to arrest him in book 1. think of the fact that he besieged ba sing se for 600 days straight well into his adulthood (his age is unclear, but i'd presume he's somewhere in his mid to late 50s throughout atla, so he would at youngest in his 40s when he lead the siege of ba sing se). think of the fact that iroh only changed his mind about his very active part in the war as a grown man once his son was killed. think of the fact that iroh spent 3 years with zuko in exile without ever once actively making a real effort to help zuko unlearn the fire nation propaganda he was indoctrinated with from birth or to truly help him understand that ozai abused him. think of the fact that the white lotus didn't really do much of anything throughout the war to end it.

what picture do these facts paint? is it really that of a reformed war criminal? no, not really.

iroh loves zuko unconditionally. he is patient and kind and loving with zuko. i don't think there's much, if any, room to argue with that. i am not denying that to zuko, iroh is a loving, wise, and kooky uncle.

however, i am saying that iroh is multifaceted. he is zuko's loving, wise, and kooky uncle, and he is also a war criminal who, despite the show telling us has reformed his ways, is not shown to have done so in any meaningful way. he does not do much to help zuko to unlearn imperialist propaganda, does not do much to discourage zuko from trying to capture the avatar, and does not do much at all to end the war.

this makes for an incredibly interesting and dynamic character! this is a character who believes that his personal kindness absolves him of his heinous political misdeeds. that is why he does not do anything meaningful to challenge imperialism where he sees it. that is why he is also a kind, loving man. he's hugely flawed, but he also has virtues that make you want him to overcome his flaws! there is so much room for him to develop whether it's negatively or positively, and there is so much that can be done with the relationships he has, especially his relationship with zuko! furthermore, this is the summation of what the canon material overall most strongly presents us with.

but it's not how the narrative wants us to view iroh, so it's not how the narrative treats him.

instead, we are told that iroh is a reformed war criminal (and later even the notion that he was in the wrong for his military service to the fire nation is soft retconned) who is now nothing but a loving and supportive uncle to zuko. he's unfailingly kind to both zuko and the gaang, ty lee lets slip that she actually rather likes him despite azula's contempt of him to show us that ty lee is an antivillain who will be redeemed (despite her political beliefs never being actually challenged in a meaningful way), and really the only people iroh is unkind to or who dislike him are azula and ozai to highlight to the audience that they are villains.

this makes for an incredibly static character who essentially only exists to love zuko and act as his moral tether despite the fact that iroh never actually challenges zuko's political beliefs. iroh does not need to grow or develop within the narrative atla tells us exists. he has already done his self-reflection and repented for his behavior. he is a figure of moral authority. while this makes him feel safe and good to viewers who accept what atla tells them without question, in addition to not aligning with what's actually shown, it also makes him insanely bland from a narrative perspective.

but what if atla intentionally portrayed him as morally gray? what if they leaned into his shortcomings?

here's the thing about if iroh is intentionally portrayed as morally gray: zuko's redemption arc improves drastically, and azula's is given a much better opportunity to begin.

hear me out. if iroh is morally gray, then he is not solely there to show zuko what real, unconditional love looks like so that zuko can replace his abusive father with a loving father figure, giving him the strength to do the right thing and join the gaang. i'm not saying iroh no longer serves this function in the narrative; i'm saying that now that iroh does this, and his failure to meaningfully repent for his war crimes and to challenge imperialism creates conflict with zuko. you see, if iroh is morally gray, then his failure to challenge zuko's political beliefs (i.e. imperialism is good) is something that zuko is forced to reckon with throughout his redemption arc.

this would mean that zuko is finally actually challenged in his political beliefs as opposed to simply accepting that people are afraid of him because he is a destructive firebender/the prince and thus representative of the harm they have endured throughout the war. furthermore, it means that zuko has to go against a father figure who has treated him well, so his redemption is no longer a matter rooted in kindness but in moral conviction. zuko doesn't have to lose his love for iroh to do this; in fact, that would be a very boring way to portray this. it is far more interesting if zuko has the internal conflict of both loving his uncle and condemning him politically as he struggles to do the right thing in spite of that love.

the idea of zuko managing to grow beyond iroh and do the right thing even though it is hard, even though it means not only going against ozai's malice but also iroh's complicty, is one that would round zuko's arc out better.

it's also one that would open up the gates for an azula redemption arc a lot more than what canon does (although canon azula is still redeemable).

if zuko outgrows iroh enough to challenge his inaction, then he has outgrown iroh enough to start to really see his flaws.

one of zuko's main flaws in canon is that he has a very black and white way of thinking. this is a hugely defining flaw for him. it's why he struggled to accept that ozai abused him, why he struggled to see that his pursuit of the avatar and thus the war as a whole was wrong, why he got physically ill when he was confronted with the fact that he was harming people, etc.

but if zuko starts to see that iroh's inaction as a flaw despite the fact that iroh loves him so sincerely and is so kind to most everyone, then he can start to break this black and white thinking. like ozai, iroh is no longer on a pedestal in zuko's mind. this would lead to the unearthing of more of iroh's flaws.

in conjunction with the fact that zuko has now seen proof of azula's pain (her psychotic break in the last agni kai), this means that zuko can start to place blame where it's due with people over her pain.

i am under no delusions about the state of zuko's relationship with azula in canon. i've expanded on my thoughts about the love between them here if you'd like to see them, but i can sum it up as so: while azula cares about zuko in her own deeply screwed up way, zuko doesn't really care about azula because he is shortsighted and struggles to empathize with her or even see a need to.

however, seeing proof that azula has been harmed too means that zuko would finally see a reason she is worthy of his empathy. the first, most obvious, and easiest to identify (for zuko) perpetrator is, of course, ozai. like with the war, ozai is clearly malicious. now that zuko has admitted and accepted that his father was abusive to him, it is much easier for him to admit that their father is responsible for azula's pain too. this much i believe is likely in canon as well.

the next person for zuko to look to, which can only happen if zuko has opened his eyes, is iroh. like with the war post 600 day siege, iroh was not malicious in his treatment of azula, but he was still complicit. iroh may not have abused azula, but he did neglect her entirely. he did not give her a chance to ever be anything but what ozai told her she should be. he did not show her love and compassion the way he did zuko. furthermore, he not only failed to encourage zuko to ever try doing so, he actively discouraged him from attempting to.

to be clear: i don't think zuko should be a mentor figure to azula during her redemption. like azula, he's just a kid. he's still growing and learning himself. he also doesn't really understand her at all, even if he has realized that she was hurt too. he doesn't understand how she was, and he's going to have to spend a lot of time reconciling the way their father's abuse colored his perception of her with how she actually is. furthermore, their relationship is complicated and full of pain for them both, so relying too heavily on it to help azula recover and redeem herself would end badly if we're being realistic.

but zuko seeing that azula was abused by their father and seeing that their uncle's failure to ever give her a chance to understand real love is crucial to him realizing that the asylum is not somewhere that gives her a real shot at recovery and redemption.

whether or not azula takes that shot when it's given to her is a more complicated story that would involve both zuko and azula having to reflect more wholly and honestly on ursa than i think either of them ever have before as well as some likely very painful conversations challenging the way she, like all other fire nation citizens, was indoctrinated, but do you see how interesting treating iroh as the morally gray character he is could be?

even if you don't want to see a redeemed azula (i personally do, but the possibility of her rejecting the idea of redemption is also quite fascinating and tragic in this context), zuko's arc and the commentary made about redemption and second chances overall are made so much more interesting and nuanced by this simple choice.

[the-oaken-muse]

I watched Good Omens for the first time last week, so I'm a bit late to the party, but I wanted to talk a little bit about the Metatron's offer to Aziraphale.

On my initial watch, I definitely got "Azula tricking Zuko to come back to the Fire Nation" vibes and after a few rewatches as well as a refresher on that episode of ATLA, the parallels are even stronger.

First we have the Metatron and Azula:

They both show up suddenly with grand promises, telling Aziraphale and Zuko exactly what they want to hear. You can come Home. You can come back to Heaven, and so can Crowley. We need you. We want you.

They both emphasize that they are delivering good news, really hyping it up. They are so kind and understanding. Take all the time you need.

But at the same time that they are warm to their target, they show open disdain to their closest ally when their backs are turned.

Next, we have Aziraphale and Zuko:

At this point, Zuko still believes in the vision of the Fire Nation, he believes that they are honorable and right in what they do, and Aziraphale believes that Heaven is the epitome of goodness, truth, and light. The word "indoctrination" comes to mind. They've both been burned by the people they look up to, but are blinded by their ideals.

They're extremely loyal to their side, and there's more than a little denial at play. When Crowley and Iroh express distrust and a desire not to go, they get defensive, they lash out. You don't know, you don't understand.

Finally, we have Crowley and Iroh:

They truly care for Aziraphale and Zuko. They're always there for them and would do just about anything to protect them.

They are a bit more worldly than their companions and are suspicious of the Metatron and Azula's intentions. In our family, things aren't always what they seem. Heaven and Hell are both toxic.

They both receive the same invitation to join the others, to go Home, to go to Heaven, even though the main focus is on Aziraphale and Zuko. The parallels diverge with these two, however: while Azula doesn't really care whether or not her uncle joins them, as long as she gets Zuko, Crowley was never meant to accept the offer. The Metatron draws Aziraphale away from Crowley to talk, they are separated as soon as possible, and a wedge driven between them.

At first, Iroh wasn't going to go, but changed his mind at the last minute. Crowley does not change his mind.

With how similar these two scenes are, I can't help but speculate on what this means for Good Omens. Is this just an elaborate way of kidnapping Aziraphale? Are the angels taking pointers from their last attempt and taking a more subtle, calculated approach this time?

Do they actually want Aziraphale on their side or are they just trying to get him out of the way?

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

My personal hot take about Azula and Zuko and bear in mind, this come from someone that is indifferent about the idea of Azula getting a redemption:

The only thing that makes Azula worse than Zuko, befero he changed sides and joined the Gaang, is that she was a bigger threat the heroes that he ever was, she got closer to beat then than Zuko or Zhao.

And even then, her biggest victory against then is arguably a shared sucess beetween her and Zuko, so if she is beyond redemption for that action,.by that logic Zuko is too.

I agree that her being a more sucessful/intimidating villain is why she's PERCEIVED by the fandom as being worse than Zuko, and that, yes, if you consider Azula irredemable, Zuko can only be described as the same because they ARE very simmilar characters... but I have to say, I DO think she's a worse person than Zuko, but merely as a result of her situation being different from his, not some virtue/flaw that one of them has and the other lacks.

Zuko is as stubborn and proud as Azula, but he's used to failure and to course-correcting. He's used to feeling like he messed up, and to enduring serious, harsh and even disproportionate consequences for making bad choices, even if he had good intentions. He's used to having to try over and over and over again, failing in a ton of humiliating, physically and emotionally exhausting ways until he FINALLY figures out what he needs to do different.

So when he's told "Your entire world view is bullshit, your nation's very history is a lie, your family is a disaster of proportions you cannot even begin to imagine, and you need to COMPLETELY change the way you treat people because you're the bad guy here, not the wronged hero" sure, he'll struggle to accept it because of a lifetime of indoctrination, but the seed of doubt will be planted in his head regardless because the universe has screwed him over in so many different ways already, would this really out of question?

But as the prodigy, the golden child, the one that has been seen as PERFECT, Azula very much suffers from the curse of being a gifted child. When she does something wrong, she's SURE it's actually everybody else that messed up, because, well, she never screwed up before. She'll keep doing the same thing the exact same way, despite always getting the same result, because she never had to change her worldview and behavior that drastically.

And even if she is, reluctantly, willing to try something new... how is she even supposed to start? How is she supposed to not be paralyzed by fear at having to stray from the tactics that had worked fine her entire life? How can she find the strength to swallow her pride and ask for help? WHO can she turn to for help after everything she did? How can she be sure that they won't dismiss her plea for help as insincere considering both her history of manipulation AND "perfection"? WHO would ever even assume that Azula of all people could genuinely not know what to do and need guidance?

Azula is "worse" than Zuko because she's stuck (both by her own doing and by circumstances completely outside of her control) in a truly terrible situation where she can't even truly look at the state she's in to figure out what she was supposed to have done differently.

That's why her breakdown is so shocking to the audience, even though we've always known she'd eventually lose something since she's the villain. But we expected her defeat to happen because the heroes out-smarted her or got some power boost. We didn't expect her to be crushed by the weight of the burden that is being the golden child, because we had been led to believe that was a privilege, not something that was eating her alive the entire time.

That's why Zuko NEEDS to be there to see it - this was almost HIS fate. And that's why it made perfect sense to me when Aaron Ehasz said he had been planting the seeds for Zuko to step up as Azula's Iroh figure if the show got a book 4 because WHO else could ever hope to understand Azula's position better than the guy that spent his entire life fighting for it, only to then realize, before it was too late, that it would bring doom instead of glory?

Like Zuko himself said, his banishment (although cruel and traumatizing) ended up being the best thing Ozai ever did for him - it saved him from becoming Azula.

[starmoondany]

Okay so, let's talk about Walburga Black.

I have A LOT to say.

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Little reminder that everything I'm going to say below are my lore headcanons, and not everything follows the canon. Basically most of what you are going to read came from my imagination. Hope you like it ;) And btw my English kinda sucks

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— Walburga was never a good mother, not at all. She had very deep-rooted ideals and putting that above love for her children is unforgivable. But that doesn't mean she hasn't suffered with her parents too.

— The Blacks had been sharing their traditions and ideals for centuries from generation to generation, it was almost a sect. A family truly full of dark secrets; including murders of their own members -children born as squibs- to maintain the purity of their blood. Children were raised, or rather indoctrinated, since they had the ability to think. Being born under the Black surname was truly terrifying.

— Walburga and her brothers were no exception. Her parents were never gentle with her, she couldn't remember any hug, or even a kind word from her mother. She spent her teenager years trying to make her parents proud of her, but she never received a praise from them. Her parents demanded a lot from her, expecting nothing but perfection from their only daughter. And Walburga tried very hard to meet those expectations.

— Walburga demanded a lot from herself, a lot, even beyond her limits. She never doubted her parents, believing that they were always absolutely right - something they constantly said about themselves. Walburga was a perfectionist, disciplined, responsible, strict and very demanding woman, with herself and later with her children. She was raised believing that there was no room for even the slightest error, that's why when her first son, Sirius, revealed, she felt horrible disappointment in herself and enormous hatred towards him. Seeing that her eldest son, her heir, threw away everything their family made so may sacrifices to maintain, was the most humiliating example of betrayal for Walburga.

— She was completely blinded by the doctrine that had been instilled in her as a child, believing fervently and absolutely in everything that their supremacy dictated. That's why she was unable to see the damage she was doing to her children, the damage she was doing to herself, and the damage that had been done to her her entire life ((None of that is an excuse for what she did, no no, I'm just saying that no one in that family was okay lol)).

— She was a talented witch in her years at Hogwarts. Getting the highest grades, being a star student, focused on her studies and nothing else. She didn't do what other teenagers did, she wasn't interested in boys like other girls. Her mother told her that all of that was a waste of time, and promiscuity, and she believed everything her mother said -not having experienced that in her youth would affect her in her adult life. Besides the fact that she had also gotten married as soon as she graduated-.

— Walburga, at least in her younger years, wasn't what she later became. She was also a person, and she loved others, but she didn't know how to love. No one ever taught her how, she was never really appreciated by anyone, and that's how she learned to treat others.

— The only thing she heard from her father was how much she looked like her grandmother, which she didn't see as a compliment, since that was the only thing her father deigned to say to her. The man had never paid attention to his only daughter's achievements. And the only thing he heard from her mother was how imperfect she was. Her mother treated her like her worst enemy, making her daughter's teen years hell. Walburga had thousands of insecurities installed by her own mother, about her way of being and her physical appearance. Walburga never saw it; but her mother was very jealous of her.

— Anyway, Walburga never complained. She never cried. Nobody, absolutely nobody, had ever seen her cry. She never let anyone see her emotions, her vulnerability. She hated feeling vulnerable, weak, it was what she hated most in the world. She believed that she would be truly perfect if she had no emotions. She saw her vulnerability, her sadness, as a sign of weakness. Of imperfection. And all Walburga wanted was to be perfect in her mother's eyes. To be perfect for the noble house of Black, to fit the size her mother had molded her to. And looking weak, cry for everything her mother had imposed on her, everything she demanded of her, was like a betrayal of all that. Because she should be eternally grateful for having the honor of being a Black, right?

— Still, she had a breaking point. When she was old and her life, her family, had completely fallen apart. The day Orion died, the day she found out that her youngest son, Regulus, died; she cried in front of Kreacher for hours. As if she was crying everything she hadn't cried in all those years.

— And when Sirius was put in Azkaban, when she first read what happened in The Daily Prophet, she felt a strange mix of emotions. On one hand, she knew there was a mistake, there had to be a mistake. Because if Sirius really was a Death Eater, her son would never have run away from home. She got along terribly with her oldest son, but she knew him like the back of her hand. And she knew her son was not a murderer. When she found out, Walburga, for the first time in many years, wanted to see her eldest son once again. She really, really didn't want Sirius to be in Azkaban. It made her uncomfortable, she didn't like to think about it. But her pride was stronger, the Black pride was always stronger, and she never did anything to help him.

— She died feeling miserable. Not just imperfect, but a complete failure. She knew her mother would be endlessly disappointed in her. Walburga, although she never admitted it, was afraid of dying. Because she knew that her mother would be waiting for her somewhere. And she was terrified of her mother ((Trauma passes from generation to generation guys, everything makes SENSE)). She was a failure, her husband and youngest son were dead, and she let her eldest son rebel, and even though she hated Sirius for that, she would never forgive herself for letting him break the mold.

— She hated when Sirius cried. Because she went through the same suffering as him, but she hadn't shed a single tear. And seeing her son being so different from her, so weak in her eyes, made her so angry. She hadn't raised him to be like this.

— She was an impulsive woman. She spent her entire life containing her emotions; her sadness, her disgust, her anger. But this last one was the most difficult to contain. Walburga lived her teen years crying inside, but at some point she learned how to change sadness for anger; an emotiona that made her less uncomfortable. At that moment, she finished becoming a monster.

— Sirius, although it wasn't his fault, had a hand in creating that monster. Since he was little, Walburga never had to deal with someone who opposed her so much. And the fact that he was her son only made it worse for her. She wanted submission from Sirius, obedience, and she tortured her son, trying to strip him of every drop of rebellion, trying to not leave anything of him. But Sirius was a Gryffindor, and he had a lion heart. And when he ran away, it was the last straw for Walburga. From that day on, Sirius was no longer her son.

— Walburga never was good to her children, but she did loved them. Though she didn't know how to show it. Regulus was her favorite. Her youngest son was her only hope, the only thing she had after Sirius betrayed her. Regulus was not like Sirius, he was submissive to her; and that was exactly what she wanted. So when Regulus died, the only son who had made her proud in some way, she felt like she lost the only person she had ever loved. The only person who paid attention to her. The only person who, somehow, looked up to her. ((Although that was what she believed, I'm not saying that Regulus really admired his mother 👁️)) ((This family's relationship is very complex)).

— Walburga, despite having a rotten heart, was a truly beautiful woman. Many noticed her appearance in her youth, drawing the interest of many, but Walburga never saw it as a compliment. Her black hair, her pale skin, and her sharp blue-gray eyes. Walburga was an imposing woman; not because of her size, but because of her eyes. Because of her always pressed together lips and her constantly furrowed brow. The elegant woman made her presence known wherever she went, for her beauty and her firmness. ((i LOVE Eva Green as her fancast, literally her)).

— The Blacks really had a thing for looking like a French monarchy (with the incest and all lol). Walburga loved to wear dresses that didn't match the era, which the other members did as well. Except, well, Sirius ((Siri babe I love you but you also liked making your mother's life miserable)).

— Walburga spoke perfect French, she constantly mumbled in French, saying things she couldn't say out loud and swearing at people. She tried to pass the language on to her children. With Regulus she managed to, with Sirius halfway. He had never been interested in anything his mother wanted to teach him. Another thing she managed to pass on to Regulus was playing the piano. She knew how to play the piano, she had gone to lessons as a child, and she taught Regulus since he was little.

— Walburga's two children looked like her. With their black hair, pale skin and blue-gray eyes ((It's not like they have much genetic diversity either tho, their parents are cousins KANWNDKIAJD)). Both inherited part of Walburga's personality, although in different ways. Regulus was the one who acted the most like Walburga at first glance; with the same frown, the same sharp eyes, and his unfriendly attitude. He had the elegance, coldness and discipline of his mother. He also inherited that disdain for vulnerability, but, ironically, he was the most vulnerable one there. Although he also inherited the ability to hide it very well ((except with Sirius)).

— Sirius, although he seemed completely the opposite, was also like his mother. Especially physically. It was scary because he really did look a lot like Walburga when he started growing his hair out. People told him that a lot and Sirius hated it, yet he still kept his hair long. He also took after his mother in terms of sociability. Of course, Sirius was an explosive extrovert and Walburga was reserved, but they both understood social dynamics perfectly. And they took that to their advantage. Besides, Sirius had a way of arguing, a way of insulting, very similar to his mother's. Looking for and noticing the same weak points as her in people. Sirius hadn't noticed that until one day, in the middle of a horrible argument, Remus yelled at him that he was exactly like his mother. Sirius was horrified to hear that. And began to hate that part of himself. He hated knowing that he was his mother's son, that the blood of that horrible woman also ran through his veins.

— He wondered if she had ever loved him, or if he had ever loved her.

— Walburga, on the other hand, died feeling miserable, knowing that she lost her entire family. And that was, in part, her fault. She sometimes found herself wondering if perhaps she was too hard on him, but she quickly pushed that thought away. Sirius decided to abandon her, abandon his entire family, and Walburga would never forgive him. Although she wished things had been different. She really did loved her oldest son.

───────────────────────────────────────

It may sound strange but I really love this character. Walburga is such a complex character, I had a lot of fun creating a lore for her. There's a lot to say about this family, and JK is useless and no one likes her so SKWJJAJD here are we with our headcanons.

Don't be afraid to comment guys, I love when you do that ((I need friends)).

You can send questions too, I'd really like some interaction.

[horrorstreet]

Sparring Partner

Kylo Ren x Reader

Word Count: 1,301

Warnings: Fighting

A/N: iv recently gotten realllyy into Starwars so thank you so much for requesting this. Enjoy this fic of these two being awkward together.

Request:

Hellllooo~

Welcome back btw. Hope you are doing well.

I am not a hardcore SW fan BUT I do love the characters. May I request reader being in the jedi training with Kylo (Ben since he wasn't indoctrinated into the First Order yet) and they like to flirt with him during lessons? Maybe like when they are sparing or when he is trying to use the force? I know that Jedi swore celibacy but I am a firm believer of the grey lol and the new gen are more open to relationships. Reader can be gn. If this is too boring just let me know and I can try to cook up something else.

:)

Request sent by: @slasher-smasher

You sat outside with your food in your hand, legs crisscrossed as you looked out on the mountain range in front of you that the planet you were on provided you. It was peaceful on this day, the suns casting a golden hue across the base where you and the other Jedi were training. No one was outside, all in for the night and ready to rest meanwhile you decided to have a late night snack and think to yourself. Being a Jedi was no easy task. In fact, it required the most training you’ve ever experienced. You had to stay focused, zone in and never break that focus once you had it. If you did, it could mean life or death. Not only that, but you had to set aside your personal wants and needs. If someone caught your eye, you had to keep moving. Don’t think about it or threaten breaking the Jedi code…

“Hello..” A deep voice called out to you from behind you. It was breathy and low, spiking your attention. Swallowing the bite you just had in your mouth, you turned around to face who was standing there, knowing exactly who it was. You could recognize that voice anywhere.

“Hello, Ben.” You answered, moving to the side and patting the ground next to you, signaling for him to sit with you and enjoy the remaining sunlight. “What brings you here? You’re usually first to bed.” You asked, looking back out at the suns as the light slowly faded below the horizon.

“Mmmm.. Couldn’t get comfortable.” He answered, letting out a deep, tension relieving sigh. You nodded your head, setting your bowl of soup to the side before putting both hands in your lap. You snuck a small peak at the man beside you and felt something in your heart flutter. The suns light illuminated his skin perfectly, highlighting his beautiful features in a way that drove your heart and soul mad. He stared out to the horizon, eyes following the curve of the mountains before it went dark, the suns light completely disappearing for the night. He truly was a sight to behold.

“And you?” He asked, looking back at you and catching the look you were giving him. You cleared your throat before looking down at your bowl and picking it up, holding it out in front of you.

“Got hungry again, Gotta eat..” You softly smiled at him for a moment before standing up and brushing your lap off. “We better get back to our rooms. It’s going to get cold soon.” You said to him, holding out a hand. Kylo didn’t hesitate to take it, pulling himself up off the ground and brushing himself off as well. The man nodded as he took one last look off into the distance before looking down at you.

“Yeah.. I will see you in the morning for training.. Sparring partner?” He asked, searching your eyes for an answer before you said anything. With a smile, you nodded your head at him.

“Of course.” You replied, the feeling of his warm hand never leaving yours even after he had let go.

So, you both parted ways, your rooms being on opposite sides. Once you had gotten to your room, you put the bowl to the side and sat down on your bed, pulling the covers out from under your legs and getting underneath, settling in for the night before falling asleep.

“Good morning..” He quietly called out to you, breaking your focus on the sky above you.

──────────────────

The suns rose above the opposing horizon of the planet and you woke up just in time to see it. Setting a blanket outside on the rough, rocky ground outside of your room, you watched as the sky shifted between different beautiful colors and it calmed you. You were safe. No one was after you. You could be you here. Lost in thought, you didn’t seem to notice a particular Ben Solo emerge from his room across from yours. You and him seemed to be the only ones awake at this time.

“You scared me.” You chuckled at him as he walked over and took a seat right next to you, waving his hand at you for you to scoot over and make some room for him which you happily did.

“Why are you up so early?” You asked, looking over at him and his perfectly curly hair.. Was it ever flawed? Probably not.

“I always get up around this time. It’s you that's usually still sleeping.” Ben said with a small smile playing on his lips. You nodded your head, agreeing with the man. He definitely was right… You were never up this early and you didn’t exactly understand why you were up so early yourself. Nevertheless, you pointed at the colorful sky before bringing your hand back down to cup into the other at your lap.

“So, you wake up every morning and see this and never thought to wake me up? This is beautiful.” You joked with the man who shook his head at you before shrugging his shoulders.

“Oh, maybe it’s because, the last time I tried, you threw a cup at me and told me to let you sleep.” An embarrassed blush quickly found its way to your cheeks and the tip of your ears.

Kylo stood in front of you with his light-saber raised in front of him, ready for any strike you sent his way. He could tell where you were going to go just from where your eye would quickly glance before you struck. You spun on your feet and aimed for the man's upper thigh, Kylo blocking it right away before countering with a stronger strike, sending a blow to the side of your head which you caught in record time. The light-sabers, green and blue, clashed in a spark and you sent the man a wicked smile.

“Oh yeah.. “ Was all you could get out, shaking your own head in disappointment at your own actions. “If only I knew.” You sighed, looking over at Ben who you had caught staring at you. Once you both made eye contact, the man quickly looked away to look back to the sky which was now a bright pink.

──────────────────

“S’at all you got, Solo?” You teased him, watching as his eyes narrowed, his competitive side getting the better of him. His nostrils flared in frustration and you ran at him, going to sweep low and take his feet out but he saw right through you, jumping away from the attack till you got back to your feet and launching himself right at you. In that moment, you both fought swiftly. So swift, that it looked like nothing but a blur of blue and green as you both moved effortlessly. It was like an intricate dance that you two had memorized…

“Who knew. Here I thought you were just all beauty and no brains, but you actually seem to have some skill hidden somewhere in there.” He teased you right back, the two of you pushed up against one another as the sparks from your light-sabers flew through the air in front of you.

“So, you think I'm beautiful?” You said, trying to play off of what he had just said.

Kylo stuck out his hand and pushed you back using the force before sending a barrage of attacks your way which, in the end, you were too slow to counter. Before you knew it, he had you on your ass, Light-saber pointed at your throat. The tall man smiled down at the sight before him before offering a hand out to you, which you gladly took. Kylo pulled you up to your feet, his smile never leaving his face.

“Of course I do..”

[agoldthatactuallystays]

Serious question. I don't mean to offend or anything. Simply trying to understand and mature. You're obviously very beautiful. There is nothing wrong with taking pictures of course. But how do you handle it? As beautiful as you're every picture attracts a single strong minded man considering you're a high quality woman in my opinion. By that I mean you attract the worst and the best of men. How is that for your hubby and you. Obviously it's not just about you, so tell me both sides if you don't mind queen. 🌹❤️

🤍 good question I wish this was not anonymous so I could answer directly so that I can be way more candid. However, I will give a quick synopsis of the process. Before I met my husband, I worked really hard on my discernment. I absolutely always know the intentions of someone when they reach out to me. I understand myself and I prioritize my boundaries in all of my interactions. Not just with myself, but on my social conduct, on my social perception , and I don’t allow myself to be put into situations that will cheapen really strong and fluid bond my husband and I organically have. I think many people who lack  self-control, can easily forget that just because something looks or even feels good does that mean it is good for you. I truly believe that if any man was worth taking seriously before I met my husband, I would have found him and took him seriously. This is the Internet and once you remove your( not you per se but the collective us) self-worth being indoctrinated in this world of fictional nonfiction… lol it gets easier to separate the fiction from reality and when you choose to live in reality, you really get to understand and value what is right in front of you. So nothing else really doesn’t even matter.

[rab-moonbeam]

i love jegulus & haters can suck it

saw this reddit post from last month and got really heated and then this rant came to be

it's crazy to me how people who are in the mauraders fandom (specifically more canon-mauraders fans) have such a strong hatred towards jegulus. first of all literally please grow up it's a fucking fictional world about wizards first and foremost. IT'S NOT REAL ANYWAY. but like y'all are shitting on people having fun with people creating characterizations for a character(s) that in all honesty, jk rowling only used to further her plot to help the good guys and were nothing more than black and white bad guys or random names of people who were friends but didn't matter enough to be anything more than names.

the fact that the one main issue some have with jegulus is that there is no way that regulus and james would never have interacted with each other which is honesty, truly a stupid take. even during harry's years we see him interact with people who are in the years above and below him so to think that james never interacted with regulus at any point during their time at hogwarts is ridiculous. not only would he have met regulus during his second year because honestly to think that sirius would not have introduced his younger brother to his friends is kinda dumb and you obviously don't have a good sense of who he is as a character in my opinion. sirius would still have treated regulus as his little brother, would have wanted to share his friends with him. i don't care how they differed later on, it didn't happen over night and it probably didn't happen until after regulus started at hogwarts and got more and more indoctrinated with the other slytherins.

now later on when regulus starts to get involved with the death eaters, and as he goes through his time in slytherin yeah they probably didn't interact much. BUT again, who is to say they didn't end up in the library at the same time, they didn't interact with each other through smack talk about quiddich, weren't in similar clubs, hell weren't in prefect meetings together. you truly act like they will never have seen each other ever, that james and regulus will never have said a single thing to each other.

another point jegulus haters love to try and make is that sirius hated regulus and that regulus (barty and evan too) are bad people. in canon they killed people, they were death eaters. first of all again it's fanfiction, it does not have to have a damn ounce of whatever is in canon. second is that there is not one time in the entire series that sirius says that he hates regulus. he says that he was naive and believed everything his parents said. THAT is canon. THAT is what can be literally found written by the terf herself. also to reduce regulus (and again barty and evan) to their actions like "they killed people" and that's all there is to say about that is dumb. yes in canon, they killed people. evan and barty are confirmed to have killed people. regulus with the fact that he was a death eater most likely killed people. that is not anything we negate as people who like jegulus. what we do though is take that and create characters who are able to fucking have more depth than the bad shit they did after having been indoctrinated into a cause that they were made to believe was the correct way of thinking since literal birth and then continued to get hammered into them for years and years at school and at home. like yeah they were kinda shitheads, but let me be honest, barty is always portrayed as a shithead, he's a little crazy, gets into trouble, might have some messed up morals, he's also got a shit home life, his dad kinda sucks and that doesn't mean he can't be a good friend, doesn't mean he can't love someone, can't be loved, can't be silly, can't be smart. the exact same thing happens for evan. he's the same as regulus raised in a pureplood slytherin household. like what else was he going to think? but again does that mean he can't have more depth, doesn't deserve love? can't be a good friend? can't be silly? then we've got regulus. yeah he can be cold, take no shit, be kind of pretentious, but you know what he can also be babygirl. he can love, he can have love, he can be anxious, he can change his mind after learning that the way that he was brought up was shit. they all can need comfort and need their friends and ride or die for their friends. like none of that negates either point.

now the biggest thing that gets to me and makes me really heated is when people shit on jegulus and say it doesn't make sense then have the gall to like drarry but then say the paralle between jegulus and drarry is wrong.....how the actual fuck does that makes sense. regulus and draco are so much like each other. not only because narcissa is someone regulus grew up around and was also bought into the same bullshit he did and married someone who was just as in deep if not more into the whole volemort love fest, but you think they aren't the same? they don't have the same ideals? they didn't have to go to the same type of pureblood parties and dinners? like draco wasn't around people who were death eaters from the jump? like even more than regulus probably was given the time he was born. like no the only difference between draco and regulus is that one had actual loving parents who cared about him and the other was born into a family where his parents were cousins and definitely only had kids to carry on the family name and nothing else.

my last thing is that people act like regulus doesn't have any redemption in what he does with the locket. like yeah fine he probably only went after voledemort because of what he did to kreature but like okay and? he obviously wasn't indoctrinated as much as y'all love to claim he was the same way lucius wasn't as loyal as everyone thought either bc they knew that that loyalty only ran so far. this man hurt someone they loved and THAT meant more to them than this war and pureblood culture. like so i think regulus had some room to actually become like fanon regulus where he's able to see a different side of things. he's able to get away from that deeply ingrained prejudice. you know the same way draco does at the end of the series. but like y'all can only care and love and vouch for draco bc he's still alive god forbid we want to see a character that was killed off at 17 trying to destroy the one thing that he could to get revenge and hurt voldemort.

all in all let's be real clear it's fucking fiction. you guys are allowed to hold dear something that has meant so much to you for years because of course harry potter has meant a lot to a lot of people and still does despite jk rowling being a terf and bigott. but that doesn't mean you get to police or shit on how other people interact with that content because they find are also finding solace and fun and enjoying shit the same way you are and that means something to them.

please just just let people ship and enjoy what they want. it doesn't have to make sense to you. it doesn't need to be your cup of tea. if you and others aren't being genuinely hurt by it shut! up!

[zeebreezin]

So here’s the thing about Vincent Beverley, right. He’s a manipulative, sensation seeking sadistic little bastard with a career built on indoctrination and light torture. Vincent likes his work and the power that comes from being the smiling face of these things, and he loves his Isobel, and his favorite doctor, and if you’d ask the man, he’d say that’s all there really is to him. Vincent considers himself a pretty simple guy.

And honestly he’s not… wrong? But here’s the thing with Vincent Beverley - that’s not the name he was using when he came down to the Neath.

A Sardonic Charlatan took the name Vincent Beverley as part of yet another con - He’d stolen documentation form some poor soul signing into the navy, looking for a couple years at sea away from his debtors. The whole ‘London is in a hole’ thing did mess with his plans slightly, but well, he’s always been one to adapt.

He was never a good person, not really. Opportunistic and dry, willing to use a natural charm to skirt the law. But he wasn’t a monster. Eventually he fell into recruiting people for some new construction, or scientific project, way out on the western edge of the Zee. After that was finished, the Charlatan figured he’d be heading for the surface, cashing out and seeing how much his stories of the mysterious world below would sell for up above.

Because here’s the thing about the Sardonic Charlatan - they didn’t tell him what was going on.

I mean, why would the admiralty tell everyone on Station V about their project? It was a dangerous thing, something on a need to know basis, but of course there were rumours. Rumours and little distant flashes of light. No one really knew how dangerous stars really were, though, when they were trying to build one.

So on the day when the Dawn Machine turned on, when the chosen few were watching aboard the ships, as the rest carried on on Station V… no one really expected what happened. Especially not a Charlatan who was barely invested in the cause to begin with.

It was beautiful, at first. People crowded around railings and docks to catch a glimpse of the distant light. It was almost sunlight, they said, and after so long in the dark, no one could fault people for getting enraptured. But then people weren’t able to look away. And the ships way out by the machine, casting long shadows in the golden glow didn’t seem like they were going to come back. Then of course, people started to change.

Here’s the thing about the Sardonic Charlatan, though - as self serving as he could be, he wasn’t a monster.

When the people you’ve spent months with start to break apart, bleeding light and hymn from every wound, it doesn’t matter if you share their sailor’s comradery or goddamn patriotism, you’re going to do something about it. Perhaps for the first time in his life, the Charlatan grew selfless as chaos reigned in the birth of new law on Station V. He gathered the less affected somewhere dark, somewhere safe, and made a plan. They’d get their own ship, and they’d high tail it for London. They’d have to know what to do - or at the very least, they’d be safe there.

No one noticed as something began to creep into the Charlatan’s blistered lips, a harmonious lilt that wasn’t there days before. He hid his wounds, he tried to do what was right, and he tried to go back into the calm of the dark - he really, truly did.

But here’s the thing about him, and here’s the thing about her. It was already over.

He knew it, but he wouldn’t admit it. She knew, though, the quiet but witty mechanic the Charlatan recruited personally. She accepted the machine quickly - another love melding into one in a single breath. It wasn’t hard, by the time she found him, collapsed and shivering. Trying to swallow down whatever light he could. It was her words, though, that sealed his fate. Even still, the Sardonic Charlatan went out screaming.

The dawnlight wasn’t kind to him - the Sardonic Charlatan had never really believed in anything before, and it burnt through him without restraint. Whatever his name was, whoever he was before the navy, before this job, he’s nothing but embers now. He loves the woman that saved him, so long ago, but some days he can’t remember the first time they truly met. All that matters is that he’s whatever he needs to be to bring more people into the fold, to be remade, happier and far, far brighter.

Because here’s the thing about Vincent Beverley. He’s a pretty simple guy. Anything else is long gone.

Here’s a lil Vincent dialogue test for making it to the bottom of this post lmao!

“That’s just the thing, though, isn’t it? People always seem to think of it the wrong way around! I don’t sell anyone anything, no, not really. I’ll admit it would be easier if I could just offer up a little slice of sunshine to anyone interested n’ be on my way, but… that’ll never really work. Dawnlight’s a powerful, beautiful thing, but there’s nothing like a human touch in this line of work. The secret’s simple: just be whoever they need you to be. A friend, a job prospect, a helping hand, a lover, a bringer of opportunity. The light comes later - and it will come later, don’t you worry. But once you offer sweet, lonely, desperate people just a little kindness? Well, then you’re already halfway there.”

[let-us-cultivate-our-garden]

I'm the only one that thinks the more Dana shares information about Caleb the worse he gets? I mean the show stated that he never truly believed in witch hunting and only did it to fit in, but his little brother is to blame for believing a lie he was willing to tell him over and over. (I would be in denial too if someone close to me reveals that everything they told me they never truly believed) I mean what Phillip does is obv. wrong , but Caleb doesn't seem like a good person either.

Honestly, that was my impression as well. The show is extremely vague on what exactly Caleb believes because all we have are the Hollow Mind portraits and they show Caleb playing "witch hunter" with baby Philip and the two participating in what could be a real witch hunt with pitchforks. Caleb looks enthusiastic and determined in these portraits, so it's no wonder that Philip thought he actually held these beliefs.

But then Dana describes Caleb and Evelyn meeting as being like two dog owners bonding over animals and that Evelyn saw Caleb as the only decent human guy, so she shows him Flapjack. I guess this means that any preconceived notions about witchcraft vanished and he either rather easily disavowed everything he was raised with in order to get with the cute witch lady, or he was pretending the whole time and effectively helped indoctrinate his brother. Either option doesn't paint him in the best light.

Still, Dana does say that anything she says outside of the show are just her head canons and that the audience is free to ignore them. But let's be honest here, the majority of the fandom will latch onto anything she says because we're not getting further TOH content for the foreseeable future.

I find it hard to believe that Caleb never believed in witch-hunting because why encourage his brother--even playing games with him--when he knows it's wrong? It's more likely that he did believe in it, albeit half-heartedly and thought he was doing the right thing until Evelyn showed him the literal light.

The problem lies in the question: did Caleb ever tell Philip? Did he ever try to persuade Philip that witches weren't evil? Caleb and Evelyn used the rebus to communicate in code and according to Masha, would travel between dimensions. Did Caleb ever try to bring Philip along?

Unfortunately, we don't have answers to these questions, we only have Philip's reaction, which was to immediately go into the Demon Realm to kill Evelyn and "free" his brother. These don't sound like the actions of a man who has the full story. So when he discovers Caleb alive and with a family, he would more than rightly feel angry and betrayed.

And since Dana is okay with us ignoring any answers in the Post Hoot, I think that's what happened: that Caleb deliberately withheld information from Philip in the misguided belief that he would be better off in Gravesfield and never attempted to talk to Philip, effectively dooming them both.

[secr3treveal3d]

Sexuality is so complex, so multi dimensional. It's truly laughable that a portion of the world still believes that heterosexuality is the "correct" orientation.

Being a part of the feedist community (belly sexual) automatically made me other - outside the lines of "straightness." Yet I always considered myself a VERY passionate ally, but not a member of the queer 🌈 community. I've been thru a lot this year, and thru that, I've rediscovered a lot about myself.

Being a passionate ally and being outside of straightness made me believe I was exempt from Comphet ( Compulsory Heterosexuality) but I was not. Comphet had me in a choke hold REAL bad -

I didn't recognize that I automatically labeled my sapphic experiences as just "fun" and or non consequential. I had not considered being in an actual relationship with a woman as something I wanted. I didn't realize that I was holding on to an ideal of a prince /husband (male) being my "ultimate soul mate".

I unconsciously thought these things all while not engaging in or having the desire to have hetoro sex for years! I went on countless dates with nice men and never felt "sparks." I kept thinking "oh I just dont have chemistry with him ." I never considered that I was trying to mix the wrong elements.

Being an ally and feedist was not enough to shield me from indoctrination of heteronormative superiority. I dont criticize myself for this,and if you feel the same way, you shouldn't either. We all have grown up and under patriarchal rule. Even now, im still pulling back the layers of my programed thoughts and deciphering what ideas are mine and which belong to someone else.

✨️ It has been incredibly liberating to bring awareness to these thoughts and let go of ideas that do not align with me. 🚮

My deepest love - my most painful heartbreak; the most enjoyable, intellectually stimulating, and comfortable moments in my life have consistently occurred in the company of other women, where I feel most authentically myself. 👩🏾‍🤝‍👩🏿

My earliest memories of being a Feeder - both my fantasies and IRL experiences were with other women. 👩🏾‍🤝‍👩🏿

So this year, this PRIDE MONTH - it belongs to me, too! 🌈❤️🧡💛💚💙💜