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pbpsbff · 7 months ago

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happy 1 year of r&r :)

i know it's a lil cringe to like. celebrate the birthday of a series on ao3 but r&r is literally my child. my baby. i birthed this series. and you all signed up for this when u started reading my fics thank u

soooooooo thank u guys for all the support i've received over r&r i know it's hard to stay a consistent reader when my posting schedule is entirely non existent but i am so grateful for everyone who's stuck around this long and been with me for this journey (calling it a journey because a year ago i did not have any sort of overarching plot in mind and now we're 17? 18? fics deep and so many things have happened and i'm usually just as surprised as my readers) it's rlly u guys that have kept me going this long

ANYWAY. i rewrote this like 500 times cause i hate being like. overly sappy on this account because it's way funnier to act like a celebrity with a huge ego, but real talk i am so proud of everything i've done w this series & what it's become in the past year

i've been posting my writing online since i was like 10, so we're going on almost 9 years now and i don't think i've ever ever ever received as much support for something as i have for r&r and something about that is soooo special to me??? idk it's just so nice to see a completely self indulgent series become so loved by others, especially since the only other fics i had up before gmm&m were a little more on the "i'm gonna write what seems popular right now" side???

like shoutout to everyone who was here before/around when i started the series because my account was so empty like. 2 fics and one gets updated every 6 months. r&r pulled me out of the trench i fear. it also cured me of my very horrible disease that makes me delete all my fics after 9 months and then completely disappear from a fandom so everyone say thank you r&r

but yeah idk where i'm going with this i'm very grateful for r&r and all the friends i've made and people i've met through it because i was very lonely before i rejoined tumblr and r&r was like. 90% of the reason i made my account

AND SPEAKING OF FRIENDS. thank u to

@spidergrotto & @sapoteylx for being the first ppl i met on here to openly talk about and support r&r which i thought was so so cool even if you guys have become my haters in the past few months i've known you :/ thank u r&r nation u keep me humble and miserable (and i am very thankful for our friendship i think some aspects of r&r would be very different if we'd never met)

& ao3 user classactical because you've been here since like. a month or two into the series i think and i always always always look forward to your comments because i feel like if you comment, i did a good job on the fic LOL thank u for sticking around for so long, even if ao3 has been actively working against you for a whiiiiile

there's a lot more i want to say and a lot of people i want to mention but that would take a very long time and i always feel weird tagging a lot of people in posts so just know if u read r&r we are kissing rn. or high fiving idk whatever floats ur boat i guess

but yeah anyway tl:dr happy birthday r&r i'm very proud of this series & very thankful for everyone who has read any part of it ever u guys are so cool and hot and have amazing taste and i'm taking your kudos and bookmarks etc. as you swearing your allegiance to me and promising me your undying support no matter what (legally binding btw) thank u guys

#r&r tease #ough i cannot believe r&r is a year old #happy birthday r&r you are my favorite child #gonna go post that fic now #or in like 10 minutes #idk i haven't edited anything #stay tuned

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cinnaminstar · 7 months ago

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Trying to figure out how exactly the country-north-of-vaugaurde could be inexplicably cold (not to mess with ur hc or canada idea, I absolutely love that, I’m just doing this for fun and to feed into the bit). I’m researching rn.

If you didn’t know, there’s this GIANT sinkhole in the ocean called the Great Blue Hole, about 125 meters deep. I’ve heard that when you go over it, the temperature has an intense and immediate drop.

It wouldn’t make ANY sense, but like. Imagine for me if you will. Canada the tropical island surrounded on all sides by a >100 meter deep trench that is so bitterly cold it somehow summons snow.

That's. So funny

I'm making this retroactively canon. This will never come into play at all but it's important for The Bit™

#villain sif au #way more of the posts ive made about this au pertain to the Canada joke than youd think considering how little it matters to the actual plot #but we're answering the Real questions here #hey look cinnamin said something

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hxlda-hxlda · 1 month ago

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bedtime snippet but it's morning!

thank you, as always, my favourite person ever, @fiddleleafedfig, for the tag! i gotta be real i haven't written for the marauders in a hot second (i'm in the trenches with my unpublished marvel fics rn) but i would cut off my own arm for fig if they asked. thus, i present, a snippet from my divergent!marauders au:

“Sirius.”

Sirius starts, shoulders tensing before falling almost at once as he clocks the voice, recognising its depth and roughness. He turns, not yet relinquishing his grip on the ladder’s first rung.

“Moony.” Sirius nods a salute.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t think I’m doing anything, actually.” He feels a grin widen on his own face. “Would you like to know what I’m about to do?”

Moony raises an eyebrow, mouth set firmly. Maybe Sirius is imagining things in the darkness, but he appears amused, like his lips might just lift at the edges if you squinted. Sirius takes it as a grant to continue.

“I’m going to climb this ferris wheel,” says Sirius.

Moony stares at him. Again, maybe Sirius is insane for thinking he can read the man in the first place (and a lot of other reasons, insanity seems to thrive deep in his genes after all) but Moony no longer looks like he’s about to start smiling. His gaze is steadfast, unbreaking and slightly narrowed.

“You’re going to… climb it.”

“I’ll manage a better vantage point, probably find the other team’s flag from the top,” he explains.

Moony continues to stare. Just, stare. “You’re going to climb to the top?” he repeats after another beat.

Sirius falters slightly, suddenly feeling uncertain.

“Yes, keep up now,” he replies despite the thudding in his chest. He wants Moony to think him smart, he realises with an internal grimace. What happened to no longer being in Erudite then, Sirius? Damn him.

“The very top?”

Even Sirius couldn’t have imagined the slight waver in Moony’s own tone.

“Care to join?” Sirius cocks an eyebrow.

The man’s face hardens, scarred features setting into their usual stern expression. “Go on, then,” Moony says, accepting the invitation as though a challenge; a dare of some childish kind.

“Bet you can’t get all the way to the top,” Sirius whispered in Reg’s ear. He grinned, watching his brother’s face contort with that ever-so-familiar grimace.

“Of course I can’t get to the top,” Regulus snapped, tone equally hushed. “Attempting so would be stupid.” “Sure,” Sirius shrugged, “but wouldn’t it also be fun?”

no one to tag this time! if anyone wants to share something, tag ME tho pls i wanna see <3

#marauders #wolfstar #writing tag #divergent au #sirius black #remus lupin #regulus black #fig my love

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starfallkaz · 5 months ago

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Empire of the Vampire readers hear me out

Peter Steele (despite his controversies) would have been a perfect Gabriel De Leon fancast and I’m almost 100% convinced Jay thinks so too and that he took major inspo from Type O Negative’s discography in writing this series

Haunted

A living flame, impossible to resist Burning me deep with every bite, kiss and lick

I'm haunted

I'm haunted (by her)

Invades my sleep with tumescent intentions

From the panes a green mist swirls

Is it a shadow or reflection?

This apparition in moon beams bathed

A voice like wind through trees beckons

Nocturnal mistress, spirit lover

Your mouth of wine and woodsmoke taste

My goddess of the violet twilight

You are lust incarnate

In the sweat of my bed

The eastern sky hints of dawning

Alone and awake but exhausted I lie

Oh how I hate the morning

this is so Gabriel and Astrid visiting him in the night, wanting her to stay but being haunted by her presence

Love You to Death

Her salty sweat drips from her breast

Her hips move and I can feel what they're sayin', swayin' They say the beast inside of me is gonna get ya, get ya, yeah

[Verse 2]

Black lipstick stains her glass of red wine

l am your servant, may I light your cigarette?

Those lips move, yeah, I can feel what you're sayin', prayin'

reminds me of Gabriel and Astrid that first night they lay together

Suspended in Dusk

How can I possibly explain this eternal youth?

When I can do nothing but sit by

As my loves grow old and withered

And with each of them, take a fragment of my heart

And prolong this endless winter

It is October's perpetual agony

It is the shadow realm

Blood and Fire

Love eternal

Lust infernal

Bleeding, burning

Needing, yearning

Moi cherie

You remain

A mystery to me

Need I say more !!!

Anyways, I’m deep in the trenches of both Empire of the Vampire and the goth/doom metal genre rn, I’ll be back with more similarities soon probably

#type 0 negative #music analysis #book analysis #Peter Steele #empire of the vampire #EOTV #Jay Kristoff #empire of the damned #EOTD #Gabriel de Leon #truly I would do anything for Gabriel #so unnecessarily sexy #nobody asked for this breakdown oops #the black lion #Nevernight #bookish #vampire lore

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agustdiv1ne · 1 year ago

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here are my thoughts about each song that absolutely nobody asked for but i don't care 🤣

ok GROWING PAINS??? THE WALLS ARE CLOSING IN I'M FALLING TO MY KNEES I'M WAILING BC THIS SONG IS EVERYTHING TO ME. i loveee rock music and this is also reminds me a little of what i used to listen to when i was in the deepest trenches of my middle school emo phase (and continue to listen to bc my emo phase never truly left me),, THE GROWL. BEOMGYU FUCKING GROWLED. ME WHEN. ME WHEN. ME WHEN. *INSERT WEREWOLF MEME* i am just. obsessed. absolutely Obsessed. ALSO YEONJUN'S HIGH NOTE????? ACTUALLY FUCK OFF I'M ON THE FLOOR

chasing that feeling is very 80s new wave and it is Everything to me. i could go over everything in the mv but i'm j gonna focus on the song for now. i love the route they took for the tt, it's very like. dreamy? to me?? and laid back and yet it sounds like it would be part of some action movie????? like hero training scene montage and BOOM CHASING THAT FEEEEELINGGG in the background idk...the synths are making me ascend i swear to whatever is above whoever added those synths in the instrumental deserves the best fucking head of their lives. beomgyu opening fairy, bro always makes sure to EAT THAT OPENING BROOO I LOVE HIM. AND THEN TYUN HIGH NOTE WOOOOOOOOO that Healed me...and hyuka's "come and kiss me" YEAH. YEAHHHH. can u tell i'm obsessed w this tt yet???? i need it tattooed onto my ear drums right now

DREAMER MF DREAMERRRR BROOOOOOOOOO i've been waiting for an rnb song like this from them since 20cm i fucking swear. and this just. BLEW ME OUT OF THE WATER,, their falsettos are so mf pretty esp soobin's like his voice was just made for this song bro. i swear. and then we got beomgyu's falsetto too?????? wow. wowowowow. i need more rn. AND THEN YEONJUN BROO CAME IN W THE "LET ME BREAK IT DOWN FOR YOU" AND I'M DYING. LIKE ACTUALLY DYING PLS DO NOT RESUSCITATE

ahahaha deep down is like. so chill and i loveee the beat omfg. like this is a song that i am going to play when i go on late night car rides, bass boosted n everything bc the beat. the BEAT. i need it injected into my veins immediately,, def not like. my fav off this album but i still enjoyed it ^^

ok happily ever after has me in a chokehold rn. i'm being so serious. it's so fun and catchy it's like a little earworm that i can't get out of my head!!!! it makes me wanna dance and sing and AHHHHH. the beginning "oh ma gawd" that was so cute...def my pick me up song bc it's so cute n fun n i definitely didn't expect to like it as much as i do <3 the power of txt <3333 LIFE IS NOT A FAIRYTALE!!!! also soobin's falsetto got me again i'm ascending yet again my friends...i feel like this song is encapsulated by the ✨️ emoji pls don't ask me to elaborate.

SKIPPING STONES. MY ABSOLUTE FAV OFF THIS ALBUM. THERE IS NO COMPETITION I FEAR.....it's very reminiscent of music i'd listen to while growing up esp the songs my dad would share with me...idk why but that connection just makes this song so much more special to me. also sounds kinda like a day6 song and as someone who loves day6 i needed this!! i love the rock influences so fucking much guys i am so obsessed with this song,,,, i need more songs like this immediately. asap. ALSO hyuka's high note. guys. guys. what the fuck. he is such a talented man i cannot rn

as if i could forget about blue spring — when i told u i started crying??? yeah, i started crying right when it started playing. i love them so fucking much u don't understand 😭😭😭 idk why they autotuned my men like that towards the end tho,, but yeah. this will be my official crying song for the foreseeable future 😁

and then. chasing that feeling english version??? hello????? i typically don't enjoy english versions too much but this one is so good omg. i def like the og more but i did enjoy it and it was a nice lil surprise!!!!

i could keep writing more but i will leave it at that. i'm sorry if u read this far u deserve financial compensation for being so strong

#me when i write an essay abt the album #my god #this album is right up my alley #i wish i had melatonin bc i don't think i can sleep now #the adrenaline rush is still going #txt did it again everyone #ashlee's bs

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s1llydr3amscape · 6 months ago

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Here some ye olde Vanessa designs i managed to find sifting through my sketchbooks (pre sb!!!!) There's more but Its really deep in the trenches.

rip their 4head broo they have no brain 😔

I miss doing stylised stuff tbh but ppl bullied me for it so now whenever I do it I go 😭

very old art vs my current art style and oc's below + rambles :

this was right After the freaking posters released and oughhhh 😭😭😭😭 gurlll

top name cut off that Blaine guy are other human ocs I had for years!! They were in a comic with Vanessa and others heheheh I used to do comics 24/7!!! Ft my old fnaf ocs rival to fazbears who was better at keeping the safety aspect off their robots. I wanna ramble abt them too one day after a heavy rehaul. Vanessa actually switched jobs from my oc location to the Pizzaplex in it!!!! Because I hope Vanny and Vanessa were seperate!!!

Vanessa and Vanny were seperate people in my Rabbit City AU but idk if I still want them to be different or the same now. Also one of Glitchtraps workers who managed to break free from his control and he didn't like that and sent every piece of her crimes online on the Internet as this crazed murder. So now she's in a new city under hiding or face criminal charges she didn't commit willingly. She managed to dye her fur and change enough and became a roadie for this band that's not very good. (Ffps rockstars I love yall funky vibe I'm sorry yall died too soon). She wants to help people and protect them she knows there's others under Glitchtrap’s control and wants to put a stop to him. Sadly some off them don't seem like they want any help... She was a beagle dog because when I saw her I was like beagle!!!!

My longest one is my oc story that's bad and outdated which included 3 rap battles (i love rap sue me) and an orange cat with green eyes with wings mc who's name try and guess

Its Winger.... (yeah because he was based off Scootaloo having small wings so young me thought ohhh Winged but like Winger because unlike scootaloo he can fly and is a winner!!! 💀💀💀 he also had beef with nyan cat oc over a girl and could transform into different elements!!! Like nature fire ice and rainbow... the main main main mc tho is a brown green eyed cat who was half robot after an accident... God looking back what was I on (I got into mlp and had unrestricted Internet access)

then we had this off my old sona... I didn't know how to draw fat could you tell... dark times oughhhh I wasn't blind tho then win 💀 alot of my older older art is traditional so you may not see it unless I sift through 17 layers off hell. Wish I backed up more of my 2019-2020 digital art tho but those were the darkest times for me also wait eewwww no eyebrows

ive gotten better and fr be the change you wanna see in this world draw fat bitches!!!! going down the rabbit hole

that one barbie trend I didn't finish look at the hands boy ouggh insane sauce I drew that

I miss drawing like this lowkey but my hand hurty and god ibis crashes every 25 minutes u was gonna gonna feral bro

self love is drawing urself accurately irl after years of drawing a caricatures of yourself (My first human sona ever was a skinny white woman with long neon yellow hair and a purple streak </3)

Gremlin from earlier I learned color theory aswell but only for purple, green and brown oops <333

I figured I could give it an oval nose because I didn't know how to draw my nose at all. Big ass nose death off me real!!! I love :3 face so much and big ass ears!!!! I will make them have big ass ears they are fun!!!!

These are my sonas I have like 4 rn and a million in thr vault (progress is progressing)

old oc his name is Jamie now and he's from a dream I had. Literally an incel too like he's studying magic got so fed up no one in his own world wanted him. Used magic to find his soul mate who existed in another universe. Made a portal to get there and take her back to his world because he wouldn't comply in a non magic world. When he arrived to her world almost died turning white and green. And like still managed to get the girl back to his world (Akuma's a goober who wanted to be isekaid) and yeah. Like huh my guy chill out 😭😭😭😭 no wonder you ain't getting any. He also killed me in the dream and is so dumb for being a prodigy??? Like he made a business selling illegal potions with the company name just vile.... his own initials... like bro how are you not caught. I can't with him. I pray opun his downfall and can't wait to see what other shit he pulls outta his ass. I feel bad for the Akuma she just wanted to escape not knowing this guy a freak.

heres him now!! He's much more dream accurate with the current events so far!!!!! If he appears next time I hope he croaks fr from the magic sickness like bro u a freak freak /neg

But yeah improvement is real!!! my art process is slower now (carpal tunnel) but I love to draw so much it is so fun if my bitchass ibis won't crash that is hehehehe (it crashed a million times trying to first time make a comic digitally I'm 💥💥💥)

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jangmi-latte · 6 months ago

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I've stumbled on this blog by accident after finding out abt that rook card leak (preview? I'm so deep in irl trenches rn forgive me being out of the loop), and I see posts about like, every single detail of it

you are so real for that 🙏

(I have not been able to stop screaming for days savanaclaw rook has me in chokehold help)

i can't even imagine what kind of context my posts would bring when you mentioned "finding it on accident" like tumblr really showed my random ass keyboard smashes to the masses and go "you will like this i swear you're just as insane as the blog owner"

like tumblr knows you'll like rook's untrimmed eyebrows before he was vaccinated with anti-rabies. you can't escape the hair follicles nah uh baby not in here you aren't. or maybe it's the freckles that brought you here or the arms heck it's probably the nose

or maybe it's how bushy his pu-

#customer #i need to stfu #he's getting closer and closer i can smell him all the way here #like ooo boy here comes the pretty boy with rabies gotta get the mouse trap ready #hot diggity dog does he stink

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angel-of-hunky-doryness · 1 year ago

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The Conflicts of Disney's Hercules (Part 1): Meg vs Hades

Long post y'all.

I promised my diva of a sponsor to get to this and since my last post gained steam, I thought I'd finally talk about one of my favorite Villain vs Heroine conflicts in Disney's canon. This will be a bit of a mini series as I break down and explore the conflicts in the movie, think Hades vs Zeus vs Hercules, Hercules/Hades vs the Fates, etc. As I continue the series if you have a suggestion for one you want me to deep dive I would love to hear it!

That's the fun part about Tumblr, the opportunity to hear voices and begin discussion about little things no one mentions in a 20+ old film. Also, bare in mind I will be exploring other Disney films eventually, but I've just spent too long digging in the Hercules trenches i can't help but gush about it even if it is far from my favorite Disney film.

Also fair warning ahead of time but there is a CW in one section of this post that can be easily circumvented if you so wish. There will be a space and *** symbols to indicate when it starts and when it ends as we discuss some dark themes and symbolism.

Now on to the evening's entertainment!

The history of Disney hero(ine) vs villain goes all the way back to Disney's very first animated film: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. In this film, we are treated to a classic clash between good vs evil with well-established background that fully explains the animosity the Queen has towards Snow White and to a lesser known extent of myself when I was 3. However, keep in mind, the Queen interacts with Snow White through indirect sources like the Huntsman and when the Queen disguises herself as a hag.

To summarize in case you haven't seen the movie, Snow White finally gets to the ripe old age where a person can finally be considered fair, which I suppose is 14 years old. The queen gets so frazzled her hair falls out and turns white and ages about seventy years or something.

Anxiety, hits at every age y'all. Even for the wickedly beautiful.

And so ensues the assassination plot of an abused princess who manages to escape and finally gets the love and life she dreamed about for so, so long.

The reason I'm using Snow White as a jumping off point is because we have the very first example in Disney's canon of a deal being offered to an otherwise naïve young girl.

And that naïve young girl accepts out of her own volition, no forcing, no pressuring, at the end of the day, taking a bite of a poisoned apple or in Meg's case taking Hades' hand sealing both Heroine's fate.

Now, while Disney's Hercules touches on how Meg got ensnared in Hades' plans, let's review what we do know:

Meg was at the end of her rope when her ex died. So much so that she was willing to do anything to get him back, and she meant it. While we do not know exactly how healthy Meg and her ex's relationship was before his untimely demise, the fact that her Ex ran off with another girl soon after tells me a lot on what the relationship was really like. It wasn't as steadfast or true as Meg had previously believed.

Oh yeah, weird side note, but we're completely ignoring Twisted tales: Go the Distance. Yeah, way to go. You took away Meg's chance to shine and connect with an unspoken minority in the audience. Do you know how many friends of mine found so much connection with Meg because she had been in a prior abusive relationship and still found love despite all the trauma she went through? Meg's iconic. Having Hades be the reason her ex took off is such a dumb move. I don't think he was that invested in her personal life to ruin it even further just to mess with her. He could care less, he's focused on taking over Olympus rn.

Anyway, tangent over.

So Meg's whole life revolved around her ex, and she was willing to put in the sacrifice and effort to be with him, but he snubbed her. The movie is very clear that the reason Meg is so cynical when we meet her is b/c she used to be a very openly sweet and loving person back when everything was beautiful and nothing hurt. And in that period, when she was so enamored with this Joe Schmo, she was probably starry eyed and saw everything in rose-colored glasses and thus didn't see the red flags of this chump. But she grew up and learned from her mistakes, but in a path that stopped her from ever trusting or loving someone else.

It's interesting, but Meg's ex comes up again at least referenced in I won't Say(I'm in Love), in the line:

"I thought my heart had learned its lesson..."

But when Meg sings that line, do you know what part of the garden she's in?

***CONTENT WARNING: R*pe. We will be discussing the setting of where I won't say (I'm in Love) takes place and picking apart at the various statues littered about in the Greek courtyard.

Now the garden is filled with statues of lovers and other symbols of love, but some that are not examples of love, specifically ones that revolve around scenes of r*pe.

The reference to her ex by the aforementioned lyric is when Meg's surrounded by scenes of r*pe: We have a centaur carrying off a lady and a satyr chasing after a girl. A common theme in greek myths, and I can't help but feel this was intentional on the writer's part. They are shouting and screaming at us that Meg's ex was a bad dude. Why would the only reference to her past dating life be when she's surrounded by the only sexually perverse imagery in this entire scene? Of males taking advantage of women? Carrying them off when they are not at all interested based on their body language?

***

I think that's why when Meg and Hades talk after her fake dating AU with Hercules their whole conversation is filled with so much substance. The song pushes so much character development for Meg that it enables her to face her trauma head-on and accept the past and still have the courage to move forward and try again with this budding new relationship now that the Muses helped support her- as her back-up chorus and her conscience lol.

But there's still one problem. One overhanging problem that's give or take 7 feet tall of abandonment and anger issues, permeating with the stench of sulfur and brimstone.

When the song ends, Hades almost immediately appears in the most on the nose way. By ripping apart a pair of young lovers as he emerges from the Underworld like the extra edgelord he is.

Thus begins my favorite scene of the movie. Songs don't count.

Now we've seen Meg and Hades interacting before and I will touch upon the scene after Zero to Hero later, but its poignant to get to the only time they really have a true clash first. The garden scene is the first time Meg is facing Hades as a heroine and not a reluctant minion.

Gosh, I love it when a girl goes feral, and Meg goes all out here. The interchange between Meg and Hades is written so tightly and neatly, everyone is dripping with so much character I just adore it.

But the most ironic part that isn't given much thought is why Hades says his most iconic and memeable line:

You bet this line is hilarious, but look at Hades' expression in the gif before. The exaggerated eyeroll, the sagging shoulders of disbelief as Meg is full of so much love and hope she almost forgets who's she's saying all this to.

The irony of Meg gushing about Hercules to Hades is this: Meg and Hades have had this exact conversation before. But now the guy in questions isn't her ex, it's Hercules.

And this time around, Hades is done beating around the bush and pretending everything is hunky-dory. Last time, he was fine with her going on about her ex and gushing about how "great" of a guy he was b/c he just wanted to take her soul. Hades probably had to fish her Ex out and knew what kinda guy he was once he read his record. In fact, I'm willing to wager, Hades has had multiple women similar to Meg who had done the same as her for some deadbeat.

And that's why Hades comes across as so annoyed by her being back in the same position.

Didn't she learn her lesson? Hell, even Hades knows guys can be pigs. And a small part of me has always wondered if his annoyance is also springing up b/c he knows that Hercules is a son of Zeus. While I don't think Hades ever had a soft spot for Meg- went lenient with her, etc, I can't help but wonder if Hades saw Hercules as someone who got around like Zeus and had a reputation like Zeus' other sons, ie, Apollo, Hephaestus, and even Hermes(yes Hermes had a lot of kids with tons of women). So Hades might legitimately be trying to warn her. I mean he's about to set her free, he's trying to pass on some good advice here before he disappears from her life

Btw, Ares is the only son of Zeus and the only god in Greek mythology who ever had a 100% confirmation rating of consensual relationships.

Be like Ares.

As the scene continues to play out, we start to see that as Meg continues to resist Hades' attempts for her to spill about Hercules' weakness, we see Hades for the first time lose it at Meg instead of his imps.

What little control Meg thought she had in her servitude comes crashing down and I think it's at that moment she realizes how much Hades had been holding back or really how good he was at pretending. He had been manipulating her into thinking she had a platform/control in her life. When Hades takes off his mask and Meg realizes when he had "convinced" her to seduce Hercules in a classic Samson and Delilah situation, it was never her choice. And now she's second guessing if Hades really intended to free her for the information she was undercover for.

He has all the leverage in the world after all.

That's why despite the threat Hades made on her life, she doesn't budge one bit. B/c she loves Hercules more than her own safety. And Meg triumphantly declares to Hades that he lost b/c Hercules can't be beaten b/c of his lack of weaknesses.

Only to realize too late that Hades possesses far more emotional intelligence to understand what's going on. Villains who understand that love is a motivator for people and don't dismiss it as a stupid chemical imbalance are some of my favorite. Not only does Hades understand that if someone like Meg had fallen so quickly then the other party had to have been a genuine person who sought her in the same way she wanted to seek him. Sure, he's taking advantage of it, but he's been around enough to know how much love can be used against people.

And I think that's why when Hades finally meets Hercules, old flame head decides to spill the beans to Hercules about Meg and her role in Hercules' downfall.

Yes, he wanted to hurt Hercules and taunt him and torment him with thoughts on how deep Hades and Meg's relationship went, but he did so to hurt Meg too.

Her show of loyalty to Herc was the last straw and Hades wanted to make sure she could never salvage a relationship with him for her slight against him. But also doing it in a way that broke her spirit and put her in a terribly guilty position that she would feel so undeserving of being with Hercules right as she is freed by him. And ensuring that she never faces Hercules again- maybe split town so she could avoid being harmed, idk.

And that makes Hades revealing Meg's complicity all the more personal. Bc Hades knows how much Meg wants to love and be loved again.

So when a powerless Hercules crumbles beneath Pain and Panic's taunting we see the first time this stubborn, hard-hearted girl cries. Not for her sake, but his.

We have seen throughout this movie that Meg and Hades have the most conflict, the most interactions, and the most character heavy scenes in the movie. They are very similar characters. Both are awfully cynical and sarcastic, both want to be free from some higher power's hold on them, and they're both bitter, bitter people who hate how their lives fell apart at the hands of someone who didn't care for them: Zeus and Joe Schmo.

Now, I'm going to backtrack and move to the Hades scene right after Zero to Hero.

Here, we get another facet of their relationship.

Hades finally realizes that he'd been sending so many beasts after Hercules, so to not be labeled insane, this time around he decides to send in a beauty. *Insert Susan Egan played Belle on Broadway joke here*

Which let's be real, should've been his first approach based on who Herc's daddy is.

But Hades doesn't try to convince Meg with yelling and screaming like he does with the boys, instead, he levels with her. Homeboy puts all his cards on the table, but does so by first empathizing with her and reminding her who helped put her in this situation.

For one second of this film, Hades shows some degree of humanity. And that is super scary. Out of the disney villains, Hades displays a huge, huge depth of emotional intelligence. I don't think any other villains compare and that's what makes him such a compelling villain. Most villains don't have that, and his ability to read the room and know how ppl work that really explains how he's able to manipulate ppl so easily. Even someone like Meg who's been putting up with him for quite a while was persuaded by him. And he does it by turning off the used car salesman persona and acting like an empathetic human being, albeit a flamed hair one.

Maybe that's why he doesn't bark orders to her, he has to appeal to her to let her be more agreeable for a better success rate. Or maybe Hades really is one of the few gods who uses consent.

When I first watched this movie as a kid I never saw the implications of Meg and Hades' relationship until I got older and watched the movie Casino (1995). James Woods, the voice actor for Hades, plays a pimp and that had a kind of whiplash for me when I realized why his role in Casino felt eerily familiar. In Meg's first scene, Hades had sent her out to recruit a centaur knowing full-well that centaur's really dig chicks. We all remember a certain statue in Meg's iconic song, I'm pretty sure the writers knew what was going on.

And that has some super dark implications right there about what Hades expected the scenario to come to and why he sent HER of all people to recruit Nessus without some kind of backup. Whether you agree on my analysis about this is something I really won't argue about. I don't personally see Hades as a pimp, but he does take on characteristics of one mostly b/c of his conman persona since they are rather similar in their manipulation tactics.

Just thought I'd put it here to give some food for thought and since I don't want to make a post on it.

In the end, after reviewing the most important scenes between Meg and Hades you can start to understand my perspective of why the conflict, the clash, and the antagonism feels the most vivid when its centered on Meg vs Hades. Far, far more so than Hercules and Hades ever had. And dare I say it? Even more than Zeus and Hades.

We only get the implications of Hades and Zeus, we don't see them at the forefront.

Everything boils down to Meg. In fact, b/c Hades drags her in, b/c she saves Hercules when he was powerless that Hades ever had the slightest chance of winning, but on the flipside, so did Hercules. If Hercules had remained a deity, he would've been lounging about too along with his parents and unprepared for the oncoming attack.

Throughout this film, Meg grows from being an unwilling participant to someone who's willing to risk it all, overcoming her fear and trauma to get the band back together to save Hercules and ends up helping him get his powers back. So it wasn't so much Hercules' actions that save the day, but Meg's.

At the end of the day, the conflict between Meg and Hades has always felt like the central conflict in Hercules more than what Hades vs Hercules was ever like. Every scene, every biting interchange, its quite obvious the two had a heated past and I can see why some ppl have shipped them even if I personally never did.

It's why I really don't see Hercules as the main character. After zero to hero, we start to lose focus on him since he has no bearing on the overall plot of stopping Hades. To me, Meg has the most growth, the most courage, and the best development in the film and that is because of how well she works as a foil to Hades, the film's antagonist.

If you made it this far, thanks for sticking around.

It's been a real slice.

#disney #disney hades #disney megara #disney hercules #hercules #hades #my rambles #greek myth #greek mythology #kinda

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