#I'm going to go with “she fixed the biggest issues but he still has back problems” because I love to have an excuse for Bruce using a cane

[littlefankingdom]

~ Batman: Knightfall

So what's why Bruce doesn't suffer from back problems and chronic pains, because Shondra used her power to heal him... What a shortcut.

[howlingday]

the arc family have a unique tradition, they forge their own swords every time another of their sons reaches the age to begin training, but infuse these weapons with the spirit of said son. this creates a spirit weapon that can grow with the affore mentioned son and help them on their journey. thing is, both jaune and his sword Lucerna Intrepidus are huge dorks who have taken to wandering around vale fighting grimm to try and kick off a grand adventure so they can be heroes. with jaune's dear companion lucy growing stronger with every grimm she devours she's quickly out stripped the 12 year old in strength if only there was someplace she could go with her young partner to make them both stronger and better at fighting! summer has been retired since her run in with salem basically crippled her while her eyes remain in tact the horrors she and raven went through (mainly her since raven only showed back up at the last minute to save her) shattered her soul in ways she's only just starting to recover from. but training ruby and yang has been a fun hobby it's a shame they're going to be entering the combat school, she's got ruby for two more years and yang will still be there to train after school but it's going to be boring during the days without them. if only there was some young impressionable child she could take as an apprentice! papa arc was going to give jaune such a spanking when he found the boy, he seemed to be always just one step behind him! at least his new sword was keeping him alive after he ran off from home into the wilds to be a hero. where could he have gotten to? a story in which everyone keeps missing the plot, or rather everyone is in a different genre of story and the plot keeps switching. tldr: jaune is being trained by a retired summer and is having an action adventure. summer is going through slice of life and papa arc is handling a mystery comedy looking for his lost son who he always seems to just miss seeing only the after math of his actions and having to fix the issues spawned from it.

"Lucie~! Wait uuup~!"

Jaune Arc, a young boy off on an adventure far away from his home, followed the instinctual pull of his sword and companion, Lucierna Intrepidus! Or, as Jaune referred to her, Lucie. She was a marvelous blade, forged with the spirit of Jaune imbued into her core... located exactly on her pommel. She shone a brilliant aqua blue to match her partner's eyes.

"No way!" She called out. "We've only just started! You can't expect us to be heroes by killing just a few rats, can you?"

"N-No, but we never killed anything bigger than a rat." Jaune reasoned as he his feet were nearly dragged.

"So? This is our moment!" The sword raised itself high. "Think of it! Lucierna Intrepidus, the mighty sword held aloft by Jaune Arc, the greatest sword and swordmaster of all time~!"

"Well, maybe some day, but I'm only 12. I still need to go to school and-"

"Forget school! We need a mentor! And until we find one..." A sudden shift to the left knocked Jaune off his feet and sent him rolling down the hill. "Adventure will teach us what to do!"

"Lucie, you're being.... being..."

Not far from where Jaune landed was a Grimm. And not just any Grimm, but a Beowolf. Next to the Ursa, it was the second-biggest Grimm to wander these woods. It's blood-red eyes seemed to catch ablaze at the sight of the young hero. The young hero who was shaking in his boots.

"Uh..."

"S-See?" Lucie said, her voice also quivering. "Adventure's, uh, just ahead of us..." Steeling her nerves, if she had any, she began barking orders to Jaune. "Dueling stance! Sword up! Sword out! Ready to fight!"

Jaune, having been drilled for the past few months by both his sword and his father, snapped into position with his blade set between himself and the black beast stalking towards him with massive jaw wide open.

"Y-Yup! That's it! Now step forward!" Jaune froze. "Hey! Don't embarrass me in our first real fight!" The boy was shoved off-balance by his sword, making him stumble and fall. As he looked up, he saw the monster set upon him. He covered his head with Lucie. "JAUNE!"

--------------------------------------------------

"Kids! Suppertime~!"

Ruby, Yang, and Jaune ran as fast as they could to the dining room. Before they could be told to do so, they set their training weapons upon their respective racks, then went into the bathroom to wash their hands. The three then took their seats at the dinner table, where Taiyang was already setting down the side dishes.

"Do you want roast beef, Yang?" Summer asked.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah~!" The blonde girl practically vibrated in her seat.

"What do you say, Yang?" Taiyang raised his brow.

"Roast! Beef! Roast! Beef~!" Yang chanted, tapping her fork and knife on the table.

"Yang!"

"Roast! Beef! Roast! Beef!" Ruby joined in, chanting with her sister and pounding her tableware in unison.

"Um, I would like roast beef, Mr. Xiao Long." Jaune said timidly. For his politeness, he was rewarded with the thickest (for a child) slab of roast beef placed squarely on his plate, earning whines from the two girls. "And may I have green beans and carrots, too?"

Summer giggled as her girls watched in astonishment as their own father chose her apprentice over them. While they stared, she prepared plates for them before making her own. Taiyang did the same for Jaune before sitting down.

"So, did you kids play anything fun today?" The huntress asked.

"We played hide and seek!" Ruby chirped.

"Jaune cheated." Yang huffed. "He used his sword to peek on us!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Alright, enough!" Taiyang barked. "There will be no fighting at this table. Now, I want you kids to sit there and eat your food quietly." If there were to be any grumblings, they quickly died when Tai gave them the ol' Blue Eye Bane, a glare so chilling that it made you behave real quick!

"Jaune, I was speaking to your mother today." Summer said after slicing her roast beef into little squares. "She's wondering if you're ready for your first day at Signal tomorrow with Ruby."

"Um... I think so..." Jaune answered, unsure if he really was.

"Oh, you will be!" Taiyang said with a smile. "After all, you've had plenty of Tai-me to get ready!" The blond man and his daughter shared a giggle while his wife and her daughter gave a groan. Jaune just looked confused.

"It's okay to be nervous, Jaune." Summer said. "Being nervous just means something is new to you and you don't know what the best way to go forward is. In the end, though, it always come down to one answer."

"Go forward?" Jaune guessed.

"Exactly!" Summer took a bite of her cutlet of roast beef. "Mm~! You've really outdone yourself tonight, dear!"

"Thanks, honey!" Taiyang smiled. "I'd say this beef is better than the roast~!"

"Tai, please..."

--------------------------------------------------

"Oh, please, be here somewhere..."

Nicholas Arc wandered into the quaint, little farming town, hoping to find some clue as to where his son ran off to this time. This was, by and far, the furthest from home Jaune had ever been. It had been almost a week since he left home on the hunt for him, doing his best to not panic at the prospect that his progeny was perforated, pulverized, or otherwise pulled apart by some predacious pests or worse, some kind of putrid pervert.

"No!" He shook his head. He had to stay focused. He had to find his son, and he could only do that with a clear head. And what better way to get a clear head than with coffee?

He entered the convenience store, a chime and a woman about his age greeting him. He greeted her back and headed to the coffee machine. Waiting for his cup to fill, he looked to the lottery tickets. Inside the glass, from and center, was a rabbit with a cute smile and a flower by their ear. The flower's petals were colored in on every other across from each other.

"Pumpkin Patty..." From the Pumpkin Pete Pumpkin Patch Pals Show that his girls loved to watch. And Jaune. In fact, Jaune was especially enamored with the girl rabbit, so much so that he drew her face with that same flower every chance he got-

"MA'AM!" The woman flinched. He pointed to the lottery box. "WHOSE RABBIT DRAWING IS THAT?!"

She looked to the drawing. "Some kid?"

"Was it a boy?!" Nicholas asked, finally pulling himself back if only just for a moment. "Was it a boy who drew that picture?!"

"Sir, I need you to calm down." She waved her hands to the counter. "He just wanted to draw on something while his teacher was waiting for the donuts."

"Teacher?! What teacher?!"

"Some woman in a white robe." She shrugged.

Nicholas would recognize that description anywhere! The White Reaper! The Angel of Death! He thought she'd retired years ago! But now, there was no mistaking it! His son was abducted by...

"SUMMEEER ROOOOOOOOOOOSE!"

The woman looked outside the convenience store to the screaming man. "Sir, you need to pay for that coffee."

[prismatoxic]

one day I hope kui releases a mini comic that finalizes chilchucks and his wifes separation (ie like she did with shuro/falin whole marriage thing) cause honestly they're better off apart but still amicable. and plus like 4-years is a long time and people change, I feel the opportunity to 'fix' things has been long shut. so leave that woman alone and let HER be at the club!

honestly like... my biggest issue with the ship (and this is not a moral issue, nor me saying people cannot ship it) is i feel it goes against the themes of the story

dungeon meshi is often about being changed in ways you cannot revert, and learning to live your new life rather than fight to go back to how you once were

i do think chilchuck talks to her. i think he takes marcille's advice to heart. but i also think it's too late, and she's moved on, and he will too. maybe it's more for closure than anything. "i'm sorry i hurt you; i hope life finds you well."

laios can't interact with the monsters he so loves anymore, but with all he's learned from the situation, he can build a nation where people never go hungry. senshi can never change what happened to his friends, but he did eventually stumble into new ones who helped to heal what ailed him most about the loss. izutsumi cannot ever separate her merged souls, but she's learned how to be the person she is now. marcille will never again desire to care for her hair the way she once did, but her loved ones have stepped in to do it for her. falin will never be fully human again, but honestly, she seems pretty stoked about the changes. mithrun will never regain the desires he used to have, but he will learn how to form new ones. kabru cannot retroactively save utaya, but he now helps rule a kingdom built on the ashes of what destroyed utaya.

so, following that thread down to chilchuck... chilchuck can't ever regain the life he had with his wife, but he can build a new life with his friends and his daughters.

genuinely, people can interpret the text however they want and ship whatever they want, but to me... chilchuck not being able to return to how his life was before is part of what makes dungeon meshi the story that it is.

so... yeah actually some canon confirmation would be cool, but i'm also content with it never being addressed, at this point.

[horizon-verizon]

I liked the fight itself, but I was like: girly what’s the plan tho?????

Jace is politically astute and a great diplomat but he’s still a teenager, Rhaenys is going to die...The funny thing is even after saying that she cannot trust him he’s still going to raise an army and take Harrenhal for her. Has she forgotten he was going to stay in Pentos forever until she BEGGED him to stay because she needed him to fight a war for her ?

In F&B, Daemon kills Vhagar and eliminates the Green’s blockage in the Riverlands. The Winter Wolves and the knights of the Vale came down to aid the Blacks in the Riverlands. Reaching King’s Landing, making the Greens panic, poison their own king, and crown Rhaenyra’s son. Daemon’s efforts might not have saved Rhanerya in time but they did aid their son and his daughters’ safety.

I believe the sort of "trust" Sara Hess was trying to define and reveal in this scene is the faith that Daemon would not use his proximity and relationship to her to do stuff that she cannot fix or direct the effect on herself. But she makes it focus more on Daemon trying to rule through her and not him deciding things on his own/perhaps failing to do as he actually wishes which is to protect his family....as was canon and already hashed out even in this show's universe/writing.

Rhaenyra's reasoning is being put to question--for how she'd think to allow Daemon to be around her first 3 kids if she actually didn't trust his ambitions comes into question, and no Rhaenyra was not utterly stupid in canon. She marries the man knowing that he would support her and only her claim as well as be non-murderous or threatening to her and their eventual kids. The true story is that Daemon is a principal element to how Rhaenyra was able to garner support and in good time in critical spots of the realm--he was a good political partner as well and she espied that. So them being together at all or why she chose him (as the character she is now) is also called into question, just as Rhaenys and Corlys do not make sense together in the show.

The other issue is that even with Jaehaerys being a child, this isn't a world/society that will consider a child's death as reason enough for them to pull back support, or it's not an unconditional deal breaker. They may have some personal qualms, but many would see this as "blood for blood" for the death of Lucerys AND/OR keeping their oaths to Rhaenyra/Viserys. And especially what voluntary designation of heirs vs traditions over their ability to name an heir and that heir being able to keep their seats they way those lords intended. As rhaenin-time pointed out once, it's pretty dangerous to set the precedent that anyone could just accuse the heir of things and then carve out their way towards the seat not assigned to them. All this would rather motivate the lords over a child's death, esp when Aegon has another son to be his heir. Does that make them cruel and amoral, duh. But Hess and Condal are not actually being that true to the story/setting we got. They're acting like everyone is in this tightly interconnected, very tiny bubble of a community where the relationships between houses across the entire realm are very very personal and that their ethic system is similarly human-prioritized based as we try to make our own and it disrupts the logic of the story.

*EDIT* [7/13/24] This is not to say that child killing is wrong, I'm trying to point out that in the context of political support and Rhaenyra's ability to gather her own loyal vassals, that this wouldn't be the biggest turning factor for her to lose followers and potential ones, so the argument had to be about something else, which is was. *EDIT END*

It also contradicts how Ned rationalizes his treatment towards Cersei ("honor" over actual safety of vulnerable people) in the canon world, and don't get me started on how we make a double standard, as a fandom and reader, in how we praise Ned for how he tries to follow the line of honor or save his family by what he intended to allow to happen with Cersei--or risk happen--but suddenly Rhaenyra can't be the type of protagonist who marries Daemon for her own interests, love, to protect her family, etc.

Them and the rest do not really understand Daemon's character in relation to Rhaenyra nor the weight of all those social elements I described bc they didn't really bother to ponder over all these rules implications...they didn't even bother to really consider the effect of Aemond's kinslaying and the taboo around that (or some are just making this as immediately understandable to a 2024 audience, idk). Sure the court may not shame Aemond but there's the factor of them being in close proximity and immediate danger. And it still is in the back of their minds that this dude is too "crazy" to really follow sincerely....at least some of them. Which could affect the entire greens' standing and image.

Thus, while I do think that there's always a chance bk!Rhaenyra didn't trust Daemon to not mess up her own image in his own impulsivity (having some internal conflict of her own bc I don't think she'd be angry at the act to get blood for blood and still resent him for the outcome), show!Rhaenyra questions his hold on his ambitions instead of what he desires. We already went over his ambitions back in season 1 and he already proved that he wasn't with her or made a family with her to rule anything through her (so yes, his scene with Rhaenys in the first epi didn't make sense esp with how dumb it is to make him try to go to KL to kill Aemond...there's a reason why he sends B&C in canon instead!!!). The show should have really made Rhaenyra question his present desires and not past ambitions. Which is what Branwynwith of Twitter speaks to in their review of the episode.

But now, the team didn't think about how this would look to multiple different groups of people, thus, you know.

*7/14/24* I forgot to include that Daemon actually leaving for Harrenhal before getting their particulars and priorities in order, making any sort of plan as to how he's going to "make it up" or fulfill...not even him yelling out something along the lines of "watch me" concerning Harrenhal and his intent is insane even for him, this version. Again, does the show expect me to think Rhaenyra often has to plan around these events he causes whenever they fight and he crashes out?

[drunkenbagel]

Enchanted to meet you - Part 2

Pairing: Pedro Pascal x Spanish f!reader Contents: slow burn, a bit of strong language/swearing, mentions of alcohol and drunk behaviour, implied sexual ambiance/tension but not actual smut. Word count: 3,1k A/N: I had some issues with my acc, which got deleted (and all of my posts/likes/etc🥲) but I'm back! anyways, here is the second part to the story! hope you like it :) Taglist: @canpillowscry @lxdyred (thank you so much for reading! <3) Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

You sighed while picking up your things from your work table and started heading to the elevator.

“Nora, it's not like that. I think you're taking it a little out of context.”

“What?! You're telling me that somehow befriending Pedro fucking Pascal isn't that big of a deal to you? Is that what it is? What the hell has New York done to you?”

“I'm not saying that! It's just- I don't think I am his public friend anyway.” You sighed again. “He's a celebrity, and I'm just a regular girl. Hell, I'm sure he sees me as his kid. He actually calls me kid, Nora. And I just happen to have the biggest crush on this man! Do you know how embarrassing that is?”

“Well, you got me there. But what if he's faking it and he likes you too? You may have a chance. You can still manifest your way into this man's ass anyway.”

You snorted loudly, and some people on the hall gave you a weird look.

“You always know how to cheer me up, that is a fact.”

“And I'm also the funniest, best sibling you ever had” she said laughing too.

“You are literally my only sibling, Nora. You're my rant dump. The best racoon, maybe. I could give you that title.”

“Are you kidding me? You know I love racoons. They're my favorite beings. And they are so funny too. I actually feel weirdly honored.”

It had been a little more than four months since you met Pedro, and the two of you had been getting closer. In the first month of knowing each other, much to your surprise, he gave you his personal number, and since then you started exchanging text messages almost constantly. Especially since you didn't saw each other again apart from a couple times at the beginning of your friendship, because he had a lot of work and had to travel back and forth. Schedules are real shitty sometimes, more since yours both didn't exactly coincide.

The elevator made a small sound and the doors opened.

“You know that I-”

Your face fell and you froze as you saw the secretary speaking with someone that looked an awful lot like Pedro. You instinctively hid behind a wall on a random hallway.

“y/n? You alright?”

“He's here.”

“What? Who are you-”

“He is here. At my work! What is he doing here?” you whisper-shouted while cautiously looking at him again. There was a brief silence on the other line.

“You mean to tell me that Pedro showed up at your work? Out of the blue?”

“Yes! He was supposed to be in Canada for some filming or some shit! Oh my god, what do I do?”

“Eres tonta?” Nora said. “Go talk to him like a normal person, estúpida! I bet you're hiding somewhere now.” (Are you dumb?)

You straightened and looked around as if you could see your sister looking at you.

“I fucking knew it” she said, and you heard her laughing on the other line.

“Shut up! You know this kind of things make me anxious. What do I do now? I look like shit, Nora.” You looked at your reflection on a nearby sign and started to fix your hair a little. “What is he even doing here? Why not tell me he was coming?”

“It's something called a surprise, y/n. You show up uninvited.”

“Ha-ha” you mockingly laughed. “What should I tell him? How do I react? I don't want him thinking I'm a big weirdo by making things awkward or something.”

“Just talk to him, for starters!” she scolded you.

“About what?! Hey, funny seeing you here, do you want to hang out? No! I don't think we can be seen in public without him being recognized, and less with me. Go somewhere closed? Same thing. And I can't take him to my shitty house, that place is a fucking dump and you know it.”

“Okay, okay. Breathe, y/n. Please.” You closed your eyes and took a deep breath, then exhaled it. “Good. Now, maybe he just wanted to say hello, and go about his day. You're getting a bit ahead of yourself.”

“I know, I know. Okay, I'll just... Casually go out. I guess?”

“Good. And keep me updated right away or I'll call the cops.”

You laughed while shaking your head. Oh how you loved her.

“Thank you. Talk later. Bye!”

“Bye, you dumbass” she said, and hung up before you could say anything else.

You looked into your reflection again, and went to the exit as if you didn't see him in the first place. Only when you got out, he wasn't there anymore. You frowned. Maybe I just imagined it? You shook your head, and went to the door, when the secretary called your name.

“y/n! Here, Ashley told me to give you these reports for Monday. Oh, and by the way, there is someone waiting for you over there” he said, pointing towards the small book aisle that was on the waiting room.

You then saw him standing there in between shelves, looking through some books. You couldn't help a small smile from appearing in your lips.

“Thanks, Carter. See you next week” you said, waving at him while you walked to Pedro. You stood behind him, and he was so concentrated on the books that he didn't hear you approaching.

“Hm, Cien años de soledad, good book.”

He instantly whipped his head to your direction, a little startled, but when he saw your face he smiled widely.

“Hey!” he said, and grabbed you by your shoulders to give you a brief side hug.

“Hello. What are you doing here? I though you worked.”

“Yeah well, we finished a bit earlier than expected and I don't have to go back until Tuesday, so I wanted to surprise you. I hope that's okay.”

“Yeah, yeah. Sure. I just- I don't know if you wanted to...” be seen with me? “Anyways, fancy a drink? I sure as hell could use one. Or two”

“Oh, hell yes” he groaned.

“Good, because I know a good Irish pub just in this street.”

“Después de tí, señorita. You lead the way” he said while bowing slightly. (After you, young lady.)

After a bit of small talk and a 5 minute walk, you two walked into McCarthy's, your favourite pub ever. You had gone a couple of times with Ana and some friends there. Had a whole lot of good alcohol too.

You sat on a table that was a bit hidden from the rest, and you thanked Marcus for that. The kind bartender had been your friend since you started being a regular here. You two even dated for a while back then, but in the end you both preferred to stay as friends. Also, the amount of times he had to drive you home drunk was a bit embarassing.

After what seemed to be the shortest time of laughing and drinking, Marcus approached your table.

“Hey lass, we're closing. You need a ride?” he asked while putting a cloth on his shoulder.

“Already? Thanks for telling me, Marcus” you said, words a bit slurred, clearly a bit drunk. “Don't worry, I can walk home”

“You sure? I don't mind driving you, you already know that.”

“Yeah I'll-”

“I'll go with her.”

You two turned to look at Pedro, who had been awfully quiet during your coversation. Marcus stared at him for a little while, and then at you.

“Wolf?”

“Rabbit. Soft, white rabbit” you answered laughing, remembering the code names you made back then. He wanted to know if he was bothering you or if you were okay with that. He was such a caring friend. Pedro just looked at you two back and forth, without understanding. He didn't know why that interaction bothered him, but it did.

“Alright, then I'll have to ask you to leave like the rest so I can close up for the night.”

You two picked up your things, and on the way out, Pedro got ahead of you to open the door. You stopped briefly to say goodbye to Marcus before leaving.

“Always nice seeing you ‘round here, lass. Take care, please” he said.

“Thanks, Marc” you said, bringing him closer to give him a hug. After that, you kissed his cheek, and left off to the door. You didn't notice, but Pedro was clenching his jaw for the whole time, for a reason unknown to him too.

After a small silent walk, you went to reach for your phone, and in the process you realized your keys where missing.

“Shit. Please, no, no, no...” you muttered while frantically searching your bag.

“What happened?” Pedro asked, a little worried. “You alright?”

You sighed, defeated.

“I left my keys at work. And they are obviously more than closed right now. And until Monday” you said, groaning loudly. “Joder! I will have to call a locksmith, and then make copies of keys... Shit, this month is going to suck so fucking bad.” (Fuck!)

“You could stay at my place.” The words left Pedro's mouth before he could stop them, and he panicked for a second. You froze too, feeling your already alcohol-warm cheeks heating up. Did he just say that? You raised your eyes to meet his.

“Are- Are you sure? I don't want to disturb you.”

“C’mon, kid. I have some free days and an empty home. Besides, we could continue the party there if you're up for it.”

“Oh, like you could handle it?” you said, challenging.

“I know damn well I can” he answered, now widely smiling.

“¿Me estás retando?” you asked. (Are you challenging me?)

“Oh, sí.” (Oh, yes.)

“Then it's on.”

When you arrived there, you started drinking basically a bit of everyhthing on Pedro's shelves, and it ended with the two of you being very drunk. You had drank quite a lot more, never backing up on the challenge, even when he told you that you had already won, while trying not to piss his pants because you had slipped and fell to the floor.

“I know I won! I always do” you said, laughing as you got up.

“Okay, kid, you win. Now let's get you to bed” he said while still laughing, also visibly drunk. He took your hand to lead you, and you felt sparks just from that touch. “It's one of my guest rooms, so you don't have to worry about anything. You have spare chargers on the drawer by the bed, and in the bathroom are also spare hygiene things if you need them.”

“Y’have any clothes?”

“Ah, yes. Wait a moment” he said, and stumbled a bit to his room next door. Meanwhile you tried to take your shoes and pants off on your own, but given that you were heavily drunk, it was quite a challenge. Pedro arrived short after with a shirt and some plaid pajama bottoms.

“Here” he said, leaving the clothes beside you in bed. You then tried to take off your sweater, but it got stuck on your head. You heard Pedro laughing, but he helped you get out of it. He folded it the best he could, and went to leave it on the chair beside the bed. “I'll leave this here for-”

He turned around, but you were right behind him. So close. Only in your underwear. His laugh faltered, and he shallowed hard, feeling his head spin.

“Pedro” you whimpered, while tugging at his shirt. He could feel his heart thundering in his ears. He knew he was attracted to you, but you never gave him any clue that it was reciprocal.

He saw you moving your lips, saying something, but the loud sound of his own beating heart didn't let him hear what you said. You tugged again at his shirt. He instinctively started to take his shirt off. Was this happening? Was this really going to happen?

Without breaking eye contact, you took the shirt, and reached for the clasp of your bra. He closed his eyes and shallowed again. Okay, Pedro, calm down. Blindly and not wanting to intrude you, he took off his jeans. He then felt you taking his hand and leading him to bed. When his leg touched the matress, he opened his eyes and found you looking back at him, but you were wearing his shirt on. Wait-

You threw your arms around his neck and pulled him towards you, collapsing on the bed. Pedro tried to avoid falling with his full weight on you, but you were hanging off of him for dear life.

“Warm” you whispered sleepily, clutching his head onto your chest. He radiated a lot of heat, and you found that very comforting. That's why you asked him for the shirt he was wearing. Now you were using him as your personal heater.

“Wait, y/n- I think I-”

You shushed him, and when he realized what was going on, he let out a small laugh. Without getting out of your grasp, he took the duvet and covered you two with it. Then, he accomodated himself on top of you, since you didn't seem to be letting him go anytime soon. You were also warm, and within a few minutes, he fell asleep too.

You woke up some hours later, with a dry mouth and a proper headache. You also felt your chest heavier than usual, so you opened your eyes briefly, and saw Pedro laying on your chest. Ah, it's just him.

Wait.

You opened your eyes abruptly this time, looking at him again. He had his arms around your waist, and you had yours in his hair. You the realized that you had only his yesterday's shirt on, and with one brief look below the covers, you saw that he was practically naked too. You frantically tried to remember last night's events, but you only remembered getting into his house. Then, all blank. Oh no, what the hell did I do?! Did you just ruin the brief but amazing friendship you had? Did you two had sex?

You then started making your way out of the bed, trying not to wake Pedro. You picked up your phone and made your way into the kitchen. Your body was sore as hell. While you poured a big water glass on the sink, you dialed Nora's number. She picked up at the fourth tone.

“Hello?”

“La he cagado. Monumentalmente.” (I fucked up. Tremedously.)

“¿Qué has hecho? ¿Estás bien?” she asked, sounding a bit worried. (What did you do? Are you okay?)

“I think I had sex with Pedro.”

There was a small silence. “What do you mean 'you think'? Did you or not?”

“I don't remember, Nora! I just- We drank a lot yesterday, and I woke up with only his shirt, on my underwear, and him practically naked too! I am freaking out!” you whisper-screamed while running your hand over your hair.

“Oh shit” she laughed. “You two had sex!”

“Don't laugh! I don't know what to do, he is-”

You felt two hands snake around your waist, and a raspy voice say good morning, beautiful into your neck. You froze, and ended the call.

“Hi” you said in a whisper.

“Did you have a good sleep?”

“Y-yeah... You?”

“Definitely. After last night's, I slept like a baby.”

You shallowed. Oh no. So you two really had sex. Sounded like very good sex. And you didn't remember! Fuck. The universe was taunting you.

What you didn't know was that Pedro woke up as soon as you left the room, following you to the kitched without you noticing. And, of course, heard the whole conversation. He then had the wickedest idea, and wanted to test you on how far you'd go without telling him what you really thought.

“What do you say? Do you wanna go again? Or are you too sore? I hope I wasn't too harsh on you.”

“No, I'm...” he kissed the back of your neck, and you felt a shiver run down your spine. “I'm fine”

“Good, then...”

He turned you around and lifted you by your thighs, forcing you to cling your arms around his shoulders and legs around his waist. You let out a small yelp, and buried your head in his neck as he carried you into the bedroom again. Your heart was beating very fast, and you thought it was going to pop out any moment now.

He laid you down on the bed, and trying to contain the laughter, he lowered his forehead to touch yours.

“Are you sure you're okay? You're a little tense.”

“Yes” you answered, a little too fast. It took everything in him not to burst laughing, and he tried to cover it by leaving small pecks on your neck. You sighed at the feeling, but tensed up again when he started lowering his mouth. One of his hands started to lift your shirt over your hips when you couldn't take it anymore.

“Stop! Stop please. I can't do it” you said, pushing him and getting off the bed.

“What? You can't do what?” he said, trying not to break character.

“I just- I cannot pretend anymore. I'm sorry if something happened, but I don't remember shit about yesterday and I'm proper freaking out right now. I don't want to ruin our friendship based on some drunk decision, and-”

You stopped talking when he suddenly burst out laughing. You looked at him in confusion.

“What? What's so funny?”

“y/n... Your- Your face-” he said, wheezing.

“Stop fucking laughing! I'm serious.”

“Nothing happened, love. I was just messing with you. I wanted to see how far you'd go.”

“Wha- But you were... I-I am... And you said...”

“I know what I said” he answered, wiping his tears. “I heard you on the phone”

You felt your cheeks burn.

“All of it?”

“All of it.”

“And you were going to let me do this, you fucking asshole?” you said, hitting him with a pillow.

“Ow! You think I'd let you? That hurts my feelings” he said, while fake pouting.

“Oh, I'm going to hurt you, Pedro. Te voy a matar!” (I'm going to kill you!)

You started hitting him repeatedly with said pillow, until both of you were laughing and panting on the bed.

After that, the bond between you two grew stronger, now going from friends who only texted to best friends who chatted, video called and saw each other at any chance they had. You had no idea how everything in your life was going to change.

[theflyindutchwoman]

Just a preemptive apology for spewing this all in your inbox lol 😅

I agree that this felt like the beginning of the larger conversation about uc. I feel like a lot of this storyline requires patience and that's why some people arent the biggest fans of it lol. It took this long just for Tim to get out of denial about his feelings. It's a pretty big issue so I feel like it would be unsatisfying and boring if all it took was one scene and one conversation to fix it.

Plus from Lucy's perspective, uc is something she's been working towards since she was a rookie (except for in season 4 cause I think the writers forgot lol). So I can imagine it would take a lot for her to drop it completely. Especially with her story before the show being her trying to find a career, it would make sense she would cling to something she likes and is good at. I mean she can still be a detective but detective and uc are probably so intertwined in her mind at this point.

I don't know I just don't think the whole thing is as cut and dry as some people think. I'm excited to see where they go with it in the rest of this season. Especially with all the bts pictures we've gotten and how they may fit into this 👀

To be fair, there's patience and there's "waiting for 3 seasons for this storyline to move forward", if you know what I mean ;) Jokes aside, I feel like I'm one of the few who actually enjoy this arc so, in my case, I'm really glad that we are finally digging into this. It has felt stagnant for quite some time, and for good reasons.

Like you said, it apparently has taken this long for Tim to realise how much in denial he has been… And my guess is, he's not the only one here. I appreciate that this is used as a way by the writers to explain why this conversation has been postponed for so long : after all, Lucy has never made a secret that this was the career she wanted and Tim has encouraged her all along (minus the hiccups at the beginning). He knew that when he said they were worth the risk. So they needed to come up with a valid reason as to why it would be a problem. One that wouldn't invalidate Tim's feelings or decision. And now that this is out in the open, we can hopefully focus on Lucy's side of the story. On whether she is in denial too. On her fears - because I refuse to believe she doesn't have any. I do believe that she loves undercover. But like she admitted herself, she has only done short ops. Ops that sometimes went wrong but without any lasting consequences. So while she probably missed her friends and all during those missions, it's entirely different from missing out on a whole year. I'm not sure she has allowed herself to be entirely honest with herself on the subject.

And that's another thing. Her life has changed quite a lot since she decided to pursue an undercover career. Back then, she was pretty much on her own. But now, she has a family. And she lost her closest friend. Things that tend to make you think differently. I don't mean that she can't have the career that she wants, just that these types of events usually makes one reconsider their plans. In a way, this dream of being a UC has been her constant through all of this. And as someone who struggled for close to a decade to find her dream job, I can understand why she doesn't really question it. Not to mention that time and time again, we have seen how Lucy needs to talk things out in order to process them… And she hasn't been able to do that here. Like when she was offered the spot at the UC Academy. She went to see Nyla but it didn't do much. She needed Tim but with all the baggage between them at the time, she barely got to open up about her feelings. He is her sounding board but in this situation, it makes things more complicated. Her feelings for UC and for Tim are so intertwined that she doesn't know how to unravel this whole web. It is so convoluted together. She always shows some concerns about how it will affect their relationship. But not how it will affect HER. Like in 5.20 when she brushed away Tim's question. That's why I like that Tim's feelings might be out of the way first, so we can dig deeper into Lucy's. She has been so focused on Tim that she has neglected herself in the process. And that's also why I loved Chastity's comment. Because it was thrown casually by someone who is on the outside, and far more objective than the team could ever be. And hopefully, this is what starts an introspection from Lucy.

I don't think the writers necessarily forgot about her wanting to do undercover in s4 : she was at the beginning of her P2 career so it made sense for her to focus on that first. But she was still behind two UC ops. The second one being the catalyst for both her relationship with Tim and her career in UC moving forward. It's also no coincidence that Tim has always been involved in her UC ops. Either on the lookout (3.06 and 5.07), as her case officer (5.21), as the one going undercover under her supervision (4.07 and 4.22) or with her (5.01). The only time he wasn't involved from the get-go was during her first solo op (3.14) and even then, he managed to convince Nyla to keep him in the loop. It gave them a sense of safety. So it would be good to see an undercover mission where they can't keep in touch at all. And IF he is really going undercover for a couple of episodes as we have speculated, it would be interesting to see how it would affect them both to be on the other side of the equation. It would offer them a perspective of what the other would go through. That said, I still hope Lucy get to experience herself what it's like to do a long-ish op before making any decision. This has been her storyline above all. But in any case, I can't wait to see where this is going. (And I'm sorry, I feel like I went off on a tangent here and hijacked your reply lol).

[atopvisenyashill]

What if Corlys had married Dallas?

NOW WE’RE COOKING

FIRST THE DAELLA/CORLYS MARRIAGE

I think Corlys is a smart man who can read what other people need from him well. Which is a nice way of saying that I think he would take the kind of approach to her that Daemon takes to Rhaenyra in HOTD but without that level of psychosexual obsession - he wants her to open up, ~be herself~ and be free, but of course, the definition of be free includes a freedom that would benefit him in some way.

If Corlys marries Daella, it's because Jaehaerys or Alysanne suggested him as a potential match and Daella picked him out. I don't know that Corlys would be particularly gung ho about it initially the way he is with Rhaenys - after all, Rhaenys was a dragon rider and heir presumptive while Daella is not only wayyy down the line of succession, she's "simple" aka likely autistic or developmentally disabled in some way which means she's going to need care taking in a way Rhaenys doesn't. I do think that may lead to some sort of resentment especially during times of great political stress.

BUT. I think there's a non zero chance he encourages her to get close to/claim a dragon - even if its one she doesn't regularly ride - and that might give her some confidence. I mean, just because someone has a disability doesn't mean that with the right environment, they can't be capable of a whole lot! And for Daella, you have that concept that is talked about in that viral video going around with the girl with down's - if you assume she can't, then she won't, and Jaehaerys and Alysanne have assumed Daella can't for a long time, so she doesn't. But if Corlys believes she can - well, maybe she will! The biggest thing here is Corlys has to be careful about her pregnancies. I think he would wait to get her pregnant largely because Alysanne is clearly feeling Some Type Of Way about Daella marrying, but even if he doesn't, the thing about Corlys is he's a Nice Guy. Yeah he'll cheat on his wife, yeah he'll marry a 16 year old but he doesn't physically or emotionally abuse them (...besides the grooming). If Daella is six months pregnant and tells him she's terrified and wants her mother, I think Corlys would just write to Alysanne and ask her to visit (assuming he even left the capital, and I don't think he would anyway) instead of berate Daella or call on his relatives to berate her. I think she's likely to get better care with Corlys looking over her because he needs an heir and wants dragon riding Velaryons and he can't get that if she dies.

Not only that, but Corlys wants to be involved in politics - and I think it's noteworthy that neither Rodrik nor his heir seemed particularly welcome at King's Landing after this incident and it took Daemon making a mess of his marriage with Rhea for the Iron Throne to go "alright let's call it even" before the Arryns really come back onto the political scene. Corlys is not stupid enough to risk something like that which means even IF Daella dies - and I'm not confident in saying she would. I know she's young but 16 year olds do often live through birth, the issue is the baby not living because it's a preemie, and again, proper care and cleanliness fixes a lot of the issues associated with birth - you can guarantee her death is going to be when she's a few years older, like Alyssa, and therefore not something Alysanne can directly attribute to him.

It does ripple out to mean the First Quarrel might not last as long but the trauma of losing Alyssa and Viserra as well as the constant comments about Saera being a whore is more than enough to piss Alysanne off, and once Rhaenys is cut out, Alysanne is definitely leaving Jae's ass again.

THE RHAENYS MARRIAGE

So who does Rhaenys marry in this scenario, if not Corlys? Well.......oof.

For one thing, even with Aemma out of the picture, it doesn't guarantee Viserys/Rhaenys because, well, Corlys may still have a daughter he can marry back into the royal family! If Corlys has a son with Daella, he probably tries to marry him to Rhaenys, and if he has a daughter, he goes for Viserys. Yes, that's right, I do think it's not unlikely Rhaenys marries Corlys' son lmaooooo. If he doesn't have a son, Rhaenys (and Alysanne, and probably Jocelyn, maybe Aemon as well) will still want her to make a big, important match that will help with her claim. So if Corlys doesn't have a son, and Viserys isn't available, she might go for her cousin Borros. Corlys does also have Vaemond and the Velaryon cousins - Daemion, Daeron, a bunch of others - that could also be helpful here (though not nearly as much because they're cousins and not the main line). Without a clear match - if Borros or Viserys doesn't work out, or Corlys doesn't have a son - I think Alysanne might look to the North. The Manderly match fell through and we know the Manderlys were real shitty about that, and that there's a plethora of Starks and Manderlys hopping around right now. Or maybe Alysanne decides she doesn't need to win the North for Rhaenys (she already has the North for Rhaenys, they sided with Rhaenys in the original) so maybe she tries for a match to support her - like a Tyrell or Hightower. Wouldn't it be hysterical if she married like, Otto?

Anyways so I think the marriages for Rhaenys are probably

Corlys' Son (hahahahahaha)

Borros

Viserys

A Manderly

Otto Hightower (hahahahahahahahaha)

A Stark

A Velaryon Cousin

Literally anyone else

A Celitgar

[moon-swag-tourney]

Propaganda below!

Luther Hargreeves

He is a weird huge monkey man with daddy issues. What’s not to love 

Spaceboy!

Della Duck

just look at her shes badass she amputated her own leg and made a prosthetic out of spare rocket parts shes not perfect but shes trying her goddamn best to be a good mother okay she is The character ever

greatest character of all time!

dear tournament runner i am so so sorry for the essay i'm about to write but i am not normal about my girl della

della duck is donald duck's twin sister and huey dewey and louie's mother

the whole history behind her is so interesting bc she unintentionally became the greatest mystery of the disney duck comic verse

one of disney's many weird rules is that their main 6 characters are not allowed to have children or parents. this rule is kinda wobbly in the sense that on one hand, it does get broken (goofy has a son in some canons & donalds mother is shown in some comics (though only in scrooge's flashbacks, she's never allowed to interact with donald)), on the other hand, it also tends to sometimes get applied to characters who are not part of the main 6 but still main characters. this rule meant, that when they wanted their main characters to interact with kids, they invented nieces and nephews. which had the added bonus that when they wanted to stories without them, they didn't have to explain the kids' absence (like for example mickey's nephews, which barely ever appear and, fun fact, were actually invented before huey dewey and louie). so, in one newspaper comic strip, huey dewey and louie were introduced and with them, della was mentioned for the first time, in a letter asking donald to take care care of the boys while their father is in a hospital from a prank they pulled. (said father was never mentioned again btw.)

after that, della didn't appear again for a while, and several shorts and comics revealed that donald has legally adopted the kids. different comics implied that donald has been taking care of the triplets their entire life, instead of just since recently like in their first appearance.

later comics actually showed della for the first time - however, only in flashbacks to donald's childhood. these comics also made her donald's twin. the only piece of media that showed her as an adult was her portrait in the duck family tree.

that is, until 2014 the first comic showing adult della and her fate was released - a dutch comic that was only reprinted in brazil, germany and the netherlands, and even in those countries, anything containing this story is pretty hard to get. it was never officially translated to english (thank god for fantranslations, tho). this comic showed della as a pilot, who tested a rocket and got lost in space when huey dewey and louie were babies. this is where her association with space and a lot of her ducktales 2017 characterisation originates from.

so, let's get into her biggest ever appearence - the ducktales reboot!

from the very beginning of this show, she's set up as the big overarching mystery - a little bit like the author from gravity falls. the pilot ends with dewey discovering a painting of her. it's a very shocking moment and for most viewers the first time they've ever seen della.

so like in the comic, she's a pilot, and she's been going on adventures with donald and scrooge for years. scrooge builds a rocket for her as a surprise gift for when her children hatch but she finds out about it and decides to take it for a test ride, during which she crashes it on the moon. so, she's stuck there, but nothing can stop della duck! she spends the entire 10 years fixing the rocket until she finally manages to get back to earth to her kids.

della is funny, strong, determined and just one of the best characters in the entire show. and she tries so hard to be a good mom to her kids after being absent for a decade even though she struggles so much to adjust back to life on earth.

i just love della so so much

[lostfracturess]

Hi I apologize in advance for the rant you’re about to read 😬

Okay, so I’ve been going on endless rants about angst and how writers tend to fall back on the same tropes and how exhausting it is for readers, and I almost didn’t read the most recent chapter of symptoms and causes because you’d said how angsty it was going to be.

That being said, the reason I’m sending this is because you’ve done what so many people fail to do: write angst that didn’t leave me feeling hopeless and empty at the end. The promise of an eventual happy ending definitely helps, but the anguish you write for these characters just fits the situation so well. And you’ve written it so that a happy ending actually feels possible. The mentality, how broken and terrified they both are. The trauma Gojo clearly has and the love the fact that she loves him anyway. The fact that she withdrew and gave them both space but he can’t stay away, and she loves him too much to send him away. You’ve made them worth rooting for. You’ve made him a character that can be redeemed and given readers a desire to see him redeemed because in everything, his choices that end up being selfish are literally driven by his desire to protect others from himself. Self-destructive mental illness, man.

I think what makes your writing compelling, at least to me, is that you seem to understand when enough is enough. You didn’t reach the point of no return and dive headfirst off that cliff, you stopped just short of that point and gave enough hope that things will come back around. I just want to see them happy, man. Gojo feels so deeply that he doesn’t deserve happiness or love but he does. Even with how broken he is, he deserves to find the strength to fix himself. And that feels like what you’re setting up. It feels like you’re setting up the “I will learn to fix myself because this person is worth living for” instead of the idea of “this person is the one who saved me.” IMO the latter is one that feeds the toxic issues because it’s based codependency and being unable to function without the other. I love the idea of her standing beside him while he learns to love himself, not carrying him to it. (I’ll stop here because I could go on forever about that)

Just. Hi, I’m Kiko (aka @siriuslysatorusimping). I rant a lot and I love writing that dives into the psychology behind things. The way you’ve captured what an internal spiral can look like, the panic, it’s all just 😭

(Also, hi, I’m Kiko. I’m autistic and adhd af and I tend to over explain and over justify because I always want to make sure I’m not coming across as rude when I’m trying to give genuine compliments so I hope this reads as praise and not me being a bitch 🙃)

hey kiko, no apologies needed at all, i really love your analyses actually !! never thought about it too much how angst can become too overwhelming for readers, because my tolerance for angst is like sky high so i'm even more glad that i didn't ? overdo it.

but the anguish you write for these characters just fits the situation so well.

so glad that the drama they go through feels (partly) real for readers. that's really my biggest concern, that their motives and actions don't feel natural?

The fact that she withdrew and gave them both space but he can’t stay away, and she loves him too much to send him away. You’ve made them worth rooting for.

ahhh so glad you noticed that !! she was really ready to fight it all but then instead noticed how he is struggling and if she would push him more (what she would have loved to do) it really would have just gone the other opposite way.

but when he's at her door, she still lets him in and takes care of him, because even if she resents him, she still cares so deeply. that's also why she asked him if he had nightmares. because she still cares.

his choices that end up being selfish are literally driven by his desire to protect others from himself.

yes 100 percent !!

I love the idea of her standing beside him while he learns to love himself, not carrying him to it.

yes yes yes !! i totally wanted to write a female lead who will not hold his hand and sweet-talk to him about his addiction because apparently he's really shitty deep into it. she will mirror him the hard truth about his issues without second thought even if it hurts.

because otherwise he would just keep up his avoidant behaviors. but that's also what scares the hell out of him, because he's not used to, firstly face his fears at all and secondly to have it so clearly mirrored back at him, at least not in this intensity.

guess in his past his previous partners and friends just tiptoed around the issue but not her. she's like, okay we have this issue here, how we solve it, because i want you and i want you to stay alive apparently.

but after he rejected her again after she literally confessed her love to him it really was too much for her. even the strongest female leads have limits so that hurt her awfully. (okay lol no i went on with my babbling, i'll stop here 😂).

The way you’ve captured what an internal spiral can look like, the panic, it’s all just

also so so happy you picked up on the nuances of the mental health struggles i'm trying to depict. that kind of internal spiraling, the way anxiety and self-loathing can warp a person's perception.

i love messy emotions and diving deeper into how they affect literally everything that we do, even without us knowing !!

thank you so so much for taking your precious time to share your thoughts, i really appreciate it and love talking about the psychology behind the story !! have a good day ♡

and no worries, your message absolutely reads as sincere praise, not at all rude !!

[miggydiaz]

An additional thought...

Even though Buddie still is my endgame, I am pretty sure I would've been more on board with EddieTommy than I am with BuckTommy in the short term.

Not to say I am anti BuckTommy because I'm truly not. I think in another time, they could be really good together. But honestly, I think Buck needs to not be in a relationship for a little while. It's been Abby, then Taylor, then Ali, then Taylor, then Lucy, then Taylor, then Natalia...

And one of Buck's biggest character traits is that he feels he needs to go above and beyond to make himself worthwhile of love and attention. He thinks that if he's not giving all of himself to someone/something, if he's not doing THE MOST, that he's expendable. IMO, I think Buck really needs to work on learning to love himself and accept that other people can love him for just being him, without him having to turn himself into whatever he thinks they need or risk life and limb to earn that love. And that's a journey you take on your own, with your therapist, with your chosen family and friends who have been there to love and support you... it's not something you figure out through romantic relationships.

Buck's issues with relationship aren't that he can't find someone who will love him and appreciate him for who he is. It's that Buck hasn't figured out how to love and appreciate himself first. And no romantic relationship is going to fix that. It could *help* him figure it out, especially if he's with someone who has bore witness to Buck's chronic low self-esteem and has always (although maybe not always as gently as he should) tried to dispel Buck of those notions... but in the end, that lesson has to be one that Buck learns on his own. Which I don't think he's ever going to do, especially if he keeps looking for love and acceptance from romantic partners to fill that void. I think EddieTommy would've worked better just because Eddie is at a different place in his journey than Buck is. Eddie's problem isn't feeling like he's not enough anymore. Once upon a time, it was (his conversation with Bobby after Shannon died and his devastation that before she died, she told him she wanted a divorce). But now, Eddie's issue is he keeps trying to recreate the same dynamic he had with Shannon because he thinks that's what is correct for him. He's romanticized a lot of his relationship with Shannon -- and I say that as someone who truly believes he loved her and was in love with her -- and he's trying to get back to that brief stint of time where the two of them and Chris were happy. And because that looks very specific to him, he's trying to find a woman who can slide into that place in his life. The one who makes him want to wrap his arms around her and his boy on Christmas morning, and makes his heart squeeze every time he looks at pictures of her.

But Eddie's trying to recreate something that never existed in the first place. Not in the way his brain has romanticized it anyway. Because underneath those feelings of wistful melancholy, he and Shannon still had real problems that they never worked through. Shannon knew that, which is why she asked for a divorce. But to Eddie, who was ready to re-propose to her, things were good again. If Shannon hadn't have died, I think Eddie would've realized that wasn't the case, but since she did die... he can just hold onto that idea of them. The one where things were good and could have eventually been perfect, just like things could be perfect again if only he could find a new Shannon.

He needs someone to shock him right out of that 'doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is the definition of insanity' situation he keeps finding himself in, and you know who would've been really great for that? Tommy. Full on record scratch moment for him. Simply *because* Tommy is a man.

Now, do I think Eddie also has a notion that he's in love with his best friend? Yeah, I do. I just don't think he realizes that's what it is yet. Right now Buck is... Buck. The person who shows up for Eddie, and for Christopher, the person who dragged him to safety after being shot, the person who was there when he had his breakdown, the person he couldn't even look at when they were dying in the hospital because he cannot deal with that level of loss again. I think, somewhere in his mind, Eddie knows that Buck is MORE than just a best friend... he just doesn't have the vocabulary to really name what that thing is. Primarily because he's trapped in this very Catholic idea of what sex and family and romance should look like for himself.

Tommy would've been a safe person to jar him out of those notions -- that his family and his romantic life has to look this certain way because that's what it looked like before -- because Tommy already disrupts that thinking just by being a man. It forces Eddie to consider that maybe his ideas of what a perfect family for him should look like aren't the end all be all. And, if Eddie freaks out, or it doesn't work out, it doesn't hurt his friendship with Buck at all. It may, in fact, help Eddie figure out that while he's not going to have that kind of relationship with Tommy, he's already got that relationship he's been looking for... it's just with BUCK, who he never consciously considered as an option because Buck is a man. I know there's no going back now, because BuckTommy is a thing, and Eddie is trapped in Catholic hangups hell with M*risol, but the more I think about it, the more bummed I am that this wasn't the route they took. I hope Eddie still gets a queer story arc, and I obviously hope Buddie is endgame, but damn, we really could've had EddieTommy helping Eddie figure out how to put a name to the thing he's had for Buck forever and Buck acting like an insane person until he figured out that who he's really in love with is the person who always makes him feel like he's enough and not expendable, the person who accepts him for exactly who he is and indulges all of his quirks and doesn't ask him to change a thing.

[vyladromeave]

20 and 22 for the ask game?

20. you can only change one plotline in the entire canon—what would it be and how would you alter it?

FUCKKKKK ONLY ONE? hmmm....

I do think there is a part of this question that is phrased strangely, I understand the "only one plotline" thing in theory because it requires you to limit yourself to one decisive answer. But that also kind of implies that the One Plotline you're changing has changes that are all self-contained and ultimately return things to the status quo, which is typically not why I would make a change in plot to begin with. If I'm making one big major change in the plot, typically its going to be something major enough that the rest of the series is affected, which kind of conflicts with how the question is intended...

With that in mind... I mean the easy answer is something Aaron-related, but honestly most of his issues stem from a character standpoint given he rarely ever drives the plot forward meaningfully unless he's literally killing himself lol. There's not a lot of single isolated plot issues for him, I don't know if I could fix him without really going back to the roots and really domino-effect-ing him and how he interacts with the rest of the plot moving forward. sooooo...

If I had to do a more self-contained plotline change, it'd be the circumstances around Garroth's S1 betrayal. Easily.

Judging by how quickly everyone forgives him, the series itself seems to forget that people got hurt, killed, and had years of their life stolen because Garroth got mad that Aphmau maybe romantically liked someone else. It relies on miscommunication and poor characterization to even be executed at all. Eek.

Canonically, one of his biggest weaknesses is that he invests too much into people. He couldn't kill Zenix despite Zenix actively trying to kill him multiple times because of how much time and love there had been between them. Are we really expected to believe he'd betray Aphmau on the off chance she might've done something that could've hurt his feelings? Are you kidding me? This is stupid.

Seeing as how the series treats him as if his motives are already easily forgivable and justified, just changing the motive to be... actually that, keeps the change relatively self-contained here. So! Lets give him a motive that actually makes sense here:

Zane promises the war will be endless unless Garroth gets him what he wants. He's scared of O'khasis' military might and knows what they can do. Lillian is still a method of coercion, mostly as a contact point between him and Zane.

He's trapped in a lose-lose situation, both actions causing Phoenix Drop harm, growing sick and locking himself in his room from fear and indecision. It culminates in his betrayal in the S1 finale, his fear of O'khasis and Garte outweighing his trust in Aphmau and Phoenix Drop. This leads into a much more viable change of heart in the S1 finale, and a much more natural redemption afterwards.

22. who's the character that you most identify with and why?

looks up to my url. looks back at this ask. looks up at my url again. looks at you. looks to my icon. looks to my header. looks to this ask. yeah it's vylad why do you ask.

No but on a serious note, I think it's natural to put pieces of yourself into characters, and with Vylad that comes very naturally to me. He has always fascinated me, even since before we had much confirmed about him (I very vivdly remember trying to talk to people about him being the Elusive Third Sibling of Garroth during S1, only to get VERY confused responses). When he got properly introduced in S2, only to justify basically everything I had ever theorized about him to be right, it was very satisfying lol. I don't think I can fully answer the "why" here without getting very personal, but here's some stuff I feel comfortable sharing!

Green and red are important colors for Vylad, and they're important for me too!! Green has basically always been my favorite color since the dawn of time, although I did go through a strong purple phase when I was younger.

The way he acts and behaves can be very easily read as autistic/otherwise neurodivergent. I saw/still see a lot of my behaviors in him in a way that made him very comforting to me when I was first watching the series in 2015, and still makes him very endearing to me now ^-^

I am a sucker for characters who go through a literal death + transformation afterwards. Big fan of symbolism. Somewhat for transgender reasons personally, but also stuff beyond that.

speaking of transgender: nonbiney :) and while we're at it hes one of the most explicitly lgbt characters we've got. gay people!!!!! woooooo!!!!!!!!!!

we've both got freckles heehee :D

This comic was based off some very personal musings of mine, so much so that I almost didn't post it lol. His strange relationship with not-religion is very important to me.

Weirdly enough though, I'm not a sibling! I very very frequently find myself identifying with characters that have strange sibling relationships, but I'm an only child! I don't know why this keeps happening.

[choices-binglebonkus]

I'm not a Jocelyn fan either. She's toxic and vile, but I find her more compelling in a lot of ways than say, Lily Ortiz – especially when the writers want the readers to see Lily as this pure as the driven snow angel who can do no wrong. Jocelyn is horrible, but she did put her life at personal risk to save others at Homecoming paid a steep price for it. She was also hit hard by Cody's death, so there's some humanity there too, even if it's just a drop.

There’s a lot to this ask so I’m going to tackle the littler bits first, starting with the ILITW cast and their weaknesses.

The It Lives characters are all incredibly flawed in their own ways. Their stans don’t think they’re innocent: they acknowledge and embrace those flaws because those are what make the characters so human.

Ava’s biggest flaws are that she’s kind of reckless, and that she’s sarcastic toward people who are easily angered which endangers her.

Andy’s biggest flaw is that he gets angered very quickly, though he has good reasons for it, he still does fly off the handle at times. Anger leads to rash and not very well thought out decisions, which can very easily get you hurt or killed, especially in a horror series.

Stacy’s biggest flaw (which we do see going away as the book goes on) is her fixation with appearance and status.

Lucas’s biggest flaws are unwillingness to ask for help and biting off more than he can chew, which are also behaviors that are dangerous enough in real life, but potentially deadly in horror series.

I can’t really say what Dan’s biggest flaws are because we get so little interaction with him in the series, and all of Noah’s flaws can be attributed to the trauma he’s faced throughout his life, as even before Jane died, his parents had a lot of issues with their marriage, which was something he was aware of and tried to shield his sister from.

If Noah dies and takes Jane’s place, the ILITW crew is shown and stated to be completely unaware of it, the MC being the only person who knows of Noah’s true fate. Given this, the same could probably be said if the MC dies and takes Jane’s place. It’s not that the ILITW crew used the MC: they simply aren’t aware of the true nature of their death.

And given all the chaos and trauma that took place in the book, it’s perfectly understandable why the ILITW crew would want to move on in their lives without revisiting the ordeal more than they need to. I’d probably do the same. However, they’re more than willing to help out in ILB, and they still meet for pizza every year so they never fall out of touch and never forget what happened and those they lost.

It also makes sense why the MC can’t and won’t let go of their supernatural experience. Jane, their best friend, died right before their very eyes, was stuck as a shadow monster for a decade, and then Jane’s brother Noah (who arguably becomes MC’s closest friend as a result of their shared loss) dies and takes her place. The MC probably feels some survivor’s guilt and feels as if they’re to blame for what happened, and wants to make it right by “fixing” things if they can, which is why they’re devoted to becoming a monster hunter/tracker.

None of these characters are perfect. Absolutely none of them. But what person is? To have a flawless, completely innocent character who has done absolutely no wrong is completely unrealistic.

Moving onto Lily, who I’ll admit isn’t my favorite of the bunch.

It is true that the ILITW crew is dealing with some heavy shit. Abuse, blackmail, estrangement, familial neglect, PTSD, struggles with identity, struggles with ostracism. That is very true.

However.

Lily’s big life-or-death issue isn’t merely that her crush doesn’t like her back, that’s kind of an oversimplification. She’s mercilessly bullied because she’s fat (and maybe there’s a bit of homophobia thrown in there too, I’m not actually 100% sure) and she’s preyed upon by her crush and her crush’s friend who think manipulating Lily and humiliating her on homecoming night is funny.

Lily is not a physically strong character. She can’t fight, she runs away, and is generally no help in a fight. But not every character can realistically be an action hero and badass. She also suffers from low self-esteem from the bullying (which she mentions occurred throughout her childhood as well) and has little to no confidence.

To be frank, to say she thrives off of playing the victim comes across as victim-blaming.

Lily does shove Ava and yell at her for almost killing Jocelyn in the fight, and I’m not trying to excuse that because that’s pretty harsh, but I’d probably chalk her reaction up more to adrenaline and fear than trying to pin all the blame onto her. Lily did foreshadow early on in the book that the monster could enthrall Ava using her powers and was probably aware that the monster had some form of control over her during the fight.

Additionally, she doesn’t seem to give Jocelyn a free pass either: she was visibly scared and upset during the fight where Jocelyn had the upper hand and after all is said and done, the principal is the one who tells her (and Stacy) to help Jocelyn to the nurse’s office.

Lily doesn’t blame Ava and doesn’t hold any rancor over the fight after everything has settled down. Her reaction is pretty much on par with everyone else’s emotions in the ILITW crew after the fight: fear, helplessness, and guilt. I mean, she almost watched someone get strangled to death in front of her.

She does acknowledge the possibility that Britney changed and began treating her better because of Redfield, but doesn’t want it to be true. She acknowledges it and probably deep down knows it’s true, but still wants to give Britney a chance because they used to be close in childhood. She even states at one point that Britney used to defend her from bullying when they were young. Lily wants to give Britney a chance to change because she remembers all those fond memories as kids, but also, her confidence is so depleted from the years of bullying that she just wants someone, anyone to show some semblance of care for her, even if it isn’t completely genuine.

Hell. I’ve been bullied throughout my whole life, and I’ve dated people who treated me like absolute shit just because they paid attention to me. Lily is absolutely the type to do the same. I empathize.

Should Lily survive the events of ILITW, she goes on to create a successful indie video game with a sequel in the works. That didn’t surprise me because she mentions having gone to a coding camp, and she also had a 4.5 GPA in high school. She’s used her wildly smart brain and incredible drive to find her own success and further her own life, just like everyone else from the ILITW crew.

Which is why your statement about everyone else bettering their lives “while she gorges on pizza” comes across as incredibly and unapologetically fatphobic.

Lily is not my personal favorite. She’s actually my least favorite of the ILITW crew. But every character brings something to the group. Lily is timid, meek, and suffers from a lack of confidence. She’s not a fighter and she’s frequently terrified throughout the book.

But she still helps the group. She helps research, she helps obtain the hospital records when the group visits Dan, she risks life and limb to go into the woods and perform the binding ritual, and she does it again to save Andy. She faces her fears time after time after time.

So in a way, though Lily is fearful and afraid throughout the book, she’s actually the bravest character of them all.

[oramn]

i am waiting for my tylenol to kick in, so here is an unpleasant experience with a coworker (who i am neutral dislike with). i traded my coworkers shift and i did a midday. I ended up working with three other people, here is the cast:

coworker 1: first gen bosnian american, she is going into her freshman year of college, she is going to play soccer there. she is muslim and her family fled bosnia during the genocide and settled where I live. she isn't too religious, but her family is

coworker 2: idk much about her, she's not very relevant to the story, but I like her, she doesn't do much at work but she's chill. she is like in her early 20's and she is married to a 50 year old that's the only interesting thing about her

coworker 3: our main antagonist. she 24 i think and is very loud and can be very obnoxious. she has been working here about as long as me (about 1 year maybe a little more a little lesss) i go back and for between liking her and not liking her. she has screamed at multiple people and has issues with controlling her emotions because of either bipolar or borderline personality disorder, not sure which.

Now lets set the scene, it's like 1pm, the tail of the lunch rush, we're in drive through, which has it's own little section unlike most paneras where it's just one production line. I'm with coworkers 1-3, i'm doing my thing, making salads when coworker 3 brings up politics and she's talking about voting.

coworker 3 is a very "tell it like it is" person but not in the blunt and honest way, but the "i don't care about other people's feelings i'm gonna say shit and not read the room" type of way. she also has said in a training thing that she thinks her biggest fault is that she's "too nice" when i know she has screamed at multiple people, giving one a panic attack (over soup).

she says she's voting for trump and starts getting very brash about it (she's maga). Now, i don't get into political conversations at work because 1.) i don't know enough to hold those conversations 2.) i'm not a very confrontational person. I do, however, interject when she says "i'm voting for trump because he's gonna make us all richer" i say "no what he's gonna do is he's gonna cut the taxes for the rich and raise the taxes on the poor"

and then she keeps going on about how she doesn't know much about politics but her dad and grandmother do so she's voting the way they're voting and also says that she doesn't think people who don't understand politics and aren't inclined to want to know more about politics should vote (which like ok girl i disagree).

at this point i'm very quiet and very uncomfortable, coworker 1 (my beloves) is also very uncomfortable and she notices that I'm uncomfortable so she tells worker 3 "hey can we not talk about politics."

coworker 3 keeps on talking, and is told 3 more times to stop talking about politics. now she ends up bringing up how she's not apart of the "woke left" right next to me: an 18 year old, gay, transgender man who transitioned as a teenager. people who repeat the rhetoric she is repeating believe that i am a little girl who was groomed by my parents into ruining my body. and she says that right. next. to. me.

now i don't know if she knows I'm trans, a lot of my coworkers don't, a lot of them just assume I'm really fucking gay, but still. she ends up stopping talking about politics later but I'm still very uncomfortable for the rest of my shift.

I gave her a hug as she was about to leave work because she was crying as she was stressed because her car was broken and it costed like a thousand to fix it and she is in a very rough spot in life right now and I hope shit gets better for her.

the end

[camillabanilla]

I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what on earth CRWBY is going to give us for the next two episodes.

Let's just assume that we'll end the volume with our current plot lines tied up. We need to solve: Ruby's thing, Jaune's thing, cat!Neo and getting home.

Ok *cracks knuckles*. We have a very limited amount of time to solve all these things. As cool as it would be to see things like Jaune killing Penny come to light, we won't because a) the issue Jaune and Ruby are having this volume isn't with each other, it's their individual struggles as leaders. Yes they fought, but they weren't truly mad at each other, just two people lashing out. B) nothing would be accomplished by Ruby finding out. As juicy as it would have been it wouldn't get us anywhere narratively. The important fact is: Penny is dead and that has separate implications for them both. One stone, 2 birds. C) if it doesn't need to happen, it won't. Jaune doesn't need to be de-aged, but that would invite extra narrative load for the next volume. In short, we need to get so much accomplished at once, as elegantly as possible.

So what's the simplest and most elegant way to fix both our leads? And by fix I mean tie up their arc.

Ruby is in the ascension process. Assuming the cat is full of shit and it isn't terribly different for humans, she'll come out the other end as *something else*. That won't do, because we need her to be her. Her forgetting everything would nullify everything that happened. She can't necessarily just "oop" and bounce back out either (assuming she could), I mean she was pretty fuckin' broke there.

She has Little (who fell with her) to guide her through the process but she needs to know her friends and family are there for her and that she can rely on them, otherwise we're back to square one.

And this part bugs me: defining the crux of her issue, aside from support. Is it that her hope is lost? Or that she truly believes everyone around her is doomed, or that she's a failure?

What about Jaune? Is it that he couldn't save Penny specifically? Or that he's found himself in the position where *not* saving someone is the best course of action?

I'm a little wishy-washy with Jaune, but I'm cautiously thinking it makes the most sense for him to follow her. They'd provide each other an anchor to make sure they came out of the process as themselves. One of my biggest hesitations with this is that I feel WBY, specifically Yang and Weiss need to step up their support game. Maybe they all follow eventually, and not only does it show Ruby how loved she is, but gets them home.

I suppose Ruby could come out of this without anyone following her at all, but then we still have the added weight of Jaune's age. It'd be cool for him to take a slow burn approach to healing and just stay old, but in the interest of keeping the plot as tight as possible (and having a solution right there), he follows. It solves most of the unresolved issues (I think).

As for Neo, I think she's pretty much done for. Could they tie her arc up a bit more? Maybe, but it would just be easier to have whatever the cat did to her make her dead.

I'm sure I'm a million miles away from what actually happens though.

[rappaccini]

giant-size spider-gwen thoughts

ok so the release dates for this and smash 4 are fucked. tbh i'm kinda ok with that because at least we know it'll end with gwen making up with the janes, and em won't be responsible for kicking gwen out of her own world, which was my fear.

it might end on a cliffhanger too, given how giant-size opens with em gooping out on gwen in the middle of soundcheck.

also this isn't even a giant-size. it's just a fifth issue of smash with an old reprint of a latour run comic added to puff it up. i would've easily read another 25 pages of this and it doesn't even have a real ending, so that sucks.

so... how does smash end?

em's symbiote stays awake and remains a problem gwen has to continuously beat down.

but em seems to have gotten some amount of control over it because it's capable of working with gwen temporarily

the girls either fix their shit or it's unresolved but they're stable enough that gwen stays in the band

gwen isn't talking about 'not belonging on earth-65' anymore so hopefully she finds it in smash 4

em and glory are still a couple.

em still loves gwen. but i can't tell if she's still IN love with her, or if they agreed to stay friends with a queer vibe.

gwen doesn't seem to have confessed any feelings to em, so i guess there's no I Loved You All Along revelation. so gwenjay's still onesided but canon.

natasha was a real ally to gwen and not a twist villain.

is it orlando then? him being the money behind banner's experiments and wanting to possess em jay seems to imply that he was.

does mortis show up? gwen seems underwhelmed when they meet so have they met before? since she's dazzler's sister maybe she's the one who sicced the hulk on alison.

anyway. we know things work out, sort of. ok. one more issue of good before we get into the run we have to kill.

the actual issue

glory's hair looks amazing. best outfit too. love that.

slightly funny that glory and betty are like 'well. this is our life now' about em turning into a ragemonster live on tv.

i appreciate that glory gets a moment to assist gwen in the fight.

and that glory and em are clearly still being drawn like a couple, even if they can't say it or kiss.

and that when em bitches out on glory it's acknowledged that she's in the wrong and glory's only trying to help her. glory loves her! glory's good for her! somehow a writer both acknowledges em's feelings for gwen and that SHE ALREADY HAS A GIRLFRIEND.

love that nat's an ally of gwen's. gwen needs more super-friends on her world. kinda weird that she doesn't really have any. samantha wilson was the last one she had and they haven't spoken since gwen was in jail, jan van dyne dipped right after giving gwen her suit, and harry hasn't helped her in a fight since the predators arc.

betty's personality's back! i missed her pervy jokes. it is so. so. nice that someone writing for gwen remembered the janes' personalities. glory's the heart, betty's the comic relief, em's the leader, gwen's the lancer. i missed this. i hate that it's about to go away For Good.

so orlando octavius is the villain here. initially i had my reservations.

part of the appeal of gwen's world is the usual spider-man villains get such great reimaginings (shadow clones completely failed to understand this-- gwen's clones are spliced with the sinister six... of earth 616? fuuuuck off). her biggest villains are the heroes of other worlds (silk and jesse drew, daredevil, punisher, the storms, hulk, peter parker), the typical iconic spidervillains are either nonentities (electro's just a shady dude living his life selling drugs to teens in alleys, norman hasn't goblined at all, connors is just a redpilled science teacher), fully redeemed (harry, venom) or villains of the week, like kraven... and doc ock

gwen's ock is a pathetic, goofy little scientist minion of cindy's who has an organic octopus instead of mechanical arms. he was fun because he was unique!

so learning we were getting a second ock with more staying power didn't exactly have me thrilled... but orlando's great.

LOVE his design. the duster with the golden tentacle design? the nerdy--ass little initials on his glasses? love it. he's hot, he's slimy, he's rich, and he's a little bit of a bitch. AND he's a nepo baby.

interested in the implication that doc ock is dead. technically this still fixes the keep-gwen's-villains-unique problem. she can never fight doc ock again because he's dead. but she can fight a different octopus villain.

i appreciate that his tentacles, while mechanical, are much more fluid and organic-looking than the typical raimi ripoff look. i still like the organic ones better, but this is fine.

very interested in what orlando and otto's domestic life was like. how'd otto adopt him. what's the story there. did he kill his dad.

melissa flores even remembered that gwen-65's from forest hills. amazing. actual continuity.

so much queer shit here. the closet jokes keep coming. this author knows what's up with gwen.

i'm getting amanda conner era harley quinn vibes from the take on gwenjay here. we all know they're queer, but somehow it's still being dangled just out of reach.

very funny that gwen's the straight man of the gwenom-carnage duo when she's usually the one punching bricks. nice benchmark of her growth.

and like with nat, it's great that gwen's getting another superperson to team up with. even if she's trying to kill her half the time.

on that note: i do think if em were a guy, 'him' trying to kill gwen half the time wouldn't be played for laughs. i like that we're not switching to gwenjay being all flowers and sunshine like the shippers want, but there is something toxic about their relationship that needs to be acknowledged.

the entire gwen-mjarnage teamup has a bickering gfs vibe, right down to "do you wanna take a cab" and the swinging scenes are very shippy

so carnage and em are referred to by gwen as separate entities... but that's not how e65 symbiotes work. idk if that's unique to gwenom, if the writer forgot, or if gwen's in denial about some shit related to em jay

mortis is the second villain here. cool design. love the flower motif. wonder if she's introduced in smash 4.

mysterio's back! i was wondering why the backup was the halloween issue! nice to see he was remembered. still not really sure WHY he's working with orlando and mortis.

idk if carnage is literally a separate consciousness or if the writer forgot that em was also at the haunted house.

the Horrors (tm): so clearly they're both still afraid of gwenom and carnage... or are they afraid of each other's symbiote?

regardless god i miss gwenom. love her toothy hood.

... "being left in a closet" being a horror lurking inside gwen and/or em's minds. hm.

... about that ending.

the ending was very abrupt. like, we just Stop in the middle of the action without defeating any of the villains and suddenly em jay's putting herself on a bus.

so we really are gonna confirm gwenjay's canon... right before getting rid of em jay for the forseeable future. okay. i see. this really is the new 52 harley quinn era of spider-gwen.

i like that em acknowledges that she needs to get a grip on her symbiote. she does. overall flores has done great with both acknowledging that em has feelings for gwen and not excusing any of the shitty behavior she's flung at her. no, it's not ok for em to keep ditching glory for gwen. no, it's not okay for carnage to try to kill gwen half the time and for them to just pretend like it's fine.

em jay taking the initiative to figure her shit out on her own is fantastic. it actually fixes one of the biggest problems with gwenjay as a ship (not that it'll stop the gwiles shippers from insisting that em jay is Too Toxic For Her unlike their saint miles)... assuming she actually changes for the better, and ever shows up again.

not exactly thrilled that it seems like nat's the magical plot convenience button. where'd the storm siblings go? nat got rid of them. gwen's wanted for a crime she didn't commit? nat cleared her name. em jay's an uncontrollable rage monster? nat's going to fix that too. come on. we don't even get to see her do it.

i like that gwen's upset, because they're finally getting along again.

it doesn't seem like gwen about to give her a Confession of Love, so i guess they are genuinely just friends. works fine!

and i truly cannot tell if em jay and gwen got over em's crush on her at the end of smash 4 or if it's still on. because em says "i love you" but as a "friend" .... but dude.

what the fuck is that hug then.

so gwenjay really does seem like it's canon-but-unrequited. which matters less bc ~our ship isn't together~ and more because gwen still isn't confirmed queer. we're closer than we've ever been before but we're still not there. okay. yup. i see.

SHE REALLY DID SLIP THROUGH OUR FUCKING FINGERS HUH

so the cliffhanger clearly sets up the formation of gwen's sinister six... which we know won't happen because gwen's being sent to earth-616 For Good. sigh.

idk what's up with the cliffhanger screen. half the characters there are recognizably from earth-65 (mjarnage, gwen, dazzler, natasha, lila cheney, pixie, samantha, the z-list influencer villain gwen was fighting at the start of smash),

half of them could go either way. i can't tell if the artist just didn't stick with the 65 designs or if they're genuinely meant to be from another dimension, probably 616.

-> is that the earth-616 hulk?

-> is that woman with white hair and a black outfit with a white fur ruff supposed to be felicia hardy? felicia-65 is black.

-> gorilla guy. not sure who that is.

-> sue storm, clearly. but there's no fantastic four on earth-65 so did the artist just get her costume wrong or is that sue from another dimension

-> kraven, clearly, but definitely not the kraven from 65.

-> cindy moon, clearly. but that's not what cindy-65 looks like. that's cindy-616.

-> and... i have no idea who the army guy in the bottom right is, but something's up with his fists.

anyway i'm guessing that they're teasing possible additions to the sinister six that'll never exist now. damn.

.... orlando's getting a whole superhero suicide squad together to kidnap em jay, and gwen's about to leave her all alone to deal with that. uh oh.

also glory and betty are still in that closet.

and em jay left for god knows where without saying goodbye to her girlfriend. mess.

... how's gwen even going to leave for 616? she isn't alienated. she doesn't feel alone anymore. she's more secure in 65 than she's been in years. she has more allies now than she ever had. she wasn't even kicked out by the six. she knows she's needed here. her portal necklace still works so there's no reason why she can't come back.

looking forward....

.... so gwen finally reconnected with her friends and her world... and is about to lose it For Good

gwen finally knows em jay loves her, but it doesn't seem like she reciprocates

em's doing the work to fix her attitude and get control of her powers... but who knows when and if that'll ever come back

orlando's gathering a sinister six team to kidnap em jay... and gwen's about to leave em jay to deal with that all on her own.

.... i guess glory and betty are gonna have to yellowjacket their way through being trapped in that closet because they might literally be there Forever.

at least we know natasha can magically fix all the things keeping gwen from coming home offpage so anytime she wants to come back we can just do that shit with no setup

well. i'm not gonna buy the gwen-in-616 run because i want it to fail so i guess next week will be it for a while.

overall, flores is the best gwen writer since mcguire. she clearly loves this character, her supporting cast and their world, and has actually done the research on them. she even got gwenjay halfway to canon and left the door wide open for gwen to return to 65, which shoots another hole in the 616 For Good book before it even starts-- which is a good thing, because we need that thing to flop.

i'd wish she were the one getting the full run instead of phillips, but if gwen going to 616 is a mandate from editorial, that wouldn't have mattered; she'd have still been forced there. still at least we'd know what we'd be getting.

looking ahead i feel nothing but dread, anger, apathy and disappointment, because they're synergizing the hell out of the spiderverse. gwen's ten-year redesign seems to just be 'slap the atsv suit on her.' gwen's first big villain is going to be 616's kraven... so the exact canon event atsv gwen had that we glimpse in the movie. gwen's going to be stuck with miles, peter and the 616 spiders, and she's a candidate for the spider society event book that's coming. and we all know they're gonna try and force gwiles again if she's there long enough. thanks i hate it.

i have nothing against the creative team of the new run (yet) but i truly hope spider-gwen: the ghost-spider flops, burns, is panned and canned after 8-10 issues, and gwen quietly returns to 65 after that. but then we'll probably just have to do ANOTHER round of 616 synergizing when btsv comes out, and the gwilesification will be even worse then. and maybe even ANOTHER if that spider-women movie ever gets made.

anyway, smash+'giant' size was great except for this ending. and the only reason why this ending is bad is we already know nothing in it matters, so all the new threads feel pointless and bitter because we know we won't get any closure or followup on them. still worth a read, and by far the best of gwen's miniseries since the mcguire run.

and if nothing else, at least smash 4 won't feel like too much of a kick to the teeth when it drops next week.

[fluffykitteninabox]

¿What are your thoughts on the controversial Hagakure cover?

Hi cute question mark anon ✨✨✨

I don't think this is a separate issue from how Horikoshi handles his female characters in general so I'm going to talk more generally rant a bit (oops sorry)

also one reason this took so long is that I decided to join in the trend and gave the poor girl some clothes:

The sexualisation of female characters in anime and manga is a big issue, especially when a big portion of them are underage (shonen is the most popular genre after all).

In my hero academia we see this with basically every single female character Horikoshi creates.

Momo, Hagakure, Himiko and Midnight all have "excuses" by the story to get naked on screen regularly. Supposedly it's because of their quirks, however there's plenty of male characters who's clothes don't get destroyed in every fight they're in, even if it would logically make sense for that to happen.

Male characters get to keep their dignity, but females don't get that same privilege.

The only male character that we see get fully naked because of their quirk is Mirio, but that's only one instance, and in every scene after that we get the explanation that he got a special costume made from his hair. If that's an option for him, why isn't it for Hagakure? Why does she have to run around naked in battle? Why do we need "jokes" about others accidentally touching her boobs because they didn't see her? We don't need that, she's a teenager!

Then there's Momo's design which is not only disgusting, but also doesn't make logical sense either. Supposedly the opening at the front is for practicality.

She "needs" to have big areas of skin open to make bigger objects.

Except that's a lie. We never really see her use the boob window for that. She mostly uses her arms to make things. And the biggest space she could have open for big objects is her back. And we actually see her use her back (and destroying her clothes in the process because of course she did!)

Most of the time when a female character is naked she gets objectified by the narrative and/or the framing/camera movement in a scene, while when a male character is naked it works as a form of fantasy fulfillment for the male target audience. I think this is part of "the male gaze" and not separate from it.

Here's a great video about this topic.

There's also the issue of Mineta's entire existence!

Mineta is the other reason I took so long to answer, because I went on tangent about how the concept for his character could have worked, and how I would have fixed it. But I realised this doesn't fit here so I took it out. (I might make a separate post about this)

This character (that Horikoshi has apparently admitted is a form of self insert) exists purely to objectify every single female character that's on screen. Every scene he's in, every line of dialogue he has adds no value to the story. He's supposedly there for comic relief, but most normal people don't find blatant sexism funny.

Some might say "oh but he gets punished for it. it's supposed to show how bad that is". Well yes but actually no. Mineta gets punished for his behaviour, but the viewers still get to see naked underage anime girls on screen. It's not a subversion of the trope if you're still doing the trope.

and Mineta's "jokes" get progressively worse as time goes on, which to me shows that this really isn't about the subversion of tropes/meta humour. It's just an excuse to sexualise female characters.

Thankfully this has seemingly stopped now (after the awful "joke" with Eri) presumably because Hori got backlash for it. He should have been getting backlash from the start but better late than never I suppose.

However Horikoshi hasn't (as far as I know) officially apologised for this. Even if he did stop inserting such jokes into the story, he clearly continued sexualising his female characters behind closed doors.

The Hagakure colour page is the culmination of all of those previous instances.

Horikoshi was able to freely sexualise underage female characters in his series time and time again with little to no backlash, because this type of thing is normalised in anime. So it makes sense that as this went on and he saw how much he was able to get away with, he kept doing it.

The page is truly disgusting to look at. Besides being completely naked there's also the pose itself, the weird barely there censors in the form of "keep out" tape of all things, but also something that I haven't seen anyone else talk about.

Her hand placement always felt weird to me. Even if she was wearing clothes, showing her hands in between her legs like that looks overtly sexual. It also creates this strong "V" shape, that deliberately directs the viewer's eyes downward towards that area instead of directing them up towards her face. (That's why I changed her hands to rest on top of her legs in my redraw)

Horikoshi is a professional artist, he knows what he's doing and he is known for his really intresting character designs. In this colour page, Hagakure is a sexual object first and a character second.

This is why Horikoshi's statement of "wanting to test her colour scheme" rings hollow to me. When you want to test what colours go well on a character you draw multiple versions of them and you basically play dress up by putting them in different outfits and changing the colours around. If he wanted to just test her hair and eyes, he could have just done a portrait from the neck and up.

The way I see it, this is clearly just a poor excuse to avoid responsibility.

The issue isn't just Horikoshi himself, it's about how the sexualisation of women (underage or not) in anime is so normalised that it is presented as "part of the culture", and if you complain about it people will tell that "this is just how anime/Japan is" and that "you should just accept it"

If "part of a culture" promotes sexism then this is an objectively bad thing and said culture SHOULD be changed.