#KILLING OFF 1/2 OF THE ONLY ENDGAME COUPLE????

[dengswei]

as a reader of the manhwa literally WHAT is going on in sweet home now 😭

[utilitycaster]

If I may, as we go into what appears to be the clear endgame for C3, I think the lessons to take from the ending of C2 within the fandom are:

Do not freak out about the possibility of the campaign ending sooner than you expected nor you personally wanted

Last minute twists are not impossible, but if your enjoyment rests on a sudden reversal in the final hour you are likely to be disappointed

Just because it happened in prior campaigns doesn't mean it will happen in this one

Don't count your chickens before they fail to hatch

There will probably be one shots if it's a serious enough plot hook that we can't get to

Disappointment and anger are fine but eventually you do need to get over it

For the record, I think the particularly unpleasant responses to the ending of Campaign 2 boil down to the fact that it wasn't nearly as clearly signaled (the formal announcement was like two weeks in advance and while in retrospect it makes sense, at the time it felt very abrupt); that despite two relationships being established and a third clearly on the way people had convinced themselves that there would be some kind of last minute twist and their anger is entirely because that didn't happen even though there was literally zero sign it would; the fact that Molly didn't come back; and the general atmosphere of the world in June 2021 - I watched the finale while on my first trip to see my family in over a year and a half. I also think the ship wars for C2 were as bitter as they were because of both the strength of the party's bonds; but also the echo chambers that developed during a lengthy hiatus; and Campaign 3 does not and never has had anywhere near that level of serious ship warring.

The structure of Campaign 3 has been different in many ways from that of Campaign 2, which was different from Campaign 1 - that's not to say you can't make comparisons across campaigns, but I would not make assumptions based on the length of prior campaigns (plus, we're already in the same ballpark of number of episodes as C1, and the same level going into the BBEG combat as C2).

If your happiness rests on any of the now three current couples in Bells Hells breaking up, you are a weirdly bitter person, and you are likely to be disappointed. On the other hand, if you're already annoyed that a plot thread will be dropped, while there's like...maybe three plot hooks I can think of and every single one is related to Chetney, who I think will only survive the finale if Travis is unable to find a satisfying way to kill him off, we've had some excellent one shots post-campaign for both Vox Machina and the Mighty Nein and I don't see why this would be any different.

And as always I will never tell you that you can't dislike something, though there are things that, if you dislike them, I will think less of your judgment. But stick to expressing disappointment and anger; if you find yourself wanting to write out violent threats on the internet, you need to back away for a good long while. But certainly wait to be disappointed by a campaign that's already ended, and not pre-mad at things that haven't happened (or failed to happen) yet.

[hainethehero]

So I made the mistake of stumbling onto the NOT STEVE ROGERS FRIENDLY tag today and..

You have to be a special type of delusional to be this obsessed with a character you don't like!??

Over 2k fics have the tag and are almost entirely Tony Stark-centered fics. I'm assuming these are the "fans" who totally buy into the MCU canon and don't know any other Captain America lore outside of what Feige and Whedon have done. Or, they're the "fans" who refuse to understand the politics behind Steve's character and how he was inherently undermined throughout the entire ten years of the MCU by the directors and writers for most of the films.

Because the arguments in most of these fics for being "not Steve rogers friendly" are really surface level shit like:

1) "Steve refused to sign the Accords and broke up the Avengers" (he was right & he didn't break them up, an overemotional Tony did when he refused to listen to Bucky's side of the story).

2) Steve fought Tony and almost killed him (yeah, like Tony didn't blast Bucky's arm off and shoot his repulsor rays directly at Steve).

3)Steve is homophobic (y'all are just making up reasons to hate this man atp)

4)Steve is racist (Steve hated racists & you'd know that if you read the comics, or you guys are just that deluded that you're making Steve racist & trying to project it as canon and therefore a "reasonable" explanation as to why you hate him)

5)Blaming Steve for Rhodey's accident (WHICH WAS TEAM TONY'S FAULT!)

6)YALL, THEY MADE STEVE THE BAD GUY IN A BROCK RUMLOW/BUCKY FIC! I stg I cannot make this shit up���� Steve's bad for wanting Bucky to be Bucky again, but somehow Brock's the good guy for wanting Bucky to be the Soldier...

Steve left Bucky for Peggy (we'll get to this soon)

There's a hundred more irrational reasons for the Steve Rogers hate, but let me get to the WORST part.

THERE ARE BUCKY STANS WHO ARE ANTI-STEVE ROGERS.

And I'm sorry, no. I don't accept that you love Bucky Barnes but hate the one person he loves the most in the world.

They argued in a couple fics that "Bucky also went rogue after Siberia but he didn't want to associate with Steve, Nat & the rest of the team- WHO HELPED RESCUE BUCKY & EVENTUALLY EXONERATE HIM- but rather, he went off on his own & eventually Tony finds him, they hash it out and become friends to lovers."

Helppp???? Wdym Bucky isn't gonna stick with the one man he's been keeping diaries about to try and get back his memories? But he'll go to the one guy that re-traumatized him by blowing out his arm again?

Not only that, but Bucky absolutely hates Steve in some of these fics and the reason will be, "he left Bucky to go back to Peggy." Like, you cannot be a serious fan if you're still going with the Endgame canon. For a majority of us, we recognize Endgame as being nothing but terrible writing and mischaracterizations. Why are yall not analyzing and interpreting media critically? The MCU has never been on Steve's side and have always diminished his character in an attempt to make Tony the ultimate hero of the OG 6. Don't yall know the discourse? It's embarrassing atp.

And this is my stance on the entire thing: there's nothing wrong with writing fics about characters you don't necessarily like or aren't interested in. It's OKAY if you don't like Steve Rogers- but you've gotta be rational about him, instead of hateful. Most, if not all of these "anti-steve" fics are written in bad faith. Bad understanding of the character and pure, shameless mischaracterizations which just makes these types of fics fickle and weak- hilarious to read though cos that Brock one had me deadddd😭💀.

[candied-cae]

Okay... I finished OFMD S2...

And yeah, as much as it breaks my heart, this season disappointed me in so many different ways. There are a few things I absolutely adored, but a lot of it felt like a disservice to a lot of the work S1 did to establish the universe and its characters.

Oluwande gave Stede advice like one whole time this season, even though that was a big part of the first. Him consistently being supportive was such a light, and it was pretty much replaced with him just being generally bubbly (and I fucking loved watching him be bubbly and joyful, might I add, but it's different).

Jim's complicated relationship with the idea of taking vengeance wasn't brought up at all. Jim's relationship with Oluwande was absolutely shifted, even now, I cannot watch S1 with the knowledge that they're going to be played off as "best friends who hooked up once" and see it, they HAD to have been intended as an endgame couple in the beginning.

Frenchie didn't sing even once, despite the fact that the very first scene opens to his voice! Frenchie as a character was shrunken a ton, in general. Ed leaned on him a lot in S1, that was gone. Wee John was shown as his best friend, but how many words did they even exchange this season? They let him do another grift, but it didn't include Oluwande so (personally) it felt cheapened.

Wee John didn't make a single fucking joke about fire! Even though there was a lot of fire this season, and he made like three separate comments about arson in the previous one?!?!?! And, again, he barely even talks to Frenchie at all!

The Swede was benched for half the episodes, Buttons became a bird halfway through and possibly won't be coming back at all, Ivan was killed off with a one-liner, and Izzy died as a completely backwards version of himself that we were given almost no show of him transitioning into.

Izzy, who practically stole a bunch of other character's "moments" while they rushed through his redemption so they could kill him at the end and hope they got everyone attached to him enough to care. Izzy got to sing, Izzy got to play advisor to Stede, Izzy got to do drag with John, Izzy whittled a gift for Lucius instead of Pete, Izzy pretty much interrupted every single scene Gentlebeard had... It's just... frustrating.

Season 1 was revolutionary to me, but Season 2 just felt far more average in comparison. I don't know, I was so excited, and rewatching season 1 is still exhilarating, but season 2 just doesn't do as much for me. I really feel like it was the wrong choice to spend as much time as they did with Izzy when they still skipped almost the entirety of his "redemption," condense so many of the other characters to make for time, but still make sure we could fit in some incredible jokes.

One of the only things that didn't change for me, was the humor.

But about half of my favorite things just didn't exist these last 8 episodes, so I need to go drown myself in some fanfics.

[tk-duveraun]

11/? Luo Binghe is SO NORMAL about Shen Yuan

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 (here), 12

Read up through even numbered parts on Ao3

Luo Binghe dedicated all of his time to repairing his relationship with Shen Yuan. He cooked every meal, but kept the presentation plain rather than extravagant and showy. Some foods were completely banned. Anything that was considered a couple's food was off the table.

Ning Yingying helped fill in the gaps in his knowledge left by IRS's shitty writing. She also brought their masters peaches when Shen Yuan desperately wanted some and Luo Binghe couldn't bring himself to provide them.

Shen Jiu being fed his cooking also helped keep the behavior from seeming suggestive. Similarly, Luo Binghe did some of the laundry from both Peak Lords. He took care of outer robes and accessories, since he had knowledge of stain removal from silks and expensive cloth from his time in Blackswan. Meanwhile, Ming Fan washed or delegated their undergarments.

The pang in his heart at missing the opportunity to sniff Shen Yuan's inner robes was easily outweighed by his beloved's piece of mind.

Managing Qing Jing Peak's affairs brought to light another strange thing: Shen Yuan never left the mountain without another Peak Lord in his company. In IRS this had been explained by needing support or sudden dual cultivation for Without a Cure, but not only was Shen Yuan not suffering from the poison, but based on the records, this informal restriction existed for his entire tenure as Peak Lord.

Luo Binghe didn't like Ming Fan, but the Original Goods' cordial relationship with his shixiong was a boon.

"Really?" Ming Fan replied when asked about Shen Qingchun not leaving the peak alone. He leaned over Luo Binghe's papers and frowned. "I never noticed. He wasn't injured and his cultivation has always been stable."

Unlike Shen Qingqiu's went unsaid, but not forgotten given the deepening of Ming Fan's frown.

"Shizun," Ming Fan began, meaning Shen Jiu, "goes off peak frequently without an escort. He's always been the mind to Shifu's sword; it seems strange, though perhaps not." Ming Fan sighed and covered his eyes. "Shifu does seem to find himself in… unusual circumstances. It's probably nothing."

"Thanking Shixiong for his insight."

"Thank you for getting that stain out. I thought Shizun was going to kill me when I spilled his ink."

"I'll be leaving first." Luo Binghe finished the plesantries and returned Shen Yuan's records to Qing Jing's archives so no one else could look at them. Next he planned to look into the records from when Shen Yuan was a disciple, but those were stored on An Ding Peak. He would either need an excuse to access the files or an opportunity to break in.

The amount of important things Snowballing left out or just deliberately lied about was getting frustrating. Once again, Luo Binghe felt the deep desire to strangle him. Maybe when he was Shen Yuan's, his husband would teach him how to summon a soul from another world.

But that was a long term plan, for the moment he had to scout out An Ding. He had plenty of opportunities to scope it out, since Shen Yuan was constantly sending long letters to Shang Qinghua. Long enough that Luo Binghe had to give some credit to the fans that thought Shang Qinghua would be the endgame match for Shen Yuan.

Of course, even if Snowballing originally wanted that, Luo Binghe was here now for his wife.

Luo Binghe was full of grace and not anger. Luo Binghe liked Ning Yingying because she gave Shen Yuan peaches and all of the delightful treats he didn't allow himself to give his master. If he kept repeating those things to himself, he wouldn't do anything rash.

Luo Binghe took a deep breath and used the support beam above him to drag his body another few inches under the Bamboo House. Ning Yingying had brought a cat on peak. Not a terrible a idea, given that Shen Yuan loved all critters and they loved him in return. However, this cat was a queen on the edge of birth. So she had immediately found a loose board and weaseled her way underneath Shen Yuan's beloved home and had her kittens.

So now he was crawled on his back under the Bamboo House trying to remove the kittens. At least they were only three days old and wouldn't try to run away and squirm. He just wished he had the space to roll over. Moving would be easier on his stomach, but he didn't think he could bring his delicate cargo out that way.

His hair was a rats nest full of dirt and rocks. The robes were a complete loss. He should have changed out of his special, personal disciple robes for it, but he didn't think that far ahead and thus all of his beautiful embroidery would have to be done again. He liked Ning-shijie and might even, one day, forgive her for this disaster.

Worst of all, he couldn't hear a word from above, so either it wasn't as if he could use this opportunity to eavesdrop.

With his precious burden — three kittens — stuffed down the front of his robes, he began the long, indecorous wiggle back out. With the hard part complete, he let his mind wander, vaguely examining the fine construction that went into his wife's home.

Until he might as well as been slapped in the face. Before Meng Mo could realize something more interesting that kittens was happening, he threw up his mental shields.

There, through the raw Barbed Field Sheep's wool that served as insulation, was a complex array carved into the bottom of Shen Yuan's floorboards. There was blood in the grooves, enforcing and powering the spell. Luo Binghe felt his sweat freeze and his chest still for a moment before he was scrambling fiercely out of the crawlspace.

He didn't even care as his robes tore and he felt rocks dig into his flesh. Shen Yuan was in danger! What was this plotline? Did Snowball include anything important in that stupid book?

[gildedlavender]

Ok, so here are my very long winded thoughts about OBX part 2. This might be a lot, but I’m not only heartbroken but extremely angry. First, fuck the Pates/Shannon. Finding out that the creators of your favorite show not only hate JJ and Kiara, but also their fans is awful. Having the nerve to sit there and say all that bullshit to try and justify killing JJ? If Rudy wanted to leave, which it’s sounding like that, they gave JJ the worst end possible and tried to ruin his character just to spite him, which is pretty evil. They could’ve written him off any other way with an easier possibility to come back next season. Not to mention them talking about possibly making Riara a thing?! Excuse me?! Kiara would never be with anyone else in the last season, let alone him. I swear to god if they try to pull that shit, Madison better raise hell on that set, because no one hates Riara more than her.

The disrespect to not only JJ but Kiara as well just baffles me. They made Kiara lose her soulmate and now she’ll be the only one who’s alone and miserable. JJ going through hell the whole second half of the season only to have no character development, his friends not be there for him or seem to care about what he’s going through, then die and barely have anyone except Kiara react?! He was abused his whole life, only for his real father to kill him. What kind of an ending for a beloved character is that? JJ literally died for no reason. He’d given Chandler what he wanted already. Having him still die afterwards was just cruel and unnecessary. Not to mention, his death felt weird and rushed. First, instead of running away after giving Chandler the crown, they just stand hugging in his vicinity, then when JJ gets stabbed, Kiara just stands there and doesn’t intervene until he’s done getting stabbed? Then, you expect me to believe he died that quickly afterwards, when Sarah got shot and they had time to drive her all that way before she “died” and came back to life? Rudy gave a good performance, and Madison gave a pretty good one, but I needed more from her in that scene. Everyone else’s reactions were off as well. Why was nobody trying to get him to a hospital, put pressure on his wound, or do CPR? Why wasn’t everyone sobbing and doing everything they could to keep him alive? Then they just buried him in the sand in Morocco?! That made me sick. They can’t even visit his grave. It’s so disrespectful.

Not to mention, Jiara just got together at the end of last season, then the first season we see them as an actual couple, he fucking dies and they’re over, and to make it worse, we barely got any Jiara scenes in Part 2. It literally feels like we never even got to see them as an actual couple. One bad angled kiss scene in 10 episodes is preposterous. If Rudy actually asked for less Jiara intimate scenes, the Pates should’ve shut that shit down immediately and made him do his job. I don’t know why he’d suddenly have an issue though since he didn’t seem to have one in season 3, or Part 1. And Madison’s acting in part 2 during most Jiara scenes, except the last episode, were really emotionless. Even if she was mad at Rudy, she shouldn’t have let that affect her performance. How can both of them be so unprofessional?

The Pates basically said all the couples were endgame. Now you’re telling me, that after everything, everyone gets a happy ending but Kiara and JJ? How would anyone want that for a fan favorite couple? Genuinely why did they even bother making Jiara a thing if this is how they were going to end. What was the point?

Next, a big fuck you to Rudy and Madison for going through that whole press tour giving us hope like that about Jiara. Talking about them being endgame, JJ having great character development, and Rudy acting excited about another season. Literally none of what they said was true. I genuinely don’t know how anyone allowed this to happen. If Rudy wanted to leave so bad, why did he always say he loved playing JJ? He couldn’t suck it up for one more season, seriously? I don’t know what happened between part 1 and 2, but they felt like two completely different seasons. How was he ok with that being JJ’s ending? And the Pates have to be the dumbest people on earth to throw away almost their entire fan base like that. This isn’t some high brow drama where killing main characters is expected. This is a fun teen summer show about treasure hunting. The only way they can make this right is to use the crown to bring JJ back. I would have to think by now, they’re realizing what a horrible mistake they’ve made and that they’re going to be in a lot of trouble for season 5. I’m praying that they can convince Rudy to come back for at least one episode to give him and Jiara a happy ending. I don’t care what they have to do. This was one of the best teen dramas out there and it brought me so much joy. Now I can’t even stomach rewatching it. I’ve never seen a show destroy itself so completely so quickly. Regardless, JJ will always be one of my favorite characters and Jiara one of my favorite ships. They deserved so much better.

[sky-kenobye]

⛵️ Five Fandoms, Five Ships ⛵

Get to know the blogger, via five different ships from five different fandoms!

Thanks for the tag @underacalicosky !!

Putting it under the cut because this is LONG, sorry.

I love them your honor. Doesn't even have to be romantic, I just want to see them being obsessed about each other. I'm also a pretty big obianidala fan, hence why I added her too. (I'm a multishipper really. I have my otp but there's a lot of ships that I enjoy)

1. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker(/Padmé Amidala) (Star Wars)

When I first watched star wars (not that long ago, I only watched it because I wanted to see the sequels in theater lmao) I wasn't a big fan of the prequels so I mostly ignored them, but then a couple years ago I randomly rewatched them in the middle of the night and suddenly I was obsessed. I'm not even sure how I ended up on AO3 (did I go look for obikin? Did I stumble on it? Idk) but eventually I started reading Pining in Preschool, then realised that @palfriendpatine66 was on tumblr, I started interacting with more people around here, and now I'm (slowly) writing fics, and I'm having the time of my life here, so thanks Pal!

I don't think any if my past fandom brainrots reached my current level so I'm pretty sure I'm here for the long haul (at least it's not stopping anytime soon).

It's not super obvious here but I'm actually a huge Marvel fan (well, the MCU, I've never read a comic), and especially Captain America. Stucky is just, 🤌 so tasty (a lot of similarities with obikin actually imo). I'd like to talk to whoever thought "I'm with you 'til the end of the line" was a straight sentence to repeatedly say to your bro throughout an entire century though. Like?? I'm all for relationships that defy the boundaries of platonic and romantic, but still, that's kinda gay.

2. Steve Rogers/James "Bucky" Barnes(/Peggy Carter) (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

The first MCU movie I saw was actually captain america 2 (and not the first one lol) in theater, and I was instantly hooked, though since Endgame I've been less into it, since my fav is gone (and I have to agree with tumblr on that one: they're making too many movies and shows, I can't keep up 😩)

(And I'm still super salty about what they did to steve in canon, they should have killed him off instead of whatever the fuck that was, honestly)

I also added Peggy because she's great, and polyamory is so much better than love triangles or shipping wars. (I'm not polyamorous but I believe in their beliefs. I think it's because of the aromanticism)

Same as with obikin (and stucky too tbh) I don't really care how they love each other, I just care that they do. They're the most important person to each other, be it romantic, platonic, familial, idc.

3. John Watson/Sherlock Holmes (mostly BBC Sherlock, but from the RDJ movies and the books too)

I've obsessed over (non-existent) clues during the last season, and deluded myself into thinking they'd become canon, alas, it didn't happen.

I've translated a couple of fics in french for that ship, but I've never written for it (I thought about it tho), and I've read a lot. That's the fandom where I've read some of the best queerplatonic fics, and that's my favorite interpretation of the ship, especially sherlock being some flavor of aroace.

4. Aziraphale/Crowley (Good Omens)

I love them as a queerplatonic relationship, and I genuinely think that's what they are in canon, the haters can suck it, that's not queerbaiting even if they dont become a canon couple.

Okay, I'm starting to see a patern here. Am I really that predictable? You can just copy-past what I said above.

(I'm fully on board with them being a couple though)

Hey, a straight ship! With a woman not added as a second thought!

5. Elizabeth Bennet/Mr Darcy (Pride and Prejudice)

Not quite the same vibe as the others, but I've read sooo many fics and books (straight up published fics lol), I've watched a bunch of different adaptations (even the one with zombies)... The worst part is that I think I've only read the og book once, oops.

I actually inherited that fandom from the women in my family lmao. My mom, sister and sister-in-law are all obsessed with it, so I read it to see what all the fuss was about and, yeah, I get it.

And that's it! There are other fandoms I'm into, and other ships in those fandoms, but that's pretty much it (the main one that's missing is Dinluke, the others are mostly smaller ones).

I'm not super actively in those fandoms (apart from Star Wars obviously) but i come back to them now and then. Usually I re-watch it then binge-read a bunch of fics (while my main fandom stays in the main spot in my brain) then I let it go again until it comes back (while obikin still stays in the main spot).

Also Harry Potter used to be my main obsession but JKR kinda ruined that for me so I'm not really into it anymore (hence why I didn't list it even though I have written fics for it).

Anyway that was way too long, if you've read all of this then props to you!

I'm tagging: @cottonraincoat @fem-anakin-skywalker @kingdomvel @ineffable-snowman @arobiwan (and whoever else wants to do it because I'm nosy and I want to know stuff about people)

[dhampiravidi]

when you dislike the MC of a good series AKA Who Will Die in The Wicked Powers

damn, being petty enough to flip off the MC x canon ship in my (favorite) fandom is really kicking me in the ass--

yeah, basically I can't touch half the TSC stuff on Tumblr bc I'm so anti-Clace...(meanwhile I love literally every other character that's been in every Shadowhunter series)...& they're probably gonna have a wedding + kids in the next books (assuming Jace isn't killed)...

The Wicked Powers is most definitely gonna have the Princes of Hell as the main villains. I feel like Luke, Gwyn, or Izzy will die, since the younger Shadowhunters are supposed to be central & well...look at the couples who will be alive/extant by TWP:

SPOILERS FOR ALL SHADOWHUNTER BOOKS!!

Jace & Clary

Magnus & Alec

Simon & Izzy

Julian & Emma

Kit & Ty

Kieran/Cristina/Mark

Dru & Ash (& maybe Jaime)

Diana & Gwyn

Luke & Jocelyn

Tessa & Jem

(forgive me if I'm missing anyone!)

Jace already died once. Clary had dreams about dying, but those were shown to be visions of Thule. Based on canon events, I think they're Clare's favorite ship. SAFE.

Magnus almost gave himself to Asmodeus in CoHF. Alec almost-ish died saving Magnus in The Eldest Curses. Also, Alec almost died thanks to that poison demon in TMI (the one Magnus saved him from). Malec might end up forced to rule some region of Hell (reason unknown but I think it'll have to do with them beating/destroying Asmodeus). I feel like past events foreshadow Magnus dealing with the unfortunate sides of being a warlock. But he won't die--the "killing your gays" trope might actually save he & Alec.

Simon nearly died when the vampires attacked him (when he was a mundane), then when Valentine bled him pre-Daylighter (then Jace's blood saved him). He "sacrificed" himself to Asmodeus CoHF, in the form of his vampire immortality + memories (which he basically got back later on). Izzy...she's been through a lot psychologically & about as much as I think most Shadowhunters would physically. She lost Max & her dad. But she's a badass (I'm not faulting her for it, either). So I don't think she's safe.

Julian & Emma both lost their parents in horrible ways. Their whole series was about the parabatai curse (which, to me, was conveniently not mentioned in chronologically earlier series...probably because it wasn't invented til TDA was written, lol). They're kinda written to be the leaders of Livvy's Watch. SAFE.

Kit has his whole faerie power reveal shit to explore & he + Ty are some of the major characters in TWP. I'm pretty sure they'll spend the series healing their relationship. SAFE.

Kieran/Cristina/Mark will survive because 1) Kieran as the Unseelie King is an important Shadowhunter ally, 2) they're poly rep in YA, which is rare, and 3) killing one of them off would leave the others to mourn in such a weird way. SAFE.

I love Dru Blackthorn. She's one of the main of TWP, so I think she'll survive, plus tbh I don't think any more Blackthorns will be killed. Ash will probably end up as the Seelie King or as Clace's adopted son, to "redeem" Sebastian in a narrative sense. Jaime's sort of a main for TWP as one of Dru's love interests. SAFE.

Diana & Gwyn aren't main characters (though I like their romance). Diana also is the ONLY transgender person in all the books (unless I missed something). I don't think she'll be killed off. Gwyn might be just because I see the Wild Hunt as an important group in TWP & he might die protecting Diana (narratively, this shows strengthened faerie-Shadowhunter relations, despite the Wild Hunt being unaffiliated with either Court).

Luke & Jocelyn deserve to be endgame, but I could see Luke being killed off as one of those "MC's loved one is killed so the MC goes & avenges them" type of things. I love Luke & Jocelyn as characters, though.

Tessa & Jem deserve to be endgame, arguably, more than any couple. They were the mains in their series, then Jem survived but was sort-of-"lost" when he became a Silent Brother. Then he miraculously became a (mortal) Shadowhunter again when he was burned by heavenly fire, he just left the Clave behind to hang with Tessa (good choice!). Tessa has a baby & she's gonna suffer enough when she outlives Jem. SAFE?

[incorrectsibunaquotes]

So if it's not KT who's Kira's endgame(I'm still crying about it tho), then who is it? You mentioned like 4 answers, but remember only Matt and Greg(I'm still shocked) Please, we want to know

LOL so there’s not a canon endgame (not that anything about TIC is “canon,” but you guys know what I mean hehehe), but there are a few fun possibilities that people can chew on! There may be an “official” endgame at some point if I ever write a post-canon future fic set in this AU, but that’s a big IF!

Option 1 - Matthew / someone else from home: This would probably happen the summer after her junior year of college (after she and KT split up), and they’d have a summer fling that just lasted past the summer. Idk I haven’t fully fleshed out any of these

Option 2 - the one, the only Greg Harrison: I have no idea how this would happen, but it would be funny. Maybe they met at a conference for work, but Greg doesn’t strike me as an academic so idk.

Option 3 - Amber: This is my least favorite option, but also would be super iconic. If they ran into each other/met up at a bar in NYC and just really hit it off. #AndTheyWereRoommates

Option 4 - Fabian: So this is only an option if Fabina for whatever reason doesn’t work out (like if she isolated herself out of fear of hurting other ppl with chosen one bullshit, got killed by chosen one bullshit, they just had another wacky breakup… you know how it goes). Kira and Fabian both become professors at the same university when they’re older, teaching different things obviously. They would be colleagues in academia, and I think they would actually pair up surprisingly well. Students at the university would eat it up for sure. But in this universe I kinda think Fabina stays endgame, but yeah I flip-flop on them way too much lol

Option 5 - … KT: OKAY! I’ve given it thought, and it’s very possible that they could have broken up in college, stayed good friends, and then gotten back together later down the line. Maybe they hooked up again at a wedding or something (why is that always my go-to for getting couples back together post-canon omg??)

Anyway… yeah that’s it! But feel free to pick your own endgames!

[staringdownabarrel]

I've seen a couple of posts where people are getting caught up on the time travel aspects of Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow because they aren't really sure how it's meant to work. This is an aspect of Picard's second season that people got caught up on as well, so I want to go over how time travel works in Star Trek.

I think the part people are getting caught up on is that time travel in Star Trek is largely based on two rules, but neither of them are explicitly stated in canon. They've both largely gone unstated.

Rule 1: Time travel doesn't make a difference unless it causes a difference

What this means is that just the act of going back in time isn't enough to cause huge changes in the timeline. This isn't the kind of franchise where you can go back in time and move a leaf and suddenly cause all of history to drastically change. It's only if you actively go out of your way to change things--e.g., killing one historical figure or saving another--that it makes a difference.

This is the reason why in The Voyage Home, when Kirk and co. go back and save the whales, they're not presented with this drastically changed Federation when they get back to the 23rd century. Bringing two whales and a marine biologist to the future isn't enough to cause drastic changes to the timeline. It's not enough of a difference to make a difference, essentially.

It's also why Sisko was able to take the place of Gabriel Bell in DS9's Past Tense two-parter without it causing issues down the line. While Bell not being there and doing what he did cause a ripple effect, as long as someone was there to fill that role, things would all go according to plan. Sisko playing the part of Gabriel Bell during the Bell riots kept his timeline intact because while it was a difference, it also wasn't enough of a difference to make a difference.

The third example of time travel by itself not causing a difference is something like TNG's Time's Arrow two-parter, where just the TNG crew going back to the nineteenth century isn't enough to cause ripples down the line. It just means they're there.

Rule 2: When it does make a difference, it overwrites everything that happens afterwards

The best example of this rule in practice is Voyager's Year of Hell two-parter. Annorax's temporal weapon ship is built to be able to cause changes in the timeline that ripple out and change everything afterwards. He's also obsessed with restoring the timeline to what he considers its proper course, and that's an ongoing thing during the story.

There's other examples of this rule in practice, too. The other obvious example of this is TOS's The City on the Edge of Forever, where if Edith Keeler survives, the Nazis win World War II and cause the Federation to never exist. In DS9's Past Tense, if the Bell riots don't happen, the Federation never exists. In VOY's Endgame, Admiral Janeway going back in time causes Voyager to be able to get back to the Alpha Quadrant years earlier than it had in her timeline.

This doesn't mean that the timeline splits off and causes a new universe to form. It means that everything that happens after the significant change in the timeline, everything after that change is different.

This is why Guinan didn't remember Picard during the 21st century scenes in Picard's second season. Because the timeline had been changed so that the Federation didn't exist, it'd also been changed so that he probably hadn't been to the nineteenth century in this version of the timeline. There wasn't an evil Federation version of Time's Arrow in this timeline essentially, so there was no reason for Guinan to have met Picard because from her perspective, they hadn't.

This is also one of the reasons why the 2009 movie tends to be such a contentious thing in some circles. Its presentation of time travel causing a change in the timeline so bad that it causes it split off and create a new universe isn't really in line with how time travel has traditionally been presented in the franchise. The flow on effect of this is while the writing team for the Kelvinverse films are pretty adamant that Enterprise as shown is canon to both the Prime universe and the Kelvinverse, there are fans who don't really buy into that idea.

Keep in mind that during First Contact, when the Enterprise-E is chasing the Borg sphere through the temporal vortex, nobody's saying, "Oh, we're in a new universe now." What they do say is that the Borg assimilating the Earth in the past is a major difference and therefore needs to be prevented.

That's in direct contrast to an episode like TNG's Parallels, where when Worf goes to each new universe, they're able to run some tests on him and find he's not meant to be in that universe. Stuff like that wouldn't work if there wasn't a difference between going to a different universe and traveling in time.

So the opening scene of the 2009 movie, where the Narada came in and destroyed the Kelvin, is really better explained by one of two options. One is that this was a different kind of time travel that hasn't been expanded upon since or even replicated in canon that caused the new timeline to split into a new universe, or the Kelvinverse was always a separate universe. Either would be fine, in my opinion.

How this is all relevant to Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow is that this episode is another example of how a change in the past was enough of a difference to make a difference. While there is room for debate on where the line is for what constitutes enough of a difference, this episode clearly framed this set of changes as enough. This is a pretty straight example of how time travel is supposed to work in Star Trek.

[epitomees]

kotone and aigis ships pls

Send ‘Ship Bias’ and I will share up to 5 ships I have a bias for my muse!

((I did answer the top 5 for Kotone here, but I do have more ships with her sooooo...I can continue where I left off~

6. Joker (RED DUO MY BELOVED!! I’ve only seen how they interact via GIFs and photos of Q2 but I feel like their chemistry would be incredible. They’re both gremlins in their own right, they can be mischievous and reckless together, but also they have big hearts for their friends and the people they consider important. And they can be…fairly violent when battling together. Imagine a power couple!! That’s them for sure!!)

7. Rio (MY GIRL DESERVES SOMEONE BETTER THAN STINKY, GROSS KENJI!! GIVE HER A PARTNER THAT WILL TREAT HER RIGHT!! No but Kotone and Rio together is very special to me too. Rio is a great social link and Kotone admires the girl’s drive and ambition so, so much. They’d be a cute athletic couple!!)

8. Fuuka (I love me some blue/red dynamics. They can teach each other so much since they both have a strong drive to learn new things. And Kotone’s patience is absolutely incredible, so she would be perfect when it comes to Fuuka’s anxieties and doubts. Plus, Kotone thinks Fuuka is the absolute cutest!! 10/10 would squish her cheeks and give her playful noogies.)

9. Bebe (THAT’S HER SPECIAL BOY!! FASHION COUPLE RIGHT HERE!! She finds him so precious and adores how much he wants to learn about her culture. I think they’d go and try all kinds of food, go to different restaurants, and immerse themselves in all kinds of things so he can experience everything the island has to offer.)

10. Junpei (While I see them more as a platonic relationship, I do think they can make for a good romantic couple. Junpei grows a lot through the story and I think by endgame, he’s come to really appreciate Kotone and admire her strength. There’s some potential there for sure!!)

1. Makoto/Minato (…I don’t think I should start on this ship because I could write a whole college essay about their relationship, the fate they share, the Sun/Moon dynamics, the ‘doomed from the start’ trope, THE FACT THEY ARE THE ORPHEUS/EURYDICE METAPHOR, LITERALLY I COULD MAKE A TED TALK ABOUT THESE TWO AND IT’D LAST FOR 8 HOURS!! THESE TWO MEAN SO MUCH TO ME AND I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE HOW THEY SHOT UP TO BE MY FAVORITE SHIP OF ALL TIME!)

2. Kotone/Minako (Literally the same as the above. They ruin me, they make me weak in the knees, they kill me internally, and I don’t think I’ll ever recover.)

3. Yukari (These two are very special since both of them had a very close relationship to the protagonist. I think there’s a lot of commonalities they have, and I think Yukari can sympathize with Aigis concerning her learning how to be human and how to embrace human emotion. Not to mention, they don’t really have a good family to go back to since Aigis’ creator is dead and Yukari’s most prominent parental figure is dead too. I haven’t watched the Answer yet but I know they butt heads a bit because of the protagonist’s death, but if they can sit and talk to each other, they can get past it. I also think it’d be cool if they’d live together once they graduate. Roommates to lovers, you know?)

4. Ryoji (…okay HEAR ME OUT HERE!!! HEAR ME OUT!! I love me a good enemy/rivals relationship, but consider this. I thoroughly enjoy how Aigis is very hostile towards Ryoji because of his true nature, but also imagine she’s straight up jealous of him because he was able to obtain a human body. On top of that, he immediately bonded with the protagonist, someone she must protect and probably has fallen in love with slowly over time. It’s not fair how he swooped in and is trying to take the protagonist away from her. BUT!! I think Ryoji would tell Aigis she is more human than him, and he finds it so interesting and beautiful how a machine is able to feel human emotions. I truly think Ryoji would fall for Aigis too, because she’s such a unique case. If an android with a specially made heart is capable of living, loving, and caring for humans, maybe he can too. Also, two immortal beings in love with each other and watching over humanity for years and years to come. MmmmmmMMMMMMMM THAT’S GOOD FOOD!)

5. Fuuka (A robot and the geeky nerd who loves tinkering with technology! I think they can easily go hand in hand with each other! Fuuka learning about Aigis’ inner workings and Aigis learning about today’s tech advances from Fuuka. They also have this…special kind of bodyguard/person being protected that gets me going since Fuuka is the navigator. Aigis wouldn’t waste a moment being a shield to keep her safe from Shadows.)

[ohblackdiamond]

black and gold (kiss/endgame crossover, part 18 of ?)

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6 | part 7 | part 8 | part 9 | part 10 | part 11 | part 12 | part 13 | part 14 | part 15 | part 16 | part 17 | part 18

Prequel to “the end of the world tour.” Four ex-bandmates and even-more-ex-superheroes reunite in the aftermath of Thanos’ snap, and attempt to adjust.

In this chapter: “I’m Gene. This is Paul. You feel like taking a couple Jews out of the wilderness, Moses?” Paul and Gene bum a ride on their journey to Peter's house, and Paul faces an uncomfortable conversation with Ace and a worrisome dream.

Paul sang himself completely hoarse. Kept on like it was a setlist. “Get Off of My Cloud.” “Come a Little Bit Closer.” “Bus Stop.” “Daydream.” “Maggie May.” “Friday on My Mind.” Gene was surprised he didn’t try for any Beatles songs, but maybe those were just too stark a reminder.

“‘I’m gonna have fun in the city, I’ll be with my girl, she’s so pretty…’”

“Paul, you’re gonna kill your voice.”

“I did that a long time ago.” He was already barely able to speak, that reedy, cracked quality to his voice even worse than normal. Gene thought back, unwillingly, to all those times thirty-odd years ago, hearing Paul belt out annoying warm-ups in the dressing room. How much he’d wished Paul would just shut the fuck up back then. The reality of having had to witness his decline was so much worse. “It’s okay.”

But he did stop after that. The rest of the walk to the gas station, Gene tried to fill with conversation and comments that Paul mostly only nodded or shook his head at. He could only get out a few short, raspy responses every so often. Gene felt more grounded now. More able. Paul had propped him up. Made him stable again.

He expected to spend hours waiting at the gas station, leaning heavily against an old payphone, watching the cars fill up and drive away. There was no real food inside the station itself, unsurprisingly, and so he finished off one of the lunches as he stood there. His legs and right arm were already painfully sore. He’d barely be able to move tomorrow morning; he knew it. Paul hadn’t really complained, but Gene had caught him rubbing his arm and shoulder off and on the times they’d stopped to rest. Paul was sitting down in front of the payphone, legs crossed, one arm around his luggage. He was smiling at every single car that pulled up, every person that got out to get gas, like he thought it was ’78. He was still barely able to talk, so Gene was doing that for him, a dozen of the same lines, like a preacher’s tract. Excuse-me. We-need-a-ride. Just-to-the-nearest-car-dealership. We’ll-pay-you. Nothing but stares and headshakes. It was getting closer to dark before they ever got a nod.

“Sure.” It was a kid. Maybe Nick’s age at best, but no older. His hair was in a bushy Afro. Gene’s gaze dove down to his worn-out sneakers, then over to his car, a puke-green Celica with the paint wearing off the hood. “How much?”

“Two hundred.” Then, quickly-- “I’ll… I’ll have a check sent after, too.”

“Yeah, okay.”

“It’s gotta be an open dealership,” Gene added. “Don’t screw us over here.”

“I’m not screwing you over.” The kid stuck out his hand. Gene took it. “I’m Moses.”

“I’m Gene. This is Paul. You feel like taking a couple Jews out of the wilderness, Moses?”

“You got some definition of wilderness, man. Get in.”

Gene was more nervous than he wanted to let on as they climbed inside. If Moses did strand them somewhere, even in the car lot, they’d probably still be able to regroup from there. It would just take awhile. The big problems were going to be if they-- 

“You got a place for a charger?” Paul had read his mind. Paul’s voice sounded like two pieces of sandpaper getting rubbed together. He could tell that the kid hadn’t even understood what Paul had said. 

“Charger?” Gene repeated for him, and Moses waved vaguely at the Frankensteined plug set-ups below the radio. There was an iphone charger already there--  Paul reached over from his seat in the back to plug Gene’s phone in. One thing down.

“Where are you headed, anyway?”

“Connecticut.”

Moses whistled. He turned on the radio, turned on his own phone, googling around for dealerships, before pulling out of the gas station. 

It was a mostly-silent trip. The radio reports were the only interruption. The military had been deployed to help with relief efforts and what the report kindly termed as deescalations. Most, if not all, major cities were being razed and looted. They were going to put price ceilings on gas. Gene remembered what Paul had said about seventies inflation, way back in Maury and Charlotte’s RV, and swallowed thickly.

“I thought Hurricane Katrina was bad,” Moses finally said, changing the station. “I didn’t know what bad was, huh?”

“You must’ve been a kid then.”

Moses shrugged and didn’t elaborate. It was two hours before he managed to pull into an open dealership. The place looked crummy, nothing like the dealership Paul and Gene had stepped into just a few days ago, to take the lunches from-- but the lights were on inside, and there were a handful of vehicles in the lot.

“We’ve got it from here,” Gene assured, digging in his wallet. Paul unplugged the phone. “Thanks. Gimme your address for the rest.”

“I don’t need the rest.” Moses said, pocketing the two hundred.

“You sure? Kid, I saw apples go for ten bucks apiece. I wouldn’t turn down--”

“I don’t wanna do that to you.”

“But--”

“I know who you are, man. I can’t charge you extra. It’d be like charging Superman for a taxi.” Moses’ expression was distant. “Nah, you go ahead.”

“Thank you.”

“Be real careful, okay? You’re only halfway there.”

-- 

Hey, Ace

Ace: Gene?

No this is Paul. Sorry

Ace: What did you do about the car?

We left it. We bought another one

Ace: How much?

Eighty grand.

Ace: What is it?

A pickup truck

Ace: Are you fucking kidding

No

Ace: What year is it

1988

Manual transmission too

Ace: Jesus Christ you got fucked over which one of you paid for it

Gene did

Ace: Didn’t you try to haggle?

It was the only one left in the lot

Ace:  Jesus Christ. Can Gene drive a manual

What do you think

Ace: You screwed yourselves over, you got shitty gas mileage now

Ace, shut up.

Ace: Eighty grand is a down payment on a Bentley

Ace, shut the fuck up

Ace: Paul seriously let me talk to you. I’m calling now

Against his better judgment, Paul answered the phone. His voice was cracking on every third word, and his throat felt like it was on fire. None of that was new to him-- none of that had been new to him in years after overextending himself-- but it just felt worse now, that was all. He didn’t regret singing for Gene at all; he just hated what he was contending with in the aftermath. And he hated, too, the worry that he’d just wrecked himself even further past repair than before. 

“Ace, I really don’t wanna hear it–”

“You sound like shit,” Ace said shortly. “What happened?”

Paul cleared his throat. It didn’t help at all.

“I might’ve performed.”

“For who?” Ace paused, not waiting on Paul to respond before changing tacks. “Look, that truck’s just gonna slow you down. If Gene can’t drive a manual–”

“Gene can barely drive an automatic.”

“--then the whole damn trip is up to you.”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

“You’re gonna have a real bad time. I… look, man, I’d try and meet you part of the way over, but I don’t think I can.”

Paul couldn’t really blame him at all. He asked anyway.

“Why not?”

“People are raiding houses. Anyplace you leave behind, even for a little while, you come back and it’s completely ransacked if you’re lucky. Squatters if you’re not.” Ace exhaled. “I don’t want to leave Peter here alone. He’s doing really bad, Paul.”

“Nobody’s doing really good right now.”

“Don’t strain yourself. You sound fucking awful. Gene around?”

“He’s asleep.”

“How’re you for food?”

Telling him not to strain himself, then asking him questions. Paul let out a long breath.

“I think we can make it.”

“You’re pretty damn skinny as it is,” Ace pointed out dryly. “Gene can’t lend you twenty pounds, y’know.”

“We’ll make it.”

“Yeah. I know you will. Still nothing on reaching out to the fans, huh?”

“I wanted to, Gene didn’t. We-- did it on accident anyway.”

“Okay. Hey, Paul?”

“Yeah?”

“You are feeling it, aren’t you? You gotta be. I am. Peter is, I know Peter is--” 

That again. Just when he’d hoped that Ace had let up, that their argument the other day had proved something to him. Apparently not. Apparently Ace was as determined as everyone else to try and resurrect the past.

“Ace, I gotta go. I’ll text you tomorrow.” Paul hung up, plugging up the phone as if it mattered when the truck engine wasn’t running. He’d been well enough aware of the hustling they’d contended with when buying the truck before Ace had bitched him out about it, but it did have one of those cigarette lighter adapters like the one Moses had. And it was red. And it had custom leather seats. And, most importantly, it had been their only option. It had turned out that it was the only automobile in the lot left that hadn’t been vandalized beyond driveability or stolen.

It had been a long time since eighty grand had been a whole lot of money to him, compared to his net worth, but after he hit about thirty or so, unnecessary expenses started to agitate him. Okay, no, twenty-eight was when it first started to bother him, when he’d originally been stuck paying Peter a twenty-five percent cut from a band he was no longer in. It had taken nearly ten years to buy that bastard out of the only smart decision he’d ever made. Thinking about it still burned him up. Peter staying rich off of the sweat of his and Gene’s brows. Only a couple years after he’d been bought out of KISS’ dwindling profits, Peter’d been high and dry.

(paul doesn’t want to talk to me)

Peter was right. Paul never did want to talk to Peter. He didn’t know what he’d say to him once they finally got over there. Paul had not had a resentment-free conversation with Peter since the seventies. Peter was borderline illiterate, a high-school dropout, a guy who’d been living off his wife and fooling around in lousy garage bands before KISS. Peter had always ruined everything. If not for him-- 

If not for him-- 

No. No, he couldn’t think like that right now. Ace couldn’t get him started on that path. He was only thinking this way anyway because of Ace, and because thinking of Peter was easier than thinking of himself and the raspy whisper currently constituting his voice. Already-charted territory, decades of it. And even that was easier, far easier, than thinking of his wife, his children, his sister.

All of whom he could only think about because of Gene. He’d never stop owing Gene. For saving him. For continuing to save him, even though he wasn’t worth it. Even though he was a petty bastard at best. He had only been any good to Gene just lately. Only been able to sing Gene a couple songs. It was the smallest of repayments for his life.

He reclined his seat as much as he could, and closed his eyes, the sound of Gene’s breathing eventually lulling him to sleep.

--

Paul dreamed most nights. He tended to take sleep aids, a profoundly bad habit that had started way back when KISS had shifted from tour buses to flights. Generally, he went with melatonin when he was trying to wean himself off prescription stuff-- but even now, without them, he’d dream. The old standards. Tests for classes he’d never taken. His teeth falling out of his head, or crunching to pieces as he spoke.

That night, he dreamed of her. 

She always looked the same. Long, stick-straight blonde hair, bony wrists, large blue eyes. He had met her in 1972, on the T.V. in his parents’ apartment. A Vitalis commercial. In five years, he’d have her; in six years, she’d be gone. The first real loss of his life. She hadn’t even had a funeral; the rabbi had refused to complete the rites for a suicide.

She always looked the same; he was always his own age, even in dreams. He used to hate that, the way she was always frozen in time while he shifted so profoundly past her. But now it was almost a comfort. The world could be destroyed and she would stay the way he remembered her.

Maybe it was shameful, dreaming of her now. Maybe he’d just kept her in his head because she had died so young, tugging her out of his own subconscious like some sort of symbol to soothe him at all the worst points of his life. Like Paul McCartney’s Mother Mary. That had been Hilsen’s suggestion over the years. But Paul didn’t quite believe that. He had never quite believed that at all.

Now she was sitting next to him in jeans and a sweater, in the bed of their new truck, and he reached for her with weathered, sinewy arms and trembling hands. I’m ninety-three and you’re sixteen, he thought, so briefly. The fucked-up line he’d added to Gene’s longing little ballad. I’m sixty-two and you’re twenty-nine. 

She didn’t reach for him, though his arms wrapped around her, though his head pressed against her shoulder. She never did. 

“There’s a ring for you, if you want it, Paul.”

“A ring?” He sounded better than he had in years. Sounded better, but didn’t look better. He let go of her. He looked at his fingers-- then he looked at hers, both bare. “I don’t understand.”

“A ring. A call. There’s a call if you want it.”

She’d never said that before. Paul wracked his brain, suddenly desperate.

“Do you want me to come back? I can’t. I can’t come with you. Not yet. I will but not yet. Y-you know that, right?”

“There’s a call if you want it.”

“What call?” 

“You have to want it. It’ll be there for you if you want it.”

“What call? What’s there for me? Victoria, tell me, please–”

He woke in a cold sweat, breathing hard. Checked for messages on Gene’s phone. Nothing. Nothing at all.

[hopepaigeturner]

To Philoise or not to Philoise?--That is the question

Ok so I recently have been writing one-shots concerning Philoise and so I have had to re-read bits To Sir Philip With Love...

It made me reaffirm my original thoughts. These might be a bit controversial, but hear me out...

1.BookEloise and ShowEloise are not the same character. And the show should not try and retcon this to appease fans. Otherwise, we’ll have a character with no consistent characterisation, making choices that do not make sense. Nothing is more jarring or off-putting for an audience. Therefore, fans we need to expect MAJOR changes to the book.

2. I don’t want ShowEloise to marry ShowPhilip. Here are a couple reasons:

A)I want more diversity among male leads.

I want a poc chracter in a main role with a complete story arc. Not one used as cannon fodder (such as Penelope’s suitors in S3 Bridgerton) I'm not against it, for we always need extra characters e.g. Thomas Dorset, but I don’t want it to become a pattern.

This is also why I’m a little hesitant about Theo. And yes, if the only hesitations about a character is their race then this is hypocritical—even racist?—but if Bridgerton wants to continue banging on about diversity, (its main selling point) then they need to do something.

B)More importantly, Marina.

The way they treated bookMarina is really unsettling for me. I feel that Phillip’s frustration is understandable, but the language they use lacks empathy and compassion. “She was always sad”. Ugh.

 Furthermore, we have ShowMarina whose fate is tragic, but we are shown that the resilience she showed in her S1 storyline has not faded in S2.

There is also more emotional investment in this character (whether you like her or not), which BookMarina didn’t have. This lack of emotional investment enabled BookMarina to fade into the background without complications. Therefore, readers did not mind that Eloise was replacing her, nor about her death—this might be a little more complex if they kill ShowMarina.

And why can’t we have ShowMarina be a type of Portia I-will-do-anything-for-my-children Featherington? We have already shown she will do anything to protect her children.

Just a couple reason why I do not wish for Eloise to marry ShowPhilip.

HOWEVER!!! In the infamous words of BB:

A New Perspective…

Here is my idea:

Eloise does not fall in love with Phillip Crane. She just falls in love with a Phillip. A different Philip.

A Phillip who has the same backstory, who has children. (If we really don’t want to do twins, you could always have two children close in age). But his last name isn’t Crane.

Therefore, the writers can adjust Eloise's love interest. Perhaps the writer did want S1 Phillip Crane to be endgame, but with the way the narrative has evolved I don't think it would be for the best.

So yes, a new Phillip--we can have two characters with the same name!

And yes, I want to keep Philip's backstory:

First, Phillip’s backstory and his resulting behaviour. Like Sophie’s story, the romance genre uses trauma as a plot device but due to the restrictions of said genre these complicated traumas are not handled with nuance or compassion. If they are considered, this is brief or typically lost in the melee of everything else.

 Phillip’s fear that he will repeat the cycle of abuse is a very real fear those with dysfunctional/abusive parents have.

Then there is his anger. I think JQ wanted to show Phillip’s strength in not acting on the impulses he may have learnt from his father. Yes, Phillip gets angry, but he does not act upon it and therefore this is honourable. Unlike Sophie, I do not have any ideas on how they would tweak this in the show. They just need to treat Phillip’s trauma in general with consdieration to ensure it is portrayed well and not villainised/brushed aside.

(QUICK NOTE: However, the character of Phillip does need to be tweaked. E.g., the ending scene in front of the portraits when Eloise raises the unresolved issue they had prior to saving-Charlies-life. Now, Phillip’s trauma does mean Philoise’s problems with communication need to be handled with great compassion, delicacy, and patience. However, the concerns that Eloise raised were legitimate worries that should not be brushed aside because of Philip’s ‘trauma’, nor should Eloise be pressurised into happiness because Phillip needs her to be.)  

And yes, I want Philip to have children. I think it would be really fit with ShowEloise and her feminism/activism. While the patriarchy does disadvantage women--it also harms men. Men also suffer from the patriarchy--and BookPhilip is a prime example.

Philip was abused because his father wanted him to fulfil the narrow expectations placed upon men by the patriarchy--athletic, logical rather than emotional, a commander and breadwinner. But then his wife dies, and he's faced with having to be the opposite, female-coded role—child-rearing. Suddenly Phillip finds himself in limbo--he's een beaten into being the patriarch but he must also be a matriarch. Alongside his truama, I think it is very logical for him to distance himself from his children. Confusion, fear and PTSD lead to him avoiding his children.

Now. ShowEloise has been very vocal of women's disadvantages under the patriarchy. I hope in S3 Eloise understands her own privilege, and this education continues in season 4 with Sophie.

But nowhere in the series so far, have we seen Eloise acknowledge that sometimes the patriarchy harms men. Even though in the series we have been shown that it does—Anthony being a prime example.

So, S5 Eloise comes along a little older and a little wiser, and suddenly she meets this man who does suffer from the patriarchy and does not fit within it. I think this would challenge her. I think this would enable her to learn the full scope of what feminism is--an equity and equality of the sexes not a sovereignty over each other.

A Potential Modification

But Hope! You might cry. Without Marina, Eloise would never start sending letters to Phillip!

I see you; I see you. And I do think that this NewPhilip's wife should die--but the writers should have the decency not to treat her depression/post-partum depression as her defining character trait.

And concerning the letters—this should be kept. It is the key defining feature of this Bridgerton book and is super romantic.

So, I raise an idea...this new Phillip is/owns a publishing house. Phillip and Eloise's correspondence starts because he invites her to send parts of her novel for him to edit/make notes.

(He can still be an avid botanist, but due to his brother/father’s death he would be forced to take up the family business).

Picture this. Benedict and Sophie, being the artsy couple, host a summer/winter soiree for all their bohemian friends--the people who allow the couple to be themselves. And Benedict invites Eloise along so she can experience different perspectives. Now, here she meets Phillip��recently or not-so-recently widowed. They start talking and Eloise finds a man who listens but also challenges her--(a little Theo-esque); Phillip finds an intriguing woman who has no idea of his past--a woman who treats him like a person not a widow or father.

He invites her to send a chapter of her novel for notes--"You'll never know its value if you hide it away Miss Bridgerton.”. And so, their correspondence starts.

The letters start as those between author and publisher, with Eloise sending several letters vehemently disagreeing with his notes. Gradually little personal snippets of information sneak in. The letters evolve, become an escape from the character's situations, situations that make them feel entrapped and like failrues. (Eloise the ton and Philip his family.)

Eloise can still arrange a marriage, but because she wishes for freedom rather than companionship. Eloise does not want a love match (she tells herself in typical Bridgerton clown behaviour). She wants the freedom to pursue her dreams and ideas. Oh, and isn’t it handy that she knows a gentleman who she trusts, gets on well with, and who respects her literary pursuits. Oh AND he owns a publishing house.

Phillip has not told Eloise about the children because at first, their correspondence was purely business—there was no need to mention the children. And then, when the letters get more personal, he didn’t want to scare her away, he didn’t want to have to explain why he is a single father. His correspondence with Eloise is supposed to be an escape from his parental responsibility and trauma—he doesn’t want to jeopardise that.

The Marriage Question

It is too far in the future to speculate how the season would pan out. I personally would love to have Eloise not marry, I think it would suit her current ideals (Although I would like to point out getting married does not mean you are not a feminist). But ultimately the chances of this actually happening on a romance show is narrow.

(I do have a whole storyline about how Eloise could: get a romantic partner+ not get married+ still have the children element. However, this is too good and I might as well write it as an OG piece of fiction 😂😂).

However, with my newPhillip, there is a possible of sort-of justifying Eloise getting married.

Yes, Eloise gets married to Phillip, but she then takes over the publishing house as a working woman. Meanwhile, Phillip would be the primary caretaker of the children.

Firslty this enables that Eloise doesn;t slide into the mother role she is not comfortable with.

Secondly, this would showcase Philip's character development. Instead fo distancing himself from his children, he is would be activley involved with them. He is carving his own role within his family/society despite his trauma. Hopefully the extended run time of the show allowing his character development to reach a point where this is possible.

It’s not the perfect ending for Eloise, but then again this is Bridgerton, and it might be as close as we could get.

Summary: To Philoise or not to Philoise? A new question entirely.

So, due to the difference between BookEloise and ShowEloise, alongside the greater development of the Crane family, I do not believe that Eloise and Philip Crane should be endgame.

However, I do think numerous elements of BookPhillip's character would be an interesting story to adapt and challenge/fit with Eloise's storylines in the show--particulalrly her feminist education.

Therefore, a new Phillip shoud be created. One who could be a publisher, enable key elements of the book to remain while also sort-of reconciling Eloise-I-don't-want-to-marry-Bridgerton with teh romance genre.

What do you think?

P.S Please don't kill me. This is an idea, I am not dismissing or dissing Philoise fans or Theolise fans, this is just my personal idea.

[gemmabee]

my battlestar galactica thoughts

putting this under a read more because of major spoilers for the entire show.

I don’t even know where to begin. I watched the last episode yesterday and I’ve still not recovered. The thing with binging the entirety of the show in less than a month is you get all of the story at once and not in increments as you would watching it when it aired. Which means, a lot of stuff is sorta blended together in my head and there’s a lot I have forgotten about, simply because the characters change so much during the seasons that looking back on moments in season 1 you can barely recognise these same characters and their motivations. This is a good thing though, character development (or regression) is a vital part of great storytelling. and boy, what a monumentous journey, both literally and figuratively. This story took me places I never expected to go, with mindblowing plottwist i never saw coming. Knowing absolutely nothing about this show and, somehow, having avoided all spoilers that mattered, I came into this fully expecting only two things: 1. There was going to be aliens.

2. The Starbuck and Lee romance. (My initial reason for starting the show. They’re both cute.) 

I did not expect the aliens (or the Cylons) to be manmade AI creation gone rogue, but I loved it. I loved everything regarding the Cylons (except, perhaps, the human genocide. that wasn’t lit); How they came to be, the way they perceived themselves and the humans and the struggle of adhering to your programming or breaking out of it and becoming more than just a machine. It was utterly fascinating. Likewise to see the human aspect, which is of course the main point of focus throughtout the initial seasons. And I think this is what makes this show so good, because everybody, Cylon or not, are so very, very human and I could love a character utterly in one moment and in the next they could fill me with frustration or contempt even. (Tom Zarek i’m eyeing you hard) 

I enjoyed the spirituality of the show as well. This was something I did not expect, at least not to this degree, and this made me grateful that I have waited until now with getting into the show. I don’t believe a younger me would have appreciated the message of the show as well as present me does. Honestly, it’s a bittersweet story but in itself also deeply moving and hopeful. I don’t think I’ve cried so much to a show before, but all the characters really had me going through it.  Especially Lee and Starbuck. The internet somehow had let me to the assumption that the were The Couple. They were Endgame. and I fully expected that, so I was fine with watching their dance around each other, the whole “will they, wont they?” scenario I’ve seen times before. But I enjoyed it, I always found their scenes together interesting and fun (and sometimes frustrating). I just felt really bad for Sam and Dee (best girl, love you), and I would just sit there like “please for the love of galactica, divorce your partners and get together already, why is this dragging out??”  and then... they don’t even end up together??? because starbuck apparently DID die in season 3 and the kara we see is either her angelic form (beautiful) or an angelic being with the memories of kara thrace and not actually her (devastating) and she just disappears when they finally reach our earth and her job is done. The way Lee just stands there alone in the meadow just about broke my heart. Dee dead, Kara dead, Dad gone. Ah, so tragic. But mostly sad for me and my shipper heart I think. I really did love them and wanted them to be together. 

And just as I was trying to recover from that they just timeskipped 150.000 years and essentially killed off everybody hahah. But I did enjoy the last 5 minutes in present time, and I honestly thought (hoped) they would tease us with showing some of the characters reincarnated, but alas no juice. Instead we do get to see the Gaius and Caprica Six “Angels” walk down the street of a present day metropolian city and I thought their short conversation tied up everything quite nicely. And it was all in all a cool bit of foreshadowing for what could truly be in store for the human race, if we are not careful. Very thoughtprovoking conclusion and all in all a stellar note to end the show on. 

There’s so much i could talk about, this is merely the tip of the iceberg and I will probably make another post talking about all the main characters because they deserve to be talked about individually and i love them and i miss them and I am not crying again, nope. 

Regardless, I really think this show sets a precedent for future shows to be inspired by. Though it is by no means without flaws, i still felt the quality of the show was top notch and I’m so grateful to the cast and crew for this considerable accomplishment. What a beast of a story, what amazing characters and attention to details. This show has earned a special place in my heart and I can’t wait to rewatch this show in 10 years time and probably cry just as much as the first time around. 

So say we all.

[bedlamsbard]

I posted 7,144 times in 2022

That's 112 more posts than 2021!

842 posts created (12%)

6,302 posts reblogged (88%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@aurorawest

@cacchieressa

@bunjywunjy

@theavengers

@blackwidowhub

I tagged 7,087 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#mcu - 1,767 posts

#fandom - 596 posts

#natasha romanoff - 543 posts

#steve rogers - 459 posts

#loki - 391 posts

#daily fic snippet - 333 posts

#cats gotta cat - 318 posts

#roleswap endgame au concept - 269 posts

#mcu art - 255 posts

#it me - 220 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#and it was very clear that they had never considered that they might have a pagan student who was uncomfortable with some approaches to myth

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

Caesar this, Caesar that, more importantly it’s also the anniversary of the day Theoderic the Great murdered Odoacer and, standing over the body, went, “This man has no bones!”

now that’s a Roman murder that actually accomplished something other than years of bloody civil war and the fall of the Republic because unlike SOME Romans I could name THEODERIC WAS ACTUALLY COMPETENT.

(ETA: no, no one knows what he meant by the bones comment either, it’s from a fragment of John of Antioch and that is indeed what it says Theoderic said.)

232 notes - Posted March 15, 2022

#4

the last couple years did weird things for my suspension of disbelief. you want me to believe a presidential scandal will actually have Results? nope. you want me to believe that a dinosaur amusement park where the dinosaurs have killed before and will kill again is open? yeah, that tracks.

270 notes - Posted November 23, 2022

#3

cause of death: trying to make the internal geography of Stark Tower make sense, something neither JW or the Russos attempted to do.

DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH EASIER THIS WOULD BE IF Y’ALL HAD JUST MADE UP A BUILDING FROM SCRATCH INSTEAD OF MAKING IT CANONICALLY THE METLIFE BUILDING WITH THE TOP WHACKED OFF

it’s fine! it’s fine! you could have at least filmed the lobby scene in the actual MetLife Building instead of in the Proscenium in Atlanta but it’s fine! I’ll make it work! I will ignore Endgame.

279 notes - Posted August 30, 2022

#2

given that Ultron learned about the Avengers from the internet I think it would be funny if the “God’s righteous man” comment is about some weird propaganda from a point while Steve was on ice and Steve has literally no idea what he’s talking about. he doesn’t respond to that because his whole brain is just ????????? about it. (the “pretending you can live without a war” bit he at least acknowledges slightly but he genuinely looks confused here.)

Steve has a whole separate list in his notebook for “ugh okay find out what someone said about me in [insert year here] because apparently it was Bad and it’s probably on the list of things I have to publicly denounce at some point.”

343 notes - Posted June 26, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

love to make my main couples bond by *checks notes* giving them matching panic attacks while they’re in completely separate places because one one of them has been kidnapped and the other one is frantically trying to find them

it’s possible I don’t know how to write romance

824 notes - Posted June 13, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[caatws]

I'm pretty sure your blog has saved my sanity. I was running around in circles with Gamora feels until I saw a post of yours and then wandered here and saw a plethora of amazing posts. Gamora has been my comfort character for years and when they decided to have the guardians join the mcu I was skeptical. Then vol 1 turned out to be incredible and vol 2 was even better. But when IW killed Gamora it was like my heart dropped. I'm still hurt by how they let her die like that. Everyone kept telling me Gunn would make up for it and do better after Endgame but when I left the theater a couple weeks ago I didn't feel better. I felt worse off than I was after Endgame. Reading posts here has been the only thing that helps. Particularly your post about Gamora and grief. Why is the need to process grief over Gamora's death such a taboo. During vol 1 Peter has all this unprocessed grief about his mom because he was kidnapped from right outside her hospital and then placed in an environment where he wasn't supported enough to find closure. Once he meets up with the guardians and they become this unit where he feels more comfortable and supported he's finally able to open the gift she left him and read her letter. He's able to cope better because of the guardians and you see that in vol 2 where he doesn't have to wait years to have closure about Yondu because he has support and love and can say goodbye. I don't understand why this kind of thought was absent for Gamora. He needed people to help him carry the load of losing her rather than telling him she's not gone. He needed people to care about dealing with 2014 Gamora instead of being very much alone in the whole process of figuring things out. Maybe Gamora wasn't the exact same person the guardians lost but she was still a person. She deserved support too. She deserved a bigger role so that her story wasn't left wide open.

What's most upsetting is that I don't even love vol 3 but would still have spent money on Gamora merchandise. Only I can't do that because there's hardly anything to buy. How are there multiple versions of some things for most of the characters but Gamora is missing from almost everything? What was the point of bringing Gamora back only to exclude her this way. I know I have a love for Gamora and with that comes bias but I don't think I'm insane for saying there was no reason for Gamora's time in the mcu to end this badly.

omg i'm glad you could find some relief in this space anon <3 we are all members of the Gamora Defense Squad(TM) over here so we aren't afraid to call bullshit on marvel for where they've failed her over the last couple years! even if our feelings are driven by our biases toward gamora, there are still things objectively wrong with how marvel has handled her creatively and how disney has handled her as their ip (such as the merch issue). like these things have all built upon each other over the years and it's just sad