#Something before I continued the Arc

[answers-of-the-heart]

"He gave these to me just before we went to get the Ope Ope no Mi."

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

See, I think Charles’ annoyance and frustration with the Cat King really was just pure protectiveness and not any kind of jealousy - it’s understandable, because Edwin is not telling him what happened even though something clearly did, which is not typical for them. Edwin doesn’t usually hide things like this! Of course he’s worried!

Charles’ reaction to Monty, on the other hand, is difficult to explain in a way that isn’t jealousy. You could say he’s being protective again, but Charles shows no sign of distrust in Monty, and had no idea of who Monty was or that he might betray them - he was actually very chill with him, except in a select few specific scenes. You could say he just doesn’t like him because he got brushed off during their first meeting, but not only does that not seem like Charles at all, it also doesn’t make sense, since, again, in most instances, Charles is genuinely friendly and is happy when Monty compliments him and seems to have come around to liking him (it completely flies over his head that this is a petty jab at Edwin on Monty’s part but oh well hahaha). You could say it changes up their status quo a bit and that bothers Charles. I do think this bothers him a bit, but I think, unlike Edwin, Charles’ fear and frustration here is directed more at situations (the Cat King whisking him away for several hours, as an example) than others. He’s sociable and likes being able to talk to new people. There’s absolutely no way he’d begrudge Edwin doing the same - and he doesn’t… with Niko. Edwin and Niko hit it off and become very close and that never bothers Charles at all. He’s incredibly endeared to her, just like the rest, and for the most part, he’s chill with Monty too, and smiles pretty knowingly when Edwin confesses to him having awakened some feelings. The only exceptions, where he shows definite annoyance, are when Monty first shows up and gets really in Edwin’s personal space to show him the astrology chart he made, and when Edwin is so sucked into the book Monty gave him that he doesn’t hear that Charles is talking to him, to which he annoyedly says that they seem to have been “spending a lot of time together”.

You could say he’s unused to having anyone get in Edwin’s personal space like that, but, again, Niko. She’s very tactile with him and he doesn’t seem to mind all that much; they spend time together watching things. If it was just someone getting close with Edwin in general, not only would that be weirdly possessive for the character, but it would also mean he would show discomfort with anyone getting close, I think. Does Charles see Monty as more of a potential threat than Niko, seeing as he knows her and her personality and doesn’t know Monty? Well, maybe, but again, Charles shows no sign of distrusting Monty at all.

Monty is a boy. Okay. So something about seeing Edwin so close to a boy that is not him, getting lost in thought over something this boy gave him, really rubs Charles the wrong way. Charles appears to catch on just as quickly as anyone else that there is something (or it looks like something) between Edwin and Monty. He is not surprised when Edwin comes out to him in episode 6, and in fact, seems to have just been waiting for him to verbalize it. He smiles and is not bothered at all by Edwin showing (what he thinks is) a romantic interest in Monty - he just doesn’t like it when Monty clearly shows a romantic interest in Edwin. Um. Well. Well.

Charles is jealous. I really don’t know what else to say.

Look, when I first watched this show, I actually didn’t want them to end up together romantically - I love the idea of one having fallen in love with another who does not reciprocate and the two of them still loving each other just as much. That Edwin’s confession made them closer instead of making things awkward is such a beautiful outcome to this build up and I absolutely love it. However. On my two rewatches, I caught a lot more little details, and I think it would be very strange if the show did not follow up on this. That, plus the deliberate quality of these “jealousy” moments where the camera focuses on him, Charles’ Orpheus coding throughout the show, the fact that Edwin’s arc was far more about realizing his feelings for Charles specifically than just coming to terms with his sexuality, and that even the actors admit that Charles’ response to the confession kind of left things open, it really seems to me like the path leads to a romantic endgame for them, or at the very least, that this possibility will be explored in more depth.

**This is just my reading of it. Please do not use this post as a gotcha for anyone who loves them as a platonic duo or people who really love Crystal and Charles together (because let’s face it, they’re super cute too). I’m just doing my rambles. As per usual.

[krotiation]

I'm too lazy to clean this up but I wuv them

[mississpissi]

please they’re so corny i love it

[shannonsketches]

something something foils moving in opposite directions Goku's always happy to seek and fight stronger opponents because he spent most of his life being the strongest guy in the room and Vegeta wants to be the strongest/is always exhausted to find stronger opponents because he spent most of his life having to navigate his survival around the whims of the strongest guy in the universe room and so Goku has a foundation of safety and stability and so spends his time craving challenge and adventure and Vegeta has a foundation of challenge and adventure and spends his time craving safety and stability and the overlaid section of their venn diagram is that the only way they know how acquire and maintain those things is through battle

[themyscirah]

Vanessa didn't even die and yet her story is still sadder and more fucked up than jtodd's. He wishes he was on her level

[crystalkitty1220]

Man I wonder where the leader of the fear realm could've gone, it's alMOST LIKE NEVIN HAS AN

[tender-emotional-music]

it’s funny how byler doubt *evaporates* when you think for more than 5 seconds about the basics of story structure, pacing and direction

[aq2003]

the diehard clara hater/lover quiz is fun because some of the lover descriptions feel like they're describing the most toxic evil person on planet earth and it's like guys i think we have all forgotten the fact that canonically she is twelve's one tie to earth and has to remind him of how to care about people. and like she dies in a doctor-esque sacrifice to save someone. she just reflects the worst qualities of the doctor she is not an evil possessive selfish girlboss woman. i do wish she was more awful though i think it would be funny to have a sole companion like that making the doctor worse

[imminent-danger-came]

Shoutout to MK for immediately gathering his friends after Monkey King was sealed into the scroll! Even if it was dangerous, he called them and didn‘t try to do everything himself!

CHARACTER DEVELOPEMENT /pos

let‘s see how long that lasts. I‘m expecting some CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT /neg sometime in the future. I mean, sure, it looks like Wukong started his healing arc. but MK ? Not so much

Sure he had been hoping it would be something small. But he was lying to himself and knew it, the thing overpowered Wukong in 5 seconds flat after all.

But he still ended up being seperated from everyone.

Somehow it legitimately feels like a decent chunk of the season focused on how MK was different from his mentor but still ends up making similar choices… almost like he can‘t escape being like Wukong. Being worse than Wukong. Like it‘s desti- 💥get‘s shot💥

Both MK and Monkey want/ed things to stay as they are. Only MK wants to keep that by staying as he himself is now too, while Wukong wanted to become stronger to protect what he has.

But the world is going to mold MK into one of the most powerful beings to exist whether he wants to or not. It‘ll drag him down kicking and screaming if it has to.

Wukong leaving to get stronger vs. MK leaving because he‘s too strong and doesn’t want to hurt anyone.

Wukong leaving his friends behind by choice vs. MK‘s friends being taken from him, time and time again, even when he asks for help.

Young Wukong intentionally aggravating powerful beings and causing massive destruction vs. MK doing the exact same thing entirely on accident. When he‘s trying to help even.

FIGHT.

On one hand, MK leaning on his friends at the beginning of s4 seems like a good thing (and it partly is!), "we're stronger together" and all that. On the other, I can't help but feel part of MK's reliance on his friends—which alone isn't necessarily a bad thing—comes from a place of "I can't do anything on my own" (thank you trigram furnace scene). MK is this very interesting mixed bag, where he wants to be right by his friends sides yet in the same vein believes he should be able to do it without them.

MK leaving in 4x08 was out of the belief that "everything he does just makes things worse", and that if he had stayed he would eventually hurt the people he cares about. In ROTSQ MK went off on his own to procure the trigram furnace to try and prove that he could do it alone.

Mirror MK: "Listen, every time we get in trouble, we turn to Monkey King or our friends or SOMEONE. They tell us a story and we find that smidge of motivation we need. Well—now we're on our own. It's just you."

Ultimately, both of these decisions come from the same place: MK's lack of belief in himself. In s2 and s3 he's not strong enough, but in s4 when he finally has more power he's "too strong", he's "destined to cause nothing but pain and suffering".

I think back to the 3x14 "to pain" scene a lot, because holy fucking shit how can you not, but particularly this line-

MK: "You still think that the universe really wants anything, from any of us?" Lady Bone Demon: "Don't you?" MK: "I try not to think too hard." Lady Bone Demon: "So it would seem."

-in tandem with this line-

MK: "I don't know if all of this happened because it was destined too—but I have to believe that I found the staff so I could use it for good. To help people."

-along with MK's s4 arc, drives me INSANE. MK never thought himself destined for anything, he considered himself a "regular noodle delivery boy with the powers of the Monkey King." But in s4 that distinctly changes, and it does so in such an interesting way with how MK's foil with Wukong develops.

Watching MK go from believing he's not anything special (1x09 and 2x05 you bitches) to believing he is chaos incarnate has been a wild ride, and one that I expect to only continue to go down. Pair that with Wukong being forced to come face to face with the hurt he himself has caused (3x10 and 4x11), and boy are we sure in for a time!

The tragedy of both MK and Wukong is that they hurt people and cause pain when they're trying to exactly the opposite. Different paths, same inevitable end—except the student usually goes farther, don't they?

[enbyboiwonder]

It’s kind of ironic that I wrote a fic where Subaru’s knees never heal enough for him to return to competitive volleyball and he has to watch from the sidelines as Yuni takes the spot meant for him in college… and then like a week later I got to a point in canon where Aoki sprains/twists/whatever his ankle and he refuses to acknowledge it, much less fucking stay off it. Everyone accepts it when he insists he’s fine, but they take it with a grain of salt and like keep an eye on him. Luckily after the set he lets Ibara tape it and lets himself be subbed out. But then their coach fucking puts him back in?? He doesn’t even protest or anything, he was wanting to go back in anyway but had played it off since he didn’t think he’d be allowed. They didn’t lose the second set due to him hiding his injury, but if the reason they lose the match is this boy’s fucking stubbornness, oh my god. He says his dad (who’s an architect) is always complaining about something hurting, so if he hurts himself permanently from this then it’s fine bc it’s normal even for non-athletes— I know how smart you are, so how are you so stupid. How is he simultaneously the smartest and yet dumbest character in this series, simultaneously the weakest and yet most stubborn. I love him, but I hate him. He doesn’t even like volleyball!

[mokeonn]

Currently I have so many bg3 saves bc I refuse to delete my old ones that will likely never be finished (first ever gameplays, not optimized, everytime I open one I get overwhelmed and stop), but also because I keep making new games with the specific purpose of romancing a certain companion, seeing special dialog, doing a specific style of run, or getting an achievement on steam.

[trans-elrond]

the craziest thing about me, a noted tragedy defender, wrote my thesis on antigone, self-described no. 1 crais girl, is that i... never actually finished farscape seasons 3/4 and i never watched the last five episodes of bbc merlin and i never watched the end of bbc robin hood and i've found it impossible to pick up the silmarillion again. not because i don't want to, because i am also most of the time a dogged completionist. but because i would be an inconsolable wreck watching my favorite characters actually irrevocably die. i'm barely psychologically stable enough to think about their canon deaths let alone watch their canon deaths.

[disillusionedjudge]

{Hero Archetypes: The More... something version}

The Fallen Hero You are the Fallen Hero, a tragic embodiment of betrayal, vengeance, or perhaps a heart-wrenching love story turned awry. Whether exposed to corrupting influences, manipulated by deal-makers, brainwashed, extorted, blackmailed, or witnessing the destruction of sacred bonds, your descent into darkness is marked by profound sorrow and loss. You might have turned for the sake of greed. Yet within, a lingering spark of hope remains, compelling you to reluctantly extend assistance to the newcomers. Motivated by the sincere desire to shield them from the same tragic fate you endured, you find yourself driven to guide and protect, despite the shadows of your own past.

tagged by: @tarnishedxknight tagging: anyone!!

[marinehero]

continues to think ab scenario where garp joined roger's crew before the navy

[novoaa1writes]

i am begging and pleading you to please make a part 2 of build a pet with nat and her pet settling in i will genuinely commit mass war crimes to make this a reality i beg and plead anything

NOT WAR CRIMES 💀💀

okay heard heard for sure… i’d originally tossed around some ideas for a continuation, even drafted a few, but ended up scrapping them eventually

that said, since it’s being received so well, i’m not opposed to giving it another shot! no promises at all, but this idea HAS been living rent free in my head for a hot minute now

so, thank you for this ask, and i’ll plan to reblog this with updates of any kind!