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lorenfangor · 3 years

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I heard that #40 was super homophobic :/ so I skipped it. But now your fic is making me want to give it a try. How problematic is it? Are the characters worth it?

Okay.

Let’s talk about #40.

The plot of The Other (a Marco POV) is that Marco sees an Andalite on a video tape sent in to some Unsolved Mysteries-esque TV show, and he assumes it’s Ax and hauls ass to save him from being captured. Ax, being Ax, has videotaped the show, and they pull it up and Tobias uses his hawk eyes to figure out that it’s not Ax, it’s another Andalite - one without a tailblade. Ax is appalled at the presence of this vecol (an Andalite word for a disabled person) and we find out that he and others of his species have deep ingrained prejudices against at least some kinds of disabled people.

Despite this, Marco and Ax go looking for the Andalite in question because he’s been spotted by national TV, and they meet a second one, named Gafinilan-Estrif-Valad. The vecol is Mertil-Iscar-Elmand, a former fighter pilot with a reputation and Gafinilan’s coded-gay life partner. The two of them have been on Earth since book 1; they crashed their fighters on the planet and have been trapped there thanks to the GalaxyTree going down. Gafinilan has adopted a human cover, a physics professor, and they’ve been living in secret ever since.

Thanks to that tape, Mertil has been captured by Visser Three, and he’s not morph-capable so he can’t escape. Gafinilan wants to trade the leader of the “Andalite Bandits” to the Yeerks to get his boyfriend back; he can’t fight to free Mertil because he’s terminally ill with a genetic disorder that will eventually kill him, and (it’s implied that) the Yeerks aren’t interested in disabled hosts, even disabled Andalite ones. Despite Ax’s ableism, the Animorphs agree to work with Gafinilan and free Mertil, and they’re successful. Marco ends the book talking about how there are all kinds of prejudices you’ll have to face and boxes that people will put you in, and you can’t necessarily escape them even if they’re reductive and inaccurate, but you can still live your life with pride.

So now that I’ve explained the plot, I’m gonna come out the gate saying that I love this book. I love it wholeheartedly, I love Marco’s narration, I love Ax having to deal with Andalite society’s ableism, I love these characters, and as a disabled lesbian I don’t find these disabled gays to be inherently Bad Rep.

that’s of course just my opinion and it doesn’t overshadow other issues that people might have? but at the same time, I don’t like the seemingly-common narrative that this book is all bad all the time, and I want to offer up a different read.To that end, I’m going to go point by point through some of the criticisms and common complaints that I’ve seen across the fandom over the years.

“Mertil and Gafinilan were put on a bus after one appearance because they were gay!”

this is one I’m going to have to disagree with hardcore. I talked about this yesterday, but in Animorphs there are a lot of characters or ideas that only get introduced once or twice and then get written off or dropped - in order off the top of my head, #11 (the Amazon trip), #16 (Fenestre and his cannibalism), #17 (the oatmeal), #18 (the hint of Yeerks doing genetic experiments in the hospital basement), #24/#39/#42 (the Helmacrons’ ability to detect morphing tech), #25 (the Venber), #28 (experiments with limiting brain function through drugs), #34 (the Hork-Bajir homeworld being retaken, the Ixcila procedure), #36 (the Nartec), #41 (Jake’s Bad Future Dream), and #44 (the Aboriginal people Cassie meets in Australia) all feature things that either seem to exist just for the sake of having a particular trope explored Animorphs-style or to feature an idea for One Single Book.

This is a series that’s episodic and has a very limited overall story arc because of how children’s literature in the 90s was structured - these books are closer to The Saddle Club, Sweet Valley High, Animal Ark, or The Baby-Sitters’ Club than they are to Harry Potter or A Series of Unfortunate Events. Mertil and Gafinilan don’t get to be in more than one book because they’re not established in the main cast or the supporting cast, I don’t think that it’s solely got anything to do with their being gay.

“Gafinilan has AIDS, this is a book about AIDS, and that’s homophobic!”

Okay, this is… hard. First, yes, Gafinilan does have a terminal illness. Yes, Gafinilan is gay. No, Soola’s Disease is not AIDS.

I have two responses to this, and I’ll attack them in order of their occurrence in my thought. First, there’s coded AIDS diseases all over genre fiction, especially genre fiction from that era, because the AIDS epidemic made a massive impact on public life and fundamentally changed both how the public perceived illness and queerness and how queer people themselves experienced it. I was too young to live through it, but my dad’s college roommate was out, and my dad himself has a lot of friends who he just ceases to talk about if the conversation gets past 1986 or so - this was devastating and it got examined in art for more reasons than “gay people all have AIDS”, and I dislike the implication that the only reason it could ever appear was as a tired stereotype or a message that Being Queer Means Death. Gafinilan is kind, fond of flowers, and fond of children - he’s multifaceted, and he’s got a terminal illness. Those kinds of people really exist, and they aren’t Bad Rep.

Second off, Soola’s Disease? Really isn’t AIDS. It’s a congenital genetic illness that develops over time, cannot be transmitted, and does not carry a serious stigma the way AIDS did. Gafinilan also has access to a cure - he could become a nothlit and no longer be afflicted by it, even if it’s considered somewhat dishonorable to go nothlit to escape that way. That’s not AIDS, and in fact at no point in my read and rereads did I assume that his having a terminal illness was supposed to be a commentary on homosexuality until I found out that other people were assuming it.

“Mertil losing his tail means he’s lost his masculinity, and that’s bad because he’s gay! That’s homophobic!”

so this is another one I’ve gotta hardcore disagree with, because while Mertil is one of two Very Obviously Queer Characters, he’s not the only character who loses something fundamental about himself, or even loses access to sexual and/or romantic capability in ways he was familiar with.

Tobias and Arbron both get ripped out of their ordinary normal lives by going nothlit in bad situations, and while they both wind up finding fulfillment and freedom despite that, it’s still traumatic, even more for Arbron I’d say than for Tobias. And on a psychological level, none of the main cast is left unmarked or free of trauma or free of deep change thanks to the bad things that have happened to them - they’re no less fundamentally altered than Mertil, even if it’s mental rather than physical. And yes, tail loss is equated with castration or emasculation, but that doesn’t automatically mean Mertil suffering it is tied to his homosexuality and therefore the takeaway we’re intended to have is “Being gay is tragic and makes you less of a man”. This is a series where bad shit happens to everyone, and enduring losses that take away things central to one’s self-conception or identity or body is just part of the story.

Also, frankly? Plenty of IRL disabled people have to grapple with a loss of sexual function, and again, they’re not Bad Rep just because they’re messy.

“Andalite society is confusingly written in this book, and the disability aspects are clearly just a coverup for the gay stuff!”

Andalite society is canonically sexist, a bit exceptionalist and prejudiced in their own favor, and pretty contradictory and often challenged internally on its own norms. In essence, it’s a pretty ordinary society, and they’re really realistic as sci-fi races go. It makes sense from that perspective that Andalites would tolerate scarring or a lost stalk eye or a lost skull eye, but not tolerate serious injuries that significantly impact your perceived quality of life. Ableism is like that - it’s not one-size-fits-all. I look at Ax’s reactions and I see a lot of my own family and friends’ behaviors - this vibes with my understanding of prejudice, you know?

“Mertil and Gafinilan have a tragic ending, which means the story is saying that being gay dooms you to tragedy!”

Mertil and Gafinilan have the best possible ending that they could ask for? They are victims of the war, they are suffering because of the war, they get the same cocktail of trauma and damage that every other soldier gets. But unlike Jake and Tobias and Marco, unlike Elfangor, unlike Aximili? Their ending comes in peace, in their own home. Gafinilan isn’t dying alone, he’s got the love of his life with him. Mertil isn’t going to be as isolated anymore, he’s got Marco for a friend. Animorphs is a tragedy, it’s not a happy story, it’s not something that guarantees a beautiful sunshine-and-roses ending for everyone, and I love tragedy, and so I will fight for this story. Yes, it hurts. Yes, it deserved better. But it’s not less meaningful just because it’s sad. Nobody is entitled to anything in this book, and it’s just as true for these two as it is for anyone else.

“It’s not cool that the only canonically gay characters in this series don’t get to be happy and trauma-free and unblemished Good Rep!”

This is one I can kind of understand, and I’ll give some ground to it, because it is sucky. The only thing I’ll say is that I stand by my argument that nothing that happens to Mertil and Gafinilan is unusual compared to what happens to the rest of the cast, and that their ending is way happier than Rachel and Tobias’s, or Jake and Cassie’s. But it’s a legitimate point of frustration, and the one argument I’ll say I agree has validity.

(Though, I also want to point out that I think there are plenty of equally queercoded characters in the story who aren’t Mertil and Gafinilan - Tobias, Rachel, Cassie, and Marco all get at least one or two moments that signal to me that they’re potentially LGBT+, not to mention Mr. Tidwell and Illim in #29 and their long-term domestic partnership. There’s no reason to assume that the only queer people here are those two aliens when Marco’s descriptions of Jake exist.)

“Marco uses slurs and reduces Gafinilan’s whole identity to his illness!”

Technically, yes, this is true, except putting it that way strips the whole passage of its context. Marco is discussing the boxes society puts you into, the ones you don’t have a choice about facing or escaping. He’s talking about negative stereotypes and reductive generalizations, he’s referring to them as bad things that you get inflicted upon you by an outside world or by friends who don’t know the whole story or the real you. The slurs he uses are real slurs that get thrown at people still, and they’re not okay, and the point is that they’re not okay but assholes are going to call you by them anyway. He ends by saying “you just have to learn to live with it”, and since this is coming from a fifteen-year-old Latino kid who we know is picked on by bullies for all sorts of reasons and who faces racism and homophobia? He knows what he’s talking about. He’s bitter about what’s been said and done, he’s not stating it like it’s a good thing.

Yes, absolutely, this speech is a product of its time, but it’s a product of its time that speaks of defiance and says “We aren’t what we’re said to be,” and in the year this was published? That’s a good message.

tl;dr The Other is good, actually, and Mertil and Gafinilan are incredible characters who deserve all the love they could possibly get.

#animorphs #animorphs meta #mertil/gafinilan #mertil #gafinilan #mertil-iscar-elmand #gafinilan-estrif-valad

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moonlayl · 3 years

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Thoughts on ScarletVision?

You mean WendySiri? Just kidding, just kidding. (sorry for the late reply). I assume you’re talking about the show ‘WandaVision’ but since I’m not sure I’ll also share my thoughts on the actual ship.

(long and negative rant)

Okay so throughout the entire show, I was kind of conflicted. Marvel did a really good job with all the clues and the suspense, and also the whole sitcom-through -the-decades kind of thing, and I applaud them for that. it honestly was really good and interesting and I really loved it. The show had so much potential, but that’s where things went wrong.

A part of it is on me for assuming, or more accurately, wanting, but I was waiting for the reveal that Wanda was being controlled or manipulated. Obviously that didn’t happen, and it just ruined the character for me. This show literally took everything that I liked about Wanda, and everything that made me sympathize with her or even defend her, and then changed it for the worst. I was a fan but not anymore. Wanda’s character through the other movies was someone who tried to do better. Like she joined the avengers to fix her mistakes and to help people. She hurt people in civil war and was guilty over it. She killed Vision to try and save the world and stop Thanos. WandaVision took a big dump on all of that.

I know many will use the “she’s grieving” card, and while it’s important to note, does it really excuse torturing and mindcontrolling a whole town? “But it was an accident. She didn’t mean to.” Yeah, at first. She discovered what she’d done way back in episodes 2/3 and decided to keep it. “She didn’t know she was hurting them.” But she knew she was violating them and keeping them captive. She knew they were actual people. And she still went with it. She didn’t care.

Fake Pietro says he admires what she’s done and she goes “you don’t think it’s wrong” Like she is literally self-aware. Vision, the man she loves is literally scared and confused and she goes “can’t I?” when he says she can’t control him. Broooooo. Wtf was that? Like she literally admitted to wanting to control him, or at least doing it, and wasn’t even ashamed? And in one of the episodes, despite literally dying and being in pain, he still tries to escape Westview so that he could fix her problems. So that he cold get away from her. So she brought him back, and had children, and just decided that she gets to control them along with the whole town??? I’m sorry but the show literally made her a terrible partner, mom, and avenger. And here’s the thing. I don’t think she’s evil, and I sympathized a lot with her. But she just got worse.

So not only did she willingly keep a whole town hostage (where everyone was suffering and separated from their families and children literally stayed asleep which means they were in a constant state of seeing her nightmares) but this woman got scared and angry when Agatha freed them. She’s like “I kept you safe.” Wanda literally would’ve kept them in that prison if Aatha had never arrived. She wouldn’t have cared about them. Like Agnes said, heroes don’t do that.

And then there’s her treatment of Monica. Wanda literally tried to kill her multiple times, and Monica only tried to help. Then she doesn’t even apologize in the end. I hated how this show wrote Monica or how they included her. From the Wanda only starts to use her powers when she sees Monica (when literally everyone else is pointing a gun) to how she automatically grabs her and tries to kill her, and then later has the audacity to say “don’t make me hurt you.” And Monica basically being ignored and used just to defend Wanda and prop her up. Like it was just bullshit. The way they treated their only black character. They even had her say she’d do the same. wtf? Even Jimmy Woo, their asian character, was more of a sidekick to Darcy in those episodes and ended up not contributing much. It sucks.

And as a person who criticizes Tony Stark, it’s really weird how a lot of his haters use the same arguments as his stans when they try to defend Wanda. ‘She has mental illness” “she paid for her mistakes.” No, giving up her family that only existed because of the torture of innocent people doesn’t win you any points. It’s the least she SHOULD’VE done.

And the thing that bothered me the most is that she never even learned her lesson? Like she took the darkhold and is trying to find a way to bring her kids back. mf, didn’t the entire show and mess start because she accidentally brought back vision? She literally didn’t learn a thing. What grief did she process if she’s just going to go and try to use dark magic to bring them again?

And then there’s all of Sword. First Maria was killed off, and then Sword was introduced as this thing that’s always existed, yet we’ve never heard of it??

And there’s also Agatha. “Agatha All Along” umm. What exactly did Agatha do all along? The show set her up to be this big bad and then Wanda took her down it was not satisfying at all. Wanda, who doesn’t know how to cast spells, managed to learn a spell and use it without Agatha knowing in 5 seconds? As Agatha was taking her powers? BS. And then I hated Wanda’s plan. She decided to take her back to the past for what? Agatha’s own family to kill her? And then later she traps Agatha into her nosy neighbor counterpart? And I’m supposed to go, “what a hero’?

Obviously Agatha isn’t a good person, but the entire mess happened because of Wanda. It felt wrong for her to use the same prison on innocent people on another person and it be celebrated. And then there’s the whole “They’ll never know what you sacrificed for them line” i literally lost all sympathy for that character after that.

And I still don’t understand the romance between Wanda and Vision. I can’t get over the fact that he’s a robot. All in all, there are many aspects of the show that I didn’t like, but the number one reason is that it completely ruined her character. There was so much potential. But no. First they changed her age. “it was never said that she was a teenager.” Hawkeye literally said “if you want to go to high school.” no one says that to a 27 year old. Maybe he meant it as something else but in aou, he was the one to form the closest bonds with her and Pietro and it was the same movie that showed us that he had kids. it would make sense if it was supposed to be like a “he wants to help them because they’re young and he’s a dad so he knows how to deal with young people. And everyone referred to her as kid, so it just all fit. (also the actress looked a lot younger in aou than in her other works before that movie so the make up department probably tried to make her seem young.) And the way she dressed and acted.

second, apparently even though aou had us believe that they thought they were signing up to save their country, wandavision literally just went “yeah Wanda knew it was a terrorist organization’ and she didn’t even seem to regret it?

The show went about the entire situation the wrong way, and really ruined her character.

#messages #anon #anti wandavision #anti wanda maximoff

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notsosensational · 4 years

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This is my classpect master post for Danganronpa 2! It's been a while since my post for the first game, mostly because I was stuck on a few characters (it was much harder overall for some reason), but I'm finally done, god bless. I’m hoping to start and finish V3 soon to work on the next classpect post

Hinata Hajime- Page of Hope

-actively exploits and is served possibilities and positivity. Hope was easy for Hajime, because even though he's more of a "realist" than our other hope players, he's a fantastic beacon of encouragement to the people around him. Somehow he just knows the right things to say in order to lift people's spirits. He definitely didn't start out with much hope himself though. He was bitter and futureless, attending the Hope's Peak reserve course as more of a conciliatory prize than anything. But Chiaki bumped into him and gave him the belief that he's not any worse by not having a talent. And later, he was given a huge opportunity to take part in the "hope cultivation plan". There's a lot of self-denial going on with him, trying not to admit to others that he's only in the reserve course and trying to convince himself that he doesn't care that much, which runs rampant in pages and knights.

Kamukura Izuru - Muse of Hope

-passively embodies possibilities and beliefs. On my previous classpect post with the DR1 characters, I said I didn't do the master classes but I've changed my mind. I'm not going to go back and edit my post but I'm definitely sorting Junko as a lord and Izuru as a muse. There's nothing else he could be. Extreme passivity and preoccupation with personal belief and possibilities (what is interesting, what is boring, is there anything I can't do?). He *is* possibilities in that he has so many talents, he can do nearly anything. Also, this just goes to show that no class, aspect, or title is inherently good or bad. Some might be more inclined to, uh, moral confusion, but we all make our own choices.

Owari Akane- Mage of Life

-actively understands and guides energy and growth. Life seems a pretty solid fit for her, as she's basically grown up overcoming obstacles, metaphorically and literally as she does parkour and gymnastics. Her relationship with food is all about energy and not about quality (... she eats crushed flowers after Hiyoko tells her you get more protein when you crush the food). What really sold me on mage though, was her intuition. She's really noted for her accurate gut feelings; she can tell when someone is strong even when they don't look it and I learned after reading her wiki that in the "ultimate talent development plan" she could sense Mukuro and Maki weren't who they appeared to be.

Komaeda Nagito- Bard of Light

-passively destroys information and fortune. A lot of people say he's hope but while that could fit, light fits so much better. His cycle of good luck & bad luck makes sense as he's drawn to luck as a light player but then destroys it as a bard. Most importantly though, the way he wields information like a weapon to confuse and undermine people really solidifies it for me. Somehow, someway, he always knows (or acts like he knows) much more than everyone around him. His dialogue is endless exposition and self-centered but all his information is given to manipulate people and tear them down.

Pekoyama Peko- Knight of Doom

-passively serves systems, restrictions, and suffering. She serves the system she's always known. She is a tool to be wielded by Fuyuhiko and nothing more. Her feelings and desires are pushed down because there's no point in expressing them. She's very good at what she does though, she definitely exploits the rules she adheres by enough to be called an Ultimate. And even though she doesn't express her emotions, it's clear that her suffering has made her empathetic, as she's respectful and one of the few people who holds basic decency towards Nagito.

Kuzuryu Fuyuhiko- Prince of Blood

-actively destroys through relationships and bonds. He's destructive and he acts like it; heir was the only other class I was considering but he's very active and more into intentional destruction than unintentional changes. Obviously he destroys nearly any chance of close relationships with his classmates, but as a yakuza his job is to use his connections to lead, which often involves tearing down other gangs and ties. And finally, he destroys his only real relationship after Peko is executed after he orders her to kill Mahiro.

Hanamura Teruteru- Maid of Rage

-actively creates rage and limitations. I think maid fits well from the start, as he's a cook and that's all about creation. He definitely inspires rage in people, and the doubt and disbelief of rage is very evident in his constant denial of his surroundings. He created a lot of fear and negativity in himself because he wouldn't settle on believing or refusing what was going on- he needed to know the truth and that drove him to acting out. His insistence on being called "chef" and that he's from the city both fuel a sort of self-delusion that seems to be common with rage.

Nanami Chiaki- Rogue of Blood

-passively steals and relocates relationships and bonds. She is very focused on interpersonal relationships, and not just those centered on herself. To some extent, she's able to connect with everyone including reserve course Hajime, and black sheep Nagito. In the game, she's *really* good at redirecting people. If they're focused on arguing with someone, she manages to turn it around for the better, like with Hiyoko's shrine to Mahiru. She also fits the rogue archetype well, as in the anime she was an outcast in the beginning, and- this might just be my opinion- honestly I don't think anyone ever seriously got close to her as well as they did with some of the others.

Tanaka Gundham- Witch of Hope

-actively changes beliefs and possibilities. Honestly, I could see a bit of everything in him. I think witch fits very well with his aesthetic, but it also fits his choices. Witches are highly active but often off doing their own thing instead of cooperating with everyone; he spent more time looking for his earring than investigating for the first trial. Hope very clearly fits the zany belief system he has, but it also fits in other ways. It's not obvious because of his vernacular, but he has a crazy amount of optimism; he gets regular remarks ranging from "politely shunning" to "outright hurtful" and they never seem to seriously bother him. I view his act in chapter 4 as a grand example of changing his classmates' hope.

Sonia Nevermind- Knight of Breath

-passively exploits and serves through freedom and direction. While she is a princess, she definitely does not act like a prince. Instead she considers her title to essentially be a servant to her people. She isn't above them in anything but position, and she needs to direct them to a better future. She is cooperative and helpful to the rest of the class but not in the healer way a sylph would be, more in the useful motivator kind of way. She serves the team by keeping a composed head and encouraging everyone to stay calm and work towards the goal. She expresses the motivation and direction aspects of breath more so than freedom but it still shows in her detachment from everyone else due to her status. She's never really had close bonds before Hope's Peak.

Saionji Hiyoko- Thief of Time

-actively steals time. I went through several different titles for her in between analyzing other characters. She definitely fits the role of thief with a personality comparable to Vriska and Meenah. Dancing is a time activity as you need perfect timing for a routine, and traditional dancing even more so since it's lasted for centuries. Personally, I think because of her upbringing she is not quite acting as she wants to, and is ghosting the knight of space. She wants to be bold and confident, able to take up the time of others and act meaningfully, but she's hesitating; serving others space to keep them away and is pretending she's more capable than she is. She was kept spoiled and helpless growing up which means she developed the personality and drive of a thief, but not the skills needed for one.

Mioda Ibuki- Sylph of Heart

-passively heals emotions and sense of self. To me she is very clearly a heart player. She's very sure who she is and doesn't mind expressing it, and all of her free time events with Hajime are centered around helping him with his identity. She's friendly and gets along with pretty much everyone in some way, including "Byakuya", Mikan, and Hiyoko; all of which are not so easy to hold friendships with. I think it's interesting how much she likes "Byakuya" considering his constant identity crisis and I wonder if she can sort of sense that. She's loud and she stands out, but she's a pretty passive person concerning her actual actions and mostly helps people individually.

Souda Kazuichi- Page of Space

-actively exploits and is served space. I like space for him; I think the creationistic, physically-oriented, free-flowing structure of space suits his nature well. He's more concerned with the journey rather than getting to the perfect end results, as shown by the examples we have of his machines. One of his inventions automatically draws the lines on a soccer field but it had no stopping mechanism and escaped from the school grounds- it was quite a success to him though! He dreams of creating an incredibly fast bike that he can't even ride and he enjoys every step of the process even though it's taking him a while. He has created an intimidating physical persona for himself by dying his hair and wearing contacts to give him a punk look, but others comment that it doesn't quite match his jumpy, anxious personality. This is on-par for pages, who often feel the need for a mask, because he is now served space by strangers due to his appearance.

Koizumi Mahiru- Seer of Space

-passively guides and understands space. I struggled with her a bit as we really don't know much about her. She's kind of plain compared to the other outlandish personalities and she says she doesn't open up to Hajime as much as she would with a girl. Space is about creation, physicality, location, and enjoying the moment. Her interest in photography satisfied all of those especially with how she views it; she captures pictures of people smiling to create a record of the current moment. She's very level headed and is good at seeing the whole ~picture~ (hehe). She's not a very active person but she's quick to give her opinion and advice if she thinks someone is on the wrong track.

Tsumiki Mikan- Bard of Rage

-passively destroys through negativity and limitations. Rage was easy for her; she's surrounded in negativity and it tends to annoy (and occasionally enrage) those around her. It provides a unique contrast with Nagito, as she subverts the usual motive for killing (hope of getting off the island) and kills only for despair. It is, of course, expected for a bard to flip their lid, but she also acts as a bard before remembering her prior life. She does destroy some of the limitations through the first two trials by providing autopsies when the Monokuma files didn't cut it, and she very clearly represses her own rage at her abusers nearly 24/7. I think it's also worth mentioning that on a fictional level, rage and hope both are often associated with a sort of hand-wavey deus ex machina bullshit which I'd say applies to her ability to retrieve the memories of her past life due to the despair disease, even though it didn't work that way for anyone else.

Nidai Nekomaru- Heir of Mind

-passively changes actions and logic. The English translation of his ability is "team manager", but when he explains his skill, he doesn't focus on teams, he focuses on the athlete themself, so "coach" or "trainer" would be more apt I think. And a trainer is focused on changing your actions, getting you to perform better and better. Despite his loud and boisterous personality, he tends to be pretty level headed. He's able to clearly ascertain what each individual athlete needs to improve and create an orderly regiment for them. It took me a while to decide on heir, but it fits better than any other class I feel, as he does inherit the title from Daisuke, a team manager he shared time in the hospital with who later died, and his personality is similar to the other heirs we know in Homestuck.

Ultimate Imposter- Maid of Void

-actively creates nothingness and secrets. I was originally gonna go with heart because of identity issues, but after reading their wiki because I didn't want to rewatch the anime, most of their issues stem from feeling like they don't exist, feeling like nothing, which is spot on for void. Not to mention they need to keep their secret while impersonating someone, and they have to basically create secrets whenever people ask them personal information about whoever they're portraying at the time. They are made of nothingness, with no name, no background, and they create more of it when providing falsities to their classmates. Even without the pun of "made" and "maid", they're a very kind and helpful person no matter who they're posing as.

#homestuck #danganronpa #danganronpastuck #danganstuck #drstuck #classpects

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herwonderland7 · 3 years

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𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝟏𝟕 》 Forever and Always

summary 》 Aera turned into petals, as it blew through the wind, showing that she passed away as days after her passing, Jaebeom’s pack were being given scrolls that was written by Aera.

characters 》 Gae Aera, Grandma Kim, The White Queen (Aerina), Lim Jaebeom, Mark Tuan, Jackson Wang, Park Jinyoung, Choi Youngjae, Bambam, Kim Yugyeom

warnings/author’s note 》 a long post!, angst all the way :(, i’m afraid this is the end…. maybe….

genre 》 fantasy, got7!as!werewolves, got7!as!prince

2 days.

It took 2 days for Aera’s body to be completely paralyzed.

Unfortunately, the moment when she was writing the last scroll, her fingers slowly went numb, as she realized what was happening - she had little energy left hence she used it to enchant a spell on her everyday fountain pen, as it writes by itself according to Aera’s words of thoughts.

Time passed by and the news of the princess' health was known to all of the royal castle workers, and unfortunately, words had spread to other neighboring kingdoms.

Every royal servant and workers who visited the princess tended to shed tears, seeing her unusual pale face, laying on the bed as her eyes were mostly closed.

The White Queen and Grandma Kim had always stood by the princess’s side, accompanying other kingdom’s royal family to visit her.

The Queen could tell that her daughter was loved by everyone due to her kindness and companion that even the NCT clan and X clan came - unknown to the princess, both clans cried as soon as they saw the state of the princess of Aerina and Morian’s Kingdom.

Jaebeom’s pack were busy than usual, going to different parts of the island to get help - finding any way to cure their princess.

They didn’t get to have a rest as they ran across kingdoms to kingdoms.

But one day, one by one of Jaebeom’s pack, they started to feel a throbbing pain on their chest during one of the full moon - as the pack made their way back to Aerina’s Kingdom, to find the sight of the princess’s hair color that had been darkest, shiniest brown has slowly faded to white.

A way to tell that she is slowly dying.

“Oh no.” Jaebeom muttered to himself, his mind slowly breaking into pieces.

“Why.. does it look like my room is full of people?” Aera muttered under her breath, in which she could hear more quiet sobs and sniffs - definitely knowing that there are people in the room.

It was scary for her.

Her senses are weakening, as well as her body movements.

Aera knew that she wouldn’t make it tomorrow, not even today.

“..That’s because everyone’s here, Aera. We all are here for you, my love.” The White Queen softly replied. Aera could only turn her head slightly, towards where the voice came from.

Yugyeom, who was the nearest to Aera, held onto Aera’s fragile hands. “Aera.. It’s me… Please stay a little longer, please,” Yugyeom pleaded, his voice shaking.

He couldn’t hold onto his feelings anymore as he decided to let it out, making the others feel vulnerable too since their youngest is crying.

All of them knew Yugyeom was the type to try his best to hold onto his tears, no matter what situation he faces - but this, this situation was something Yugyeom had to let go of his feelings.

Bambam who was at the opposite of Yugyeom, couldn’t help but sob quietly as his head went downwards, his hands gripping onto Aera’s dress slightly - a sign to show her that he was there.

He has been quietly watching Aera every night.

He wouldn’t miss a day to check onto Aera - who would just lay on the bed and as night arrives, Bambam would let his tears out silently, alone. He knew she wouldn’t make it one day.

Thinking of Aera leaving him, Bambam let out his tears, making some of the older ones go towards his side - which was Mark and Jackson.

Aside from Bambam, Mark and Jackson were also the ones who would regularly visit Aera, in secret - because Jackson didn’t want Jaebeom to know that he would skip some days to go hunting, to see the princess.

So Jackson would invite Mark along, knowing the older one wants to come alone although he was being silent about it.

Whenever there is Jackson, the day would always end up with laughter - and for the first time, Aera would laugh softly and weakly to hear Jackson rambling about his day and Mark would always have to ask Jackson to slow down.

“Rest well, Aera. I’m happy that you came back to us - even if you and I didn’t get to spend more time together,” whispered Jinyoung, while caressing her side hair, making Aera hum while smiling.

As much as Jinyoung wants Aera to live longer, seeing her like this, in a condition where she couldn’t even more freely and seeing her weakening, it hurts him so bad that he just wanted her back to her usual self.

Even if she has to die. Thinking of the word ‘die’ makes Jinyoung tear up automatically, not knowing that tears already flow down his cheeks.

“Grandma Kim, how long—

“Not for long. She is trying her best to hold on now,” answered Grandma Kim to Youngjae - as she gazed towards Aera, who was silently looking at Jinyoung.

Youngjae could only gulp down the lump on her throat, knowing that flowers or plants couldn’t save her. He has tried all sorts of medicines, but none could make Aera come back to life - according to Grandma Kim.

There was so much he wanted to say to her, but he couldn’t let out any words - even if he wanted to say a word, instead he let out a sob, causing Jaebeom to hold onto Youngjae’s hands tightly.

If Jaebeom could go crazy, he would any moment now - but for the sake of his friends and the princess who is dying at her bed, he decided to get himself together, even if it is slowly killing him inside.

Seeing Aera becoming weaker, he would always blame himself - if he knew about her condition, he wouldn't have said those mean words to her.

All this while she had been keeping this to herself, why didn’t she say anything about this?

A part of him was mad at her but at the same time, maybe she didn’t want to look weak for her people and he gets her - the both of them have similar personalities.

‘Aera.. why didn’t you tell me?’ Jaebeom questioned in his voice of thoughts, staring towards Aera with a slight frown - to see Aera smiling slightly, as she slowly turned towards Jaebeom with her droopy eyes.

‘....No matter how much I wanted to change the future, destiny already wrote down my fate, Jaebeom. It’s the only way,’ answered Aera and that’s when everyone’s eyes fell towards Jaebeom - hearing her voice, Youngjae and Yugyeom automatically broke down.

Her response made Grandma Kim go towards Aera, putting her wrinkly hand onto Aera’s forehead - a deep frown and a soft sigh came from the elderly as she turned towards the White Queen who was in the corner shedding her own tears.

“Aerina, it’s time.”

Feeling all eyes turned towards Grandma Kim, the elderly looked towards the boys.

“I’m afraid you have to say your last words to her. Aerina and I will be outside,” stated Grandma Kim before guiding the weeping White Queen as they exited the room, leaving only Aera the 7 guys alone.

“I’m running out of time, am I?” questioned Aera softly, which she could feel a throbbing pain in her chest, causing her to let out an expression that caused the 7 guys to go closer to her.

Everyone in the room is running out of time.

Staring at Aera with tears flowing down their cheeks, Mark decided to speak first. “Thank you for everything, Aera. You have done so much to restore our home. Rest well,”

Though Mark’s words were simple, the way he said his words - everyone could tell he really meant it, hearing how hard he is trying not to let out a shaky voice.

She meant so much to him - although they did not interact that much, but the way they look at each other, the way she offers to comb his fur when he would always reject her, the times when Aera would approach him when he had trouble with situation regarding Morian, Mark knows Aera does care for him.

“Mark, you have to kiss her, on the cheeks of course,” Jackson urged, a tradition for the wolves that if one of their pack is dying, they have to give them a goodbye kiss on their face.

Although Aera wasn’t fully in their pack still, everyone somehow considered as one of Jaebeom’s.

“I don’t know..” Mark muttered, his eyes turning towards Jaebeom who was avoiding his gaze - at the same time giving Mark the green light. The oldest knew the alpha, who was rejected, still had romantic feelings for her, although his feelings for her are starting to fade.

Mark went nearer towards her face, remembering each feature of her face before giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

He then glanced towards Jackson and Yugyeom who were just near him, urging them to talk it out - afraid that it might be too late if they delay their time.

Yugyeom let out a shaky voice, his hand reaching out for Aera’s hands.

“I’m going to miss you….. Just so you know that family isn't blood. You're my family, Aera.” Yugyeom sniffled as he slightly gripped onto her soft hands, while giving a quick peck on the opposite side of where Mark had given his kiss.

There was so much love as the youngest stared into Aera’s pale face, the colors of her face were fading as well as life, making Yugyeom to start weeping out.

He couldn’t bear to see the princess suffer and eventually die.

Yugyeom thought she would stay forever this time, but of course, ‘forever’ doesn’t exist in this world.

There was so much Yugyeom wanted to do with her - going to the Dragon’s Village together with Grandma Kim, pranking Jaebeom and Jackson till they went insane, and disturbing naughty wolf cubs.

Knowing that she will pass on, Yugyeom has no one to turn to - causing him to sob out his feelings.

Mark had to advise him to come out of the room - with Mark accompanying him. Knowing it would be the last time he would see Aera, Mark turned towards Aera with a small smile that showed sadness, as he left the room with the weeping Yugyeom.

“Princess, I hope you can hear me. I don’t know… I thought you would stay a little longer. I wanted to show you what the others and I had planned for Morian. But it seems you had to go, and I understand. Just like what Mark said, you have done so much for both of your kingdoms and.. I’m proud to have someone - a friend, a tutor, a princess to my kingdom, our kingdom, by our side. We love you, Princess Aera.” confessed Bambam, his voice began to quave in sorrow.

He couldn’t help but to let out the tears that he had tried to hold onto, he finally let it out as the room filled with his weeps.

Bambam really loves Aera - he treats her as his own sister, they would always help each other out even if at the end of the day they had to be reprimanded by others.

Bambam couldn’t believe this at all.

‘Surely this is just a sick nightmare, right? If the princess is dead, who is going to look over Morian Kingdom?’

“Bambam,” A voice called, making Bambam look towards who called him, to see Jinyoung gesturing towards Aera who had her eyes closed, realizing he was openly day-dreaming as he finally stood up while leaning against Aera’s face.

“Rest well, our princess,” muttered Bambam before giving a peck on the outer corner of her eyes, as he immediately walked away, not even once looking back.

The older ones turned towards Youngjae, seeing that he had his eyes downcast - not knowing what to say, as he too couldn’t believe that their princess is on the point of death.

He knew. He was there in the mirror dimension with Jinyoung and Aera herself.

He didn’t know the day would come too soon.

With a shaky sigh, Youngjae crouches down while holding onto Aera’s weak yet soft hands. “Aera… Princess Aera..” Youngjae softly called out, waiting for her response but instead, silence and the quiet sobs from the older ones were the only response he got.

Youngjae’s bottom lip quivered, as tears rolled down on his cheeks, as he started to accept the reality that Aera is slowly dying. Staring at her pale yet beautiful face, Youngjae let out a slight choke then a scoff.

“Even if you are slowly passing on, you still look lovely…. Thank you for everything, Aera.” Youngjae whispered before pecking a kiss on the corner of her forehead. As he was leaving, Youngjae stole a few glances towards her as he finally let out a few sobs, before exiting the room.

Which now left with Jaebeom, Jinyoung and Jackson.

The 3 of them were running out of time, the colors on Aera’s hair were almost draining, an obvious sign that she is slowly passing on in Aerina’s kingdom.

Jinyoung’s eyes began to water seeing the drastic change.

“I hope this is all just a bad dream. Gosh, princess. We’re going to miss you and your rebellious times, and most importantly, you have stuck to the word of a ‘princess’. I am proud that you are my best friend, a star, also a princess to a kingdom where I was born. Till then, become a star and do visit us in our dreams. We love you, Princess Aera.” Jinyoung managed to say his words, though he was trying so hard not to break down - afraid that he wouldn't be able to speak.

Jinyoung didn’t hesitate to give her a kiss on the opposite eye where Bambam had kissed her. His thumb lightly caressed his cheek as he studied her features very carefully, not knowing that his tears were already rolling down his own cheeks.

Jinyoung looked towards Jaebeom and Jackson as their heads were downwards, not wanting to meet his own eyes - knowing they would break down. Wordlessly, Jinyoung took a last look towards Aera, before turning his back towards her.

Jaebeom and Jackson knew he exited the door, hearing slight sobs from outside.

The room was filled with complete silence.

“Do you want to talk to her first?” Jaebeom offered, his eyes slightly gazing towards Jackson, seeing his eyes red and puffy, knowing the man was crying.

Jackson nodded slightly, crouching down beside the princess, holding onto her hand firmly - as he started sobbing as it slowly turned to blubbers where he was letting out words that weren’t clear.

This made Jaebeom to crouch down beside him, his hands wrapping onto Jackson’s side, hugging the very heartbroken man.

“Jackson, you have to speak. Aera doesn’t understand what you are saying.” Jaebeom softly told him, as he was quietly sobbing - his hand didn’t even let go of Aera’s.

“I don’t know what to say, Jaebeom. It hurts very bad and I really don’t know how and what to say at all. All I really know is that I like her more than I should! I didn’t even have the chance to say it to her!” Jackson whimpered, his confession caused Jaebeom to rub his back, his way of showing that he understands him.

“....Me too….” Jaebeom whispered, eyes still towards Aera.

Soon, Jackson’s sobs slowly softens, letting go from Jaebeom’s side.

He went nearer towards Aera’s face.

“I wish we had more time together. But what I believe is that, in the gardens of memory, in a palace of dreams, that's where you and I will meet. You will forever and always be my number one, Aera.” said Jackson, trying his best not to let out any sobs, as he gazed into Aera’s face in adoration.

‘I love you, Aera. I will always love you, forever and always.’

Jackson thought to himself, before standing up, giving her a peck on top of her head. His hand caressing her hair, as his finger slowly left at the tip of her hair.

“I’ll join the others outside. You deserve a moment with her.” Jackson told Jaebeom, as the alpha quietly nodded.

“Thanks.” Jaebeom muttered towards Jackson, as he smiled sadly, his eyes moving towards the princess for a moment before turning his back towards her.

After Jackson left, Jaebeom turned towards Aera.

“First of all, I would like to apologize for what I said. I know you are sad, it’s obvious and I regretted not talking to you after that day. I’m starting to regret it now and I’m afraid it will stick to me. I’m going to miss you, Aera - and yes, I do still love you although your heart belongs to Jackson.” Jaebeom said softly, his hands holding onto Aera’s, already feeling that her hands were starting to get cold.

“..You know, I will never regret loving you. That’s a promise and… thank you for loving me, even when I don't feel lovable.” continued Jaebeom, as his fingers landed to Aera’s cheeks, as he slowly caressed it.

Jaebeom leans against Aera’s face, unknowing that he was quietly sobbing, not wanting others to hear - as he went nearer towards her forehead, giving her a peck on the forehead as he closed his eyes, letting his tears flow.

Just then, Jaebeom felt his hand that was holding onto Aera’s, as it felt light weight.

Jaebeom immediately opened his eyes, and he immediately backed away - in front of him was Aera, her body slowly turning into flower petals, flowing through the air.

He didn’t even realized that a ring had fallen from Aera’s body.

His shock might have caused the others to feel him, as the rest who were standing outside quickly went into the room - as they see the same thing as what Jaebeom is seeing.

Aera’s body, from her toes to her head, turns into flower petals, and once the top of her head had been transformed, the wind blew the petals as they blew out of the open window of the room.

“She’s gone.” said Grandma Kim, as the silence filled with sorrow.

It’s been 3 days after the princess’s death, and news has spread drastically that the crown princess of Aerina and Morian Kingdom has passed away - and the citizens have been mourning still, with pictures and flowers being placed at the front of the castle entrance of Aerina’s Kingdom mostly.

The castle has been quiet, as the royal workers were mourning too.

But not exactly for Grandma Kim and the White Queen, as they were holding onto scrolls that were on both of their arms. They entered the meeting room, to see Jaebeom’s pack.

As soon as they saw the elderly and the Queen, all of them immediately stood up and bowed to both of them.

“Your majesty, what is with the scrolls?” Jaebeom questioned curiously, seeing more than 10 scrolls were on each of their hands. He was surprised that they could carry all of that.

“These.. are from Aera, written personally from her.” The Queen stated, and immediately as Aera’s name was being heard, their eyes widened slightly.

“All of it?” asked Jinyoung and the Queen nodded with a small smile.

Both Grandma Kim and the Queen began to distribute the scrolls according to the names.

Some of them could see that the scrolls had the names of neighboring kingdom names and the names that they knew too, which were NCT and X Clan.

They were even more surprised that Zen’s name was there too, though he is still a child.

Each one of them got a hold of one scroll but Jaebeom receives 2 scrolls, each given by the older ones, but Grandma Kim holds onto one of the ends.

“Aera said that this was for all of you. Since you’re the alpha, you have to read it aloud.” told Grandma Kim, as she looked at Jaebeom with a face that had never been serious as ever.

Jaebeom can’t help but feel anxious, knowing this must be related to her death.

Looking at his friends, Jaebeom untied the string as the paper unrolled itself - to reveal the most neatest, yet elegant handwriting as he reads the letter out loud.

“Dear my 7 beloved friends,

I know that if you are reading this, I must have passed on and I’ve known because it’s been stated in the book of prophecies. I had destroyed it, and I would like to apologize to Jinyoung for enchanting a spell on him from the day we had a talk in the mirror dimension.

I had to, so that everything would come out with me, having the blood of the gods, as I am demi-god and me having the ability to enchant spells. Now, they say demi-gods are supposed to live longer, but in my case, my body is trapped somewhere hence it couldn’t last long, and this is the consequence.

As you read this out loud, all spells that I casted will vanish and you don’t have to worry, Youngjae. Your favorite flowers are still blooming, I knew you would be sad if it died one day.

Jinyoung, I’ve thinked about the words you said to me and I guessed I realized that I had been selfish… but not heartless. I have always cared for my people since day 1. So, I had written to each one of you as you will be given each a scroll that my will would be split into 7. You will receive on behalf of my inheritance. I had asked Mother and Grandma Kim for their permission and they are lovely to support me.

You will get everything you will need, a room, gold, swords, anything.

Oh, and not forgetting our little Zen. He too will be given a share of my inheritance. He would need it as soon as he turns 20.

Since I am not there, Morian is in need of rulers. The White Queen has to stay in Aerina, since that is her hometown and her own castle while Grandma Kim had vowed to be by the Queen's side.

So in exchange, I need the 7 of you to rule the Morian Kingdom.

I need a helping hand.

Attached to this letter is a letter from King Morian. There is proof, as he, King Morian, stated that his throne would be passed to the 7 of you and you do not need to worry on how or if it is possible if a pack of young wolves could rule a kingdom.

It is possible.

The White Queen, along with Grandma Kim would guide you along, but all the matter will pass in your hands. In the end you will decide what to do with the Kingdom - whether you would like it to be a harmonious kingdom or a kingdom that is only for wolves.

It is all up to the 7 of you. I believe you can do it. Each one of you has your own abilities, your own strengths, so use it.

I just want the 7 of you to live comfortably, happily in your own castle and hometown. I hope one day it will come true, not now as I know everyone would be saddened with my passing.

But as for me, I can’t wait on how both of the kingdoms would progress as years passed.

The night sky will always be dark blue,

Just like how the stars would always be there,

Think of me as a star, I will always watch all of you.

With lots of love and your forever princess,

Riana Aera.”

As Jaebeom was reading the scroll, the 7 of them quickly untied their own individual scroll, to reveal handwritten will and signatures from the Queen, the generals and Aera herself.

“Oh, Aera.” Jinyoung muttered to himself, as in his eyes, the day where he was trapped in the mirror dimension, the scene was running through his eyes, causing him to have teary eyes.

What Aera said was true, she did uncast the spell.

He felt guilty, he felt like he had caused Aera to feel like she was selfish and heartless, when in the first place, she was thinking of everyone she loves.

“..It isn’t your fault, Jinyoung. The princess might have seen this coming.” Jackson, who was beside him, patted his back as he gave his friend a side hug.

“..I would sincerely like to help the princess.” Bambam commented, causing the Queen to turn towards the younger one with a smile.

“Me too! She needs our help!” Yugyeom added.

“..If this is what she wants, we have to.” Youngjae muttered, eyes still locked onto his own scroll.

He couldn’t believe that Aera was a demi-god, which explains her superhuman strengths and abilities that he,himself and the others didn’t have.

Mark on the other hand was trying to recall his moments with Aera, when all of a sudden he remembered her words.

“Are you ready for the day where I would be gone and leave it to your hands to take care of the others and the kingdom of Morian?” Mark whispered to himself, causing the others to turn towards him.

“What?” Jaebeom repeated and Mark’s eyes went downcast.

“..She had hinted to us before. All of us, but it seems we were too positive to think she would never leave.” Mark explained, earning a slow nod from Jinyoung.

“..She gave me a book titled ‘Ways of A Wolf Pack to Rule A Kingdom’. I thought she gave me for more information purposes but she had another intention that I couldn’t figure out.” Jinyoung muttered, as everyone went silent.

They were blind, or it seems Aera had her own ways.

“..I think we shouldn’t think that way. Aera wants us to be happy, so… I think we should try to be happy for her sake.” Jackson commented, sounding a little positive.

Jaebeom’s eyes gazed towards the scroll, his hands slightly gripped onto his own scroll.

‘...What exactly are you, Aera?’

𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒐𝒖𝒔 𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒑𝒕𝒆𝒓 ⇿ 𝒆𝒑𝒊𝒍𝒐𝒈𝒖𝒆

𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

#got7 scenarios #got7 imagines #got7 wolf #got7 au #got7 wolf au #got7 wolf senarios #got7 wolf!au #got7 mark #got7 jaebeom #got7 jackson #got7 jinyoung #got7 youngjae #got7 bambam #got7 yugyeom #got7 prince!au #got7 royal!au

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introvertguide · 4 years

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M*A*S*H (1970); AFI #54

The next film on the AFI List is what is often called a dark comedy, M*A*S*H (1970). This was a highly rated movie by critics although it was overshadowed by Patton that came out the same year. The film earned nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Editing while winning for Best Screenplay. This is the first major feature length film for director Robert Altman after years spent directing for television. This experience is very apparent because the film experience is like binge watching webisodes online. Many short stories that come together around a group of characters in a specific setting. I want to go over the story before any further critique and I will break it down like episodes of a TV show. Oh yeah...

SPOILER ALERT!!! THERE IS A LOT TO THIS FILM SO REVIELING THE PLOT WON’T REALLY SPOIL THE EXPERIENCE, BUT I WANT TO BE SURE TO WARN ANYBODY BEFORE I START SPOILING DETAILS!!!

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The film starts with the well known helicopters flying in with wounded soldiers with the theme of “Suicide is Painless.” These same shots were either used or simulated for the beginning of the television show. The tone is set to be a rather somber war film that deals with injuries and death in battle...until one of the groups moving the stretchers falls over and the tone becomes uncertain.

We then meet two new surgeons that are assigned to the 4077 unit. They are Captain Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Captain Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt). They are insubordinate smart aleks who take a jeep without a driver and go off to the medical outpost where they are assigned. They immediately run into Major Burns (Robert Duvall) with whom they share an officer’s tent. Duke and Hawkeye have a rule breaking style that does not mesh with the extremely strict and religious Major. The two immediately ask for the Major to be moved. They get a new tent mate in Captain Trapper McIntyre and we have our three doctors. Also in the camp are Colonel Blake (Roger Bowen), Major “Hot Lips” Houlihan (Sally Kellerman), the dentist “Painless” (John Schuck), and Lieutenant “Dish” (Joann Pflug).

The first situation is dealing with Burns. He is indoctrinating a local teen by having him read the bible. Not really too bad. The man is annoying and I couldn’t remember why he got such a bad rap. However, he blames an assistant (who is not a nurse and played by Bud Cort) for the death of a soldier when the man was going to die anyway, and Trapper takes exception and punches Burns in the face. Burns then starts to court the new Major and the three docs broadcast them being intimate over the loudspeaker. She tells Burns to kiss her hot lips and gains her nickname. Hawkeye rags on Burns about the incident until the Major attacks the Captain and Burns is taken away for psychiatric discharge. The three doctors respect Houlihan’s nursing skills, but they still really hate her neurotic adherence to the rules.

The next situation involves the dentist, Painless, who was unable to perform sexually with a visiting nurse so he believes he is gay and wants to kill himself. The doctors form a scheme to give the dentist a pill that will knock him out and also give him an erection (like a Cialis sleeping pill). Painless believes the pill will kill him and everyone says their goodbyes. All the surgeons have dinner together in a scene reminiscent of the last supper and then Painless is given his pill and lays down in a coffin while a reprise of “Suicide is Painless” plays in the background. Once Painless is out, a good looking nurse who is about to leave for home, Lieutenant Dish, is convinced to have sex with the dentist to convince him he is not gay. It works and the Lieutenant leaves in the morning and the dentist changes his mind about dying.

There is a brief interlude where the docs wonder if Hot Lips is a natural blond. To find out, they set up a scheme in which they drop open the side of a shower tent while the Major is there so they can see her pubic hair and compare. It is a rather mean prank that the whole camp is in on, and Houlihan goes to Colonel Blake and complains that he lets the surgeons get away with everything. He tells her to get out because he is sleeping with a nurse and drinking alcohol that was brought in by the three doctors.

The third situation involves Trapper and Hawkeye going off to Japan to perform emergency surgery on the son of somebody with influence. While there, they also use the facility to help a baby of one of the local prostitutes. They are caught with the possibility of legal repercussions, but blackmail the local officer with pictures of him with the prostitute. They get their way and are able to go back to the 4077. When they get back, it turns out that Duke has been sleeping with Hot Lips because he likes blondes.

The final situation is a little out of the blue but perhaps the most well known aspect of the film. The 4077 is challenged to a football game by local evacuation unit 325. The two camps both get ringers to play as there is a $5000 wager on the game. The 4077 holds back their ringer for the first half and sabotage the best players of the 325th so they can increase the wager and the odds at halftime. It works and the 4077 bring in their ringer and are able to win on the last play.

The end is very much like the beginning in that Hawkeye and Duke are given their papers to go home and they steal the same Jeep to leave together. There are no closing credits but the actors are all mentioned on an overhead announcement that breaks the 4th wall of the film. Very creative and a pretty satisfying ending.

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Like I said at the beginning, this doesn’t really feel like a film but more of a series of episodes. It is no wonder that it translated so well to television and became one of the most popular shows of all time. There was only one actor that went from the movie to the TV show and that was Colonel Blake’s secretary known as Radar, who was played by Gary Burghoff. This is one of the few films on the AFI list that you can watch in parts or step away from and not really miss anything. It was a lot different from anything that had been done before, but it does seem a little incohesive.

My mom is not a fan of this film specifically because of the way that these three doctors treat everyone else. Major Burns does not really deserve his fate and the nurses are constantly used for their sex appeal. The three are incredibly mesogenistic, Duke is kind of racist when there is a discussion of a black man staying in their tent, and Painless would rather die than possibly live his life as a gay man. All of these characters are in a horrible situation, but the audience is supposed to automatically favor the flippant care-free doctors. Burns and Houlihan are not really played out as terrible people but we are supposed to laugh as these surgeons torture them. The joke really doesn’t hold up.

I really think that this movie is a great time capsule for the time period. Men were being drafted to go off to war and it was believed that they were being stripped of their humanity and turned into killers. Vietnam was a war that many Americans didn’t want to be a part of so the idea that the war experience could be good with the right attitude appealed to many. The graphic nature of the surgery scenes made the situation feel real so the movie going audience cheered for those men who could do their job while keeping their sanity and their frat boy sense of humor intact. Again, that is not the humor of the nation currently so the gags don’t really hold up. It does give the viewer a glance into the mindset of the audience at the time.

After Nashville, I don’t have that much to say about the cinematography. Altman definitely has wide shots in which a lot is happening, but it is set at a small army camp in which it is hard to tell the actors in uniform apart. A lot of the action is lost. Also, there are far fewer characters in this film than in Nashville. Altman’s TV roots are much more evident in this film. That being said, the constant change really helps to move the movie along and I would say it is up with Raiders of the Lost Ark as far as quick pace.

So does this film deserve to be on the AFI list? I’m actually going to say no. The TV show that was inspired by this film made for some of the best episodic story telling on the small screen, but you can’t really give that to this film. The comedy really doesn’t hold up and the lack of any cohesive story lasting more than 15 minutes is very detrimental. Would I recommend it? Yes I would. It is fun and a pretty easy watch. I am really just not that sure how it got on the AFI list. It wasn’t highly awarded and many people don’t know there even was a movie before the TV show. It is an interesting bit of history, but it is no big deal if you skip this one. Watch the TV show instead.

#MASH #Robert Altman #1970 #war films #introvert #introverts

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hardnoctlife · 4 years

Text

My Thoughts on FFVIIR

It’s been a few days since I finished FFVIIR, and I wanted to put my thoughts on the game into words, but I gotta get a few housekeeping things out of the way.

1. These are all MY opinions. I understand and respect that others may have different opinions from me, however, that does not make this an open invitation for argument in the comments, bashing, etc. I have no problem blocking anyone who wants to be an asshole. Just be nice, please.

2. I grew up playing FFVII and all of its spin-offs. FFVII was my first RPG, and ultimately what got me into playing video games. Nostalgia is a -huge- part of why I enjoyed FFVIIR so much, and therefore I am openly biased towards the game. I’m interested to hear the thoughts of people not familiar with the original, because they’re seeing the story with a fresh set of eyes.

3. With that being said, I’ve already noticed drama surrounding FFVIIR fans who -have- played the original vs. those who haven’t, or those who haven’t played Crisis Core, etc. I am firmly of the belief that this is a great game for new and old fans and won’t tolerate any condescending attitudes in either direction. Video games are supposed to be fun, so let’s just all agree to enjoy the thing TOGETHER, shall we?

Alright, now that those things are out of the way, onto my thoughts. **MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

I’m going to be breaking this up into sections, because there is just too much to dissect! Let’s start with the characters.

“The Good Guys”

Cloud: Still my favorite character of all time, even more so after playing the remake. And of course, he is gorgeous. I could stare into his eyes all day. I know there has been a lot of controversy over getting new voice actors for the remake, but I feel like his VA did a great job. They nailed his personality of “broody asshole with a heart of gold”, and I think the remake had reasonable and believable character development when it came to Cloud’s interactions with the other party members. His dynamic with Tifa, Aerith, and Barrett was also spot on. I think it was a good move on Squeenix’s part to keep him pretty much the same, because he’s such an iconic character for the entire Final Fantasy series, so no complaints on my part!

Jessie: Okay, so, I hated Jessie at first. She was too flirty and all over Cloud for my liking, and I felt this strange disconnect between the “I used to be an actress but now I’m fighting for the planet” part of her backstory. Yes, she was still spunky in the original, but they didn’t draw it out nearly as much (I assume because she was killed off early). I -do- appreciate that the developer’s felt the need to give her more depth and show more interactions between her and Cloud and everyone else, but I also thought it detracted from Cloud’s relationships with Tifa and Aerith to an extent, especially the whole scene where she was asking him to come back to her place with him (yikes). And, true to Squeenix form, they killed off her character, even while letting Biggs and Wedge live (they both died in the original). So, in that sense, I didn’t really care that much for her, although her final scene with Cloud was very moving and redeemed her in some ways for me. So, yay for more screen time, but c’mon Squeenix, why do you gotta use your female characters this way?!

Biggs & Wedge: I loved the updates to their character models, and like with Jessie, I appreciate they tried to give them more depth and dialogue to make their involvement more significant. It did throw me for a loop when they both ended up living instead of dying when the Sector 7 plate fell. I was delighted to discover they survived (until I found out Jessie died and they didn’t). At times, I felt like their exalted importance detracted from other characters, especially at the end in Shinra HQ where Wedge shows up to warn everyone and Avalanche comes in to try and rescue Cloud & the gang, only to imply that he dies -there- instead. To me, it felt like an unnecessary moment to add in, but hey, there are only so many characters in the remake that people get to see, so why not give the Avalanche crew a more important role? I’m interested to see if this means that they’ll be returning in the next installments as they may be ‘fated’ to survive.

Barrett: What a glow up! Barrett looked good, he sounded good, his character was solid and true to the original. I have to say my favorite thing to see was how the banter and dialogue shifted between him and Cloud as you progressed through the remake. They went from basically hating on each other to complimenting each other and being buddy-buddy, and it was truly heartwarming. I even enjoyed using Barrett in battle (more on the fighting system later), which was refreshing. It was a good move on Squeenix’s part to show his softer side by including more scenes with Marlene, and he’s an excellent foil to Cloud’s character, which I feel was consistent for both games.

Tifa: My lady, the love of my life, my HERO. Tifa was -amazing- for me. Also, her VA was probably my favorite of the bunch. The updates to her outfit were much needed, yet she still retained her sexy allure, even if it was a little awkward to hear all the male NPC’s talking about how hot she was all the time. Other than Cloud, she was my favorite party member to use in battle—what a total badass!—and the scenes with her and Cloud made me squeal with delight. I was grateful for the extra attention put into their relationship, and how it was made clear that she was just as important and strong as the male characters.

Aerith: First, the positives. They expanded Aerith’s fighting range, which was appreciated, because in the original I only used her as healer. Her personality shone through a bit more, as she was even ore outgoing than I remembered her being (and even cursed a few times!), and I loved all of her interactions with Tifa and Cloud (my favorite trio/love triangle). Her backstory was pretty well communicated regarding the Ancients and her relationship with Shinra. On the flip side of things, I found her party banter annoying as hell and her voice grating at times (it reminded me of a high school girl), and I’m not sure how I feel about her interactions with the Whispers and what that implies for future installments. There was some hinting at the end of the remake that Aerith may not die like she did in the original (at least that was my interpretation), and I’m not sure whether I like that possibility or not, mainly because Aerith’s death is one of the most memorable scenes of FFVII, and that would change the entire plot. For better or for worse, who’s to say?

Red XIII: I loved all of the scenes with Red! His voice fit him really well, and they showed a lot of character development with him and the group in a short amount of time. I was sad you couldn’t control him in your party, but I’m hoping that will change in the next installment. I’m excited to see his backstory in Cosmo Canyon when we finally get to that point in the remake.

Chadley: This kid was annoying and weird, and I wasn’t sure exactly what his deal was, but he was definitely shady AF. Not sure why he was entirely necessary if he was simply a way to upgrade your materia, but hey, I’ll take that assess materia from ya buddy if it means new stuff for me to use.

Johnny: Johnny grew on me. Was he also annoying and weird too? Yes. But he reminded me of a Prompto-Gladio lovechild and turned out to be a sweetheart, so I say he can stay, Squeenix.

“The Bad Guys”

Shinra executives: Not much to say here for me other than great job in bringing this diabolic group to life. Yep, still hate every one of ‘em. They stayed pretty much true to their original selves, and all of them matched what I remembered of them, right down to the dialogue. I thought it was an interesting choice to see Sephiroth kill President Shinra (in the original you just find him dead at his desk, impaled on Sephiroth’s sword), but I’m not complaining. That guy was a grade A asshole.

The Turks: Love, love, love how they portrayed each of these guys, and showed how they are also unwilling participants in all of Shinra’s shit. They definitely made them more likeable from the get-go and I felt a lot of callbacks to Advent Children. Reno cursing and being sassy was probably one of my favorite things out of the entire game. He had -so- many great lines, even if they weren’t direct translations of the Japanese. I’m hoping they will include more of the Turks in future installments (like Cissnei in Crisis Core) and continue fleshing out their story arcs.

Rosche: Okay, unpopular opinion, but I did not like this guy at all. I’m not sure what the hype is about him all over my social media. Could be the mullet, which is an automatic ‘no’ for me (Gladio from FFXV being the only exception), but he seemed like an irritating and very pointless addition to the game. His sole purpose appeared to be to prepare you for escaping Shinra and fighting from Cloud’s motorcycle towards the end, but I felt like he could have been taken out of the story entirely without missing anything. I didn’t hate as many of the newer characters (like Leslie) as much as I did him, but I guess he and I just didn’t vibe. I’m assuming he’ll return later on, so maybe my opinion will change. (I sure hope so.)

Leslie: Okay, at first, I was like, “who is this knock-off Noctis wannabe?” but I really enjoyed the backstory and depth they gave this seemingly minor character. I see that Squeenix is trying to provide new things for older fans to take interest in, and in this case, I felt he was a nice touch. (Edit: I was told that Leslie, Kyrie, and some of the other new NPCs were featured in an audio book?! Which I had no idea even existed, so...the more you know!)

Don Corneo: Even slimier and creepier in HD! Honestly, hats off to Squeenix for translating what was possibly the most cringy and controversial part of the original in a ‘tasteful’ way in regard to all of Wall Market. This guy was definitely a worthy villain in the remake.

Rufus: Holy hell. I never ever in my life thought I’d be saying this, but wow, is Rufus hotter than I remember. Thank you, Squeenix for giving me another foxy bad boy to drool over. He was also, for me, the hardest and most frustrating boss battle (even more so than Sephiroth), but it was totally worth dying to watch all the cut scenes with him over again. Can’t wait to see more of him in the next installment.

Hojo: God, I hate this guy. I know you’re -supposed- to, but he is such a creep. Hearing his dialogue in the remake was even worse than reading it in the original. Gotta say, dealing with his four wards in Shinra HQ was my least favorite part of the game by far, but I know he will get his comeuppance later down the road. All the dialogue was just as shocking as I remember, so, yeah. Good job?!

Sephiroth: Alright, anyone else feel like they made Sephiroth EXTRA SEXUAL in this remake?! You too? Oh, good, good, same bro. Now, it could just be me projecting, but anytime he came on the screen…panties were dropping y’all. Of course, I’m not one to complain about Sephiroth content. On the contrary, I lap it up like I just walked through the desert and found an oasis, BUT, I will say this…you barely see Sephiroth at all at this point in the original. As a reminder, the remake only covered the first 4-6 hours of the original game, and I get you can’t really do a remake without at least SHOWING Sephiroth for the people who have been waiting to see him in HD, but with that being said, he was VERY involved. I love Sephiroth, he’s a great villain, but they are definitely changing things with him, so I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

My one criticism? His voice was my least favorite out of the main characters. Not saying the VA didn’t do a great job, but it didn’t sound deep enough to be as intimidating. I prefer the VA who voiced him in Advent Children, but I’m sure it will grow on me in time.

Gameplay

Battle system: When the remake’s demo was released, I remember a lot of people were complaining about how ‘difficult’ the new battle system was, but I absolutely love it. It’s just the perfect balance of turn-based and real-time, with plenty of options for customization. If you want more real time, you can set your short cuts, and if you want more turn-based, you also have that option. My only real complaint was that item use is also tied to the ATB bar, but overtime I figured out when to heal myself in a timely fashion (after dying more than a handful of times). Button mashers won’t enjoy this battle system because it requires a little more strategy, but I think the point was to create an updated version of the original fighting style that would appeal to both old and new players, and it definitely delivered. Seeing the classic limit breaks used and being able to run around during battle was so much fun for me, and I about died when I saw Cloud strike his OG victory pose in Wall Market’s coliseum. Also, the transition between running through Midgar and entering battle was SO incredibly smooth and seamless that at times you didn’t notice the shift. Phenomenal.

o Boss Battles: As much as I enjoyed the battle system of remake, some of the bosses felt unnecessarily hard and/or tedious (I’m looking at you, Hell House). Making use of the assess materia early on definitely helped me out, but I legit got bored at times, especially that damn giant robot you fight with only Barrett and Aerith when escaping Shinra HQ. This is really just a minor complaint, but there were a couple bosses where I died several times (*cough* Rufus *cough*) before I figured out the secret to defeating them, while others were super easy or just not that interesting. Meh. For context, I played on “normal” mode, but it truly felt hard in certain scenarios. (That could just have been me trying to get used to the new fighting style.)

o Materia: speaking of materia, I did notice some new materia in the game, which was neat, and although I didn’t care for Chadley (dude, where are your parents?) it was nice to have a way to develop and earn new materia throughout. I found it somewhat strange that summon materia was just a thing you could get so early on instead of having to work for it, but I was excited to use it. Shiva and Ifrit were definitely my favorite summons (which hasn’t changed from the original for me). My one big question: where is the freaking ‘all’ materia?! I know they kinda split ‘all’ up into many different types of materia, and you do have ‘pray’ for healing your entire party, but man, that was so versatile in the original so that was a hard adjustment for me not to have use of it.

o Weapons: I think it’s cool that they developed an upgrade system to make use of your weapons long term, giving them their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Made me think of FFX where you used the spheres to upgrade your characters. Also? I loved being able to see materia in my weapons when I switched them out. That was a really neat touch.

Music: And here I thought they couldn’t make the music of the original game any more epic, but they definitely outdid themselves in the remake. I enjoyed hearing all the remixes and ways they wove the classic themes into different parts of the games. I think my favorite was when you’re going through sector 5 with Aerith and have to control the giant robotic hands. The music in that section SLAPPED. The in-game jukebox was also a nice way to honor the old school classics. Hearing Aerith’s theme for the first time just about made me cry, and listening to One-Winged Angel fighting Sephiroth? Nothing could beat that moment musically for me.

Side quests: I’m not sure about anyone else, but I really didn’t care for the side quests. They weren’t very fun for the most part, and considering how linear the game is, they felt more like chores that needed to be completed because I had to, and not because I wanted to. The only exception was Wall Market, but all-in-all, most of them didn’t add much to the story, unlike in FFXV where I could go down a rabbit hole of sidequests for hours and hours.

Graphics: This is clearly stating the obvious, as anyone with eyes will tell you, the game is nothing short of gorgeous. I cannot tell you how many screencaps I took of just Cloud. It was definitely a world that I wanted to run around in for hours (and did) and will do so again and again just to look at all the little details. My favorite thing to do is watch comparison videos of the original and remake openings side-by-side. How crazy is it that technology has come this far!

Playtime: My biggest critique of this game is that it was too damn short. Stretching the first 4-6 hours of the original into 40 was definitely impressive, but considering I waited 20+ years for the remake, it was pretty disappointing to finish the game in less than a week. Like most people, I’m wondering just how long they plan on stretching this out, how many installments there will be, and when the second part will be released. Hopefully not another ten years, but it -is- Squeenix we’re talking about...

Storyline

Most people who played will tell you that most of the remake stayed very true to the original, even lifting some of the exact dialogue and scenes. The nostalgia hit me so hard in parts that I was literally in tears. The first time I watched the opening in the demo, I cried. That’s the power this game has over many people, including myself.

In other ways, the remake improved on parts of the story or re-imagined them. We always knew it wasn’t going to be a copy and paste of the original story, which I’m sincerely grateful for. I would seriously hope that after 20+ years they would have thought of ways to improve or polish FFVII and make it new and exciting for returning fans and people just picking it up.

My pros regarding the updates in the story:

- They fleshed out many background characters and added in new ones. Most of the core group spent more time interacting, and the party banter felt natural and progressed realistically as the game went on.

- New mini-games and side quests expanded on the slums and made the areas larger and more interactive, yet they still kept the nostalgia of iconic locales.

- Plenty of fuel to fan shipping fires with emotionally charged scenes and pretty boys abounding (Cloti and Clerith especially).

- All of Wall Market was brilliantly done. I was wondering how they’d update it for the new generation, and it was seriously the best part of the game for me (and had me laughing the entire time).

- Hinting that Zack is alive and/or Aerith may live is something I’m listing as a pro, only because I would love to see these characters used to their full potential, however, this is also a con for me, and I’ll explain why.

My cons:

Whispers: If you played the original, you probably had the same reaction as I did when the ‘Whispers’ showed up. “Wtf are these dementor-looking things?” At first, I thought they might be something similar to what we saw in Advent Children, and that they were ‘remnants’ or parts of Sephiroth, or somehow his minions, or even souls from the Lifestream, etc. When I found out they were actually supposed to be ‘protectors of fate’ or whatever, I rolled my eyes, especially when Barret was ‘killed’ by Sephiroth and then miraculously brought back to life. It felt very ‘deus ex machina’ to me in the sense that ‘everything has to go a certain way because we said so.’ While it makes sense, I really wasn’t buying it, but I’m assuming that we will learn more about them in the second installment.

The Ending: The whole final boss battle of the remake was surprising, because it felt almost exactly like the final boss bottle of the original game, right down to the cutscene where Cloud is thrown through space and faces off against Sephiroth one-on-one. Before you defeat the ‘harbinger of fate’ (anyone else get KH heartless vibes?) and fight Sephiroth as the final boss, Aerith goes on her long spiel about ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ and ‘this will change us,’ and it’s laid on so thick that it’s almost like they were setting us up for an alternate timeline, which is entirely possible, but that’s all speculation at this point. Regardless, they made it clear that whatever is coming next is going to be -very- different from the original, or possibly is going to be another timeline of the story, especially since Zack was shown alive and well. One criticism I heard from someone who hadn’t played the original game was that they treated Sephiroth and Zack like people you were supposed to know, and I can agree with that. They didn’t spend -any- time explaining their significance, backstory, or why people were so afraid of Sephiroth other than showing you little flashbacks into Cloud’s deranged memories, so in that sense, the ending might have fallen flat for those who don’t know exactly what Sephiroth represents or who he is, or why he stole Jenova from Hojo’s lab, etc, etc. Plus, throwing in Zack at the end is something that anyone who played the original game or Crisis Core would get, but new fans would also not understand the significance of. Personally, I screamed when I saw Zack because I was so happy , but I can see why that ending would be very unsatisfying and/or confusing for some.

Overall: 9/10

No, it doesn’t get a 10/10 for me, even as someone who absolutely loves Final Fantasy VII, but hey, no game is perfect. It’s honestly hard to live up to the hype this game has created since it was officially announced, and all things considered, Squeenix -did- live up to it. I will still be eagerly awaiting part two, playing the shit out of this game and squeezing the most I can out of it until I get to experience more.

I’d love to hear what other people thought (so long as the discourse is respectful of course). If you read this far, thanks for listening to my ramblings!

#ffvii #ffviir #ffviir spoilers #ff7r spoilers #cloud strife #final fantasy vii #final fantasy 7 #review #thoughts #personal #opinion #final fantasy vii remake #final fantasy 7 remake

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eirist · 5 years

Note

Hi! How are you? Hope you are really good! I really love your fics (but the first time writing to you :3). So, I have this prompt: Late night, a drunk Zoro and a drunk Nami meet unexpectedly in the kitchen, looking for some water. Thanks so much! Looking foward for more fics!

LITTLE BITS AND PIECES OF HEAVEN

DRINK YOU SOBER

One-shot #: 17

Disclaimer: One Piece (and its characters) belongs to Eiichiro Oda-sensei. Title is from Bitter:Sweet’s steamy song.

Reminder: I have no beta-reader. Any grammatical and spelling errors are solely mine.

Warning: OOC possible. One shot.

Rating: T

Note: For @marafuego. Hope you enjoy this!

And… I apologize for the delay as I haven’t been able to get around the prompt requests for some time. Truth is I kinda got stuck. But reassured I will deliver the other ZoNa requests as soon as I can.

Summary: “I’m drunk… and you’re drunk as well right? Can we just leave it at that?”

“Well, hello stranger.”

Zoro flinched at voice and immediately drew back from the Sunny’s fridge, knocking his head on the overhead tray in the process.

Frowning, he swiveled around and found Nami leaning against the far end of the counter separating the kitchen and dining area, with a cheeky smile on her face.

“What do we have here?” She asked in a singsong tone. When he didn’t answer, she propped her chin on the palm of her hand. “Looks like someone’s stealing from the supposedly locked fridge.”

Zoro cursed under his breath while rubbing his head. “Shut it witch. I’m just getting some water.” He stuck his hand back inside the fridge and grabbed the pitcher.

“I’m surprised you know the code.”

He smirked as he slammed door shut and snatched a glass from the counter rack. “Ero-cook’s THAT predictable.”

Nami’s lips formed a perfect ‘o’ at his remark.

“Why are you still awake?” He asked as he poured himself a drink.

“Why are you lurking in the dark?”

They both asked at the same time. Nami grinned while Zoro cocked an eyebrow at her.

In the silvery moonlight streaming in from the galley’s portholes; they stared at each other, both waiting for an answer.

When neither one replied, Nami then straightened up and was about to make her way towards him when she blindly bumped the corner of the counter.

“Ouch!” She whined. “Why the hell didn’t you switch the lights on Zoro?” She made a clicking sound with her tongue to show her disapproval at his decision to skulk inside the galley in the dark.

“Don’t need it,” the swordsman grunted.

“Well some of us do!”

“Not my fault you can’t find your way in the dark cat burglar.” She didn’t miss the way he emphasized her epithet.

Nami made a face as he downed his water in one gulp.

“Slow down with the water idiot! You’re not the only one who wants to drink some!”

"Not so loud Nami!” Zoro hissed. “You’ll wake the others up!”

“Ooops. Sorry,” she mock-whispered. Then she giggled. “I’ll shush.” She placed her forefinger on her lips.

The tall swordsman raised both of his eyebrows at her reaction. He scrutinized her curiously, wondering why she was still up and about… and boisterous.

He silently observed her as she approached him. And he noticed that she seemed unsteady; her stride was careful but he can see that she was tilting a bit and her hand never left the kitchen counter.

“Are you drunk Nami?”

She stiffened at his question. “Excuse me?”

“You’re staggering,” Zoro pointed out.

“No I’m not!” She vehemently denied. “Just had a feeew drinks is all…” She stuck her tongue out at him. “You of all people should know that I don’t get drunk that easily.”

He looked unconvinced. Few for Nami usually means almost ALL the liquor stock available. “Uh-huh. Is that why you’re using the counter for support?”

Nami puffed her cheeks. She was now near enough for him to note that her face was flushed and her eyes, a bit unfocused.

Not drunk my ass alright. He thought with a scoff.

“I am not drunk Zoro!” She poutily declared when she heard the unbelieving sound he made. She let go of the counter to place her hands on her hips—the way she usually does when she was about to chastise him. However, the sudden defiant movement made her wobble a bit and Zoro automatically reached for her arm to steady her.

“Not drunk my ass,” he voiced his earlier thought.

“You’re the one to talk.” Nami grumbled while holding on to him. She drew closer and sniffed. “You reek of alcohol swordsman.” She scrunched up her nose in disgust.

Her insult didn’t even faze him. With a shit-eating grin he said, “I should say the same to you.”

Her brown eyes widened in horror. She looked offended and mortified at the same time. True, he can smell the liquor on her, enough for him to deduce that she probably drank more than just a feeew (to quote her) drinks as she was claiming.

Nami smacked him on the arm lightly. “Not as much as you do baka! Did you take a bath with sake or something?”

Zoro just chuckled at her attempt to drag him in a midnight banter. As much as he wants to engage in their usual verbal play, his head is already buzzing from all the liquor he drank.

He was already following her down the road to inebriation and ready to pass out anywhere.

He was done with this night.

Nami must’ve sensed it given the way a sly smile appeared on her lips.

Grabbing his shoulders for support, she tiptoed so they were almost face to face. “You are drunk too, aren’t you Zoro?” The mapmaker whispered in his ear.

"And what if I am?” Zoro drawled.

She threw her head back and laughed. “So you do get drunk!”

“You wish witch.” She laughed again and his arm instantly went around her, just in case she topple-over from dipping her head back too much. He can just imagine the havoc it will cause when she falls and crack her skull on the floor of the Sunny’s kitchen while with him.

Ero-cook will definitely murder him before dying from a broken heart if that happens.

All of a sudden, Nami grabbed his face.

“Oi!”

The orange-haired girl huffed. “Don’t deny it Zoro. You look like you’re about to fall asleep on your feet.”

“Hnnn…”

A mischievous smile appeared on her face, as her thumbs gently rubbed at the corners of his eyes. “You know, your eyes slant more when you had too much alcohol,” Nami told him in a soft voice. Then a frown marred her features, as she traced the scar running over his left eye. “Or in this matter… your eye…”

His breath got stuck in his throat. He had no idea that she actually paid any attention to him. He can feel his face heating up and it’s definitely not because of the booze in his system.

She proceeded to cup his face in the palm of her hands. “And you would smile more. Probably because all that liquor you chugged down help loosen your stoic smiling muscles.” Nami daringly use her thumbs to push the corners of his lips up in a lame attempt to make him smile.

Zoro just stood there staring at her, completely perplexed.

Then Nami clapped her hands with his face between them.

“DAMN IT NAMI!”

“Hahaha! Oooops you still felt that!”

“Temee…” With a growl he grabbed her wrists, in case she decides to repeat the action again. “Of course I did!”

“Oh alright,” she said in a condescending tone. “I guess you’re not really drunk… just supeeer close to it.” She mimicked Franky’s voice while patting his arm with her free hand to appease him.

“Why would you even think that?!” Zoro snarled at her.

“Why else would you be here in the middle of night, in your sleeping trousers and raiding the fridge?”

“I just wanted some water!” Zoro explained through gritted teeth. The one damn bad thing about this feisty cat thief is that she can really be insufferable… sober or not. “I’m gonna go nap,” he mumbled before their conversation turn into a squabble. He doesn’t have the energy for it to be honest.

“Hah!” Nami snickered. “There it is. Your own version of ‘I’m drunk’.”

His good eye narrowed.

“Your eye is slanting so much more now Zoro!” She chirped. “Getting drunker by the minute?”

“Shut it witch or I’ll pour all the remaining ice cold water on you to sober you up.” He threatened.

He was rewarded with a snigger and she took a step back. It was then that he realized that he was still holding her.

Zoro let her go and made a grab for the pitcher to refill his glass. He ignored the fluttering feeling in his chest from their exchange earlier.

“Hey. Why didn’t you join me tonight Zoro?” Nami nudged him with her shoulder to get his attention.

It was his turn to be startled by her question.

“We could’ve have drunk the whole bar under the table you know,” she continued on. “And I could’ve taken home more berries from the bets if you were there.”

Of course she would be interested in money more than anything, as usual.

“I know you’d just find a way to get your hands on my winnings if I drank with you,” he muttered glumly.

“Damn right of course!” Nami beamed at him. “Though you should be thankful it’s just your money I want to get my hands on.” She said rather suggestively, poking him on the chest.

Zoro nearly choked at her statement. What the hell did she mean by that?!

He coughed to clear his throat. Turning away from her, he seized his glass and drank the water in one gulp. He decided to just ignore what she had just dropped on him. “Good thing I decided to drink in another bar then.”

She feigned a sad look at that. “Ouch. I’m hurt Zoro. You’d choose isolation over a friend?”

“Nice of you to think I drank alone.”

Silence suddenly enveloped them.

Nami quirked an eyebrow at him. “The lone wolf finally learned how to make friends?”

Zoro snorted.

“Oh,” she looked a bit astounded. “You mean you… you like… went somewhere where you can…”

They blinked at each other for almost a full minute before her implication dawned into Zoro. “What?! No!” He looked just as stunned as her. “Of course I wouldn’t… it’s not…” he stuttered, unable to give her an explanation.

Well that suddenly sobered both of them up a bit.

The former pirate hunter felt all his blood rushed up to his face. This is embarrassing.

He rubbed a hand on his face before clearing his throat. “Usopp and Luffy joined me for a while. Then Franky, before he headed back here. Then Brook. That’s what I meant by I’m not alone.”

It’s not like he owed her an explanation but he didn’t want her to think that he actually hang-out in bars to pick women up…

… Or that he deliberately goes in brothels to get laid.

Nami worried her lower lip looking deep in thought. “Oh okay…”

Damn it!

“For a moment I thought you’d rather spend time with a stranger than with me.”

A disgruntled sound escaped his lips and he swiftly averted his eyes to avoid her gaze. How do one respond to that? What should he say?

Should he tell her that he actually wanted to spend time with her? That he wanted to accompany her at the bar where she went earlier and spend all night sitting beside her as they drink the stocks empty and win every single drinking competition thrown their way?

But that he didn’t? Instead he forced himself to look for another pub or tavern far away from her.

Because recently, he realized that being with Nami… was a bit disconcerting.

She stirs up certain emotions inside him that he was not too familiar with.

And it was throwing him off. Because he had no idea how to deal with it or how to handle it.

He shook his head to brush all the thoughts in his mind away.

This should be dealt with some other time. When they are both sober and in their right minds.

Tonight was not the night for this.

Nami suddenly pressed into him.

“Hey!” He glanced down, his lone eye meeting her half-lidded ones.

Great. The alcohol already took its toll on her. Nami looks like she’s about to pass out.

“I could use some water too Zoro,” she murmured, resting her forehead against his chest.

The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he felt the familiar, warm sensation crept slowly all over his body. She was too close for comfort now.

“Go get your own glass then.” He grumbled.

He felt her pout as her lips touched his bare skin. “We can just share.” She suggested in a tone that he knows so well. He recognized it as the one she constantly uses whenever she wants a favor from the cook or any other man she wants to twist around those devious fingers of hers.

He scowled. Like that would work on him…

Then he felt his resolve crumble a bit when she shifted closer and the scent of mikans mixed with alcohol assaulted his nose.

It was enticing. It makes him want to try and see if she tasted like she smelled.

His thoughts were cut off when she suddenly grabbed the glass in his hand.

Ever alert, Zoro held on to it.

She lifted her head up and their eyes locked. Nami tugged at the glass and he tugged back. She was no match against his grip of course. But he had to give her points for bravely trying.

Then she did the unthinkable. She wrapped an arm around his waist and pushed him back so she was now essentially pinning him between her body and the kitchen counter.

“Nami!” He rumbled the moment he felt her bountiful chest against him.

Nami smiled cheekily at him and she quickly snatched the glass out of his hand. “See it’s not bad to share Zoro.” She tossed back the glass’s content before placing it back down the counter.

He answered her with a glare. She has yet to get herself off him.

Nami was gazing up at his face, smirking at her victory. Then he watched as it slowly disappeared as she blinked up at him. Nami looked like she was pondering about something.

“Zoro,” she called his name in a way that it set off every single nerve in his body, sending it into overdrive.

“What now?” He asked in a raspy tone.

She was silent for a few seconds. But there was a gleam in her eye that he wasn’t sure he liked. “I’m drunk… and you’re drunk as well right? Can we just leave it at that?”

His eyebrows drew close to each other. “What are you even say—”

And she cut him off by capturing his lips with hers.

Just a fun suggestion. Try listening to Bitter Sweet’s Drink You Sober. The music is perfect for a ZoNa sexy time. It will help you imagine what possibly took place after the last scene. Unless I’m able to write it as a bonus one-shot. Hahaha!

#zoro x nami #ZoNa #zonami #zonalove #zona one-shots #zoro nami fanfiction #roronoa zoro #nami #zona prompts #prompt request

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janiedean · 5 years

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Now I want to hear the Stannis rant (when you have time)!!

hahahah have fun XD okay so for context, the tags I mentioned the aforementioned rant in:

#one day i’ll rant at lenght about how dnd never got stannis#bc they cannot conceive that a dude with THAT kinda moral compass is a complete disaster when it comes to interpersonal relationships#nor that half of the issues stannis has are bc he’s literally starving for people to see he has worth#while slaving for them anyway and being more competent than anyone else that passes before him#but this is not the day i guess

now: this is... a thing that I honestly struggle with when it comes to this fandom because the side that hates stannis thinks he’s a selfish arrogant asshole without feelings and the side that loves him is like ‘omg such a great battle commander GO RIGHTFUL KING HE’S SO BADASS’ and I feel like neither is an accurate reading because the first sees the character at mere face value (and most likely skipped the davos chapters) and the second only cares about his so-called badassness, but... thing is: stannis is an extremely competent person who’s also a disaster at relationships because he feels like no one cares for him (which isn’t exactly untrue as I’ll rant about later) who in turn everyone judges as uncaring and unfeeling when he actually isn’t and who in turn compulsively pursues what he can pursue because he has to compensate and who on the other side is absolutely starved for recognition except that he doesn’t get it.

and like... at this point I have to lay down the premises in the sense that while I really wish I didn’t, I... kind of really do relate a lot to that aspect - people assuming you’re cold/aloof because you aren’t immediately excited about things or don’t wear feelings on your sleeve - and tbh I really really love that grrm made a character who has the Good At Battles And So On reputation... a complete interpersonal rships disaster, because it actually gives him a whole new layer that I don’t see really discussed often and since that’s what I relate to... it’s sad. for me personally at least.

anyway, thing is:

the fact that stannis was the unloved baratheon brother is the exact first thing you learn from the acok prologue - I mean, ‘Stannis, my lord, my sad sullen boy, son I never had, you must not do this, don't you know how I have cared for you, lived for you, loved you despite all? Yes, loved you, better than Robert even, or Renly, for you were the one unloved, the one who needed me most.’ like, it’s the first thing the narrative throws at you in the face the moment that he does something that already puts him on the reader’s bad side ie dismissing poor cressen, but it’s basically the key to the entire damned point;

because first of all it implies stannis (who’s the middle child out of those three) felt like both his brothers didn’t love him and with their parents dying the way they did that goes too, and if we take into account the proudwing episode - he saves the damned hawk, he’s all happy he got it back to fly, robert mocks him for it and his uncle convinces him to let it die - it’s basically the metaphor for his life because whatever he does, the people who should notice don’t care;

this actually should be discussed along with the whole siege of storm’s end because like... stannis held out by almost starving himself and his men (but renly never mentions it whenever he speaks so I should suppose he doesn’t remember it as an extremely traumatic event when he was in the castle, so stannis made sure he actually had enough food to not starve most likely when no one else did) for robert and if he hadn’t done that when he was barely twenty if not nineteen they’d have lost the rebellion, which you’d think would give him nice things, right? no, because robert gives him dragonstone which stannis sees as a slight, he feels like robert loves ned more than him and he’s p. resentful about it, renly basically bypasses him when it’s time to claim the throne with the amazing explanation that ‘he’s not amusing and people wouldn’t like him’ when that’s not how succession works and he doesn’t seem to get one inch of appreciation by his relatives that he almost died for;

now he has that compulsive thing when it comes to laws and sticking to justice.... considering that he feels like all of his entire family wronged him since he was a teenager (and like, i’m obv. not blaming robert for not having been the best bc he also had trauma bc their parents died I mean we have issues but I get it) and like both his brothers feel like others (ned, loras/the tyrells) are more their family than him and/or that they don’t care for him because he’s sour/not immediately expansive/etc... are we surprised that he has that much of a problem with the concept of compulsively following justice/the rules? considering that when it comes to that it’s written black on white and fairness is objective, obviously he’s a sucker for the rules and he feels that strongly about his birthright - that’s because he feels like he can only trust in objective ruling that everyone should follow rather than people;

this is where I go personal, but... a thing that’s extremely common if you tend to be shy/not immediately an extrovert/if it takes you time to get to know people/if you aren’t a funny person automatically is that people start to assume you don’t have feelings or you don’t care about others, which in turn means that you tend to become even worse because the moment you open up you’re terrified that the other person will hate you, and that’s... peak stannis because the way he’s when the books start is out of all of that plus having married someone out of obligation for robert and getting humiliated on the same wedding night plus having just one daughter everyone sees as defective and that renly openly mocked at some point too but never mind that, and like... another thing with stannis that people don’t really notice is that while he’s crap at expressing his love for his daughter because he’s shit at feelings and relationships, he also loves her really fucking much and as someone else pointed out he didn’t educate her to marry into some other family, he educated her to be his heir and with davos’s male sons and so on, like he didn’t give her just a lady’s education, he gave her a full-on heir education, which outside dorne is unheard of, and in his last adwd chapter as much as dnd didn’t read it... he told people to put her on the throne if he died and to fight for her same as they would have for him. like, it’s obvious that he does love her, he’s just complete crap at showing it... same as he is in general because he doesn’t feel like he can be open about his feelings with people and because he pretty much has no fucking clue of how it works, which is... well... what happens when you grow up with that kind of emotional stuntedness;

that is, unless he’s talking to davos, which is what I’d really fucking like for people to realize. like, never mind the show, but when book!stannis talks to davos he immediately goes from 100% completely closed off to being all soft and as affectionate as it goes and I mean guys... just a couple quotes but:“He seemed ten years older than the man that Davos had left at Storm's End when he set sail for the Blackwater and the battle that would be their undoing. The king's close-cropped beard was spiderwebbed with grey hairs, and he had dropped two stone or more of weight. He had never been a fleshy man, but now the bones moved beneath his skin like spears, fighting to cut free. Even his crown seemed too large for his head. His eyes were blue pits lost in deep hollows, and the shape of a skull could be seen beneath his face. Yet when he saw Davos, a faint smile brushed his lips. "So the sea has returned me my knight of the fish and onions.""It did, Your Grace." Does he know that he had me in his dungeon? Davos went to one knee.”-"I am lowborn," Davos reminded him. "An upjumped smuggler. Your lords will never obey me.""Then we will make new lords.""But . . . I cannot read . . . nor write . . .""Maester Pylos can read for you. As to writing, my last Hand wrote the head off his shoulders. All I ask of you are the things you've always given me. Honesty. Loyalty. Service.""Surely there is someone better . . . some great lord . . ."Stannis snorted. [...] but I trust none of them as I trust you, my lord of Rainwood. You will be my Hand. It is you I want beside me for the battle."that’s TWO, and when davos says that his lords wouldn’t want him for a hand stannis goes like you’re more important than them to me pretty much, and in general the moment they’re alone together he’s way more open and vulnerable and sincere than he is when literally anyone else... that is because davos is the literal one person that not only is his actual friend (bc he doesn’t really have any other friends not even between his relatives), but also someone who:a) actually thinks the world of him;b) hasn’t batted an eyelid at his sense of justice I mean guys let’s be real he cut off davos’s fingertips bc he was a criminal at the same time as giving him a lordship after davos saved his life and everyone else’s and davos has the bones with him always because he thinks they’re his luck I mean k that’s extra but he actually does see stannis’s point when it comes to fairness;c) hasn’t disappointed him once;d) has only ever acted in his best interest;e) is the kind of person who’ll call him out on his bs rather than kiss his ass for honors and to someone who has stannis’s issues knowing that that kinda person exists means a whole damned lot;f) doesn’t think he’s there just to run the show without getting thankfed for it nor takes him for granted nor doesn’t recognize his efforts, which is 99,9% of his remaining issues with everyone else - ie that he does his job and does it well but no one recognizes it and everyone else passes in front of himg) sees his worth, which is a thing stannis is literally starved for but doesn’t get from many others period;which means he has one healthy relationship with someone bar maybe his daughter. one. that’s... not really that great or good whatsoever;

I mean there’s a reason why stannis wants that throne so bad. not that he cares about it, but that’s his right, so anyone else getting it would be the umpteenth time in his eyes that someone cheats him off something that’s rightfully is (storm’s end, his brothers’s love/affection/support etc);

like, it’s not about how stannis is such a great badass fighter strategist, it’s that he wants the throne that badly because not getting it would be just the last straw in the list of slights he feels that he’s been at the end of for his entire life and one more humiliating than any of those others, because otherwise he wouldn’t give a damn;

and like... what I think dnd missed and a lot of people also do is that the ‘great commander who wins fights’ doesn’t mean he also can’t be a guy with extremely bad issues when it comes to interpersonal rships thanks to trauma and to the almost entirety of people around him writing him off as the not fun boring guy who only cares about laws when the only reason stannis cares that much about what’s fair and what’s not is that he feels like everyone else has been unfair to him.

and like....... recognizing that would require admitting that stannis is the farthest thing in these books from a badass conqueror guy who wins battles and wants to be king and will be an equally badass king - he’s an extremely competent guy who became competent at his job out of sheer stubborness and perfection complex who is everything but an emotionless machine (regardless of what people who should know better ie his brothers might think) and who has been disappointed so much in this sense that he can only have a healthy relationship with one single person who is not so coincidentally someone who saved his life, didn’t see anything wrong in his strike for justice, recognizes his worth and would die for him, which... is really not anyone else’s case in his immediate vicinities (not counting his soldiers and so on but that’s another problem entirely). that requires admitting that westeros crap toxic societal standards have hurt him too and that he has a second side that’s not really so cool (guys being emotionally stunted is not fun, I’ll 100% guarantee it to you, and people assuming you’re cold or emotionless because you can’t immediately open up to them is even worse) and that if you want to project greatness on him you should also embrace the fact that he’s a complete human disaster who is as starved for recognition/appreciation as jon is and there’s probably a reason why they were getting along so well in adwd.

and like, I think the fanbase who hails him as the new coming of jesus doesn’t recognize that because it interferes with the fearless conqueror dude fantasy - which is his superficial reading, not his actual reading, same as people deciding he’s emotionless just out of superficial reading, while dnd obviously didn’t know how to write him since S3 because they couldn’t decide what to do with him... but obviously, because dnd have no idea of how to write a male character who is both a strong military commander and an emotional disaster who wants recognition for his own worth and isn’t a power hungry asshole. nvm that dnd have no idea of how to write emotionally vulnerable male characters (see what they did with jaime tyrion theon and sandor and that’s not even counting jon or robb) but stannis was obv. too complicated for them to even consider actually trying for real.

/two cents

#stannis baratheon #janie writes meta #i guess #ch: stannis baratheon #hey do I have salt about stannis? A WHOLE DAMNED LOT #also: I know he's done a lot of horrid shit #AND NO ONE SAYS LISTENING TO MEL IS A GOOD THING #nor we think his acok choices were good choices #this is about WHY he is the way he is #and the side where he's a 100% human disaster is only ever touched #by some ppl in fandom once in a while #and most of them left with S5 #understandably #because I refuse to recognize the S5 finale #long post for ts #janie rants #dragonsthough101 #ask post

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persephoneofhades · 4 years

Text

minachar28 replied to your post “minachar28 replied to your post “If Maddie and Ben never get together...”

I'm gonna point out that "coming onto my post" comment makes little sense on social media. Your post was public for the world to see so getting comments (even those you disagree with) comes with the territory. I looked up #Polymarine and found your post. On to your new post - I can see you point but you also missed some of mine. Bryndie was heavily entwined in the frabric of Siren. From Day 1 there were hints, then clear signs then they officially happened. Now its being dropped like it meant nothing. You seem to mainly be a Raddie fan (I may be wrong) but even they are slowing being put on the back burning. It becoming all about Bryn. I can see with this is all going. Sure Maddie in a interesting storyline with Ben & Ryn for now but how long will that really last? Maddie will be forgotten/left behind/out of the loop before long. As part of the main couple she gets to be a real lead. Bryndie is beautiful & their story can last but only if the writers don't give up on them. Relationships are up & down/not always perfect so the conflict isn't a bad thing but this extra distance will most likely get unnecessary. As for possibly dropping the show - if enough people stop watching then Siren will get cancelled which isn't helping anyone. Ben leaving Ian to drown was messed up but did you missed the point that Maddie would die? That was also a main reason Ben didn't save him which he should have told her instead of making look like it was just about protecting the merpeople. I'm not saying Ben was right but see how the merpeople was gonna be hunted down and enslaved/experimented on/killed. Ben had reasons. I'm all for Maddie having separate things outside of the mermaid stuff but that could still happen with her bring part of Polymarine. Obviously we can disagree but I needed to explain my point. In my 3rd comment I meant without Ben & Ryn. Also meant the Byrndie could last if the writers don't give up on them. Wasn't trying to start an argument just replying back.

You can point out that my post is public and it is and I have no issues with people responding to it, but you can also choose how you respond to it. Being negative on a post where I was trying super hard to be positive and telling me that you think the show is RUINED? Didn’t feel so good. I’m always up for discussions and debates about a show I’m this passionate about, I really am. Just... maybe try to keep it to discussion topics and not plain and simple bashing.

Okay, so responding to this with the perspective of having now seen episode 8, I’m... starting to turn towards the side of “this is total BS, Maddie’s being sidelined and it’s AWFUL and Polymarine may not last and I hate it.” There are quite a few moments in episode 8 that just... very visually represent that difference (Maddie getting a cheek kiss and then Ben immediately afterwards getting a lips kiss, Maddie not standing/sitting next to Bryn at the wedding, etc).

So like... yeah. I mean, you’re not wrong that I’m partial to Raddie over Bryn, for sure, but I did like Polymarine at least equally as much as I liked Raddie. And I didn’t HATE Bryn, they’ve definitely had some cute moments in the past, though I’m liking them less and less as this season goes on because they seem to be getting portrayed as more and more dysfunctional. But I have a whole post somewhere detailing why I think Polymarine perfectly represents the whole theme of balance and how the three of them together work beautifully to represent the two things each of them is always having to balance within themselves and how each of them works to balance the other two. Polymarine obviously does not exist without Ben and I have absolutely loved Ben in earlier seasons and really rooted for him. It’s just this season that they’ve made him less likable which has, in turn, made his relationship with Ryn somewhat less likable, too.

What I think you were missing earlier is that while I guess I didn’t necessarily disagree that there were some bad signs, I was trying REALLY FUCKING HARD to stay positive about it and see it in a better light, in a way that wasn’t indicative of this show I adore becoming a shitshow that drops some spectacular polyamorous rep with a beautiful wlw relationship and sidelines the main Black woman. I really really REALLY did not want to believe this show would do that, I’ve been working SUPER FUCKING HARD all goddamn season to try to come up with theories about why Ryn and Maddie have been getting a lot less affectionate scenes than Ryn and Ben have been getting, about why it was important for Maddie to have her relationship with Robb and (this is what my original post was about) why Maddie being with Robb didn’t actually cancel out the polyamorous rep or the wlw relationship since as far as we’ve been told, Ryn is still dating two people, which makes Polymarine still a polyamorous relationship, even if it’s a V instead of a triangle. And Maddie having feelings for Robb and maybe starting to date him means that Maddie is ALSO dating two people, turning that V into a Z. Or an N. Whichever letter you prefer. Which was UNHEARD of polyamorous representation. So while I definitely love Polymarine, I was not against the show exploring the different ways polyamorous relationships can happen, the different forms they can take.

After episode 8, though, I’m... really despondent. I’m losing some of my faith in this show doing right by us, doing right by these characters. Robb’s gone, Maddie definitely got sidelined in this episode both narratively and visually. None of that spells anything good. It’s like 3am so my mind is coming up with wild conspiracy theories about how some of what we’re seeing are more hallucinations in Ben’s mind, that the season 2 finale wasn’t a one-off, but FORESHADOWING. I’m tired, I’m upset, I’m kinda angry right now, so I’m probably MASSIVELY off-base, but it’s literally the only thread of hope I have left right now so I’m going to hang onto it until the show rips it out of my hands.

As for dropping the show, it didn’t sound like you were getting much out of it and I’m a proponent of not watching shows that don’t bring you joy. It’s not your job to try to keep a show from getting cancelled if you don’t like it anymore, even if other people do. I’ve dropped SEVERAL shows because they weren’t making me happy anymore, so like I said, no judgment on my end if this show just wasn’t doing it for you anymore. Personally, I wasn’t just sticking around for Polymarine or for Raddie, I was sticking around for Ryn and her baby, Ryn and her tribe, for Helen, for Xander, for the environmental message, for the beautiful theme of balance being the key to everything. There was (and hopefully still IS) so much in this show that I love and I 100% would stick around to watch this show for a while probably even if Polymarine stayed a V, or a Z. I might have problems if Maddie got sidelined and removed from Polymarine entirely, but up until this episode, that hadn’t entirely happened. This episode removed almost EVERYTHING that I enjoy about this show from the environmental message (all three of them agreeing to use the sonic cannon despite its known impact on all marine life), the message about balance (either Ben or Ryn has to give up their home to be together or they have to break up and go their separate ways but no in-between option) to Maddie’s role in the narrative and her relationship with Ryn AND Ben to Xander possibly DYING. So quite honestly, if the show continues the way it has in this episode, I’LL probably consider dropping it, because this isn’t the show I fell in love with.

Okay, so addressing your question about if I recognized that Maddie would have died if Ian had been allowed to live. NO. I don’t recognize that because it ISN’T TRUE. Did you forget the whole fact that this was a HALLUCINATION Ben had in which he mischaracterized both Xander and Calvin MASSIVELY and was working on some majorly incorrect information? We were told, point blank, that Ian could not have revealed ANYTHING without some solid physical proof, it’s why he was trying to kidnap Ryn. Without her, his article was DEAD. Had Ian lived, they probably could have forced him to give up his attempts given that they’d just SAVED HIS LIFE. We have NO IDEA what might have happened if Ben had let Ian live. But I HIGHLY doubt that it would have automatically FOR SURE meant Maddie’s death. The whole thing was a nightmare scenario based on Ben’s paranoia and very little else. Ben didn’t have “reasons”. At least, none that were actually REASONABLE. While Ben probably SHOULD have told Maddie about his hallucination, the reason he DIDN’T is because admitting to having hallucinations means he’d have to admit the reason WHY he was having hallucinations: namely, that he re-addicted himself to the Song. Nothing Ben saw in his hallucination is a worthwhile excuse for letting another human being drown when Ben could have saved him. Nothing. It helps us UNDERSTAND why Ben did what he did, sure, because it shows us just how not in his right mind Ben is, how far gone he’s become now that he’s listened to the Song again. But it doesn’t exonerate him or excuse the fact that he killed a man.

I think we have a very different definition of what “being part of Polymarine” means. For me, Polymarine is the relationship between the three of them (at least for now) and the three of them are still connected through Ryn. Just because Ben and Maddie aren’t dating EACH OTHER doesn’t mean that Polymarine isn’t still a relationship that exists, it just exists as a V instead of a triangle, as I mentioned in the original post you replied to and have mentioned in my replies a few times now. Maddie is still dating Ryn and her involvement in Robb wasn’t (for a while) taking her away from the main narratives. She was SUPER involved in the earlier episodes that dealt with the hybrids and the baby. In fact there was an entire episode in which Ben spends the whole time with his parents while Maddie runs around with Ryn, helping her train, helping her read, taking her to the hybrid doctor to deal with the cramps, following her to the ranch to find Meredith, etc. For a while there, in the beginning of this season, it definitely did not feel like Maddie was going to get sidelined just because she needed space from Ben or because they introduced Robb. I have been holding onto that hope those episodes gave me up until now. But while I agree that I’d prefer Maddie have side storylines AND continue to be involved in the main narrative, I think that’s exactly what was happening in the early episodes.

So look, am I starting to believe that all of the people who have been crying out in the tags that this season’s been a sign that Maddie’s going to be sidelined and the show is going to let go of the part that made it the unique and beautiful, might be right? Yes.

Am I still desperately trying to cling to what little hope I have that there’s something we AREN’T SEEING HERE that can turn this around in the 11th hour?

Also yes.

#minachar28 #siren #siren freeform #polymarine #bryndie #long post #siren spoilers #maddie bishop #ryn fisher #ben pownall

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hellzyeahwebwieldingreviews · 5 years

Text

Untold Tales of Spider-Man 02: After the First Death… – by Tom DeFalco

A story that has me debating the nature of these stories.

A soggy Spidey swings through rainy Manhattan looking for crime shots for the Daily Bugle. He comes upon Kent and Wayne Weisinger on the roof of Stockbridge Jewelers, planning to rob it. Confident that he can end the fight anytime he wants to, Spidey stretches it out so that his automatic camera can take as many photos as possible. Kent and Wayne have a longstanding sibling rivalry marked by Kent's resentment of being the "muscle" to Wayne's "brains" along with feeling that his brother always cheats him. During the fight, Kent appears to charge at Spidey but when the web-slinger leaps out of the way, Kent doesn't stop, charging into Wayne and knocking him off the roof. Wayne falls five stories to his death and all the by-standers think Spidey did it. Guiltily, Spidey flees, forgetting about Kent altogether.

So, Kent goes to Wayne's estranged wife Jeannette to tell her the news. "Solid ice," Jeannette could care less about Wayne's death except that she's lost her meal ticket. When Kent blames the death on Spider-Man, Jeannette gets an idea on how to cash in.

In fact, Peter Parker seems to be the only one emotionally affected by Wayne's death. He has a sleepless night, trying to cope with the situation. Unguarded, he admits to J. Jonah Jameson that he has photos of the incident. His resolve to not sell the photos is beaten down by Jameson's arm-twisting and his own need for money. He sells the pictures and is then introduced to Jeannette, now the grieving widow of Wayne, who has come to JJJ for help in instituting a civil suit against Spider-Man. At school, Peter's conscience makes him counter Flash Thompson's avowal that "Spidey's no murderer" with "Maybe the wall-crawler didn't actually kill the man... but that doesn't mean he shouldn't be held accountable for what happened." Back in action, Spidey hesitates over stopping a purse-snatcher, fearful that he may cause another tragedy. Back home, Peter doesn't know what to do. He recalls that Uncle Ben's death made him swear, "that no innocent person would ever again be made to suffer because Spider-Man had failed to act. It had never occurred to him that anyone would suffer because of Spider-Man's acts." And while Wayne wasn't exactly innocent, "he had suffered because Peter had acted irresponsibly." He ends up having one of those vague discussions with Aunt May where he can't tell her any details because she doesn't know he's Spider-Man, yet she manages to hit the nail on the head, telling him in this case, "Everybody makes mistakes, Peter. You just try to learn from your failures as best you can, and you move on. You'll always get another chance to do better as long as you keep at it."

Meanwhile, Jeannette decides to kick Kent out of the deal and keep any anticipated profits for herself. So even as Spidey sucks it up and gets back into action, proving himself a hero, Kent decides he's not going to be kicked around anymore, buttonholes a TV reporter and gives an interview in which he reveals "that he deliberately pushed his elder brother off the roof of Stockbridge Jewelers because of numerous past frustrations." At Midtown High, Flash crows over Spidey's exoneration but Peter won't let the web-slinger off so easily. "A real hero would have found a way to save Wayne Weisinger" he says, "He would have acted smarter, reacted quicker, or behaved more responsibly... And that's something Spider-Man will have to live with for the rest of his life."

Because these are untold tales, prose stories and utilize the comic book continuity you can analyse them from several different angles and their worth changes depending upon those angles.

Chiefly this boils down to whether I judge this as a story unto itself or within the context of comic book continuity as it existed back then? What about the fact that I’m here in 2020 evaluating a prose book written in 1990 that’s trying to synch up with comic book stories written in the 1960.

It boggles the mind. All I can do is write about how I feel.

I liked this story unto itself and within the context of this book. I think, kind of like the last story, that it doesn’t really integrate into Spider-Man’s comic book history.

The emotional journey of Peter in this story involves learning that he needs to be careful about how he acts. In this regard it’s rather similar to his lesson from Gwen’s death, which is kind of my problem. This story’s title implies this is in fact the very first time Spider-Man has experienced death ‘on the job’ as it were.

Surely such a thing would weigh on his mind more, surely it’d crop up when he dwells on the list of people he’s seen die or feels guilty about dying. Or at least he’d be reminded of Wayne’s death when Gwen dies.

In the comics of course Wayne has never ever been mentioned. Duh, because he didn’t exist until DeFalco invented him for this story. Of course we could draw comparisons with Sally Avril, a character from AF #15 who died in the comic book version of Untold Tales but whose death went unacknowledged in stories from the 60s-90s.

I think the critical difference there is that (IIRC) Peter wasn’t particularly responsible for her death whereas in the case of Wayne, whilst he didn’t push him off the building, his arrogance really did directly contribute to his death. Plus seeing a man die in such a horrible way, especially if it is the first time he’s ever seen a dead body, would likely leave a bigger impression upon Peter than the nature of Sally’s death, although I must admit it’s been a long time since I read that issue so perhaps I am wrong.

From a continuity stand point this is the minefield you always walk, but at the same time it’d be difficult to generate drama if you didn’t step on those mines occasionally.

I feel DeFalco here wanted to tell a dramatic story that had Peter grapple with a genuinely emotional situation and also took advantage of the nature of this story as a flashback tale.

And frankly he succeeded. If you view this either out of continuity or essentially within an incredibly generalized canon of Spider-Man (i.e. Gwen Stacy died, whether Peter did or didn’t think about Wayne is ambiguous though) the story very much works. I doubt DeFalco or anyone else was honestly feeling any of these stories were going to strictly be canon anyway. However for the record this story happens at some point after ASM #9 because when we get a list of Spider-Man’s opponents they all appeared up to that issue.

Looking at the story itself its flaws are incredibly minor.

Some of the dialogue feels old fashioned, but I argue that is likely by design since this is set in an older time period. We go over exposition related to Peter’s origin again, which is more the editor’s fault since we got those details in the first story of the anthology. In fairness revisiting it does serve a greater purpose here because the story is directly ruminating upon the nature of responsibility. In that sense it would’ve been more logical to open the book up with this than the Ant-Man story and I see little reason as to why this couldn’t have in theory happened at an earlier point chronologically. Yeah the Ant-Man story claims Spider-Man’s a new figure on the scene but the passage of time in the first 10 issues of ASM is so vague it’s really not unbelievable that even by issue #9 Spidey might still be considered ‘new’.

Not only does the story explore (and successfully at that) the theme of responsibility, approaching it from the opposite direction from the lesson Ben’s death imparted, but it also features the supporting cast more. Flash, Aunt May, Jameson, the Bugle and public distrust of Spider-Man are all given notable roles to play in the story, again proving that THIS should’ve opened the book.

To go back to the theme of responsibility for a moment, perhaps the most nuanced bit of writing in the story is when Peter is on the phone to Jameson. Peter has a really great ethical dilemma. Would it be irresponsible to profit off of Wayne’s death or would it be irresponsible to not profit off of it and use the money to support his Aunt May?

DeFalco more than any other writer GETS Spider-Man and his depiction of Peter’s internal debate, whilst short, rings utterly true. What gets me is that most of the time whenever I’ve seen this sort of thing done with Peter he’s actually made a different decision, but here DeFalco recognizes that in actuality Peter WOULD consider his responsibilities as the bread winner outweigh what boils down to him merely feeling bad about profiting off a man’s death. It’s not all that different to when he faked photos of Electro to help Aunt May. Yes it’s unethical, but there was a higher responsibility, a greater good at stake.*

Kent and Jeanette’s subplot, whilst arguably wrapped up unsatisfactorily, does a neat job of evoking something of a daytime drama or even noir story, and in that light fits wonderfully into the brand of stories Lee and Ditko churned out way back at the start.

In fact of the two opening stories this one more successfully captured that era and by extension the approach of the comic book version of UToSM. Whilst the Ant-Man story was fun, it was the prose equivalent of a typical MTU super hero yarn complete with dodgy pseudo science.

This story though? Now this is a Spider-Man story. It has a singular main character (Kent is ultimately a supporting player) and whether he’s in or out of the costume the story is driven by the emotional and human problems faced by the character, not the fantastical super human issues. In classic Spidey manner those two halves of his life bleed over into one another and lack a clear cut divide.

Really in the Ant-Man story Peter’s personal life would’ve gone mostly unaffected whether he had gotten involved or not. It wasn’t about Peter Parker, it was about Spider-Man. This story is about both.

Peter needs money to look after himself, his home and Aunt May. So he looks for trouble as Spider-Man and pads out a fight. That gets someone killed which haunts Peter and makes him hesitate to BE Spider-Man, even whilst he reluctantly profits off it as Peter Parker which in turn contributes to his being falsely accused as Spider-Man and kids as school hating on him because he will not defend Spider-Man from these accusations.

Wham, Bam, DeFalco is the Man. THAT’S a fucking Spidey story right there!

The only thing for me which really and truly did let this story down wasn’t the fault of the book, but the audio production.

I’m hoping DeSantos was just off his game for this story, but between this and his prior efforts I think he’s achingly miscast as the narrator of this title. He worked better narrating Stan Lee and Busiek’s forwards than the actual stories. As Aunt May, Kent and Jeanette he wasn’t that bad (actually pretty good as Kent), but his Peter/Spider-Man fails. He can’t even sell the emotion of the non-dialogue bits. He’s not a bad narrator, but not right for this book.

Over all taken strictly within comics canon there are a lot of contradictions. But taken as it’s own thing or (I suspect) within the context of this one book, this is a knock out story.

*By the way DeFalco also seamlessly blends humour and tragedy in the scene. Peter’s internal debate and horror at the prospect of profiting off of Wayne’s death leaves him in silence which in turn is misinterpreted by Jameson causing him to raise his offer which in turn causes Peter more internal strife. Just brilliant!

#Tom DeFalco #Ron Frenz #Gwen Stacy #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Untold Tales Of Spider-Man #Stan Lee #Kurt Busiek #Aunt May #May Parker #J. Jonah Jameson

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afanoftheglassscientists · 5 years

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The Glass Scientists Art-Style Changes

Hey yeah sorry but I saw someone complain about how the webcomic’s art style is jarring in the later chapters and that the noses are bad because they’re big and I’m back in full salt mode WHO WANTS SOME TEA!?

@glass-scientists your art-style has only gotten more beautiful as the webcomic continues and you work extremely hard on the comic by yourself and I am amazed you kept working on this for more than four years now while in a career and I hope you’ll be able to do so for the foreseeable future. When I comment on how your art changed please know that I’m not doing it to critique you. Okay you don’t have to read more of this I just wanted to be the 156th person to let you know you’re doing great.

ONE - The noses have always been prominent on the characters’ art design and having a big noses does not automatically make it look ugly. Admittedly there are artists out there who draw very ugly noses for very ugly reasons, but Sabrina Cotugno is not and never has been one of those types of artists. Yes, Jekyll’s nose is bigger, but is not the end-all, be-all take from his design changes.

Here’s him from Ch.1 Pg. 15.

And here’s him from Ch.7 Pg. 22

(And no, I do not know why the latter two picture are bigger.)

As you can see, the nose in the earlier chapters looks smaller, but Jekyll’s face is also a lot more...soft? Like think of ceramic pieces. You start out with soft clay and you mold it into the shape you want (but don’t forget to wedge don’t want it to explode in the oven) but then after the clay firms up a little you’re ready to carve it and give it a more pronounced form. That’s what happened in the later chapters: Jekyll’s nose, the shape of his jawline, his sideburns, hair and even his eyebrows has become sharper and more distinct. His nose isn’t just an attachment like a Mister Potato Head, its a part of him. To give him a smaller nose would mean changing his whole character profile.

TWO - Like Clay, Art Changes. Admittedly I was taken aback by the change in the comic’s art-style as well, but that will happen to literally any long-form manga or comic. Unless you’ve been doing comics for literal decades your art is going to change, because you’re going to change, and what you want from your art and the characters you create are going to change. Look at Bluechair by Shen on WEBTOON: while his artstyle has solidified these past few years his earlier comics are unrecognizable, because he’s been working on his Bluechairs comic for five years, often updating two or three times a week, and is currently on Episode 536 of Bluechairs, but technically he currently has 706 of them under the Bluechairs page. His comics are like the Sunday Newspaper kind of comics, so I’m not asking you to read his stuff starting from the beginning (in fact please don’t try to read it all at once: his early stuff is pretty good but let me remind you he has SEVEN HUNDRED AND SIX COMICS OF STUFF) but maybe read a couple of them from the beginning and then read some of his latest ones.

So yeah, its not unexpected from comics to change in style, either slowly due to how the artists gains a more experienced hand or by an intentional shift in art direction. Sabrina was in the latter camp, due to the fact that she felt the earlier character designs was too much like a Disney Princess Line-Up, which she mentioned in a page description that I cannot find but I know was real.

Honestly I really do like the more recent pages. I disagree that they’re less vibrant, because I think removing the high glossy sheen made the characters even more distinct from each other. Before the shift in artstyle I felt like everyone was getting the same brand of hair gel. Hot take coming, but the character who most benefits from this shift is Rachel, who’s been looking gorgeous these last few chapters.

THREE - Sabrina Cotugno has been working this story, these characters and the art of this webcomic mainly by herself, while still working a job as a cartoon director for multiple shows and is currently working on a project for Disney. She does not have a lot of time on her hands to fix mistakes and asking her to change things or give her “Advice” on her art is...I won’t say unwanted because that’s up to her as to whether or not she’d use that language, but I will say she probably doesn’t need your advice on how to draw art when she has already worked in professional spaces as a storyboard artist AND as a director.

Plus I’m going to be upfront here, and this is going to sound harsh: Do not fucking nitpick and tear apart content made independently unless warranted by offensive language or imagery, because not only is it unhelpful it is just plain mean. Yes, Sabrina has worked on shows before, but The Glass Scientists is not made by a group of people working together, with producers and press and editors to back them up. This is entirely her work. She is spending her own free time making this. This webcomic is hours, days, weeks, years in the making, in the wake of hot days, sickness, travelling, other deadlines and dying plants.

And to turn around and say “Oh the way you do the art now isn’t as good?” Fuck off with that. I’m not Sabrina, so I get to be mean here - You are allowed to admit you dislike these changes, but sending the artist messages directly telling them of your dislikes is an absolute garbage thing to do. Especially when you yourself are not an artist.

Like Sergeant Brokenshire has a beard in one panel but loses it in the next few pages. Cue the Cinema Sins ding noise I guess. Okay, that happens sometimes, she doesn’t have an editor to correct. Am I going to directly send her messages letting her know she did her webcomic wrong? Fuck no. She probably has been sent hundreds of “helpful” messages about it already, and guess what? She doesn’t have the time to correct every mistake because she has a job.

Of course if Sabrina or any independent artist does something horrifically offensive or even just something that makes you uncomfortable you are absolutely allowed to air your grievances. But so far Sabrina has been good so I’ve got nothing to complain about, and the asks she gets that do have issues with the webcomic she answers with grace.

So basically this wandered completely off from the nose discussion and into the ethics of fandoms for independently made webcomics, but anyway long story short.

The Glass Scientists is not yours and its not mine. It belongs to Sabrina Cotugno, and its hers to change how she sees fit. Get over that and enjoy the webcomic as it is and you’ll have a much better experience.

Sorry to sound preachy there. I’m not trying to act like the Fandom Police and I’m not trying to fight Sabrina’s battles for her. I just see a lot of bad fucking behavior toward other independent artists and I don’t want to see it here. I have been that anon who “critiques” or gives “helpful” advice to artists who had far more experience than me, so its not like I’m pretending to be above it all here. I’ve buried many a blogs because of my shameful past.

Most of this Fandom has been wonderful. Let’s keep it that way while it lasts.

Anyway that espresso really did a number on me. I’m about to crash and I’m getting the awful sense of deja-vu here. Sorry for being so salty on Fandom lately, I won’t do it again unless I see some real trouble. This has accidentally become a Midnight Post, so go to bed!

...Oh wait one more thing: PLEASE DON’T REPOST FULL PAGES OF THE WEBCOMIC!!! Access to the official page is not hard and despite a few hiccups (which is not Sabrina’s fault but the webpage itself) we have been able to see all of the webcomic. There is no need to repost the whole page and on Sabrina’s FAQ she specifically asked people not do this. If you want to read each new page and don’t want to refresh the website twenty time on Monday morning you can always follow her twitter or her blog “arythusa” where she posts a link to each new page after it uploads. In fact starting tomorrow I’ll be sure to reblog these posts to make sure you have a link available to click.

Okay now good night.

#tgs #the glass scientists

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thelogicalghost · 6 years

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The Problem of Hans

With the Frozen 2 trailer drop, I wanted to finally organize some of my thoughts about the original in a post I can link to instead of trying to repeat this argument every time it comes up.

Before I dive in, I want to emphasize that I am not trying to ‘forgive’ or ‘justify’ Hans being a dick. My goal is to parse his actions throughout the movie and find a plausible explanation for seemingly contrasting character moments.

Part 1: Some Background

The original story of the Snow Queen, on which Frozen was loosely based, set the icy-powered queen as the villain. However, during development, songwriters Robert Lopez and Kristen Anderson-Lopez composed and pitched several songs including “Let It Go” that put the sisters’ relationship at the center of the story. The decision was made to redeem Elsa and make the sisters the heroes, requiring the previously supporting character Hans to become a last-minute villain.

Because of this rewrite, and perhaps in order to preserve the ‘twist’, Hans spends the majority of the movie seeming utterly charming and even heroic. Disney inadvertently created a truly terrible villain, a sociopath capable of utterly fooling an entire country but revealing his evil plans and unfathomable cruelty only to a dying women. However, this also meant that Hans’ portrayal has several serious inconsistencies that bring his twist betrayal into question. These moments continue to bother me every time I watch the movie, creating a conundrum that a purely evil, brilliant, manipulative Hans doesn’t explain.

Taking the finished, theatrical release of the movie as canon, I as the audience was left trying to reconcile these discrepancies into a plausible narrative. First, I’m going to talk about the moments that force me to question the movie’s explanation, and then I’m going to present exactly that plausible narrative.

Part 2: The Bits That Bother Me

There are two moments that trouble me particularly in the movie. One is much more significant than the other, so let’s start with that one.

Hans has gathered a group of volunteers to find the missing royal sisters. Two of these volunteers, attendants to the Duke of Weselton, have been ordered by the Duke to kill Elsa. As they approach Elsa’s ice palace and are confronted by her snow monster, these two men take advantage of the confusion to run ahead of the group. Both try to shoot Elsa with crossbows. Elsa defends herself, pinning one man to the wall with ice spikes and pushing the other man onto a balcony with a sliding wall of ice.

Just as she’s about to push the second man off of the balcony, where he would fall to his likely death, Hans and the rest of the men arrive. Hans shouts, “Queen Elsa! Don’t be the monster they fear you are.” Elsa pauses, realizing that she had been about to kill. The first man tries to take advantage of this pause by raising his loaded crossbow for a final shot. Hans, after quickly glancing upward, dashes across the room to yank the man’s arm up and send the bolt toward the ceiling. This sends an ornate ice chandelier falling to the floor. Elsa jumps out of the way but is knocked unconscious.

The key moment here is Hans’ intervention. Let’s consider the logic of this moment based on an evil, manipulative Hans:

If Hans wanted Elsa dead and out of the way, he could have:

Ordered his men to attack. She was obviously having difficulty managing two assailants, but attacking them with her ice powers could have been a perfect excuse to need to take her down

Continued to distract Elsa so that the first of the Duke’s men could shoot her

Grapple with the man but let the crossbow ‘go off’ to hit Elsa, either killing her (since he could obviously aim it very well) or prolonging the fight and creating other opportunities

If Hans wanted Elsa alive for some reason, but wanted a great excuse to kill or dethrone her later, he could have:

Said nothing, let her kill a soldier from a neighboring country, making her a killer and potentially exacerbating a diplomatic incident

Said literally anything else to provoke/manipulate her or the situation, for example, beg her to surrender (which she wouldn’t, making her look like the bad guy) or urge his men to save the Duke’s men (which would have turned into a full conflict that might have resulted in her wounding or killing her own people)

Instead, Hans appeals to her humanity. He says something calculated to make her stop and consider what she had been about to do. Then he takes an action that was much less likely to do her harm - Elsa had plenty of time to dodge that chandelier - but disrupted the standoff and diffused a tense situation.

No matter which way I look at this scene, Hans’ actions just don’t make sense if he sees Elsa as an obstacle to the throne.

The second moment I want to mention is much smaller, but to me, equally disconcerting. It happens much earlier, at the end of the scene in which Hans and Anna meet.

Memorably, their initial meeting ends with the two of them standing in a boat that is perched precariously on the edge of a dock. As Anna leaves, both of them seeming quite taken with each other, Chekhov’s boat finally tips over and dumps Hans in the water. As he lifts up the overturned boat, Hans gives the departing Anna a fond smile.

This smile is what bothers me so badly. Hans, in this moment, has no audience. He is under a boat off the edge of a dock. Even his horse would have difficulty seeing him from that angle. Yet his expression contains no spark of malice. It’s gentle and hopeful, suggesting that he’s as smitten with her as she clearly is with him. If Hans were a sociopath, he would need to put effort into faking this expression, and why would he without an audience? There is absolutely no reason to think that his feelings in this smile are not completely genuine, except for the fact that he later claims they’re fake.

Which leads me to ...

Part 3: A Plausible Narrative

Hans arrives in Arendelle and meets Anna. She’s young and clearly unpolished but sweet and authentic. During the coronation ball, they enjoy each other’s company. Hans sees a woman who clearly lacks practical education and whose romantic ideas could land her into a lot of trouble, but whose spontaneity and youthful energy he appreciates.

Now, in the mid-1800′s, like in most of European monarchical history, marriage among royalty is not a matter of love but of exchange and consolidation of goods and power. Hans suspects that there are problems in Arendelle. The princesses have been sequestered completely in the years since their parents’ deaths. Perhaps the reason Anna’s been kept behind locked doors is that she’s prone to thoughtless acts of romanticism that could easily bring harm to the royal family. He can’t offer the family riches or titles, but he can provide this woman the trappings of romance, be patient with her, and in time, nurture a genuinely loving relationship. He can promise to reign in her impulsive behavior and encourage her to act in ways that benefit the kingdom. Maybe he can offer more, in terms of what experience and knowledge he’ll bring to the table as a prince from a powerful nation, but first he has to talk to the queen.

Surprisingly, when he and Anna approach Elsa, the two sisters seem to be misinterpreting his offer of engagement and negotiations as an offer to run off to the church, like, NOW. Elsa gives a public, automatic rejection. Anna confronts her in an embarrassingly public argument. Then, of course, something happens that Hans couldn’t have predicted: Elsa reveals that she has ice powers, freezes the harbor, and sets a snowstorm on the country.

Without consulting anyone or taking anyone with her, Anna rides off to find her sister. Instead of calling on any of the advisers, minor nobility, or other titles of the realm, Anna puts Hans in change. Hans is not only shocked at the impropriety and irresponsibility, but the fact that no one seems to challenge him for that position. Everyone, local or visiting, is content to turn to this visiting prince, despite the conflict earlier in the ballroom. Well, if he’s what they’ve got, he’ll take that duty. He hopes to eventually be part of the royal family, after all, so these will soon be his people. He sorts out emergency responses including hot food and thick blankets, walking through the streets himself to aid in distribution.

Anna’s horse appears, riderless and distressed. Now Hans is deeply concerned. It seems that whatever sisterly means Anna intended to use to calm Elsa have failed. He organizes an expedition to travel up the mountain, taking volunteers (not hand-picking people who might be loyal to him, note, but inviting people who genuinely care about their monarch to help find her). He probably plans this trip and finds at least one guide, because he gets to the palace shortly after Anna leaves.

Despite having to battle a giant snow monster and nearly falling to his death, when Hans sees the standoff between Elsa and the Duke’s men, he says what he hopes will be the most effective at calming her down. He sees an opportunity to diffuse the standoff by destroying the chandelier, which knocks the queen unconscious. Despite having every opportunity and a long journey back to the city, Hans takes Elsa, unharmed, to the palace dungeons and restrains her.

When Elsa comes to, he begs her to break the curse. This is when Elsa says, simply, “I can’t,” and begs him to let her go. She doesn’t even know where Anna is.

Now, if Elsa was thinking even slightly rationally, she would know that Hans can’t simply let her go. She plunged the city into deep winter. IF the effect is related to proximity, leaving might help, but if it’s not - and Elsa clearly isn’t in control of this curse, how does she know? - then they’ll have lost the opportunity to track her down again and try something else. People are going to die.

A visiting dignitary tells Hans that, if something’s happened to Anna, he’s “all Arendelle has left.” The message is clear: this is on his shoulders. The fate of thousands of lives and an entire country rests on him. He wants to go look for Anna again because she maybe will have some idea of how to break the curse.

And then Anna shows up, cold and dying. What she says to Hans, specifically, is that she was wrong about Elsa never hurting her, that Elsa has frozen her heart and only an act of true love can save her.

This is the last straw. Sure, eventually Hans would probably have grown to love Anna, but true love at first sight? That’s absurd. And of course, there’s no one else. Clearly something terrible has happened between the sisters, so hoping for love there is pointless. He’s been here two days and not seen so much as a close family friend who might potentially love the girls enough to save them. So now he has a country buried in snow in the middle of the summer by a queen who can’t control her ice curses, and the non-magical princess is going to die.

So Hans does a crappy thing and takes his anger out on a girl who’s going to die. He mocks her for being naive and impulsive, gives her the worst possible scenario just to make her feel stupid, and enjoys her shock and pain. And then he douses the fire and opens a window to make sure she dies quickly, because now Hans has a plan.

You see, witchcraft is a really flimsy excuse for executing a sitting queen, especially when he’s only just got here. But with everyone present perfectly happy to take his word for events, Hans comes up with a way to save everyone and take the kingdom without looking like a monster. All he has to do is say that he and Anna exchanged vows. Elsa’s killed Anna, so now he’s going to execute her for murder. Every story about magic from the era and before suggests that slaying the person who cast the curse will end the curse. He’ll save Arendelle not only from eternal winter, but also from two girls who almost destroyed their own nation with their magic and incompetence.

But, of course, both girls escape, Anna stops Hans and saves herself, and Elsa finally realizes what the trolls should have told her parents all those years ago and saved everyone a lot of pain: love is the key to melting the effects of her powers.

So Hans is arrested for attempted regicide (despite his actions being assented to and supported by everyone else present), Arendelle cuts off its largest trading partner for the Duke’s role in events, and Anna starts spending time alone with a commoner while Elsa continues to show no interest in marriage arrangements, further eroding the stability of the monarchy. Not to mention the potential massive agricultural and economic problems from the two-day winter.

Part 4: In Conclusion

As I said earlier, I’m not trying to defend Hans’ actions entirely. His tirade at Anna when they were alone was nothing short of abusive. What I’m trying, instead, to offer is an explanation of why his supposed confession doesn’t fit with some of his actions during the course of the movie. I’m trying to frame the events of a movie set in a historical time period in a way appropriate to that time period.

(Yes, I know, it’s a kid’s movie and to some extent a fairy tale, but if your best argument is “well reality should be handwaved for the story” then I would counter that the story’s inconsistencies were actively harmful to the intended message. If the point was to make Hans a gaslighting monster, then don’t make his actions plausibly rational and rely on a single scene to demonstrate that he’s actually monstrous.)

I’ve tried my best to keep this post limited to the content of the movie and extrapolations made from that material. I don’t think Hans should be brought back as a romantic interest (GIVE ELSA A GIRLFRIEND DISNEY) and I don’t think any backstory, up to and including Hans himself suffering abuse, justifies his cruelty. That said, I continue to hope that Frozen 2 will see the return of Hans not as an all-out villain but as someone who knows he’s made mistakes and is working to be a better person.

I mean, if Elsa can be forgiven for plunging the kingdom into eternal winter, maybe Hans can find some resolution, too?

#frozen #Prince Hans #speculation #historical fiction #perspective

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littlemisssquiggles · 5 years

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Pinehead Headcanons: Oscar the Brunette

Okay; time for a bit of fun and silliness again with my headcanons. Here me out on this one fellow Pineheads.

What if...while in Atlas, Oscar gets roped into dying his hair by Neon Katt. Let’s say, Neon Kat isn’t a natural ginger and every one in a while she likes dying her hair different colours to keep her appearance as fresh and funky as her personality. So for whatever reason, Neon persuades Oscar to give dying his hair a try since he’s the young impressionable farm boy from Mistral has never done anything unique different with his hair short of cutting it before so feeling bold, Oscar gives in to Neon’s proposal.

It was originally meant to be something great however the whole ordeal ends up going not so good when the dye Neon used reacts differently to Oscar's hair turning it an unexpected colour as opposed to what he was going for.

So much to Oscar’s embarrassment, he’s stuck wearing a cap for most of the day to hide the botched job Neon did and even when the cat Faunus tried to fix it, it just made things worse for poor Oscar.

Ultimately, it was Ruby who came to his rescue and she fixed Oscar's hair.

But despite the day he had, Oscar still opted for the change. So with Ruby's aid, Oscar successfully dyes his hair and rocks it as a dark brunette which Ruby remark ‘surprisingly suits him’.

Forgive the randomness of this Pinehead headcanon. I was just really curious to know what Oscar would look like if he had the same shade of brown as the original Ozma. So I did a few photo edits with Oscar as a brunette. Nothing too fancy. Just the ole lasso and colour blending mode and these were the results. And frankly...

It ain’t half bad. Now I wonder how he’d look with just brunette highlights or something like that. Y’know just give his hair the kind of gradient look at the tips like Ruby’s.

I know Oscar is perfect just the way he is with his black hair however I’ll admit there were times when I actually thought Oscar's hair to be dark brown or brownish black instead of black. I did notice that in warm shots, his hair does appear browner while being black in cooler shots. Wouldn’t be surprised if there is a bit of brown in Oscar’s hair colour. After all, my hair is black but not totally since you can see a bit of brown when it’s hit with sunlight. Perhaps it’s the same for Oscar. His hair isn’t entirely black.

Anyways, this still left me curious to see what he would look like rocking Ozma’s hair colour and I actually kind of dig Oscar the brunette. It’s not bad at all. He can work it.

I’ve never been a fan of the whole 'Oscar will be more or exactly like Ozpin' theory. If anything I never felt like this theory made sense. Why create an entirely new character just to have him become exactly like a character we already know just in a different body?

If the CRWBY Writers made Oscar exactly like Ozpin in the end, my automatic question would be why make Oscar in the first place? Why not just have had Oz regenerate as teenage boy but still be the same character? Why go through the hassle of introducing and making your audience invested in this entirely new character who you brought in the show’s fourth season if you’re intention with him was just to technically make him a new body for one of your old characters who the audience has known since the start of the series?

And upon learning of the other Wizards, I still find this theory silly since every Wizard succeeding Ozma was an extension of him; Ozpin included.

I’m going to be frank here guys, Oscar becoming Oz after the Merge makes zero sense, at least to this squiggle meister, because if it happens it would render Oscar’s entire characterization pointless. You made him just so he can be a new body for Ozpin when you could have just as easily done the same thing without needing to go through the process of creating a new character and fleshing this new person out.

It also doesn’t make sense for Oscar to be just like Ozpin since…Ozpin wasn’t even Ozpin. Neither were the other Wizards. Let me remind folks once more that Oz described himself as culmination of countless men who have given their lives to protect human. Ozpin isn’t just one person. He is himself---or what’s left of his original self plus the souls of all the other Wizards of Light.

If anything, I’d like to assume that all the past Wizards live on as part of this one entity I dubbed the Wizard Persona. Makes more sense to me if it’s like that.

That’s why I prefer my headcanon of Oscar being Ozma’s true incarnate a lot more. To me it sound better to have Oscar be made complete by the Merge than to just have him disappear entirely and let someone else take over what’s left. It makes more sense in my head to have Oscar be revealed as the embodiment of the original Ozma’s first form revived in Modern Remnant. It provides Oscar’s purpose in the narrative with more meaning as opposed to just have be another life for Ozma to live.

I love the idea of Oscar being revealed to be Ozma---the original Ozma all along but ultimately make the choice on his own to live his new life as Oscar because that’s who he is now. He isn’t Ozma anymore. Hasn’t been for many years. It’s unfortunate that he had to bring the other Wizards like Ozpin into his war. They were all basically casualties and it’s their lives that Oscar will carry on his chest. However it will give him a much bigger drive to end things with Salem.

Oscar is meant to be the end. If Ozma was the beginning who kick-started this never-ending clash with Salem and the Gods then Oscar will be the endgame to bring it all to a close. He will be the last life and it would make sense it he was always supposed to be the last life since he was born of the flesh that was one Ozma’s. He is Ozma.

I understand that Ozpin is the current embodiment of the Wizard Persona that will ultimately become a part of Oscar as well but people do realize that much of Ozpin's classic mannerisms and posture were inherited from Ozma, right? I understand that he was the first Wizard we met before we even knew there were others before him. However it still remains that Ozpin is essentially an extension of Ozma. Any quirks that we know him mostly for has been shared by other Wizards before him.

So it’s not so much Oscar is going to become like Ozpin, it’s more like he’s going to become like Ozma.

To me, it makes more sense for Oscar to become more like Ozma in the end especially if it ties into my theory where Oscar is Ozma.

I'm still sticking to my guns on Oscar being similar to Eriol from Sakura Cardcaptors; being the second half of the revived Ozma representing his original form that was revived by possibly the God of Darkness.

I'm still a firm advocate for Oscar not disappearing with the Merge but rather be made whole by it.

I'm also sticking to my guns on Oscar resembling his original self---Ozma as he grows older especially if he becomes a brunette at some point.

Now of course this all just me tossing out ideas for funzies. But who knows it could be interesting if Oscar dying his hair brunette does become a thing. Could be cute for him. But who knows?

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#rwby #oscar pine #professor ozpin #oscar and ozpin #rwby theories #pinehead headcanons #squiggles pinehead headcanons

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screamingatanemptyroom · 6 years

Text

Fictober18 Day 9

Original Fiction

Prompt:“You shouldn’t have come here.”

9 days in a row. I’m doing my best!!!

“You shouldn’t have come here.”

I muttered to myself as I stood in the open doorway. It wasn’t as if I had stepped into a shady place, like a back alley, or an abandoned warehouse or a gang’s hideout. It was just a normal living room, sparsely decorated with pictures of flowers and a single blue rug. I had bought those decorations myself, and briefly wondered if they would still be considered my property or if it would be thought of as taking back a gift.

I knew this place well; after all, it was my fiancé Noah’s apartment.

We initially had plans to eat dinner here, but he called me and said he had to work late, and not to bother. I unfortunately had made the decision to come by and make his favorite, bacon cheeseburgers and green bean casserole for him as a surprise. I thought that after all the stress of wedding planning this week on top of working late, he would probably appreciate a nice cooked meal.

Obviously this would lead to such a clichéd outcome, I probably should have anticipated it.

I had been surprised as I walked up that the lights in the living room window were on, Noah was fairly strict about not wasting electricity. I made a mental note to mention it to him next time he bugged me for forgetting to turn out a light on my way out of a room. Chuckling to myself, I used the spare key to let myself in.

Only to discover my fiancé and a strange woman engaged in amorous activities.

I was now more annoyed than ever that the living room light had been left on. I would have been much happier not seeing this scene in decent lighting. As I stared at the couple silently, who were currently desperately trying to cover up their nudity while shouting in surprise, I couldn’t help but wonder:

What should I do with the dinner supplies in the bags I was carrying?

After all, although I liked bacon cheeseburgers, I wasn’t really a big fan of green bean casserole. I only ever made it because Noah liked it. So should I leave the ingredients here? I hated to waste the food, but I felt he really didn’t deserve extra groceries as a reward for cheating on me.

Did I have any friends who like green bean casserole?

“Maria?! What are you doing here?” Noah was shouting, breaking my concentration.

I thought over his question and statement carefully. “I came here to cook you dinner as a surprise. This was obviously effective as a surprise, although not effective in terms of making you dinner, which will probably not happen now. Actually you probably already ate… unless you were going to have a post-coitus meal?”

It would probably be uncomfortable to do such activities on a full stomach. I looked around and didn’t see any signs of food. Perhaps they were going to order out? In that case maybe it would be more convenient to leave the green beans with them. I felt strongly that I should keep the cheeseburger ingredients. They were more expensive and I was hungry, after all.

“This isn’t what it looks like, I swear!” Was he still shouting? He seemed much noisier than normal.

“It looks like you were engaging in sexual intercourse… I am confused as to what else you can do naked while rolling around on the floor.” I wrinkled my brow. “By the way, that’s pretty dirty. I vacuumed that carpet a month ago. I’m pretty sure you haven’t cleaned it since then. Make sure you shower after you complete your activities.”

They both stared at me silently. I let out a sigh of relief. That was much more comfortable than the screeching and shouting. I looked around the apartment, thinking about the objects I left behind over the course of the five years that we dated. How long should I wait before sending someone over to pack these up? I really wanted to make sure I at least got my cappuccino maker back. It was expensive.

Noah stepped forward, a kitten blanket wrapped around his lower half. Ugh. That was my blanket. I mentally crossed it off the list of objects that I wanted back. He could keep it.

“Maria… I don’t know what you’re thinking right now, but we can work this out…”

“I’m thinking about the distribution of communal property.” I sighed. “Obviously now is not the right time for me to pack up my personal items, as it would cut into your date with this young lady, but if it is convenient I will send a friend over on Saturday to pick up my things.”

“Wait…”

“Oh, you must be worried that after these years you can’t remember what object are mine, right? It’s fine, I will email you a list of objects to pack up. If something seems to be in error. You may feel free to write me back.”

“That’s not what…!”

I walked into the kitchen and unplugged the cappuccino maker. Carrying it under my arm, I returned and gave them a polite smile.

“I will take this with me however, in case negotiations break down. I do not want to part with this particular item. I trust you have no objections.”

Even if he did I was still walking out with it. After all, he would likely not be willing to chase me down the street while naked.

“Maria, let’s talk this out, we’re getting married…”

I stared at him in surprise. “Oh, I’m sorry. We’ve miscommunicated. I thought there was a common understanding that me catching you having intercourse with another person was an automatic cancellation of the affianced relationship.” I shook my head. “That was my assumption. In that case I will make it clear.” Looking him in the eye clearly, I stated slowly. “We are not engaged anymore. We are not dating anymore. You will not call me, text me or communicate with me or my friends unless you have concerns regarding the distribution of property. I will let my friends and family know that the wedding is off, and you will be responsible for your side. Any wedding gifts that you have received should be returned.”

I stepped back towards the door, clutching my cappuccino maker. “If you have questions…” I thought it over. “Too bad. I don’t wish to talk to you anymore.”

“…” He was staring at me, his mouth open in shock.

“One last thing.” At my words, he perked up, and stepped closer with an excited expression. Was he expecting me to say something positive to him?

“You may have the green bean casserole ingredients.” I graciously put down one of the grocery bags. “Please refrigerate them appropriately if you do not plan on making it tonight.”

With that I left the apartment.

“Wait, that can’t be right, you left something out.”

My friend Rose stared at me, as she bit into the bacon cheeseburger I had made for her after coming to her house after leaving Noah’s apartment. I thought it over.

“No, I’m fairly certain that I have accurately described all the events that happened while catching my fiancé cheating.” I also took a bite of my cheeseburger, nodding in appreciation. The new seasoning I had tried out was very tasty.

“Seriously? You’re a freaking black belt! Why didn’t you beat him up?!”

“It seemed unfair to take advantage of the situation. I doubt he would be able to put up a fight given his mental shock and nudity. Plus I don’t wish to be charged with assault.”

She covered her face in her hands, groaning loudly. “Are you going to be okay?” She looked up, and I smiled as I saw the concern in her eyes. “I mean, you’re really calm right now, but it can’t be that easy to get over your fiancé cheating.”

I spoke around another bite of cheeseburger. “I am very upset, but in the end, he did me a favor. I would much rather break up with him now then divorce him in 5 years for a similar issue.” I shrugged. “Plus, I really must examine my own feelings. I might not care about him as deeply as I thought, given my reaction to his infidelity. My initial emotion to catching him was honestly not anger or sadness, but mild relief.”

“Really?”

“Really, I think this will be a better start for me.”

She sighed with relief, leaning back in her chair. “Well, that’s good. But if you need to talk to someone… or need someone to hide a body…I’m there for you.”

Did I just hear something slightly disturbing slipped in among the sweet comforting words of my friend? I must have misheard right? Shaking my head, I chuckled to myself.

“Oh, but he’s definitely dying in tonight’s update.”

Rose laughed. “Please make it terrifyingly painful.”

“Deal.” I thought it over to myself. I made a funny web comic based loosely off of my life and the interactions between myself and my friends. Noah had obviously been a recurring character. I had already planned out a funny bit on trying to pick out cake for the wedding, but obviously this would need to be redrawn. As I planned more and more gruesome and ridiculous ways to kill off Noah in my comic, Rose finally asked a question.

“So does this mean you’ll finally meet up with that online friend of yours?”

I looked up, confused. “You mean Atlas? We haven’t talked in months.”

“Not since he confessed to liking you and asked to meet up.” She grinned. “You turned him down then, right?”

I nodded. “Of course, I had a fiancé, after all. Once he wanted to be something more than friends I couldn’t lead him on.”

“What about now?”

I thought it over. Atlas and I had been friends online for about 3 years now. We had met on a forum for online artists. He mostly wrote fan fiction, but we each appreciated the other’s work. We had talked daily, having a surprising amount of things in common, but… when he asked to take things further, I had distanced myself. I thought it over, surprised at the warm feeling I had at the thought of him.

“I’m not sure, though. I just broke up with my fiancé.” I stood up, and gave her a sad smile. “Let me sort out my feelings, and then I’ll consider it again.”

“That sounds fair.” She stood up and gave me a hug. “Take the time you need… wait until I tell that brat he’s got a chance. He owes me big time… are you leaving now?”

Again, I felt I heard her mutter something under her breath that didn’t make sense, but in the end, I ignored it, focusing on her question instead.

“Yes, I have an early shift at the store tomorrow. Will I see you there as well?” I worked at the local bookstore, while Rose worked in the café.

“Nope, tomorrow’s my day off, but Brandon will be there.” She grinned.

“Ok.” I was unclear why she was reporting which of her co-workers would be there, but appreciated it nonetheless.

“Matchmaking plans phase one… start!” she was muttering again.

“What was that?”

She quickly arranged an innocent expression. “Nothing! See you tomorrow!”

“I thought…” Wasn’t tomorrow her day off? Why would I see her?

“Bye!” She pushed me through the door, barely giving me time to grab my cappuccino maker on the way out.

I stood outside her house, mildly shocked in the change in her behavior before looking down at my appliance in my arms.

“I guess it’s just you and me now.”

With that, I made my way home. Somehow, despite the terrible direction this day had gone, I couldn’t help but feel that something new and exciting was about to start.

#fictober18 #short story #writing #relationships #story start #cheating #friendship

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