#after her actions robbed it from both of them

[leohtttbriar]

michael burnham as a character really exemplifies that summer-night-freedom-looking-at-the-sky-and-the-stars-while-fireflies-blink-and-the-world-is-green-and-isn’t-it-nice-to-just-lie-back-and-wonder particular Star Trek feeling, which makes this moment all the more tragic bc by far that’s what she’s most lost from, the exploration rather than the utility of her training, and she remains somewhat lost from it for a long, long time. maybe bc she never learned how to embrace that part of her as simply a part of herself and not derived from philippa and not in service of sarek or her family. she deserves to stargaze when it’s warm and she deserves to feel she can.

[himewonu]

CATCH THESE FEELS! ; seventeen scenarios

in which things that best friend!seventeen do that make you realise you like them

starring friend! ot13 x gn! reader genre fluff, comedy, mutual pining ish, 95% of this is based on stuff that happened to me contains profanities, cheol is older than reader, super duper small angst in jun’s, soonyoung is taller than reader, kinda angsty in kwan’s, mentions of food, lots of teasing lmao word count 1.7k (woah🤯🤯)

from rhin，this was rotting in my drafts since july 2024 but im bringing it back now cs now i have enough ideas to write for each member..!

seungcheol ; when he teases you about your age

seungcheol is only a year older than you. he’s a third-year college student while you’re in your second year; it’s not a bad age gap. somehow, he still manages to tease you about it. the both of you were just walking around campus together until two of his friends asked to tag along. you don’t know them, but you’re aware they’re also third years.

although you thought they just wanted to talk to him, one of them asked you if you were in her biology class since she swears she’s seen you there before. you had to clarify you were a second-year student, and that took seungcheol to start telling them that you’re just a baby. he kept teasing you by calling you baby after that.

jeonghan ; when he asked you to guess his birthday for a whole month

you know a lot of things about jeonghan. you know his favourite colour, how many times he got robbed, and his next move when playing card games. you know everything but his birthday. ever since you knew him, he never told you his birthday. when you asked him, you expected his answer to be the date, but instead he told you to find out before the end of the month. he mentioned how he never tells anyone, so it’ll be hard. you proposed that you’d eventually find out, and it really did take you a month to find out.

you asked several of his friends, but he found out and kept bringing up that he doesn’t tell anyone. you kept asking for hints, and he gave you vague answers. eventually you had to do some deep stalking, and the night before the end of the month, you finally found out his birthday. after telling him and getting it right, he told you that it’s a secret between the two of you.

joshua ; when he agreed to be interviewed by you

you had a psychology project where you could talk about anything. so you decided to choose the psychology behind crushes as the topic. in order to find the answer to your hypothesis, you had to interview people about their crushes. one of them happened to be joshua, who you thought wouldn’t have a crush.

when you asked him if you could interview him, he was a bit hesitant at first since he wasn’t sure what to say during the interview. after convincing him, he agreed to the interview. during the interview, you found out that he’s one of the people that contradicts what you researched. it turns out he did have a crush, so that caused you to ask him who it was. in the end, he told you that he’ll tell you who it is eventually.

jun ; when he apologized first after you misunderstood each other

after you got into a misunderstanding with jun, you avoided him for three days. all you wanted to do was make up and tell him that you deeply care for him as a friend, but your other friends told you to not do anything and move on from him.

however, you bumped into him three days later and asked you if he could talk to you (which lowkey scared the shit out of you because he sounded serious). he ended up apologizing for his actions—even though it was no one's fault—and wishes he could still be friends with you. and yes, you easily forgave him because how can you ever get mad at someone like him?

soonyoung ; when he teases you about your height

soonyoung is only a few inches taller than you. he’s the same height as all your friends, but he’s the only one that teases you about your height. no matter what, he’ll always find a way to make fun of it, whether it’s using your head as an armrest or pretending to not find you when he’s right in front of you. sometimes when he passes by you, he would lightly push your head since, according to him, it’s easy for him to place his hand on your head.

that goes for the same with patting your head when he goes up to you. one time, he asked you what your plans were for the weekend, and you mentioned how you’re going to help out with one of your relatives’ daycare. after hearing that, he joked how you’d fit in well with the kids. turns out, he did all of that because apparently teasing about a friend’s height is a way to get closer with them.

wonwoo ; when he studied with you (gone wrong)

when wonwoo saw you in the library, he was going to go nag you until he noticed you were studying. exam season started, and he did everything but study, so when he saw you flipping through papers, his instinct was to ask if you needed help.

despite taking up his offer, he did not help you at all and kept telling you that you got this and how the review is easy. in the end, you two ended up playing video games together and got nothing finished. although he did absolutely nothing, it's the thought that counts.

jihoon ; when he talks about you to his friends

you never thought jihoon would be the type to talk about anyone, especially his friends. he was reserved when you two would talk, only bringing up something about him or asking about you. the only time you found out he talked about you was when you gave him your lunch. you went to go check on your friends in a study hall until jihoon went up to you and asked you if you had any food.

you gave him your lunch that you never ate and left the hall to go after the bus. that evening, your friend told you that he was telling his friends that you made the fried rice for him. she may or may not have gotten into the conversation and asked him if he likes you—and his response was still confusing up to this day.

minghao ; when he smiled when you went on court

you're not very huge on sports, but if minghao's on your team, suddenly you just automatically become eager to play. you were far away when he and both of your friends were playing badminton. one of your friends called you over to take over her place as minghao's partner for doubles. when you both played together, he kept praising you even if you kept missing the birdie.

you weren't sure if you were the only one he did that to, so when you asked your friend what he said to her, she told you that he was silent and how he was kind of pissed that she kept missing the birdie, and she mentioned that the minute you stepped foot on the court to replace her, he smiled.

mingyu ; when he bought you frozen yogurt

you and your friend group were hanging out at the park when suddenly a few of them, including mingyu, were craving fro-yo. the shop was a five-minute walking distance from where you all were at right now, so you stayed back with the rest. before the others left, you told mingyu to treat you for free as a joke, and to your surprise, he came back with two bowls.

he gave you one that was your favourite flavour and filled with your favourite toppings. you've never told him what your favourites were, so you're not sure if he's been observing you or if it's just the bare minimum (but you're hoping it's the first option).

dokyeom ; when he gives you high fives every time he sees you

ever since you met dokyeom, you discovered that he was more of a physical person. he always gave people big hugs and shook everyone's hand when he met them on the spot. but never has he once done any of those to you right when your friend introduced you to him. the first time you two met, he waved, and never in your life have you wanted to give anyone a high-five so bad until his hand stayed up in the air.

you never did give him that five, but nowadays, whenever he has the chance, he would ask for that high five (and he does it all the time to the point where he stopped asking, and it was just automatic between you two)

seungkwan ; when he defends you

everyone knows you’re too nice to do anything wrong, but you know the only wrong thing you did was breaking up with your ex because you couldn’t admit you still like seungkwan. he’s one of the few who know why the relationship ended, and he doesn’t blame you. he was never bothered about it until his friend brought it up in a conversation.

his friend saw you two alone together, and he began to call you fucked up in the head for leaving your ex—since they were friends. seungkwan was quick to defend you by saying how his friend shouldn’t say that about you since he doesn’t know the whole backstory and that maybe it was never meant to be. even though his friend was right, you still appreciate seungkwan for doing that for you.

vernon ; when he sat with you alone in a theatre

your friend group all agreed to watch a musical produced by the theatre department of your university because who doesn't love the art of theatre? right before the show started, you and vernon went to go get some snacks and told the rest to find seats. unfortunately, by the time you two went inside the hall, the show was in the middle of a number, and you both couldn't find your friends anywhere.

so you spent the whole show sitting with vernon alone together in the back row, singing along to the songs and squealing whenever the leads kissed, while he just sat there in silence. perhaps you wished the romance scenes in this intensified with whatever you have with that man (maybe, maybe not, who knows).

chan ; when he hangs out with you

every time you’re with chan, there are always a few friends with you. you can’t bring yourself to just hang out with only him, so you’re only there when both of your friends are there as well. even though he’s only there for his friends, he still likes to acknowledge you by doing his weird greetings.

eventually your friend urged you to hang out with him alone, so you invited him to lunch one day. that day was a lot calmer than most days when you and he are with your friends. he still did his weird greetings, but you two got to learn more about each other. since that, he prefers the one-on-one conversations with you over having to talk to you in a big group.

svt masterlist .ᐟ

[cozage]

congratulations on reaching 2k 🫶💕

For the event, I was wondering if you could do option one with reader being hit on right in front of them? With shanks, Sanji, zoro and if possible Nami <3

Hehe I love your writing so much!!

Hii thank you! And thank you for the request :)

Characters: gn reader x Shanks, Sanji, Zoro, Nami Cw: creepy bar guys who can't take a hint Total word count: 730

Take a Hint

Shanks

Shanks’s reaction really depends on the kind of mood he’s in. 

Sometimes, you both go into a bar in a competitive mind, trying to see who can get more free drinks throughout the night. 

He enjoys watching guys trying to flirt with you. Plus, free booze is free booze. It’s funny how they never seem to ask if you’re there with someone before they buy you a round. 

But sometimes it really rubs him the wrong way (especially when he’s in the middle of a conversation with you and someone interrupts him to talk to you). 

He usually says some snarky comment like “If you’re going to buy one for my friend here, you should probably buy one for me, considering we’re together.”

He doesn’t ever start a fight, but he will finish them. And he will always take up for you if someone says something rude to you or tries to put their hands on you. 

Sanji

People rarely get the chance to try and flirt with you because Sanji is literally all over you 24/7. He wants everyone to know that he belongs to you. 

However, there are some brave (and foolish) souls that sometimes try while he’s got his back turned or he steps away from a moment. 

The moment he is back, he immediately steps between you and the man who’s trying to shoot his shot. “Is this guy bothering you?” he’ll ask.

He’ll turn back to the guy, his curly brows furrowed in anger. “Unless you want to get your ass kicked, buddy, you might want to move along.”

Afterward the flirter leaves, Sanji will fawn over you, asking if the man hurt you or did anything that made you uncomfortable. He won't relax until he knows for sure you’re okay. 

Zoro

Zoro knows you can handle yourself. And besides, it’s amusing to watch. 

He lets you handle the situation. Most of the guys take rejections pretty well, but there are a few stubborn ones who insist on buying you a drink even after you’ve turned them down. So you accept a drink.

When you accept, Zoro’s focus on you usually sharpens slightly. He watches carefully for any passes this guy might try to make on you. If you show even an ounce of discomfort, Zoro’s hand is resting on his blade, just in case. 

Your eyes meet his, and he’ll mouth “You okay?”. If yes, he’ll leave you be. But if it’s no, he’ll take action. 

He’ll position himself between you and the man, taking a nice long drink of the alcohol the guy bought you. Then he’ll plant a kiss firmly on your lips and smirk at you, ignoring the fussing happening from the other man. 

“Listen man,” he’ll say, resting his hand on his blade as he turns to him. “I think you need to learn what rejection is. So why don’t you just buzz off, and leave us alone to enjoy this fine alcohol?”

If it leads to a fight, that’s fine. Zoro has never minded fighting for your honor before. And he’s never lost a bar fight. 

Nami

Listen, Nami is no stranger to people flirting with her. And neither are you. 

Plus, free things are always better. Which is why you two set up a system. 

If a guy starts flirting with you and can’t take a hint, well, he’s basically just inviting in some unfortunate circumstances. 

So you let him buy you a drink. Maybe two, if you’re feeling crazy. You keep him distracted, telling him stories about your life. 

Of course he thinks you need saving by a big strong man or whatever he imagines he is. He has no clue you could knock him out in about 3 seconds flat. But you just smile and listen to his clearly made-up stories. 

Meanwhile, Nami is absolutely robbing him blind. It’s actually hilarious to watch. She starts out with his wallet, but she slowly gets more confident as he gets more drunk. She steals his necklace, watch, even his rings. She’s truly amazing at thievery; you can’t help but be in awe at her skill.

At the end of the night, he goes to pay his tab, and you and Nami quietly slip out together hand-in-hand, serenaded by the screams of panic from that dreadful man.

[onmyyan]

Romantic DC yan, my time to shine (platonic is cute but I can't find any romantic ones this days T_T)

I bring to you a cliche, a new villain who uses her riches and ruthlesness in her quest to get a magical artifact in order to make her dream come true.

The bats have to stop her! But what is this! SHE’S TOO CHARMING?! (in a villain mean way, like comenting on Nightwing's as while they fight, or kissing Red Hood over the cowl before pushing him off a building)

Dangerous Woman

A/n: fem reader, yandere themes, canon typical violence, ft Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim

You're new to the villainous scene in Gotham but already kicking up quite the storm, you follow your own rules, killing corrupt men across the city, setting human trafficking rings on fire after freeing the victims, your crimes caught the gaze of Bruce and in turn the rest of the batfamily.

He saw a certain mercy in your actions, a quality of compassion he was certain he could pull out of you if he just got his hands on you.

But you're a slippery one, your teleportation abilities made you incredibly difficult to catch, and you seemed to relish in his growing frustration.

"You ever get tired of losing?" You ask sitting on a bank counter, money both burnt and unburnt scattered the floor around you, he hated to admit it but he was undeniably attracted to you, the way your suit hugged your form like a second skin, those long legs splayed out like a feast, heeled feet swinging as you toyed with a stack of bills.

"(Y/n) (L/n)." He states gruffly, his imposing form blending into the shadows. Of course he knows your name, you laugh to yourself before hopping off the counter and sauntering over, "ooh so scary." You snicker, "Your crimes warrant a trip to Arkham..but I'm willing to offer you something else. Rehabilitation."

Your smirk doesn't falter, "You can't save me." This only fuels his burning desire to do just that, those simple words seal your fate, he would have you under his care wether you liked it or not.

Tim is the second to become aware of your tantalizing presence, Bruce asked him to pull up anything and everything he could find on you, he couldn't help but become intrigued by your mysterious nature, any time you were caught on camera you had this knowing, mischievous grin on your lips, it was addicting, he found himself tracing the outline of your lips as he compiles a file on you.

Jason comes across you on his own, running into you after you successfully rob a museum.

Red Hood stared at you a gun pointed in your direction, "Stand down gorgeous." His voice was altered by the mask he wore, he was the latest of the bats to try and get in your way, to try and stop you from your goals, but he'd fall, just like the rest of them.

"You're not gonna shoot me Red." You speak coyly, hands up in surrender, your black domino mask hiding your pretty (e/c) eyes, your lips, painted red curl into a smirk at the sight of his hand wavering.

"Shooting you in the leg won't kill you." He chimes not lowering the weapon, "Yeah but I get the feeling you're not too trigger happy tonight."

"You've no idea what I'm capable of." He sounds like he's trying to convince himself.

You take a calculated step forward your red bottom heels clicking against the concrete rooftop, "C'mon big boy, you know there are actual bad guys who require your attention out there?" Your voice was like melted butter flowing into his ears and setting a warmth in his belly. "Robbing Gotham museum seems pretty criminal to me." He lowered his gun, holstering the weapon, "Can't you just slap a girl on the wrists?" You ask with a tilt of your head, the stolen goods in a satchel on your hip, "You know I can't just let you walk away." He responds, you close the distance making him take a step back, he wanted to reach out and touch you, claim you, and the closer he got to you the harder it was to resist.

You managed to back him on the edge of the roof, your hands trailing up his toned chest, landing on his shoulders, your claws digging into the leather of his jacket, "Just..stay outta my way." You whisper letting the tension build, pressing your plump lips to his mask you feel him shudder, without wasting another second you push him off the building. He falls for you harder than the garbage can he hit.

Dick is the next to come across you and the next to fall, and fuck does he fall hard.

He's got you corned in a dusty warehouse but damn if you aren't quick, darting around in him in blinks, teasingly touching him as you dance around, teasing him with every brush of your clawed fingers.

He's brought out of his inappropriate thoughts by a whistle from your pretty lips, "You're in that spandex boy!- nice ass." He feels himself flush, freezing on the spot as he sputtered for a response. You use his distracted moment to send a roundhouse kick to his head, one he just barely managed to block, "Don't lose focus now pretty." You chide smacking your teeth. Of course you manage to escape, which only fuels his budding obsession.

The trouble starts for you when they start working together, it's after a meeting Bruce calls one night, your file pulled up on the screen, they all have various reactions but one common thread is shared between the four men, burning desire.

Once they start coordinating it's only a matter of time before you come home, where they can tame you.

[kr-starz]

I saw a TikTok about how Ambessa and Silco's last words to their daughters weren't out of love and oh my god am I pissed OFF, (no hate to this creator)

I am NOT super into Ambessa and Mel's relationship so I will not be elaborating on them at ALL, but here's what I feel like what Silco and Jinx's relationship can be chucked up to.

First of all, I'm not here to say Silco and Jinx was a healthy relationship. They're not. They are both mutually toxic and enabling. Silco could very well be classified as manipulative, but did he love Jinx? Yes. Let's just state this now, Silco is an underground drug lord who's trying to control the underground as a whole. In an attempt for independence and making Zaun a reality, he's come up with an immoral plan that does nothing but benefit him and his socioeconomic status. Improving his own status with both power, and influence, with Shimmer. That is how he is making himself heard to the people of Zaun, that is why he is so powerful.

In order to keep this status of power, he needs people. Loyal people. Sevika as an example is undoubtedly his most loyal. We have to also acknowledge that Silco is not scared of Jinx swaying to the pilties side, or siding with enforcers. He's more worried about how erratic Jinx can be, Silco might have a semblance that Vi is alive, but she's in a cell. Vi has been locked up and she is basically dead for what he knows, since, well she's responsible for blowing up a high ranking officials home and robbing them. Which would probably put her away for an incredibly long time.

Silco's impression is that Vi will no longer be in the city of Zaun for an incredibly long time, or she's dead. Him telling Jinx that Vi is gone isn't incorrect. She's in a cell, impossible to see. It is manipulative how Silco's isolated her though. He was indeed convincing Jinx of an outcome that was false and tried to convince Jinx that the only other person in her life that she was hopeful to see was no longer there and did not care for is a tactic that abusers use in order to convince their victims that they're the only person they need in their lives.

This was, necessary, for Silco at least. At this point in the story, Silco has yet to realize just how much he values Jinx as daughter. He continues to care for Jinx gently though, as a parental figure.

There are two faces powerful men must uphold. Their status and their values must be something unmovable, which means he must exude a powerful presence. So when Silco is doing business, he usually has a very different energy around him. But when Silco is at his home, he acts this way specifically with Jinx. He is soft. He is never inclined to make moves to touch or guide her. He acknowledges exactly how mentally disturbed Jinx is and does the very least in order to not agitate her. He knows Jinx has episodes and breakdowns which cause her to do harsh and brutal things. Yet has he ever yelled at her for hallucinating? Has he ever blamed her for being ill? No, he acts accordingly. He wants Jinx to acknowledge that there have been consequences to her actions, natural Karma, yet he doesn't blame her, he simply tells her.

When Jinx screws up the first Job, when they encounter the firelights. He first asks Sevika what happened, which gives him a clear run-down of what happened. Then, he goes over to Jinx, asks her what happens. He's open to hearing her side of things which is essential for trust in a relationship. To continue this topic of trust, he hands Jinx his syringe. He trusts her, even after screwing up to poke him in the eye and give him his dose of shimmer. All these indirect ways of telling Jinx that he continues to have faith in her, that he trusts her and that she is still valuable.

Value; this topic is important for Jinx and her psyche. As a person with abandonment issues, she most likely has adapted to this need of being needed, especially from people she deems important. So through this Silco has realized this and continues to put value on Jinx by giving her jobs and responsibilities, unwavering trust.

During this scene, we see Jinx wrap herself around Silco. She slides from Silco's desk into the same chair that Silco is sitting in. There's a lot of people I see looking at this scene in a strange way which is upsetting to me how they manage to sexualize a TEENAGE DAUGHTER and a PARENTAL FIGURE.

Jinx's love language is physical touch, this is established by Vi and her in the first act. They exchange many acts of casual physical touch. Always on the receiving end though, through Vi cupping her cheek, or touching her physically in other soft ways, I only remember Powder receiving touch from Vi.

When Jinx initiates any form of physical touch to Silco, we see no push-back, we also don't see Silco moving to initiate MORE physical touch. When Jinx is in his chair, he sits back, his hands nowhere near her yet he doesn't deny Jinx closeness. We see Jinx playing with the syringe, and this is the only time where Silco initiates touch. Not directly by the hand but by the wrist he grabs her to make sure she's listening. When Jinx pulls away he doesn't resist.

Silco never initiates any physical touch from Jinx, the request of handing over the syringe to Jinx is an act of trust. We can infer, from how comfortable Jinx Is that she's been giving Silco his medicine for years now. This is a tradition, and daughters sitting in their father's laps, especially at a young age is not a sexual act and it is STRANGE to think of it as one.

Jinx and Silco have no concept of what healthy father daughter relationships are. Essentially what Silco's way of parenting is, is "I will let you do what you think is best for yourself, as long as you continue to do some tasks for me." Which means he leaves Jinx to deal with her issues, which he himself is not equipped to handle. This doesn't mean he doesn't try to combat it, he takes measures so that Jinx doesn't have really bad episodes in the first place. He treats Jinx's hallucinations as normal as that isn't something that he himself can tame. But he does know that most of Jinx's episodes come from her trauma of Vi.

So in order to prevent these episodes which seem to harm her physically he does what we see as him Isolating her from Vi, making her not think of Vi, and reassuring that Vi is no longer present. He does his best to help Jinx, does this mean that this was the best option? No! But was this the best option for both his goals and Jinx, yes. It ensured loyalty while doing his best to help Jinx and her Vi induced episodes.

During the bridge scene, we can see that Jinx is badly hurt and Silco in an attempt to revive her in the only way he can is bring her to Singed. I think at this moment Silco begins to see Jinx as something very important, something stronger than just a loyal subject, and more-so his daughter. In the beginning we can see that he is almost 50-50 for Jinx, it's obvious he favors her, defending her and backing her up. Yet he continues to put his cause before her. But when he's found Jinx almost dead on the bridge, he does everything he possibly can to ensure her survival. Because Silco has gone through similarly traumatic events that have changed him (The Silco and Vander event where Vander tries to kill him) we can see that his perception of pain in exchange for power and life is a lot.

When Silco wakes up from being drugged the first thing he does is look for Jinx, then he goes to threaten Singed about where Jinx is. Which says a lot. He values Jinx enough in order to threaten an individual he used to work with, and enough to put his chemicals in his body as well as hers.

After this, there's the last episode of s1. Silco is tied to a chair, obviously kidnapped by Jinx, as well as Vi. He's muzzled, and the first thing he tries to say is "her name is Jinx." to Vi. It's the first thing he says muzzled and unmuzzled. Even at his most vulnerable, he's defending Jinx from her biggest trigger at the moment, Vi.

He doesn't ask to be released, he doesn't question what it's about. But what he does do is tell Jinx about the offer he got from Piltover, for independence. At this moment Jinx is splitting, because of the shouting from Silco and Vi, she's incredibly stressed out. Her two personalities of Powder and Jinx; she's having an identity crisis and neither Silco or Vi is helping. Silco notices the physical pain that Jinx is in due to the fighting, he could also observe how she's basically having an stress-induced episode because of her identities and Vi. So what he tries to do is shoot Vi, in an attempt of getting her to shut up. What Jinx does in response is to shoot at the nearest bullet fired, because here's the thing. Jinx is still in a daze almost, she would've had the same reaction she had with Silco if she shot Vi. Because at the end of the table is the two people she's valued the most.

When Jinx shoots Silco, what Silco does is finish telling her that he wouldn't have given Jinx to Piltover no matter what. Value. He's showing her that he values her. He then goes to tell her,

"don't cry, you're perfect."

This line is a show of Silco, even at the end, he wants to help Jinx as much as he can. "Don't cry." He doesn't want to see her hurt, he doesn't want to see her in pain because of her mental illness, he wants her to be as happy as she can, if she can.

"You're perfect." Jinx is quite literally having an identity crisis. She's on the bridge between Powder and Jinx. What a manipulative person who wants to mold her into the perfect person would've said something along the lines of "don't cry Jinx, you're perfect." He would've included her name somehow. But he doesn't, because right then and there, no matter what Jinx picked. Silco would've been on her side.

Through all of these acts of trusting jinx, and him doing his best to help her, not giving over Jinx in exchange for independence, and his final line of "you're perfect." It's hard to say that Silco didn't love Jinx.

End of TedTalk; and If anyone wants to claim that Silco can't love Jinx because he manipulated her, wrong! I've been in a relationship similar to theirs which is why I feel so strongly about this and It's incredibly obvious what he valued Jinx a lot, he loved her enough to learn her needs and catered to them. Showing Jinx that he valued her was his way of reassuring her he loved her. And him giving one last act of trust, telling her she's perfect shows that his love is unconditional.

[mirohlayo]

CHASE MY DREAM(S)

( Lewis has one last dream to fulfill, well if you don't count the most important one. )

warning : a lil boring introduction, all fluffy

note : i want a Lewis in my life pls

word count : 1.3k

Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton. Two names that both worked perfectly. We always likened them to one another, like pieces of a puzzle that fit together. As soon as we thought of one, we thought of the other.

However, the seven time Formula 1 world champion struggled to achieve victories and podiums, and his formerly usual appearances on these three steps were much less frequent, rare and almost... non existent. It was not his lack of experience that held him back, Lewis was surely the most experienced on the current grid, and that without a doubt.

Rather, it was his opponents, a certain team and a certain driver. RedBull and Max Verstappen. Many of Lewis' fans will say that he was robbed of his eighth championship, in 2021, but we are not here to debate that subject. The loyal Mercedes driver doubted his choices, his actions and his performances. His thoughts wandered, because at what price could he afford this eighth championship that he dreamed of so much?

The price to pay was surely great and fatal. Leaving the team for which he raced, the one with whom he has always been faithful and loyal for 11 years. But after 3 years without success, maybe a new start will do him good, and maybe this change will turn everything upside down. He still had a dream to accomplish, this eighth championship to win. Well, to be honest, he still had two dreams to fulfill.

This famous championship, as previously announced, and then, her. This person who has just joined Lewis in his driver room. This pretty woman who has known him for several years now. The one for whom Lewis' heart seemed to melt in an instant as soon as he laid eyes on her.

She looked like a dream. Angelic and almost unreal. The kind of face you can admire for hours, and the kind of voice you can listen to speak for hours because there was an inexplicable sweetness emanating from it. It was one of Lewis's most beautiful dreams. To be by her side forever, to finally have the courage to offer her a life together, a love of the strongest.

He took her in his arms, squeezing her gently. He could let himself go in these embraces, and show her his weaknesses and his fears. She knew him by heart now, and she worried a lot about his mental health and his career choices. She was perfect in his eyes. “Still thinking about your contract, mhh?” Lewis chuckled weakly, almost ironically. He expected you to ask him this question.

His eyes, where a glow that you couldn't describe danced, met yours. You looked for him, and behind those pupils that were full of thousands of different feelings, you tried to find the words he was trying to say. The true feelings he felt deep inside. He was still smiling weakly, his gaze softened by your face. "I think deep down I made the right choice, Y/n. It's just that leaving Mercedes after all these years..."

He couldn't manage to finish his sentence, looking down and staring at your feet face to face. He felt totally exposed, lacking in confidence and full of doubts. Maybe a little shameful. His grip had loosened, his hands resting in the hollow of your hips. "They haven't really listened to you over the last two years, Lewis... as if you weren't their driver, as if the vision of a seven time Formula 1 champion who drives every day had no importance"

You manage to extract another mocking laugh from Lewis, who, despite his love for this team, totally agreed with your words. His racing team had been indifferent to his suggestions and comments. He played nervously with his fingers. You could feel the tension and stress in him, and seeing him like this broke your heart. The man in front of you didn't deserve this.

You grabbed his hands gently, separating them from each other. Lewis looked up, his expression completely dejected. He looked like he was about to cry and you couldn’t stand the sight anymore. Wrapping your arms around his back, you took care to gently guide his head onto your shoulder, into the crook of your neck, where he loved to nestle comfortably. His hands hadn't moved, just gripped your waist tighter.

Several minutes passed like this. The noise of the paddock hidden by the walls of the driver room. Lewis felt...at home. He was relaxing little by little, he absolutely didn't want to let you go. Everything seemed normal now, in your arms, far from all these incessant questions. “I believe in you so much, Lewis. Everyone believes in you, and everyone is very, very proud of you” Your lips brush against the driver’s temple, placing a soft, reassuring kiss there.

“It’s time for you to chase your dream.” Lewis leaned back slightly, locking his gaze with yours. He tilted his head to the side, a smile hanging on his face. "Dreams. Chase my dreams" You didn't immediately understand where he was going with this. Why was he repeating the same sentence as you? And then, after a few moments of confusion, you raised your eyebrows, intrigued and curious. You had finally found the difference, and it was in the number of dreams Lewis had.

He had piqued your curiosity, and he himself had guessed it by examining your expression. His smile gets bigger. “I don’t have one dream, but two dreams to fulfill Y/n.” He brings his face slightly closer to yours, only a few centimeters. He grins even wider. “Win this eighth championship. And above all, win the heart of this absolutely beautiful girl.” His index finger points to the top of your chest, reflecting his words.

Your eyes widened, your cheeks blushed violently. It is true that you absolutely, but absolutely did not expect a statement like that. Lewis couldn't help but laugh happily, satisfied with your reaction. "I have a race to win, sweetheart. Wait for me, m'kay?" He winked at you, before rushing onto the circuit. Everything was happening at an incredible pace, and while you were still stuck in your driver room thinking about what just happened, the race was already coming to an end. But an incredibly beautiful ending. Silverstone, 2024, and a Lewis on the podium of his home race. Finally.

The shock was still present in you, but with this sudden victory of your favorite driver - and your secret lover - the adrenaline didn't seem to want to subside. The applause from the completely overexcited and crazy crowd, the euphoric atmosphere. This time, everything really felt like a dream. So, gently pushing the different people, making your way among the Mercedes employees, you saw him there on the podium.

Big, strong, and proud of himself. A huge smile on his face and tears of joy beading on his sweet face. He looked around. He was looking for something, someone. And he finally seemed to have found it. You couldn't take your eyes off his, both too hypnotized by this surreal moment. And, despite the vibrant and almost dizzying atmosphere, he managed to read on your pretty lips these three words that he dreamed of hearing from you.

And this dream came true. So, finally, at the moment when he was brandishing this magnificent trophy, on the top step of this magnificent podium, he had regained this ounce of hope. His first dream had come true, and he had finally won the heart of the woman of his dreams. So, if he managed to did it after all these years, of course he can win that much desired eighth championship, right?

[itsscriptory]

Another Post About Showing and Telling

I feel like it’s a rite of passage for a writing blog to talk about show, don’t tell, so I’ll take a crack at it. 

First of all, to get it out of the way, show, don’t tell is good advice for specific situations, but it’s been taken to mean always show, never tell and that’s not helpful. If you really want to paint with broad brushstrokes, then the better advice would be: Show more than tell. Showing and telling should both be tools in your writer’s toolbox. 

But why should we show more than tell? Because showing is the key to the reader's emotional experience with your story. There are many posts and books out there that go over how to turn your telling into showing (like using active verbs instead of passive, for example, or using concrete, specific details in your descriptions), but I think it’s important to fully digest why we’re making those changes and why the reasoning will push us to become better writers. 

It all comes down to emotion. Writing For Emotional Impact by Karl Iglesias encourages writers to start thinking to themselves: “I’m in the emotion-delivery business, and my job is to evoke emotions in a reader.” Dialogue, theme, setting, pacing, character development, word choice, structure, POV, showing and telling. These are all tools a writer uses in varying proportions to best manipulate a reader’s emotions. The good news is that when a reader picks up a book, they’re willing to be manipulated. In fact, they hope to be. The tough news is that you have to deliver on a sentence by sentence, paragraph by paragraph, scene by scene, and chapter by chapter basis. But that’s okay, because you’re a writer, dammit, and this struggle is where the art of the craft is. 

Showing is where the emotional complexities of our characters, theme, and plot can be revealed gradually without giving too much away too early and robbing engagement from the reader. Showing is what makes the resolution and the journey satisfying. So you can see how much weight it carries and why we want more of that than telling. We’re trying to evoke emotion from the reader, not talk at them like we’re recounting a dream we had last night (yawn). And it’s easier to evoke emotion if we keep them curious. Engaged.

Part of revealing the story gradually through showing is planting evidence for a conclusion that you leave the reader to make themselves, or a conclusion that you will reveal later. Donald Maas in The Emotional Craft of Fiction writes, “The ingredient behind effective showing can be summed up in this word: subtext. When there’s a feeling we’re not being told, but it is evident anyway, that underlying feeling is the subtext. It’s the unspoken emotional truth.” And then a fandom is born and continues to thrive for decades after the show ended! Really, though. Subtext is an ingredient in showing, which fosters engagement, which makes the reader feel something. Sometimes passionately. Every story I love and keep coming back to in one form or another has that special place in my heart because of how it made me feel.

I’ll try to give a simple example here to illustrate subtext and reader engagement at work. Using setting and a couple action beats as an opportunity for subtext, let’s say a character and her sister arrive at their grandmother’s house. Character A remains standing in the corner when invited in, hugging herself, frowning at the green knitted blanket hanging over the couch that looks like the color of nausea. Character B walks easily into the living room, running her hand over the green blanket that reminds her of nature and wellness. In Character B's perspective, she admires her grandmother's craftiness. But it's only in Character's A perspective that we notice the store tag on the blanket. Who do we think has the better relationship with their grandmother, given the evidence? Which one seems more naïve or eager to see her grandmother in a certain light? What assumptions can we make about the grandmother? Might she be putting on a performance of being grandmotherly? The mental work the reader does here would be completely thwarted if the scene had started with “Hannah didn’t like her grandmother because she valued material wealth and appearances over forming a genuine connection with her family.” We can show that instead over time by filtering the world through the perspectives of our characters, and even making it pack an emotional punch if we’re strategic about it.

But I had mentioned that contrary to what show, don’t tell asks us to do, telling isn’t something we should throw away. It can be a tool in its own right. 

Telling is explaining, and explaining keeps people distant from what’s happening in the story. How many times has an “I love you” felt kinda meh in a story because that character hasn’t earned that confession by showing their love through their actions or making some sort of sacrifice? How many times have your eyes glazed over while reading the fourth paragraph of an info dump? How many times, when talking about a book you just read, have you said “well, the first 80 pages were slow…” because it was all backstory? Or maybe a story is entirely forgettable because the telling leaves nothing to the imagination. Donald Maas writes, “Put on a page what a character feels and there’s a pretty good chance that, paradoxically, what the reader feels is nothing.”

However, telling has one thing on showing: efficiency. If a book only showed, then it could go on forever and ever. So a writer has to learn how to weave both showing and telling into the story to control the pacing and delivery of information. If you want subtext or you want something to be vague on purpose, then you’ll probably want to show. If you want to deliver information quickly and with clarity, then you might want to try telling. Does it need to make logical sense to understand the upcoming scene? Maybe tell. Is this transition unimportant to the story and you don’t want to linger? Try telling and see how it works! Ask your beta readers how it worked for them. Of course, if you’re writing in the literary genre, you might be doing a whole lot of telling because what propels the reader to the next page and the next chapter is the form, the prose, and the sheer depth of the exploration of flawed characters. 

It’s all about balance. And practice. Next time you read a book and you find yourself moved, try to figure out how the author just evoked that feeling from you. Was it stated plainly, or was it shown through action? Was it stated plainly after a whole book’s worth of setup through subtext? Was it unexpected? What was the balance of showing and telling that led to it? Or, if you find your focus trailing off, try to figure out why. Then, when you’re editing your own work, you’ll have the tools you need to identify the weak points and make revisions. And it’s okay (even expected) if the perfect balance of showing and telling doesn’t occur in the first draft. The Artful Edit by Susan Bell (highly recommended) talks a lot about the revisions that went into The Great Gatsby. You'll find that his writing struggles are comfortingly familiar. Luckily, he certainly had a wonderful editor :)

For further reading/watching: 

[VIDEO] ShaelinWrites—Show, Don’t Tell | what it means and how to use it

[BOOK] Showing and Telling in Fiction by Marcy Kennedy [BOOK] A Writer’s Guide to Active Setting by Mary Buckham

[captainuranium543]

Everyone knows that Jellal blames himself for what happened to erza, but i think it's really not talked about enough that Erza blames herself for what happened to Jellal.

Early on, it's very clear. As a child, she couldn't save anyone. She failed to save jellal, and as a result, she was thrown out of the tower free to go while everyone she loved had to stay behind. As an adult, the burden of that guilt pushes her to try and appear completely unbreakable. She wants to be strong because everyone she loved had to pay the price for her weakness.

Simon told natsu that no matter what, Erza could not hate jellal. No matter what, Erza will always try to save him because she will always feel like she owes him that. Her attachment to him at that point wasn't love. It was guilt. Guilt because she knows he wasn't always like this, and the only reason he is now is because she failed him.

Later down the line, she forgives jellal easily despite everything because, from her perspective, it was all her fault to begin with. Jellal was possesed, he had no control over his actions, but she did, and she could have prevented all of this if only she had been stronger. Jellal had his very self stolen, to Erza(former child slave), having your freedom stolen to such an extent is an unimaginable fate and it's one he was only condemned to because she couldent save him. She failed him, and because of that, he lost everything.

She blames herself for simons death for a similar reason. Simon died protecting her. Jellal might have killed him, but he had no control over his actions. No matter how you look at it, his death is her responsibility.

The moment where she confesses this to kagura is a direct parallel to the one with jellal after they reunite post tenrou. Jellal tells her he believes he has to die for his crimes, and erza insists he must live. In gmg, Erza tells kagura that Simon's death is her fault because that is what she truly believes. Simon and Rob are dead, Jellal had his autonomy stolen from him, her friends lost their childhoods to slavery because she failed them. She truly believes that, and the weight of that guilt is crushing, but even so, she blocks kagura's attack.

She blocks it because she made a promise. because of that, just as jellal does, she must live.

I've complained about the fact erza forgave him so easily before but it's not really about that, it's the fact that her feelings on the matter are never acknowledged or further explored making the forgivness feel unnatural. If they had taken the time to show us just why it was so easy for her to forgive not only do i think it would make sense and be an interesting character flaw, but it would also be a pretty great way for her and jellal to connect. Both feel immense guilt at the situation the other ended up in despite the fact they had very little control over it, and I think seeing them confide in each other and grow past it together would have been a great way of growing their relationship.

I have kind of a love hate relationship with jerza in cannon and part of the reason is that I can see so much potential for it that just kinda gets brushed off for the sake of making things easier. The more complex parts of it are never explored and instead they just kind pretend nothing happened and that is so lame to me tbh. Idk man maybe I expect to much of this dumbass show but it honestly fusterates me so bad I just want them to be happy why are they never allowed to talk to each other. Anyway late night erant over. Goodnight everybody.

[arcane-ish]

Vi got robbed by the finale

First, a few words on where I'm coming from. I really enjoyed Vi and felt for her in season 1. I'm a Cait/Vi enjoyer and was looking forward to their resolution. I do not have fundamental objections to Vi becoming an enforcer. I don't have a problem with Caitlyn and Vi having sex in the Jinx cell and I actually think it is one of the better scenes of her arc.

IMO she was great, tragic POV heroine and lead in season 1.

Her status changed in season 2, which is reflected in the screntime distribution (ie both Jinx and Caitlyn having more screentime). This does not have to be a bad thing. You can have good arcs and emotionally resonant stories even as a supporting character.

But the more and more I think about the finale and Act 3, the more I think Vi really got treated badly. And the core is really this:

I've joked that I thought about switching my ship allegiance to Mel/Cait after the finale. I'm not actually serious about it. But it got me to think.

And I came up with the following thesis:

1.) Vi is really, really unimportant and useless in the final fight 2.) That matters because they went with an an action finale

On to a long post discussing Vi's role in the finale and Vi's arcs in Act 1 and 2 and her lack of meaningful arc in Act 3.

Within the finale there's really a clear hierarchy of conflicts.

1.) Viktor is the biggest threat and the most emotionally emphasized climax. Jayce is the action and emotional hero of this threat, Ekko is the supporting cool action hero of this threat.

2.) Ambessa is the second most scary threat. She's not a universe threatening as Viktor, but she's still badass and interesting and she gets a cool and very lengthy action scene associated with her. Mel is the emotional core of this conflict. Cait gets the badass action part of this conflict. Mel and Cait also directly coordinate, increasing the badassery.

3.) Warwick by comparison is barely a goon. He feels like an afterthought. Not like a major threat. Vi and Jinx are "assigned" to him. Jinx is the hero of this already fairly unimportant conflict and I would argue she even gets the bigger emotional punch, even though Vi is clearly affected as well.

I find it striking how different Vi's role in the battle feels to Caitlyn. Caitlyn it feels gets two badass action sequences. First in the smoke, really getting to show of her sharp shooting:

While at the same time, Vi gets her shit kicked in by regular Noxian soldiers and is busy... trying to hold a door? Babysitting the shooting of a rocket?

I've been thinking about it. On paper, there isn't that much of a difference between Cait's sharp shooter sequence and Vi's sequence at the tower.

Both show several people dying around them (though Cait acts calm and professional about it while Vi reacts emotionally). Both have bit player characters stepping in to help execute what they are doing (Steb placing the bomb, Jhin tease guy shooting the rocket). Both have missions that kind of fail (Cait's bomb doesn't go off, the rocket shoots the empty egg thing).

But it still feels like Caitlyn just gets way more glory shots. While Vi gets pushed to the floor, gets rescued by Jinx and Ekko riding to her rescue.

Her big glory shot

In theory should be great. She is punching Warwick to rescue Jinx. But it's shot so far away and turns around so fast into Warwick choking her, we don't feel the impact of her punch at all, even though on paper it is Vi using her gauntlets in a really cool innovative way.

If I compare how the Cait/Ambessa fight goes, yes Cait also gets hurt and thrown to the ground.

But Cait's fight just feels way more badass and Cait like a fundamental part of that conflict. Cait and Mel fight like a well coordinated team while Vi, Jinx and Ekko feel a lot more erratic. Cait is the one who initiates the fight in the first place, Cait is the one who makes a badass sacrifice to open up an essential tactical weakness. Yes, Mel gets the last shot and the emotional payoff, but it still feels very much like Caitlyn's fight too.

Yes in theory, Vi and Jinx go back and forth with saving each other, but it's just much faster and erratic, and *busier*, it just never has the same impact to hit. (I would be very interested in seeing a numbers breakdown, how much screentime is spent on the various different fights but also who has longer scenes before the next cut is)

It just feels like this finale is filled with scene after scene after scene with Vi being shellshocked and helpless and not really being super effective enough to compensate for that. Neither her glory moments, not her emotional moments really get the time to breathe the way this moment does with slo-mo and a song.

Compare Vi hurtling herself at Warwick to save Jinx, versus Jinx hurtling herself at Warwick to save Vi.

Okay, so is this just a dick measuring contest over who gets to be the most badass?

No. It's not a crime for Vi not to be the most effective fighter in the finale. But let's take a step back.

Act 1: Vi is a supporting character, but she has a clear role

I have said before I feel a major difference to season 1 is that rather than Vi being the main driving character, the show switched. Cait is the main character of Act 1, Jinx of Act 2.

Vi has lost her spot as main character, but her role in the story is still very clear. She is there as Cait's partner, her heart, her conscience. She witnesses Cait's distress. She tries to reach out to her. When they have an action scene, they work together and coordinate.

Arcane has action roots. Characters express themselves through their action scenes. That's why it's important who gets what action scene.

Also, while Cait's grief and hate and decisions drive the events of Act 1, Vi has her own arc of having hardened towards Jinx (agreeing Cait should take the shot) and then having that challenged by the end and of course getting an emotionally charged poignant moment when Cait dumps her when Vi takes a stand for Isha (= Vi making a choice).

Act 2: Vi is a supporting character, but she has a clear emotional arc

IMO Jinx is the clear lead character of act 2. She has a clear arc with Isha, befriending Isha, rescuing Isha, losing Isha.

Jinx is also the driving force of the Warwick arc. She encounters Warwick first. She is the one Warwick recognizes first. She puts 2+2 together. She seeks out Vi. She initiates their trip to the mines. She gives Vi the important hint about correctly handling Warwick. Warwick jumps into action ("Don't touch my daughter") to save her. His "death" in this arc is linked to Jinx and Isha.

But Vi still has a nice and satisfying enough arc in Act 2 anyway. She starts at rock bottom and grieving, she gets roped in by Jinx, she is initially suspicious of Jinx, she starts to trust Jinx more, her reunion with Warwick is emotional, they all go and try to help him, Jinx and Vi think about their mother.

Vi also goes from grieving Cait, to fixing her own life a little bit, to re-encountering Cait and teaming up with her again.

The big theme of Vi's arc is trust. She has to get over her fears and trust Jinx's advice on Warwick, just like she has to trust Caitlyn about letting Cait tie her up and play fake prisoner.

Act 3: Jinx has an arc about Vi, but Vi has no arc about Jinx

Jinx's in arc in Act 3 is about deciding to leave Vi. Everything in this arc is to prepare us for it.

Vi is not at all in the first episode. Even though the trigger of that episode was according to Amanda Overton what would happen if Vi had died in the original explosion, and the episode is absolutely respectful of Vi, with much grief and praise about it, in the end the portrayal isn't really about how life is impossible for these characters without Vi.

We get told what's going to happen to Jinx and get emotionally prepared for it, even though we don't know it. Sometimes leaping a step forward means leaving a few things behind. We get prepared for the idea that leaving things behind doesn't have to be a bad thing.

In the next episode, again we are getting prepared for what Jinx wants to do through her vision of Silco. She's going to heroically break the cycle of violence. Also, codes and commitments (like Vi's to Jinx) can be the bars we lock outselves in with. Identities (like the Jinx identity) are the cells we want to break out of.

Jinx then makes her decision. She's going to leave Vi. Vi never giving up on her is perceived to be something negative by her. She sets Vi free, telling her to stop caring about Jinx, telling her to be happy with Cait instead.

In the last episode, Ekko talks her out of killing herself. But Jinx still is determined to leave Vi. She says her goodbye to Vi. She assures Vi that it's not a problem because they will always be close anyway.

She then cuts the ties, lets go of Vi's hand and tumbles down with Warwick (and by most people's logic, fakes her own death and leaves the city).

Jinx has made a decision about Vi, which she executes. But Vi has no say in this decision. That's why she has no arc. She doesn't get to make a decision about her future really.

Even sneaking out to try and save Jinx we find out was prepared for by Caitlyn (and of course we find out that Caitlyn is the one who understands what Jinx did while Vi is still outside of this decision). And yes, she chooses to sleep with Caitlyn and she chooses to live with Caitlyn. But do these things really feel like part of her arc or just Vi reacting to circumstances?

IMO Vi wasn't ready to let Jinx go, that's why Jinx had to do it against Vi's will. That's why Vi doesn't make a real decision in Act 3.

Amanda said they wanted to explore who Vi would be if she didn't have anybody she had to protect and that is a valid and cool idea. But how much time with that did we really get?

And yes I genuinely think that if Vi had gotten a better action role within the finale it would have made a real difference in not making her feel so aimless.

Don't get me wrong. I get why they split it like that. The story required for Vi and Jinx to be paired up, so they can execute the conclusion of their sisters story. And unfortunately, compared to the other threats going on in the finale that story didn't really get the attention and gravitas and time and focus it deserved. (also Vi doesn't have a meaningful enough relationship with Ambessa for it to work for her to be in the Ambessa confrontation)

The problem is also that Vi doesn't really have much of a say in the conclusion of the sisters story. And her future is with Caitlyn.

So if they had found a way to sneak in some Vi and Caitlyn also doing action together or even just have Vi react to Caitlyn's duel or have Caitlyn react to Vi being under attack from Warwick, I think it would have felt more satisfying vis a vis the relationship they are going to have.

Alternatively. I love Ekko. I love that he got a badass fighting moment against Viktor. But in the moment where Jayce flies past Vi, for a moment I thought Vi would switch battlefields and Jayce and Vi would team up again, like they've done a couple of times already. If Vi's identity within the final battle was to be a big damn hero, that would also have imo left us more assured about what her identity is moving forward. Rather than the only thing we have is her being fairly weak in battle, being left out of information loops/not being smart enough to recognize them and being Cait's sweet live in girlfriend.

I don't hate Vi. I don't hate CaitVi. And I actually have some hope that maybe there is a chance that CaitVi as a pair will get to show off their stuff in some other form after all. But yeah, that's why imo season 2 and particularly Act 3 really did Vi a disservice.

(I'm not even suggesting things like Vi's decision to fight for Piltover and seeing so many Zaunites die being given gravitas or her reacting to Sevika being on the council, because I think the writers just have no interest in this topic at all)

[haveihitanerve]

I request Bruce chasing his children down to put on scarves and gloves in the cold ass winter of New Jersey because despite being some of the strongest people (martial arts wise) on earth, they refuse to believe in cold temperatures and keep getting sick.

refuse to believe in cold temperatures is my new favorite sentence

anyway your wish is my command-

Kevin did not know what he was expecting to see on a Friday night at three am, but it was certainly not Nightwing and the fucking Red Hood running as fast as their legs could possibly carry them as the Batman chased after them, holding scarves and gloves in his hands.

He reached them just before they could round the corner and Kevin watched in amazement as Batman forced the gloves onto the two grown men who squirmed like five year olds.

"Don't-! wanna!" Red Hood screamed petulantly, trying very hard to escape the Bats grasp. "Your brother already has a cold!" Batman snarled back, winding a scarf around his head like he was trying to choke him.

"He doesn't have a spleen!" Nightwing argued, attempting to pull off the gloves that seemed to have some sort of suctioning power and would not budge. "They come off when its not cold. So finish patrol with them." Batman offered them both a sweet smile before grappling away before they could hit him with snowballs.

It was, probably, most arguably, the craziest shit he'd ever seen, and he lived in Gotham and got robbed by dudes wearing purple and green and asked questions before ordering their coffee.

And then it happened again. This time he was staying with his brother on the other side of town, when Orphan and Spoiler showed up. Neither seemed to be particularly cold, but Kevin remembered vividly how he and his siblings used to pretend "no its not cold!" to their mother because they had made such a fuss before but it really super was cold.

And then Batman showed up. Orphan melted into the shadows and Spoiler made eye contact with Kevin, flying across the street in an instant and pushing past him inside the apartment. His brother, wide eyed on the couch, looked between them.

"I'm not here." Spoiler hissed, forming an X with her arms. "I'm not here!" She ducked behind the couch just as Batman landed on the balcony and Kevin, he was raised in Gotham man, but he still flinched.

"Sorry," Batman grumbled, voice rough and low and also a little pouty. "I know she's inside. This won't take long." He stepped off the railing onto the balcony, but Kevin, telling his fear and survival instinct to fuck off, stepped in his way.

"She's uh- she? There's no she in our building sir. Believe me, we've tried." He swallowed, looking up into those endless white slits. The slits narrowed, and he turned to look inside. Brad was pale, but his brother, bless his heart, lifted his beer in a salute at the bat, before turning back to face the TV.

Batman looked about two seconds away from not being apologetic and screaming, but he finally gave a nod to Kevin and hopped off the balcony. Kevin didn't even bother to watch him hit the ground, because he knew he wouldn't, and cracked open the door instead.

"He's gone-" Spoiler poked her head over the couch hissing, "NO!" but it was too late. Batman appeared, one hand flinging him back up onto the balcony, and he was past Kevin before he even had a chance to scream, tackling Spoiler to the ground.

"I! Don't! Need it!!!" She screamed, struggling against him as he pinned her down, panting, legs trapping her lower body as his hands snagged her hands. "It's... for- your.. own good!" He grunted, pinning her hands down with one finally.

And as Kevin watched her buck, fruitlessly, and watched Batman slide gloves onto her hands and wrap a scarf around her neck, not effortlessly, he realized just how much of a threat Batman truly was. Sure, he had seen the Bats in action, and everyone knew the Bats were trained and raised by Batman, but he had never actually seen Batman work.

Old friends, goons, told him how he skilled, how efficient, how brutal he could be. But Kevin had laughed it off as propaganda, as some more bolstering of the Bats ego's. But now...

Batman's work wasn't effortless. Spoiler was fighting him every step of the way. But he wasn't struggling either, moving quickly, but also carefully, his hips pressing down enough to keep her still but not enough to hurt, hands pinning hers down but not enough to bruise....

Kevin knew Batman didn't kill. But he had never considered the amount of strength, precision, capability, it required. Not killing over killing had always seemed, to him, to be the easier thing. Not anymore.

Batman finished his work, standing and lifting Spoiler in one swift movement, and hauled her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. She had stopped struggling at this point, and Kevin was fairly certain she was just hitting him because she could. Because she wanted to. The look on Batman's face revealed he was aware of it too.

"Thank you for protecting her." He growled, voice low but not hard. At that, Spoiler finally stilled. Kevin blinked in surprise. That was not what he had been expecting. He didn't know what, exactly, he had been, but a thank you was nowhere on his bingo card.

"N-no problem." Brad stuttered out when it was clear Kevin couldn't answer. Batman nodded to the both and left, setting Spoiler down on the balcony next to him, and wrapped his cape around her shoulders, murmuring something in her ear. She laughed, then stuck her tongue out at him, but Kevin noted how she leaned closer, wrapped herself in the warmth he provided.

Orphan materialized at their side and Batman tugged her to his side too, muttering something that sounded like admitting defeat, and Spoiler fist pumped, high fiving her. Orphan grinned and Batman rolled his eyes, wrapping his arms around both of their shoulders and jumping. This time, Kevin watched until they disappeared.

[zeondraws]

Making another post about the AMA, as a few questions couldn't be answered on the reddit post before it was closed. Some of the answers were send to the Secret Mode server instead.

So I am listing them all in this post, so I can use it for the wiki. I also asked a few additional questions about Alex, (for example, we were confused if we had two Alex on the rig because of the Alex P. signature. But turns out, Alex Cranstoun is the same Alex who talks to Sunil).

Lead Narrative Sagar: "His full name is Stuart Gibson"

Lead Design Jade & Lead Narrative Sagar - "Spot on, this was definitely our goal!"

Lead Narrative Sagar: "Wait, we completely agree: Billy Chamberlain is DEFINITELY very important! He's the inciting reason for Caz's presence on the Beira D to begin with! Yeah, we have a sense of what sort of person he is, and what happened that fateful evening at the pub in Glasgow. But nothing more we can share here, I'm afraid..."

Lead Narrative Sagar: "Haha! This is the first name of a very important member of the crew. Check out the answers I gave to roses-in-the-abyss and to Icy_Piglet4732"

Lead Narrative Sagar: "Thanks for asking this. It had to do with the overall arc of Mhairi's story. Mhairi, for us, works really well as a foil to Caz. She has more information, plans more, and most importantly, chooses to go into a dangerous situation. True, she doesn't know quite how dangerous it's going to be. But it's a far cry from Caz, who never expected to be running around like mad on a sinking oil rig, and is equipped just with a screwdriver. His final action is exactly what he has grown to be capable of doing. By contrast, no one asked Mhairi to go to the bottom of the North Sea and disturb what was there. She chose to. The most straightforward thing to do, narratively, is to make her pay for that choice, maybe with the ultimate sacrifice. But we wanted to reflect the greater agency Mhairi has a character to do a bit more, and ask the player what they think makes sense for their version of Mhairi. After all, even the game itself opens up a bit more: your version of Mhairi might be more exploratory and less resolute than another, or vice versa. We don't branch very widely in this story, just at the end, so it's not too hard to keep the various realities in our heads simultaneously. It would be a different design challenge if the game were built around branching. Thanks for your question!" Lead Design Jade: "On SWTD we wanted to tell a story about a person who was always running finally deciding to do what's right for his family. A choice would have not given the experience we wanted. But Mhairi has a choice because I think we all deal with grief in a different way. When someone dies you can feel guilty about letting go of that sadness because it feels scary when you built yourself around it. Ultimately you can either let it consume you or let it go and I love that we managed to talk about it in such a way. I think in our mind both ending are open enough that we can do different things with them if we decide to."

Who is Alex/what is his backstory, and what's his surname? (Lo-Honko is my reddit name)

From Sagar: Lo-Honko's questions were quite fun to respond to. But this specific question (the 5th) was ambiguous. There isn't just one body in those two locations: there are two, one in each named spot. In my answer, I only responded to what I thought was being referred to in the second one, later on in the pipe maze, the body with the lighter. But let me expand on both bodies, because I think the first at least has some cool implications about events we never get to see. Once you're down at 237 metres, you get into Mud Pits. (That's the "giant room, split by a fence", as Rob says.) If you make your way through a pipe at the top of the room, you can snake your way into a smaller room, called Mud Handling. That's the one that has a dartboard and also something that looks like a body, buried under some rubble... but also bizarrely with a seeming cross / grave marker? Now that is a weird and confusing thing... is it a legit grave marker? What the hell? This is actually one of the oddest things Mhairi has found to date. It's what leads her, uncharacteristically, to trip over her words. "I-I don't know... body," Mhairi says. Because she can see something Rob can't. It's not just a body. It's a body with debris that seems to have fallen (or been placed!) in the shape of a grave marker. Who would have done that? Presumably the collapse of the rig was an emergency. Who would've had the time, and if they did, why do it in that location? Doesn't seem to be someone in their right mind, and moreover, it'd have to be someone (or some thing) that could have survived such an emergency, present in Engineering and full of confused emotions. --------------------------

The second body (the one holding the lighter in the pipe maze) after you listen to the second data logger recording is Alex Cranstoun. I expanded on this in the AMA and how he got ahold of Finlay's lighter. Alex worked hard on the rig, and he was seen in the first game working with Sunil. He works on the Deck and is always fixing something or trying to keep the rig from falling apart. We get a hint way back when Mhairi discovers the Ganpati murti of just how heavily Sunil's loss was felt, but we don't discover too much about Alex. In fact, Mhairi's quite confused by this body too, even about how it possibly has arrived into the vent. How horrific, if this person died, trapped in the vent. Alex was no less loved by his mates. He was a particularly close co-worker with Sunil. In fact, we see the two of them talking together very early in Still Wakes the Deep. Work on a rig can be very uncompromising and very busy. But there can also be a lot of dead time. You have to make your own entertainment. Sunil, Alex, Archie, and Gregor would sometimes have competitions around who could grow the most luxurious facial hair. Let's just say that Alex did not win this competition... He was determined to get his revenge on Sunil during the darts tournament, and even this did not go his way. Though as a consolation, Alex did manage to win Finlay's lighter off her late in the darts tournament, after everyone was deep in their cups. When the disaster began, and the leccy went out, that lighter was what Alex used to navigate for a little bit while he was running for safety. But it barely lasted a few minutes, before plunging him into darkness. And as the rig listed, Alex tragically tripped and fell into a vent, a slow and tragic end for someone who deserved better.

And for context, this was Lo-Honko's question from the AMA.

"Does the guy from the vents and mudpits have a name? Who is this person Finlay lend her lighter to?"

-

-

Thanks to Liam from Secret Mode for forwarding the Alex questions!!

This is super interesting, this is gonna take a while to put into the wiki. But today I am editing Alex and Archie (I deleted the Cranstoun page and will delete the Dunbar page later, don't touch it!)

I find it important to have sources because some people will think you lie and edit something and claim it's a headcanon. I had to re-edit a page because someone claimed the father-son relationship between Muir and Innes was a headcanon (because of the new memento). I think the person means no harm, but I figured I mention this.

Double check before you edit something, because if you don't have a source for example, you may spread wrong information.

[nogurlstoy]

I've been noticing a lot of people saying that to criticize Caityln, you must criticize Jinx for her actions. I even stumbled upon these tags..

Jinx also was someone who wasn't able to have decent education or lived in a comfortable home environment compared Piltover. Her life was always centered around murder and violence before she even made her first kill. This was normalized to her, and before Caityln came into Vi's life, Vi would also believed it would be necessary to protect her family. Otherwise we wouldn't see Vi literally beating up Silco's goons when rescueing Vander. Jinx was willing to live a life of murdering, Nobody, not even Vander, the man who famously known for his own violence, bothered to tell her that she could have lived a better alternate life. Even if he did, Jinx certainly wouldn't agree after what happened to Mylo and Claggor. Atleast devoting into Silco's cause let her have her own space and materials to work her inventions. Otherwise without Silco taking her in, she would have been one of the Firelights that were killed. Vi even said it herself, Jinx did whatever she had to do to survive. Basically the motto of almost every Zaunite that have existed. Of Jinx, Ekko, Vander, Silco, Sevika, etc. It was not pretty, not good, but necessary.

Necessary Evil: an act of evil that one believes must be committed in order for a better outcome, when other alternatives could result into a much worse concequence.

Now Jinx and her siblings had literally lived in a basement under a bar and had to result in robbing someone in Piltover to help their father in supporting their family. People say murder is never okay (even though rapists who walk away scott free exist but whatever-), but in a city ridden with bountless of crimes and desperation for control, what is the better alternative? Could it truly be empathy? It's so easy to throw in morality and judge the wicked. But why are they wicked to begin with? Why have they result into such violence into their day to day lives? Is it because they enjoy it, or were have they adopted the "us vs them" to keep them and their loved ones safe? Did Jinx truly wanted to kill people because she wanted to, or had she been expected by dangerous people like Silco to make ensure nobody, not even the innocent could steal away the lives they fought to get from them?

Jinx wasn't just Silco's daughter, she was his most valued soldier. She was his most relied and trusted assasin that saw no reason in believing in stopping crime in Zaun when the few things she's been taught was 1) strength was the necessity of survival, 2) family should be your main priority, and 3) weakness will be the very reason your found in an alleyway. It's why Vi exceled as Vander's prodigy, because the daughter of the Hound of the Underground knew what it took to survive in an unforgiving world. The concequences of Jinx working for Silco, with combination of her struggles with her psychosis, leads to Jinx beings simply written of as a "murderous psychopath", when looking at her own methods of torture.

Caitlyn did not have to be an enforcer, she was the daughter of a councilor. She had an extravagantly rich life with both parents alive at that point. She did not have to rely on robbing people from higher class to make ends meets. She did not have to witness people fighting over objects on the streets. She was blessed not to live in that kind of environment. And even though she started to see the complex dangers of Zaun, as well as the hand Piltover hand in it, she never did anything to help improve the lives of Zaunites. She could've aided support for the Firelights when she was made Sheriff, but no mention of that has ever happened. Caitlyn chose to turn against Zaun, regardless if the gas actually put many people in danger. If one person is a monster, than their race/ethnicity/class is a monster. Even the children are monsters for helping them, and must be stopped. Even your own lover will be a monster for saying what you did was dangerous and wrong.

When Caitlyn gave up on Zaun, she gave up on seeing the true potential it could lead to helping them have better finances, better education, allow them more opportunities to have just as Piltover possesed for hundreds of years. And in turn adopted the "us versus them" mentality. Her people of Piltover versus Those animals in Zaun.

Jinx and Caityln are not the same people. They are do not belong in the same environment, the same social standing, not even the same ideologies because Zaun and Piltover are no where near the same cities. Caityln to Jinx wasn't just someone who was taking her sister away from her. That was the least of her worries believe it or not. Caitlyn was tracking Jinx down, thus making her a threat to her boss's (Silco's) operations. Jinx had a job to do, and someone like Caityln who was an enforcer, the same people that have bullied and looked down on Zaunites, needed to be taken care of. And sorry to say, but the fact Caityln was an enforcer + believed to be stealing Vi away made Jinx kidnapping Caityln at least be enjoyable for her to do. Jinx as a Zaunite had no place in her heart to show kindness for someone who was willingly going to side with the same people who killed her parents and brutalized her people, regardless if Caityln knew.

Yet in Caitlyn's pursuit to get revenge against Jinx, she neglected the needs of Zaun when she had all the power to help them. She did NOTHING in making Zaun be better when season 1 was beginning to show her having somewhat of an interest. Giving Sevika a seat at the table would've been as good as the president inviting MLK to brunch. Because it's just Sevika's word against other council members WHO STILL DESPISE ZAUN. So Caityln did nothing, almost how like Piltover did nothing to help their sister city. And guess what that led to? Guess what Piltover would even have to give up in order to have at least show a bit of care after years of opression and exploitation?

Let me ask some more questions: In a city where its more easy to commit felonies to put food on the table or even have some sort of control in their lives, where would or should the process learning empathy begin? Would people whose lives were fucked up from the moment they were born should even care about purity in moral when they have only themselves to truly take care of?

Do people in real life who have resorted in sex work, robbery, drug dealing, etc. deserve to be criticized for wanting to just want better things than the ones they got? Is doing nothing when faced with eviction, thrown into unemployment, and even not able to have decent health care, better if it meant pleasing the good upstanding masses? Have they stopped being decent enough human beings for rebelling against society's morals?

"Well Ekko and the Firelights advocate for non violence!" Ekko and the Firelights advocated in being the sort of Robin Hood of Zaun, steal from the rich and give to the poor. They also knew not everything was going to achieve from simply promoting world peace and empathy. They had to indulge in fighting and very possibly killing if it meant it would protect themselves. After all, many members of the Firelights were killed by Jinx, as suggested. They know their city very well and knew the risks and concequences of trying to help victims of Shimmer because Zaun could not simply be healed by the "power of community". At least not if community also indulged in the us versus them towards other people in their own city.

"Vander gave up violence because it was wrong!" Vander gave up violence because he had kids to take care of, children who belonged to dear friends of his before they were killed by the Enforcers. And guess what, he took up fighting yet again when his sons were killed and his daughter was injured. His family was put in danger and he had to do something, anything to protect the one he at least had left. And working with Enforcers, knowing the past between them and Zaun, was inevitably going to have Sevika and the others turn against him.

Boy this was alot, and I definitely steered away from the topic numerously lol, but I just needed to get this out of my chest. I have no doubt somebody would make a better, more organized argument about this than me so, there ya go. Also I made a post about Jinx and her self awareness in this post, so feel free to check it out.

(If you're going to disagree, which I will also encourage to do so, please don't be a bitch about it. If you come here talking about how "stupid" or "idiotic" I am about this, my black ass will say some unpleasant things that's gonna ruin your whole ass day so watch your fucking mouth. :))

[hughiecampbelle]

The Boys Preference: Reacting To Your Symbiote

Requested: HEYY ive been eating UPP your head-canons for rhe boys, i would like to request one on how they would react w/ a reader that has a symbiote (venom basically) except it’s not like butcher’s case, but spouted from comp v when they were injected at a young age :D - anon

A/N: This idea is cool my love!!!! I hope you like it!! I did base it off clips from Venom/the Wikipedia just bc it's been ages since I saw the movie lol so apologies if anything is wrong!!! Feedback is always appreciated 💜

Requests are open! 🔮

Butcher thinks your symbiote is both gross and a great thing to have on the team. You didn't tell anyone about them, fearing you'd hear the same responses you'd always heard growing up. He interrogates you about your powers. You promise you would never hurt anyone, that it's pretty bad in terms of looks, but that you have everything under control. That's not good enough for him. He wants you to show him. After more yelling and assumptions, you snap. It's only your arms that you allow to be taken over, but it's enough to leave him feeling sick. Afterwards you're pretty quiet, avoiding him as well as you can. The look on his face was exactly what you were trying to avoid. Eventually he grows a little more used to them and even apologized, though it's a poor one at best. When he really sees you in action he's left speechless. The team needs you, both of you. You're strong, and powerful, and scary in the best way possible.

Hughie was pretty freaked out the first time you showed him. You begged him to run, to save himself, but mostly you wanted him gone so he wouldn't have to see. When he didn't, you had no other choice. Your symbiote took over, giving you just enough control to apologize before, quite literally, annihilating your attackers. He couldn't believe what he was witnessing. He knew you were a Supe, you were pretty upfront about that, but you'd never gone into detail about what you could actually do. He understood why. Your symbiote was the thing of nightmares. It was malleable, and throbbing, and it could be as large as it wanted. It swallowed you whole, making itself a set of knife-sharp teeth. It smiled at him, telling him he was safe, which would have been endearing had it not been you standing in its place moments before. He has a lot of questions, all of them you're more than willing to answer. He deserves to know, especially coming face to face with them. You're an open book, the both of you are.

Annie was pissed. You never told her you were a Supe in the first place. You couldn't tell her. She was everything good about Supes and you feared you were everything bad. You were afraid of her judgement. You had enough of that from M.M. You made sure no one told her, not until you thought she was ready. And then she watched you save Hughie. She felt like an idiot, watching them take over your body, in awe and horror. She felt lied to. Technically, you think but dare not say, it wasn't lying because she never asked you, she just assumed you were human. You apologize anyways, knowing it wasn't right. You show her your symbiote bit by bit, introducing them slowly, telling her as much as you think she can handle at a time. You've been told, if you wanted, you'd be a perfect villain, you'd fit right in with Homelander. You didn't want her to come to the same conclusion. Annie could come to rash decisions at times. You figured you and your symbiote were no exceptions.

M.M isn't the biggest fan. It's nothing personal. Being a Supe is enough not to make him like you. On top of that you've got this thing inside of you that has a mind of its own. It could be capable of anything and you'd have very little control over it. You know this. You've been dealing with it since you were a kid. You and your symbiote grew up together. You've reached a level of mutual understanding and maturity that they aren't just going to start running around and rob banks or hurt people. That's not who either of you are. Still, he can't shake the feeling, the worry, that they could turn on your team at any moment. Your symbiote knows M.M. doesn't like them and, much like a dog, wants to give him extra attention because of it. You've had long talks about what not to do around him, keeping them in check so that you can gain just an inch more of trust. Anything helps to show him that you're not a monster.

Frenchie is probably the most comfortable around your symbiote out of all The Boys. He has a lot of questions for the both of you, especially about your childhood. For many years you thought you were a monster. Your family was expecting powers that could save people, that would get you into The Seven. Instead there was this thing that took over your body, this creature that could control their child. They thought it was gross, unsightly, and forbid you from letting them out. Of course you didn't listen. When you fell off your bike and skinned your knee, they fixed it. When you couldn't reach something, they helped you. They weren't all bad, they just weren't willing to learn that. Still, there was a lot of shame and even now, you struggle to open up about them. There's absolutely no judgement from Frenchie. He's fascinated. Awestruck. He tells you constantly how cool and powerful he thinks you both are. He doesn't want you to think of yourself as some kind of monster or abomination. Ever.

Kimiko watched your symbiote take over the first time you were really hurt. Homelander pushed you off the roof and you fell, breaking your bones, gasping for air, but magically alive. If she could have, she would have screamed. Your symbiote, as gently as it could, wrapped itself around your body, resetting your bones, putting your insides back together. It was excruciating. It only takes a few minutes before you're completely healed. She watches in awe, eyes wide, unsure of what the hell just happened, but eternally grateful you were okay. She stands you up, unsure of what to say. That night, you tell her everything. She's the first to really appreciate them. They're not the most attractive and have a wicked attitude, but they care about you. They saved you. Anyone who loves you that much is good in her books. She gives them names, asking how Kevin is or if Susan might be able to help her with something. It always makes you smile, knowing she isn't afraid of them or thinks of you any differently.

Bonus! Homelander thinks your symbiote is disgusting and weird. He refused to have you be a part of The Seven, but without any other candidates, he eventually gave in. You do a lot of weird things that truly make him uncomfortable. Arguing with your symbiote is a big one. Only you can hear them when they're inside, so it just looks like you're talking to yourself all the time. He hates when you're "saving" someone and they come out, but only partially, like a hand or leg. Something about that, you and them together, makes him queasy. When it's one or the other, that's a little better. When he gets uncomfortable he gets angry, which is bad news for you. Like The Deep, you've become a scapegoat for Homelander. If anything goes wrong, it's your fault. Your symbiote doesn't like him and, as hard as you try to keep them in check, they make it known.

[midnightlizard]

Kara Danvers x gn!spidey! reader

Love square

Summary: Kara loves the reader, but they're in love with Supergirl. None of them knows who the other secretly is. (it's basically the miraculous plot if you've ever seen it)

Warnings: nothing really. Reader has Spiderman powers but the superhero name (Y/S/N) is not specified

Word count: 5080

-

-

It was a quiet night out in the streets, you already swung over the city a couple of times looking for people getting robbed, attacked or even murdered. But to everyone's luck, except maybe yours, National City was very peaceful tonight.

Hanging from a streetlight, you were pondering ending your patrol and just going back to bed, until you noticed something small moving out of the corner of your eye.

It didn't trigger your senses but you still decided to get on the ground to check it out.

What seemed to be now a small animal shierked away from the sudden movement, hiding under a bench.

Looking through the cracks of the wood you saw a pair of yellow eyes looking back at you.

"come here kitty, come come" you knelt on the cement, trying to get it to come to you. Surprisingly enough, it slowly advanced, coming out to sniff your outstretched fingers.

"oh sorry baby I have no food with me" but thankfully the cat didn't seem to mind, as it started headbutting your hand in search of cuddles. Now that it was under the light you could see its black fur and white spots, that made it look like it had socks on and a mustache.

"ahw look at you, you're so cute!" he wasn't wearing a collar, but you could tell he was a boy.

Between finding the best place to pet him and thinking how you could sneak him into your apartment at this hour without anyone noticing, you suddenly felt a shiver run down your spine and heard a gunshot a second later.

"sorry baby, got to go" you hurriedly said, and the cat almost seemed to miss your touch as you sprung into action, shooting a web at the nearest building and launching yourself into the air, swinging towards the sound.

When you arrived, not too long after, all you could see was a big red cape twirling around and three men around it.

There she was, the girl of steel, in all of her glory, fighting bad guys and not breaking a sweat. They didn't seem too dangerous and you both knew she could handle them herself. But that way you wouldn't get a chance to flirt with her.

You silently crawled the walls, as to not alert the men, and with every bad guy she sent flying into the air, you trapped them with your webs.

"what took you so long?" she asked, removing dust from her hands.

"I was with a kitty! I came as soon as I heard" you leaned close to her face "why, you missed me?"

"not a chance spidey" she put a hand on your cheeck and turned your head the other way. "where is the woman?" she took a step back, searching around. When her gaze turned to you, she saw your head tilted to the side in confusion, and decided to explain.

"there was a woman with them, they were trying to rob her, I jumped in but she must have escaped. Did you not see anyone on your way here?"

Even tho she couldn't see it, you smiled and shook your head "sorry beautiful, but you're the only woman I see" that made her groan out loud, though you knew she wasn't seriously bothered by it.

Since the moment you two met, you were instantly drawn to the blonde, to the confidence in her steps and the undeniable sweetness of her heart, and the fact that she was gorgeous was definitely a plus.

And from the first moment you decided to make it clear, you were never one to hide your feelings no matter the nature, hence the constant flirting.

Unfortunately, she never seemed to return the sentiment, turning you down every single time claiming she already had someone in her heart.

"I need to take them to the police station" she replied, ignoring the flattery "wanna help me bug?"

"You know" you started, already attatching two of the men on your back "for someone who insists on refusing me, you sure like using pet names"

You didn't give her time to reply when you gave her a mask covered kiss on the cheeck "race you there sweetheart" and with that, you started swinging, leaving her to scoff and pick up the remaining criminal.

The rest of the night went by smoothly, with only a couple of people speeding at a red light, but you weren't a traffic vigilante, so you didn't intervene.

- - -

It was almost five a.m. when you got back to your apartment. You went to check on your phone, not really expecting anyone to text you during the night. Much to your surprise, someone did.

Two hours ago, almost at the time you met supergirl, Kara texted you. It was nothing really, she just said how excited she was for your lunch plans for tomorrow, but it still made you laugh that she felt the need to say that in the middle of night.

Throwing your phone back on the nightstand, you took your suit off and got into bed, trying to get as much sleep as possible, to not look like a zombie in front of your friend.

- - -

Turns out, she looked just as sleepy as you. In fact, as soon as you two sat down at noonas, she let out a big yawn, covering her mouth with her hand "sorry, I didn't get much sleep last night" she apologized, light blush on her cheeks.

"oh I believe it" you said, picking up the menu "with texting me in the middle of the night and stuff"

Had you not been so focused on what to order, you probably would have noticed the darker shade of red that took over her face. "yea I was uhm, I couldn't sleep and I was thinking about it"

"We could have met another day, I wouldn't want you to fall asleep on me" you stated jokingly but she instantly started shaking her head.

"No! No, I mean, we haven't seen each other in a long time and I wanted to see you. Besides, I'm fine, really"

You almost wanted to laugh at her eagerness, she always managed to look cute without ever trying to. While on the other side of the table, Kara felt so embarrassed she wanted to fly away and never come back.

You resumed talking after the waiter came for your orders "You wanted to see me? You need something?"

yea to be your girlfriend.

"No it's, it's about next week's game night" she seemed to take a breath, pondering her next words "I was wondering if you could come earlier to uh, to help me prepare"

You squinted your eyes at her request, she never wanted any help setting things up, and she always ordered take out so it's not like she needed help in the kitchen.

Taking your silence as an answer, she started fidgeting with her hands. "Yea you're probably busy sorry, don't know why I-"

Kara stopped mid sentence, feeling your hand on hers. "No it's okay hun of course I can, I was just confused." she just nodded, raising her free hand to adjust her glasses.

When your food arrived, you removed your hand and the blonde immediately missed your warmth.

Nothing special happened after that, except for Kara blushing one too many times for her liking.

Once you two finished she had to excuse herself to run back to the office, before Cat would notice she's late. She went to reach for her purse but you stopped her, wrapping your hand gently around her wrist.

"Today it's on me beautiful"

If she hadn't felt her knees buckle at the petname and at your smile, she probably would have been more stubborn; instead Kara just hangs with her mouth open and nods, quickly running away.

- - - -

As soon as she entered the building, she was told by an intern that Cat was looking for her, so with a heavy sigh she ran into her office.

"Is the article I asked you last week-" she asked as soon as Kara got in, sending the blonde a slight glare "finally ready?"

Kara pushed her glasses up "Yes miss Grant, I just need to fix the layout" and she was about to add something, but the breaking news report displayed on the big screens behind Cat caught both of their attention. It was about a bank robbery (Y/S/N) alone just thwaterd.

With an intrigued glint in her eyes, the CEO turned her head to face her employee. "amusing, isn't it? Just a few months ago we all thought they were just Supergirl's side kick, turns out they're equals."

Hearing a scoff coming out from the blonde, she raised an eyebrow "you don't think so, Keera?"

"Of course they're a hero and they're saving people but they're definitely not like Supergirl" taking her boss' silence as a question she continued, and the words left her mouth before she could ponder them.

"Supergirl is serious and wants to get it over as quickly and as efficiently as possible, but they always plays around and get distracted constantly, and they're not serious at all."

"You seem to know a lot about them" she leaned forward, with her arms on her desk, and not caring about the blonde's stuttered excuse, she shrugged her shoulders "well considering you and supergirl are basically best friends"

Kara found a way to get out of this situation "yea she talked to me about them a coup-"

"I want to interview them. Give your current article to Jim or Finn," who was probably Winn "and get me that interview as soon as possible. They've never been in a real interview so it will be a scoop."

Knowing she couldn't even try to argue with the CEO, she nodded her head "you'll have it miss Grant" and got out of her office.

- - -

"what do I do Alex? It's not like I can go as Supergirl and ask them, they'll know something is up and will probably figure out who I am."

Unlike for (Y/S/N), where no one knew who they were, a lot of people knew who Supergirl was, and Kara thought it would be better if no more people knew about her other identity, and that meant hiding from you too, both of you.

"You're giving them a lot credit, I thought you thought they were dumb?" Alex asked with a small smile on her lips.

The kryptonian raised her head from the couch of her apartment, where it was previously buried, and looked at her sister with a frown. "They annoy me because they play around too much and constantly flirt with me but I never said they were dumb, they're actually really smart, and a good hero."

Alex has worked a lot with you so Kara knew she was just joking, but for some reason she still felt the need to defend you. The agent looked at the blonde before suggesting her idea "what if I ask them? They know you're my sister and it wouldn't be weird that I want to help you with your super demanding boss."

"mhh yea, that could work." a soft smile appeared on her lips "Thanks Alex"

Alex just nodded, waving her hand around dismissively. "More importantly," she started again, with a glint in her eyes that made Kara fear of what she was going to say "how did it go with (Y/N)? Are you two a thing yet?"

She started laughing as soon as she heard her sister's loud groan. "ugh I knew you were gonna ask that"

"you didn't tell them, did you?" Alex leaned her arm on the backrest of the couch, leaning her head on her arm.

"I mean I tried to" she glared at her sister's laugh, but she knew she couldn't really blame her "I just, stutter so much around them they must think I'm stupid"

"Ahw I'm sure they don't Kara" she stopped her teasing to reassure the kryptonian "first of all, you two are friends before anything else, second of all they're such a sweet guy they'd never think of you like that"

She stopped for a second, seeing the hopeful gaze in her sister's eyes "and most importantly, I'm sure they like you back, with all the pet names they give you."

"that doesn't mean anything, they call everyone by a nickname"

"you're the only one they call beautiful or pretty or honey or sweetheart or-"

"okay I get I get it" the flustered blonde hid her head between the pillows of the couch, face red from the tip of the nose to the top of the ears, just by thinking of all the times you called her any of these names.

"I mean...(Y/S/N) uses those on me too" the kryptonian resumed, and for some reason the blush didn't leave her cheeks.

- - -

Two days later, you sprinted from your house all the way to the D.E.O. and landed on the balcony, running to find Alex.

You started looking around, the big screens that often showed info about the mission were turned off with no one around, but that's not what caught your attention. Supergirl was nowhere in sight, she must have been called in too right? Unless she couldn't come.

When you noticed dark brown hair sitting at a chair from afar, you got into the director's office, probably breaking the handle with the sheer force you used.

Alex turned her head to look at you.

"What's going on Alex? Where's Supergirl? Is she okay?" The agent got up from her seat to face you.

"Calm down (Y/S/N), she's fine nothing happened" she reassured you "I just need your help with something"

Even though she couldn't see your face, frustration could be heard from your tone. "Nothing happened? You sent me a 911 signal" your shourlders slumped.

"yea because I need your help now"

You loudly groaned, though you were mostly grateful nothing serious happened, especially to Supergirl. "What do you need short Danvers?"

Making fun of her was a privilege you could only have while wearing your suit, given you were normally afraid of her.

Knowing you had the upper hand with your powers, and that it was all just playful teasing, she let it go, voicing her need. "My sister needs to get her boss an interview with you and she knows I work with you and supergirl so she asked for my help"

You opened your mouth to agree but closed it right after, thinking you could get something out of this too. "If I agree to the interview-"

"oh my god" Alex rolled her eyes "I'm not getting Supergirl to go on a date with you"

You loudly laughed at that, everyone knew where your head was at. "that's not what I was going to say!" you took a brief pause "but if that's what your offering..."

She crossed her arms, raising her brow, successfully shutting you up.

"I want to know who she-"

"definitely not" she interrupted you.

"oh come on, why not?" you move your hands in the air "you know who she is, John knows who she is, even Winn knows!"

"It's just safer this way spider, don't argue with me" her excuse didn't really hold up but you let it go for now, it should be Supergirl's call after all.

"fine" you rolled you eyes. And besides, "when's the interview?" you couldn't say no to Kara.

- - -

The next day you were on the roof of CatCo, your legs dangling off the edge.

"oh good you're here" you turned around at the sound of Kara's voice.

"your sister said you needed me" you got closer to her.

"yes hi" she replied quickly "but I will not be the one doing the interview, my boss Cat will" she glanced at the door. "but I need to tell you a few things first"

With a confused look, not that she could see it, you shrugged your shoulders, letting her go on "okay first" she took a big breath, speaking rapidly after that "do not let her drag you into her office, she will have the upper hand and you will not be able to withold information. Second, do not answer any personal life question, no matter how useless you think they are, she could always use them to find out who you really are. Third, don't even think-"

"with all due respect, my lady" you stopped her rant with your hands on her shoulders, and she regained her breath with a slight glare. The reason for it was unkown to you. "I am the superhero between us, so I know what I can and can't say"

And she didin't have time to rebut when she suddenly heard heels clicking their way up the stairs, making her jump away from you.

"Keera, glad to see you were able to do what I asked"

"isn't it Kara?" you spoke loudly, faking innocence, wanting to correct the older woman without being too obvious.

The woman gave you look, but didn't say anything. "can you leave us alone?" she turned to the reporter "I'd like to interview them alone"

- - -

The interview went well, you think, you didn't say anything about yourself and ended up following Kara's instructions. You thought about telling her how it went, but as you got to her desk you noticed her bag and jacket were gone.

"where did Kara go?" you stopped Winn is his steps, knowing he wouldn't be surprised by your presence.

"oh she went home early. She had a thing with (Y/N)- a friend" he corrected himself, thinking you wouldn't know them.

You forrowed your brows, but when your eyes landed on the clock hung on the wall you felt a shiver run down your spine. You were very late. You should have been at Kara's huose over half an hour ago.

You let out an exasperated sigh, "great- uh, I have to- I have to go now. I''l see you at- the DEO...soon?"

Winn only looked at you weirdly but he didin't have time to respond before you patted his shoulder and jumped out of the window, drawing some curious looks.

If Winn didin't know about your crush for supergirl, he'd probably thing you were jelous of yourself.

- - -

After picking up the backpack you left in one of the allies near Catco, you quickly put on some clothes, hiding your suit. You run up the stairs to Kara's apartment, frantically knocking on her door, still breathless and with your hair messy.

She had been pacing around the room for quite a while now so she quickly opened the door to your apologetic smile. "I'm so sorry I'm late love, I had a work thing and I thought about getting you something but it would have just been worse so I didn't"

You tried to explain, but to be honest her mind was still on how cute you looked with your cheeks flushed and how you breathlessly called her "love".

"oh it's fine. It doesn't matter now" she said letting you in, closing the door behind you.

"why? I thought you wanted help with something?" you shrugged your coat off, standing in the middle of the room. Hearing footsteps behind you, you turned around, your eyes meeting Alex's.

"hi, I didn't know you were coming here earlier too" you said, going in for a hug.

"she didn't come here early" Kara answered with a light edge to her tone, going into the kitchen.

"did you forget?" Alex whispered, and her tone wasn't as harsh, but it did sound like she wanted to scold you. It couldn't have been that serious, right?

You shook your head "no I told her I got caugth up in-" James knocking on the door stopped you, and soon after everyone else was there.

- - -

The night was going on smoothly, except for the fact that Kara didn't seat next to you like always, and she was persistent on avoiding your gaze, even tho you could feel her looking at you from time to time. She seemed to fidget more with her hands than usual, so you were sure something was up.

Thinking that asking Alex was not an option, you leaned towards Lena, whispering in her ear when it wasn't her turn to play.

"you know what's wrong with Kara?" she subtly turned to look at you, her lips in a thin line, she didn't need to look at her best friend to know what was going on inside her head.

"she's been like this all night, did she tell you anything?" you pleaded

Said blonde jumped up from the couch, claiming she was going to get another round of snacks and went into the kitchen. The Luthor gave you a nod, silently prompting you to follow the kryptonian, and as you got up to do so, you felt another pair of eyes on you.

You quietly made your way over, Kara's back facing you while she got herself a glass of water.

"uh are you okay?" you uttered, leaning on the counter so you could see her face "I noticed you were acting a bit..strange" you lowered your head, but she was once again avoiding looking at you, using her glass as a distraction.

"did something happen at work?" you met Cat, so you woulnd't be surprised "or-" you gulped, you'd hate to be the reason why she was acting like this "-are you mad I got here late?"

She slammed the glass back on the counter letting a few drops spill out, surprising herself when it didn't break. Kara took a deep breath, before replying "I'm not mad at you, (Y/N)" but it was really hard to believe it.

"okay, then what is it?" you got closer, putting your hand on hers, so she would look at you, and she did. The reporter raised her head, her eyebrows furrowed and her mouth agape, as if she was thinking on what to say. But when nothing came up she resumed to looking at your conjoined hands.

Kara could feel her wrist burning from your hold, and all the whispers and heartbeats she could hear from the other room prevented her from thinking.

"come with me"

You followed her closely, making up a stupid excuse on why you're exiting the apartment, even if none of your friends seemed surprised.

Kara brought you all the way to the roof, and still hasn't uttered a word. And you let her, giving her time.

But after a minute of silence and her pacing around you got in front of her, making her almost bump into you.

"Kara" You called "it's just me. What's going on?"

You smiled in reassurance, but she just forrowed her brows, letting out a big sigh. That wasn't much you could do to help her if she didn't talk unfortunately, you could only look at her.

Look at how her hair was slowly coming out of her ponytail due to the wind, how her eyebrows were so close together you were surprised she hasn't got a headache yet, and how her eyes seemed darker under this light.

And this sight was so familiar, but it didn't feel like you were looking at Kara, not really.

"I know what you want to tell me" you breathed out, and the fact she was looking at your lips is probably the only reason why she was able to hear you.

"you do?"

"yea" you smiled, shaking your head in disbelief "I can't believe I was so blind"

She felt her cheeks heat up, but her heart fell right out of her chest with your next words.

"you're Supergirl"

The super profusely tried to deny it, claiming you drank too much or had a wide imagination. Even going as far as commenting "I wish"

"oh" you raised your brows "so you don't have super strength, laser eyes, ice breath, and you can't fly?"

"no oh my god I could never be her" she let out a shaky laugh, adjusting the glasses on her nose, you couldn't believe they deceived you for such a long time.

You started walking around, getting closer to the edge "mhh you're right, I just thought because you're blonde you might be her" you reasoned, pointing to your hair.

"not the only blonde in National City" she replied and shrug her shoulders, hoping you would just drop the subject, the idea of expressing her feelings long gone.

"such a shame" you were able to see Kara turning on her heels in your peripheral vision "I really hope the real Supergirl comes to my rescue then"

She couldn't have spun her head around faster, but you were already out of sight, falling down the building.

The kryptonian shouted your name, jumping off the edge using her powers. When she couldn't see you anywhere she started panicking even more.

"(Y/N)? (Y/N) where are you?"

"behind you, beautiful" You were smirking with your arms crossed, your feet glued to the wall, steadily keeping you in place.

"what were you thinking about, jumping like that, you could have died, how are you even-" she said it all in one breath, stopping only when a look of realization took over her face.

"I've never seen Kara so pissed at me, it's new"

She let out a big groan, and not sparing you another glance, she got back onto the roof, you following after her.

"were you ever planning on telling me?" she squinted her eyes

"I mean, were you? You and your sister always made sure to tell me how I should keep my identity a secret"

"that's different, I didn't know it was you" she knew she wasn't making any sense, but her brain wasn't working properly at the moment, her heart still hasn't recovered from the scare you gave her, and she had so many things to process.

"come here" you took both of her hands in yours, bringing her closer to you. "I know who you are and you know who I am, doesn't that just mean we can trust each other more?" you offered, running your thumbs along the skin, effectively calming her down.

"I've always trusted you, even when I didn't know who was hiding behind the mask"

"oh, oh I'm sorry" her smile turned into a face of confusion "is it Kara or Supergirl talking? because I know Supergirl would never say something so sweet to me" that earned you a slap to the shoulder.

She rolled her eyes "shut up I take it back, we both think you're annoying"

But you didn't laugh with her, something else occupying your thoughts.

"do you like me, Kara?" you took a step closer, and she didn't have it in herself to take a step back. "you always say it's useless to flirt because there's someone else in your heart and I never asked, but now I'm asking you" you took a brief pause "do you like me?"

She sighed, knowing she couldn't lie to you anymore, so she slightly nodded, curling her eyebrows.

"but you like Supergirl"

"you are Supergirl" you answered matter of factly, but you had a feeling you knew what she was getting at.

"I like her because she has the biggest heart I have ever seen, she' s passionate about her job, both of her jobs, I love how her cape bounces around as she walks and how she can't seem to keep her glasses from falling off"

You brought your hand up her chin, making her look at you, while your other hand adjusted said glasses.

"I've always liked you Kara, all of you, I just thought of this part of you too much of a friend to notice"

Kara was totally hanging from your lips at this point, not only because she was looking at them.

You leaned your head down as she circled the hand that held her face.

"can I kiss you?" you murmured, making her nod vigorously.

"please"

It only took you half a second to close the distance, and you instantly felt Kara reciprocating the kiss, moving her lips against yours in an almost desperate demeanor. Her other hand gripped your shirt to pull you closer and when she felt you fingers on her sweater she gasped lightly.

you broke the kiss after a minute with a bite to her bottom lip, making her let out another small sound and left her chasing after you.

She blinked quickly a few times after she recovered, a deep blush still present on her cheeks. "I like you, too" the blonde replied breathlessly and slowly lowered her hands, not sure what to do with them.

"yea i guessed that" you teased, stealing another kiss.

Soon after that you two decided to head back, after Kara told you everyone knew she was planing on telling you today, and thanking you for the interview.

When you got back into the apartment everyone suddenly stopped talking and looked at you.

"so, did you two kiss?" it was of course Winn who broke the silence, voicing all of their thoughts. You looked over at Kara, and seeing her flushed face, you decided to answer, nodding.

"and I know she's Supergirl" you added, trying to ease the mild akwardness

"and I know you're (Y/S/N)" she retorted, not realizing what she said until she heard gasps all over the small apartment

"Kara!" you tightened your grip on her hand for a second, but she could see you weren't really annoyed. Various confused questions followed your statement, Alex's voice sounding above them

"so, the person who likes to make fun of me and never does as I say" she crossed her arms, letting her lips curve into a smirk as she watched you get behind the krytponian, now aware of the strenght she possessed.

"you know, you should probably focus on something else" you spoke up from behind Kara's shoulder, while gripping the end of her sweater "why don't we go back to the game, you were winning right? isn't it right Kara?"

Said woman smiled at your antics, playfully rolling her eyes "let them go Alex, you can torture them another day"

"no she can't" you tried to argue, but the brunette was already off to get another bear from the fridge.

You suddenly felt the sweater slipping away from your grip, and lowered your head to find Kara now looking at you, with a small smile on her lips.

"come on, let's go play" she pulled on your hand, making you follow her.

She did seat next to you now, still stealing glances when she thought you wouldn't notice, and instantly looking down every time you caught her.

Kara Danvers Masterlist - Supergirl Masterlist

General Masterlist

[firelxdykatara]

Do you ever find it slightly weird how Zuko freeing Aang as the Blue Spirit is treated by the fandom as the first sign of him being good, when actually it's sort of one of the most morally bankrupt things he does (competing with stealing from Song and siding with Azula when he already kind of knows the war is wrong). Like, it's actually pretty similar to the siding with Azula thing, because it's him placing his personal desires to go home over what he should think is the good of the world. In S1, he should believe that the Fire Nation capturing the Avatar is a moral good, even if he loses his shot at going him.

To play Zuko's advocate, it's possible that at that point he just didn't see Aang as very much of a threat to the Fire Nation/was incredibly overconfident about his odds of keeping Aang captured, but... it just strikes me as weird how the Blue Spirit is treated as Zuko's better side, when in most cases (other than freeing Appa) it seems to be his worse one.

Anyways, just some thoughts that I was curious what you might say about, since I generally like your ATLA metas.

Oh no this is super interesting! I've thought about it before but not quite in these terms, and I think it really does illustrate a fascinating disconnect between the result of an action and the intent behind that action, and therefore what it means for Zuko's characterization and its purpose in his overall growth.

Because you're absolutely right! Zuko was not actually attempting to 'free' Aang from Zhao. He was attempting to steal him.

That the net result was Aang being able to escape and return to his friends doesn't actually translate to Zuko having used the Blue Spirit persona to help him. Particularly because Zuko was not trying to save Aang from Zhao, even though it's easy to think that way since visually, Zhao presents a much more severe threat--in large part because he shows up immediately after the opening episodes to be the true villain of Book 1 and act as an antagonistic force not just for the gaang but for Zuko himself to fight. This presents Zuko as the lesser of two evils from almost the very beginning of the show, thus setting him up for a redemption arc that ultimately spans 75% of the show and leads to a very satisfying conclusion.

But the Blue Spirit persona is not, at the start, an indication of altruism or goodness. In s1 I'm not sure if I think Zuko believes that capturing Aang is a moral good that will serve his people, if only because I don't think doing the right thing for his people is actually on his mind at all. He is very singularly focused on being able to earn his way out of exile, and the Avatar is his only means of doing this. Therefore, if Zhao is the one to successfully capture and return him, Zuko will be robbed of his one and only chance to return home and regain his honor (which is, narratively, a stand-in for his father's love which he will not fully realize is not something that he should have been able to lose for any reason, nevermind simply speaking his mind, until much later), so he would rather risk losing the Avatar and having to pick up his trail again later than leaving him in Zhao's custody and allowing someone else to earn credit for his capture.

Thus, it is ultimately a selfish action. And I think part of what I love most about the parallels between the Blue Spirit and Katara's Painted Lady persona--because both disguises are, at their core, about Zuko and Katara respectively being true to themselves in ways that circumstances would otherwise prevent them from behaving. For Katara, it is ultimately about helping a village full of people she doesn't know and who will not thank her (and in fact turn on her when they realize who she is and where she's from)--because she can't find it in herself to turn away, and so she does what she has to (fakes an illness for Appa, dons a disguise to mask her identity and let a spirit take the credit for saving the village) in order to stay true to herself and help them. For Zuko, it is ultimately about helping himself--foregoing any real notion of honor (because, being honest, there's no honor in cheating! that Zhao is considerably worse of a villain at this juncture is incidental, because at this point, he and Zuko remain ostensibly on the same side, which is why Zuko needs to make sure he isn't recognized) to make sure he doesn't lose his only real shot at going home.

And it is likewise important that, later, he dons the Blue Spirit while he and his uncle are fugitives in the Earth Kingdom in order to steal so that he and Iroh can survive--and then, near the end of book 2, he dons the mask one final time to rescue Appa, one of his first truly selfless acts which marks a moment of significant growth (and is pretty important ahead of what will seem to be a moment of significant backsliding, when he sides with Azula and returns home seemingly triumphant at last, having lost far more than he gained and not yet able to realize it), and he discards the mask, watching it disappear as it sinks into the water, and if that ain't symbolic of something idk what is lmao

But yeah, you don't get to all of that deliciously juicy growth without starting at the bottom--with Zuko utilizing the Blue Spirit for his own selfish needs, and putting himself and his own quest over the 'need' his country might have for capturing the avatar.

[bravoechoes]

Ok. I watched Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning and I did not like the film. If you enjoyed it I am legitimately genuinely very happy for you because I wanted so desperately to love this movie. This isn’t meant to rain on your parade at all, but I do want to write out my immediate post-movie watching thoughts about why I didn’t like it. This is going to be heavily spoiler-y (and long) so I will put it under a cut

If I had to locate one central problem with the film, I would say it’s that Ethan is a zombie in this movie. Despite being the driver of the action, he is ironically a very passive character in FR, merely a vehicle for the narrative to progress. He makes no genuine choices in this film - despite Fallout and DR establishing Ethan as someone who (after suffering the horrific amount of losses that he has in his life) would put the world at risk to save his friends, Ethan makes none of those calls in this movie. Luther dies, but not because of Ethan’s failure to save him or because he makes the choice to get Luther killed (both of which they’ve played with in prior films, eg Fallout). Luther just dies because Gabriel kills him. The film openly declares this lack of choice at the very beginning: when Sloane is delivering Ethan his orders via VHS tape, she never says “your mission, should you choose to accept it.” Ethan is given no choice. Now Ethan having no choice in his mission isn’t de facto bad - Ilsa’s character revolves around her being constantly robbed of agency and choice, of being stuck in a web of coercion and deceit and betrayal and having to assert herself as an agent in her own life despite these horrifying constraints. Ilsa, despite being forced out of most opportunities to make her own decisions, is an incredibly active and present character, and her being robbed of agency is the thing that GIVES her agency in the films because it’s what structures and informs her character.

Ethan isn’t present in FR! I don’t feel Ethan, I don’t connect with Ethan at all in this movie. He is going through the motions of being in a mission impossible film but we don’t get to connect with him as a character. I think the Sevastopol underwater sequence is very instructive here because its the only time I “feel” Ethan. it’s an incredibly psychological section where he is being forced to go deeper and deeper into the ‘fallout of his good intentions’ - we learn in FR that the Rabbit’s Foot from MI3 contained the seed of the Entity, which he unleashed when he stole it in Shanghai and which eventually destroyed the Sevastopol. We are seeing Ethan directly confront the consequences of his decision to steal this incredibly dangerous object to save Julia - gambling the lives of millions to save a person he loves. There’s a genuine moment of horror where he sees the corpses of the crew and hallucinates one of them opening their mouth to scream and pointing at him. It’s also the only time in a Mission Impossible film where I’ve seen Ethan legitimately panic - it’s a very small moment, but when he’s attempting to escape through one of the torpedo tubes and he can’t get into it, you can see he is like actually starting to panic BECAUSE !!!!!!! he can’t escape the consequences of his actions, they have all caught up with him and he is literally drowning in them. That is when I felt emotionally connected to Ethan Hunt the character in the movie, and it’s because they directly tie the stunt to his personal character motivations, desires, and emotions.

Because god this movie sure doesn’t feel like a mission impossible film! The constant flashbacks to other films (INCLUDING DEAD RECKONING FOR SOME REASON, PART 1 OF THIS TWO-PART MOVIE), the cameos & easter eggs (Briggs being revealed to be Jim Phelps’ son, Donlow coming back as a side character, the aircraft carrier commander lady who was related to a member of Ethan’s team that died in Prague in MI1, etc), the exhausting repetition about Ethan being the literal saviour of humanity, all create this sense that the film is weirdly insecure about itself, that it is not a film that stands alone and is primarily a vehicle to remind the audience about the Mission Impossible franchise. And like, McQ and Cruise always say that the thing about Mission is that you can’t expect the audience to have seen another one so they all need to stand on their own, but this movie is drowning in its own cultural memory, all it does is callback to its own glory days. And I think this contributes to this zombie-Ethan thing: he is not present in this film, he is merely interacting with his own (in real life) legacy via everyone telling him in grave desperate tones that he’s the saviour of us all.

And then there are a bunch of added problems, the biggest one being that they never ever stop explaining the plot of the film to the audience. You are two hours in and characters are still explaining what the film is about to you. It’s exhausting and boring at the same time - you’re constantly being bombarded with information that has already been covered, to the point that I began to grow confused because I thought there was some new development or complexity I was missing, because why the hell else would you keep explaining a fairly simple plot? (Evil AI takes over world, wants to start global nuclear war, Ethan needs to combine 2 tech doohickeys to destroy it).

I think the scene with Luther and Ethan is particularly egregious for this - Luther, the only person besides Kittridge who Ethan has known for 30 years, is about to die. And their entire conversation is about the plot! What Ethan has to do, what Luther is doing, etc. you’re not given any room to breathe or sit with the fact that Ethan is about to lose his oldest and closest friend. Like the insane thing about this movie is that it is so overly bloated with exposition that nobody really gets to be a character - all they do is explain plot to each other, you never linger on them long enough to get much sense of their interiority. Even in the fucking!!!!! Decompression scene with Grace directly after the submarine sequence, which is the closest we get to a quiet character moment, we are IMMEDIATELY launched back into plot exposition where Ethan tells Grace what needs to happen now. The film refuses to invite us to care about these characters, and I think it’s especially egregious given that FR follows both Fallout and DR, two films that really heavily lean into character interiority. Even a character like Gabriel, who is supposed to be this extremely personal villain from Ethan’s past, is completely emotionally disconnected. He’s literally just like a cackling villain (he literally cackles while trying to kill Ethan in the bi-plane sequence lol). We never get any more information about Ethan’s past that was set up in DR (who is Marie? What is Ethan’s history with Gabriel outside of that?) and we never get clarity on the emotional stakes with Ethan and Gabriel, aside from the fact that Gabriel constantly threatens to and sometimes does kill Ethan’s friends. Like there’s never a moment with Gabriel that’s intimate or intense like Lane’s “you should’ve killed me Ethan” speech in Fallout. Instead all the screen time is devoted to exposition, ironically making the film less comprehensible as it goes on.

There’s just so much half-baked shit in this. The aircraft carrier gag was simply an extended wink to Top Gun, and despite all the comedic weight it’s given in the film  and trailers (“why the hell do you want an aircraft carrier? / “you gave him an aircraft carrier?” / etc), it’s not developed or used at all. All Ethan does is board the carrier, talk to an officer, then immediately fly away in a helicopter before jumping into the ocean. Literally what was the point of that! It’s just to make a joke about Tom Cruise being in Maverick. This movie consistently does not seem to understand what it’s about, but because it’s the last MI movie, it needs to just be about Mission Impossible I guess ? 

This post has gone on long enough but one final thing - Ilsa is literally never mentioned in this film at all, despite JULIA being mentioned of all characters. I feel especially robbed just given McQ’s insistence in the director’s commentary of DR that this would have significant narrative weight in FR, that Ilsa’s death means something narratively. Never appeared once! Ethan’s like generically sad throughout FR, but it’s never tied to anything, it’s not thematically structured throughout the film of him being robbed of loved ones or choices - LUTHER EVEN SAYS TO ETHAN, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO, RETIRE? They’re teasing us with the idea that Ethan has literally no choices left in his life, he is just a machine that is used, but it never coheres into anything in this movie the way it does with Fallout and DR.

Anyway I’m just like. Really disappointed by this movie. I wanted to love it so badly. I will be thinking about the Sevastopol underwater sequence for a very long time and I think it’s legitimately one of the best sequences in the entire series, but I can’t imagine myself wanting to rewatch this movie anytime soon. I want to sit with it for a while and see how I feel about it with more distance, but immediately coming off of it, I really was disappointed and I’m like pretty bummed about that. Man :(