#also his desire to protect gabriel even after everything

[sic-vita]

GOOD OMENS + Aziraphale, Guardian of the Eastern Gate

[books-and-omens]

I wonder, too, I wonder when Crowley is going to know. The six-espressos-in-a-big-cup protective hypervigilant Crowley. Ever circling around his angel, snapping at the slightest threat, shielding him from harm.

When is he going to know that he’s been manipulated, too?

And when is he going to know what role he himself played in Aziraphale’s decision?

There are so many things he didn’t tell Aziraphale. To protect him, to spare him, to give him time. Except, of course, all of that also meant that Aziraphale had no time and space to process them.

(And yes, there were things that Crowley could not possibly tell his angel. The cruel disdain of Gabriel’s words at Aziraphale’s execution is burned forever into Crowley’s mind; how could he have taken this dagger to Aziraphale? 

Anyway, shouldn’t the fact of the execution itself be enough for Aziraphale to know?)

But Crowley’s angel is kind, is bright, never expects and is forever surprised by treachery: Rose Montgomery turning out to be a Nazi spy, a countess turning out to not be a countess. Of course Aziraphale’s sheer relief on deciding that he’s been wrong about the Metatron will be a powerful force. He wants to be aligned with something bigger than himself; he wants there to be a point.

For all of S2, Crowley deflects threats from Hell. (Aziraphale, involved? Unlikely, Crowley says with studied nonchalance. And how do you know I didn’t do that miracle?) Out of Aziraphale’s earshot, he threatens and hisses, as he has likely done for millennia. Remember Hell’s book on angels, with everything it says about Aziraphale, with instructions to ‘avvoid’ and report to Crowley? Yeah.

By the end, there are key things that Crowley hasn’t told Aziraphale: his visit to Heaven, Gabriel’s punishment, what it was that Gabriel refused to do. Yes, there were archangels in the room, watching. Yes, Crowley had rather assumed that Aziraphale is as done with Heaven as he is himself. Still, it wasn’t Crowley’s instinct to give Aziraphale all the information. And after Aziraphale’s conversation with the Metatron, Crowley was primed to go ahead with a confession, was interrupted during said confession—so in the aftershock of Aziraphale’s words, he went right back to the path he’d already committed to. Then, of course, it was too late; the pain became too much; neither of them were thinking clearly, neither of them had the time to understand.

Yes, telling Aziraphale of the danger may not have helped. Aziraphale is even better at denial than he is at forgiveness; he might have refused to see what Heaven needs him for, how they intend to keep him in line. (Also, no doubt a worrying thought for Crowley if he was conscious of it: it’s very like Aziraphale to go to Heaven to try and stop the Second Coming no matter the risk to himself.)

But the thing is, the Metatron remembers Crowley. And he must know how rash Crowley is. How impulsive, and how likely to rear up and bite when presented with an offer to be forgiven for an injustice done to him.

So yes, Crowley has been manipulated. Through Aziraphale: through his angel’s indefatigable hope, through his desire to see the best and redeem what had seemed (but surely cannot be!) irredeemable: Heaven itself. Manipulated into storming out, his heart broken, the pain of that kiss still on his lips.

Into, after so many millennia, letting Aziraphale walk straight into danger.

I wonder when Crowley is going to know.

[scoobydoodean]

I have 2 spn accounts, a Deancentric blog that ships Destiel and another account that unintentionally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. So one blog follows majority Deangirl blogs and the other incidentally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. And here's the major difference I've noticed on the different dashboards.

Deangirl dashboard: Great meta analysis. Beautiful art. Level 1 and 2 headcanons (largely based in canon). Pro-Dean. Stumble across reblogs of Deancrit. Bitter Deangirl blogging. Generally fair portrayal and discussion of the positive and negative traits and actions of Dean, Sam and Cas. Deanhater anons.

Samgirl dashboard: An entirely different pool of beautiful art. Whole lotta woobie!Sam art where Dean is his abuser. Deancrit about Dean being an abuser. Bitter Samgirl blogging about how people will find any excuse to hate Sam. "How can anyone be Samcrit he has done nothing wrong ever." Level 5 headcanons (you literally ignored canon to make that up). More about how Dean is Sam's abuser. So many posts about how awful Samcrit is. "Do Deangirls really think that Dean cries himself to sleep at night thinking that ppl thinks he doesn't know how to read." I have yet to see any actual Samcrit posts (not even links or reblogs from Sam defenders), not even after literally searching the Samcrit tag for it. The Samcrit tag is full of Samgirls crying about Samcrit and no actual Samcrit. "Samgirls are feral, but we need to be bc of the hate ppl throw Sam's way."

I literally have to block so many people on the incidentally Samgirl dashboard bc I'm not on Tumblr to randomly stumble across a post on how Dean is a toxic stalker who abused Sam by changing Amelia's number in his cellphone. Do you have any idea on why Samgirls seem to feel so attacked all the time even though I literally only ever see *them* attacking Dean?

If you dig deep enough into any fandom, you will encounter people who fetishize "helpless victimhood". Some fandoms attract more people with those particular proclivities than others. Supernatural and Sam in particular attracts people who hold those sorts of aesthetic interests because of his relationship toward accountability versus Dean's.

Dean is a character with an overactive sense of responsibility. He blames himself for the Lindbergh baby and unemployment and every child murdered by a shrtiga from 1990 to 2005 because he went to play an arcade game when he was 10. He also blames himself for things like Jessica dying and Sam not being in school. Other characters pile on this blame frequently. John blames Dean for Sam getting hurt (1.18). Ruby tells him (and Sam) that Sam is a weak baby who won't psychologically survive without Dean there to protect him (3.11). Meg alleges that Dean is "dragging Sam everywhere" (1.16). Sam rewrites reality from 1.05 to 1.21 to make Dean responsible for his burning desire for revenge. Cas and Zachariah and Gabriel blame Dean when Sam breaks the last seal because he didn't stop Sam in time. Sam blames Dean for him drinking demon blood first because Dean wasn't there to protect him and then—in a complete 180—because Dean is smothering (4.04, 5.05). Dean generally absorbs blame when it is piled at his feet because he has been blamed for things he couldn't control for most of his life and thus he feels guilty and responsible for things even when him being responsible makes no logical sense. He's never a victim of anything—everything is always on him.

Sam, on the other hand, tends to eventually deflect blame because he can't handle the gnawing bite of it for long. It reminds him too deeply of being left isolated and alone as a child and the feelings of otherness and wrongness he developed through that neglect. When his actions ultimately have consequences he didn't foresee and/or that he finds undesirable, it makes him feel ugly and unaccepted and he can't face it so he eventually finds a way to make what happened someone else's fault—usually Dean's fault. Nothing is ever on him. He's always at least a little bit of a victim and Dean always carries at least partial responsibility for his decisions (1.21, 1.08, 4.04, 5.05, 8.23, 11.01)

In other words, Sam has an under-active sense of responsibility and Dean has an overactive responsibility and that dynamic—driven by their childhood experiences—places them into a vicious cycle of blame being cast onto Dean for Sam's decisions and Dean absorbing it. Dean absorbing it reinforcing the narrative for samgirls with a victimhood fetish that Dean deserves blame and that Sam truly is a helpless baby. They never watch what actually happens on the show to see whether this narrative that Dean is responsible for everything and Sam is a helpless baby lines up with the actual events that occurred onscreen because why would they? That would ruin their enjoyment. Sam isn't interesting to them outside of his capacity to be mourned as some sort of helpless martyr. And yes—they will cry and moan about how horrible and unfair Sam's suffering is, but it isn't because they're having a bad time. They're having a great time. They love thinking about Sam that way. They wouldn't be here blogging about it day in and day out for the last 20 years if they didn't actually want to see exactly what they're seeing.

Related tags of note:

#sams motivations

#taurus sam in the flesh

#In which Sam is not a helpless little waif with his hands cast over his eyes being carried along by the tides of the immutable sea

#sam the hunter

#sams follower/leader false dichotomy

#parentification

[miraculouslbcnreactions]

Why did Felix hide from LB and CN in S5?

My dear anon, I wish I could provide you with an explanation full of such profound wisdom and clarity that you would speak my name with reverence for years to come. Alas, I cannot because, when viewed as a complete whole, Felix's season five actions make absolutely no sense from any perspective other than, "Well, if he acted logically, then the season would be over in about five episode or, at the very least, Adrien would have learned the truth which would lead to an identity reveal and we can't have that!"

To explain, let's quickly go over the various assumptions one might have made as season five went on and why they all fall flat by the end of the season:

At the start of the season, Felix's hiding away made some sense if you assumed that he was hiding from his uncle. This was a logical assumption since Gabriel should have viewed Felix as a massive threat that must be eliminated. After all, Felix was clearly no fan of Gabriel's and Felix also knew everything one would need to know in order to bring about Gabriel's downfall. None of that actually panned out - Gabriel basically ignored the Felix issue for the entire season in favor of being the world's most obnoxious Adrigami shipper and Felix, well, we're about to get into that- but it was initially a valid assumption.

Continuing along the logical path from our ultimately erroneous fear-of-Gabriel assumption, one might think that a person who was terrified of Gabriel would go straight to Gabriel's enemies for protection. However there was an argument to be made that Felix feared Ladybug and Chat Noir's wrath just as much as he feared his uncle. This was also a fair assumption. Felix had just betrayed them plus, in those early episode, most of us assumed that Felix was going to refuse to make sentimonsters of his own, so he'd have no protection if Ladybug and Chat Noir immediately went on the attack. These assumptions all proved false in the end, but they were all reasonable when the season started.

Another initially valid assumption was the assumption that Felix's ego mania and self-serving world view meant that he only trusted himself to take down Gabriel. After all, past seasons had shown Felix to be clever, resourceful, and deeply devoted to his mother, so it made sense that he'd be working on some brilliant plan to bring his uncle's downfall and restore his aunt if only for love of his mother. You could even add an assumption he even wanted to keep everything quiet for sake of the family image or just a simple desire for personal privacy.

These assumptions and all of the others stopped holding water after Emotion. In that episode, Felix was shown to be fine making sentimonster, fine outing his own secret identity to the world, and fine confronting his uncle directly without a real plan for stopping him long term. The closest thing to a grand plan that we get in Emotion is Felix demanding Ladybug give him her miraculous:

Argos: Ladybug! Good. Now we just need to wait for Cat Noir and you'll both give me your Miraculous! Ladybug: (livid) So that's it then?! You're working for Monarch! You're the reason why I lost the other Miraculous in the first place! And why he took them!! You gave them to him without any regard for the consequences it might have with the people of Paris! Argos: True, except I work for no one.  I only helped Monarch cause it served my plans! I needed the Peacock Miraculous and today I need yours and Cat Noir's so I can make my wish!

But if this was his master plan, then why did he do the Red Moon thing? That took Gabriel by surprise, but it didn't knowingly do the same for Ladybug or Chat Noir. Without knowing their identities, there's no way for Felix to reliably find them during the Red Moon incident since he's snapping everyone he sees out of existence, making it somewhat likely that he'd accidentally snap the very people that he's looking for. You can't even go the snap-everyone-and-look-through-what-remains-to-find-the-miraculous route because he snaps the person and all of their accessories, too. Otherwise he could have snapped Gabriel and gotten all the miraculouses back in one go, then grabbed the Ladybug miraculous as a fun little bonus.

In other words, everything about the Red Moon plan was focused around making a big, flashy entrance for Agros and little else. It's not even focused on stopping Gabriel since Felix doesn't seem to have planned to snap everyone away long term or at least I think that's what's going on here?

Kagami: Happy? When there's no one left?? Adrien: How can I be happy without my friends, without my father, without the girl I love?! Argos: You really think I'm that evil? (goes to open the trash bin where he hid Marinette...) Ta-da! (...only to find it empty; Adrien and Kagami peek inside, too) Huh? That's weird. (snaps his fingers in hopes of bringing back Marinette) Huh?! I don't understand! (backs away from the trash bin) She should come back! (continues to snap his fingers) Something's wrong! I can usually bring back whoever I want, but it's like she's nowhere! Like she's completely gone! (apologetically) I'm sorry, Adrien! Kagami: Sorry? You're sorry?!?! Adrien: You're not even in control of your own power! Don't you realize what you've done? Bring everyone back! NOW!!! Argos: Okay, okay, alright. I never meant to hurt you two...

Well that was anticlimactic....

Note how Felix doesn't take this opportunity to explain the danger his fellow sentimonsters are in before bringing back the people holding their remote controls? And what about his mother? Did he snap away his mother, too? And did he initially plan to perma snap everyone or not? If not, then what was the goal here?

This episode is confusing and could even be argued as a single, giant plot hole because it reads like a mental breakdown episode, but it's also a meticulously planned attack that was hinted at all the way back in Multiplication. So which was it? What was the master plan here? What's going on? Did the writers seriously do all that Felix stuff back in season four without fully thinking through how to make that work in season five?

After the mess that is Emotion, Felix basically gives up on whatever he was supposedly doing in Emotion. There's no master plan to stop Gabriel or make the world-changing wish or anything interesting. Instead, Felix is just there to be Kagami's Adrien replacement. Much like Adrien, Felix has no motive beyond "date the pretty girl and do whatever she asks of me." I guess it's a family trait.

One would think that this would lead to Felix making some interesting new plan to stop Tomoe or even joining forces with Ladybug and Chat Noir since he knows that Tomoe is in on whatever Gabriel is doing (Kagami wouldn't exist otherwise), but that's not what happens. We don't even get Felix going full senti's only because Adrien is left in the dark, a fact that doesn't seem to bother Felix or Kagami. They're too busy being in love to actually do anything to back the nonsense claim that they care about Adrien, but it's hard to blame them when it is so glaringly not their fault.

Letting these two have the sort of active role that would make sense for their characters would ruin the story the writers are trying to tell. We'd probably never get that whole "girl power" Bug Noire thing the show wanted to end the season with because Gabriel would have been stopped way sooner. It would also mean that Adrien knows things and the show can't allow that to happen even if it makes everyone involved look like massive tools. Let this be a reminder to you that you have to let your characters shape the path your story takes. If a character knowing X ruins plot Y, then you can't have both.

In summary, Felix's actions initially made some sense depending on your point of view, but as soon as he became a real part of season five, his character stopped making any sense. The reason for this seems obvious to me: you cannot write Felix logically while also actively including him in the show, keeping Adrien in the dark, keeping Gabriel a threat, and keeping Felix from flat out winning because the peacock is so ridiculously over powered. They wrote themselves into a corner and dumbed Felix down to get around the fact the same way Alya got dumbed down to make the Lila stuff work and Nathalie got dumbed down to make Gabriel's plot work. These writers aren't consistent at writing things like lore or characters, but they are incredibly consistent at the type of bad writing they have to fall back on. Expect to see more of these issues in the future.

[kuromori4]

Gabriel Agreste's despicable request

I started this rant after watching the London special and I figured I should finally finish it and post it.

"Make sure Adrien never knows the villain that I was, and instead try and remember the times I tried to be a good father."

Who the hell does he think he is to make such a request?? He's relying on Marinette's desire to protect the boy she loves. He KNOWS that she'll do as he asks for Adrien. He's counting on it. And that's AWFUL. He has to know exactly what he's putting on her shoulders. He knows that she knows what an awful father he's been to Adrien. This isn't a heartfelt request to protect his son. This is a CURSE ON HIS ENEMY. A way to ensure that Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Ladybug, the major thorn in his side since day one, continues to suffer long after he's gone. Ladybug foiled all of his plans from the start, Marinette dared to win the heart of his son, whom he had promised to someone else without his knowledge. She was his downfall, and surely, in his mind, the (albeit indirect) cause of his impending doom.

If he really cared about Adrien, if Adrien's well-being was his real goal and final wish, then he should have given in. He should have decided, "You're right Ladybug, I fucked up. let's try and fix this, for Adrien." But NO. He chose to attack her, even after she gave him a chance to make things right. He wasn't willing to let things end on someone else's terms. If he was going to go out, he was going to do it HIS WAY. And he was going to make sure that his memory would never die, one way or another. So instead of doing the right thing and finding a way out of it that was less harmful to his child, whom he was about to leave an orphan, he steals the Miraculous and makes damn sure that his death will go down in history.

I don't give a shit if he changed the initial intention of his wish. He still wasn't sacrificing himself for some greater good. That's just how he wanted Marinette to perceive it, because she is good, and a child, and therefor easy to emotionally manipulate. He knowingly put both Adrien and Marinette into a position where a future of hurt and pain was inevitable. Everything Gabriel does is self-serving, right to the very end. His final act of villainy ensured that he could maintain control over his son's life even after his death, and keep his enemies suffering long after he's gone. And what's worse, he used the girl his son loves to enforce it. Which is the ultimate fuck you to Mari/bug if you ask me; forcing her to become the new keeper of his son's ignorance, maintaining that Adrien stays in the dark and never learns the truth about anything.

You could argue that he gave his life for Nathalie and that's somehow redeeming, but I argue that it was just another way for him to guarantee that his affairs were taken care of after his demise. Sure he does seem to care about Nathalie in some manner, maybe there's even some love there. (But as we well know, Gabriel's twisted 'love' seems to come at a price.) I'm sure Nathalie knows how to run his company in his stead, to make sure his assets stay in tact, and to a certain degree, maybe even thinks that Nathalie might carry on his mission, or at the very least protect his secrets. Even if she had a change of heart in the end and tried to stop him, she has been complicit all these years and knows most of, if not all of, his secrets and goals. She also has a position of authority over Adrien. She knows that he's a Sentibeing and where his Amok is, and has used it on him before. I truly think that Gabriel believed that Nathalie would help wrap everything up with a nice bow for him. Who else could he trust to handle his final affairs? Certainly not Tsurugi.

If Gabriel had turned himself in to Ladybug, he would have died alone, pretty much then and there. Without his wife. (Emilie's status of dead or nearly dead being unknown to us) Nathalie would have died, His company would fail, his contracts with Tsurugi enterprises would allow Tomoe to pick the Gabriel company apart like a vulture, and his empire would shrivel up. His son would know who and what he was, and would hate him. The plans he put in place for Adrien's future would fall apart, allowing for Adrien to grow and be who he wants without his father's influence. Maybe he'd be remembered for his villainy, but his accomplishments in life as Gabriel would be forgotten, lost, even resented. And what's worse, he would have lost everything to a couple of children. His son's girlfriend and her pet cat would be his downfall, his undoing. The great Gabriel Agreste, Monarch, bested by a young girl. Gabriel's blatant pretension would never stand for it.

His wish ensured that he got to be together with his wife in the end, Which was always his goal. It ensured that Mari/bug (And by extension, Chat Noir) would continue to suffer for daring to oppose him. He got his way. He won. IDGAF if he died. HE WON. He destroyed so many lives. He doesn't deserve the little comments in the special talking about "Rekindling what was still good in Gabriel Agreste" or "What finally made him a good father to Adrien." HE KNEW WHAT HE WAS ASKING OF HER. He knew what it would mean for her, and his son! The power he holds over Marinette and Adrien from beyond the grave guarantees that even with a new Butterfly holder, that he will ALWAYS be the formidable villain who defeated them. He will ALWAYS loom over their heads, wrap his fingers around their throats. He got to defeat his enemy AND look like the hero. He gets to have his cake and eat it too. He gave both of his identities a fucking LEGACY.

[nalyra-dreaming]

I know Jacob and Assad said Loumand's sex scenes were 'protected' bc of Armand's past etc, and that may well be a factor, but I think there's more to it. The way some fans react to the ep6 not-quite sex scene (i.e. focusing on how 'hot and sexy' it supposedly is instead of what we're actually being told) made me realize that once you depict sex onscreen it eclipses everything else in a lot of viewers' minds.

I could be way off here, but imho the show dwelt more on Loustat's physical intimacy bc there's real passion between them & it's vital to the story. Whereas Loumand...I'm not saying there's zero lust but it isn't the main basis for their relationship. It's somewhat transactional and performative, even early on. And I wonder if by not showing the sex they were trying to draw a contrast with Loustat and force the audience to see that Loumand are together for different reasons & their sex is more of a power-play than an expression of raw desire?

I'm not exactly justifying this choice (not really criticizing it either, idek how I feel about it) but I do think they successfully distinguished Loumand from Loustat & established why the latter is more authentic & passionate, for what it's worth!

Maybe.

It was certainly intentional, and Jacob also commented on it that they didn't want to try to echo Loustat after all.

For what it's worth, these actors (and the cast/crew etc) know what they're doing.

As such, and with the (few) comments we got here, and the set design... the picture is quite clear - if one wants to look, I guess.

Given that Louis also had Daniel as a "lifeline"... (and the whole running away regularly comments in and outside the show) as well as the more than... dead passion shown in their bed, especially in contrast to what Louis told of his sex with Lestat, I think it's safe to say that this wasn't really Louis' thing.

Which likely contributed to the relationship going down (on top of everything else...), because you have to match your others "freak in the sheets" to an extent at least for it to be satisfying in the long run. For most people sex is a very important part of their lives, and these vampires were shown to engage in it, too, after all. (This is not to say there are no asexual etc vampires, but the main cast ones we were shown so far all had sex at least).

It will be very interesting to see what they choose for the upcoming pairings... if I were to guess I think we will get a drunken sex scene with Nicki, and a bordering-on-uncomfortable with Gabrielle after her turning in s3.

But they definitely chose to include the sex and how they portray it to tell their stories, and of the relationships themselves.

In the upcoming seasons, that will include (more) sexual violence, too,... they very carefully laid out the groundwork there as well. -.-

[violasghost]

Thoughts on Emily in Paris S4, Part 2

S4, Part 2 Spoilers below....

Although S4 part 1 was much happier for Emily and Gabriel, it was inevitable that they had get past the love triangle between Emily, Gabriel, and Camille. Unfortunately for Gabriel’s sake, he failed to successfully balance his relationships between the two females masterfully. So instead of an essay style review, thought I would break it down character by character.

Gabriel: Where to begin with him? This guy is all over the place. He’s always been wishy washy, but even moia who has been a fan of Emily x Gabriel pairing since S1 was a little disappointed in him. So, he can spend Christmas with Camille’s family for a couple days, but can’t hop on a plane to Chicago? Despite Camille’s family place being closer to his restaurant, it was kind of a weak excuse. As far as the skiing incident, I understand that he was in-between a rock and a hard place with wanting to protect Camille’s fake baby, but Camille had mentioned that she was an expert skier, and she was certainly not in any peril but in a split second, he leaves the inexperienced Emily in the dust. Despite Camille’s family plotting against Emily and Gabriel as a pair from the beginning, Gabriel illustrated Emily’s worst fears, that he cares more for Camille/baby than he does about Emily, even when Emily was scared. And yes, sometimes people make mistakes and had there been a sincere apology and Gabriel going after Emily after she left, perhaps there would be some grace given, but he pretty much let Emily leave without much argument and then he shut her out for the remainder of the season. He really is shit at communication. I’m kinda on team Emily after that breakup. Gabrielle needs to earn her back if he ever wants a chance again.

Emily: Although Emily is far from perfect, I felt for her when she was all alone on Christmas and then ran into Alfie who had clearly happily moved on. (I’m glad for Alfie by the way. He deserved a happy ending.) I get that Emily not learning to be fluent in French is part of a schtick because we arrogant Americans expect everyone to speak English, but I think being in Paris for more than a year (right?), she should be more fluent in French by now. That said however, I did think it was unfair that Gabrielle at his low point criticized her flaw for not ever speaking to him in French when she was already down. Emily’s fatal flaw however is that she tries to gloss over all of her feelings and she never really takes time to process. It probably would have been healthier for her to be alone for awhile, but that would be boring TV I guess. One small sign of growth however, I’m glad she did not tell Genevieve about the available apartment, and I liked that she told Camille that she no longer tried to plan too far into the future. I think Emily is no longer wearing the rose-colored glasses and is starting to realize that life is messy and rather than planning everything out, she is trying to carpe diem more.

Camille: I know she’s got a huge fandom on Tumblr but I still think she’s kind of a selfish biyatch. She wants Gabriel, then she doesn’t, so she ruins Emilys relationship with Alfie, and then Emily and Gabriel get together and Camille decides she wants to ruin that relationship because her relationship with Sofia didn’t work out. And she never really came clean about her lying about her fake pregnancy. Might have made a difference in preserving Emily and Gabriels relationship had she told Gabriel weeks or months earlier when she found out that she was not actually pregnant and has been carrying on a ruse for some time-but she doesn’t care about that or being held accountable for her actions. Personally not sure someone who is so selfish should be a mother, but if she winds up being a single mom, she’s going to learn some hard lessons. That is unless she tries to hook Gabrielle again due to his desire to also raise children.

Genevieve: That girl is trouble. I’m predicting it right now. If there is an EIP S5, she’s going to try to take over Emily’s life, ‘Single-white female-style.’

Sylvie: That woman is forever fabulous, but not sure what’s going on with her and her Laurent. It was odd that he took off so quickly leaving Sylvie to deal with his offspring. I don’t blame Sylvie for playing the field again, but think there are some things that she likely needs to tell Laurent. It felt like this season, Emily was rubbing off on Sylvie so perhaps Sylvie will want to keep things more black and white with her work life and relationships, which might not be a bad thing since Sylvie didn’t seem all that thrilled to learn that Laurent went to NYC on numerous occasions to hook up with Genevieve’s mom. Also like that Sylvie is turning into a type of mentor for Emily. Love their ever-evolving relationship.

Mindy: I’m very happy that Mindy stuck to her guns and found some success. Thought that Nicola was turning over a new leaf early on, but it looks like he chose to be cruel like his father instead. Although I hope Mindy can still find her way back to Emily since they are so close and their relationship is the true heart of the show.

Luc & Julien: Love those two. My favorite moment was when Julien told Genevieve that Emilys desk was warm enough. Glad someone put her in her place. I imagine next season they are going to have to wrestle with her two-faced antics again.

Marcello: He seems like a gentleman and a nice distraction for Emily. But if there is a S5, I predict an unhappy end for him. Reading in-between the lines he’s pretty perfect, but perhaps almost too-perfect. I’m wondering why he was so rigid in not wanting to discuss business with someone he claimed to care about, and why he was unwilling to agree to come to Paris to see Emily again. Although now she is in Italy so there is not an issue, but predict that should Emily want to return to Paris it looks like he would not be willing to make the commute.

Whew, so this turned out to be a longer review than I thought, but it was an entertaining season. I do wish however that just once, showrunners wouldn’t be afraid to invest in a romantic couple without having to break them up all the time. Romance can be interesting in a committed relationship as well. Anyhow, hoping they get a S5 and Emily gets her happy beginning too.

P.S. BTW, hate that Netflix is now running ads during the shows. Such bullsh*t that even if you pay, they still run the ads. Not a good move for Netflix IMHO. Hope they don’t lose a bunch of subscribers this way.

[kisilinramblings]

I don't know if you've seen the last two final episode yet but if you have, any thought?

I actually like it?

Sure, I was disappointed that Chat Noir didn't join up the fight. At the same time, I understand Adrien's reasons for not turning into Chat Noir in order to break himself free.

Not only was he hunted by the nightmare of him as Anti-Chat killing everything he cared about, but he was very self-aware at how emotionnally vulnerable he was to be akumatized and making that nightmare come true. This season made him realized he can be so angry to the point of he wants to cataclysm people. It almost happened with both Darker Owl AND Dark Humor this season. Adrien backing off, remaining in "prison" and taking off his Miraculous so Plagg put it in safety for the time being was not him giving up. It was him trying to protect his loved ones. And he was also unaware this was a Monarch attack going on that needed Chat Noir.

Also, everything was made so Adrien doesn't find out for now that his father was Monarch. I don't consider Marinette was in the right even if Gabriel asked her to make sure Adrien doesn't learn the truth. And unbestknown to Gabriel, his dying request landed exactly on Marinette's nightmare territory. Remember the nightmare she had at the beginning. In it, Marinette accidentaly "kills" Gabriel after vanquishing him, right under Adrien's eyes which upset him, asking her why did she did this to his father.

So all ingredients seem to be there for this secret to come back to bite them if it is ever discover. The fact Gabriel has a statue, even if it built on a lie, means that something of him remains even if he is gone. And lately, we have seen that statues IRL can be toppled. But yeah, as long as Gabriel's statue is standing high, his shadow still is present. That is how I view it.

Outside of that, the fight between Bug Noir and Monarch was satisfying. I love that she swung a shovel at Monarch's face sending him flying and the use of Lucky Charm in succession was actually interesting.

I liked that La Résistance try to help however they can. I'm not sure on how pertinent it was for Gabriel and Tomoe's last attack to be international, but I didn't mind. DC and Marvel both have heroes from their respective IPs coming together to fight when there is a global threat affecting more than one city. And it is no secret both Jeremy Zag and Thomas Astruc desire to create their own Zag universe of superheroes.

Also, Tomoe is so up to no good.

Luka was a surprise. I didn't expect him to be trained by Su-Han, however, considering that Su-Han was able to repel an Akuma and since Luka does know both LB and CN's identity, and that Su-Han and Luka already have met once during Ephemeral (as that part wasn't erased), that ending is not that weird if they wanted him back in the story eventually (and reminder that Mirakungfu is meant to disarm Miraculous Holders who went rogue). Anyway, with Luka, a side story about that would have been welcome. But fun detail, Luka's martial style is based on the Snake!

Love the true form of Tikki and Plagg and seeing them fuse into Gimmi was something.

"You humans always summon me to complain. Never to rejoice".

Yeah, feels about right.

Lila's intervention in the finale was pretty tame, but the conclusion is what we expected : she gets the Butterfly Miraculous. But it is probable she might have seen Ladybug untransformed alongside witnessing how to summon Gimmi (although there is no way to know for sure right now). Plus, Lila will have help which I didn't expect. And it seems it is someone who knew where to find here.

Btw, can we have more politician like Mayor Bustier, please? I know it is very utopist, but sign me up for that future.

So yeah, that finale closed a book BUT this isn't the end. There is something uncanny going on during the pool party. It's the illusion of a perfect ending.

Sign me up for S6. o/

[addledmongoose]

Good Omens Fanfic Rec (19 Jul 2024)

Started off as a human AU week, but I eventually read some canon stories.

Miracles on Ice (131K; Rated E) by @henriettarhippo-hrh

Human AU/Enemies-to-lovers. Holy cow, this was an absolutely fantastic, addictive read. I stayed up until 4am every night until it was done. This is the "Blades of Glory" Good Omens you never knew you needed.

Aziraphale and Crowley are Olympic men's figure skaters who loathe each other. After a fight on the podium gets them banned for life, they find a loophole that allows them to compete in pairs.

Of course, this being Good Omens, there's a lot more romance and sex than the Jon Heder/Will Ferrell movie. Gabriel is a real standout in this one as Aziraphale's (and eventually Crowley's) coach. He's a genuinely good person. Oh, and Crowley does not look good in this one at first. He's the main instigator of the public feud between them. (Not that Aziraphale is completely blameless). And in a first, the villain is Anathema (it's in the tags; I'm not spoiling by saying this).

***

The Invisible Touch (31K; Rated T)

Human AU. A really sweet story with little actual angst, though Aziraphale is both oblivious and has pretty low self-esteem, so he creates more angst in his mind than he deserves. The author, Appleseeds, is also a magician, so there's an element of verisimilitude to the story.

Aziraphale is reduced to a quivering mess just looking at Crowley’s face smiling up at him from the programme, let alone sitting in the front row of the theatre watching him perform, or standing face-to-face with him, with Crowley's hand on his arm, after he summons him to the stage to help him with one of his tricks...

When Aziraphale reveals that he too is a magician and the two actually become friends, Crowley soon realises that someone has severely knocked Aziraphale’s confidence, and becomes determined to do whatever he can to restore it.

***

Endless Night (32K; Rated T)

Human AU. University student Crowley has been crushing on his flatmate, Aziraphale, for months now, and when the opportunity to spend time with him in a haunted mansion presents itself, he jumps at the chance. He didn't expect to get stuck in a time loop, redoing the night over and over until he gets it right.

***

Dark Was The Night (20K; Rated E)

Reverse Omens AU. The author packs a lot into this story set in 1640. It's the first of "The Dove and the Dragon" series of cryptid stories with the demon, Azrafael and the angel, Crowley.

Wendigo: a mythological cannibalistic monster in the spiritual tradition of North American Algonquian-speaking tribes. It is associated with winter and described as either a fearsome beast that stalks and eats humans or as a spirit that possesses humans, causing them to turn into cannibals.

In the winter of 1640, Hell has claimed responsibility for the massive death tolls caused by the French/Iroquois War, and the desolation wrought to colonizers that have taken up residence in New France. Anthony has made it a personal mission of his to do everything to protect the peoples afflicted by this devastation, unaware of the magnitude of Hell's influence on these poor souls.

Meanwhile, Azrafael discovers Hell has unleashed a very powerful species of demon into the world, intent on destroying all life in the area, with Heaven's permission. The Wendigo has risen, and they have abducted Anthony. With the clock ticking, Azrafael sets off on a rescue mission to save Anthony before the Wendigo demons can consume his Grace and banish Anthony's soul to the void for eternity. The question is: With as powerful as these demons are, feared even by Lucifer himself, will Azrafael succeed in saving his beloved angel?

***

All the Desires of Rome (5K; Rated E) by @lemon-tart-221

Part of Lemontart's "A Special Ineffable Arrangement" series, through-the-ages one-shots of Crowley and Aziraphale meeting up for sex and friendship. This one is set in a Roman bathhouse after hours.

***

And if you enjoyed the previous Roman bathhouse story, may I also suggest

A Bathhouse Pretense (18K; Rated E) by @doonarose

Aziraphale seeks Crowley out in a Roman bathhouse that happens to be hosting an orgy. Aziraphale is there to discuss business, but when one of Crowley's demon enemies shows up, it gives them a flimsy excuse to turn it into more.

[scorpi14]

Crowley is the biggest trauma survivor in the whole universe

Why is my brain like this? Why does it like to hurt me?!

In retaliation, I shall hurt you all.

Ever think about how Crowley fell because he didn’t want the universe to end? He “sauntered vaguely downward” and “hung around the wrong crowd”, but what he REALLY did was challenge the idea that the beautiful things they created, that HE helped create, should be destroyed. 

He was rejected from heaven for loving the universe too much.

And then we see time and time again he still does everything he can think of to save things. The goats and Job’s children, questioning killing kids when the Arc was built, saving the grave robber from suicide. And he gets away with this desire to save the universe more in hell... until he doesn’t. Until he’s too blatant is saving a girl from condemning herself to hell for a cardinal sin and they torture him with god knows what for god knows how long. 

And after hell gets him for this too, he’s prepared to end it all the next time heaven or hell come after him.

NO WONDER every time it looks like the noose is tightening on him and Aziraphale he jumps to “we could just leave.” He has a severe flight reaction after he was literally cast out of heaven and tortured in hell for wanting to save the universe and all the little things in it. No wonder he snaps every time Aziraphale calls him good, because all the things Aziraphale praises him for have cost him everything with BOTH HEAVEN AND HELL. I cannot imagine how much Crowley must crave this praise, but also loathe it because of what it means in the rest of his life.

And he does his fucking best to protect Aziraphale from the same pain he’s gone through. He acts as the birther for Job’s “new” children so all the heat’s on him if the angels figure it out. He bombs a church so Aziraphale doesn’t get in trouble in WW1. He tries to get Aziraphale to leave with him before they can get caught in any crossfires, and when that doesn’t work he sticks around to make sure his Angel doesn’t get hurt. Like when he stays to help with Gabriel, even though he wants to rip him apart for telling Aziraphale to “shut up and die”, because if he doesn’t, Aziraphale might be erased from the book of life. 

And Aziraphale doesn’t know better because he hasn’t experienced either of the traumas Crowley has. He’s been lucky enough to skirt under the radar, and even when he DID almost get killed for it, he didn’t see what heaven was like because Crowley went in his place. He can retain the idea that heaven is inherently good because HE hasn’t been a victim of it yet. He’s seen other people victimized by it from a distance, but he’s brainwashed to think there’s a good reason for this - much the way people who are gaslit by narcissists are made to feel their feeling aren’t valid because they don’t understand what’s actually going on and can’t trust their own judgment. 

And because Aziraphale doesn’t understand, Crowley has to watch him walk straight back into the trap and there’s nothing he can do about it. All his attempts to protect Aziraphale fail, and he can’t watch what comes next because he knows what comes next, and he knows Aziraphale well enough to know it’ll break him. And it’s going to break Crowley too  😭

So did I do it? Did I hurt you as badly as I hurt myself?

[catholic-character-tournament]

Round 3 - Catholic Character Tournament

Propaganda below ⬇️

Gabriel

Well he's an angel so I'm taking him being catholic as canon. There are a lot of themes in the game that point to catholisism specifically.

He's so fucking funny. he listens to nine inch nails and quotes one of the songs in a fight basically "fight me like an animal". he and v1 kind of have this yuri thing going on. he has an official bodypillow. hes a metaphor for being excommunicated and no one gets him like me and my friends do

The *true* Catholic experience is leaving the church and having a gay awakening, ask anyone

its debatable if Gabriel truly believes he's "the one true savior" or is mocking the idea of it

ok im actually gonna write some gabe propaganda bc despite what you may expect from a game called ULTRAKILL theres a lot to be said about his character and how catholicism is represented

Gabriel is a genuinely caring person who struggles to square his desire to help people with his duty as an archangel. He's the only one in Heaven trying to make things better for those in Hell, but his faith is used to manipulate him into committing atrocities against the people he used to protect (see the "TRAITOR" mural in 4-2)

he only realizes his mistakes after losing everything and being sentenced to death, but he still decides with only a little time remaining to try and make things right. for the sake of spoilers i will just say that the measures he takes are... extremely drastic and very enjoyable. i just really like the idea that even facing the end of all living things, no matter how steep your crimes, it is never too late to fix your mistakes. you are never unworthy forgiveness.

hes also SO FUCKING GAY for this dumb little robot. it mauled him so hard he tasted his own blood and he fell in love right there. theres no way this guy has a normal healthy relationship to pain he is soooooooooo fucked. i love him. please vote for Gabriel "patron saint of gay lapsed catholics" Ultrakill !!!!!!!!

Shadow

In sonic destruction (the AI generated fan thing snapcube made a while ago) shadow was catholic or something which I think is reallyyyyyyy funny

Ok listen. I know this is a stretch but hear me out. He says “oh my God” in the Twitter takeovers so we know this is a possibility. I see him as a Christ-like figure because I saw his whole confrontation with Mephiles and was like “this is a thing that happened in the Bible??” and the pose Mephiles shows him in is literally like a crucifixion and Mephiles is meant to be a demon / false prophet reference. And also he’s called a demon in Shadow The Hedgehog 2005 then the guy who calls him that is like “I was wrong I’m sorry” and that also reminds me of a thing with Jesus in The Bible. But the biggest reason is his whole thing with Maria cause I think he’d come to earth and hear Ave Maria once and convert to Catholicism idk he’s like we’re comforted by a female familial figure named Mary sometimes called Maria?? And her color is blue????? Heck yeah I’m in because I Will Cry. Also feel free to share this as propaganda obv even if he doesn’t get in the bracket just. It’s funny.

I feel like he’d battle a lot with being seen or portrayed as a demon and how the aliens he’s related to very much look and act like demons idk lmao- and also I feel like confession would just be good for him I think he needs it for his mental health

There is a debate on the lovely website tunblr that Shadow T. Hedgehog is an allegory for Jesus Christ.

He is Jesus, idk what to tell you. He lived, he was sealed away, he was awakened again and deemed the ultimate lifeforms, he’s angry but not evil, does what he believes is best for people and the world at any given time. Total loser.

[yidhraloves]

Gabriel (Mandela Catalouge) x Reader

“My little Snowflake Part 2”

If you haven’t read part one yet:

Hope you enjoy! I might make a 3rd part

When you awoke, the first thing you saw were rays of sun that shone trough his wings that were carefully positioned around you. How long have you slept? Weeks? Months? It must be spring by now!

Not sleep, food and warmth deprived anymore you slowly got your senses back and stared at the being beside you, and it stared back. Despite its human appearance, this was an alternate, for sure! But it did take care of you while you were asleep, so you weren’t sure if you should be afraid or not. After what felt like hours of staring Gabriel, or whatever it called itself, Gabriel pressed his cold lips against your forehead which sent multiple shivers trough your body. You continued to stare at his face with a growing smile on it, your cheeks reddening. His soft smile and beautiful eyes made you question if he was a human after all, but then you remembered the way its face morphed into something gruesome back when it looked at you trough your window. Its deep, creaking voice broke the silence “ Do not fear, my beautiful lamb, for I am your true saviour, Gabriel” it took a pause to tilt its head, seemingly investigating you. “Your weak lifeform must not worry while I am here, I will protect thy body” wtf was this dude saying???

“You are a weak mortal, my sweet lamb”

“Utterly useless is what you and your species are, destroying gods Gift and polluting it. I, Archangel Gabriel am here to change that. But you don’t seem so much of a sinner, my dove. In fact, you could prove to be quite useful to me.” Those words kept repeating in your head after he got up and left trough the window he came from. But what bugged you the most, was the fact that he seemingly knew everything about you. Your favourite food, tv show, everything, as if he had been watching you for your entire life. You found this out from the “interview” he had with you before he left, seemingly asking you questions but answering them himself. Itself. At this point, you don’t even know anymore. You got up and looked out the window. A beautiful shade of red coloured the sky.

Suddenly a pair of cold arms wrapped around you. Turning around, you screamed, thinking that your Doppelgänger had come to get you. But you were met by Gabriel’s ever so calm face. “What’s the matter, my sweet lamb? Do I scare you that much? I’m sorry, I truly didn’t mean to.”

“You humans have such weak minds, shying away from your guardian Angel”

.

.

.

There was an akward silence, since you didn’t respond, but it broke it by handing you a neatly wrapped box of your favourite food. “I hope you like it! I made it just for you” it said, while flashing one of his sweet bitter smiles. You opened the box and were in shock. It was beautifully prepared and smelled wonderful. You looked up at his Form, muttered a quick “Thanks” and started devouring the dish in front of you.

“Ah~” he sighed “ I haven’t heard your sweet voice in such a long time. I’ll always make you food from now on, if it means I get to hear it, just tell me what you want, and you’ll get it”

You just continued eating and decided to adress the being with him from now on.

Gabriel wasn’t happy with your response in the slightest, seemingly feeling ignored , he contributed to ramble “Anything, anything your weak little mind desires, I’ll get it for you. Hell, I’d do anything for you, my dove. I’ll protect your weak being with all my might , and if anyone ever touches you I’ll rip them to shreds. I’ll worship you like you wish to be worshipped. I’ll do ANYTHING for you, for I am your saviour, the one and only Archangel Gabriel” Taken aback from his words you just stared at him in shock. He also seemed to be a bit startled by his little outbreak, got up and tucked you into bed. That didn’t help though, the tension between you growing. But before you could say anything he muttered a “goodnight, I have duties I must fulfill” while disappearing into thin air.

Despite his confusing words, you were sure of one thing: you’d be seeing him again. And you were a bit happier about that than you’d like to admit.

[dandeliicnsarchiived]

Christopher Lockhart & Rosalie Atlas - Deep Dive

𝐢 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧' 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐞, 𝐢 𝐠𝐨𝐭 𝐬𝐨 𝐠𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧' 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐚 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫 𝐢 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐨𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐭𝐞, 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐫

Disclaimer: Christopher Lockhart is the main antagoist for Rosalie's story and his character, what's done to Rosalie is based on my experience from an ex-boyfriend of mine, however there are things here that can be triggering so I'll start with the bullets and everything else will be under read more. Triggering themes: SA mentions, suicidal ideation abuse from emotional to physical, and isolation.

Christopher Lockhart:

Rosalie's first love and only abuser

Half incubus aka Cambion

Hypersexual due to this demonic side

VERY abusive and used this power to make Rosalie feel small

Christopher Lockhart is the first love of Rosalie Annalise Atlas, and also her first introduction to pain, anger, sadness, and feeling completely vulnerable. Christopher is one of the reason why Rosalie became suicidal and often viewed herself in low regard. Christopher only viewed her as an object and someone that he could control.

Christopher comes from a demonic background, that being of incubi. Getting this trait from his father, his demonic behavior didn't surface until he hit puberty. Once he hit puberty, Christopher became aggressive and often leaned into demonic behavior; mainly his hypersexuality. The need for sex, and indulging into this sexual desires is one of the reason why Christopher was very aggressive towards Rosalie and treated her the way he did.

With the abilities that an incubus has, Christopher would invade her psyche and often take advantage of Rosalie when she was sleeping. Turning dreams into nightmares, this is how Christopher began honing in on her to fulfill those urges until that wasn't enough and he tried his best to physically attack her. However, those attempts were always stopped by Rosalie until Claire Daniels became involved and put a stop to everything.

During college, Christopher still kept a tight leash on her and would control where she went, what she wore even what she ate so he could feed on her energy to sustain himself. Even though he wasn't getting what he wanted from Rosalie physically, he did serial cheat on her with many girls often draining them until he had his full. It wasn't until Rosalie broke up with him, that Christopher displayed his demonic strength and tried to hurt her further almost killing her. However, with Gabriel being there to protect her, Rosalie unleashed all the power she had to hurt him and give him a fraction of the pain of what he did to her. Breaking his arms, shocking him with her electricity manipulation, and even channeling Gabriel's strength to fight back and make him kneel in submission; Rosalie's relationship with Christopher ended there and she went on with her life.

Years later, once Rosalie's daughter turned into her teenage years, Kallie was able to see the abuse that Christopher had done to her mother after using her telepath abilities to see the memories from Rosalie's youth. This caused Kallie to have secondhand PTSD and vivid nightmares of Christopher. Once Kallie turned eighteen, Kallie made it her mission to torture and interrogate Christopher. Once she received enough information, Kallie deemed that a creature like him shouldn't live anymore and she murdered him.

[cherries-in-wine]

A rant/review of immortal desires:

hiiii this is my first time posting on Tumblr so sorry if it's messy- also english is not my first language so I'm sorry for any mistakes

Since immortal desires 2 is coming up I just wanted to share my thoughts on the book and this random incident that won't stop bothering me lol

So i absolutely love cas like bro's the finest bad boy love interest to ever exist he's so baby girl I love him but after the whole confrontation with mc's mom outside the fighting pit where they accidentally reveal that cas was at the crime scene in front of the entire crowd of vampires- that's a guaranteed being-summoned-to-the-nexus-and-executed. Seeing how fiercely protective cas is it just seems so odd that while mc is at the Nexus with their mom later that night being executed bro's just out with the hunting party??? 😭😭😭 I'd expect cas to put up an even bigger fight than gabe about the covens killing mc like he'd be kicking and screaming and threatening the elders and stuff but he's out feeding??

It's moments like these where immortal desires just does things for convenience like it's so obviously poorly planned.

I think my like for the book only stems from my love for vampires and I'm a teenager so ofcourse I'll eat up a highschool romance and although immortal desires is a 10000 times better than the smutty trash they've been releasing it's still very....eh?

The characters are good- but they're underdeveloped af and it's even worse if you consider the fact that it was originally supposed to be a standalone. I know i can't really compare it to bloodbound (absolutely adore that book- the plot, the antagonists, the love interests, the world building, even the side characters are just perfection) because the stories don't have anything in common other than the fact that they both include vampires but bloodbound did everything so much better. For example kamilah being so cold and cynical makes sense because she's been alive for 2000 years and experienced so much..why did cas hate his human life and why does he despise humans so much? I hope this makes sense but specially in vampire books getting a backstory is essential for connecting with the character so in immortal desires they feel like a clay sculpture that had so much potential but it was never painted properly so although it could've been a masterpiece it just looks trashy. Even the flashbacks in immortal desires feel so lazy- unlike bloodbound there's no change in clothing/hairstyle to show the different time periods.

And it doesn't make sense for mc to get over cas killing someone and Gabriel's betrayal (if the only person I thought i could actually share my problems and connect with turned out to be a spy for that very fucking problem i would be PISSED) so quickly.

The pacing is really off too like I had trouble keeping up with how much time had passed because it felt like the story started off really slow then was rushed at the end.

I didn't really love the addition of talismans either because I just find them stupid and lazy honestly like "RAHHH I'm an all powerful vampire that's been alive for centuries I'm gonna kill you" and then MC's just "hi all powerful vampire that's been alive for centuries and is skilled in killing humans and fighting i found this random ass charm hanging from a tree/in a cave/on the ground that is ridiculously powerful and for some reason never runs out of magic and although I'm a fragile human with 0 experience I'll kill you all in seconds hehehe" like?? 😭😭😭

And again bloodbound does it so much better like mc knows she's the weakest of the pact but she does everything she can to help. Even kamilah knows she isn't good at fighting so instead some stupid shit like trying to teach this human hand to hand combat in one day to fight against a fucking vampire (what gabe did) she teaches her to use her wits like instead of fighting back you dodge their attacks to use their own momentum against them. AND THAT SCENE STILL HAD SEXUAL TENSION LIKE IT WAS DONE SO WELL.

Another thing that bloodbound does better is that the actions actually have consequences like mc actually gets injured/dies if a lot of wrong choices are made whereas in immortal desires literally nothing happens.

I'm sorry for the rant lol that's all for now. Thank you so much for reading<33

[vividaway]

I'm gonna be the odd person out and say it: I really like Felix as a character. I think he’s one of the only characters in the show to have a proper introduction that wasn’t pushed out in a single episode. Everything we learn about Felix, to me, feels genuine and realistic to meeting a manipulative person. I also think that's why Felix is hated as much as he is: because you’re not SUPPOSED to like him. Felix as a character is very very dynamic. He lies and he cheats and he does it all with a straight face. He continuously hurts people around him no matter his intentions. and yet, there’s a piece of him that still holds his morals. We saw a glimpse of it in Strike Back, and again in Emotion.  He comes off as a very smart kid, and the writers have hoisted him up to be very ahead of everyone else. Everything he does is done with an intention in mind and it’s something his mother is aware of. They both helped introduce the rings, and the storyline of senti-monsters existing as living human children was made canonical THROUGH him. 

There's still so much we don't know about Felix and his family, though. We know  Amelie is an aristocrat, but through whom? Felix’s father, Colt, was an American billionaire and yet they all lived in London? How come? Both when and why were the Vanily twin rings created, and what’s the significance to THEM? (We have a general understanding of what they’re used for....but what do Amelie and Felix want it so badly?)

A lot of people are discounting a lot of what Felix said in emotion, too, but I personally think it’s very telling. Consider this: Gabriel Agreste has an ‘unconditional love’ for his wife (I see u Gabe, that is NOT love!) and watched her slowly die. Most days are spent isolating himself from everybody but his work staff. Soon, even they started to turn against him. He tried to do everything he could to protect his son, even to the point of abusing him because he was so blindsided by not just his wife’s ailment, but through a true commitment to the “rich and luxurious lifestyle” we see displayed in Emotion. There’s a reputation, AND an expectation that comes with it, and he TRULY believe’s it’s “the right thing” when in actuality, it isn’t. Gabriel has not just become numb to the reality of “being a normal person” but he’s more focused on bringing his wife back to him, and fixing his family. And even after all that? He’s still dying. He knows what he’s going to subject his son to. What he’s asking of Nathalie. He TRULY lost everything to get the miraculous he has. But Felix? Why would Felix say he’s lost everything? We know he lost his father, and we know he’s lost his morals, but a big piece of me is screaming that this is NOT what he meant. So what DID he mean? We know the connection of the Senti-Monsters and his desire to free them. We’re starting to understand that, in his own way, he’s ATTEMPTING to free Adrien and Kagami in the process. But what else could there be? My point in all of this is to say, there are SO MANY QUESTIONS LEFT UNANSWERED. So many that FEEL valuable to the plot of the show. The more we see of Felix, the more I reckon back to Timetagger episode where Gabriel found out he wasn’t going to be HawkMoth anymore. SO many people thought Lila, and even criticized how bad it would be because she was introduced too fast and set up so poorly.........so why NOT Felix? 

He was introduced as an antagonist who wants, not to fulfill his own emotional needs (I.E, Chloe and Lila) but sheerly to get Ladybug and Chat Noir’s miraculous. The lines “I’m after a few jewels myself” could have easily been a red herring and wasn’t mentioning the rings at ALL, especially with the way Felix gave the rings back at the end of said episode. As mentioned previously, Felix’s desire to free Adrien would make sense as to why Felix would take on the role as HawkMoth. Felix wants to make his own wish, and he’s got nothing left to lose. Pairs nicely with Nathalie, doesn’t it? 

[merchantarthurn]

i dunno man. this reaction to the finale squicks me out so much. i am deeply uncomfortable with people acting like it would have been better if adrien was told everything on the spot (eventually? yeah. right then? god no), or that gabriel was textually redeemed, or that the writers weren't aware that gabriel had done wrong despite them actively avoiding having him take ladybug's offer (which would have been far more like a redemption than what he actually did - violently reject her path and took his own in the end. like be serious)

i say this as someone who has been worried for a while about how they would handle gabriel as a clearly abusive man. and as someone who has been emotionally, socially and financially controlled and threatened by my own father (the height of it being when i was adrien's age, isn't that wild), but as in adult still struggles to call it abuse because like. sometimes your dad is horrible but you also have good happy memories with him. and a couple of weeks is not enough time to fully accept your dad did you harm and should have known better - especially after he fucking dies - and that's the case regardless of whether he's considered a hero or a villain by everyone around you. adrien expressing admiration to his father is not only consistent with his desire to see his father improve (because shockingly with the kind of abuse gabriel was up to, adrien was always going to hope for the good he saw in him to prevail. that's just how it feels) but is also not guaranteed to last - we have no idea how adrien will process his father's abuse alongside the grief he's also processing????

like i guess this finale made me so emotional, specifically that last part, because fuck if it didn't speak to something that felt pretty emotionally real. at least to me, as someone who can see a snap shot of my life in this family relationship. and to see people boil that down to "urgh the abuser got away with it" is kinda agonising honestly (not to mention everyone collectively losing their wit and forgetting that like... time exists, and shit changes? idk maybe the monster-of-the-week seasons broke people's brains or something).

just... like goddamn when i think about what i wanted re: dad like... what i wanted was to be safe and happy. if that happened by dad being gone and/or him never being 'punished' for the hurt he caused me then like... would i fucking care? the hurt is over. even as im still disentangling myself from him that's still all i want. i don't want my dad to face justice, i want MY justice - and that's to have some fucking peace!!! i am deeply glad they let gabriel die rather than find some way to save him so he's out of adrien's life, i am deeply glad he did it in a way that wouldn't entirely devastate adrien, i am deeply glad marinette chose not to tell him.

like. i get that so many people do not understand the complexity of recovering from this particular abuse-flavour (because there are many) but. justice is for the victim. justice prevents future victims. it's not justice for me to prioritise exposing gabriel over protecting adrien's happiness? the desire ive seen expressed to expose adrien to all of this and rend him apart is pretty goddamn ghoulish in this context - if you wish to explore that alternative, write a fanfic instead of insisting the only morally good way to resolve abuse is to further traumatise the victim of it