#and I can only take so much s7... not their strongest outing
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I watched not Star Trek for Christmas... it was weird
Back to my regularly scheduled programming
#it was a muppet Christmas carol which had not moved in a YEAR since the last time I watched a dvd#it even remembered where I stopped in the credits? insane behavior from the ps4 if I'm being honest#def been flipping more to ds9 cause they restart at s5 after endgame half the time#and I can only take so much s7... not their strongest outing#lol the autism signs so obvious now that I know them#anyway I gotta be at my parents in the morning for idk death watch???#anxious about it would've preferred the driving to another town for surgery at 5am chore...#yeap Thursday whoo#everything's going so well#melts into oblivion
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elaborate on your last post?
i've actually been marinating on this more or less nonstop! like how to phrase it and stuff. i have, like, notes.
& part of this is i had some spoilers as to who mickey WAS before i watched the show because he was what was dangled in front of my face like a pie in a window to get me to watch shameless. but the thing about mickey is like every thing you learn about him CAN absolutely be traced to his behavior in s1. mickey's one of the most consistently and unrelentingly himself characters in the show (the other is debbie). everyone else has like personality crises.
you can fit a shitload of development into someone like mickey being aggressively himself the whole time because he has every reason to be afraid of the consequences of his personality w/out actually being insecure or not knowing himself. so we as the viewer get to know him w/out any of the information being startling in any way from the jumpoff of s1. it's insane that i'm pretty sure he was meant to only exist in season one i just know he'd be haunting some psyches.
he like never apologizes for his personality. which is i think easy to attribute to "confidence" as a sort of nebulous concept but i think he's just kind of a realist. everything he hides has a very straightforward reason behind it and when the reason disappears so does his hesitance to just be that. & i think a lot of what reads as confidence comes from disinterest in other people's opinions & a pretty intense pragmatism and get-shit-done-ism. mickey kind of sorts people into "who gives a fuck" or "useful" & eventually he expands his "people who matter" category enough that even people he doesnt gaf about in the main cast he at least doesn't want to piss them off.
another thing about this is i've seen sometimes people who over-relate (very understandably) to mickey sort of take very seriously how much he must've been hurt in end of s5, end of s7. which is. i mean i will be honest i KNEW it was coming and watching love songs in the key of gallagher RUINED MY WEEK. which is a good thing. because i am out of my mind. but i think sticking on "well, ian should've been more sorry, or said something nicer later" out of feeling bad for mickey misses a little the point where what i really see in mickey is a "it hurt. obviously. extremely badly. fucking anyway" sort of angle.
this ^ isn't something i know how to explain very well. there's kind of a difference between going "well that was horrifying and i need to throw the fuck up" and moving on, and the sort of therapy-speak adjacent urge to linger over how everyone should be looking at their feelings about it. not mickey's language IMO. so mickey's pretty in tune with what's going on in ian's head so when ian hurts his feelings on purpose he's like mad that it worked, you stupid jackass. and then ian's guilt is sitting right there and he's like well you were so mean but it's more important to me that i can be around you than that my feewings are made much of. mickey's pretty steadily uncomfortable with touchy-feely validation or anything. this interpretation is also a me thing. obviously everyone's reads are going to be informed by their life experience but this is what makes sense to me.
1 of the biggest things i've noticed rewatching is how FAST plotlines start moving when mickey decides he's getting something done. which is interesting because he's also one of the least ambitious characters in the show.
mandy and ian both really believe they can get something nicer and safer and better (&fancier) out of life. mandy has the strongest drive out of them to grab something nice for herself (like.. even vicariously through lip, she's always trying) mickey is kind of right that it's not realistic for everyone to get something better than where they grew up. it's depressing as fuck to be resigned to but especially with a criminal record it's pretty predictable under capitalism that you would just get stuck. these things happen to people
it's very sweet to me that ian keeps dragging mickey along to like nice places and optimism while mickey is like be so for fucking real. weird enough this is the most mickey has in common with lip - the "steal it or scam it" observation that lip makes, but mickey is chill with breaking more serious laws and being arrested for it. & lip also doesn't go for ambition the same way other people in the show do because he has noticed these patterns. he aims for a nebulous "more" jump up in the class system ONCE specifically because of mandy.
fiona is the opposite to all this ^ naturally. in the way that her ambition keeps coming back to bite her way harder than anyone else, because she gets caught up in her ideas of how to expand and do better and bigger really fast. funny enough both lip's "well it has to be a scam and you can't ever actually get anywhere" and fiona's "i bet if i just played my cards right i could make a million bucks rn" philosophies are frank traits.
BUT ANYWAY i also really like how mickey's pragmatism sort of lands him to being a very romantic person. because once he has reason to care more about someone else he decides to put all his eggs in that fucking basket. contrast -> ian is A Romantic. he wants to believe in like a soulmate and he pretty obsessively pursues validation through means of romance. m/while mickey never plans to be in a relationship and commits really hard when he decides that that's where he's going.
which comes to mickey's impressive skills at reading people. when he's not just completely disinterested, he can predict people really well. which is obviously like a survival technique but is also the only explanation of why he'd come back twice after getting written out. maybe it wasn't supposed to be the way his character played out but it can be traced back to s1 with the information we have and is the only way that his actions make sense.
& in like. the completely fucking insane way that mickey is as gentle as he is. you even see the intent here in his introduction. sure, he's showing up in a violent way to enact revenge. which being into prison abolition i don't necessarily agree with. but it's sweet! like, i know the revenge mob is kind of a THING but with everything that he does following it also seems very personal. so he shows up and the first thing he really wants is someone to look after. ian gallagher you may not believe you need a fucking caretaker but you literally snatched up the single person most desperate for someone to take care of
-> wrt gentleness also: i cant get over how fucking bonkers it is to be a violent teenager having a Massive mental breakdown and that mickey refuses to start the physical side of the "you love me and you're gay" confrontation. not a hand until ian shoves him multiple times. even though ian showed up explicitly as an attempt at using mickey to punish himself for something he really thought was his fault! what the fuck!!
um but anyway with mickey's fucking anger going on also i was personally very touched by him as a fantastic way to represent irritability and anger as an anxiety response. because anger is really fucking like that. again, visible from his intro to the end. ya habibi...
#Anonymous#i feel like this goes on like a thousand tangents. well i lost sleep thinking about Him so this is what you get.#mickey
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tdp S7 spoilers stuff (about finale and Aaravos)
ok so. at first I felt extremely disappointed with how easily Aaravos went down. but now that I think about it I'm kinda torn and confused whether it actually was all a brilliant move by mr expert manipulator.
one of the main things was how weirdly weak he seemed, especially in the scene where he gets blasted with explosions from Ezran's team? like... he's surely more powerful than that and can easily wipe them out right there? But he instead lets himself fall. But that did set him up to have a chat with Ezran about the novablade??? Plus he knows the dead will come rescue him or whatever.
I also realized, it seems like he really doesn't care about his "mortal vessel" much at all. like it doesn't matter to him if he gets hurt or scuffed or damaged or whatever. Like that's just not important to him at all.
But in the final battle scene, he probably could've more easily killed the archdragons all in one go?? Avizandum was already dead, plus he just killed Rex Igneous. Zubeia was all emotional! Why couldn't Aaravos just order him to kill Zubeia easily??? Then the only one left would be the tide dragon and he surely can take on one archdragon in a fight?
If not then I'm still confused how they set him up to be so powerful only to easily lose to one archdragon. Or a couple explosions but I'm still not convinced he wasn't pretending during that. But then why did he have such genuine expressions of surprise? Or I guess maybe they were just expressions of annoyance, and not actual concern? maybe I should rewatch...
Anyway, using your own death explosion to kill all your strongest enemies is... something, I guess? Especially if he knows he'll be back in 7 years. But like, he ONLY managed to kill 4 archdragons and not even any of the elves or human enemies. Surely he could've done the same without exploding himself or whatever?? which is why I'm so confused I guess???
I guess I do sorta understand why they didn't wanna kill him the last time (and imprisoned him) since it seems like an archdragon biting a startouch elf will kill them both (the dragon and everything around them dying in the huge explosion). And if they sacrifice 1-2 archdragons each time he came back ig it's not that sustainable.
But then where does that leave us now? It feels more like they lost than won. What a "finale". Imagine a movie about an asteroid about to destroy the earth and it ends with "ok we delayed it so it'll destroy us in 7 years instead :) yay! (everyone cheers and parties)". What?
Callum doing dark magic either has absolutely no consequences if we don't get an arc 3, or if we do, then we basically lost the most powerful human mage on the side against Aaravos. So there's just, no way to imprison him now? Unless they find some other tidebound mage, which like... would make things way too easy and inconsequential. Also all the archdragons are dead so the only way to KILL him is the novablade. Which will apparently cause another big explosion and allow him to return later -_-'.
So killing him again is just gonna be another snooze button, and imprisoning him is gonna be a doozy if Callum is insta compromised. What the hell are they even thinking for arc 3? Also, it feels like it's impossible to ever eliminate him for good. If he's imprisoned, he'll eventually find some way out, as evidently he did when Viren got hold of the mirror. I guess they could just not include a magic access to his prison in any way next time?? Still, surely thousands of years later he'll eventually find his way out.
Huh, tdp sequel in scifi setting where Aaravos gets out again another few thousand years later and the world is all techy somehow?
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she drew in her first breath out of what love meant
Summary: But when she stood, Kim felt a flood of water and her eyes widened, as she quickly realised what had happened. That the pain wasn’t just back pain, that the Braxton Hicks was actually contractions. Having get so caught up in the possibility that her baby will be a bit late, Kim just accepted that this was fake labour signs.
Kim and Adam's daughter makes a slightly unexpected appearance. Set in an au of s7, where Kim never miscarried rice grain.
Warnings: Childbirth.
Word Count: 1.4k
Read on AO3
Notes: Yesterday, I became an aunt again to the most beautiful niece in the world (seriously, everyone. She is adorable. No, I am not biased, I am just being objective and stating the truth). And so, I'm fully in my baby feels, and what better way to celebrate her appearance with a burzek fix-it fic.
So this is her welcome to the world fic. Her brothers got artwork, but she's getting a more mentally stable aunt so I think she wins. And in a way, I'm happy it isn't the crack fic I'm going to write 🌸🌸🌸
Enjoy!
Everyone said that it’s not often you get pregnant on birth control.
Everyone said it’s not often exes can be friends.
Everyone said it’s not often you can be comfortable co parenting and sharing a home with said ex.
Kim has been greeted with surprise and almost pandering tut tuts when she explained about her and Adam all through this pregnancy. She had almost came to expect it. Which is why, when the doctor said that it probably won’t do anything, and that only a few women actually ever have their water break naturally, and that women tend to have their first baby late, Kim really should’ve expected that she’d be one of the exceptions.
They had gone to the doctor early that morning. Kim is edging closer and closer to her due date, Alice being more and more active inside her. The doctor wasn’t too concerned with thinking that she’ll go into labour soon, repeating that first babies tend to take their time. Kim was fine with this. She’s uncomfortable, yes, big and feeling very much like she’s going to explode. But as the due date drew closer, she was becoming more and more emotional at the thought that her daughter wouldn’t be inside her, that she couldn’t protect her like that anymore.
On the way home, they stopped to grab—extra—breakfast, Kim being hungry again and Adam can always eat. Alice was making herself known, kicking and turning, Adam resting his hand on her belly whenever they were stopped in traffic, a smile on his face.
Kim was beginning to think that maybe people were right about one thing, that maybe they won’t be able to co parent. Not platonically, anyway. His smile twisted something in her and all she wanted to do was stroke her fingers across his jaw.
She settled for just entwining her hand with his.
The pregnancy, seeing their daughter grow inside her, preparing for her arrival, it has brought them closer. Especially when the hormones hit. There has been moments when the air between them is filled with that tension, the love between them palatable. But they’re not crossing that line.
In a very unlike them sort of way, they had the conversation about it. Both agreeing that they can see them doing this, having a relationship, being a couple raising their baby. But communication and keeping together has never been there strong point, Alice being why they’ve only just started to be successful in that way. And mixing up a baby in their problems, it’s not something they want to do. They were both messed up by their parents and the one thing they want is for Ally to be okay.
So they made an agreement to wait, to reassess when Alice is here, when they’ve got past those first months where even the strongest couples can fall apart in.
It doesn’t stop them absent-mindedly seeking each other out most of the time, always looping their hands around each other and cuddling on the couch and playing with each other’s hair. It doesn’t stop them, when Kim’s hormones turn to a hundred, from being intimate. And before Kim got so big, before sleeping is so uncomfortable for her she can barely stand having the cover on her, let alone another warm body lying beside her, it didn’t stop them from sleeping in the same bed.
They’re just friends, having a child, and are very much in love with each other.
It was after they grabbed the extra breakfast when Kim’s back starting to ache. At this point, she’s used to having aches, so she just tried to adjust herself in a more comfortable position.
Adam had noticed and when they got home he told her just to be comfy on the sofa, so that’s what she did.
The back pain was persistent, and Kim started getting her Braxton Hicks again. The first time she got them, Adam freaked out and called Sylvie—the blonde very patiently explaining it to him again. Now, Kim didn’t think to tell him, them being used to this, instead just ran her hand over her belly.
They had a few visitors stop by, to say hello to Kim now she can no longer go up the stairs to Intelligence. Jay and Hailey were first, then Trudy. They asked Trudy to be their daughter’s grandmother and she had already taken the role to heart. Mouch, too, being their baby’s honorary grandfather. He didn’t come to visit with Trudy, being on shift. Then, finally, Kevin came, Jordan accompanying him.
The Atwaters stayed longer than anyone else, but then they also had left—it once again just being Kim and Adam. And then it was just Kim, Adam getting the message that something they ordered for the baby was in the shop.
The pain in her back had tripled in intensity, and Kim found herself having to get up, needing to walk a little to see if that would help. She thought she’d walk to the bathroom, having to need to pee like she always does now.
But when she stood, Kim felt a flood of water and her eyes widened, as she quickly realised what had happened. That the pain wasn’t just back pain, that the Braxton Hicks was actually contractions. Having get so caught up in the possibility that her baby will be a bit late, Kim just accepted that this was fake labour signs.
Adam left, saying he’ll be back within the hour. Kim had been prepped that labour is long, and even though they had been told to hear to the hospital if her water broke, she waited for Adam to be back. She could’ve called him, but she didn’t want him to rush and get into an accident.
It’s only an hour, Kim had thought.
And forty minutes later, Kim kneeling on her bathroom floor, in intense pain, she regretted that thought. Because of course this would happen. That on top of everything, apparently Alice wanted to make a quicker appearance.
“Hey, darlin’! I’m back,” Adam calls to her and she could’ve cried in relief that he’s finally here; Kim had left her phone in the living room when the contractions hit, hard.
“Adam!” Kim calls back to him, not caring how urgent and distressed her voice sounded. Adam was instantly in the bathroom.
“Kim? Kim, are you okay?” He says as he gets there.
“I’m in labour,” She tells him, although as she looks at his face, she can tell he’s already gathered that. She must be a mess, on the floor, hot and sweaty, crying. But he doesn’t look like he’s even bothered, the shock fading fast and he’s leaping into action.
Adam kneels beside her, softly stroking back her hair, laying a kiss on her forehead. “It’s okay, darlin’. I’m here now.”
After her comforts her, indicating for her to take his hand as another contraction comes, Adam is fishing his phone out of his pocket, calling for an ambulance. Kim’s too far in to even bother wondering if he can drive her, that it’s better for Alice to come in their bathroom with towels all around them rather than in his car.
Although, both would prefer if she didn’t come before the ambulance.
It’s two minutes later Adam’s phone lights up with a text. We just got the call to your address!! Is Kim alright?
It reassured Kim—and Adam, really—that Sylvie is the paramedic who’s coming, them needing that familiar face at this scary, new time in their lives.
Kim’s labour was painful, intense, but short. Alice appears before the ambulance does, Adam and Kim staring in wonder and amazement at their new born daughter.
Adam made a joke that he’s glad he bothered Sylvie with so many questions, as he expertly wrapped up Ally, hugging Kim as she hugged their daughter. She’s still connected, and Kim still needs to deliver the placenta, and luckily it’s only two minutes later when Sylvie is here, and they greet the paramedic with a smile.
“Your goddaughter was a little impatient,” Adam says to her and Kim smiles at him, nosing into him slightly as she does it, love in her heart.
“Just like her father.” As if to prove that point, Adam leans down and gently kisses her, not caring what they agreed or that Sylvie is there. All that matters is them, is Alice, is the love they share; the love Alice is born into.
It isn't the perfect birth story. But nothing about their story was, imperfect relationship, imperfect conception, imperfect family. And that makes it all that more beautiful, that despite the imperfections, it is perfection without a doubt.
That Alice, and the love that surrounds her, love pure, whole and unselfish, is what defines that, redefines what it means to love, to live, their daughter the perfect amongst the imperfections.
#burzek#adam ruzek#kim burgess#kim burgess x adam ruzek#chicago pd#burzek fic#chicago pd fanfiction#ree writes#ree's.writing
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Posting this for @pilotkinkade in response to their recent post made here, regarding concerns about VLD and how it includes white savior complex or potentially smears Allura’s character with that complex. I’m not reblogging directly because this is a long response lol. Thank you pilotkinkade for chatting earlier; I hope you find this post interesting at least and would be curious of your thoughts in return!
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I do agree with your general sentiments, that VLD takes on a disquieting savior complex throughout a good portion of the show, even more so than in previous Voltron iterations. For me, it feels most apparent in the way that Voltron as an all-powerful machine in VLD is piloted by its second generation.
To compare: In the original OG alliance (Alfor, Zarkon, Trigel, Gyrgan, and Blaytz), multiple major races were represented, functioning as one to save their own collective galaxy from threats. So even among the OG paladins, there were checks and balances (maybe Zarkon had the strongest military skills personally, but Alfor had the alchemy, etc.), with mass racial diversity. This seemed like a pretty innovative and cool addition to the Voltron franchise. The s3 finale also clarifies that, unlike VLD’s second-generation, all of these paladins were leaders of their people. This meant they had political and legal authority/experience that an average warrior or citizen wouldn’t.
By removing that whole structure and retrofitting Voltron with (mostly) a group of unprepared teenagers from a single planet entirely uninvolved in the universal conflict, it created a lot of strange hierarchies...
We see much of the known universe raise up people who had zero prior experience with war, and little to no military or diplomatic training, as well as very little awareness of the traumas or people groups involved in this war. (Shiro is possibly the exception here.) But suddenly, all of these paladins also had unfettered, largely unquestioned access to ultimate power to carry out whatever vision they felt was right in the moment. Because simply “might is right,” we see even highly experienced commanders like Kolivan become castrated in authority compared to Team Voltron. Various alien groups express upset or side-eye Team Voltron’s well-meaning actions but obvious insensitivity to/ignorance of their problems or fears. Even at the paladin-level, a princess trained to fight and lead is subordinated to a boy with zero leadership training whatsoever (which is very different from previous iterations where Keith was actually very competent, more experienced, and wanted to be a leader).
And when Voltron plays the unchecked judge, jury, and executioner across the entire universe, the new paladins as a whole also do not have the political or legal authority the OG pallies did in the boundaries of their own galaxy. The second-gen paladins are not authorities of their people or representative of the people groups affected in the war they’re now leading. The OG pallies built the actual legend of Voltron in less than 28 decaphoebs, clearly going beyond their 5 nations to help others suffering from natural disasters or unknown needs, which might raise some eyebrows perhaps because we don’t know what all that entailed. But while we see that the Voltron machine eventually got celebrated, the OG pallies are never shown personally soaking in some kind of savior celebration…
(Photo ID: Alfor says, “Why I joined up this band of scoundrels, I’ll never know.” Trigel responds, “Because we’re the only band of scoundrels that would have you.” Third screenshot is of the paladins celebrating their alliance win by themselves.)
…compared to second-gen paladins (or some anyway) who pretty clearly soak in the love and prestige they’ve received based off the historical and legendary precedence of the OG alliance’s work:
(Photo IDs: Lance taking selfies with aliens excited to be around paladins. A second screenshot of Lance daydreaming about being a universal savior, stomping on Zarkon, planting a flag to mark ownership, and having Allura stare up at him in worship.)
In fact, a lot of the pro-Voltron war propaganda relies heavily more on recreating the legend already built for them, than on the actual competency or experience of the current paladins:
(Photo ID: Pidge complains about the war propaganda scripts, “This isn’t even factually accurate.” Coran replies, “Well, this is the Legend of Voltron, not the documentary of Voltron.”)
On that note, we even see the scripts reverse who is actually the most competent or capable of performing.
(Photo ID: Coran says, “Ladies and gentle-aliens, bear witness as the Paladins of Voltron attack Zarkon’s base to save the helpless Princess Allura!”)
Coran’s script, however well-meant, pretty massively infantilizes Allura as someone who needs to be saved by an external force, rather than mentioning her as someone who is an active and critical ally of the Voltron paladins in this war.
Unlike Coran’s script, Princess Allura isn’t helpless. In terms of the second-generation paladins, she’s has the most war-time experience, and is also the one that the paladins lean on constantly to create a meaningful connection with other people groups who are otherwise hesitant about Voltron.
(Photo ID: Allura speaks to the Balmeran people, “Balmerans, this is Princess Allura. You don’t know me, but I am here to help. I know what it’s like to watch your home planet die.”)
Allura is the successor to the Altean monarchy and a direct victim of the OG galaxy wars. So unlike other second-gen paladins, she has some semblance of legal/political authority that she was actively trained for, as well as personal skin in the game. She is ultimately the only paladin who has experienced a mass omnicide of her home and people, similar to other victims of the Galra regime. She also still accepts the authority of her father, whose AI tells her in season 1 to be prepared to sacrifice everything to undo his mistakes.
We see Allura from that point onward functioning under that directive from her father and king—to sacrifice everything she has to end Zarkon’s regime. One could potentially make the argument that, within this structure, Allura might suffer from a certain subset of “white knight syndrome,” in which one feels they’re worthless if they’re not sacrificing for others. If I have my facts right, it’s a different psychological state from white savior complex (in which I define white savior complex as “when someone outside the issue at hand barges in to make a change that may or may not benefit the recipient, simply to make themselves feel better or appear useful, without regard to the recipient’s wishes or real needs”). But I feel even the comparison of “white knight syndrome” gets dicey. Because Allura is shown as acting happy without necessarily sacrificing things (in fact, she acts progressively depressed s7-s8, the more she has to give up intrinsic things about herself or her identity). But when Allura chooses to assist or sacrifice, the sacrifice she makes has a very relevant and functional impact for the people she helps.
In season 1, she chooses to sacrifice herself to save Shiro. Shiro was, at that time, the Black Paladin and leader of Voltron, so Allura saw herself as functionally the less important of the two to save since she did not pilot the universe’s only weapon against Zarkon.
With the Balmera, she similarly chooses to act because the Balmerans themselves acknowledge they are entirely out of options, and also because the Balmerans (and the Balmera itself) accept her help she offers. At this point in time, she has already established a deep personal connection with them by virtue of their shared trauma of losing their home planets.
(Photo IDs: Shay says, “We’re lost! All are trapped with no chance for escape!” Allura says, “We can’t give up.” Shay responds, “But what can be done?” The group realizes the Balmera is regenerating beneath the ship, and Shay wonders why. Allura says, “The Castle!”)
Here, Allura assumes that the Castle—which is powered by a Balmeran crystal itself—could be regenerating the Balmera. But a Balmeran elder corrects her:
(Photo ID: A Balmeran elder says, “Not just the Castle, but you, as well.”)
So Allura did not even recognize at first that she was in any way a part of the solution to the Balmera regenerating.
Regarding the Balmera act itself, I’m not sure it satisfies the conditions for a white savior complex? I’m curious about your thoughts here, because I guess I saw it happening differently, from a witchcraft perspective...
We know from both Coran and Shay that originally, Alteans were one of the historical races who sacrificed some of their own energy to replenish the Balmera when seeking a crystal:
(Photo ID: Coran saying, “In the days of old, when Alteans were given the gift of crystals from a Balmera, we would repay its sacrifice by performing a ceremony. A sacred Altean would re-infuse the Balmera with quintessence. In this way, we had a symbiotic relationship.”)
We see that Balmerans were a voluntary part of this energy exchange by virtue of their unique connective powers (which is likely why we see them kneeling and activating said powers during these ceremonies).
Shay herself seems to indicate she is highly aware of these old ceremonies:
(Photo ID: Rax says, “Everyone comes to Balmera and takes, but gives nothing in return!” Shay says, “In the past, those who took the Balmera’s crystals would replenish her with energy. It was an equal exchange.”)
Shay agrees that the ceremony itself involves a sacred exchange of life force.
So I would argue that in this case, the Balmerans are not kneeling to Allura specifically or worshiping someone—it seems to be just the imagery associated with magical spells/magical transfers (where one object in the middle is the main conduit/focal point, and the other objects surrounding help to create and sustain the spell/protective barrier, etc).
One of the basic practices in real-world witchcraft is casting a magic/ritual circle. The circle creates a space where the spell, ritual, or form of protection can be performed. Forgive the stock image, but here’s just a super basic example:
(Photo ID: A magic circle in the form of a pentagram, with a candle in the middle, compared to a screenshot of 5 Balmerans surrounding Allura in the form of a pentacle, creating a sacred space with Allura glowing in the center.)
The five points in particular mimic standard pentacle-based ritual circles designed to create a sacred space of some kind. We do see various configurations of witchcraft imagery used in other instances throughout the show, such as when the druids have to help Haggar sustain her spells:
(Photo ID: Haggar centered in a magic circle, surrounded by druids helping her complete the ritual. Haggar kneels against the glowing symbols to complete the ritual.)
I think, similar to the druids that Haggar relied upon to help her complete a spell, it can be argued that the Balmerans were an active part of the regeneration spell with Allura. We see across the entire Balmera that they magically connect to help sustain the energy transfer, because it’s a planet-wide, massive undertaking:
(Photo ID: Balmerans activating their connection to the Balmera in the middle of the sacred ceremony to regenerate the Balmera.)
To me, it felt like the Balmerans were necessary to complete this ceremony--without their agreement to this energy exchange, and without them connecting to the Balmera to assist the transfer, Allura might not have been able to connect her life force and transfer power to the whole planet.
And to complete the ceremony, Allura herself kneels as well, just as Haggar did and just as the Balmerans around her do, in connection with the Balmera:
(Photo ID: Allura kneeling alongside Balmerans to complete the ritual.)
(Which means she’s technically kneeling to at least three other Balmerans in front of her.)
So I think the kneeling imagery would not correlate to some white savior complex event as suggested.
One other thought I had is that I feel help from a “white savior” is often haphazard and pushed onto recipients regardless of their thoughts or real needs. In comparison, we know that the Balmerans were willing to try this spell with Allura and accepted her idea of attempting the ancient ceremony. The only person who expressed hesitancy is Coran, who warns Allura that this attempt could kill her.
(Photo ID: Coran warns Allura, “To heal an entire planet, it could take more energy than you possess.”)
I do think it could again be argued that Allura seriously undermines her own value and worth in an attempt to help everyone, no matter the cost, which potentially gets more into white knight syndrome born out of trauma than white savior complex born out of privilege. She snaps back at Coran for being concerned about her well-being, and then she proceeds to enact the ceremony, not knowing for sure whether she’d live or die. But Allura also knows that her life force is uniquely tied to Voltron and that she is the only one with this kind of connection to the Castle ship’s battle-class Balmera crystal—all of this makes her a very powerful capacitor in a lot of ways. Which is why she looks like this after the ceremony:
(Photo ID: Allura having collapsed in Shay’s arms after regenerating the Balmera, but her physical features are not otherwise affected.)
And not like this:
(Photo ID: A screenshot of an Altean named Petrulius from season 6, whose features are distorted after having had the life/quintessence sucked out of him.)
So to me, it seemed that Allura was enacting an ages-old, magical ceremony approved by and wanted by the Balmerans—simply on a scale that no one had ever before attempted. And it’s likely that no one else would or could attempt it, because Allura is the single character in the entire universe whose personal life force is tied to Voltron’s regenerative energy (by virtue of Alfor’s alchemy on her as mentioned in episode 1). It’s an even deeper tie to the whole machine than the transient bond between paladin and lion. No other Balmeran or Galran or Altean had that kind of tie in their life force. Likely, even Alfor would have died if he’d attempted this act himself without being connected to an infinite power source.
And after Allura saves the Balmera with assistance from Balmerans, we also do not see her like this with the Balmeran people:
(Photo ID: Lance soaking up a savior fantasy as previously mentioned in this meta.)
Instead, post-Balmera resurrection, we see it’s actually not even the Balmerans themselves who thank Allura. The Balmerans simply convey the will of the Balmera, which Allura cannot hear:
(Photo ID: A Balmeran says to Allura, “Yes. The Balmera lives. It thanks you.”)
So backing up for a second, I do think there are much larger issues happening in the narrative with Voltron itself, with the unequal power dynamics of having young, inexperienced people from a single planet make and enact all the big universal decisions. But in the instance with the Balmera, it seemed like Allura was openly welcomed to help save the planet, using magical ceremonies as approved by the Balmerans themselves for millennia, and that the Balmerans were not passive in those ceremonies but a necessary part of their success.
In general, Allura doesn’t seem to embody the “white savior complex” vibe at all to me, unlike some others in the show. Even in season 8, when Allura planned to make The Really Big Sacrifice, she asked her team to keep her actions a secret. She literally didn’t care for any respect or acknowledgment or prestige in exchange for sacrificing her life. She was doing what needed to be done because she was, once again, one of the few who could even perform at that level:
(Photo ID: Shiro says to Allura, “Most of them won’t know the sacrifice you made so they could live.” Allura replies, “And they’ll never need to.”)
(As an aside, I would argue that it was entirely unnecessary that the narrative would demand Allura sacrifice herself at all when she was literally standing in the universe’s seat of power alongside other powerful beings like her own father or the billions of other magic-wielding dead people, because apparently the lines between life and death blur in that space.)
(I also think there are some questionable “master race” vibes in the VLD universe in general, given that it forcefully pushes, even against the wishes of Alteans themselves, that Alteans are the only ones who can wield the big power to do big things. It’s clear that other groups and beings can wield magical abilities, but the larger narrative very oddly pins the “purest quintessence/bluest blood” back on Alteans time and time again in later seasons, leaving Allura in basically a no-win, no-help-available situation until other Alteans come along.)
So yeah, I hope something in this meta might help settle some concerns about Allura as a representation of white savior complex? Or at least that this would open conversation for further discussion about what could be done in future iterations to avoid that messaging. Because yeah, I agree with you that the unquestioned savior complexes in this show are a topic that can and should be discussed! And also that, despite early world-building to suggest otherwise, the narrative especially in s6-s8 pushes that Alteans have a “purer/more alive” life force compared to any other race or form. Which is just…hm. Like, the master race vibes of all that are weird and definitely not even inherent to the Voltron franchise. (In previous iterations, humans, Galrans/Drule, and Alteans could all perform incredible levels of magic. For example, in Dynamite Voltron, Keith, Lotor, and Lotor’s siblings had all been taught magic.)
There’s definitely some weird images and unnatural power dynamics in VLD at times. It seems like more often than not, the narrative does strive to make Allura sacrificing something the only viable resort for anyone ever. In those circumstances, I’m just not convinced that she herself functions as an embodiment of white savior complex, by virtue of her behavior in those instances. But it’s definitely weird that the narrative places so much weight on her when the larger Team Voltron narrative is supposed to be about found family and strength in unity.
(If you read this far, thank you! Sorry I’m not succinct.)
#Voltron#Voltron meta#Voltron critical in ways#Allura#Balmera episode#discussions of white savior complex#I ultimately state that Allura doesn't seem to meet the basic behaviors for that#but the show does get into some strange master race stuff in terms of abilities#and we do see several iimages of white savior complex throughout the show by virtue of some other characters#which idk why that got dropped in without at least a reflection on it#like I can handle problematic stories but prefer it when they know they're problematic lol#in VLD it felt like I was supposed to be cheering for those issues#that I wasn't supposed to question it or that I was supposed to actually connect with that fantasy#I feel like this is a really interesting topic because in other iterations there were other Voltrons#as in more people had similar machines#which I feel like helped to control the savior complex inherent in manning a powerful weapon#and in fact one iteration goes as far to say that voltron ISN'T special at all#which surprises various characters#Just a very different vibe from VLD entirely#I'm really fascinated by that#Anyway thanks for reading my rambles!
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What are your thoughts on Dark Hook and Dark Swan in ouat in general?
To preface my thoughts, I want to first talk about how the writers of OUAT may have had good ideas for a show, but they lack the ability to execute them well. I think the main reason most of us loved the show was because seasons one and two were quite good - and those were the seasons that the writers had years in front of them to plan out - and then we were just into it. From season 3 onward, you can see the writing quality decline, from the occasional wtfs of s3 to the outright out-of-character, pointless, even backpedalling decisions pretty much all the characters took in s6 (I believe that the main reason s7 worked was because they had a lot of clean-slate characters, even Rogers had a different path to expand from). So there’s the theme of the writers having great ideas, but they can’t work on a very small time frame and develop a whole season in the span of a few months, so their ideas fall flat.
Onto Dark Hook and Dark Swan.
Again, Dark Swan is a great idea; Emma facing her strongest fears, just at the time that she’s fully ready to accept her future and move on from her past pain. But what they failed to realize is how complicated of a concept that is, and how to give it justice, it needs more than a half-season with a limited screentime because of the development of other characters, as all ensemble cast shows have to do. Add to that the fact that the writers wanted to pander to the audience with ANGST! for CS and the obligatory SQ-but-no-homo storyline... with a group of writers that can’t execute their ideas... on a limited screentime... you get this.
And this is a magnificent failure, not only by itself, but most importantly its consequences.
The Dark CS storyline has zero consequences. As proven by the horribly-written s6, Emma doesn’t learn to trust in her family. She doesn’t learn to stop working on her own, to recognize her work - I mean, when she comes back from the Underworld, she’s all “Boohoo I should never have gone there” like bish you saved Killian? You helped souls move on? Bish? - or learn from her own mistakes. Killian... he just falls deeper into self-loathing, and I’m not sure how that’s a positive development from him. He was already on the path of making himself better, of wanting to repent; he didn’t need to assist in nearly killing Emma’s entire family, close and extended, in order to have a development.
And of course, there’s the matter of the heavy things both of them did; Emma ripped out Violet’s heart to force her to break Henry’s heart in order to get his tears. She literally manipulated things and people’s - her own son’s! - emotions to get to the final point. Which may have been a noble cause, freeing Merlin from his prison, but immoral acts for a noble cause? That’s the work of an Anti-Hero character, not a Hero character. And that’s not something the writers realized let alone admitted in the narrative.
Same with saving Killian’s life, against his own dying wish. I actually recently remembered this exchange they had:
Killian: Do you have any idea how it feels to not be in control of yourself? [...] Emma: I know exactly how it feels! Everyone I’ve ever loved abandoned me!
And like, what’s the connection between point A and point B? Killian is talking to her about becoming a puppet to someone, not having free will of choice, and Emma is talking about how she had no control over when people would leave her. One is a terrifying matter, and the other is something everyone goes through. You can’t choose when the people you love will die, and you will meet people who will hurt you.
But because Emma has had that latter a little too much, she wanted control over it. And with the Dark One’s powers, she was even more inclined to use them to make sure it doesn’t happen. Ergo, her taking away Killian’s consent, when he was choosing to die. And then again by hiding Excalibur from him, lying to him about it, forcing him to talk to her by summoning him when he had chosen to go away because he was enraged over the previous three betrayals, and then by taking away his memories when she concluded that he was “too far gone”. Again, manipulation and control, in order to save Killian’s life - when he didn’t want to be saved, btw - all acts of an Anti-Hero character.
And then you have Killian. I’ve said before how I think most of the things he said and done as a Dark One were Killian’s actual deep fears - that he had become a lovesick puppy dog, that Emma was eventually going to push him away and revert to her “orphan” state, that he had no hope of making amends for his villainous past, so might as well give up trying, and making sure Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t hurt him again - so having him say both things like “That’s why you’ll always be an orphan” and “I might have given you your wife back. Soiled, but returned�� on the same episode, you kinda wonder, how much of that does he mean? What the hell is going on?
The fact that right after waking up, he desires to die because he thinks he deserves to more than Emma does, the fact that after Emma rescues him he’s a mess with guilt... those kinda point to the fact that he had some control over what he was doing, or at least his feelings behind them - that, for example, he regrets allowing the Dark Ones to nearly kill Emma’s family and friends just so he could have his revenge on Rumpelstiltskin.
So, you’ve got some heavy issues. Manipulation, betrayal of trust, controlling and disregard of consent on the one side, and humiliation, degradation and homicidal attempt on the other side.
What are the consequences of all that? Nothing. The Dark CS storyline is forgotten, Killian’s guilt over it is mentioned once in the later episodes and then never again.
All those required at least a moment to sit and talk about. Killian feeling guilty over it for about one episode - and just for the things he did! God forbid we have Emma face the emotional consequences her actions had on other people - doesn’t even begin to reach enough.
So overall, it was a very interesting concept, with a less than promising introduction and execution, and an outright disappointing and unrealistic conclusion. And I’m saying this as a CS fan - I’m not saying nothing of this should’ve happened. It was interesting to see how they happened, to see Emma’s and Killian’s deepest fears surface and take control of their actions, but it was disappointing to see that it lead to nothing. It was emotionally taxing, especially if you connected to the characters, and then it was nothing. It never happened, please look away and look! Cruella’s back and we got a villain with blue flaming hair please keep watching the show despite the fact that we disregard one of the oldest rules of storytelling by not providing Catharsis!
So yeah. Disappointing, 0/10, wouldn’t invest in anything A&E write again.
#lillpon goes meta#ouat#Captain Swan#Emma Swan#Killian Jones#ouat criticism#Anonymous#ask and ye shall receive
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hello friend!!! the 100 (ew) for ask game?
the first character i first fell in love with:
this may come as a shock but... john murphy. who could have seen that coming? i don’t know he just burrowed under my skin like a parasite. i hate him but i love him (only i can make fun of him it is not funny when anyone else does)... truly my beloved. he is so human and relatable and troubled and yet still so kind and good. he is my forever favourite... we don’t speak of his ending. season 6-7 who???? justice for my bastard man. i love you so much. <3
the character i never expected to love as much as i do now:
i’ve always loved raven — but, i am a bit surprised just how much that love grew. she is just the best and most complex girl. i loved watching her grow even if the writers did her so dirty in book two (in that her storyline was a prop to others, not in that i didn’t like her anymore). raven is MY female lead.
the character everyone else loves that i don’t:
... i have never really understood emori. i just have no connection and i am not sure what i am meant to see in her. most of it is writing’s fault, but i just felt like she was inconsistent and a bit shallow — which does make sense if she was never a “main”. i think much of the remaining fandom loves emori so that’s why i’m considering this a bit unpopular.
the character i love that everyone else hates:
i will never understand the echo hate. she is not a top favourite, but she is just very cool and pretty and kind and badass. where the aforementioned character lacks in backstory and purpose — echo always had that on lock. not to be controversial... but any issues i have with becho don’t lie with her. her being an antagonist was justified — then echo grew and found family and it was really beautiful!!
the character i used to love but don’t any longer:
am i allowed to say clarke and / or bellamy? i love them both, but with how... weird the writing got i started loving their potential more than them... if that makes any sense. i think all characters really had a downward spiral in book two but man... did the two leads just get the short end of the sticks. i just found myself more and more frustrated with their writing and their actions in the later seasons.
the character i would totally smooch:
murphy!! raven!! jasper!! gabriel!! luna!! josephine!!
the character i’d want to be like:
this is hard... maybe monty or luna? peace driven icons... who also had backbones. monty could be so snarky yet also so kind — luna was so wise but also realistic. the show was wasted on characters like them, to be honest. justice for peacekeepers.
the character i’d slap:
abby griffin. hands down my least favourite. dear lord did she make me so angry. it would also be payback for her slapping both raven and murphy.
a pairing that i love:
murven murven murven murven murven murven. i love them SO much. the way they balance each other and take turns with the morality stick. the way they grew past mistakes and just have such a pure love for one another. they do not judge each other; they understand one another so damn well. the strongest dynamic on the show — would have simply been too powerful. endgame in my heart!!!
a pairing that i despise:
m*mori. somehow simultaneously boring yet also makes me feel uncomfortable. especially after the series finale, they just make me feel so sad/sick. i used to tolerate them, but now i can’t even read a fanfic with them as a side pairing. they are an ick. murphy, i’m going to get you out of there post s7. no hard feelings to any shippers, i just can’t do it.
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Got yet another early finish today, so because it’s just a special I decided to squeeze in a viewing of Day of the Departed, exactly six months ahead of the holiday it’s a special for. Ah well.
So, it was fine. There is one very big issue, but there is a bit of context for why unlike a lot of issues in the show so far; with the Ninjago Movie coming up, apparently this and season 7 were thrown into utter chaos and you can tell. I’ll get into in the notes.
-MVP of the special is pretty obvious. Cole gets the focus here and he does not squander the opportunity. Not only does he get to be on his top form in terms of more comedic personality, he gets pathos to his ghost form (finally) and a good show of his empathetic side. Plus he gets a new power to play with, one that makes a very good toy gimmick (and will be keen to the writers too considering how often it comes up). -The other ninja don’t so much get that sort of treatment, just little opportunities to show off a bit of themselves at that point. Lloyd and Jay have the best of this, having opportunities to reflect on their arcs in Tournament of Elements/Possession and Skybound respectively with the theme of death and appreciating those still living, Zane’s is kind of weak but gets the basics in, and Kai and Nya were basically just setting up for season 7. -The villains are fun, if obviously just there for fanservice. I think I’ve heard that one of people’s big hang-ups with the special is how it didn’t treat them seriously and...to be honest, the selection it had were not villains I took seriously in the first place. Samukai, Kozu and Cryptor were from seasons (or pilot) that didn’t take themselves that seriously outside of, like, the Overlord, Chen is the one post-S3 villain that was supposed to be silly and fun up to this point, Morro was actually treated seriously and kept his development from the end of Possession, and Pythor’s just a bitch. What limits them is that they don’t get to do more because there’s so much being thrown around. -Yang’s alright, a step down from the last two villains. I mean, he spends a lot of it just being the stereotypical villain looking to just stop the ninja, but at least it tries to throw him a bone at the end (and makes more sense of his motives considering his previous status). The conversion to good is pretty breakneck though. -The side characters get some nice moments, specifically Misako twisting Pythor’s words in Lloyd’s favour, Ed and Edna just being super supportive and Dareth showing surprising competence in the wake of Kozu’s attack (despite his sleazy comment at the start). Also Lou is back! He got kinda shortchanged when he wanted to start efforts to rebuild the city first in S2 only for S3 to basically force in Cyrus rebuilding due to the whole technology slant. I like the little moment he got at the start, but I wish it showed more closure with the family thing. I mean, when you think about it Lou’s had his whole world shaken since S1, he would want to have some family time for once. I swear, the one thing that will get me to riot about S13 is if Lou doesn’t get anything, give the man a break! And finally, Dr Saunders is a bit of a scene stealer despite just being there to set up...this plot. Boogily boogily. -Time to address the elephant in the room though; the pacing of the special is so fast. If the thing about this being a season first then shortened down to a special is true, you can definitely tell because it tries to include all those potential threads, and a Cole focus, and S7 foreshadowing all in one go. They wisely make the Cole material the strongest and the least rushed stuff (although as I said with Yang, it’s not completely immune), but it doesn’t take a breather, ever. I can see why this could be overwhelming. -Also the fighting choreography here is a bit naff. Again, probably because it’s rushed. -But hey, the tone feels like S1-S2 light-hearted again, and I’ve missed that. It’s a breather between the heavier stuff of the seasons gone...and the seasons coming up.
Overall, I can see why people regard this as one the worst Ninjago things, but I can’t say I find it any worse than something like Rebooted. it’s a shame things panned out the way they did, because with more time this could have been an absolute riot. At least the insight into the more grounded side of Ninjago culture is given the spotlight (pardon the pun), and Cole gets a pretty nice sendoff to his ghost state.
With the special out of the way, it’s back onto regular seasons when the next Ninjago viewing will be Hands of Time. I sure hope we get more of Dr Saunders now that we’ve introduced him, it sure would be a waste to have the eccentric museum owner only around for one special.
...Oh who am I kidding, I’m on Faky’s LCA server, nobody would believe I don’t know how that turns out with the prevalence of his candy-crushing, Lance Richmond-voiced relative on there.
#ninjago#ns6.5?#day of the departed#VEDJ-F talks#vedj-f reviews#the kai and nya scenes might as well just had exposition signs in the background
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End of S6, S7 & end of show theory
I’ve been thinking about how this show could possibly end. The overarching theme of the show has always been, “Maybe there are no good guys”. But Monty’s dying wish was for them to forget all that and be the good guys. If S7 is the last season, which it very well may be (and I do like the idea the show ending at 100 episodes), I wonder, is there a way that they could tie everything up in one more season? Well, I think there may be.
“The ground, that's the dream.”
This is the first scene of the pilot. The opening shot of the entire show is Clarke drawing a picture of the ground.
Earth was always the end goal. The plan was for humanity to eventually return home. But now, our heroes are on another planet somewhere very far away and Earth will probably never be suitable for human life again. They could definitely make a life for themselves on Alpha. But this isn’t their home.
This was their chance to do better, but I have a feeling that this season will end in violence once again. Madi has already started murdering people, Clarke’s body is dying and Josephine and the Primes are not going to go down easy. They’ve already started another war, and another planet will most likely be destroyed because of them.
If they do destroy Alpha, then where else can they go? Live in space again I suppose. Or they could go to another of the five possible habitable planets that Eligius III went in search of. But I don’t think ending up in space or on another unknown planet would be very satisfying.
In order for the show to come full circle, it would make the most sense for them to end up back on Earth in the end. But how can they after it’s been irreversibly damaged?
They travel back in time and stop the first apocalypse.
We don’t know much about the temporal anomaly yet, but we do know that it affects time somehow. And what we’ve seen so far points to some type of time travel.
Gabriel explained that it shows you your greatest desire or darkest fear, or sometimes both at once. I take that to mean that whatever is strongest in your mind, the anomaly will show you that.
Octavia saw Bellamy in the fighting pits. The things she did as Bloodreina, that is her darkest fear.
Diyoza saw her future daughter. The main reason why she keeps fighting to stay alive, and for a better world, is her daughter. That is her greatest desire.
Gabriel saw Josephine. He loved her, that’s why he spent 25 years trying to bring her back. But what she turned into is his biggest fear.
I’m thinking that the anomaly is some sort of intelligent alien life. It can sense what a person is thinking and can see deep into their minds. It then shows them what it senses to be their strongest thoughts using it's ability to manipulate time.
Gabriel said that no one ever comes back from the anomaly, yet Octavia did.
Diyoza followed her daughter in. The pull was too strong for her, her greatest desire was in reach and she had to go. I think that it took her forward in time and she’s somewhere in the future living in peace with her daughter. That’s why she didn’t return, because she didn’t want to.
But Octavia did return. Her darkest fear was stronger than her greatest desire. I think she was taken back in time to before the bunker and forced to face her greatest fear (that could explain her fighting Bloodreina in the trailer). But why did she return? Maybe because she couldn’t face herself. She fought her way back out of the anomaly but was spat out as that younger version of herself. The anomaly wasn’t counting on her returning because no one ever resists what it shows them.
Gabriel left Sanctum 70 years ago. He said he’s never ventured into the anomaly himself, but he has spent a lot of time around it. If the anomaly is sentient, then it probably knows Gabriel better than anyone else. As they we walking close to it, he saw his greatest fear and desire in the shape of Josephine. But with all the time he’s spent with the anomaly, I’m thinking that it knows deep down what his ultimate greatest desire is.
He regrets what he did and blames himself for what Josephine became. I think that his greatest desire is to go back to Earth before the bombs, before Eligius, before he met Josephine, and do things differently.
In 6x01 Clarke said that if she could go back and do things differently, she would. What if they could go back to the very beginning before any of this happened?
If this is all correct and Gabriel’s biggest desire is to go back in time to Earth, then the anomaly would be able to make that happen. Since Gabriel has a very close connection with the anomaly (from spending 70 years with it), because his desire is the strongest, then maybe they could all be sent back to Earth.
I’m thinking that the people who will go are the remaining delinquents - Clarke, Bellamy, Octavia, Murphy, Raven and Miller, plus Madi (Clarke’s daughter) and Jordan (Monty & Harper’s son). The show started as the delinquents story, and it would be fitting for it to end with them being the ones to change things for the better.
The problem with this plan is that if they do succeed, then due to changing the timeline, humanity would probably not have fled onto the Ark and all of them will most likely never exist. But they will be aware of that and willing to make that sacrifice for their people (in this case, for all of humanity).
What they need to do back on Earth:
Team up with Diyoza to take down the fascist government
Diyoza has told of how she saved civilians from the wrath of the government. She was a peaceful terrorist fighting for what was right. The government only put her in the history books next to the worst people because they wanted people to turn against her in order to strengthen their hold on the country. And with Diyoza’s fate now unknown (I’m really not sure if she’ll return from the anomaly), this could be a way to keep her in the show.
2. Stop A.L.I.E 1.0
They will need to find Becca and make sure she doesn’t create A.L.I.E 1.0 as we know her in the future. Or, depending on when they arrive on Earth, if A.L.I.E has already been created then they use the Flame to destroy her.
They prevent the first apocalypse, thus they prevent the subsequent ones that lead to the total destruction of Earth.
3. Josephine Lightbourne
As a thank you for all that Gabriel did for them, for giving them another chance to do better, they alter the events that lead to Josephine becoming an immortal psychopath.
In the memory of her darkest trauma, she was originally not going to go on the Eligius III colonising mission with her parents. She was a genius, but unfortunately her brain ended up being used for eugenics instead of for something good. If they stop the events that lead her to going to Alpha, then the Primes would never happen (we know she is the one who wanted immortality, Gabriel only wanted to bring back the people Russel killed). Someone with a mind like hers could do so much good in the world.
Once they’ve changed the course of the world, the delinquents will most likely no longer exist. They knew this and had accepted it because it was for the betterment of the world.
But surely there is a way to save them. The show can’t end with everyone dying.
Becca and Josephine are both incredibly smart and I’m sure with their combined brains they can figure out a way. Whether that’s through copying their minds onto some sort of mind drive, or altering their genetic makeup to ensure that they don’t disappear. I’m not sure of the specifics (and this science fiction, literally anything is possible) but somehow they’ll figure out a way for them to exist in this timeline.
The show ends with our heroes getting to live with the promise of a hopeful future for humanity and for Earth.
Now, this would mean that everything that has happened on the show up to this point would technically never have happened. All of the characters that we’ve loved and lost would have never existed.
But Clarke will draw everyone they’ve lost and they’ll write stories about everything they went through. Their memories will live on forever. Despite never have actually happened or existed, it was real to them, something as trivial as time travel doesn’t change that. They’ll pass on these stories to the future generations and their legacy will live on.
They know that none of this would have been possible without everything that happened. Every single thing played an important part of them eventually arriving here. They did better. They gave hope for the future of humanity on their home planet.
They became the good guys.
I would love for the final scene of the show to be a rehash of Clarke's “I was born in space…” monologue. Where she tells the story of everything they went through (maybe something like the fairytale story that Madi tells in the S5 sizzle reel). And then we see that she’s talking to her biological child. A child who will grow up never knowing destruction or war.
I think this would bring things full circle and be a very fitting way for the show to end. Our remaining delinquents back on Earth having fulfilled Monty’s wish, holding tightly onto the memories of everyone they lost and everything they went through to get to here.
#the 100#the 100 speculation#the 100 spec#the 100 theory#the 100 s6#the 100 s7#the 100 spoilers#theory#speculation#t100recap#my text post
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Why isn’t Sam insane? 3/3: Dr. Compartmentalization, or How Sam Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Guilt
(Part One, Part Two.)
I think a lot about Sam’s compartmentalization. It’s got so much unique flair. It bears very little in common with usual depictions of repression, because repression isn’t really the word for the way Sam copes.
Sam’s got little overlap with Dean’s brand of repression, for instance, which tends to follow a more generally straightforward model: push down your emotional and mental fragility until you can’t anymore, until you gotta collapse or punch or cry. “Spurts of violence and alcoholism,” indeed. Whenever Dean says he’s fine, he’s usually transparently lying to himself and his audience. But when Sam says he’s fine... even when he’s clearly NOT fine, I often get the sense that Sam has persuaded himself to a degree Dean never really has.
Sam prefers to fancy that he’s honest with himself. He doesn’t suppress the bare facts of what he’s feeling the way Dean is more liable to; instead, Sam operates on telling himself slant truths, and keeping facets of both his identity and his mental health confined to several different, walled spheres.
So many of Sam’s foundational traumas have built-in distance: the Cage; Mary’s death when he was too young to remember her; subsequently growing up in a silent cult dedicated to her loss; Dean’s death in s3 where he had a whole year to prepare and a further year to plan revenge. None of this was sudden. There’s too much time and distance and complication involved in all three of those traumas for “reacting” to be the right word for how he responds. Sam doesn’t react so much as he sublimates.
How?
Thesis time: I think the reason Sam’s able to pull this off is because he has an uncanny ability to bolster his mental health at the cost of his emotional health. That is to say, Sam’s sanity and his guilt are anti-correlated.
Sam’s sense of guilt, shame, and self-blame is arguably one of his strongest, most concrete, and least mutable emotions. When other flavors of his emotional landscape come and go and shift, guilt has stayed with him from early seasons to late. It’s powerful, it’s central, it’s not going away anytime soon.
So what does Sam do with it?
He weaponizes it, internally. It’s a grudge match: guilt vs. trauma. He makes his Bad Thoughts fight it out. It’s brutally effective. Sam uses his shame and guilt not only to goad himself onward and force himself into ever-twisting forms of self-castigation and redemption and recompense, but also as a means to defang the emotions and the experiences that cause him significant mental distress, the ones he’s sure he can’t deal with while remaining sane.
Weirdly enough, Lucifer’s preferred flavor of victim blaming (putting emphasis on Sam’s personal culpability; it’s your fault, you did this, you chose this) actually contributes to Sam’s ability to cope like this. So too does Dean’s patent inability to let go of a grudge.
Because the shadow side of guilt is autonomy. If Sam’s responsible for screwing up, that means he had personal control when he screwed up. I think this is a large part of why Sam clings so tenaciously to his shame over mistakes both real and imagined.
Holding on that tightly to guilt has obvious costs.
Juxtapose Sam’s fevered-but-hopeful mission in the latter part of s8 with his eventual collapse in 8.23. Sam’s certainly at the end of his emotional rope, but... he’s not really in a mental crisis in any way comparable to what he experienced in s7. He’s forcibly shoved himself into functional sanity by focusing on those feelings of guilt and betrayal and letting Dean down, culminating in the pain he feels in “Sacrifice”.
Similarly, in s14, I think Sam’s mental health/sense of his capacity for improvement and self-actualization is on a definitive upswing (thanks, 13.23!), but his emotional health is arguably more fragile than it’s been since s8. He cries every other episode (it’s great), and that’s in no small part because he’s taken on so much personal ownership and guilt and responsibility concerning the fates of the AU hunters, and Nick, and Jack, and Dean.
Think about Sam saying “no, see, I’m just viewing my time in the Cage as really extreme penance, so I’m all good,” in early s7. (Incidentally, some of s7 is a rare reversal of the usual trend, wherein Sam’s feeling less guilt but having much worse sanity problems.) Think about Sam concluding “my problem is my uncleanliness and past sins; these will all be fixed once I close the gates of Hell,” in mid-to-late s8. Think about Sam deciding in 11.11 that “my ACTUAL traumatic takeaway from being in close quarters with Lucifer? Is really just my lingering guilt over Purgatory; better apologize to Dean again, that’ll help.”
Sam takes VIOLENT ownership over his experiences. Not so he can deal with them, no no no--so that he can force them into metal-lined safes at gunpoint.
He even does the gunpoint thing literally in 6.22. Except he takes my analogy a step further; he actually murders Cage!Sam and Soulless!Sam in order to merge with them safely. And what’s spurring him on? “You know me; you know why.” Why is responsibility. Why is guilt.
#i speaks#sam and dean#sam and the cage#sam and lucifer#sam and trauma#sam and compartmentalization#6.22#8.23#11.11
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In your recent post about the hypothetical Sincline ships, you mentioned certain roles(Mediator, Herald, Mystic, etc.) that each ship's paladin fulfills. Could you maybe elaborate a bit more on each of these? The concept of a sort of "Alt Five Archetypes" so to speak intrigues me.
I mean, they’re not so much an alternate five archetypes as much as, I like the idea that Black and White, for example, would have the same archetype- they’re the head and they would both align with the concept of the Paragon, but, they would call to different things, to the point that they’re not quite interchangeable. So Lotor could work with the Black Lion, and probably better than with any other Voltron Lion- Shiro could work with White Lion, and probably better than with any other Sincline Lion- but Black and White are not the same, they call for different things.
Black, is in many ways, a champion in the light, obstinate in the face of any who would subjugate or ask them to hide themselves. You can see this in both Shiro and in Zarkon- these are people that when the world tells them to move they dig their heels in and say “no.” They assert their strength of will and their personal power by doubling down on resolve- any time the going gets tough they get more stubborn. It’s a very direct sense of values.
And that’s not to say Lotor never challenges people, never confronts- if anything, we see that even outside of structured theses where he absolutely dismantles someone else’s morals, Lotor can and will often take passing shots of judgment at people he dislikes, such as while convincing Zarkon he’s not up to anything in s4e3, Lotor subtly digs at how obviously Zarkon is neglecting him.
But it’s what Shiro and Lotor did to survive that differentiates them.
Shiro was the person who buckled down and held onto his ideals in a setting that was doing everything it possibly could to strip him of himself, to make him a tool of the empire- when his name was ignored he, in effect, made a new one for himself, and kept pushing, kept fighting. When Shiro the Astronaut was taken into the empire, Shiro the Champion forged himself as something that they wouldn’t tame.
In a way, Lotor also kept his sense of self alive under incredible pressure. However, that doesn’t become a name spoken at a reverent roar, and the one time it does seem to gain acclaim in s3e1, Lotor calmly suggests that means nothing- their acknowledgement is shallow and will easily go.
Where Shiro is in a way, the visionary in the light- someone who lacks a certain amount of artifice- Lotor is the conspirator in the dark. It doesn’t matter if a thousand people don’t hear him- if anything, that’s how he prefers it. He shows the sides of himself that need to be seen in that moment, and Lotor at his most sincere is Lotor in private, with only the people he wants in his inner circle.
So this made me imagine White as, in some ways, an illusionist. Drawing strength from charisma, manipulating attention, focus, what happens where your enemies can see you and what happens in the dark. Light, but light as blinding, bewitching, misdirecting.
And in another sense, White still embodying the Head, the Leader- again, in the sense that if you look where Lotor shines at his most earnest and authentic it’s when he is alone in company he completely trusts. Just like a Black Paladin, we see that Lotor’s downfall is isolation, that in some ways he seems the strongest of the team and in others he is the most dependent on the limbs to support and guide him.
From there, that creates an obvious interesting relationship with Cyan as the Right Hand. The Black Lion doesn’t really need anyone to announce it in the slightest so Red if anything takes kind of a deferential position as we see through Keith and through Alfor- Red in a way hangs back and supports Black, to rush in during their time of need.
But if we characterize White as an entity who in some ways obscures their own brilliance, it creates an interesting since that Cyan is the one who brings White into the light, that illuminates the importance of her beloved leader. Both to others- (s3e2, “You dare speak to Prince Lotor?”) and to that leader themselves, when the White Paladin might be lost to the darkness they survive in- this isn’t who you are.
In that sense, Pink becomes the counterpart, the left hand, who expresses their loyalty not by pulling White out of the darkness as-needed, but, as the one who accompanies White through the darkness. Speaking technically, while this is because of Narti’s somewhat rude dismissal from the plot, Narti is the one paladin we never see turn on Lotor in any way. As Ezor says, she trusts him.
And that implies that in some ways, while Acxa obviously takes a sense of importance and relevance from following Lotor, and in s7 seems to describe herself as lost without him (that she had to separate from her other Sincline pilots to find her own path again)...
Narti expresses that same sense of loyalty, of being a Hand, by shadowing Lotor closely. She’s literally the person he calls on to watch his back when he’s summoned for a direct confrontation by Zarkon.
(which further plays into the ideas I have about the White Paladin- Lotor doesn’t hate confrontations, but overwhelmingly Lotor reacts to someone else’s confrontation- in s3e1, Throk was planning something and Lotor merely baited it into the open, in s3e3 Keith chases Lotor first, and Lotor cheerfully demurs keeping up the attack because it’s not the “day of our choosing”. In s5e2, both Black Paladins in a way are open about this confrontation- Zarkon orchestrates it, and Shiro arms Lotor. But the entire time leading up to the fight, Lotor is stonefaced, almost seeming resigned, and that’s how he remains afterwards- he doesn’t relish confronting Zarkon directly, merely acknowledges it as something that needed to be done.)
With Orange and Blue, since the nature of the Blue Lion is mutability and versatility, I would imagine Orange and Blue are the closest to each other. Roughly, I think what differentiates both of the Sincline Legs from Voltron is the sense that Sincline’s legs are more aggressive.
Ezor, the emotional side of the protection is the one who speaks frankly and calculatingly about the future of the team, and it is a very, very grim summation for Sincline indeed when Ezor actually says she’s given up trying to understand Lotor, when in s3, them happy and together, we see that Ezor makes a lot of effort to keep up with what Lotor is thinking.
I imagine in a healthier scenario, with Sincline moving towards apotheosis as a team rather than falling apart, Ezor would be the one most likely to confront and challenge Lotor when he’s withdrawing away from the team, for the same reasons she was the one to first consider pulling away from him after Narti’s death- because she can look frankly at the psychological climate and go “we’re not gonna survive like this.”
The biggest difference between Ezor and Lance- and by connection, Orange Lion and Blue Lion- is that we see Ezor ply her emotional savvy aggressively. Probably the clearest example is in s7- she easily skims the paladins, notice who’s in the most protected position, Pidge, and who as soon as she looks at Pidge, the other paladins start giving her death glares- and she knows immediately that threatening Pidge is going to get her the most leverage the fastest. In s3e2 she does similar things with the Puigian leader, taunting him and baiting him into getting sloppy.
And that makes sense. The Legs are those concerned with protecting the team, with seeing their allies as a mouth to feed, an injury to bandage, needs that call for redress.
And the biggest difference between Sincline and Voltron is Voltron is a proud champion of the light, a knightly figure of a bygone age, born during peace and a harbinger of hope. Powerful, shielded, closely entwined with this sense of honor, and overwhelmingly, carrying a tower shield and a shining sword.
Sincline is a bandit, not because of a lack of values- because again, I imagine each piece of Sincline embodies much the same values as its corresponding piece of Voltron- but because if you have been starving for years, honor won’t feed you. Sincline did not streak across the sky and deliver itself as a shining beacon of potential to a court of lords. It was born during wartime, it panicked and hid itself; it waited centuries, powerless in the darkness, nestled in a trap it had created to keep itself safe and tear apart any unworthy that might approach it.
There’s a reason Sincline resonates with Lotor and the generals. It’s because they themselves, are fearful, cornered people. They’re not spineless or morally deficient compared to Voltron- but it’s easy to be a knight in shining armor when you have the money to afford the suit and a polishing kit. It’s easy to say that you want to not merely save people, but do so as a moral inspiration, when you have the luxury of not having to choose between the two.
So much of Lotor’s argument with Voltron at the end of s6 basically boils down to “you don’t understand because you were safe. You were safe, and comfortable, because you had people who loved you and hid you from the fire and the wolves at the door. I did what I did because while you were safe, I was out here, with the cold and the beasts, and I did what I had to because I needed to eat.”
So there’s a vein of not ruthlessness or depravity to Sincline, but of desperation. In peace and in plenty, Sincline is just as honorable as Voltron. But it doesn’t forget famine, because it can’t forget them- because it remembers that, and because that echoes in the heart of its chosen paladins. They remember what it feels like to starve, and that memory starts to gnaw on them when food runs low.
And in some ways, that would resonate most in the leg pilots- in Orange who is very versed in fear, in uncertainty, in “can we make it? Can we keep going like this? Should we be hoping in the future or should we be making sure we have somewhere to run to?”-
And in Indigo, counterpart of Yellow, the team’s shield, who knows that while she might stock heavily in armor and strength, that she’s going to need to stay there and keep holding that defensive line even well past the point that it will hurt her. Hence why Yellow Lion is the Guardian, but Indigo Lion is the Martyr- not that she lacks the resolve to live in any sense, but in a way, Sincline is shaped by the sense that you can’t guarantee everyone will make it, and if you want to try, the best thing to do is to make a decision that if only four people can go home, you won’t waste time deciding before you push your friends to safety.
Though, that sense of Sincline as born out of want, out of necessity, out of fear would ring through all of them- it’s the significance of Cyan’s focus on Honor specifically because as the counterpart to Red, the visionary, Cyan is the one who looks towards that image of gleaming heroes in armor and says “we could get there, I believe in you. You’re worthy of those honors, too. I won’t let anyone forget it.”
It’s the significance of how Pink expresses her curiosity, her focus on knowledge and information- nobody, nobody sneaks up on Sincline on Pink’s watch. Which is, incidentally, the exact reason why in my original post I gave Pink the power to sense and disable cloaked targets- not only does it set her up as a nice rival to Green that way, but it enforces the idea that in canon, the beginning of Sincline’s end was losing Narti- because she’s the team’s vanguard, and from that point on, they had to operate blind.
And it’s the significance of White as a leader who, no matter how charismatic and clever, is not really comfortable being seen as themselves. While it was so brief, I really think it means a lot that in s6 we see that Lotor in an actual comfortable equal-footing environment with the paladins rapidly turns a bit sheepish and cautious- because Lotor’s most comfortable being seen when it’s an image he’s projecting, and it is a very rare currency of absolute trust when he actually lets his shields down, and he wasn’t quite there with many of the paladins yet.
While it’s funny to see Lotor blushing a little at Lance’s enthusiastic clowning, it comes back to the unfunny root that this is because, for most of his life, Lotor has not felt safe being who he is. He has to know he can trust people before he shows his hand. And that tying thematically into how I imagine the White Lion, as a counterpart to Black with that heavy focus on Identity and Self- but White is the concealed, protected Self that refracts itself through mirrors to become power.
#voltron legendary defender#vld#Lotor#Acxa#Narti#Ezor#Zethrid#Sincline#readmore#a lot of this was in the back of my head making the first post#the significance of Zethrid having a Lion that not only tanks hits but specifically can tether a foe onto itself#Ezor's being quite literally able to spit acid#Acxa's as 'burning brightly'#Lotor's as able to manipulate attention on itself and away from itself#Narti's as an inescapable blind eye#Anonymous
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Love In Voltron
You should always be wary of things said in interviews, but one thing I absolutely believe is when LM and JDS said that one of the biggest themes within Voltron is love. I’m not talking about shipping or anything like that, just love in general and in all its forms.
I’m going to be looking at different kinds of love, and how, as far as we’ve seen on the show, it applies to them. There’s a tiny bit of speculation in spots too, because of course there is. This gets long, so it’s going below the cut.
You may have heard of the Greek terms for different forms of love like eros, philia, storage, agape, and others. I think there are eight total (though a few sources have made a more ‘modern’ version that has seven). I’m not going to be looking at those specifically, but there is some overlap to my version.
Different forms of love include sexual, romantic, familial, platonic, universal, self, and there are many others. Here’s how I’m going to be using them:
Sexual – physical interest/love for others
Romantic – how we commonly see love with a partner/spouse.
Familial – love for parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, cousins, and does include found family that you genuinely see as family.
Platonic – Friendship
Universal – this is your love for things like nature, strangers, God, etc…
Self – loving yourself.
For Voltron, obviously, there is not going to be a portrayal of sexual love. It’s a show for kids/young teens. You can take inferences based on people having kids (like Keith’s parents for instance), though you can still have a kid and not experience sexual love (an ace person that may be chill with sex and wants kids, for instance).
Outside of that, I’m going to go through Shiro, Pidge, Hunk, Allura, Keith, and Lance in regards to love.
Shiro
Shiro is the oldest of the Paladins, and therefore he’s instantly had more life experience, more time to learn, grow, and experience different types of love.
Romantic – in S7 we learned that Shiro had a boyfriend, potentially a fiancé. He definitely knows what romantic love is. Yes, he struggled with aspects of it, and in the end he couldn’t make it work, but he’s experienced it and knows what it is.
Familial – Keith. Shiro has never been shown to have a family. There’s the possibility that he himself was an orphan or separated from his family, but that’s just speculation. With the age difference, a child compared to an adult, they developed a brotherly relationship. So yes, Shiro experiences familial love through Keith.
Platonic – I’d say he absolutely develops a friendship with all the other Paladins as well. Yes, he is separated by age and experience, but he’d be close to them. They can also fall a bit under familial as well.
Universal – He’s has this one from the moment he landed on Earth. Save the universe.
Self – This one is a bit weird. He wavers with this sometimes, is very dry and sarcastic with his own life, but at the same time, he chose HIMSELF over his relationship. He accepted what was happening and wanted to do what he wanted while he had the chance. That does speak of self love.
Shiro was pretty well rounded from the beginning, despite being the wonderful disaster he is. It makes sense, since he’s older and was the more stable force to balance out the other Paladins. He’s already gone through figuring out who he is and what matters to him. Now he just has to figure out how to make that work without a looming death date over him.
Pidge
Romance – Pidge has shown zero inclination for romantic love. She recognizes crushes and when people are mooning for others, but she doesn’t seem interested herself. I like the headcanon that she’s ace (like me!), but she could also just be a young teenage girl who doesn’t have an interest in that kind of thing yet, but might in the future (but also she could be ace and still fine love, those things aren’t separate). All points of view on that are legit.
Familial – This is arguable the strongest form of love Pidge understands in the beginning. All of her actions are defined by her family, and sometimes she slips into the mentality of ‘my family first’, which we see in S5 with the Lotor-Sam trade.
Platonic – This one is super interesting. We know that she was separated from her peers as a student. That’s a pretty common thing for children that are as smart as she is. Her best friend was arguable Matt, who I’d estimate was roughly 5 years older than her, give or take. Despite being part of the ‘Garrison Trio’, she actually didn’t have a relationship with Lance and Hunk. They tried, but she was on a mission. Later on though, she grows to love all of them as friends, and we get to see this.
Universal – This is another form of love that she originally struggles with. How do I know this? More than once, she was willing to turn her back on the rest of the universe for her family. She wanted to trade Lotor without hesitation. She was willing to walk away from Voltron. She learned to embrace this too.
Self – Pidge has never struck me as someone with real self-esteem issues. She knows who she is, what she can do, and she embraces it. Once she got a few friends that understood her, she knew exactly where she fit in.
Hunk
Romantic – this one has never been a very big focus for Hunk at all. However, we do know he made a connection with Shay that can fall under this category. Like any typical teenage boy, he denied this at first, but doesn’t seem to really mind. There’s no huge dynamic arc for this for him.
Familial – this was a strange one for Hunk. Family came up so rarely with him at first, but then it turned into a huge thing for him in S7. He had to learn to cope with his family being in danger, using everything else he learned over the adventure to save them.
Platonic – I’d arguably say that this is the strongest form of love associated with Hunk. He is very much a people person. He can bond with them in ways pretty much every other Paladin struggles with. This actually makes a ton of sense if you watch everything over. He hasn’t gone on a journey with this one or anything, but it’s a strong part of who he is. Sidenote: the concept that he’s got a super strong bromance with Lance actually has never really been shown on the show. They’re close, but they also really don’t hang out with one another much anymore.
Universal – Hunk learned this one very early on. He was all set to go home even knowing how bad the Galra were. It was only after his experience with Shay that he opened up to this kind of love. He really does embrace this.
Self – I don’t recall Hunk ever having an issue with self-esteem or self love. He’s good here!
Allura
Romantic – Allura does know what this kind of love is. I think she genuinely fell in love with Lotor, and that he truly did love her in return. I don’t think he was expecting it, but it happened. Now, I’d say that she definitely has a crush on Lance. How that’s going to turn out though, who knows?
Familial – Allura loved her father. This love actually is a huge thing that defines her. Not only that, but she definitely loves Coran as family too.
Platonic – This is one that she’s had to work on with the Paladins. She was super awkward at first, and if you think about it, she’s been trained to be a diplomat and a princess. She’s always been a bit separate from the others. This evened out more when she became a paladin, when she became one of them. They are friends, and she’s much more at ease with them. This is something she still works on at times, but she’s learning.
Universal – hands down she has this one in the bag. This is largely what defines her character for so long. The universe. Alteans she doesn’t know. This has always been a part of her.
Self – She actually really does need to work on her self-esteem. The moment things start going badly, she questions herself. She’s very quick to bring herself down, and resorts to thinking ‘what would father do’, as if he’s so much better than she is. This is largely how Lotor was able to worm his way into her heart, and why she’s now paying attention to Lance too.
Keith
Romantic – he is a mess in this category, rife with misunderstandings. I think he has been/is in love (yes yes, my bias, whatever), but he doesn’t at all know what it’s like for this to be returned.
Familial – he had his father, who died when he was young, then he had Shiro, who vanished on him. So he’s gotten tastes of this in the past, but he’s only recently learned really how to love family. We see this when he tells Shiro ‘you’re my brother, I love you’ and tells Krolia that he loves her.
Platonic – Keith has struggled a lot with this too. He’s actually not a hostile introvert, but he is still quiet and was a lone wolf for so long that it made it so he doesn’t REALLY know how to have friends, but he’s working on it. You can see this in his closeness with the other Paladins (understanding Pidge’s wild hand gestures, helping Hunk). I don’t think this part is done for him, since I think we’re going to see a small moment or two like I mentioned with Pidge and Hunk with Allura and Lance.
Universal – I think this is one he’s always understood. A love for all life – the will to protect strangers, and he definitely loves nature too. This is one I don’t think he’s ever had to work on.
Self – this one isn’t so easy with Keith. On one hand he’s very sure of his own abilities and capabilities, and he tried to do something for himself (in part) by going to the blade, and let himself open up to others, but he still neglects himself too. He thought he was the weakest link in Voltron.
Lance
Romantic – Lance absolutely has no idea what romantic love feels like at first. He knows crushes, but love? No. This is actually a huge part of his story. He has been learning about what romantic love really is this entire time (I’m still banking on a sexuality arc for him too). Lance was the only character that was confirmed to have a love interest by the end of the show. The only one. I think we’ll see him experience some of this with Allura, but I don’t think it’s going to last, because he’s learning about what romantic love is and isn’t. He’ll learn enough to know that yeah, his feelings for Allura were legit, but they might not be the strongest form of romantic love he feels.
The fact that there were “leaks” that hinted that he wouldn’t end up with someone in the end kind of threw me, especially since they said he was going to, and that whatever was planned in a romantic sense was planned from the beginning. I guess we’ll see where this one goes.
Familial – Lance knows this one so well. He loves his family to pieces and there’s never any doubt of that.
Platonic – this is actually something Lance struggles with at times. Not all the time, but you know, he really only seemed close to Hunk at the Garrison, and he was isolated from almost everyone else in S4-S6. He does know how to be a friend, we see this with Allura when he starts to see her in a platonic light. He also gets Keith to open up to him. Those are big things. So this is one he started out understanding, but also had to…refine as he went.
Universal – Lance does understand universal love. He talks about missing the rain, and the beach at home. He loves being in the water and the ocean. Not only that, but he does care about the fates of strangers too. It does matter to him.
Self – Oh boy. You know, I think part of Lance’s boasting is genuine. It’s not all just a mask for his insecurities, and that’s okay. At the same time though, this was a huge thing for him. He questioned being on the team, questioned his worth, isolated himself. He was at his worst when the clone was there. However, this is one of those ones that has been silently (show, not tell) in the works. Lance doesn’t once question his worth, his place on the team, or himself after Keith comes back. He knows who he is and where he fits in. He’s still working on this though, and I think it connects back to romantic love and his sexuality.
Conclusion
As you can see, when you break down love into these categories, everyone has different experiences, everyone is learning different lessons, and they are all about love. Some know a lot, like Shiro, and some know only a little but are learning, like Keith. Voltron may not be a show about romance, but from beginning to end, it’s a show about many different forms of love.
And also giant robots fighting aliens. That too.
(Also, sorry for the image quality - don’t have access to all the more hd ones I normally use right now.)
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I feel like u dislike Sansa bc of who she was and fail to see who she’s becoming. Yes she distrusted Jon and Arya. Yes she relied on Baelish but let’s not forget Jaime was sucking Cersei’s tits until the final episode of s7. The same way Sansa trusted Baelish until she was finally ready to cut the cord. She told Arya that she’s the strongest person she knows and that the pack must stand together. Also in crypts scene she gets behind jonarya meaning she trusts them!
1) Jaime was in an intimate, sexual relationship with Cersei from the time they were children AND they are brother and sister. Baelish has no such connections to Sansa, wasn’t even in her life at all or known to her until she moved to King’s Landing and even then, he didn’t begin helping her (or trying to help her) until Season 3.
2) So Sansa trusted Baelish for a while. Big deal...? It doesn’t negate the fact that Brienne saved her life (without betraying a member of Sansa’s family like Baelish did in killing Lysa) and Sansa never confided in her in S7.
Brienne has proved to Sansa that she only cares about protecting her and doesn’t need a reward or prize from her like Baelish does (in S6 when Sansa writes to Baelish, she promises that he will be rewarded for helping her take back Winterfell).
I really don’t know why people forget this or why people fail to mention this or forget Sansa’s treatment of Brienne in this season. If she’s grown so much and changed so much, why does she snap at Brienne when Brienne is just trying to fulfill her duty to Sansa’s mother by protecting BOTH Stark daughters?
3) Again, why does Sansa not trust her siblings while simultaneously not being trustworthy in return? She can’t just be deceitful and hang around with shady characters (and ONLY shady characters, never taking private council with anyone but Baelish) and then be resentful of the fact that no one trusts her. Trust doesn’t work like that.
4) I love Sophie’s portrayal of Sansa I have liked her character at times. I liked her in S2 when she was constantly taking little moments to undermine Joffrey to his face while doing it with kind words and a smile so he could do nothing about it. I loved her relationship with Shae. I enjoyed her banter with Tyrion in S3. I liked her putting Robin Arryn in his place in S4. I liked that she used similar tactics on Ramsay as she did on Joffrey (”Tommen Baratheon? Another bastard - ICONIC).
5) But in S6, we see Sansa slip into her old habits and that’s what I hate. Everyone says she’s grown and changed but she doesn’t show us that. Unless you mean she’s grown and changed into being secretive and someone who withholds information from her family?
All this “It makes sense Sansa didn’t trust Jon!” bullshit is so annoying. THE MAN LITERALLY JUST DIED AND CAME BACK TO LIFE AND SHE KNOWS THIS. He confided something so supernatural and personal to her and yet, she can’t trust him after that? Jon has done nothing to Sansa to make her see him as unworthy of her trust or that she should be wary of him. NOTHING. She asked for his help, he’s reluctantly giving it, risking his life and the lives of those he saved from beyond the Wall - all for their family.
If Sansa learned anything in King’s Landing, shouldn’t it have been to NOT trust those who aren’t her family and instead, just trust her family? If she had trusted Ned about leaving KL and heading back to Winterfell, many things never would have happened to her or her family (again, she’s not entirely to blame for the WOT5K but she played a role in it).
So she should have trusted Jon. I can understand her not being trusting of him after he was named King, possibly seeing him as someone who stole her rightful position from her. But before? Nah, she was totally in the wrong not trusting Jon. Brienne knew the truth about Sansa’s meeting with Baelish - someone who wasn’t her family - and yet Jon can’t be privy to that information? Nope. Unacceptable.
6) The Arya situation is slightly different than the Jon situation. Arya is much changed since Sansa last saw her but again, it’s Sansa who first becomes suspicious of Arya for absolutely no reason.
In the Brienne-Arya fight scene, Arya wants to train with Brienne. She says “You swore to serve both my mother’s daughters, didn’t you?” - Because she wants to train with Brienne, not because she wants to use Brienne against Sansa for nefarious reasons (Arya hasn’t done anything shady at all up to this point so Sansa should have no reason to suspect anything of Arya). RIGHT after Arya says this to Brienne, it cuts to Sansa’s face, looking to Brienne, waiting for her answer.
This to me screams Sansa is jealous that her personal body guard is no longer sworn to her alone and she now has to “share” Brienne with Arya. Again, with Brienne being sworn to both of them, she’d be forced to intervene and protect them both from each other should things come to that. It’s not as if Brienne would suddenly side with Arya and kill Sansa simply because Arya asked her to - at this point, the letter from Sansa in KL hasn’t even been discovered yet. She isn’t under Arya’s “investigation” yet. She has no reason to believe Arya would harm her or that Brienne would allow Arya to harm her. It makes no sense.
As I mentioned in another recent ask, Sansa is in a position with a vast amount of power and people at her command. Arya isn’t. Their power dynamic is incredibly unbalanced.
When Arya has a problem with Sansa - how Sansa handled Glover and Royce in court, she brings this issue up DIRECTLY with Sansa! She doesn’t sneak around. She goes to Sansa RIGHT after to tell her she didn’t like how Sansa handled the situation - AND she didn’t do it publicly, like Sansa has done to Jon MANY times. Arya’s courtly manners are more refined and respectful than Sansa’s and Arya didn’t grow up at court!!!! Alone, Arya tests Sansa by accusing Sansa of wanting Jon’s position, “give you what you really want.” Arya learned how to be a human lie detector back at the House of Black and White. She’s saying a statement to see Sansa’s reaction. Obviously there was enough truth in what Arya said proved by Sansa’s reaction that Arya finally becomes suspicious of her.
But Sansa was suspicious of Arya (for what, we don’t know), an entire episode before this, again as shown in the Brienne scene. And again, Arya still presents her accusations to Sansa directly, letting her know what she thinks of her and that she knows Sansa IS thinking about wanting to be Queen. She’s not plotting behind Sansa’s back - if she were, Baelish could easily find out about it and tell Sansa, which he hasn’t.
Sansa is the one acting shady all throughout Season 7 and as the scripts prove, Sansa did want to be Queen and nearly betrayed Jon for it and nearly killed Arya.
Sure at the end of the season she is all “the pack survives” but she sure as shit wasn’t thinking about the pack before Baelish’s death. And I’m sorry, one heartfelt scene with Arya at the end of S7 isn’t enough to redeem Sansa in my eyes, especially since we’ve got evidence from the S8 teaser that she’ll be snippy to Dany when she arrives, continuing to act as if she knows better than everyone else when in fact, that’s far from the truth.
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Davos, Edd and Tormund & BRIENNE OF FUCKING TARTH, also why Daenarys isn't the one for Jon(also I'm the Valonqar of Jonareys)
Ever since Jon and Sansa reunited the intense breathing, the constant eye fucking that they do with each other and all of that innappropiate tension, three men and Brienne, have literally been the only few people in the show to see the tension, like when Dadvos said "jon isn't a stark" and sansa replies "no, but I am"
She literally and very subtly proposed to Jon, and Davos and Edd shoot a look at each other
Like our Boi GRRM, Jon has a major thing for redheads, partly because Catelyn never gave him love, so in a way Jon tries to find a redhead that he can get validation as well as support, and Jon does the same for Sansa, he understands how she felt after everything she went through (Joffery, Ramsey & littlefinger and in the books there's like 2 other dudes who want Sansa's claim to winterfell) so she's been abused, raped and defiled, she feels at her strongest when Jon is with her, he also sees her need for recognition, remember Jon would have died at the BoTB or as I like to say bastardbowl, if Sansa hadn't gone to Moat Cailin to get the KoTV, Jon would have been food for Ramsay's dogs, it was her who won the battle. All being said and done, Jon does feel indebted to Sansa, she was in the prime leadership spot, but Northern Lords crowned Jon, he doesn't want the Crown, but he doesn't want Sansa to be fucked over by the power the Northern Crown gives her, he loves her and wants to protect her.
Also just wanted to point out that Jon didn't tell Danny much, she knows about Robb and Rickon, then later finds out that Arya and Bran are alive, which only happened because the raven was sent to Dragonstone and seen as Danny controls the area, she's obviously gonna know what's on the scroll. Then there's the whole Jon dying thing that was abruptly stopped by Jon when Dadvos said "he gave his own lif-" then later Danny sees that he was stabbed. Also Jon knew Maester Aemon Targaryen, why didnt Jon say anything? He doesn't trust her, she's impulsive and she's bathed in her own words "fire and blood", Jon gave away as much as SHE needed to know.
And when Jon left WF, Sansa didn't stop looking in Jon's direction the entire fucken time, and the Littlefingers like (hmm, when brothers and sister develop certain feelings towards each other) and then from there, he begins taunting Sansa, by saying "ive heard the silver headed gorgeous devil is beautiful and jon is young and unmarried, then Sansa is like "what?! You think Jon wants to marry her" Littlefinger was purposefully trying to get a reaction out of her, which he got, from both Sansa and Jon and you Jonareys bros have got to admit, there was so much Jealousy coming from Sansa I could smell it from Winterfell to fucking Dorne.
There's also a scene that was deleted or not shot (I can't remember which one) but Jon talks to Ghost before leaving WF, it supposedly says that Jon told Ghost to watch over Sansa, now I know Ghost protects people that Jon cares for as evident when Sam was protecting Gilly from Bros of The Nights Watch beat the shit out of Sam and then Ghost comes in and scares the fuck out of them, but Jon didn't tell Ghost to watch over Sam, yet he told Ghost to watch over Sansa... coincidence.... I think not.
Jon and Sansa Sibling Upbring was literally non existent, they never really had much to say Jon was busy brooding or dodging Catelyn, where Sansa wanted to become a proper Lady, she even says something along the lines of "Jon is jealous of Joffery, but he's sad because he's a bastard" she even asks him to forgive her when they Reunite at Castle Black, who else got shivers when that Hug happened?
Also the background theme music and Clothes worn by Jon and Sansa match like fucking when couples got matching Onesies, like bro when Jon went to Dragonstone he was all clad in black with subtle hints of grey and blue, whereas Sansa and Jon are matching clothes since S7 Ep1. Did anyone else get freaked out about Danny's background themes, the music was Dark and ominous as fuck, also look at how she dressed, she wore scales on her dress when arriving at Dragonstone, but as Jon is there, you can actually see that her outfits are going from less scaley to normal westerosi types of clothes to please Jon, to make herself seem more normal and less dragonlike.
Also when Danny loses her Dornish and Ironborn allies, she wants to use Drogon, Viserion and Rhaegal, Davos then says "you'll want to discuss this between yourselves", then Danny says "you will stay" and then proceeds to ask Jon what she should do and Jon gives her that speech, but what I found weird was the look Jon gave her after he said all this, it's like he knows that Danny will listen to him and Tyrion gives sort of weird one, Tyrion by the end of the season has no traction at all with Danny, she's stopped listening and going on Crazy rants, Tyrion understands the consequences of Danny listening to Jon, you guys have got to understand this isn't the first time Jon has played someone, remember the whole Jon/Wilding Arc? It was to show that Jon isn't who you think he is.
Season 7 is SUBTEXT
Then there's Neds Promise to Sansa "when you come of age, I'll find you someone who is worth of you, brave and strong but kind" ahem ahem sounds like Jon... ding ding ding ding we have a winner JON FUCKING BROODING IN A CORNER SOMEWHERE SNOW
It's okay Jonareys shippers, I have come to destroy your fleets and cast you aside, but unlike Danny, I won't set you on fire with a dragon, I'll let Arya behead you bitches, cus if you guys can't see how everything Jon is doing is for the North and who's in the North? Who did the KiTN leave the North too? I mean my man turns into a fucking bear and pins Littlefinger against a wall, like I got sister's who got boyfriends and you don't see or hear of anyone choke slamming a potential suitor into a brick fuckin wall??? Also just to sink your ship even further
Jon - "i'd uh bend the knee but" (everything before the word but is horseshit) I mean look at the Gif below, Daenarys is looking with lust and passion, but Jon looks like he just wants to get it over and done with (in Petyr Baelish's words "when you find yourself in bed with an ugly woman, best to close your eyes and get it over with) I AM NOT CALLING DANNY UGLY, I'm just trying to find evidence that matches with what's going on in Westeros
Jon's cold arrival on Dragonstone, she literally takes his boat and Longclaw and says "yeah but nah but yeah, I'm not here to argue grammar" (which is a major ass call back to Season 2 when Danny wants ships)
Jon is the motherfucking Heir to the IT, which weakens Danny's claim to it (She might be the mother of dragons, but law is law, yes she's allowed to go to war for that throne, but westeros has Legitmacy laws, and succession laws, either fucking way, he's got the better claim but so does Gendry) with her being Third in line when Aerys the 2nd was alive, and if you follow succession, it goes Rhaegar, Viserys and then Danny, but because Jon is Rhaegar' s heir he inherits the throne because Rhaegar was meant to inherit the throne after his father's death and after Rhaegar' s death at the Trident, the throne goes to Jon (Also when Ned arrives at the tower of Joy, Ser Arthur Dayne says to "I wish you good fortune in the wars to come, Lord Stark" and they start fighting but Ser Arthur Dayne said that cus he expected Ned to go to war with Robert cus Jon is the king) Also his Queen is in the Gif below
Sansa is the key to the North and Jon knows it, he knows when he's back in the North, the northern lords will be pissed af at him, but if he marries Sansa he gets to keep the North (remember Jon doesn't want the 7K, he wants the North to be secure and free)
Danny is literally 2 fucking Tsar Bombas (really powerful nukes) and when she realises that Jon was playing the game, she is gonna use them (season 2, house of the undying, the visions she has) Kings Landing is literally what Danny wants and I'm more than willing to bet she's gonna turn Drogon and Rhaegal loose on Kings Landing, what do you guys think she's willing to do to the North?
She burnt Poor Dickon and Cunt Randyll, which is Sam's dad and bro, like I know he was a dick, but your dad and your brother is family, and Sam has strong family values, do you really think Jon will be pleased to hear this? I think the fuck not
Also I get a weird feeling Jon is gonna bond with Rhaegal which for Danny *insert "where are my dragons" meme here* (She loves her "kids" and like any mom during a custody battle, it's going to turn Sour)
Also Sansa is a big threat, she not a "stupid little girl" anymore, she's been forming Alliances, she knows Houses from KL and all the way to the wall, Danny might have nukes (dragons) but what she gonna do burn everyone? ("I'm not here to be Queen of the ashes" but bitch if you carry on the way your are, there's gonna be no one left, what she gonna rule over? "A graveyard", when Jon said this something didn't sit right with me
Did anyone notice that when Jon went beyond the wall him and Jorah Mormont had a convo about his kids and Longclaw, the stark theme music started playing and guess who the fak turns up into the Frame???? SANSA MOTHERFUDGING, LEMON CAKE STARK.
My point being it's not gonna work for long between Jon And Danny, it's a song of ice and fire, not ice and fire and fire, also you motherfuckers are okay when Jon is slipping Longclaw into Danny's pussy, who is his aunt ( like who the fuck fucks their aunt?) But you guys can't stomach Jonsa? Got a problem leave it in the comments, I'll fucken slay you with facts fight me turd, also I kind of trailed off here
Also if you guys think Danny's pregnancy is gonna go full term, you guys are clearly fucken dumb, the magic in the world if ice and fire is coming to an end, all the giants are dead, the children of the forrest all but forgotten, and the direwolves will outlive them all but there time will come to an end for men shall outlive them all, for man has no room for Direwolves, eventually they too will die, Danny has two Dragons which are magic, Daenarys is fucken fireproof (She isn't fireproof in the books) that to me sound like magic, I'm not gonna say that Danny is gonna die cus S8 isn't out yet, but if you guys think that there gonna be another Targ baby (born of pure Targaryen lineage) your sadly mistaken, I really do think Danny is barren, Daario Naharis wasn't firing blanks at her, she just can't get preggers. JON WAS JUST TESTING TO SEE HOW DANNY KNEW SHE WAS BARREN AND THEN THE BOATBANG WAS LEGIT JUST A FUCKING WAY OF ENSURING THAT SHE WILL GO NORTH AND FIGHT THE DEAD BECAUSE JON KNOWS THAT SHE LOVES HIM
In the words of THE BASTARD OF THE DREADFORT "if you think this has a happy ending, you haven't been paying attention"
*sips wine, lights cigarette, watches the entire Jonareys fandom burn, like Lady Olenna but I'm male so more of a Tywin I guess*
#jonsa is endgame#jonsa#actually jonsa#daenarys stormborn#mother of dragons#jonaerys#ned stark#gameofthrones#winter is coming#sansa x jon#jon x sansa#sansa stark#jon snow#davos seaworth#brienne of tarth#dadvos#season 8
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Hello Jonsas!
It’s my first time sharing any content to the jonsa fandom although I’ve been a jonsa for quite some time now, it started during the period between s6 and s7, and that was the time I wrote down some stuff because I really felt intense about it, about them (and also because I had time back then haha!) I remember being so inspired by the multitude of fics that came out after that season. Y’all know it, the post-battle angst and all the pining!! UGH I think that was what made me fall deeper into the jonsa rabbit hole (which I don’t regret one bit because those fics made me feel so damn much! all of them good things!) I never intended to post any of my writings online because I know I am not a writer in any way. I just had all these emotions post-s6 and I didn’t know what to do with them. But fck it, I’m feeling brave tonight and before the last 3 episodes ever of GoT air I just wanted to contribute a lil’ something to the fandom!
Whatever happens (*cough* jonsaiscoming *cough*) I just want to let you all know that I really enjoy this fandom! We have so many amazing and wonderful writers, artists, meme-makers, those who write really thoughtful and insightful metas and theories and just, in general, I think the fandom rocks!
(PS. English is not my first language so pardon any punctuation or grammatical errors!)
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He could fall in love with the fire in her eyes.
He could fall in love still. Fall in love and be happy. That’s what Sansa told him one night many moons ago. The night they regained their home, when they could still feel the ice seeping into their bones, when the cold comes before them bearing an army of monsters that no one has thought to be true, only products of fishwives’ tales, when their nightmares from past lives, in the South and in the farther North, left them empty, cold shells.
“You are the only thing left that is good.”
He found Sansa beneath the weirwood tree their father—no uncle—spent most of his time praying.
She wasn't praying though, he knew. He remembers her telling him. She didn’t have it in herself anymore, not when it seemed like no one was listening. He sat with her, wanting to feel the chill upon his skin but only for it to be silenced by the warmth Sansa seems to emit. Always, she is always so warm. She surprised him by saying she was thinking about him. “You are the only good left, Jon.” She looked at him, gaunt eyes, hollow cheeks, not a picture of someone who just gained their home back. “Earlier, you wanted to save Rickon. I wanted you to, so badly, but I know we wouldn’t be able to…” A whirlwind of emotions flooding her eyes but pain was the most evident, like she was born with it. He remembers with agonizing relief how he surrendered to what his mind and body told him, he wrapped his arms around her slender frame so he wouldn't have to look at those haunting eyes anymore. He couldn't stand to. He thought himself weak then, he could not even do that, look at her and tell her everything will be fine, how he had come to realize that she is the strongest person he has ever known. She distanced herself from him, gripped his hands tightly and looked him in his eyes. There's a kind of fire in them, not strong but enough to stir in him something familiar yet foreign all at the same time. “Listen to me, you can still live after all this. You have to live. Find someone and fall in love. Jon, promise me, you'll live and you’ll be happy.
That was many moons ago, now Sansa was sitting by the hearth in her Lord Father's former solar. She is sewing her old clothes into gloves the workers in Winterfell could use. Winter is still hitting them hard. Resources are scarcer each day and no one can come out long enough to replenish the stock. Across from her, he is sitting by the desk, looking over proposals from lords all over Westeros. Her aunt proclaimed him her kin before she died in battle against the dead. And it fell to him to rule over the realm, a great responsibility he did not, he still does not want. The only thing that has made him happy over the course of a year that he was proclaimed King of Westeros was giving the North its independence and naming Sansa its rightful Queen. This was his first visit to his home ever since.
"Your grace," Sansa says taking him away from his thoughts. He looks over at her still busy with sewing.
"Sansa," a bit of exasperation coating his voice, "it's Jon, always, to you." He wishes she would look at him so she would know how much he wants her to see him as just Jon. Someone who knows her pain and suffering, who she shared her nightmares with all those nights at Castle Black. Someone she is familiar with, someone she grew up with, someone raised as her half-brother, a voice inside his head tells him. The voice that always seem to sneak into his head in the most inconvenient of times, often when he wishes he could be more with Sansa, do more with her and every time, he forces another thought into his mind. Fire and blood. He is of the dragon and he best remember it. A forbidden love between a Targaryen and a Stark ignited a war, he will not be as careless, he thinks.
"Jon, you're brooding again." A shadow of a grin lights up her face and right then he forgets all his worries, all the months spent in that viper’s nest of a city only to see her smile at him, the one he swears she only does when it’s just the two of them.
"Aye, it seems Lord Varys' little birds are always on time given any circumstance. Letters of proposals have followed me here,” he sighs tiredly, “I have rejected each and every one down at the capital and I will continue to do so here.”
Sansa stops sewing then and looks him in the eye, an emotion akin to weariness and something else, something he refuses to look into, etched across her face. "You mustn’t” she paused clearly reminiscing something, “that night we took our home back… do you remember what I said Jon?”
Of course he remembers. I’m afraid I remember everything about you Sansa, even with all this time and all this distance between us, I always remember you.
“I want you to be happy. You of all people deserve that. Choose among those proposals, marry a Lord's daughter, have a family of your own and just be happy.” She looks at him determinedly, as if by looks alone he could be.
He could be happy, he thinks, if it’s coming from Sansa. Her looks, her smiles, everything about her. He can’t remember a time when everything wasn’t about her.
He wants to tell her he doesn’t want to marry, that he isn't ready. He still has a myriad of things do as the protector and ruler of the realm. Responses Davos or Varys, both his advisors, would have heard from him. But looking into Sansa's eyes, there were now fire in them. And once again like moth to a flame he found himself unable to look away. And he realizes with no short amount of trepidation that it is not because of his role as king that’s stopping him. All this time he refused to acknowledge the depth of his feelings for his sister-turned-cousin because he’s afraid of her reaction, her rejection. But he finds the courage now. He recognizes the look in her eyes, it’s mirroring his own.
Pain, longing, desire.
And he wants to feel the cold against his cheeks every day of his life and burn in Sansa's warmth every night. He looks at her and finds himself inescapably in love, first with the fire in her eyes. And he knows, gods, how he’s certain he’s falling in love deeper with the fire in her soul.
The red woman can see visions in the fire, he can see his future in her eyes.
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Umm so yeah... I hope you guys like it!
#i really like that last bit#hah#jonsa#actuallyjonsa#jon x sansa#jonsa fic#jonsa drabble#jon snow#sansa stark#game of thrones
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if you promise peaches, deliver peaches.
After S7, the asks have been piling up. A few examples:
I was so confused in ep4 when Acxa disappeared, I thought she’d stuck with the team after ep3 and maybe I just missed the scene where she left, but others have brought that up, too.
Funny how the majority of the problems in s7 are because they tried to force BP Keith to the detriment of the story, and ironically, Keith's story, too.
I thought Lance’s family reunion would be much more emotional and be a part of his arc, since he was the most homesick, but then they gave that to Hunk?
Shiro got tossed aside in the most ableist, racist, and homophobic way, and Allura could have had a cool storyline mixing her paladinship and her castle storyline with a new altean mecha, instead of Shiro becoming a bad Allura 2.0 and Keith becoming a bad Shiro 2.0.
Srsly tho, am I the only one who finds it extremely bothering that in writing Allura and Lance they don't bother to show Allura coming to view Lance in a romantic light after her breakup?
Why even bother in S6 to make such a big deal of Shiro/Kuron saying his dream is to be a paladin over and over? Until he was revealed a clone some of us thought he was Shiro, so it's even harder to accept Shiro not being BP anymore.
The EPs seem to be so stuck in their initial idea and salty they couldn’t do it exactly as they want that they just ignore the story itself?
The EPs have spoken of being determined to get the VLD gig out of fear it’d be given to someone who'd wreck the story. That's understandable, but we're talking about a 78-episode, six-season, space opera mecha series. This genre practically demands a sprawling world and a massive cast, and it's far beyond the scope of anything either JDS or LM have ever helmed on their own.
My guess is that JDS and LM didn’t realize the enormity of what they were taking on, or they (and their bosses) seriously underestimated the degree to which they were wholly unprepared.
Behind the cut: what I meant when I said these EPs are not storytellers.
I’m not surprised the EPs over-estimated their skill, really. People will look at a creative process like art –- where you often start young, practice daily, maybe study it formally, apprentice or intern (especially in animation), and gradually work your way up -- and they see the effort. They know it wasn’t an overnight thing.
Too often, the very same people won’t accord that respect to the art of storytelling. It’s treated like divine inspiration, something that just happens. We’ve been hearing and reading and watching stories all our lives; how hard can it be to do it ourselves?
It’s goddamn hard, is what it is. I would love to tell you otherwise, but that’s the truth. You can rock your dialogue but you gotta track character goals, too. Complicated backstories only get you so far if you don’t understand how to modulate tension. You can have a great premise but you still gotta resolve the damn thing. A story has a hundred moving parts; scale up to a space opera’s necessary levels of epic and we’re talking exponentially more.
In my experience, the hardest part of storytelling — not the technical aspects of writing, but the art of storytelling — is holding the shape of the story in your head. The entire thing, all at once. You have to, if you’re to see how a choice at this point will echo down the line, or a motif laid here should reflect there, how the theme shifts but stays true from start to end, how these secondary arcs weave together to undergird the main arc.
I’d say a lot of what we learn in our first few novels is how to see — and hold —the story’s shape in our head. I’m not talking dialogue or voice acting or choreography. I’m talking about the overall shape, the vision and theme it establishes, evolves, and eventually resolves.
If we cannot, we will find our stories promise peaches and deliver pine cones.
Looking back, there are too many clues --- almost all given by the EPs themselves --- that they didn't have the experience to do this story justice. What they did have was a certainty that their vision was the best, an inability to deviate from that one story they'd devised, and a continual low-grade frustration at being held back.
Let's go back to the beginning. S1 starts a little rocky (to be expected as a team finds its groove), but S2 builds on S1 quite deftly. It’s not perfect, but in a storytelling sense, it’s the strongest season, and it's much too self-assured to be a beginner’s. It moves swiftly but steadily to a pivotal midpoint, and from there snowballs gracefully into its finale; it balances nuanced characterization with plot movement, and its opening promises bear fruit by the end.
In those earliest interviews and panels, the EPs are often casually vague about basic details, like character ages or relationships. At least twice their answers change, giving the impression they hadn't known and had needed to confirm with someone else. Generally, though, they're low-key and hopeful, possibly leaning on the borrowed confidence of that other storyteller’s influence.
By S3/S4, their tone shifts to a peculiar kind of non-ownership. They joke about having no idea what's going on, tossing out guesses as though they'd be the last to know. They offer head canons, rather than insight. They wear their frustration openly, alluding to the story they'd wanted, chafing at what had been decided for them.
As the story moved into the split-seasons, it's clear that whomever lent that guiding hand in S1/S2 was no longer present. Someone else’s fingerprints are on S3, and my guess is it’s mostly Hedrick, at least on the script-level. The word choices change, the cadences change, the beats change. From S3 on, VLD has all the hallmarks of a muddy vision.
You can see that in the story’s shape. It holds together, but barely. It darts forward, then sideways, then treads water for a bit. It’s erratically paced, dropping plot points and introducing new ones, only to drop those as well. It can’t settle on a driving antagonist, and when it finally does, it can't keep the antagonist’s goal consistent. It sacrifices nuance for one-note characterization, and shoves most substantiative character growth off-screen.
This continues to S6, which generally continues the focus on plot coupons over character goals, exposition at the cost of emotional beats, and neglecting established characters to introduce left-field swerves in the guise of plot twists. On the plus side, it does manage to rally enough to end its multi-season prevarication, and put to bed questions hanging around since late S3.
It's worth noting that both EPs have only a single writing credit each, for the pilot three-parter. That makes it doubly striking that JDS chose to write the Black Paladins episode. After the season aired, JDS complained in passing about rewrites on his episode. If that seems odd, remember that an EP has final approval on every script. If it bothered him to have his ideas rejected in favor of keeping Shiro, it must've burned to have his writing choices countermanded.
From the timing and the episode credits, this must've been around when Tim Hedrick left the team --- and the EPs took full ownership.
It shows in their post-S6 interviews. Gone are the ambiguous expressions or vague promises of doing their best. Their wording is declarative: what Kuron had been, what Shiro would be, the resolution of Shiro’s illness, the nature of Shiro’s past relationship. None is equivocated, nor couched as head canons. They’ve taken control of the narrative, and their interpretation is now the deciding one.
This change was important enough to them that they had to make sure we’re aware. There’s simply no other reason to tell us S7 had been written in its entirety, let alone tell us the original outcome. Nor is there any other reason to tell us they petitioned for — and got — permission to rewrite.
When I look at S7 with my writer’s hat on, everything tells me this is where the brakes came off. With Hedrick’s departure, there was no one left but the EPs themselves to steer the story. By whatever means, for whatever reason, VLD went from a crafted vision, to a conflicted one, to none at all.
Set aside the larger controversies for a moment, and just think about the shape of S7. It’s almost three seasons in one: the first part skips from event to event, then abruptly timeskips to reset the entire playing field. That second part in turn is divided from the last half by a two-parter that halts momentum for an overlong flashback with an entirely new cast, followed by a finale that mostly backseats its protagonists in favor of letting that new cast dominate.
There’s a common pattern in the way beginner writers react to critique, and I see that all over the EPs’s responses, from the beginning. It’s only grown worse since S6. They can’t quite juggle the story they think they’re telling versus the story they’re actually telling.
I’ve had these conversations too many times to count. I ask, how did this character get from here to there? The newbie storyteller is quick to explain, usually in great detail. I ask, but then why did this happen? The more I dig, the greater the chance the newbie will get angry that I don’t seem to be reading the story they’re so obviously telling. If I keep pushing, they’ll get defensive.
They’ll confidently assure me this is exactly the story they’d intended to tell, and if I don’t like it, that’s my problem. (They may not be able to hold the shape in their head, but they’ve probably already taken to heart the adage that one must stay true to one’s ‘artistic’ vision. The part about listening to critique even when it’s uncomfortable… that takes a bit longer to learn.)
My reaction almost always boils down to: you’re telling me this amazing story, but that’s not the story you’ve actually written.
Sometimes the best description of the shape of a newbie’s story is that of a house after a tornado’s swept through: the front door is on the chimney, the roof is half-off, and the windows are shattered in the front yard. Most of the pieces are there, but it’s all so jumbled the newbie storyteller can’t see what’s missing. They can’t hold the shape of the story in their head, so even when they know here’s where something goes, they’re too overwhelmed to remember the door they need is still on the chimney.
An epic story is no cakewalk, and boy do I give credit for that effort, but it’s one thing to learn by noodling in a fandom on AO3. It’s quite another to do it at the scale of a television series, let alone one with the expected scope of a space opera spanning galaxies. This is not the place to learn as you go.
Here’s why the shape of the story — and holding that in your head — is so important.
Think of a story’s resolution like a fresh peach. You want the reader to bite into the peach as the culmination of everything the story has been, from start to end. But you don’t get a peach by planting pine trees. You must start with the proper seeds, and make sure what grows is a peach tree, such that your final act bears the right fruit.
I touched on this before with the promise of the premise. Themes, backstories, world-building, and motifs are facets of the seeds planted in the first act. Everything you need to resolve the story must be present when the story begins; that’s where your premise lies, and your promises are made.
Through the entire second act, the tree must grow. The storyteller’s task is to trim as needed, bind this to that, shore up the roots, add water and nurture: this is where the theme expands, the foreshadowing laid, the questions reveal answers that lead to further questions, narrowing the outcome, each outlining the tree’s shape in sharper detail.
By the time the story turns the corner into the third act, the readers should be reasonably certain they’re going to get a peach tree. This is not a bad thing! You want them looking forward to plucking the peach and enjoying it. You want everything planted at story-beginning to come to fruition, at story-end.
That is why you must hold the shape — the vision — in your head, always checking against where you began and where you plan to end. You cannot throw out the entire tree at the end of the second act and start over; if you ignore the fruit your story is producing and insist on serving up pine cones, you’re going to have confused and possibly angry readers.
You promised them peaches, damn it.
The story is now midway through the third act. Everything planted in the previous seasons must now be coming to fruition… but it won’t. The EPs are openly (even proudly) reversing course on everything that’s come before. That means directly violating every motif, every thematic element, every bit of foreshadowing in word, image, or sound.
And at the same time, the story’s scope is simply too vast, and they haven’t the experience to juggle all the thousands of moving parts. The result is the most slapdash season, yet. Characters simply drop out of sight, only to reappear again with no warning. Themes and motifs built up over so many episodes are tossed aside as if they mean nothing.
The hand-to-hand fights are visually striking — the EPs’ strengths are in storyboarding, after all — but emotionally hollow, bereft of dialogue that could finally give us closure. Characters that would’ve once spoken openly with each other barely exchange a word; character-distinct dialogue is uttered by someone else, as though the VAs mixed up the scripts in the recording booth.
To achieve the emotional heft required for a meaningful resolution, there must be echoes of the story’s beginning. But when the beginning is negated—underscored by a timeskip that resets the entire playing field—there’s nothing to refer back to. The events now are happening in a void, divorced from the themes and motifs that created the emotional context in the first place.
This is by design; the EPs’ vision has never matched with the story as it was told to this point. They can’t go back, so they’ve rebooted. Once with the timeskip, and again with a two-parter episode that introduces new characters that can be entirely their own. Compared to the protagonists, these secondary characters have been lavished with attention to the point of overload: full names, backstories, designs. All of of that, and the time required to introduce them is to the detriment of the actual protagonists.
Whatever story VLD ostensibly set out to tell, that story is gone, now.
This is no longer a matter of losing track of the story, such that the promised peaches have transmuted into pine trees. We passed that point somewhere in S6. The EPs have burnt down the orchard to plant new seeds, while doing their best to ignore the charred stump of the story we'd been promised.
I would've preferred peaches, myself. That was the story I was promised, and that was the fruit I expected from everything I saw onscreen. But now?
I hope you like carrots.
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