#and are ultimately good for everyone in it.

[sirfrancisvarney]

As much fun as it is to dunk on people who insist that not returning the cart is somehow virtuous, I'm not sure that treating the cart problem solely as a morality test is really the right way to go about it. The emphasis on personal morality and individual responsibility is a very right-leaning take, and also just not very good at actually creating positive change . It's more effective to look at how systems encourage or discourage certain types of behavior, and I'm willing to bet that the way corporations set up parking lots and cart returns does influence how often people return the carts.

For example, there's the European system that essentially treats people as untrustworthy and unreliable without some sort of incentive to return the cart (I find it inconvenient and insulting, but it seems to work). But even in the USA, I have been in parking lots where the cart returns were not easy to find, or were inconveniently located relative to my car. I've also been in parking lots where returning the cart never felt like an inconvenience at all.

And I know that ultimately, this is just a really trivial issue in the grand scheme of things, but I can't help but notice that it's become a debate where everyone's focused on getting mad at each other instead of the people who own the parking lot.

[sleep-0-deprived]

⋆˚࿔Brahms Heelshire thoughts~!𝜗𝜚˚⋆

Taglist: @asher-is-hotxp @unstab1eperson2 @kimisbunny @yyuinaa @silvern1006

A/N: jus some thoughts N’ personal feels bout one of ma fav boys, N’ written specifically for @creepy141dollie <33

𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚—𝜗𝜚

Personally I like thinkin Brahms S’ a big Ol baby, he’s touch starved at’ death N’ when you’re his new baby sitter all he can wonder as’ why’re you a boy? Where’s his nanny at…he’s silent as always creeping through in the walls just watchin the way you do things- he can’t deny how good ya are at all tha domestic stuff, house hubby material S’ what he first thought when he seen ya. You’re a sassy man he can tell that much bout you from the way you scold him and push out your bottom lip when lookin up at him, he doesn’t know how you made it past his old fashioned parents- maybe ya charms work on everyone.

Brahms S’ a total creep, he gives no privacy he stalks ya like a dog, he lurks even when ya ask him not to, he is obsessed all tha time- his infatuation holds no bounds N’ he isn’t afraid T’ watch your most intimate moments in tha shower or when you touch ya’self, Brahms hates when you lecture him, talkin bout how you wont let his cock near you sayin stuff like, “I only reward good boys” even tho knowin you, you’d start T’ feel bad N’ give into him by the end of the night— how could ya not with the way he begs you, his voice cracks N’ you can practically feel his tears behind that porcelain mask.

Bein his babysitter means giving up your life- he’s crazy N’ he’s toxic for you but you can’t bring yourself to leave him…you jus feel bad- he holds you an’ praises you like a god when he wants but he screams N’ throw fits over you when he’s upset— Y’ know you should runaway but you jus can’t- you’re in too far now anyway S’ why even bother to try N’ leave him? Ever since you took that job everything feels cold- the air, Your body N’ it’s all porcelain like, just like his mask. You used T’ love shopping but the most you do is go out into town T’ pick up groceries then ya go back to Brahms…that house has made you isolated from th’ world N’ Brahms doesn’t care at all, he jus wants you to himself.

Brahms is a manipulator, he uses your soft spots to get his ways, he promises all ya wanna hear jus to get you T’ stay. Brahms acts all innocent like he isn’t tha reason for your change in personality N’ he isn’t the reason you’re starting T’ slowly lose that sass, he’s worn ya down into a tired parent like person. Brahms uses his tears T’ wrap you around his finger knowin you can’t resist the way he clings to you like a god, Brahms worships the ground you walk on when you give him what he wants which is to ultimately have you forever.

Brahms S’ pent up all the time, sneakin off into your room when he needs tha love, not Carin bout anything jus getting your shorts down enough T’ shove his dick in ya while you sleepily hiss into the pillows whining bout how he’s bein rough- Brahms whimpers- he try’s ta be quiet but when your hole sucks him back N’ he loses it like a puppy poutin and moaning away on top of you clutching onto you hard while his hips erratically fuck you in ya sheets

Brahms fav position is cowgirl tho it should probably be cowboy W’ you on top- your hand gripping his shoulders working up N’ down taking his cock with ease while his eyes hold contact W’ yours- his breath is shaky N’ he can’t control how weak he feels but somethin bout his fave being covered starin into your soul the whole time has ya buckin down on his cock wildly “please- please, I need you, only you- just you- please” your body melted when those words left his mouth oh so pathetically- how could this be the same man who broke you down? How could he.. before you know it his semen S’ floodin inside you filling ya all full.

[tobiasdrake]

You pointing out that Vegeta in the Saiyan and Namek sagas was very consistently characterized as someone who never loses track of anything that happens on the battlefield made me realize how much of an “oh fuck” moment it was for him to lose track of final form Frieza in the opening of their battle.

It was literally the first time in the series he lost track of anything he knew was there, and it was his singular target no less. No wonder that fight broke him, he failed at arguably his most notable non-strength advantage at a time when he thought his battle instincts were at their peak.

Also, love your analyses btw, your takes on the series you talk about are really thoughtful, and make me think about the characters in really deep new ways!

Aww, thank you!

An interesting note is that Vegeta still has a fantastic perception moment even in that fight.

Frieza's first Death Beam takes Vegeta by surprise as much as it does everyone else.

As I've said before, Frieza's Death Beam is basically a sniper rifle in ki form. It's an intensely accurate ki bullet designed to nail a target through obstacles in the way, fired at such a speed that the intended recipient is dead before anyone even realizes he fired.

He killed Cargo with it previously, and the same fate ultimately catches up to Dende five days later. When it does, it goes off without a hitch. Frieza kills Dende before Krillin, Gohan, Vegeta, and Piccolo can even react to the shot being fired.

It's such a cool attack.

But now that Vegeta realizes that this is a thing Frieza can do, he's ready for it the next time Frieza tries to snipe someone. This is honestly a brilliant bit of choreography that really shows off how perceptive Vegeta is. Gohan, Krillin, and Piccolo all rush Frieza at once.

They keep up the pressure until Frieza suddenly vanishes, at which point only Vegeta - watching from a high vantage - is able to track where he went.

At this point, Vegeta's able to intercept Frieza's Death Beam.

This is a great moment of 4-D martial chess.

Frieza has this highly accurate long-range sniping move, right? So he vanishes, using his speed to obscure where the next attack is going to come from. His target is Gohan but he doesn't attack Gohan.

Instead, he appears behind Piccolo. It's a feint. Even if they're able to follow his sudden vanish, his positioning obscures his true target. When he points at Piccolo and fires, the natural assumption would be that he's trying to shoot Piccolo.

But actually, he's using his sniping attack to skirt past Piccolo and hit Gohan behind him.

But Vegeta actually manages to keep up this time. Vegeta identifies Gohan as Frieza's real target and is able to kick him out of the way at the last second.

In the process, repaying the favor from Recoome.

Why didn't you attack Frieza, Vegeta? Doesn't sentimentality make you retch, Vegeta?

He'd never admit it but his behavior patterns are already starting to change from exposure to teamwork. But I digress.

In any case, this is a fantastic moment of choreographic mind-games, and Vegeta's success here is what fills him with all the piss and vinegar he brings to his fight.

Because he actually did it. He beat the Death Beam. He is sharp enough, fast enough, cunning enough to keep up and outplay Frieza. Vegeta is in this fight for real.

...which only sets him up for immediate disappointment.

Nope. Never mind. Still just a scrub. And as proud as Vegeta was of beating the Death Beam, he won't be proud for long.

Vegeta was never a match for Frieza.

He just had a real good moment. Sometimes that happens in a fight. Sometimes you get an incredible shot in on the opponent's kidney while he's beating the shit out of you. Doesn't mean you're gonna win the fight.

[heartsriki]

K-DRAMA CLICHES ⌇ 드라마

pairing ᝰ jake x fem!reader — featuring.. hanni | word count: 2800+

⌇ … warnings & genre ↺ college au, kissing, extremely corny, reader likes dramas, jealousy, tiny bit of angst.

synopsis — after a bet you and jake made on drama night, you come to the realization of how you truly feel about jake and how jake feels about you.

lee's ₊˚⊹ ᰔ comment ┊This is the corniest thing you'll read ever but ykw ima post it even though I hate it...

The night was cool and cozy as you snuggled under your blanket on the couch. It was Sunday, which meant only one thing—drama night. Ever since you started the tradition, Jake would come over after classes to watch K-dramas with you. He wasn’t exactly a fan of them, but he didn’t care. Seeing you happy made it all worth it for him.

“Another romance?” Jake asked, his laugh soft but teasing.

You side-eyed him, refusing to be swayed, and clicked on the show with the remote. “Everyone says this one’s good, so we’re watching it. Plus, it has my favorite actor. I can’t believe I haven’t seen it yet!” you said excitedly, grabbing your pillow and favorite snack.

Jake just shook his head, a fond smile tugging at his lips, before settling next to you on the couch with a bowl of popcorn. As the opening credits began to roll, he glanced at you. You were already so engrossed, your eyes sparkling with anticipation. Jake loved that about you—how much you immersed yourself in the things you enjoyed. Honestly, he could sit like this forever.

Honestly, Jake tried to focus on the screen, but it was almost impossible with you sitting so close to him. Every so often, you’d lean in to whisper something, your breath brushing against his ear, and he’d shiver despite himself. How were you so oblivious? You’d always been like this—teasing, leaning into his space—ever since you were kids. Back then, it didn’t bother him. But now? Now it was torture.

Jake glanced at you out of the corner of his eye. You were completely immersed in the show, not even noticing the effect you had on him. Typical. You had no idea what you were doing to him, and that was the problem. Oblivious as ever.

The room was soon filled with your laughter and Jake’s playful commentary as the two of you watched the show. That was, until that scene—a spicy kiss that made Jake freeze. His wide eyes stayed glued to the screen, while you sat completely unfazed, casually munching on your snack. He looked at your glowing eyes then back down to your lips and kept doing that on repeat till he snapped himself out of it. How could you not react to this? Did you not even think of him as a man? He gulped, the lump in his throat betraying his nerves, which caused him to cough lightly. That caught your attention.

You turned, your brow raised. “Too spicy for you, Jake Sim?”

Jake scoffed, shifting in his seat. “Yeah, right,” he said, crossing his arms defensively. “I don’t even get why you find him attractive. Anyone can do that.”

You smirked, your teasing nature in full force. “Mmm, I see. Someone’s jealous that he can pull all the ladies and you can’t.”

Jake’s jaw dropped as he grabbed the remote in mock indignation. “You think I can’t pull? Oh, I can pull. Trust.”

“Okay,” you said, tilting your head challengingly, “then do it.”

“What?”

“Pull a girl using K-drama cliches by the end of the week,” you said with a smirk, “and I’ll buy you lunch for a week, and if you lose vice versa.”

Jake narrowed his eyes but didn’t back down. “Make it a month, and you’ve got yourself a deal.”

You hesitated for a second, questioning if you might regret this, but ultimately shrugged. “Fine.”

Jake was screwed. Pull a girl? He couldn’t even manage a conversation with one without tripping over himself, let alone pulling one with K-drama-level charm. And it was already Tuesday—time was running out, and he hadn’t even chosen a target yet. He should’ve known better than to agree to this stupid bet.

He was sitting in the library, attempting to focus on his notes, when you crept up behind him and scared him. Jake yelped, earning a few annoyed glances from nearby students.

“Y/n, that isn’t funny…” he muttered, clutching his chest like you’d just shaved years off his life.

You laughed, clearly unbothered. “My bad. I didn’t know you were so sensitive,” you teased, pulling out a chair and crossing one leg over the other as you casually scanned his notes. “So… how’s it coming along?”

Jake blinked up at you. “How’s what?”

“Jake.”

He groaned, dropping his head onto the table. “Ugh, can’t we just forget about it? Seriously, this whole thing is dumb.”

“Sure,” you said nonchalantly.

He sat up straight, staring at you in disbelief. “Really?”

“Yeah,” you said, shrugging. “But man, I could really go for some ramen right now—”

“Alright, alright, stop it!” Jake groaned, dramatically wriggling in his chair like a kid throwing a tantrum.

Later that day, Jake finally spotted his target. And honestly, she was perfect. Hanni—pretty, popular, and friendly. She’d even shown interest in him before, so what could possibly go wrong?

You, of course, were never far behind. You smacked the back of his bookbag as you caught up to him, startling him yet again. “Did you find your target?” you asked casually, following his line of sight. Then you saw her. “Oh—”

Jake turned to you, narrowing his eyes. “Oh?”

“Oh, as in, ‘Oh, good luck!’ Haha,” you said, brushing it off with a weak laugh and playfully hitting his shoulder.

But in truth, you didn’t like her. And you weren’t sure why. Ever since her crush on Jake became public knowledge across campus, something about her rubbed you the wrong way. She just made you… uneasy. Whatever that meant.

Jake was nervous as he made his way toward Hanni, clutching his notebook as if it could somehow shield him from embarrassment. You watched from the same spot he left you, pretending to read but not processing any of the words. Your eyes kept drifting to Jake.

It was rare to see him this determined, and you couldn’t help but feel… weird about it. When he finally reached Hanni, she looked up from her book and smiled. You felt a pang in your chest, though you quickly pushed it down.

Jake scratched the back of his neck, his usual nervous habit. “Hey, Hanni,” he said, his voice a little softer than usual.

“Jake!” she said brightly, closing her book. “What’s up?”

You watched as he stumbled through his words, clearly flustered. He made some lame joke about their shared class, and Hanni laughed—like, really laughed. You couldn’t hear what they were saying after that, but you could see Hanni tuck her hair behind her ear, leaning in just slightly.

Your jaw tightened as you forced your eyes back to your book. Why do I care? You thought. This is literally what he’s supposed to be doing. I told him to do this. But no amount of logic could silence the strange twist in your stomach.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw Jake laugh at something Hanni said, his usual goofy grin lighting up his face. She reached out and playfully hit his arm, and he didn’t pull away.

You clenched your fist against the pages of your book, trying to keep your expression neutral. It wasn’t like you had any right to feel this way. You weren’t his girlfriend, or even close to being more than just his best friend.

So you didn’t do anything. You sat there under the tree, acting like you didn’t notice the way Jake leaned a little closer to Hanni like you didn’t feel the pang in your chest every time she made him smile.

Eventually, Jake walked back to you, his face lit up with a mixture of pride and nerves. “Guess who has a study date?” he said, plopping down beside you.

You forced a smile, closing your book. “Wow, look at you, Mr. K-drama lead,” you teased, your voice light and casual despite the knot in your stomach. “Guess you’re going for that free ramen.”

“Hey, I told you I could pull,” Jake said, bumping your shoulder. He didn’t seem to notice the way your laugh didn’t quite reach your eyes.

The days leading up to Friday had been nothing short of torture. Jake was executing his part of the bet too well, and it was driving you insane. Love letters at Hanni’s dorm, her favorite snacks neatly placed on her desk, giving her his umbrella on a rainy day—he had perfected the role of the K-drama boyfriend. But why did it bother you so much? Was it the money you’d be losing in this bet… or was it something else entirely?

By the time Friday rolled around, you were desperate for some peace. Drama night with Jake was supposed to be your sanctuary, just the two of you like always. But as you anxiously watched the clock, waiting for him to show, a pit began to form in your stomach. Jake was never this late. After an hour of waiting, you finally gave up and started the show without him. He could catch up later.

The movie was almost over, and Jake still hadn’t shown up. You sighed, sinking deeper into the couch. What’s his deal? That’s when your phone pinged with a notification. Your heart sank as you saw his name. He had just posted a photo.

You opened it, and there it was—a picture of Jake and Hanni studying together, looking cozy. She was smiling brightly, and Jake looked… happy. You scoffed, tossing your phone aside. “Whatever,” you muttered under your breath, but the tightness in your chest said otherwise.

Hugging your pillow closer, you tried to focus on the show playing in front of you. But your mind kept wandering, Jake and Hanni invading your thoughts. Deep down, you weren’t stupid—you knew what this feeling was. Jake wasn’t just your friend, and maybe he never had been.

Your mind drifted back to when you and Jake were younger. Two older boys had been teasing you for watching “chick flicks,” making you cry. Jake had stepped in, rolling up his sleeves and attempting to fight them off—though he ended up dragging you away before things escalated.

“They’re such assholes,” he had grumbled, checking you over to make sure you were okay.

“Jake! Don’t say that!” you had scolded, sniffling but still appalled.

“They deserve it. If it makes you feel any better, I like those movies. I don’t think they’re weird,” he had said, his voice softening.

Your tears had dried instantly, replaced by a wide grin as you grabbed his hands. “Really?! You do?!”

A faint blush had crept onto his cheeks, and he looked away. He didn’t actually like them, but he would never tell you that.

The memory made you laugh, but it only made the present sting more. Without realizing it, tears began to spill from your eyes, and soon you were crying into your pillow, confusion and hurt swirling in your chest.

You didn’t even hear the jingle of the doorknob as Jake walked in. He paused when he saw your slouched figure, quickly setting his bag down. “Hey, Y/n, I’m so sorry. I forgot it was drama night, and I got caught up—wait. Y/n?”

His voice softened when he noticed the way your shoulders shook, your quiet sobs filling the room. He rushed to your side, kneeling in front of you. “Y/n, what’s wrong? Look at me,” he said gently, tilting your chin up. His heart clenched at the sight of your tear-streaked face, your puffy eyes filled with sadness.

You tried to pull away, wiping at your cheeks. “How’s your little girlfriend?” you mumbled bitterly.

“Girlfriend? What girlfriend?” Jake asked, confused.

“Hanni,” you snapped, your voice breaking. “The love of your life. The one you’ve been all over this week. The girl you ditched me for today.”

Jake winced, guilt flashing across his face. “Y/n, she’s not my—”

“And I just feel so stupid for feeling this way!” you interrupted, the words spilling out before you could stop them. “I’m supposed to be happy for you, but all I feel is… resentful.”

Jake stared at you, his brows furrowed. “Y/n, what are you saying?”

“I-I don’t know,” you stammered, your voice trembling. “I just wish I never made that stupid bet—”

You were cut off by the sudden press of Jake’s lips against yours. His hands cupped your face, pulling you close, and for a moment, the world around you disappeared. His lips moved against yours, soft yet urgent, as if he’d been holding back for years. You froze, but only for a second, before melting into the kiss, your hands gripping his shirt to steady yourself.

Jake pulled you even closer, his touch warm and grounding as the kiss deepened. His lips were slightly chapped, but they felt perfect against yours. The air around you buzzed with something electric and raw, a feeling neither of you could put into words.

When you finally pulled apart, both of you were breathless, your foreheads resting against each other. Jake’s lips were swollen, his hair a little messy, and you were sure you looked just as wrecked.

“Well then…” you exhaled, your voice barely above a whisper.

“Yup,” Jake replied with a laugh, his eyes sparkling.

“That was—so you and Hanni aren’t a thing?” you asked, your voice laced with disbelief.

Jake chuckled, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand. “Of course not. It was all a plan. I was just trying to make you jealous, but… I guess it backfired a little.”

Your eyes widened in shock. “You—absolute jerk!” you yelled, grabbing your pillow and smacking him with it.

“Hey! Wait! It was your idea, remember?” Jake said, holding his hands up in defense.

“What?” you demanded, pausing mid-swing.

“You told me to pull a girl using a K-drama cliché. And, well… I think I just did.”

BONUS 𝜗𝜚˚⋆

It all started on Tuesday a little bit after he asked Hanni out. Jake had been sitting in the library, staring blankly at his notebook, completely at a loss. The bet with you sounded simple enough in theory, but the thought of flirting with someone—anyone—that wasn’t you made his stomach churn. That’s when Hanni walked by, giving him a cheerful wave.

A lightbulb went off in Jake’s head. He waved her over, and she tilted her head curiously before walking over to his table.

“Hey, Jake! What’s up?” she asked, setting her books down.

“Hanni,” Jake said in a rush, his voice low, “I need your help. Like… seriously need your help.”

Hanni raised an eyebrow, leaning closer. “What kind of help? Are you in trouble or something?”

“Not exactly.” Jake ran a hand through his hair, sighing. “Okay, so… Y’Know how I kinda like asked you out and stuff… well, Y/n and I made this stupid bet that I could pull a girl using K-drama clichés, and now I’m completely screwed because…” He hesitated, looking down at the table. “Because the only person I actually care about is Y/n.”

Hanni blinked, her lips curling into a knowing smile. “Ah. I figured you didn’t actually ask me out, but I see where this is going. You want to make Y/n jealous like the dramas, don’t you?”

Jake nodded sheepishly. “Yeah. I mean, I hate playing games like this, but I don’t know how else to get her to realize that I…” He trailed off, his ears turning red.

“That you’re in love with her?” Hanni finished, crossing her arms.

“Okay, wow. No need to just throw it out there like that,” Jake mumbled, his cheeks burning.

Hanni laughed. “Relax, Jake. It’s kind of obvious. So, what’s the plan?”

Jake perked up, relief flooding him. “Wait, you’ll help me?”

“Of course! This sounds fun,” she said with a grin. “Plus, I like Y/n. She’s cool. But don’t screw this up, okay?”

“Never,” Jake said firmly. “I just… need her to see me differently, you know?”

And so by Friday, Hanni could tell Jake was growing antsy. “Relax,” she said when he brought her a coffee as thanks for her help. “I saw Y/n watching us earlier. She looked very bothered.”

“You think so?” Jake asked nervously.

Hanni smirked. “Jake, I’m a girl. Trust me. She’s jealous. Now, go make your move before she starts overthinking everything.”

Jake hesitated. “What if she doesn’t feel the same way?”

Hanni rolled her eyes and gave him a playful shove. “Jake, please. The girl practically lights up every time you walk into the room. Just be honest with her, okay?”

Jake smiled at her, gratitude evident in his expression. “Thanks, Hanni. You’re the best.”

“Yeah, yeah,” she said, waving him off.

And with that, Jake bolted out of the library, his heart pounding as he made his way to your place. It wasn’t until he saw you crying on the couch that he realized just how deeply he had gotten under your skin—and how much he needed to make things right.

In the end, Hanni was right. Honesty was all it took. And as he kissed you for the first time that night, he made a mental note to treat Hanni to a lifetime supply of snacks for helping him finally win the heart of the only girl he’d ever really wanted.

[evesedenramblings]

Damon and Diana: Design Comparison

Gear up everyone because this is a LONG post. The parallels between Damon and Diana are plentiful, so this post just sticks to just their design elements or else it would never end. Spoilers beneath the cut.

1. Names

The name Diana in Hebrew means “giving light”, “shining one” and “luminous”, but also is associated with leadership. While Diana already acts as a light for many of her classmates, Damon included, I think her leadership role will begin to bloom in Chapter 2.

Meanwhile, the name Damon means “to overpower”, “to conquer”, “one who subdues” and “to tame”, which associates him with power and control as he displayed in the courtroom. Additionally, these terms can be associated with leadership qualities. Damon can also be associated with “guardian spirit” and “loyal friend”.

When comparing the two names to each other, the parallels become clear. Each represent a different approach for how they want to lead the killing game. Diana represents a light/faith-filled and optimistic approach while Damon leads with a more cautious and pessimistic approach. Diana protects everyone while Damon protects those he needs to. Diana is unable to accuse anyone of being capable of murder, as she’s still to inwrapped in light while Damon has the swift execution of power capable to make the decisions to find the culprit, and even turn on those he trusted if needed. Both need each other- Diana’s strength lays in faith and charisma while Damon’s lays in doubt and decision making.

As of Chapter 1, the two embody each other’s weaknesses. If that will change, it could go either way! In an ideal world, the two could grow and learn from each other (a balance if you will), but I think due to Diana’s idolized version of Wolfgang, and Eva’s betrayal of Damon, the two are going to go further down their own paths, convinced that they’re right and the other is wrong.

2. Appearance

Diana’s main colour palette is primary colours, given the red is substituted with the diluted shade of pink. Additionally, the neutral colour she’s paired with is white, which again aligns her with that idea of light, or brightness.

Meanwhile, Damon’s main colour is green, a secondary colour! First and foremost, it’s outside the primary wheel entirely, creating contrast with Diana’s design. It’s also worth noting that the only yellow in Diana’s design is her bowtie above her blue shirt, right where Damon’s green tie goes. Additionally, whereas Damon’s eyes are green, Diana’s are a lighter magenta, which are opposing colours on the colour wheel. The same applies to their hair colours, as Damon is blond and Diana’s hair is a darker shade of magenta than her eyes, pushing it closer to purple, which are also opposite colours on the colour wheel. For those unfamiliar with the wheel, that means the colours, though opposite, compliment each other when paired together!

The same opposing pattern can be found with Damon’s neutral colour scheme, as a majority of his design is dark neutral colours like grey, black, or brown, which opposes Diana’s prominent neutral colour of white. However, they both do have a white undershirt which is a nice similarity between the two, and both are even wearing vests though of different styles

3. Ultimate Talents I would also argue their talents parallel each other! If Damon’s talent is to convince people of something via words (telling), I would say Diana’s talent is to convince people of something via appearance (showing), both two different ways of conveying information. Damon’s talent is pretty self explanatory. He is the Ultimate Debater, responsible for convincing action through words. Diana’s talent though, as the Ultimate Cosmologist, I don’t think has had enough spotlight. Diana’s talent is good enough to convince people she’d never been sliced with a knife- what is that if not convincing via appearance, showing rather than telling? Damon’s talent embodies telling, while Diana’s embodies showing.

Additionally, there's how the two perceive their talents and others. Where Damon is confident in his own talent but thinks everyone else's talent is useless, Diana has the opposite ideology where she downplays her own talent but uplifts everyone else's.

I think it’s really interesting how much their designs compliment each other and I absolutely cannot wait for Chapter 2 to see them interact as protagonist and antagonist.

[michaelmilligan]

The Jonmartin manifesto no one asked for but needed to get out

So, I've not been in the tma fandom for long yet, having only listened to it for the first time a few months ago. But from browsing the Jonmartin (and teaholding and jmart) tag regularly, it seems to me like most jonmartin shippers fall into one of these two categories:

They would find each other in every universe; or

It's a miracle they even got together in this universe

(Obviously, that's an oversimplification, and people who express one view in one post can easily hold a different view at another time - these are fictional characters we're talking about after all, and headcanons don't need to be consistent and can even contradict each other. This is just the general vibe I got so far.)

Anyway, I wanted to add my own two cents on the topic, because while I understand where both of these views are coming from, I think neither of them is ultimately correct.

(Putting the rest under a read more - be warned that this is NOT a spoiler-free post, so if you haven't finished listening to TMA yet and you want a spoiler-free experience, you probably shouldn't read this.)

So, before we get to my own opinion, let's first look at where the two options I mentioned above come from, shall we?

"They would find each other in every universe"

Obviously, this view is highly romantic - star-crossed lovers, finding each other again and again. It is both a good foundational basis for AUs, and a ray of hope in the face of the tragedy that is the tma finale.

Of course, concerning the finale, this is a rather different take than concerning AUs (since it would mean the very same characters finding each other again in a different world, not fundamentally different characters, shaped by said other world, also finding each other). And maybe when people express this view, they mean more the finale fix-its than AUs, though I suspect that plenty of people mean both.

It's a nice, comforting thought. And don't we all need some comfort after the finale? Yes, we certainly do. (Except for the people who read only hurt without comfort and angst, I guess. You do you, and I'm glad you're having fun, but personally I do desperately need some comfort, lmao.)

Is this view supported by canon though?

Cynical minds would say no, and personally I'm more inclined to agree with them, though as I've said, for me the truth lies outside of those two rigid stances (somewhere in between, I suppose).

I don't see much in canon which points to Jon and Martin falling in love under any circumstances/in any universe, especially considering their... let's say difficult relationships at the start of the show. But of course we must also take into account the specific circumstances in canon (more on that below) and interpretations vary, and I do very much enjoy AUs, so I'm certainly not trying to throw shade if you're on this side of the 'divide'.

Mostly, I think there CAN be other circumstances in which those two get together, outside the canon ones. (I'm writing a canon-divergent jonmartin fic myself, lol.) Let's get into that while we look at the other view, shall we.

"It's a miracle they even got together in this one"

Ah, the Martin-approved stance. One could say 'well, they literally said it in canon' and be done with it. However, that would require us to believe that the opinions of the characters are always true and correct, which. Lmao. We only have to listen to season 2 of tma to know that this is very much not the case.

And even if S5 Martin is not S2 Jon at the height of his paranoia, he's still very much a man shaped by his own life and experiences. I'm sure he would call himself a realist, but he honestly seems more like a pessimist to me. Which is understandable, given his life, and his association with the Lonely, which has often been (in my opinion accurately) compared to depression.

The thing is, Jon did treat Martin horribly in S1, and then he admittedly treated everyone horribly in S2. It was only in the course of S3 that their relationship got more, let's say, equal, with Jon no longer thinking Martin would be 'contributing nothing but delays'. (And then of course we have S4, which I LOVE even though it hurts me deeply. Then again, that's the whole show. And, obviously, S5 my beloved.)

So. Jon seemed to hate Martin in S1, while Martin was arguably already in love with the man. (Arguably. We do know that he acted catty to Basira in S2, so it's reasonable to assume that he started liking him at some point in S1, or even before the show started.) Then a lot of traumatic things happened, and they got together.

This means it must be the traumatic things that made them compatible, right? Just like Martin says in S5?

Well, one could see it that way. Jon certainly changed over the seasons, coming off his high horse and such. (In S5, he arguably gets back on it quite a bit, but then he IS the Eye's specialest little princess in a world that's literally ruled by it. And also he is slowly losing his grip on his own humanity. But I digress.)

And I do think that the trauma channeled a lot of those changes - the first time we see Jon being actually emotionally open (something he still struggles with over all seasons, because people don't just change fundamentally that quickly) is during Prentiss' attack on the Institute. They're in a situation where they might reasonably die (they even expect it, because they don't know that Elias is just rubbing his greedy little paws as he waits for things to get worse before he saves them with the gas).

I do think that moment could have been a big turning point for Jon and Martin, if it hadn't been immediately followed with the discovery of Gertrude's body, and Jon's subsequent descent into paranoia. Jon opened up, and also saw that Martin was rather competent during the attack, which could have led to them becoming closer, respectively having at least something like a normal work relationship.

But then Jon got paranoid and interpreted everything he saw negatively, including Martin's competence, which was twisted in his mind to 'What if he's just been pretending to be incompetent and is actually an evil agent out to kill the archivist'.

(Big sigh.)

Anyway, before I lose myself in the red string as well: Yes, Jon seems to 'mellow' over the seasons, especially with regard to Martin, at the same time that he's going through terribly traumatic events.

But does that mean that it's actually the trauma that's changing him and his relationships? Partly, certainly, but I would argue that trauma doesn't make you nicer or kinder. It might make you realise some things, but that doesn't mean that you can't realise those things in other ways.

And does it means that they couldn't have come together if they had met under different circumstances? Also not necessarily! I would even argue that the specific circumstances they met under were detrimental to Jon's first impression of Martin. And yes, this goes beyond the dog story.

So let's try and dissect their relationship from the start.

A theory of... something like nuance, or whatever

The starting situation

(Yes, I did have to use a Supernatural gif, thank you for asking. No, I will not apologise. <3)

Alright. So let's start with what we actually know about Jon and Martin's first meeting. Obviously, there's the dog story, though as far as I know that's not 'canon' because it wasn't actually in the podcast. I still like it, and think it adds another reason to Jon's behaviour, though I don't necessarily think it's necessary, because Jon already had lots of other reasons to tell himself that Martin wasn't worth his time.

1.1. Jon has issues. More at 11.

First of all, we learn throughout the podcast that Jon doesn't actually have any qualifications to lead an archive. He's probably 29 when the show starts (in 2016, going by the fandom wiki stating that he was born in 1987, which is reasonable given everything we learn about his age).

So, he's 29 and suddenly appointed, after four years of working in one department, to become the head of a completely different department. He does not have a degree that would give him credentials for leading an archive, nor are we told that he has ever even worked in an archive. For all we know, and that he knows, he is woefully underqualified. (This is also, I think, highlighted in S2 when Jon threatens to resign, only to then be baffled by Elias saying that he would be difficult to replace. Elias means something completely different than his skill set as an archivist with a lower case 'a', presumably, but then Jon doesn't know that.)

This means that Jon is in a highly stressful position, because he's trying to do a job he doesn't actually know how to do, while also trying not to let on that he doesn't know how to do it!

It doesn't help that Jon is also terribly scared of what all might be lurking in the shadows (or even in the light), as he himself admits during the Prentiss attack. He is extremely high-strung from day one, basically a wet chihuahua shaking in a slight breeze, while trying to seem like a strong bulldog.

We also know that Jon asked for two people to be his assistants: Tim and Sasha. They both worked in research, and Sasha also briefly worked in artefact storage, making them both qualified to help Jon with following up on statements. But I think more than their qualifications, Jon probably requested them because he knew and got along with them.

Imagine: Your boss tells you that he's promoting you into a position you're not qualified for and which you have no real clue how to do. Wouldn't you rather have people around you who you're already friendly with, and who are likely to cut you some slack if you're not perfect on day one? I know I would!

1.2. Elias is a little shit and I want to kill him with hammers (affectionately)

And then Elias transfers Martin.

I'm going off the dog story again, because again, I like it, and I think it does fit neatly into canon. If this story is to be believed, Elias neither asked nor did he tell Jon that he was giving him another assistant. He apparently simply told Martin 'you work at the archives now, congratulations' and then went back to his office to smile smugly to himself.

This is a VERY bad start for a working relationship, because not only does Martin come in unannounced, this also comes off as Elias not respecting Jon, or potentially even sending someone to report back to Elias (because Martin is the only one who doesn't have an established rapport with Jon).

Jon never verbalises this suspicion, so maybe this is too much interpretation on my part, but in any case it's cause for a lot of resentment on Jon's part, and since he can't exactly let it out on Elias (who is rarely there, anyway), he simply lets it out on Martin.

He finds reasons to do so, of course, insulting his work and all that. It's probably easy, especially in the beginning, because not unlike Jon, Martin doesn't have any qualifications to work in an archive! He worked at the library before, and we know that his degree is made up (which we can only assume Elias knows, considering he can know almost anything).

(I actually find the question on why Elias transferred Martin in the first place extremely interesting, and might get into that in another post. But this one is already too long, lmao.)

1.3. Martin is too nice, aka Jon has even more issues

This is mostly my personal headcanon, though I do feel it fits Jon's character - which is that he doesn't know how to deal with nice people.

Not kind people. Not friendly people. But nice people.

People who do things seemingly out of the mere goodness of their heart. Like bringing their mean boss tea when he never asked them to do that. Like being friendly even in the face of insults. Someone who constantly takes himself back in favour of other people and their opinions.

People like Martin is appearing to be. Appearing, because Martin isn't actually like that. He does have his opinions, and he could probably grumble up a storm in S1 about Jon, but Jon is his BOSS, and so he plays.

Martin also IS genuinely a nice person most of the time (when he's not on a revenge rampage, making his boyfriend murder people). He doesn't have to do nice things for Jon like bring him tea in S2. But he does. Because that's Martin's way of trying to reach out, to show other people that he means no harm (and that he can be useful).

(I also think that Jon's snappish behaviour, where Martin never quite knows what will set the man off, might remind him off his mum, but again I digress. :))

But I think Jon doesn't know how to deal with that, because even when he's not in the height of paranoia, he still suspects that people who are THAT nice (especially when they have no reason to be nice because he's being an arsehole to them) have a secret agenda. This is playing into what I said under 2 (the part that might be too much interpretation on my side lol), because if Jon suspects that Martin is reporting back to Elias, or is at least someone who would not be friendly if he found out that Jon doesn't know what he's doing, then he can't allow himself to relax around him, and he certainly can't allow himself to be lulled into false security (as Jon would think) around him.

Tl;dr on this point: I think Jon is wary of Martin's niceness because he thinks he might be fishing for gossip/anything he can use against Jon. And even if he isn't, Jon thinks he would be likely to use anything he learns against Jon, because they weren't friends to begin with, and Jon's behaviour has made them anything but that.

(We have to remember that this is the guy who says in S2 that he knows what it's like to 'lack the respect of one's peers', aka the kid who got bullied by at least one older kid, and likely had no or very few friends - plus he believes in the supernatural, which doesn't exactly lend itself well to getting academic respect.)

1.4. They were fucked from the start, your honour

Basically what the meme says, but yeah. The they were put in practically guaranteed that Jon would be wary of Martin, and that Martin would be trying extra hard to make friends with him, which in turn would make Jon even more wary/hostile.

And Elias made it worse, either knowingly or by negligence (not telling Jon about transferring Martin).

If we add the whole dog story to it... they were fucked. I do actually wonder if, assuming we take the dog story as canon, Elias actually somehow managed to set that up. Or whether he was at least cackling (sorry, smiling ever so silently, but smugly) in his office as it happened, or whenever he ended up knowing that it happened.

2. Yes, we've had one starting point, but what about second starting point?

As we have established above, the starting situation for Jon and Martin was... not ideal. So, would they have gotten together easily given a different starting point, like in a cute coffee shop AU?

Eh.

It's true that the specific situation they were in made it a lot harder for them to actually communicate and see each other as they are than it had to be. That doesn't mean that a different situation would have made it easy, though.

Their personalities still make it hard, though, as even without the added stress of a new job, Jon is still a little chihuahua shaking in the corner, who tries to make up for it by barking at everyone, and Martin is still the guy trying to approach him with treats and getting his hand bitten.

There are certainly specific situation that could make it easier, especially if Jon isn't scared as hell, and has maybe already learned that not everyone who does something nice for him wants to just pull on his strings. (Yes, I do think that the thing that makes Martin, according to Annabelle, suited for the Web, is the thing that put Jon on edge at the beginning. I don't know if this was intended at all, but it makes me cackle.)

The beauty of fanfic is that we can do whatever the hell we want. But I think the most fun thing an AU author can do is think 'What would have to happen, in this specific scenario, for these two to get over themselves and get together?'

Excursion: Martin, my beloved depressed blorbo who I am certainly not projecting on, haha

Because it IS both of them who need to get over themselves. Of course Jon's issues are the most obvious, and I've certainly expanded on them enough. But Martin also has a problem, and it's that he's constantly hiding his true feelings and opinions, especially anger and fear.

That makes sense, perhaps, in a workplace, though considering he's dealing with a walking, talking worm hive and a stalker boss... Let's just say it probably would have helped Tim, too, if Martin hadn't been so desperate to make everyone be friends again.

Because Martin is always TRYING to make everything better for everyone, but he's actually not helping anyone. Being nice to Jon and bringing him tea doesn't help battle his paranoia. And trying to tell Tim not to be so angry at Jon, and can't they all be friends, doesn't actually help Tim with his anger.

All Martin is essentially doing is making himself small and saying 'let's get along, pretty please' every now and then. I don't know if it would have helped if he had expressed his own fears and anger, and maybe Jon would have misconstrued that as well, too deep in his paranoia already. But at least Tim might have realised that he was not alone in all this. (His biggest problem, as he says in S2, is that he feels that no one has his back, which I think at least partly results from no one expressing the same anger, aka no one validating his feelings.)

Anyway! (Jon voice) Excursion ends.

3. (To the melody of 'What shall we do with the drunken sailor') What shall we do with these total idiots?

So, how ARE these two going to get together, if they're so woefully unequipped to deal with each other?

Well, first we need to give Martin a good helping of self-confidence. Then we need to kind of give Jon the same, since his problem ALSO is that he's unsure of himself, he just tries to make other people small to cover it up, instead of making himself small. (And isn't that a funny thing to do for someone who we know was bullied. To become a bully himself. Oh, the snake, biting its own tail...)

The easy answer is, of course: You can come up with your own version, get creative. <3

The more complex answer is: A lot of stuff, probably. Jon and Martin will certainly need time to get to know each other, and of course it depends on what situation you put them in to start. But there will be misunderstandings, and there will be hurt feelings, and I am going to soak it up all like a particularly slowburn-greedy sponge.

I feel like there are probably five million ways to get them together, and some might be cute and fluffy (if they go to therapy first, I guess, lol) and many will be full of tears. <3 (Jon voice) And I want to see them all on my desk by Friday! So get to it!

In all seriousness though, yeah, I think there's not one right way for them to get together (though canon did it well imo). But it's also a little more complex than we might give it credit to (very much including me).

4. So what now?

I don't know. I'm not your dad. Write a fic. Draw a picture. Put down your own thoughts on the matter. Or take a shower and clean up your room, young Padawan!

(Though actually, if you've read this post from start to finish in one session, what you should probably do is get up and stretch and get some water.)

And above all! And this is imperative.

Have a good day. <3

[jadedsomething]

I think its because people struggle to make pure barter systems fun, because who you're trading with determines the value of your goods, and it isn't consistent or based on like, a market.

People already struggle to create systems that aren't based on money, but people love money because giving it to someone means they owe you something. It's the ultimate barter good because it's a stand-in for every item and service imaginable.

How would a player interact with villagers in a town where everyone just works for something not involving money? How would villagers in this town try to engage with you, a stranger? How could you do something simple like earn a pint at the local pub if you're not given money for it? There's potentially value in "reputation" like someone else has to say you've earned a pint, but it's hard to track, maintain, earn, and use reputation, but it's an interesting thought.

i was thinking abt how medieval fantasy games have like. v modernized economies w peasants living v monetized lives using currency to purchase groceries and i was gonna make a joke about setting a game in the paleolithic and having a "cave shop" where u spend "cave dollars" to buy rocks and sticks but then i remembered chrono trigger does p much just that unironically

[alexanderwales]

A writing idea I've been mulling is that of internal contradictions vs external contradictions. It's very possible that this just boils down to "Man vs Nature" and "Man vs Self", but perhaps slightly more specific.

The idea is that we give a character everything they say they want, then they find that it's not all it's cracked up to be, and that there are two broad genres here. The classic example of this is the movie Big, where a kid wishes he was a grown up. He initially enjoys it, then had to deal with some adult bullshit, and goes back to being a kid. So the standard is:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> it's initially good -> turns out it's not what I wanted (yet)

But in the case of Big, and a bunch of other movies like it, there's some hidden aspect of [this] that has revealed itself. The idea of [this] was a naïve one.

There's a different version, which is mostly the same, which goes like this:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wow did I not actually understand [this] -> turns out [this] is still good, but for different reasons than I thought

Or a slightly different version:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wow did I not understand [this] -> turns out that my very presence or effort was enough to make a new/better [this] that does get me what I initially wanted

So here are our three types, with some examples, to make sure that I understand what the hell I'm talking about. I am going to use "weeaboo goes to Japan" as my example, because I think it's funny, relatively inoffensive, and something I haven't seen done in a fiction context:

Return - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, has various adventures, and returns home, having changed and given up his weeaboo ways

Adaptation - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, has various adventures, and comes to appreciate Japan as it actually exists

Synthesis - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes that anime lied to him, had various adventures, and the people he's met enjoy and appreciate his infectious enthusiasm enough that he changes ... maybe just a small town, to be slightly more realistic

Internal Contradictions

A different approach, which I'm not sure I've ever seen, is one where we follow a path like this:

I want [this] -> I get [this] -> wait, it turns out that [this] is just fundamentally incoherent and in tension with itself, and in fact [this] does not and cannot exist

I hope you agree that this is different from any of the above. It's not a fiction that our protagonist gets disappointed about. It's that the protagonist gets everything he wanted, and finds out that's not actually what he wanted. So this is our new class:

4. Contradiction - A weeaboo goes to Japan, realizes the anime was real all along, meets some hot pink-haired girl who is very into him, is lauded by all the otaku that bow to his superior knowledge, finds that this is ultimately a shallow, hollow kind of life that he does not in reality enjoy.

If the central idea of external contradiction is "reality isn't like that", then the central idea of internal contradiction is "the idea falls apart under its own weight".

I think to do this, you have to really understand the idea and its own internal contradictions, and it needs to have internal contradictions. If someone gets the unrealistic thing that they always wanted, maybe they're just happy! Maybe the unrealistic thing could never exist in the real world, but can be found in a fantasy. No, for this idea to work, we need a fantasy that falls apart on its own, and not in a malevolent genie way where someone immediately says "well obviously I didn't mean it like that".

A guy who wants to be loved by everyone. He gets his wish, everyone loves him. Lots of options for what the internal contradiction is, and I think it depends on the nature of the fantasy, but "they love me but do not know me, so their love rings hollow" is a good example, and I'm not sure even a benevolent genie could fix that without creating more problems. "They love me and they know me perfectly" is, I think, also the kind of thing that people would freak out about, since they know all the bad stuff, the things that our protagonist wouldn't want people to know, that he glosses over about himself.

A guy wants his country to have perfect freedom of expression, but also wants dogmatic adherence to specific ideas. These cannot both exist, so the whole thing must tear itself apart and be rebuilt with compromise.

A guy wants a woman who is strong and independent and speaks her mind, and also a woman who goes along with whatever he wants. He wants her to be sexually adventurous and also virginal. This is a case of external contradiction, where such a woman does not exist in large quantities and is extremely unrealistic. But some formulations are also internal contradictions, depending on how the story is told.

There's something that these all have in common with each other, which is that there are at least two things which are in tension. Maybe you would even say that this tension makes them external to each other. But I think that this is something that's often true about human desire: we want things that are in tension with each other.

For this to work within a story, I think your protagonist has to be a bit of an absolutist, someone who isn't willing to compromise, because most of the examples I've been able to think of do have compromise solutions, where you give up a little of one thing and a little of the other and meet in the middle. Sometimes, this means acceptance.

I'm not entirely sold on this analysis. I think that it's hard to find examples I couldn't argue are some different kind of external contradiction, or a dumbass genie.

One of the examples I was thinking of was Click, where the protagonist wishes for (primarily) the ability to get through all the boring parts of life, and we see how this comes into conflict with his desire to be a father ... but isn't this an example of Return? He does, in fact, return to his life before he got the magical remote. So there's an obvious internal contradiction, but the film just says "actually, you would hate that, it wouldn't be like how you thought it was".

So I've felt like this post was half-baked, but it's been baking for what feels like months, sitting in drafts, and I cannot bake it anymore. Hopefully it does not fall apart under its own internal contradictions, because that would be quite the blunder.

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

You know what would be a fucked up ending for Squid Game season 3? Imagine if we get to the finale and Gi-hun and Jun-ho finally take down Front Man and the VIPs. The games are put to an end once and for all, the day is saved. But something is bothering Gi-hun. After seeing how methodical In-ho and his entire operation was, it doesn’t feel right that In-ho suddenly started messing up. It’s almost like In-ho was messing up on purpose.

Suddenly, In-ho wakes up, despite being fatally wounded. In-ho reveals that he was indeed setting Gi-hun and Jun-ho up to win. When Gi-hun asks why he would orchestrate his own death and the deaths of the VIPs, In-ho reveals that the plan was set up by another set of VIPs.

Apparently, other VIPs were watching Gi-hun’s story since season 1 and started to root for him. Although Gi-hun really was fighting for a good cause, these other VIPs saw him more as a hero in a movie. It was all entertainment for them. And since everyone loves a happy ending, they had In-ho orchestrate a plan in which Gi-hun kills him and the VIPs behind Squid Game.

When Gi-hun asks why In-ho would go through with such a horrifying plan, In-ho reveals:

1) The other VIPs had their companions killed so that they can absorb their wealth (the 1% hoarding even more of the world’s wealth by taking each other out)

2) In-ho is a diehard believer in capitalism, to the point that he’s willing to turn himself into the villain in Gi-hun’s story

3) The surviving VIPs got bored of Squid Game and are moving on to fund something even more horrifying and destructive (commentary on how people consume media)

4) In the end, In-ho won. Gi-hun may have killed him and the VIPs behind Squid Game, but his story was commodified and turned into entertainment for the rich and powerful (commentary on Squid Game’s own reputation, as well as how socialism/leftist movements can become commercialized)

5) Ultimately, Gi-hun and Jun-ho achieved nothing. The bad guys died, but the bigger bads planned for that to happen. The Squid Games were ended, but only because the rich and powerful controlled the narrative and ended it on their own terms.

[elgara-vallas-dalen]

I love this point, so to add to this: I'm not American, so the U.S. election didn't hit me like it did for many Americans and I didn't care about the timing of Veilguard's release in that regard, but I think the general point here is still true. Ultimately, Veilguard is a game about hope and a game that very strongly rejects cynicism in the face of tyranny and people abusing the endless power given to them. And it doesn't do that by bathing in grittiness and then having the Good Guys win, but it does it from its very beginning on. Varric proclaiming that he wants to talk to Solas, who is presented as a villain, because they used to be friends a decade ago, is exactly that and Veilguard is heavily rejecting a lot of conventions of many comparable games with stuff like that. And oh, fucking boy, I absolutely adore it for that. That's like a breath of fresh air in this media landscape that mistakes cynicism for maturity and hope for escapism. That's honestly what makes Veilguard special to me and more meaningful in its themes than most games released over the past few years, but it also explains very well why there are so different reactions to it. The way it's told is obviously conscious, and it's not just about queerness (although that is an important and beautiful part) but about how our current landscape of mainstream games has little idea how to tell stories of hope and kindness (especially in the face of a world that makes both hard) without treating both as completely unrealistic escapism or having some cynic side commentary. I get why that cynicism is so prevalent because it's also a big social coping mechanism, but I just loved how Veilguard questioned that. (Even more than Inquisition which, to me, makes the narrative of the series even better because I love how Inquisition and Veilguard are connected but tell very different types of narratives in different styles, no matter the similar setup.)

And this is not meant as an attack against people not enjoying Veilguard but rather to underscore the point that Veilguard does some things very consciously that appear to be divisive exactly because they are done consciously and because the point the game makes there doesn't work for everyone, especially on a emotional level. That's fine and even good and I'd wish more people would realize that instead of claiming Veilguard is "bad" or whatever.

Okay. I think I've twigged to a reason why this game is so polarizing for the fandom. Please, allow me to ramble about this theory in these dawn-light hours, pre-coffee.

You see, Veilguard is a fantasy. I don't mean its genre is fantasy, we know that. I mean that, for the first time, the story Veilguard tells is itself a fantasy. And a pretty explicitly queer one.

(vague and mild spoilers for Veilguard below)

A world where strict, seemingly narrow-minded mothers can accept and use their child's correct pronouns and be proud of them. And where entire organizations rally around said child to affirm them.

A world where a queer organization stands up to all flavors of tyranny, and while it may suffer great losses, is victorious in the end. Its future is one of supreme hope for lasting change because one of their founding members becomes the ruler of their nation.

A world where a common enemy ACTUALLY unites everyone to fight back and those efforts are welcomed, even from those whose ethics are questionable. Because now really ISN'T the time for in-fighting. There will be time to discuss your morally dubious recruiting methods AFTER the world-ending calamity has been vanquished.

A world where the return of a tyrant is stopped, because the people joined hands with friends, neighbors, and loved ones and refused to let go.

And then they WON.

(depending on your choices, in the end love LITERALLY wins (the love was there and it mattered after all).)

To me, Veilguard is clearly a response to its development cycle. It hit its stride during the height of the pandemic, when people were sick and dying en masse, and most people felt more isolated and helpless than they had in generations. Facism was (is) on the rise across the world. And a very queer and neurodivergent development team looked at the world they lived in, then at the one they'd created, and made some choices about the story they would tell.

And then it released mere days before the US election. I finished playing it on election night (or rather the wee hours of the next morning). And can I tell you? This queer, neurodivergent, nonbinary person NEEDED this story. This exact story.

But, maybe not everyone needed it. To my reckoning, it's the first DA game to take such a firmly hopeful and positive approach to its storytelling, and that's bound to be divisive in a fandom as... Opinionated as ours (affectionate, mostly 😂 ).

Genuinely, I am sorry if it wasn't what you wanted or expected. I'm sorry if you felt let down by your favorite franchise. That fucking SUCKS.

But know that, for some of us, it was a lifeline in a very dark and tragic week, and I suspect it will remain so in the months and years to come. I hope that, if you ever need a dose of pure hope, you might give Veilguard another try.

[leaawrites]

I can’t tell you the way I feel

Liam Gallagher x fem!reader

Summary: when Liam takes on a dare from his friends, he doesn't believe of finding himself making the biggest mistake in his life.

Warnings: suggestive content, allusions to sex, angst, Liam being a dumb cunt

Wordcount: 1.6k

Part 1, Part 2, Part 4, Masterlist

Waking before Liam did meant she had all of his peace to herself. No thought in his mind disturbing them, nobody around that could harm them. It was just their two bodies, tangled in love and sheets.

Reluctantly she began tracing the outline of his face. Her finger moving over his jaw, his lips, down his adam’s apple and over his collarbone. Softly tracing the bone that was stretching his skin towards her, calling for her.

Focused on her finger and how it found it’s way so effortlessly over his body, she didn’t notice Liam’s eyes opening. Confused at first, though softening when seeing her by his side. His arm tightening around her waist, pulling her closer. The sheet covering her chest falling down, exposing her cold skin to his warm one.

“Morning, love,” he greeted her, leaving a soft kiss on her lips. His voice raspy and still lower than she’d ever heard it before.

“Morning,” she answered back, a slight heat rising up her neck and rushing to her cheeks the longer he looked at her. His eyes never wavering from her own gaze, fixated on him.

Drawing small circles on her hips, he smiled as she took his other hand in hers, intertwining their fingers. Slowly leaving a trail of kisses up his arm, over his chest and on his neck, he let out a soft groan in reaction. His nose pressed against her shoulder, inhaling the scent of her bare skin.

Her soft lips gently sucked against the flesh under his ear. Giggling against his skin when she felt his arms around her waist tighten. His hands squeezing her hips.

Two bare chests pressed against each other, falling and rising in sync. Breathing as one.

“Wait, love. Stop.” His voice sounded desperate, like she hurt him. Soft, gentle kisses pierced a dagger through his heart, every single one a mark now on his skin. A reminder of his sin.

Bagging away slightly, she draped the sheet over her chest again. Looking at him with wide eyes, fear soothing through her that she’d done something wrong. Was it too much? Was it not good enough?

Seeing the look in her eyes, thoughts clearly spiraling through her head, he couldn’t form a good excuse. What seemed so easy with everyone else felt like a burden with her. Normally he’d say something like, ‘I promised my mum to be home already’ or ‘I should go, not that your parents find out’. But now, lying seemed to be too harmful.

“I need to -” he started talking, his finger pointing outside the window.

“You need to go?” Finishing his sentence for him, he nodded his head, shameful looking down, not catching the eye roll and sarcastic grin on her face before it disappeared again just as quickly as the realization came. Of course it was all just for a quick laugh with his friends. It was Liam Gallagher, for fucks sake. “I hope I’m not keeping you from going.”

Picking up her shirt and underwear from the floor, she quickly put them on, before walking over to the other side of the room and taking his clothes as well, throwing it his way before walking out the door.

A, “Wouldn’t dare to,” falling from her lips as she slammed the door shut behind her.

Still leaning on his elbows, Liam stayed like this as if he was frozen. The shower went off in the other room and that was when it hit him. He fucked it up completely. Throwing his head into the soft pillow he let out a groan. How could he not even find a good excuse to make it less shameful to walk out of her house?

He deserved it though, he decided ultimately as he found himself back out on the street, walking with his head low. He totally deserved it.

Unlike her.

Head leant against the door of the bathroom, she waited until she could hear the front door close before turning off the shower and letting the water from her eyes flow down her face. Of course he didn’t mean anything he said. Why did she even let him invite her to the gig anyway? Why did she have to go too?

When his body rushed towards her the night before, eyes lighting up as he found her and excitement being written all over his face, she believed that - maybe, somehow - Liam Gallagher wasn’t as much of a twat as she always assumed he was.

Though female intuition is barely ever wrong and that’s what she should’ve been listening to. Not the hammering of her heart or the lovesick thoughts in her brain for finally being seen by someone as more than just another face. It was her own fault.

Noel sat in the living room, feet propped up on the coffee table, eyes fixated on the telly, though he noticed when Liam walked in, the heavy stomp of his feet being too familiar.

Falling down in the seat next to him, a beer now in his hand, he popped open the can and starred at the people talking too. Neither acknowledging each other more than with their mind.

Until Noel spoke, “You weren’t too shite.”

“Thanks.” Taking another large sip, he tried ignoring his brother as much as he could.

“Though the songs sound like they’re written by a toddler. Did you write them then?” Noel was sure Liam would throw the telly at him as he said that with his sour mood, though he only chuffed, sinking further into the cushion. Trying to escape from this conversation. He knew where it would lead to.

“Not everything that’s shite in your mind is from me, alright? Cunt.”

Noel’s brows furrowed, why wasn’t he trying to strangle him yet?

“I’m not too opposed to the idea of joining anymore,” he tried it differently, trying to make his mood lighten.

“Cheers, mate. Gonna tell the others then.” His voice staying monotone and unwavering. Nothing could be a worse conversation topic at the moment in his opinion.

“Your bird’s fit.”

Jinx.

“She’s not my bird,” Liam tried, his voice growing defensive. Molding in the same tone that he had when talking to ehr the first time.

“So, she’s free?” Noel asked back, quite enjoying how deep in denial his brother was. Finally, Liam’s eyes snapped over to him, filled with horror and disgust.

“If you even try something, I swear-” before he could talk further, Peggy came in, a grocery bag in each hand.

“Would you boys stop fighting for once and help your mum carrying in the groceries?” she said, to which Noel immediately jumped up and went outside. Liam following him shortly after. The thoughts still running through his mind. He didn’t actually think she was fit, did he? Well, she was, but who was he to think that?

Later that night, when Liam was already laying in bed, cigarette in between his lips, Noel came walking in. He noticed how off his brother was for the whole day, of course he did. There was barely any talking done at the table, when normally Liam couldn’t shut up even if you’d sew his mouth shut. That night he was simply staring down at his food, not even eating it all. The worrying glance which Peggy sent Noel’s way after seeing her son this abnormal wasn’t easing his nerves.

“What’s got you so twisted?” He asked, sitting down on his own bed.

Liam leaned over, blowing the smoke from his mouth out of the window. “Nothing.”

“It’s about that girl, right? You fancy her and she didn’t want to hear any of it, because she knows you’re a cunt and rejected you, or what?” He asked further, remembering how defensive he got the first time Noel asked about her.

“I don’t fancy her,” was all he got as an answer.

“Sure.” Noel rolled his eyes, laying down himself. “She seemed nice though.”

“She is,” Liam agreed, making his brother’s head turn at the soft tone of his voice. “She’s too nice.”

“How so?”

Closing his eyes for a second, he knew he’d regret telling him what happened, nonetheless he did it. “I took her out because of a dare, and when she realized in the morning she didn’t even try to slap me or summat. She just-” his mind went back to her face, how she looked so distant yet like reality came back to her in the moment she realized. “She just walked out as if she should be ashamed.”

“You dumb cunt,” Noel groaned when Liam finished the story. He talked to her once, but from how she talked about Liam and defended him when Noel said that he had no trust in his brother’s abilities and interest in music, it made him feel proud in a way. Proud that Liam actually got somethin together for once in his life, he should’ve seen the downfall coming. And he did, just not that soon.

“You don’t just disrespect girls like tha’, especially no girls like her, alrigh’?” Noel threw his pillow across the room in Liam’s face, who only threw it back after complaining. “You make her feel seen and then you just push her off, that’s shite.”

“As if I’d listen to your advise,” Liam scoffed, taking another drag of his cigarette. Looking out of their window and down the street to where her house stood, he knew that Noel was right. Of course he was. You don’t just treat girls like that, especially not girls like her.

“Then don’t,” Noel shrugged. “But at least remember what Mum taught us.”

[dailydamnation]

Magik #1 is getting a second print!

... with three different variants. The day after release.

MAGIK #1 DIKE RUAN 2ND PRINTING VARIANT MAGIK #1 J. SCOTT CAMPBELL RATIO VIRGIN 2ND PRINTING VARIANT[1:25] MAGIK #1 BLANK COVER 2ND PRINTING VARIANT

Which makes you think they probably could have just printed more of the first one, and having to immediately go to second print simply gets good press so they like doing it--but ultimately it's more Illyana in more people's hands, and we're all for that here!

As a sidenote, the place online where I splurged on the fanciest variant still doesn't have its copies in to send to me and that is a crime.

Everyone seems to love this first issue, though, so I can't wait.

[cloveroctobers]

access all areas — 10. Zilla Fatu [Winter Prompts]

A/N: i was battling between making this either Jey or Zilla inspired…and I decided to risk it lol s/o tiktok for putting me on again yet I’m still learning him lol 🩵

PROMPT IS FROM HERE + HERE & I’m using: 27. confessing a crush when it's snowing. DIALOGUE PROMPTS —“It's just a wish, I know wishes don't come true." // "Who told you that?"

WARNINGS: This is a shorty fluff! absolutely the language! Suggestive themes & Zilla being Zilla? Whatever that means 😉

<- if you’re bored or open to reading something else cute read my previous floppy flop anthology prompt here.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆ .𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆ .𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆

“You calm down yet?” Is the first thing you say to the brooding man, sliding the door shut behind you as you step out onto the deck.

He sucks his teeth in response, not taking his glare from the approaching evening view, elbows resting along the banister, “Don’t come over here wit that mane.”

You laugh, squeezing the collar of your fur jacket tighter around your neck while you took a spot beside him, “Or what? You gonna cuss me out too? Everybody knew what they were doing sending me out here to deal with your ass.”

Zilla rolls his dark eyes up to the sky.

He knows there were plenty of options that could have had the task of talking to him: Jacob who knew Zilla pretty well and always tried to coach him into having a level head but after that shit he just pulled with Solo at his log cabin? That man was ready to toss Zilla out on his ass himself! Then there was Jimmy who usually tried to see everyone’s POV and that he did when it came to Zilla and Solo’s everlasting beef, Jey (who was currently tipsy) no longer had patience for Zilla’s mouth and as much as the twenty-five year old loved to be at functions with Jey, when they got into disagreements it always had the potential to go extremely left (their tempers combined was insane work) between the two however they could always squash it at the end of the day, and even Roman who was just getting the chance to really know the youngest member, was witnessing it all and open to figuring out where Zilla’s head was at—since they were all in their twenties once before.

Ultimately you stepped up (with light pushing from the other ladies, mainly Ava and Jey) to make sure Zilla was alright after he and Solo almost threw hands. It was all going so well, everyone was having a good time until the competitive sides egos came out.

“And how’s that? You not getting me to sit around the campfire and singing songs with that mutha—

“Alright, relax.” You interrupt with your hand held up, “How is it that I’m cool with your own blood and you’re not?”

Zilla muttered, “Maybe that’s part of the problem too.”

You tilt your head to the side, “What?”

“Let’s not act like I didn’t see him tryin’ to push up on you.”

You’re frowning now.

You and Solo been friends long before you met Zilla. At first you didn’t think he was even open getting to know you because you had ties with Sikoa but eventually Zilla pulled his head out of his ass, apologized for being an asshole for awhile, and you two were able to turn over a new leaf. There were no doubts that the both of you heavily got on each other’s nerves—Virgo men—but somehow there was always love there.

“It’s not like that.” You sigh, “Never has been and I don’t know why I have to sound like a damn broken record for you to get it.” You snap, leaning on your own elbow, and pressing another hand into your hip.

He blinks, “Does he know that?”

“I’m not doin’ this with you, Isayah.” You exasperate, “I came out here to check on your well-being, not you focusing on non-existent problems. Especially when you’re still out here entertaining other bitches like a dog in heat.”

It’s Zilla’s turn to furrow his brows.

“I dunno where that’s comin’ from but I’ll bite, say what’s on your mind then, ma.”

Shrugging your shoulders, you peek down at your acrylics as if that was more important, “…I’m just saying you’re using whatever you can find—something as ridiculous as Solo being into me, as an excuse to whoop his ass at any given time, is funny when your phones been going off from your little groupies since you got here.”

“Ah,” Zilla leans back and points, “You keepin’ tabs on me? How sweet.”

“Shut up, ain’t nobody thinking about you.”

Zilla smirks, “I mean…it’s coo if you are.”

“Me when I’m trying to deflect.”

“I’m not.” Zilla laughs a little, “I don’t gotta lie to you. There’s been a few that I’ve been talkin’ to but it’s never gone any further…cause I’m waiting on your ass, surprisingly.”

From the corner of your eye you spot flakes starting to glide down from the sky. The deck suddenly feels warm compared to the frigid air that first greeted you and almost made you want to crawl back inside.

“Huh?” Is all you can get out.

Zilla mocks you, “Huh? You heard me.”

“So…” you kick at the air awkwardly now, “I guess this is the part where I confess I’m feelin’ you too.”

He nods, “I thought that shit was obvious way back when I was hittin’ it right on Halloween with my hands around your throat?”

Instantly you smack his arm, making him laugh and lick his lips. “I didn’t need a refresher, thank you!”

“I dunno I thought your ass might of forgot,” Zilla turns to fully face you now, “I certainly didn’t.”

And there he goes giving you that taunting stare, that could make one with the most fear in their heart, quiver in place.

Reaching a ring finger out to the man, he breaks eye contact for a moment and reaches his own hand out to interlock with yours. It’s instant static but it’s brief because he’s tugging you right into his embrace. You melt into his frame, his arms locking around you just right as you gently sway side to side in the cold evening. Of course one hand that isn’t wrapped around your shoulders, slides down to hold your backside that’s buried beneath your fur jacket—knowing he would much rather get a real feel—you laugh to yourself.

“Can’t help yourself, can you?”

“I mean…you just said you’re down to be mine, no?”

“I don’t know if I said all that.” You pull back to glance down at his lips, a smile playing on your own glossed ones.

He closes one eye pretending to think about it, “You kinda did admitting your truth to me, girl. Don’t act brand new.”

“That’s all you!” You go to shove him with a laugh, that he mirrors, “Actin’ all fool over you know who when he’s just a friend and whomever is in your phone, you need to dead that by the way.”

“Yes ma’am.” He agrees, “Can I get some love now?”

“Are my hugs not enough?”

“Yeah sure, you smell divine and look even better but I’m really trying to see what you taste like.”

Oh?!

“I thought you didn’t forget.”

“Of my other girl, nah.” He shifts his eyes down your frame, making you gasp, ready to smack him again, “Sweeter than any cherry pie I’ve ever eaten.”

“You don’t like cherry pie.”

He shrugs as if it’s obvious, “You’re my exclusive.”

Shaking your head, you’re not sure what exactly you were going to do with this man but you turn to get a better view of the snow that started to come down harder now. Like a young child, you go to the banister to gaze up at the pretty fluffs that demanded to be seen.

You feel the weight of Zilla’s arms lock around you now, which makes you lean back against him, enjoying his warmth—despite the fact that he was only outside in a hoodie—which you didn’t want to hear a thing about when he caught a cold—and the touch of his lips against your neck.

“…Whatchu wish for?” He asks after a moment, noticing that your eyes were closed as soon as you spotted a star that flew through the sky.

If you blinked you might have missed it.

You’ve always been into shooting stars and the galaxies and shit. Zilla could be a yapper himself but he remembers a late night session after your first and only time together, that y’all got into a conversation of the unknown.

Granted you may or may not have been under the influence that Halloween night but those thoughts still occurred even without.

Lightly turning your head against his collarbone, you realized you’ve been caught, “It's just a wish, I know wishes don't come true."

Zilla frowns, “Who told you that?”

“It’s silly.” Your attempt to persuade him to drop it would be ignored.

Zilla scoffs, “It was me wasn’t it? You don’t gotta be shy about it…plus I actually like hearing what’s on your mind if we’re being honest.” He taps at your temple gently.

You can’t help but to beam at him, “Aw, aren’t you cute!”

Zilla rolls his eyes at you slightly squealing, “Don’t start.”

“Want a kiss?”

“Hell yeah…New Years about to come early.” He returns the grin, licking his lips as you spin to wrap one arm over his shoulders, the other goes to lightly scratch at the back of his head just how he liked, foreheads touching, noses brushing against each other, as you breathe each other in just before Zilla makes the move to place his lips right on yours.

He still knew how to make your toes curl just with one kiss.

“I love yo ass.” Zilla admits, once he catches his breath, an ounce of fear shining through his own dark eyes for a moment before he easily masked it.

A smile that reaches your own eyes speaks before you do, “I know.”

Zilla throws his head back in annoyance, “Forreal? This what you on?”

You nod playfully, “Can’t give you too much access can I?”

“Access?” Zilla repeats with a glance from underneath his lashes, “We been passed that, don’t you think, baby?”

Humming you move to rest both hands on his chest, “I would say you’re right and the feeling is mutual but that might get to your head.” You tease.

Zilla rubs at his face, laughing to himself, “Oh aight, bet. Imma get it out of you though, just you wait.”

“I don’t doubt it.” You wink, pulling the sides of his hood forward more as a brisk chill full of snow glided by you two, and then you toss your leg up over his hip.

Zilla doesn’t hesitate to grip your clothed flesh, his gaze darkening as you lightly bite your bottom lip, “Yeah, I think you’re asking for trouble as if you don’t know that I’m about it any time and anywhere. That hot tub cover is calling our names.”

You peek around his frame, leaning a bit to see the covered tub up ahead and that was enough of a hint into Zilla’s mind.

“Ayo! Y’all better be clothed out here!” Jey calls out, peering through his fingers and lets out a sigh of relief, “Zil, your time out is over! Bring your asses back in here, we about to fire up: den of thieves.”

Zilla groans as he says back over his shoulder to his older cousin, “Man, why your drunk ass gotta be so loud for?! Can’t you see we’re busy?”

“Well get un-busy! I’m sure you will find some other time to get nasty at some point while we’re all here…and you’re welcome by the way!” Jey sends the two a grin before leaving the door open, letting you two know that this wasn’t up for debate.

Watching action movies was part of the family gathering, along with a lot of shit talking and over talking that definitely pissed a few off that we’re trying to get into the storyline. You and Solo were part of the few that hated excessive talking so you just hoped the snacks were good.

Placing a lingering kiss on an irritated Zilla, you savored his lips, which turned a scowl into a smile, then you intertwined your fingers, dragging him back into the cabin full of chaos.

.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆ .𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆ .𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆.𖥔 ݁ ˖⋆ ˚❆

[ropebunnykant]

#i personaly would say that style has the ability to be cruel#not just because he does a lot of stuff that would come accross very differently in a different genre#(as idk how much discussing this would even work. since he's not in a different genre)#but imo because he crosses some lines that are lines even in universe#the grief counselling group being a big one (and he does get punched for it)#style has his own grief and i found the scene funny but there's no arguing he wasn't thoughtless and self-centered#which is not a dig at style. i love him and i think he is ALSO a very kind and caring person#there's several sides to him#but i think ultimately he is incapable of being truly unkind *to the people he loves*#which is what he says to fadel in a way: 'now that i know you i love you'#idk. style a pretty multifaceted character and i think him being a mix of several of the og ones#(petruchio tranio but also katherine. since they all etc)#kinda strengthen that last point#he actually do contains multitudes#love your point about him not being a criminal and tranio being from a different class too#i feel it resonnates very well with your 'they turned the misogyny into assassinphobia'#because our only non-criminal lead is also the one who's the most free of his choices#anyway now i'm thinking about shakespeare's helpers characters and how they range from forces of positive change to truly sinister#style is very much a helper and he lands squarely on the force for a positive change end of the spectrum#in other plays he would have the fool role

tags by @hurlumerlu

i already told you in our dms i would be back to discuss these tags and here i am because i love what you've brought up here! i realized after i posted it the way that it likely sounds like i'm ridding style of his flaws by saying he doesn't have it in him to be cruel, which is not what i initially meant with that statement, so thank you for giving me the chance to kind of clarify, cause i think you brought up some good points!

like you pointed out, style does a number of things that are thoughtless and self-centered, namely the grief counseling thing which i 100% agree comes across as cruel and almost mean spirited. however, i think there is a difference between doing something with the intention of causing harm/doing something while actively being aware you are causing harm and doing something without thinking of the consequences of it. while there's obviously arguments to be made about it, my personal definition of cruel has everything to do with the knowledge and intent behind the act. if someone does something that hurts you but it wasn't their intention to or they didn't realize they were, it still hurts, but the punch doesn't hit quite as hard as if they were doing it purposefully.

and i think with style at least, that's why i say he isn't an inherently cruel character. like you said, he's thoughtless and self-centered, but he doesn't do things with the direct intention of causing harm - at least not in a lasting way. yes, his flirting methods for fadel is to annoy him, so on a certain level he recognizes he's causing fadel harm, but the sort of harm style aims to cause isn't deep wounds, it's paper cuts. yes, he causes more harm than a paper cut by showing up at the grief counseling session and making it about him, but i genuinely don't think style thought through the way that would come across. i think in his head, bison essentially gave him permission to crash the party there by putting it in his little to do list, so he doesn't think much about how it's a fucking insane thing to do. especially because style's definition of insane is very skewed from a normal person's lmao.

i do agree he is very multifaceted though and obviously he is still based on petruchio and therefore does cause harm to fadel to some extent in order to get to him. i do still think inherently, style is kind, though - not just to those he loves, but to everyone. i think he's annoying, obviously, and thoughtless and self-centered like you said. but i also think if he's not dead set on causing problems for someone like he was for fadel, he is kind to others, and i think that's proven when it comes to the people in the market. yes, he's annoying to them too, but there seems to be a fondness there for him as well, at least from the market lady - he is genuinely helping her out by working there! and while it's mostly so he can annoy fadel, i don't think it's necessarily an act, either.

also, love the callbacks to my other metas because yes, i think it ties into those things too. and he is very much a helper character which i adore! i think he also has some elements of a fool even as he is, but he's also a main character so that does negate it a tad skdhsdkf

was gonna say this in the tags of my last taming parallel but i think this actually warrants a post of its own. i think the thing that makes style a lovable character despite being based on such a horrific character is the fact that he’s not solely based on petruchio. he’s also based heavily on tranio, who if you’re unaware, is lucentio’s servant and dear friend. so, while he has the boldness and shamelessness of petruchio, he has tranio’s unwavering loyalty and hopefulness. honestly, i’d argue he’s more based on tranio than he is petruchio, because petruchio at his core is an inherently cruel character, whereas tranio is inherently kind, which fits style far better. i’d even argue that kant parallels petruchio far closer than style (not a dig at kant! its just that kant has the ability to be cruel and calculated when he needs to be because his hand has been forced, whereas style inherently just doesn’t have that in him).

i also think it’s interesting because style stands out from the others in a number of ways, not simply because of his hopefulness but because (to our current knowledge) he’s not a criminal. which is an interesting parallel because lucentio, bianca, and katherine all have a higher status, while tranio is a servant and therefore distinct from them. additionally, tranio’s plot in taming is that he is disguised as lucentio for most of the show, and i think that sort of parallels style needing to become a police informant by association in a way.

[sufferu]

previously, if I remember correctly, you said that the dogshow cast would dismiss pride if (had they also reacted to that) for being too much of an edgy fantasy. So I was wondering, how do you think they would react to wrath if? Especially since the decision that cemented that route, running away from his murderers, was arguably the saner choice compared to canon, where he committed suicide to save those who tortured and killed him previously.

Oboreru is the IF Route that they’d probably respond to most…sympathetically. Ayamatsu comes across as complete nonsense, Sloth:IF is — incredibly mixed, Kasaneru is terrifying in a very immediate sense of the word, and Tsugihagu just. They don’t really have the context necessary to appreciate that one, really — though if they did it’d be kind of hard to react to that whole mess from an in-universe perspective, anyway. Oboreru, meanwhile, is actually very simple: Subaru underwent something so genuinely traumatizing that it rewired his entire being around making sure he could never be hurt like that again, and he was practically transformed into an animal in the process.

Rem would take some SERIOUS heat for this, because in canon Oboreru was like 60 percent her fault. Ram would also get a good deal of the blame. But Subaru…there’s the fact that he himself would be horrified and disgusted by all the murders, and there’s the fact that you arguably can’t really hold Wrath!Baru accountable for his actions in the same way that you’d hold anyone else accountable due to the extreme extent of his psychological issues, but long story short there’s a lot of grace to be given here. The exact amount would vary from person to person, but ultimately I think he’d be greeted with a great deal of kindness from pretty much everyone.

(There’d be an entire faction, probably, that would be absolutely convinced that they could never again allow him near either of the twins again lmaooo—)

[supervisormeero]

Syril Appreciation, Part 2: On Syril Karn & Redemption

It's still Syril Appreciation Day (SAD) over at @andorshitdaily, so I'm going to go ahead and create yet another lengthy text post about one of the saddest, most pathetic men in Star Wars. The reason for this is that my other lengthy text post about one of the saddest, most pathetic men in Star Wars would've been too long if I'd continued it, so now I'm posting two lengthy text posts. When they're combined, they'll create a whole novel. Anyway—

I've heard and been part of a lot of discussion over hiatus about the subject of Syril Karn getting a "redemption arc," and whether or not turning Rebel is his ultimate destiny in Season 2. As I said in my other post, I'm 50-50 on it. Over the years, Star Wars has conditioned many of us to believe that the "less evil" or "conflicted" Imperials have a shot at turning good. Frequently, they do. We've seen those storylines play out over and over again, perhaps most notably when placed in direct parallel to Syril, with Alexsandr Kallus. We aren't set up to believe Dedra might switch sides, because the writing paints her as unrepentantly devoted to the mission and everything it calls for. The writers call out, through Bix, that Dedra enjoys the darker aspects of her work. She revels in the torture, the arrogantly delivered threats, and the bleeding Rebels dry. In that way, we are told — without being told — that Dedra won't turn from her path. She's Imperial, through and through. Her sole mission is to save the Empire from itself, and she'll do so by any means necessary.

In contrast, because Season 1 spends so much time devoting itself to showing Syril's turmoil and pain in his home life, we don't get that with him. We know he's Imperial because, obviously, he's made it his life's mission to rise through the Imperial ranks. We see him desperate and striving for more, determined to get into the ISB, yearning to assist Dedra in her investigation into Axis and Cassian Andor. The writing makes no secret of the fact that Syril Karn is a man with ambitions, and those ambitions are Imperial. It also continually highlights his connection with Dedra, whatever direction that's destined to take; the first official image we got of him in Season 2 is him meeting with her in the ISB conference room. So, while Season 1 does unflinchingly frame Syril as Imperial, it holds back on framing him as devoted to everything the Empire stands for. It doesn't frame him as approving or supportive of Imperial violence or torture, as it does for Dedra.

What does this mean for his future, and his chances of redemption? It depends on which path the writers choose to take with his character, I think. On one hand, because Syril's not been exposed to the "darker" side of the Empire (at least that we know of), he might be in for a rude awakening over the next five years. We see him believing fully in the Empire because the Empire is law, and his central guiding principle seems to be that law and order are always true, that justice is always just, and that if everyone followed the rules, there would be no trouble in the galaxy. We, as viewers, know this is incorrect... but at this point, Syril doesn't seem to. Throughout the next five years in his story, either through gaining an understanding of what Dedra actually does for the Empire or through time spent on Ghorman before the massacre, it's possible he will come to question some of his beliefs. Is it really just to execute a crowd of peaceful protestors? Is the use of Gorst's recordings ever justifiable, from a moral sense? If Syril sat in on one of Dedra's interrogations and saw the agony and terror in that poor Rebel's eyes, would he still hold her up as his beacon of light and hope?

At this point, we don't know. The biggest tally in the "redemption arc" column is, in my opinion, that Syril's main motivation isn't necessarily getting promoted and rising to the top of the Imperial ladder: it's being loved. That's where he differs from Dedra. Where she only wants complete order and (potentially) power, he wants someone to believe in him and tell him he's done a good job — he never got that unconditional affection from Eedy, and he's still searching for it in the only way he knows how: by being good at his job. Will he eventually realize he can't find that within the Imperial structure and turn to join the Rebels? Potentially. It's also possible he keeps searching for it within the Empire to the point where that endless search dooms him, and he never understands that the Empire is indifferent to him until it's too late for him to do anything but die in its service. If his Imperial beliefs are too engrained in him, it's possible he really will think that what Dedra does is for the greater good, and that what we know will happen on Ghorman needed to happen.

If that's the case, though, and he's never meant to be conflicted, why bother sending him to Ghorman? The fact that he's seemingly being set up to spend significant time on the planet leads me to believe we'll at least see him grapple with his Imperial faith and devotion to Dedra — otherwise, he could've stayed on Coruscant. That said, I'm not necessarily a complete believer in him turning around and helping the Rebels, either; I don't know that I can see him following Kallus' route. Perhaps if he has a vaguely similar trajectory to Lieutenant Gorn and the Ghorman people show him kindness only for him to watch in horror as they're all killed in front of him, he could "lose his taste for the Empire." I've also wondered, based on a prediction of @hegodamask's, whether he might play a role in Lonni's execution only to then find that, whoopsie, Lonni had a family, and that sits heavily on Syril's conscience. Or both of those things happen. There's more than enough time in a 12-episode season.

My ultimate prediction is that if Syril lives to see the show's final arc and doesn't die on Ghorman, we might see him step back from all of it and side with neither the Empire nor the Rebellion. Just because he doesn't believe in the Empire doesn't mean he'll support the Rebels. I could see him losing faith in all of it to the point where, in his final episode, he comes face-to-face with Cassian again... and he lets him go. @hegodamask also had the thought that he might get promoted post-Ghorman to a supervisory role within the ISB, thus getting what he'd always wanted, only to find it hollow now after he's seen what the Empire stands for. I guess he could also die a last-minute redemptive death, although I'd really rather he didn't. I think Andor will treat him with more complexity than that.

So, do I think Syril will be 100% redeemed? I think it's more complicated than that. Star Wars has a habit of "redeeming" its villains, and if Syril descends farther and farther into the Empire as Cassian commits to the Rebellion, a no-redemption storyline could make sense. It could also be oddly fresh, considering the sheer number of redeemed Imperials in this franchise. Regardless, I trust Tony Gilroy and his writing team, and I'm looking forward to seeing how Syril's story ends.

I'd prefer it if he didn't die, though. The galaxy needs those pretty blue eyes.