#and even from an outsiders perspective it wouldn't read that way once you get to know them personally

[sukibenders]

Me, trying to come up with a plot that accurately reflects the complexity and dynamics that are Annabeth's and her father's relationship with one another, as well as her feelings towards his new family, because while there is love there, how much necessarily? Not enough, to be assumed, because Annabeth ran away when she was seven and, with Luke's description of her in the books at the time he and Thalia found her, she wasn't in the best condition. Reading about how monsters tracking on to her scent and made her a target was the cause for many fights between her and parents, all of which was before she ran away and reads, personally to me, as a pair of adults blaming their young child, but these are also supposedly the same parents who, when discovering that she was in danger, actively wished for her well-being and, in her father's case, put themselves in harms way to go rescue her alongside her more than equipped friends, something, something, I could go on!

[deerspherestudios]

Hello! 😊 I wanted to add onto the what-if mind reader scenario and further ask about what kind of person would this kind of Michael be able to end up wanting as a partner and what would enable him to trust them. I find this version of him really intriguing and I have a few ideas of my own of what he could want: Someone who is incredibly honest, and finds it difficult to lie - overall an open book. It would possibly allow him to gradually ease up and trust them as they are always easy to read, and he can finally not always heavily rely on reading someone's thoughts for once when he is around them allowing him to further relax. Someone very sincere and genuine especially in their empathy and has a lot of it. Considering all of the bad thoughts and intentions he has heard, he is probably going to need to hear a lot of kind and genuine words to be able to believe them to be true; even if they are already there in that person's thoughts. Being kind, gentle and slow as well as predictable, in general movements and also getting closer to him. I would imagine that he has had to face a lot of aggression as he wouldn't have the ability to force things to be peaceful like in the original version and has a great deal of paranoia. So, he would be less on edge and find comfort in a pattern of actions as well as being slow allows him more time to react and feel overall safer - he also has more layers to protect himself so it would be ideal with someone who would be able to take things slow to allow him to open up on his own time. Someone who is an optimist and has a very stubbornly nurturing, motherly/fatherly kind of personality as well as some naivety and clumsiness. I think his desire to be alone comes from the pessimism that formed from his experiences overall so I think it would probably help him heal and give him hope to have an optimistic way of viewing life - or at the very least be able to find a way to see things in a better light even if he wouldn't agree with the perspective. I also think having them being stubbornly nurturing as a core part of their personality would probably be somewhat necessary for this version to have a story between the two, where the person would be stubborn in getting to help him out and also him feeling reassured that this person is safe and not violent, as that would be a core part of their personality. Additionally, having some naivety with optimism would allow for an interesting clash of personalities between the two; and at the same time when he opens up more them being more clumsy and naive would also encourage him to want them around more to help them out and protect them like they helped him.

I hope I was able to provide some interesting ideas that you could enjoy! 😊 and I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day 😌✨✨

For context! That's honestly a pretty good analysis of his character and on the kind of person he'd fall for! Honesty is policy and it's not just on the outside; you have to mean it with your whole being when you say that you don't find him disgusting.

Not a single doubt, not a single hesitance. Perhaps some trace of delusion but he'll take any niceties he can get. Thank you so much for the ideas!!!

[dceasesd]

why juni ba’s the boy wonder has my favorite jason characterization of any contemporary comic run: a needlessly in-depth analysis (pt.3)

go check out part 1 and part 2 if you'd like! this is a long one, sorry guys.

if you haven't already i'd recommend you check out pt. 1 & pt. 2 (linked above), but if you haven't checked them out i've been going over some of the main things people have been criticizing ba's characterization for: 1. the typical boiling down of jason's character to "the angry one" 2. his lack of strategy going into the fight with the demon is out-of-character 3. the neighbor's kid interaction

alright, so this last point is purely based off of one page of the entire comic: the one where the child of one of jason's neighbors is dragged inside his home when his mother see's jason coming.

first off, i love this page. it might be my favorite page in the entire issue. everything about it is great. just thought i needed to say that.

anyway, there's some people who are seeing this page and reading it as "jason protects kids! that's one of his big things! why are they scared of him?"

here's the thing, though: the kid isn't scared of jason, the mom is. the kid is literally playing dress up as the red hood-- he's not scared of jason, if anything he's trying to replicate him. little kids dress up as their heroes all the time; why is this kid any different? it doesn't really make sense for the kid to dress up of something he's scared of (not everyone is as weird bruce wayne), especially a real person that could be a real threat rather than a concept. i doubt you see many kids in gotham dressing up as the joker or something, because that's just asking for trouble.

the dress-up honestly seems like a ploy for attention to me. the kid clearly knows that red hood lives in his building (which is honestly so funny. take off the mask jason you're giving you're position away (actually this is a really good instance for analysis but i'm determined to not go on a tangent)). if the kid knows red hood lives in his building, what better way to get his attention that dressing up as him and playing pretend? if the kid was scared of him, he wouldn't want to draw that sort of attention to himself. if he had a sort of hero-worshippy thing going on like i suspect, then he would want to get jason's attention. to sum it up,

it's the mom who pulls him away when jason nears, because she either a) perceives him as a threat, b) doesn't want her kid to try and replicate him even more, or, the most likely option, both! the kid isn't scared of him, but the mother believes they should be.

once again, we come back to the whole perception vs. reality theme i talked about in part one! we've come full circle, everyone!

when looking at the neighborhood's perspective of the red hood, ba gives us a few contradictory examples. there's the kid and the mother, obviously, but there's also a slew of other citizens who interact with him at the beginning of the issue, both in fear and camaraderie.

the unhoused man and the people outside of his building clearly have a familiarity and are comfortable with him, while the shopkeeper is terrified and literally has a banned poster on his wall featuring jason (i am so curious what he did to deserve that, if he even did anything at all). from this, it appears that jason's reputation teeters between fearful and familiar-- a sentiment that also colors jason's relationship with his family.

furthermore, this concept underscores just how lonely jason is-- one of the only good relationships he had in his current life was his fucking landlord, for gods sake, and he's dead.

i think it's important to note that jason doesn't respond to the friendly greetings from the men-- he could attempt to build camaraderie, the roots are there, but he chooses not to. he could work to try and show the mother that her son is safe with him, but he chooses not to. why? jason is obviously lonely (as ba states in the panel below) and he caves pretty easily when damian asks him for help (both of them are so desperate for human interaction its tragic). so why does he distant himself from the community?

obviously it is in part due to the vigilante lifestyle, but it is also jason's perception of himself and how he believes others perceive him, especially in regards to his family (ba is literally hitting readers in the head with that theme baseball bat).

he doesn't see that the kid with the mask looks up to him, all he sees is the mother pulling him away. he sees the banned poster in the store. and, as ba narrates, "he was sure he'd been forgotten about" by his family. utrh is jason's twisted way of attempting to reach out and connect with bruce, and obviously that doesn't work-- so he chooses loneliness over rejection.

like in part one, though, damian refutes this idea by describing bruce's perspective, showing how what jason believes differs from actuality. bruce hasn't forgotten about him and doesn't hate him, as he suspected, but instead harbors guilt over the situation and desires to make it better, which jason must come to understand to be able to open the locked door and begin to move past his trauma.

so, that's what the little kid in the red hood outfit looks like to me. i actually have a lot more i'd like to say about the boy wonder, especially in regards to the whole "door to my past life" thing and what ba does with lighting and blocking in his artwork, so i may do a little post on that as well! i was gonna try and shove it into this one, but i've run out of room! i hope you guys liked my analysis, if you'd like to chat about the boy wonder or any other comics, my dms, asks, and reblogs are happily open! thanks for reading! :)) <3

pt. 1 / pt. 2

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Can we have bestfriend headcanons for rollo please???? i need to be friends with this guy so bad you don't understand

***Warning: Glorious Masquerade spoilers in the final few headcanons!***

Curiouser and Curiouser...

The best way to sum up this relationship is that Rollo is the mom friend, and you are his child. (If you were to ask Rollo, he would say you're an idiot, but you're his idiot.)

From an outsider's perspective, it's hard to tell that you're friends at all. He always has that hard-to-read face on him, plus those grimaces he gets whenever the slightest annoyance or inconvenience makes itself known.

You've gotten used to his quirks though, so you can read his emotions a lot better than most. When the corners of his mouth twitch, that's him trying to smile! When he taps a finger against his arm? He's thinking hard about something.

He dislikes it when you call him "bestie" (so, of course, you make sure to do it often). Rollo corrects you with his name each and every time.

He finds physical affection just as repulsive. Rollo's constantly shying away from your touch, insisting that it's unhygienic and immodest to even so much as brush shoulders by accident.

There was an incident when you hugged him once and he got oddly quiet, then asked "... What is this?" to which you had casually responded, "Affection."

"Disgusting," Rollo had declared, handkerchief to his nose. "... Do it again."

He's one of those old-fashioned people who insists on keeping in contact via letters and cards instead of text messages, email, and/or social media. Rollo claims that stuff "rots your brain cells" and "promotes a vain, degenerate lifestyle".

You thought it silly and inefficient at first, but over time you've come to appreciate the time and thought that comes with each letter. Receiving a note from Rollo is the best part of your day--you love catching up with him and sending him back updates of your very own.

He's a busy guy and follows a strict schedule, so more often than not you're the one that's following him around as he does his various tasks. You lend him a hand too, though Rollo takes care to not burden you too much. These are his responsibilities, so he should take charge of them.

You occasionally climb up the bell tower with him (the view up there is amazing!) and all the gargoyles clamor to greet you. Rollo has to remind them not to overwhelm the guest.

When there is time, you sit down at a cafe and share a meal. Rollo introduces you to his favorite places and makes recommendations (though he usually gets the exact same thing). You try to push him to vary up his diet a bit more, tearing off pieces of your own lunch or offering him bites of whatever it is you're having (even though he insists he'll have none of that).

One day, you caught Rollo parading through the streets on horseback. He introduced his steed to you, instructing you on how to safely pat it and feed it an apple from your hand. The horse seemed to like you, so Rollo hoisted you up and let you ride it around the city for the rest of the day.

He's still not very good at expressing himself. When you sense that he's feeling down in the dumps, it takes quite a bit of coaxing to get him to talk about it with you (if at all). In his mind, he shouldn't be troubling others with his own matters.

Sometimes you're not successful at convincing him to open up, so you settle for giving a gentle reminder that you'll be there for him no matter what. You wouldn't want to push him to talk when he's not ready to!

... On the other hand, when Rollo wants to talk, he'll rant and rave for what seems like forever. You patiently nod your head and listen to everything he spews out, from his express hatred of a certain lizard to how the local goats almost ate his stationary set.

There are rare times, though, when Rollo shares his passions and ambitions with you. The relaxing gardening he has been doing as of late, how beautiful the Bell of Salvation is today, his plans for the future... It's in these moments that you can truly appreciate how solemn and thoughtful he can be.

Rollo often nags you for little things: there's a crease in your shirt, your room is slightly messy, there's a hair out of place, etc. But hey, it's fine. You know he does it lovingly, even if the comments come with a slight frown.

He also tends to lecture you about your own safety, often warning you to keep away from "suspicious individuals" (and, of course, mages). Rollo lets you know that if anyone gives you trouble, you should inform him right away and he'll come storming over to give them hell. Yes, he's the overprotective friend that will throw himself into the crossfires to defend your honor--

This man comes to hangouts with everything you could possibly need in case of an emergency. Got a scrape? Boom, first aid kit. (He even patches you up personally.) Hands dirty? Hand sanitizer and wet wipes for the rescue. You start calling him “dad” as a joke every time he produces exactly what you need.

Rollo has the tendency to (sternly) speak up for you, especially in cases when you're too meek to speak up for yourself. It has big "EXCUSE ME! They asked for no pickles" energy.

Once a year, you join Rollo for a very special trip. You always stop by the same florist's shop, always watch him select the same bouquet of white lilies, always walk quietly alongside him down to the local cemetery. You don't follow him to the grave, but you let him know he can take as long as he needs with the visit, that you'll wait for him at the gates.

You watch the clouds slowly pass by and the sky change colors from cornflower blue to the shades of sunset. Night has started to trickle in when you hear his approaching footsteps. The flower bouquet is gone, deposited as an offering to a boy that has become one with the stars.

Rollo emerges, and you pretend to not notice the wetness to his eyes, the silvery shine upon his cheeks. You know if you point it out, he'll only become defensive and deny it.

"Ready to go?" you ask every year.

"... Yes," he replies, just the same as always. (Rollo will then try to subtly wipe away at his tears.) "Thank you for accompanying me. I do apologize for imposing on your time."

"Don't," you tell him. "I've always got your back, just like you've always got mine. That's what friends are for, right?"

[cavedraconem]

Local Maximums

A while back I read an opinion piece my a woman who was upset about the state of grocery shopping these days. I can't really disagree with the basic premise that food in NZ is too expensive and this causes a lot of trouble for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. And shopping at the supermarket can be pretty stressful for a variety of reasons!

BUT, when the writer started to describe her shopping process... it was a massive odyssey. Of a Saturday she was dragging herself and her kids through multiple different shops - a Pak n Save, a Countdown, a fruit & veggie shop, maybe even a butcher as well - looking for the cheapest everything to stretch her budget, the particular whatever her husband wanted, the brand of snacks that her autistic child would eat. Of course she was sitting in traffic and fighting for parking and struggling with the kids and navigating trolleys at every single one of these locations. It sounded incredibly stressful! And she was incredibly stressed about it by the time she got home (and so were the kids).

"Surely just buying food shouldn't be this difficult?" she cried. And, well... no, I don't think it should be. Obviously I don't know every detail of this woman's life and I probably have extreme DINK privilege, but the ordeal she tried to pose as relatable seemed to me largely self-inflicted. Some of these issues seem trivially solvable: if you know your kid will only eat one type of snack, why wouldn't you just buy ten boxes at once? Can you plan ahead and click & collect any of these shops so you don't have to drag the kids around the supermarket itself? Can you pop out by yourself on a quiet evening?

And then we get into some more speculative cost-benefit questions that will depend on the exact details. Are the vegetables from the fruit & veggie shop cheaper enough to make up for the petrol you spend driving there? (Petrol is also expensive in my beautiful country.) What value do you really place on your time and stress? Is the money saved or the special thing for your husband really, genuinely worth the effort? If you are doing all of this work to save money, could you instead work a bit more to earn more money instead? Add a couple of extra hours a week onto your contract so you can afford to shop at a nicer supermarket or get groceries delivered, and save that much time or more on the weekend, plus less screaming from your children.

(By the way, I got that last idea from an old flatmate of mine. His philosophy was that it was better for him to work an extra hour every night and get takeaways for dinner than to spend that hour cooking something cheaper but not very good. I would have been more convinced by this [and his related opinions about division of labour] if he hadn't been allowing his PhD student girlfriend to cook him literally three meals a day.)

Anyway, this writer spectacularly failed to make her problems relatable to me, but there probably is something to be learned here. It's about how easy it is to reach a local maximum in your life: where you look at what you're doing and think, this is the best way I could possibly be doing it. But you're wrong! Maybe you've optimised your routine along one axis (e.g. cost) but totally neglected other axes (e.g. time/stress). You're making tradeoffs that you don't realise you're making. Things that you think are non-negotiable might actually be pretty easy to compromise on. It can take an outside perspective and a bit of convincing or experimentation to even realise that other possibilities exist, and maybe some of them are even better than what you're doing now.

So, in the end it's a good reminder to me to question my routines and ask whether I've trapped myself in any local maximums. What is stressing me out now that could be easier? Does everyone else have so much trouble with this? What opportunities am I missing? Surely it shouldn't be this difficult?

[chaos-of-the-abyss]

This is what I mean when I say this fandom has an incredible Noldor bias and insists on twisting everything so the Feanorians come out looking as charitable as possible, because the accusations that Thingol/Dior/Elwing knew they'd be condemning the Feanorians to the Void to keep the Silmaril and it was therefore justified that the Feanorians attacked Doriath and Sirion rely on some truly nonsense assumptions. How would those three know about the oath? Even if they did hear that it was a thing, how would they have the information that the Feanorians believe they'll be sent to super hell if they don't get the Silmarils back? AND even if they somehow did have this info, the oath literally says the Feanorians will come for whoever comes in contact with the Silmaril, regardless of what they do with it afterwards. On top of all that, I've seen people claim that the Feanorians "begged" Thingol/Dior/Elwing to give them the Silmaril, which, lmfao. These people read Tumblr metas and decided that counted as reading the Silm.

i don't have much to add here anon, just a resounding "yeah." i mean, maybe thingol has heard about the oath through some hearsay from beren, who received vague tidbits from finrod, but regardless, that eternal damnation business is definitely not something he'd be aware of. doubtful that finrod, or anyone outside of the feanorians themselves and their followers, know about that. and it's even more nonsense to say that dior or elwing would have any way of hearing the details of the oath. and!!! like you said! i don't usually find myself including this in my arguments because, as i've said, thingol and dior and elwing wouldn't know what exactly the oath stipulates anyway -- but it quite literally says "neither law, nor love, nor league of swords, dread nor danger, not doom itself, shall defend him from feanor, and feanor's kin, whoso hideth or hoardeth, or in hand taketh, finding keepeth or afar casteth a silmaril." it doesn't matter what this person does afterward -- whether they keep or cast away a silmaril once they have it, the feanorians are going to go after them.

and as for that third point specifically -- that's the most egregious, imo. it's always hilarious to see people act like the feanorians were any iota of polite or diplomatic, let alone humbled themselves and begged, when dealing with thingol, or dior, or elwing. seriously, the way the word "unreasonable" is hurled at those three specifically is something else considering for whose defense the accusation is made in the first place. on the feanorians' part -- zero attempts at reparations made for the murder, kidnapping, and attempted rape. zero indications that they give a fraction of a fuck about any of the teleri. and from the perspective of the iathrim/inhabitants of sirion, zero indications that they are even decent enough people who would honor their own terms and leave doriath/sirion alone if the silmaril is surrendered. as per the text, straight up negative indications that they ever, lmfao, acted with any type of respect towards thingol or dior or elwing, all people whose family they have sorely wronged. towards thingol we get that they "reminded him of haughty words of their claim," and that their words were "proud and threatening." to dior we don't get specifics, but the text does say explicitly that they "sent to him to claim their own," which certainly doesn't make it sound like they were being tactful about it. to elwing and sirion they send messages "of friendship and yet of stern demand." begging? begging where? diplomacy where? attempts to acknowledge their wrongs and make even the barest offer of amends where? yet thingol and dior and elwing, the ones whose families were their victims -- the ones whose kin were murdered, kidnapped, and/or almost raped by them -- are the unreasonable and unfair ones. they are the ones who should have acted differently, and upon whom every bit of blame and culpability lies. the poor sad feanorians are tormented and tragic as they're forced to *checks notes* make good on their own oath to murder innocents which they chose to swear long before anyone other than morgoth was in possession of the silmarils. they tried sooo hard (except no they did not) but those big mean bigoted bullies thingol, dior, and elwing were just too mean and bigoted to listen to them and they had no other choice. they were forced to commit mass murder. boohoo.

so yeah, anon. "relies on some truly nonsense assumptions" is an accurate way to put it. nah, i'd say it's even a nice way to put it, because fucking stupid is what it is

[full-clown-car]

Something I really liked about Midsommar is how well they established how smart, well-educated people can still be horrible in their own right. Christian, Mark, and Josh are all anthropology graduate students, with Josh even being clearly well-versed and dedicated to the field. He reads books about niche cultures as a hobby, while on travel. He knows what an attestupa is and is eager, if somewhat apprehensive, to see a real one in person. He clearly goes in ready to view it with an open mind to the cultural practice, even if he knows how disturbing it's going to be, just for the sake of his own education. And he still fucking sucks as a person.

I think it's well enough established that Christian and Mark are kind of assholes, and also that they're mediocre at best in the field of anthropology. Mark's reaction to the grief shown by the Harga over his urinating on their sacred tree shows that he has no capability to open his mind to the cultural experience they're having about the defilement of this monument to the deceased. He wouldn't be able to adequately educate an outsider on their relationship to the spiritual world, because he is entirely closed off to that experience. You get the sense that this entire trip to Halsingland is, like, a super weird vacation for him. He cares a great deal about the experience of their drug trip and wants them to all come on together, but not because of any particular connection to the way the Harga use the hallucinogens. He just wants to go to a festival on vacation and do drugs.

(And yes, I know that the Harga are a cult. Midsommar is not setting up the viewer to think of their practices as such a great thing. I'm just talking about what the mindset should have been like from an anthropological perspective. Participants should be willing to participate with the purpose of learning what this means to the culture in which they are immersing. Mark and Christian have failed at that profoundly, and even Josh lets his curiosity get the better of him when he refuses to respect the way the Harga elders view their book of sacred paintings.)

And then there's Christian. I really like the way his character has been built, because we can see that he is consistently indecisive and directionless as a character. This isn't just reflected in his failure to end his relationship with Dani even as he began to experience feelings that it wasn't what he wanted. Christian seeks safety in the past of least resistance in all regards. We see it when Josh gets angry at him for copying his thesis. Josh isn't just angry about that, he's angry because he's observed that Christian has been a hanger-on through the duration of their graduate career. How did Christian even end up in grad school for anthropology anyway? We don't know - possibly he chose anthropology as his major in undergrad because he didn't know what else to commit to, and proceeded on to grad school when an immediate career path didn't present itself to him. Whatever the reason, we can see that in all aspects of his life, Christian doesn't really seem to fully understand why he is where he is, but he lacks the motivation to examine where he truly wants to be and take the necessary steps to get himself there. So now he's found himself in the position of needing a thesis done, not knowing exactly what he wants to say but having the opportunity to write about a once-in-a-lifetime cultural practice and knowing he can probably coast on a paper about that. He offers to collab with Josh, proposing it as a favor to him, which Josh sees right through because he can tell that Christian wants to collab with him because Christian will not be able to fabricate any real ideas about this experience on his own.

But Josh, man. Josh knows what he's doing. We see Josh reading the text on historical Northern European tribal symbols on his way to the Midsommar festival. Josh asks questions of all members of the Harga and deliberately arranges opportunities to learn about their culture. But let's talk about Josh's fallacies. He sees himself as an academic before being, you know, a person. His failure to truly connect with the Harga is reflected in his inability to connect with other humans in his own group. Let's talk about his relationship with Dani. He doesn't respect her because Christian doesn't respect her, and he likely sees her as an inconvenient hanger-on to his anthropological trip. Like all of Christian's friend group, he is well aware that Dani has recently experienced a major life trauma revolving around the act of taking one's own life and that of others. And yet, though we see that, unlike the others, he has a good idea of what's coming at the attestupa, he doesn't bother to warn Dani. It would take him all of ten seconds to gather an ounce of human compassion and be like, hey, you're not in anthropology, and you're really struggling right now, you might wanna hang back for this one. But Josh doesn't bother. If it's not serving his own academic career, he simply doesn't care.

Josh's failure to connect to humanity reflects in his failure as an anthropologist. A skilled immersive anthropologist remains empathetic and in active participation with the cultural views of the culture they have joined - or at least, open to them. From an anthropological standpoint, Josh should have gone along with the Harga elder's refusal to allow documentation of the Oracle's paintings, in the name of participating in the way the Harga view those paintings. But he was so tantalized by the prospect of writing about material that no other anthropologist had yet seen that he chose to violate the terms of existence held sacred by the group in the first place.

I see a lot of people talking about how cults recruit vulnerable people, and how this made it easy for Pelle to target Dani as a potential new member. This is very true. But there were weaknesses to exploit in the others that show exactly how they were drawn to Pelle as well. Mark absolutely does not understand what he's doing in fieldwork. He sees it all as, like, this far-out trippy vacation and he goes into it having absolutely no idea what mentality is required of him as an anthropological professional. Christian himself is vulnerable in his own way, confused about what he wants in life and relying on others to give him the direction he's not courageous enough to take. And Josh is so hungry to be the best academic in the field, so absorbed in the nature of his own work, that he is functionally wearing blinders to the human perspective required to be a decent participant of that work. Josh is a stellar researcher, but he sucks at immersive work. This is a weak point that Pelle absolutely takes advantage of, because of course Josh will jump at the chance to see the Harga in action without questioning what will be required of his own living perspective while engaging in Harga life activities.

These people are all meant to be a group of intelligent, driven young men, and yet they all still kinda suck. Even Josh, arguably the smartest of the group, kinda sucks as a person. I definitely think that Midsommar calls upon the viewer to examine that in professionals amid certain academic fields, and to highlight where many of these people think they are protected by their status as so-called professionals and where it makes them blind to their own vast personal fallacies.

[oodlyenough]

I've been thinking a lot about how fandom attitudes towards female characters shift, and how a lot of the outright hatred that was once prevalent now is replaced by "girlboss" "mom friend" "only braincell" type discourse... and also about the Hawthorne twins and what I see of them in fandom vs canon.

It's interesting to me that I see a lot of what feels like a fandom desire to rehabilitate Dahlia as a character from a feminist perspective, sometimes taken as a given that her canon material was bad, when ...tbqh I don't really feel that she needs it. If I think of characters wronged by their canon text, Dahlia wouldn't make the list. Even a surface-level reading of Dahlia is, imo, a compelling character, with clear motivations, consistent behaviour, agency. She's funny and memorable. You can dig deeper into speculation and headcanon territory with Dahlia (and I totally get the impulse, she's great and there's lots of potential there) but I don't think you need to do that to make her a solid character, I think she already is. I don't think she's any less complex than the other trilogy villains, and if anything she's a lot more complex already than someone like Engarde, and on par with Von Karma.

On the other hand, I think Iris got some paper-thin writing as "the good twin" and, let's be honest, a feeble attempt to set up a heterosexual romance for Phoenix which gets dropped in subsequent games anyway. There are interesting possible complexities to tease out of Iris, just as with Dahlia; Iris facilitates or participates in some pretty messed-up things, but Phoenix and the story are very forgiving, which just flattens her out further into Good Twin. I don't think the canon is very interested in Iris outside of her role as plot twist doppelganger and occasional blush sprite... and mostly it seems the fanon Iris gets in response is to quadruple down on those things. She's pure and kind and sweet, besties with Phoenix, their relationship is cast as something wholesome and innocent, despite the uh objective reality of it.

What about the Iris who helps her sister plan harebrained criminal schemes only to back out at last second, the Iris who fell in love with Feenie despite herself and yet continued to lie and place him in danger for eight months, who watched Dahlia get a death sentence without ever coming clean ... Those things are the aspects that would make her a multidimensional character, imo, but they're ignored and/or glossed over in the story and (what I've seen of) fandom. And I don't say this to mean that she's evil or irredeemable or something, she isn't -- just that the basic fact of her actions is a lot messier than is usually acknowledged, by canon or fanon. For the canon I think the reasons are obvious and not flattering; for fandom, I think the intentions are generally positive, trying to correct for the opposite end of the spectrum (and 20 years ago the attitude was probably quite different), but I still wish female characters were given more space to be complicated in ways that include being kind of fucked up actually.

[chiisana-sukima]

Oh when you used to sing it to sleep

@jinkieswouldyoulookatthis and @blue-chimera - thank you both for your kind and thoughtful replies to my reblog of this post. The og post is getting quite long and also I don't want to put too much writing effort into a reblog that's susceptible to disappearance, so I'm continuing here instead.

I agree with you both that Dean's parentification and Sam's continued acceptance of vs rebellion against it as an adult are an important part of their dynamic. Dean's dying words in the finale attest to this beautifully (as well as many other things throughout the course of the show); I love you so much, my baby brother. To a certain extent Sam is Dean's baby and always will be.

I think though to a large extent, the framing by both Sam and Dean of Dean as Sam's parentified elder sibling is a mutually employed, mostly cooperative sanitization of the central and most damaging aspect of the roles they internalized through their upbringing: Sam is a monster and Dean is the tool to "take care of" it (double reading of "take care of" 100% intentional on my part). Because of this, while readings of spn through the lens of Dean's parentification are definitely valid, I do think they sometimes risk distorting or leaving out important aspects of the characters' personalities, motivations, and relationship.

Jinkies, in my fruitless quest to process without reblogging a take I knew the OP wouldn't appreciate, I had listened to the interview before posting, and I think while Jensen is being flip, he's also getting at what he sees as a truth in the brothers' relationship. I think he's right from a Doylist/co-creator/actor's perspective--Sam is the protagonist who we see through Dean, the deuteragonist's, eyes. Dean, as a piece of the narrative artifact, Supernatural, is there to save Sammy in a way that Sam (up to that point anyway) is not a piece of the narrative artifact whose purpose is to save Dean. From a Watsonian/in-universe perspective though, I think he's mistaken, and that his mistake is the reason his take sounds uncharitable, even aside from the flippant part.

It's just not a very convincing analysis imo to frame a character who spends the first few seasons rejecting immoral power, the next few in an arc that ends with him willingly subjected himself to eternal torture for the good of the world, and the one after that intending to sacrifice himself dramatically to rid the world of one particular species of monster but doesn't because Dean asks him not to, as self-absorbed or not particularly concerned with his effect on others, including on his brother. Likewise, Dean holds up well as a parentified older sibling with no sense of internal self and abysmal self-esteem in some ways, but in others not so much. He does have interests and priorities and a sense of purpose outside Sam. They're all over spn every day, much more so in fact than Sam's are. They're just not enough to override his Sam prioritization.

The main place I think this analysis fails on Dean's side though is that he, as an adult, is just not a very good parent. Obviously as a child he couldn't be expected to be a good parent (or a parent at all) and as an adult he's already damaged and so it's understandable that if big brother-ing Sam is how he chooses to spend the rest of his life, he may still not be equipped to do it. But he fails on such a fundamental, obvious level at the the most basic aspects of parenting--providing safety, unconditional love, and preparing your child to go out into the world as an independent adult--in ways that once he's a grown up are absolutely within his power to at least attempt (for example: if he wants Sam to be safer, it would ultimately have failed because of Fate, but the logical thing to do first would be not hunt. Dean could've followed Sam to Palo Alto. He could've told him to go to Harvard Law if he can't tolerate Stanford after Jess dies. Could've refused to support him throwing his life away of a mission of revenge. Bought him his own car, encouraged him to have his own tastes. Told him convincingly that trusting Ruby was a bad decision but Lucifer is still not his fault).

None of that is meant to be insulting to Dean though, because I don't think that parenting Sam is Dean's real job--even from Dean's perspective--and I don't think his real job is palatable enough that it would be better for either of them if he admitted what it is head on. What his and Sam's real jobs both are imo is being a container for Sam. On Dean's side, this means holding Sam in his arms with love or if that's not enough, holding him in the panic room, which, from this perspective, is also an act of love. Substituting his judgement for Sam's is an act of love. Not encouraging Sam to hold his own interests first or to grow towards independence are acts of love. Given the nature of (what I believe to be) Dean's actual job, they are effective and competent acts of love undertaken under impossible circumstances, even if the results are sometimes pretty horrific. Because they're still better than the alternative.

Likewise on Sam's side, doing his job well means being a model monster--go to an Ivy, exercise, eat healthy, cultivate empathy, don't have desires of your own, hold yourself to an impossible standard, suppress your anger, kill other monsters when they get out of line. And in the moments he can't manage all that--because who can?-- submit to Dean. When he does those things, he's succeeding at his job, and while it would be nice if "let your brother hit you" or "jump in the Cage with Lucifer" wasn't his job, in the world of spn, it is. He is right to be contained by Dean and wrong to have opinions or priorities of his own unless Dean approves them first.

I do think this sometimes ends up looking like Sam has better self-regard, because Dean's job is to "take care of" Sam, and Sam's job is also to "take care of" Sam. But actually they both have absolutely abysmal shit self-esteem. "I should submit to eternal torture because it's my fault someone else is going to do terrible things he could choose not to do if he wanted" is not the thinking of a person with healthy self-regard. The reason neither of them could fill a thimble with their self-esteem or healthy boundaries imo is because neither "monster" nor "blunt instrument" is a person. Neither of these roles is better or more healthy than the other. Fundamentally, if you don't see yourself first and foremost as a human person, then your life is going to suck horribly. And neither of them see themselves that way.

[abyssal-author-and-artist]

Pacifica Northwest is transmasc and you can't change my mind

Okay. That sounds insane. I am aware. It sounds insane to me. But fuck it - I already did the trans Dipper rant essay and so I'll do the same with trans Pacifica.

So Pacifica grows up rich with very oppressive parents. She's clearly a child of abuse who likely has no sense of identity. She's forced to fit a strict mold of The Perfect Daughter. Someone who is perfect and demure and pristine and womanly and who has to wear the right color dress and can't just wear something close enough because otherwise she gets something implied to be very bad.

Put another way: A kid is forced to be exactly perfect and the definition of whatever their gender is. They are not allowed to deviate from that definition in the least otherwise Bad Things happen. They're scared to even be slightly different.

Sound familiar? Because a lot of trans kids go through the same thing. A lot of trans femme people have to play with the Boy Toys because otherwise they're a flower boy and that's bad (which in itself is bad because flower boy is old slang for gay/derogatory as well as gender expression and identity being different but it also hurts trans people). A lot of transmasc people have to play dress up because if they don't there's Something Wrong with them.

I am more than 90% certain that it wasn't intentional, but looking at Pacifica through the lens of someone who tried to do a Boy Thing once and was forced to be hyperfemme for the rest of their life is just so good to me.

Pacifica embodies a lot of toxic girl tropes. You've heard of toxic masculinity, now get ready for toxic femininity - she's petty and superficial and puts too much stock in appearances. Which, granted, is a thing that happens in girl friend groups - I've seen it happen many times - but it reads as different to me. This isn't malice, Pacifica has been shown to be a good person (The Golf War, Northwest Mansion Mystery). She cares for those around her and often only acts the way she does because she has to. Any time she tries to speak up, she gets ruthlessly shut down. She has to be what her parents want, when they want, how they want. If she doesn't, she gets punished.

Yes, Pacifica shows up to every event dressed femme. But who drove her to those events? Who has their claws in every aspect of the town? Who would hear about anything that happens in Gravity Falls? Who buys her clothes? Her parents. And if her parents - who, again, are likely abusive - want her to be and dress like their perfect little girl, their hyperfemme daughter, then she will. She has to be.

From a writing perspective, Pacifica is made to be the opposite of Mabel. One loves fun and color and chaos, is nice no matter what. The other is sitting outside this room and named Pacifica Northwest. But looking at it like that, why wouldn't Pacifica be trans? Especially if Mabel is transfemme - which is a fun reading of her and one that I love to see. It's not canon but think about it. If Mabel is transfemme then Pacifica - her inverse - would be transmasc. The other end of the spectrum.

But now I need real evidence, right? My transmasc Dipper essay was built on much more than "this is behavior seen in a lot of trans people just generally". I pointed out specific scenes in specific episodes - though I forgot Carpet Diem, which is fascinating and which I could so make an essay on by itself. Can I do that for Pacifica?

Well, the short answer is no. The best evidence I have is a general hand-wave at her behavior and environment and "this just reads as transmasc to me". Which, to be completely fair, is how headcanons work. They don't necessarily need any degree of proof. It's nice and it can help people to agree with you, but in the end, it doesn't matter. I can say I headcanon anything, and because it's a headcanon, you can't do shit about it. If I say Pacifica is transmasc beyond a shadow of a doubt, then you can challenge me.

To be fair, I did say that. The title of this is literally "Pacifica is transmasc and you can't change my mind", I will take that I was making claims. But also I immediately followed that up with "it sounds insane to me" so I should hope we all know that I'm going into headcanons-based-on-the-text territory.

And I'm never going to attack someone over a headcanon that makes someone feel seen, and I'd hope that holds true for everyone. I like Pacifica as transmasc and forcing herself into the box of cis female when it's wrong because I did the same. I love transmasc Pacifica. I love the idea of Pacifica and Dipper hanging out and him telling her that he's trans and Pacifica just kinda goes "you can do that? But then why doesn't everyone? Being a girl kinda sucks - there's girl drama and dresses and girl puberty and all that stuff. Everyone would be a guy if they could" and Dipper gives her The Look and says "Pacifica Northwest, that is the most trans thing I have ever heard".

In conclusion, I headcanon trans masculine Pacifica Northwest. Still workshopping a chosen name for him but I do, and I love him. It's all silly fun headcanoning a children's cartoon character as trans and it hurts no one. And it doesn't even affect a lot of the things I'll do. I have one fic that will hint at it and one that will treat it as the main center of the story planned. (It will be a part of my AU but not a major part and I'm also playing with the thought of gender-fluid Pacifica for Divine Falls. It's entirely ignorable and will not affect anything related to the main AU's plot.)

Yes I referred to Pacifica as she/her for most of this essay but it was referring to a pre-realization Pacifica who isn't out yet and thus would convince herself that she was uncomfortable with he/him pronouns and therefore calling them he/him would be wrong until he came out.

[taeloke]

Overanalyzing 4KOTA Chapter 142 instead of just waiting for more info (2/2)

Part 1

This is the part where I talk about King and no one else. Also, this is more ramble than analysis by the end, and I'm making myself not worry about length this time, so...you have been warned :) As for Mertyl, I'll definitely talk about him again over the next chapter, though I might not say as much as I did the first time.

Firstly, look at this face. Remember all those seasons ago, when everything was peaceful for like a single week? How sweet and thoughtful this little guy was, especially against his own personal wishes?

This is King--regardless of how he's like on the outside.

Elaine herself described him as someone who tries to act tough but is really a crybaby. He's someone who can't seem to stop wearing his heart on his sleeve. He always tries to hide his feelings to keep everyone else from worrying, but try as he might, anyone will see through his "tough act" if they're around him for long enough. Awakened or not, he's not King if he's not a highly emotional character like that. He's just a lot better at putting a cover over those feelings now. He's grown up for real.

If you read these last few 4KOTA chapters without remembering the original Seven Deadly Sins story, it only makes sense to look at him more like an ass of a father right now. There's a lot to his perspective that we just haven't gotten to witness yet, and one of the easiest conclusions to make from all of that unknown space is "King loves Nasiens more than the adopted son he raised." For crying out loud, he's giving an immensely scarce cure-all to a young man who introduced himself as a human without an explanation for why Myrtel hasn't received it yet. We don't even know for sure if he's tried using the Drug of Yore to treat Myrtel's condition in the past right now.

There's just one problem about that conclusion: King isn't like that at all. It only looks like he is because this family drama is fatally poisoned with tension and misunderstandings at this point. It's starting to explode.

Remember how way back in the series, King first thought Diane without her memories of him would be better off without him at all?

I think that's a lot similar to what he's thinking with Nasiens right now. If King didn't play a part in their present happiness, then what right does he have to want their love? He'd label that as too greedy or selfish in a way that he can't allow himself to be. He thinks he knows his place, and that place is somewhere forever distanced from his first-born kid.

But he can't just do nothing for Nasiens. Maybe just one totally subtle yet significant expression of love can slide, right? What could he, seemingly as nothing more than a ruler, possibly give to Nasiens to make him happy? Maybe if he gives Nasiens just one perfect gift, Harlequin will feel like he was good for his son at least once. He'll feel like he's finally atoned for losing Nasiens for too long and failing him as a father, and then he can let that "sin" go. Surely, Nasiens wouldn't be happy knowing the truth anyway. He'll be better off never learning about his true relations, since he's built his life without it already. Assuming that "logic" is what King's going through, a lot of his actions make sense to me.

And yet he still almost slipped up and spilled the beans.

Nice save, King, but if you gave Nasiens more time to think he would have realized what you really meant. Tioreh gave him time to realize she believed he's a fairy and his initial freeze then was the exact same.

None of this is easy for King. It isn't easy for any of them. In some ways, those past 2 years must have felt like forever to him. Precious time to have his first-born kid around that he'll never get back. And after 2 years of keeping distance...

"Sorry, I couldn't help but follow you."

"I just wanted to help you out, in any way I could."

King can't keep his distance anymore. His true feelings are starting to break free.

"Hee hee... Don't be shy, now. I just want to be of assistance."

Sure, King. Saying it like that totally doesn't make it sound like there's more to this, even with your confident/amused chuckle.

Of all the gifts he could give Nasiens, I'm sure King believed this was the one thing Nasiens couldn't refuse to accept from him. A powerful healing drug that he advertised as one-of-a-kind and a once-in-a-millennium opportunity. With it presented not only as that, but also as something that might bring Percival back, how could Nasiens reject such a gift? Right?

...And then Nasiens rejects the gift. Immediately, King gets so nervous that he breaks character.

He immediately started sweating too. King prepared everything up to this moment, and he has no excuse as Nasiens questions him and calls him out.

And Nasiens is right to call him out because of how this looks.

Nasiens, just like us, doesn't yet know what the truth here is. He's right to be suspicious and King needs to realize that plans in how the changeling duo is handled need to change right now. Ready or not--telling the truth is the only way to save what's actively starting to cave in.

But the sad thing is...I have a feeling that it's too late already.

Things are only going to get worse from here... I don't know how, and in a way that makes this feel more awful.

Sixtus should tell King that Mertyl saw him offer the Drug of Yore to Nasiens. There's no doubt in my mind that King will realize the problem once he has that information and try to do whatever he can to make things right. PLEASE don't make him too late again. At least give him a chance to talk to Mertyl before things fall apart if that's where all of this is headed.

[evanox]

On a scale from king/queen of the party to shy awkward wallflower, where would you personally place a good match for each of the M4 of Last Legacy when it comes to a partner? Or what kind of traits do you think, a suitable partner might need?

{HELLO sorry I never responded to your requests I kinda completely gave up on LL BUT I was trying to find something and saw this was already fully written and it was a shame to leave it rotting here}

ooo that's a fun q thank you!! I hope I understood it right!!

m.list

Felix

Felix himself has always been a wallflower at parties. Sure, as a toddler, he'd eat up the praises of nobles as his fathers showed off the gifted kid they were so proud of, but he tired out quickly so Florian would rush him to bed before little Fe got too cranky and his magic started going haywire.

He still doesn't enjoy the balls—the nobility's massive egos far too stifling, only rivaled by the clothes his father made him wear.

Even in a modern setting, he wouldn't enjoy parties that are too loud and crowded. Felix might just hide in the kitchen to read a book or find the host's cat, only emerging from the shadows when it's time for truth or dare (he always picks dare, and it's beginning to get scary for others because there's almost nothing he'd say no to).

Felix finds himself more drawn to other wallflowers; even if you don't talk, you can at least look at each other with understanding before moving on.

It's great to have a partner who understands when Felix needs out. Hell, he might actually enjoy the party better with an introverted/awkward partner—it's the perfect excuse to grill any stuck-up nobles if they so much as dare to tease you if you stumble over your words or forget the nobility's strict codes of etiquette; only Felix gets to tease you (as long as you can take it), and only because he finds you cute.

Then you can both grab a snack or a drink and quietly slip out of the crowded ballroom to tour the gardens together. If the music is loud enough that you can still hear it faintly outside, he might just ask you for a dance amongst the roses with the moon as your lone witness.

"How un-noble of you, Felix!" you would tease when Felix leads you off the paved path and towards the arching willow where you'll be perfectly hidden from any other stragglers, then Felix would laugh softly before he presses you against the tree and kisses you until you're ready to be portalled into bed (for sleep or for other purposes, none of my business).

However, I wouldn't say Felix can't appreciate a life-of-the-party partner! After all, it is only a matter of time before an extrovert comes to claim their introvert, thus maintaining balance in this world.

Your joy might even become so contagious that Felix can't help but join, especially if it's too unorthodox for the nobility, leaving a string of offended gasps and/or disapproving scowls behind you—it's all the more reason to love you. You can swing and sway all over the ballroom and cause all sorts of mischief and pranks together, as long as you can respect when he needs to just go home.

Anisa

Attending balls is a minor part of her job, whether she's escorting a VIP or standing guard. From a work perspective, a more extroverted partner might be more convenient for making connections and entertaining guests. Anisa, however, doesn't really have a preference.

An extroverted partner is fun in the way that, when Anisa is standing stiffly in the ballroom by the buffet or the grand staircase, trying to keep up appearances (or even in a modern setting, fussing after everyone in the party), you can help her slowly but surely relax and break out of her shell.

Once Anisa picks up the vibe, she does a 180 and lets out the party animal (though this one's nowhere near as wild as Sage); you can see it in the way her movements are much more relaxed, how she throws her head back and laughs so loudly at the dumbest of jokes, and how she spares a dance for whoever asks—that is until she finds you amongst the crowds and pulls you in to dance the rest of the night away.

Just promise you won't let her overindulge in the wine or the punch (that Sage might've dabbled in) lest she starts acting too inappropriately on the job. You know she can't part too long from the buffet.

An introverted partner is great, too! Anisa won't force you into attending parties with her because it's work after all, but if you still want to come along, she'll take care of you throughout the event, continuously checking over you.

Oh, to have Anisa hold your hand and press a tender kiss to your knuckles as she softly asks, "Are you okay, love?"

I guess you would activate that loophole where it's like, she might not usually go out of her way to have fun at events, but seeing you wilting by the corner will push Anisa to encourage you to have some fun with her, as long as you're up for it; she'd love to pull you in for a dance, your hand held high in hers, and proudly show you off as her lover to everyone.

And if you don't want to dance, well, there's always the buffet! There are so many foods you can try, and Anisa can't wait to hand/spoonfeed them to you.

Sage

He's drawn to the life of the party like a moth to a flame. Sage might be quite the tease, but he still loves being kept on his toes; having someone who can match his pace might even help him burn out all that extra energy.

The loud, crammed taverns are where he thrives, and a partner who enjoys them too adds to the fun. He'll pull you for a dance once the bard picks up a jolly tune, sweeping you off your feet and hopping from table to table as people watch in awe how he swings you with such ease.

Hell, you could sweep him off his feet; he definitely won't complain.

That is not to say Sage would push away the wallflower! He'd try to pull you from where you cling to the wall—wouldn't you rather have fun than look so awfully glum?

Once you explain that you're not necessarily miserable, but the chaos of the dance floor just isn't your scene, he nods in understanding. With a wink and a swish of his tail, he asks you to keep your eyes on him as he blends in with the dancing crowds. You can join in whenever you wish, but until then, you're more than welcome to enjoy the view.

Your discomfort immediately triggers his protective streak, and he'll keep an arm up so people won't keep bumping into you as he escorts you out of the crowded tavern once you call it a night.

If you're attending a party at Fathom or whatever fancy palace for whatever fancy reason, Sage would gladly pull you away from the crowds and the noise to explore all the secret passages and chambers. Hey, you could even find an empty room or a closet for seven minutes of heaven ;)

Rime

Like Anisa, I don't think Rime has a preference. I'd say he might have been partial to a life-of-the-party sort of character—repressed choir boy craving an outlet that he is—but Rime did date Felix, who isn't particularly social. That is not to say that Felix and Rime didn't know how to have fun! I just think Felix's way of 'letting go' is more so through mischief and less through partying or socializing.

So in conclusion, Rime doesn't care how extroverted or introverted you are as long as you know how to have a good time.

If you'd known Rime before as the Starsworn Captain, you might've taken him for a reserved prude, but unlike Anisa, he doesn't really need you coaxing him into being more 'out-there'; he'll compete with you over it. Want to ask him for a dance? He's already eyeing you up and down, looking like he could almost eat you up.

Even on the dancefloor, he'd be looking for ways to fluster you.

Recall how if you choose to remain silent during the first confrontation in the Felix route, Rime would wonder why Felix would choose someone so boring over him? I think, if you're more of a wallflower, Rime might tease you a bit especially if he's interested in you but doesn't know you all that well—not to tear you down but it's his... unconventional way of trying to coax you into coming out of your shell.

[mrpristineblade]

send you a character game!

cheated lol

💕💕💕Wife💕💕💕

Coming right up, Nev, thank you 🫂💖

From this little ask game post

(Warning: genderqueer butch with ve/she/they pronouns headcanon)

Favorite thing about ver

It's how much ve cares for the input of others. With most routes ve's in, ve can appreciate and respect ver allies, even if ve doesn't outright say it. Ve'll listen to everyone and take their perspective into genuine consideration. If ve won't get treated fairly, ve sure as fuck will make sure others are, even the Vessels on some occasions. Ve care so much, he do 🥺

Least favorite thing about her

Unfortunately, that would probably be the other side of the coin. I know it is necessary to have her selfless awareness for others sometimes be blinded by her selfish desires to get herself the fairness she deserves, but it can sometimes lead her to mistrust people and try fucking them over just to escape their chance to fuck her over. She just sometimes cannot rely enough on a world that fucked her over to be kind to it in return... 😔

Favorite line

"Are you FUCKING kidding me?"

From the start of the Cage route

No one could've said it like she did. Iconic.

brOTPs and OTPs

(I mean, I'm platoniromantic and a multishipper, so I think I'm just gonna use this section to highlight some ships that i prefer, but obviously wouldn't mind if romantic implication was denied. Read into them however you like, idc.)

Wildcard. Aka Contrarian with the Cheated. They're already eachothers counterparts and man, do they sure make it fun. They both like fucking people over to benefit their goals, but once those goals conflict, they're at eachothers necks, whether with a passion or very unseriously. Still, I think them learning to get along will truly make their dynamic shine. Contrarian shows Cheated ways to take hardships with more positivity and light, while Cheated will NOT let any hurtful jab at Contrarian slide, no matter how much Contrarian has made it a habit of letting insults go and laughing it off to "keep the peace".

Bored Games. Aka Cold with Cheated. This one's just mainly due to their dynamic in their respective Wraith route. They both wanted to just get the job done and move on. And the moment anything stands in their way, they're going plotting. And I always see Cheated as one of the voices that would be most entertaining for Cold to interact with. Whether Cheated gets Cold to where he wants to go or not, it is always an adventure with the guy. Full of twists and turns that you wouldn't think a person would ever be unlucky enough to experience. Well, not Cheated. But they do eventually want to just move on and that may be where their bond truly gets close. Once again, they're the plotters. They only have to give eachother a nod or a signal word and they're ready to go. With eachother, they do not need to wait or hesitate or take any ulterior motives into account when deciding. They're just gonna pick a strategy and figure it out from there. It's comfortable, it's easy, it can even feel safe.

Bonus ot3: The Gamer Trio. Contrarian/Cold/Cheated. Cheated and his two best bros sitting on the bed, leaning against eachother or getting entangled in eachother as they have fun for an afternoon, gaming on one of many consoles with games they've saved up for collected together. Do you see my vision???

And lastly, my personal imaginary poly marriage, but also my favorite vessel/voice ship of all time, Cheated/Wraith. Yes, Cheated does encourage us to fuck her over in the game. But if they were to bond outside of the cycle of violence? Damn it, they'd get eachother like no other. Both striving for an escape from this trap they've been put in, a trap that has damaged them beyond who they used to be (Princess and Hero). And they will use all of the spite they can muster to get themselves where they need to be, no matter how many times they get beat down. They're both survivors who will take as much control as it takes to win over any unfair advantages the game will throw at them. And they find comfort in eachothers strengths, yet also in their emotion. They're both eachothers shields and shoulders to cry on. They feel so tired by the weight of the world, but they won't have to carry it alone anymore. They'll have eachothers backs like no other. If there's anything they can rely on, it's their bond.

nOTP

Just like with any Voice, I do not feel comfortable shipping ver with the Shifting Mound. I don't know why, especially when I've been coming to understand and appreciate her more, but it's just not for me. Sorry 😅

Random headcanon

She once introduced a swear board to the post-Construct Voices household, because they kept making fun of her for having sailor's tongue. So she found a way to teach them a lesson! Any time someone catches someone else swearing, they put a point on the board under their name. And it turns out it ain't so fun to constantly keep track of whoever swears or get laughed at when you're the foul mouth of the week and Cheated takes full satisfaction in seeing your shame.

In general, Cheated always finds the most creative ways to get back at people for shit she didn't deserve from them and they always come apologizing to her in the end. You mess with Cheated, she messes with you, simple as that.

Unpopular opinion

Just the usual: people in the fandom grab only three traits of them and make that their whole personality:

Rage gamer

Loudmouth that swears a lot

Every unlucky thing possible always happens to them

Yes, these three are recognizable traits of them, but if this is all you're going with in terms of characterization, of course he's gonna come across as boring or not notable, like I've seen some claim. Play around with these traits, look back on certain routes of theirs for more details of them to note, just PLEASE do more research on Cheated. They have lots of potential to write or make jokes with as a character, but do the work first to get to know them before diving into the 100th "Lol, something went wrong for them and they grumble about it" moment as your next punchline.

Song I associate with ver

Idc how lazy of a pick this is, I'm not good with picking out songs for characters, so just take it please 😭

Favorite picture of her

This one just... enamours me. It's such a random one too, but idk... I think Cheated figuring out just how cool she looks with an eyepatch and basking in it. Also taking what must be a very traumatic and aggravating loss of her eye and turning it into a positive. My darling wife completely in her element 🥹💕💕

(Courtesy of @remaking-machine. Your design for Cheated remains iconic 🛐)

[onskepa]

Varang pre-movie headcanon

Hello everyone! Every day we get closer to the release of Avatar 3! Ngl I just cannot wait, I wanna see this fire diva in HD full screen! So I had some bit of fun and wrote some headcanon. These are more like fun, silly predictions of how she will be like. I will make a comparison once the movie is out and see how close or how far I was. So enjoy this one!

P.S: I had this done with my good friend @coraline-addams , so some of these are her ideas as well!

------------------

Highly manipulative. Like right off the bat, I just KNOW she is gonna be a league of her own in that skill. She gonna be saying shit to not just quaritch but to others and possibly us as the audience. Might make us change our minds about her and warp the perspective into her ideal way. 

Tactical and highly clever. A quick thinker and will have a plan B or an alternative. 

Believes she is superior.  However, she will fight for those in her clan, so long as they follow her orders. 

Holds deep resentment towards Eywa. Will not hear anyone who tries to say otherwise. Hates her so much, she might get really angry and/or lose patience. 

Speaking of, might have mommy issues. 

Total mommy dom. 

Will not bow down to anyone. If anything, they bow down to her. Guess it's another part of her superiority. 

Has a soft but sexy and deadly voice. She is almost like a deceiver. Her voice and looks are contradictory. Harsh and sharp looks yet speaks with delicacy and false sweetness. 

Pegs. 

High stamina. Very high. 

Her hips AINT gonna lie. 

Enjoys a good adrenaline. Riding her creature, ashley. Yes, I am gonna use that name since the creators did. 

Realistically, she might NOT have any form of romantic interests. I get people low key ship her with quaritch but I feel like she would use him like a dog to obey her. Quairtch might develop something but fr varang gon be like “SIKE!” 

BUT if we feed into our delulu then for sure she loves to keep someone all to herself. Won't share. Not even in poly. She has lost so much, and if someone catches her eye, she aint letting go. 

Will be possessive. Protective as fuck. Though, if her partner kills someone, or does a form of torture method, varang will have heart eyes. 

The big spoon. She will fight on that. Na’vi or human, dont matter. Big spoon all the way. 

A nails girly. Have ya seen her concept art? Manicure is at her core. Make sure they are long, sharp, red and sexy. Idc if they are fake, they are high MAINTENANCE! 

Blood is her lube. 

Blood is her coffee, facial cream, juice, her water. 

Loves a good steak. Herbs and spices are rare but will appreciate meat with a good flavor. 

Not picky. She nor the rest of the clan got the that option. Can and will eat anything. 

Ashes is her makeup pallet. Knows how to make smokey eyes live up to its name. 

Lives and breathes in ashes. 

Fire above all, is her light, air, her god. Admires the light, its unpredictable pattern and how destructive it can be. Wouldn't be surprised if she can walk on hot burning coal or a burning ground and would even dance on it like nothing. 

Will accept anyone who is deemed an outsider from the other clans. Believes her clan is the best place for others to seek a home. 

She is gonna hate kiri. 

Despite all that she might be, I feel like she will care for her people. Makes sure they are safe in her own ways. Won't let anyone else die, if they do, she will keep their kuru’s with her. She may be an outcast but I don't think she wants to be alone. 

Aaaaaaaaand that is it! Now for anyone reading this after trailers come out for in the year of 2026 or after, know this is written BEFORE December 2025.

I just wanted write this and think what varang could be like given what little information we have of her. I know its going to change once the movie is out. And, once it does, im going back to this and see what is right, wrong, far or close in any of it.

So lemme know what you guys think! I would love to see what other writers think of varang. Until next time! See ya!

[papervenom]

✩ chapter fourteen: sirius black ✩

summary: you’re a third-year transfer from the states with magic that turns heads — and veela blood that makes it impossible not to be noticed. you didn’t ask to get caught up in their world, but now you’re in it, and nothing is going to play out the way it was supposed to. a slow-burn, character-driven take on prisoner of azkaban, told through your perspective.

word count: 5.2k

INCEPTION MASTERLIST⋆˙⟡

June 6th, 1994

The long-awaited day came where we finally finished all of our exams. 

Hermione and I were taking turns massaging each other's temples. 

My head was on her lap as she rubbed my scalp. 

Harry was sitting in the armchair next to us, polishing his Firebolt to destress when Ron came in looking dejected.

"Buckbeak lost," said Ron weakly. "Hagrid just sent this." 

I sat up and reached to grab the note from Ron. 

Harry moved to sit by my side to read over my shoulder.

Lost appeal. They're going to execute at sunset. Nothing you can do. Don't come down. 

I don't want you to see it.

- Hagrid

"Shit... I should've said something to Malfoy when I had the chance” I muttered solemnly. 

I haven't talked to Draco since that weird night at the Courtyard but I've seen him around in the hallways and at the Great Hall during breakfast, lunch, and dinnertimes. 

There were plenty of opportunities to approach him and convince him to tell his father to drop the case. 

I felt guilty at the thought that the outcome might've been different if I did.

"And what good would that would've done? He wouldn't have listened to you. Besides, you said more than enough that day that he bad-mouthed Hagrid. You were bloody brilliant." Ron said to me reassuringly, looking at me as if I were the most impressive thing he's ever seen. 

This only made me feel even more guilty because I never told any of my friends about my bonding moment with Draco Malfoy.

"We've got to visit him," said Harry, "He can't just sit there on his own, waiting for the executioner!" 

We agreed that we'd visit Hagrid at sundown, which was in an hour. 

Once the sun was low in the skies, we put Harry's Invisibility Cloak over us and walked to his cabin.

"It's us," Harry hissed when Hagrid opened his door "We're wearing the cloak. Let us in."

"Yeh shouldn've come!" Hagrid complained, but he stood back anyways, and we stepped inside. 

Hagrid shut the door hastily and Harry pulled off the cloak. 

I immediately walked over towards Hagrid's tiny kitchen, taking the boiling kettle and started making tea.

"Where's Buckbeak, Hagrid?" asked Hermione hesitantly.

"I— I took him outside, he's tethered in me pumpkin patch. Thought he oughta see the trees an' smell fresh air before..."

I rushed towards Hagrid with a huge mug that was filled to the brim with tea before he started sobbing again. 

He gave me a tearful smile and started taking big gulps.

"Isn't there anything anyone can do, Hagrid?" Harry asked fiercely, sitting down next to him. "Dumbledore—"

"He's tried," interrupted Hagrid. "He's got no power ter overrule the Committee. He told 'em Buckbeak's all right, but they're scared... Yeh know what Lucius Malfoy's like... threatened 'em, I expect... an' the executioner, Macnair, he's an old pal o' Malfoy's... but it'll be quick an' clean... an' I'll be beside him..."

Once I heard the mention of Malfoy's dad, I turned towards the cupboards again to hide the guilt on my face as I rummaged around until I found a carton of milk. 

I've been in Europe long enough to know that the standard tea is served with milk, so I poured some in everyone's cups and sat down.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down while it happens. Wrote me this mornin'. Said he wants ter be with me. Great man, Dumbledore..."

"We'll stay with you too, Hagrid," I assured him— Harry, Ron, and Hermione nodded in agreement, but Hagrid shook his big shaggy head.

"Yeh're ter go back ter the castle. I told yeh, I don' wan' yeh watchin'. An' yeh shouldn' be down here anyway... If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh out without permission, Harry, yeh'll be in big trouble."

Harry started to argue just as I was opening the sugar jar and I let out a shriek. 

Staring up at me with its beady little eyes was a skinny, ugly rat that I recognized to be Scabbers.

"Ron, you're not going to believe this..." I murmured, grimacing at the sickly rodent.

"What are you talking about?" He gaped at me. 

I turned the jar upside down, and with a frantic squeak, and much scrambling to get back into the sugar jar, Scabbers slid out onto the table. 

"Scabbers! Scabbers, what are you doing here?" Ron grabbed the rat and held him to the light. 

Scabbers looked horrible. 

He was skeletal and had bald patches. 

He writhed in Ron's hands trying to free himself.

Hagrid's face suddenly became very pale as he stood up, staring out of the window.

"They're comin'..."

We all whipped around and saw a group of men walking down the steps of the castle. 

I recognized Dumbledore walking next to Minister Fudge, and an executioner holding a gleaming axe. 

"Yeh gotta go, they mustn' find yeh here... Go now..." Hagrid rushed us towards the back door. 

I felt saddened for him when I noticed that he was shaking. 

We saw Buckbeak out in the pumpkin patch. 

He watched us sorrowfully as though he knew what was going to happen.

"It's okay, Beaky," said Hagrid softly. "It's okay...Go on, you lot, get goin'"

"Hagrid, we can't—" Harry protested.

"We'll tell them what really happened—" I suggested.

"They can't kill him—" Hermione simpered.

But Hagrid insisted, so we flung the Invisibility Cloak over our heads and ducked out the backdoor just in time as there was a knock on the front.

"Please, let's hurry, I can't stand it... I can't bear it..." Hermione whispered to us as we walked around the pumpkin patch. 

We mounted up the sloping lawn toward the castle, and once we were high enough, we couldn't help but look down at Hagrid's cabin. 

We watched as Hagrid, Dumbledore, Fudge, and the executioner walked through the pumpkin patch. 

There was a jumble of indistinct male voices, a silence, and then— without warning, the unmistakable swish and thud of an axe.

We all stared down at the cabin in horror. 

Ron and Harry wrapped their arms around us as we silently consoled each other. 

"How— could— they?" Hermione cried. "How could they?"

It was completely dark outside now and I had this instinct that we had to get back inside the castle so I placed my arms around my friend's shoulders and led us towards the school.

Ron faltered behind, wrestling with the rat in his grasp.

"Scabbers, keep still. What's the matter with you, you stupid rat? OUCH! He bit me!" Scabbers was thrashing around in Ron's hand and the reason was made clear. 

Hermione's cat, Crookshanks, approached us with hungry eyes.

"Scabbers— NO!" the rat slipped between Ron's clutching fingers, hit the ground, and scampered away. 

Crookshanks sprang after him, and before we could stop him, Ron threw the Invisibility Cloak off himself and pelted away into the darkness.

"Ron!" I groaned. 

We all looked at each other then sprinted after him, taking the cloak off from us completely.

"Get away from him— Scabbers, come here— Gotcha! Get off, you stinking cat—"

"Ron— come back under the cloak—" Hermione panted. "Dumbledore— the Minister— they'll see us—"

But before we could cover ourselves again, before we could even catch our breath, we heard the soft pounding of paws against grass. I looked up to find an enormous, pale-eyed, jet-black dog bounding towards us. 

To my horror, the dog leaped and fastened its teeth around Ron's leg. 

We all lunged forward, trying to get ahold of either Ron or the animal but it was dragging Ron away easily as though he were a rag doll.

"It's the Grim! H-harry! (Y/N)! Help me! Hermione!" Ron cried helplessly. His fingers were digging into the grass to stop himself from being dragged by the dog who was now taking Ron towards the Whomping Willow. 

The tree started swishing its branches violently as we approached, taking swings at us. 

Harry got hit so hard that he was knocked off his feet. 

Hermione shrieked in pain as one of the tree's branches swept her up.

At the base of the trunk, there was a large gap that the dog was trying to fit Ron through. 

I flung myself to the ground, reaching for Ron's hand but he was already being pulled through the tree's opening.

"Ron!" I shouted as he vanished out of sight. 

I couldn't even start freaking out about Ron's disappearance when I noticed that the Whomping Willow had seized both Harry and Hermione and was whipping them around violently. 

Its branches were trying to get ahold of me, too, but I kept ducking every time it got close.

"Shit, shit, what do I do..." I whispered frantically, jittering uncertainly on the spot. 

Then out of nowhere, Crookshanks appeared and started pawing at a knot on the tree's trunk as he stared at me with his yellow eyes.

I reached out for the knot and pressed on it, and the tree’s branches went limp.

My friends were dropped down with a thump and as soon as I made sure they were okay, I crawled inside the tree's opening to look for Ron. 

Harry and Hermione followed closely behind.

"Where does this tunnel come out?" Hermione asked breathlessly from behind.

"I don't know... Fred and George said no one's ever gotten into it, but it seems like it's heading for Hogsmeade..." Harry informed her.

We moved as fast as we could through the small tunnel. 

The passage went on until there was a light that appeared ahead of us. 

We raised our wands cautiously as we entered a dusty room— the wallpaper was peeling from its walls and there were stains all over the place. 

"(Y/N)," Hermione whispered, "I think we're in the Shrieking Shack."

There was a creaking upstairs and something was moving. Harry took my hand, and I took Hermione's, and we all crept up the stairs as quietly as we could.

"Lumos," I whispered as we reached the dark landing of the second floor. There was a slightly opened door, and Harry and I exchanged a look and nodded. 

We all held our wand tightly, bracing ourselves for whatever was inside, then Harry kicked the door wide open.

Sitting on a dirty bed in the corner was Ron, groaning softly as if he were in pain. 

 "Ron—" I breathed out, relieved as we dashed towards him. 

I cupped Ron's face in my hands as I almost started crying at how alleviated I was to see that he was okay. "How are you? Where's the dog?" 

"Not a dog," Ron moaned. 

His teeth were gritted with pain as he clutched his leg "Harry, it's a trap. He's the dog... he's an Animagus!" 

Ron was staring over Harry's shoulder. 

We turned around and saw a man with a mass of dirty, matted hair. 

It was Sirius Black.

"I knew you'd come and help your friend," Black said hoarsely, eyes on Harry "your father would have done the same for me."

I felt Harry starting forward but he was quickly pulled back by Hermione. 

I stepped in front of Harry and glared icily at Black in the most threatening way I could. 

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!" Ron declared fiercely, though the effort of standing upright was depleting him of more color, and he swayed slightly as he spoke. 

I was about to tell him to sit down again as my eyebrows knitted worriedly.

"Lie down," Black said quietly to Ron. "You will damage that leg even more." 

I whipped my head around and looked at Black in bewilderment. 

What a strange and considerate suggestion to come from a killer. 

"Did you hear me?" Ron repeated weakly. "You'll have to kill all four of us!"

"No. Only one will die tonight," said Black.

"Why's that?" Harry spat, trying to wrench himself free from mine and Hermione's hold. 

"Didn't care last time, did you? Didn't mind slaughtering all those Muggles to get at Pettigrew... What's the matter, gone soft in Azkaban?"

"Harry!" Hermione whimpered. "Be quiet!"

"HE KILLED MY MUM AND DAD!" Harry roared, and shrugged out of mine and Hermione's restraint, and lunged forward.

Perhaps it was shock, but Black didn't defend himself. 

He just let Harry wrap his hands around his neck to strangle him, as Harry pinned him down on the floor. 

Ron, Hermione, and I were protesting but Harry kept punching every part of Black accessible to him. 

"Are you going to kill me, Harry?" Black laughed out through the punches, sounding psychotic.

Ron suddenly collapsed onto the bed, his white face now tinged with green, both hands clutching his leg.

"Is it broken?" my trembling voice asked as I rushed to his side. This caught Harry’s attention as he scrambled to get up, standing beside Hermione as they both pointed their wands out to Black, giving me a few moments to tend to Ron's needs. 

Ron nodded and groaned. 

I tapped his leg with my wand, and muttered, "Ferula." Bandages spun up Ron's leg, strapping it tightly to a splint. 

"You killed my parents," said Harry, his voice shaking slightly, as he pointed his wand straight at Black's heart. "You sold them to Voldemort. You never heard her, did you? My mum... trying to stop Voldemort killing me... and you did that... you did it..." Harry raised his wand. 

My heart sank but I understood his anger. 

He wanted to avenge his mother and father. 

If he wanted to kill Black, now was his chance.

But then we heard muffled footsteps echoing up through the floor— someone was downstairs.

"WE'RE HERE!" Hermione screamed "WE'RE UP HERE— SIRIUS BLACK— QUICK !"

The door burst open as Professor Lupin came hurtling into the room, his wand raised and ready. 

"Expelliarmus!" Lupin shouted. Harry's wand flew out of his hand; so did the rest of ours.

"Where is he, Sirius?" Lupin spoke, in a very tense voice. 

Black raised his hand and pointed straight at Ron. 

Harry and I locked eyes and we shared the same confused expression. 

I turned to look at Ron next to me and he looked bewildered.

"Professor," Harry spoke, "what's going on—?" 

But he never finished the question, because what he saw made his voice die in his throat. 

Lupin lowered his wand, seized Black's hand to pull him to his feet, and embraced him like a brother.

"What the fuck!?" I exclaimed. 

Lupin let go of Black and turned to me. 

I stood up from Ron's side on the bed and was staring angrily at Lupin.

"I didn't tell anyone!" Hermione shrieked out of nowhere, looking just as angry as I was. "I've been covering up for you—" 

"Hermione, (Y/N), listen to me, please. I can explain—" Lupin urged.

"I TRUSTED YOU," Harry shouted at Lupin,  he was now shaking where he was standing, "AND ALL THIS TIME YOU'VE BEEN HIS FRIEND!" 

"He's a werewolf! That's why he's been missing classes!" Hermione exclaimed. 

There was a ringing silence. 

Everyone's eyes were now on Lupin, who looked remarkably calm, though rather pale.

"How long have you known?" Lupin murmured. 

"Since Professor Snape assigned the essay..." Hermione whispered.

"Well— Hermione, you really are bright," said Lupin coolly "Did you check the lunar chart and realize that I was absent during full moons? Or did you realize that the Boggart changed into the moon when it saw me?"

"Both," Hermione said quietly.

"If you'll give me a chance, I'll explain. Look—" Lupin separated our wands and threw them back to us; I caught mine, stunned.

"There," said Lupin, sticking his own wand back into his belt "You're armed, we're not. Now, will you listen? I was in my office examining the Mauraders Map—"

 "You know how to work it?" Harry asked suspiciously. 

I knew that Lupin had Harry's map because Harry told us that when he was in detention with Snape, Snape almost threw the map in the fireplace thinking it was a bit of old parchment until Lupin showed up in time and confiscated it.

"Of course I know how to work it, I helped write it. I'm Moony— that was my friends' nickname for me at school." My jaw dropped when I heard this. 

He was one of the four Mauraders— Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.

"The important thing is, I was watching this evening because I had an idea that you four might try and sneak out of the castle to visit Hagrid before his Hippogriff was executed. And I was right, wasn't I? You might have been wearing your father's old cloak, Harry—"

"How d'you know about the cloak?"

"The number of times I saw James disappearing under it... You must know that even if you're wearing an Invisibility Cloak, you still show up on the map. I saw Sirius collide with you, then I watched as he pulled two of you into the Whomping Willow—"

"One of us!" Ron interrupted angrily.

"No, Ron," said Lupin. "Two of you... Do you think I could have a look at the rat?" he asked evenly.

 "What?" replied Ron. "What's my rat got to do with anything?"

"That's not a rat," croaked Sirius Black suddenly.

"What d'you mean— of course, he's a rat—"

"No, he's not," said Lupin quietly. "He's a wizard. An Animagus, by the name of Peter Pettigrew."

It took a few moments for the absurdity of this statement to sink in. 

Then Ron voiced what we were all thinking.

"You're both mental." Ron scoffed.

"Peter Pettigrew's dead," interjected Harry. "He killed him twelve years ago!" He pointed at Black.

"I meant to," Black growled, "but little Peter got the better of me... not this time, though!" Black lunged at Scabbers; Ron yelled with pain as Black fell on his broken leg.

"Get off him!" I growled angrily, pushing Black off Ron and pointed my wand down at him.

"Sirius, NO!" Lupin yelled, dragging Black away, "You can't do it just like that... they need to understand. We've got to explain—"

"We can explain afterward!" snarled Black, trying to hurl Lupin off— one of his hands still clawing the air as it tried to reach Scabbers.

"They've got a right to know everything!" Lupin panted, still trying to restrain Black. "Ron's kept him as a pet! You owe Harry the truth, Sirius!"

"All right, then," Black said, without taking his eyes off the rat. "Tell them whatever you like. But make it quick, Remus. I want to commit the murder I was imprisoned for..."

"You're nutters, both of you," said Ron shakily, "I've had enough of this. I'm off."

Ron tried to heave himself up on his good leg, but I pushed him back down on the bed gently, knowing he couldn't walk out of here by himself if he tried.

Professor Lupin then told us about how he got bitten by a werewolf when he was a boy. He never thought that he'd be able to study at Hogwarts, but Dumbledore was sympathetic and allowed him to enroll. Lupin then told us that although Animagi were supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Magic, there were three unregistered Animagi in Hogwarts.

"I was happier than I had ever been in my life. For the first time ever, I had friends, three great friends. Sirius Black... Peter Pettigrew... and, of course, your father, Harry— James Potter. Instead of deserting me, they became Animagi,"

"My dad too?" asked Harry, astounded.

"Yes, indeed," confirmed Lupin. "It took them three years to work out how to do it. Your father and Sirius were the cleverest students in the school."

"But how did that help you?" I asked, puzzled.

"They couldn't keep me company as humans, so they kept me company as animals. A werewolf is only a danger to people. Under their influence, I became less dangerous. My body was still wolfish, but my mind seemed to become less while I was with them."

"And I suppose this is a reunion," sneered a cold voice. 

Snape walked into the room and pointed his wand directly at Lupin.

"I've told the Headmaster again and again that you're helping your old friend Black into the castle, Lupin, and here's the proof—"

"Severus, you're making a mistake," said Lupin urgently. "Sirius is not here to kill Harry—" But then Snape cast a spell that made Lupin drop to the floor. 

Black started toward Snape, but Snape pointed his wand straight between Black's eyes.

"Professor Snape— it wouldn't hurt to hear what they've got to say, w-would it?" Hermione spoke.

"Miss Granger, you are already facing suspension from this school," Snape spat. "You, Potter, (Y/L/N), and Weasley are out-of-bounds, in the company of a murderer and a werewolf. For once in your life, hold your tongue."

"They were just explaining to us how���" I began to argue.

"KEEP QUIET, YOU STUPID GIRL!" Snape shouted, suddenly looking deranged. 

I squinted my eyes at Snape scornfully as he turned to face Black again.

"All I have to do is call the Dementors once we get out here. They'll be very pleased to see you, Black... pleased enough to give you a little kiss, I daresay..."

"Professor Lupin could have killed me about a hundred times this year," Harry interrupted. "I've been alone with him loads of times, having defense lessons against the Dementors. If he was helping Black, why didn't he just finish me off then?"

"Don't ask me to fathom the way a werewolf's mind works," hissed Snape. 

"YOU'RE PATHETIC!" Harry yelled. "JUST BECAUSE THEY MADE A FOOL OF YOU AT SCHOOL YOU WON'T EVEN LISTEN —"

"SILENCE! I WILL NOT BE SPOKEN TO LIKE THAT!" Snape shrieked, looking insane. "Like father, like son, Potter! I have just saved your neck; you should be thanking me on a bended knee! You'd have died like your father, too arrogant to believe you might be mistaken in Black—"

"EXPELLIARMUS!" Harry yelled. 

Snape was lifted off his feet and slammed into the opposite.

Harry knocked him out.

"You attacked a teacher..." Hermione whimpered, staring at the lifeless Snape with frightened eyes. "Oh, we're going to be in so much trouble..."

"Tell me about Peter Pettigrew," Harry demanded Lupin, who was getting up from the floor. 

"You, boy— give me Peter, please. Now," demanded Lupin to Ron. 

"There are many of rats. How are you so sure he's Scabbers?" asked Ron weakly.

"He's got a toe missing," said Black.

"So what?" Ron defended.

"All they could find of Pettigrew was—" Lupin started to explain.

"A finger," Harry muttered out.

"Look, Scabbers probably fought with another rat or something! He's been in my family for ages, right—"

"Twelve years, in fact," said Lupin. "Didn't you ever wonder why he was living so long?"

"We— we've been taking good care of him!" defended Ron.

"Enough of this," said Lupin, "Ron, give me that rat."

Ron still looked hesitant so Lupin snatched Scabbers out of his hands.

A flash of blue-white light erupted; and for a moment, Scabbers was frozen in midair, then the rat fell and hit the floor. 

There was another blinding flash of light and then a moment later, a man was standing where Scabbers had been.

He was a very short man, hardly taller than me or Hermione. 

His skin looked filthy, almost like Scabbers' fur. 

He looked around at us all, his breathing fast and shallow.

"S—Sirius... R—Remus..." Even Pettigrew's voice was squeaky. His eyes darted toward the door. "My friends... my old friends..."

Black started to laugh, a horrible, mirthless laugh that filled the whole room.

"Friends!" spat Sirius. "You were hardly our friend. Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Black hissed, so venomously that Pettigrew took a step backward. "I thought it was the perfect plan... It must have been the finest moment of your miserable life, telling Voldemort you could hand him the Potters."

"Er— Mr. Black— Sirius?" I asked tentatively, knowing I was interrupting. 

Black jumped at being addressed like this and stared at me as though he had never seen anything quite like me.

"If you don't mind me asking, how— how did you get out of Azkaban, if you didn't use Dark Magic?"

"I don't know how I did it," he said slowly. "I think the only reason I never lost my mind is because I knew I was innocent. One night when Dementors opened my door, I slipped past them as a dog... It's so much harder for them to sense animal emotions... I've been living in the forest ever since, except when I came to watch the Quidditch match, of course. You fly as well as your father did, Harry..." He looked at Harry, who did not look away.

"Believe me," croaked Black. "Believe me, Harry. I never betrayed James and Lily. I would have died before I betrayed them." 

We all watched Harry intently. 

He seemed like he was too emotional to speak, so he simply nodded. 

"No!" Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though Harry's nod had been his death sentence. 

Pettigrew then scrambled to Ron.

"Ron... haven't I been a good friend... a good pet? You won't let them kill me, Ron, you're on my side, aren't you? I was your rat... I was a good pet..."

"If you made a better rat than a human, it's not much to boast about, Peter," said Black harshly.

Ron wrenched his broken leg out of Pettigrew's reach. Pettigrew turned on his knees, staggered forward, and seized the hem of my robes.

"Sweet girl... pretty girl... surely you won't let them kill me—"

"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Harry, Ron, Lupin, and Sirius bellowed. 

I pulled my robes out of Pettigrew's clutching hands and backed away, staring at him in revulsion. 

Pettigrew trembled uncontrollably, and turned his head slowly toward Harry. "Harry... you look just like your father... just like him..."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO HARRY?" roared Black. "HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT JAMES IN FRONT OF HIM?"

"You sold Lily and James to Voldemort," stated Lupin, "Do you deny it?"

Pettigrew burst into tears. 

It was awful to watch. 

Like an oversized, ugly baby, cowering on the floor.

"You don't understand!" whined Pettigrew. "He would have killed me, Lupin!"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED!" growled Black. "DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY YOUR FRIENDS, AS WE WOULD HAVE DONE FOR YOU!"

Black and Lupin stood shoulder to shoulder, wands raised.

"You should have realized," said Lupin quietly, "if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. Goodbye, Peter."

I stooped down on the bed again and covered my face by burying it onto Ron's shoulder.

"NO!" Harry yelled. 

He placed himself in front of Pettigrew, facing the wands. 

"You can't kill him," he said breathlessly. 

Black and Lupin both looked startled.

"Harry, this piece of shit is the reason you have no parents," Black snarled. "This cringing bit of filth would have seen you die too. You heard him. His own disgusting skin meant more to him than your whole family."

"We'll take him up to the castle. We'll hand him over to the Dementors... He can go to Azkaban... but don't kill him."

Pettigrew then crawled over to Harry, but Harry pushed him away roughly. 

"Get off me," Harry spat, throwing Pettigrew's hands off him in disgust. "I'm not doing this for you. I'm doing it because I don't reckon my dad would've wanted them to become killers."

"You're the only person who has the right to decide, Harry," said Black. "But think... think of what he did..."

"He can go to Azkaban," Harry repeated. "If anyone deserves that place, he does..."

"But if you transform, Peter," growled Black, his wand pointing at Pettigrew, "we will kill you. You agree, Harry?" 

Harry nodded so that Pettigrew could see him.

I helped Ron to his feet; he put his weight gingerly on the broken leg and didn't wince.

My bandages seemed to help him.

"What about Professor Snape?" asked Hermione in a small voice, looking down at his limp body.

"There's nothing seriously wrong with him," said Lupin, bending over Snape and checking his pulse. 

He muttered, "Mobilicorpus", and as though invisible strings were tied to Snape’s limbs, he was pulled into a standing position, like a puppet. 

He hung a few inches above the ground, his feet dangling.

We all then started to make our way out of the tunnel.

"You know what this means?" Black said abruptly to Harry while we were walking. "Turning Pettigrew in?"

"You're free," said Harry.

"Yes..." said Black. "But I'm also— I don't know if anyone ever told you— I'm your Godfather."

"Yeah, I knew that," said Harry.

"Well... your parents appointed me your guardian," said Black stiffly. "If anything happened to them..."

I glanced at Harry with a grin, trying to figure out if he understood what Sirius was implying. 

"I'll understand, of course, if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle, but... well... think about it. Once my name's cleared... if you wanted a... a different home..."

"What— live with you? Leave the Dursleys?"

"Of course, if you want to. I understand if you wouldn't, I just thought I'd—"

"Are you insane? Of course, I want to leave the Dursleys! Have you got a house? When can I move in?"

"You want to?" Black asked astonishingly."You mean it?" 

"Yeah, I mean it!" replied Harry, grinning. 

Hermione and I were on the verge of tears of how happy we were to hear this. 

Harry deserved it. 

We finally got out of the tunnels and the grounds were very dark now. 

The only light came from the distant windows of the castle. 

"One wrong move, Peter," Lupin threatened. 

His wand was still pointed sideways at Pettigrew's chest. 

But then a cloud shifted, and we were bathed in moonlight. 

Black froze. 

He flung out one arm to make me, Harry, Ron and Hermione stop.

Lupin had gone rigid. Then his limbs began to shake.

"Run," Black whispered. "Run. Now."

There was a terrible snarling noise. 

Lupin's shoulders were hunching. 

Hair was sprouting visibly on his face and hands, which were curling into clawed paws.

As the werewolf appeared, snapping its long jaws, Sirius disappeared from our side and transformed to the enormous dog we saw earlier. 

He pulled the werewolf backward, away from Ron and Pettigrew.

"Ron!" I cried out, not liking how close he was to the animals. 

Ron reached out and took my hand and I pulled him towards me. 

But it all happened too quickly— Pettigrew took Lupin's wand and cast a spell that caused Ron to fall unconscious to the floor.

"EXPELLIARMUS!" I yelled, pointing my wand at Pettigrew; Lupin's wand flew high into the air and out of sight. 

"Stay where you are!" I shouted angrily. 

But it was too late. 

Pettigrew had turned back to a rat.

"We'd better get them up to the castle and tell someone," said Harry, pushing his hair out of his eyes as he tried to drag Snape by his feet. "Come—"

I was trying to hoist Ron up with my arms with Hermione's help but then we heard a distant yelping, like a dog in pain.

"Sirius," Harry muttered, staring into the darkness, and set off at a run, Hermione followed behind him. 

I was worried for Sirius but I couldn't leave Ron alone by himself. 

I turned around to find Professor Snape awake and standing. 

He gazed at me furiously, and before I could even yield my wand, he pointed his right at me.

"Stupefy!" he bellowed, and I fell unconscious to the ground right beside Ron.

✩ next chapter: the aftermath ✩

[acourtofthought]

The number of times I see people defend Cass and Az siding with Rhys with "he's their friend and High Lord" vs the number of times Lucien gets shit for "not standing up to Tamlin" (even though he did do that) is wild.

I think people forget to take a step back and look at all the information presented to us when reading these books.

Of course the author is telling Feyre's story and it's easy to get caught up on what she feels and wanting to side with her but from a logical perspective, if you really want to immerse yourself in this entire world with all these characters (and not just have blind loyalty to Feyre considering Sarah chose to continue writing characters outside of Feyre), you have to consider why they did what they did and whether there is some understanding to be found.

When you look at Feyre and Lucien's relationship, she murdered his friend. MURDERED.

How many of us are going to be fond of someone who killed someone we cared for? It had to be done for the curse of course but he had to see her in his home knowing that she hated his kind and that's why she met Amarantha's requirement.

The fact that he was willing to even become her friend after that is a testament to Lucien's ability to forgive because he could have easily acknowledged the sacrifice Andras made to save them while still choosing to never give the female who murdered someone in cold blood a second thought.

He grew to care for Feyre despite that, risked his life for Feyre, but again she was a 19 year old human he'd known for a few months compared to the person who helped save his life, compared to the person who he spent centuries with, compared to the person he called a friend. Why should he have MORE loyalty to Feyre? What had Feyre ever done for him to earn that loyalty?

Regardless of what Tamlin did after UTM, Lucien had years upon years upon years of building a life in the Spring Court, feeling safe in the Spring Court, being Tamlin's friend in the Spring Court.

If you had a friend you'd known for 20 years then suddenly they spiraled due to trauma and began behaving badly, wouldn't you have faith that they could pull free from it? To find their way again? Would you just cut them off because they were behaving in a way you didn't agree with?

It's funny how people argue how awful Feyre and Elain were for not standing by Nesta's side during her depression (though Nesta forced them away) but hate Lucien for standing by Tamlin and trying to help him through his.

Was Tamlin abusive to women for the last 2 or 3 centuries? It seems the answer is no therefore his behavior in ACOMAF seemed a product of his downward spiral after UTM and having fallen in love. That means Lucien was a good person for trying to bring him back, to help him remember who he had been before. That means Lucien hoped the friend he'd always known could break free from whatever had recently happened to him.

Compare that to Rhys who let others believe he was evil for centuries. In all the time Tamlin saved Lucien, that Tamlin gave Lucien a job and they became friends, Rhys allowed everyone to believe he was a monster.

"Lucien wanted to take Feyre back to her abuser!"

No, Lucien wanted to take Feyre away from who he thought the real abuser was, the guy who was once ready to shatter his mind and who he thought worked with Amarantha (the one who cursed them all and brutally scarred him) for 50 years and was promised by his friend of centuries that he was better, that he knew he was in the wrong and wouldn't make the same mistakes again. Tamlin lost control of his temper and Feyre was injured as a result but Lucien had seen Rhys choose to hurt people so I do understand why he thought Tamlin was capable of change, why he believed he could do better and get help.

On a personal note, my father was abusive to my mother. At 5 years old I witnessed him throw her to the ground and break her collarbone.

Domestic violence is a tricky thing. Should I have written my father off never to talk to him again? Was he not deserving of a second chance even though I hated what he did? My parents did end up divorcing shortly after and he remarried and I absolutely adore my stepmother. I know for a fact that he did change and they are still happily married to this day so I see why in some instances you hope for the best, why you'd like to believe someone can overcome their struggles and it's not for someone else to judge how someone should deal with an abuser because even that is complicated.

But that's real life which is a whole lot trickier than a fantasy world where somehow it's ok for Feyre to murder a fae with hate in her heart yet a friend hoping his friend can overcome his depression and anger issues is made out to be a villain.

Lucien had actual reason to believe Tamlin was capable of change considering the Tamlin of ACOMAF was different Tamlin than the one he had known, the one who saved him.

He was a victim of Tamlin's too so him having hope that "that was the last time" is a normal response to victims of domestic violence. Of course he believed Tamlin could change. Why wouldn't he since he'd known Tamlin as a good guy longer than Tamlin as a bad guy? Of course he'd have hope that his entire life as he'd known it wasn't falling apart so spectacularly.

People forget the events of ACOTAR / ACOMAF didn't just happen to Feyre, Lucien's life was falling apart too. Not to mention for Lucien it wasn't just about Feyre, it was about the people of an entire court. He literally said to her, "don't make me risk the stability of this court." He was worried about the people of Spring finding their way back after the horrors they'd witnessed over 50 years and Feyre was worried about the events of the last three months. That's not to say her trauma was not enormous but was it worse than what others went through? Was her depression more important than the depression of everyone in that land?

EVERYBODY in Spring was struggling, not just Feyre and I think that's what people forget.

Nobody should have had to push their depression aside, the needs of an entire court aside, to prioritize Feyre. And I like Feyre, I knew the Spring Court was not right for her and Tamlin was never going to be the right person for her once ACOMAF began. It's clear they should have never been talking marriage when they were both a mess themselves.

But I don't fault Lucien for not being able to pull Feyre from her depression when he had about a million and one other things on his plate. When he too was dealing with the horrors from UTM (remember how he was almost killed twice there?), when he was stressing over the safety of the court and the mental health of all it's people.

Thinking Lucien was there just to serve Feyre is actually really silly when you think about it because Lucien had some major stuff he was dealing with. Did Feyre set aside her trauma to help Lucien deal with his? Did she even bother thinking about his trauma or did she simply turn a blind eye (especially when she kept walking after knowing Tamlin used his power against Lucien).

Feyre wasn't any better a friend to Lucien after UTM than some claim he was to her but I don't fault her for that because I realize that at certain times you can put your own needs over that of another but Lucien should be extended the same courtesy when he was thinking about everyone's needs. Wanting his HL to heal so that the court didn't suffer doesn't make him an asshole, it actually makes him worthy of becoming a HL himself.

The IC? They might have been worried about their High Lord but they and the people of Velaris lived in relative comfort for 50 years. They did not experience the same horrors that everyone else was dealing with. So when Feyre came to them it was much easier for their focus to be on Feyre, on making her a priority, on her healing and she could then focus on Rhys's healing too.

Sarah is very different from many other authors, where the main character is not guiltless, where other characters are just as developed and just as independent, where they're not written just to be a plot tool to serve the FMC. She does a wonderful job of making side characters extremely layered with their own demons and desires and so I think it's important to treat them with the same individuality that we would a main character.

Being mad at a side character for acting independent of the main character is literally saying "I don't want anyone in this series to want anything other than what is best for the FMC" and that makes for a one dimensional story.

And forgetting that the males also had PTSD, that they don't necessarily deserve to be written off by everyone because of their bad choices but to have someone try to help is an important lesson to remember too. PTSD is not something to overlook just because it's a male suffering from it and I'd hope a friend wouldn't turn their back on a friend because of it, I'd hope they'd try to get their friend the help they need if they're in a position to do so.

Should Feyre have helped Tamlin? Hell no. But Lucien helping Tamlin? If that's what he wants because he probably understands what PTSD looks like, he saw what was happening to Spring and it's people because of Tamlin's state and caring is not something he should be faulted for, not when it affected an entire court. As I said above, Lucien was thinking about more than just Feyre or just Tamlin which means there was no way to meet just one person's needs.