#and he didn't have a good reason for it at the end???? like literally just went off the handle for shits and giggles??)

[tcoaal]

Do you think Andrew is actually, canonically trans?

Why so?

And do you think he would be bad representation for trans?

haha sorry this is gonna get longer than intended

canonically? nah, i highly doubt Nemlei has any actual interest in exploring LGBT topics using TCOAAL, i think if she was she was we would've gotten like, some stuff by now and more outwardly queer themes in TCOAAL's writing.

that being said, it is really fun to think about- @cannibal-pentecost could talk about this a lot better than me since she's been a lot more devoted to the hc, but there are... a lot of little things that shows Andrew having a complicated relationship with masculinity that has resonated with me and other trans women, one of the best new things being him remarking how "girly" it is to kill himself by cutting in one of the endings towards Shots and Such.

that being said... you know, that last question is a really funny one to me, and the real reason i wanted to answer this.

strictly speaking? yeah. he's an incestious cannibal who can in Decay literally murder a child for no reason other than frustration, is implied to have coerced his ex into a sexual relationship she didn't want, and a Bunch Of Other Bad Things. Andrew would be terrible trans rep.

... but what does that even mean, anymore?

we're always trannies in their eyes. to society. being a trans woman, living in transmisogyny: every single day is a struggle to not be a tranny. because there's a difference to the world.

the polite (but confidant, but not too confidant), socially respectable (you must not have kinks that defy society's expectations or must be an uwu soft bean), noble (you must have never done anything bad ever) trans woman. and a dime-in-a-dozen problematic tranny. one is a "woman" society barely tolerates at absolute best, while the other is a "woman" to society that is free to demean and use as the reason why to demean all the "good" trans women, even by those who we should call our sisters. the more i think about it, the more i think about the lie sold to me that i so earnestly believed- that we must love all trans women unconditionally when our own sisters will so often throw us under the bus and offer up us dime-in-a-dozen problematic trannies as a sacrifice so they can feel safe. i can't even post this in the trans tags, i don't feel like getting into another drama with randos.

i know it's not too related to this but you know. once, a trans lesbian hc blog got hacked by transmisogynists. i saved every single post to save that work before i started uploading it again. i was into happy sugar life at the time.

this ask alone inflicted trauma that hasn't faded after almost 7 years lol. i was literally an anti that had a complicated relationship with HSL and i was decried as a problematic tranny for it.

so what does good trans rep really mean? what does it mean for us to write good representation as opposed to bad representation?

so what if Andrew Graves would be the scummiest trans woman ever. so what if she'd be awful representation. we'll still just be trannies to them. something barely tolerated at best.

... so if she is one, what's so wrong with that? let her be bad representation. it's fine. it doesn't really matter. and i will defend people's rights to be able to headcanon what they want

[timeslipcamp]

f the teachers tbh

literally from the prologue i was like what is this dude's deal....maybe it was just the discount gojo vibes or the 12 year old being in charge who knows. either way, i didn't trust them.

so let's get into that!

vague spoilers through ep 16

beginning sus, hyde and romeo, treatment of lyca, moby is weird, THE LYING

is moby a demon

the prologue itself is insane enough, and then you walk onto an insane campus and up to the principal's office and then you find a literal CHILD who tells you that you will die in a year

bartender? i'll have what she's having

i did think nicolas was the hottest person in the game for a while though. and then you've got discount gojo and his ex boyfriend who was dead last year and then the assassination classroom substitute--

the teachers are just. so interesting. and shady. literally from the beginning something just felt odd, like the explanations about the ghouls that the chancellor was giving us just felt weird. the further it's gone on, the more i'm thinking that the faculty is in some way responsible for the clash and breaking up whatever good vibes the ghouls had in order to keep them disorganized and unable to unionize against the staff.

lmao can you imagine sinostra getting into union business

but i digress.

let's take a look at some of the times we've interacted with the staff and what led me to believe they would be the antagonists here.

nicolas was up first and i love him. honestly, if we have any allies on the staff, i'd put money on nicolas. he's a medical professional studying anomalous medicine and continues to be kind to yuri even though yuri is sooo bitchy to him. i love yuri lmao you hold that grudge babe.

he's been kind at every turn and does seem to be genuinely helping us. if he flips it'd be a hans from frozen level betrayal. (fun fact that was one of the ONLY characters i didn't catch ahead of time lmao. usually i'm pretty good at guessing but that one blindsided me. fuck you hans.)

i could see him going the way of him siding with the institution but only because he thought it was the right thing to do to help us. like we saw in mortkranken's more recent episode, the second he saw yuri was right, he full on supported us. so again, he might be on the institution's side for now, but if he sees that they're wrong and we're right, he'll flip.

so the second teacher we meet is hyde. he's pretty chill and 100% gives discount gojo and even kakashi vibes. i like him, honestly. if he goes the route of gojo and kakashi he's gonna come off as shady and then end up being on his students side, so. and like even with what we see between him and romeo and taiga, it doesn't feel malicious. it honestly just feels like he's trying to make money on the side 😂

i do love the taiga shovel talk though. if i'm being completely honest, i feel like he's at least partially eating the anomalies so romeo can't sell them to hyde. would love to know why he doesn't like hyde though. it's taiga's wariness and anger that keeps hyde on my shady list. that being said, i think the main reason taiga doesn't like hyde is because of romeo.

he's a real one for this though

but i think it's important to note that nicolas says there's no other teacher that cares more for the students than hyde. that's another reason, even after episode 16, that i still think hyde is on our side against the institution. i think he's playing both sides, and he's going to look shady until the end.

next is the chancellor.

what the hell is up with this dude

he looks like a child from genshin impact

but that's not why i don't trust him. in the beginning he seemed harmless enough, but given his reactions about the gala and ed and the way moby covered his mouth a few times...idk something isn't adding up. i don't have a solid motive or reason yet other than how the ghouls talk about the staff. we have rui, lyca, and sho all speaking openly about how they're bad and we should avoid telling them too much, their wack stances on imprisonment, etc; we have haku saying to just keep your head down and push through; we have one of them back from the dead and alan and tohma looking into it...the list goes on. it does seem to be more the institution rather than the faculty themselves but still

i don't trust them

zero idea what's going on with dante btw. how tf did he come back to life? is he a ghoul now too? hes hot though

the janitor has now been double confirmed to be elias, and that's the one that's working with haru (and taiga and their faceless allies gen and mio and s-something) but he still seems a lil off to me. i saw someone say former dionysia captain but idk how i feel about that. i definitely think he was a former student, and i'm inclined to think he's a ghoul despite having zero evidence because he's working with haru's lil team, but i dunno. something still feels off. i don't trust him, he knows too much.

speaking of weirdos

i hate this dude lol

my opinions aside, he's presented as kind if goofy and money grabbing and all about his kpop band or whatever it is, but this dude is my number one suspect. is he a demon? anomaly? other creature?

i don't trust him one bit. i think the first obscuary chapter is so important because it shows us that the LEADING PREMIERE RESEARCH FACILITY is incompetent at containing anomalies. ed even implies their research methods are wack. once again, it looks like they really don't see anomalies as anything other than creatures and beasts, so why wouldn't this extend to the ghouls?

i'm so fully on the train of thought that something about containing anomalies (aka actual thinking creatures, potentially another ghoul or person) was a big cause of the rift that may have had the faculty do something to cause the clash.

my main theory is as follows:

the staff and the institution don't see the ghouls as people. demons may be involved in the highest ranks of the institution. the ghouls at darkwick were staging a rebellion of some sort in regards to anomaly/ghoul treatment. a traitor was planted, hearts were broken, there goes the clash.

as usual, we have like, zero information still. i think we're about to get a lot more coming up on the one year anniversary of us being cursed, and especially as we start to go back in the loop. but that's my general guess that i'm going with for now

fuck moby tho he a freak

asks and dms always open!

[just-1other-nerd]

Oh my God, there is so much in this reblog chain that I need to comment on... disclaimer I only saw the show once in November/December so I'm not all too familiar with the details.

Prev you are absolutely right when you say that the writing was inconsistent and that the fandom is only still alive because of damage control and a ship. The thing is the show had so much potential and it was wasted time and time again but in between there where bits of gold that were what kept me going.

Another few examples for unconsistent writing: Allura being so easily manipulated by that dark force thing when we had a whole fuck ass episode in season one where she withstands the manipulation of a corrupted ai in the form of her father while having a fever, this mimi arc set her up for being the one on the team to have the strongest mental resistance from there on out but no. Lance going to be a farmer was shit, yes he loves his family and earth but he always wanted to be a space pilot, this is why he went to the garrison, he is one of those bragging guys from day one and he is always shown to want glory and fame so him going off the grid on earth is just actively opposing everything that was set up about him, they didn't even put in the effort to make him say an out of character explanation for this like "I was just acting like this so that I could be what people expect of me" and just threw that ending in there. Another inconsistency is the whole Allura Lance thing because he was the only one to express any interest but toned in down after getting rejected over and over again and after strengthening his platonic relationship with her and once he is at this more healthy place Allura suddenly does a 180 and has a crush and that after Lance tragically had barely any development except for maturing a bit which makes us not understand where this change of feelings comes from since he is basically still the same guy who was rejected many times. And I want to be clear that this isn't Allura's fault but the writers, I like her despite all of the bad directions that they took her.

Now back to the actual topic of this post.

I also think Keith (my little beloved emo bitch) should not have become the leader because of the reasons op said, he's reckless, hotheaded, self-isolating and just in this position because Shiro set him up to be and not because of his actions. I mean I like the bits of growth he got through being forced into this role that was bigger than who he was but he shouldn't have been the black paladin in the 1st place, there were other ways to make him get the same development, like his role within the blades or his role as the literal right hand of Voltron's head, he was basically vice-leader from the start but that didn't get explored. I actually think that Klance works so well not just as a ship but as a general dynamic because of Keith's obvious character flaws and Lance's strengths on top of their banter. Lance is good with people where as Keith isn't, Lance is mature enough to put the team over his own needs where Keith is impulsive and emotional which leads to selfish and reckless decisions, Lance is straight forward and putting himself out there and Keith keeps to himself. Keith on the other hand has got more refined skills and so while Lance is good at fighting and piloting Keith will always be better at that. There's something about the other that they envy and but also deeply respect. Now imagine how this dynamic could have been been utilised better if Keith stayed the right-hand man instead of Lance becoming him and if Lance took over the leader role. It also fits better because even as the leader Keith often struggled with seeing himself as part of the team while Lance did so despite their differences. And we know Lance isn't the best strategist or something but he is quite good at executing the plan so he could rely on others to help come up with a plan and him giving orders on how to go through with it, because that's what a team is for, balancing each other out with specific skill sets.

That being said I actually liked the bit where Lance accepted his position in the team as not the most flashy and important one, him coming to terms with that was as good thing, he matured. He became more confident because he saw the worth of his current position.

My personal take on the whole changing of positions within the team is that I didn't want it to happen at all because every decision they could have made kinda felt wrong to me mainly because it always meant that somebody new would have to be the 5th member. Shiro was good at his job because he was a leader before, he had experience, the only other person who can say that is Allura since she was born and raised in a high political position. But I didn't like her on the team as much as I liked the others. She is very much the heart of Voltron but she is way more capable in controlling the castle ship, think of it as Shiro being the captain but her as the commander. If she wanted to be a paladin she also could have just assumed that position from the start like she didn't have to assign it to one of the random teenagers. Remember how they used the wormholes (which only Allura could activate from her position on the ship) in their battle strategies in the 1st two seasons? That showed me that she isn't just a bystander or anything she is actively involved, while the lions are for fighting up close she was there to cover them and enhance their possibilities via wormhole. Once she was part of the team she couldn't activate those the way she did before which was just a wasted resource if you ask me. I never thought of her as helpless or not capable I just thought that the commanding position on the ship suited her better. She already was all of those great and interesting things, a princess, a political leader, a spiritual leader, a genocide survivor, a strategist, a commander, a diplomat, a teenage girl and so on, enough material to make her compelling and interesting without also making her a paladin if only the writers cared to explore those aspects of her more (I also feel like making her be a paladin on top of all those other things made her a bit of a Mary-Sue). But we all know there weren't enough other established characters in the series yet that could have become the 5th member so it had to be her.

This leads me to my next problem because as prev said Shiro basically dying after taking complete control of the lion and unlocking more powers was just so stupid, they should have done that whole thing differently. Shiro should have survived that battle and should have gone on a few missions in this new stronger shape before he was obliterated, that would have made the threat bigger and more dangerous and set up higher stakes because the loss would be even greater. The thing is that when "Shiro" came back it was hella suspicious and I was always doubting him but they didn't follow through on him being a clone for so long that at the point of the reveal I had basically accepted that he was just magically back. I love this angsty storyline on paper, guy "dies" and a clone sleeper agent of him who doesn't know he is one until activated is sent back as a spy on the team only for his brother to desperately want the real one back and go after him and them then reanimating the real one but in the clone's body is some fucked up shit which I like to see explored, which is why the Black Paladins episode is one of my favourites. But I think that it should have come earlier, the teams suspicions of "Shiro" should have grown, the black lion should have reacted in some way, the enemies should have used him more efficiently and a few more flashbacks of Shiro's and Keith's bond should have been there scattered across those episodes before the reveal to make it even more emotional. And of course they should have used Shiro better once he was back instead of sidelining him. My boy has been through so much traumatic shit and dealing with that would be so compelling especially since we never got it at first because of his memory loss but then because it wasn't him and then because they decided not to use him in a meaningful way anymore. I wish they would have showed us more than he's a perfect leader despite the shit that he went through, make him react to his trauma by giving him more flaws.

I gotta disagree with op's take on Shiro and Lance though, I don't think Shiro treated Lance all that bad because I don't think there really was any relationship beyond being colleagues and idolisation of Shiro on Lance's part. Which is a shame really because as you said meeting your idol is a complicated thing, one could lean into the whole "my idol isn't who I thought he'd be, he's flawed and not that interested in me" thing or "my idol is a real human being and I need to stop putting him on a pedestal". But Shiro never developed any strong bonds with the people with whom he already had history like Pidge and Keith meaning that Allura, Lance and Hunk (who btw was neglected the most by the writers) got left behind, I don't blame Shiro, I blame the writers.

Final thoughts: I liked Allura more in her commanding position outside the paladins, I think Shiro is the best leader for the team but if there was somebody who could replace him it is Lance, Keith should be in the position of the right hand, the sword, the blade, the dangerous missions kinda guy in the red lion because it is an important part yet not a leadership role and fits more with his momora and solo missions arc, Hunk and Pidge are perfect as the legs even the writers couldn't fuck that up. The thing is I like the idea of a team member going missing and them having to adapt and replace but in my opinion it shouldn't have been a permanent change but rather a half a season arc during which they all grow and learn to work together in a better way but ultimately being given the chance to go back to their original lions (the ones who chose them from the start - which means something to me) and discovering that their experiences made them a better team.

I like how the black lion is literally doesn't give a fuck about who is it's paladin. It took a battle to get zarkon out of it's system, it took no time for shiro to pilot it, and then like 5 seconds for it to accept keith. I bet that if lance was actually serious about being a leader and it wasn't just for show, black would let him in.

That brings me to the fact that the show was building up for lance to lead voltron, but then they decided that actually no, keith should be the leader (insane decision, actually unparalleled unhinged behavior, especially at that time)

Keith is a hothead, he's reckless and a loner. The fact that shiro wanted for him to lead voltron was pure nepotism. Lance has great spacial and emotional awareness, he always thinks about the team before he thinks about himself. Yeah he boasts and he's annoying, but he's the sanity of the team, he's the shoulder everyone can rely on in their time of need.

Don't get me wrong, this is not a keith slander post, i absolutely love that emo little shit. But at that point in the story, he was in no way fit to lead and he didn't want to. Lance was better suited for that role, but because of the writers' biases of "he's a comedic relief character" he didn't get to be a fully fledged out character.

[pigeonstab]

Cross and Dream would be unstoppable. In a bad way. Those two are both overworking machines and Blue is so so tired of having to wrangle them into resting.

[natasha-in-space]

So I'm replaying Ray's After ending rn, and it got me thinking that what I adore so much about Rika as an antagonist is just how damn scary she can be. I always found those who cause harm with good intentions (at least in their point of view) much scarier than those who hurt you with pure intention on hurting you. I think the best example of it is this CG in particular:

Look at that. Such a loving, gentle expression on her face. Probably kissing his forehead. Because she loves him. Heck, without any context, this CG looks even sweet, if you think about it. And yet, all that is while Saeyoung is forcefully sedated on a powerful concoction of drugs even a trained agent like him can't do anything about (and Saeyoung WAS definitely trained to deal with this sort of thing, hence it's mentioned that this is a 'special' kind of drugs). He looks miserable. Bags under his eyes, his expression pained and troubled, even his hair is paler than usual. All that as a direct result of her actions. But she's utterly blind to it. What's scarier, is that she knowingly shuts off her understanding of what's really happening. She's not oblivious to it at all. She just chooses not to see it that way. Simply because she doesn't want to.

Rika is the type of antagonist that will cup your cheek into her warm hand with the most loving of smiles on her face, all while you are getting elixir poured down your throat. Even whispering to you that you're doing great, that the pain will soon pass, and that she can't wait to see you reach the happiness she knows you deserve. I won't be surprised if she even cried genuine tears of compassion during some ceremonies for her believers. All while being the sole reason behind their suffering.

And that's... God, that's terrifying to me. I love that about her.

Rika Kim, they could never make me hate you

[liriostigre]

‎ 💭 🛌🏻

[gotta-bail-my-quails]

Sorry if I came off like I was criticizing your post, I was more so trying to agree with the potential of the theory while also acknowledging that from a story-telling meta perspective it would be a bad decision on the writers' part since it'd fall into the dead wife/gf to motivate the protagonist trope. It was meant as more of an aside (made by a tired, brain-fogged person on not enough sleep) since while I think you have a totally valid point, I also, like you said in your original post, hope the show proves it wrong.

We have, after all, seen how Firm Man's realization being a hero wasn't a good thing and that self-perception being destroyed, as you say, destroyed his powers as well as (or better/more effectively than) a loss of trust might. It certainly is in the realm of possibility if the motive was to keep Lin Ling from being a hero--I could also see the motive, with E-Soul (if that was E-Soul) being the one directly above Lin Ling in ranking (afaik anyway, given the ranking confusion earlier). Stopping Lin Ling in his tracks here would protect E-Soul's ranking. Hell, he even seems to be working for another hero organization in the ep 5 trailer, which would probably be salty that L0 ended up under Treeman (again). Maybe it's a business competition thing.

(Also, by hero system I don't mean the actual system itself with the faith and believers, but rather, how the show criticizes the hero system as a toxic, harmful institute which inevitably breaks down the heroes it creates. Just as Nice died, it seems like the show is saying either you stop being a hero or you are driven to your death, so XYQ's death, regardless of the in-story specific reason behind it, is likely a result of the system's general detrimental effects)

Anyway, I also don't think it's the fans themselves per se, but possibly (and a very large possibly) a result of what you say: "the fan believes her dead but don't want her dead."

@/miyamiwu has a post about why Xiao Yueqing had to die because she was abusing the trust system for her own wishes (which you might've already seen) but I also made a post earlier that theorized she was killed at that specific moment because Lin Ling was giving back the teleporter. XYQ doesn't have powers without it, but he was giving it and the power back to her and, significantly, without the restrictions of public criticism to check her powers if she abused them since everyone seemingly still thinks she is dead. That's a pretty damn good reason for the Association claiming to keep an eye on heroes to kill her.

Of course, that begs the question of why they (whoever wanted her dead) didn't try literally anything else before going straight to murder, but to be fair, everyone already thinks she's dead anyway (again, afaik) so it probably was the most cost effective or some shit idk

Hot Take: Does anybody think Xiao Yueqing died to keep Lin Ling from being a hero?

Keep in mind this assumption is made on the basis of the action of other people instead of the actions Xiao Tueqing herself has and might have taken - so even I'm skeptical of my own take.

But it really nags my brain that Lin Ling's primary reason for rising up into an actual hero is wanting to keep the people he cared about safe.

And you can be critical with the relationship between Moon and Lin Ling all you want. Whether you want them to be romantic or platonic. Doesn't change the fact that even from the first episode, it wasn't his friends or family that kept him from stepping off the ledge, it was Xiao Yueqing.

(Heck, I don't think he even has close friends and family considering he only has one view from his death article)

Being his friend, being the only other person who he shared his real name, meant something for them.

So to have his reason to be a hero be killed right in front of him, cementing his helplessness and inability to save her.

Because self-perception is as much as a key factor for a person to become a hero. And what's easier to destroy a person's perception than to destroy their reason for being and leave them in despair

Now I just need to wait for how the show is gonna prove me wrong

[protagonist-art]

he's dead by the time rdr2's story begins but i'm pretending he's not

[maestergerardys]

...how have i literally never seen this take on how the griff plotline/dany's involvement might play out before???

(JK, i know exactly why, it's bc everybody saw the fuckass bells scene and immediately went “yeah sure ofc book dany's gonna do that Somehow”, despite it being a Glaringly Obvious possibility that d&d looked at whatever rough outline of major events grrm gave them, saw that KL needed to be wrecked at some point and that he'd involved bells in that 'for some reason', then they were looking around for characters they could make do that after they'd already scrapped team faegon, and realized they had the opportunity to throw a Villainous Event onto the shoulders of the FMC they didn't like)

ANYWAYS my point is that if you actually accept that the show was literally just doing Some Bullshit and look only at actual book events then i'd say that yeah, there's about as much evidence pointing to this being the resolution of the young griff plotline as there is pointing to a dany-vs-griff conflict

also idk that either op or prev will actually read this whole thing lmao but if they do, i'd love to hear what they think abt how this would play into dany's current view of the actions taken by recent targaryens! IIRC both of y'all (like me) have mixed views on rhaegar but ultimately do not believe that grrm is planning to *portray* him as a villain — he was always going to end the series being understood (at least by the main characters) as ultimately a tragic (though definitely flawed) hero.

but i'm bringing this up bc running w that presents us with a opportunity for faegon, in this scenario, to help complete a really interesting addition to dany's many sets of 3: her view of the legacies of 3 targ men and their flawed kingships. i mean, the fandom already mostly agrees that dany is having to reconcile her intense longing for family with the recent targaryen legacy as represented by aerys and viserys:

1) aerys — an actual targ king; held the power and almost all the right symbolism (fire obsession‚ incest‚ actually having the IT‚ etc.). she grew up thinking of him as the last rightful king‚ betrayed‚ but she's going to have to accept that her own father was a tyrant who was rightfully hated by the realm, and she's almost definitely going to have to publicly renounce his memory in order to have any hope of the nobles following her

2) viserys — a self-proclaimed targ king‚ but really only a “beggar king”; had all the talk but none of the walk; had the looks and lineage, but none of the support to conquer that could actually make him a king, nor any sort of motivation to help his subjects that could make him a good king. she's raised to respect him as the current rightful king, but is forced to confront the fact that he is neither a good king, nor a person who could ever even become a good king one day, and eventually she has to publicly renounce him for her own safety and future.

and now, let's just assume for a moment that when dany makes it back to meereen, tyrion informs her of young griff — and she likes what she hears, she's on-board!! (sidenote: people also tend to run with tyrion's prediction that a woman so accomplished and powerful in her own right is not going to like young griff's immediate marriage and consortship offer — and though it does make sense, i feel like people also kind of forget that this is tyrion at his absolute lowest and most pessimistic abt the world around him, and that it's clear he's highly skeptical abt how well-intentioned even dany's freeing of slaves can possibly be. i honestly don't think we can be 100% certain that he's predicted dany's feelings on this correctly!)

so consider: if tyrion sees something in dany that he likes enough to decide he's going to actually back her and do his best to advise her towards success, then he's going to tell her his honest analysis of and opinion on what he's seen of YG. and here's what dany might hear: there's a boy who says he's her dead brother's son/the rightful targaryen heir, who looks the part and whose identity is vouched for by a close companion of her dead brother that had fought for him, who has an actual army and plan to take the IT, and who wants to ally with her. he's somewhat impatient, and reckless, but has experienced something of a less luxurious life in his youth like she has, and did clearly personally expressed a favorable opinion of her and her accomplishments (...so kind of similar to daario, her favored companion, in temperament, but of a social position where she could tie herself to him, and he also actively wants them to be tied together).

maybe dany simply sends YG's party a messenger expressing her willingness to consider an alliance, maybe she actually flies to meet him and is pleased enough with what she finds: a boy of a similar age to her, who genuinely does think she's his aunt and treats her accordingly, whose valyrian-blooded presence is likely at least grudgingly tolerated by drogon, who cares about continuing their apparent shared familial legacy (including being eager for the chance to bond with dragon, of course), and expresses a personal romantic desire towards her that's clearly not just political. but he's intent on reclaiming the iron throne as soon as possible, a feeling which dany can certainly relate to, so she agrees that she'll return to meereen, finish cutting the loose strings there, mobilize her combined dothraki/unsullied forces, and come to join him in westeros, this time with viserion and rhaegal, of whom hopefully one will be interested in bonding with him.

...and then, of course, he simply gets too impatient, doesn't wait for his backup, and most likely gets wrecked in Battle of the Bells II: Electric Boogaloo. cue dany finally getting to westeros, only to be met with a wrecked ghost-town of a capitol city, and then be told that it's not just the lannisters who did it — nope, it's at least partly her last chance at family, actually-maybe-not-even-her-real-family-after-all's fault too. which gives us:

3) young griff/faegon — the final last-minute targaryen contender for the throne that dany could support; has the aesthetic, the power to back him up, and even an assurance that he would theoretically be a good benevolent king who'd care about his people... but in the end it might have all just been built on lies. she comes to believe that he will be westeros's next rightful targaryen king, but in the end, even setting aside the debate over whether he really was her nephew or not, she arrives to a wreckage proving that his quest for kingship, however inadvertently, actually left westeros/KL even worse off than how he found it.

and now, dany's left to grapple with the idea that 3 consecutive targaryen men, (ostensibly) relatives of hers, have tried to claim the role of kingship for themselves, and the people around them have always suffered for it.

oh, wait, also: (a) viserys always told her that aerys's dethronement was her fault because if she'd been born sooner then she would have been rhaegar's bride, (b) she believes that viserys's death is at least partly her fault because she allowed it to happen, and (c) now one last targaryen man has died while fighting for his right to rule, and she didn't reach him in time to provide her material support. what kind of horrible combined guilt complex/imposter syndrome does that give her?

idk— i think when talking abt how the ideals/justice dany personally stands for conflicts with the recent targaryen legacy, people generally contrast her with aerys, rhaegar, and viserys; and i'm not saying that that doesn't make any sense, but given that i personally see dany as closer to being "rhaegar come again", or a version of him that fulfills everything he could have been but didn't quite manage to be, i'm really starting to like the idea that the three men whose legacies' she's working against are aerys, viserys, and faegon.

(and then, of course, there's the final targ man left standing: the one who dany initially has no reason to think of as family, who in fact proudly claims to be of the opposing family, but who so clearly embodies the behavior that she wants to see in a good king in every other way. the one who shares no legacy, no familial memories (i love him dearly but just forget abt maester aemon for a moment shhhh), not even physical features with her — but all the same principles, the same belief that all their people are equal, and that they as leaders are meant to protect all their people. but maybe that's just my shipper heart talking lmao)

Smiling, he seized his dragon, flew it across the board. "I hope Your Grace will pardon me. Your king is trapped. Death in four." The prince stared at the playing board. "My dragon—" "—is too far away to save you. You should have moved her to the center of the battle." "But you said—" "I lied. Trust no one. And keep your dragon close."

isn't this saying young griff's going to die in westeros because he didn't wait for her and that he's specifically going to die before she reaches the continent. why do people speak of the dany/young griff plot as a conflict in which dany will want griff dead, that feels like a baseless assumption. what i'm getting here is that she won't be able to save young griff because he's going to be too far out of her reach ("...is above all a rescuer"). which is the OPPOSITE of widely accepted fandom speculation, like, why are you lying. stop that

[the-mad-owl]

I pray that for every "Lichdom is actually Emmrich's bad ending" I see I get a beautiful fucked up lich Emmrich fanfic in return <3

[aquaaquila]

While I also disagree with the notion of Hunter being this protective big brother, and I understand where you are coming from when calling him out on his toxic tendencies, which is fair, I do also want to point out that he didn't, in fact, blackmail her to keep his secret. He genuinely, though harshly, asked if confessing the truth is really a good idea and asked if Luz had tried it herself to back it up. Once she got hurt, he felt bad and softly asked her not to tell them. Also, his running away in panic shouldn't be summarised as him ditching Lz to do his own thing as if it was an intentional action on Hunter's part and not an instinct and decision made in the heat of the moment.

Hunter did occasionally protect Luz, but not in the sense of emotional support, but actively ensuring she doesn't get hurt on a battlefield as her ally. He did defend her from blasts from Kikimora (he didn't have to), and it was up to him to create the giant vine wall that protected Luz (sure it's thanks to Luz's jacket, but come on, as smart as Luz is, she didn't plan it this far ahead, she hoped she'd rather manage to pull him out, not that he would dig out himself with her glyphs), along with helping Willow take out Abomaton and ensuring the alarm doesn't go off. Does are not instances of brother protecting his sister but of an ally defending his fellow ally.

Hunter and Alador having beef can be explained by self-loathing on both parties' sides over what they did.

Also what a shocker that a teenage boy raised in a shitty environment comes off as shitty even when not intending to be. Almost like his final arc about acknowledging other people's feelings and supports would ring hollow if he was supportive, treating everyone always fair, and emotionally intelligent right from the get-go. (Sorry if this part is too snappy, but the point would still stand regardless of which other character would commit Hunter's crimes, regardless of their skin color, gender, sexuality, disability, and so on. If someone never had a good example on how to do a good relationship, then treating their failure as intentional is just unfair.)

Hunter never accused Luz of not being there for him, it genuinely was about not believing in him, like don't exaggerate, Hunter's bad actions are bad as it is, they don't need to be worse to drive a point. He also once again made a hasty decision fueled by his emotions and not by common sense. He didn't abandon Luz in the woods on purpose; he was literally getting possessed at that moment and was panicking out of his mind while chasing Belos's illusion.

Also let's be real, Luz at that moment already thought that people would hate her anyway if they would know the truth along with her own self-loathing (girl really needed her talk with Camila), it would fly right above her head that Hunter is acting out of line at this specific moment, doesn't mean he was acting with her like that 24/7.

Also, preach about Gus and Hunter, they're literally EVERYTHING the fan base wishes Luz and Hunter were like, even when it comes to the annoying younger sibling trope with how Gus teases Hunter from time to time (honorary Hexolio anyone?).

People REALLY shouldn't latch onto season 2 dynamic of Luz and Hunter because these two don't even like each other until the end, they're not friends nor family at the time, so drawing inspiration for their "sibling bond" from that period acts more like a recipe for excusing sibling abuse more than anything. It especially gets bad when people are inclined to believe that Luz would have stabbed Hunter in the dream sequence from Watching and Dreaming even though Luz doesn't even know Caleb got stabbed by Philip so she wouldn't be able to recreate it anyway, along with several other reasons on why Luz would never do anything like that...

Like the point stands: Luz and Hunter aren't siblings, and their friendship indeed was toxic, and they didn't even have proper time to make it work, unlike Gus and Hunter.

            It’s ironic that everyone hypes up Hunter as this protective, supportive older brother to Luz, when that’s not really how he interacts with her at all? If anything, it’s kind of the opposite, on top of Hunter being low-key toxic to Luz?

            Because looking at their actual interactions. We have Separate Tides, which is self-explanatory. Hunting Palismen is really more about Luz trying to be supportive of Hunter, getting him to come out of his shell, saving his life when she could’ve easily looked the other way and gotten an enemy who’d already threatened her and her loved ones, and an innocent creature and its child, out of the way; Esp with the Emperor’s Coven continuing to gain prominence.

            Of course, Hunter ends up betraying Luz, and doesn’t really get to go through with it because of Kikimora interrupting him. Then in Reaching Out, Luz does try to get Hunter to offer information on Belos’ plans… And it’s Hollow Mind, where Luz does seem eager to do this again. But then they both go through Belos’ mindscape together, and… Hunter isn’t really helping or protecting Luz.

            In fact, it’s Luz who saves Hunter; She sacrifices her coat and the glyphs inside in an attempt to protect Hunter, which leads to Luz being alone with Belos when he drops the big reveal to mess with her. Hunter does escape and save Luz, but only because Luz had given her glyphs to him earlier; So it’s really Luz that saved them both, and in doing so, at the cost of her own mental health.

            And then Hunter immediately ditches Luz at the Owl House to do his own thing. When both have calmed down, Luz tries to be supportive to Hunter about being a Grimwalker, encouraging him to come out with it to the others by treating it as something she doesn’t have any issue with! Now obviously, Hunter read on Grimwalkers as seen in Labyrinth Runners, so his fearful attitude seems based on a historical context that is implied. Luz doesn’t have that context.

            Regardless, Hunter taking the moment to essentially emotionally blackmail Luz over her own secret is just. Wow okay. He heard that and instead of trying to support Luz about it after everything she’s done for him, threatened Luz with this knowledge. Later that episode Hunter sees how everyone doesn’t even think to give Amity flak over her biological parent being a terrible person who supports Belos in genocide.

            They’re not even taking time to be angry with Alador, who actually did choose to support Odalia to a degree, but then changed his mind when he saw how far she was going! Again, makes me think of Dana’s art paralleling Hunter and Alador, I imagine because they were both abused but were nevertheless complicit and stood up to defy both these things. Of all people to have beef with Alador, it’s actually Hunter.   

            Luz is the one who sees how Kikimora plans to get Hunter killed by handing him over to Belos, so she risks herself not just for him, but for the entire Boiling Isles, to once again isolate herself with Belos, just under the hopes of potentially talking him down. So Luz takes Hunter’s face and place, and in the end… It doesn’t quite work out; Her plan fails, she just gets more traumatized for protecting Hunter from Belos, again. It does lead to King following Luz to the skull and meeting the Collector, so Luz’s work did pay off!

            But it led to a godlike entity who apparently already committed genocide against King’s species, now having domain over the Boiling Isles. We see how all of these things drive Luz into a suicidal depression. When Luz and Hunter talk about their secrets again, they’re obviously reeling from that as well. But Hunter doesn’t try to support Luz over her secret by at least acknowledging how Amity was accepted for her blood relation. He instead shifts the topic to HIS secret and how HE feels guilty.

            And while Luz isn’t actually guilty, it’s a bit absurd to treat a bloodline relation to someone awful as on the same level of tangibly giving Belos what he needed to rise to power, restrict a society’s magic, and then nearly kill them, culminating in the two discussing their next course of action in the Noceda household.

            Then for two months, Luz continues to feel worse and worse until she’s idealizing the concept of killing herself, while Hunter feels better and better until he actually IS okay with being a Grimwalker, now! And when Luz and Hunter talk again, it’s… about Luz comforting Hunter, supporting him emotionally as part of the found family. While Hunter offers nothing to Luz; She tried to make him feel better about his secret, he made Luz feel worse about hers. Now he does feel better and she’s making him feel better. But there’s still nothing.

            Keep in mind that Luz actually did suggest they go and get help from the others before confronting Belos!!! That was a thing she tried to do! It’s Hunter who insisted they do it by themselves, and further enabled Luz’s tendency to isolate herself and handles thing on her own, rather than ask for help! Granted we find out later how Belos was subtly influencing Hunter, so maybe that’s what happened. But his eyes didn’t glow in that moment either.

            Likewise, Hunter accuses Luz of not believing him (of not being there for him, like she hasn’t always been correct about whatever Hunter believes) when he later brings up Belos’ survival, despite her not actually saying it, and then runs off and ditches Luz in the woods, forcing her to figure out a way to find him. Again, potentially Belos influencing Hunter but man. It’s kind of in-line with everything else, tbh… Luz did notice something amiss with Hunter being harsh with Flapjack, but not with his behavior towards her, which um. Implies things doesn’t it?

            Really, the only time Hunter ever acts truly emotionally supportive of Luz is when he finally tells her at the end of Thanks to Them that no, what Luz did wasn’t her fault, and if anything it’s an opportunity for Luz to prove herself and protect everyone. But this is only after Hunter has seen that it’s Socially Acceptable to give Luz grace over helping Belos.

            There’s that moment after where Luz and Willow are happy to make actual progress; Luz has been agonizing for months over all the harm she’s caused, intentional or otherwise, how she makes everything worse. How her time travel adventure made everything worse. But there’s a moment when she and Willow get her memory of the teleportation glyph from it, and Luz can actually be happy for a moment, actually think she has this! That maybe this memory is for good, can be used for that! And Hunter, who knows damn well how much Luz has been haunted, can only be snappy and impatient about their success, like they’ve been wasting time getting this done when he contributed nothing to that process.

            Is it any surprise that his next and final storyline is about Hunter focusing so much on his own problems that he rebukes someone who IS trying to be helpful and supportive, and in doing so makes them feel even worse and self-loathing to a potentially suicidal degree? Before finally realizing, Oh hey this is what I’m doing, I can’t expect this girl to keep performing emotional legwork for me because of my tragic background while I offer zilch! I need to acknowledge that people ARE trying to help! Hunter makes himself better than his uncle, granted he’d have to dedicate his whole life to intentionally trying, to be even a fifth as bad. But still.

            My point is that in the end, Hunter was kind of a toxic person to Luz from Clouds on the Horizon onwards. Throughout their entire dynamic, it’s always been Luz trying to help and support Hunter, often suffering for it, as her actions with her other friends result in Hunter being given what he needs. But Hunter himself doesn’t really offer the same, and even directly makes Luz feel worse and contribute to her baggage. So it’s kinda telling that fandom once again attributes all of the work a girl of color puts into this dynamic to the bare-minimum contributions of the white boy.

            Anyhow Gus and Hunter are RIGHT there if you want Hunter being a protective older brother. Because while Gus does emotional legwork for Hunter, Hunter does the same, and they just have way more of an onscreen, casual, emotional bond than Luz and Hunter ever did. So my other point is to stop sleeping on Gus.

            And my other, OTHER point is when you look at other ‘difficult’ characters like Amity and Lilith, their harshness towards Luz was still ultimately juxtaposed with them becoming legitimately supportive and validating of Luz afterwards; The work Luz puts in to cultivate that bond pays off, they make Luz feel better! Whereas Hunter… Like I suppose part of it boils down to the Shortening, and we did NOT need another Hunter scene in S3. Dana did mention she entertained the idea pre-Shortening of Hunter staying at the Owl House and befriending Hooty like Lilith before him, so Hoo knows? But in the end Hunter never did properly apologize to Luz for all of that, and it seems that Luz suffered more from helping Hunter, than she did Amity and Lilith.

            When you combine this with Luz and Hunter not actually interacting that much, nor really having that deep or emotional of a bond, esp compared to their other dynamics it’s like. Yeah I don’t believe in Hunter as Luz’s protective older brother. In fact I don’t see them as siblings, period. Just two people who knew each other a couple times but had better friendships to focus on. The ones who know each other the least, because their shared, toxic secret is not enough.

            None of that stuff is canon y’all. Luz and Hunter aren't siblings. In fact he's not even a very good friend to her, despite how much she tries and has done, and lost for it. Obviously you can take into account the inexperience and influence of his abuse, but then again Hunter did way more for Gus... And unlike Vee, Hunter didn’t do it just one time, nor did he have multiple onscreen chances to make up for it. He wasn’t even really hurt by the Shortening like Luz’s actual sibling, who tried to sacrifice herself on some level so Luz could have her human life back, who actually is there for her throughout the timeskip, per the photos.

            By the end of the day Vee had to compete with a lot of other priorities, whereas Hunter was a more prominent priority and tbh I’m aware that like with others mentioned this is a feature of the character and not a bug, and could enjoy it more if fandom didn’t overhype Hunter as X when he’s Y, in addition to overhyping him in general. I think fandom needs to be humbled a little with this point because its tendency to gloss over it plays into a larger recurring trend that I take issue with.

[bloodwards]

d&d tonight was.

[franeridan]

thinking again about how in trigun 98 they had nick kill someone with the face of a child posing as an orphan for vash, and how in tristamp they had him kill a child in the body of a monster who had no choice in what had been done to him, and how instead in trimax nick for vash kills a man who'd approached vash for a death match, who'd demanded to either kill or be killed, a man nick had given vash a fair chance to fight and win against and who nick would have left alone hadn't said man attacked vash when his back was turned after the duel was over and done with, a man who'd been one step from possibly seriously harming vash hadn't nick stepped in. and about how after in all three versions vash yells at nick for it, but only in trimax nick tells vash that he's lucky he's there to play the devil for him so that he can stay a saint, and only in trimax in the arc right after vash ends up thanking nick for killing for him and protecting his home when vash couldn't because of his own morals, and only in trimax in the end when nick isn't there to play the bad guy for vash he ends up being right, and vash ends up having to dirty his hands himself to protect what he loves - while both in 98 and for now tristamp vash stays a saint until the end, and that fight they have ends in itself, and the only lesson it leaves you as a viewer is that nick is jaded enough to kill a child

[deadn30n]

when i tell you that aventurine is arguably one of the SMARTEST people in hsr just for the fact he is quite literally the epitome of 'plans within plans' and will literally layer on plan after plan and account for every possible variable, good or bad when it comes to executing something he wants to accomplish and the fact that he's willing to use whoever and whatever is at his disposal, regardless of the repercussions for the sake of his final goal

[youjustcannotknow]

the weight of the world has crushed me flat on this fine afternoon

[saturnsuv]

return of the relationship anxiety