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safely-in-vhagars-belly · 11 months ago

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''Fight and Die'' Slightly darkAemond x AFAB Reader

Aemond x fem oc/reader

Tags: Show setting, abusive brother (but its not aemond) mentioned of forced marriages and duels, mentions of parental loss.

🔷Summary: Your ancestors once betrayed the Targaryens and paid a high price. Now you are back at court with your brother, who hopes to sell you in exchange for his freedom.

🔷Author's note: It might still be a little darkish but not as dark as usual. I think this is the closest to show aemond I ever got. So he still is not a unicorn yall but he is at least imo he is decent and nice.

🔷Wordcount :3934

You never set foot in King’s Landing before.

Not before the exile of your family almost a century ago.

The Marthryralys were once the most trusted advisors of the Targaryens.

Until your ancestor, Daeyor Marthyralys sided with the false king, King Maegor. He had been burned after Maegor had died, and your family was banished out of King’s Landing, and the Seven Kingdoms.

For years you lived across the narrow sea, in a small village in Pentos together with your brother and the heir of your house, Prince Fryand Marthyralys. He has everything you can expect in a trueborn Valyrian prince. Silver hair, bright eyes in a shade almost close to violet and a temper befitting a god, not an exiled prince.

‘’Chin up, sister.’’ He tells you with a smirk as you pass by several nobles and guards, servants and maids alike who all stare at you with judgment. They likely heard stories about your family. Stories of their treason and kinslaying murder and pillaging. ‘’Remember what I told you earlier this morning. Today is the day our family’s legacy will be reborn.’’ That is what he hopes. You hope your brother achieves this alliance. For as long as you can recall he wanted this.

Fyrand sighs before perfecting your hair, putting a loose lock behind your ears. “You be quiet unless I allow it. If you ruin this for me, the consequences could be dire. For both of us, but especially for you.” The glare he gives you says enough. You give an absent nod, staring at your own bitten down fingernails. Fyrand follows your gaze, scoffing with a deep sigh. ‘’And quit that. I didn’t keep you alive all these years so you can fuck this up.’’

The grant doors to the throne room are opened by guards and someone announces to you both as you hesitantly follow your brother. ‘’Lord Fyrand of House Marthyralys, and his sister, Lady Revaera of House Marthyralys.’’ It is one of the few times you hear yourself being called a lady, or even your first name. Fyrand does not bother with kindness and ceremony. He calls you whatever he likes, especially when he is drunk and in a bad mood.

By the throne, several people with silver hair wait. Yet you can easily divide them into two groups. One group wears subtle or not so subtle green accessories. And the other group wears about any other color but green. The Princess's party and the Queen's party. You know this from what Fyrand briefly told you about the Targaryens. The two parties do not like each other very much. Details are vague to you, as Fyrand didn’t want ‘’to corrupt your moral compass with nonsense that is none of your business anyway’’.

You know they are the royal family of Westeros. The Targaryens. Once close friends of your family, now look at you both. You do not know these people and they do not know you. They stare at you with the same confusion and questions you have deep down. You see it mirrored in their eyes and their hearts they carry on their sleeves. You keep your eyes on your soft slippers and faithfully remain close to your brother, afraid of these strange people. They killed your parents. They killed your ancestors. They killed your dragons. ‘’Your grace.’’ Fyrand speaks, full of servitude as he bows down for the silver haired corpse like man that sits the throne.

Or rather the throne sits him. The throne is a monstrosity in the worst way of the word. It does not look like a comfortable chair to you. Perhaps that is what it symbolizes. That ruling is no comfortable chair. It is not easy. It requires sacrifice, usually the worst kind. The kind where lives are lost and doomed.

The smell of poppy is heavy near the king and you assume he uses it regularly to dull his pain. He hangs half defeated, half consumed by the Stranger on his throne, his glare growing every minute that passes when you both are here. You continue ripping your nails subtly.

‘’We let traitors in now?’’ A man comments, near who you assume can only be the Princess Rhaenyra. She is described as the most fashionable woman in Westeros, with silver, pale locks she often carries in Targaryen fashion. Her gown symbolizes a dragon, with her house colors, red and black. It has nice details and you take them all in. The man itself has shorter hair than his wife, although Fyrand would say it would still be too long for a male. He carries a sword around his hips, and wears a black armor as well. You guess by his age that this can only be Prince Daemon Targaryen, the King’s brother, the Princess’s her uncle as well as her husband. ‘’These two should be hanged outside and for the birds to peck out their eyes.’’

While you feel fear rise Fyrand laughs it off, as a joke. The king is not so quick to judge you as his brother. He even smiles at you. ‘’You are the spitting image of your ancestor, Grysalda the Bold.’’ Out of both of you, he chose you to compliment.

Your brother boils in his skin next to you, yet fakes a smile and peacefulness. ‘’Both fierce and stunning.’’ The King finishes. Grysalda was indeed both fierce and bold. She had a total of five husbands and flew the dragon Gravemaker. There was nothing she couldn't do if she didn't set her mind to it. She was said to be a great beauty. Men fought wars to lay eyes on her, Men conquered towns in her name and men would murder everyone that dared to oppose her. She was an interesting woman, although it is disputed whether or not she was a good one.

You make a small curtsy, swayed by the words yet wary of their meaning. Grysalda was a threat to the Targaryens. Is this a compliment or a very twisted warning? But to not acknowledge such a compliment would be rude. ‘’Thank you, your grace-’’

‘’Be quiet, sister.’’ Fyrand interrupts almost mumbling so the others won't hear. You close your mouth right away and let him speak instead. ‘’I have come with an offer for House Targaryen and House Velyaron.” He folds his hands on his back. You wonder if his offer is good enough for an alliance. You know what he will offer. You. He will offer you to one of the Princes of either party and he hopes that in return they will allow him to stay in Westeros.

Prior to this offer, no interest was shown by both parties. This changes instantly. Princess Rhaenyra turns into a woman dressed in Velyaron colors. Princess Rhaenys, you assume. Her granddaughters look on as well and even the Greens on the Queens side are surprised.

King Viserys sits up as straight as his sickness allows him. “You are bold.” You hear your brother laugh. You do not join him, your eyes constantly wandering to the interesting people around you. The princes and the princesses, the Queen and the King and their children.

‘’It is in our blood, I’ve been told by my lovely servants.’’ You think back of all the servants that nurtured you and Fryand when you were safely in Pentos and beyond. You are thankful for them, but there was only so much they could do to protect you from Fyrand. ‘’Since you ordered the death of my parents all those years ago.” Fryand smirks hiding the pain very well. The light in his eyes has died a long time ago. Nothing can bring it back.

The only sound that can be heard is Otto Hightower clearing his throat. “Are you here to dig up the past? I seem to recall your parents were planning my death.’’ The king is right. They were. You were almost a baby when the treason was committed but it was committed nonetheless. Your own mother died in childbirth and your father remarried quickly almost the day after.

You have known your brother for a long time. He is a dramatic man. He enjoys having power and enjoys playing with people. He will not tell them right away. He will toy with them first. ‘’I’m here for no such thing.’’

The Princess looks at you, as if you know more of this masterplan. You do, but you do not dare to speak again. ‘’I am here to ally my house with House Targaryen.’’ And with that, he hopes to restore your family’s legacy. All those years of planning in exile, all those years on the run all come down to this crucial moment. Was it enough? Or will you both hang before the sun sets?

‘’And why would we ally you?’’ The King asks, which is reasonable. They have dragons. You do not. They have a kingdom. You do not. You only have a freshly gathered army with questionable loyalties as they fight for gold and power.

Fyrand grins. ‘’It’s quite simple. I have built quite the legendary army, across the Narrow sea, in the Stepstones and far far beyond. Men are calling me Aegon reborn.’’ He grins at Prince Aegon, taunting him with this accomplishment. Aegon does not care, judging by his empty eyes and smile.

You glance at your brother, giving him a clear look that warns him of the path he is rolling down from. He should not forget you two are both hostages until you can prove you are worthy of this alliance. To make him sound like their beloved ancestor is a mistake, you just know so.

The king agrees with that as well, sitting up straighter and putting his crown back on his head when it slips. ‘’So you have come to threaten us?’’

You pull your nails faster, running out of your left hand. Fyrand chuckles but you can hear he has become nervous too. ‘’Your grace, no! Most certainly not. I came to a conclusion. I could destroy you all, but the chance you all yet survive because of your dragons is …too big for my liking. Why not forget about the past, why not let bygones be bygones. We should ally.’’ He says.

‘’Bygones be bygones.’’ Viserys repeats after your brother. ‘’And how will I know I can trust your word, if you already have began expanding your army?’’ Even more wary grows and dread fills your stomach. You can already see yourself hanging.

Fyrand gives you a small nod and you step forward, your hands neatly folded on one another as you look around the court for any kind face. But everyone looks at you like you are a traitor. It doesn't matter to anyone that you were a baby when the assassination attempts happened. They think you are just as guilty. ‘’I have brought my sister with me. My pure blooded Valyrian sister. She can stay here as a hostage, perhaps even marry one of your sons or grandsons. There is no need to have her wither away.’’

The king rubs at his forehead as if a great pain plagues him. ‘’I do not have time for this.’’ He speaks. You and Fyrand both freeze. He is not even considering your offer. ‘’Escort them to the dungeons.’’ He adds. Fyrand is surrounded within mere moments.

At first he couldn't believe it. ‘’What?’’ He can’t believe his plan didn’t work. And then the rage you know so well returns. He glares at you as if this is somehow your fault.

You understand you must act fast. So you do. ‘’Y-Your grace! Wait. One moment…’’ You search in the basket one of your servants brought with you. Fyrand glares, at first annoyed that you search your sewing basket. A few men chuckle as well.

‘’Is she going to knit her way out of this?’’

You put the wool and spools on the ground, searching deeper in the basket until you feel something cold, something hard and something ancient. You lift it from the basket, presenting it to all witnesses in court. In your hands is a familiar dragon egg. The king blinks with his eyes.

‘’Please, do not harm him. He has all I have left.’’ You add with a soft whisper.

‘’We found a chest full of dragon eggs in Pentos.’’ You hope you do not regret this. Fyrand makes a strangled little sound, briefly causing most heads to snap to him, back to the egg in your hands.

Prince Daemon draws his sword. ‘’Likely dead.’’ They might be. Most might be. Some eggs are centuries old, stolen during the time of Maelor.

You are facing certain death and so is your brother. You do not need this now. ‘’We did not have the resources to try to hatch them. We are no Targaryens.’’ You snap at him. ‘’We were lucky if we could find shelter for the night.’’

‘’How many eggs do you speak of?’’ The king asks. You did hope he would be interested. He is interested in dragon eggs. What fool wouldn’t be? You glance at your brother. He shakes his head rapidly.

Yet you go through with your plan. You must.

‘’At least seven and twenty.’’

Several gasps can be heard in the room.

Queen Alicent looks at the egg. ‘’’How did they even got there?’’ She wonders out loud.

A shout sends shivers down your spine. It belongs to your brother.

‘’I warn you, Revaera!’’ He thinks he is the only one who can make sacrifices. You will show him.

You can either lie and be executed or tell the truth and meet your gods with a true soul.

‘’They were stolen from the cradles of Targaryen babies.’’ You reveal, your head hung in shame with the crimes of your ancestors. Queen Alicent instantly turns her head to a young man on her side, wearing an eyepatch. Even from where you stand you can make out the scars that he likely tries to hide. Princess Rhaenyra, although she may hide it, also glances at the young man, her face full of regret and what could have been.

It is true. For centuries your family stole eggs from the Targaryens, replacing well working eggs with eggs that aren’t working eggs at all. Just stone and clay. You walk to the iron throne, presenting the egg to the king. ‘’This egg, I brought for you, my King. It was stolen a few years ago. It was said to belong to Prince Baelon.’’ You know he died shortly after birth but it is clear that the king has never forgotten his first born son.

His eyes light up in ways you never saw before, as you hand the egg over.

‘’This is impossible. The egg is still here. It is in my room.’’ The Queen lets out a soft but painful sigh as if she tried for years to close a door that is now pushed open wildly. You speak. ‘’No, your grace. They were switched. You have likely fake ones.’’

‘’After everything I did for you! You dare betray our family?!’’ Fyrand shouts and this time they need to restrain him from attacking you. You back away, terrified of your brother.

‘’They deserve to know! We were robbing babies.’’ You feel like you are betraying your family. But this might be your only chance at survival. You feel tired, alone, terrified and like this can all end in a moment. You have nothing left to do but break into tears.

‘’They are the reason we grew up without parents, without titles, without dragons!’’

You know he is right. And you wish you could do both but you clearly can not.

From the crowds, a brown haired young man steps forward, carrying the Velyaron colors. The colors of the sea. ‘’Grandsire, may I speak?’’ That must be Jacaerys Velyaron, the Princess’s ‘trueborn’ son with her lover, Harwin Strong.

The king smiles kindly at his grandson, proud that Jacaerys makes the effort.

‘’You already do so, Jacaerys.’’ He subtly looks at his other two sons, who stand by with rage written in their eyes, both green of envy and red of hatred.

Prince Jacaerys looks at your basket, your gown and the silver diadem in your hairs.

‘’We should ally with them.’’ He says. Hope fills your chest as you carefully start to smile.

Although the King loves his grandchildren very much, he will not let them affect his rule.

‘’Interesting. Explain.’’ He says instead, using this as a lesson. Again you notice his other two sons hide their displeasedness but it's so obvious to you.

The heir of the throne continues.

‘’House Targaryen needs more dragons. We can’t risk it that House Marthryralys will search for other allies. Dragons made us kings. Dragons made us strong. We cannot risk for the dragons falling into other hands.’’ You highly doubt that anyone aside a Targaryen could fly with dragons but with the blood thinning over several bloodlines it has become a risk to them.

‘’That is true.’’ The king admits despite the fact that he does not like you or your brother. He can see reason. That is rare for a king. Especially for a Targaryen king if what you heard from your brother is correct.

Prince Jacaerys becomes bashful, blushing a bit when trying to avoid staring too long at you. ‘’And, I think Lady Revaera has proven herself more than loyal to us, providing this information and the dragon egg. In fact, I was hoping you’d let us marry.’’ Marry? You feel new dread fill your chest as the King considers this offer. Even Fyrand has become awfully quiet. You need to turn your head to see if they didn’t knock him out. But no. He is still awake and awfully quiet.

‘’Not so fast.’’ A voice booms, as a shadow brushes past you, making his way to the Iron throne. The one eyed man stands in front of you. You feel threatened right away and gulp. The way he is dressed in all black is intimidating to you. ‘’I have done my fair bit of research into your family, my Lady.’’ You hear your heart beat only louder.

‘’You have?’’ You manage to ask, forcing your hands to stop trembling.

There is a silence in the throne room as everyone listens to what he has to say.

‘’Quite. You have an interesting story. I like interesting stories.’’ What is so interesting, you wouldn’t know. Your story is a tragedy. Perhaps he likes that. Perhaps his own story is a tragedy as well.

He turns to his father, and you briefly admire his long luscious looking silver pure locks that Jace clearly lacks. ‘’There is an old tradition, Grandsire. If an outsider wants to wed a member of the Marthryralys, he must duel a family member of the Lady to prove his worth.’’ That is true, in theory. But Your only family member is Fyrand. They won’t let their heir fight Fyrand.

And so, the king also speaks.

‘’I will not have Jacaerys fight that deranged man.’’

Aemond folds his hands on his back, his grin growing ever bigger. ‘’There is also another rule. If the Lady has multiple suitors, her suitors shall also fight for her and prove their worth. The victor shall become her Lord Husband.’’ You become uncomfortable, as you find it a bit of a silly rule, as well as concerning that he knows a awful lot about your family.

‘’Why is that needed? I want to marry her.’’ Jace bluntly says, laughing a bit to prove how silly he finds these traditions that your house honored for centuries.

Aemond looks at Jacaerys so he can see his face before he reveals what he was planning all along. ‘’Because I am also quite interested in her, Prince Jacaerys.’’ That sends shivers down your spine.

The King is confused. As are you.

‘’You are?’’

Instead of addressing his father and his king, he turns to you to give you a kind, almost the ghost of a smile as if he can hear you think and read your confusion that is written across your face. ‘’Hm. A lady as beautiful as you, I’d fight or die for you anyday.’’ Despite these words he almost seems confident he will win this match.

–

You visit Fyrand later in the dungeons.

‘’So.’’ He speaks as you have removed your hood. ‘’The Princes both seemed quite taken with you. Job well done.’’ He says, sitting up straighter, talking to you in high Valyrian so the guards won’t hear.

‘’They are eager for wives. It’s their age, I think.’’ Boys and men of that age become that way.

Fyrand chuckles as if you said something funny. He knows more about this than you ever will. ‘’Their age has nothing to do with it. They saw the way you played that fossil with that silly little egg of yours. They know their house is a dying one. The dragons become smaller and smaller still.’’ You heard the same, from your spies.

‘’You were clever, to think of it. To tell them the truth about the eggs.’’ You praise your brother, although you were scared in the moments where you acted out his plan. You had to turn off your emotions and believe that Fyrand would face certain death.

He bows his head in fake humbleness that does not become him in the slightest.

‘’Certainly. I have my moments. I nearly saw Prince Aemond drool when you presented that egg to that corpse.’’ You bet he did.

You become uneasy as you think of the one-eyed prince.

‘’He scares me.’’ You hope it is enough to call off the wedding part of the alliance.

But instead of that your brother’s smile only grows.

‘’Hm. He should. He is much to be scared of, little sister.’’

He leans in closer, his face close to the bars. ‘’There are rumors he tried to kill his own nephew. He is quick to anger, slow to forgive and has the biggest deadliest dragon in the entire world.’’ You hope he is lying. He has to be. He is describing a true monster.

‘’Aemond will win this duel.’’ He adds, as if it's clear.

‘’How are you certain?’’ Perhaps because Aemond is taller or older or something else you do not see?

He laughs as if you again ask a silly question.

‘’Because I saw both him and Jace fight. It won’t be to death, but just so you know: You will become Aemond’s bride.’’

A terrifying prospect. You did not agree to that.

‘’I thought we would pull the plan before that would happen?’’ You ask, your voice scared.

‘’No, little sister no. This is a long time plan. You just focus on keeping and making Aemond a very happy husband, yes?’’ You feel your air cut off at his horrible description. You see Aemond’s hands on your body and his lips near your neck, slightly brushing it when whispering dirty things in your ear.

Despite that, your body betrays you lie. ‘’Fyr, I’m scared. I do not wish to-’’ You wet your lips, speechless.

Your brother dryly gestures with the stomp that once had a hand attached to it.

‘’We all must make our sacrifices.’’ He says. You feel guilty. He lost his hand trying to get you to safety. He lost it defending the eggs. He smiles as you silently cry, accepting your fate. ‘’Now go. I bet they are itching to spill each other’s blood.’’

As always with a new story let me know what you thought of it. Comments reblogs likes are welcome but not required. But they do make me smile:)

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bibereangelum · 1 year ago

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on Scott and Xavier.

I think three things when I think abt Charles and Scott's relationship and it's the "But Lucier was an angel too" line from AVX and the panels where Charles realizes just how badly he's failed Scott in Prelude to Schism. And also the line from Xmen 1991 #53. What intrigues me abt their relationship is that Charles has both saved Scott and also royally fucked him over and he acknowledges that in prelude to schism. Granted- not out loud to anyone but himself. Prelude to schism also! Highlights the fact that their bond is that of father and son. (Or at the very least, Charles views Scott as a son and I could debate Scott never viewing himself as anyone's child but that's for a different day.) Which is interesting 2 me again because there is that like... several month long period before Bobby where it's just Scott and Charles and I think about what that must have been like regularly. But it's important that Charles directly saves Scott from an abusive situation. I think in general Charles does surround himself with other people he can identify with because he is such a private and reserved person if that makes... any sense at all? I guess. In that regard though. He is constantly pushing Scott to be better, not just better towards humans but better than his peers. Scott has to be in control, he can't let his guard down, he is the leader, that's what he has to be. That's what Charles teaches him. It isn't even really (imo) empowerment through his mutation, it's empowerment through control. Because like... imagine being 15, with powers you can't control when everyone else can control theirs, and you're told: "No, you will not fight the weaker person even if they call you freak because you need to be in control at all times." and we see how this impacts Scott via.... every comic with Scott in it ever. And what gets me in PS1 is that we see 15 year old Scott talking back a little, we see and hear his frustrations. He's even! a little rebellious, staring up at the sky with his beams going when he knows he's not supposed to. Scott shifts from 15 year old kid to The man for the job. His role is to be strong via his control in himself and his control around others.

This kind of stands in juxtaposition imo with like... referencing X-Men movies here, the way that Erik often tells Charles that he could literally change the whole world's minds about mutants if he so wishes, he is powerful enough to do so. But Charles doesn't because morals and doing what's right SLASH exercising the control necessary to be perceived as 'not threat' by humanity. His control is needed, otherwise the idea of coexisting with humans is threatened.This leads me to the line in X-Men 91 #53 in regards to Scott "He hasn’t had an independent thought since he was fifteen. He has no will of his own." Which like in regards to Scott's backround b4 Charles even gets him. Scott is a perpetual victim of circumstance up until he starts being an X-Men.

I can talk a lot about Scott's lack of mental boundaries for ages but tbh. Scott doesn't have boundaries in general because he's never been told he should have them but that IS a subject for another time bc it also interests me the level of shit Scott takes (especially from Alex but again, subject for another time.) But Scott takes in, performs, and enacts Charles will via becoming an X-Men. He is the poster boy, the stick in the mud leader, the guy who doesn't know how to have fun. Because he has to be the man for the job. He has to be in control (like Xavier) at ALL times.

Also smthn to note about Scott as well is that Scott is like nigh incapable of doing any kind of introspection on himself. He acts a certain way, gets embarrassed and berates himself for being the way he is, and listen. Scott does not like himself! He doesn't understand why he acts the way he acts and he doesn't understand why other people don't like him when he's doing what he's told. He wants to be normal, he wants what other people have so badly. but he can't. Because he, like Xavier, has to be the man for the job.

And I think Scott's: "But Lucifer was an angel too." line in AvX is so.. raw, that entire monologue is so raw because it's Scott at his worst. It's Scott losing control but it's also Scott basically saying. "No, fuck you. This time I'm going to punch the people calling me freak, I'm tired of being the one in control" And it's explosive obviously bc he got the Phoenix in his brain or whatever. But it's also the height of Scott during what I'd call a severe mental breakdown. Not to mention he does in fact kill Charles during this. But the line effectively says: "You have created me, told me what to do, and I have done what you asked. And now you are going to damn what you have created." But it's also like. Digging into angel bullshit Lucifer is the light-bringer/truth bringer, So Scott is effectively saying: I am literally ushering the world into a new era (WHICH HE IS TECHNICALLY SUCCESFUL AT AS THIS EVENT DOES BRING ABOUT NEW MUTANTS LMAO) , like you told me to, and you want me to stop????? You want me to stop doing the thing you created me for???? I could think and talk about Scott identifying with Lucifer for wAY too fucking long. So I'll cut it short with this: Scott killing Charles, albeit not on his own volition, is a way of saying "You don't get to control what I do anymore. I'm taking the power you promised me and using it to show you what went wrong."

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folkloriansolitairian · 1 year ago

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so here’s the thing about the red white and royal blue movie

PSA BEFORE WE BEGIN!!! I AM NOT HATING! i did like the movie, this is not me hating on it or casey mcquinston, any of the actors, producers, writers, etc. i personally think that casey is an insanely talented writer, and the actors did a phenomenal job bringing this story to life. i am simply sharing my opinion and what i would change about it! also i like to complain it is my natural instinct. now that that’s out of the way here we go

honestly i think they could have done better and we could have gotten a lot more. sososo much was left out from the books and i was honestly just disappointed by how much they changed or straight up removed entirely. we were ROBBED of the following:

• JUNE I MISS HERRR WHERE IS SHE WAAAAH

• alex’s parents being divorced and how that effected him as a person and helped him grow into the person he is

• alex’s self discovery in his sexuality

• liam and rafael luna and how they both also helped alex in discovering his bisexuality (who the fuck is miguel) (did not like that he was already bi, his path of self discovery throughout the book is really relatable and good rep imo but idk)

• the iconic cornettos scene (i know they filmed it it was is the fucking trailers WHERE DID IT GO)

• bea’s 🍃 scandal/‘powder princess’ and how much that contributes to her development and depth as a character

• BEAS FATTY FUCKING CAT WHAT IS HIS NAME I MISS HIM

• the physical presence of the emails and how vulnerable alex and henry are with each other in them and how much they reveal about not just the 2 of them but other characters too like bea and the rest of henry’s family (they just has voiceovers which i thought was kind of weird, maybe just me)

• henry talking to the cancer patient about at at wars and that whole adorable thing

• seeing alex storming the palace to talk to henry (he just appeared?? smh anyways)

• most of alexs persepective of the emails getting leaked

• the ENTIRE fake dating arc with alex/nora and henry/june (i think? read the book a while ago don’t fully remember)

• alex’s whole dilemma and eventual decision to go to NYU law

• ZAHRA AND SHAANS ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP BASICALLY!! (why weren’t they engaged)

• the historical love letters henry and alex quoted in their emails to each other

• most of the plot with the richards campaign (mostly to do with the fact that there is NO LUNA)

• overall a lot of the buildup/enemies to lovers aspect of alex and henry’s relationship

there’s probably so much more that i’m forgetting but THE POINT IS there were so many important little details from the book that was left out in the movie that i would have loved to see and it’s honestly just disappointing that we didn’t get those. it felt like they basically got rid of everything that didn’t have to do with alex and henry’s relationship which just made the movie feel very one dimensional and bland to me. the whole film just felt overall really lacking of what made me love the book so much in the first place.

now i am going to be a tad bit hateful when i say the pacing of this film is HORRENDOUS. it was so fast paced and really just did not flow at all like the he book did. a great example of this i think would be the bar scene. when i read that in the book, it felt like a really long and detailed scene, but in the movie it’s a short maybe 60 second long montage which honestly just does not do such an eventful moment from the book justice.

to be entirely honest i feel like the book would have done a lot more justice if it had gotten a tv show adaptation instead of a film. unfortunately movies have a time limit, and amazon made them cut the originally 3+ hour film down to 2 hours or less. with tv shows on the other hand, they can make multiple shorter episodes, resulting in a longer total running time, therefore giving much more time for the smaller details (listed above) that aren’t detrimental enough to the plot to keep in a limited 2 hour long maximum film, but important enough to be kept in a, for example, 8 episode long tv series, 30-45 mins per episode. it doesn’t make sense to me why it wasn’t a tv show in the first place, since it is produced by prime video, whose most popular thing rn is the summer i turned pretty, which is LITERALLY A BOOK TO TV SHOW ADAPTATION!!!!!

to put it simply, it is impossible to fit 10 hours worth of words into a 2 hour long movie, so i understand why they had to remove so many details, but as a diehard book fan it is still disappointing to not see little things like that portrayed on the big screen.

i think that the moral of the story is that books should never be made into movies and instead always be made into tv shows and we deserve the 3 hour uncut version and amazon hates gay people

thank you for coming to my ted talk

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lunajack-mania · 1 year ago

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So when you first look at Lunajack it seems a lil random right. but there’s so much more to it than that. You have Princess Luna, the redeemed alicorn Princess who spent 2000 years on the moon yelling at people one Twitter, and AJ, hauling ass all day everyday who portrays one of my favorite kinds of awkwardness (Zuko from ATLA had it too): the awkwardness of someone who’s never been in a NORMAL social situation and is so so scared of messing it up. And everyone can tell that she’s different- just by looking at her, obviously, but also like- the overly-courteous, bellowing royal energy is the only one she exudes. But she’s trying! She’s trying so hard to be a normal nice pone! But as it turns out, being incredibly lonely and cast in the shadow of your older sibling with you already being kind of weird towards your guest staff for so long until your evil tendencies reach maximum and you get a free* moon vacation does not lead to the most well-adjusted pone. Enter: Applejack.

Applejack has this kind of friendliness and hospitality that’s kind of hard to describe imo. It’s kind of casual in the sense that Apple hospitality applies to just about anypony, but it also has a lot of genuineness and integrity that makes it more than polite, because it’s so from-the-heart, along with the fact that Apples kinda have their own set of rules and that Apples simultaneously don’t really pay mind to what’s “improper”. And of course, AJ isn’t immune to finding people weird, so it’s not like she doesn’t have a couple reservations about Princess Luna. But, regardless, her overall kindness shines through. And she generally treats Princess Luna like any other pony, which is actually what kinda makes her stand out. I mean, That’s a major faux pas to most ponies. But that’s exactly what Luna needs- she doesn’t need someone else to treat her like an intimidating, royal princess, she needs a friend. So AJ and Twilight (who treats her similarly) kinda become this safe space for her I think. AndwithAJmaybeeventuallymore.

But, I dunno. Am I completely cringefail? Well yes, but am I bad enough at being cringefail that my characters are all off? Am I wrong? Did I mix up MLP and Sonic the Hedgehog? Find out on the next episode of Dragonball Z.

*may or may not require you to repent for thousands of years

uhm… btw…. Do you accept named anons? I may or may not come back for more….

I have no words aside from thank you for this, you absolutely amazing person.

And yes i accept named anons.

#lunajack

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phantomoftheorpheum · 6 months ago

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PLL: OS (Summer School) 2x05 thoughts

*Spoilers for 2x01-2x05 of Summer School

I just finished watching 2x05 and I have SO many thoughts, I don't even know where to begin. I think I'm going to structure this episode analysis a little differently by focusing on each of the main girls in turn, then everything else after. So... let's get started.

Noa

It feels right to start with Noa, since this is her "test" episode and she has all kinds of screen time in this episode. There is so much going on with her... every time I think I get a handle on how they want us to feel, they do something that confuses me with her.

Shawn/Noa/Jen - Let's talk about the love triangle. The whole first half of the episode, I was thinking, "Okay, they don't want us to like Noa and Jen, or they wouldn't make Shawn so ridiculously, endlessly supportive and just keep shoving in our faces how much he does not deserve this (based on everything we know now)," but then when they had Noa "dump" Jen, it genuinely felt to me like we were supposed to feel sad for them in that moment, which like... Why would we? Why would we like them? And y'all brought this situation upon yourselves! I don't get it, man.

Noa is like, "Maybe it's just temporary and your problems will go away," (I am paraphrasing) and I'm like, WHAT PROBLEMS NOA?? We have seen literally 0 problems between you and Shawn this season, except for the fact that you're cheating on him! I am trying SO hard to give Noa any grace I can muster, but she just keeps going lower. All season we've just got Noa like-

The smidgen of grace that I can find for Noa this episode is that she is finally feeling guilty. As she should. It took her long enough. But also, she's still handling everything horribly. I think it would be easier to relate to her storyline this season if we'd seen more cracks in her relationship with Shawn earlier in the season. Like... he didn't go to Mouse's birthday? His mom sucks, but he knows that and he doesn't excuse it? Or even if they'd just spent time showing Noa and Shawn's different interests making them spend less and less time together and maybe even Noa getting bored of their relationship. But we didn't see any of this. It was like Jen showed up and Noa suddenly did a 180 on personality and relationships. It's weird.

Shawn - Again, I don't need to spend a lot of time here, because I've talked about this at length & we don't really have any new info about Shawn, but he continues to be ridiculously supportive of Noa (I mean, this relationship is absolutely doomed, right? There is no coming back from this when it all comes out.), and if he is legitimately innocent, he is getting royally screwed. That being said, the fact that they are making him so supportive of Noa and constantly willing to do anything for her and choosing her over everyone makes me incredibly suspicious of him. I know he was like this last season (mostly), but it's just so in our faces. It feels like they're either setting up for a big switch with him, or maybe they're going to kill him off. This is not a sustainable character, imo. He is also conveniently never around when the BR stuff is happening. He's been MIA for all 3 tests.

Jen - I was trying so hard to give Jen a chance. I got off on the wrong foot with her (personally) when I realized she was going to be the inciting factor for a love triangle (which I hate) and infidelity plot line, but every single episode I like her less. Have I written her off completely? No. She hasn't murdered anyone in cold blood (as far as we know) or SA'd anyone (as far as we know), so I'm not saying I could never like her, but boy do I not like her right now. It's not just the obvious stuff (seeming to take delight in messing with Noa behind Shawn's back, the lying, the stealing, the actively trying to break up a relationship, etc.), the thing that really struck me this episode was the moment when Noa is mad at Jen because she intentionally inserted herself in the conversation with Shawn (and basically taunted him, though he didn't know it) and Jen's all like "Are you seriously mad at me? I just wanted coffee." (again, paraphrasing) just like fully twisting the situation around and gaslighting Noa about what was happening there. I DO NOT fuck with this kind of manipulative trash behavior. And she does that a lot, deflect blame (like with the stolen money) and then act all hurt that you would think badly of her. It's fucking infuriating. I want to give her the tiniest smidgen of credit for paying Shawn back (though it seems like her motivation is, "if you don't owe him anything, then you can break up with him,"), but I'm not even sure if I should do that, because it wouldn't shock me (considering she implies she got the money in a shady way) if she's setting Shawn up to get in trouble with the cash. Like that's how much I don't trust her atm. I will talk about this more in the next point, but also how the HELL did she know how to find Noa at the end of the ep? What does she know? That being said, Jen being so unlikable and suspicious (which I think is on purpose) makes me feel like she's too obvious to be a twist antagonist. But maybe she's still a secondary antagonist. I'm not sure.

Noa's test - I'm now fully convinced that the "tests" aren't about testing them at all. I mean, yes, obviously "Rose" wasn't playing fair, attacking Faran after she passed, but I originally thought the "tests" might be some sort of "are you worthy of redemption?" games, but now I think the "tests" are only a tool. I believe they're being filmed. The girls are being forced to do these things for entertainment purposes (we'll get to that theory in a bit), and that's why the tests don't really have much of a point and seem only designed to inflict fear, pain, or exhaustion.

Noa's test made her feet bleed (bloody feet reminds me of the Five Holy Wounds). Originally, I thought all the religious imagery was a clue for us, but now I'm starting to wonder if it's more about intentionally creating this imagery itself (Again, I'll get into this theory later).

I don't know what's next for Noa, but it feels like she's still got a ways to go before she scrapes rock bottom, possibly.

Faran

Okay, I'm actually really excited to talk about Faran because I love her. I think I relate the most to Faran out of any of the girls, and her character has felt so consistent in her characterization and I love that.

So, as I've been predicting from the jump, her relationship with Henry is over. It took longer than I was expecting, but here we are.

Faran: "Honestly, I'm not sure how much longer Henry and I are for this world." Me: Have you been reading my PLL posts?

^^ from my 2x01-2x02 analysis post

^^ from my 2x03 analysis post

Anyway, I just think it's funny that Faran and I used the exact same wording about this situation.

Faran's resilience and strength has been a huge theme for her character, so I genuinely really loved the way she struggled with facing the fact that she's not as invincible as she had been feeling. I love seeing Faran vulnerable, because she's a character that doesn't necessarily show that as often, and she's so confident and powerful, which I admire so much about her, but she's still a person.

Even though the situation was weird, I like that Faran got some well deserved apologies.

Henry - It does feel weird to me that Henry's gotten "converted" so quickly. He didn't seem to have a strong religious background prior to joining the church (which he initially did for the acting role in redemption house), and he's been so obsessed with Faran, him not being able to walk away from the church is weird. I'll be discussing the church itself in a later section, but this episode has pushed me away a little bit from some of my theories, but it genuinely does feel like there's some weird... almost hypnosis-like stuff happening? I'm not really personally all that suspicious of Henry at the moment, it kind of feels like this storyline was a good way to connect Faran to the church plot & destroy her relationship at the same time, and I don't know that it needs to be any more than that? (with Henry specifically, I mean).

Greg - For a minute, I thought he'd been fully "converted" like Henry, which would ruin my Faran & Greg grudging team up theory, but I think that may still happen. Faran is definitely the one out of the girls with the most ties to the church/cult stuff, and obviously Greg does, too. He is annoying, but watching him constantly get shown up by Faran is honestly very enjoyable to me, so I'm not opposed.

Imogen

First of all, the fact that we've seen Imogen grab knives multiple times and nothing happens with that (except for in Tabby's film where she stabs Chet) feels very Chekhov's Gun of them. It makes me a bit nervous that Johnny is present for both of these scenes and is the one who de-escalates the situation. Is it foreshadowing that she's going to stab him in the finale?

Johnny - I know this is totally irrelevant to the character & I'm trying not to develop a blind spot for him, but ever since I finally realized Johnny is played by Antonio Cipriano, I kind of love him 😅. Have y'all heard this man sing? ANYWAY, I know that's not how I should be judging the character, and if he does anything suspicious, I'm still gonna point that out (spoiler alert- he said something that sent me into a spiral and I'll be addressing that in the upcoming theories section). But I want nice things for Imogen (I mean, after last season, I want her to have anything she wants romantically) and anyway I know I was very undecided about Johnny for the first half of the season, but now I really want him to be good. Also I love his voice. I mean, obviously the actor is a gorgeous singer, but I mean that I love his speaking voice. It's so soothing. But then that makes me nervous.

Rebecca - PLL loves a "let's connect these characters with a common letter" twist, so I think we are absolutely supposed to notice that Rebecca and Rose are both R names. We know basically nothing about her, but the fact that they're introducing a step-mother figure (soon to be) when motherhood is a central theme to Imogen's story is clearly not a mistake. I'm not sure where this storyline is going. Rebecca is inherently suspicious, but the fact that she hasn't been introduced until over halfway through the season makes her feel disconnected from everything we've seen so far. I'm reserving judgement on this point of this character for now.

Mental Health - It's not a surprise that Imogen has been struggling with her mental health throughout this season. Not only does it run in her family, but she also has been through so much trauma. It would be more surprising if she were fine. I don't know if her profile in Dr. Sullivan's office was supposed to make us suspicious of her (Imogen) in some way, but I am not. I do think we'll see her stab someone by the end of the season, though. But I expect it will be someone who deserves it.

Mouse

Mouse is in a kind odd position this episode. Her grandmother feels more important to the episode than she does.

Speaking of- the consistent presence of Mouse's grandmother makes it feel like her character is more important than I thought she would be. Does she have some sort of connection to Bloody Rose (or regular Rose Waters?) from her past? What's going on with this storyline? Why are they devoting time to it? I feel like I've missed something important. Any ideas?

Mouse herself feels quite background in this episode. We don't really see much of anything that moves her storyline forward. She sees the Bloody Rose Cult (more about that later) stuff, and she has a nightmare about Rose, but that's about it. Idk what else to say.

Ash - He's basically not in this episode. I'm not super suspicious of him, but I'm also not not suspicious. It still bothers me that he's been upgraded to a main cast member, but we haven't seen him that much this season (like he and Greg were the two that got bumped up and Greg has been around a lot more compared to season 1), which makes me wonder if he has a LOT of screen time near the end, which would likely be due to him being involved in things. But there's also just... pretty much nothing to back this up? What would his motive even be? The only suspicious stuff we've seen from him so far- being MIA during Mouse & Faran's tests (but we know where he was during Noa's), MIA for actually finding Rose Waters (that split up was very weird), Red Right Hand playing over one of his scenes, He was wearing a shirt in 2x05 that looked like it had roses on it, and also his actor's credit in the opening sequence is laid over the bloody rose in the locker (Greg's actor's credit is also over a bloody rose). But why would he do any of this? How would they connect it? So... yeah, that's where I am with him rn.

Tabby

Tabby's film festival plot line seems to be a lot more important than I originally thought it was. In fact, it is a major piece in my current working theory, and I feel like Tabby and film is a pretty central theme to this season of the show. Of course Tabby has always been a big horror film nerd, and of course the show has always made a lot of references. But I think they might be even more important this season.

Christian - I've generally been not so suspicious of Christian this season, but I'm becoming more and more so. I just feel like the whole plot line of him quite literally making a Bloody Rose mask (particularly when I think it's quite clear someone is dressing up like Rose. it's not actually Rose, and real Rose probably never looked anything like that anyway, so they got that mask somewhere and he is the most obvious source for the mask) should have come back around by now if he's 100% innocent. Instead, Tabby hasn't questioned this. That puts me on edge. He's also kind of suffering from the "too perfect so now you're automatically suspicious" characterization I've mentioned before. There is one particular reason that I've become more suspicious of Christian after this episode, but I'm going to cover that in the theories section.

Camp Millwood - When Tabby first mentioned this in the episode, I thought we might be getting the "secluded cabin/camp in the woods" plot line that I've been anticipating, but it's not exactly an abandoned or secluded location anymore. It does feel a lot like the Stab-a-thon in Scream 4, though. So that's interesting. I feel like there have been a lot of Wes Craven references this season (there is a character named Wes in this show).

Friday the 13th - There are a ton of film (specifically horror) references throughout the show, but there being such an emphasis on this series doesn't feel accidental. I've not seen the entire series, but I do know the famous twist of the first film (which I will not spoil here) and that feels like it could be related, considering the themes of this show. Scream references this twist, too, and I've seen a lot of Scream references in this season. But since I am not a Friday the 13th expert, I think it's possible the importance of bringing this franchise up may have gone over my head a bit.

Dr. Sullivan

I think I need to give this character her own section, since we learned a lot this episode.

I'm really not sure how much we're supposed to trust her. As I've said before, I don't think her being "good" in the original show necessarily means she'll turn out good in this one. I do think Dr. Sullivan's past & the fact that she has multiple quotes throughout the season that feel like they're implying she may have lost a child needs to reappear. I'm just not entirely convinced it's directly tied to our BR plot, or... that it means she's involved in an antagonistic way.

Okay, maybe this an unpopular opinion, but like... If you're telling your therapist shit, she's gonna write it down. I know that Dr. Sullivan was illegally recording the sessions, and that's obviously major malpractice (and seems like a weird risk to take, just to write a book) that could get her license taken away, so I'm not saying it doesn't matter. But I also felt like the girls were a lot more freaked out by it than I (a viewer) was. Like... your therapist is going to keep records of you. They are going to write down things you tell them. How the hell would they keep track of all their patient's issues if they didn't? This is a more extreme version of that, and if a therapist IRL was doing that (secretly recording you), it would be upsetting. I just think in the scheme of issues in the show, this one felt like they had a huge reaction, when there are other big issues they just brush off like it's nothing.

Now, whether or not Dr. Sullivan is being honest about what she was doing is an entirely different matter. I can't help but wonder if she's doing some investigating (illegally) because she thinks the events of what happened in Millwood (and possibly what's happening now) are tied to the loss of her loved one (possibly a child) and she's trying to solve it & she recorded the girls because she wanted transcripts to be able to review everything in detail. If she's trying to figure out what happened to her child, that would be a motive big enough to be worth risking your career, and could keep her from being a "bad" character, while still being shady. She wasn't surprised at being pushed down the stairs (if that even happened) and she said in this episode that she volunteered to work with the girls. So anyway, I think she may be investigating.

I do have another theory about the recordings (we'll get there).

Other Notes

Rose has a German Shepherd?? Listen, I'm probably not supposed to think too hard about this, but this (again) feels like an unnecessarily elaborate set up.

Kairos being brought up by name again still interests me- if you haven't read my earlier posts about this, I've pretty extensively discussed why this is interesting in my 2x04 analysis. You can find that tagged 'pll' on my blog.

Bloody Rose Cult - the online version of the cult kind of confuses me. I'm not sure how that's going to tie in, like it feels like it has to be there for a reason, but it also felt like a complication to the plot that we maybe didn't need. So what gives?

Theories

I'll just get the big one out of the way first-

Wes. I mentioned last week that just because Wes hasn't had a huge presence this season, I haven't forgotten that he is sketchy AF. I also theorized that the SpookySpaghetti BR films might be his (and might even be the rejected festival films he made). I also mentioned during my church (specifically Mrs. Beasley) theory that the biggest snag in that theory is the technological side of Rose, her online presence, the use of the term "final girls," etc. None of that really fits with Mrs. Beasley, even if she is working with kids from the youth group. So here's what makes the most sense to me at this moment. Wes is making a movie. He saw the events of the Millwood Massacre, realized he had five "final girls" right in front of him, is bitter about his plot with Tabby from last season, and is desperate to "make it" in the industry. The tests are weirdly convoluted and nonsensical because they matter only insomuch as the footage they capture for his film. Whether or not they pass doesn't matter to Rose, as long as they don't ALL die because there needs to be someone left for the finale. If they fail, gory death footage. If they pass, tense chase scene. If Wes is behind this, I think the church (cult) are the villains of his film. We see a BR cult in the most recent film on SpookySpaghetti, and they are doing exactly what we later see Kelly, Henry, and the church doing. I think it may be that all the religious imagery, the kills all being "sinners," the supposed "tests," is all designed to lead back to the cult (based off of Kelly's church) in the film. This is why "Rose" killed the teens in the cabin, and Sandy, no tests, but devised convoluted traps for the girls to escape. Those other characters aren't final girls; they don't need to make it to the finale. I suspect the "finale" is planned for Redemption House. Sooooo, that's the new big theory.

If someone is making a movie, this also ups my suspicions of Christian. Wes is the obvious choice (I mean, he's named Wes, he's a walking horror reference), but he's also already an annoyance at best, so it's easy to suspect him. Christian has as much horror movie knowledge and could also be working on something like this. The fact that he's NOT been a suspect basically at all (Tabby thought he was weird for like 5 minutes) definitely is a red flag for me. I also think this is a multi-person operation (at least two, possibly more).

I also think, even if the "Wes is making a movie" theory is correct, we have to have someone who has more personal knowledge (or access to it) of the girls involved as well. How does Rose know their secrets? As far as we know, only Jen & Noa know about their relationship, but Rose knew. Obviously the love interests are all in a good position to get info, but none of them have complete access to all the girls, so they could be pooling their info, or they could be stealing/checking phones, etc. OR it could be someone like Dr. Sullivan. She knows A LOT of the girl's secrets, and she might even know about Jen & Noa's original relationship if she has access to juvie records. Who knows? I haven't forgotten that all their numbers leaked and there aren't many characters who should have been able to do that. It's also possible (if she and Wes or she and Christian were working together) that she was recording the girls for dialogue/audio for the script of the film.

My big question about this is.... How would Wes (or Christian, if he's involved) think he could get away with this? If he makes his movie out of real footage, people will know. Maybe he doesn't care. Maybe he just wants the recognition, no matter the cost.

The Church - I'm not completely not suspicious of the church anymore, like I still like a lot of the analysis I did on it, but I think my current theory fits a little better at the edges. Still, I've got my eye on them.

Jen showing up to pick Noa up is weird. Since Noa was walking around in the woods for a while, it seems unlikely she would have been able to follow her very well. But I feel this could also be easily explained by Jen being tipped off in some way. It's weird, but I'm not ready to make a strong judgement on it yet.

Okay, okay, okay. This is me taking a ridiculous shot in the dark based on the tiniest shred of evidence (and honestly kinda hope I'm wrong), but I had this wild thought when Johnny mentioned his dad is an asshole. We know basically nothing about Johnny, but they give us this little tidbit. This show loves twin twists. This show loves its alliterative names (Karen & Kelly). And there's someone else who also mentioned their dad is an asshole. Could Johnny & Jen be twins? We get the impression that Jen is an only child because she mentions she and her mom were abandoned by her dad (however honest that is), but she never said she didn't have siblings. We've never seen Johnny and Jen interact (they were both at the skate party, but not interacting), and they're both possibly not from Millwood (Jen mentions she had to come to Millwood for summer school, implying she's usually enrolled elsewhere, and Johnny asked that girl on a date to Rosewood, meaning he may also not be a Millwood native). Once I thought it, I had to write it down. It seems like a stretch, but I would never forgive myself for thinking this and not saying it if it turned out to be true.

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theblogtini · 2 years ago

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But I don’t think it’s even about the money. If they ACTUALLY want to undertake any humanitarian stuff and make a difference (& I think Harry genuinely DOES want to - it’s important to him on a core level) then they need to be royal.

I disagree. Harry is far too selfish, self centered and lacking in empathy to genuinely want to do so for anything other than self aggrandizement. I mean this is the guy who said that the disaster victims in Nepal were luckier than him because at least they were free smh. The same person who cast their flight from one mansion to another as freedom flight lol

Nah. He doesn't want to do good. He wants to be seen as doing good and get all the admiration and adulations for it. That's why his attitude and approach toward charity work, as described by Low in Courtiers, were very patronizing and white savior-ish -- quick and flashy fixes that looked good for instagram vs long term solutions favored by William. He said so himself in the fake Greta interview as he took a dig at the earthshot prize -- that small steps and giving out awards wouldn't make any difference -- and advocated for big, shocking changes instead.

And it IS about money. Very much so IMO. In the same interview, when he was talking about their plan for charity work, he noted that there's a hell of a lot of money being passes around the world in charity sector. They wanted to get a piece of that pie IMO. They thought companies and organizations would throw money at archewell. And travalyst, which is still hasn't been registered as a non profit, is intended to be a money maker thru green washing. As he said in another instance -- for his campaign against misinformation I think -- why not profit from positivity and doing good? And that's exactly what they want to do and why they left imo. They wanted to get paid for doing the same things as royals.

So rereading my earlier response I really misspoke lol.

It’s absolutely 100% about money. That’s the root of it all for them.

BUT I think they realize that they are doing literally nothing and if they want to rehabilitate their image/brand at all then they need to really bank on the humanitarian thing bc they’ve proven to be really shitty “content creators.”

So they need focus on that.

But they can’t because they can’t do anything BIG enough without the royals. And when there are things they can get access to that doesn’t have the same gravitas that royal engagements do. It’s the same as if you or I volunteered at a soup kitchen at Christmas. And also in the US those royal engagement type things don’t exist - we don’t have anyone who publicly does that type of cause awareness thing on such a public level like the royals do, so people are like “whatever.”

The US is also kind of like… to big? One of the things that allows the royal model to work is that a) there’s a bunch of them and b) the UK in pretty easily navigable. Someone can easily get from 1 end of the Kingdom to another and back in a day. London to Belfast is faster than flying from Boston to DC. Meanwhile getting from 1 side of the US (BOS to LAX for example) to the other is 6 hours & 3 time zones away. They can’t make a big enough splash bc they can’t hit enough community based charities (the way the royals can) for anyone to care.

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amiharana · 2 years ago

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OKAY I FINALLY GOT TO WATCH THE TOTK TRAILER HERE ARE SOME OF MY THOUGHTS

the more stuff that comes out about totk, the more interested and emotionally invested i become in the lore. where did these floating islands come from? who were the zonai and why are they back? do they have some sort of connection to ganon or hylia, or other races in hyrule (e.g. the sheikah)? how does the presence and existence of the zonai connect back with the rest of the zelda timeline?

like since there's at least? 10,000 years since the previous links and zeldas to botw/totk link and zelda, did the zonai exist in that 10,000 time period or way before and they were just never seen in previous games (for narrative purposes?)

do you think the presence of the zonai will give us some insight to the hero and princess of 10,000 years prior when the divine beasts were first used against ganon + all the ancient sheikah technology was still used? do you think the zonai had some sort of hand in helping shape that tech?

i know that during the development of botw, some of the things that inspired some of link's "abilities" were from hobbies of people on the zelda development team, e.g. the master cycle zero exists in the dlc because eiji aonuma is a motorcyclist in his free time. do you think someone on the team skydives for fun and that's why they added link falling through the sky and shit lol

they NEVER explained the paraglider in botw. you know me as your local revalink brainrot provider and what i think about the existence of the paraglider if you've been following me long enough. since the paraglider gets a little design update in totk (and unfortunately kind of loses revali's symbol in it

what the HELL are these glowing spires coming out of the ground everywhere. will they function the same as sheikah towers. what the fuck happened to the sheikah towers bc i'm either blind or they're gone. do shrines still exist in this game

hateno village (and other settlements) seems to have gotten updated! what new things do you guys think will be added in villages that weren't there before? also idk if it's just me but why do the three trees on mount lanayru look closer to the village??? i don't remember them being that close idk lol

DO YOU THINK WE'LL GET NEW NPCS IN THE SETTLEMENTS <33

THERE ARE LITTLE CAMPS IN CASTLE TOWN RUINS IM GOING TO CRYYYY they have the hylian crest on them so they have to be related to the royal family (in a business way) somehow? are these the construction folk who are going to rebuild castle town? do you guys think we'll get to see castle town completely rebuilt by the end of totk? DO YOU THINK WE'LL GET TO REBUILD EVERY RUINED SETTLEMENT TARREY TOWN STYLE??????? <3333

i know some people hated the fact that the botw map was reused and imo it's Nawt that serious girl calm down lmao. in fact i think reusing the map is an excellent challenge for the zelda team; how can you rework this familiar world into a fresh one the players can enjoy and explore again? with all the literal changes in the geographical markers of botw and the addition of new little thingie ma bobbies all throughout the map, i'm excited to see how the zelda team has approached this sort of challenge by reusing botw assets

THE THYPHLO RUINS AREN'T DARK ANYMOREEEE tbh i never finished that shrine quest LMFAOKDJFHJKD the not being able to see part always stressed me out and the fact that you had to fight a hinox in the dark 😭😭😭 IM SAWRYYY IM THE MOST ANXIOUS PLAYER EVER but i can't wait to explore it in the light????? i think someone mentioned how it also had zonai architecture; i'm just so invested in how the presence of the zonai shaped the now-world of botw/totk hyrule

so i wasn't able to see it in the trailers because i'm sooo blind, but did you guys ever see the divine beasts at all in the clips? i mean i wouldn't want to do a divine beast dungeon again LOL, but where do you guys think they are? are they just chilling in their respective regions? did they bury the beasts again? do you think we'd be able to actually go inside and explore the beasts for funsies now that they're not corrupted/in position lasered onto the castle?

WHAT IS OUT IN THE GERUDO DESERT. INSERT CARDI B MEME WHAT WAS THAT????? IS IT A SECRET DIVINE BEAST. FUCK. WHAT IS IT

the zonai have got to have some connection to time i know we could probably figure that out from the totk gameplay video from a couple weeks ago BUT STILL. let's have a twilight princess ancient hero comeback and just have old man ocarina bones sit in, or maybe multiple previous links spiderman no way home-style or whatever that movie was called. i didn't watch it sorry KDJHFJDK

ZELDA FALLING IN AND LINK JUMPING IN AFTER HER WITH HIS MALICE CORRUPTED ARM 😭💔 WHEN WILL MY BABIES BE FREE FROM THEIR FATES

THERE ARE FLYING PIRATE SHIPS TEEHEE. COME ON TREASURE PLANETTTTTT link but he's jim hawkins asf

water bubbles as transport like come on vesicles. come on transport cells. ANYWAYS THE LASERS link is a spy girl fr come on kim possible

WHO IS THAT. i can't take pictures i'm watching the trailer and pausing and unpausing on my switch while typing this on my laptop IS THAT A NEW HYRULEAN RACE. do you think it's like a fe3h ashen wolves moment where they've just been living underneath the ground because they were banished by hylia and no one knew lol

THE SANCTUM WAS RESTORED KSJDHFKJSDHFJKSDHF HOW DID THEY FIX IT SO FASTTTT what if link actually went back in time. the room is all sparkly so i'm like. did u fix it with magic or likeeeeee WHAT IS IT ASF

WHERE THE FUCK IS ZELDA. what do you guys MEAN you rely on link and the master sword. WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE??????? IS THAT THE ZONAI KING OR SOMETHING.

historically the hylians have believed in this like. pantheon of gods comprised of the golden goddesses + hylia, and i've always been under the assumption that other races just coexisted their faiths e.g. zora mainly believing in jabu-jabu, ww!rito believing in valoo, etc. what if there was like a pantheon of zonai gods but it's like greek vs roman style. what if hylia had a zonaian (?) counterpart. idk i'm spitballing out of my ass rn but i think it would be cool

re:WHO IS THAT. bulletpoint: WHAT IF THAT'S HYLIA'S ZONAIAN COUNTERPART. LOL

seeing all these flat little creatures floating in the sky makes me miss vah medoh and revali

WAS THAT TULIN. GO BACK HOME TO YOUR MOTHER?????????? WHERE IS TEBA.

link pulling people in wagon it's giving skyrim "oh you're finally awake" PAUSE WHAT ARE THOSE GREEN THINGS ON THE WHEEL. IS THAT ZONAI TECH/MAGIC

how the HELL did they build those shits on top of the talus. the bokos were really like It's Free Real Estate

link making himself a fully functioning tank rn. my brother in christ that is a vertical stone block with a cannon fused to its edge on wheels. i love it.

i kinda wanna know what happened to the elemental arrows. like in botw they tell you that rubies innately have the power of fire, but how does that differ from a regular fire arrow? does it do more damage?

HOLD ON TULIN WAS ABOUT TO GET EATEN BY THAT ICE MONSTER THING GO HOME??

what the FUCK is zelda cradling in her hands. is that a seed or life or something. it looks like an embryo lol. divine beast embryo

WAIT IS THAT HYLIA???? WHOAAAA

riju 🥺🥺🥺 the champion descendants 🥺🥺 doofus with a bucket on his head... SIDON WAIT HE HAS THE CROWN ON HIS HEAD

"link! you must find me!" WHERE ARE YOU GIRLLLL

i didn't realize there was a word limit. i just kept typing. ok those are my thoughts so far IM SO EXCITED

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orbital-obvious · 1 year ago

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Ocean's 8 ANALYSIS [1/?] : MET GALA DRESS RANKING

I have watched Ocean's 8 and I have THOUGHTS so letss gooooo This is going to be in a number of parts becuse ahhhh this is gonna be long probably

Let's start with my ranking of the Met Gala looks because AHHHHH i need to get this out of my braiiinnnn (and it's also proabbaly the lightest topic, so!)

(pics taken from here btw which is another dress ranking post lol)

The important thing to remember about our O8 ladies is that a. they slay b. they are pulling a heist, so why they need to be glamerous enough to fit in, they also need to avoid standing out. My ranking will be based upon the very subjective scale of "how pretty i think it is" with notes about how this relates to the heist etc

Going from best to worst, first up ---

I mean. Comon.

9Ball aka Rihanna wearing TF out of this simple yet elegetn dress. It's very no nonsense, luxurious but simple.

When I tell you I GASPED when she got out of the van wearing this... Bro. Unmatched. The silluate and fit are perfect and this red was MADE for her, I swear.

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous.

You can be a party pooper and say that despite its simplicity it's still to fancy and tight for a character like 9Ball who, tbh, didn't need to go to the gala anyway (being the hacker and off site by design). To that I say that we deserve to see Rihanna kill it going down the stairs like she owns the place which, if we're honest, she proabbaly does.

I love this dress so fucking much it's so simple yet such a perfect freaking fit. Love it.

Yessssssssssssssssssssssssssss hell yes.

Lou kills it with a suit that perfectly encapsulate her 'muscline' and edgy look throughout the film, just all glammed up. The color, the sparkle, that cheeky cleavage showing the jewl, omg. I want the entire wardrobe of Kate Blanche in this movie and her look was no dissapointment.

The thing that trips me a little bit, though, is that she wasn't filmed in the gala like the rest of the squad, and we only get to see her wearing this on the street, walking to Debbie, and I stg I thoguht she litterally wore this on the street and was like ???? But that was O K. and you know why? Cause she did it for the vibs and the WLWs and that's ok by meee.

The woman of the hour, Daphn Klueger aka Anne Hathaway.

It's lovely - I'm actually a little bit obssssed because I love a good cape and this is a GREAT cape, and whil striking it's not overbaring and works weell with th straplss dress to showcase th neckless.

This one is interesting bcausee it was designed, in univrse, to stand out and follow the gala theme (european royalty) and I actually feel that in universe she was proabably one of the 'adaquate, but not wow' persons of the night and the interenet probabaly chewed her off for not going all the way with the theme butttt

This is a movie, not real life, and the purpose of this outfit was to highlight the Necklace aka the target aka the focus point for the movie, which it did (as I say, it frames it perfectly) and it is a decent enough nod to the theme for me to belive this is a legit met gala outfit someone would wear.

My only issue is this color. I DON'T like it, not for this. A rich (royal) blue would have looked much better imo (and might have been a node to princess Diana famous ring if we go all big brain about it). I think the color was chosen to make Daphne stick out over the viewers and grab our focus (which was her role in the plot, tbh), so I get it - even if I don't like it.

Ok, love this. Amita - aka Mindy Kaling - suntring down the stairs in a look that is, literally, pure gold.

Love. Love. LOVE the sleeves, the ornament heavy on top, and the way the fabric drapes. She looks fantastic and this is definetally her kind of gold. The golden dress also gets extra points because I think that its good for hiest reasons - if you see her in passing and don't know who she is, you will rememebr the dress more than the person becasue it's so sparkly. I also like her hair in this, It feels nicely done but reasonable, considering she had to move from her kitchen worker costum to this in very short time.

A stong yet not overwheleming look from our woman on the inside, Tammy aka Sarah Pualson. She is the event orgnizers and therefore went with the (releteively) modest black on black look which fits in with the servers outfits and I personally really like.

I think it also works for Tammy as a person - it's not revealing, the puff sleeves make gives her broad sholders (cause she's a strong woman, lol) and It does look practicle for a woman who will probabaly be up on her feet all night, making sure things run smoothly - both in the heist and the actual gala.

My only issue? It looks CRUNCHY. It's one of those fabric that would either crumble or cut my hands if I try to squeeze it. Pretty spooky.

Debbi Ocean aka Sandra Bullock in this look that I'd call sufficiant - mfancy enough for the gala but underwhelming overall --- which is exactly the point of a heist disguise. She doesn't stand out and most people will probabaly forget she was even there.

The reason it's so low on the list is because I just.... don't like it very much. I think it's the gold-on-black color scheme, which I'm not a huge fan of, personally.

I WILL SAY that it works well with her wig which is practically the color of the embelishments and thus kinda mix the entire look togther in a fitting yet unimpressiv blob, a perfect costume for the heist.

Also I get a kick out of her being the only one wearing a wig, an extra con for our head conwoman.

It's not that I don't like this dress - I HATE it. I get that Rose is a once-legendary-now-flop in universe but comon, Helena Boham Carter deserved better than this.

It's doing so much, gives so little, and is just MESSY. The tacky print. THe flower embelishment. The unclear folds (?) around the chest UNDER the tacky print. WHY.

Though the biggest offendrs are the accessories. What in the mid 2010's is those stupid sunglasses - which, now that I look at them, might have been decent if not for that stupid giant hairpeice of mounted crap.

Rose Wile consisently gets the worst costumes in this movie and I just. Don't. Get it. This is the worse one though, by far.

Ok, but why do this to my girl Constanse (aka Awkwafina).

I have a personal hatred to those hotdog looking dresses with the nude mesh and those applique looking embelishment. Why not give her a suit, as well? She was wearing shirt+pants street style the entire movie, why torture hr lik this?

I hate it, but I do love the way she's wearing it, with he heels (who gave her HEELS?) in her hands and the IM DONE look on her face.

I do wonder how they glammed up her hair so fast, though. Weren't they on a tight heist schedual? Is this some secret thief trick? If so, where I can I learn it???

And that's it for the MET GALA looks of Ocean 8. It's a fun movie and I have lots more to talk about (good and bad) but it'll have to wait. So, for now, gorgeous gorgous dresses. HAHAH.

#Oceans 8 #oceans eight #ocean 8 #ocean eight #ocean trilogy #can i tag it as ocean trilogy?#or #ocean franchise #?#IDK

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curiosity-killed · 3 years ago

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Lang Qianqiu deserves more love goddammit: a post, unfortunately

This brought to you by the wonderful @veliseraptor & @/yuer on Twitter but also mostly out of spite and the fact that it’s preventing me from writing a very dumb poke-the-bear post abt the entire weird social media culture around The Minors

As always ✨SPOILERS!! SPOILERS EVERYWHERE✨

So first off: when I hit the scene where lqq confronts xl and screams “I will never be like you” I sat up in bed, did a little shimmy of delight, and hissed “fuck yes” at like 2 AM so. Now you have a preview of wtf this train wreck will be

1 ) lqq is a good character

We don’t get a ton of time with lqq because tgcf is 87 side characters running across stage with The Most Interesting Concept constantly one-upping each other before vanishing. But what we do get is, I think, enough to make a pretty compelling story: Lang Qianqiu is a kind and generous prince who is also the sole survivor of the bloody massacre of his entire family, committed by the people dearest to him (both in his belief that Gusohi Fangxin did it and in the reality of An Le’s involvement), who goes on to peacefully lead his fractious nation into a peaceful reign before he ascends as a powerful enough (aka beloved and worshipped enough) god to be ranked among the top heavenly generals. That’s like. Pretty fucking classic protagonist vibes right there.

And, as usual with mxtx’s characters, we get a lot more than this lovely little backstory. In his interactions in canon, lqq is capable of great grief and anger; he is willing to sacrifice himself if it means avenging his murdered family; and he simultaneously holds both great hatred and great respect for his old teacher. And, of course, he winds up raising and taking care of his enemy’s son which shows a remarkable depth of compassion and emotional messiness that I find terribly compelling. He struggles with a simplistic view of justice that is supported by lies told to “protect” him and that is uprooted by the truth and forces him to try to make sense of the world without the guardrails that others installed around him (looking at you mister fangxin sir).

Also I’m stealing my own tweets bc I’m Right but:

*pulls up single barstool to lqq is a good character table* I think it’s interesting & Says Things abt the continued relationship btwn lqq & xl that lqq *didn’t* recognize xl, implying that he left fangxin’s mask in place even when he went to kill him

Like here is the man who killed his family & best friend, who left him abandoned in bloodshed on his 17th bday—& here is also the man who saved his life, who taught him, who lqq looked up to & wanted to be like

Even when lqq *does* recognize xl, he still has so much respect for him paired with that hatred that it’s honestly rlly tragic? Like man. There’s so much grief in lqq’s repeated demands for a duel & insisting it’s fine if xl kills him as long as he doesn’t hold back

*pats lqq pompom* this bb is so sad. And so much more like his teacher than either of them seem to realize or necessarily want

Despite being a pretty minor character, lqq gets a lot of complexity and nuance! Look at this child trying to be grown up while desperately turning to his old master for guidance and “the truth”! Look at him! Be sad!!

2 ) lqq is an excellent parallel to xl

Okay stealing my own tweet again don’t look at me I yell the same shit everywhere

Xl didn’t want lqq to become like him (self-sacrificing, vengeful, alone) but lqq not only became alone, chasing vengeance, & willing to sacrifice himself for revenge—he also became kind, open-minded, & remorseful!! & he still clearly respects xl @ novel end 🙃🙃

We all know hc’s “they’re not very alike at all” and yeah sure baby go support your man but narratively, there’s a lot of importance given to cycles, parallels, and foils in mxtx’s writing and most explicitly (compared to mdzs, haven’t read svss) in tgcf. For example, *gestures at beefleaf, gestures at Xianle Trio vs Wuyogn Crew, gestures at Xie Lian & Jun Wu’s whole uh. Deal.* And while I’d argue xl and lqq are part of a triumvirate rather than a pair, we’re not including mister three-face in this conversation so just looking at xl and lqq:

Both adored and sheltered crown princes

Both taught by a guoshi who was seeking to prevent the repetition of their own tragedies and in their efforts, lied/omitted information and failed to protect their charge from tragedy

Both were betrayed* by their closest friends

Both are the last living members of their respective royal families

Both caught the interest of supernatural beings from a young age

Etc etc I’m getting v bored and distracted writing this so moving on

Most importantly to me, we have their betrayal by a very close and adored mentor and how they react. The confrontation I mention at the start of this shitshow is really imo one of the most important scenes in the novel because it a) illustrates the differences in xl and Jun Wu and b) sort of gives you a preview of how xl ultimately wins

So a) Jun Wu and Xie Lian both take a talented, marked-for ascension young prince under their wing. Jun Wu sees himself in the boy and obsesses over shaping him into Jun Wu’s own image in the belief that this will make him the perfect heir. Jun Wu pushes his chosen heir into situations where Xie Lian is repeatedly harmed in an effort to show that the common people are fickle and cruel and don’t deserve his compassion and care.

Meanwhile, Xie Lian is reluctantly roped into mentoring his prince due to his inability to stand aside when he feels he could do something to prevent hurt or injustice befalling another (simultaneously his great strength and great weakness! God I love him). Xie Lian tries to teach his student to believe in and care for the common people and not to sacrifice himself (see: flashback convo re:taking the force of the sword strike into his own body).

When Xie Lian refuses to bend in the shape Jun Wu demands, Jun Wu bashes his head into the wall. When Lang Qianqiu cries “I will never be like you!”, Xie Lian laughs and says “Good!”.

B) this of course feeds directly into foreshadowing! Like Lang Qianqiu’s bold words, xl ultimately refuses to become like his mentor and remains defiant even when it would stop him from being hurt. Xl beats lqq and says so what if I tricked you, so what if I lied, I still won. Naturally, xl beats Jun Wu not through standard swordplay but by using a trick he learned while forced to busk and wander the earth alone and unlucky for centuries.

…okay so I have fully forgotten what I was actually saying here! Anyway!

Like Xie Lian, Lang Qianqiu spends a time consumed with the need for vengeance, hunting his enemy and rejecting the heavens. And like Xie Lian, he winds up caring for his enemy’s “son” and trying to both comfort him and maintain what’s left of Qi Rong’s life force despite having previously been hellbent on destroying him—bc he sees the impact it has on another person. In the end, he even gives a gift to Xie Lian—his mentor, his role model, and the one who killed his father—that was once given to him as a symbol of unexpected kindness. Sound familiar?

But, importantly, and contradictory to what I have been yelling abt but whatever it’s 12:30 am, Lang Qianqiu is not a direct mirror of Xie Lian but a closing of a vital loop in the story. Lqq is very similar to xl (I will die on this hill!! Only I won’t bc I’m stronger than y’all and will keep swinging these pots and pans) but bc xl tries to do better and keep lqq from suffering the way xl has, lqq is able to have a gentler and more optimistic path forward. He’s proof that even a small act of kindness or even kindness to only one person still matters and has a ripple effect that can’t be seen when you’re in the middle of it—a thread started with xl giving the coral pearl to Lang Ying and closed with Lang Qianqiu returning the pearl to Xie Lian.

So I have no idea if any of this is coherent or compelling but I meant to be asleep two hours ago and the points are:

A) Lang Qianqiu is good actually

B) parallels!!!

C) look ive already started another wip about Lang Qianqiu and Xie Lian and I didn’t want this but no one else wrote it so now I have to so pls just accept this as a warning

*sort of air quotes around this for Xie Lian bc frankly Mu Qing was right & Xie Lian kicked feng xin out BUT on the other hand, it was experienced as a betrayal and we also again have all of Jun Wu’s shit so it evens out

#should I wait and proofread and edit this tomorrow? yes.#am I doing that? no <3 #idk what to tag this as #uhhh #tgcf spoilers #lang qianqiu #I don’t think this can reasonably be called meta #since I am unsure if it is even readable #tgcf #long post

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andrasta14 · 3 years ago

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(Wrote an absurdly long thing again in reply to this here. Too tired to make sense right now - swear I’m not drunk just stupidly exhausted. Posting separately as well just because...*shrugs* lol)

Yeah, no kidding, there’s a huge double standard at play here. With Jane, Fanny and Nessie they’re already naturally looked upon with sympathy just for being women. As for Fergus, well, he at least got to escape that life early on only thanks to Jamie - where would he be now, WHO might he be now, if not for having been adopted and looked after? (God knows there certainly wasn’t anyone looking out for Percy when his father was killed and the kid was left with no other recourse but to sell his body to keep he and his mother from starving!)

And generally I like Fergus, but that part where he called Percy a bitch - pardon me “chienne” - made me want to smack him! (To say nothing of the “fop” and “popinjay” name-calling from he and Jamie.) The bigoted attitude that chooses to emasculate men and reduce them to lesser beings just for being gay royally pisses me off. (And I wonder if the real point of contempt here in place of sympathy, in this skewed and narrow-minded POV, isn’t so much that Percy entered into that life only out of necessity, but that the truly shameful thing is seen to be that part of him LIKED it enough to discover he was homosexual and then continue in that vein the rest of his life.)

And no wonder most of the fandom dislikes Percy based on his portrayal in the Outlander books alone - a lot of them probably haven’t even read Brotherhood of the Blade, and without it they can do nothing but take everything at face value without picking up on the subtext. And even many who’ve actually read BotB still (irrationally imo) dislike Percy, because they can’t seem to divorce themselves of John’s POV enough to empathize with what Percy’s going through.

I’ve read BotB eight or nine times now (because I’m writing a fic of it from Percy’s POV and naturally I want to make sure I know my subject matter lol) and my understanding and empathy for Percy has only increased with each reading. I honestly dare anyone to reread that book, filtering out the way John’s POV colours the narrative, and just read all of scenes and events happening only trying to imagine what Percy must be thinking and feeling throughout given his upbringing and general history. I doubt anyone would be able to continue disliking him half as much.

Percy may have unknowingly broken John’s heart - and UNKNOWING is the key word here - because John never ever gave him any reason to think that his feelings were returned, in fact directly told him that he that he had only “friendship and kindness” to offer him because he was already in love with another man. And I don’t hear anyone calling John on his EMOTIONAL INFIDELITY throughout their entire relationship - oh but wait, Percy finally did after months of patiently putting up with it, and what did John say to the accusation? Nothing. Nothing whatsoever, because he damn well knew he was guilty.

They were both at fault in their own ways, but the huge difference is that Percy didn’t knowingly set out to deliberately hurt John, whereas John knowingly carried on with Percy for like four months despite Percy having told plainly him that “friendship and kindness” weren’t enough for him, that he wanted his heart as well. Can anyone honestly say that John’s such an insensitive idiot as to NOT realize on some level how hurtful and selfish that was? Because IT WAS SELFISH. John just wanted all the benefits of a relationship without making a real commitment, without having to face up to the need to let go of Jamie and move with his life.

And even before that John’s conduct wasn’t exactly honourable. He lead Percy on for well over a month before he even told him he was in love with another man - and then ONLY because he slipped up and Percy asked him. I mean, WTF, who does that?? Especially a man who prides himself on his honour? It’s not like Percy didn’t give any signs that he was developing strong feelings for him. When he sent John the lock of his hair and the “I cannot stop thinking about you” note, was THAT not the time that a decent person should take that as their cue to say, “I really like you, but I’m not looking for anything serious right now” or something? But NO, instead John just accepted it and let Percy continue to fall in love with him even though he KNEW bloody well that his heart was engaged elsewhere. Fuckboi, much? Geez.

And I think John is well aware of his own culpability in the matter, even if he refuses to admit to himself outright. Like when he that conversation with deceased father after the cannon exploded and asked him, “Did he only do it because I couldn’t give him what he needed?” Or when he ruefully told Claire in reference to Percy, “now, that imbroglio is indeed of my own making.” And when he said in response to Claire’s inquiry of what Percy had done to him: “Nothing. Nothing at all.” And yeah, of course, John’s repressed ass way of saying, “He broke my heart, but I don’t want to talk about it because then I’d have to actually have to deal with my emotions and I’d rather just push down and out of sight,” but it’s also him reiterating that he knows, logically, that Percy didn’t really DO anything out of malice.

As to the ever infamous betrayal in question...is it really THAT surprising that Percy chose to act as he did, rather than as John thought he ought to have done? On the one hand, I appreciate John’s frustration that Percy didn’t go to him and tell him about Michael Weber’s blackmail attempt right away (even if the arrogance that he displays while doing it urks me), but on the other hand, I can see several reasons why Percy would’ve decided handle it himself.

Firstly, out of sheer habit. Percy’s had no one to rely on but himself for a long time, and that kind of prolonged self-reliance can be double-edged sword at times. It often makes it difficult for such people to ask for help, especially about personal matters, when they’re too long accustomed to dealing with their problems themselves (sometimes to the point of stubborn pride). Learned behaviours like that don’t just vanish in the space in of months; it usually takes years and a deeper sense of trust that takes time to build.

Not to mention the intimate nature of the problem - because how awful must it have felt to be coerced like that by someone you’d once liked? And we know Percy liked Michael - when John asked him if he’d been with Weber in the past for “money or -?”, Percy looked away when he admitted it’d been the latter. I mean, how humiliating would it have been to have to go to your current lover and confess that your former lover had turned out to be such a douchebag and apparently cared so little for you that he’d threaten to destroy your entire life if you didn’t sleep with him? (Though John slept with frigging George Everett on and off for like seven years and that bag of dicks tried to murder him so I’m pretty sure he could have sympathized on the dubious exes front XD, but well, Percy didn’t know since they never got around to the past relationships discussion, mores the pity.)

Secondly, just giving Weber what he wanted seemed the most straightforward form of damage control. As to John’s accusation that Percy was stupid and weak for giving into such a “feeble threat” - well, who’s to say the threat was truly a feeble one? (Other than the almighty Lord John Grey of course, forever observing the world and its peoples from his lofty perch.) After all, a man who’s enough of a bastard to threaten to start a rumour that would destroy Percy’s career and possibly even cost him his life just for the sake of SEX, could also be enough of a bastard to actually DO IT if he’s refused. And then what would’ve happened?

Not only would Percy be discharged from the army, he’d cause a scandal to the regiment, to the Grey family and to his stepfather General Stanley. Even if Percy managed to dodge being arrested (because a rumour of being a sodomite is a permanent stain on his character, yes, but still not proof enough for to be convicted), he’d still have been unable to get any proper job in London (at the very least, to say nothing of the rest of England) for the rest of his life, and he’d have been completely ostracized by pretty much every level of society...and John couldn’t be seen to have anything to do with him ever again. Would Percy really have considered trying to preserve himself from what was very nearly tantamount to rape worth the risk of so much needless disgrace to everyone around him?

Given his low sense of self-worth, I doubt he considered himself worth the trouble. And I would argue that his history actually made him psychologically predisposed not to fight against it nearly as much as many people in his position might have. For a young man who’d been selling himself for the last twelve years of his life - I mean, seriously, do the math on that; that’s HUNDREDS of times that he’s submitted himself in that way - submission sadly comes far more naturally to him than resistance. (And I doubt his history as a sex worker is solely responsible for this. Learned compliance and the avoidance of conflict whenever possible are also common traits in people with histories of childhood abuse - whether emotional, physical or both.)

When John came to see Percy in gaol and he said, “You will think I tell you by way of excuse for actions for which there can be no excuse...” before confessing he’d been a prostitute, I think he was indirectly trying to explain said psychological disposition to John, only indirectly - in that way that people will often sort of talk around something traumatic when there are things they can’t bring themselves to say aloud in the hopes that the person listening will still connect the dots based on what they’re able to say. I mean, he didn’t need to tell John about his past at all, he could’ve spared himself that final bout of shame and just told him Weber blackmailed him and left it at that. But no, he told John about himself FIRST because the two are somehow connected in his mind.

(Of course, a cynical person might also say that he only told John about his past because he hoped to better illicit pity from him. Obviously, I doubt that. Percy had an air of resignation about him, the almost impassive manner of a man waiting to die; even when John took out the pistol he seemed like he was expecting it. I think he told John because he knew that he might never get another chance to say it, and he at least wanted to be honest with him at the end. (Which is basically a Percy thing to do now thanks to frigging Bees...T_T But continuing on from my internal crying about frigging Bees...) It was only after the “Do not tell me I have broken your heart, I know better,” upset and John bloody just sitting there staring at his hands, saying nothing when Percy asked if John could tell him loved him that Percy’s anger overtook him and he said that what he wanted from John, since he didn’t have his love, was his life and freedom. I think he was resigned to die for what he’d done until John asked what he wanted of him.)

And finally, is it really such a surprise that Percy didn’t run to tell John about Weber’s threat? I doubt very much that Percy would’ve wanted to burden him and saw his ex-lover as a personal problem it was his responsibility to deal with himself. Also, given John’s already known tendency towards impulsivity and recklessness, not to mention bent for violence, would he have thought it in any way a good idea to tell John? Who knows what he might have done? Percy would’ve had sense enough to want to avoid a potential altercation between John and Michael, if only for political reasons. It would have looked particularly bad if the regiment’s acting Lieutenant Colonel, and the brother of the regimental Colonel no less, ended up in some sort of brawl with one of their allied German officers. And Hal would’ve been piiiissed. lol And then there was a pretty good chance that John even getting involved could very well have have tipped off Weber and resulted in the threat of his exposure as well. I mean, Percy was careful to never even tell Michael John’s name for a reason. He wanted him kept out of it for his own protection.

And of course, the final component of Percy’s decision to betray John: he believed John didn’t love him anyway so it wasn’t as though he was going to be breaking his heart. He might be angry for a time but it would be better than the potential alternative. Percy chose what seemed to be the lesser evil, the thing that would cause the least harm, and ironically managed to cause an even worse situation than the one he was trying to prevent. That John ended up returning to his room with two other officers in tow? Talk about rotten luck.~

(That’s Percy, our rotten luck blood of martyrs boy...T_T)

#so I somehow ended up writing a ridiculous long THING again lol

#written while half asleep starting at 4 am

#and got progressively more tired as I went on

#probably absurdly rambling and somewhat incoherent

#but it's now 7 am and I'm too damn tired to even attempt to edit this mess

#i don't care

#read at your own peril lol

#will be somewhat impressed if anyone reads all this crap

#ugh must go to bed now

#percy wainwright #lord john grey #john x percy #lord john series #brotherhood of the blade #outlander #bees spoilers #go tell the bees that i am gone #my random ramblings #rant #rant-essay

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sassyfrassboss · 3 years ago

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Just my two cents…..Every time Meghan is criticized her fans bring up Andrew. By Eugenie being friends with Meghan the sugars don’t attack her just her father. I think Eugenie likes fame and that lifestyle (judging by the big wedding which was nice but kind of unnecessarily public IMO) and doesn’t want to be hated by the social media crowd. She and her sister seem nice enough but her parents kind of fuck up a lot of things for them PR wise (though as a family they seem loving and close and I think it’s good she doesn’t ever shun her parents to get brownie points from the public). I think Eugenie just wants to be in the middle so she doesn’t get more shit thrown at her when she does her public stuff. She and Bea were always fine being around the Hollywood and aristo crowd and were mingling with celebs and attending the met gala as well as their royal family events long before Meghan so they’re not attention shy. Personally I think Eugenie definitely enjoys the attention more than Beatrice judging by their social media profiles alone

I don't follow them closely on IG.

I do think that the wedding was OTT but it was lovely and a nice palette cleanser after H&M's wedding. Rumors at the time were that Andrew was demanding that wedding. Another rumor was that when he did the Pizza-Gate interview he was angling for a big wedding for Bea and it backfired.

Not a fan of Andrew at all and I think Fergie should probably be a tad quieter but I do follow her on IG and I thought her reading books was a fun idea.

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queerofthedagger · 4 years ago

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I would love to hear your essay on why Merlin didnt own telling Morgana about his magic, because it honestly makes me mad when people say he should have since he too had magic

Ooh hey, thanks so much for the ask! And about one of my favourite pet peeves too 😂❤️ I have a lot to say on that because yeah, it makes me mad too. This got really long, so I apologize for that in advance... (I tried to put some of it under a readmore but tumblr is being a pain again.)

Obligatory disclaimer that obviously, everyone’s entitled to their opinion and I’m not aiming to change anyone’s mind.

First of all, I think it gets ignored sometimes that Merlin didn’t actually leaver her alone or didn’t try to help. He very much did so in “The Nightmare Begins,” by finding out how to get her to the Druids. This is directly after she tells him about her belief that she has magic and that she’s scared, and he does so against the explicit orders/advice from both Gaius and Kilgharrah.

When he goes to find her because Uther is executing people and she refuses to go back, he doesn’t pressure her. People are getting killed about it, and yet when she says, “I'm sorry. I'm never going back. These are my people. They're like me. I don't feel so alone here. Do you understand?” his only answer is “Better than anyone.”

But yeah, it does tell him that when it comes down to a choice between self-preservation and saving others, Morgana will choose the former. And that’s fine, to some degree! People are allowed self-preservation and putting themselves first, and Merlin and Arthur often are self-sacrificing to a truly unhealthy degree. That being said, I personally find it questionable if accepting the death of innocent, also at least under-privileged if not oppressed people for your own sake is the morally “right” choice but as I don’t want to start a philosophical rant here, let’s leave it at that.

There’s—imo—more than one reason why Merlin didn’t owe her anything; first of all, I personally don’t think you ever owe anything of this kind to anyone, ever. Just because someone tells me a huge secret, doesn’t mean I have to do the same, especially if it’s a life-threatening one; all you “owe” is kindness, understanding, and keeping the secret that was entrusted to you. All of which Merlin did.

Then there’s the whole axis of power to their relationship; Morgana might be nice and treat Gwen and Merlin with respect, but that doesn’t erase the huge difference of station between them. Since the first week Merlin arrived in Camelot, he saw that the word of a servant, his word, meant absolutely nothing against a knight, noble, or actual royal.

Morgana didn’t hand him any power over herself when she revealed her secret. Merlin, on the other hand, would’ve handed her complete power over his life or death. I’m not saying Merlin would’ve ever revealed her secret under any circumstances—I actually think if he had told Arthur in season 3, Arthur would’ve believed him; he’s proven he would, more than once. But it wasn’t only about being believed, it was also, still, about not giving her away. (Though to be fair here—what it was also about was that she threatened to reveal that he poisoned her. Which, obviously, fair to some degree but if she did that, I doubt she would’ve revealed why he did, which ultimately only plays back into my point that Morgana’s loyalty is conditional. Which, again, is a valid stance to have, but not that of a person I’d trust with such a secret.)

Anyway. Just because Merlin never would’ve revealed her secret, doesn’t mean that the difference in their potential power over each other wasn’t there, and it’s important. Especially if you look back to the start of season 2 where—even before she turned her back on Camelot—Morgana made it clear that for her, self-preservation prevails when it comes right down to it.

Well, and thirdly, there’s also the matter of destiny and responsibility if Merlin’s own safety and well-being isn’t already enough (which it is, just in case there was any doubt about my opinion on that matter.) Of course, in season 2, Merlin’s not yet as fixated on Arthur as he is later, not even on destiny, as his intention to leave Camelot shows (if he had stayed away is another question altogether but I digress.) Still, Kilgharrah made it pretty clear that this was about more than Merlin, and while Merlin definitely didn’t always listen to him, the threat was immense.

And it wasn’t only about Arthur either, I’d even say that in the great scheme of things, Arthur played relatively little into this decision; it was about his people as a whole, and it was about Gaius because if Merlin had been revealed, Gaius had already proven that he’d try taking the fall if not get accused of harbouring a sorcerer. I don’t think this alone would’ve been enough, but taken together with the other points, I think it did have some weight in Merlin’s decision and I also think that it was a valid choice to make even beyond the “you don’t have to reveal anything to anyone even if it’s only because you don’t want to.”

Last but not least, I also think it’s important to keep in mind how long they’ve known each other which, at that point, were maybe two years. Merlin’s been most likely told from the day he could understand it to never reveal himself to anyone. Until Freya, Merlin never tells anyone on his own volition (except maybe Will, we don’t know, but they’ve known each other their whole lives), and it’s impossible to compare the circumstances. Just because Morgana told him in what she herself calls a moment of weakness does not mean Merlin has any obligation to do the same.

I want to reiterate that he did try to help her, actively with the Druids, and also passively by reassuring her that there’s nothing wrong with her and that he will keep her secret. This is already more than he would have to do—the whole thing with the Druids put Merlin at risk too, arguably much more than her. Of course, that has never stopped him which is what we love about him, but I think that it’s more than enough. Merlin is not responsible for fixing every little thing in Camelot, he’s not responsible for other people’s actions and decisions, and he did more than could be expected of him.

Which is also why I think that if he had told her about his magic, it wouldn’t have changed anything in the long run, but as this is already way too long, let’s leave that can of worms for another time...

#merlin emrys #morgana pendragon #merlin meta #mona's rambling #this is more an out-of-canon point but I also just prefer Morgana having the agency to owning her actions tbh #answered asks #aeonthedimensionalgirl

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sister-dear · 4 years ago

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Whoever your favorite Link is, do headcanons for them, please and thank you

sdflsadfj More? You are too kind. ❤

My fav is Sky, but Four, Legend, and Wild are all up there with him so...

Four Headcanons!

Disclaimer that my headcanons for Four probably shift and change the most out of any of the Links depending on what I’m wanting out of a given story.

Four still lives with his grandfather at the forge. His dad was in the picture for a time but it was brief and they never got very close. He has a very good relationship with Grandpa Smith.

Very private. He’ll be friendly or at least pleasantly social with people, but it takes him a long time to actually warm up to them. Dude has excellent customer service skills; he knows how to read a room.

Trades constant, ruthless short jokes with Dot. They’re as bad with teasing and shit-talking each other as Wind and Tetra. Dot is taller than him but not by much.

The vast majority of his community loves and is supportive of him. I go back and forth on the degree to which his colors are public knowledge, but at least a few members of Hyrule Town are aware of them and are friendly towards whichever part of Four happens to walk through their doors.

Closet gremlin

Being separated for as long as he was during Four Swords meant the colors became just individual enough that when he re-merged it did not go smoothly. He had to relearn how to walk, talk, eat, everything. Immediately post adventure he was completely bed-bound, relying on soft foods, and barely communicating. It took intense therapy to get him back on his feet, which Dot made sure was provided to him. Grandpa Smith was his primary caretaker and so played a large part in his recovery; it’s part of why they’re still so close. Eventually he recovered the ability to split, which helped significantly. It meant he could split up to work out the problem when his colors started clashing instead of getting sucked into his own head and locking up.

All of that recovery took a minimum of two years, probably more like three or four. So for this to work and him to be ~17 by the time of LU he’d have been about 13-14 on his second adventure. Younger than I think the actual characters of the canon manga and game were meant to be, but imo it works with the art style of the game.

Grandpa Smith knows the colors as individuals and considers all of them his grandsons.

Can sometimes get lost in his own head if the colors are having a strong disagreement or he’s otherwise having a bad mental health day. It usually reads as kind of dazed/out of it/stumbly to those around him

Quite comfortable in crowds, royal court, high society, society in general.

Dislikes cats

Little gay man. The individual colors might have differing sexualities and genders (heck, he’s young enough for all of that to still be changing and developing) but they are all attracted to boys to at least some degree so Four as a whole identifies as gay.

Violet’s first crush was Shadow, and at least some of those feelings carried across to Four. At the very least he considers Shadow to have been a friend.

Nothing will make Four pull his hair out faster than people doing things they shouldn’t to their weapons. To him, smithing is an art form. Four takes the care and quality of all of his companions’ weapons very personally.

Four is something of a jack of all trades when it comes to weapons. He isn’t just a sword guy; he’s perfectly capable with a bow and quite likes bombs. His fighting style involves lots of rolling and dodging and redirecting momentum. He just can’t afford to take as many direct blows as someone bigger.

When at home, Four can and does split into his component colors all the time in order to get more shit done or just give himself some mental space. When he needs to settle himself mentally into one body, he usually turns to smithing. It’s one of the few activities all of the colors love equally.

Protective of Sky, who is something of a kindred spirit. They’re usually the first to notice if one of them is having a bad health day, though Four tends to put a lot more effort into hiding his bad days than Sky does.

I headcanon that the boys all met up in pairs first, then those pairs joined up before finally coming together in one big group. In that little scenario, Four met Twilight first. He was Minish size and Twilight was a wolf, so they knew one of each other’s secrets from the start. The reciprocity of that appeals to Four, as does Twilight’s level head, so he began to trust Twilight a lot faster than he usually would with someone.

Will get up to shenanigans with Hyrule, Wind, and Wild. Those four are all definitely still teenagers, and sometimes you just gotta try out whatever hairbrained scheme your buddies have cooked up this time.

Moar: Wild | Sky | Legend | Hyrule | Warriors

#linked universe four #lu four #linkeduniverse #headcanons

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murfeelee · 4 years ago

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Simblr Asks - TS3

Saw these questions by Teauke on my dash, and y’all know I love talking/ranting about The Sims; let’s go! ^0^

1. how big is your mods folder?

That’s my mods folder with only mods/hacks/overrides; no CAS or build/buy CC installed. It’s a miracle that nothing conflicts, at least not as far as I can tell.

2. how would you describe your style? A sporadic mix of tv/gaming fandom-inspired conversions and recreations, of mostly fanciful and/or cultural themes & genres.

3. What is your favorite challenge? I’m a builder at heart, so I love recreating lots and interiors. Challenges where we find IRL rooms/scenes and remake them in TS3 are always the most fun for me.

4. do you make cc? if so, what kind? I make fanciful & cultural custom content (occult, sci-fi, boho, etc). I make CAS CC sometimes, but I prefer making buy/build CC.

5. what type of cc do you hoard? Not everything, but a lot. As creators retire and links die, I’m even more paranoid than I already was that CC will no longer be available anywhere.

6. what default eyes and skin do you use? I don’t use default-replacement skintones, but I do use Buhudain’s You Are Real mod.

As for eye defaults, I absolutely love Moonskin’s Shiny Glass replacements.

7. how many urls have you had, and what are the meanings behind them? All of my simming URLs on MTS, TSR, the officials, and Tumblr are some variation of my first name, Murfee Lee. Because yes, I am that darn creative.

8. who is your favorite gameplay blog? 9. who is your favorite storytelling blog? Ugh, there are too many good ones out there.

10. who is your favorite cc creator? All of my favorite creators retired years ago: DyM/Hekate999 (fantasy build/buy), Parsimonious (everything), Luna (everything build/buy), Qingshuangtongzi (Asian everything), Amethyst (Asian CAS), Art-Sims (CAS everything), etc. I swear, the day Sandy/ATS3 (everything build/buy) retires is the day I’m having a panic attack.

11. how do you edit your photos? Badly. Tweak the brightness & contrast and call it a effing day.

12. what is the last screenshot you took? It’s a surprise.

13. what do you do when you are unmotivated? I am never “unmotivated,” so much as I am distracted. I think the reason I’ve simmed so long is strictly because I’m always inspired by fandoms. If I get distracted by a tv/game, it becomes my next muse (aka current obsession). It’s not that I get unmotivated to finish the old stuff I pretty much abandon, it’s just that there aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do everything I want. Sometimes I return to older saves/gameplay. Most times I don’t though--unless someone messages me wanting to see it again (and that’s effing rare).

14. who is your current favorite sim? Sakura and Nasir are my alltime favorite sims. But I must admit that I patted myself on the back pretty dang hard when I created Tsukihime-Sama for my Moon Medicine gameplay. I love every sim I made for that gameplay (which I really need to finish one day, ugh), but my Lunar Moth Goddess? 👌

15. who is your current favorite sim that is not by you? Every sim that @obscurus-noctem is out here sacrificing goats in order to create. It’s just disgusting how pretty everything on their blog is. Those mersims? Those graphics? That editing? Makes me effing sick.

16. recreate someone else’s sim in your style. I think I saw a challenge like this a few months/years ago, but never did it. But I DID do the Picrew version.

17. do you talk about sims with people in real life? One of my professors plays SimCity. Naturally, we bonded over how wack EA is. ^_^

18. how many of the packs do you own? All of them, except the Stuff Packs. Barring Fast Lane and Movie Stuff, none of the other SPs are worth the price; it’s just build/buy/CAS CC any MaxisMatch creator.could make for free. I’ve always felt that way about SPs, which is why I never bothered with them in TS1 or TS2 either. I will say though, that TS4′s SPs are something else entirely, which brings me to #24 (see below).

19. how many posts do you have on your blog currently? 2764. JESUS.

20. how many drafts do you have on your blog currently? 363. U_U And most of those are CC sets & gameplay posts I never finished.

21. how many posts are in your queue currently? It’s a secret. ^_^

22. have you ever moved blogs? Never. I never even changed my theme or URL.

23. are you in any sims related discord servers? Yes, the Creators Cave, but I effing hate Discord; it’s just a royal pain to navigate, IMO.

24. what are your thoughts on the most recent pack? (paranormal) Speaking of Stuff Packs!

RANT ALERT!

If anything, TS4′s SPs are doing way too much (adding new gameplay, careers, lifestates/NPCs, lots, etc!? WUT.) Or rather, its EPs aren’t doing nearly enough. I love that TS4′s SPs add meaningful content. But if they’re raising their bar, that means the Expansion Packs need to rise by the same degree, to stay relevant, if anything.

But EA, in their infinite ineptitude, seems to be scaling back with their EPs! Cutting what should be 1 cohesive EP into multiple SPs & GPs piecemeals the content and cheats people out of money, by having us pay more for less! The TS4 SPs do a lot, yes, but now let’s talk about the Paranormal SP for example:

Paranormal Stuff does perhaps the most any SP in The Sims 1/2/3/4 ever has, and has by far the most worth for its money...but at a dire cost:

- the career only has 5 levels instead of 10 (thus being nowhere as deep as TS3′s combination of the Ambition EP’s Ghost Hunter and the Store’s crystal ball--which links with the Supernatural EP’s Spellcasting skill)

the crystal ball is a 1-trick pony

unlocking Bonehilda is tied to grinding skill/career levels, only for her to do EFF ALL once she finally arrives (and her face looks like melted cookie dough WTF)

most of the gameplay is tied to the pack’s new lot/venue

and the ghosts are still meh

So rather than TS4 having an actual Supernatural EP, instead it has the ok-but-disappointing Realm of Magic Game Pack (which I’ve already ranted about), the watered-down Paranormal Stuff Pack, and the INCREDIBLY OP Vampires Game Pack (which I’ve salivated over). That’s already $40--the cost of TS3′s Supernatural Expansion Pack, mind you--but with the glaringly absent inclusion of Fairies, Werewolves, AND Zombies. O_O WHAT THE HELL, EA. To get the full Supernatural experience in TS4 is gonna end up running people not $40, but perhaps DOUBLE, if werewolves & fairies get their own GPs (unless EA waters them down in SPs, which would still be anywhere from $50-60). EA is robbing people blind.

25. how many hours have you played sims? I have no idea, no doubt thousands.

26. if you play gameplay, do you play with mods? See #1 above

27. what’s the farthest you’ve gotten in a challenge? See #3 above.

Thanks for reading!

#simblr #the sims 3 #the sims 4 #ts3 #TS4 #EA you suck #questionnaire #RANT ALERT

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