#and sasha does show up in another story later

[wanderingchaos]

The worst part about writing in your own world, with your own characters (and not being a very good artist) is when you write a novella of Christmas stories, you don’t really have a place to put it. Like, I could set it up for self publishing, but it’s not a romance or an established world or a thing that has a place, and I have some other options, but none of them are great if I want to do much with the whole thing.

But it’s good. And the piece as a whole is a ‘4 times Christmas was terrible, and one time it wasn’t’ but with people you don’t have reason to know yet.

However, this year has been terrible and I wanted to finished a larger chapter on ���We’re in a Room Without a Door’ but life got in the way, and I finished other things I can’t share, but then I was talking with some friends about how weird white elephant is and I thought I’d put this snippet out there. This is the first little bit of this section of this chapter of the novella. Feel free to let me know what you think. Maybe this is my Christmas gift to me. Posting this in a spirit of something unnamed.

—

Arvid walked across the courtyard, not for the first time cursing how god damn cold it was. Thank god classes were just about over, and he could hide in a warm room for a couple of days and defrost.

He was going to have to find said warm room, since the janitors had found his last bolt-hole, but there were worse things. Almost everyone was going home for a couple of weeks, so it should be easy to find a room to crash in. Hell, someone might even pay him for it, if they are looking for a ‘house sitter.’ No one really thinks about why he’d be happy to stay at their place and let his stay empty, but he’s happy to let them be comforted.

One person did try and break into an apartment while he was there, too. Bad luck for that guy all around. But seeing as the other guy had been armed for killing and not stealing, Arvid hadn’t felt too bad about putting him in the ground. You don’t bring serial killer kit to a break in unless you’re trying to send a message, and sometimes that message is ‘I’ve made my final mistake.’

“Arvid!”

From down the sidewalk, a shock of red hair came peeking out from a dark hat. Alexandr Petrovich Kalshnakov, better known to everyone but Arvid’s mental filing system as Sasha, came bouncing down the way, his smile like a ray of sunshine behind a dark cloud. Arvid couldn’t help but find himself smiling in return, a little core of warmth in his cold core heating up.

“I’m so glad I caught you!” Sasha grabbed Arvid in a big hug, burying his face in Arvid’s long, white hair. He broke apart, holding Arvid’s hands with soft, besotted eyes.

“Daria and her roommates are having a party tonight, before everyone escapes for break, and I wanted to make sure you came!”

“Oh, am I invited? I wasn’t sure I would know a lot of people there.” Arvid made a half-hearted attempt to break away from Sasha holding his hands, but it was nice, weirdly, to have Sasha holding them. Warm if nothing else.

“You know me, silly! You can just stick with me all night, I’ll make sure you have a good time.”

“Ok, fine.” Arvid felt his face flush with Sasha’s smile focused on him so long. “Is there anything I need to bring?”

“Just yourself.” Sasha thought for a moment, then lightly hit his forehead with the base of his hand. “Oh! And a white elephant gift!”

“What’s a white elephant gift?”

[gnomebinary]

This is my protocol bingo! (Thank you as always osric.com).

Lena is just doing her evil job - No thoughts, no morals, no alligence. Girlboss.

Nobody ever finds out Jmart's real names - I just think that would be tragic, and fit in with what RQ have been saying about this not being too attached to Archives.

Redemption arc - There was a notable lack of these in Archives even though forgiveness and making a conscious effort to behave morally were important themes in the later seasons. I'm ready for Mr Bonzo to have Kylo Ren's exact redemption arc where he's redeemed mostly through kissing. I don't even care who he kisses.

Froyo trip - It's pretty clear that we're being told that this is Somewhere Else through things like the Archives staff having tea and the OIAR staff having coffee. The s1 Archives gang iconically got icecream, so I'm gunning for a froyo trip, and a Gwen monologue about preservatives.

Colin dies first - He's just so killable. Plus, Celia can't die until they do her reveal and they'll probably want to build up to it, Sam can't die because he's the driving force behind investigation into Magnus, Alice can't die because she kinda makes the whole show, Gwen can't die because she's mid-arc and it is of the type that if left unfinished it would be anticlimactic not tragic, and Lena can't die because the impact would be pretty low.

Nostalgic PC games - I LOVE that RQ appears to be into old tech. I want to see Chester and Norris play Catz 5. Lowfi retro charm.

Dyhard - I go back and forth on this one, it feels too obvious what with the hot drinks imagery workplace annoyances to lovers stuff, but at the same time it does Just Make Sense.

Somebody becomes disabled - In Archives people were injured a lot, but none of that amounted to a long-term physical disability, except for Melanie's blindness. Feels like something to do in Protocol.

Police brutality - Feels like a theme that Jonny still has more to say about, and an incredibly easy one to weave into this kind of story.

Alice is hiding something - I actually think she isn't but y'all are saying it.

Alice naming stuff has consequences - She does it so much and Colin warned her off it, clearly seeming concerned but not explaining why, I think it will have unforeseen and damaging consequences.

Someone has a pet - In Archives, especially in the earlier seasons, everyone was notably unattached. Martin has a mum to take care of, but nobody has partners or children. I think this was partly because it made them easier to manipulate, and partly because it meant that tragedy could be dialled up: Sasha dying was sad, but not as gutwrenching as Daisy dying because Daisy's relationships were more fleshed out because it was later in the series. We're already bucking that trend with Celia's son, so I think we might see a pet too. Also, the pet will probably die.

Alice dies in the last season - Alice is very killable but she's also the heart and soul of the character relationships, so I think they will kill her but they'll wait to do it, and then do it mid-final season as an OOH THEY WENT THERE turning point, like how Tim dying brought in a new, darker era for Archives.

Conclusion that love isn't what makes you human - At London Comicon in October, Alex or Jonny (I forget) said that if Archives was about what makes you a monster, Protocol is about what makes you human. I think it's kinda trite if love is the answer, and I think the conclusion re love will be that monsters can love, because that's cooler. Hell yeah romantic monsterfucking.

Celia evil - I LOVE that we're seeing another Welsh person, but she doesn't sit well with me.

Agnes returns but we don't hear her speak - The tree on the other side of the rift is still alive, and if that universe was this one then that means that Agnes may still be alive. Jonny and Alex have said that they regret not doing more with Agnes, and I don't think they'll miss out on the opportunity to use her again. However, I think the fact that she doesn't speak is central to her tragic character and role as Jon's character foil, and I don't think they'll change that. I actually posted a tiktok about this.

Scene on London public transport - We're already seeing our gang at the pub and on dates, I think we're going to get some tube content.

Jmart fate worse than death - They're going to have us WISHING that they died in mag200.

Fears never treated as separate - I just think we're over that.

Breakup - They're getting the character relationships in early, so I'm predicting an onscreen breakup, because that's one of the few ways that we didn't see relationships between characters going bad in Archives.

Gerry's life gets ruined again - I'm sorry guys but I don't think they're going to let him have peace. He's going to get dragged into the OIAR situation and he's going to suffer.

Alice's brother lives - People are already noting similarities between Alice and Tim, I think that it'll be essentially the same character beat again if her brother dies. Adapt, improvise, overcome, RQ.

Another Michael - Just another character called Michael, unrelated to the four existing Michaels. I wasn't going to put this because Jonny is very aware of the four Michael problem, but this man plagurised his own full legal Christian name, so anything is possible.

Jack is Agnes' Jack - I think it's cool if we all think about how there was actually a massive age gap between Agnes and Jack because she didn't seem to age past her twenties, so he was absolutely a child when she was an adult. Not that I want to have Discourse or anything, that relationship was hecked up and complex in plenty of other ways, just because it's interesting.

Onscreen kiss - They said they wouldn't do it during Archives and then they did and it wasn't that gross, so I'm ready to see it happening again. They might have a relationship between allosexuals this time, I don't think they're going as far as onscreen fucking, but I'm game to be surprised. Insert joke about reusing the whimpering noises from Archives here.

[little-reader]

“The Son of A Monster.” Ch.4

Masterlist

Warnings; Death, blood, Slow-burn Sexual tension, Gay awakening (For both), Cursing, Negan is Readers dad, Enemies to lovers story. Fighting. Zombie apocalypse

You didn’t see Carl, Rick, Michonne, or Rosita for the rest of the day. Not that you minded, you needed to rest anyway. 

“Do you need anything?” You called from the shower. “Like from my dad or hilltop?”

Iris looked up from her book as you came in with just a towel. “Uh… Not that I know of. I’m sure I can just ask around, I don’t exactly know what I’m doing.” She huffed, looking back at the book. 

“Did you run out of anything? Food, meds… books?” You asked, She only shook her head...It was six p.m. and barely dark.

 You hugged her and rolled over. “I have to head to Hilltop tomorrow, Not to pick anything big up, but just talk to people, by myself of course,” you said. “Plus, I know Simon isn’t going to go easy on them, so I’ll just help them a bit, Simon can do the rest,”

You decided to stay there tonight. You cooked Iris breakfast in the morning while she stayed asleep. You left it on the nightstand and got dressed. 

You walked out into the sun and left to the gate, walking out, grabbed your bike, and left. You got there later than you would have liked, but by that point you didn’t care, all you need was to look around and get vitamins.

The doors to Gregory’s office opened. “Paul, Negan’s son is here to check out the place, he wants to talk to you.” 

“Fuck.” Paul said, looking at mostly Maggie, Sasha, and Daryl. “The three of you find a good place to hide, preferably alone and separate.” He said, ushering them out.

“Why Is he here?” Rick asked.

“He comes for the saviors, A dude named Simon helps him,” Gregory answered. “Your gonna get me killed.” He paused. “And my people of course.”

You waited outside, looking at the walls and the people around you. All of them working or walking around. The kids play small games with each other. The breeze was small, but it felt good. The doors opened to the museum… house? And Paul came out with a smile.

“Hey, come inside.” He said, holding the door open. You kept a stern look as you entered, thanking him. “So, I thought we had another week or two.” He said, turning to you. 

“Oh, that's not exactly why I’m here.” You said, with a small smile. You held out your hand. “Y/n Smith, I didn’t introduce myself last time.” You said. He shook your hand. 

“Paul.” He said that’s when Gregory came out. 

“Ah! The boss's kid,” He said, rapping his arm around you. “What can I help you with? Food? People? Or a drink?” He asked. You glared at the man. He was licking your shoes every chance he got. He was like a who wanted treats.

“No, You said, moving his arm off you and backing away. “I was here to talk to Paul, and look around.” You stated, tilting your head.

“Oh, you see, Paul isn’t the leader-” He laughed, staring at your glare. “And, you know I have more important things to do anyway, so Paul can show you everywhere… every room.” He said, looking over to Paul. He left, going into the room, that now doesn’t have that weird painting.

“Does he always bullshit?” You asked, Paul only nodded and walked you into the dining room, and to a small table. “I just need something small.” You said. Walking outside. 

“Anything.”

“I was just wondering if your doctor had vitamins?” You asked. He looked at you a little weirdly. “My wife’s pregnant, I just wanted to talk to him, or see if you knew.” Paul looked surprised. 

“Okay, yeah we have some.” He said, ushering you to follow him. “You look a little young to have a wife.” He said as you walked. 

You chuckled. “Yeah, that’s what I told my dad. He didn’t take it too well. But I and Iris aren’t,” You waved your hands around a bit, and Paul nodded with a small smile. “She's not exactly my type either.” You said as you entered the trailer. 

You were given the bottle of vitamins and told when she should take them, and how much she should eat a day. You listened closely, nodded, and left. The place was quiet, small, and overall a great place to run.

“I would stay longer, But I have to go. It was nice you meet you.” You said, Holding your hand out. Paul shook it then Gregory.

“Uh, you too,” Gregory said, a slight shudder.

You started to leave before stopping. “Oh, and I almost forgot..” You paused, walking over to him and tilting your head, before smiling. “I wanna meet the people who came here earlier.”

Paul looked up from the ground and Gregory's eyes went wide. “I’m afraid I don’t understand.” He exclaimed. You only laughed. 

“Yeah… I think you do.” You said, grabbing a cigarette and lighting it, “At first, I thought maybe your people regularly go out of the walls you have built. But, as I continued to look around, I realized you have almost an enclosed community. Paul is certainly the only one who goes out, and Gregory… well you're just a pussy. So! Who’s tracks were outside?” 

Paul walked down the hall with the group, Maggie, Sasha, and Daryl was still hidden. “Gregory-” Rick started as the door opened. He paused as he came more into the room and the door closed. 

You sat in Gregory’s chair, with a glass of liquor in your hand and not a single bit of happiness in your features. You sighed and waved to the chairs. Rick sat down and the others stood. 

“Before I start scolding you like a pregnant teen, I need you to understand something.” You said, passing him a drink and leaning forward. “1. I am absolutely scared of you and your girlfriend or whatever you guys are, your son too.” You said, keeping eye contact with him. He gave a confused look. “But I’m more afraid of my father. And If he finds out I’m here talking to you guys and not at Alexandria, he’ll break my shit up.” You stated. “So this, this never happened.”

“I-” Rick paused and nodded. ‘We were just making deals, okay?” He said.

“Deals are fine, but I’m supposed to be watching you all.” You said, tilting your head. “Mostly your son.” You said. “Next time you go out, and Carls with you, I’m going.” You started and stood. You had a lot of time to think when you realized they were hiding here, and you weren’t stupid. 

You decided not to say anything and left, waving them off.

When you returned, Iris was outside and sitting in a chair on the porch. You shook the bottle as you reached her spot. “Got you these.” You said. She smiled and grabbed them. “Also, everything you need to know. I asked Everything.” You said, handing her the sheet of paper. 

She smiled at you and thanked you. ‘It’s late, let's get to bed.”

–Carls POV–

The group went to the kingdom after the whole ordeal with you and Gregory. Although Carl didn’t do any talking, he sat and watched. He knew that the “King” Was contemplating whether or not he should have his people conspire with them and Hilltop.

Carl looked out the window and into the town. It was almost night and the sun was starting to set. Ezekiel had invited them to say the night so they wouldn’t be engulfed in the night by the time they got back. Y/n was gonna be pissed, he was supposed to watch him but had to wait another day.

Carl sighed as he heard the group talking through the wall.  He took off his hat and boots, along with his flannel, and hung them up. There was something Carl couldn’t scratch off of him. The look in your eye when you caught them.

And no, not the pissed-off look you gave. But something deeper. Your face showed clear signs that you were angry but your eyes gave… impressed? Or expected, like he knew you all were going to do something to fight for yourself. 

Carl sighed and rolled into bed, staring at the wall as he drifted into thought. 

Carls's eyes opened slowly. He was in a field, one so bright he had to cover his eyes, and with birds flying above him. He sat up, feeling the top of his head, there was no hat, just his hair, which was short than how he had it now. He blinked, then turned. “Papa!” A small voice called. Carl looked over to see... You holding a child and spinning him around. You both were laughing and screaming. You looked slightly older, taller, and broader.  

Carl was pushed slightly as small arms wrapped around him in a hug. “Daddy! Home.” The smaller child whined. The kid climbed into his lap as he watched the wind blow the overgrown leaves. 

“Hey.” A deep voice appeared beside him as you walked over, the other child in your arms. You bent down and grabbed his chin, kissing him.

Carl opened his eyes. The window let the light pour onto his face. He breathed in and out before sitting up and touching his lips before wiping them and standing up.

 A knock came on the door. “Get ready, Carl. We're about to leave.” Michonne called through the door. Carl sighed and grabbed his things, putting his shoes and flannel on and grabbing his hat from the table. He left out into the hall and greeted the others. 

“We got to get home soon,” Rick said as they headed out to the gate.

<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

You looked at the time. It was now noon and they still weren’t back. You sighed and left to the kitchen, going through the pantry, looking for food to eat. You settled on ravioli. When you would make it, You could smell it from a mile away. Your mother taught you how to make it homemade. 

You took out the supplies, but that's when they showed up, you looked out the window to see the gates open and then trucks roll in. You sighed and started to put everything up, hoping your dad didn’t show up. 

You walked to the house your wife stayed in and where they kept the food. You knocked on the  garage door as you walked closer to Simon. You already told the people not to go into Iris’s room. 

“Hey, Y/n!” Simion said, looking over at you with a smile. “Just visiting.” He said with a wink.

“Hey, Simon.” You said back, looking at the others. “It’s not stock-up day, why are you doing here?” You asked. 

“Oh, you haven’t heard?” Simon asked, you looked around, noticing how empty the shelves were.“Daryl got out, the same day Carl busted your ass.” Ignoring the last comment, you sharply looked at Rick, making eye contact. Rosita looked at you and Rick. 

“Hm, that's funny.” You said, looking back at Simon and smiling. “Well, I’ve got a little cooking to do.” You said. “I’ll be going, tell dad I said Hi,”  You turned around and 

“Ah ah, not so fast,” he said, holding out a radio. “Your daddy wants to know how his little girl is doing,” He said in a mocking tone. You rolled your eyes, giving a quick “Shut the fuck up” Before leaving upstairs.

You sighed and rubbed your eyes before pressing the button to voice. “Dad, you there?” You asked, sitting on the counter in the kitchen. There was a slight pause before someone started speaking. 

“This is D, who is this?” The other line cut off. 

“Y/n, dumbass. Why the fuck would I say, Dad?” You replied. It took about thirty seconds before you got a reply back.

“Y/n. Finally, what took so long?” Your dad asked. “I told you, I need you to check in with me every few days.”

“It hasn’t been a few days.” You said. “That's not the point. Everything running smoothly. Is this about Daryl?” You questioned, your eyes looking around the room.

You kept conversating back and forth. Giving him a few details about everything and how you were doing before Simon came to get his radio back. “Bye kid… and Do not disappoint me,” Negan said before you handed the radio back. 

“You heard the man,” Simon Said as you lead him out. As the trucks pulled out, and the gates shut, you turned to Rick. 

“I don’t give a fuck what you do, but you better fucking find out who did that shit.” You said, turning to leave. You stopped and walked over to Carl, grabbing his arm, and dragging him with you. “And I have TO WATCH HIM YOU KNOW!” You yelled at them. “It’s MY JOB!”

Carl pulled back by the time you reached Aaron's house. “What the hell,” Carl muttered and you turned to him.

“Yeah, keep what the hell-ing me.” You started to walk again, ushering him to follow. “I told you guys, I have to watch you. If my dad, shit, even if Simon finds out, I’m fucked.” You said, walking up the stairs of the grimes house.

“What’s he gonna do, take your baseball bat and throw it off a cliff.” He said, sarcastically. 

“You should be a comedian.” You blankly stated as you entered the kitchen. You both were quiet while you got the things out of the pantry and laid everything out. 

“What are you making?” Carl asked, looking over from the counter. You looked over with a hum. “Ravioli.” You said simply. “With cheese inside.”

“Why is your family so obsessed with a noodle of some kind?” He asked, sitting back in his chair. You sighed and continued to ignore him as you started to make the dough. You're glad that your dad gave you eggs and oil before leaving, plus a jar of pesto sauce. “If you're just gonna cook for the next hour, I’m gonna go.”

You turned and pushed him back in his seat, softly, before turning back. “Two hours actually, depending on how annoying your gonna be.” You said as you started whisking the dough. Carl only huffed and shuffled. “And you're not leaving, that's what you get for leaving for almost two days. My job to know where you are.” You mumbled the last part. You paused in thought, before turning around and wiping your hands. “You can help me. Wash your hands.”

“What-” You cut him off, “Wash your hands, your helping.” You said, taking his hat off as you walked by and threw it in the hallway. Carl rolled his eyes and grabbed the soap. 

You grabbed a bowl and pan, and oil before turning on the stove. “Okay, what now?” Carl asked, coming beside you. You grabbed an apron and threw it on him. 

“You're gonna finish assembling the dough, I’m doing the sauce.” You said,  pouring the olive oil into the pan. “Start by whisking it in the middle as I did before.” 

Carl started to do circles as you added crushed garlic and pesto sauce into the pan. Then you grabbed the bowl and placed it next to Carl. “That's for the cheese, but we’ll have to do that later.” You said, mixing the pesto and garlic. 

Carl looked at you. “How do you know how to make all of this? You don’t even have a cookbook.” He asked, looking at you sideways as he started again.

You tapped your head. “I remember how to make it. I used to make it all the time, even after this shit happened I… I made it for my mom when she was sick.” You said. You stared at the pan and sat the wooden spoon down. You then started to pour the heavy cream in. 

“Did she get bit?” He asked after a few quiet seconds. You shook your head and just continued to stir until you let it sit and pushed back. You looked over at Carl and then at the dough, it was barely done. 

“Jesus.“ You mumbled and came behind him, reaching over him and moving his hands for him. “Like that, not the petty ass way you were just doing it.” He scoffed and you could feel the eye roll. You kept behind him, with your hands right beside his and you pointing out a few mistakes. You reached over to the pan on the stove and turned it off, moving the pan to another burner.

“And then curve it to the middle?” Carl asked, turning to look at you. His head almost collided when turning to look up at you. You looked into his eyes with a slight smirk. You nodded, taking your hands off of him and moving to the sauce, moving it back to the hot burner and adding cheese to it. 

“After you finish with the dough, wrap it up and put it in the fridge. Then, we can make the cheese that goes inside it.” You said, stirring the sauce around. He nodded and started rolling the dough, making it into a sphere and looking through the cabinets for plastic wrap. He wrapped the dough in the plastic and put it in the fridge as you set a timer for an hour and left the sauce in a container to sit.

“I should have made that sauce later.” You started to clean up. Carl swept the small mess of flour on the floor while you re-sanitized the counters. It was silent the whole time, which made you anxious. You threw away the trash and placed the cloth down, sighing and turning around, watching him sweep slowly.

Carl dumped the flour out of the dustpan and into the trash before laying the broom in the closet. Carl turned around with a raised eyebrow, “What?”

“What ya’ wanna do for the next forty minutes.”

You had a timer in your pocket as you climbed the walls and started walking into the forest. Carl was walking a fair distance behind you as you took the lead. “Where are we going?” He called from his spot as he looked around. 

You turned, walking backward. “I’m not telling you, come on.” You said, turning back and walking on. You stopped and waited for Carl to hurry up. When he finally reached you, you pulled your hands up above your head. “Welcome! To my hangout zone, we're gonna drop a few things off and come back after the food is done. It takes a while to get down here.” You said, going inside. It was logged cabin, it was still unfinished but it worked. It is two stories, has three bedrooms and two bath, and is completely solar-powered but has no water. “I found this place before we met your people, and I like to come here and hang out or get away from everyone.” You said, turning the lights on. “There's room for anything you could want in the world we have now. A garden, a life.” You sighed. “Except water, But I’m sure I can find out how to do that.” 

“Damn,” Carl said, looking around and sitting on the couch. “This is nice and quiet.” He said, watching as you dig through your bag and set a few things down. 

“Yeah, I’ve also slept here before. I covered all the windows so no one can see the light.” You stated, pointing to the windows. You looked at your timer, you had just enough time to get back. “Okay, let’s get our asses back home.” You said. “We can come back soon.”

You both walked outside as you turned off the light and closed the door. You walked behind him, again, at a distance. You also knew he probably didn’t like you much. “You don’t have to walk so far Carl, you or I could get jumped any minute.” You said as he looked back at you with that stupid stare. “Hey, I’m just saying.” You said, putting your hands up in the air and looking off to the side. 

You stayed like that for a while, well not that long but it felt like an eternity. You huffed and jogged beside him. You bumped his shoulder. “Don’t be an ass.” You said, looking at your feet as you walked. “I get your father hates mine, and my dad killed your friends, but you get that doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, right?” You asked. “Plus, I’m only like a year older than you, and we’ve got similar heights, I’m just taller.” You said. 

Carl hummed and bumped your shoulder harder. “Sure.” He said, looking you in the eye as your smile widened. 

“Well that's final, we are now officially friends!” You said, doing jazz hands.

“I didn’t say that,” Carl said with an eyebrow raised.

“Too bad.” You replied with a smirk. “You signed a contract with the devil ever since you pointed that gun at my men, which was a badass move.”

Chapter 5

[icga-blog]

Heartbreak High Season 1 - Ep1

20:30–21:10

The SLT kids are leaving the first ever class in little groups (mostly pairs and trios). Four people leave alone: Amerie, that runs away before everyone else to hide eat lunch in the bathroom; Malakai, that tries to talk to Amerie unsuccessfully and is the new kid and don't know anyone else; Harper, that visibly is not with Missy and Sasha (the people she was hanging out with at this point in the story), going to her locker on her own; and Cash, the last one to leave the classroom and someone that earlier we saw around other eshay-type on school ground, but usually is not showed with people his age. Harper stops to get/put something in her locker, and Cash (that was walking behind, but not apparently planing to talk/interact with Harper), stops in his way for a second, try to get her attention ("Hey"). Once Harper looks at him, with no other reaction, he hesitad and then asks "You okay?". She stares at him for a second and answer "Fuck right off", which he processed to do (with his head down, he lowkey shrinks and look really hurt). Harper go back to her locker, but still looks to the direction that Cash went to check. Then she slams her locker shut and the scene cut.

Now let's analyze a 40-second scene, shall we?

This lives rent-free in my mind since I re-watched for the first time. To be fair, it is such a minor thing that by the time we find out Cash was there during Harper post-music-festival-trauma, I already forgot about the existence of this scene. The thing that stuck to me when I re-watched it, is that (if I am not misremembering things), outside being in the same general environment, Cash and Harper have 3 scenes together in season 1: this one, Harper+Amerie buying drugs from him before the music festival and the car scene.

Amused me a little that I never notice how little those 2 interacted when I am deeply aware of how little Malakai and Cash, or Quinni and Missy, interacted. Also, Cash literally don't say a word to Amerie in season 2 (which makes sense when you think of their last conversation in season 1), and I don't think Malakai and Sasha ever talked. Also, Ant and Darren are never in 3 meter of one another, when they literally gave each other hand jobs off-screen. For an assembly cast, these guys don't interact a lot with one another.

So, back to the subject: Harper (who have an addicted dad and because of that, if I am interpreting a handful of implications right, have a problem with/don't like drugs) knew of Cash just as most of the characters seem to, aka, as a drug dealer. She bought drugs from him. Then she woke up in a car, with people she might not even recognize and Cash, the drug dealer.

I am not giving my opinions in the car scene right now, but let me just say: only meaningful interaction she had with this man was he saving her life (or keeping her physical health and a bit of her emotional/mental health, depend on where you think that car was headed I guess) when the stars align to make it possible and not a singular second earlier. Actually, a few minutes later.

1 week after that, she is at school, and she knows he is there too. They see each other in the assembly. They might even see each other in a classroom before SLT. They surely saw each other during SLT. They do not even nodded at each other. He doesn't recognize that she is alive, but have her hair (that he saw someone pulling) shaved off. She doesn't recognize he is still there, even if that 2 out of the 3 other danger guys in that car know for a fact that Cash set her free. He doesn't recognize that she could get he in a lot of trouble (even if she does not have the proof to get he in jail for long), but she didn't it yet. She doesn't recognize that he could get in a lot of trouble for doing what he did, for saving her. He doesn't recognize that he is a big part of her trauma. She doesn't recognize that he exists. They don't recognize that neither of them had any idea if the other one was alive before today.

Until he sees her without company. She is in a very open public space, but she is also clearly alone. Just then he stops and look at her (up and down, she is there) his eyes wide open, his jaw kind of dropped, (she is alive) he stares at the back of her head, adjusting his grip in the backpack as to prepare himself for... something. After a breath, he says:

"Hey". The music dies without ever fading. The talking in the background remains.

What else there's to say? She turns to face him and stares (blank, is Harper actually there when she looks at Cash, her big blue eyes blank, the corner of her mouth pull down as they don't know what else to do, her hair not really buzzed, but also really shaved). He blinks at her. She realizes who he is, but doesn't answer. I love how, after a beat, she looks mad, in all the senses of the word. Harper is furious and going crazy at once, her posture is the one of a wild animal.

"You okay?" 2 words, nothing more. He cannot look at her face for more than a minute at a time. His eyes shift around so easily. She also cannot look at his face for a second there. She holds her locker door and look first at his neck and then to the ground before saying "Fuck right off". She finishes it looking at his face tho, she needs him to take it seriously. Harper doesn't have a particularly expressive face in most of the first season, but her voice tells us a bunch. She tries to look angry, but she just sound raw and tired. Her posture is tired too.

Cash immediately looks away from her, locks/clenches his jaw, and kind of turns his shoulders inside. It isn't the "I want to look smaller" look he has sometimes, but still isn't the perfect posture/broad shoulders/hypermasculine look that he cares most of the time that he isn't around Nan or Darren. Then he put his head down (looking at the floor and everything) and never talks directly to Harper again. Actually, he might avoid speaking in her presence in general.

Even in the second season, she speaks with him first.

She says "Fuck right off" and he does to an almost funny degree. Also: no shame to Harper, I would never want to see his face again (his presence in the school might have been enough to give me an anxiety attack, actually, even if he was my savior and I still didn't know he was still walking with the same group at that point). It is still noticeable, to me, that there were beats in between she noticing it was Cash and she asking him to go away, just enough time to give me the feeling that part of the problem lies in Cash's question.

"You okay?" WHAT DO YOU THINK MOTHERFUCKER?????????? WHY ARE YOU ASKING IT NOW????????? He will send her the video afterward, which means he had her number all along (or went out of his way to get it after months of not doing anything while she ignored his ass), but it doesn't seem like he ever sent a text to check if she was alive after the music festival. He didn't call her. He didn't go to her house (he was the address of Darren's dad's house, even if Darren clearly does not live there most of the time; where ever he found that, he could find Harper's address). He... He did not even think before stopping the girl he was invited to gang-rape, and the only thing his brain come up with at the moment was "you okay?"

Anyway, I am getting out of the tract to my point here. The facts are:

Harper did not know how to deal with this situation, as any other girl would if put in this situation, so she copes with it in harmful ways (and here the harm if to herself). She also was mad at a lot of people, some more justifiable than others, and did not know where to put all her pain and anger. Cash is a bit stupid about the aftermath (for lack of better word) of the car scene, and it has consequences for Harper that she doesn't deserve. He is also a deeply traumatize 18 year old.(Also, I don't think he could have helped before he did it, back in the music festival day. I fully believe that was his only opportunity to get her out of that situation, I need you guys that believe otherwise to explain it to me as if I am a toddler). This scene exemplifies all of it very well, to 40 seconds of screen.

A little fun fact: In my native language, the dialogue goes "Hi." "Are you good/fine?" "Dude, go fuck yourself" (or "Dude, fuck you", both are valid translations)

Let me know if there is any specific scene you want to read me yap about!

[ordinaryschmuck]

"Ooh, look! Another Amphibia critique from Schmuck!"

Yeah, yeah, blame Twitter. This one came to me last night because of a post and it's been stewing in my brain ever since.

I'm learning more and more that nothing causes an Amphibia fan to foam at the mouth more than when you tell them that the first season is mostly filler.

Cause here's the thing: I've seen that first season THREE times. And every time, it felt like a chore to get through as I'm forced to watch characters go on silly adventures as the show dangles this carrot on a stick in front of your face, promising something interesting with a grander story.

"Ooh, look! Something's going to happen with the music box!"

"Ooh, look! Sasha's here and she means business!"

"What will come of this? Tune in next time to find out!"

And when you tune in next time, you're met with Anne and Sprig pretending to be cops or the town having a literal shipping war. And sure, that can be funny, but when you promise a grander story and take too long to get to it, it leaves people WANTING that story feeling a little disappointed.

Or worse: Annoyed.

Even MORE worse: Angry.

And when you bring up that season one is mostly filler, you're given the usual three responses:

"It's to build the world and develop characters!"

"It's starting off fun to suck people in before getting darker like [Insert show here]"

"[Insert show here] had a first season that was mostly filler and people loved THAT. Y'all just hating."

And those are good arguments, but there's also good counters to all of them.

Infinity Train is a series that has a new cast of characters every season, each one having only thirteen episodes to grow and develop while showing off the world around them. The writers make each episode count though, not wasting time as every goofy adventure the characters go on it either reveals something about themselves or about the lore of the train. You can absolutely let characters go and do something silly for ten minutes AND have it feel like the plot and development of the world and characters are moving forward. You just gotta do more than something as inconsequential as Sprig learning to be more patient when watching a hog or Hop Pop learning how to be honest instead of selling literal garbage. The meat of those episodes (I.E. the LESSONS) can be brought up in smarter, better ways that leaves EVERYONE satisfied, especially when they learn these exact lessons later in the series anyway.

As for starting off by being fun defense, it's a fair one until you realize what show everyone's trying to copy.

You see, Adventure Time is a great show. One that nailed the "silly at first but serious later" mindset. It changed the landscape for serialized animation, and shows have been trying to do what IT did ever since. BUT they forget one essential factor that's the reason to Adventure Time's success: It had NO plan. It started off silly and fun only to get more serious over time, but in a similar vein to your favorite comic series. The writers just wanted to have goofy fun times and nothing else, but the longer the series went, it would get more and more serious as it started to evolve into serialized storytelling. There was never a singular arc in Adventure Time or even an endgame in mind for how the show would conclude. There were definitely arcs but they were treated as small webs of something the show COULD build upon if the writers wanted to and less as a part of this grand narrative to a complete story. Even the latest spin off, which has a singular story in mind, is something based on an idea that NEVER went further beyond being something silly upon its conception. The writers just wanted to do something fun and would LATER come up with a good and expansive story through it.

Basically, the reason why Adventure Time nailed the silly THEN serious style is because it improvised the whole thing. When a show like Amphibia tries to go through the same style, it does it WITH a plan in mind and forgets that Adventure Time succeeded because it didn't HAVE one. The writers know exactly where they want the show to go and plan out how to reach that finish line, leaving behind crumbs of the grander narrative every now and again. But in Season One, so much of the focus is about characters going on fun adventures and leaving behind those crumbs not as often as they should. The end result might just be one of the weakest examples of a show being silly THEN serious because of it tries to be one thing while also wanting to be another.

And as for the final defense, about how other shows tries to be silly THEN serious too, let's look ANOTHER series made by Disney: Gravity Falls.

Gravity Falls' first season, let's be honest with ourselves, is a lot like Amphibia's. There's hints of a story there, but much more time is dedicated to Dipper and Mable going on goofy one-off adventures while the second season takes a much more serious direction towards the plot and characters. It still leaves crumbs as well, like what's going on with Gideon and the Journals, but the majority of the season is still stuff like Mabel freeing a merman trapped in a public pool or Dipper using a video game character to intimidate Robby. So while it's the same as Amphibia it terms of tone, there's ONE difference: Episode length. Within the first season, Gravity Falls has twenty episodes where Amphibia has thirty-nine. Amphibia has ten-minute episodes stitched together to meet the twenty-minute runtime that Gravity falls have, and the end result is making a series feel MUCH longer than it actually is. It drags out the silliness longer, making Gravity Falls more digestible because we're watching random nonsense ONCE per week and not TWICE. So when the bigger, more serious story stuff comes, it feels like less time was wasted to get to it.

You can argue all you want about how Amphibia's first season doesn't have filler or, if it does, it's not a detriment. And if that's how you see things, that's fine. But not everyone is going to feel that way.

Look, filler can be fun. It can give you an enjoyable little adventure in between the meat of this grander narrative the writers are building. But filler isn't fun ALL THE TIME, and you need to find a right way to space it out between the story bits if a serialized story is what you want to make. As fun as it can be, it's not the necessity that people claim it is for a good show to exist. Some amazing series exist when they're all killer and no filler. Just because the characters don't randomly go to a casino for an episode, that doesn't mean it's a lesser form of storytelling.

And the same goes for shows WITH filler. If you like Amphibia's first season because of how silly and fun it is, I don't blame you. To me, it was a show that got my attention because there was a hint to a bigger narrative, but it's not what the show tried to do in it's first season. It took its time and the end result was a finale that legitimately brought me to tears, so SURELY it isn't all bad, even if most of those silly adventures weren't my cup of tea. It's DEFINITELY a season of filler, but whether or not that's a detriment to a show is depending on who you ask.

[mdhwrites]

I think a major part of my frustration with Luz's character arc (if it can be called that) is that I think the best character arcs often involve the character starting at a place where there is something they are wrong about or there is some flaw they need to grow from. Anne from Amphibia (and Sasha and Marcy as well) is a great example of how to do this well. But Luz never really has her fundamental beliefs or character challenged except I suppose in Episode 2 of the show when she learns she's not a chosen one. (Which as you've pointed out before is arguably undermined by some of the chosen one-like tropes she falls into later anyway.) There's nothing (according to the show) that she was wrong about or needed to change her mind about or needed to grow in any way from. The only thing she learns is that it's okay for her to be herself. Which, uh, pretty sure she already knew that in Episode 1? "Us weirdos stick together" and "no one should be punished for who they are" and all that? So really she learned nothing. I like Luz well enough and I find her charming (when she's not pointlessly angsting about ~helping Belos~ anyway) but come on, that's no way to write an interesting main character. Anyway that's my two cents, any thoughts on the matter? 🦎

So this is great in conjunction with my earlier blog because it is effectively a question about what you prioritize or think is important in a main character. What parts of character analysis do you care about? But I talked about character analysis in general this morning. Let's talk main character analysis. And yes, I've done this before somewhat with talking about if Luz is a good protagonist but didn't talk about main characters and arcs. So why don't protagonists usually have a more defined arc than the characters around them? That answer is actually pretty simple: The more defined they are, the less you can do with them. The character might say no a plotline or not react correctly to another character who needs them to behave in a specific way for their plotline. The more their character demands actual attention, the harder it is to tell the rest of the story since they are theoretically the focal point of the story. Frankly, this happens with Luz. Part of why S2B struggles to FUNCTION, let alone S3, is because Luz is demanding attention when before now she didn't. She was there, she might do things but the character she was interacting with, or the element of the world, was what came first. The most immediate example post Yesterday's Lie of this is actually the beginning of Elsewhere Elsewhen. Lilith just got hired to be a historian... But Lilith is a plot device almost as much as the time pools are in that episode. That's why Luz misses most of the party because the show wants to claim she's doubling down on her angst and worries and so she's finally actually putting more work towards figuring out what's going on. If the mouse hadn't spoken up, it's questionable if she would have gone to the party at all. And that sucks for Lilith's character because she HAS to be simplified than in order to not take up too much attention from what Luz is doing and her personal plot line. She's a gag character mostly in that episode for that reason because Luz is the dramatic anchor now despite this episode featuring what is theoretically a large change for Lilith in accepting a position DRASTICALLY lower than her original one. Reaching Out suffers similarly. It is theoretically about Amity's relationship with her father but Luz's angst is such a priority that Amity even struggling in the tournament isn't allowed because that would take too much time away. Luz can't properly react to Amity because the writers are so focused on her keeping this secret. Worst yet, to both Reaching Out and Falls and Follies, is that the writers can't have Luz actually stop lying so despite Amity asking Luz to stop TWICE, that can't have an impact on anything because they will not let Luz get past this. If she does, Hollow Mind's aftermath either is instantly resolved and we don't get her trying to stay in the human (which boy if that wouldn't have been nice) or becomes far more complex and has negative ramifications as characters have to now treat Luz differently based on the new information. Frankly it's a problem with ALL the character writing in TOH. Statements and future plans matter more than what the characters might actually do or real growth. This is also why characters are replaced as much they grow into new versions of themselves. Momma Eda is incompatible with her old self unless more thought and more complex answers are put into how she handles new problems dictated what she theoretically grew into. It's better to just forget most of what Eda does in S1 instead and just accept the new characterization.

And when your form of character arcs through replacement, that's a REAL problem for your main character. They dictate the tone and focus of the show after all. They have to change by inches without throwing the entire thing out of whack. And MOST people agree that S2B feels entirely different from the rest of the series, if not also S3 in general. And yeah, that's gonna happen when everyone has to now deal with an angry, upset, lying, secretive ball of emotions that is what Luz became in S2B. All while not being allowed to actually influence these emotions because the resolution is only allowed in S3. And halfway through it at that! Frankly, I would argue that instead of the issue with Luz being that she had no arc (and it's fine if that is the bigger deal to you. Arcs are compelling and spending too much with a main character who never changed is what made me eventually stop watching Randy Cunningham: Ninth Grade Ninja) but that when they tried to change her, they put no real thought into it. Despite this being their main character, their core, they treated Luz like they do any plot point, any character arc, any theme. It's just to make a statement and to try to prove it's better without the thought needed to make it better than other shows. And you do that to your main character and you are going to kill your story. ========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[superbdragoncollection-stuff]

Amphibia Contradicts Itself

To be clear, I love the girls so much. I just don't understand why the show doesn't.

The ending actively harms every other theme in the show, it feels as if it implies their friendship is actively harmful to their development as people. And it implies found family is fake, temporary, and to be abandoned as part of growing up.

It completely defeats the purpose of everything it set up with a little sentence. "Ten years later". The girls have never spoken. They never saw their frog families again. And Matt Braly thinks this is "sweet".

When talking about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, My Little Pony at least shows how beneficial being friends can be. It literally can change the world. They're nice to each other, they're kind, and they love each other. They actively make one another's lives easier.

Through Amphibia the girls are shown to have various influences on one another. They needed some time apart, before they came back together to improve. Okay, that's good. That's nice.

Then they separate and never speak for ten years. What was the point of the show then? "Your friends will still be your friends ten years later". Okay?? So?? WHAT ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE?! Is this really the conclusion? After everything they've been through, they're supposed to separate?! That's it?! How is that good?! How does this mean anything?!

They spent all this time building up relationships that improve mental health... that's all they do? Sure that's good, but at what cost? They lost EVERYTHING. They lost their frog families, they lost each other. But it's okay. They're slightly less mean.

They lost their found families and never felt upset. For a story that talks about the concept, it feels like it implies found family is fake, temporary, and to be abandoned as a part of growing up. That's agreeing with the villains! "Don't you think it's time to leave those childhood friends behind?"

The show feels as if it prioritizes biological family over found family. A cruel and heartless monster forced them to choose which family members they loved the most. Who does that?! And why was it treated as a POSITIVE?! And the creature only did it because their awful and cruel plan to get an intern failed.

The show feels like it agrees with the villains. Amphibia was emphasized to be a real world not a fantasy in True Colors, but then the show turns around and goes "time to grow up now!" So that means that the Amphibians are childhood things. To be abandoned.

One of the biggest contradictions though is the Calamity Trio are never shown to improve one another's lives when they are all together. Even when they seemingly improve, like Sasha defends them from bullies, that is all undermined by the show's ultimate conclusion: the girls must never be together again.

When Sasha teamed up with Anne and Marcy in season 1, it was a manipulative relationship.

Season 2 it was a lie. Sasha only was friends to control them. When they finally genuinely joined up, they failed so miserably Marcy was nearly killed.

Season 3? They are only ever successful when they are apart. Sasha wins with the help of Grime. Anne wins without any assistance aside from a joke about kpop. Marcy doesn't win. She doesn't get to win.

They finally win BECAUSE Sasha and Marcy retreat, not in spite of it. Anne must do it alone. Notice a pattern? It feels like we never see any benefit to them that's long term. Love and affection? At what cost?

Sasha's lessons? "Don't be a bully" Anne's lessons? "Stand up for yourself" Marcy's lessons? "Never under any circumstances do anything for yourself. You will hurt your friends. Always obey your parents, NEVER, EVER disobey them."

I don't give a crap what Matt Braly tweeted. I should not need social media posts to determine what is canon and what is not! This "typo" or "mistake" actively harms the show to a level it can't recover. The girls NEVER spoke for ten years. THAT'S WHAT THE SHOW IMPLIES.

And the show actively implies that the girls would be better off if they never met. Remember that pattern? We never see their friendships actually improving anything in a way that didn't blow up in their faces. It was their relationship with other people that made the difference.

They might be in a slightly better place mentally, yet they've lost everything else. The show feels like it is implying if they never met, they'd be better off. Nothing between them improved their lives. True Colors and All In show that when they work together, PEOPLE DIE. Anne won only because the other girls LEFT her.

They only ever improved by being apart. So what was the point of being in Amphibia then? If they had never met, nothing in the show would have happened.

The show directly contradicts itself. Matt supposedly didn't want to put Sasha's parents in the show so she wouldn't have someone to blame. If that's true, then that means that this is all Sasha's fault. Same with Marcy. By refusing to expand on the implications of child abuse, or any outside factors at all, the show concludes that the girls would be better off alone. Without anyone to slow them down.

And worse? Matt said in 2023, "It wouldn't be realistic, I didn't want them going on adventures ad nauseum". So why do ALL the frogs get to stay together? Sprig and Ivy GET to do that! Why must the girls be separated permanently, while the frogs get to live together? Why do they get to stay together while the girls are forced apart?

The ending, trying to be sweet, feels as if it directly agrees with the villains.

WHAT WAS THE POINT OF THE ENTIRE SERIES? If them being apart was what made them grow, shouldn't the end be them reuniting at the end of the show instead of separating for a decade, never even seeing one another, and then reuniting? How is this positive? Why SHOULD they even reunite? What's the point of anything if it's all going to get taken away? That's what Andrias believed, and it feels like the show agrees with it.

What's the point of these relationships if they're all going to get taken away? What's the point of ANYTHING? That is how the show makes me feel.

For a conclusion about how you never know how things will come back, it does a GREAT job of making sure NOTHING comes back. There are no plot threads.

What was the point of any of this? It doesn't feel like things will come back. It doesn't make me feel warm and snuggly. It makes me feel angry, sad, and bitter. It makes me wonder what the point of anything is.

[the-firebird69]

According to our records Trump has about 50% of his elite Force here that was here before it's just not bad and they're here originally but globally he has about 25% of his Force and shrinking in population by the end of the day today is his presence off Islands will be about 7% and that's not very good in the next few days it'll shrink to 6%. Which is really not that quick but bja and he are going to fight and that will destroy huge numbers of his because we'll have to go John Riva lard is going to have to try and get his troops out and his arms from Sasha some cashes at least to defend himself or he will lose area and lose his people and he's going to be pressured into it yeah he already is he's losing the finances and it's good to pass to the hospital and more and soon.

--it's a lot of things that this person does that are detestable not many help at all so we don't like him and we want him out our people are pushing forward in a lot of people are and he will be out shortly he plans to move on himself.

--there are other things in the news now this place is going to come apart at the seams if we don't get in here

--we have a lot of orders and we're sending them but we would like volunteers too we need people to show they care about us and him and his wife

--two more things we have a lot of stuff in the works there's a lot of battles coming up they're going to be very big and we can't afford to stop one or the other and we need our people to stop fooling around and to sign on it's been going on forever we keep telling that and they're not really exciting on fast enough let me know about the problems I'm going to enforce a limited conscription and we're going to do it now and we have to

--they're evacuating Florida and only 1% of the population and they're evacuating the Midwest all of it today probably at 2% of the population there. That's pretty big they'll be leaving and trying to take stuff but really A lot of them will leave we do have an idea where here doesn't help yet we also have regular businesses started in the cities that are out there and people go to work and they're much happier sometimes they leave but they say thank you and we got up to speed later on Sunday we might do battle but at least you gave us a fair shake and this stuff is gross. As well as the Max and then they got a special information packet took from Woodinville and that lady passed it around and they said he postponed something somehow. And it was important for her to do that. And she started telling a lot of people they slow down for a reason you're not coming at us and we need to know what happened and finally it's out due to this being out there are fights in town and their fights all over Florida in the nation in the world over these spots

--we are hearing other things coming out of our son but these guys sort of get it the story has been out for a while but it is new to a lot of people who are plainly horrified.

--and Trump organization is accused of riding on the Camilla organization and there is going to be a war

--and his mom can't believe it no she knows what he's up to and how he grew up because he says he does not want to be president and has no aspiration for it and the max wanted him to be and is not going to doesn't want to it's too much high profile stuff is too dangerous it's a job stuff like that it's very true too just doesn't seem to be into it

--there's some things happening in town right now significant changes are taking place with the makeup of the population there's a huge group that was coming down that's establishing here in punta Gorda and another one is coming from Port Charlotte and they simply occupy the empty spaces Heather send it for more now he'll probably have about 80% of the population by the end of the day in Charlotte county and this it's cheeseman. Trump is saying he had enough this movie out but he has a plan to retake it from his own group LOL now that's low he's really dipping down there. John ramillard reassembled Max Rolls-Royce and he put it on the Mercedes that was in the crash and people think he's nuts and he is our son is supposed to get the coyote too and people are saying I wonder what Jesse that really is and it is not the Volkswagen scirocco no we know what chassis is and he didn't do much damage to the shiraco. Well it might be that car and the motor that year was pretty big so V6 2.5 l i put out about 200 horsepower and when John reillard has that Mercedes he died in as a car again.

--this is pretty serious so we're going to print

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zues Hera

[drakonfire12]

No Ukraine isn't just going to just sign away their land and people to Russian occupation

"Russian death camp: Three stories of Ukrainian prisoners" by Texty.org

The cases of Oleksandr Hrytsiuk, Vitalii Klochenko & Oleksii Kretsu

The image of Oleksandr is going around Twitter/X so lets first cover what's been said:

" Oksana Hrytsiuk, the wife of the deceased, says: [...] When we arrived in Kyiv for body identification on January 25, I was shocked by what I saw. It was a very horrifying sight. What struck me the most was how emaciated the body was. The pathologist said that he weighed less than fifty kilograms. Sasha was tall—180 cm. Before captivity, he weighed 110 kg and was physically healthy. What was left of him were just bones and skin. His head was all bruised, his nose was crooked, and his index fingers had no nails. Whether they were ripped out or smashed, I do not know. There were signs of torture all over his body. His cellmates later told me how they were tortured. Every day, they were beaten. They were beaten either in the cell or taken outside. They beat them very brutally, especially my husband. Because he was tall, stately, from western Ukraine, and didn’t want to speak Russian."

Overall, what does the article show?

Russians beat Ukrainian POWs for speaking Ukrainian (violated Geneva Convection Article 16, on humane treatment and Article 13 on equal treatment not differing by nationality or political views).

Russian mistreat Ukrainian POWs (violates Geneva Convention [henceforth "GC"] Article 13, on equal treatment).

Russians put Ukrainian POWs in such a position as to contract tuberculosis as well as other illnesses (violates GC Article 13)

Russians house people in terrible quarters and conditions (violates GC Article 20).

Russians confined Ukrainians to close quarters (violates GC Article 21).

Russians put both men and women in the same bathhouses (violates GC Article 29).

Russians did not provide enough food of good enough quality, dog food or food for pigs is clearly not human food (violates GC, Article 26).

Russians only gave 3 min to go to the bathroom, another instance 15 second showers (violates GC Article 29 on allowing for and maintaining proper hygiene).

Russians ignored the medical inspections that could have easily spotted tuberculosis among the sick POWs and then treated them. They did not give proper help to Oleksandr until he was in critical condition. (GC Article 31 on medical inspections, and also on medical treatment and Article 30 on medial attention).

Russians did not allows for enough correspondents, 2-4 a month is supposed to be a minimum requirement. Correspondence are supposed to be allowed in their native language, Russians forced them to write in Russian based on a template (violates GC article 71).

Russians either impersonated or the Red Cross were doing Russia's dirty work asking POWs if they want Russian passports.

You are probably wondering am I writing all this out painstakingly. I wrote all this out because some human rights orgs and some people keep ignoring very obvious mistreatment of Ukrainian POWs. Well here's a comprehensive list just from this article to get them started. This is also a reason why Ukraine and Ukrainians will never forgive anyone who forces us to give up Ukrainian land and people to occupation. And honestly, I curse all those non-Ukrainians who try to force Ukraine and Ukrainians into a deal that won't even last a few years, I hope your kids will be smarter than you.

Further explanation:

The text is bolded for emphasis by me. Text and short descriptions all taken from IHL database doc. See doc for full list, it became too long for me to quote the entire paragraphs.

GENEVA CONVENTION RELATIVE TO THE TREATMENT OF PRISONERS OF WAR OF 12 AUGUST 1949

Article 13: Humane treatment of prisoners

Prisoners of war must at all times be humanely treated. Any unlawful act or omission by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular, no prisoner of war may be subjected to physical mutilation or to medical or scientific experiments of any kind which are not justified by the medical, dental or hospital treatment of the prisoner concerned and carried out in his interest. [...]

Article 16: Equality of treatment

Taking into consideration the provisions of the present Convention relating to rank and sex, and subject to any privileged treatment which may be accorded to them by reason of their state of health, age or professional qualifications, all prisoners of war shall be treated alike by the Detaining Power, without any adverse distinction based on race, nationality, religious belief or political opinions, or any other distinction founded on similar criteria.

Article 21: Restriction of liberty of movement

[...]Subject to the provisions of the present Convention relative to penal and disciplinary sanctions, prisoners of war may not be held in close confinement except where necessary to safeguard their health and then only during the continuation of the circumstances which make such confinement necessary. [...]

Article 22: Places and conditions of internment

Prisoners of war may be interned only in premises located on land and affording every guarantee of hygiene and healthfulness. Except in particular cases which are justified by the interest of the prisoners themselves, they shall not be interned in penitentiaries. Prisoners of war interned in unhealthy areas, or where the climate is injurious for them, shall be removed as soon as possible to a more favourable climate. [...]

Article 25: Quarters

Prisoners of war shall be quartered under conditions as favourable as those for the forces of the Detaining Power who are billeted in the same area. The said conditions shall make allowance for the habits and customs of the prisoners and shall in no case be prejudicial to their health. The foregoing provisions shall apply in particular to the dormitories of prisoners of war as regards both total surface and minimum cubic space, and the general installations, bedding and blankets. The premises provided for the use of prisoners of war individually or collectively, shall be entirely protected from dampness and adequately heated and lighted, in particular between dusk and lights out. All precautions must be taken against the danger of fire. [...][Note: I left this line in because Olenivka is another important instance where Russians violated the Geneva Convention]

Article 26: Food The basic daily food rations shall be sufficient in quantity, quality and variety to keep prisoners of war in good health and to prevent loss of weight or the development of nutritional deficiencies. Account shall also be taken of the habitual diet of the prisoners. The Detaining Power shall supply prisoners of war who work with such additional rations as are necessary for the labour on which they are employed. Sufficient drinking water shall be supplied to prisoners of war. The use of tobacco shall be permitted. [...]

Article 29: Hygeine

The Detaining Power shall be bound to take all sanitary measures necessary to ensure the cleanliness and healthfulness of camps, and to prevent epidemics. Prisoners of war shall have for their use, day and night, conveniences which conform to the rules of hygiene and are maintained in a constant state of cleanliness. In any camps in which women prisoners of war are accommodated, separate conveniences shall be provided for them. Also, apart from the baths and showers with which the camps shall be furnished, prisoners of war shall be provided with sufficient water and soap for their personal toilet and for washing their personal laundry; the necessary installations, facilities and time shall be granted them for that purpose.

Article 30: Medical attention Every camp shall have an adequate infirmary where prisoners of war may have the attention they require, as well as appropriate diet. Isolation wards shall, if necessary, be set aside for cases of contagious or mental disease.[...] Prisoners of war may not be prevented from presenting themselves to the medical authorities for examination. The detaining authorities shall, upon request, issue to every prisoner who has undergone treatment, an official certificate indicating the nature of his illness or injury, and the duration and kind of treatment received. A duplicate of this certificate shall be forwarded to the Central Prisoners of War Agency. [...]

Article 31: Medical inspections Medical inspections of prisoners of war shall be held at least once a month. They shall include the checking and the recording of the weight of each prisoner of war. Their purpose shall be, in particular, to supervise the general state of health, nutrition and cleanliness of prisoners and to detect contagious diseases, especially tuberculosis, malaria and venereal disease. For this purpose the most efficient methods available shall be employed, e.g. periodic mass miniature radiography for the early detection of tuberculosis.

Article 71: Correspondence Prisoners of war shall be allowed to send and receive letters and cards. If the Detaining Power deems it necessary to limit the number of letters and cards sent by each prisoner of war, the said number shall not be less than two letters and four cards monthly, exclusive of the capture cards provided for in Article 70, and conforming as closely as possible to the models annexed to the present Convention. Further limitations may be imposed only if the Protecting Power is satisfied that it would be in the interests of the prisoners of war concerned to do so owing to difficulties of translation caused by the Detaining Power’s inability to find sufficient qualified linguists to carry out the necessary censorship. If limitations must be placed on the correspondence addressed to prisoners of war, they may be ordered only by the Power on which the prisoners depend, possibly at the request of the Detaining Power. [...] As a general rule, the correspondence of prisoners of war shall be written in their native language. The Parties to the conflict may allow correspondence in other languages.

[sxrrandomfanfics]

Hazel Nuss is based on a pun name with nut. She's a part of a group of characters called the "Nuterns" and she's the oldest at age 19 -> 20. Some of her stories are featured here.

For full explanation- It's under the cut.

Hazel's powers when she first comes to the Psychonatus are Hyperempathy and Hydrokinesis.

While growing up, her mother was afraid of her, and many people disliked her because... Hazel was born on the same day as the Deluge of Grulovia, one year later. Her similarity to Maligula is something that she is VERY aware of. Her sisters ignored her a lot, and the only one there for her was her father, who brought her into his interests of military history, her aunt, who ABSOLUTELY loved having a psychic in the family, and her uncle, who... brought her into some bad habits.

Hazel kept trying to get into the Psychonauts, but there was rejection citing there wasn't any room for her.

In Elementary School, Hazel got a bit of therapy with her mom and they got a better relationship. Her mom starting to get over her own trauma dealing with her own father.

In Older Elementary School, Hazel's sister and parents were arguing so much that Hazel often stayed with others who her family trusted, such as a neighbor who was with 4H, and her drifting Uncle. Said uncle was not good for Hazel's physical health and when her mother found this out, she cut her brother out until he got clean.

During her Middle School years, her oldest sister cut out Hazel and her parents. Due to this, Hazel claimed her as an "ex-sister" and often thought of her relationships with her ex-sister similar to her mother and uncle.

It wasn't until after... an incident that happened with her and another person that she got taken out of public school and started interning at her mother's work with the EPA.

Hazel didn't do too well in college, but still applied to the Psychonauts.

When she was accepted, she was set to work under Helmut and found herself accidentally impressing Raz as when she got to the Psychonauts and decided to use Hydrokinesis to get over to the Motherlobe's building from the parking lot.

Hazel also had a really bad impression against her Nutern coworkers because she's the oldest but not that great of a leader and was seen as smothering. And also really scared them cause she hung around Sasha and her old habits bit at her again.

Hazel does get clean and does get better but a lot of her story deals with trying to heal from the past in a way where there's no betrayal.

She never trusted Lucy and never once separated Maligula from Lucy. Having to be down in the gulch with her is a lot for Hazel, who was plagued with kids calling her "Hazigula."

There are also a bunch of little quirks she has such as crushing for some of the people at the Motherlobe nigh immediately if they show her kindness, but she believes that no one really wants her unless they see her as a possible mother for future children. She also loves to ramble about things but is always scared of fixating on something for so long cause she was called trash for that and forced herself to unlearn stims because her mother always made fun of her when she did them.

[the-martyrfication-of-the-matron]

Did Shad like Vylad? Did Vlyad keep his memories? Why/why not? At what age did Vylad die? Was he young enough to be one of Shad’s kids? Do any of Shad’s kids Question who Chadlene is? Do they know about her? Has Shad told them? Do Shad’s kids like to play with the pets Shad has? Polar bears. Up to what extent would Shad go to get his kiddos something they want? Are the Shadowkids cute? When Shad can’t watch them, who does? Why was Zenix one of Shad’s favorites? Why did Zenix betray Garroth? They seem like they’ve been together for at least a couple of years, so why did Zenix decide to attack when he did? I like how Shad is the SHADow Lord, I find funny. I think it was mentioned that Vylad was a late bloomer as a child, does this still hold true in ur rewrite? Travis. Emmalyn and Kenmur were such a good couple, do you have any HCs on them? Does the main gang do stupid/outrageous things sometimes solely for entertainment purposes? Did Vylad miss his family while he was in the nether?

I tried to answer this before but my phone deleted it

Anyhow,

Shad doesn’t like Vylad at first because Vylad is a traitor and Shad doesn’t appreciate disloyalty. But Vylad betrayed him to bring back and serve his wife who he loves and adores despite his desire to murder her. So he’s pretty 50/50 about him.

Vylad did keep his memories because he was turned before Gene came about, thus his memories couldn’t be snatched, and only started to show that he was willing to be a nuisance when he started helping Aphmau out. By that point Gene was banned from using their magicks in the abyss so Vylad got to keep them.

Vylad was about 15/16 when he died but was immortalised at about 21 and therefore he looks 21.

He was young enough to be one of Shad’s kids but due to him being a member of the Ro’Meave family (even though it was not technically by blood) Shad didn’t want to be associated with him.

The kids know about Chadlene, and are usually told stories about her when Shad is reminiscing. They aren’t fond of stories of her because of how highly he speaks of Irene in most stories, but they listen anyway because they want to know more about their sister. A few ask about her at first, especially when they first find where Shad keeps her, but eventually learn that it’s a bit of a sore subject for Shad so they leave him to tell them about her in his own time.

The kids love playing with Shad’s pets. He’s got quite a few (it’s not just humans that can be turned into shadow knights after all) and if his kids ask he gets them their own. His favourite pets are his hounds, however, which he has even before his judgement days.

Shad would topple empires if it meant pleasing his kids. He loves making them happy and anything he can do to make them smile, he will do

Most of the shadow kids are cute. Some can be pretty terrifying. But they’re mostly adorable.

Sasha’s the usual shadow kid babysitter because she’s got a very soothing voice and they find her eyes very comforting. Plus she’s part demon, so when she’s rubbed her smell off on one of the shadow kids, the wall demons don’t try to eat them. Shads very pleased about that perk.

Shad would say Zenix was his favourite because he was helpful, and sweet, and he showed a lot of dedication, which Shad admired. But it’s just because Zenix reminds him of Chad. And he’s, evidently, never really gotten over her death.

Zenix betrayed Garroth because he wanted the security of knowing that he had a father who’s love for him was unconditional. Genuinely. Garroth wouldn’t love him anymore if he found out what he was, or what he had done. But Shad? Shad already knew and loved him anyway. And Zenix only attacked when he did because he was… a kid. And not only was he too young to be smart/strong enough to kill the lord and attack Phoenix drop later on, he didn’t have anywhere else to go. He only attacked when he found out there was another Shadow Knight in the area that he could run to after everything was all over.

Shads name is ridiculous and I might change it in my rewrite. Or just explain it as ‘that’s what the divine called him because his only name when he met them was the King of Shadows but that’s a bit lengthy so they cut it down’

Transvis*

I do have Kenmalyn HCs but they deserve their own post. Oh, but also, they’re both trans lesbians. Because I said so.

The gang are stupid. So sometimes they tell Travis some huge burly rando at a tavern called him (or Katelyn) a name so Travis tries to fight him and ultimately only gets out alive because he makes up some dumb lie that he has to run along with for like a week until the rando realised he lied and Travis has to leg it out of town before he’s stabbed. They find it very funny. Especially Katelyn.

Vylad always misses his family. But he understands why he can’t see them. Hyria was actually his family replacement for a while. She found him in her forest, carried him home by the scruff of his neck like he was a kitten, and just became like an aunt to him. She’s there to fill a void. They both understand that. And when he decided to leave she gave him the opportunity to help his family out one last time by blessing them with Irene, though he showed favouritism and just blessed Garroth.

[arillusionist]

i just sort of skimmed through the amphibia intervew. i understand the ending a bit more now, thats its also about sprig being his own person outside of anne, which is cool and all but:

but if sasha, marcy, and anne can grow outside of each other, and find themselves without leaning on one another, and still come back to each other, why can’t anne and sprig? why couldn’t sprig get settled into an independent life and then see anne again 10 years later?

i think the sashannarcy reunion should have been replaced w/ a plantar boonchuy reunion, because the message about not all your wishes being fufilled would essentially be the same. some people come back to you, some don’t. except the plantar’s relationship would fit coming back to each other a lot more. sashannarcy coming back instead of plantars seems boring to me, because their relationship was so clearly about moving on from other people. the plantars was about how you couldn’t always depend on other people.

so a plantar boonchuy reunion would have fit the plot a lot better, imo. 

or, the portal could have stayed open, and anne and sprig could have drifted apart naturally. well, not actually drifted apart, but becoming more independent from one another, but still talking if they needed support or just some fun times. sprig wouldn’t have been forced to find his own person, it would have been natural. because both anne and sprig being forced to be independent is repetitive imo. just sayin. and it wouldnt feel like the message of change was super forced. anne would still have people by her side, because irl, some things change but not everything does. am i supposed to leave this show thinking “oh no one day all my friendships and important relationships will go away and i’ll be all alone except for my parents”. especially because this is a children’s show, kids don’t need to be bombarded w/ all that shit.

plus this would fit sprig’s line from all in much better, where he asks anne “what if things change between us?” because things never actually changed between them. there was literally a huge ass brick wall stopping them from seeing each other again. if they could still see each other but chose to be independent, that would have been more impactful. because sprig’s story of independence wouldn’t be the exact same thing as anne’s and it wouldn’t feel as repetitive.

maybe i’m being a bit biased here because i like plantars more than the calamity trio, but its just how i see it. sashannarcy should have drifted apart and they could have made a big emotional scene out of marcy moving, and anne and the plantars should have learnt to not depend on each other so much, but still be able to meet up/meet up again in the future. the calamity trio could totally still meet again, but maybe just not in the episode? it could be confirmed outside of the show.

one thing that i totally agree w/ matt for is how amphibia was anne’s story. sasha and marcy didn’t need to be focused on as much. thank u for saying that matt.

and finally, i promise this is the last thing, no matter how much people say the ending is happy and hopeful, i just don’t see it that way. it just seems very depressing to me because of the fact that everyone close to anne just. leaves. her life. that is depressing, and it doesnt happen irl. in reality, not everything changes all at once and you’re not gonna drift apart and leave everyone important in ur life. especially ur fckin family. come on man how is that a happy ending. i get that anne cant have everything but that doesn’t meet she has to have nothing. matt saying that there are a number of ways they can reunite makes me feel a bit better but. its not canon.

all of these are my opinions. don’t tell me i missed to point of the show, because i’m literally acknowledging them, just putting into a way that I think would have fit the story better. if you think what happened fits the story best, good for u!!! u have the same opinion as matt!!! wow!!! but news flash, not everyone is gonna be like u. matt said himself that the ending is what fit his vision. deal w/ it bro

(also watch me take away sashannarcy reunion from the ending. lets see how u like the finale then.)

[melishade]

Attack on Prime Halloween Anthology: The Bride of Tola

Main Story  

Mae Nak

Pesta

“Tomorrow is the last day!” Connie cheered as they sat around the bonfire.

“But I feel like we’ve become a little desensitized to these stories now,” Armin admitted.

“I haven’t,” Eren confessed, “And I say it with pure honesty.”

“Unless Optimus can pull out another really good story, looks like Mikasa will be the winner of our little game,” Hanji declared.

“Is there some sort of reward at the end of this?” Optimus asked in his holoform, a little curious to see what they might have wagered.

“Cash,” Jean and Connie stated.

“Food,” Sasha lamented.

“A knife,” Levi added.

“Marleyans also have some goodies that we threw in the pot,” Hanji smiled, “Not like they won’t need it anytime soon.”

“Hm,” Optimus could only respond before turning his attention to the fire. “In a small town, a religious woman named Eladia was to be wed to a man named Salvador. Salvador was known to have a reckless past full of immorality, and on the night before their wedding, he had decided to bed a former lover. He had no real emotional connection with her, and merely did so out of desire.

On the morning of the wedding, Eladia had waited with her father at the gates of the church for her fiancée to appear, but he never showed. Rumors had quickly spread throughout the crowd of guests, as they all assumed the terrible truth, that Salvador had betrayed her love and her trust. In her grief stricken and angered state, Eladia climbed the stares to the top of the church and prayed to her god, asking for forgiveness for the act she was about to commit. She threw herself out the window of the bell tower, and hit the ground below, her neck snapping in the process.

Mere hours later, Salvador had arrived, trying to disguise and hide his misdeeds as he fixed his attire. But he could only watch in horror as the body of his fiancée had been covered and taken away. The townsfolk had turned on him and cursed his name, causing him to flee and go into hiding. A few months later, Salvador had returned. He looked healthier and sober, and has asked the townsfolk for forgiveness. They decided to give him another chance, and Salvador had dedicated his time towards the church. 

One night as Salvador was cleaning, he saw a woman in a white dress and a veil covering her face. Salvador had asked what she was alright, but she was gone. When he was prepared to leave, he saw the veil the woman was wearing floating up the stairs. He quickly followed to the bell tower, and watched it land on the edge of the window. As he turned around to leave, someone had grabbed him by the throat and lifted him in the air. Salvador gasped as he realized it was his former bride to be in her wedding dress. Her neck was twisted and broken from the fall, her eyes staring at him with an eerie white. She had returned as a malevolent spirit called The Bride of Tola. She hovered over the ground and to the edge of the window, forcing him outside and letting him dangle in the air. Salvador tried to speak, but she responded.

Forgive me father, for what I am about to do.

She had let go of his neck and he fell from the top of the church and hit the ground hard. He writhed in pain as his arms and legs were broken from the fall. He peered his head over to see the Bride float down from the top of the church and gracefully landing on the ground. Salvador then screamed as she stomped on his legs, then his arms, then his ribs, and his pelvis, breaking his bones even further beyond repair. Salvador had tried to plead with her to spare him. He asked her for forgiveness. But she did not reply. She merely raised her foot once more, and stomped his face in, ending his life forever more.”

“Oh, another revenge story,” Hanji smiled.

“But she got her vengeance,” Mikasa said, “Does that mean she passes on or does she still remain?”

“It is unclear,” Optimus answered, “The town did erect a statue in her honor.”

“They’re honoring a dead woman?” Jean asked bluntly.

“She got stood up and humiliated and then came back to kill this guy,” Sasha recapped, “I can respect it.”

“Anyone who dates you is going to be in for a hell of a time,” Connie declared.

“There is an interesting phrase from Earth that could be applied to this situation,” Optimus said.

“And what’s that?” Levi asked.

“Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned,” Optimus recited.

“Oh, I love it,” Hanji grinned, “I’m going to use it!”

[thekingofwinterblog]

Amphibia Week - Day 7

What aspect do you like the most about Amphibia?

The relationship between Anne and Sasha.

My single favorite part of Amphibia, and the only part of Amphibia aside from it's humor, that i feel ever managed to actually surpass Avatar, is the relationship between Sasha and Anne, and just how Human this beautiful mess of a relationship is.

I have always liked character relationships where it is clear from day one that the characters truly, genuinely love each other, but they are constantly in conflict between that love and their personal flaws.

And in this regard, I used to hold Zuko and Iroh's relationship from Avatar, as the absolute pinnacle of just how great this kind of relationship can be when it is given the care, attention, and writing it needs to work.

However, in that regard i very much think Amphibia actually surpassed it with Sasha and Anne's relationship.

Sasha and Anne's relationship is such an amazingly well written showcase of two people who truly, totally, and completely love each other in the most intimate ways... But rather than just being able to embrace that, they are instead constantly undercut by their own, deep human flaws.

Anne and Sasha starts off in a very bad place, where Sasha has embraced the absolute worst parts of herself, and yet... As we see throughout Reunion, there is so, so much more to this relationship than just Sasha's horrible control freak abuse.

Sasha is capable of astonishing levels of cruelty and manipulation fueled by her own trauma, her desperate need for control and feeling like she has to be useful in order to have worth... But she's also capable of the opposite. Of pure expressions of love and humanity towards Anne, where the only thing she truly wants, is for Anne to be happy, where the only reward Sasha wants is for Anne to love her as much as she does her.

And that is what makes it so real. It's messy, it's complicated, it's both beautiful, and ugly. It is love between two people, in all it's best and worst forms.

And unlike so, so many relationships, it is NOT static.

Sasha and Anne's relationship constantly evolves through the series, even when they seem to have found an equilibrium, the show is always building it towards another, new development.

In season 2, the entire story was building towards Sasha's betrayal, her making the choice to try and obtain ultimate power and control so she will never have to fear things slipping out of her hands ever again.

Only for Anne to make it abundantly clear that by doing so, Sasha hurt her. Hurt her worse than anything, anyone has ever done before in her life.

And so, by committing to the path of control, Sasha loses the thing she wanted more than anything else. Anne's love, respect and adoration. And worst of all, as she learns later, she already had all of those already.

Sasha hurt Anne with this betrayal. Hurt her in a way that only someone you truly, passionately love can. She opened her heart, and Sasha, in her desperate quest for control, Sasha stabbed her right through.

And so, Anne, the heart of Amphibia, the embodiment of the morals of this story embraces all her worst aspects in turn.

During their confrontation at the gatehouse, Anne becomes much more angry and agreasive than Sadha ever was, trying her absolute damnedest to flat out murder Sasha.

Because Sasha hurt her so, so much, and in the moment, all Anne can think about is getting even. Just like Sasha, Anne is fully capable of giving into all her flaws, all of her deepest, darkest human desires.

Just like Anne was the one who always brought out the absolute best in Sasha, so Sasha is the only one in the world, who can bring out the absolute worst parts of Anne.

It is such a real, raw human reaction, that it is so, so easy to understand Anne, as she makes the worst decisions of her life, even as we know and understands why she's in the wrong.

But that is not the end of their relationship. Because Anne learns that Sasha was right. She fucked up. Hard.

The moment where Anne looks at a bound Sasha, is one of my favorite understated moments in the series.

In that one, single moment, having seen Andrias reveal his worst aspects, and having to see the consequences of her actions first hand, it suddenly dawns on Anne what she tried to do earlier.

She tried to kill her best friend, who she loves so much. She tried to murder her in anger, for a cause that she learns was flat out wrong.

It's such a bucket of cold water poured over her head, and it allows Anne to see clearly that she was capable of fucking up just as much as Sasha and Marcy was. She just did so in fact.

They are all horribly flawed messes. And id ahe deserves to be given a second chance to fix her mistakes... Why doesn't Marcy and Sasha?

Of course they ultimately lose the battle and are separated, but one thing i actually do like in 3A(Amongst other things in Anne's story i distinctly DO NOT) is the contrast.

Anne has committed to giving this relationship another chance. And so, she's able to act withouth it crushing her.

But Sasha, who does not know this, reaches rock bottom. She hates herself, and she thinks that Anne, the person she loves most in the world, now hates her too.

At this point, Sasha feels like her deepest, darkest fear has come true. Not only that she is unloved, but that she deserves to be unloved. That the voice in the back of her head, that's been telling telling her that she was never worth loving just for being her, ever since her parents broke her ability to love herself unconditionally was right all along.

Which in turn brings us to the most beautiful scene in all of season 3.

As Sasha has hit her lowest point, she finds Anne's diary. And through it, she learns a powerful truth about Anne. One she never was able to see and accept before now.

Anne already loved her. Even after the tower, even after everything, Anne still loved Sasha, not because she was useful, or needed her to get by, but because she was her friend.

Sasha never needed to prove anything to Anne. She never needed prove that she was useful. Her entire desire for control in order to make sure that Anne would continue to love her, was not only a giant waste of time, but also counterproductive, as the only thing it has lead to, is that(Or at least Sasha thinks so) Anne now hates her.

And so, she decides to do better. She makes a choice to commit to becoming a better person. To leave all the things that lead to her betraying Anne in the past. To become someone who deserves someone as wonderful as Anne in her life.

And she does. Sasha does change. She does grow. Not without issues, or new difficulties arising, but even so, Anne still loves her anyway.

Anne always loved Sasha. And she still does Flaws, warts and scars and all. The only thing she ever asked of her, was for Sasha to respect her.

And it's here, as Anne gives her back her helmet that Sasha is able to accept that fact. That she never had anything she needed to prove to Anne. All she had to do, was to treat her with the same kind of respect as Anne had for her.

That was the only thing Anne ever asked Sasha for in order to forgive her. And it's only now, as Anne hugs her in an embrace, that Sasha fully, truly understands, and accepts that.

And she gives it to her. Her love, her devotion, and at long last, all her respect.

But there is still more steps to take in this journey. Relationships are not static things, instead they are constantly changing.

And as Anne tries to help Sasha overcome her fears of forgiving Marcy and what that would mean, Anne, without even meaning to, or fully understanding Sasha's full issues, helps Sasha overcome one of her deeper scars.

Sasha is terrified of having to truly, totally open herself up again after betrayal. She has been for ages now, ever since her parents destroyed her ability to truly, unconditionally trust other people through their divorce.

That mess left her with a deep, deep fear of things "Going wrong", and so she would do anything, go to any length to avoid having to face that again.

Sasha after Turning point has overcome this flaw... But she hasn't healed. She no longer tries to dominate everyone and everything, but that is because she understands that it is wrong to do so.

Not because she is emotionally strong enough to trust other people to make those mistakes.

Anne does not fully understand why this wound sits so deep in Sasha's heart, as she thinks it's because of Marcy's betrayal, not understanding that the wound in Sasha's heart is much, much deeper than that.

And yet, she manages to make Sasha see, to understand what she means, just by being her lovable, kind, and honest self.

Opening yourself to potential risks and heartbreak is hard. It is scary. It is terrifying. Forgiving someone who hurt you can go wrong. It might not work out even if you do so.

But it's only by doing so that you can find true beauty in bonds with others.

Like the one they have now.

And Sasha, finally understands. She gets it. She is finally is able to truly commit to open her heart again fully. Not just to Anne, but in general.

It is only here, so, so many years after her parents divorce that Sasha is able to finally begin healing from the wound her parents gave her so long ago.

Sasha was a girl who at the start of the series felt like she needed to be useful for others to love her. That if the people she loved could get by without her, she had no value.

Anne told her something different.

And it is only now, that she is able to truly accept it.

Anne and Sasha have a wonderfull mess of a relationship. It is is ugly, it is full of heartbreak, of pain and betrayal. But it is also beautiful, it is kindness, compassion, and support, and full of all the things that makes life worth living.

It is love, in all it's great and terrible extremes, and it is by far my favorite part of Amphibia.

[borkthemork]

‘Ivy on the Run’, and What Sasha Needs

So, back when I was rewatching Season 2B, I had considered a lot of the tiny details found in prior episodes that seemed to promise massive comebacks later on.

I’m talking about the mossmen, who were alluded to way back in Wally and Anne, who were mentioned later with the mural and the sleepover episode.

We also have stuff such as the ability for Anne to bend light into imagery, which I definitely absolutely believe is one of her powers that will be delved into in Season Three.

With all these details, I decided to really put my foot into the series and see how much could potentially be planted throughout what I once considered to be episodic episodes.

And that was where I had a realization.

Ivy on the Run wasn’t just a Sprig and Ivy episode. It wasn’t just some random episode for the sake of having fun with the characters.

This episode is where the show tells the audience subtly that Ivy Sundew is going to be an important character to the plot when it comes to being Sasha Waybrights’s Sprig equivalent, and I’m going to be talking about why I believe that here.

Ivy on the Run is established with three things in mind: to tell the audience about who Ivy is as a character, how she interacts with her family, and what she yearns for overall in the story.

The first scene showcases her personality through the environment itself.

She has a map of the Amphibian continent to track Sprig’s progress, she has posters that talk about finding your own path in life, and you can see that she is a very action-oriented person with the amount of knives and axes on the throwing board.

This entire episode is mainly about Ivy’s wanting to find adventure. She feels trapped in Wartwood because she saw nothing in her family but boring tea sessions, and continuously does actions that shows she’s antsy for her turn in the spotlight, for her turn to explore and conquer the world in her own way since she’s never been out of the Valley.

And here, the narrative makes sure to highlight the more rambunctious and feisty sides of the family too. With Ivy’s debut episode, we were never really given much information about her that wasn’t just one-dimensional tomboy attitude; there were moments where she showed genuine awkwardness over the whole courtship incident, but it wasn’t until Season Two where we were able to flesh her out more as a character overall.

She hates the rules and regulations her mother does for her, she is very much okay with going against said rules if she believes her boundaries were crossed, she can be pretty adaptable in stressful situations, and it isn’t until the end of the episode — where she sees more sides of her mother being an experienced traveler — do we get to see her become more open-minded and excited for learning about this side of her family that she’s never heard of before.

And when the two Sundews went face to face...

We get a parallel.

These episodes are similar in a lot of ways, but how they’re handled is executed differently.

They both focus on the wanting for communication and open-mindedness in a family dynamic, but what’s interesting here is that Sprig deliberately loses to let Hop Pop return to his role as the head of the house, while Felicia deliberately allows Ivy to win as a reassurance that she knows what her daughter needs.

In spite of Felicia’s strict actions, she pushes Ivy because she knows that Ivy will have to leave the Valley one day, and the ending makes a big promise that her part of the journey is almost ready.

"Ivy, you think I don't see you, but I do. You want to travel the world and I get it. But you have to be patient, because it's dangerous out there, and I just want you to be ready before we go."

Of course, the last part is all about their tea trip outside the Valley, but this perhaps could be foreshadowing to another big event in Ivy’s life that will make her leave the Valley.

Now, let’s talk about Sasha and the theme of nurture in Amphibia.

With Sasha, we have an interesting arc going on with her. She has a promised redemption arc, but the thing with her is that the Season Three opening explicitly promises that she’s going to have to compromise with Wartwood if she ever wants to fight Andrias. And we all know how the town is slow when it comes to the respect department.

This is where we start to get some potential parallels with Anne and Sasha. The thing with these two characters is that they do make genuine connections, however the theme of nurture found throughout the story itself emphasizes heavily on the environment and the support system the girls have.

For Anne, she was dropped into a place that knew boundaries and yet opened up to love instead of doubling down on punishment, and this leads to not only empathy but growth if Anne so chooses to become a good person.

For Sasha, she’s not given that place to grow. It has been confirmed in the show itself that Sasha, ever since she dropped into Amphibia, had been imprisoned in Toad Tower for one month. One month. It wasn’t a surprise that Sasha took advantage of the chaos found in Prison Break, since it was a lot better than having nothing by being stubborn. She played it smart, however, that meant Sasha’s manipulative nature and wanting for control became more noticeable and a key to her own survival. And this environment didn’t get any better in spite the fallout of Reunion.

Now take this angry and repressed teenager, who has no clue how to execute her actions in a genuine and authentic manner, and place her into Wartwood.

This is where Ivy Sundew comes in.

Ivy Sundew is not Sprig Plantar by any means; she is a fierce, no-can-do girl who loves adventure, fighting, ambushes, and won’t back down when it comes to being pushed around. Sprig is very emphatic but this makes him easy to push around if you look at him in Sasha’s eyes; we’ve seen him be desperate at times for the affection of people such as Sadie Croaker, and if Sasha ended up with him then the poor boy was gonna get chewed out eventually.

Sasha has the strength, she really has the capability to do amazing things, but the major factor that she needs right now is a careful guide in showing how she could improve as a person, and that means she needs someone who believes in her first and foremost while not taking her shit.

This is why Ivy Sundew could be absolutely crucial to Sasha’s development.

Sasha right now has learned some tips from people such as Toadie when it comes to listening to others, but she needs more than just one person to make lessons about empathy and collaboration stick.

Ivy is not going to take Sasha when she’s pushy, rude, or plain manipulative. She’ll call her out, she’ll mark the boundaries, she won’t let Sasha just foot around her just because she can — and if you think about it, the Sundews have the same attitude too, they’re all fighters who won’t allow themselves to be pushed around by some external force.

And we wouldn’t have known these specific details at all if Ivy on the Run didn’t air.

[serpenteve]

I'm having the horrible realization that Aleksander never actually did any serious wooing of Alina in the books. It's all just Alina her self being horny attracted to him. But this is supposedly???? His grand scheme???? Of manipulation???? Implications! It seems like the girls in these books wasn't the only one slut shamed. I'm- ☠

Leigh wrote a man sexy and captivating and said "it's his fault, actually, that Alina got a crush on him. He shouldn't of.... uh.." Flips through papers. "Ah, had such pretty eyes."

Okay! 👀Yes, we are finally doing this!

I'm flipping through my copy of Shadow & Bone and noting down all the interactions between the Darkling and Alina which I've put in chronological order beneath the cut.

First of all, the Darkling and Alina are only alone together in about a handful of scenes. Most of the time, the are surrounded by other Grisha or Baghra or are in a public place. A lot of the Darkling's actions and words are clouded by Alina's own insecurities. She constantly voices how she feels like she's not good enough, not pretty enough, not strong enough and he takes it in stride and gently encourages and placates her. There are a few lies he does tell her (that the Black Heretic was his ancestor, that he wants to destroy the Fold, and he doesn't know what Baghra's power is, etc) but if we extrapolate the trajectory of her ill-fated romance arc, I think even book!Darkling would have told Alina about his real plans if she seemed like she'd accept them.

A lot of speculation has been made about the Darkling's seduction of Alina and honestly???? Aleksander literally just exists and Alina is thirsting for him because she's desperately looking for validation and re-assurance. I initially head-canoned his first kiss by the lake as being pure calculation and the kiss at the Winter Fete being 100% accidental (because Dark Lord Sasha played himself lmao) but on this re-read, I don't even know anymore. He already came close to almost kissing her after they have a tender moment, catches himself and then immediately leaves before he can catch feelings. Then when they share another tender moment at the lake, he kisses her and then is surprised by it and before he can really process it, Ivan comes by to cockblock.

Like, even Leigh (as much as she has shit on this ship) said at one point that the Darkling has strong feelings for Alina, even if he may not necessarily quantify them as love. So looking back, I don't read anything the Darkling did as manipulative seduction. He obviously lied about some stuff and wasn't transparent about his real plans for the Fold, but as a military commander who sees Alina as an opportunity for a coup, it makes sense that he'd play that a little close to the chest---especially when Alina has proved to be wary of his powers and has a very black-and-white sense of morality. If anything, this is less "the Darkling seduced Alina to manipulate her into being used!!11" and more "local dark lord tried to encourage his protege and accidentally caught feelings and it was a mASSIVE FUCKING INCONVENIENCE TO HIS EVIL PLANS"

But you know who does slut-shame Alina a lot? Baghra. Seriously, Baghra makes Alina feel like shit for her crush on the Darkling numerous times. She has all these lines:

"You want to be [his pet]...Don’t bother lying to me. You’re like all the rest. I saw the way you looked at him."

"Dreaming of dancing with your dark prince?"

"Foolish girl." (After Alina shamefully admits the Darkling might come to her that night)

At one point Baghra creeps on Alina and the Darkling's interactions and even though literally nothing happens between them and when the Darkling leaves, Alina catches Baghra giving her a snooty look. ("For no reason at all, I blushed")

She is determined to shame Alina for her feelings and make her feel like a lovesick idiot for daring to crush on him and this is in addition to all the slut-shaming Mal does. The narrative revealing the Darkling is the bad guy all along while leaving Alina no compelling arc to discover this on her own feels very much like Leigh hitting us all with Baghra's stick, like "Foolish girls! You thought he cared about Alina just because he has a sexy jawline??? HAHA HE LIED YOU SLUTS"

Scenes with Alina and the Darkling in Book 1

Their first scene together is in the Grisha tent. Based on Alina's description of him, she already thinks he's hot as barely any other character in this godforsaken series gets so many descriptions of their grey/smoke/slate/quartz eyes as Aleksander does 😏

The next time they're together he saves her life. Alina is traumatized from seeing a man sliced in half and the Darkling instructs her to keep her eyes on him instead. She is disturbed that he killed the person about to murder her and this aversion seems incredibly contrived and arbitrary on behalf of the author. It's almost like she wants Alina to be vindicated and shamed for not trusting her initial bigotry against him or something 🤔The Darkling admits even he can make mistakes and then he touches the back of Alina's neck (with some secret Heartrender/Healer abilities?) and she falls asleep riding on his horse.

They spend the next few days traveling. Alina notes that the Darkling hasn't spoken to her (probably because he's focused on getting her to the Little Palace without any more assassination attempts) but Alina is a paranoid she's offended him somehow. Again, this is just Alina's insecurity painting a narrative that simply doesn't exist based on what actually happened so far.

They exchange a few words by the stream and Alina fishes for pity points by saying she's ugly and can't possibly be Grisha. Aleksander appears 100% done with her stupidity and says she doesn't understand but he's not in the mood to explain at the moment and walks off ☠️

Alina joins the Darkling and his men for a meal. She notes that the grouse they've killed is meager shared meal but that the Darkling doesn't want to put his men in danger by sending them out to hunt in the forest at night 😌He also sits on the floor to eat like they do and he doesn't take more than the regular portion than they do 😌. Sorry, how is this man the most ~evil~ wizard on the planet? He is obviously a good and fair commander and beloved by the Grisha.

Alina has been checking Aleksander out the entire time so when he catches her, he walks over to talk. He fishes around for information on what Alina has heard about him. He seems sad when Alina mentions she has heard that Darklings are born without souls, though not surprised. He then spins the story about the Black Heretic being his ancestor and how the Fold was a mistake and how every Darkling since then has tried to undo it and how Alina is "the first glimmer of hope" he's had in a long time.

Because Alina is still on that "Grisha are unnatural monsters" agenda, she asks him about the Cut and he explains it but she's still distrubed. He asks her if it would have been better if he used a sword and she replies: "I don't know". The Darkling gets offended and leaves. Alina tries to convince herself she can't have possibly hurt his feelings (because Darklings don't have souls or feelings?) and then feels paranoid that she's failed some secret test. Yeah, the test you failed is called "empathy", Alina 🙄

Two days later, they arrive at Os Alta. Aleksander roasts the Grand Palace as the ugliest effing building he's ever seen. He leaves immediately after dumping Alina at the Little Palace and Alina actually seethes that he isn't paying more attention to her? I understand that it's overwhelming to go to a brand new place, but Alina expecting him to constantly hold her hand and explain everything to her after she basically insulted him is a bit strange.

The next time Alina sees the Darkling, they are scheduled to appear before the King and Queen. The demonstration is a surprise for Alina and Aleksander's lack of transparency of what's expected of her means she's forced to rely on him and trust his instincts. This might be his underhanded way of getting Alina to see that she can trust him; that he will not make her look like a failure or humiliate her; that they are in this together and it will only work if she trusts him.

After the demonstration, Genya and the Darkling trash the monarchy for a bit (Alina is horrified) and then the Darkling orders Genya to get a black kefta for Alina, to which Alina infamously wants a blue one. The Darkling doesn't really put up much of a fight, merely wanting to know why. Alina decides he doesn't approve of her choosing blue and wonders to Genya if he's angry.

After Alina's first day, the Darkling calls her to his quarters to ask her how her day was. Alina is surprised that this is all he wanted to know because she was paranoid he was going to torture her??? She says: "Why shouldn't I be afraid of you?...You can cut people in half. I think it's fair to be a little intimidated." If the Darkling is offended or angry about this, he doesn't show it and merely indulges her. He notes that she has a habit of running her hand across a scar on her palm and asks her about it, tracing the scar himself. Alina gets distracted by his touch but manages to answer his questions: she got the scar at Keramzin, Mal is also an orphan, he is good at tracking. He shows her a secret passage back to her rooms to avoid the main hall.

Alina starts her training and at one point laments that the Darkling is rarely at the Little Palace and when he is, he never speaks to her or barely looks her way and she is convinced it's because she's a failure and can't summon light on her own. It could also be because, you know, he's the commander of the Second Army and is usually seen in talks with other military advisors and the fact that Alina kinda lowkey insulted him with her wariness about his powers???

The next time they are together, Alina interrupts him and Baghra arguing. He politely asks her how she is. Baghra antagonizes her. The Darkling defends her. They talk about amplifiers and because Baghra is being a snarky little shit about it, they take their conversation outside.

Aleksander complains about how annoying his mom is and then asks Alina what stories she's heard about Morozova's herd. At one point he laughs for the first time and Alina practically creams her pants at the sound. Alina expresses her concerns that she can't summon any light and the Darkling says he's not worried and it will happen when it happens and worse case scenario, it will happen once she has the stag. They have a quiet intimate moment, gazing softly into each other's eyes and then suddenly Aleksander realizes he's catching feelings and steps back suddenly like "GoodLuckWithYourLessonsOKayBYE". Baghra watches this interaction from her hut and gives Alina a slut-shaming look.

Alina eventually does learn to summon light on her own. Baghra gives her grief about how it's not enough. The Darkling shows up during one of these lessons and says as much. Alina says she's useless. The Darkling corrects her (“I don't think you're useless, Alina....No Grisha is powerful enough to face the Fold. Not even me”) and then he apologizes for letting her down ("I've asked you to trust me and I haven't delivered"). He wonders if his mother is right and he's crazy to hunt the stag. They have a nice bonding moment, Aleksander lies about Baghra's power, and then he asks if Alina would think him crazy for still wanting to find the stag. She asks why he cares what she thinks, he seems genuinely surprised himself that he cares. Then he kisses her. He seems not to have meant to kiss her because then Ivan shows up for his 5 o'clock shift of cockblocking and the Darkling immediately pretends like nothing happened and walks away with him. Like dude is acting like a fucking dork who's allergic to feelings at this point. I should note here that Alina practically has an orgasm from how giddy she is about this moment. She can barely think of anything else.

The next time they're together, it's at the Winter Fete. They do their demonstration and Alina accidentally reveals her insecurities about how he had kissed her and then disappeared. He responds, "Did you really think I was done with you?" and then they enjoy some steamy kisses and thigh grabbing in an empty room before a random round of Grisha show up for their 6 o'clock shift of cockblocking. Aleksander is annoyed at his own attraction to Alina. He asks if he can come to her that night but Alina doesn't get a chance to respond.

and then the Darklina romance arc falls off a giant cliff and dies a terrible death 😭😭😭