a long time ago I was like "I bet there are a lot of characters that are both touch-starved and touch-averse" so. Thinks
Impostor explanation: has been around the whole scale as various identities, has a hard time understanding themselves and their own true preference. Tends to just adjust to whoever they're around.
Reposting this from my twitter thread because it hasn't left my head (and adding a tiny bit more).
Seen so many questionable takes lately about the ivantill kiss, and I know everyone is allowed to have different opinions and interpretations but.
No, Ivan didn’t just pretend to kiss Till for the show. And no, he wasn't trying to make Till hate him either or trying to trigger him over his implied SA to snap him into action.
I think the whole point of the scene (confirmed by the creators) is Ivan finally breaking his mask of perfection and control and giving in to his messy, all consuming feelings, being selfish for once.
Yes, by the end before the strangling starts, he appears more clear headed and now focused on the objective of manipulating the score. But he doesn't really look at it until AFTER he starts strangling Till.
The kiss itself wasn't part of the strategy, or at least not entirely something calculated. Ivan could have skipped the kiss and strangled Till right away and gotten the same result.
The fact that he kissed him AGAIN after he started strangling him, more softly and 'personal', almost like a goodbye or an apology (whether for his selfishness or for their past), tells me he wanted it.
I think a last selfish act doesn't diminish the love he had for Till, it just shows the tragedy of ALNST. Ivan is only human after all. And no matter what kind of mask he built for himself and what illusion of control he had over his life, when faced with the real, imminent possibility of losing Till, he crumbled and did something unexpected.
I have more to say about the Ivan and Sua parallels and how he finally understands her in the Confession comic etc etc but I think I've yapped enough.
I just don't like it when people try to mold the narrative because they're uncomfortable with an unconsensual kiss. It's meant to be painful and heartwrenching, a reflection on Ivan's one sided-feelings and his desperation at the moment —to be seen for the first (and last) time, to not be left behind, to convey his emotions in the only way he could when being seconds away from death.
After all the team confirmed that Ivan is clumsy with emotions and only knows to convey them in 'childish' ways (the nuzzling against his face, the picking fights with Till and teasing him).
I think some people like to think of the kiss as something purely calculated and selfless because it makes it more 'palatable', but in my opinion this take washes out Ivan's character and the flaws that make him just as human, vulnerable and complex as the rest of the cast. He was willing to throw away his life and his perfect image because he wanted something that badly.
Klarion is delighted, excited, impatient, and so very happy. He’s found a friend, not the justice league baby-crew who don’t know how to make friends properly or the order-magician who doesn’t play right, but another realm-being his age! They’re even around the same death-date, his is just a couple years earlier! But to beings who aren’t adults until they’re well into the hundreds that’s practically nothing!
His new friend even has a familiar too- even if he has to explain what a familiar is- and, and even shares his two other friends with him!
He’s been in this world for what feels like so long trying to make friends and he’s made three in just a month! And they even know how to properly play and wrestle without targeting Teekl like a certain order lord who he doesn’t like.
Oh! Hey it’s the justice league kiddy-crew! Were they feeling neglected or something?
Diana is working. The night is dark and cold, and as she turns to look out the window, she thinks once again of her island. It never was so cold on Themyscira. Winters in New York have a way of sinking to your soul.
In the quietude of her office, knocks on the door seem all the louder, and tonight is no exception. Diana stands and walks to the door, where she opens it to find a young man, still a child but on the cusps of adulthood.
"What can I do for you?" Diana asks.
"I didn't know where else to go," the boy says, and she can see bruises under his pale blue eyes. "I'm sorry, I-I need your help, please."
"Tell me," she says, as she looks behind the boy for any sign of trouble, but they are alone on the street.
"My younger sister," the boy starts. "She's in trouble and I don't know what to do."
"Come in," Diana says as she opens the door wider. "Let us talk inside."
In the cold dark night, the figure of a boy, almost a man, walks into the warm inviting light of the building.
A few seconds later, the door closes behind him, and the street is once again bathed in shadow, frozen by the hour and the chill.
"Someone said it, I forget who said it but, like, 'you dream your entire life on being on a team that freakin' good.' Right? It was meant to be—it was destiny. That save Bob made not even fucking looking? Like I bought the t-shirt! 'The Bobbery!' It's—"
"Fuck, yeah!"
"Bob—What's he like?"
"That's the kind-of shit that you realise is just destiny...in my opinion..."
"Does he talk?"
"Does he smile?"
"Bob? Yeah! Bob's awesome! Yeah, yeah—again, one of those perfect people."
The Cam & Strick Podcast | 7.30.24 (x)
even ekky isnt immune to good merch hats off to breakingt thats ekkys most prised possession now XD
naruto crack au where kakashi manages to successfully drill the "never abandon your comrades" thing into team seven's heads
so when sasuke deserts naruto and sakura immediately desert with him. like he gets to the village gates and they're just waiting for him bags packed like "what took u so long we doing this or what"
he tries to get them to go back bc of course he does. "no you losers this is about me i'm going to kill my brother. also i'll have to kill my best friend for the super sharingan and you two are like the only people i talk to". but they do not listen. teamwork sasuke we will defeat your brother (OUR brother #communism) with the power of teamwork. just like kakashi-sensei said
suddenly orochimaru has to deal with three horrible little goblins with an even more codependent relationship than his old team
“Aemond puts his hands around Luke’s throat, throttling him.”
“You will die screaming in flames just as your father did.”
“…comes at Aemond, who readies the big rock.”
“He counters, smashing Jace’s face in with the rock.”
I’m gonna knock some teeth out ‘closest to Aemond in age’ and he was canonically 6 to Aemond’s 10. Jace and Luke were the only ones really involved with the fight in the book, and it’s stated multiple times that Aemond had the clear advantage over them and was beating them ruthlessly. It was a clear power play on his part that quickly turned sour because the younger brother feared for both his and his older brothers life (as he should, the kid was 5 fucking years old).
I know why they added the Dragon Twins to the fight, and it was solely to infantilize Aemond even further than they already had (and demonize the girls and the Velaryon boys in turn). Sure, I’m supposed to feel sorry for him because he was bullied for not having a dragon (boo fucking hoo); but I’m not supposed to feel sorry for the twins after they just lost their mother, considering how quickly that storyline was left in the dust to further Aemond’s. I’m not supposed to feel sorry for the woman and kids who were targeted purely due to their blood/gender (but that doesn’t matter ofc just that they’re bastards and harming poor helpless trueborn baby Aemond how dare they).
The agenda being pushed in the show is obviously full of microagressions against these kids — the Velaryons were made into POC just to make certain the audience knew that Rhaenyra’s first three children were bastards, and Baela and Rhaena were added to the fight to show them as the ‘true’ aggressors to the entire situation. It didn’t matter that they had lost their mom recently, it didn’t matter that they didn’t even know who Aemond was. They had one of the last living relics of their mother stolen out from under them by this random kid who immediately insults them to their faces for having the audacity to be upset, but HE is the victim here. Jace had just found out about Harwin being his bio dad and then lost him within a short amount of time. He was being openly mocked and told he and his baby brother were going to die in the exact same way at Aemond’s hand. But no, no! Don’t jump to the obvious conclusion; AEMOND is the victim here.
Four grieving children reacted on their extremely volatile emotions, with one acting on fear alone, and it ended poorly for all parties involved— who would’ve thought?