#and thinks that their actions are justified

[i-am-countess-olivia]

This isn't some novel thought, but for me Fitzier begins in ep2, when Silna's father is brought onto Erebus

(a long-ish, GIF-heavy scene breakdown follows)

I won't cover the violations of Silna's beliefs, feelings and bodily autonomy which happen in these moments - they are of course terrible and very important. Instead, I want to focus on how the scene kicks off a new dynamic between Francis and James, how it lays a foundation for their subsequent closeness and how it changes our view of who James might be as a person.

Let’s begin.

Sir John and James arrive in the sick bay to join Stanley and Goodsir. Stanley says: "nope, not touching this one". Goodsir asks for leave to save the shaman's life. Franklin, already looking deeply disturbed by what's happening, hesitantly agrees.

Francis arrives. The operating table divides him from Franklin, Stanley and James — he is literally not on their side. All three men glare up at him as one: How is this maudlin MF going to make this horrible situation worse for us?

But while the three of them just stand there, Francis puts himself in charge. With a bit of help from McDonald, he takes hold of a distraught Silna and tries to explain what is happening, who they are, that they're not trying to do harm. It is in this moment that James becomes the only one on the opposite side of the table to step forward (to help Francis control the situation or at least to do something). He looks compelled to action but cannot act.

Okay... so here we see that maybe this guy isn't just Franklin's poodle (we saw a bit of that earlier in the episode - more on that later).

Meanwhile Franklin, as soon as Francis takes control, BUGGERS OFF. Of course this can be justified by him already having given his orders and no longer needing to be involved, but we know that a) he sneaks off when the situation is clearly fraught and Francis is clearly better suited to handle it, knowing Inuktitut among other things and b) he actually ends up hiding out in his cabin, freaking out while listening to the howls of the dying man. This is too strange, too awful for him. Not to mention: oh god, I'm stuck in the ice, I've just lost a lieutenant, I keep losing men, what are they going to think of me?

While Sir John is off having a lil meltdown.... James' eyes are firmly on Francis.

We don't even see him acknowledge his captain's departure.

But why is James there? The obvious answer is: to report back to Sir John, to make sure things don't get weird and that Francis doesn't do anything stupid on THEIR ship. After all, let's remember the last scene before this one where James is focused on Francis:

Here he was describing Francis as if he's got him pegged: he's a disappointed man, Sir John, he was no one's first choice etc etc.

I know what he is. Do you now, James?

(interesting framing the above scene, btw - James standing, active, Sir John focused on his creature comfort, the pipe, and questioning himself. James speaking in firm tones to his commander: "I will not allow..." — James is literally being reframed as a leader.)

Anyway, back to where we were.

While Goodsir sets about trying to remove the shot, we get a little glimpse of James: he looks frozen, uneasy, swaying in to stare at the wound (Oh Tobias, the actor that you are). Can we say flashbacks to the Chinese sniper? This must be seriously triggering for him. Something is shifting.

(Another aside: James is standing next to Stanley, the man who dug out the shot when he was hit by the sniper. That same man is now refusing to help. Hm.)

Next, Goodsir says: I can't save this man. Here something important happens: James and Francis share a look.

This is Francis, for the first time, acknowledging not just James still being in the bay at all — but that the two of them are in this moment together! Francis' eyes saying to James: I'm about to tell this woman her father is going to die and James acknowledging in return how awful that is. He presses his mouth, drops his eyes.

The little flash of connection doesn't last. When Silna starts to plead with her dying father, James once again reaches out across the table to Francis: what is she saying? But it's maybe too pushy, too "I need to be told what's going on" so Francis ignores him and it's McDonald who answers.

Next, Silna launches herself at her dying father. Here, once again, James tries to take an active role, to "help" by following Francis' cues on what to do.

James has been watching, learning, asking questions and now looks desperate to be part of the solution to this awful situation: to be in this with Francis. Look how similar their gestures are, how James looks to Francis for direction.

---

STOP - DOOM HAMMER TIME

The VERY first scene in which Francis and James become partners, take action together to keep something from happening, they effectively set in motion one of the biggest causes of their doom: Silna's father doesn't die as he should, Tuunbaq is not bound to anyone. Oh man. That's a whole other essay.

---

(Back to the scene....)

While they're wrestling with Silna, James, clearly emotional and upset by what is taking place, reaches out again, perhaps this time more sincerely: Look at me, Francis, I'm trying to help, at least tell me what's happening? This time Francis acknowledges him — actually SPEAKS to him for the first time.

In response, James looks particularly vulnerable and distraught.

Silna's father dies. We see how different James' reaction is to Francis'. Poor James. Maybe he wants a little bit more from Francis in that moment, one more shared look. Francis doesn't give it to him.

Aaaaaand here we are, it's almost over. Franklin swans in, the really bad, bloody stuff having already been dealt with. He re-asserts his command by giving an order to James to escort Silna off the ship. James… doesn't exactly spring into action. In fact, he doesn't even acknowledge the order verbally, unlike Stanley. What's going on in his head? What does he think about Francis in that moment?

Anyway, let's wrap up.

So much of this scene is about the shift in James’ perception of Francis. He suddenly sees a man who is hands-on, who can take charge, who doesn't walk away from a terrible and unusual situation, even when it's clear there's no good outcome. And of course he knows Sir John skipped off at first opportunity.

Francis, meanwhile, only briefly appears to acknowledge James —but only as far as we can see. Francis of course knows that James was there, that he stayed behind, that he tried to help, that he tried to understand.

This knowledge and this changed dynamic become apparent immediately, in the very next scene.

LOOK HOW THEY ARE FRAMED!!!

Sir John is already receding into the background. James and Francis sit — still opposite sides of a table but in essentially the same pose. They are partners, mirrors, leaning into each other. The few glances here, small as they are, are NOT at Sir John, but between James and Francis.

Anyway, here you go, that's me done. I fucking love this show.

[yawping-poets-society]

we don't talk enough about cameron's first real scene, where he talks to neil outside his dorm before todd arrives. in case anyone doesn't know what i'm referring to, here's the dialogue from the scene:

Cameron: Hey, Neil, study group tonight?

Neil: Yeah, sure.

Cameron: Business as usual, huh? [turns to leave, then] Hey, I heard you got the new kid. Looks like a stiff. [laughs at his own joke] [Todd enters] Oops. [Cameron leaves]

so let's talk about it!!

cameron opens with the study group question. this is pretty straightforward to me-he knows he's none of the poets' favorite, and certainly not charlie's. neil is his foremost supporter, pretty much the only one who sticks up for him, so this makes sense. he's checking with neil, his 'in' to the group, to make sure he can hang with these guys. he wants to be part of their circle so badly, and that's pretty clear from the get-go.

and then he hits us with this whole "stiff" business. this is a major thing i've seen people use to justify their hate of cameron and i really struggle with that.

because, well...this is SO undeniably awkward. neil tells todd just a moment later not to mind cameron because he was "born with his foot in his mouth." so off the bat, that's not something you say about someone who's consistently rude or who you don't like. that's neil sticking up for cameron. he's saying, sorry todd, he means well, or at least, he doesn't have any ill intentions. cameron's just not got the best grasp of social cues, that's how he is. this is a pretty valid explanation in and of itself, but if you'll walk with me a little further, i've got a deeper theory about why cameron makes this comment.

more than just it being awkward, this casual friendliness, haha, new kid, a mild insult said with much bravado...this isn't really cameron as we see him for the rest of the movie. though he does remain relatively awkward, it doesn't really match his character of being cautious and trying to not stand out, to fit into the group (as we see in his first line). so how to explain this action (because i don't believe the explanation is just: cameron is being an asshole/being awkward)?

to me? this is what cameron thought charlie would say. isn't that almost exactly how charlie always talks about cameron, after all? for a great example, see later in the same scene:

Charlie, about Cameron: What's his specialty, bootlicking?

so maybe cameron believes that this is how friends treat each other. or at least, how they talk about other people to entertain their friends. charlie, while not a stellar student and clearly not liked by the administration, is the class clown, which makes him popular with students at welton. thus, cameron is probably jealous of charlie. he probably wishes he was more like charlie-confident, funny, well-liked, etc. and again, he clearly wants to be friends with neil, and part of their larger group, very, very badly. all of this to say:

i don't think cameron meant what he said about todd.

he's trying to get a laugh out of neil. so what does he do? he does what he thinks charlie-neil's funny best friend-would do. it's not a nice thing to say, but to me, it really just reads as someone who is trying to guess what the appropriate, funny thing to say in a situation is, but doesn't actually know. cameron might not have even really thought the 'stiff' joke was funny. but he thought neil would find it funny, which is really the whole point. cameron is, at the most fundamental level, an unpopular kid who wishes he was well-liked, and is fumbling around blindly trying to find his way there.

[utilitycaster]

So I am someone who hasnt been on Tumblr very much since C2 ended. I followed a group of story analyzers who were more or less very fond of C2, and of the critiques they had; most were minor or “matter of opinion differences”. This changed a lot with C3, where many of that same group have issues relating to the themes, character and worldbuilding of C3 in terms of Divinity, Empathy, Power Dynamics, “The Status Quo”, and Responsibility. Where the conclusions the story draws clash with a previous understanding of the world and its themes in a way that appears incoherent to many of these Analyzers.

Personally I found most of these analyzers to be very intelligent, so when most all of them view the bells hells and their actions, as them being a selfish and destructive, even possibly evil, force on the world. But the cast and matt frame it as “they are the heroes” how is there such a disconnect that doesn’t lead to “wow if only matt and the cast were smarter” type conclusions.

Matt and crew nailed a lot of C1/C2, and these same analyzers praised both campaigns, so why is this campaign, the one where so many fans here and the cast view the world, characters and the themes so tremendously radically different? What possible reasons exist to explain these divergences? And are these things that could rear their head again in C4?

(I kept this non-anon to show good-faith)

I can only speak for myself, and I suspect a desire to avoid a barrage of anon hate and accusations of arrogance is why no one has said this in so many words but as someone who doesn’t give a fuck if people think I’m arrogant, because I am and it’s justified, actually yeah I do think the cast should have been smarter, or at least more thoughtful, in this specific work. In discussing this with mutuals who are also meta writers, one of them pointed out that the structural critique is, ultimately, us saying to the cast "you should have been smarter about crafting this aspect of the plot/themes/narrative." It’s not phrased as such, but it’s the obvious implication.

As for what’s different: it is a campaign that has a much more narrowly focused plot, which required a stronger DM hand on the reins than in Campaign 1 and 2 (and did not have that). It is much more centered around one specific PC leading the entire time, which is different than Campaign 1 and 2, which had more balance and I think led to bolder decisions. It’s that Campaign 1 was crafted around the characters the cast made, and campaign 2 was a dialogue between characters made for the intended plot and setting and said plot, and campaign 3 had a vast disconnect that was never addressed due to poor planning in the earliest stages. And as for the lack of consequences, I honestly cannot tell, but I think it’s that it’s a combination of the characters being so reluctant to make choices that you sort of had to shuffle them forward without consequence in order to actually make any plot happen; and that was the big wrap up of a trilogy and Matt is, to put it tactfully, a rather more sentimental person than I am and his desire to grant everyone a happy ending won over a desire to tell a good story. I really do understand that actual play as story involves a unique and difficult dimension of people feeling very attached to their PCs, but if a DM and players are dedicated to a happy ending that fails to feel earned by the narrative, that will be a detriment to the quality of that narrative. And if you are someone who analyzes, it will fail to hold up to analysis and feel very empty and unsatisfying. This serves as perhaps an alternate interpretation for those who find it hard to stomach the statement of "the cast should have been smarter," namely "the cast should have been more willing to make risky choices and kill their darlings."

As for a Campaign 4: a narrative with similar problems could very well emerge. I think the general informal consensus among meta writers is that it feels like Matt is (understandably, but again, to the detriment of storytelling) overly precious at this point with Exandria, at least with the “modern” era and the C1-C3 characters, but a fresh start far in the future or in a new setting feels like it would mitigate the problem. But yeah it’s 100% possible this could be a problem in the future. I’m hoping this was just a “it’s our tenth anniversary and the last longform campaign of my imagined trilogy, let’s give everyone a happy ending” problem that won’t carry over to future works, but it could be a turn towards general self-indulgent fluff. Wouldn’t be the first time someone started out strong and ultimately became a coward who sanded off all the edges, for various reasons. But because of the strength of, frankly, everything but campaign 3 CR has put out, including concurrent works, my attitude is that I’m still here for a hypothetical campaign 4. It is however undeniably true that the vast stores of goodwill I had at the end of C2 are much smaller now, having been drawn on extensively to carry me through C3, and I’ll be less patient with any potential flaws in a hypothetical C4, particularly if they follow a similar pattern.

I guess to end this: if you are someone who follows me or other meta writers or people you consider smart, first off thanks, second off you are allowed to enjoy a story that I think is not very good. I think defending this story as structurally and thematically sound is a bad idea and I have yet to see a coherent argument in that vein, but there is no counterargument, no matter how intelligent or insightful the writer, to someone else’s “well I liked it.” You can like and dislike what you want, and that’s the end of it, and honestly my issue with so many of Campaign 3’s loudest advocates is that they demonstrated a bizarre incapacity to understand the difference between media analysis and personal opinion, and took all criticism of something they loved as personal attack whether or not it was. Speaking only for myself, if you look at my meta and your response is “well I had a good time,” I respect that (and most of us even agree, even if the good time was had more in the analysis than the watching). But if your response is to say “no, you’re wrong, this is narratively well-crafted,” well then you best come correct.

[lesbianherald]

Based Jayce take tbh….also I’m gonna confess this on anon but one of my most pretentious takes when it comes to fandom is that everything would be way easier to enjoy if ppl understood story structure a little more. Like Jayce’s arc is a negative arc. He sucked on purpose! If you had bad feelings about him that was intentional and okay (I do think Jayce hate was overblown but I also get why it existed. Like the audience was just picking up on the feelings the show was putting down). But he was definitely Like That for a reason! Usually in good writing, characters are tools for the narrative first you know…you don’t need to justify his actions to like Jayce because he’s fictional and he’s not a real person youre stanning. But also fandom is for fun so I know this take is pretentious but also it’s my truth. My story structure….my characters who are intentionally challenging my theme….my character arc….

NO NO BUT YOU ARE COOKING ON EVERY LEVEL !!!!

(Note: This randomly turned into a very hasty analysis of the shots used in the bridge scene? Because I got on a tangent about how we interpret visual storytelling as well and oops!)

Story structure is so overlooked. The role characters are supposed to play in an overarching narrative is overlooked. So much gets ignored in the way information is presented both in the story structure and visually that sometimes it frightens me and it makes me really bummed! And it's nobody's fault! Most of us live in a society that devalues art and literacy on purpose!

I don't think it's pretentious to wish people better understood the building blocks of the story or at least understood how to take in general arcs. And I think if they did as a whole most fandom spaces would be a lot more interesting and have a lot less bizarre takes/infighting.

I also think that - where arcane's writing can get weird and murky - the visual language will cover it. (Almost to an extreme.)

It makes me think of one of my favorite scenes in the whole show and how misinterpreted it gets and how quick people are to defend jayce here despite how much it is playing on the themes of the show and how clearly he is painted as in the wrong both by the writing and the shots ok fuck -

I think all the time about the imbalance of power represented by that insane low angle on Jayce. You know what fuck it. I'm going to go get it. Fuck. This is about to become a whole thing. Okay.

If I brought an angle like this into a classroom setting, I would be laughed at for it being too obvious. But its one of my favorites because its so visceral. In fact, I've shown this to a lot of friends - the reaction to this shot is usually an audible "Woah!" or even nervous laughter! Because clearly! He's supposed to be intimidating here. This is supposed to be like. Oh. He is not who he used to be. Oh. Oh no. Its so co clearly a representation of power and corruption you may as well stamp it on his forehead.

He's not only Jayce here, he's a representation of piltover as a whole - in its physical and political positions over Zaun. In a position of power over someone he's close with, who just verbally told someone he would "understand." Now we are seeing that he very likely wont. (He will! But right now, we are supposed to be with Viktor in this scene. We are supposed to become convinced he won't right with him!)

Note that the angle we get for Viktor is way less extreme. Way more eye level. And less centered. I could go on about this too. But oooh boy. Like! Clearly we are supposed to be more with him in terms of who we find rational. Clearly he's the voice of reason here. We are level with him. He is at a safe distance. We are seeing how he is looking up at jayce without looking down at him.

In this shot, he is someone we as an audience are level with, who is gathering information, making a decision. He is remaining more measured than I think the audience is supposed to be given the angle we're getting on jayce.

The only time we do get the "reverse" of that Jayce shot on Viktor is when he is quite literally standing out of the frame almost immediately. Whose furious with the position Jayce is putting him in. This is Right after Jayce says, "They're dangerous." He's gathered the information he needs. He sees Jayce for what he is. Somebody he cannot trust. And he refuses to be put in this lower position.

Jayce is not supposed to be the one we are rooting for here. He is the person we are supposed to be disappointed in. We are supposed to question him here. This isn't only dramatically spelled out in the narrative but also in the shot choicesss!

And then we have the apology -

That's why i always question why people are like. Okay but he apologized. When the apology is framed like this! We don't even get to see viktor's face because the damage is done!! JAYCE ISNT EVEN LOOKING AT HIM !!!! It doesn't matter. We don't even get full access to Jayce here! What's at the center of this shot is the barricade that Jayce has ordered!!! This makes the apology, and "I've had a lot on my plate" purposefully look ridiculous in the context of the Narrative here! It's not enough!

Viktor is DYING. And jayce is standing here all prim and proper, with the Talis symbol very visible in that fuckass suit, saying he's had a lot on his plate. We're very clearly not supposed to look at this and go awww! baby boy <3. If this apology was a meaningful moment for either of them that changed either of their minds - it would not be framed like thisssss. These words are empty in the context of it all. Jayce may be genuinely sorry, but he's accidentally revealed way too much about how he views Viktor's people. Even if he didn't mean to. Even if he didn't realize how deeply his biases ran.

And then we have Viktor lying. Viktor knowing he has to go about this alone. And this is the shot. This is the moment of fracture. Viktor looking back at him in disgust with Jayce's barricade in the background. HES ALONE!! JAYCE HAS FAILED HIM !!! This is so critical in understanding Viktor's entire everything moving forward, and it's so so critical for Jayce as well.

People talk a lot about that moment where jayce has his hand on Viktor's lower back because yaoi but that screencap is so hard to get because that moment is almost immediately interrupted by a protestor from zaun throwing a Molotov cocktail in their direction! And the touch, that reluctant familiarity, despite the conflict, gets broken.

Something that I think gets overlooked is Jayce's face after the (Molotov?) gets thrown by a protestor. ITS ANOTHER LOW ANGLE LIKE!!! Once again. Highlighting the power he has here.

We see Jayce in season 1 act 1 really highlighted with a lot of high angles. A lot of doe-eyed wonder. He looks young. Sweet. This is not the same jayce and it is very very clear in the way he is shot. This is the point !!!!!.

There are a lot of scenes i see misinterpreted but this is the big one. And its one of my favorite scenes. Because he's so wrong here! And he doesn't really fully grasp how much so yet.

I love jayce. I love my complex man. Because here's the thing. He needed this low to reach the character highs he does later. Jayce being as loving and determined to make things right as he is in season 2 wouldn't be nearly as compelling or tragic or exciting were he not like this in season 1. It's brutal to watch him get punished by the narrative! But it's also narratively satisfying!

Anyways anon i agree wholeheartedly sorry i made it into a whole thing.

[cute-little-fly]

Even if he raised her,we don't see him caring for her through his actions. He may say,he cared for her but it's a lie. No offense,but she has every right to be mad at him because he only cares about blitzo and not Octavia. When in the seeing stars episode,he didn't continue finding,he was busy flirting and only focusing on blitzo aka his plaything. He always make Octavia uncomfortable. He promised her,he will never leave her yet he broke that one promise. I know,he wants blitzo to be happy but to Octavia,he broke that promise. And I get it,he has a sad life,I know but it doesn't mean he was justify to be a neglectful parent to her. Don't even think fo saying,she's spoilt,she is a literally just a teenager who just wants stolas to be by her side for once.

He cares because he takes accountability, he apologizes and he tries to mend what goes wrong. He did tried to find Octavia, but they got caught and remember they can’t do magic or that kind of stuff to not be caught by humans, so they had to play along. He failed as a parent in many aspects but had no examples. Octavia has all right to be mad and feel hurt, but we also know Stolas side, and that he tried. We can understand both of them and is tragic. Hope this helps ❤️.

[shimohyo]

Konfessions

I hate you

I hate you so so so so much.

Your actions make my very skin crawl, your cruel words are my nightmares every night. You make me sick just thinking about you.

I hate what you did,

I hate what you did to them.

You hurt those four, you killed two of them and those you left alive will never be the same.

You took away their pillars of safety, and now they are scrambling for an anchor to ground themselves with.

I hate hate hate how you acted. You acted like you didn’t even care! You didn’t care about the lives you had ruined!

So I hate you. I hate you with either fiber of my being, every bone in my body, every part of me hates you.

But I don’t hate you, do I? I love you. I love you so much that it hurts. It hurts that I love you. I hate the fact I love you because I should hate you. Because my brain tells me that I should hate you but my heart screams and scrambles for an explanation, reason, excuse, anything to justify your actions. To justify loving you.

You hurt so many people for something so so childish and stupid! You killed two people. You mutilated his body just to mess with and hurt his friend so so so much when he saw his best friend missing a head.

And you did that just for some convulsed plot to kill your ‘rival’! You killed her right in front of him. You drove him to stab you! You practically tortured him just to get at her. All for the sake of your stupid delusions!

Loving you feels like a sin. A horrible horrible horrible action. You hurt so many people. So many people I see everyday and talk to and I feel so wrong because I love you and they don’t and I’m in the wrong for loving you still!

….i wish i could just hate you….

….Maybe I don’t love you for you.

Maybe I love the idea of you. The you I thought I knew. The you that you showed to me to keep me on your side. The you that was a mask, just like the one you always wore, hiding your disgusting truth underneath it. 

I hate the True you. The true you you showed everyone except me until the end. The true you who would mutilate a corpse to mess with others. Cut off someone’s head and tongues and disembowel him and oh god I’m about to throw up just remembering it. 

I love your mask, but hate the real you. The you under your mask. The you that is bloodied underneath.

I don’t know if we’re going to be 

Foxes our next lives.

You have a lot of sin to pay for after all.

Maybe I’ll join you down there. 

For the sin of loving someone so terrible.

[kirainapushupbra]

To cut Light where it hurts, he needs someone to show him what it’s like to have his wrongs not only be loved but to be absolutely exonerated. He doesn’t need to do anything to be loved. Not seeking perfection, doing what’s right, or performing. Not even reciprocating.

He needs a love that is unconditional. Forgiving. Raw. And I think only L was the closest of giving that to him.

"You don’t need to prove anything. You don’t need to justify and defend. You’re more than just your actions. They don’t define you. Put down the mask, I see you for who you really are. The ugly. The bad. The hidden and suppressed. Your mistakes…What about them? Because you know what?

I still love you."

yeah yeah light yagami praise kink but I think someone telling him that he does not have to be good would break him even more

[copper-16]

There is simply no justifying the actions that Mapi made during the Espanyol game. It was racist and transphobic of her, and an apology is the bare minimum starting place for there to be any potential growth.

I hope Daniela Caracas is getting the support and love she deserves after hearing such horrible things.

If anyone on here is trying to justify this in any way shape or form - you’re wrong to do so. Take a look at your actions and think how you would feel if it wasn’t being perpetrated by one of your “favorite players.” Would it still feel the same way in your mind, would you still feel the same urge to automatically defend that person? I certainly hope not.

We all need to be held accountable, Mapi most of all.

[infiniteeight8]

Stephen is desperate for Tony to love him back, to the point that he uses his knowledge of Tony to manipulate him into a relationship. (Potentially manipulates things so Tony and Pepper break up? Or this could be after that?) After all, he knows he'll treat Tony right, what does it matter how they get to this point. The ends justify the means, right?

I love this prompt so much. 😃 So much potential here. *rubs hands together*

This is a “they won on Titan” AU. So Pepper and Tony are, prior to this fic, engaged. I did a google for how long Pepper has known Tony and landed on almost 20 years, since she says she’s been curating his art collection for ten years in Iron Man 2 (2010) and Infinity War happens in 2018.

-

Stephen knows the instant Tony lands on the Sanctum’s doorstep. By the time the armor is retracted and the Sanctum’s doors have swung open for him, Stephen is already halfway down the stairs. Tony stalks into the foyer and the doors quickly close behind him. A protective gesture, Stephen’s connection to the Sanctum tells him. “Tony. Is everything okay?”

“The wedding’s off,” Tony says shortly. He starts pacing.

Stephen’s heart lifts. “I’m sorry,” he says carefully. 

Tony snorts. “Don’t be. I’m the one who called it off. Pepper’s probably still trying to call me.”

“What happened?” Stephen positions himself so that Tony will pass close to him on his traverses of the foyer, but doesn’t try to stop him.

“I took your advice,” Tony says, “and talked to Pepper about DUM-E and U. About what they would need if something happened to me.”

“I take it that didn’t go well.” It never had in any of the futures Stephen had seen. 

“Understatement of the year.” Tony raises his hands and scrubs them through his hair. “Pepper has known me for nearly twenty years. She was around when DUM-E literally saved my life! She’s known him and U almost as long. How can she not get it? How did I not realize that she doesn’t get it?”

“If you explained—”

“No,” Tony cuts him off, as Stephen knew he would. There’s a line to tread here; Stephen can’t risk making Tony feel defensive of Pepper. “If she doesn’t get it after all this time, she never will. And frankly, after what she said, I’m not interested in giving her the chance.”

Stephen winces. “That bad?”

Tony stops pacing and turns to face Stephen. “She said, and I quote, “Tony, I know you’re attached to these things, but this is really too far. They’re machines, not children.’”

Stephen lets himself look as appalled as he feels. That was one of the more extreme options. “She called them things?”

Tony barks a harsh laugh. “Yeah. And when I told her that I made them and they have thoughts and personalities of their own and that as far as I’m concerned that does make them my kids, she asked if I’d thought about having real kids. Like we weren’t even talking about the bots anymore, like that conversation was over.”

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Stephen says gently. “I can’t imagine how anyone could meet either DUM-E or U and not understand that they’re people.”

“Me neither,” Tony deflates. “But I’m starting to think that you and I are two of a kind there. I mean, did the other wizards recognize Levi?” Tony waggles his fingers in belated greeting and Levi waved a corner at him. 

“The Ancient One once called Levi ‘fickle’,” Stephen says dryly.

“Yeah, no, she clearly didn’t understand them at all,” Tony agrees. He sighs and takes a heavy seat on the Sanctum’s steps. “I thought I was finally going to get my happily ever after, you know?”

Stephen sits beside him. “Would the kind of white picket fence life that Pepper wanted really have made you happy?” he asks. It actually had, in some of those futures. But Tony could be just as happy, often happier, living a different life with Stephen.

“I don’t know,” Tony says. “But I was willing to try.”

Levi flares out and wraps around Tony’s shoulders, giving him a kind of hug where Stephen can’t, not quite yet. And if the action pulls Tony against Stephen for a moment or two, well, so much the better. Levi has been on board with Stephen’s plan from the beginning.

Tony laughs and pats the fold of cloak curled around him. “Thanks, Levi.” He turns to Stephen, almost close enough to kiss. They aren’t there yet, but Stephen can’t help thinking about it. Tony goes on, oblivious. “Want to come hang out with the bots with me? I’m feeling the need for some quality time.”

Stephen smiles. “I’d love to.” 

Everything is going exactly as planned.

[cringefaecompilation]

i didn't want to annoy op with my ramblings about this in the tags but i think this explains (asides from my other post on it) why the "ludinus gets to have a redemption because everyone deserves to be happy" ending feels bad as well as why the brushing off essek's actions as him being a "hotboi war criminal tee hee!" both in-universe and in fandom also sucks. i'm not saying you're a privileged dumbass if you like redemption arcs or that carceral punishment is totally justified or mandatory once you've killed xyz number of people, but like... i think this is important to keep in mind when discussing this sort of thing

[reaminaart]

Istg Jeff's mom has always been so wild to me like??? Ma'am that's your KID what do you mean "get the gun"???? Call an ambulance??? Ask your kid if he's okay???? Yeah you can blame it on immature writing trying to justify Jeff's actions but jfk I can't help but wonder what else he and Liu went through with those kinda parents.

I feel like Liu was always the favorite child, maybe because he never caused any problems, maybe it was just meant to be like that. I do HC them as fraternal twins so I think their mom saw Jeff as the additional burden, maybe she wanted a girl, maybe she's just an asshole. So Liu was not directly affected by it, but he wasn't blind, it was obvious Margaret found any way to portray Jeff as bad (until he just started being exactly that)

The older Jeff got he probably stayed away from home as much as possible and got into the wrong crowd, and he def got shit at home if he brought Liu with him (Liu loved it tho). They really did only have eachother

[sallytwo]

blah blah hollyleaf hating leafpool IS fascinating because she’s more willing to threaten her literal mother, who’s a highly respected member of the clan, instead of accepting that the code is flawed. she uses these insane mental gymnastics to justify her actions again with killing ashfur, it’s a common theme for her and very fun that she’s willing to throw literally anyone under the bus in order to uphold her perceived purity of the warrior code. even her own mom. EXCEPTTTTTT fans don’t seem to realize hollyleaf is an unreliable narrator and her thinking “leafpool is responsible for every bad thing to ever happen” DOES NOT MEAN leafpool is ACTUALLY responsible. so you get people mindlessly parroting that leafpool=bad and we get one million pieces of art of hollyleaf (victim) screaming at leafpool and leafpool (abuser) crying and whimpering and it’s like. that didn’t happen.

[dilemmacait]

“abby is the most evil character in TLOU!” this, “i hated abby!” that.

have you thought about the fact that she was also just a girl who’s father was murdered in cold blood with no explanation or justice?

how is her act against joel any more evil than ellie’s acts against abby? abby killed joel in an attempt to get revenge, and yes, it was a horrific violent attack, especially when she forced ellie to watch. but how can you excuse ellie’s acts of revenge, acts that took the lives of HUNDREDS of people, including nearly all of abby’s loved ones, yet not excuse abby’s act, which was motivated by the same blind desire for revenge?

i’m not justifying either of their actions as being “right” or “wrong.” i just think it’s unfair to the story and abby’s character to only allow yourself to have that surface level understanding of her because joel is your favorite character and she took him away!! you’re not capable of truly understanding the meaning of the game and the lessons its supposed to teach if you’re not willing to try and understand all the characters. including the ones you don’t like!

[fenrysmoonbeamswife]

I'm sorry maybe I'm misinterpreting (please read to the end first) this but "a character did xyz because of the author" is the single laziest excuse for a characters actions

If the author writes them as problematic and abusive then that's what they are because she wrote them that way. If this was a once off then maybe but the authors intention changes nothing about the inherent character and their consistent actions

I mean if you want to go down that road then Amarantha isn't actually a sick evil bitch, she didn't have to do anything she did, SJM wrote her that way so that everyone would feel sorry for Rhysand, she's just a byproduct of that writing

If SJM wrote Rhysand parading Feyre around naked just to be sexy/horny then why did she write pages and pages of him fake apologizing afterwards? Why does she feel the need to use morally grey as an excuse for everything he does? Why does she have to blame Nesta or retcon to justify Cassians abuse? If she writes these scenes and actions and then feels the need to write a justification for it, she knows exactly what she's doing and she doesn't care and saying she doesn't intend it that way just seems to me like letting her get away with it

And don't get me wrong I understand the general concept of this post (again I could be misinterpreting), that SJM didn't actually write them to be bad people and I can agree to an extent since she clearly thinks the sun shines out of their asses, so maybe both things can be true but it is important to apply nuance when an author romanticizes abuse and assault and non consensual acts. And as I said, her intentions don't change the fact that they are inherently toxic and problematic. Saying it's just to be horny they're not actually bad people just provides another excuse for them, and SJM, to get a free pass

can i say something . can i be brave . a lot of y’all are trying to find endogenic reasons for characters in acotar doing things when the reason they did them was not because they are abusive / morally bad characters but because sjm wanted to make the books horny. did rhysand have to paint feyre and waltz her around the parties under the mountain basically naked? did he have to distract the hewn city by making feyre a pet and touching on her in front of everyone? no. sjm wrote it to be horny. did azriel need to be a cringecore emo fuck (affectionate) talmbout sad shower jerks and the cauldron giving him elain? no. sjm wrote it to lay the tension for being horny later. did cassian have to do anything he did in acosf? no. sjm wanted to be HORNY. all these things are shitty not great things for the characters to be doing, but the characters aren’t doing them because they’re inherently problematic; they’re doing them because the author wants to be horny, and they become problematic as a byproduct. there are plenty of actions and plots and decisions to be rightfully critical of in these books — trust me i want to 1v1 the inner circle in a pit — but some of the takes i’ve seen on this hellsite are trying to apply nuance to things done purely for the sake of being horny and it’s driving me crazy

[kei-crocker]

May I ask a question? In your Twisted pitch pals au-

What's Vlad doing in all this? Like, how does he feel about Danny’s ghost half essentially kidnapping him? I imagine he might be a little freaked out or concerned

I've been thinking about this situation, and I feel like Fenton might have personally convinced Phantom before leaving Wisconsin Manor. He would have done everything he could to make sure Phantom didn’t hurt Vlad.

At that moment, Vlad might have felt a sense of humiliation toward Fenton. After all, he owed his life to a kid he had always considered several steps beneath him. Of course, that feeling probably wasn’t too strong—at least not at the time—since he was too overwhelmed by sheer terror to dwell on humiliation. In the show, Vlad had already lost to Danny quite a few times, but up until TUE, Danny had never defeated him purely through sheer power. (I think that was the case even until the finale, but I don’t remember Phantom Planet at all, so I can’t say for sure.) Danny always compensated for his lack of strength with cleverness.

But now, without Plasmius, Vlad is nothing more than a powerless human. Meanwhile, Dan Phantom has not only fused with his own ghost half but also absorbed Plasmius, making him unimaginably powerful—and on top of that, he harbors a deep and personal desire to kill Vlad. At the moment he was attacked, Vlad probably had little room for any emotion other than fear. But once the situation settled down and Phantom left with Fenton, he would have had plenty of time to think.

I've always thought Vlad was a well-crafted character—deeply layered, with complex motivations. His obsession with Danny has a clear purpose (replacing Jack), but TUE makes it clear that he doesn’t see Danny as just a means to an end. I believe, to some extent, his concern for Danny was genuine.

So when Phantom took Fenton away, that concern likely started creeping in, though he was too terrified and injured to stop it from happening.

As time passed and he regained his composure, he would have started reflecting on everything. Once Fenton was lucky enough to contact him, Vlad’s thoughts and objectives would have solidified.

It’s possible he would try to use Fenton’s reluctantness toward Phantom to bring him back under his control. Vlad is highly calculating—he wouldn’t pass up an opportunity if he saw one. He might also see this as a way to reclaim his ghost half. Ideally, he would want Danny Fenton as a complete halfa, but if he deemed Phantom uncontrollable and too great a threat, he might decide to eliminate him and claim only Danny Fenton, the human boy, as his son.

Valerie would likely play a role in this scheme as well. Fenton, of course, wouldn’t be happy about any of it.

As this process unfolds, any lingering guilt Vlad has toward Fenton would fade, replaced by an even stronger obsession. Just as with Phantom, Danny has become the only person in the world he truly loves—aside from himself. And along the way, he might justify his actions by convincing himself that everything he’s doing is for Danny’s own good.

Thanks for leaving me an ask! <<3 it's fun to think how Vlad goes here after these all incidents 😖

[butch-bakugo]

I mean we all know doey is canonically a system, a did one at that, maybe osdd, but I really don't know if I, as a did system, can say if he is explicitly bad system rep.

Spoilers for Poppy's playtime chapter 4, Danganronpa 1 and the movie split.

Like i can point to a number of representations in media that are bad. Toko from Danganronpa has a homicidal alter. The monster from split. Split at least showed some of the more realistic representation via showing a little and protector and other alters but lost any good faith interpretation when it spread myths about blind bodies gaining sight from sighted alters and the whole .. the monster thing. Hell I can point to a few ambiguous representations that border good and bad like Sunnydrop and moondrop from Fnaf.

But doey is different. Doey is the enigma, litterally. His systemhood isn't explicitly demonized and his alters arnt the reason he attacks you. Even, Kevin, the "bad alter" dosent cause it. Sure his "bad alter" or the more aggressive one who doesn't listen to authority and throws tantrums has a short fuse but the reason he attacks in the end is because your actions killed the people he wanted to protect and didnt even achieve their goal. To an extent, he's justified.

He's more accurate and harsh system rep in the form of the fact most persecutory alters are meant to be or trying to be protectors in their own special ways. Its his voice, not Mathew's or Jack's, that repeats their mantra and warning, that people who speak gently to them often hurt them. Its a defense mechanism. Mathew and Kevin are both orphans in a facility that experiments on children who got sent there either due to having no where to go or being the children of employees who met similar fates. It wouldn't be a stretch to say Kevin was a victim of our broken foster/adoption system, one wrought with physical, verbal, emotional and sexual violence.

Jack is confused, Mathew is trying to hold things together peacefully and Kevin is just trying to keep everyone safe, including themselves. I don't know if I can see doey, even if he turns into a scary monster who tries to kill you in the end, as bad system representation. Because he's justified. You just litterally blew up the one thing he feels he can do right and feels like he can do to redeem himself. He's justified in attacking you. The visual of three people being trapped in the head of a body just trying to get out as they rip at the seems was viseral as a system. When I imagine my alters within my body, especially to defend it, it's similar. Like your head splitting at the seems like that girl from late night with devil and all these people coming out.

I don't think doey is the most sanitized, clear and easy to digest system representation possible. I know some touchy just-realized-they-were systems in teen bodies and "endogenics" who have no business in this space are gonna cry from the roof tops with zero nuance that because he becomes a monster at the end and dies a sad death, he's bad rep. No if, ands or buts. We aren't talking about a well thought out, barely visible background character in some grifter qUeEr Netflix slop that's all fluff and no hard candy.

But. For what he is, it's... Good? Not great. Not the best *tm. But certainly way above the worst. Way above bad. Although I could argue it could be better and your fair to be on the fence, I think he is. I think he's good rep. He's raw. He's real. He's clear and he's justified. Although we could make arguments day and night about wether or not the team at Poppy's playtime intended for doey to be system representation or not, I think it's pretty clear he was and for being made by a group of people without a (outwardly) system amongst them, it's good rep. He's ok.

I think we finally have one. One who shows it's not a death sentence even if he dies at the end and shows it doesn't make you a monster even if he becomes one. He's no bigger, scarier or more ruthless than any other experiment, not by a long shot and I think that's good. I wish he survived, I wish he didnt turn into a monster. I wish he would of simply escaped but I think he's ok. I see the representation and I raise you, maybe let the next one live to the end but keep up the good work? Its clear from the outside you tried and did a fairly good job. We need more casual rep.

*edit: didn't know the persecutory alter had a name, fixed wording.