#bc y'know. she's not real. and has no say over her role in the story

[evilkitten3]

YES

i'll be honest, i doubt sakura was ever written with any sort of abnormally problematic home life in mind. mainly bc sakura was barely written with much of anything in mind outside of "there's a girl there. just in case people start thinking it's getting a bit faggy. if there's a love triangle with a girl then everything is automatically straight forever. also walking first aid kit! hooray less time in the hospital for the characters that matter"

having said that, by our standards, every parent completely fine with their kid training as a child soldier should be considered abusive, whether their intentions are good or not.

i'm tired and need to go to bed so this isn't going to be too well put-together, but i find it somewhat frustrating that people will bend over backwards to explain the hell out of any single detail for a character... so long as they fit a certain criteria (so not most of the girls, not most of the unattractive men, not a good chunk of the kumo nin... idk what it could be. sure sakura, danzou, and killer bee are all major characters who the story simply could not exist without, but i guess spending extra time analyzing them is just unappealing. for some incredibly bizarre eternally unknowable reason. guess it'll be a mystery forever what a shame)

but concerning sakura, a lot of people bring up how she's extremely callous towards naruto and sasuke's parental situations - which is true! but like, no one wants to think about that even a little bit? really? i'm autistic and bad at social cues, and i was worse at 12, and even then i knew it's kinda shitty to talk smack about an orphan for having no parents to another orphan. but sakura doesn't. that seemingly obvious no-no doesn't register with her. and if we're counting the movies (i usually don't but rtn was at least kinda funny at times so. eh) then she does something similar as a teenager when she complains about how annoying her parents are to a currently-sad-about-his-dead-parents naruto.

and it's strange bc sakura is generally portrayed as a fairly intelligent, observant character. but of the three members of the og team seven, she seems to have the least amount of emotional intelligence (she stops being emotionally deadlast once sai joins the team bc. well it's hard to beat good ol' danzou trauma) but it's baffling to me how neither the series nor a good chunk of the fanbase are remotely interested in that there's something clearly Not Quite Normal about her (aside from the sasuke fixation)

sakura, from the get-go, is the team's liar. sasuke's ability to give a shit about what other people think of him died with his family, and naruto was raised by discarded bowls of ramen, so it makes sense that of the three of them sakura is the best at hiding herself. but her awareness of that seems to fluctuate over the course of the series (it was much more prominent back before inner sakura got eaten by a space whale offscreen or whatever it was that happened to her). sakura routinely tries to shove herself into a mold that she very obviously (to the audience) doesn't fit, and we're never really shown why. she's desperate to escape ino's shadow initially, which makes sense, but even after becoming her rival sakura's sense of self is still very clearly,,,, Off. she can't decide who she is - or, rather, she can't decide how she wants the world to see her, nor fully restrain herself from pulling away from whichever role she's trying to push herself into.

the chuunin exams established that sakura's character arc was meant to be "blossoming" into herself, something that was never allowed to happen bc unfortunately the manga she's in is naruto. imo, her decision to go after and kill sasuke should have been the tipping point for her character - whether she got there early enough to hear danzou confirm what "madara" had said about itachi's true motives, or she healed karin on the spot and kakashi didn't get the chance to send her away from the exposition scene. or something else.

but regardless of what specifically it was, that should have been the moment where sakura (and sai, if he got away from the gas; i think he should have tbh) was faced with the truth about the uchiha massacre - and that naruto, kakashi, and yamato had all agreed to keep it quiet. i think seeing sasuke's grief and rage (and yes, borderline insanity at that point - trying to kill off both of the only two people you know who can heal you when you're seriously injured is not a wise decision, but in his defense it had been quite a Day) and knowing that not only was she supporting the system that caused it, but that people she was personally attached to were either involved in the carrying out or the covering up of what happened.

iirc tsunade was still in a coma at that point, so sakura wouldn't've have been able to go to her and demand to know whether she'd known the truth or not - she'd have to figure it out on her own. whether sakura would have deserted konoha for good or not is hard to say, but i think if she realized kakashi was trying to keep her in the dark about the massacre, she would have at least decided to heal sasuke (and karin) and hear their side of things.

hell, even with what happened in canon, sakura was the one who brought karin back to konoha, right? she could have just. stopped, healed her enough to get some answers, and then figured things out from there. plus seeing two smart, manipulative little assholes with a thing for the same uninterested guy engage in psychological warfare could have been awesome. but nooooo can't let sakura know things she might remember when she had a role in the story outside of boo-boo fixer......

Hm so as I’ve seen many people lump Sakura in with Naruto and Kakashi as ‘bootlickers who ignore all the state’s atrocities in favor of keeping that status quo’, so as both a radical and a Sakura fan I’d like to share why and how I think Sakura could be turned into a radical character.

This isn’t gonna go very deeply into her fighting abilities or any of that, it’s more an analysis of her personality and narrative role than anything.

Keep reading

[cursedbcrn]

How do you head canon Hope’s relationship with her extended family?

Oh this is a fun question. Okokok let me think. Also obligatory disclaimer that this is based off of what we see in canon, and anything plotted with individual muns takes precedence over this very general answer jiasdlsfk

FREYA

Freya is, for all intents and purposes, Hope's third parent. She never ever forgets the sacrifices that Freya made for her, and even though she was a child at the time, Hope has always been very aware of and, in Kol's words, remarkably well-adjusted, to the complications of family. While she may not have been privy to the exact stresses of what happened between season 4 and 5 of TO, Hope could still see that her aunt was giving up a lot for the sake of Always and Forever. She was so unbelievably thrilled for Freya and Keelin's wedding because it was Freya's chance to actually be happy for herself, and that's something that Hope continues to wish for Freya especially. Being mortal and having been asleep for basically 950 years, there is so much that Freya hasn't gotten to experience, unlike the rest of her family, and Hope has a specific interest in making sure that she gets her chance for that too.

FINN

Unless in a plotted verse where Finn is alive, Hope honestly doesn't know much about Finn other than the stories here and there that Freya has told her. She's picked up on the sense that Finn isn't the family favorite, and has never been inclined to dig further. She's heard offhand comments about how "dull" and "boring" he was (mostly from Kol), so imagines that anything they have to say wouldn't be overly helpful. She does like hearing stories about Freya and Finn as children before Dahlia showed up.

ELIJAH

Hope's relationship with Elijah is probably the most complicated for obvious reasons. Most of what she knows about Elijah is secondhand, between the memory wiping and staying away for a long time, only to immediately die right after. In many ways, her perception of Elijah is very fractured in a sense (similar in how she perceives Klaus tbh) where she was raised to believe and understand that Elijah was the noblest of them all, that his word was his bond and family meant everything to him. These are the stories that Hayley and Freya raised her with, and even Rebekah and Kol would make similar comments about their missing brother. However, these stories directly juxtapose against what Hope experienced with Elijah herself, which is that he wasn't there when their family needed him, and her mother died because of it. Part of that is Hope projecting her own guilt onto Elijah, who is an easy target and seemingly very willing to accept said blame, but emotions aren't logical and sometimes she has those moments of resentment. That maybe if Elijah had been the man that everyone said he was, everything would be different. It's skewed, flawed logic and Hope is aware of that, and for the most part she has forgiven him for everything that happened. However, when people talk about how noble and family-oriented Elijah is, there is occasionally a split second of bitterness.

REBEKAH

Rebekah very much has the role of "fun aunt" in Hope's mind (not to say that Freya isn't fun, but sometimes it's hard to talk about memes and pop culture with her bc.... y'know). She teaches Hope about debutante balls and ballroom dancing (and Hope frequently got in trouble for leading), and will FaceTime Hope and show her New York City, promising that one day she'll get to come visit for real and Rebekah will take her do all the touristy things but also the fun local things. After her parents' death, Rebekah does try to reach out to Hope but eventually they drift apart a bit because there is only so much Rebekah can do when Hope isn't reciprocating, and Hope is afraid to lose more of her family. She knows that Rebekah plans to one day take the cure, but coming off of the heels of so much loss so quickly, it conflates in Hope's mind that Rebekah is going to leave her eventually so best to keep her at arm's length (never mind the fact that Rebekah could be around for another 8 centuries before taking the cure if she wanted to).

KOL

If Rebekah is the "fun aunt", then Kol is definitely the "fun uncle". She has always appreciated that out of all of her family, Kol has been one to tell it to her straight and not just treat her like some child that has to be constantly protected. Hope is fully aware of why Kol has frustrations with his siblings and her father in particular, which, along with her own general fear of abandonment, is why she doesn't push him to be around more than he already is. Like with Rebekah, they also utilize technology to have frequent video calls while Kol and Davina are in San Francisco (and listen...... I personally hc that she and Josh were the only witnesses for his and Davina's wedding). Kol reminds her how important it is to keep living even when it seems impossible and to say fuck you to everyone else's perceptions and expectations.

MARCEL

Hope loves and adores her big brother very much. She never has and never will forget how, when Klaus cut off contact, Marcel was the one who stepped up. Unlike Kol and Rebekah, he was able to be physically close to Hope and give her a hug, and at the very worst, he was only ever a phone call away. She is grateful that Marcel has never looked at her and seen her father or her uncle, even though she has come to understand how deeply complicated his relationships with them were. As far as Hope is concerned, Marcel is and always will be a part of Always and Forever (even if some of her family may disagree).

DAVINA

While technically her aunt by marriage, Hope has always seen Davina as more of an older sister figure. Like with Kol, she understands why Davina keeps her distance given all that she has suffered through at the hands of the Mikaelsons, and Hope doesn't begrudge her for it. With Freya and Vincent nearby, Hope hasn't had as much need to reach out to Davina when it comes to controlling magic, but she does bond with her over being very young and having these expectations placed upon her and her power. Davina's experience as a Harvest Girl and later as the regent when she was Hope's age gives them some trauma and life experience to bond over, and after her parents' death, Davina acted as a bit of a confidante as someone who is part of the family but isn't also directly grieving the loss of a sibling like the rest of her family is, so Hope feels (a tiny bit) less guilty about expressing her emotions around her.

KEELIN

At first, Hope and Keelin bond mostly over trying to get Freya to rest. In the years between S4 and S5, Hope and Keelin watch as Hayley and Freya run themselves ragged trying to find a solution to the Hollow while also trying to maintain peace in New Orleans, and Hope and Keelin team up together to make sure that their loved ones get rest. When it eventually gets to be too much for Keelin, and she leaves to go volunteer with Doctors Beyond Borders, Hope is hurt and angry at first (though to be fair, for the most part, Keelin was doing a lot of the emotional heavy lifting in NOLA while Hope was away at school), and for a while, Hope is too stubborn to be the first to reach out. Keelin continues to try and connect with Hope, though respecting Hope's hurt, and their relationship remains strained until Keelin returns to NOLA and marries Freya. Similar to Davina, Keelin offers a shoulder after Klaus and Hayley die, and she probably also opens up about losing her own family at the hands of Kingmaker. Also, she took off the ring during one full moon and shifted so she could run with Hope. She's never done it again after that, and it wasn't meant as a way to try and replace Hayley or Klaus, but as the only wolf that's really left in the family, Keelin wanted Hope to have that experience of running with family at least once.

NIK

This one makes me extra sad because Hope desperately wants to connect with Nik and be in his life, but she purposely holds herself back because she fears that she will be the one to bring calamity to his life. I hc Keelin as the one to have carried him because they've at least learned ways to suppress the wolf gene safely if that's what he would want, whereas the Mikaelson witch power is still very devastating (now just imagine that combined with Vincent's power too), and personally, my Freya would never want to get pregnant again after everything she went through. Also, I feel like there was some kind of tvdu lore reason why witch/wolf hybrids couldn't exist, but consider that, idc and i'm doing it anyways, and I digress. Hope is distant from her cousin because the last thing she wants to do is bring death into his life (especially when he is still so young), and she wants to preserve his innocence for as long as she can, because she never had that opportunity for herself.

[scrambled-eggsed]

A bunch of nonsense regarding Rusty Quill Gaming

Could possibly be shaped into an actual theory by people smarter than I am (by which I mean - please add to this! I'm tryna figure out the mystery, at least partially, and more opinions are always valued):

Gonna open with my main point and say that I think Persephone is really important to everything we don't know about the cult of Hades, and thus possibly the whole campaign. This is basically a few points about that idea.

[continuing below the cut because it gets a bit long]

We saw in the ancient Rome sidequest that the temple that was fitting for Hades was actually a temple for Persephone. Hades wasn't really popular, and we didn't see any evidence that confirms that he was being worshipped at all.

I think Alex may have hinted a bunch of times that the entity that gives Zolf his powers isn't just the concept of hope, and from a narrative perspective I think Persephone fits really well into this.

The party is currently trying to figure out a strange seed. And, y'know, Persephone was the Goddess of Spring, essentially, right? Plants, flowers, the sprouting of seeds? And if it had anything to do with the simulacrum, it would make sense that it would be metallic (I realise that this is a longshot but it just sort of makes sense, and possibly could make more sense when the party gets to Svalbard and gets more information about the seed).

Edit after 180: The Garden of Yerlik is described as “the garden where one can follow the path from life to death and back.” That sounds A LOT like Persephone.

A few pieces of info, or lack thereof, I don't know where to fit into all of this:

According to Azu's knowledge (I think Alex gave this info right after Barrett told LOLOMG about the cult of Hades), the cult of Hades were the main corrupters of Rome. However, as I said (and also assuming I remember correctly; again, feel free to comment, add or correct me), we didn't see any worshippers of Hades back then, right? (I would like to say that the whole thing with the evil Paladins [according to the wiki, it was the cult of Mars] who also freed the dragons was never really clear to me [why did they do it? also it went sort of wrong, right? like the dragons burned the commanding officer or smth] so if anyone actually understood that part, Please Help)

Wtf does Wellington's son got to do with all of this. This is unclear to me because A) I don't know how British aristocracy works, and I think that could have some relevant information and B) so far, Alex has named the Real Important npcs after real historical figures, with a few similarities between the character and the historical figure (for example - Oscar Wilde is a witty writer, Marie Curie and all the others from Prague are the equivalent to well-known scientists and academics, Guy Fawkes caused trouble with gunpowder (Guy Fawkes is really interesting bc she was also Byron's sister, which leads me to my next point -)) and that's why I think he's not just Wellington's son but is based on an actual historical figure - the question is who. All things considered, I suspect it could explain why it all started in London and seems to be based there.

We don't actually know what the cult of Hades' goal is. According to Barnes, the infected are just trying to infect as many people as possible and basically spread the infection and take over the world, but what would they even gain from that? I saw people saying this links to Mr. Ceiling but I really don't understand how that could be.

Tesla and the simulacrum. Just in general. We don't know how the simulacrum fell into Edison's hands (maybe It's the same thing that happened with the lightbulb in our world, but I highly doubt that, considering that Tesla was also responsible to the flooding of London (which is another thing I don't understand. Other London seems to have existed for a while - decades, at least - but as I understand, the general idea is that Tesla is still very much alive, and fled to America (or maybe is just on the run in general) with Eda Lovelace and another person I think?, so he's either an old man now, or not human, or I have misunderstood) and therefore was more important in that world than he is in ours. Unless there's Tesla lore I'm not aware of, in our world or the campaign's). Also, where does the simulacrum link up with the cult of Hades? Which leads me to my next point:

As I recall, the cult of Hades were the ones in charge of the factory in Damascus. Why? Was this another part of the taking-over-the-world plan? The simulacra were a replacement for the workers, which could mean that they were just looking to increase efficiency, but the riots in London have already started at that point, so they knew the world, and with it the economy, production and distribution, were gonna crash. Maybe they just wanted to replace the workers so they wouldn't be lacking the workforce when they got infected, but surely other robots could do that, and not specifically the most advanced and expensive ones out there.

Based on the whole idea of this post, every point concerning the cult of Hades also relates to - where does Persephone fit into all this? How did Hades replace Persephone? Where did Persephone "go"? Since the gods are real and pay some attention to the world, how does Persephone feel about all this? My guess (which is based on a hunch, which is based on pretty much nothing) is that Hades has taken over the role of "main god of the underworld" and everything done by the cult of Hades is supported by him, and Persephone Does Not Like This and is subtly helping those who try to reverse this, through Zolf and possibly other ways (I may have listened to Hadestown way too many times, but there is something to be said about Persephone basically making the world regrow and heal after every winter - and so perhaps also after a metaphorical winter, where it isn't necessarily winter but it's just a terrible situation that people somehow get through?)

EDIT: Cannot BELIEVE I didn't think about this earlier - did the Meritocracy attempt to erase Persephone? (Assuming she is actually relevant,) The only trace of her seems to be the Garden of Yerlik in the northern wastes, and Cel keeps saying that it's really weird how they were the only one who have already known there were people living there. Did the Meritocracy tell everyone that there's nothing in the northern wastes because they didn't want people to stumble upon the Bear Cities and see that garden? This also seems plausible because pretty much the only creatures who know exactly what happened in Ancient Rome are the Meritocrats, so they would be the only ones to know that Persephone was an important God back then. Also (and again, can't believe I didn't think about this earlier) this could tie in directly to why everyone thinks the cult of Hades were at fault for the fall of Rome - they were probably the ones to spin the story thay way. So basically, do the Meritocrats have any other motive that we don't know about? (Currently the last ep to come out was 180 so I might edit this again once the next one releases) Also I assume there’s some connection to the Cult of Mars but I can’t say exactly.