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absolutely-wretched · 10 months ago

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finishing buffy s8 and starting angel&faith

spoilers under the cut

so, i did notice there were many writers in buffy s8 finally, confirming my suspicions that the badness of it wasn't joss alone. but let me tell you i was completely correct in thinking the last volume was going to piss me off. spike comes back and not only does she describe having sex with twilight to him, she KISSES HIM. i literally fell back onto my bed in exasperation. except she didn't actually kiss him, it ws a fantasy, which doesn't stop my annoyance, and neither does her immediately thinking she's gonna get into bed with him. i wanted to say like "buffy seems a little ooc, much more self-absorbed than she was originally". then i watched Hell's Bells since I was watching the dvd commentary, and her first words about Xander leaving Anya at the altar was "They were supposed to be my light at the end of the tunnel." and I was like oooooh nope she's still in character. just a bit worse, which is fair bc of the whole "leader of slayers" and "ultimate power" thing. also i was all excited about spike's design coming back in my last post bc of his nail polish, but then he's in like brownn boots and a tan sweater. idk just weird, i aggresively do not like it. i do like that Spike knew who twilight was immediately. very on-brand.

so angel kills giles and buffy doesn't stake him, but instead kills all magic. definitely needed to be done (poor willow, though), but it still seemed unrealistic that she didn't kill him, but i get why. angel&faith (abbreviated to a&f from here on out) pointed out the fact the angelus killed jenny in the same way, which i was surprised i didn't pick up on. faith gets giles' estate, which was a bit surprising but her explanation about it makes sense. that faith needed more help and all that. and faith is going to rehabilitate angel, which i love. angel's relationship with women like cordelia or faith are much nicer to me than anything about his relationship with buffy. and all magic is gone from the world except for the magic that's already there, tying these events to why the world is how it is in Fray (buffy having been the last slayer 200 years prior)

i'm curious to know how Willow was an Uber-witch then in the future, of whom Buffy goes back in time to kill. Also, Fray ended on a cliffhanger, the only continuation being when buffy went in time in s8. but i really want to know the rest of her story with Harth, especially because of that shocking kiss that's just like... what and why and what.

so warren is dead for good again, thank christ. everyone is mad at buffy for killing magic. it's all pretty fair since she boned twilight and birthed a whole universe and all that, being fairly selfish in their eyes, but since her and angel (mostly angel) were pretty possessed, it wasn't as selfish as it looks to everyone. but i'm glad they did it, a bit, because it brings us back to more of a similar world in the show. no more slayer military and all that, less bombastic fights and crazy mass demons. joss said "i learned what you like and didn't like" which i think means i'll like the seasons coming up much more. i don't like that willow has been nerfed, though. i love her so much, and she's so sad. and after goddesses and monsters, i knew she was into the snake goddess, and they're in love and she can never see her again. just... poor willow. i'm interested to know how that will turn out.

we also got to check in with riley, which i didn't care about, but it's part of the canon so i didn't skip it. and i was rewarded with finding out whistler is evil and an agent of twilight pulling the strings since buffy was 15. which was cool. oh! and giles leaving buffy the book that he pulled out in s1e1 was a nice touch. i dunno, the normalness of the epilogue gives me a lot of hope for s9 :) and so does the first vol of a&f

first off i'll say that I LOVE the art of a&f. Buffy art is really hit or miss, and while reading it i longed for the writing and art of Spike and Angel s5/6 comics (Urru and Lynch) even though when changing colorists/inkers around it could also be rendered hit or miss. But the a&f art? *chef's kiss*. The likenesses art great, the inking is amazing, I love the cell shading (which for comics is a much better fit to me than the airbrushing shading of buffy s8). I may be partial since it's the art style i'm personally trying to learn, and i'm seeing it being used professionally, but damn! it's really well done. and gone are the days of storyboarding being so confusing you dont know what's going on! i dunno if buffy s9 will lose that problem too, but here's hoping.

the characterization and story is really good, and angel is trying to bring giles back to life. i was thinking that wasn't really in character, but with eveything he did when he was (mostly) possessed by twilight, i can understand why. and faith promising to kill him, as usual. I just love it. it's got all the angel vibes of ats. I wonder how faith is going to reconcile that the slayers she helps want to kill angel. how she's going to allow him to bring giles back. it's a bummer, though, that new vampires that are turned since the seed was destroyed are like zombies. makes me uninterested in vampires. we get to check in with harmony at the end of the volume, which is fun. I love clem, he's continuously so cute.

i like the new villains. and they're working with Whistler, too. I'm interested to know more about the whistler lore. i wish they'd bring doyle back in some way. or cordelia. in comic form, not attached to an actor, i think i may actually like her, lol. i like that the seed rendered mohra blood unusable, since that could have changed angel's game completely, making him human. though, it doesn't make sense that he still says "i can't be what i need to be if i'm human". since he was human all through after the fall in Hell A and was able to save the world and all that while fighting demons constantly.

and what's up with that, too? so angel being twilight means eveyone hates him, he's infamous now. how does that reconcile with everyone in LA that he saved, making movies about he and Spike and Team Help the Hopeless, naming libraries after them and all that. Oh and I'm interested to know about the buddy comedy of illyria and gunn that was happening at the end of angel s6. i just love illyria and wanna know what she's up to.

TLDR: Joss says he learned a lot from doing buffy s8, seeing what worked and how certain things work in comic form. i feel like i'm going to enjoy the comics going forward, and really love a&f. the only thing that will make me really love s9 of Buffy when I start it, is if they change the entire art team (minus covers). I'm not sure if it's the inks that make it bad, but the shading definitely is bad. the pencils could be the problem, but since i can't see them, i'm not sure. the storyboarding was absolutely terrible, though, i had no idea what was happening a lot of the time. i'll be back after reading vol 1 of Buffy s9

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oveliagirlhaditright · 5 months ago

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Hey, it's me again. I know you don't really answer asks anymore, but I just wanted to say I REALLY LOVED the post you did about "I, Robot... You, Jane" today, the introduction of Jenny Calendar was easily the best thing about that entire episode (Giles/Jenny were one of the best and most heartbreaking ships on the entire show, I don't think I'll ever get over just how brutal "Passion" was)!

Oh, thank you, friend!<3

I really love "I, Robot...You, Jane," so I'm glad I'm not alone.

I know that Passion of the Nerd, for instance--in his Buffy guide--seemed to indicate that if Jenny wasn't introduced in this episode, he probably would have just suggested that people skip it.

And while part of me understands that, and why people might not like this episode... I don't know: I just feel like Willow's first "relationship" in the show is an important thing, among other things. And I find Moloch as an episode Big Bad pretty interesting.

I also like that Willow was willing to have a relationship with someone she met online, even if the story went into a "you can't trust people you meet online" direction. That is definitely dated in some regards, but also sound advice in others. You do have to be careful about that kind of thing.

This episode also being the thing that made Google a verb is iconic.

As is the last scene with Buffy, Willow, and Xander realizing that none of them will ever have normal, healthy relationships, as they try to comfort Willow. LOL

Buffy being too cute while detecting is also great.

-shrugs- I just feel like every time I watch this episode, I find more to like about it. And it's definitely not one of the worst season 1 episodes to me at all.

And Jenny, and Giles/Jenny are just too great. Giles was actually my favorite character when I was first watching the show, and Giles/Jenny was also the first ship I fell in love with, for sure. They're just too cute and perfect. And, yes, Passion will always hurt, damnit.

Thank you so much for the ask!

And sorry I'm slow about getting around to things lately. There's been a lot of scary medical things lately: like me realizing that what I was diagnosed is worse than I thought it was, and me having some pretty scary breathing issues recently (not to scare you or bombard you with all this).

But I'm fine at the moment, so no worries right now, and I was more than happy to answer this. And hopefully I should get to your message soon:)

#ask #shanna replies #buffy the vampire slayer #i robot you jane #it should be noted that i still love giles and giles/jenny even if giles isn't my favorite character anymore (i still adore him)#and bangel's now my otp. giles/jenny is still DEFINITELY up there for me. they're just so cute and wholesome and- ahh. i can't. i can't #they're like ozillow levels of cuteness. maybe even cuter in some ways

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roughentumble · 1 year ago

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!!!! YES OMG the missed opportunity for foreshadowing!! it REALLY couldve been something. it SHOULDVE been something, with all the pieces /right there/, just begging for a little attention. that was one thing supernatural seasons 1-5 did really well, to the point that it gets mocked occasionally for being so heavyhanded with it. and that's true sometimes, but kripke really did not ever miss a chance to foreshadow, and pretty damn solidly too(writer's strike mixups and the dropped azazel's kids plotline notwithstanding). lots of the cases were both monster of the week, while also having some aspect that paralleled the brothers or foreshadowed where the season was going, which kept things nice and open in the moment while also keeping the storyline really solid.

also re: mourning her, honestly i think it wouldve brought a lot of depth to xander's character if he was allowed to mourn for her, and miss her, because the connection(even if poorly communicated by the writing) was mutual! it was felt on both ends! xander is very sorely missing that sort of emotional depth that would make him as strong and compelling as the rest of the gang as early on as season 2, and this was a perfect opportunity to show him not as a slobbering idiot who wanted girls as some sort of trophy, but as a deeply lonely person who wants CONNECTION. who yearns for love, and to be seen, and be good enough, while still being allowed to be his goofy teen self that wears a tweety-bird watch and stuffs his face with junk food. that's a very human motivation, and it's one that "ampata" clearly had as well-- she didnt want to be All Special, Dead Forever, she wanted to be human and loved and goofy and a /teen/. him seeing that reflected in her and carrying on her memory and mourning her wouldve been. so. SO good. something xander's character NEEDED.

(not that im eager to see more women on buffy die for the advancement of a male character's development, but we're already working at a deficit here, we gotta make the best out of what we're given lmao)

one of the best things about monster of the week stories that are just /slightly/ worse than they could be, is just how juicy they are to tear apart and sink writer teeth into. rewriting them in your head, brainstorming what you would do different, is so much FUN!! especially when other episodes are solid enough to keep you hooked and engaged and coming back, so you arent eternally frustrated. i havent finished my rewatch of s2 so i cant speak to its coherency, but im definitely noticing a lot of episodes that i remember very clearly, episodes i thought were later in the series. but it turns out seasons 1&2 are just That Iconic. definitely very interesting on an adult viewing!

also hey i really hate that we never learn her name. she goes by "impada"(sp?), but that's because she killed a man and took his place, taking his name as an alias. we never learn who SHE is. what did her mother call her, before she died? what would she have asked to be called, if she could ask, if she had time before she grew weak and desiccated once more? who was this nameless girl? she isnt impada. but that's the only name we have for her

#buffy is so good all my friends are in there. buffy and willow and cordelia and spike and dru. and giles.#OH MY GOD WAIT XANDER'S GF DYING AND THEN LATER IN THE SEASON. MS CALENDER.... AND GILES.........#they should literally get to bond over that. like again sacrificing female characters for male advancement is #*sucks in air through teeth* Tacky.#but again since it's there. we should DO something with ut #there should be parallels!! we should see hints of ms calender's death in “ampata”s!#giles should find that xander is the closest thing he can get to having someone to Talk to

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buffysummers · 3 years ago

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Why do you think people dislike/hate Xander's character so much? I think he may be the character who gets the most hate by the fandom not even Spike, The master nor The trio get the amout of cotroversy, criticism ad hate Xander gets

I don't really think The Master or The Trio are significant enough to the show to warrant the same amount of hate as Xander. Like, yes, Warren is the WORST, but he's not in that much of it. Xander is in every single episode of the show (except for one).

I can't speak for other people, but I don't necessarily hate Xander. He definitely grows as the series progresses, and he has some wonderful moments. But he definitely has a lot more shitty, selfish moments than all the other core scoobies. He is extremely petty and jealous. Him choosing to withhold the fact that Willow was working on restoring Angel's soul in "Becoming" was pretty unforgivable to me. Just... how cold and unsympathetic he was to the position Buffy was in. He just expected her to be able to kill Angel in the blink of an eye... He didn't care how deeply traumatic and painful it would be for Buffy to not only kill Angelus, but to kill Angel. He was literally just like: nah fuck that dude he got the girl and I didn't! Who cares if this emotionally devastates Buffy! She had PTSD for MONTHS after killing Angel, and years and years later, it still haunts her.

And the fact that seasons later, Xander is in almost the exact same situation as Buffy was, only this time it's reversed, and he is telling her she shouldn't kill Anya. You wanna know why? Because now this will hurt him, so he no longer cares about the Jenny Calendars of the world that Anya may kill because this time, his heart is on the line. And the Anya thing was even worse because she chose to become a demon again. Angel did NOT choose to lose his soul. So, when Buffy says she has to kill Anya, he attacks her? It's laughable how hypocritical he is in this episode. He lashes out at Buffy, calls her heartless and cold and accuses her of acting all superior and like she's the law? (She is the law tho but he was saying that to be a dick). This is in the final season of the show. So, despite some of Xander's finest moments (ie: picking up Buffy when she was feeling down in "The Freshman," bringing Willow back to herself in "Grave," lifting up Dawn when she feels insignificant in "Potential," and always being the first person to want to help and protect Buffy ["Prophecy Girl" is a great example]) it's kind of hard to overlook the bad things, because they're pretty... well, bad.

Xander's biggest crime according to fandom is simply being a teenage boy living in the '90s. He's misogynistic at times, tries to have his cake and eat it, too (dating Cordelia when he has feelings for both Buffy and Willow, and then later having an affair with Willow) and his masculinity is painfully fragile. I don't tend to hold those things against him as much as others, because I'd say he's a fairly accurate portrayal of a teenage boy, and well, they're kind of the worst.

As for Spike, it definitely isn't up for debate about who has said and done worse things. But Spike is a vampire and the audience expects Spike to behave that way. They also think he's sexy. If people find a character sexy, they can get away with murder, quite literally in Spike’s case. Maybe if Xander were prettier, he'd get more slack. But if he WERE more "conventionally" attractive, or had the bad boy vibe that’s Spike’s signature, his character wouldn't serve its purpose. We wouldn't be able to buy into his insecurities as easily. After all, Xander is Joss's self-insert, and so is Spike, but to a lesser degree.

#I don't know if I answered your question #but basically I Get It #but I definitely think there's much worse characters on the show than xander #anonymous #answered #anti xander harris

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firemanwhenthefloodsrollback · 3 years ago

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Who Saved The Day? Season 3

Evening all. I'm back with the third instalment of my series Who Saved The Day? looking at who, numerically, saved the day the most times in buffy the vampire slayer. At the end of season two we left the totals at:

Buffy: 23

Angel: 3

Giles: 3

Chris: 1

Kendra: 1

Sid: 1

Willow: 1

Xander: 1

as we go deeper through the seasons we'll be getting deeper, darker and more morally complex, becoming more and more of an ensemble show and introducing more characters so without further ado, let's see where we end up in season three.

1. Anne: Lily

Buffy literally brings hope and the idea of rebellion to Hell in this episode and teaches Lily that it's possible to keep living - she clearly does lots. But Lily gathers the strength to push Ken onto the concrete mid-speech and literally deprive the hell dimension of its demon. Four for you lily, you go lily.

2. Dead Man's Party: Buffy

Clearly, definitely Buffy. In the midst of being treated like crap, frankly, by the people who are meant to love her, Buffy still finds the time to put a shovel in the eyes of a mask demon.

3. Faith, Hope & Trick: Faith

Faith gets the point in her very first episode - I'd expect nothing less from you babe. Yes Buffy did a lot, and Faith is certainly emotionally all over the place, but she puts a large piece of architecture through Kakistos' chest.

4. Beauty And The Beasts: Angel

I'm far from an Angel stan but arriving looking more monster than man, saving the day when no one believed he still had it in him to even recognise buffy, then falling to his knees and calling her by her name is a hell of an ending.

5. Homecoming: Cordelia

Am I biased by wanting Cordelia to have this point? Yes, yes I am. But her speech to Lyle about why she's so threatening he needs to escape when Buffy is knocked out absolutely does save them and she deserves a hell of a lot for that.

6. Band Candy: Buffy

Buffy certainly burns that demon. This isn't an episode that makes me think of danger or fighting though, this is an episode that makes me think of Snyder partying at the bronze and Giles and Joyce having sex on the hood of a police car. So really they won. But technically Buffy incinerated someone.

7. Revelations: Buffy

Buffy and Faith work so well as a team here but only one person can have the point, and Buffy does a good job cutting off that arm. (Fun fact: this is the second episode where Buffy edges the point by stealing an arm!)

8. Lovers Walk: Oz

Oz? This isn't an episode in which the day got saved really, both because the villain was a drunk man feeling his feelings and because it didn't end great. But Oz finding Willow and Xander using his wolf senses probably counts?

9. The Wish: Giles

"Because it has to be." One of Giles' absolute finest moments, gives me such incredible chills.

10. Amends: Buffy

Really it's the deus ex machina of the snow and the powers that be that gets us out of this one, but every episode someone has to get the point, and Buffy's speech gets it.

11. Gingerbread: Buffy

Cordelia gets a lot of points here, but Buffy actually stabs the demon with a wooden stake that she is literally tied to so I couldn't deny Buffy.

12. Helpless: Buffy

Buffy has an awful lot of wins here - it is her show after all - but this is one of my all time favourites and a flawless reminder of why she's one of the all time great heroines. Outsmarting the vampire in her dungarees while terrified with no powers at all is why she is the love of my life.

13. The Zeppo: Xander

"I like the quiet." I know we all have a lot of feelings about Xander in the twenty first century - I do too - but there is no arguing with his speech at the end of the Zeppo.

14. Bad Girls: Buffy

Well she does electrocute that vampire. I think this is Buffy's second electrocution point of the show? It's not an episode that we come away from feeling like we won much though really is it

15. Consequences: Faith

It is firmly Faith that deserves the point by staking Mr Trick. of course, she does go on to make a lot of things much worse in like the next scene when she teams up with the mayor but that's not the point here in this episodes

16. Doppelgangland: Anya

I guess? She very much did cause this issue. But then she solved this issue. So sorta.

17. Enemies: Angel

A lot of people made a very good case for getting the point here. Giles makes the whole plan able to happen, Buffy and Angel actually do the plan, and Buffy fights Faith at the end. But I'm gonna say that as the entire plan hinged on Angel and he did the bulk of the acting job, and the whole thing hinged around him being the main plan guy, it's his point.

18. Earshot: Buffy

Xander discovers the lunch lady's evil plan, but then Buffy whacks her on the head, so it's Buffy's point.

19. Choices: Willow

This was a very ensemble episode and of all the episodes I've done so far, this very much made me feel like insisting on choosing one character per episode doesn't always work. But I had to pick one, and Willow escaped the room she was being held in to rip pages from the books of ascension. The evil beetles were kinda a team effort so I don't know who got the point for dealing with them?

20. The Prom: Buffy

Buffy dealt with the hellhounds and also with issues relating to the end of your first teenage relationship. A double win.

21. Graduation Day 1: Buffy

First parts of two parters are hard guys. Buffy stabs Faith so - I guess? It doesn't help much and it certainly doesn't save the day. But I committed to picking so ???

22. Graduation Day 2: Buffy

A much more straightforward equation. Explode the snake.

So in season 3 we had a much lower proportion of Buffy wins compared to the first few seasons but still, obviously, a lot - I think reflecting the show becoming more of an ensemble cast and letting supporting characters shine more. We also had our second arm-theft victory for Buffy, which is not a connection I would ever have made if I hadn't started writing this series of posts. Who knew. If you think I've got anything wrong please do let me know!

At the end of Season 3 our leaderboard is:

Buffy: 32

Angel: 5

Giles: 4

Faith: 2

Willow: 2

Xander: 2

Anya: 1

Chris: 1

Cordelia: 1

Kendra: 1

Lily: 1

Oz: 1

Sid: 1

If you'd like to read the rest of the series you can find them here!

Intro post, Season 1, Season 2, Season 4, Season 5, Season 6, Season 7

#who saved the day series #buffy #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #buffy meta #season three

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dontwarnthetadpoles · 3 years ago

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Best Buffy & Willow platonic and romantic moments: Season 1

Sorry for the lack of update on those recaps, a new tv obsession kept me away but i’m back for sure to my Buffy roots and my favourite teenage girlfriends.

Teacher’s Pet (Episode 4)

It feels like the word disappointment has been created for this episode.

After a strong start in the pilot, Buffy and Willow’s relationship is taking literally the backseat in this mediocre episode written to glorify Xander.

By literally I mean the most promising scene they had - the two girls entering the Bronze looking insanely hot and pretty like the true queens they are and smiling at each other as if they are in love - was interrupted by Xander, who needed his male ego to be comforted because some secondary character/ insignifiant guy doubt his manliness!

I’m usually all for their group hug, and the one they shared here is special because it’s the first but really Xander’s timing is off. And to make things worse, the "girls only" spirit was definitely killed when Angel appeared and stole all Buffy’s attention.

It’s a waste of pretty girls, even more when you think that Xander spent the rest of the scene drooling over Angel (”Well, he's buff. She never said anything about him being buff”. “He's a very attractive man! How come that never came up?”). I have never seen in my life a het guy being so upfront about the looks of another guy, so there’s definitely something here that both deserve to explore together, alone, far away of my girls.

Speaking of them, this season is being so far very strange, it’s like the writing is the work of different people who never talked to each other and the characters development suffers from it. Notably someone forgot to tell the writers that Willow is also a main character and when she’s written to be in a scene, the least they can do is give her something to say or do to avoid to push her off the frame completely.

It happened once in the pilot when Xander and Jessie jumped to interrupt Willow and Buffy first lunch together. Willow disappeared from the screen and the dialogues until Cordelia showed up to announce sport class was cancelled because a dead body was found.

In Teacher’s pet, it’s after the Scoobies found the body of their science teacher. Buffy is shocked and crying, recovering in the library with her friends and looking for an explanation with Giles, when suddenly Willow stops talking and the scene finds its conclusion without any new mention of her, as if she was never here.

This level of plot holes is mindblowing. I mean i know that AH was cast after they wrote the season and the writers didn’t know what to do with Willow, but still. Well, i’ll just cover it by pretending it matches her feelings of being ignored and unloved.

Buffy and Willow best scenes:

At the Bronze

This scene is so dark, it’s impossible to find quality screencaps

I really love Willow’s beautiful long hair here.It looked less flat than usual, tough it’s probably just the light. What are the chances that is Buffy’s work and that she did if for her when Willow came to pick her at her house, just before their date at the Bronze? A girl can only dream.

At school the day after:

Also they spend the episode eyeing each other, and all the eye contacts as a secret code, an invisible form of communication to mock discreetly Giles or Xander make my heart flutters. They spend so much time looking at each other’s reactions and enjoying the connection that makes them think alike.

Precious babies.

Source: Pinterest (snarksquad.com)

#btvs #Buffy The Vampire Slayer #buffy summers #willow rosenberg #buffy x willow #my btvs meta #buffy meta #best buffy and willow season 1 #1x04 teacher's pet

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prose-for-hire · 4 years ago

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Headcanons for caring for a depressed s/o:

Request: I was wondering what would some the Buffyverse individuals do for a significant other with chronic depression Requested by: @shy-ginger-in-the-graveyard

Characters: Spike; Giles; Angel: Buffy; Cordelia; Xander; Willow; Oz; Anya; Faith

Warning: Discussion of symptoms of depression (I didn’t describe in too much detail, mostly about the care/support the character would give). Mention of medication (If you do not take medication just ignore it). Hints at harm.

A/N: I don’t have an insight into the way everyone’s depression works, so I can only write what I know. If you want something else just request! Sorry it took slightly longer than I anticipated! I hope this is okay !! 💖

Spike:

Spike’s mood is always in tune to yours

So when things are getting bad, he can feel it

If you can’t get out of bed, he’ll come to you

He’ll wheel the tv over, grab some blankets and try to comfort you as much as he can

you’ll be bundled up in so many blankets, it’ll be a little nest

He’ll join you in bed, wanting to have a lot of physical contact

He’ll be worried all of the time, he feels a lot. Especially when he cares for someone

He’ll sit with you for as long as is necessary

won’t ever be bored

If you want cuddles will silently hold you or tell you what’s going on on the tv if you’re not looking and nestling into his side

If you want leaving alone, he’ll try not to hover (but the man loves deep and the way he shows it is comfort)

He will every so often suggest an activity, one he knows will require less effort on your part to try and get you out of the crypt

Will look up ways to help or ask you a lot if he’s doing the right things

Won’t want to leave you on your own when it gets real bad but if he has to he’ll make sure you can contact him immediately wherever he is

He’ll ask what he can do to help a lot. hates to see you in pain.

literally hurts him. But he never wanted to leave your side.

Will promise to support you for as long as you need if it interferes with jobs/etc (he can get money)

Giles:

at first his concern might come across a bit sharp

But when he finds you crying over something insignificant he’ll come and cradle you and sit you down while he sorts it

He’ll be very practical but incredibly soft with you

Reminders to take meds, etc

Will check with you on what you want

A lot

(which may get annoying but try not to snap he’s really trying)

He’ll have read up on everything he can concerning depression and try his best to be someone you can talk through anything with

doesn’t want you to feel alone in anything (you’ll never feel a burden)

will do tasks around the house if you’re struggling and won’t like you to thank him

he’ll see it as the least he could be doing

he’ll often set up snacks and everything around you on the sofa if that’s where you’re set up

moves all of the piles of books from in front of the tv so you can watch

will sit and watch anything. But will give you a commentary on how much drivel is pouring from the screen if its particularly low-brow

If you can’t focus on the screen or get restless he’ll think of ways to help

He’ll take out a book, pull you into him and start to read in that soothing voice

Angel:

he’d get it

You wouldn’t have to explain

He’d be able to tell if things were getting worse

He might notice your sleep schedule was almost as nocturnal as his

Or that you’re smile isn’t quite reaching your eyes half of the time

Despite you at least making the effort

but he’ll ask you to always come to him and talk about it

If you can’t that’s okay, he gets that too

But he wants to be there

And he’ll tell you so

Will give very good reassuring hugs.

especially ones in the mornings when you both know you should be leaving bed

he doesn’t eat human food, but he will always cook an evening meal

wants to make sure you’re eating decent meals

sometimes you might forget or not have the energy

but he will always make sure he’s planned an evening meal

If you can’t sleep he’ll make warm drinks and watch over you

will hold you for as long as you need (especially on a restless night)

not being able to sleep sucks, but at least you know he’s right there

If you’re feeling very low, will make sure to stay with you to make sure you’re safe

It’ll be the most important thing to him

Buffy:

this girl knows depression

She’s been there and worn the T-shirt

She’ll know that sometimes there’s literally nothing she can do to turn your mood

But it doesn’t mean she won’t be there if that’s what you want

she’ll try to bring you on patrol as much as she can, it’s a distraction at least

but if you really can’t face leaving the house, she would ask the scoobies to start taking up the slack and stay in with you

I feel like she would do all the shopping (food and extras) so you’d have a bunch of fun snacks or random treats that she hoped you might like

knows the little things can go a long way

if you appear emotionless or low, she’ll kiss you softly on the forehead and will never take it personal

if you’re trying to avoid going out she’ll gently encourage you

if you really refuse to go out in the evenings, her solution will be movie nights.

She’ll rent videos and set up the living room

so many blankets and she’ll cuddle up to you

she’ll slowly invite one or two friends over too so that you’re not cutting yourself off from everyone you care about (there’s no chance she’ll let you cut her out)

eventually, there will be regular Scooby movie nights

Cordelia:

will chat to you about anything and everything

Won’t expect you to talk back, just wants you to know she’s there

can talk non-stop for days about all of the gossip she has accumulated

If you’re struggling to motivate yourself with everyday tasks she will do as much as she can

without even mentioning it

If you haven’t washed your hair in a while she will offer to wash your hair

Will run you a bath (or shower if that’s easier)

And will very soothingly massage your scalp and wash/condition your hair

She’d set out comfy clothes and definitely brush out your hair (or comb it/style it depending on your style)

read in a magazine that sunlight is supposed to help

trying to decide if the tanning bed would be the same thing

eventually opts for natural sunlight when told by one of the Scoobies that tanning booths probably aren’t the best way to go

will set up a beach day

or the closest thing she can get to a beach day (which might just be sitting in the back garden under the sun)

you tell her she didn’t have to but she will smile wide and insist that it was the best excuse to work on her tan

Very caring and will drop everything for the right person to meet their needs

Will fight anyone that says anything judgemental or rude about you

Willow:

She’ll be very practical but try to be lowkey about it

small suggestions to make sure you’re looking after yourself

you will never ever have any doubt she cares

forgetful? Sticky notes everywhere

adjusting to new meds? Will make a list of any side effects and monitor you to be sure you’re safe

(just cos she cares)

If the days are running into each other she will wake you up telling you the day with a little kiss

I feel like she’d like meal prepping

so she’d make meals for the week so you could have something in if you weren’t feeling up to cooking anything nutritious

she’d totally be doing it anyway, so just makes a little extra for you to share

she will also bake and encourage you to join in too. She’ll say its more fun when you’re around

she will try and inject a little bit of fun into everything

e.g. making a game out of tidying your living room/bedroom

Will offer to do a few spells to help with everyday tasks if they’re overwhelming you a bit

Won’t be too upset if you say no

But will try to convince you multiple times

Xander:

if you’ve been in a slump for a while he’ll try and shake up the routine

even if its just a little something

will crack a lot of jokes to try and cheer you up

“Laughter is the best medicine” (but he will definitely check in sporadically to make sure if u take meds that you are taking them)

won’t remember himself to check all the time but will remember randomly and he’ll ask even if you’re in the middle of a different conversation

But knows when to be serious, when you really need him to be there

Will want you to lean on him 24/7

Both literally and metaphorically

If there’s a day where you’re doing a lot of crying he will be the shoulder you cry on

Wouldn’t leave even if it looked like you were trying to push him away

Knows how to talk to you (especially if you were being self-deprecating)

would 100% be the type to make breakfast in bed on multiple occasions. Wants to make sure you feel special

because you’re usually pretty hard on yourself

might get frustrated that he can’t do more to help (but would never take it out on you)

would go and vent to Buffy or someone who would tell him what you would: that you love that he’s there as much as he can be. He makes it all worth it

Oz:

he’d be very chill about it

He’d always worry, but be chill on the surface

not only because he’s literally always laid back but because he wants to show it doesn’t phase him

he loves you

he’ll just roll with whatever it is that you need

If you need to cancel plans he’d just nod and call up to cancel

Would try his best to make sure you were comfortable

He’s big on giving for a s/o so anything you needed he’d encourage you to ask

He’d probably check on you a lot, not always verbal just a gesture with his head

If you’re no longer able to enjoy stuff you’re into, he’ll try and slowly introduce small activities

bursts of fun that might or might not help

but you always appreciate the thought

Music.

Will play music as a way of distraction if your thoughts are getting heavy

Any genre. Any decade. Any mood

Will lie there with you, letting the songs wash over you both

Will want to hold your hand or something as a gesture of comfort

always wants you to know he’s there

Anya:

If you can’t move from bed or you’re unmotivated she will try her best to be understanding

Will set lots of alarms if it’s something important you need to get up for

Alarm clocks on every surface

But if you can’t face it she’ll make up a very unconvincing excuse but nobody will question her

At least her hearts in the right place

will tell you wild stories from her past to pass the time if you can’t face leaving the house

will insist you go to therapy and make sure you go

is very by the book because she has just learnt about everything

(thanks Google)

“it says here that counselling/therapy will help with your depression, so you have to go every week, y/n”

will not be open to discussion about it.

she read it therefore it’s a fact so will always make sure you go. Same with meds if you take them. Same with making sure your diet is as balanced as possible

she’ll be very by the book because she’s just learning about it as she goes

and she’ll always want the best for you

Faith:

If you’re feeling particularly bad about yourself that day she wouldnt care about appearing vulnerable she’d whisper the softest things

you’d want to tease her but you just couldn’t

she’d make you feel so loved

you’d never be a burden with her

she’d love you so fiercely

she might snap sometimes, but she knows when you’re more fragile

she’d hate seeing you cry

would make her cry

but she wouldn’t go anywhere or tell you to stop. She’d whisper and just let you cry against her

with her own tears threatening to spill

would be very protective

if anyone made you feel guilty or didn’t understand you physically couldn’t do stuff

she would not hesitate to use her slayer strength to back up her words

Will take you on trips in the car. Won’t tell you where she got the car from. Or if her license has expired or not

Mini roadtrips with no real destination

so that you can have some fresh air, some music

knows that you’ll need a change of scene if you’ve been staying in a lot

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crystalelemental · 4 years ago

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And now, ranking the Fates characters by how good they are as parents. I’ll just be ranking the canon parent, since generic supports annihilated cohesive characterization by making all the parent dialogues identical.

Also, I do need to address this. Every parent in Fates is garbage. They throw their kids into an interdimensional time portal and essentially don’t raise them at all. So comparing them like this is basically comparing turds by how rank they are. It doesn’t matter that some aren’t as awful as others, you’re still not gonna find one that smells good, you know?

Corrin - Honestly, she’s got a strong Camilla-esque vibe to her protectiveness toward Kana. I like it. Also Kana knows when Corrin is coming to visit, and seems to imply that this is a routine thing, making Corrin one of the few known parents who actually makes a point to visit her kit. A-rank.

Azura - Once again, your decision to be cryptic for no reason causes nothing but problems for everyone involved, and your son, who you didn’t raise on your own, had his entire village annihilated by foes that went after him to get to you, but you never warned him or them about anything? D-rank.

Jakob - While hyper-critical, he’s not entirely off the mark, in terms of what Dwyer needs to be doing. He’s not a bad kid though, so it does come across as more harsh than he really needs to be to make a point, since Dwyer is ultimately self-sufficient and capable. C-rank.

Silas - Actually a pretty good dad. He’s one of the few that just actively admires his child coming out of their deeprealm to help others, is fully supportive of them staying with the group, and is supportive of Sophie in general. It is Silas, so he’s a little generic with his praises, but it’s still a better parenting approach than most of them. A-rank.

Kaze - And here to completely outdo Silas is Kaze. Again, Midori seems to know when he’s coming, meaning like Corrin, his appearance is a routine thing in her life. Not perfectly routine though, which creates a bit of conflict between the two, in which Kaze is able to express that he always did his best to be there for her, but kept her here to be safe. Willing to admit mistakes, accepting of her decisions, clear care for his child despite the poor general decision of leaving your children unattended in deeprealms, but is willing to actually be a parent and reprimand them for their poor decisions, while still being compassionate in his approach. S-rank. Kaze’s a good dad.

Ryoma - Honestly, I love that Shiro actually calls him out about not raising him at all. Also the unnecessary secrecy about who he is and not letting Shiro know his status, and then being irritated when Shiro grows up without any direction in life. Honestly I’m coming around on Shiro, who has so far been right on the money about how shit a father Ryoma is. D-rank.

Takumi - Honestly Takumi’s pretty solid? The support has him being a bit of a dick because he’s jealous of his own kid’s ability, but in the paralogue proper he’s honestly a pretty solid dad? Like he shows up unannounced so we know he’s taking time to actually meet with his kid, and is fairly protective of him. He does give in to letting Kiragi come along for dumber reasons, but on the whole he’s solid. A-rank.

Saizo - He’s kind of a dick? This is very much how Saizo is, but his entire thing is like...the honor of the family name to the point he doesn’t seem to have any connection to his kid, just his bloodline. He does eventually let his kid be himself, but only in that, when he demonstrates “his own brand of honor,” Saizo gives him that freedom, but by basically disowning him as next in the Saizo line. Which is I guess what the kid wanted, but still, it’s kind that “Grant your freedom, but you’re not my son” type feel. D-rank.

Kaden - He’s alright? He doesn’t do much, but he at least makes plenty of time to go visit his daughter just for the sake of visiting. Still, he’s so bad at raising his child that she doesn’t know what dead means, and thinks poachers are there to play. So present, but perhaps too permissive and uninvolved in actually raising her. C-rank.

Hinata - Apparently just fucking forgot to make time for his kid. He’s loving in his own way, but clearly not putting his child as a top priority in a lot of cases. Not the worst, but certainly not good. C-rank.

Azama - F-rank. I don’t really need to explain this, do I? Fuck Azama. Even Saizo realizes how much of a callous fuckhead he is toward his own kid. SAIZO! Also you somehow gave your daughter a separate world from yours, in the attempt to give her a life of peace, which she achieves and is happier without you, so you storm in only when she’s in active danger, then insist on dragging her out of this peaceful realm into the world of constant war...just because? Fuck Azama. F-rank forever.

Subaki - He’s a decent dad. It does kind of imply that he’s been away for a while, so questionable how much time he’s actually spending with her. And while he’s generally doting and kind toward his daughter, there is that weird ending bit where he gets nervous about her outperforming him. I’ll give it a B-rank overall.

Hayato - Honestly, he’s wishy-washy. Either you fully support your daughter’s mad science or you don’t. You can’t half-ass this, acknowledging she loves the dark arts and permitting her to mess around with it, and then step in and insist it’s off limits when it turns out the dark arts also have some potentially evil consequences. Stepping in when he does to take things away feels more like backpedaling on a decision he already made to let her do as she pleases, which was probably too permissive as it stands. C-rank, which is honestly pretty good for a teen parent compared to some of these other shitheads.

Xander - Finally on the Nohrians. Xander actually like...talks to his kid. Siegbert knows what his role is, and even if Xander can’t visit as often as he’d like in person, he keeps in contact through missives. Now, there is the issue of his stance being “You have to learn to shoulder some burdens alone,” and thinking his son refusing to contact him about these fucking swamp demons was commendable. So he’s definitely not perfect on this front. But he does acknowledge that this is the burden of a leader having to make such choices, is accepting and understanding of his son’s autonomy and decisions while still being firm about keeping him safe from war and sending him back should he prove himself unready. A-rank overall, I think.

Leo - Okay listen. While I do recognize that Leo comes around and starts trying to be a better father, and I recognize the importance of growth and improvement. But the fact that Leo has spent most of his son’s life avoiding him because he disapproves of his interest in feminine fashion is just inexcusable. The time to step up as a parent and learn this shit was a long-ass time ago, man. You’ve basically been out of your child’s life this entire time, shown up only to angrily disapprove of how he lives his life, and now want to walk back in and expect that trying to change means he should give you that chance? Why? There’s no reason for Forrest to be the one who has to acknowledge you’re changing and growing as a person. If nothing else, at least Forrest completely tells him off, and when Leo makes his attempt at reconciliation, his first thought is that he’s excited to get to know Elise. Get fucked, Leo. At least you go to save your kid, and don’t seem to express that you’re willing to let him die. But you did stall on going, so like...fuck you. F-tier.

Benny - And now for the exact opposite. Benny’s an absolute sweetheart, and it’s no surprise he’s the same with his son. He seems to care greatly for his son, is proud of his actions, and while protective, is willing to support his son’s decision to become stronger and learn to defend others with courage, while also teaching him that he’s not as fearless as he seems. Honestly, maybe it’s just the feeling coming off of Leo, but S-rank. We don’t really know how often he visits Ignatius, but I’d like to believe it’s often.

Keaton - Nothing too exciting, nothing too bad. An easy, uninteresting B-rank.

Arthur - Apparently he’s never visited. And openly stated that because he thought his son was safe here, his job was done. This is the most intense version of just literally not being there for your child at all. Still, at least he gives a shit, so D-rank, but a low D.

Odin - I think he’s solid. Honestly there’s nothing outstanding here, but I really like Odin as a person, so A-rank.

Laslow - Okay, so in the intro to her chapter, Laslow mentions that Soleil has a band for town watch, and that she should be in her Deeprealm but goes where she pleases. Which implies he knows she’s in his world already. So he’s already letting her do as she pleases. He’s openly aware she’s bi (let’s be real, here) and is fully supportive (LEO). He taught her some great mechanisms for coping with difficulties in her life, and helps her realize it’s okay to not be positive when it feels forced. And when confronted with the reality that Soleil is way better than him at flirting with the ladies, instead of being an insecure prick about it, he’s like “Hell yeah, that’s my girl!” S-rank, easy.

Niles - I hate Niles, but as far as parenting goes, he’s not the worst. It’s not clear if he’s been to visit her much (sounds like a no), but he at least has clear care for her. He does try to emphasize to her what kind of life he’s had and that he doesn’t want her to have to live like that too, so I do appreciate that angle for him. B-rank.

And that’s everyone. There are some decent parents in all this. The only real failures are Leo and Azama. I think Azama’s a bit worse based on not showing any inclination to change or any particular care about his child, while Leo at least learns something and grows from it. Though Leo’s issues are such a problem for me. I think Laslow’s the best, though Kaze and Benny were also really great.

Shame about the Baby Realm thing, though. That whole idea was just so stupid...

#fire emblem fates

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the-worst-fe-player · 4 years ago

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Coming from a place of sheer curiosity and being clueless because I'm late to the fandom, what kinds of ~problems~ did people have with Corrin being a self-insert rather than a separate character in Fates (aside from possibly being 'cringy')? That and compared to Fates I felt very lost and disinterested playing Awakening because Chrom just had so much going on with his own story that I had a hard time keeping up and couldn't really get emotionally invested in the game.

There quite a few problems people had with corrin I cant rember them all but these are the ones that stuck out to me the most lol also sorry I rambled for like a hell of a lot I'm sorry. And ah I get you tbh the way awakening and fates told there storys were a bit different so I get why that could happen ^_^

Everyone trust them = the whole everyone trusting and loving corrin minus a couple characters like takumi and sucking up to the player. I like half agree with this I think there were def moments it was like that (the ice village chef especially in conquest, the hoshido royals forgiving him same with norh but a little less and a couple more) but tbh with how extreme that critsims was I do think a lot of people over exaggerated it especially when 3 houses literally a million times worse with making the player the centre of the universe and that barley got any of the hate fates did

No personilty = this is my main problem honstly corrin definitely did have some personilty but it wasn't nearly as much as other characters in the game and unlike Robin who had chrom and eventually lucina there to lead extremely emotional charged scenes so they can still be self inserts without having to show to much corrin didn't have that as much especially as azura is a pretty passive in emotions character therefore she couldnt hold the scenes for corrin like chrom did for robin. So like it was more obvious that corrin didn't have as much as other characters if that makes sense especially early game when all you have is azura and Elise. one thing I do like is how much corrin crys but as a cry baby I felt that but I know a lot of the fandom didn't as well so they felt more divosed from the character there ment to project onto. Also the no killing thing I know that pissed a lot of people off

Everything handed to them = yeah I'm still conflicted to this the main thing is how easy they got yato and while I would argue yeah just getting the legendary sword handed to you because you desented to save the world isn't the best its honstly no different to how most other lords have there sword handed to them because of bloodline lol.

How everyone loves them in the end = I didn't really get this when it comes to support as like that how self inserts always work like minus when your support, soical link, friendship meter or whatever it's called in that game is with a major antagonist the self insert will end up being friends or lovers with them at the end. In the story its talking about how in those death seens the dead characters forgive corrin and I feel like that make sense for like mikoto and xander but I feel like the others would probably still be a little pissed

They don't suffer - so the argument is that no matter what rout corrin takes they dont suffer. I think that's completely untrue apart from rev. Like in conquest he loses his brothers his home country is in shambles and has a leader that never thought she would be there "I never thought it would fall to me to rule Hoshido. I always took it for granted that Ryoma would eventually be king" and hinoka even says there are people that want corrin dead so it's not like they can vist there home land casual "I advise all of you to exercise caution when visiting Hoshido." And in birthrights just having your little sister pretty much die in vain from trying to stop the fight and saving you only to still be forced to kill your big brother who pretty much used you to commit sucide! sounds really bloody rough

There are probably some more reasons that I have forgotten but tbh like the majority of the prombles corrin had byleth had 10× worse if we are being 100% honsent and for some reason the fandom doesn't care as much anymore thats why I think if they re wrote corrin as a non self insert it would work better because they wouldn't be tied down by those problems agin

#fire emblem fates #corrin

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coraniaid · 2 years ago

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Thinking about Xander's Lie again after rereading this essay. I definitely agree that the lack of narrative follow-up it gets is a problem with later seasons, not with Becoming itself.

It would have been nice to have it discussed at some point in Season 3, and there are actually several episodes where it's strange it doesn't come up. I can imagine it being central to (a radically different/better version of) Dead Man's Party for example, or perhaps being talked about in Amends (the latter episode already features Xander apologizing to Buffy for some of his earlier behaviour re:Angel, after all, and it would have only taken a couple of lines of dialogue to cover the Lie as well).

In any event, it should have been a lot more consequential than it was allowed to be. We see Buffy tell Giles and Willow that Willow's spell worked, but we never see her complain about the 'fact' that Willow didn't try to warn her it was coming. That should matter, shouldn't it? On a show that cared more about inter-season continuity, I think it would have mattered.

That said, I think the one callback to the Lie we do get in iater seasons -- in Season 7's Sefless -- is worse than 'insufficient', and I'd have been much happier if it wasn't included there at all.

Mainly because ... well, this is the entirety of the callback:

Buffy: I killed Angel […] I loved him […] and I put a sword through his heart. Because I had to. [...] Do you remember cheering me on? Both of you. Do you remember giving me Willow's message: 'kick his ass'?

Willow: I never said that--

... and that's it. The conversation moves on. We don't ever come back to this. The Lie is never exposed.

The problem I have with this is that, before Selfless, it's possible to just handwave the lack of discussion of the Lie away. Either Buffy didn't actually think about it that much (which is why she never brings it up again), or perhaps it was something that got resolved off-screen. But Sefless makes two things canon:

Buffy did remember it, and it's something she's been dwelling on for years;

Xander has never confessed to the Lie, and Buffy and Willow have never spoken about it before.

While this doesn't contradict anything we've seen on screen, it puts it into focus in a way I'm not sure works very well. Is it really credible that Buffy wouldn't have discussed something like this with her best friend, despite all the times they must have talked about Angel after he came back? Would Buffy really accept without question that Willow would simultaenously work to restore Angel's soul and encourage Buffy to just kill him and not stall for time? If we believe that, then what does that mean for their relationship? Nothing good, I think.

And the show does this for what? For a throwaway reference that none of the characters will ever talk about again. After all, at the end of this episode, Buffy still hasn't found out the truth about the Lie. So what's the point of this exchange? Just to say to the audience "hey, wow, wasn't it weird that we never brought this up before?" How is the episode Selfless improved by this?

#btvs #part of the quote I elided above has Buffy (implicitly) claim she loved Angel more than she's ever loved Dawn‚ which is also very stupid #that isn't at all relevant to my point‚ and yet...

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your-lady-star · 4 years ago

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Why I’m Complicated About Female Corrin

So I’ve had two people inquire about my Fates tier list and why I had female Corrin in the “complicated” tier, something I can imagine would be confusing since I’ve been very vocal about Corrin being one of my favorite characters in the franchise. Admittedly, this is something I’ve been meaning to speak about for a while, and now is as good a time as any. It’s high time you guys learn why I refer to Corrin strictly with male pronouns.

To put it bluntly, my main issue with female Corrin has nothing to do with the character itself, that would be really stupid and completely contradictory to how I’ve analyzed Corrin over the course of the last few years, and it has nothing to do with tertiary aspects like her design and the way she’s been used. It 100% has to do with her fans.

I may not interact with the fandom that much, mainly because doing so opens up a whole can of snakes, but it doesn’t take much research to see there is a very distinct bias towards female Corrin, regardless of the context you look at her at. She consistently ranks high on CYL polls while her male counterpart consistently ranks the lowest of the lords. She’s always the first to receive an alt, the Adrift banner being the only exception, and time between their alts is noticeably long (for context, the time between their first alts was 5 months and their fallen versions a full year!). She was chosen to be the default gender for Corrin in Warriors, the male being locked behind the completion of a submap. Most merchandise of Corrin, whether it’d be official or fan-made is of the female. And people who play Smash competitively who use Corrin very often have a female skin on her. It’s pretty clear that there is clear favoritism towards female Corrin, and, normally, this wouldn’t be a bad thing, but some fans have taken it to the extreme to the point they believe that female is the canon gender for Corrin.

Which is a statement I vehemently disagree with.

I’ve never bought into this argument that the avatar characters have canon genders, mainly because it completely goes against the point of avatar characters. If they are supposed to have a canon gender, they never would have made them customizable avatars, they would have just made them that gender. I know that most people like to act that the avatars have widely different personalities depending on the gender, but outside of a couple of quirks shown in a handful of support conversations and interactions in Heroes, both genders are still the exact same characters with the exact same personalities. Regardless of what gender you pick, Robin is still calculative and supportive, Corrin is still compassionate and eager, Byleth is still resourceful and reserved. Your gender doesn’t identify you as a person no matter how much bad shows and cartoons seem to think it does.

And this brings me right back to why I say that my issues with female Corrin are due to her fans. The people who actively advocate that female is the canon gender for Corrin and actively argue for it are either guys who want to f*ck her or girls who project onto her so they can fantasize about f*cking their Fates husbando and they do not take well to people telling them that this isn’t the case or that they like the male version better. I distinctly remember one person posting about how they praised male Corrin on a forum and were almost instantly attacked by female Corrin fans telling them that they have bad taste and calling them sexist and misogynistic, and the praise in question was them simply saying that they liked his design. Not to mention that they’re reasoning for why female is the canon gender is some of the dumbest bullsh*t I’ve ever seen. I may not remember where I read it, but I do remember one person’s reasoning for why female is the canon gender is because it made Xander’s nickname for them make more sense in the context of him being in love with her. Not only is this brazenly stretching, since they’re basically saying that older brothers can’t give their younger brothers nicknames, but it’s obvious that they’re using this to justify why their ship is canon. And there is no doubt much worse sh*t than this, but I don’t have the fortitude to look for myself.

I think this really speaks to the raving hypocrisy this fandom engages in where Corrin, despite being the most infamously hated character amongst the fanbase, has received heaps of praise and love for their female form for no reason other than people thinking she’s hot. A character who’s popular for no reason other than waifuism. It’s a shame how common this is. The recent fallen heroes banner is one of the rare occasions I can point to where people were vocally praising male Corrin and saying he did something better than his female counterpart, and this really shouldn’t be case. This is why I’m complicated about female Corrin, despite that I really shouldn’t. I don’t have this problem with the other avatars in the series, but that’s because there isn’t this much of a heavy petty bias over which gender that should be. This is why, unless it’s necessary, I refer to Corrin as “he”. Call me petty all you want, but I’m being no less petty than these weirdos.

A lot of people have been hoping that Fire Emblem gets a proper anime for their game of choice, and I am definitely one of them. I would love to see an anime adaptation for Fates but only on the condition that they use male Corrin. Not only because it would be a nice change of pace from the blatant waifu bias and it would be hilarious to watch these fans throw a sh*t fit about it, but it gives them the perfect excuse to be as gay as they want with him. Corrin was the first officially stated LGBT lord and this is the perfect means to remind the audience about that. I won’t accept any Conquest anime if we don’t see Corrin being delightfully gay with his kinky boyfriend.

#fire emblem fates #fire emblem heroes #corrin #fe corrin #m!corrin #f!corrin #I'm gonna get some interesting comments because of this aren't I?

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siren-theories · 4 years ago

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Maddie Bishop's treatment by the writers in Season 3

(tl, dr: Maddie deserved better this season) SPOILER WARNING: This post includes spoilers up to and including Episode 308 “Till Death do us part”. I apologise to the readers for - after a long hiatus - not writing another analysis post first. But I felt the way Maddie was written in Season 3 deserves its own post. So let us take a look at the the way Maddie was written in Season 3, the inconsistencies with her earlier established character traits and the possible justifications for this treatment of her by the writers.

I. Introduction

I generally do not like to post about a show which has not finished its current season. That is because a lot of developments only make sense in retrospect and only then the viewer can know why the writers decided to emphasize certain developments. As such, I am usually trying not to write episode reviews and engage in wild speculation about what will happen next episode. I much prefer writing after the end of a season.

Looking back on all the shows I have seen in my life, there are only a few that come to mind that had a great third season. The West Wing and the Wire are the prominent examples that come to mind.

(Shameless West Wing Plug. I so miss this show and its intelligent characters, especially in the current political climate).

Other shows meanwhile go completely off the rails (like Andromeda, which never recovered from its Season 3). So in general I tend to be very forgiving to shows entering their third season, not expecting much. Thus I would usually not write something like this.

But: I worry about the treatment of a character I feel very protective of, the chracter who is my favourite character in the show: Maddie Bishop.

(Vivat regina.)

Her being my favourite character might be surprising to the reader considering most of the posts on this tumblr are about Ryn (and to a lesser degree Ben), while I have written only sparingly about Maddie. But that is simply because Ryn and Ben are more interesting characters to analyze. Emotionally, they tick the "lets root for them" box for me, despite - and because of - their character flaws. Those flaws always add to the story in a fascinating and dramatic way.

But Maddie Bishop I RESPECTED right from the start. This is in no small part because I always felt drawn to her analytical, logical, scientific side. In cheesy terms, I felt a bond with her because I could easily think of me acting the same way she did in many situations. For me, she was easy to emphatize with, easy to like and very easy to root for.

But this season has been hard to swallow in some respects.

In the words of the Godfather:

(Tremble in awe of my awesome MS Paint skills)

Note that this does not apply to all of Maddie's actions. In fact, the vast majority of her actions this season are no big deal to me and fit her character. Many of the actions Maddie seems to catch a lot of flak for on other parts of the internet seem perfectly justifiable to me as they do not go against the core traits of her character.

I have no issues with many major decisions Maddie made this season, including but not limited to:

She is totally right to re-evaluate her relationship with Ben. Everybody should probably do so when their boyfriend confesses that he let somebody intentionally drown. (It also is not the first time they have broken up. One breakup per season seems to be the norm with those two, not the exception.)

Her hiding the fact of Ryn being her girlfriend to Robb was the right and logical choice. Most people do not talk about their sexuality in face-to-face situations with strangers. Let’s remember that they all agreed to hide their relationship even when having dinner with Ben's family...so why would people expect Maddie to refer to Ryn as her girlfriend to strangers?

I am also okay with her deciding to pursue a relationship with Robb. Even though I view him as a giant waste of screentime he seems like a good guy in total. (I really hope his introduction pays off in future seasons because right now it feels as if he has taken double or triple the screentime he should.)

I could go on but I feel the point has been made. What I am however definitely not okay with are the instances where Maddie acts like a complete idiot. Those show a massive failure to respect established character traits by the writers.

Because one thing Maddie Bishop is not is an idiot.

She probably is the smartest character on the whole show. And she is definitely not a hypocrite - in fact, her strong moral core is what made her that great of a character in Season 1 and 2.

Let me just highlight a few situation this season where I disliked heavily how Maddie was written.

II. Revealing the secrets of the Sirens and their existence to a total stranger ?

“Remember this big secret people are literally getting killed over? I wonder if I should talk about it to this guy I met for a few coffees...not like letting other people knowing about it has ever hurt somebody....Ian? What is an Ian?”

Over the span of a few days, Maddie does the following in Season 3:

Reveal information about the Sirens to a total stranger, even going so far as to show him secret Siren history in the cave

Bring a complete stranger into the maritime laboratory (what exactly could have been her thought process here, what did she hope to gain by this?)

Doing the above despite being repeatedly warned not to do so

I can live with Ben being an idiot and refusing to heed warnings until it almost kills him because that is who his character is - somebody who lets his emotion, empathy and character flaws get the better of him at times despite his good intentions. Him taking stem cells is thus consistent with his character and at the very least a justifiable writers decision. To a lesser degree this also applies to Ryn and her total lack of impulse control. Ben and Ryn making bad decisions it is very consistent with their characters - and yes, this even applies to making stupid decisions. (For Ryn, agreeing to work with the military in Episode 207 “Entrapment” is but one example).

But this is NOT Maddie and never was.

The Maddie from previous seasons was so very invested in keeping the secret that she hid it from her own father in Season 1. This led to the awesome scene between her, her father Dale and Ryn In episode 107: “Dead in the water”.

She hid this secret from her own mother in Season 2 (heck, she even hid her relationship with Ryn from her). She hid Ryn from her best friends, her former boyfriend and her coworker. And yet, suddenly some stranger from outside town waltzes in and within the span of a few coffee dates she goes and spills the beans to him? After being explicitly warned not to do so? Without even being in a relationship with Robb at that point and knowing next to nothing about him? If you had held a gun to my head and forced me to pick somebody who would be dumb enough to just reveal the secret of the Sirens to outsiders, Maddie Bishop never would have been my answer.

I could see Ben “Bad Judgement” Pownall and Ryn “No brakes on this train” Fisher doing so. I expect Xander and Calvin to be trash at keeping secrets because that is consistent with their past behaviour. But Maddie? No. Not Maddie. Not the girl who hid her mother’s addiction from the world as best she could. Not the woman who was okay keeping Ryn a secret from her own father. And not to a total stranger.

This is Ben-level stupidity. Actually, it is worse than that. Blabbing about the mermaids to a total stranger without being under any kind of duress is by far the most stupid thing any character has ever done in this show. It risks not only Maddie herself, but also the Sirens as a species. It is even worse than Xander telling Nicole about Helen's family burials at the end of season 2. It is irresponsible and completely outside Maddie's established character traits and her past actions. It is unbelievable.

III. Killing is different when my (animal) girlfriend does it

Besides turning her into an idiot, the writers also turned Maddie into a hypocrite in stating Ryn letting Ian drown is different than Ben doing the same. Nevermind the fact that Ryn has actively killed people (and probably will continue doing so).

(Why is it different when two people react exactly the same?Because.....reasons. The best reasons. People tell me they are the best reasons. My uncle went to MIT and invented these reasons. Big brain time.)

So the writers had Maddie claim it is different when Ryn does exactly the same thing as Ben. It also is okay for Ryn to kill somebody who was no real threat to Ryn (or Maddie with Ryn being there). Remember when Ryn killed the drug dealer in Episode 205? Ryn was toying with the guy throughout the whole fight and clearly enjoyed killing him in a brutal manner. She even grins during the fight once she realizes the guy has no chance against her.

And yet, Maddie was okay with this. But it is not okay for Ben to let somebody drown who was a) a homocidal maniac who used his car as a deadly weapon, having attempted to run Ben over twice previously b) somebody who could not be trusted c) who had just kidnapped a drugged-up Ryn.

I cannot remember when I ever groaned in frustration at anything Maddie had done or said throughout the course of the show. This must have been the first time and it is especially jarring in response to the following scene in 206:

(Ryn does not. The writers might.) As I said above, I am more than okay with Maddie evaluating her relationship with Ben, what I am not okay with is her immediate declaration that Ryn killing people is different...because she is Ryn? And I hate how it has one particularly ugly implication - that to Maddie, Ryn killing people is just what she does. The conclusion to be drawn from that is that Ryn is indeed a predator/animal first to Maddie than a human being.

And this is obviously inconsistent with Maddie's earlier actions.

First, she did not mind somebody eliminating threats before. She was okay with potentially having to hurt people in order to defeat the sonic cannon in Season 2. She was “willing to fight” to protect Ryn and her species. And several times Maddie carried loaded guns and was ready to use them herself in the series.

She also always believed in Ryn's humanity. I am sure the many scenes between Ryn and Maddie in Season 1 and 2 are fresh in everyone's mind. Suffice to say that Maddie has always believed in the humanity of Ryn, starting with the car scene between the two in Episode 102 or the trust scene in Episode 103, which I have linked below.

youtube

(and where did this dynamic go btw?) Which ties in neatly with my next point:

IV. The Marginalization of Maddie regarding Ryn and Ben

Let me start by saying that breaking up the trio to focus on Ben/Ryn (and probably continuing to focus on those two) is not something I want to critize from a storytelling perspective. Final judgement on the storytelling will be reserved until the end of the series. As this issue is inextricably linked with “shipping” preferences, I think at this point I have to explain where I stand on the issue. I would prefer Polymarine as I think it really fits the characters best...but I can live with Ben/Ryn. This is in no small part due to Eline Powell and Alex Roe doing some of their greatest work on this show playing off each other. See for example how in Episode 306 they improvised with her hair sticking to his body after a hug and turned that into a tender gesture...great impromptu acting without breaking character. If the writers want to explore this (or any other) relationship further I can respect that decision from a storytelling perspective because I think the payoff will be satisfying to me as a viewer. Even though I feel it would have been better to explore Ben/Ryn in the context of Polymarine I begrudgingly accept the right of the writers to tell the story the way they want to.

And If nothing else it leads to stunning visuals - image credit to @crayonboxhearts, more gifs from this scene at the link.

But I dislike the way in which the writers set it up and executed it this season because (as outlined above) it sacrificed some of Maddie’s core character tenets and had her acting out of character.

Having the trio become a duo on its own in an organic way without the above would have been preferable IMO. There were enough angles the writers could have chosen to facilitate that in a believable manner. They could have focused on the connection Ryn has with Ben, they could have had family reasons...et cetera pp. And they also could have used some of the issues Maddie has in her own past to justify a breakup. All of this would have been (IMO) preferable to what we got.

What we got was something that felt as if it was written to check some boxes to set up the future plotlines and in doing so marginalized Maddie with regards to her importance to Ryn, Ben and the overall story.

Granted, the show tried to show Maddie and Ryn's feelings for each other and they spent some time showing Ben moping after her - but in light of the significant strides made in the Ben/Ryn dynamic these scenes feel more than a bit hollow.

And anybody who has watched episodes 308 could just see the role of Maddie as it relates to interacting with Ryn and Ben getting smaller by the minute. Ryn and Ben now have their own little circle, one which only seems to include Maddie on the periphery. Nowhevere was this stronger on display than in Episode 308, with Ben and Ryn making lifelong promises to each other.

Ryn: “I will live on Land. With you.” Ben: “On land. You mean, stay human?” Ryn: “Yes. Here. Together. Human.” Ben: “What about Hope?” Ryn: “She can be with us. As a family.” Ben: “I can’t ask you to do that.” Ryn: “It is my choice. When it is time, I will be human with you.”

Notice how Maddie was not even mentioned once during that conversation? And yes maybe it would have been a bit weird to include her in the dialogue . However this is not an isolated incident. Later on Maddie is not even in the same frame when Ryn and Ben actually exchange a wedding ring and make a “til death do us part” promise. Let me repreat this: They are exchanging wedding vows and Maddie is not even in the frame.

(Yes, technically not wedding vows, but only due to the circumstances surrounding them - the sentiment and meaning was there. FFS, she is even wearing white).

And sometimes it is something as simple as Ryn in 308 kissing Maddie on the cheeks and Ben straight on the lips.

There could not have been a more clearer message than the contrast here. And this was clearly intentional on part of the director considering these frames followed each other immediately.

And then of course we get the followup scene on the docks where Ben is literally standing in the middle between Maddie and Ryn, before turning and following Ryn, both leaving Maddie behind. Observe the contrast between that scene and the pier scene in Episode 203.

203:

308:

(Ngl,seeing her standing alone there in the dark hurt) And some of that can be viewed as a logical development of Maddie no longer being in a relationship with Ben (and whatever kind of relationship Maddie has with Ryn, it is clear that Ryn is not staying at Maddie’s place at all). Siren has always been about the relationship of the main characters within the tight-knit circle and it is clear that at this point in the story Maddie is not part of the inner circle anymore.

V: Maddie’s role in the story

And if Maddie would be doing something else, something central to the story of Bristol Cove, something that would valiate her character and make her essential to the plot in other ways, it might be enough for me or at least end up softening the blow. But is that the case?

The side characters that have the closest connection with her (Dale and her mother Susan) have not even appeared once this season. And we had Xander replace her in her role as the gun-carrying backup which Ben calls first when stuff goes down in episode 306. So far there has not been a critical “Maddie moment” this season that was absolutely essential to the plot. She figured out the reason why the pool was not working in Episode 307 but it was Ben who came up with an actual solution to the problem.

(A caveat: Ben usually is the one who figures out solutions in the show (cf 208) so I might just be overreacting here.) But what exactly is left of the crucial role that Maddie had at the start of this season? Is she still as important as the other two main characters with regards to story development? I really hope the Finale will make me look like a fool for even asking that question. But I hate having arrived at a point where it even is a question once can ask legitimately.

VI: Previous acts of plot

This is not the first time the writers have decided to ignore established character traits in order to tell a certain story. I have written before how it made no sense for certain storylines of Season 2 to play out the way they did in Episode 214 and 215 - except in the context of them serving the overarching plot.

Specifically, Ryn not knowing Ben's last name despite living together for weeks and months and suddenly going haywire after hearing it made little sense. And yet it was clear why it had to happen - because the writers wanted to tell a specific story. (A longer argument for what happpened and why can be found in the middle of this post if you do not want to take my word for it.) They wanted to do so because it led to great payoffs for the viewer:

1) We had an awesome discussion between Maddie and Ryn in Episode 214

(Remember how emotionally intelligent Maddie was in that situation? Where did scenes like that go?)

2.) It led to several great scenes between Ben and Ryn and also provided further justification for Ben’s choices in 216.

In retrospect, the plot contrivances of 214 were done by writer's fiat to setup a scenario that would test the relationship of the trio. This created more drama and paved the way for a satisfying payoff at the end of Episode 215/216. In doing so, the writers allowed character inconsistencies and plot contrivances to steer the story towards a predetermined outcome, to the detriment of character logic and past character developments.

And we can see a similar trend developing here. The end goal of the writers seems to have been the rock scene between Ben and Ryn at the end of Episode 308.

And if you assume this to be the end goal in the current plot development...if the goal was to focus on Ben and Ryn...then there needs to be a breakup. Because huge parts of the storyline (stemcells, them going swimming, them making promises to each other etc.) do not work with Maddie in the picture.

But was it necessary to sacrifice parts of her character and have her acting in a manner inconsistent with her established traits in order to do so? (Maybe they had to rush it because of lack of episode time, but then why waste so much time on Robb and Helen’s ghost stories?).

And there is another problem: The success of this plot development will heavily depend on whether it will fit the personal preferences of the viewership. As I said above, while I would have preferred Polymarine I can live with and enjoy Ben/Ryn or Maddie/Robb.

But for die-hard polymarine and Maddie/Ryn shippers, I feel the results might be somewhat different. And this is only made worse by Maddie being unfairly treated by the writers in order to facilitate the overall plot development. I suspect many Maddie fans (regardless of their shipping preference) will have been disheartened about how the writers made Maddie behave this season.

I know I was.

VII: The parallels between Episodes 108 and 308 - and why they worry me

And there is another meta-reason why I am deeply worried about Maddie and her role going forward. And this has to do with the way in which Siren’s previous ten-episode season has been set up. In Season 1, it was Episode 108 that cemented the character development happening in that season. Episodes 109 and 110 served to defeat the big bad of the season and to introduce temporary setbacks that had to be solved at the start of the following season before the characters returned to the dynamics establied in 108.

In short, while Episodes 9 and 10 were exciting, Episode 8 of Season 1 is the pivotal episode of the season. Ryn’s desire to learn and to stay on land, her first steps into human society...all those happened in that episode. There are also strong parallels in the way 108 and 308 treated Ryn’s relationship with Ben, even ending their screentime in the episode with a impactful scene between the two (”Will you sing to me” / “Til death do us part”). Other parallels include both episodes featuring an important event in a human’s life (a wake/a marriage), both episodes involving the whole Bristol Cove community etc.

And like 108, 308 was (IMO) a near-perfect episode in terms of performances, pivotal scenes and dialogue. Just by the sheer number of extras, costumes etc. involved the writers clearly wanted it to be important. And it was important. It greatly drove forward the plot and I personally rate it as one of my favourite episodes of the show on its own for that reason.

But there is one major difference that seperates 108 and 308: Maddie was very much still in the picture (literally) and a plot-driving force in her own right.

And this worries me.

I expect the final two episodes will be about defeating the big bad of the season, as it was with Season 1. Maybe the season will even end the same way as Season 1 - with Ryn being on her own for a bit. Maybe she even goes back to the water for a longer time (or is forced to do so due to circumstances). But I also expect character development in season 4 to largely use 308 as its base.

And now you can see why I am getting concerned here about Maddie’s diminished role. I really hope the writers have not forgotten what a wonderful character they created in her and find better ways to use her in season 4.

There are plenty of options within Siren to give her meaningful screentime again (her spending more time with Xander and Calvin for example would also give more screentime to those two, which I would love to see). But whatever the writers chose to do in the future, I really hope that it does not involve Maddie acting out of character again.

Conclusion:

The way the writers wrote Maddie in Season 3 is not something that I agree with, nor does her diminished role in the central dynamics of the story sit well with me. Did it completely ruin the show for me? No. The mysteries of the sirens, the Pownell family saga, the question of whether Ryn has to permanently return to the sea, her child and the whole Ryn/Ben dynamic kept me entertained - and will do so in the future.

But Maddie being this off-base and not being in the main picture definitely does diminish the show for me - and I think I am not alone in this. When I look at the failed opportunities for her character it saddens me in a major way. Even though Season 3 is still an enjoyable and entertaining season for me, it could have been much more.

#siren #siren freeform #maddie bishop #maddie #ryn #polymarine #character analysis

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comradesummers · 4 years ago

Note

Faith vs Kendra Anya or Oz Buffy + Tara

Hi, thanks for asking. Sorry for taking so long to answer, insert obligatory excuse about college kicking my ass.

Faith vs. Kendra

So this one’s really hard, and my answer got way too long and pretentious, but I hope you’ll bear with me.

In order to understand Kendra’s fighting style, I think it’s important to talk a little about the fight she has with Buffy in What’s My Line (Part 2). That episode illustrates the differences in Buffy and Kendra’s fighting style when Buffy does “the chick fight thing” and Kendra doesn’t know what she’s talking about. Basically, this move is sort of a physical demonstration of their differences. Kendra is the traditionalist, therefore she is highly skilled in technique but less good at improvising and thinking outside the box. Buffy, meanwhile, is less traditional and less technically skilled, but she’s better at improvising and using her emotions to her benefit. These ideas are shown in the initial fight between Buffy and Kendra, and then verbalized by Buffy later in the episode.

Faith is on the other end of the spectrum. She has little to no formal training (she’s called after Kendra’s death in Becoming; in the few months between that episode and her arrival in Faith, Hope & Trick, her watcher is murdered; neither Giles nor Wesley put much effort into her training in season 3; and then she goes to prison for like 3 seasons). However, she’s clearly a skilled fighter, as evidenced by the fact that she can hold her own against a slayer as experienced as Buffy. Though it is never stated outright, it is reasonable to assume that her strengths lie in her ability to improvise and her emotionally driven fighting style. Basically, she’s a person who will use every tool in her arsenal to win, even if that means, for instance, throwing herself off a building so that her opponent doesn’t get what she wants.

By presenting Faith and Kendra as two extremes of this ideological debate, and then also showing that neither one of them is as successful at slayerdom as Buffy is, the show implies that Buffy’s balanced approach to fighting (and to like life in general) is the best. However, the nature of tradition is complicated by the later seasons. For one thing, the Watcher’s Council—the representatives of the traditional approach that Kendra follows—get blown the fuck up before they can do anything useful. This strongly suggests that the Council, and by externsion their tradition, is irrelevant. This idea is further underlined by Buffy’s ultimate decision to reject the Council’s tradition wholesale, and to create a new, Slayer-based tradition. It’s also reflected in her fighting style in the later seasons. Starting in season 5, Buffy begins to explore her slayerness in the context of the slayer line, and her training with Giles builds on that. It could be suggested that the tradition she is drawing upon in these seasons is that of the Slayers that came before her, not the watchers who tried to control them. This also serves as an in-universe explanation for why the fighting style from season 5 onwards looks so different (and so much worse) than what came before it. (Yes, I know there were new stunt doubles, but it works with my convoluted argument, so I’m going to pretend there’s some deeper meaning behind it.)

Anyway, my point in all of this is that while earlier seasons present the thesis that one should find a middle ground between tradition and innovation, later seasons suggest that embracing oppressive traditions is harmful. So while we should still draw upon tradition, we should always be critical of the kinds of traditions we draw upon. And Kendra, having been raised by watchers, relies solely on harmful and oppressive traditions, and is therefore at a serious disadvantage. Faith, meanwhile, isn’t hampered by the Council’s bullshit. While she doesn’t draw power from slayer-line mysticism like Buffy does, she still has the advantage of freedom from the Council and would therefore win in a fight.

However, this is a solely thematic view of things, and maybe proves less who would win in a fight and more who would win in like a philosophical debate. Also, Kendra was killed off before she could be developed further (insert my usual Kendra deserved better comment here). Of the three, she was the most victimized by the Council (because of course those colonizers would fuck over the black girl most of all). If she had been developed, and been allowed to process the fact that a bunch white people stole her from her parents and brainwashed her for the purposes of their personal gain, and that this didn’t happen to any of her white counterparts, I think she could have had a much greater understanding of the insidious nature of the Council than either Buffy of Faith. I also think that her interest in the slayer tradition would have surpassed Buffy’s. She is, after all, the traditionalist of the three, so I think she would be the most interested in finding a way to connect to the traditions of the past while separating that past from the oppression of the Council.

In other words, a Kendra that had been allowed to live past season 2 is quite possibly the most powerful slayer. But if we’re accepting the canonical versions of these characters (and not the headcanon that I just pulled out of my ass) I guess Faith would be the winner.

Anya or Oz

Oz is a great character and I totally get why people like him but Anya is more in line with my personal preferences when it comes to characters who are intially introduced as love interests, which are as follows:

Hot lady (I’m shallow, sue me)

Very funny (Oz is funny but Anya is the funniest character on the show and no one can convince me otherwise)

Is more than just a love interest

Now I feel like people might object to no. 3 in Anya’s case, because there’s no denying that Anya is criminally underdeveloped and is often relegated to the unfortunate position of Xander’s girlfriend. However, Anya has a Selfless and she has that scene in The Body, and she has clearly defined relationships with the other Scoobies (best demonstrated in episodes like Triangle). Oz doesn’t really have any of that. Like, he and Willow break up for like half a second in season 3, and in that time he’s just not on screen. That’s how irrelevant he is to anyone and anything outside of Willow. Also, the werewolf suit looks dumb, which I have to assume is why the writers did almost nothing with him being a werewolf until they had to write him out.

The point is, while both of these characters deserved more development, Anya still got more of it so I like her better. Also she’s a pretty girl, so I was probably going to choose her regardless (I may be shallow, but at least I’m honest about it).

Buffy + Tara

I am the no. 1 Buffy/Tara shipper because I like it when nice people are nice to each other. And yes, I recognize that these are two flawed, complicated characters, but I think that together, they have the potential to be one of the healthiest couples in the Buffyverse. This is mainly because their interactions with each other are always supportive and free of judgement. Buffy defends Tara against her dad and welcomes her into her family even after Tara puts everyone at risk. Meanwhile, Tara is pretty much the only character (except for Dawn, maybe) to immediately react with empathy and understanding to the revelation that Buffy is sleeping with Spike. I’m not saying that either one of these characters is always understanding and non-judgemental (okay, maybe Tara is, but Buffy definitely isn’t), but they’ve proven that with each other, they’re very good at communicating and empathizing, and just being what the other person needs, and I think that’s very sexy of them.

Also, they’d be really hot together, so I’m here for it.

#kendra young #faith lehane #anya jenkins #oz #buffy summers #tara maclay #btvs #buffy the vampire slayer #wow this turned out so long and convoluted

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foreveralwaysanauthor · 4 years ago

Text

The Gallant One

September 29, 2020

Prompt - Write a part of your story that could’ve been different if it was told by someone else.

Characters - Miles, Butchy, Mick, Lela

Notes - This is the pain in the butt that got deleted. I couldn’t remember all of it, so it definitely isn’t as long as I know it had been, but I really tried to get it all in here. The ending is very different from the first one I had done, but I think it wraps up nicely.

It all happened so fast. The race was going fine up until that moment. Mick had been able to convince Butch to race Xander; how she did that with no recollection of their relationship, nobody really knew, but we didn’t fight them about it, anyway. They were racing down one of the only strips of road in town that the police allowed everyone to use for races. Butchy had taken the lead from Xander and it seemed like that would be how the race ended. I guess we were wrong.

We all watched in horror when Xander hit the tail of Butchy’s motorcycle just hard enough to throw him off and lose control of his bike. I don’t really remember what happened after that, but the one thing I do remember was Mick screaming next to me. She had all but collapsed on the ground. How did anyone expect her not to? Butchy was the love of her life. I know I drove her down to him, but my memory of that night between the accident and us getting to the hospital is pretty spotty.

It wasn’t until we were watching the ambulance leave with Butchy that she told me, with hot tears running streaks down her face, that her memories had returned in full. I didn’t know what to tell her.

I had stayed with Mick in the waiting room. Lela had come in to wait with us after a while as she couldn’t drive herself with all those tears and, one by one, everyone else joined us in the waiting room, even the beach bum surfers. Lela had looked numb, almost unfeeling, but who was I to judge her? I was in the same state. Lela had sat on my right side as I’d had Mick on my left, curling herself into a ball on the chair and resting her head on my shoulder. She had already lost her mom and her dad was in jail, who would take care of her if Butchy... if he died.

The thought of that being a possibility had made my head spin. I had been the cause of all of this. I had seen Mick stumbling down the beach and called out to her, she lost her balance and fell, hitting her head hard enough to lose her memories. If I hadn’t tried getting her attention that night, she never would’ve lost her memories, Butchy and I wouldn’t have argued, she never would’ve told him to race, and he wouldn’t be in the condition he was in. It all came back to me. If he were to die, it would be because of me.

I couldn’t handle even the thought of that.

Ever since coming here, I’d known Butchy. He had always been the one I looked up to. He was a great big brother to Lela, a good friend to everyone he came in contact with, and the best kind of person to be around. He taught me how to ride motorcycles and was very patient with me while I adjusted to living in St. Pete. He took me into his home and treated me like a brother. He cared deeply for everyone that came into his life, regardless of who or what they were. He was everything I aspired to be in life... He couldn’t die. Not now and certainly not like this.

We were able to see him after his surgery. Lela was the only one allowed in at first as she was his next of kin. Lela was ready to fight the hospital staff after they told us that Mick didn’t count as “next-of-kin” since they weren’t married yet, but she kept herself in check better than I anticipated. She insisted that the rest of us had to be allowed in as we were family too, but the hospital staff claimed there was a three person limit for cases like Butchy’s, so she took both Mick and myself in. It was better than waiting in the waiting room for answers.

Lela had learned to keep her emotions in check for things like this, something I think we both had gotten from Butchy over the years. For all the time I’d known her, Mick had never been that kind of person. She always kept her emotions on display for everyone to see; a voice in the back of my head laughed faintly, maybe that was the reason Mick was so bad at poker.

Mick and Lela had sat next to him, holding his hands and staring at him in the faint hope that he’d open his eyes and talk to them as though nothing had happened. The kicked puppy look they both wore was almost too much for me. Both of them were my little sisters, I had pretty much adopted them into my family as they had with me. I hated seeing them like that. I hated being in the hospital too, but at the same time, I knew I couldn’t leave.

I had to be there.

After a while, the hospital tried to kick us out with the excuse that Butchy was stable and visiting hours were going to be over in ten minutes. Mick and Lela said their goodnights to Butchy before helping each other out of the room. I stayed behind, waiting until they had left the room before taking up the spot next to Butchy’s bed. He didn’t look like himself. He looked trapped under all of the wires, cords, and tubes that were working on keeping him alive.

I took a look at him - the first good sight of him I’d had since the accident - and almost wished I hadn’t. His face was only mildly scraped as his helmet had prevented his face from hitting the ground, but a line of stitches marked from his jaw to his left cheekbone. His shoulder looked almost dented in from where he’d hit the tree after being thrown from his bike, but with all of the bandages I couldn’t be sure if it was as bad as I thought it was. His leg was in a cast and a childlike part of me wanted desperately to sign it as nobody else had yet, but I held back in favor of sitting on the edge of the bed next to him. He looked broken, something I never wanted to see.

After sitting for a moment and just watching him, I took up his hand the way Lela and Mick had, but all it did was make me feel worse. The last time we’d interacted, I’d told him off for ignoring Mick. Is that how he’d remember me? I hoped not. He was like the older brother I always wished I’d had; I wanted nothing more than to make him proud. To see him lying there, motionless and dead to the world, made my chest tighten.

I sat there for a few minutes, glancing back and forth between Butchy and the monitors that showed his vitals. It was never this quiet with Butchy around. I didn’t like it one bit. I don’t remember what exactly I said to him, but I know I started talking until my throat hurt, apologizing for what I said before, even though I knew, deep down, that he’d already forgiven me. He always did. Even when I ran over his foot the first time I rode a motorcycle or when I got into a fight and he had to drag me back home and clean me up or even the time when I stole his bike in the middle of the night to try bringing my brothers to live with us and ended up totaling it. He always forgave and forgot, it was just the way he lived.

“Butch,” I began quietly, my throat still ached after rambling on and on to his motionless body. “Please don’t go. You can’t leave us yet, man, you still have so much to live for.”

I received no response from Butchy. What exactly did I expect?

“I’m sorry for what I said,” I continued. I could feel my throat getting tighter as I went, but I didn’t care. “You know I’ll never forgive myself even if you do. I know this whole thing never would’ve happened if I’d kept my mouth shut.”

I tightened my hold on his hand, shifting my grasp so it was like when we used to arm wrestle. “Fight this, big guy. I’ll do whatever it takes to help Lela and Mickie through this, but I think you and I both know that I’m not going to be in the best mindset either.”

Slowly, but surely, I pushed myself off the edge of the bed and set his hand down on the hospital mattress, still holding on, just in case. In case of what, I wasn’t sure, but I knew I didn’t want to let go just yet. The nurse popped her head in briefly, telling me I had five minutes left before I would have to leave. I just nodded at her and turned back to Butchy.

“I have to go, Butch.” I cleared my throat, feeling a sting of pain as I did. “I’ll take care of the girls, okay? Just like you do. Please come back to us, we all need you. The Rodents, Lela, Mick, and, heck, even the surfers, they all need you to come back. I need you to come back. You still have so much to teach me, so you can’t leave us just yet, alright?”

As much as I didn’t want to admit it, I couldn’t ignore the burning in my eyes and the tears falling from them any longer. “Gosh, I sound like a baby, don’t I?” I sighed with a chuckle. I used the sleeve of my shirt to wipe my face before returning my gaze to Butchy. I nearly jumped back as my eyes met his. “Butch?” I asked quietly.

He blinked in return. “You hear me?” Another blink. He managed a small smirk under the oxygen mask, so I smiled in return. “Don’t do that to me, man! Any more surprises like that and I’ll end up in the hospital bed next to you!”

Butchy lightly squeezed my hand, but it was enough for me. The laugh I let out was watery and I could feel the pressure in my throat return as more tears fell, but I couldn’t care less. Nobody else was here to see me, after all. All that mattered was that he was there and he didn’t seem like he was giving up on us any time soon.

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He seemed to be doing better, the first couple of days. We’d all been taking turns doing watch duty, keeping an eye on Butchy all hours of the day, to the point where the hospital staff didn’t even try to kick us out at night. I guess you could say we were persistent, but I think one or two of the guys threatened the staff with whatever knives or other weapons they had on them. I had taken up the evening shifts so that Lela and Mick wouldn’t try to, but it was a battle I knew I’d lose eventually.

Two days after the accident - the third day of Butchy being in the hospital - Mick had to go back to her home as, if she didn’t she would’ve gotten stuck here permanently. I almost regret telling her to take a day to sleep. She hadn’t gotten any sleep at all the day after the accident - neither had I, to be frank, but I knew she needed it more than I did. Maybe it would’ve been better if she had stayed. Maybe Butchy would’ve been better if she’d stayed. I think Butchy would’ve preferred her company over mine - she was his fiancée after all - but when I brought took out the book I’d been reading and read it aloud to him, he seemed to enjoy having me there.

Mick hadn’t returned by lunchtime on the fourth day. I assumed her delay was due to her parents, but she later told me that she had passed out after arriving at her home that evening and hadn’t woken up until late afternoon on the fourth day. The fourth day was the most memorable to me. I was on watch duty that day as most of the crew was either in school or at work, but it was my day off. I told everyone that I’d be there all day and still do my night shift, so I knew nobody would be coming apart from maybe Lela after school got out.

I had, once again, brought my book from home that day, an old copy of Gone With the Wind that I’d gotten when I first got to town, deciding that I would read it to Butchy yet again. The doctors said that my talking to him and reading to him would help with his mental state, so I continued with it every day. Butchy always seemed more interested in the book the more I read, but we were usually interrupted when the nurses came in to change the dressings on his shoulder and back. That day, however, they told me to keep going to distract Butchy from any pain he might’ve been in, but with whatever pain medications they had put him on before coming in to change his dressings, he looked higher than a kite.

“’The suspicions which tore at him were too terrible to be put into words,’” I started reading. Butchy closed his eyes tightly as the nurses prodded at him.

That reading of Gone With the Wind only lasted for a minute while they worked on cleaning Butchy up before one of them said it looked like the wounds were infected. I stopped reading and asked what they meant by that and all they would tell me was that it wasn’t good. My eyes just had to roll at that because, even though I was definitely not a medical professional, even I could tell that an infection of any kind wasn’t good. They had told me to continue reading while they retrieved a doctor, so I went back to Butchy’s side and continued with the reading.

Not long after, I got to one sentence that made me stop altogether. It was exactly how I felt about the whole situation we were in right now. I had caused this whole thing, after all. If I hadn’t spoken out to Mick that night, she wouldn’t have lost her memory, she never would’ve told Butchy to race Xander and, in turn, the race never would’ve happened. Butchy would never have ended up here if I’d kept my mouth shut. I was snapped from my thoughts as Butchy made a small noise. I looked to him, catching his eyes almost instinctively. He was staring at me and I could see the concern in his eyes. I guess I’d been quiet for too long.

I cleared my throat and continued reading, “"I have caused all this," he thought despairingly. "I have driven her to this."”

Before I even got to finish that chapter - I only had two paragraphs left - they had come back into the room and wheeled him away to be poked and prodded by more doctors.

I wasn’t entirely sure what to do after that. I tucked a bookmark into the book, determined not to get any further than where I had read to Butchy. I wasn’t going to leave the hospital, I wasn’t hungry at all, so the cafeteria was out of the question as well, and I wasn’t in the mood to sit in the window and watch people drive by. Deciding to let Lela know what was going on, I pulled a quarter from my pocket and tucked the book into the closet where Butchy’s belongings were for safe keeping. I went down to the payphone by the bathroom that I walked by every day and called Lela’s school, asking that they get ahold of her so that she would know what was going on. She told me she would be over after school and I let her know that I’d call again if anything happened.

I returned to Butchy’s hospital room, pulling the book from the closet and perching myself on the windowsill. I waited for an hour before anybody came in the room to talk with me. It was Butchy’s uncle and primary doctor, Antonio; I’d met him quite a few times while living with Butchy and Lela and, over time, he became like family to me just as much as he was to Butchy and Lela. There was a chance that, if the infection spread, it could affect Butchy’s spine and possibly paralyze him. Antonio told me that they had given Butchy a dose of antibiotics and had gotten what they could out of the infection already, so the risk was low, but it was still there nonetheless.

Butchy had always been a strong son-of-a-gun. He’d probably never agree with me on that, but that was fine by me. He was like those gentlemen in the book we were reading; courageous, courteous, and overall gallant.

After a while, Butchy was wheeled back into the room on the same bed he had left on and I went back to the chair I’d sat in before they took him away. Upon meeting his gaze, I took note of the fact that he still looked doped out on whatever they’d put him on, but not nearly as much as he had been. There was a small sense of understanding mixed with pain in his eyes and, although I was upset he was hurting, I was glad he at least knew what was going on around him. After everyone else left the room, I stood so I could meet Butchy’s eyes once again.

“Hey there, brother,” I said with a small smile. “You okay?” Butchy blinked at me a few times before moving his head side-to-side slowly. That was new. “Did you hear them talking about what’s wrong?” One blink, yes. “Is that what’s bothering you?” Two blinks, no. “Are you hurting?” One blink. “Is that it?” Two blinks. “Worrying about Mickie again, are you?” One blink, of course it was.

“I told you already, big guy, she’s home with her parents.” I sighed and sat next to his bandaged arm. “She probably slept in, knowing her. Poor girl barely got any sleep at all after the accident and, when she did, it was mostly nightmares.”

Mick had tried staying with me during the overnight visits I’d done. She’d forced herself to stay awake as much as possible, but ended up sleeping on the windowsill with one of the hospital blankets and my leather jacket on her. She ended up waking up after nearly an hour with silent tears streaming down her face. After calming her down, I had made her sit in my chair instead, letting her hold Butchy’s hand while I read Gone With the Wind to both her and Butchy. Both of them fell asleep not long after, leaving me awake with nobody to talk to. It was nice to see them so relaxed around each other, but Mick was absolutely exhausted the next day. That was the day I insisted she go and rest at her family’s home.

“Mickie is strong, Butch. I don’t think we need to worry about her at all,” I claimed, pushing my hair out of my face. “I’m sure that, when she gets back, she’ll tell us all about her time with her family.”

Butchy relaxed into the mattress, giving me a small, slow nod. I gave his hand a light pat before moving into the chair I’d been sitting in. He slowly shifted his head to see where I was, giving me a smile. I adjusted myself until I was sitting crisscross on the chair, holding up the book so Butchy could see. “Want me to keep going?”

A nod and a smile.

I opened the book to the page we’d left off on, watching as Butchy closed his eyes to listen. He always did that, it seemed. He preferred to listen and use his mind to picture what was happening in the story. I didn’t mind. I preferred it when nobody watched me read, so it all worked out in the end. I started reading the last two paragraphs of the chapter we were on as that was where we had left off before he had been taken away by nurses. As I began reading, I realized that it touched on just how I was thinking earlier. Thinking about Butchy and how strong and brave he really was.

“But, for four years,” I began, “he had seen others who had refused to recognize defeat, men who rode gaily into sure disaster because they were gallant.”

#ForeverAlwaysPrompts #writing #writing prompt

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someobscurereference · 5 years ago

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Graceless Heart Fic (Spoiler) Notes

These are notes for my 80K Fire Emblem fic “Graceless Heart.” These notes are full of SPOILERS! Please read the fic first! Beware at your own risk!

The notes will be under a Read More. Mobile users, if it doesn’t work for you, I’m so sorry.

SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS BELOW:

GENERAL NOTES:

Sumeragi was at work while Corrin was saying goodbye to the Hoshido family. He already said goodbye to Corrin that morning. That’s why he doesn’t appear here.

Xander texting Inigo back a heart emoji: I don’t see Xander as an emoji person, but I think Inigo is definitely the type to use a lot of hearts and whatnot when texting. Xander would not do that on his own, but if you look at his phone, you’ll see his most used (and only) emojis are the heart ones that Inigo sends him. Because Xander is willing to mimic how Inigo shows his affection for the sake of mutual reciprocation. Plus he got made fun of for being so stiff and formal when he writes.

Dock Fight with the Trio: Owain is genuinely embarrassed and Inigo really is going to tease him with those memes, but they’re all friends. This is not a serious fight. Severa and Inigo are not being deliberate assholes here. They’re all having fun.

The book Leo is reading when Owain asks is The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker.

Everyone’s swimsuits are based on what they wear in FE Heroes as summer units or their outfits in the Beach Brawl DLC, minus Corrin, who wears a swim t-shirt on top of whatever bathing suit you imagine for them.

In a real situation where someone is drowning, you should probably not grab them the way Corrin grabs Inigo. A drowning person is very likely to harm or hinder their rescuer due to panic. I just wrote that scene a little less realistically in the fic because I didn’t want to deal with that and, like I say in the notes, I’m functioning on action movie logic. Action movies aren’t realistic.

When Corrin tells Inigo that they’ll keep his almost drowning a secret so long as he lets them know if he has health problems later and Elise tells Inigo to let them know if he has bad dreams, what Elise is actually saying is “Hey, if you start to get PTSD over this, let us know so we can help you.” But she doesn’t want to be so blunt, making this be the type of thing Inigo keeps to himself and suffers through alone, so she says “bad dreams” instead to phrase it with less stigma.

You’ll notice after Inigo’s near drowning that I mention how exhausted he feels when he’s having a freakout on the floor of his cabin, how tired he is the next morning before, during, and after the shopping trip, how he leans heavily on stuff and people, etc. His fatigue can be explained by stress and other normal things. However, it is also a result of the lake water being genuinely bad for people! Most people who go to the lake naturally get this vibe and don’t swim too far out into it/tend to visit the lake in groups or pairs so the chances of drowning decrease. (I almost wrote some of this into Anankos’s dialogue but it felt wonky and didn’t fit.). Corrin also feels this same exhaustion in subsequent scenes, although it’s emphasized less.

Likewise, when Owain and Corrin are stranded in the middle of the water, they also grow quite exhausted rather quickly because (a) the closer to the center of the lake, the more powerful the Bad Vibes that drain your energy and (b) there’s so much rain and water everywhere that as they swallow, they’re also growing more and more tired. Also, fear takes a lot out of a person in general.

Similarly, when Corrin’s foot gets grabbed on the docks, I mention a few times that their legs feel heavy, etc. This is all related to Evil Lake Energy. Severa’s almost drowning is the same deal as Inigo. Everyone who gets in the water (especially if they swallow any) experience this same lack of energy. It’s worse if you actually swallow some water right out there in the middle of the lake and you’re just more susceptible to that kind of bad magic like Anankos unfortunately was. Corrin has been through the wringer at the end of this fic because of constant exposure. They’re on nothing but bedrest for a good number of days after the end of this fic. Lots and lots of sleep for them. Owain is only mildly better in that he doesn’t have to be admitted to the hospital but does need A Lot of sleep. Rest assured that they do eventually recover though.

Elise “lying to Xander and Camilla about stuff all the time” — A reference to in-game canon about how Elise regularly ditches her retainers and goes around to the poorer parts of the city where she is explicitly forbidden to go. She’s surprisingly sneaky and has no problems not telling her siblings about this.

I paraphrased some dialogue from in-game between Leo, Niles and Owain when the latter are trying to convince Leo to swim because it mimicked a Beach Brawl DLC scene.

“Pot, kettle” = a reference to Niles canonically reminiscing about the past in his and Leo’s support. He likely does that in this AU on occasion as well.

Camilla’s SUV has 3 rows of seats because she loves the extra room for bags/extra passenger space.

Some of Camilla and Xander’s interactions and some of Xander’s narration referencing her is also a direct reference to their Supports in Fates also. In this fic, Camilla’s jab at being surprised Xander would ever notice how she felt about Severa because he’s always so busy is more a jab to get him to back off than a pride thing like in canon, but the pride is probably still there too.

Severa lives! She lived because I wanted her too (and because I cannot stand any character death in fics that isn’t like “The Villain Died Forever Ago And Maybe There’s Danger But Everyone Else Is Fine”), but it is a sort of miracle. Camilla did not do proper drowning rescue procedure here. Nobody did. I’m sure you picked up on that from the panic and flashbacks and whatnot. Everyone did their best at handling that rescue, but it wasn’t great. There is too much Panic™ to remain calm, although in real life that’s absolutely what you should try to do in an emergency. Camilla’s one (1) exchange of air is not usually going to save the life of somebody who is really in danger. The only reason it worked is because (a) Severa wasn’t really dead, although she sure looked like it and (b) this is fantasy fiction. Please call emergency services in a situation like this irl or immediately drive to the nearest hospital if there is no cell service and it’s safe to do so.

Xander’s last conversation with Inigo in this fic directly stem from his fear of (a) not being in control and (b) not being strong enough to protect those he cares about.

Originally Elise was going to be the one who figured out Anankos drowned, but somehow while writing it just didn’t work that way, mostly because she ended up stuck by the cars. Whoops. You’re the real hero in my heart, Elise.

CHARACTER NOTES:

Owain’s insecurities stem from his Felicia and Severa supports where Owain reacts very negatively to being called weird. Also from the hc that growing up in modern AU with public school would probably emphasize that insecurity too, since kids can be real bullies. I very much picture him as the “Weird Kid” in class who was in his own little world and other kids whispered about him for it. Which is unfair, because he’s really just having fun :( By middle school/high school, he’s likely learned to tone this down a little, but only after a series of Bad Memories that make him develop a fear that everyone is just barely tolerating him or is making fun of him behind his back. It’s an infrequent insecurity because Owain is pretty good at not really caring what others think, but it’s one that exists all the same. He’s known Niles and Leo for a year or maybe two at this point, but when Leo admits (like in canon) to hating Owain when they first met, it triggers those insecurities again and sets back the progress the three of them had made in working up to a relationship together.

Corrin has a peacemaker type personality in Fates and always wants to believe the best in everyone to the point where they only seem to learn their lesson of “trust but have a backup plan” near the end of the Revelations route. I think I was mostly true to that character of Corrin in my other horror fic Dark Things Grew. And I think I was mostly true to that version of canon here until the part where Corrin and Owain are stuck in the middle of the lake together. (If you think Corrin was 100% what you expected all the way through, yay! But if not: ) Perhaps Corrin is a little more freaked out or snappier than some of you might have expected. However, I am taking some liberties with the fact this is a modern world AU here. In Fates, magic is real. Dragons are real. Ogre monsters that you can summon out of thin air to do your fighting for you (i.e. Faceless) are real. Some things are less likely than others, but there’s a whole realm of magical possibility that doesn’t exist in our reality. So when you find out that the lake your mom used to visit all the time is possessed (huh????) by a demon (?????) whose voice you are hearing in your head (???????) and also who is not a demon but actually your ghost dad (????????) who is trying to kill you and all your friends you guess (????????) but you’re not really sure what’s going on still except for the fact that oh, Ariana, we’re really in it now, aaaahhhhhhhHHHHH—

Well, you, too, would probably be a little upset. Corrin is the same at their core. They’re just allowed to go “Yo, what the heck” now. (I almost had Corrin say the F word in just their narration once and I couldn’t do it :/) They go through a lot of feelings in the climax of this fic, actually, and I hope they felt at least somewhat reasonable reactions to you, the reader, since the situation Corrin finds themselves in is so unprecedented, stressful, and wack.

Also, this is true for all characters! They’ve been mildly adapted into modern counterparts. This means some experiences that shaped them in Awakening/Fates didn’t happen here or were adapted into modern equivalents. (For example, Inigo is a little less able to run face first into battle than in Awakening/Fates bc he didn’t experience the terror and necessity of having to fight the Risen as a young kid. He still grew up shy and is a (self-admitted in Supports) crybaby who tries to hide those facets of himself, however. Hence why he feels the need to put on a brave face after Bad Things Happen. He still feels like he needs to be a pillar of support for people, although he’s a less steady than his more hardened counterpart. Similar extractions can be applied to other characters throughout this fic.

I often write Severa/Camilla as a very doting, established relationship. A lot of the time the conflict in my stories comes from some outside factor—a dragon, a war, magic, etc. I don’t write a lot of interpersonal conflict, and it’s something I thought I should try my hand at least once. Camilla and Severa’s dynamic here specifically draws from Camilla’s habit of keeping her true feelings close to her chest in her supports. In canon with Selena, she very obviously gives noncommittal answers to Selena’s demands that Camilla praise her for being the best. With Xander, Camilla lies by omission—when he guesses her favorite food wrong, she pretends he’s right for the sake of (presumably) not embarrassing him and proving he doesn’t actually know his siblings better than she does. I’m sure there are other incidents where Camilla hides her true feelings too. I’ve always wondered about these events. Emotionally, Camilla is a very interesting character to me. She has a lot of thoughts and feelings, but she seems to keep a lot of them to herself. I wish that was explored more in-game.

Here, I combined Camilla’s natural tendency to keep her true feelings to herself with her canonical childhood loneliness. She canonically felt bereft of maternal love as a child, and that’s why she tries to shower so much on Corrin. In this fic, Camilla is afraid of opening herself up to love from others. She can dole it out because she doesn’t want to deprive anyone (specifically Corrin, who was isolated a lot via Garon) of that same love, but in turn she never wants to actually be vulnerable with anyone. Family gets special privileges, but even her siblings don’t get to see everything. She has romantic feelings for Severa, but she’s afraid of opening herself up to potential hurt and having that love thrown back in her face later. So Camilla does herself the favor of not allowing herself to be vulnerable in the first place. There’s some part of her that really does want to openly love and be loved by Severa, however. So that’s the yo-yo affect Severa is dealing with throughout this fic.

Camilla knows, factually, that Severa likes her too. But she also has this defense mechanism she’s used her whole life. She wants the best of both worlds; she wants to teeter on the edge of romance/intimacy she and Severa both crave while still keeping Severa at arm’s length so she never actually has to face the danger of being potentially vulnerable with Severa and therefore hurt. Which, you know. Is shitty. (Sometimes the people you love can do shitty things. Sometimes you can do shitty things. I think Camilla’s character is more complex, realistic, and interesting here because of it. I hope you think the same.)

And Camilla keeps it up until she realizes losing Severa is still a very real possibility whether or not she admits her feelings. It’s too late to pretend otherwise. She’s already vulnerable to that hurt she wanted to avoid. The shock of that revelation, the fear of losing Severa, and also McFreaking Water Ghost is enough to get her to admit her feelings and change her behavior. It’s not all peaches and cherries from here on out for them, but it’s a start. They’re taking it slow.

Camilla isn’t a villain here, which I say because I worry some people may think I wrote her to be villainous. Sometimes the people you love have baggage. Severa has it too. So does everyone else in this fic and in your actual real life. That’s natural. Sometimes we do shit things because of that baggage. It happens. Does that mean you get an excuse for your actions? Absolutely not. Apologize. Do better. Camilla is trying. They’ll go from here.

I was trying for a lot more nuanced, complex approach to these two this time around rather than the zero interpersonal problems approach. It was new for me too. I hope it payed off.

Anyway, love wins.

A VERY BAD OUTLINE OF THE CABINS THAT I MADE IN PAINT 3D AND A FLOOR PLAN I STOLE FROM GOOGLE IMAGES 2 YEARS AGO:

I am so sorry for the quality of this, lmao

#my fic #long post #fe14 #fe13 #graceless heart #character analysis #fic analysis #my text #graceless heart fic

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