#but he did it anyway and that does make him culpable for what happened to them

[navree]

"it's always hating on rhaegar for rhaenys and aegon's deaths never tywin" because rhaegar was their father and had a responsibility towards them that tywin did not, stay in school

[harukamitsuki]

I need Bakugou stans to realise that it's not that I hate him as a person. It's that I hate him as a character.

A lot of my favourite characters are unrepentant assholes, or assholes who are set to or have already been redeemed. Vegeta from DBZ, Ouma Kokichi from DGR: V3, Dio from JoJo, Laxus from Fairy Tail, Greed from FMA: B, Bill from Gravity Falls, and the list that goes on.

If a character is a terrible person, that's fine by me. But if the author tries and fails to redeem them, yet still acts as though they are suddenly this amazing person, that's when I have an issue with it.

Bakugou was originally written to be a minor antagonist, and that would have been fine, if Horikoshi didn't suddenly go "I drew him crying so imma fix him".

Redemption is such a complex yet simple thing to do. So when you try to do it and fail spectacularly, um, yeah, I do not enjoy that character or your writing.

That is my main issue with Bakugou. I do not think he deserved any redemption, not because he's a bad person, but because there is nothing to convince me that he could change.

He gets one scene where he goes, "boohoo I lost and everyone is stronger than me" then cries, and that's supposed to be enough for him to become a better person? That is nowhere near enough.

There was no moment that made me believe he genuinely regretted and took accountability for the abuse he put Izuku through in middle school.

"He changed!" That's not my issue. I don't care that he's changed. I care that I don't believe in it. If there was a plausible reason as to why he changed, then I would be fine with it. Maybe I'd even enjoy him!

The fact that he's changed doesn't mean shit if it's not believable.

"That was in middle school!" Okay. This one pisses me off the most. That was a year pre-canon? Oh, wow, I guess that's completely fine! It's not as if characters are the way they are based on their past. Oh, Itachi killed the Uchiha clan before canon! Okay, maybe comparing a massacre to bullying is a bit unfair. Still, just because it happened a year ago, it doesn't mean it never happened. It doesn't mean that he's changed considerably.

"Izuku doesn't have any lasting damage and forgave him!" And? Just because your friend forgives their bully, it doesn't mean you have to forgive them. And, again, I do not believe Bakugou's apology was good in anyway. He was trash-talking Izuku, blaming All Might for Izuku's behaviour, and didn't accept any culpability for what he did to him. He didn't tell anyone else what he did to Izuku. Also, if Izuku really didn't have any lasting damage from the bullying, then why did Bakugou's apology make him calm down? If he didn't care about the bullying, then why is he so relieved by the apology? BECAUSE HE WAS AFFECTED.

"Bakugou was being abused!" ... NO HE WASN'T!! Mitsuki is not abusive. Yes, she hit him round the back of his head. After he threatened her. Anyone with Asian parents can tell you that her hit does not hurt. Not only is it somewhat normal in Asian families, but it also doesn't hurt. We have no evidence that she is abusive. Horikoshi knows how to set up abusive families, as seen with the Todorokis. This not that. Either way, even if she was, being abused doesn't mean it's okay to abuse others. You can hurt without hurting others.

"It's the school and teacher's fault!" No, it's not. Part of the fault lies with them enabling him, but Bakugou is already fifteen when the series starts. His mother clearly doesn't agree with his attitude. The school is only partially to blame. Bakugou should have learned by himself what is right and what is not. In fact, he clearly does know considering he doesn't want any of that stuff on his records in case U.A. rejects him.

Again. I don't care if he's a terrible person. I care that he's a terrible character.

So the next time someone says that I'm stuck in Season One, take a moment and think about what you're saying. Bad people in fiction are entertaining. Bad characters are not.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

is jgy different in the books than in the untamed? sorry if u haven’t read them im kind of just assuming u have even tho i haven’t lol but i was wondering if his characterization has any major differences like how wwx in novel vs untamed they sort of sanitize him and take away any culpability and honestly some of his edge. just curious if there’s any major differences in his characterization between the two

I'm not the best person to answer because I've only read the first two volumes of MDZS. Short answer: Yes, he is different, and in fact gets the reverse of WWX's treatment: Drama JGY is more overtly villainous than Novel JGY. However, IMO it's a little more complicated than that!

(Novel enjoyers, please chime in if I'm forgetting or misrepresenting anything.)

A lot of JGY fans greatly prefer the novel and feel that The Untamed did him dirty, because a lot of the show's plot changes that make WWX look better make JGY look worse. Jin Zixuan's death is the most glaring one: in the novel, WWX really does lose control of WN because he overestimates his abilities, and it's a tragic accident. JGY and SMS's implied involvement in the Massacre at Nightless City also doesn't happen in the novel; that, too, was a devastated WWX wreaking havoc and/or losing control. The novel also establishes that JGY is subject to abuse within Jinlintai, so there's an element of duress that one can read into his actions under JGS. Novel NMJ behaves more aggressively towards JGY than he does in the show, so his murder doesn't have the same tinge of malice. (The novel timeline also has JGY and LXC meeting before JGY and NMJ, all during Sunshot, so there's that.) Additionally, the novel tells us that JGY is genuinely a very good leader once he's Chief Cultivator and has implemented policies that have improved the lives of regular people and contributed to political stability. We're also told more about his childhood and his love for his mother, and we learn that his relationship with QS is a tragic love story (he doesn't know they're related until after she's pregnant) rather than something he went through with anyway. So in the novel, he's got a lot of positive things going for him that censorship didn't allow to carry over into the show for fear of having too much moral ambiguity.

HOWEVER!!!

The thing about the novel (and why I don't vibe with it as much) is that it's very much WWX's story, whereas The Untamed spends wayyyyy more time with its supporting cast. You might've noticed that I said the word "told" a lot in the above paragraph, because... well, that's what happens. We're told things about JGY, but we don't see him as much, especially since the novel is focused on the post-timeskip era with the stuff in the past coming through non-linear flashbacks. You don't get to see Meng Yao being Just A Little Guy very much before he becomes the Kitten Thinks About Nothing But Murder All Day meme. Now, you also don't hear dramatic music telegraphing HEY!!! HEY!! VILLAINY IS AFOOT!! HEY!!! every time JGY does literally anything, but you do have everything filtered through WWX's unreliable narrator monologue, and he is out there saying some truly wild shit. (You also get less Xiyao. Like, it's there if you want it to be, but The Untamed really went all-in on that.)

For me, the show works better, because I am a sucker for corruption arcs where you see glimpses of the character before they start the atrocities. Seeing him be Just A Little Guy making the saddest meow meow faces when people were mean to him kept me from totally losing sympathy for/interest in him once things start getting squicky, because I had evidence that he wasn't always like that. Meanwhile, JGY's first big scene in the novel is the confrontation with QS (which already makes my skin crawl and is somehow WORSE in novel form), and I was just like "wow, this guy sucks" even though I knew the story and all the extenuating circumstances already. For others, the novel works better, because "first impressions and society's opinion are unreliable" is a major theme, so the reverse reveal combined with the fact that he demonstrably tries to improve people's lives as a leader is less expected and more satisfying.

So yeah! JGY is different, but the ways in which he is different are due to storytelling methods as well as to plot changes!

[eriexplosion]

I know I've posted about this before, but I have been going out of my tumblr bubble a little more to find discussion of this episode and honestly I am still surprised by the amount of argument over if Crosshair Deserves a redemption, in a show where not only is redemption a big thing but... most redeemed villains have done so much more than Crosshair has.

Like, the general implication is he got his chip out after Bracca - I've seen some theories that it's when we see him in the medbay after episode three, which is possible but his personality shift doesn't seem to happen until after Bracca, so I think it's a good assumption that everything before that is his chip. Leaving aside discussions of culpability in clones given that they are literally raised from infancy to follow orders and the effects of what an enhanced chip might do to the brain, this means that the things we see Crosshair do that is at least mostly of his own will are:

He shot Senator Taa with a nonfatal headshot which is apparently a thing he can do, though after his display in Solitary Clone I guess that's not surprising.

Lured in the batch to make his misguided attempt at selling the Empire with the worst sales pitch known to man. Killed his imperial squad in the process (this isn't really a bad thing but you know, including it as Some Murders He Did)

Decided to stay with the Empire, proceeded to sit on that platform for 32 days and then spend several months in his jammies waiting for medical clearance since the gap between seasons is much more than that single month judging from Omega's growth spurt.

Killed Governor Tawni and I stick to my argument that this was timed to when Cody was being threatened with consequences, but it's the most clearly Awful thing he's done.

When left to his own devices he's a shit talking bitch. While considered rude, this is not illegal and others are willing to engage in 'talk shit get hit' with him over it.

In a show where the majority of redemptions go to people that have participated in genocides, torture, and so forth with fewconflicted emotions until their ultimate redemption arc, I just do not know why people are so quick to put him in the Irredeemable Box. (I've literally seen articles that did it as early as episode three where he was still considered unambiguously chipped but suddenly MIND CONTROL IS NO EXCUSE)

He has been clearly struggling with himself the entire show. Most of his actions sit in kind of a murky area because we don't know what's going on in his head because I don't think HE knows what's going on in his head and if he does he's not being honest about it anyway. Let the poor little meow meow breathe damn it.

[angelsdean]

I mean. I do agree with Cas and Sam being held more culpable. But I think the reason people point to Dean being abusive with the Jack stuff is that he is a child? Cas' child? I mean, you can talk about the general prejudice against non-humans in spn being the bigger factor in that but

i said this in a reply to this post (replied from my main) but i don't think it's fair to compare dean's reaction to jack with our later perceptions of jack and his role as their child (and cas's child). like, we as the audience can look back with all we know and how their dynamic develops and we now see jack as The Child and cas as his father and dean as stepdad / second parent, and sam as another guardian figure. but from dean's limited perspective at the time of widower's arc, all he knew about jack was that he was a Very Powerful Being with pretty unpredictable powers too (jack still didn't know how to control them and was prone to outbursts). he also knows jack is the son of lucifer, a fact which they still weren't sure what that would mean for jack, if he inherited some of lucifer's temperament or "badness." to us, obviously that isn't the case, but to them within the narrative it's a valid concern. lastly, he knows that jack formed a bond with cas and dean believes that jack manipulated cas through that bond and ultimately got cas killed. that's all dean really knows for certain. so imo his initial fear and wariness is justified. those feelings, couples with his grief, then manifest in anger. dean goes on the defensive against jack because he sees jack as a threat and jack, at the time, is still an outsider to their family dynamic. dean's always going to be motivated to protect "his own" first, and that means sam and cas and mary (etc etc). and in the context of widowers arc, esp at the verrrry start, he's just lost two of the most important people in his life and he sees jack as the cause for those circumstances and jack is also an unknown and a threat. he is not yet Cas's son. even when jack says so, dean has no reason yet to trust that claim. even still, despite his general wariness and fear of jack, dean doesn't turn him away. dean compromises and says they'll keep an eye on him and deal with him if he turns out to be bad. then cas comes back and he starts to see that bond between them and then jack becomes family and the dynamic and feelings change. (though again, dean will revert to that fear + wariness when jack becomes soulless, unpredictable, and dangerous)

but anyway, initially, dean's reactions to a strange new powerful being are not totally irrational. yes WE see jack as an innocent child and cas's son, especially now looking back, but for the characters in the narrative, their perspectives are limited to what's actually happening and what information they are actively receiving. at the start, dean doesn't know what exactly jack is capable of and they don't have anything to stop him IF they needed to, IF he did turn out to be bad, so i don't think it's wrong for him to be fearful and wary at first. and yea, maybe he shouldn't have shouted or placed blame for cas's death on jack, but that anger was part of his immense grief, and grief can and often does make people act irrationally, senseless, or imperfectly.

[ac-liveblogs]

Sorry to bring this up again, but I need to vent a little.

The thing is my biggest problem with 3.3's scaramouche quest is how he didn't really change at all as a character. What has he learn through all this? He learn that his friend never betrayed him and? How does that change his worldview? How is he affected? It's not like I'm saying that he should have undergo a 180 in personality or anything, and I understand that niwa's death and supposed betrayal is far from being the only reason he becomes like this.

But after all this, after basically a suicide attempt, after this whole ass quest, I expect him to at least have some sort of character development.

He gets a cool cutscene of recieving a vision and that's basically it. Apparently, according to his character stories, he did learn something but not everyone got him, so that doesn't change the fact it felt hollow.

But this is genshin so screw playable characters actually changing and developing, that's for NPCs.

(I just need to get this off my chest, cause it feels like I'm the only with this opinion, even if someone doesn't like this quest, it's because of the memory erasure or the 'redemption', both of which I thought the quest did alright. Not great but it could be worse)

Yeah, no, that's literally it. At the end of the day, it's "oh, I was wrong about Niwa, I shouldn't have hurt those people, I need to undo that now". Not, "I shouldn't have hurt those people, period", because he now just wants to hurt the Fatui instead. The Big Lesson was "you were wrong... about the lore!", not "you were wrong... to do awful things!"

And I firmly believe that Scara's suicide attempt was purely an excuse to facilitate him being willing to use Irminsul in the way he did in the first place, rather than something the writers wanted to actually explore in detail. I can say that with great confidence due to the absolute lack of interest HYV had in... actually making Scaramouche culpable for anything he did in a tangible way that involved any members of the main cast or resulted in any kind of karmic retribution, and as an amnesiac he responded to everything he learnt extremely calmly.

It isn't just that Scaramouche never interacts with any playable characters involved in any of this - it's that there are, specifically, playable character whose arcs relate to this event, and there was a whole event about them finding out about it in great detail, and then nothing comes of it. We're really going to spend so much time learning about the decline of the Kaedehara Clan and how that impact Kazuha growing up and his current ideologies, or hover over how Ayato had to salvage the Kamisato Clan from the ashes, and Iradori is gonna be all about Kazuha and Ayaka learning there is someone to blame for it and then just. Nothing

God help me Kazuha's fucking quest-

I genuinely have to wonder what the point of doing any of that was. Was HYV so incompetent that they genuinely used Iradori just to lay the groundwork for the Tatarasuna Mystery without realising that they had also laid the groundwork for... stories involving those characters?

And yeah, it does not escape my notice that HYV conveniently had Nahida's fairytale about kitten!Scaramouche to show us the scenes where Escher told him about Niwa via narration, and as a result they didn't actually have to write those scenes as flashbacks themselves.

Because god knows we wouldn't want to see the character, who is defined by betrayal, react to the betrayal that defines his character. In the chapter where we can see the past via a magic tree. Let's have a fairy tale metaphor. That sounds fun.

It's just so shockingly lazy. It feels like HYV did the bare minimum they could to avoid engaging with Scaramouche's feelings regarding anything that was happening, but slapped the Vision and Nahida's "you deserve to live!" monologue on at the end anyway to make it seem like growth had happened.

[angie-j-kay]

Okay, here are my takes from Barbenheimer, and the messages the movies seem to be pushing:

Spoilers under the cut.

Oppenheimer:

If you're autistic, have anxiety, or are generally sensitive to loud scary noises, be warned that this might set you off. This was very much a horror movie, disguised as a historical thing. Also, Christopher Nolan music is Christopher Nolany. YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN.

The great horror wasn't that the people involved were monsters, it was that they were just people. ANYONE handed enough fear and desperation risks becoming this. Yes, even you.

If the monster feels really, really bad about it after, is he still a monster? (Answer: YES, but you still paid to see this movie so now you're culpable too.)

A discussion of how responsible scientists are for what the powerful and cruel do with their inventions.

Ian Malcolm in the first Jurassic Park movie was right. "You were so preoccupied with whether or not you could, you didn't stop and think if you should!"

Hey, it's that actor I had such a crush on when I was 14 and wow, he got old, and OH SHIT I'M OLD TOO... It doesn't matter which actor I'm talking about, MOST of them were that actor to someone or other.

Florence Pugh has nice tits, and Robert Downey Jr. should play more villains. Also, David Krumholz is slowly turning into Alfred Molina.

Spoiler alert: BOOM.

Men suck.

Barbie: This one's gonna get me SO MUCH HATE, because y'all love Barbie, but I'm gonna do it anyway.

They told me it was an empowering movie for women and girls to watch. I went through the whole thing, and was rather insulted by this claim. Yeah, the idea of "women can be whatever we want" was repeated over and over, but the actual movie showed very little of that. Only the DOLLS got to be what they wanted, not the "Real Women."

Barbie not having a vagina is played for laughs, and the first thing that happens when she becomes a Real Woman (Yes, this is a plot point.) is... going to the gynecologist, with her new vagina and uterus. The Mattel board meeting actually had a man ask "I'm a man with no power, does that make me a woman?" How Tumblr hasn't caught the transphobia there is beyond me.

Ha ha, pregnant Midge! Loved that!

Feminism is important, because the patriarchy hurts... Ken. And the other Kens. Look, I get that this plot point was aimed SOLELY at the men who were watching this movie, trying to force them to imagine the role reversal and see how awful it is, but it doesn't change the fact that the main plot point of a supposedly feminist movie was clearly targeted at men. Like... come on.

Why is Will Ferrel here? You could have replaced him with a broken lamp in the corner and the movie would have been just fine.

I can't think of a single time that Barbie invited Ken's company. He pursued her, and she tolerated him because that was just sort of her role and she felt she had to. He respected none of her boundaries, just constantly tried to push past them. Then when he went full incel to the point of violence (Yes, I count brainwashing and enslavement as violence and you should too.) and she defeated him, he threw a screaming, public, self-hatred tantrum until SHE was apologising to HIM and consoling HIM, just a few minutes of screen time after a rant about how unfair it is that women are held responsible for men's bad behavior.

Ruth - "I can't let you become a real woman without you understanding what that means." Ruth - shows a montage of babies and motherhood, with some random crap tacked on the end in hopes that we won't notice that.

Being vocally angry about the patriarchy, racism, and enforced femininity is for dumb, angry teenagers with daddy issues who don't know anything about anything, and growing up into REAL feminism involves pink dresses.

The Velveteen Rabbit walked so that Weird Barbie could somersault while doing the splits.

I did cry when Barbie saw the old woman for the first time and called her beautiful. That was nice.

The boy bands of the early 2000s are finally explained.

The only way out of the patriarchy is by women talking to each other and working together, then... men saying they're sorry and totally promising never to do that again. Because that always works.

I mean, the movie wasn't terrible. It just wasn't made for feminists. It was made to get men angry enough to go see the movie so they'd have something to make angry podcasts about, in hopes that a few of them would start to think about what garbage they're spewing. Also, to sell toys, Hummers and Birkenstocks.

Also, I'm not sure this was Greta Gerwig's fault. This whole thing reeks of studio meddling.

OH, and men suck.

[deaneverafter]

Super Foxes

In all honesty, I do have thoughts, and most of them are, what is happening here?

Beau and Jenny getting sent off on separate cases when they need each other the most, it's just sad and cruel 😭💔 Them not letting Beau be there for when she's hurt, emotionally and physically, unfair to both of them. Making him get tangled up with irrelevant blah blah, for no reason than to revolve him, a season main character, around guest characters..... rude. Imagine making your main relationship have only one scene in an episode, just to waste time on irrelevant character's blah blah 😡😒

My poor guy literally sitting guard, I love him so much, and he deserves better that Carla and Emily 🥺💟 Emily needs to..... stop. Just stop. Let Carla in more?? So she could use that information and his feelings and trauma against Beau even more? I think not. She needs to stop sticking her nose in where it doesn't belong, talking about things she has no idea about 😒 And contrary to popular belief, forcing people to discuss their trauma before their ready, is not helpful. Talking to you, Emily McCallister 😒 Since she loves Avery so much, she should definitely ask him to protect you, not Beau, leave him alone. Like, go back to her real dad, who she actually enjoys spending time with, whose every behaviour she has an excuse for, while Beau merely existing is a capital crime. Also, on top of all the blaming for the divorce, complaining about Randy, making him feel bad for not sharing, at the ending, when Denise says your dad won't let anything happen to you, and she made that face and said "can we talk about something else?" It's so shady, it's rude. And it's not the first time, in 3x01, when Sunny said "he sounds like a good dad", she had the same reaction. He's literally going after cartel people, on no sleep, to protect her. He's putting his life in danger. And this ingrate is like "ugh, he's the worst. I love Avery so much, uwu". And don't think I missed her reaction when Beau said he didn't know what Carla sees in Avery. Meaning Emily does. In her mind, abandoning Beau for grieving and getting hitched with Avery right away, 10/10 excellent move on Carla's part. Anyway, forcing people to talk about things they're not ready to can actually be quite harmful 😢 And it's just disrespectful to make someone feel bad for how they choose to grieve, so there's that too. And that conversation with Emily did nothing but make Beau unfairly punish himself more. First, she took Avery's side, even though Beau is literally putting his life in danger because of Avery, and because of Emily and Carla. Like, yes, Avery messed up, but let's not act like Carla has no culpability. And then, she brought up Randy, even though she knows it's hard for him. THEN she blamed him for the divorce. Like? What is wrong with her.? Clearly she thinks of Avery more as her dad than she ever has Beau, or she wouldn't be defending him, after people died, Beau is having to put his life in danger because of Avery's actions and Carla dragging him into it. But this isn't a surprise to me frankly.

Beau predicting the bad guy's move and that spin was hawt 🥰❤ as was Beau being angry 🥰👀 The only complaint I have is that Beau's anger is wasted on being on Emily and Carla's behalf 🙄🙄 They don't deserve his time or help or concern.

People saying "how dare Avery call them *his* family?! 😡", forgetting that Avery dares because not just Carla, but also Emily, treats Avery more like family than they ever have Beau. Which is just another reason Beau will always deserve better than them ☕ And the reason Avery saying that struck such a nerve with Beau is because in his heart he knows that Emily and Carla never loved him, still don't care about him, are okay to use him as a human shield to protect Avery and their family, love Avery unlike him. Not just Carla, but also Emily, treats Avery more like family than they ever have Beau. Which is just another reason Beau will always deserve better than them ☕

Beau and Jenny both risking their lives for people who don't care about them, constantly betray them, just because both of them are that good, loyal and loving, it's just one more reason they belong together 🥺 My heart broke for Jenny when I thought Gigi really said better you than me, after Jenny came to rescue her and even was ready to throw the game. Jenny doesn't deserve that, to be betrayed and hurt over and over again. But hey, at least that particular move was a ruse, Gigi at least cares if Jenny lives or dies, which is more than can be said about Emily and Carla's feelings about Beau. All they care about is themselves and their perfect life with Avery 😒 Another sad thing, on top of the fact that Jenny needed Beau there, and he got shipped off is that the story with Gigi and the cult was so creepy! Only it got ruined for me when Beau got cut out to go have a subplot of being put down for the whole episode 😢 He'd promised they'd fix it together, she deserved to have him there, and he deserved to show her how much he cares. Jenny and Cassie, they're family, always will be, and their moments were sweet 🥺💛

Full offense, but it's sickening how the narrative is blaming Beau for grieving. I hate this so much 😡 It's Carla who spent their marrige being mean, left him when he was grieving in a matter of weeks, divorced him, met and married a new guy within a year, uprooted everyone, forced Beau to leave behind what support he did have left, and continues to put Beau down. SHE failed their marriage, not Beau, and he deserves to learn that. I'm not even exaggerating right now, if Carla and her behaviour has seriously gotten it ingrained in Beau that his partner dying on the job was his fault, that grieving meant he deserved to be thrown out like trash, this is serious gaslighting and toxicity. And if the writers are willing to show this, show this storyline and behaviour, which they clearly are, it deserved to be treated with more respect and care. Grieving does not make you evil, it doesn't mean you deserve to be punished. Which is unfortunately what it's coming across as at the moment, and I can only hope that they can fix this by showing Beau actually letting go of this unfair guilt and blame (though that's looking unlikely, if we're wasting the next two episodes on Emily). Even the language points to the fact that this is manipulation. "I wasn't there for you. And I wasn't there for Emily." HE WAS GRIEVING! It wasn't his job to be there, for once he was the one who needed support and instead they left him, made him feel like he was wrong for grieving and needing support. And then Carla had the nerve to say "I forgive you". She should be begging for his forgiveness for abandoning him! "I forgive you", this is how abusers convince victims they deserve the abuse and then that the abuser is so benevolent by "forgiving". The Stockholm Syndrome vibes are too real. And I think it's important to realize that Carla hasn't suddenly realized the error of her ways. She's still manipulating him, saying things like I forgive you (as in, it WAS your fault), she's just not spitting explicit venom with every word because she needs Beau to be a human shield for her and Avery and Emily (though that one Beau would do anyway). And people be like, oh, maybe Carla was there for him for SO LONG. Considering that Carla had divorced Beau, met and married a new guy, and moved across the country after a year of Randy dying, she really couldn't have tried THAT hard to help Beau or be there for him. She would've left Beau mere weeks after Randy died. She'd decided within this time that he had already been grieving too much for too long. Things got very difficult for Beau after he lost his partner. But Carla wasn't there to witness that or have that affect her. All she did is contribute to his existing trauma, and manipulate him into feeling worse, into believing that she was the victim.

The way Beau is still here having concern for this woman who abandoned him, it shows the kind of man he is (better than she deserves). But it does not mean that he's in love with her, we've seen the opposite, and it doesn't mean he should go back to an abusive marriage. Plus, Emily went and confirmed Carla is a gold digger, so there's that too..... ☕ Plus, Carla has been hanging off of Beau (while still demeaning him), not because she loves him but she wants to make sure he never moves on, so he comes running whenever she needs, sacrifices everything of his own, never has his own life. And she's been cozying up to Beau, even though she's still married to Avery, the "fight" happened just a week ago... tell me she wasn't involved and cheating while married to Beau. Anyway, Beau deserves better than to be treated like trash, victim blamed, and then to be sent back to someone who only sees him as a backup choice. And also, why did Beau look like he was being held at gunpoint to say that cursed line? He wasn't even looking Carla in the eye. Maybe it's just the utter absence of chemistry between these two characters, but I think it was a deliberate choice. Considering everything in the season, having seen Beau's feelings for Jenny at their clearest last episode, there's just no way it makes sense for the chat with the evil ex to be a romantic and not familial thing. It doesn't follow from what we've seen. Big Sky TV, there's still time to not send Beau back to an abusive marriage (and ruin his whole story). Just saying.... It almost reads like he's stuck because of how they manipulated him, made him feel like the villain for grieving, punished him by leaving, and because of that, he's erroneously equated forgiveness with things going back to how they were. And that that's why he's forcing himself this way, saying this, doing everything they want, etc. Which is very sad. Especially when he doesn't need forgiveness from them. An actual interesting arc would've been him realizing that, healing and moving on...... but alas, that would require paying attention to the main characters, and not revolving everything around Emily and Carla. It's giving very "Yes, I love all the characters!. Carla. Emily. Emily. Carla. Emily. Carla. Carla. Carla. Emily. Denise. Poppernak. Cassie. Emily. Carla. Carla. Carla. Sunny. Carla. Carla. Donno. Tonya. Carla. Cormac. *looks at smudged writing on hand* Bob and John." vibes. I don't know, maybe a more appropriate title than Deadly Trails might have been Big Sky: The McCallisters take Montana, starring Carla, Emily and Avery 🙄 The main characters whomst, Jenny and Beau, we don't know them. The universe revolves around these three 🙃

What I also hate about this a lot is that the relationship Beau has with Carla and Emily is written as abusive. They're cruel and condescending to him, Carla gaslights and manipulates him. It's just not being acknowledged as such and that's messed up. Like, I really don't think in this time and place, we need a story where a good man, a good human, who does nothing but help people, protect them, is punished and blamed for having emotions or sent back to an abusive family. Abuse is abuse regardless of who the target is 😔 I can't believe we're in the year 2023, and abusive family dynamics are being glorified, when a much healthier and interesting story would've been Beau actually realizing that his daughter and ex are toxic and standing up for himself, and healing. They made Beau have a revelation that you can't run after people who don't love you, every relationship has to be a two-way street, even blood, maybe especially blood. And then made him revolve around the two people in this world who care about him the least, treat him the worst 😡

THE HUGG 🥰🥰🥰🥰 Literally the only part in the episode that didn't feel ooc and sad. Jenny's whispered "thanks for being here" and Beau's "try and stop me"

🥺🥰💓💕 They love each other so much, I wish they'd take the story where it should be and let them be happy together 😔

And also, as far as the overarching story and episode goes, I need Beau and Jenny to have a heart to heart so she can tell him he wasn't wrong for needing to grieve Randy, that needing time didn't mean he deserved to be abandoned in the span of a few weeks, that he doesn't need anyone's forgiveness but his own 🥺💔 And when do we get a scene of Jenny telling Beau about what happened with Gigi and Beau telling Jenny about what he's been dealing with with the theft? 🥺 They're each other's safe place, I think the sheriff partners need to talk it out and we need cute scenes of them 💕

Realistically speaking, however, I really can't fathom, if this is going where it seems to be going, they're going to screw over both Jenny and Beau? Screw over their lead a third time.? While also screwing over a season main character? Jenny Hoyt deserves better than that, to be left behind a third time. And Beau deserves better than this mess, it'd be so ooc. He'd never spend all season getting closer to Jenny the way he has if he had feelings for the crazy ex. And, it would break the narrative so hard, in none of their scenes together, does Beau look or act in love. Sad, insulted, demeaned. Not in love, though. And then there's the vaccum of zero chemistry, it just makes no sense to send him back with Carla. His chemistry, his story, the trust and partnership and happiness, that's all there with Jenny. Ripping that apart, it's cruel to Jenny and to Beau, it's unfair to Beau as a character, and it's disrespectful to Jensen and Katheryn, who've spent all season building this relationship, making the dynamic between Beau and Jenny real, trusting, complex.

In conclusion, I don't know what's happening here.

[7ban-sama]

The flow of the story itself always feels so ah, 'tight', I love the sequence of which information is dropped. It kind of makes me marvel at Iro-sensei's writing skills... It feels like everything that happens, gives us plenty to circle back and reflect on, which transforms the story all over again. Up until the moment in Clock Keepers where we find out about Nene's lifespan, we're presuming their meeting and interest in one another is serendipitous for the both of them.

But... man... it sure does change a lot, when you realize that the nature of the ability to interact with Nene, means that Hanako instantly knew this was a 'doomed' girl, with no future. Such little time left. This puts them in a skewed position... Hanako immediately able to pity her and also feel as though he can offer her something no one else can, in this limited period of time. (By knowing her life is limited, he can focus on enriching it.)

This of course makes you reflect on the authenticity of everything predating it... It's not that those moments were insincere, but that you have to tell yourself that this entire time, Hanako is acting with this information on his mind. As a result, I uncontrollably think of the whole incident with the mermaid's scale as intentional — as much as Akane was baited by the Clock Keepers. I don't think of this as a red herring lol...

For what it's worth, Akane isn't wholly wrong about his other assessments... Mhhh Hanako more or less proves him right about how selfish he is capable of being & how much he doesn't value life, later in the Severance arc. His willful withholding of information to sacrifice Aoi — and, well, prior to that, I think dropping a chandelier on her to prove a point was also pretty shitty. :X So, I often question the fated moment with the mermaid's scale... it's hakujoudai moving with it that brings it into Nene's view, even.

DID he...? Of all the things to just drop out of your pocket...

I dunno... just makes you wonder, at least. iiii for one think it would be interesting, if after spending a day with this hapless girl, Hanako was devising something in the back of his mind... It's Hanako who says that being cursed is like being in a relationship, fwaha. That's an interesting way to think about giving a girl what she so badly desires — because "anyone would do"... And also the ah, nature of it would be that this relationship would be ephemeral and terminate once she passes. Just like that. It's almost uhh, grossly easy to envision Hanako being able to wash his hands of the affair neatly, at the end of this all. What's 1 measly year, to a long-lived ghost?

Also, if the scales were a set up...

... it'd make this moment distinctly ironic, on Hanako's end. Though no matter what, I think this comment does cut through Hanako more than he expects, and he's left genuinely surprised by how it made him feel. An unusual sense of responsibility and culpability, I'm sure...

Just rambling here, but I also like to think that Hanako having Nene shackled to toilet cleaning duty after school is him keeping her 'on track' with his plans to enrich her life. Functionally, this after school activity keeps her from being able to focus on new relationships and funnel into other activities...

I think, to Hanako, it would be sad if a girl spent her last year of life doing favors for guys she has a crush on, that are ultimately not going to "go anywhere" for her. Even if she could forge a new relationship, that would just end in tragedy for the both of them anyways, because she would simply be dead soon enough. It almost feels logical for that time to instead be spent on a ghost, someone without a future. Someone who "isn't going to miss her" when she is gone, because they "don't value life"... I can see how this was Hanako's plan. And, how he felt like the only one suited for the job.

... it's ah, a self-aggrandizing view, it's one that puts him in a very 'noble' position... even though functionally, he is isolating a girl, and then getting jealous and petty when she wants to do anything outside of him... and sexually harassing her selfishly... and then, he goes and develops feelings for her anyways, completely crushing all this logic in on itself. Lol! Life comes at you fast, I suppose...

Though in my wildest dreams, Hanako's meeting with Nene was set up by Tsukasa (being the rumor spreader...) and it's a twist on a TWIST! Hanako was never going to walk out of this without being broken by his own desires, because that is what his twin wanted for him. Snaking on the snake... i want it so bad :'I

[illuminopseudonymous]

From Calliope on Cohost

Folks in the thread know this obviously, but as a comment, yeah, this is basically the point of the book. Though, I'd say it's not Gnosticism as much as just, you know, the monotheist God. There's a reason the book begins by quoting Paradise Lost.

Less glibly, there are a lot of different ways to read Victor's guilt -- and in fact this is why I roll my eyes at the people who make fun of "well Frankenstein is the doctor's name." It is important, for a few reasons. The first is that the Creature doesn't have a name. Like, that's important. Second, it's the Creature -- the book itself never calls him a monster, very carefully avoiding loaded words for him. He has the chance to interrogate his creator and find that creator lacking.

You see similar vibes in Moby-Dick; like the first few passages where Ishmael says God is a poor craftsman because his creation -- the human body -- fails so often.

Anyway, reading Victor's guilt. I taught Frankenstein for several years, and I usually did three different broad readings. There are obviously more.

The first was religious, as above: Victor is a God, a creator of life. I wish I'd known more about Agrippa at the time, because now that I do I'd like to be able to teach more on how it's Agrippa that inspires Victor, and how it's as much alchemy as necromancy that he performs. But in general, it's Paradise Lost, a poem the Romantics loved very much: Lucifer and Adam both crying out that they did not ask to be born, nor to be saddled with unreachable responsibilities.

The second reading is feminist: Victor is a parent, and the Creature his child, except Victor is the only parent, which means he must be read as feminine -- and the book codes him in this way often. This is important because now we can read the book as a portrait of post-partum depression: Victor is sick and senseless after the Creature's birth, and is freaked out by the sight of his creation in a way similar to how many people who give birth can feel ambivalent feelings towards their new child as the depression sets in. We have these terms now, and they didn't then, but Mary Shelley may have had the experience for herself, and given the statistics, she probably knew someone who did.

This reading is even more complex because while Victor is still guilty, he's understandable: he's sick, hallucinating, half-starved; when he reacts to the Creature and accidentally pushes it away, he doesn't know what he's doing, really. However, after that one moment we can sympathize with, we see Victor close up shop and go home as though nothing happened -- as though he isn't now responsible for a life. And, of course, he's alone. There's no support structure to help him, so in that way, the world around Victor is equally culpable (which we see as it fails to aid the Creature in similar ways).

The final reading is queer: if Victor is coded as feminine at times, given the book's date of composition, that means we can read him as queer, not necessarily (or not singly) as a stand-in for women (1818 gender binaries, not only women have babies, so on). This is a very strong contender, because Victor is 100% in love with his best dude friend, Henry Clerval.

You know all the sorta kidding but not really readings of the second Downey Sherlock Holmes, that say Holmes and Watson are going on honeymoon and Holmes literally throws the woman out the window to take her place? Yeah, so Victor does that.

He's been "in love with" Elizabeth, a young woman his family took in, since he was a child. I mean, they were the same age, she wasn't a young woman when he was a child. Anyway, they're engaged, and he's been putting the wedding off to, first, make the Creature, and second, to recover. But when the time comes, he declares it's time to get married, takes a deep breath, and... travels Europe with Henry (who, I should note, took care of Victor when he was convalescing). This reads very easily as a man who thinks he "ought" to be straight but who isn't, who in all the good faith he can muster keeps trying to marry a woman he genuinely does love -- just not like that.

This becomes important to the Creature's story in two ways. First, Victor tells Walton that he chose each body part of the Creature with care, and that each part was perfect, beautiful and perfect. The Creature asks for a wife, so they can go off together away from humans and start a family. This means, and I don't want to put to fine a point on it, that the Creature can fuck, which means Victor carefully and lovingly chose a penis to put on the Creature, one he felt was beautiful and perfect.

Secondly, let's loop back to the Creature's request: a wife. Victor agrees, actually, and there's a grimly comical note where he travels Europe with Henry while carrying around a suitcase full of body parts he's taken from graveyards, which somehow never rot. He builds the lady Creature, she's finished, but in the mysterious process he uses to vivify her, to give her life, he stops, and in an excess of disgust he tears the body limb from limb and swears he'll never do it.

I don't want to expand this already-long post further with references, but Kristeva's theory of abjectness is important here, that feeling of having drunk rotten milk, that the horror is both external and internal. Victor's visceral disgust can't be adequately explained by his rational statements -- which mostly boil down to his belief the Creature is evil and that allowing him to propagate would end humanity. We can't believe that because those thoughts do not cause that disgust. That level of bodily hatred emerges from somewhere else.

This drifts us even further from Victor as the villain, because, now, we can hardly blame Victor for being closeted and irrational when confronted with the things that disgust him that he believes he must accept. But, always, underpinning everything, is the simple fact that Victor made a life and then abandoned it.

The thing is that there's not really any villain in Frankenstein. Victor is as much a victim as the Creature, but -- and this is important -- Victor has the agency that the Creature lacks, because he, Victor, is responsible for both the Creature's very existence and his own abject status. Remember he was basically forcing himself into marrying a woman he grew up with; he felt like he was marrying his sister.

And always remember, too, that this story is filtered, several times: Victor is recounting it all to Walton, a jackass leading an expedition to the North Pole who got his ship stuck almost immediately, and who is very likely going to die. The book is actually Walton's letters to his sister. Walton and Victor both mention feeling a sense of kinship, one to the other -- and unlike, say, finding the Northwest Passage or circumnavigating the globe, there's not a lot of conceivable use to going to the North Pole. Especially as Walton isn't a scientist, he's just a rich goober. He wants to be the first there so he can say he's the first there.

We're supposed to roll our eyes at Walton, see him get closer to Victor, and realize these two are fools. And then, hopefully, we remember that Walton dragged an entire ship's crew out into this ice to die, just as Victor ruined his own life, Elizabeth's life, and the Creature's.

In sympathizing more with Victor, we actually come to dislike him more. He is no longer a villain but a fool, doing things because he can, and failing entirely to think of the consequences.

And that's why, to me at least, it's important to differentiate the book's dark mirror held up to Christianity from what we know of Gnosticism: the demiurgos is often cast as a villain, but with there being no discernible reason for existence itself, the buck must be passed further on. According to the book, God, the monotheistic One, itself, is a fool leading innocent people, Creatures and sailors, into a lonely death in a field of ice.

I don't actually think Shelley believed that, at least not when she first wrote the book. She may very well have indulged in those thoughts later, as her husband and children all died one by one, and the 1837 edition of Frankenstein is notable for how the revisions make things more dire, more depressing, and more inevitable. The 1818 edition hinges more on accident, offering the possibility of better outcomes. But the book itself, as a gothic novel, unsettles exactly insofar as it questions one of the core beliefs of cultural monotheism: God is good, and God made the world, and the world is therefore good. Perhaps it's neither good nor bad, but a Creature made in a moment with no thought for anything beyond wondering whether it's possible.

[sonneillonv]

you can tell your dem representative(s) why you didnt vote for them via email or phone call... no psychic powers needed

Yeah but you can't do that with Joe Biden. He's one dude. 2020 had record voter turnout and 80 million people still didn't vote. If he did nothing but read or listen to each of those people explain in no more than 6 seconds why they didn't vote for him, if he didn't eat, sleep, play minecraft, or keel over dead, it would take him more than 15 years to get through all of it.

The US Census does a voting report after every election for precisely the purpose of figuring out why people didn't vote. So you and your 80 million other "Don't care"s can pass your opinions along to them. And you can hope that your specific reason is popular enough to make it into a report. And you can hope that report mentions real numbers, as opposed to 2020's report of "Oh, 4.3% of registered voters didn't vote due to COVID" because that kind of phrasing minimizes impact. And you can hope the democratic party pays attention to that report in 2024.

But let's just say they do. Let's say that at that point, having gotten the Census results, they'll tell their shiny new candidate, "Lots of people hated Biden's policy on Gaza so be sure to side with Palestine this time!"

Their candidate is going to go "LOL what? Palestine is gone. Israel burned it to the ground and massacred its people with the help of US weapons and the 'security consulting firms" Trump generously provided to prop up Netanyahu's failing regime. Also he told the UN to go suck a dick and told Israel, quote, "Kill 'em all, no survivors!" Now the only 'Palestinians' are in diaspora and the entire strip's been razed, annexed, and rebuilt to sell to foreigners (mostly Americans) as time shares. How am I supposed to have an opinion on a nation that doesn't exist anymore?"

And the party will go "LOL IDK, we're just telling you what the polls say! loveyoubye!"

But what will actually happen is that the party leaders will look at the number of people who didn't vote due to Biden's policy on Palestine (assuming the Census bothers to track that specific concern and assuming people bother to respond to the Census) and go "LOL there is no more Palestine, so we can just toss that issue in the trash, but hey, Republicans are turning out in record numbers, I wonder what we'd need to do to get some of their votes?"

And then they'll shift right.

because they only care about people who vote.

You and your protest non-vote are a non-entity. Nobody in power cares, and nobody cares why. You're just helpfully making it easier to ignore you, which is what they wanted to do anyway.

Also it doesn't actually remove your culpability in the result, so there's that. You aren't pure and perfect and guilt-free if you abstain. You knew you had a two-party, first-past-the-post system. You knew what the choices were. You knew that the objectively worse choice had a rabid fanbase, a callous disregard for democracy, freedom, and basically anything leftist, and a "hell yeah kill 'em all" attitude toward Palestinians. Unless you live under a rock, you're aware of all these things. You were given a shovel and a pile of dirt and you made a choice not to shore up the dike. You stood there and watched while the rest of us worked because you figured "Hey, country's already pretty flooded. Who cares if a tsunami is coming?"

That makes you culpable. Also a coward. But like, hey, see where it takes you!

(Hint: It's worse than here.)

[wbwoqlqxoxxms]

Yishun Revengers Episode 13 "HAIL GOD EMPEROR LEE"

"Wait, did my keyboard just pofma autocorrect me?"

-yes yes yes all hail gahmen all hail pap pls don't shoot me spf pls don't shoot me spf pls don't shoot me

“Oh, right. One more thing. You yapped on and on about what this plan is, how you’re trying to pull it off and why we should join your noble cause…but this plan does require the actual Culpable to work, right?” Mendax asked.

“Yes, do not fret yourself, I have already obtained relevant information of his whereabouts,” Skorpius stood up and dusted himself off of all the dirt that had gotten onto him, replying in an elegant manner as he regained his previous dignified demeanour.

“So where is this Culpable you speak of?” Ming snapped impatiently, demanding to know the location of the seed of terror, whatever devious plan he was concocting in his wayward head with which the Culpable had to with.

“In…an apartment in Yishun. Block 349, Yishun Avenue 11. 07-249.” Skorpius muttered inaudibly, lowering his voice when it came to the coordinates of the crew’s target.

“Block 349…Yishun Avenue 11…Um…” Stefen spoke up first upon realising something was up with those numbers. “Wait, you said those…Culpables…brought about terror and destruction wherever they went…causing weird stuff wherever they go…”

Skorpius affirmed Stefen’s biggest worry (or question considering this would be the scoop of his life) with a nod of his head. “Aren’t you making a documentary on the strange happenings of Yishun? This is the biggest insider info you could possibly put on screen,”

“Wait, wait, wait, no, no, I’m definitely not doing this for the tremendous fame and fortune this would bring…I…I…am doing this…uh…” Stefen bit his life and smiled nervously. “I am doing this because I want to find out what the hell that dude did to me!” *points at currently startled Ming*

“Hey, wait, that’s right, you said you attacked us in the first place because you wanted to find Demongazer’s blood to ‘devise a cure’, right? Can you not do that instead of the whole troublesome purification process instead?” Esse snapped his fingers with that “Aha, got you there, didn't I” vibes, smirking ever-so-slightly to himself.

“If he could, he would do it, Pillar, do you really think he wants to do this?” Little Whitey covered his beak with his wing as if mocking the incompetent, unable-to-catch-up brain of Esse's.

“Oi, oi, don't go too far, ah!” Sunda rushed to defend his brother and the name of the Pillars, pointing and glaring aggressively at the unfazed Little Whitey.

“But yeah, that does bring the question…was he developing a medicine of sorts to purify the Culpable? He already said it was impossible on its own, hence the whole ‘we needs three divine warriors sent from the heavens above blah blah blah’ thing. Why…?” Laju narrowed her eyes and shot the almost well-groomed Skorpius a glance.

“...”

“Cat got your tongue?”

“Ok, I'll be honest with you. The medicine wasn't meant to purify the Culpable-that's, as you said I mentioned, impossible. The medicine was meant to study one of the major abilities of Demongazers-transferrence or concentration of consciousness to a minor part of the body.” Skorpius halted his self-grooming for a while as he prepared for another long explanation.

“Transferrence…of…consciousness?? We can do that, Ming?” Stefen stood shocked for a brief moment, then turned to Ming like a child who wanted to ask his mother a burning question he had.

Ming did not answer, although his eyes presumably lit up-now full of life and energy. As if he had seen (or heard) something exciting or intriguing enough to perk his interest.

“Yes, it's true, although this skill can only be practised after an intense amount of training, and usually only activates in a case of emergency where your life is in danger,” Skorpius continued anyway, ignoring Ming's silence on the question.

“Transferrence of consciousness…so? Great, you want to develop a medicine that helps someone transfer their consciousness. How does that link to the current topic about Culpables we're discussing right now?” Sicarius brandished her knife again, this time possibly just for show considering she's already let Skorpius in the club as one of them.

“...”

“Talk.” Pertama stared down fiercely at Skorpius, mimicking the action of a pistol firing with his fingers. Wait, how's that supposed to be intimidating again? Meh, must be something Codeine taught him...

“The…the medicine's…supposed to…well…it’s…actually meant for..me…to consume…” Oh, how the mighty have fallen! Skorpius, who used to be either full of words or complete silence has actually stuttered in his speech! What a historical moment worthy of recognition!

“!!” Little Whitey yelped out a cry, then almost immediately stuffed both his wings into his mouth as if to indicate something he really shouldn’t have said.

“Little…Whitey?” Luna whispered as literally everyone in the room turned their craniums slowly to stare at the bird that apparently had an epiphany about something they didn’t but needed to know,

“Um, nothing, I just…swallowed a giant bug..wait, no, ew, I..uh…oh..I realised now that whatever excuse I make will sound suspicious as hell but I am definitively unable to tell you what it is, so just please trust me on this one for now I’ll tell you once the plan is over oh wait you’d probably already know anyway uh.”

“That doesn’t sound convincing…”

Skorpius let out a soft chuckle but made sure only the bird could hear, to which he glared at him as sternly as a bird could.

“Superpowered human?” Skorpius immediately shifted the group’s attention temporarily to Sano instead. “You’ve been quite quiet this whole journey,”

Sano slowly opened his sad eyes. No, really, eyes tinged with a hint of sadness. The apologetic, regretful, mournful eyes that spoke a thousand and one more words than any explanation from him himself could ever hope to.

“I trust you.” He finally let the words escape his mouth after a few seconds of solitude in his own world. “I don’t want any harm to come to him either,”

‘Neither do I,” Skorpius affirmed. “Although I must admit this is the first time I’ve seen a mortal forge such a strong tie to a Culpable,”

“I’m just an empathetic human, that’s all. I don’t want any innocent beings to suffer, just like you,”

“...” Skorpius lowered his head slightly in Sano’s direction and remained voiceless for a fleeting instant in time, letting the two of them clear the racing thoughts in their head.

The group noticed this and stayed quiet too. Particularly Luna-who, as we all know well enough to be able to stay silent for the entire day if she wanted to, and Little Whitey, who wasn’t all that bad in keeping the tranquility considering all the drama he stirred up earlier.

In fact, he even appeared quite apologetic for that-the same sadness that was once written in Sano’s eyes had jumped ship to Little Whitey’s. One could even feel sorry for him as he sadly stared down at Skorpius. One would even think he’s feeling sorry for Skorpius instead.

Wait, someone didn’t die recently or something, right? Skorpius isn’t choosing now to mourn them, right? Then why have such a random moment of silence? DOES HE HAVE SOME OTHER AGENDA??

“Alright.” He looked up and held his head high again after the moment of silence he started for no reason.

“Are we ready to head out?”

[greydaysandstarrynights]

I am increasingly convinced that the folks behind the Descendants books/guides etc., never actually saw HOND, they just needed a villain name that worked alliteratively with things that started with F/were French in nature—and maybe Dr. Facilier didn’t exist yet, because he would make so much more sense, in both instances.

I can buy the multiple jobs angle but, not this. Unless they are paying him protection money.  Frollo is a hypocrite buy unless he’s just gone off the rails entirely, his hypocrisy wasn’t really obvious unless he trusted someone. He rants about the Roma—and committing genofide—to Phoebus, not the archdeacon, because, one assumes, Frollo thinks Phoebus, being a soldier, being captain of the guard, etc., will share his views on people Frollo considers criminals and practically subhuman. A soldier would be used to the kind of dehumanizing necessary to fight and kill other people regularly, snd a person responsible for keeping the peace would, presumably, have a pretty dim view of criminals.

The archdeacon, in contrast, gets the Frollo everyone else sees—the stern judge who is strict, unyielding, cold, and without mercy, but not someone you’d expect to go on rants about annihilating an entire group of people. The archdeacon thinks Frollo has enough of a conscience that, while he’s fine with causing accidental deaths, he wouldn’t be fine with deliberate unwarranted homicide. Even when Frollo is about to murder Quasi, he justifies it by saying, “this child is an unholy demon; I’m sending it back to hell where it belongs.” He says that, probably in part because that’s his real view of the Roma coming out, but also because most folks in the Middle Ages did not have the rosiest view of people with disabilities, let alone someone with the very obvious and disfiguring conditions Quasi had. And even with THAT, the archdeacon still thinks Frollo will soften if he has a baby to raise, because nobody would harm a baby! People would, and do, and probably did in the medieval period too but that brings me to my next point.

The archdeacon is almost painfully naive when it comes to Frollo, but that just strengthens my argument that Frollo did not let his hypocritical views be seen, and if they were, he tried to convince the other person that he was still in the right. The archdeacon also seems…..really naive about a lot having to do with Frollo, tbh, like he ( the archdeacon) strikes me as someone who only intervenes when the situation is glaringly obvious. Otherwise, he seems to just passively assume that there’s nothing he can do/Frollo must have his reasons.

He clearly knows Quasi is living in the bell tower and just….doesn’t do anything??? As far as we see anyway. Now maybe he does and we don’t see it, but I think it’s far more likely that Frollo has him convinced—even through the debacle that was the Feast of Fools—which maybe he didn’t see— that Quasi is fine up there. So, either he has no ability to judge human character at all, (or healthy living environments for children) or Frollo has him thinking that he treats the boy fine, or, since he’s raising him, it’s none of the archdeacon’s business, any evidence to the contrary is easily explained away or, he’s fed the archdeacon the same line he has Quasi re.“the world is cruel…it’s I alone whom you can trust in this whole city,” and they both bought it. I think that’s probably what happened.

I bring up the archdeacon because no sane person who knew of Frollo’s actual views on the Roma would entrust him with a literal Romani infant— though, I’m pretty sure Quasi isn’t, but that’s another discussion—let alone an infant with all the disabilities Quasi has. Clearly, the archdeacon assumes Frollo is probably not the warmest of people, but not likely to do Quasi serious physical/psychological harm. Now obviously he does, at least the former is pretty implied and the latter is glaringly obvious, so, either the archdeacon knows this and doesn’t care—which would make him culpable, and I don’t think he does— or, he has no idea either that it’s happening at all, or—keeping in mind cultural differences on proper child raising between the medieval period and now—he doesn’t realize the extent of it, because Frollo isn’t telling him how he really views Quasi, and Quasi I’m sure isn’t either.

Which brings us to this travesty. You cannot convince me that someone like Frollo, even having went to literal hell and being brought brought back, would suddenly decide all his views are wrong and everything the Romani stood for/did etc. was fine, actually, and what’s more, he should embrace it too. You also cannot convince me that the man who duel led a figure depicted like the historical concept of the actual devil would condone fortune telling, or if he did, that he would be so obvious with his hypocrisy as it put his name on the business.

If he truly had changed, we would see evidence of him being a changed person. He’d repent. He’d be a decent human being. Heck, he might be invited off the aisle as an example of what good it does for people. Instead what we get is bits and pieces like this that are inconsistent but seem to indicate he hasn’t improved much. The guy literally duels a villain who looks like Satan. You can’t tell me he’s changed that much.

There is no way that Frollo would be ok with this, or with this being associated with him. What the heck. Now, his younger brother that’s in the book but not the film? Yeah. Jehan would do this in a heartbeat, not least because he lived to exasperate his brother. Or, the fortune tellers themselves do it for the same reason—to get under Frollo’s skin. But Frollo himself? No. Nope, you cannot convince me, I don’t care what it’s called.

At this point, I’m about to wish Disney would retcon Frollo being there at all, or find someone who understands him/ the film/the time period he’s from enough to be consistent because this? This feels like someone thought, lol, Frollo and fortune tellers, and just went with it, with no care about how utterly, patently, absurd it is as a concept. Yo, Disney. How about you hire a medievalist to help you itch the characters you’re struggling with. That brings me to another thing about the Isle that irks me. If all the films throughout Disney canon somehow exist at the same time in one universe, how does that work? How do we have multiple medieval films existing with the 1800s-1920s- beyond? And why, if that’s the case, does the Isle somehow look like 80s-90s grunge? Like??? You have a huge repository of time somehow existing all at once and yet these impoverished kids all look like early 2000s scenesters. My brain hurts. I get it’s for children but tbh, the villains they included are so dark, and the kids’ reactions to them so….yikes in terms of reflections of real world dynamics euth abusive parents thst, idk. I think if they hadn’t been trying to shoehorn conceits that would really work better for teen and up audiences into a franchise aimed at tweens and younger, the entire execution would’ve been much better.

-Uma’s Wicked Book for Villain Kids

Frollo’s Fortune Teller? Really? Frollo’s Fortune Teller? The same man who made a career out of hunting down “fortune tellers and palm readers”???

[lavendertales]

Careless whispers—Javier Peña x f!reader

Chapter 11 of the Unholy series

summary: after a shocking confession from last night, Javier decides it's time to tell you the truth about your father.

word count: 3.3k

gif: @bestintheparsec​ 

series masterlist | AO3 

Javier did his morning routine in the most bizarre environment thus far: your apartment.

He drank his coffee, had some breakfast—one that didn’t taste like shoes, at that—and listened to the radio whilst saying nothing to you. He kept eyeing you, and you suspected that he was checking to see if you were okay, but that he was probably too spooked to say another word to you.

You feared that might last for a while, so you decided to stir the conversation into the desired direction.

“I get that you don’t wanna talk about last night,” you begin with an ache in your throat and heart alike, “but you should know I do appreciate the sentiment.”

Javier’s eyes never leave your figure; they search, admire and yearn all at once, without a hint of the monstrous culpability raging inside of him.

“And actually, I wanted to tell you—“

“Yesterday was… shit,” Javier intervenes, and it feels like you haven’t heard him speak in days. “A major hit and miss. And afterwards…”

“Stop it.”

He sees the serious look on your face, and it kills him to acknowledge the secret he’s been purposely withholding from you. He realizes that you might never look at him again after he tells you.

Because he promised himself last night that no matter how today goes or what happens, he will tell you by the end of it.

You deserve to know the truth, regardless of how it might make him feel.

“Stop what?” he asks.

“Stop pretending to be this jackass of an agent who doesn’t give a shit. You do. And so do I. And… I do give a shit about you too.”

Fuck, fuck, fuck. He feels himself growing weaker in front of your sweet words. But he wills himself to be honest with you.

“You shouldn’t,” he retorts.

“What?”

“I’m not worth it. But you—you’re worth everything. You’re an incredible woman, and you deserve someone equally incredible next to you. Not some filthy man whore unable to commit or give an actual damn.”

You frown, unable to process where is all that coming from or why did he randomly decide to push you away.

“You don’t get to decide who’s good for me and who isn’t,” you tell him somewhat upset. “It’s my decision.”

“I’m not making that decision for you. All I’m saying is, you deserve so much better than what I could possibly offer you.”

“Javier—“

This is too much. He simply cannot handle you calling out to him like that, your voice slightly shaky and calling out to you in a serene way; and he especially cannot handle you saying his first name. It’s the weakest he’s ever felt, and though he hates it with every fiber of his being, he knows he has to do what’s right for you.

And right now, he is the opposite of that.

“I know something that you should know too,” he starts. “I wanted to tell you yesterday, but—“

His voice dies down, and you understand it more than ever.

“Yeah,” you say, your own voice distant. “So, what is it? What did you want to tell me?”

It can’t be the same thing he told you last night. You decide to let that go for the time being. Javier clearly wasn’t ready to say those words, and pretending it didn’t happen, in this case, might be the best thing for him.

Perhaps it’s not the best to do this now, but Javier has enough heart to know that he’d already let enough time pass by and being unfair towards you.

“I know why you’re here, in Colombia.”

Stunned, you can only look at him with curiosity and a little anger, too. You can’t help it; it’s the default setting when it comes to the man before you.

“How do you know that?” you ask.

“Murphy let it slip. Don’t blame him, he means well.”

“I know he does. It’s you I’m starting to doubt.”

Fair enough, Javier thinks. “Anyway, he mentioned your father’s name and that you think he was killed by one of Escobar’s men. So I did a little digging and I—I found him. I know what happened to him.”

Shock takes over you as you process Javier’s words. Mouth ajar, you can only look at him and beg for a merciful conclusion.

Though looking at his face, you quickly realize there is nothing of the sort that is about to be unveiled.

“And?” you as, voice small, yet dripping with anger.

“His file was in the evidence room. I can show it to you. It’s in my desk drawer.”

“His file was in the evidence room?”

“Yes.”

“I’ve looked there dozens of times and I couldn’t find anything remotely related to my dad.”

Javier gulps, more uncomfortable than ever before.

“It was stuffed in a box filled with—“

When he hesitates to continue, you shake your head, awaiting. “With what?”

“Escobar’s acolytes who were killed by… the DEA.”

Your limbs go cold, and you feel like your whole world is turning upside down.  You stand up, hands frozen mid-air as you rummage his words.

“I’m sorry, it sounds like you’re telling me that my father worked for Pablo Escobar, and that one of the good guys killed him. That one of us killed him.”

Javier hesitates, tasting bile in his mouth upon seeing your whole body language shift.

It’s almost done. You’ll show her, and then it’ll all be over.

She’ll hate me for good after that, but it’s the right thing to do.

“That is what I’m telling you,” Javier mutters in a guttural, shook voice.

“My father worked for Pablo Escobar. He was a drug dealer. That’s what you’re telling me?”

“It’s all in the case file. I can show you.”

“Oh, please do! I am begging you to show me the file which claims my father was a narco traficante and that basically my whole life was a lie!”

With a swift nod, Javier stands up as well, going to put his clothes on. There’s no backing out now; whatever retraction he wishes he could do, there is none left. He can only go forward.

Once you’re both fully dressed, you don’t say another word to Javier, and neither does he. He drives with his heart in his throat, his mind a pure mess. He steals the occasional glance at you in the passenger’s seat, biting on his tongue to not say something consoling to you. He figures you won’t accept it anyway.

“If this is some ruse, some tactic for the sake of competition, I swear to God I’ll strangle you, Peña,” you mutter between clenched teeth.

He immediately notices you switched back to your usual form of addressing him, and he realizes, in a much too fleeting moment, that he’s sad about it.

“What the—it’s not, okay? Why would I tell you those things about your father for the sake of some rivalry? That’s… over. It’s done for.”

You frown, glancing at him yourself. “What do you mean?”

“I told you. You won.”

“Won what? In case you haven’t noticed, the Blackie ordeal was a mess. He’s dead. Carrillo’s dead.”

“You still win. Everything.”

Javier does see the frustrated and confused look on your face, and the realization that comes after all that. However, you don’t inquire anything more, and he’s more than thankful for that. But gratitude slides off the list of sentiments he should be feeling right now, being swiftly replaced by guilt and pain.

He hasn’t even told you the worst part about your father’s case. The one detail that will soil everything that has happened so far—though unholy through its mere execution—and subsequently ruin everything for good.

It’s in this moment that he sees it all crystal clear. The rivalry you and he had going on it was a brave façade, now demolished by your lustful actions and his unexpected confession. Deep down, Javier is perfectly aware of the ruse you both kept going, as well as the reason behind it. Admitting that to you was never on the table for him, and now, even less so.

You won’t believe him anyway.

Javier parks in front of the embassy, beginning to feel downright sick. This shouldn’t be any different than breaking the news to some poor civilian, except it is in every single way.

“Alright. Lead the way,” you say in the driest tone.

Javier clears his throat, locks the car and starts walking. His every motion is robotic, merely controlled by muscle memory. All sounds are blocked, everything around him loses focus. His heavy footsteps are maneuvered by the sole purpose of breaking your heart, and each additional one kills him even further.

Once he reaches his desk, he stops, hand frozen on the drawer.

“Javi? Everything alright?” Steve asks, noticing his distressed posture.

Javier doesn’t reply. You inch closer, staring at him through a deep frown.

Let’s get this over with, he tells himself.

“Leave us a bit, will ya?” Javier asks Steve, and the latter complies albeit his curiosity.

Finally, Javier takes out the folder from his desk and hands it to you.

“Here’s proof,” he tells you. “Everything you need to know is in there.”

You fall prey to silence, eyes skimming through all the words laid down. Indeed, you cannot deny it: Javier spoke the truth. It’s right there in black and white. Your father, Michael, did work for Pablo Escobar, and died protecting him. He was shot down by DEA agents after being chased down and killing some of them himself.

Javier watches you closely, fear nearly crippling him in the process. But whatever he thought your reaction was going to be, you don’t deliver anything of the sort. Your face remains blank, unyielding and unforgiving.

“You signed this,” you remark, facing him again.

Then Javier sees it: the look in your eyes is a blend of pain and fury that he knows in an instant won’t just go away by engaging in the same activities you have thus far.

“Yes,” he replies with a grave tone.

“Which means you were the agent responsible for this case. You were on the scene when my father was killed.”

“Yes.”

“Okay.”

You throw the file on the desk, crossing your arms beneath your breasts and staring at him.

“I wanna hear it from you.”

Javier swallows harshly, suddenly nervous. Although he did figure you’ll want the full story, as it happened, actually requesting it still takes him by surprise.

“I want to hear what happened and why,” you say.

Unbeknownst to either one of you, Steve remains somewhere in the background, now joined by Sofia, watching you and Javier with a hawk’s eye.

Javier gulps, bracing himself. If he knows you—and he does—this is only the calm before the storm.

“The mission was two years ago. I was on the case, and I was out in the field with three other agents. We were expecting the raid at a local whorehouse to be a mess, but we didn’t think it’ll be that bad. When we got there, your father, Michael, was leading Escobar’s men against us. It was turning into a massacre. He was very brutal. He shot one of the agents in a heartbeat, without hesitation. We offered them a truce, asking them to turn themselves in and benefit from protection from Escobar, but you know how his men are. Blindly loyal, they’d rather die than allow us to get any information on their boss.

“What the hell happened to my father, Peña?” you grit your teeth.

“He didn’t give us any choice and killed the second agent, so I—I gave out the order to take him out. The other guy shot him at my order, and… I was the only one left alive after that day.”

He was on the scene when my father was killed.

He signed this.

He gave out the order.

My father is dead because of him.

It takes you a while to process the situation and acknowledging it as reality. You sit there, blankly staring at Javier and feeling whatever remnant of last night’s sentiments evaporate. When you look down at your hands, you feel them bloody again, tainted with hurt and betrayal.

When your eyes finally meet his, they’re filled with rampant hatred. For once, you do not care about breaking down in the middle of the office or even concealing your displeasure.

“You’ve been sitting on this information for the past… what, year? And through… all of the shit we’ve endured, through all of the shit we’ve done… you didn’t think to mention it? You thought the day after a man died in my arms is the ideal time?”

“I didn’t know it was him till a few weeks ago. And it was never the right time—“

“Of course it’s never the right time! We’re risking our fucking lives every day! Here’s a better thought, why not tell me last night, as Carrillo was being shot? Hm? Why not spoil the ending right then and there when his life was literally draining in my arms?”

Javier speaks your name, a begging whisper, but you don’t listen.

“You know, I thought, after all this time… I thought you’d have some decency towards me, if nothing more, to be honest with me.”

Your quarrel attracts Steve and Sofia’s attention, as well as others passing by the open space. But Javier doesn’t fight you, not this time. He’s well aware of the fact that he fucked up, and that you will never forgive him for this.

Who would?

You’re closer to his face now, but still angered enough. “All those times we were alone. All the moments, all the… how could you touch me when your hands were dirty of such a crime?”

“I didn’t know it was your father. I wouldn’t—“

“How could you touch me and – and do all of that while you knew this?! How could you tell me you—“

You stop, feeling a tear running down your cheek and incredibly harsh words about to roll down your tongue. You don’t care that half of the embassy is staring at you and Javier, nor that their suspecting minds are making their own scenarios at that very moment. You’re too disappointed and hurt to care about anything except the information that just turned your whole world around.

Javier’s sudden callout of your name brings you back to reality. He can’t help try to defend his decision. At the very least you should know things from his point of view.

“He was ruthless and vicious,” he dares tell you. “He dismembered people, he shot and mutilated them, all to protect Escobar. I wouldn’t have gave the order if I would’ve thought there was a chance of him surrendering peacefully. I wouldn’t have done this had I known…”

“That’s a lie. You and I both know the work comes first and you would’ve done whatever it took to save the others and get to Escobar.”

“We all do things we’re not proud of. I did what I had to do. It was never meant to hurt you. I didn’t even know he was—“

“Okay, you know what? I’m not necessarily religious, but believe me when I tell you this, I mean it. Go—to hell.”

You march out of the embassy, taking your father’s folder with you. For what, you don’t know. But it’s the last connection you have with your father, and you plan on hanging onto it.

Sofia runs up behind you, trying to catch up, while Javier remains in the middle of the office, staring at his shoes, emptied of all possible feelings.

“What the hell was that?” Steve finally dares approach Javier, but the latter fails to respond. “Javi. Hey! Jav.”

“It’s my fault.”

“What is?”

“It’s over. It doesn’t matter. Let’s just—get back to work.”

Still confused, Steve grabs hold of Javier’s wrist, keeping him in place. “What the hell is going on between you two?”

“It’s none of your business, so just drop it.”

“I’ve never seen you this fucked up over a woman, over anything, really. This clearly fucks you up badly, so whatever it is, you can’t deal with it by yourself.”

Javier breaks free from the restraint, licking his lips and staring around to ensure the safety of the conversation, free from others’ judgment.

“I figured out what happened to her father,” Javier mutters, ashamed of his own actions. “I told her… and she hates me.”

“Why would she hate—“

It doesn’t take long for Steve to put two and two together; he stares at Javier in dismay, shock reeling from his whole body.

“You?” he whispers.

“I didn’t shoot the bullet that killed the guy, but I might as well have. It was my order.”

“Javi… you can’t blame yourself for that.”

“How the fuck not?! It was me! The guys wouldn’t have shot him unless explicitly told so, and I told them so! I told them—to kill him. And because of it, she hates me. Really hates me.”

Steve pats him sympathetically on the shoulder. “I’m sorry, man.”

“Yeah, well. It’s only my fault. But at least I told her and now it’s—over.”

The word remains imprinted on his mind like a tattoo, a painful reminder of what he’s done and how far gone he is.

“You’re fuckin’ her?” Steve asks out of the blue.

Javier snorts, a mocking sound to show his confusion and displeasure alike.

“Smooth,” he tells Steve. “But no. Not… anymore.”

“I’m guessing by the magnitude of the moment, it wasn’t just about that.”

“No.”

Nothing can conceal the disappointment in Javier’s voice, transparent even to Steve, who watches him with a certain devastation. He wishes he could do something for his friend, comfort him in some way, but knowing Javier, it’s unlikely he’ll want any help.

And now knowing you as well, Steve figures that neither of you will be the first to apologize or at least demand a better explanation.

“If you’re in love with her, you can’t just leave things like this,” Steve can’t help but let him know.

“Who said anything about love?”

The mocking sound coming out of Steve’s mouth laughs right in Javier’s face, making him feel like the biggest jerk on the planet. One might say the sound has its desired effect.

“Oh come on!” Steve smiles, still a tad surprised. “You can’t be fucking serious! You completely broke any protocol and rule just to make sure she was okay during the failed raid, not to mention the stares and the look in your eyes—you let Pablo Escobar get away just to be with her!”

“Who the hell made you the authority on this case?”

“I’m happily married, and I think I know what being in love looks like. Right about now, your face says it all, man.”

Javier feels a headache throbbing inside his head, overwhelming him to the fullest. He doesn’t even have it in him to deny his feelings or pretend otherwise. All he sees is your furious face, even after you are long gone from his viewpoint, and the precise moment whatever fondness you may have had for him turn into pure hatred and rage.

No bruise, gun recoil or fall ever hurt this badly. Javier finds himself wishing he’d never met you, only to be spared of the horrid feeling building up within himself. But he knows he’d regret not having you in his life at all.

I was right. I am royally fucked.

previous | next 

[autisticandroids]

i contemplate 9x22 from cas' perspective Every Day now it's dean's turn. like i've said that dean Did That because he wants to isolate cas but i do think it's more complicated than that, these days.

because like. okay. zooming out. it's conventional wisdom to say the mark is nothing, right? like, the mark fizzles, mark dean isn't really different from normal dean and the effect it has on the show is mostly to make it boring and as an excuse to critique things that are already true. yes? but that's looking back on it with the full picture. like, that's totally true of s10. but s9 is way more interesting because in s9 mark of cain dean does genuinely seem to be... not himself. and the way the mark is treated is also more interesting. in s10, it's just like, an affliction, we're not interested in where it comes from or the specific way it got there. in s9, dean makes the choice to take on the mark. like, the thing about season nine is that it's like. a really bad time in dean's life. like the gadreel thing is like. @themauvesoul has said this somewhere but gadreel is the perfect deantransgression because it's really awful but also totally understandable. like dean should not have done it it's really horrendous but what the hell else was he gonna do, let sam die? like maybe he should have but he never could have. and so dean is in this hole, right? he knows what he did was bad. and so he just digs himself deeper. he gaslights sam because he can't face the consequences, and he wrecks his other relationships on purpose because he is so completely convinced that he's poison. he can't reckon with what he's done so he self-destructs. and taking the mark is part of that. and like, it's a classic dean self-centered self-destruction move, right? it doesn't matter who he hurts as long as he's hurting himself more. and that's what's happening with the mark in s9. like, at the end of 9x22 he attacks gadreel like a rabid animal in a way that makes very little sense, finally confirming that he's not himself. the deantransgression in s9 isn't what he does under the influence of the mark, it's taking the mark in the first place and allowing himself to fall under its influence. which is a lot more interesting than what happens in s10 which is both milquetoast ("here's some bad things dean did. pay no attention to the fact that he already does stuff like that all the time and it's considered fine") and stupidly non-culpable ("he did the bad stuff for magic reasons that aren't his fault"). like, the s9 mark stuff is way more interesting in terms of an exploration of dean's character flaws than what it becomes in s10.

anyway all that to say i genuinely do not think dean was himself in 9x22, like, i think we can give him a "diminished capacity/under supernatural influence" pass. because what's interesting is what he learns from 9x22.

okay so season nine is when dean learns that cas will accept you know. pretty much any treatment from him. like in general i tend to see dean kicking cas out of the bunker with nothing as wildly ooc, but it also can't be totally discounted because of it's impact not just on cas' characterization but on dean's. like because it was so out of character, it's one of the few bad things dean has done to cas that he fully sees as like. horrendous. and cas is just like. oh you like me again! thank you for accepting me back into you life! i love you dean. like dean is crushed by guilt and cas is just fine with it. so this brings dean to a new understanding of cas. like, cas will accept anything that dean does to him. which is horrific, but it's also soothing. because if dean is poison, if he is simply doomed to harm everyone around him (which is certainly what s9 dean believes), then isn't it nice to know that he can't drive cas away? like, yes, horribly guilt inducing. but also comforting.

and he doesn't think about that. because it's too horrible. but then later when he's under the influence of the mark. well. he doesn't feel so much guilt. he doesn't feel so much love, either. he becomes cruel and sadistic. he sees cas as a fun chew toy, and as pathetic for what he would let dean do to him. and he takes the horrible conclusion that dean has already come to and says: well, if he comes back every time i kick him, how hard can i kick him and have that still be true. that's maybe the biggest reason dean is acting like that in 9x22.

(there's another big reasons which is: it's a punishment, not for cas, but for sam. 9x22 starts off with sam trying to assert himself in their relationship a little, and this pisses mark!dean off. so mark!dean inflicts a double layered punishment on sam: first, on the obvious level, he is really nasty to cas in front of sam as a way of saying look at all these nasty mean things i can do and you can't stop me. but much more crucially it's about. well. mark!dean is extremely aware of the difference between sam and cas. he can kick cas as much as he want and cas will react by crawling back to him and trying to appease him more. sam won't, sam will object. and so dean at the end of the episode plays them against each other: he chastises sam, and then goes off to get all sweet with cas in front of sam. this is partly for cas' benefit, as a means of re-securing their relationship, but it's also a message to sam: look at what i just did to cas, and he's still good. he's still obedient. look at the rewards he reaps. you're in the doghouse, cas is the favorite now, because you keep being a little bitch about stuff. it's a demonstration of how dean thinks sam should act. he's rewarding cas for his behavior in front of sam to show sam that cas is the favorite now, and also that sam could have rewards too if only he let dean walk all over him.)

but anyway re: how cas will always come back: dean was tormenting cas in 9x22 for fun, because of the mark, and part of that was testing him. he was experimenting for intellectual amusement: how bad, and how obviously maliciously, can i hurt cas and he'll still come back. and what dean finds out is that there's practically no limit to it.

and like, well.

okay. after he loses the mark, well. here's the thing.

i'm sure dean feels really, really guilty about having performed that test. like, really, really guilty. he doesn't want cas' life wrecked, even if he isn't a fan of the other angels and stuff.

but like.

he can't unknow the results.

dean will always be aware after that of just how far he can push cas, how much the elastic stretches. he'll know, even if he doesn't want to, even if he feels bad about it. he'll know that whatever he does to cas, cas will always come back.

...which is why the divorce arc happens.

[sage-nebula]

What if Tails and Kit were best friends.

I think that would be great! Unfortunately, I don't think it has a shot at happening in canon for a long time. :(

When the covers where Tails is holding Kit were first released, I made an "it's free brother" meme for Tails, referencing how he seemed to just pick Kit up and carry him off. (Which he does, albeit to save his life rather than for any other reason.) And as you perhaps saw in that little ficlet I wrote, I would like to think that Kit would recognize that Tails' kindness was genuine and that he wouldn't want to hurt Tails anymore, even though he still absolutely will if that's what Surge needs him to do. (Because he'll do whatever Surge needs him to do. His moral compass begins and ends at, "What will serve Surge best?") But even though I wrote that, I think it's probably just wishful thinking. I think that Kit is absolutely going to think that Sonic deliberately lied to him about Surge being dead so that Kit wouldn't be able to help Surge, thereby allowing Sonic an easy win. And I think that it's entirely possible (perhaps even probable) that he's going to see Tails' kindness as more manipulation to a.) stop Kit from drowning him, and b.) keep Kit from helping Surge since that's what Sonic needs. Which in fairness, Tails did not want to be drowned and was trying to de-escalate the situation so that he wouldn't be drowned, but that doesn't mean his compassion was a lie. But I don't think Kit will see it that way.

The problem is that, right now, most everything Kit knows about people and how the world works has been fed to him by Starline and Surge. Starline made sure through weeks (months? I know Kit went down a lot faster than Surge but I can't remember the exact number of days right now) of actual hypnosis and brainwashing that Kit knew that his sole purpose in life is to serve Surge and do whatever it is that she wants or needs. And Surge has made sure that Kit knows that not only will she berate, beat, and perhaps even murder him if he so much as doubts her, but also that she is the only person he can trust thanks to the truth about what Starline did to them coming out. At this point in time, Kit has every reason to believe that no one would be kind to him for the sake of being kind. Starline was manipulating him. In her own way, Surge is too—but that's okay in his eyes, because that's her right. He's there to be used by her, so if she uses him, well, that's just the natural order of things. But Sonic and Tails don't have that right unless Surge is gone. And she's not gone, and Sonic lied about it, and Tails must've known that Sonic lied about it, so Tails is culpable, too. I think that's how Kit will probably see it, anyway.

It would obviously be best for Kit if he were to spend time around people who were genuinely kind to him, and tbh if he got a therapist to help him work through all of the programming and abuse he's suffered at the hands of both Starline and Surge. (Because while Surge was absolutely abused by Starline as well, that doesn't excuse or make acceptable her abuse of Kit. She literally threatens to "drown him with his own tails" because he's worried about her / afraid of her screaming and threatening him. I love Surge to death, but she is not good for this boy right now.) But I don't think that's going to happen any time soon. Narratively, he's still way too attached to Surge and will undoubtedly maim or kill anyone who gets between him and her. And from a meta standpoint, I think the IDW writers are going to want to keep Surge and Kit as villains for a while since their rogues gallery of non-Eggman villains is stretched so thin, especially with Starline being perma-dead for now. I mean, that's why the Zeti came back in the comics (and also recent spinoff games); there just aren't any other non-Eggman villains to pull from because they all either get killed or redeemed. So I think that any redemptions for Kit and Surge are going to be put off for a long time. (And they are such cool characters that I would rather redemption than death, but we'll see.) It's also why Mimic got let out of jail so soon after he was put in; he's more useful out where he can cause damage than in jail where he can't do much of anything. (With that said though, if he harms one hair on Whisper's head I will burn him to the ground. Surge is also on thin ice for that. I mean I'm fine with Surge beating the shit out of just about anyone else, she can have a little wanton violence as a treat, but Whisper has been through enough, leave Whisper alone!!)

But if Kit does eventually get some help, and starts seeing himself as a person outside of just an asset for Surge to use as she pleases, I would definitely like to see a friendship between him and Tails. I think it'd be really cute for Tails to have a little brother of his own (because I imagine Kit is at least a couple years younger—but then again, fennec foxes are small in general so it's possible he's even a little older than Tails, but just very short). I also think it'd be cute if they had a friendly rivalry over inventions and technology. Because yes, Eggman is Tails' intellectual rival, but Eggman is also the big bad of the series and as such not really someone that Tails can learn and grow from in a positive way. I think that Tails and Kit building off each other and acting as rivals in a way that Sonic and Knuckles or Sonic and Shadow do would be really cute. And I think Sonic would be happy that Tails has that, too—happy that Tails has someone that he can geek out over technology with. But if that does happen, it sadly probably won't be for a very long time.