#but he's misunderstood and talked shit about even though he's one of the most caring and selfless people I know

[eyebulb]

[foreverrandomwritings]

Leah Clearwater with Imprint- Headcanon

Summary:This is a headcanon of Leah Clearwater having an imprint. I love this misunderstood wolf so fucking much. 

Pairing: Leah Clearwater x afab!Reader

Warnings: Death, swear words, smut at the end MINORS DNI 18+ ONLY!!

Word count:903 (I really love her okay?)

Masterlist    M’s PMC Masterlist

~It had been both surprising and unsurprising when Leah imprinted on a woman.

~Surprising because they didn’t realize that female wolves could imprint(even though they didn’t really have any knowledge in the female wolf thing anyhow)

~It’s unsurprising however because they had all imprinted on women and had never heard of a wolf imprinting on a guy before. 

~She imprinted on you after you had gotten done telling off a couple guys for being inappropriate with a group of high school girls at the diner you worked at. 

~You had kicked the guys out, made sure the girls were okay then turned around to tell her she could sit where she likes when you made eye contact and your life completely changed for the better. 

~Leah had been ecstatic to finally have an imprint. 

~She does hesitate to tell you that she's a werewolf and that vampires exist. 

~She’s terrified of something happening to you if she involves you in her life. 

~But when she does tell you you are completely understanding why she hesitated.

~You never give her any shit or grief or anything about her having to stay out late and patrol.

~You actually make sure to schedule meetings in good spots while she’s patrolling so you can give her dinner or lunch or sometimes breakfast. 

~She is extremely reluctant to bring you around the guys, other than Seth of course. 

~You and her younger brother get along like two peas in a pod.

~It makes Leah extremely happy to have someone care for Seth as deeply as she does. 

~You always make sure he is fed as well and that he isn’t overworked with patrols. 

~When she does bring you around the guys, you are tough as nails. 

~They try to make fun of Leah for the fact she was so pouty after Sam left her for her cousin. You fly right off the handle. 

~Seth and Leah have had to hold you back from physically attacking Paul and Jared for their words. 

~You also absolutely obliterated Sam and Emily one night, giving them a really long lecture about how much they truly hurt her and they apologized to her profusely. 

~She had never had anyone in her life stick up for her the way you did. 

~The love she held for you showed in every look your way, or the sparkle in her eyes when your name was mentioned. 

~She had always hoped to have the heartache of Sam and Emily patched up and you did just the trick. 

~You were unwaveringly patient with her even if you were her imprint she was still scared of another heartbreak. 

~You guys moved in with each other pretty quickly. Finding a small two bedroom apartment. 

~The thought of not living together made you both sick so it made the most sense. 

~Though separate bedrooms quickly turn into one. 

~She enjoyed having you wrapped up in her arms too much while she slept. 

~You enjoyed being wrapped up in her scent while she was gone too much to stay away from her bed. 

~You also were one of the only things that soothed her nightmares away. 

~Whether they be of her fathers death, the eclipse battle or what could have happened in the breaking dawn confrontation. 

~You reassure her everyday that you will never love anyone the way you love her. 

~You reassure her in the way you kiss her, slowly and passionately letting all unspoken words slip between your lips between her own. 

~You reassure her with the way you start a shower for her when you hear her slip through the front door. 

~You reassure her with the way you always have her favorite snacks stocked in your pantry, your bag and your car.

~You reassure her in the way you stop by and talk to Sue on a daily basis.

~She reassures you of her love with the way she throws your towel in the dryer so it’ll be nice and warm after your shower.

~She reassures you in the way that she hums your favorite songs while she’s doing chores around the apartment. 

~She reassures you with the way she takes you to some of her favorite spots she’s found during patrols. 

~She reassures you with her intimacy and vulnerability. 

~She loves cuddling with you, she’s always the big spoon, she loves the way you hold her hand and wrap it around your middle or lay it on your chest right over your heart. 

~Or she likes when you lay your head on her chest above her heart and tangle your legs within hers. 

~She likes when you braid her hair for her. She also enjoys braiding yours in return. 

~She's obsessed with the way you always seem cold without her. You’ll be wrapped up in 4 blankets, have on fleece pants and a hoodie with fuzzy socks and still somehow be freezing but then she wraps you up in her arms and you are perfectly content. 

~When you guys have sex it’s pretty much always soft. She is terrified of going overboard and hurting you.

~However if you liked it a little rough she would indulge you a little. 

~She keeps her thoughts of you very very private. She does not want the guys to see you in an inappropriate way. 

~Overall this woman loves and worships you undeniably. 

~I am desperate to be her imprint.

A/N: I am a complete sucker for this gorgeous woman. 

Tags(open): @wkndwlff​ @sylviebell​ @dingusteveharrington​

[caffeinelemur]

Stolitz Communication Styles

I feel like I need to talk about this.

Stolas’ high education and verbal gymnastics, versus Blitzø’s lack of equivalent education, dyslexia, and difficulty expressing emotions, especially through words. Because it plays a huge part in why they haven’t been, and still aren’t, communicating effectively. Also both of them are neurodivergent as fuck and communication is a bitch for us anyway.

Specifically, this is a dive into that different classes/mindsets dynamic, leading up to a look at that text conversation at the end of Western Energy, and how it leads into their possible growth.

From the very start of the series, Blitzø shows that he has difficulty with writing/spelling and prefers verbal communication. (Even if we look outside the instagrams, which are not technically canon.) The first episode has the billboard that was entirely speech-to-text and not proofread, (he’s too uncomfortable writing that big of a message out, and he thought it was easier to just say it, and was thus not equipped to proofread or edit it, as that would mean he was capable of knowing how to write it out correctly in the first place), his text messages and notes are generally short and often full of typos and phonetic spelling, and his whiteboard is usually covered in doodles and small attempts at writing that varies in levels of spelling prowess. He uses pictographs to help in proving his point or explaining his thought process. He has trouble expressing himself verbally, as his true feelings are expressed through actions, but his direct, vulgar, and often angry or insensitive wording and tone make it difficult for most people to see past this to his actual true feelings, (not to mention he often lies to others and to himself about those anyway). Issues with tone and blunt speech are a big thing with neurodivergent people, autistic and ADHD people especially, of which I think Blitzø is both. Stan an AuDHD king.

Stolas is rich, highly educated, and spent much of his life, especially early on, reading books instead of socializing. His house basically doubles as a library. He said himself that he “loves words”, and got excited about reading legal documents. He uses flowery, posh language and carefully talks around other people using this skill. His emotionally abusive past, both with his father and with Stella, make him a careful people-pleaser, and so he’s constantly giving others the upper hand in a conversation, more give than take, in attempts to not anger or have his intentions misunderstood and then incite said anger. A common thing in both abuse victims and neurodivergent people, especially autistic people, which Stolas clearly is. He does also have issues with tone and knowing when he should and shouldn’t say certain things, and he can often misunderstand others’ points and questions, and then answers or responds too bluntly or literally. Hashtag Just Autism Things.

Blitzø is an imp, the lowest class alongside hellhounds, and was raised in a circus. He clearly did not grow up wealthy in any respect (as his father resorted to selling his son and stealing from the fucking Ars Goetia so quickly, though that could also be attributed to just being living trash), nor is he particularly affluent now, as his small apartment has literally one bedroom, for Loona, and he sleeps on the couch. He outright says he can’t afford art classes. He hasn’t had the same level of educational opportunities as Stolas. On top of that, he’s also dyslexic, based on how, when he does write, it’s either written phonetically, as he would say the word, or he gets letters flipped around. He can write coherently, he’s not illiterate, but usually only when he tries really hard. He mixes capitals and lowercase in the same word sometimes. He’s even worse at texting than he is at writing by hand, with many typos, and resorting to text-speak abbreviations and emojis to lessen the amount of time he has to take trying to type shit out, and, again, doesn’t proofread.

Taking all of this into account, Blitzø is not going to understand a lot of what Stolas says when he uses larger words and talks around a point, especially since, unlike Stolas most of the time, Blitzø is very direct and uncensored when he talks (as in, no brain-to-mouth filter, but also he uses vulgarity in place of more eloquent speech), and when he is trying to say things with actual forethought, he ends up stuttering and has trouble finding the right words (ADHD brain fail ftw), and then gets angry at himself, and occasionally takes it out on others too (poor Moxxie). Stolas tries to talk around the point and backtracks his own words even more in stressful or emotional situations, giving more ground to the other, and this difference in stress response plays a part in their misunderstanding and inability to see from the other’s perspective.

In the first episode, during Stolas’ inopportune phone call, Blitzø thinks he’s being insulted when Stolas uses the word “grimoire,” because he doesn’t know it and always jumps to this conclusion, then has to get Stolas to stop using flowery language to talk around the point by telling him to “stop using your fancy ass rich people talk,” and Stolas has to change the way he’s been speaking to be more direct and clear. (He doesn’t retain this information for later, sadly).

All of this, to talk about the post-Ozzie’s text conversations. We know several things now:

1) Blitzø is not good with spelling and is more comfortable using pictographs to make his point, which you can’t do in a text. He’s also uncomfortable with honest emotional expression and has problems with tone.

2) Stolas uses overly flowery and complicated language to express himself, leading to paragraphs of talking around the main point in an attempt to explain his meaning, often to the extent that it’s extremely unclear what the point is that he’s actually trying to get to. This gets worse when he’s trying too hard to express himself or is thinking too much about the other person’s response.

3) They both have little experience with conversation of an emotional nature that’s not coming with some sort of protective front (Stolas’ open-ended people-pleasing statements, Blitzø’s use of false anger and vulgarity to push people away), so when they do try to say something without the mask, the other is unequipped for the change and misunderstands the intentions, especially when it’s through text.

Blitzø is uncomfortable with writing and especially with texting, and so says very little, using short abbreviated text-speak and emojis to express himself, like he would with his drawings. Stolas overexplains and writes paragraphs of vague statements and loquaciousness in an attempt to get a point across. These are very different approaches to the situation, and from the other’s perspective they come across differently than they intend, due to the conflicting communication styles.

So.

In the text conversations we see in Western Energy, Blitzø says very little, and doesn’t initiates the conversation. Stolas sends walls of text, overexplaining and going back and forth on his intent and the purpose of the text.

Now, we know that Stolas is trying to give Blitzø space and options, and clearly cares a lot about his feelings, and is going out of his way to make sure he’s comfortable with the situation. In doing so, he gives him several outs, minimizes the entire experience at Ozzie’s at his own expense (and therefore Blitzø’s, but he doesn’t understand that yet), and pokes at the idea of talking emotionally far too soon for Blitzø, who is freshly re-traumatizing himself from said experience at Ozzie’s.

Stolas, from his own perspective, is giving so much and getting very little in return (a common theme in his life). He would see this lack of reciprocity in communication as lack of interest or being upset. A common thing irl, it’s easy to read a “K” after a long emotional message as a negative or indifferent response, regardless of the other party’s true feelings. (Which is possibly why a lot of people get upset on Stolas’ behalf in this moment, thinking Blitzø doesn’t care as much about Stolas as Stolas does him. It’s a common thing to experience. It’s not true, though.)

Meanwhile, Blitzø already hates writing, is bad at expressing himself in general, and reads into everything as negative. He thinks that when someone says something he doesn’t fully understand that they’re insulting him or making fun of him, or he misunderstands the intention and wording to be an insult (tonal and indirect or vague speech issues), like with that first phone call with Stolas, the “that’s what she said” joke Loona made, and Crimson’s mention of hearing things about him. He has a lifetime of evidence to back up this thought process. He is constantly demeaned and insulted by larger Hell society, and was treated as unworthy and lesser since childhood. He also just fucking hates himself and blames himself for everything. He’s not gonna suddenly gush his feelings, especially over text. He’s also gonna read into others’ words extremely negatively, until the true meaning is explicitly explained to him. Which isn’t very likely in a text conversation, when he’s not going to ask for proper clarification and the other party can’t tell that he’s misconstruing the intention and so doesn’t know they need to explain more anyway.

So, he isn’t going to initiate a text conversation unless it’s for a serious reason. He clearly doesn’t use it as a method of conversation as much as a quick way to get in touch with other people and exchange information (ex- his seemingly “impossible to misunderstand” text to Loopty in C.H.E.R.U.B. & his conversation about the portal with Millie in Seeing Stars). In Blitzø’s eyes, Stolas says "hey this is/isn’t happening", and he says "ok got the info" and he moves on from there. Information exchange. Then Stolas starts trying too hard, after Ozzie’s, to take his feelings into account without fully understanding Blitzø’s feelings to begin with, and starts backtracking and talking around the point again. He already got Blitzø’s reply, but then backtracks, which doesn’t give Blitzø the direct information he needs, leading to him misunderstand the proffered options as a dismissal instead of a clear confirmation with the option for him to refuse. Blitzø already is going to have issues reading/fully understanding the long wordy messages Stolas sends, he isn’t going to understand the nuance that Stolas’ specific phrasing is trying to say, and is going to see a “but you don’t have to/only if you want” attempt at giving him autonomy and boundaries, as a “don’t/I don’t want you to” full negation.

Stolas is also downplaying their experience at Ozzie’s, which is not only negating his own traumatic experiences with being shamed and insulted (not the healthiest mindset), but also minimizes Blitzø’s feelings and experience then as a result. Blitzø is going to see this as confirmation that it wasn’t as important/emotionally painful to Stolas as it was to Blitzø. Stolas making light of a situation that started a breakdown for Blitzø just proves to Blitzø that he’s the one overreacting, and that Stolas does find him less important, as the entire situation was already about Stolas valuing him less, in his eyes.

Stolas trying to overexplain and backtrack in the lack of access to Blitzø’s own thoughts is hurting them both in this situation. None of his pushing and flip-flopping is going to make Blitzø more eager to initiate a conversation or respond more, especially through a form he’s uncomfortable with using. And this makes Stolas feel unheard and undervalued, which leads to him try even harder, which leads to Blitzø shutting himself off even more, and so on. A lovely miscommunication feedback loop.

And knowing all of this is what makes that last text so important.

Blitzø initates the conversation for the first time. He writes what is, for him, a full sentence, with an emoji. He’s expressing himself as best he can, and is showing his actual feelings in the message. He’s going out of his way to say something to Stolas.

Which then… Stolas overwhelms him with more emotions and words. He’s not comfortable with emotional conversation and too much at once would freak him out, and the immediate upfront honest thoughts Stolas sends in the wake of Blitzø’s own emotional expression aren’t what he necessarily needs or wants to deal with, especially so soon after that worldview-shattering realization, the following guilt spiral, and the subsequent opening up that the first text is.

Yet he then, in spite of these hurdles, starts to reply.

But he gives up.

We don’t know for sure what he was going to say, but an easy read of his thoughts would be: he tried to express his feelings again in some way, was failing to do it right, was overwhelmed with feelings he didn’t know how to handle, and angrily gave up. Probably cursing himself out for even trying.

It’s not callous or uncaring or lacking reciprocity. It’s the full opposite. He’s trying so hard, but failing again. He cares so much and is incapable of expressing it verbally and unable to receive similar care in return.

Look back to the other time he tried this hard to write something emotional. The letter for Fizz. The love letter. And see how that situation went? He got overwhelmed, angry at everything and at himself for thinking he could try at all, and it all ended in fucking disaster. That he blames himself for. That he hates himself for. But here he tried to do it again anyway, while thinking, again, what happened to Stolas was his fault. That one message means so fucking much.

To Blitzø, the idea of visiting Stolas in the hospital was out of the question entirely, and him being asked to so immediately and candidly would make his guilty brain fall over itself even more. He’s never been allowed to visit his loved ones in the hospital, and the entire reason they were hospitalized to begin with was because of Blitzø, so how could this situation be any different? He wasn’t allowed to visit Fizz or Barbie, people who at least at one point he believed cared about him, so he’s definitely not going to be allowed to visit Stolas, who he already thinks doesn’t really give a shit.

That text was the best he could do at that time.

To really communicate effectively, these two need to sit down in front of each other and actually explain where they’re coming from. The lack of knowledge of the other’s position and situation, both in their past and currently in this relationship, is hurting them, and making understanding each other more difficult. The class difference and the differences in upbringing, despite both having garbage fathers and fucking meeting each other as children, are impeding their understanding and view of the other. Both Stolas’ obliviousness toward the actual differences in station and opportunity between him and imps as a whole, and inability to realize Blitzø’s personal difficulties with communication (based in the same place he’s blind to), and Blitzø’s (valid) disdain for the upper class and his view of the stronger, and especially of Stolas, as too good and important to bother with him and too powerful to feel actual pain, are the things they need to fucking address.

Blitzø already got this worldview fucked with, between seeing Stolas worry so much over his daughter, and then actually getting badly hurt. He now knows Stolas can care, and that he can feel pain, and that makes him at least peripherally aware that he’s able to be emotionally hurt.

By Blitzø.

Stolas, meanwhile, is vaguely at the point of comprehending he holds more power in their dynamic because of their differences in status, and him holding the key to Blitzø’s entire business and livelihood. He now knows Blitzø didn’t think he wanted anything other than sex, because of his hasty and overly selfish attempt at keeping him around. And it was a sex deal! He realizes he was wrong for holding that over Blitzø and that his actions and words in the past helped cause the misunderstanding that he didn’t care for Blitzø past getting sexual favors.

Stolas is gonna try to fix this power imbalance by giving up the entire premise of their current relationship, in the vain hope Blitzø will understand and then reciprocate his actual feelings, while Blitzø is now vaguely trying to actively prove he gives a shit about people, even while unsure of Stolas’ feelings toward him, and the result of these intentions clashing is gonna be a goddamn mess, unless miraculously they can communicate around the inevitable misunderstanding.

Please somebody let them explain themselves and have the other fucking listen.

They both love each other, but are fucked up from trauma and are neurodivergent, so they express themselves differently and can barely figure out their own shit, let alone explain it to the other. Get therapy and try new communication styles.

But they are slowly learning. They have the tools and ability to figure this out if they both try. It’s not futile. It just might take some fuck ups and more time to fully get there.

Sincerely, an AuDHD emotional abuse victim that sees themself in both of these idiots and wants to scream.

[theheirofthesharingan]

I know Itachi is your number one, but in what order do you like the other uchihas? Im guessing sasuke is 2. Who is 3rd, 4th, 5th place etc?

Actually, I love both Sasuke and Itachi equally, but in a different way. Sasuke is like my son and Itachi is.. well *blushes*

The reason I write more about Itachi is because I don't see genuine love for him in the fandom. It's the extremities of either the dudebros (who also want to portray him as a flawless, did nothing wrong kind of character) or the haters who lie on the complete opposite side of the spectrum, deliberately ignoring all the good. Even he has some pick me fans, who are his haters in disguise, I guess.

He's a wonderful character who is heavily misunderstood. I love to write about him more than the powerscaling stuff and the regular takes you see on him about him being evil, him being a villain from the start, or him being an irredeemable evil and all the shitty opinions. Since I don't like replying with the negative opinions on other people's posts (or taking screenshots of their posts to secretly harass and badmouth them), I tend to write the analysis on him in my own space. Most of the things I write I haven't seen being said about him, so I feel he needs this positivity terribly.

He's tragic, he's sad, he's powerful, he's miserable, he made mistakes, he was hurt, he hurt, he had regrets. And most people reduce him to what aligns with their moral compass. I love to explore his multifaceted character without the finger-pointing or blaming other characters, because he deserves it.

When I joined Tumblr, I was a bit more pro Sasuke and pro Uchiha, but their fans in my posts back then ended up talking a lot of shit about Itachi, which made me focus a lot more on Itachi. Though I'm not going to let fandom activists dictate and change my love for Sasuke, so my interaction with most of his fans is nil. That doesn't mean I don't love him. My fics are a proof of how much I love him.

Anyway, this isn't what you asked. I love both Itachi and Sasuke. The second would be Shisui. The third would be Izumi (even though she's a "filler" character).

I like Madara too. He's a cool villain. But I'm not all that emotionally invested in him, so I don't talk about him that much. I stopped caring about the story after Itachi's death and watched the rest of the episodes of war arc for Sasuke. So, I only remember what happened to him, not Madara. And I don't care about the ship (HashiMada), so there's less interest for me there.

I like Fugaku as well. But I'm most invested in Itachi and Sasuke, and Itachi needs positivity, and I'm forming an Itachi cult, so let's go.

[bornwholocker]

Yeah I’m making another character rant post sue me, but it’s actually crazy to me how many people I’ve seen just going full hater mode on toshiro?? Obviously you’re allowed to not like a character, but people are villainizing him so hard, it’s wild. Like as an autistic person who has had people pretend to be friends with them, yes that shit HURTS. And the way toshiro went about his relationship with laios(especially for so long) definitely wasn’t healthy, but also like. It’s so much deeper than that?? And I’m glad I’m starting to see more people talking about this lately because honestly, it’s right there guys.

First things first, I do want to remind people that being “polite” and not telling people you don’t like them, but subtly signaling it, is still the standard in most social situations! And it doesn’t make much sense to me and it sucks for a lot of people and causes miscommunication, but it’s not like toshiro’s some big bad evil guy for following unspoken social rules that most neurotypicals also follow. Also also, given that dungeon meshi’s setting is definitely not modern, the characters probably don’t know what autism is! They just know that Laios is weird about monsters and doesn’t do well socially. All the characters have problems, many of which are accentuated for us by how normalized a lot of things are in a modern world, and a lot of things not being acceptable/normal. Obviously these are still issues for the characters, and are addressed/resolved as such, but we need to put it in perspective just a little bit.

Toshiro lashed out because A) he had just gone through some CRAZY ASS SHIT, which I feel like no one brings up. He just learned that his party companions used illegal magic that pretty much everyone agrees is dangerous on the woman he loved (yeah the way he proposed to falin without any previous communication was weird but that’s a whole nother can of worms), and it ended horribly for her! and B) he was exhausted. He had just gone days with little to no food, very little sleep, and there’s Laios, well fed and rested and to toshiro, not at all treating the situation with the seriousness it deserved. And it just hit home with how much he and Laios had clashed, how Laios was so open and honest about every little thing, and oblivious to what toshiro thought was extremely obvious. Toshiro had been raised to be quiet, polite, respectful, etc. and as a result learned to bottled up his feelings, so when he saw Laios being able to say whatever was on his mind, he understandably envied that. Even though we know that it’s difficult to be on Laios’ end, toshiro saw it as a privilege. Not only that, but he had been trying to signal to Laios (not exactly effectively but) how he felt for YEARS. And his point never made it. Everyone talks about Laios being misunderstood, but what about toshiro? What about his years of trying to communicate in the way he knew, and not being understood? I think everyone knows exactly how frustrating it is to feel like we’re being SO obvious, only for it to still cause miscommunication. So why not extend that understanding to toshiro?

Aside from all this though, it’s still clear that he does care about Laios, even though he’s annoyed by him. He literally gives Laios a bell that, when rung, would ring a matching one and be a call for help. Another example- which albeit anime only’s probably won’t know, I only know because I saw the panel- is in the finale I think, toshiro defends Laios to the elves. He sticks up for him and places his trust in him, even after everything.

Neither side was really in the wrong, but people are bashing toshiro like crazy. Unfortunately we don’t have a lot of big scenes with him outside of that meeting in the dungeon, so most of our opinion is formed off of that one moment, but that moment tells a much bigger story than just, “toshiro bad and ableist, laios poor autistic puppy.” It’s been said countless times on this hell site and beyond, but I am BEGGING people to please have a little critical thinking as a treat. Like Ryoko Kui wrote this story and the characters so much more complex than good guy and bad guy. (Slight spoilers maybe) Not even the BBEGs are really all bad, when you get down to it. Everyone’s feelings and experiences are shown from their perspective and contextualized to the audience extremely well IMO, which is one of the reasons I love dungeon meshi so much. Anyway point is think deeper folks.

[boy-kings-court]

thoughts on spn s8

ahh... good old s8

though it's been a while since I've watched it all the way through (currently in s6 with my friend) s8 without a doubt brings out the most mixed feelings for me compared to any other season

fair warning this got kinda long

let's start with the good:

1 ) the sam and dean drama

if you can look at it objectively, shutting out the narrative's dean bias and the general fandom reaction, it's just delicious. I've seen it referred to as the samndean dual cheating arc, which I love rather you consider that romantic or just in the weird brothers way lmao.

I'm a big fan of benny and unlike most of the fandom don't mind the sam/amelia plot. I like it what it represents for sam's character, showing just how mismatched sam and dean's priorities are in the beginning of the season. and even though sam would cop shit from dean, the narrative, and the fandom at large, those rare moments where he stands up to dean feel like mana from heaven

2 ) TRIALS TRIALS TRIALS

this is the most important aspect of s8 for me and maybe what I should have led with, but I'm sure it's not surprising coming from a sam stan or just if you're at all familiar with my blog (hopefully you are <3)

the trials arc is one of my all-time favorite sam arcs. it has unique whump, deep and meaningful revelations for his character, and ends with one of spn's greatest season finales (to me, and I'm always right)

it also spawned one of the scenes of ALL TIME, 8x21's "I'm not clean" iconic 10/10

the trials arc is of course absolutely heartbreaking from a sam perspective, especially when thinking about s8 collectively. sam going from defending himself and his choices against dean's unfair criticism -> choosing to leave his life with amelia behind -> bravely undertaking the trials but wanting to come out on the other side alive -> not caring if it kills him in the end because of his feelings of unworthiness, guilt over his past mistakes, and (chiefly) dean's infantilization and constant reminders of all that sam has done "wrong" is one of the most sickening (affectionate) journeys I've seen a character go on. even if most of the fandom doesn't recognize it for what it is, at least the dedicated sam corner of the fandom does, and I will never tire of reading trials-related meta

3 ) very distinct arcs

this probably seems trivial in relation to the other two but I like how s8 feels like two or three different seasons mashed into one

now let's talk about the bad:

1 ) wasted potential

you could say this about a lot of spn seasons/plotlines, especially the later ones, so of course it applies here too. as much as I like benny, I think there's more they could have done with him, mainly giving him more interactions with sam! I feel the same about henry winchester too. I didn't need peepaw to stick around forever, but without a doubt they should've given him more than one measly episode. he and sam had serious potential to bond and grow close, making his death (ideally later in the season) much more impactful

2 ) too much angel crap

I really can't tell you how sick I got of angel politics, and s8 only gives us a taste of many more boring conflicts to come. the angel "trials" do nothing for me, I hardly remember anything that's going on with c*s once he comes back from purgatory minus that cringe ass swan song imitation they give him and dean (and it's memorable for the wrong reasons), and the angels falling, which seems to be a big deal at first, is extremely underwhelming once s9 rolls around (maybe it's not fair to pin that on s8 but whatever)

3 ) narrative bias towards dean/fandom reaction to sam

maybe this is also not fair to pin entirely on s8, but these things are unfortunately forever intertwined in my mind and color my view of the season as a whole. s8 sam is arguably the most misunderstood and slandered sam of the whole series. you could certainly make that argument for s4 sam, s9 sam, even s5 sam, but I'm sure you will agree s8 sam is up there no matter which sam wins that crown for you

the significance of the trials and what they reveal about sam's character is entirely lost on most of the audience. all we seem to hear about instead is how stupid and pointless they find the amelia plotline, how jealous and unreasonable sam is regarding benny, and (you already know it!) endless endless ENDLESS "waaaaaahhhh sam didn't look for dean!!" just one of the three of those is enough to drive me insane, and we are instead treated to all three and more!

couple this with the narrative's dean bias (and s8 just happens to be the moment where, in my opinion, this bias becomes fixed and permanent) you are left with some of the worst takes and most fuck ass sam meta you can imagine, some of it being so bad I've heard of many instances of sam stans taking a break from spn or just checking out entirely around this time

s8 my beloved and s8 my beloathed

although maybe this is all entirely too serious and I should instead just thank s8 for its greatest gifts: estrogen!jared sam with his beautiful tan and glorious long glossy chestnut hair AND sickly trials era bella swan sam, both of whom I want to abandon the silverware for and eat with my bare hands

thanks so much for this ask, and if you were expecting a succinct response instead, I sincerely apologize

[sillyassonepieceheadcanons]

Teaching them to say "I love you" in your native/foreign language: (Robin, Luffy, Sanji, Law) x GN Reader, SFW

Notes: [text] is supposed to mean it's in your language of choice

Whether they're saying "I <3 u" platonically or romantically is up to you

Summary: their approach to learning language plus how successful they are about being taught

Robin

In general, she's interested in learning the dialects of the world, and will ask you to teach her other phrases in your native tongue too.

This becomes a whole thing, and in the daytime the other crewmates can hear your voices repeating phrases like,

(Off pronunciation) "[I want directions towards the East Blue]"

"No no, you gotta say it like... [I want directions towards the East Blue]..."

When you two get night shifts together, a lot of it is now spent coaching her on the phonetics and sometimes writing the words out for her to learn too. Before, conversation with Robin was a bit difficult to achieve, so you're glad you're getting to spend time with her this way.

She's a very good student and achieves excellent pronunciation thanks to ur help.

Emotional language doesn't come easy for her, but after one particularly productive session of learning, she smiles and says, "Can you check my pronunciation on this again? [I love you]"

Luffy (+ a lil Zoro)

He's not an easy person to teach but lord you can try.

At first, you try to teach him + Zoro practical phrases in case either ever gets lost in a foreign country, but they both misconstrue sentences and always end up accidentally saying the most vile and awful shit imaginable.

You decide to teach them just one phrase, as love couldn't possibly be misunderstood.

"Repeat after me Luffy, Zoro, [I... love.... you...]"

"[Į... ļõve...ÿou...]" "[İ... łove... ou...]"

Luffy repeats the new phrase once curiously, and then something clicks under that big straw hat. He gets a great big smile on his face and starts saying “[I love you! I love you! I love you!]” as fast as he can to you, over and over. He starts going around saying it to everyone in the crew, who have no idea what he’s saying but smile anyways. Zoro acts like he doesn't care enough to say it in a he's-actually-just-too-shy kind of way.

Once, you guys encounter an enemy who speaks your native tongue, so Luffy says the only phrase he knows... declaring his love to the enemy, which baffles them but has you laughing your ass off. 

Sanji

Actually it happens that he's already memorized how to say "I love u" in just about every language across the blue seas... because he wanted to make sure he could get his message across to any lady in the world, even if they don't speak his language.

Absolutely pretends like he DIDN’T KNOW though, so you can teach him and hear you say "[I love you]" a million times.

Learning foreign languages was also something impressed on him by his father as part of an unkind curriculum, so getting to experience it in a new light with you, as a man free from his family, is something which deep down he is very grateful for. 

Will now alternate between saying he loves you in English and in your dialect when he sees you. 

Law

Besides being good at fights, as a doctor, he has a very studious side of him too. However, he rejects having the first phrase he learn to be “I love you,” instead of something practical. 

If you want to be a little mischievous you can promise to teach him a polite greeting when you’re actually teaching him to say, “[Good evening, may I be so kind as to propose my eternal love for you?]” If he ever finds out he’s going to get your ass beat though. 

Wouldn’t seek out learning because he has other things to do as captain, but if you two are ever bored together he’d enjoy having you coming over and teaching him. Sometimes you like pulling out one of medical books and translating different body parts and organs for him to learn to the best of your ability. 

One snowy day you find him standing alone on the deck of the Polar Tang, and maybe because he had something to drink that day, he starts talking to you about the Heart Pirate's crew and how grateful he is to everyone but especially you. At the end, you almost don't catch it, but you swear you hear him say, "[I love you]"

[b3achysurfur]

I know I originally said in a comment at some point about how annoying the Logan war got (think it was in that post asking why we all suddenly backed off) but now I just find your posts humoring it's like "THIS LITTLE GODDAMN PIECE OF SHIT-" and it's the most innocent picture of Logan.

Love seeing it nowadays (cuz it's funny), but you have a good point that he hasn't furthered the story yet but I feel like Red might change that soon. Hopefully. Also how we haven't had his backstory but that also might change too (we've got a hint in one episode where they fought his bullies, something about how his parents didn't want him and he fact that we've only seen his grandparents but not his actual parents says something....)

Anyways something I need to ask you! What are your opinions on the others, what you like about them or dislike, favorite moments and what not. I'm curious!

Sorry this may have been long!

SEE NOW YOU GUYS ARE GETTING MY HUMOR , THIS ACTUALLY MAKES ME SO HAPPY!!! THANK UUUUU A LOT

also UR SO GREAT FOR THE QUESTION YOU ASKED!! I love talking about everyone else

I’ll assess them in order of: ashlyn, aiden, taylor, tyler, ben (not by order of how much I like them or anything btw). Some sections are longer than others because I’m bias BUT ALSO BECAUSE I got tired of typing and realized there was wayyy tm to read. Sorry!!!! if you don’t wanna read all this I put a short summary all the way on the bottom + feel free to me ask me specific questions ! now let me talk your ear off

ASHLYN:

I really like ashlyn because she has the most potential out of everyone (and that’s not to say the other characters aren’t deep, because that’s the opposite of true but bae is the whole reason we’re here). I think she’s also really relatable in the sense that she doesn’t like interacting with people but she can easily take the leadership role when needed. like okay queen I see you. also I really enjoy the fact Red made her dislike aiden at first even though they have a side romance plot going rn. bc that’s how it would’ve been if they were real. ash would not just become chatty out of no where and fall head over heels for him. and I really appreciate the slowburn. Ashlyn’s also higher on my favorites list because I’m bias and we have the same hair length 😣 usually when characters have long hair, authors tend to let their hair flow a lot, but red put ts in braids 🙏 and ask anyone with long hair like that, their hair is up 99% of the time bc it’s annoying, hot, and (personally) GRABS ONTO EVERYTHING LIKE ITS A THIRD HAND. I have a lot of headcannons for ash just based on small character designs / aspects that not a lot of people really think about. She’s so interesting and I really just love her. And since I have positives, I’ll give one negative about her. In the beginning, Ashlyn was really hesitant to tell the group anything. I understand where she was coming from, and given Tyler’s reaction, I don’t blame her for keeping things to herself. But mannnn ts was so frustrating sometimes. it’s ok tho bc all good stories stress you out.

AIDEN:

omg guys it’s my favorite ever. I know aidens really popular already so I’ll try not to rant on about him forever but hes just the best 😣 but mans really does not gaf EVERR.

now I could rant on and on about how silly Aiden is and why he’s so misunderstood as a character, because he’s not crazy like at all and if anything he’s one of the smartest characters in sbg, but I’ll save if for a better time. Instead I wanna talk about how observant he is of Ben and ashlyn.

it’s cropping weridly, sorry. but aiden’s eyes are always watching the ones he cares about most. I feel like this has to do with the fact Ben cannot voice his concerns/opinions so aiden always has to glance at him to make sure he’s not missing any important signal. But I also think it has to do with his childhood (I don’t have fast pass or anything this is just based off of theories/analysis based on his character bc I do that a lot ��). Anyways, he has a specific way of comforting people that I think it’s rlly niche. He uses his hands and gets the person what he thinks they need. Like in the attached images he gets ashlyn fabric to squeeze and distracts her with light conversation, and he immediately offers to take a walk with Ben and get some fresh air. If a person refuses or asks him for space, he immediately obeys and doesn’t question their decision. He’s very trusting and understanding. He gives people room to make mistakes and gives them room to ask for help. I’m mainly bringing this up because it ties back to something I’m gonna talk about in Taylor’s section. I just think that this detail is so important to his character and we always brush over it. I don’t wanna say he doesn’t like physical touch, bc he’s always touching everything around him, but I like to think his main love language is acts of service. When you really look at it, his actions speak a lot louder than his bickering and it really helps display how much each character means to him individually. what elseee. He’s able to quickly adjust and assess situations (like when he attacked the phantom or pulled up ashlyn in the bus). He’s very quick to his feet and always needs to be interacting with something to keep his hands busy. Aiden just really don’t gaf 99% of the time (unless it’s Ben / ashlyn) and honestly that’s why I like him. He doesn’t take anything seriously or personally. clap it up for my hb. Also I notice the sbg fandom has a habit of doing it with everyone, but I feel like Aiden is always reduced to his impulsive behaviors and ‘crazy kid’ persona. please guys. look deeper into Aiden Clark. Instead of wasting your energy trying to defend a NERDY FREAK like Logan fields, you should study more on Aiden Clark and his complex character.

yes. do that. rn. You want to so badly. I know you do. Do it. Go reread sbg and focus on Aiden. wowwww. I know you want to. (I’m hypnotizing you btw) Or just ask me I can talk about Aiden (or really any character) alll day long. Ask me anything about anyone and I’ll tell you what I think with proof and evidence. yes. I just need to cut it short because I have to talk about everyone else to. But study Aiden Clark. do it. really. really. Right now. Go. Go. Now. PLUS Aiden’s probably the least likely to die because he’s to cool for that + he’s better than death and injury. YAAA!!! MAKE AIDEN CLARK UR FAV BC YOULL BE SAFE FROM ANGST 🎉

only thing I don’t like about Aiden gotta be his fashion sense sometimes (usually beginning S1). like WHAT R U WEARING MAN???? 🙁

TAYLOR:

okay now let me talk about my shnukums Taylor. I love her a lot but her and Tyler had very different childhoods regardless of the fact they were in the same situation.

We don’t know a lot about Taylor’s version of growing up, so a lot of the details are vague but everything I say is based off of observations and analyses I have personally made, so please take everything I say about Taylor’s backstory with a grain of salt and understand that no matter what, both twins were majorly affected by the passing of their father and illness of their mother.

At first i thought of Taylor was the more lucky one out of Tyler and Taylor when it came to their childhood. Yes she struggled, I knew that, but Tyler was under a lot of stress. But that’s when I realized that she suffered just as much. Although she didn’t need to sacrifice herself to help her family survive, like Tyler did, she went though the most loss. She lost her mother, father, and brother all overnight. One second they were all happy together and the next she was all alone. Physically, her mother and brother were still there, but they were both shells. Her mother isolated by grief and her brother isolated by responsibility. She was all alone. Yes Tyler did his best to support her, but at the end of the day, there wasn’t much he could do to change the situation. Taylor suffered a lot, and since people mostly focus on Tyler, we never really see Taylor’s POV of it all.

Now her backstory leads me into the fact Taylor is the most socially smart character in sbg. She is also the most observant and supportive. This is not to say others aren’t observant/supportive, like Aiden for an example, but she does it much differently. I would attach a picture here but I’m close to maxing out the photo limit and I want to save it for later.

Taylor is very good at reading the emotions of other characters. She is also very observant. Taylor is often the first to notice when a charater is uncomfortable, panicked, or harmed. For an example, she’s the first to notice Ashlyn’s fear back at the house. Unlike Aiden, Taylor is able to verbally let people know she is there for them. She comforts them through words and physical affection. Taylor is usually aware of how much support someone is in need of and the best way to display it for them specifically. For an example when Logan was getting bullied, she defended him against Tyler’s mean words and held his shoulder for reassurance. This same tactic would not work for ashlyn, and Taylor is aware of that. So, when ashlyn broke down about the struggles of being leader, Taylor comforted her through words and reassured her fears. Taylor opened up a space for ashlyn to be scared and share her burden. She was able to do all of this in only a couple of moments. This skills also becomes a werid quirk when she is able to sense Tyler’s condition in the hospital, but maybe that was just twin senses? 🤷‍♀️ idk

Taylor is also very aware of everyone around her. We know that she is very social and has a lot of friends and connections, but she also educates herself on the people she doesn’t interact with. Even if she doesn’t know a lot, she makes sure to acknowledge their presence at the very least.

What does her ability to read emotion have to do with her childhood? Well, Taylor basically lived with a shell of a family. Tyler was under constant stress, which made him prone to outbursts. Her mother was disabled by grief. Taylor was in a situation that made her feel like she had to take care of her family mentally. It was, to her, the least she could do. So, she was mentally mature from a very young age. Although having to hold the burdens of others constantly is very unhealthy, I’m not sure if she’ll crack because of it.

Taylor being very social and having a lot of friends is also another example of how she’s different from Tyler and how their shared childhood affected them differently. Tyler saw people as distractions while Taylor sees them as her means to keep living. Taylor lives off of other peoples energy, and she maintains the energy of other people by being a supportive beam for them. This is also why I’m okay with Taylor being shipped with others. She’s use to being around people and can form close bonds with others while still only viewing them as friends. Tyler cannot do the same. Taylor is in a position where she can expand her horizons into romantic relations if she was interested in doing so. That’s why I feel as though it’s okay (if that doesn’t make sense I’ll explain it again, but I tried to condense it down)

Something I don’t like about Taylor is that we haven’t gotten to see her brain in action yet. We know she’s the president of the robotics club , but we haven’t had the chance to see her charater support the story in any other way but socially and mentally. The story is only at 60 episodes though, and I’m sure we will see it eventually. Im just impatient and want to see women in STEM shine 😣😣 I wish I could talk about her more, but we barely know anything about Taylor as of right now. I will say it’s interesting how she told her and Tyler’s backstory, but only talked about how Tyler was affected and not herself. Interesting… I hope we learn more about her experiences and I hope I’m right 🙏 also CAN WE TAKE A MOMENT TO APPRECIATE HOW PRETTY SHE IS??? UGHH I LOVE HER SMM

TYLER:

I feel like Tyler has been the topic of discussion for the past couple of months because his backstory was revealed and the end of S1 / beginning of S2 was all about him and his past, so I don’t have a lot to say that I haven’t already said. but I do really like Tyler. At first when he was in his jock era I was very , oh! about him. but he’s actually warmed up to me sooooo much since then. he’s so goofy I just want more interactions between him and Aiden. I think I good place to start is how much I HATE people shipping him with other members of the main cast. I talked about it a little in Taylor’s section, but him and Taylor had very different childhoods. Again, I’m not saying their father’s death and mother’s illness was not hard on the both of them, but Tyler was under a lot of pressure too. We know he isolated himself harshly, and stopped having fun all together. The way I look at it, everything, including living day-to-day, became a chore for Tyler. Ever since he was a little kid. His dad’s death changed his entire world overnight. He had to learn how to physically and mentally support everyone important to him, because if he couldn’t no one else would. Tyler had to learn everything about living life by himself as a baby just so everyone else could survive. He stopped having fun. Little kids find fun in everything. Tyler stopped himself from finding it. He didn’t do anything for himself anymore. He was almost like a empty shell doing automatic tasks so that his sister and mother could have space to grow, heal, and live. In a sense, it was self sacrifice (which he attempts again when he tells the group to leave him behind)

So when Taylor tells us that the main cast started to become an extension of the family he sacrificed himself for, it’s so heavy on his character. Especially because for once in a long time he started relating his ‘family’ back to joy and fun, not just safety and survival. That’s why it bothers me when people ship him with others. It’s so werid to imply he’d date any of the main cast when he sees them as his family. consider them blood-siblings if you gotta, but just stop shipping them. PLEAASSSSEEEEEEEEEEE. otherwise I’ll eat your dog. thanks! also him being friends with the main cast at all is such a huge step for him. I don’t think Tyler has time to get involved with romantic relationships when he believes friends are a distraction. I know a lot of people go to romance when they want to express how strong a connection is between two characters, but you guys are forgetting that Tyler considering everyone as his friends is sooooo much more complex and deep compared to (for an example) Logan saying he considers everyone his friend. ANYWAYS ENOUGHHH!!! let’s move on.

I also wanna talk about this scene (I was to lazy to go find the original scene so the flashback is all you get). I never really realized how much ashlyn ordering Tyler around must’ve affected him. He literally spent his whole life making decisions and taking leadership and all of a sudden some random lil girl is over here telling him to stfu and sit his ass down. I would imagine as mad as he was, he probably felt a least a bit of relief. For once the responsibility wasn’t on him, at least not only on him. He could share his burden with others, and he wasn’t suffocated by being responsible for the lives of everyone else. We see this same struggle affect ashlyn, as she feels like being leader strangles her with the weight of guilt, paranoia, and responsibility. Imagine if Tyler had been the one to bare that weight after everything he’s already been through? he would’ve cracked, whether we like it or not. so let’s clap it up for ashlyn rq!!! yasss girl 😋 I know I’m rambling a lot about tyler but I know a lot about him and want to talkkk 😣 but here is my last point: Tyler’s coping mechanism to the unknown and things that confuse him is denial. Just like his mother 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

woww! do you guys remember when Tyler thought this whole thing was a joke? me too! he would’ve never thought this silly prank would almost kill him. Tyler’s mom probably thought her husband’s illness wouldn’t kill him either. oops! 😂 (I’m going kms). sorry. my point is they both refused to believe it happened (although his mom’s denial may have been more of a trauma response while his was just to help him cope). Even with evidence, they both couldn’t understand what had happened to them and pretending nothing was wrong. Tyler saw the picture of the phantom’s shadow and brushed it off to technology he couldn’t understand yet. he felt more comfortable with not knowing how technology worked rather than not knowing if he was in danger. his mother is similar. She couldn’t understand and cope with the death of her husband, even though he died in front of her. She felt more comfortable not understanding why he was late from work than understanding he was dead and gone. Guess it runs in the family? 🤷‍♀️ and since these are all things I like about his character, I will tell you what I don’t like. THAT STUPID ASS JOCK ATTUIDE FROM S1. okay I didn’t hate it, and it fit him sometimes, and I kinda miss it sometimes, but he’s like 5’5 and a stick, he is not beating no one’s ass 😭 respectfully. now he could probably rock me but he’s matured a bit since S1 so it’s different. Tyler’s not even my favorite idk why I talked about him sm , especially when I held off on talking about Aiden because I didn’t want to say to much 🤦‍♀️ whatever

BEN:

I have a lot to say about Benny boy, especially because he is SOOOOOO mischaraterized. Now I won’t go crazy like I did for the twins because I’m thinking about making a separate post just about Ben (maybe.. maybe not idk). plus I just reminded myself anon asked me to just say a few things I like and disliked about each charater not give crazy long paragraph about them. so, sorry Ben but you will probably have the most boring paragraph of them all. I still love you a lot pookie 🙏 I’m just tired AND MAXED OUT THE AMOUNT OF PICS I CAN USE EVEN THO I NEED TO TALK ABOUT U WHILE USING PICS 🤒 anyways enough rambling.

bens charater is often reduced to his backstory which genuinely makes me want to start tweaking out. if you expand on why his trauma affects him, then I will happily listen to you talk. But when most the fandom sees Ben as “music boy who hate bully, will fight you if you be mean” it makes me so SAAAADDDDD. no, Ben will NOT beat my ass for making fun of Logan. That’s like… the whole point of his backstory? He doesn’t like violence, at all. He’s ashamed of his anger issues. He blames himself for having to move and putting his family in danger. The only reason he got involved with Logan’s fight was because the phantom interference + no one was there to help calm him down.

also he doesn’t only do music. he draws too! he’s a very artistic dude. He also gardens. Ben be planting food and shit. which (as much as I HATE the ship) Logan n Ben shippers could probably use to their advantage. Yk bc Ben gardens and Logan helps his grandparents in their greenhouse? wtv. Bens prob growing flowers for Taylor anyways. Fuck Logan. sorry.

Ben is also very compassionate and gentle. He’s always thinking about what’s best for the group, even if it puts him in an uncomfortable position, like sharing his trauma. Ben is also very soft hearted. He gets flustered very easily, we see this when ashlyn and Taylor complimented him. He is very protective over those he cares about and he does not come to play, ever. Also his character development from S1 makes me so happy. He use to be attached to Aiden’s hip 24/7 and we could often only understand his emotions when Aiden would translate him to us. But we’ve seen lately that he’s much closer to Taylor, even putting her safety before his own.

wow, gentleman alert❗️if I didn’t run out of photo space than I would’ve shown more examples where he holds onto others as a way to comfort or protect them. he’s so respectful I might cry. maybe I will make a Ben-centered post. I need to show you guys pictures so you can understand what I’m saying. But Ben is growing and he needs more attention. thank you.

SUMMARY:

Ashlyn

pros:

- has crazy potential + most hinted at lore

- very relateable

-introverted but stands on business

-W relationship development between her and the cast, very natural and not forced

- her hair

cons:

- she is very hesitant to spill info (only in earlier chaps tho!)

Aiden

pros:

- silly

- observant of those he cares about

- acts of service love language

- trusting/understanding

- quick on his feet

- good at assessing situations/making plans

- he doesn’t GAF 🦅🦅 EVAAA

cons:

- often misunderstood / mischaraterized by the fandom

- has ugly ass outfits sometimes

Taylor

pros:

- most socially smart character in sbg

- good at reading emotions

- good at comforting others

- aware of her surroundings/the people around her

- supportive

- social

- super pretty

- wrote a paragraph on why it’s ok to ship her with the rest of the cast js cuz

cons:

- we don’t see enough of her robotics president side, show me women in STEM 🤬

- we never saw how she experienced childhood (yet..)

Tyler

pros:

- deep childhood trauma/responsibility

- sacrificed himself for his family twice

- not meant to be shipped with anyone in main cast

- sees main cast as family

- he finally made friends

- talked about the scene where ash tells him to shut his bitchass up

- copes by using denial (js like his mom)

cons:

- his jock attitude during S1

Ben

pros:

- hates violence

- angery at his anger issues

- ashamed of his past

- draws and gardens as hobbies

- compassionate and gentle

- soft hearted

- easily flustered

- very protective

- slow but steady quiet charater development

- a gentleman

cons:

- you guys mischaraterize him a lot (like someone told me he doesn’t change as a character bc he never speaks, ts made me mad asf)

THATS ALL! THANK YOU FOR ASKING!! again feel free to as me questions about anything at all even if you didn’t read allat. And if you did, thank you ur so sweet and amazing. Sorry for writing sm 😢

also everyone is open to their own opinions, this is just what I think. As always, I’m always down to debate.

[mdhwrites]

I'm sure I'd be called crazy by the fandom for this but I actually feel bad for Belos.

After the (obvious) reveal that he was a human I didn't like him, rather I hated the idea than the character, because I much more preferred the mysterious figure he was in s1. However the Wittebane brothers conflict was an interesting concept I was curious about until it got no resolution on how things escalated to the current situations.

So I agree Belos is boring (become so to me since mid S2), but I can't hate him.

Especially when it's SO obvious that the writers want me to hate him and they're so insistent about it. It was the same thing with Odalia too, (and Boscha to some degree). And when I can see through the stupid decisions these characters are made to do, despite being nonsensical, it gives me the opposite effect and makes me pity them for the simple fact they've been done dirty. I may also do it out of spite because I hate when a show basically tells me what to do. In this case how I should feel about these characters because they are so evil~ , ok and? I get the idea, are you gonna do anything else besides this?

So the villains that I'm supposed to hate I don't hate. But (ironic) the villains that I'm not supposed to hate, I DO actually hate, which is the collector, for the same reasons you said before, he's really flawed as a character and that sad story of him being a misunderstood child didn't sell me shit, I rolled my eyes.

So this has me torn between talking about The Hand of the Author and kind of the sliding scale of villainy and its weird impact on your audience. I feel like this is mostly about Belos and why his actions never really sell you on him being a monster so let's talk about the inverted relationship between a villain's action and audience response. What am I talking about? Well... It's effectively why our response to someone killing a dog is "I'm so ready to see that fucker die," possibly even with a smile on our face while our response to someone grimacing at a person of color makes our blood boil but then the dude who kills a thousand people by destroying an entire town still needs to give us a reason to care. One is active aggression and the taking of a life while the other is a microaggression... But one that most people will actually relate to. And the last one is so beyond the realm of believability or resonance that it doesn't actually leave much of an impact. Boiled down: It's why the fandom absolutely despises Odalia and Bosch but this is the THIRD ASK where someone goes "I never got into Belos as the most evil thing there". Belos is evil to absurdity. He's killed a LOT of people for really BAD reasons so HATE HIM. Meanwhile, Boscha's just a bitch and not even that good of one and yet people HAAAATE HER. This is why it's an inverted relationship. The more a character is strictly evil, the less an audience is actually going to hate them because often times in order to do so, they become more of a caricature and their actions frankly get more absurd from a human standpoint. Meanwhile, a character who wouldn't even be tried for a crime in real life but is still doing harm is seen as much more evil because that's all too real to the human experience.

This isn't purely meta though. Part of it is that the more plainly evil a character is, the more subconsciously an audience knows they're going to get their comeuppance. This is probably part of why people hate the SU finale so much because these people have done such awful, horrendous, unforgivable things and instead of a punch out or punishment, they're talked down. I haven't seen the finale though so I can't say too much. Quick tangent: The other way around is almost as bad. I've seen Belos' death scene and I despise it because that is not Luz standing there. That is a commentary on "Happy Ever After" endings where even the villain gets to live or the main characters are just that kind hearted. TOH goes so far as to almost characterize even RAINE as being GLEEFUL in murdering this man who is already dying. There's a reason why more finales who want this will have the main character, who is good hearted enough to not want to see life lost, be pulled away by a more morally nuanced character who says it's better this way. Neither is expressing joy but they both recognize the danger needs to be dealt with so they can't save him. It keeps your good guys looking good while allowing for a final moment of moral complexity about when the kindness of the main character finally runs out. Then again, that implies Luz is an actually kind character who has endless amounts of love to give and is not just blessed by the author to make friends with anyone they want to.

Sorry. Back on track. This meta context makes it so that a pure evil villain, one who does things that are entirely unrepentant, is flagged as going to be taken down someday. There's no coming back for them. Someone with more nuance or does smaller aggressions though can still appear human which makes the actions feel less like the writer's evil thoughts made manifest and instead like a person who had the choice one day to be mean or kind... And chose mean. And that they may never choose kindness but that the chance is always there. And not only is that more compelling, it's far more painful to the audience. It's effectively what I HAVE to write a lot for Rich Witch because these characters claim to be friends but have been raised in a way that makes the inherent act of friendship almost toxic... But you can see glimpses of better. Moments like Igni and Azu talking about a book series they like. Blair and Pythia showing real care for each other. Azu opening up and taking risks with Daina even while she keeps such strict control over the rest of the friend group and even Daina. It's meant to be frustrating because that's where they're going to grow out of. And this is also why the show's attempts at humanizing Belos, at trying to pull back from him pure evil, is actually worse than him being one note. I've talked to MANY people about the fact that Rich Witch is a LONG series because these complications require time, effort and focus not only to make not all be lip service (Hi Hunter) or feel rushed (Hi Amity to some extent, because while Lumity doesn't feel rushed, your character development does). It is genuinely good sometimes to just have a one note, but fun, villain that an audience can be excited to see curb stomped. They don't need much fleshing out. They don't even need much screentime because they can set up their credentials REAL FAST. But then we get into the inherent issue with TOH: It knows one note villains are not something people praise... But it doesn't know why a show like Avatar still has Ozai. Because Ozai is not a complex villain. Any complexity comes from his children but we learn honestly very little about him throughout the series besides him being a bastard and that works GREAT. It gives us a moral opposite to Aang, who constantly tries to do right by everyone, his evil justifies Azula's evil and why we would go so far against his son and banish him and allows us to understand why the Fire Nation is as ruthless as it is... All without wasting much time! I'm pretty sure the closest we get to a real episode that is an equivalent to Hollow Mind for Ozai is pretty much during the invasion of the Black Sun when Zuko defects... AND IT'S STILL NOT EVEN MAIN PLOT OF THE EPISODE! Because what's important there is the deep villain, not the one note one. And yet TOH devoted so much time to Belos while ignoring Hunter besides backstory implications which is not how you flesh out one of your theoretically main characters at that point. Because it doesn't want to be accused of having a basic villain despite all the fun people have had with characters like the Joker.

And frankly, I feel like that comes down to not understanding either the importance of that inversion. Something going for horror or cruelty might try to humanize to cause discomfort in an audience. A reflection of our own reality but also broken is going to hurt more. But... If you're, I dunno, an adventure comedy, that sort of tone might not be useful for you. It might just be better to have someone who can facilitate really cool fights and let our heroes have a lot of Big Damn Hero Moments because those fit with the tone you're going for. It also sells us on why EVERYONE wants this fucker gone so we don't have to worry about the consequence of if the heroes murder him because you're curious why God himself has not struck him down. And not understanding this creates a problem like not understanding why simple, likable, mostly flawless main characters exist. Because sometimes that's just what's best for the story, especially if you have any sort of time limit to telling your story. But Belos only started getting spotlighted in S2B so the writers clearly didn't give a fuck about that expect, did they? So they went with what makes for a better video essay. Or blog in this case, even if it made for a worse story.

=========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[thesoleilla]

SO. I JUST READ TOMODACHI GAME CHAPTER 125 AND I NEED TO TALK ABOUT IT OH MY GOD. SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

So. First off. Yuuichi. My baby boy. He did no wrong

JUST LOOK AT HIS FACE IN THIS PANEL IT MAKES ME SICK.

This is Yuuichi knowing he's going to die. This is Yuuichi trying not to make his friends suffer because of his death. Trying to seem like the worst scum ever so they don't have anything good to remember of him. So that they're almost relieved he's dead. This panel hurts me to my core (just like the entire chapter did)

He just knows he's gonna die in this one. He's grateful he did. Sacrificing himself for everyone. It just feels so real. Following Yuka's rule of friends being the most important thing in the end. Literally sacrificing himself for them.

And this. All of his old friends just giving him up. Not understanding him. Seeing him just like he wants them to see him. In the end, they always saw what Yuuichi wanted them to see of him. Just the mask he put up, nothing else.

Only to be immediately contrasted with Kei. Now if you know me a bit, you know I am a hardcore Kei x Yuuichi shipper so OF COURSE I bawled my eyes out, but this is out of topic. Kei and Satone, both people who don't know Yuuichi for nearly as long as the others do. Both people who constantly try to see below the mask he puts up. Satone, with her "instinct" and all that shit, but most importantly, Kei. Ever since Yuuichi agreed to work with him, Kei has been trying his hardest to try to learn stuff about Yuuichi. His past, his psychology, everything. He was absolutely fascinated with this dude. So much so, that he understands him better than any of the people who have known him for years do. Sees behind the heartless manipulator facade he has been putting up all game, despite not even knowing how he was outside of the game.

And this. Kei cares y'all. He cares a lot. Ever since he was born, he saw everyone as idiots, never understanding them truly. But now he finally found someone who he understood. Someone he actually liked. Got along with. Found interesting. Smart. Someone who, also, could understand him. Only for that someone to be misunderstood by everyone. Making Kei resort back to saying everyone are idiots, just mad they don't understand the one thing he did understand.

I don't even have anything to say about this one, it was just so satisfying. Such raw emotion coming from Kei.

HE HAS JUST BEEN GOING THROUGH EVERY EMOTION IN THE BOOK. NOW THAT HE LET HIS ANGER OUT, ALL OF THE SAD HE BOTTLED UP EVER SINCE HE REALIZED YUUICHI'S PLAN IS COMING OUT. He started to feel in the norm again. Slowly. With his basketball team, but even more over the course of the game, with Satone, Tenji, but of course mostly with Yuuichi. And now, he is terrified of falling back to where he came from. A part of me believes Kei found a sense of belonging over the course of the Tomodachi game, so the idea of it ending hurts. And of course, there's the elephant in the room, Yuuichi dying.

Kei has always considered himself a genius, not needing others. Yet, he admits that he needs help in this very moment. Even asks for it. I wrote something bigger and shit, ask me in my ask box if you wanna talk about it but Tumblr deleted it and I am too lazy to type it

And of course, despite the choice of who head give the win to not mattering, Yuuichi deliberately chose Shiho. A final present, even though he knew she'd hate him and that he wanted her to hate him.

Tumblr won't let me put any more pictures so screw it, but let's talk about yuuichi's personal task. The Parallel to the first game. I like to think of it as the administrators testing if Yuuichi changed over the course of the game. Which he proves he didn't. Not only sacrificing money this time, but also his own life.

Anyways, this is the end of my yapping for now, any Tomodachi game fans still alive please interact I need people to talk about it with, my ask box is always openn

Also, I write fanfic, so hit me up with any request

Sorry for all the yapping, take care y'all

[ouroboros-hideout]

Time to go to Rewe and stock up on groceries for the house of Baddieghest! Shopping list: — 1 kg of Po-ta-toes — Aon — 1 Avocado — Aon as well — 100 soft dark Tomatoes — Vlad (don't buy, just throw at him) — 1 Lemon — each of them (since a certain oversized gollum stole all of them) If your credit balance is too low for the purchase, call mom Jago!

Time to make some salad of the things our circus director brought to the house. Italy won't get anything of it tho. She would only complain about it anyway bc there are potatos in it. Absolutely no taste.

AON

🥔 [POTATO] What do they have that others see as a flaw, but they don't care about?

Maybe her bossy attitude of “You can't tell me shit” and her tone in general. She can be very compassionate, but she's always walking a fine line between “okay, I'm being really nice and empathetic this time" or "lol get your shit together and stop whining.” But it's always been her way of saying what she thinks rather than wrapping the person she's talking to in a blanket just to create a sense of fake comfort. She's been through way too much shit in her life to care who she might offend or not. Deal with it, or get lost.

🥑 [AVACADO] What will they never back down about, even if it makes them seem bad?

I think the thing you can blame her most for is her work. It's not exactly a respectable job, manufacturing war machines and weapons, but it fills her with pride when she completes a big project. Building machines is her passion. That particular type of machine maybe wouldn't have been her first choice, but having already learned a lot about it while studying at SovOil, she stuck with it during her time with the Nomads and refined her skills. After all, it's lucrative because the world is just a rotten place and she has to look after her people. Is it reprehensible that people are being killed with the weapons she makes? Sure. But if it's not her weapon, then it's someone else's. Maybe she’s too pessimistic to think that anything in this society would change anymore. In a sense of: I could make this world a better place if I instead would do xy.”  

🍋 [LEMON] What is their kryptonite/ultimate weakness?

People she loves and cares about. She’s really protective for her found-family, especially for those she knows are no fighters or would struggle to defend themselves in a dangerous situation. She’s not overly protective of the ones she knows can handle themselves, like Kurt for example, but that doesn't mean you couldn’t do a lot of damage to her if something happens to him or any other person that’s close to her. 

VLAD

🍅 [TOMATO] How misunderstood is your OC? In-universe or IRL.

Misunderstood in the sense that it's hard to believe that there's still something human/empathetic in him that just can't come to the surface anymore and that's quite an inner struggle for him sometimes. Like: fighting the beast inside and knowing that you're gonna lose anyway. So of course everyone sees him as the cold-blooded bastard with the psycho mindset because that's the only thing that comes to the outside. That's why he's not really misunderstood, but there would certainly be an opportunity to understand him on a different level if someone had the chance to delve deeper into this man's mind. Though there is no way to repair the damage that’s done so it only would be a thing to satisfy curiosity instead of trying to fix something. 

🍋 [LEMON] What is their kryptonite/ultimate weakness?

Could be two things. One is his physical weakness, one is his mental weakness. Physically his artificial heart. Like in a natural body it’s the core of his whole system and if it fails everything else shuts down as well. He surely would have a bigger time window until all the other inner modifications of his body stop working completely but if you really want to take him out the best way would be to rip that thing out of his chest. 

On a psychological level it’s when he’s “getting aware of his condition”. He sometimes has very rare and short moments of clarity, where he knows that something is wrong inside his head. Those moments are triggered by strong emotions both positive and negative and affects him like “a glitch in his system”. He gets more careless, confused or even has a short blackout. Surely could be something that can be used against him, tho it is a bit of a gamble to trigger such a moment on purpose. 

[quiverpaw]

Hot take; Crowfeather is a bad character but not only because he’s portrayed as selfish and uncaring for others but because the writers don’t actually do a lot with him outside of the three female characters he is shown to be romantically interested in.

Feathertail has an interesting story before her life is cut short and is a character a lot of people wonder about had she lived longer.

Leafpool - I don’t need to say anything because it’s all already been said, she’s an extremely interesting character.

And nightcloud even though she shows up out of nowhere, during her relationship with this creature is the one with the most interesting character arc. I’ve always personally read her as just trying to keep her broken family together as well as she could given Crowfeather seemingly could care less and Breezepelt had hit a rebellious streak due to the aforementioned character, definitely as a side effect of her grief from the death of breezepelts littermates. She only really becomes more “controversial” after it’s revealed Crowfeather was unfaithful to the clan, something she’s theorized of before, and has had kits result from the affair, which id like to think (though doubting the writers could comprehend to write this is valid) resulted in her trying to grasp and force her family back together in fear of losing more than what she’d already lost - therefore aggressively rejecting any evidence of Crowfeather having other kits maybe in fear that it might reinforce the idea her kits weren’t as good as leafcrows litter? (This is basically headcanon and interpretation)

Crowfeather…lacks a lot of the interesting shit the other characters bring to the table because 1. His character has mainly been surrounded upon his love interests and their resulting children 2. These relationships are often poor mainly on his part but the writers seem to still want the reader to believe he’s not that bad 3. There is no real comeuppance for his bad decisions - mainly because when they attempt to do so the characters who are directly affected are Breezepelt and Nightcloud, not him, he’s is affected by association which is, I think, a cop out since most of the issues in his life are his fault and those issues have mostly been propagated by him hurting others - I struggle to see how adding onto the pain he’s already inflicted is the best way to fully tackle his “redemption” since he himself never has to struggle on the same level of the other characters around him. The few consequences he does suffer are often from his own dumb actions and the story often tends to emphasize how sad it is that he’s suffering when he started all of this to begin with - like the scene where Nightcloud aggressively drags him away from Leafpool. While yeah, Nightcloud is being violent and her actions aren’t right, it’s strange how the story tries to completely vilify her - when the same story admits that Crowfeather has used her AND breezepelt as a cover for his own dumb decisions, it’s never fully explored how he screwed them over. I don’t even like Breezepelt, but honestly no wonder he came out the way he did, Crowfeather was a terrible father and the reveal later on only worsened things by destroying his only stable support system, his mother, who was struggling due to Crowfeathers actions (or inaction - deadbeat dad budum tshh) before the reveal even happened!

The story is so absurdly confused in how it makes him do all this and then tells us “Crowfeather isn’t a bad guy he’s just misunderstood”, so in reality he just ends up being a kind of nothing character. Outside of his relationship issues I honestly don’t even know his motives. He’s one of the biggest examples of poor character writing in this series and I find it funny that his girlfriends are all a shit ton more interesting than he is.

I’m sorry about the Ted talk I just really needed to scream this into the void.

hot take! please make a post about this! no time to draw crowfeather (i really don’t want to sorry maybe ill add feather later) but you’re right! my feelings on crowfeather are very complicated because while i don’t mind him being edgy or whatever his entire arc is circulated around the women in his life and yet he’s given the spotlight.

[quincyhorst]

DRAGON FIVE: Heo Ji-Nan

Since its the Year of the Dragon, wouldn't you guys mind if I post about the Fire Dragon bench? They're my side hyperfixation that I love writing about every so often 🥺

Also yes, I specify bench because I don't care much about the main team for now. At least outside of their dynamics with the benchers that is-

First we have Ji-Nan, the reserve keeper. He's so cute ;____;

His profile implies that he lives in Seoul despite being from the south, so I like to interpret that his family moved there at some point of his life.

Typical story of a parent managing to gain a better place to live at thanks to their job; the usual. While most of the family was ok with the moving, Ji-Nan does get homesick at times, specially of the warmer temperatures. His original home are the Jeju Islands, by the way.

Because of the sudden change of location, Ji-Nan still has it hard to get used to living in the big city overall. At least joining his school's soccer club helped him make some friendships, I guess.

So, about his issues with the cold, here's a cruel fact: Ji-Nan has cold intolerance, which makes enduring the Seoul winters even worse. To cope with them he tends to put on puffy jackets, scarfs, gloves, and tons of layers of clothing. Otherwise expect him to catch him a cold very quickly…

The little hat he wears is just something he bought in hopes to warm himself up.

He has an older brother, but that gets constantly on his nerves because of his mischievous and unneeded comments towards him. When Ji-Nan practices soccer, he likes to act as a striker, and he will celebrate intensely every goal he makes against his brother.

...Though, Ji's very hot-headed overall. He doesn't take jokes very lightly, and he gets pissed off easily. I don't see him as violent when he's angry, closest thing is that he's quite petty and tends to complain about others in secret. Soccer and goalkeeping are also ways he lets his fury out without hurting others, supposedly.

Though in very rare occassions, Ji-Nan CAN actually try and fight someone no matter the size.

I like the idea of Ji-Nan using Dai Bakuhatsu Harite a very different way than the one seen animated: While the main keeper uses many but enough hits to stop the ball, the reserve often hits the ball way too much and with too fast, causing it to be slightly burned after the final explosion. This is an unwanted side-effect that's caused by a badly performed move.

His relationship with main keeper Jo Jung-Soo is okay, given there isn't an actual rivarly; and even JS himself sees potential on Ji-Nan. Unfortunately, he is very aware that the reserve keeper often puts too many of his negative emotions into his moves; which isn't neccesarily a bad thing but such intense things create the side-effects we mentioned earlier. So Jung-Soo always keeps an eye on him, and steps in is Ji-Nan is being his usual salty self.

"Don't let your fire get too intense, it will damage your playing style".

JN unfortunately doesn't have the best reaction to this, feeling often misunderstood. But at least later on the FFI he realizes healthier ways to express his negative feelings while also finding peace of mind. He probably got onto meditation or something

Because of the bad relationship with his older brother, te tends to become attached to pretty much every single older boy that treats him better. Jung-soo? The coach? The other benchers? You name it. Please ignore the fact that 3/4 of the bench aren't great people, the bar is just that low for him.

Though, Hwan Woo-Myang having a similar personality to his brother -always teasing Ji-Nan and his skills- can cause some tension between the two. Even if he's just being mischievous, this still is able to open the worst side of the little keeper, straight up talking shit behind him at any chance.

...For something more positive at least, time did make both boys mature a bit; removing Ji-Nan's petiness and making Woo-Myang a bit more considerate for others. After a re-encounter as adults the two surprisingly bonded well this time around, and they soon became good friends. Nowadays every weekend Woo-Myang likes to take Ji-Nan to eat and/or sing together. They always are having fun!

Speaking of the future, after the FFI Ji-Nan was the only FD bencher that kept playing football. Despite everything he never gave up and kept training, and soon enough after perfecting his skills enough he was given a spot on a professional Seoul team.

Another thing that contributed to his rising fame was his bond with Jung-Soo, given that they were in pretty good terms and often tried to train together. Nonetheless, Ji-Nan prefers to go his own way, even as to wishing to soon play internationally unlike the main keeper (Who'd rather stay on Korea as to keep improving local football).

Last thing, but a huge issue that did held back Ji-Nan during his early football days was his height. After all, with the current best korean keeper being huge, why would anyone place their trust on a tiny one? To compensate that, he trains very hard almost daily, following a rough excersice routine crafted from trial and error. At least once his daily effort is done, he loves to eat a huge bowl of fresh fruit.

(And yeah, don't expect him to get any despective comment about his height very positively).

[howlofhades]

👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀(I misunderstood the assignment 🥲💙)

@t3mpest98

Lore for possibly all my ocs I don't know, there's a lot. Some are headcanons because yes

Barks- most of the time he chooses not to sleep, he's too busy thinking of lives he could've possibly saved but couldn't. It eats him alive. Barks actually has a stutter, but he's really good at keeping it hidden he'd prefer if you didn't mention it, he's kinda insecure about it.

Erix- oh yes the flirt. Erix has a bullet in a necklace given by Skunker the first time they met, the other clone jokingly said "Next time you annoy me this is gonna go in your forehead" and Erix kept it just to annoy him, fun fact this is when Barks immediately decided he disliked Skunker. On the first meeting.

Storm- a literal menace to society. Falls on his feet frequently, like buddy you good? Constantly pranks the commanders like his life depends on it, if he misses a day he claims he'll get organ failure or some shit, Irais is ten seconds away from throwing him literally he's not even joking.

Skunker- oh yes, Mr. I threatened Erix and now his batchmate wants to murder me but I also want to murder him. Yes, he actually hates Barks it's not a joke, Crimson drags him away all the time.

Irais- oh yes the closed off commander whipee. Officially apart of the "I lost an eye club." His whole batch has problems, they are problematic but won't admit it. Irais jokes that his whole batch are failures, insert plasma throwing something at Irais here. If storm pranks him again he's gonna flip.

Dipper- has only been pranked by storm once, he's super likable. Very ori'vod coded. Drags Irais away like a lil kitten. Loves space, him and Bear talk about space together.

Lazarus- oh look it's another asshole, well he wasn't always an asshole but trauma loves him. Blames himself for the death of his batchmates, feels guilty for what happened to Phoenix.

Phoenix- feels guilty for what happened to his batchmates, definitely feels like he failed. His death is a well kept secret. Actually growls, no one knows why. Phoenix is, morbidly, a medic- and he himself has died for a few minutes before Laz restarted his heart.

Frey- looks up to all of the commanders, he has a favourite okay but yeah I'm not gonna mention who. "Crimson you can't bite them, Pluto stop climbing on everyone." Tired.

Pluto- climbs on whoever he can, mainly the 104th specifically. Did this Laz once and uh he got punched in the face- Laz didn't mean to do that but uh it happened

Crimson- has no self control, it's a problem. Does everything Frey tells him not to do.

Bear- BABY BABY BABY BOY. severe abandonment issues, terrified of being alone, hates saying goodbyes. Clings onto others, good luck getting him off of you :) tired, barely sleeps. "Glowstick if you do that again I'm going to personally revoke your glowstick privileges." "Bear is normal" have you seen his batchmates? Has daily breakdowns, sir are you okay? Comforts everyone, puts everyone first but he never takes care of himself. Actually kinda shy, glowstick is trying to get him to come out of his shell. A nervous wreck. Has a love hate relationship because of his batchmate Teddy, usually Joystick calls their name right another another "Teddy Bear come here!" They hate this.

Glowstick- actually eats glowsticks, got dared to eat one by Vixen don't worry he's fine and has done this before. Loves scaring Bear, probably the reason Bear barely sleeps. Rumour has it if you try hard enough he might glow in the dark, give it a try.

Joystick- the other unhinged feral guy. joystick is a pilot, and a very wild one at that, so they call him that because of the way he handles the throttle. He is the less unhinged out of glowstick and obviously himself still unhinged though. Absolutely feral.

Ginger- will fight you on the fact that he's the best cook.

Dainty- keeps Ryder in check or is supposed to.

Ryder- honestly what the fuck is he doing? Nobody knows

Unknown- does anyone really like him? Tragedy complains he's too negative.

Tragedy- unknown complains he's too tragic. He's the opposite of Peace kinda, likes conflict/is okay with conflict, talkative ish you get the idea.

Peace- Bear's little shadow and would do anything to help him, was abandoned by his batchmates no matter how many times Ryder denies it, Unknown claims he chose to leave this was not the case. Conflict makes him uncomfortable, barely speaks. Bear learnt sign language to help him. Constantly shakes. He's scared okay?

Beau- nothing to say here

Plasma- the asshole, the beloved. Has a dark sense of humour, it's kinda fucked up. "Fuck around and find out." Is such a tease. You're always safe with him. Throws rocks and anything at Irais. Once screamed in Mist's ears to see what would happen, Mist fucking decked him on the spot.

Fuze- the baby, he likes nature okay? Um what else, I don't know. Squish. He's also a corrie. Could tell you random facts about anything, August and Muffin fall asleep to this. I wanna put Fuze in my pocket, he's just a guy. He enjoys learning new things. He once got his hands on fireworks, glowstick helped.

August- I don't know what I'm doing with him but he's a guy.

Teddy- him and Bear matching names kinda happened, actually the opposite of Bear though. No more on him yet.

Lavender- thinks glowstick and joystick are insane, but where's the lie?

Muffin- I think people will like him when I introduce him in my big oc post

Mist- I don't wanna say anything until my big oc post

Slush- he baby

Bubbles- he best boy

[nonbinary-jakeseresin]

sereshaw 68 :)

i blame the anon for this angst... not my fault this is perfect for hangster hehe

Go ahead you can say it’s my fault

Jake sits at the bar alone, drinking and staring at the clock. Nothing else to do but to wait the night out. This might be the last drink he’s having before he’s gone forever. 

They’re shipping out in two days and there’s no way Jake will let himself drink right before a mission. So this is the last night he can. He can hear the rest of the daggers laughing and playing pool behind him. 

He can see them out of the corner of his eyes if he turns slightly. Always there in his peripheral vision, but never with him. As always he’s alone. 

He knows they’re not thinking about him at all. He’s not on their mind and he’s not gonna delude himself into thinking that any of them care. 

He sees Bradley being the life of the party like usual, being surrounded by the rest. They’d all picked him over Jake of course. He knows how the story goes. What they all believe. 

Hangman, the aggressor. The one who’s always at fault. Doesn’t play well with others. 

Obviously it was him who messed up and the reason why Bradley left. 

Of course it was Rooster, the dependable, always laid back, nice person that up and left. 

Jake and Bradley were good but only because Bradley kept Jake in line. That’s what they think. 

Jake doesn't even know what Bradley’s told the rest. If he’d said that it was Jake’s fault -  their big fight and their eventual break up. He wonders if Natasha thinks he’s to blame for blowing it up. 

Something that could have been great. 

Jake doesn’t really care anymore. It doesn’t hurt him anymore. 

It did in the beginning, when they’d first left each other. When Jake left Bradley after the older man messed up. After he’d crossed a line. His words were always too sharp and cutting. 

So of course Jake had thrown back as good as he got. Of course it blew up. 

Jake left because he never liked who he was when he was with Bradley. Anger attracts anger and Jake couldn't stand to turn into his father just because Bradley didn’t know how to talk. How to open up. 

But like it always does, everything anyone knew about them, the rumours and gossip, got twisted up and somehow Jake ended up being the fuck up in this story.

He used to wonder if it was because Bradley told everyone else it was his fault or it was just because everyone had misunderstood and were blaming him already. 

His reputation in the air is too big to ignore, he admits. 

The rumours of his call sign telling tales even before people had a chance to meet him. 

That’s how it always goes. 

He thought at some point Bradley would have called him though. He really did. 

He waited for a time, because he figured Bradley would reach out to him when he needed something. Maybe they could have talked it out. 

He used to dream about them being together again. Working things out and being the unstoppable pair in the like before. 

When he saw Bradley that day in the hard deck he did think for a moment that they could have that one more time. 

Them together, flying in tandem and in the lead with the rest of the squad following them as they completed the mission. 

One drink in his body, one look at Braldey Bradshaw in all his hawaiian shirt glory and he’d been back to being the stupid lovestruck idiot that he used to be. 

It doesn't matter anymore,Jake reminds himself as he drowns more whiskey. They most likely hate him now. 

Even if the squad hadn’t thought shit of him before, they probably did now. After the stunts he pulled in the training. 

He knew it was a dick move to bring up Goose like that but he didn’t think he had a choice. It was either this or letting Bradley get himself killed. 

And no matter how much Jake wanted to, he couldn’t stop loving Bradley. He couldn’t let him die. So he’d said what he’d said and made sure that everyone hated him. 

It was okay. They’ll be alive to hate him at least. 

He didn’t think he could say the same for himself. 

I wonder what would happen if i die

He knows someone isn’t coming back from this. He’s known it in the way Mav keeps yelling at them to go faster, to be better, to not make a single mistake. 

Jake knows this is a death run. No one is coming out of that canyon unscathed. 

He just hopes that the worst that happens to any of them is the emotional trauma and nothing else permanent…. Like actually dying. 

He knows that he’ll be chosen as mission leader. It’s not so much as cockiness as an understanding that he has with Mav. 

Mav had looked at him with a daunting look and they’d silently communicated right before Cyclone reinstated Mav as their instructor. 

Mav can’t do the run like he did with that stunt because he was too injured already. But Mav had pulled him aside once and told him that they had to come back. All of them. 

The third miracle. 

The one Jake is sure he’d die trying to achieve. 

It’s a lose-lose situation. 

He’d give his all to make sure that they all made it home. But it might just cost him his own life. 

Either way miracle number three isn’t going to come easy. If it happens at all. 

Jake knows. He knows that it comes down to him. Even if he isn't the mission leader, he will do his best to keep his promise to Mav. 

He won’t let the rest get hurt. 

And .. if he dies well…

It’s not like the rest of them like him right now anyway. 

He turns in his chair to look at the rest at the other side of the bar. He’s watching them laugh, and play and tease each other as if they were not going to go on a suicide run in two days. 

He wants to memorize every moment he still gets with them. He can still hear the clock ticking behind him. The night’s getting colder and the longer he lingers, the less time they all have left. 

But god he doesn’t want to leave this bar. 

He wonders if they’ll still be this energetic after. After he burns in keeping them safe. 

He hopes so. Right now, he can see the anxiety in some of them. The restlessness every pilot has before a big mission. 

He can tell they’re worried but not letting it cloud over their night of fun. 

I hope all my friends get drunk and high. 

He wants them to keep being like this even when he’s gone. He wants to have them laughing and celebrating their win. 

Cherishing the fact that they all were alive and would get to stick around for longer. 

He wants to go…knowing that they’ll get to keep going, keep flying and being there for each other. 

He tries to imagine it. His own funeral. 

They don't like him right now. Some of them downright hate him. But he imagines them around his coffin. 

Would they care? Would any of them cry? 

Would Bradley?

He wants to think that maybe he’ll cry a little. That he would find it hard to say goodbye to him at the very least. 

Maybe he’ll finally stop hating Jake if Jake saves the rest before he dies.

Maybe the only way to get them to stop hating him was for him to die first. Not leaving anyone hanging. Just being a good wingman and mission leader. 

He thinks about all these things and he drowns down more of his drink. 

The clock ticks on. 

Jake just watches them silently. Remembering everything he has to fight to save. 

He won’t let anything happen to them. 

Maybe you won’t hate me after this. Maybe. 

[ladyhindsight]

Your revision post is so helpful for my new set of notes, thank you.

(Mild CoT spoilers)

Honestly Thomastair is just like, a normal relationship, and of course the author had to make it weird by making Thomas say he loves Alastair more than anything before they even got together. I was like... how even? They barely know each other besides their time as academy peers. But of course, most of the great love stories of TSC are exactly like that, like you pointed out.

Thomas was obsessed with Alastair because he found Alastair attractive, and that was it, he actively hated Alastair's personality. It's a mystery how that turned into such deep love that of course included loving him more than anything else, that's how love works in this universe

Thomas hating Alastair's rude personality leads to the point that I found interesting about Thomastair/Alastair's development. Alastair's rudeness and insistence on keep his "goodness" hidden.. is mentioned like an actual problem to their relationship.

There's this CoT quote I found particularly interesting and represents what I'm talking about very well:

He only watched Alastair: Alastair being gentle, Alastair being loving, the Alastair Sona had known, but Thomas so rarely ever saw. As Alastair bid goodbye to his mother, Thomas could not help but wonder: If Alastair was so utterly determined to hide that part of himself from Thomas, did it matter that Thomas knew it existed at all?

THIS!!!! THIS!!!!

Impossible to not think of certain TMI and TID characters and even that TLH character who are endlessly loved by several people even though they behave absurdly because we "know" they have good souls and whatever shit. And of course that's how it works, you can do whatever shit, what matters if you're secretly good but misunderstood, people will sense that and love you anyway. Treating people well is not necessary to build (and keep!) relationships! This is the message these books have been sending all along with all the ships envolving a jerkass - and this quote goes and contradicts it all? Makes me think...

(I'm not talking about "person that used to be cool and turned into asshole" bc the ones who loved them will probably keep the hope that they may go back to their kinder version - I mean characters that were introduced to others being assholes from the get go)

The "did it matter... ...at all" speaks a lot, that's the exactly the point. You can have faith that someone is secretly kind, but if they never act like it, does that faith make any actual difference? Absolutely, according to most of the romance in the TSC (and certainly many works in the romance genre, I know)

I actually like the romance trope of the assholerish love interest, I just don't like being manipulated to think that he is actually just a silly funny guy because deep down he is good. An asshole is an asshole, to find him just a silly funny guy should be more up to the reader than treated as a fact by the writing

- R

Big agree.

Barely knowing each other and having loved one another for a long time seem to be the two main options of romance in the series. The only ones (with adequate enough focus) to escape this are Kit and Ty, but who knows how it will unfold. I’d be more understanding of Thomas and Alastair’s relationship if such scenes like the one in Paris had occurred more than once. If there was ever a more solid foundation to the intense love they fall in. But as it is rarely so with any other couple, I’m not really going in Chain of Iron or Chain of Thorns hopeful. Jace and Will are both sparkling examples of being loved despite their abhorrent behavior, just because they are secretly good while showing none of the care and respect to others that they receive.

It’s interesting that Alastair is allowed such perspective (or rather Thomas thinking about Alastair’s behavior), because it reflects on other things that are worthy of noting. What little I have read about the companion stories, one point that struck me odd was the part where Alastair expresses pretty misogynistic thoughts on Charlotte being Consul. I don’t know if it is supposed to be a reflection of the bad company around him, because I can’t otherwise think why he would think that at all. Other than antagonistic characters being written expressing controversial things because they are antagonistic, of course. Much in the same vein like your last message. Any of the Good Guys could never!