#but it never hurts to do a recap for anyone who might have shown up later

[victorluvsalice]

Valicer Calendar Finale: OTP To OT3

Happy New Year's Eve, everyone! It's time to talk about the final date on the Valice (r) Calendar post I made to celebrate 15 years of shipping my Valice OTP, and two years of shipping the Valicer OT3! So what's the significance of New Year's Eve to my OTP/OT3?

Well, it's basically the date I feel like my OTP became an OT3. XD This is basically how it all went down at the end of 2021, when I first learned about The Smiler coaster:

December 26th: I watch "One Night In Alton Towers" with my parents (a show where comedians Josh Widdicombe and Alex Brooker, accompanied by a guest comedian -- in this case it was Roisin Conaty -- spend the night at whatever UK attraction happens to be in the title) and see the fabled theme park in action for the first time. The show itself does NOT contain the group going on The Smiler (I believe the entrance is shown briefly in a montage, but the X-Sector ride they actually hit is Oblivion), but my family and I are intrigued and start looking up videos showing what riding the coaster feels like. Along the way, we discover The Smiler, and while we don't watch a video on it...

December 27th: I am sufficiently intrigued that the next day, my birthday, I start looking up stuff about it in earnest.

I quickly discover that the "brainwashing machine designed to make people permanently happy" theme is, uh, "relevant to my interests." XD Cue me going on a binge on YouTube and tumblr looking up the coaster, its history, its lore, and it's fandom, and getting pretty well obsessed. XD

December 28th: New coaster obsession continues, and I get the idea that I could use it in one of my private little snippets about Victor and Alice having a hypnokinky relationship. After all, I'm pretty sure Victor would like to be brainwashed to be happy, the poor anxious noodle! I start coming up with various scenarios in my head regarding Victor and Alice visiting the park and riding the coaster and using the theming to have some more saucy fun later to add to one of my private docs later, which get gradually more complicated as I look up more and more stuff...

December 29th: And by the very next fucking day, a certain anxious noodle has come up with his own AU within my AU where the coaster has an AI behind it and he and Alice are in a relationship with it. Specifically it's him doing art of that scenario in my AU where, you know, the coaster is just A FUCKING COASTER. I'm like, "excuse me, I'm trying to write down this completely normal scenario where you and Alice just have fun with the coaster theme! What is this bullshit where you want to fuck the roller coaster?"

He is unrepentant.

December 30th: "...would you like me to make the coaster human, because it occurs to me I could do that in Sims 4."

Victor: "I would not object."

December 31st: I've already come up with three different Smilers for three different AUs (the original Modern AU, the VTMB Malkavian!Smiler, and the FO4 Robot/Eldritch Horror!Smiler) and wondering how I completely lost it so freaking fast. XD

Sooo -- yeah. That was the point where I knew this was going to be a Thing. XD (And I hadn't even come up with Smiler's actual human design yet! That was nine days later!) Two years in, and it is still a Thing, as you are all very much aware. XD Here's to my bizarre Things, and the ships that were created from them! I hope to get much enjoyment from them for years to come.

[nyasialiveshere]

Fav dramas review : Heaven's Coin

Idk how to explain the ways I love old japanese dramas, but it's truly something occasionally and randomly I want to talk about. Hardly anyone has reviewed, recapped or discussed some of my favorite stuff in the media, but... I just feel that if only one person who never heard about it or hasn' t watched it in years can learn about a beautiful piece of work. Isn't that what art is all about. Countless times I've picked up albums that never charted or flew under the radar, but somehow it was either the best thing I'd listened to in years or spoke to me so deeply and directly, I was like I'm so glad nobody ever picked up this thing. I'm so glad it collected dust for years in a bookstore or comic shop cause if not then I'd probably never find it.

Especially in the internet age where due to how for profit everything has become it's no longer easy to find out about things that are no longer for sale or that have been locked in a vault so to speak. Jdrama's was a booming industry. Japan had dominated asian cinema for a long time since the 1950s possibly even before. They are master storytellers and love tucking in messages of morals all throughout the story even if the story is presented in an amoral way.

They make it clear that even though the villain isn't ever going to be truly punished and the hero might suffer more than they ever will. Right and wrong is so obvious even a child could understand it.

p.s this review is very bias

Main characters Takumi, Aya and Shuichi (with his annoying self)

That is where Heaven's Coin come in. Loosely based off of a German fairy tale of a girl who gives away all of her coins to everyone until she is left with nothing but later given the stars in return.

First off this is taking place in the 90s the pinnacle of Dramas putting disabled characters in the forefront of television. To americans this is no big deal because we see in comparasion a lot of diversity in television. But in Japan and Asia due to discrimination it is considered taboo and a lot of time disabled characters were often not shown or ignored.

The main character Aya is amazing and is the strength of the entire show. She is shown as smart, crafty and able to think her way around situations where people underestimate her. She was extremely well written and not made into a stereotype at all. Women in this show surprisingly are not cliche like you would assume coming from a conservative country like Japan. They all have a distinct personality and go toe to toe with the male character. Not like you would see in modern shows where women are kind of masculinized in order to seem tougher than men, nor like when women catch temper tantrums to get what they want. In fact the female characters seem more level headed and it's the male characters that are more irrational and emotional. Usually acting in their own selfish interest leaving the women to pick up the pieces and figure out how to go on. Aya was abandoned as a child and had to learn how to survive through being very perceptive to emotions, facial expressions and reading lips. She doesn't let people get in her way, but has a soft heart and puts other people before her self in pretty much every situation.

I fell in love with the character after realizing she was always sacrificing herself for others even in situations where she didn't know what was going on. I don't wanna say the character was made with a feminist lens in mind, but I do think the use of female characters in the show is multifaceted. The males have more power, but the women have more strength if that makes sense.

Shuichi is nice overall, but to me he taught me that kindness and weakness is the worst combo one can have. To me his inability to make a decision always ended up hurting those who he loved most. He was selfish and with his desire to always be the good guy and seem impartial he caused destruction everywhere he went. He never stuck to anything he said and was always going back and forth trying to have it all. I believe that concerning the love triangle he was only there to keep confusing Aya. What I mean is he only went to the small country village Aya lived to mess with his father, a big city doctor, who wanted his son to take his place. Then later on when back in the city he becomes engaged to a rich heiress breaking Aya's heart.

I understand he lost his memory and everything, but the reality is he should of taken the woman he loved with him. Getting confused and falling in love with someone else is a curveball. But he should of been a man and confessed his plans to his family instead of keeping it all hidden. That right there shows that he was ashamed. Aya sadly due to believing she would never find anyone who loved her passionately fell for Shuichi because she believed he was the first and only person who would ever love and care for her, so she should take what she can get. Even after everything was settled Shuichi still couldn't be a man and do what he needed to do for Aya. But in the end Aya was abandoned as a child so she was used to being ignored and avoided. So Shuichi's lame I'll love you from afar style worked for her because it was what she was used to. Anyway personally he gets on my nerves a bit and should have left Aya alone after he got his memory back.

Last but not least, Takumi. Portrayed as the loyal son to Shuichi's prodigal son......or vice versa. He is the one who stayed in the family and did as his parents desired. He is all the more screwed up for it to. Not only is he a playboy with mother wounds, he also has dad issues. He's shown as a screwed up hopeless individual. He's emotionally volatile and takes his anger out on anyone in his way. He is also shown as the one who tries to get in the way of Aya and Shuichi's true love. He falls in instalove with Aya and immediately becomes semi obsessed with her and stops his playboy antics and even becomes more mature and sensitive for her. Believing she is an innocent woman and can redeem him. He obviously thinks she will never have any opportunities with other men, so she is stuck with him so to speak. It seems he likes that idea very much. But when he finds out his brother is her true object of affection he snaps and turns violent on both Aya and his brother. Now saying all that it might seem like the show would end there and he'd be gotten rid of like any villain but no. Despite his outburst and violence he is almost shown to be the true hero of the show. Falling deeper and deeper in love with Aya the more he becomes aware of her affection for his brother. It may be related to his insecurity about his father loving his brother more than he loved him and wanting to beat his brother. Or remembering that he never got the sweet affection from his mother as a child and wants it from Aya. It's hard to say

The show is emotionally complex and even though I hate medical drama's typically; I couldn't help but love this show. It was interesting, emotional and had a very human vibe to it.

Aya and Takumi were the most interesting because usually it's the woman in a movie or show that wants to change herself for a guy but here it's reversed. It's Takumi who behaves more like a girl with a crush concerning Aya and works hard to both communicate with her but also win her love. It's problematic, but I can see where the writers were coming from. It's supposed to be off putting and conflicting. Shuichi was quiet and reserved and Takumi was brash and loud, but in the end Shuichi ended up hurting more people with his inaction than Takumi did with his hands.

It's from an era where writers took a bit more chances with daring storytelling...7/10 it's a short show but it's so interesting and has rewatch potential. The actors played the heck out of the characters to the point where it really felt natural.

Also yes it is on available in different places on the int. There is a third season that I have never found, it looks very tropical lmao but I doubt it takes place on the beach they just did it to look cool I think. No idea where this one is but can they please film more drama's like this it looks so Blue Lagoon (I watched it on tv when I was 15 in 2015ish idk on cable and the film style is like better than they do today there's a lifetime remake but its not very good) but anyway it looks great but impossible to find.

[ruby-whistler]

Alright curious anon here. All this is /dsmp /rp from here on out unless otherwise specified and is refering to characters. If i make any mistakes or am misinformed please let me know! So by the cat was nothing compared to mushroom henry i was meaning more toward the fact that the cow was killed as a punishment for something not worth or ok for it to be killed for at all and the fact that it belonged to tommy, wheareas the cat was killed more to annoy dream and belonged to tommy. (1/?)

alright then another lengthy reply, here i come! /lh /dsmp /rp

Dream also did not seem to mourn the cat much, shrugging it off with a "just more motivation to break out".

it was killed to hurt dream, not to "annoy him". it doesn't matter who it belonged to, c!dream was attached to it and it died, which had an effect on him and also further proved his point about attachments being weakness and caring getting you hurt, and it's still very sad.

you say that it was not ok at all to kill mooshroom henry, but the cat's death wasn't ok either, so i really don't see your point.

again, i disagree it was "nothing compared to" either way. i never meant to compare them in the first place, i was simply talking about the cat and c!dream so i don't see why it is in any way necessary to drag c!tommy and other dead pets into this. /nm

also, it isn't true he didn't mourn it. he is a very reserved person who doesn't show his feelings much, that's true, but the cat death still changed the way he acted afterwards, as well as the attempts he made to prevent it. he didn't "shrug it off", he yelled about it because he was understandably upset.

You mentioned that propganda was used to make dream seem like a tyrant, could you specify a bjt? Cus im a little confused srry /gen. Because the most i can remember from the lmanburg era at least is him being called a b'tch or other similar insults. You also mentioned how trauma responses can be differet which is true! I agree! Do you have any ideas to what caused dream the trauma?

wilbur would continuously make him out to be some sort of oppressive, tyrannical force, in front of his troops - a prime example of this being the lyrics of the l'manberg anthem itself and the l'manberg declaration of independence.

actually! here's a nice thread about l'manberg's establishment complete with links, timestamps and evidence :]

i also said in my previous post what could've possibly caused it, but since the character intentionally hides his emotions from the public, it would be difficult to see how things really affected him - which is why the way his spiral went is the majority of the evidence that would imply it, however it does make sense within the story as well with what i mentioned last time.

I would like to note that for sapnap at least had reason to leave dream. Some examples off the top of my head are dream leading an angry fundy to sapnap's pets on purpose, resulting in some deaths, dream assisting tommy in burning down sapnap's effiel tower where he got engaged to karl, and dream giving tommy either mars or the other fish at the battle of the lake. Idk about george tho other then the whole mexican lmanburg/el rapids thing and decrowning him

c!sapnap was actually at fault for most of this, and it wasn't really ever betrayal on c!dream's part.

c!dream is a mediator and he wants to stop everyone's conflict - c!fundy was angry because of c!sapnap's actions, and hence it made more sense for c!dream to centre him on c!sapnap's animals instead of running around killing everyone's pets (at that time, all c!dream knew was c!sapnap did something really bad and c!fundy wanted beckerson / mars from him, which were also his and c!george's fish).

c!sapnap was an instigator, and in multiple conflicts during the time as well as before he'd align himself against c!dream. he isn't "loyal" per se, he causes chaos and the reason c!dream helped c!tommy was because, c!sapnap, again, killed his pet. the first l'manberg war and then the 16th are signs of the fact that c!dream and c!sapnap were willing to fight together in actual war, but these small conflicts where c!sapnap continuously picked fights weren't about personal loyalty, nor did they seem to affect their relationship at all.

c!george was never really hurt by c!dream either. the dethronement was him very obviously being a guilt-trippy drama queen, but, well, that's just the character. he had stolen the l'mantree while he was supposed to be the diplomatic figure of the greater smp, which is why c!dream was justified in - very politely, may i mention - taking the duties off of him (seeing as he was also trying to keep him safe and c!techno had already assassinated him once).

Im pretty sure i remember cc!sam stating that his character never canonically physically tortured dream during his subathon but take this with a grain of salt as i am looking for the clip currently. So to the best of my knowledge dream did not have a physical contact trigger during tommy's visit which! I rewatched the vod and dream actually was first to hit tommy and i can give you my full writing downs but 10/12 of the phy-

you never finished this point because you had to go do something, but i'll reply to what is here at the moment (i suggest writing these down before sending next time, or even writing them out wholly before sending a single one could help avoid stuff like this).

i am 95% sure that the reason cc!sam stated this was because people were suspicious he had already been doing what c!quackity was doing after - torture within the storyline itself is associated pretty much only with what c!quackity is doing, so that's what he meant, just to clear up confusion - the starvation or terrible conditions haven't been retconned, but it was direct torture (like c!quackity is doing) people were asking him about.

i never said c!dream had a physical contact trigger at all, i don't think he had that, though he probably will after the torture.

huh, ok, i'm gonna have to rewatch then, but i remember c!tommy punching c!dream a lot and him just telling him to stop and only punching back to get him to stop. trigger or not, getting hit isn't very pleasant, if you know what i mean.

You mentioned tommy stealing dream's armor unprovoked. Do you have the vod or a general idea of the time so i can find it? Like before lmanburg after another event so and so because if you do not have it i can find it but any help is appreciated.

i am pretty sure you can find the video on cc!tommy's channel! there are also recaps of the disc war on youtube :]

I wanna talk a little on why the Final Control Room was so messed up. For starters, with the way the room was designed. It was small, and had labeled, empty chests with each person's name on them as a mockery. The next reason is that its bascially a kill box.

It's fairly inescapble with the stairs being ones you have to jump up, slowing anyone who climbs them down. The final reason it is messed up is that it is shown to have caused every person who died in it trauma. With tommy there are several examples, the time he saw it with techno, the way he refuses to go near it, the exposure trauma, etc. Fundy also appears to have trauma, as when the Red Banquet executions began, it can be seen as him being afraid of dying last again.

It can Be thought as tubbo having trauma because he buries most of his issues and pretends to be ok. Moreover this event took at least one of each person's canon lives, making it the most canon lives lost EVER in a dream smp event. (This is not hate on any of the ccs btw i loved this scene and its one of my personal favorites). Plus the fact Eret's betrayal just literally happened, giving at least Tommy and Wilbur canonic trust issues.

i wouldn't call the chests mockery? it was a trap. people had traps on the smp before. it was a trap in the middle of war, supposed to end said war by killing them all at once rather than individually which would be a lot more bloody and difficult.

i agree c!tommy and other people might have post-war trauma, especially if they were young during the time, but i think that's because the final control room was "messed up", moreso because the war itself was. it all happened fairly instantly as well? i don't think c!fundy would be able to realize he was the last one standing within the two second before he wasn't.

it "can be thought" and it can be interpreted like that but besides c!tommy there isn't much evidence for them "all" being traumatized by the final control room. of course betrayal would spark trust issues, i understand that.

The probation was humiliating in my opinion because dream was Sending tommy anatgonizing messages through out the whole meeting, plus he had to write a review of his day every single day, which fundy mocked him for.

i mean, it was definitely a strike to his pride, but he was being extremely uncooperative so i don't really blame the other members of new l'manberg trying to teach him to listen for once? of course i know c!dream was riling him up, and that should definitely be considered. i don't think it would be as humiliating if c!tommy didn't make it, is what i'm saying.

for the tommy being toxic to fundy? At least for the examples you gave, to me personally they come acoross as either in a meta way being the cc's bantering or in canon being the characters having banter. If you can send the post with the clips so i can read the tone better that would be cool but if not i will try and find em.

no, these were all in canon. canon isn't only when c!tommy is being nice, it's also when he's being a jerk. /lh

the first one was him threatening c!fundy about kicking him out of l'manberg and undermining his self-worth, and the second one was him trying to get c!sapnap to vote for them via bullying c!fundy.

i found these from a transcript focusing on c!fundy's character, so i don't know exactly where the first one is from, but the second one i am pretty sure is from when the elections were starting with the whole cabinet battle deal and all of that.

there are other instances, and all of them are canon. his personality was never being nice or compassionate, so i'm not really surprised? he still cares about the people he cares about and is very brave, y'know. but this part of his personality is definitely a valid reason for people to dislike him.

I hope the exam went well :). Hope u have a great day! (Ps i think theres something called a submission box to send in pictures? Am not entirely sure sry)

it would've gone well but my work-speed is a tad too slow for the schooling system (considering i'm three years younger than my classmates,,, probably that's also a factor) so probably not despite the fact i knew everything and would've aced it if i only had more time. i did as well as i could so i'm not worried about it, but thanks!

i think you're thinking submissions. sadly, i tested it and it doesn't work on anons, so idk how you'd solve that, maybe make a burner account?

Curious anon here one point you may wanna include in the redemption essay is that c!tubbo or c!tommy do not necessarily have to forgive him. What's important is that he recognizes what he did was wrong (exile, beating tommy to death, manipulating them both, etc) and does his best to make amends. Hope this helps! Can't wait to see your essay

it's out, idk if you've seen it yet, and i think i included enough of that so hope it's all good! :)

the mcc update video is out if you are an mcc enjoyer. It's very neat, if you wanna check it out

yeah! i am a fellow mcc enjoyer, saw it already, thanks for telling me though, i'm really hype for today.

Allo curious anon here sorry if the lots of asks bother you. I was just curious if i could share an interesting post i saw today about c!dream :0 (not necessarily negative i think? More of a statement of an often-confused canon)

sure thing! i don't know what you mean by often-confused since, the entire fanbase is very confused always, and often selection bias plays into the perception from both sides, but sure :]

you also sent in a thing for the other anon who said they didn't know what c!dream did that bad; pretty sure they couldn't really be alerted since, not sure if they watch my blog that closely, but i'll summarize your points just in case and add some notes;

the repeated blowing up of l'manberg (in my mind that's largely a positive since i,, despise that country, but fair enough), revealed c!ranboo as a traitor (they seem to be friends so i also,, think that might've been planned between him and enderboo), sent ghostbur away (i don't think c!dream knew it was dangerous for him and wanted to actually hurt him, but idk), participated in fighting against c!sapnap when he killed people's pets (that's only negative against c!sapnap and didn't seem to hurt him much at all), and then the whole vault scene where he was allegedly planning to steal people's things (though saying he would & being stopped beforehand and doing it are two different things, frankly).

so i still agree with the other anon that a lot of the hurt he did "to the entire server" (he only negatively interacted with like,, a half of them) is exaggerated both by the characters and the fandom, but i guess that's a consequence of most people seeing him as a threat to everyone's happiness rather than a complex personality.

Also he was aware of the butcher army going to kill techno but only got involved because he saw an opportunity to get a favor. (As he knew in advance due to him telling techno to get a totem, watching from afar instead of interveing or manipulating tubbo out of it)

i don't understand this at all, i'm sorry. how do you know he only helped techno in order to get a favor? last i remember he was only doing it to protect and strengthen his alliance, and techno came up with the whole favor thing entirely on his own. you might've not watched techno's perspective or their prior interactions, idk, but this really is a misinterpretation in my eyes. /nm

sorry if that is overly dream negative i just wanted to let yall know cus you seemed unaware -curious anon

nah dw, i watch the smp and i watched all of these things happen so, wouldn't say unaware, but thanks.

[itsclydebitches]

RWBY Recaps: Volume 8 “The Final Word”

Well, we made it to the finale, everyone, and if you're reading this it seems you've survived the watching of it too. Barely. To say that some questionable choices were made across these 20 minutes is... an understatement.

But before we delve into the episode, I want you to cast your mind back to November 7th, 2020. A horrible year that heralded a horrible RWBY volume. There, coming off the shaky writing of Volume 7, I posed a number of questions and concerns that the show needed to tackle, with the promise that we would return to these expectations in four months time. Now, here we are! Let's refresh everyone's memory, yeah?

Taken directly from that recap, what RWBY promised us, through various teasers and Q&As, included:

Emphasis on Ruby’s leadership and how Summer’s death has impacted her

Insight into Ren and Nora’s flaws

May Merigold will supposedly have a larger part

More information about The Long Memory (Ozpin’s cane)

Theme of the volume is that you can respect someone but that doesn’t necessarily mean you agree with them

Very short timeline (supposedly just two days)

Yang in particular is very suspicious and distrustful

And you know what? They did all this. In the spirit of being fair and honest to this show, RWBY succeeded in delivering on everything they promised... it was just our foolishness that expected that these ideas would be delivered well. Ruby's leadership took center stage in the form of her hiding for multiple episodes and then others telling her she's still The Best before the plot dropped a solution into her lap... one she could have used at any point prior to this. Summer's death certainly has an impact, though it's an impact born of a crazy reveal that Summer likely isn't dead, but turned into a horrifying grimm monster. Ren and Nora both delve into their flaws, but heaven forbid either grow from that reflection. Ren learns that if he pushes past his primary flaw of keeping his emotions buried and actually expresses his doubts for once, he'll be yelled at and ignored until he admits how wrong he was. The "real" flaw is being a bad friend, with "bad friend" equaling "Not agreeing with Ruby 100%." Meanwhile, Nora considers that maybe she shouldn't rush in recklessly and hit things with her hammer... which is why she rushes in recklessly, hits something with her hammer, gets grievously injured, and is told that this is just who she truly is. No growth there, not unless we count her sudden desire to figure out who she is without Ren... but that exploration hasn't started yet. Too bad she wasn't the teammate separated at the end of the volume!

Meanwhile, May did indeed have a larger role to play, one I quite liked, it's just that this role — like all the others — inevitably circled back to realizing how wonderful Ruby is. May challenges Ruby to make a decision, but instead of being the catalyst for Ruby's growth, May becomes another forgotten side character who does a sudden about-turn regarding her perspective, leaving the group with the contradictory message that Ruby is actually doing her best, she's just a kid, no need to try any harder... everyone who claimed otherwise up until now was mistaken. May is another Cordovin. She's another Qrow. She's another Maria.

Fun fact: we don't even know if Maria is alive right now. That's how little she means to the show!

Actually, wait... anyone remember this nonsense from Volume 7? 

I was too lazy to change the date.

Moving on, Ozpin's cane turned out to be a stakes obliterating bomb that came out of nowhere, makes no sense logistically — how do battles store energy that only hurts grimm? — yet nevertheless seems to have killed Hazel? It's a disaster of unanswered questions. Similar to the disaster of our two day timeline when, I'm fairly sure, we've had an unnatural number of sunrises and sunsets. I'll have to take a look back at the volume as a whole now that it's complete to be sure of that though. As for our themes... did we really explore the idea of respecting someone even if you disagree with them? Because Ironwood wasn't shown any respect. Ren wasn't shown respect. I think the closest we got was Oscar calmly validating Yang's worry about getting buddy-buddy with Emerald, but the whole point there was that Yang was wrong. She wasn't wrong, but that's what the text would have you believe. She is indeed "very suspicious and distrustful," but that's hardly unjustified in these circumstances. I'm still boggling at the fact that it took the group three volumes for forgive Ozpin, even while he was actively working to assist them, yet I-helped-destroy-Beacon-and-tried-to-kill-everyone-you-love Emerald is the group's new BFF after she... ran away with Oscar? She didn't save him, she just went along for the ride. At the very least we might have gotten a scene where Penny was like, "Hey, why are you all laughing with the woman who just tried to kill my dad?"

But oh yeah, the story doesn't remember Pietro exists either. His daughter is DEAD and he hasn't been on screen since Episode Five, let alone there when she passes.

I had my own list going in, including such expectations as "Ozpin bb you got done dirty please acknowledge this" and "Queer baiting, queer baiting… you’re on thin ice at this point, RWBY. Just skate on over to the queer snack bar before you fall straight into the lake." Obviously these needs were not met.

So what, given this mess of expectations, did we end up with?

Our finale — for some reason — breaks the one word title trend with "The Final Word." It's an expression that refers to the final word in an argument or a discussion, the idea of winning by making a last, devastating point. It can also refer to making the final decision on something, which is the best way I'm able to apply the title to this episode (outside of any “final” comparisons). Penny's death is certainly all about choice and making some kind of decision... but on the whole, this title doesn't feel like it fits well. Not like "Worthy" or "Creation" or "Risk." The two latter titles had obvious connections to the episode in question through dialogue and plot, while the former was a deliberate callback to Watts' speech. "The Final Word" feels... less obvious in what it’s trying to say.

That's a minor nitpick though. Let's get into the meat of the episode.

We open on the grimm whale still disappearing, which is weird. I get that it's massively bigger than any other grimm we've seen, but they all turned to dust near instantaneously and it's been, what? At least an hour since Oscar blew it up? Likely longer when we factor in their walk back to the manor, the fight with Ironwood, fixing Penny, and this entire evacuation. It certainly makes for a nice visual, but like so many details in RWBY, it raises unnecessary questions along the way.

The important bit though is that amidst the whale carcass a blob of evil is swirling about. Salem, obviously. 

She’s not reforming in time to actually do anything though, don't worry.

Instead, we cut to the Ironwood vs. Winter fight and there's at least some dialogue this time. Ironwood yells that he's sacrificed everything to keep Remnant safe. Winter yells back that he actually sacrificed everyone else. Obviously, Ironwood should be called out for things like, you know, his unprompted murders, but instead they have Winter listing stuff that she was never shown to have a problem with before. The embargo? "Squeezed Mantle until it broke?" She, as Ironwood's second hand, understood and supported both the decision to close the border and the need to collect resources for a plan designed to take out Salem. I hate that no only did she turn without an ounce of hesitation or grief, but now they're having her act as if Ironwood forced these decisions on everyone, rather than everyone supporting him through them. We all remember Volume 7 when Ruby pressured him to finish Amity, right? And in trust RWBY fashion, most of these words are meaningless. Mantle "broke"? What does that mean? The class disparity did not come about through Ironwood: that's been in the works for generations. The lack of resources made things harder, yes, but when they were reclaimed by Robyn nothing improved. Watts is the one who turned off the heat and Salem attacked Atlas, leaving Mantle alone. Now, all the citizens have escaped through magical portals. So how is Mantle "broken" exactly? More importantly, why is Winter upset over this vague, nonsensical dilemma when she could be yelling about Ironwood wanting to bomb Mantle?

Again: this woman watched Ironwood shoot the councilman, shrugged, and continued to believe in him up until she realized his bomb threat was real. That was one of the main reasons why I thought the councilman might be alive, with Ironwood only shooting a warning shot past him. Because this is how you react to a good person unexpectedly killing someone else

whereas this is what we got from Winter and Harriet.

Hell, Weiss has more of a reaction to Yang telling Ruby things aren't super great right now.

So either Ironwood didn't do something that bad, thereby justifying these tame reactions (unlikely, given where his character ended up), or we should believe based on the animation that everyone was super chill with him killing an unarmed civilian. Which is then directly contradicted when they're like, "You're going to shoot Marrow? Bomb a city?? How could you do such horrible things??? 😲" Friends, buddies, fictional pals... you already watched him murder a dude.

The point is, there's a lot for Winter to be upset about, but she's not upset about that. There's a lot that Winter herself believed in, but the writing has forgotten that. This entire arc went off the rails a volume ago.

Also, why is Ironwood fighting with that giant gun? This is his final battle, presumably ever, and he's wielding this awkward, sluggish weapon we saw him randomly pick up two episodes ago? Let him use his regular guns! Give us a fantastic battle like he had with Watts! Instead, RWBY's final showdown consists of him using this no-name weapon as a unwieldy club in some of the most boring choreography we've seen to date. It doesn't help that this fight needs to share time with three others. Instead of an epic showdown, we're given glimpses of the battle before continually cutting away from it. 

During that first cut we return to the Team RWBY battle where Penny, doing her best to stay out of Cinder's reach, is whisked away on Weiss' wasp.

Too bad she didn't do that for Yang...

Jaune and Nora watch this horror unfold until Jaune says, "Priority one!" and they split. Except... what is priority one exactly? Helping the civilians? I guess, because they don't enter the fight until the very end of it, when everyone else seems to have made it to Vacuo. And you know what, I like that. For once it feels like the group — or at least the B Team — is acting like huntsmen, putting the needs of the people over their own, personal desires. I'm sure Nora wants to help the group after Yang's (presumed) demise and that Jaune would like nothing more than to get his hands on Cinder, but they put those grievances aside to do the work they signed up for. Good job!

My only real gripe is that we don't really see this struggling in the animation, I'm just assuming it's there. In particular, there's a moment when Jaune sends Nora through the portal for reinforcements — not knowing they can't return — and they seem a little too jovial when, by this point, three friends have died.

There's letting your cast be supportive, and then there's having them ignore that three teammates have perished in an abyss. It really doesn't help to sell the idea that Yang, Ruby, and Blake are in any danger here.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Penny tells Weiss that since Cinder is really just after the Maiden powers, she can buy the rest of the group time to escape. Weiss, obviously, isn't fond of this idea... and then the both of them are blasted off the wasp by Cinder's fire. Which they deserve, frankly. They're just having this casual conversation about sacrifice while in the middle of a battle. Did they somehow forget that Cinder can fly too?

Note that multiple attacks from Cinder, another blast, and a hard landing on the pathway gives their auras a knock, but doesn't break them. The primary defense for Yang's aura shattering in a single, simple hit was that everyone is exhausted and running on little to no power... yet here the rest of the cast is, tanking multiple hits as we've come to expect. There is no explanation for Yang's defeat except that the writers chose to ignore the rules of their world for a dramatic death scene... even though that drama was erased a week later as half our team falls into the void too.

We'll get to that though. For now, Cinder corrects Penny's belief with "I want it all" and proceeds to try to finish them off, only for Blake to arrive, having made her choice from last episode about who to help. It's a legitimately nice attack, but I happened to pause at the bEST MOMENT

Anyway.

We leave that fight to return to Qrow and Harriet who have, off screen, started an entirely different battle. What I mean is, last we saw Qrow had broken through the windshield of the airship, roughly pinned Harriet, and was taunting her about getting the fight she wanted. Now, suddenly, he's going “You’re making a mistake, Harriet, what happened to Clover—” as if he's been trying to talk her down this whole time. It's jarring, especially when we consider that Qrow had a volume long "kill Ironwood" arc that was dropped because... Robyn reminded him that murder is bad? RWBY feels like a storytelling pinball machine. Characters bounce from one personality to the next, one perspective and another, round and round until you don't know where they'll end up.

Harriet screams for Qrow to just shut up already and honestly? Same. I love Qrow, he's one of my favorites, but I can't deny that he's been done dirty like so many others since Volume 6. I love who Qrow was, not the mess RWBY has created the last few years.

Time to delve back into fic after recapping!

Sadly though, this strange dialogue wasn't the only "wtf" moment. Harriet is still trying to drop the bomb — which is its own mess of confusing motivations — when Vine and Elm show up on Harriet's ship. Elm begs Harriet not to do this "because you’re our friend!”

Am I glad that they finally acknowledged that the Ace Ops have always been friends? Sure, but why did we spend two volumes claiming otherwise? They were friends, a fantastic team, then Harriet announces that's a lie and we get a bunch of "Team RWBY is superior because they're actually friends" messages. Except this entire time we're still watching the Ace Ops be kind and playful with one another. But they're not friends, the story says. Not friends as they fight these battles. Not friends as they grieve for Clover. Definitely not friends as they react in horror at Ironwood nearly shooting Marrow. No, there's nothing there... until Elm claims there is! Then Harriet reacts in shock. I have friends?

Except Elm was labeled the one "just following orders" by Yang. Elm is the one who shook off Vine after the whale exploded. This isn't the story of one character, Harriet, thinking she was alone and then realizing that people do care for her, this is a story that, seemingly at random, had this group being BFFs or acting like they hated each other — and at each point the visuals are contradicted by the story's message. When they act like friends, we're told they're not friends. When they don't act like friends, we're told they really have been this whole time. I mean, do any of them even care that Marrow teamed up with Qrow and Robyn to take them out five minutes ago? All three were going along with Ironwood's scheme until they were physically stopped, but now Elm is convinced this is a bad decision she needs to talk Harriet down from with the power of friendship?

None of these characters are characters, they're just slapped together reactions based on whatever the plot needs. Who is Elm? I've got no clue. Her personality changes every episode.

Also, love that Qrow moves to stop the bomb from dropping and Harriet screams at him to "Get out of the way!" rather than just... attacking him? She even throws her hands out like she's having a temper tantrum. This feels like schoolyard bickering, not a life or death struggle.

Even though, you know, the audience is aware that the people of Mantle have already been evacuated and Qrow's group is aware that Atlas is falling on top of Mantle as they speak, so... why does the bomb matter? It's going to, what? Destroy the city thirty seconds before Atlas does? Oh no, the horror.

Things then, if you can believe it, get even worse. The bomb is still about to drop, so instead of doing anything to stop it — I mean seriously, we know it takes four people to shoulder the bomb's weight, but you're telling me Qrow and a reformed Harriet can't snag it in a pinch? — Qrow sits there, looks at Clover's pin... and the bomb careens towards the side of the airship instead, stopping.

Because I guess Qrow has good luck now? Or always did and somehow never noticed it? Or his semblance evolved?? Again, we don't know, but it's a bad moment any way you slice it, imo. Qrow has always been defined as the guy with a bad luck semblance and, much like Penny's android struggles, the allure was in watching him overcome those challenges, not having the show erase the challenge entirely. Especially when we don't even understand how it was erased. Qrow just... stops drinking, stops caring for Ironwood, stops wanting to kill Ironwood, stops causing bad luck, I guess. RWBY takes major character traits and flips them off like a light switch, leaving the audience with no emotional tether. We didn't watch Qrow overcome his drinking, or realize he can't bear to kill Ironwood, or discover a way to live life with the horrible hand he was dealt, he just blinks one day and those things are gone. Why? No one is sure. Not even the writers, I'd wager, because otherwise they would have written explanations into the text.

Many in the fandom insist that any basic information provided by the story amounts to "hand holding" when in fact there is a massive difference between the sort of unnecessary exposition that bogs down a tale, and having facts enough for the audience in its entirety to be on the same page about what is actually happening. For example, recently someone argued strongly that the "Penny is human" take is incorrect because Penny isn't human, she has an inhuman body made entirely of aura... yet where in the world does this exist in the story? Ambrosius may have been unsure about what Penny would be prior to removing her robotic parts, but that ambiguity is gone once her body forms, the equivalent of worrying about that gun only for a flag with 'BANG' to appear instead of a bullet. Worrying about something doesn't mean that something actually occurred. Penny appears human, expresses human sentiments, and then, this episode, dies as a human. If it walks like a duck and talks like a duck and succumbs to the mortal peril that all ducks face... it's probably a duck. As I said in a recent ask, I implore the fandom to stop writing RWBY's scripts for them. Or rather, do so in some amazing fanfics. Don't do it on critical posts as a means of insisting that your revision is canon.

So Qrow has good luck now, maybe, but this character change doesn't amount to anything because Watts remotely starts the bomb's countdown.

At least he’s entertaining and competent. We had that for a time. 

Back to the main battle, Neo is kicking Ruby's ass. Why? Because there's no consistency in power levels in this show. The ancient woman who hasn't fought in decades dances circles around Neo, highlighting how weak she supposedly is, yet now Neo dances circles around our main character. None of us should expect fights to follow the logic of the world, only what drama the plot wants to stir up. Ruby is eventually knocked down from a hard hit — yet her aura's intact! — and is saved at the last second by Weiss tossing Neo into one of the portals. 

Far more of a problem than the power leveling is that Ruby gives no indication here that Neo just murdered her sister. Again, that's what the characters are meant to believe, yet Ruby is as stoic as she would be fighting a bunch of White Fang grunts. If you showed this scene to a RWBY fan on its own and asked, "What do you think happened prior to this?" the answer would be, "Uh... nothing? Ruby is just fighting Neo like she did on the airship in Volume 3." Nothing about this scene — from dialogue to animation — sells the idea that Ruby just lost the person most important to her in the world.

When we do finally mention Yang, it's Weiss who goes, “Come on, we have to do this for Yang” and the delivery is... meh. Honestly, I normally don't pay much attention to the voice acting, but I had a problem with most of Weiss' lines this episode. The "Leave her alone!" during this fight and later a "Get back!" as she attacks Cinder both fell really flat for me. Given the devastation and charged emotion that's supposed to be here, we can't give her anything better than generic cries that, again, she’d throw at any grunt? In that later scene the animation absolutely helps sell Weiss' distress, but the dialogue is common and the delivery has no emotional punch, leaving it feeling like Yang is just hanging out in Vacuo and they promised they'd beat the baddies before catching up with her. No one but Blake is acting like Yang died.

In fact, we see more emotion from Ruby when Weiss shoves her back, taking the brunt of Cinder's blast.

Weiss' aura breaks, not that that's a danger or anything. Everyone falls before they're injured, Winter gets the Maiden powers, Ren barely has to fight. Losing aura in this show used to be a moment of peril, where just last volume Winter was bruised, bleeding, and now needs an assistive device because she had to continue a battle with no aura. Now it's a joke. Aura breaks left and right across the volume with no repercussions attached to that.

We see a bit of the Blake and Penny vs. Cinder fight where Cinder blasts Blake off the edge. Penny rushes after her because at least one character remembered that they can fly.

Ruby, meanwhile, remembers that she can fly when it benefits her. After getting hit down onto a lower level and watching Crescent Rose plummet, she taunts Neo into an attack with a move that's actually quite good. I like the confidence with which Ruby riles her up and I like the strategy of darting behind Neo to knock her off the path instead. “Whatever you wanted, I hope it was worth it."

The only thing I don't like is that this speed and ingenuity had to disappear to justify Yang falling.

Cinder breaks Ruby's aura from behind though, sending her over too and grabbing onto Neo's leg. In an obvious moment born of the trope, it looks as if Cinder is reaching to help Neo, only for her to snag the Relic instead. “You should have never threatened me," she tells Neo and to Ruby: "you should have never been born.” 

Love that they erased all that cool growth from last episode! And by "love" I mean "hate." As I said last recap, I'm not going to pretend that Cinder's character isn't riddled with problems, but realizing she was stronger by teaming up with Neo and Watts was one of the best things they've ever done for her. It made Cinder dangerous again and showed Watts' speech having a clear impact. It also made her more entertaining, creating a new dynamic among the three villains. Now though, Cinder is just... Cinder. The same boring, stupid Cinder we've had since Volume 4. She betrays Neo and then later betrays Watts.

So Cinder kicks Neo and Ruby both over the edge because why would we want to make her interesting? Neo falls, but Ruby has friends there to catch her! Unlike Yang. Jk. Weiss’ aura is gone and Blake actually tried both times, so major kudos for her. Using momentum supplied by Penny, she snags Ruby and hooks her weapon into one of the pathways... only for Cinder to cut the ribbon. Both plummet and once again Penny has a more believable reaction to all this, just like she did last week

Speaking of reactions, does anyone else find it weird that Cinder finally succeeded in killing Ruby and... doesn’t seem to care? 

No? Just me? 

At least we get that good animation with Weiss I was talking about before, even if the dialogue is lacking. I love that she snagged Blake's weapon and uses it to try and take out Cinder, shaking the whole time. Those are some great details. 

Back to the bomb, Qrow is trying to escape, but Harriet says there isn't enough time to get out of the blast range. "I've killed us all." Vine has the solution though, using his semblance to wrap up the airship, thus containing the blast when it goes off. His final words are to reassure Elm that he can give his life, "if it means saving all of my friends." Just in case you missed the part about the Ace Ops being super close this whole time. Even though they also weren’t. Trying to eat your cake too, RWBY? 

Frankly, I didn't feel much of anything during this scene, not when Vine made the sacrifice, nor when Elm and Harriet look on sadly while Robyn pilots them away (that's her contribution this episode). 

All I can say is, good on RWBY for not killing one of the three dark skinned characters, or just murdering the Ace Ops as a whole. What the story is going to do with them though, who knows.

Jaune and Nora have that ‘You can do it!’ moment after three of their friends have presumably been killed. I swear, about 80% of Jaune's scenes do not work tonally and oh boy, things only get worse from here.

First though, I like his entrance. He slams into the fight against Cinder and lines up with Penny and Weiss, who is still dual-wielding her and Blake's weapons. That's an epic shot.  

It looks as if they stand a decent chance against Cinder — Weiss' lost aura notwithstanding — except then Cinder's arm starts going crazy and she gleefully announces that Salem has returned.

Working on a time limit now, Cinder unleashes a volley of attacks that Penny steps in to protect the other two from. It's here that Cinder grabs hold with her grimm arm.

It's here that Penny dies. Again.

For the third time.

Friends, I am tired. This moment honestly deserves the most epic of rants, but that, in turn, requires energy. Energy? In this economy? Ha! That's hilarious. Taking this seriously though, the problem here can — as usual — be boiled down to a single question: What was the point?

Penny died in a horrible attack that shook the cast and audience both to their core.

That emotional impact was erased through her resurrection.

The resurrection did not create a new emotional impact for our heroes to grapple with.

Penny is given the Maiden powers, solidifying the fact that she's always been a "real girl."

That lesson was erased when the story decided to make her human for unexplained reasons (because no, she never needed to be human to survive the virus).

Penny then dies, passing the power to Winter... who was set to get the power in the first place.

We have, once again, come full circle. You can take Penny out of the story and nothing changes. Does Ruby lose any lessons or emotional growth? No. Does anyone survive who would have otherwise died? No. Does her getting the powers lead to someone unexpected snagging them upon her death? No. Penny's existence was filler. She was put in the story to take up time and, that done, was removed from the story once again. It's a choice that wouldn't be half as horrible if that filler hadn't done so much damage along the way.

First is the obvious: that Penny didn't deserve this. As a character, she didn't deserve to be brought back just to be killed off again, seemingly without narrative purpose, serving only to draw in viewers who RT knew loved the character. Second, keeping her in the story led to her entire arc unraveling. Initially, Penny died as an android in the world's eyes, but those who actually knew her — Ruby and Pietro — mourned the girl she really was. Now we have this horrible message that being a machine isn't real enough, so she has to die as a human being. It's a disservice to her character and, as an allegory for many minorities, downright insulting to the audience. Third, this offensive 'better to die as a human than live as a robot' message is wrapped up in the claim that Penny finally gets to choose something — “Let me choose this one thing. Trust me” — but she already did that when she chose to take the Maiden powers. We already had the better written version of this last volume!

And the fourth issue...well.  

Fourth and fifth are the real kickers. Fourth is that Penny's death was an assisted suicide. She explicitly asks Jaune to kill her so she can ensure she's thinking of the right person when she passes (never mind that her thoughts would probably be on Jaune while this is happening) and that's... pretty horrible. Look, I'm no purist. I like a great deal of dark, gritty stories whose plot exists to make us uncomfortable. That's a valuable emotion that fiction can generate. The problem is not that RWBY is tackling a sensitive topic, but that they aren’t tackling it well. Yes, they put in a content warning and (from what I've heard) a suicide helpline as well, but providing the already necessary resources is not the same thing as writing that kind of scene with respect and care. All of the above tells us that, no matter what RT may have intended, that respect and care weren't communicated to the audience. Like Yang, they didn't even bother to keep Penny's death within the rules of their world. Jaune is right there ready to heal her and Penny says no, there's supposedly not time.

Um... since when?

Jaune's aura boost is instantaneous. The second he amplifies aura is the same second the healing starts and their talk could have been spent saving Penny. There was certainly time to save Weiss in Volume 5. To have a character go, 'Nah, it's too late' when the solution is right there is the ultimate cop-out. Suddenly announcing that the solution will no longer work For Reasons is not a legitimate limitation and it's made doubly insulting that RT didn't simply use the limitations already available to them. Jaune has been running low on aura since the whale. He then expended a great deal of aura boosting Penny to keep the virus in check. Every other ally has had their aura broken in this fight so, there. That's your solution. Have Jaune take a few hard hits from Cinder, his aura breaks, and then when Penny is mortally wounded he no longer has a semblance to heal her. It's that easy! Yet instead they had Penny reject help so that she could ask to die. That's what's offensive here.

Finally, reason number five... why is this moment given to Jaune? That's another easy solution: Jaune has gone through the portal and can't get back to heal Penny. There. Done. But logistics aside, this scene should have gone to any other character. Who is Jaune to Penny? Or Penny to Jaune? No one! They don't have a relationship. I get that the writers didn't want any of the girls at her side because then it would be hard to justify Penny not passing the power to them (which I get: making one team member a Maiden changes the show drastically), but you know who should be there instead of Jaune?

Pietro.

Pietro, who built Penny as a weapon and who was never given the chance to apologize for that. Pietro, who told Ruby he could only rebuild her once more, setting up an expectation that he'd sacrifice himself for his daughter (despite the complicated racial issues that would bring up). Pietro, who watched Penny plummet and has no idea what happened to her, let alone that she's been made into a human girl. Pietro should have been at her side, saying goodbye to his child and helping her complete her last wish.

And it would be so very easy to pull off. All it takes is a single line where Penny remembers that her father exists, asking Ruby to ensure a portal opens up in Amity. There's a quick reunion along the pathways before Cinder attacks. We hear a cry of despair as Penny falls and she looks, seeing her father racing towards her, though she thought he'd already made it out. There, you’re done. We open ourselves up to a lot of attacks whenever we say, "Why didn't RWBY just do ____?" because those who vehemently defend the writing like to go, "Oh, you think you could write RWBY better?" and no, I don't. I struggle with long-form storytelling and massive casts. I don't think I could do justice to the sort of show RWBY wants to be, but I do think I'm a decent enough writer to spot when there are major problems like this. The question of "Why doesn't Penny remember that her beloved dad exists?" and "Why, out of that massive cast, is Jaune the one to do this deed?" are both things that a newbie writer can spot, and a sometimes okay writer can figure out how to fix them both simultaneously. A good writer will start thinking about themes — what might it mean for Pietro to kill the creation he made? — and a great writer will find a way to pull that off without having that insulting, discomforting feeling pop up. At this point, our RWBY crew feels less like new writers making mistakes (because they're not new, not at all), but rather just writers who haven't bothered to learn from their mistakes after eight years. That's a lot harder to watch.

Because putting Jaune here doesn't just mess with RWBY's internal rules (not using his semblance) and it's not just useless in terms of Penny's development (she doesn't know him outside of "dude who boosted my aura for an hour"), but it also falls back into a pattern I thought RWBY had finally broken from: making Jaune the story's emotional center. This is not the JAUNE show. It's the RWBY show. Yet here, once again, we have Jaune in the spotlight. Why, after a whole volume of Ruby avoiding making decisions, does Jaune finally make the hard call? Why, after a scene where Penny asked Ruby to kill her, does Jaune do that deed? Why, after a divisive arc where all the grief for Pyrrha went to Jaune, is Jaune now set to shoulder the grief of Penny? At least Jaune had a relationship with Pyrrha, even if Nora and Ren did too. Yet with Penny he seems to be there solely because the writers can't bear to keep him out of that center spot for long. All of Team JNOR make it through to Vacuo... except Jaune. Jaune falls into the abyss too because, if the show goes this route, we apparently can’t have a volume just about Team RWBY, the main characters. The main characters are separated from the rest of the team and it's Jaune, not Oscar and Ozpin with a connection to the lore, not Nora or Ren whose development now hinges on them learning who they are without the other, it's Jaune who follows the title characters into a new dimension. 

The issue is not whether Jaune deserves to grieve over the truly traumatic thing he just did now that he’s done it. He obviously does. The issue is the writers setting up a scenario where Jaune is situated to do that emotional work in the first place. 

I like Jaune as a character. I don't like how the writing uses him as a character. RWBY is built on the idea that these four girls are the heroes of this tale, not the expected blond, blue-eyed, sword wielding guy we’ve seen in so many other stories. So why does that guy get the most important scene of the finale? Yes, Jaune had much less screen time this volume than he did in the past, that’s a good thing given the number of important characters RWBY has to balance, but that hasn't erased the problem of him being given significant moments that should be going to title characters. Does Ruby’s team rescue Oscar and take on Salem? No, Jaune's team does. Does Ruby's team save Penny? No, Jaune's semblance keeps her grounded and then holds the virus off. Not everything is a problem — we've also got good choices like having Ruby defeat the Hound and Ruby's team take on Cinder for the majority of the fight — but that doesn't erase that Penny’s death wasn’t something Jaune should have been a part of. Not unless he was going to heal her. Doing better than they have in the past doesn't mean that RT isn't still slipping when it comes to giving him undeserved focus.

They took one of the most controversial characters, controversial because of how much emotional focus he's gotten in the past, and had him help a fan favorite commit suicide while he cried about it, showing more emotion for a near stranger than our title character showed for her sister. This is a character who, up until two or three episodes ago, had no connection to the victim and still has no reason to thematically be the one committing this act. That is why the fandom goes, “The crew loves Jaune and does everything they can to put him in the center of the action.” Ruby, as main character and Penny’s first friend, is the obvious choice here. Pietro, as Penny's father, would be a good choice too. Hell, Nora is a better option given their moment in the Schnee manor this volume. Or Winter given their moments in Volume 7! Have her escape Ironwood, find Penny, receive the powers, and then finish him off. Literally anyone would be better than Jaune, not because Jaune is a bad character, but because Jaune has no emotional stakes here and putting him in a position where he could heal Penny but doesn’t is massively stupid. No one should be surprised that a lot of the fandom is upset about this. It was one hell of a reach to give him this moment and, since Jaune's problem has always been getting too much screen time and emotional nuance compared to our main cast, it's no wonder this act brought up a lot of bad memories. RT fell back into an old pattern after two volumes of improvement and they did so at the worst possible time. 

The tl;dr is that Penny's third death is a writing travesty, just like her second. I shouldn't be surprised, given that this is the same volume that tortured a kid and the only thing they did with it was have him blindly trust his torturer... yet I find myself surprised nonetheless. Because Penny had such potential as an android Maiden and, as much as I personally hated it, potential as a former android learning to be human too. But why explore any of that when you can kill her off instead? Again.

As a final, far smaller note about this scene, we have the continuing problem of what purpose Cinder's arm is serving. If everyone recalls, its threat comes primarily from the fact that she can "siphon off" power from other Maidens.

She did it to Penny during the Amity battle and now she does it again, a great deal of green energy absorbed into Cinder. So what's left to give to Winter? Why doesn't Cinder become noticeably stronger with each successful theft? Like so much else in RWBY, we're told it exists without actually seeing the impact of that. Winter isn't a weaker Maiden for having lost power and Cinder isn't a stronger Maiden for having snagged it. It's just.. there, hanging out and looking vaguely menacing, I guess.

Outside of this unnatural not-transfer, we get to see how the power normally passes as Penny meets with Winter in some in-between place. It's a soft, heartfelt scene... with the exception that Winter says, “You were always the real Maiden at heart. I was just the machine. Just following orders."

I don't know how any viewer can doubt that RT now believes machinery = evil. Penny's machine body is magicked away so she can be a real-real girl. Yang announces that the arm she worked hard to make a part of herself is just "extra." The man with half a metal body is made this volume's villain and losing his second arm is, by the authors' own admission, a symbol of his lost humanity. Mercury with two metal legs remains a bad guy while Emerald and Hazel are hastily redeemed. Tyrian with his cybernetic tail is the most devoted crazy of the bunch. Maria, blind and in need of assistive lenses, is so forgotten by the story she was left in the tundra nine episode ago and won't be mentioned again until next volume (if then). Pietro, the guy in the wheelchair, is forgotten too, despite it being his daughter who dies on screen.

Now Winter, also bearing an assistive device, says that she's the real "machine" here and tells Penny, now human, that she was always the "real Maiden." I don't know what happened to make RT do a 180 lately, but the disability rep is no longer what it was.

Penny reassures Winter that she'll always be a part of her and then passes on, for good this time.

The rest of the episode feels lackluster, if I'm being honest. Images of Cinder beating Weiss are intercut with Ironwood beating Winter, getting her to a point where her aura breaks. 

But then the powers appear and, as we'd expect, she easily turns the tide. 

Gorgeous animation there. 

But RT once again rewrites earlier scenes by having Ironwood claim that the "destiny" he chose for Winter has finally arrived — isn't that Cinder's MO? — and Winter shoots back that he chose nothing, this was a "gift." Except, it was never about destiny or orders? This was why Weiss' anger in Volume 7 was ridiculous. She acted like Ironwood forced Winter to accept the powers and Winter told her point blank she chose this. Ironwood didn't decide anything, he offered and Winter chose... kind of like how Penny is choosing now. I hate how nearly all of Ironwood's character has been ignored or, during times like this, outright lied about to make him seem super duper evil. He tried to bomb a city! You don't need to make him seem evil anymore, that job is done! Like their sudden change regarding disability, RT now seems to be allergic to nuance. Heaven forbid Ironwood be allowed to have valid points like he did in Volume 3. No, if you've got an antagonist every single thing they've ever said must be twisted into a display of their evilness.

Unless you're Hazel, who Oscar trusts for #reasons. Unless you're Emerald, who the group immediately embraces. Unless you're Cinder, who gets to cry on a rooftop and secures the trust of her allies long enough to betray them again.

But Ironwood? Nah, screw that guy.

Salt aside, the fight is pretty boring. Winter literally just throws up a wall of ice and Ironwood's blast rebounds, taking him out.

Winter flies through the portal and we return to Jaune. His sword is broken by Cinder, so weapons should be quite the problem in Volume 9. 

There's a bit of sword vs. sword Maiden battling — this episode really pulled heavily from both Volume 3 and 5's finales — before Cinder gets smart again and attacks Weiss, currently trying to escape with Jaune. Weiss goes right off the edge and Winter isn't able to reach her in time. That's the entirety of Team RWBY, lost to the magical void.

Kudos to Winter's VA and the writing here though. This feels like an appropriate reaction to losing a sister. Screaming, sobbing, falling to her knees and beating the floor... Ruby, take notes.

A roar sounds through all the portals though, the sort of roar a pissed off witch might give. Jaune convinces Winter they need to leave Cinder behind, but before they can escape Cinder... makes a new wish?

Look, it works on all the major fronts. Cinder has the staff, check. We've basically established that Ambrosius can make an unlimited number of things per era, check. We know the previous thing disappears when a new wish is made, check. My only question is the timing. In all honesty, I'll have to re-watch the scene to be sure, but at the time it felt like the portals began disappearing almost the second Cinder left. Did she really have time to summon Ambrosius, deal with his explanatory nonsense, and get him to make a new wish without any fiddly concerns? Sure, fire is just fire, but it still felt like way too much happening too fast off screen.

Either way, the portals are gone and Winter makes it through in time, but Jaune does not. He falls through the void along with Team RWBY. And Neo.

Neo is the only addition I'm looking forward to here.

We get a few shots of our other characters as Winter arrives, saving the day by taking her grief out on the grimm. So glad something came of Ren breaking his aura again! Maybe they'll be more fighting at the beginning of Volume 9? If we see any of this group outside of 9's finale. My worst fear right now is that we'll spend an entire season away from the main action — remember how I said it would be stupid for Team RWBY to go on a side adventure while Salem is attacking the world? — and when they return there will have been some major time skip. Salem has destroyed most of Remnant, only pockets of survivors remain, it's all dark and dystopian... and oh look, every bit of character development happened off screen. How did Nora discover who she is without Ren? She did it while Team RWBY was gone. That merge we've been teasing for five years? That happened while you were gone too and, btw, Ozpin has ceased to exist. So sad, right? Not that anyone will actually mourn. Just take comfort in the fact that his last line was an "Oh no" about Ambrosius and his last major scene was apologizing for how the group treated him. Emerald's redemption? Off screen. Winter's grief? Off screen. Any and every one of these challenging beats to tackle can be waved away with, "We went through that arc while you were lost in the magical realm. Just get to know our new, improved selves now!"

Please, oh writing gods, don't let that happen.

Though I do worry because my last prediction came true.

But we all knew we’d end up here. My current theory? The portal should still be open at the vault. Winter will fight Ironwood, escape through it, and it will close right before he escapes too. He’ll fall with Atlas and everyone will act as if it’s some beautiful, poetic justice for him to perish with the city. 

Ironwood didn't make a break for the portal — too busy being unconscious — but we got everything else. Winter left him, he falls with Atlas, and this is some poetic justice, I guess. Really, it's just an undignified death. I'd hoped for a sympathetic kill, something that showed the characters still cared about him even if they knew Ironwood had to be stopped. Baring that, I'd hoped for an epic battle that took him out with style. Instead, no one even bothers to kill him. Ironwood is now beneath the entire cast, not even worth finishing off. Winter casually tosses his blast back at him and leaves. Cinder throws out a "that's checkmate" and leaves. I don't think Salem even looks at him. Ironwood (presumably) dies with no one and nothing, just a casualty of the city Team RWBY made fall. And I say "presumably" because the audience isn't even given the satisfaction of being sure he's passed on. Like Hazel, Ironwood's death is this weird, ambiguous moment that, based on the other character reactions, isn’t meant to be ambiguous. Is he dead? Most likely. Is it possible, based on what we've seen, that he'll pop up two volumes later like

Yes and, memes aside, that sucks. I don't want to be wondering for the next couple years if Ironwood survived and if they'll bring him back just to drag his character through the mud again. Move on.

But no, we don't even get that.

I've spoken at great deal about Ironwood both in these recaps and on my blog more generally. Last week, I said I'd covered it all and there was no need to rehash it all again. I stand by that, so let me just conclude this travesty with a final note: if your bad guy's final moment is using the last of his strength to point a gun at the actual villain of this story, and you don't realize the problem of how this image contrasts everything else the story has insisted about his character? … I just don't know what to do with that.

Oh, actually, final-final note: Ironwood’s semblance is officially a Schrodinger's semblance. It is both canonical and noncanonical simultaneously. Wooo. 

Cinder tells Salem she used her wish to "add more flames to the first of Atlas" and we cut to Watts, trapped in a roaring fire, unsuccessfully trying to break his way out. Wow, I hate that too! Next to Tyrian, Watts was our last remaining, entertaining villain. He carried a lot of the last two volumes and, I had hoped, was going to add some bright spots to the coming volumes as well. Apparently not.

Just another waste.

In addition to this casual, second murder of her ally, Cinder successfully convinces Salem that Neo killed Ruby and Ruby used the Lamp's last question, but she's back in her good graces since she snagged the Relics anyway. “You’ve done well, Cinder. Our work here is done" and they leave, blasting off like a less cool Team Rocket as Atlas plummets into Mantle.

Let's spend a second to tally things up then, shall we? What happens if Ruby, instead of throwing a moral fit, says, "You're right and we never should have lied to you, or betrayed you. But we want to help now. You get the Relics and the Maiden to safety in Atlas, if you can, we'll defend the people of Mantle"?

Well, they can still tell the world about Salem and call for help, much more easily now since Ironwood would likely just give them the code rather than them needing to spend an episode stealing it.

The Staff at least may not have ended up in Salem's hands and the group could have actually focused on getting the Lamp back (also solved if they'd been smart and just put it in the vault to begin with).

Mantle would still have been safe because Salem was never interested in Mantle to begin with.

Atlas wouldn't have fallen.

Ironwood wouldn't have died.

Penny wouldn't have died.

Even Vine wouldn't have died!

Our heroes unambiguously made the situation worse. Rather than banding together with their allies to fight the real enemy, Salem, they pushed until they made enemies of Ironwood and the Ace Ops both. Then they asked for help — which a pinch of logic said would never arrive — and twiddled their thumbs waiting for it. When it was clear none would come they...did nothing. They sat around, upset that the people were in danger, but not willing to do anything about it. It's only when one of their own, Penny, is threatened that they kick into high gear, hitting on a solution that they could have posed to Ironwood from the very start if no one liked the fly away plan. Yet instead of taking a few minutes to brainstorm other ideas — doing anything other than denouncing Ironwood to the rest of the group and attacking the Ace Ops — they spent two days sitting around, fixing minor messes they’d helped to create, then rushed through the portal plan, messing up the wish and stranding an entire kingdom in a sandstorm, with only Winter now to protect them from grimm.

Fantastically done, team. 

The villains won, yes, but not because the villains were smart and compelling. Watts' hack on Penny and the heat petered out to nothing and Salem... well, she sat around for the whole volume, expending energy only to torture Oscar and try to (unsuccessfully) stop some escapees. Neo and, miraculously, Cinder did the most damage, but only in the final hour, with this "damage" being that our characters fall into a void that we now know looks remarkably like a paradise! Everything bad that happened was a result of our heroes being stupid and stubborn. That's a compelling story to tell... but RT isn't trying to tell it. Our heroes caused so much damage, yet that damage goes unacknowledged — or worse, ignored into silence like with Ren — and everything else is waved away with the magic wand the series claims isn't there. The cold doesn't kill anyone. Oscar has no problems walking off the torture. Nora hops back out of bed. Ruby one-shots the Hound. The civilians lost to the void must have survived too. The entire kingdom successfully makes it to Vacuo... unless you count the massive army we never saw making use of the portals, but who cares about them, right?

The villains won, there was indeed something resembling consequences, but none of it was emotionally satisfying. Not even when the series tries so hard to insist that emotion is there.

Qrow watches Atlas fall, mouthing Ruby and Yang's names, but it's too little, too late. Where was this care for his nieces when he was obsessed with killing Ironwood? When did they care about him? Was it when Ruby shrugged at his arrest, when neither cared that he was missing, or when they were designing an escape plan that didn't include putting a portal where Qrow could reach? RWBY markets itself around the found family-ness of its cast, but they're done a poor job in recent volumes (not others) of convincing me that most of these characters care for one another. We went from Ruby denouncing all adults, to Ruby pulling an Ozpin with Ironwood, to Ruby watching blandly as her sister falls to her presumed death. This is my hero? This is the simple soul we're supposed to rally behind? Ruby doesn't feel like a character who cares about other people anymore and, given that she leads the charge, neither do most of her friends. Or, when that emotion appears, it's jarring and undeserved. Jaune cries over Penny's death? That's tonally and characteristically backwards.

This volume was the culmination of so many mistakes over the past two years. No, Covid couldn't have made things any easier for the crew — the fact that they got a volume out at all is amazing — but the pandemic isn't to blame for the problems in the story. These seeds have existed since Volume 5, with some (like Jaune) going back even farther. I don't think we're ever going to get that flawed, but emotionally fulfilling RWBY back. The show has dug too deep and unless it somehow manages to create a clean slate — those time travel ideas get more and more alluring! — there's nothing they can do but keep on digging. At this point, I can only hope that the series does wrap up within the next two volumes, rather than dragging RWBY to a Supernatural-esque length.

Our final shot of the episode proper feels fitting for what this volume has been. Atlas and Mantle flood rather than exploding, something that makes a certain amount of sense, sure, but definitely wasn't what I was expecting. And after all these shocking images — Penny dying, the grimm attacking, our main characters disappearing in a puff of gold dust — we end it all with bits of random debris. It's strange and underwhelming. Out of everything you could have done with the options you had, you choose to do this?

Of course, RWBY always has an after-credits scene (RIP Raven's, still amounting to nothing). Here, the sounds of water return to show us a beach. Crescent Rose imbedded in the sand, mirroring its classic pose in the snow.  

There's a tree. It's a very different kind of tree from what we saw in Volume 6, but the height and shape is nevertheless reminiscent of Light's domain.

A tree of life, anyone? After all, the group has fallen into a dimension created by a Relic, the gift of Light himself. It certainly seems as if RWBY is heading towards another encounter with the Gods, though what that will look like and how narratively satisfying it will be remains to be seen.

As for our bingo board, RWBY certainly pulled its weight! Only three squares got gold stars: Watts and Jacques didn't manage another team up because both are dead, Oscar didn't apologize for getting shot because he was too busy being tortured, and Qrow didn't drink likely because he didn't have access to any alcohol across the whole volume. Can't say that's a stellar result. The final image is something to behold though lol.

What a mess.

And on that less than exciting note... we’re done. This has been the volume of desertion, with a large number of fans telling me that they will no longer watch RWBY, but baring something entirely unexpected in my future, I'll be back next volume, for whatever that's worth. It never ceases to amaze me that even one person would give these nonsense recaps the time of day, so in all seriousness: thank you for reading. You rock.

Now go forth and fill the hiatus with great RWBY content!

✌️

[chicken-choice-judy-vevo]

COUNTDOWN ANALYSIS DAY 1 OF 8: TULIP

we’re almost there folks! we’ve hung tight for a good couple of months during the wait ‘til book 4, and we’re almost a week away! i thought i’d do a recap of what we’ve seen so far, focusing on analyzing the protagonists of each book and what it can teach us about narrative structure and storytelling. note these analysis are my personal thoughts and opinions, and i’m not stating them as objective fact.

today we start with the Perennial Child: Tulip Olsen.

Problems. Every passenger has a problem. Tulip’s in particular is her failure to look beyond her narrow worldview, leading to making poor decisions, getting stuck, and reluctance to accept help from anyone. The way her journey is approached within the narrative structure of the show sets up a sort of three-part act that shows us how to characterize a complex psychological problem starting from the outside in.

->Act One: The Distress Call

The distress call is what I’d like to consider the point at which any one passenger’s specific problem has become so prevalent that the train has to interfere, before they hit their ‘Point of No Return’. However, the distress call is not the problem itself, and is meant to say something deeper about what the passenger is dealing with.

Tulip attempting to run away and make it to her camp as planned is indicative of her reluctance to accept the reasoning behind other peoples’ actions; In her mind, she’s supposed to be at camp, and if her parents understood that, she’d be on her way already. Her decision to try and make it by foot in the snow... Intrigues me. You would think that Tulip knows this ‘solution’ is bound to fail at best and deadly at worst, and I think she does. This is the beginning of a clear pattern; an inability to ask for help and let someone else’s worldview into her mind. When children do drastic things, it’s more often than not an indirect way to ask for help, and I think her mindset here is, ‘My mom will know I’m missing, and she will come and get me, and then I can get to Oshkosh.’

This is the ‘surface layer’ of her characterization. The show starts by showing you the most drastic manifestation of her deeper psychological problems to show you the most essential parts of her character, so as you head deeper into her mind, you begin to understand her initial decision just a bit more.

-> The Inciting Incident

A little bit into the story, the show doubles back and shows us what brought Tulip to the point of her distress call in the first place. The Inciting Incident is what brings someone’s tendencies to the surface as their problem begins to fester.

Tulip’s Inciting Incident, as we’re shown, is her parents’ divorce. In the Cat’s Car, we see her push aside both her own feelings and her parents’ reasoning for the divorce to accept some easier-to-digest ‘reality’. This is not how her family is ‘supposed’ to be in her mind. This incident is so distressing to her, that she arranged her memories to fit in with the idea that things were ‘perfect’ before her parents decided to ‘change everything’. That makes logical sense, right? If something big hurts you, that must mean had it never happened, you would have been just fine.

This is the second layer of characterization; The justification for her running away and a reinforcement of the flaws she’s shown in the episodes leading up to this. However, this is still NOT her ‘problem’. She might think it is, and the audience might think so as well, until it’s all brought together in...

-> The Revelation

The Revelation is the point at which the story asks you (and Tulip) to look beyond the Inciting Incident, and lays her problem out in the most clear terms it can.

What better way to learn the limitations of her worldview than through her own reflection? In the Chrome Car, she’s confronted with someone who has completely separate views and opinions from her, despite having lived the same life; Lake knows Tulip better than anyone else. Through Lake, she’s offered the opinion of an outsider that she can’t deny, and has to come to terms with the fact that the most logical option (getting her reflection back where she’s supposed to go) isn’t the best option (it would deeply wound another person). Since Tulip can’t claim that Lake doesn’t understand the situation the way she does, she has to admit here that she’s wrong and do what might seem impossible; Free her own reflection.

This isn’t the end of her character arc; Rather, it’s what allows her to finish her character arc. Without the Revelation, I have every reason to believe Tulip might not have been as understanding when entering Amelia’s tape. If Tulip had not been confronted with the fact that her worldview isn’t objectively correct, would she have had the talk during their fight that shifts Amelia’s worldview?

tldr;

Tulip is a great example of how to approach a character’s deeper flaws from the outside in by first showing you their most drastic action, then the reason it happened, and then the root of the problem that lies underneath it all. Through this three-part approach to uncovering a passenger’s problem, the culmination of Tulip’s arc feels natural and impactful.

[fandomscombine]

The Hargreeves Kerfuffle  Part 1 : Disastrous Childhood (Prologue)

TUA Series Part 1:  Disastrous Childhood

The Hargreeves siblings x Hargreeves!Reader (Familial Relationship)

An idea came to me at 2am after binging TUA S2 and rewatching S1 right after!

BG: The Reader is Number Eight. It follows how you fit into the structure of Season 1 and the family dynamic of the siblings.

This part follows when the young Hargreeves Siblings had their powers manifested and the development of The Umbrella Academy.

Contains: Sibling Angst and Fluff. Reginald being a crappy father but sometimes not really?

The series will consist of 10 parts. Where the reader would have a focused interaction with each sibling. (Eg. After this part, it would be Luther x Reader, then Diego x Reader and so on! –Yes Ben is included)

WC:2649

A/N: This is my first ever TUA fic and I’m doing a series. WOw ambitious I know. Anyways I hope you enjoy! And tell me how you feel about it!

>>MASTERLIST<<

>>THE HARGREEVES KERFUFFLE SERIES MASTERLIST<<

READ: [PART 2]  [PART 3]  [PART 4]

>>JOIN MY WRITING CHALLENGE!<<

~

On October 1, 1989, 43 women across the globe gave birth despite them not being pregnant when the day began. In news of this mysterious happenings, Sir Reginald Hargreeves immediately went out of his way to find as many of these special babies. He has successfully adopted 8 of these children and you were one of them.

One might think that when a person adopts not one, but eight kids would have so much love to give but they would be mistaken. Sir Reginald Hargreeves—Dad, was not a loving father. It would be a miracle for one to see the man show any other emotion apart from anger. Sir Reginald Hargreeves was distant and treated the children like they were experiments that the dynamic felt closer to a doctor/patient relationship. The children weren’t given actual names, only to be called by their numbers based on the order Sir Reginald Hargreeves had procured them. It was only when Grace, their robot mother insisted they have a real name, were the children given them. And so, the children were:

Number One - Luther Hargreeves

Number Two – Diego Hargreeves

Number Three – Allison Hargreeves

Number Four – Klaus Hargreeves

Number Five – Five Hargreeves

Number Six – Ben Hargreeves

Number Seven – Vanya Hargreeves

And finally,

Number Eight -  y/n Hargreaves

For 6 years, the only special thing about the children was that they were miraculously conceived and birthed within a day, the same day. However, on the 7th year , October 1 1996, more strange things started to happen to the children.

It first started with Ben at breakfast. Dad as usual is cold and strict more so in the early morning. ‘Sit up straight Number Six.’ He directed without even a glance up from his newspaper at hand.

‘Yes Sir.’

Beside him you place your hand on his and whispered, ‘You alright Ben? You look sick.’

He gulped. ‘Yea y/n.’ Wiping the cold sweat off his forehead.

‘You sure?’ you questioned, not buying it.

‘Umhmm never bett-----’

You expected vomit to come out but what happen next is something you would never though was possible.

Screams broke out everywhere.

You feel yourself being raised above the table. Looking down, you were 5 feet off the ground held by what seemed to be tentacles.

‘Take that!’ You hear some shout then a thud. Diego had brought down a knife to the tentacle that had suffocated him and in now laying on the floor covered in green blood.

The sight finally snapped you out of your shock, your fight or flight reflexes kicked in.

A quick sweep of your surroundings showed Five and Klaus on either side of you, they too are struggling with the ever-tightening grip of the monstrous arm.

While on the ground, Vanya and Allison are making their way to Ben in hopes of helping him control whatever all this that was coming out of his body. While Luther is fighting off the arms away from Diego who seem to have broken his leg from the fall.

Dad, Mom and Pogo are nowhere to be seen.

You move your head to the left, knowing that Klaus doesn’t do well in small spaces. ‘Klaus it’s okay buddy, Dad would find a way to fic this. Just breathe’ You choked out ‘Just breathe Klaus, everything’s gonna be alright.’

‘mmmm!’ That was Klaus’ only reply but you were thankful to see him to fidget less. He seemed to have taken your advice – how much of the second part of that advice be true, you genuinely don’t know.

You try to move your head to face the right towards Five but no dice. The arm was wrapping itself closer to your neck. ‘Five’ you call out, but it was barely a whisper. ‘five..’

‘Y/N!!’ Five’s scream was the last thing you heard before everything went black.

~

‘She’s broken a couple of ribs and sprained her neck. But’s she’s gonna be okay. Just needs time to rest.’

‘And how long would that time Pogo?’

‘She would need to say in bed for 2 to 3 months, Sir.’

You open your eyes and are greeted with blinding white light. Dad, Mom and Pogo surround your bed.

Grace tucks a stray hair behind you ear. ‘My baby, y/n. How are you feeling?’

‘Sore.’ You reply, noting the coarse sound of your voice. ‘How’s Ben? Klaus? Vanya?—’

Grace cut you off. ‘They’re all fine y/n. Though Ben is a bit roughed up.’ She says truthfully.

‘Number Six has appeared to have powers of summoning monsters with his body and he is currently under supervision.’  Reginald stated.

But something didn’t fit right. ‘But how did you calm him down? The whole fiasco back there was in total chaos?’ Voicing out all your thoughts and questions. ‘No one could get him to take back control, unless…..’ You couldn’t continue the thought. Your eyes go wide. There was no way. It was too harsh, but it was dad after all, he would do whatever means necessary to get what he wants.

Your dad smiles proudly ‘Ah yes. Y/n ever the cleverest of the bunch.’ You had observed that he had addressed you in your actual name instead of your number for the first time in your whole existence.  ‘Unfortunately, I had to sedate Number Six. You do understand that it was the only way.’

You open your mouth to argue.

‘No buts, Number Eight!’ Ah and now we’re back to number, you thought.

‘I’ll have Grace by you side whist you recover and Pogo here would relay your recovery progress to me daily.’

He was almost to your door when he faced you again. ‘Oh and Number Eight, When you feel something different or unusual. Do inform me of it immediately.’ And with that he left.

‘Pogo? What does he mean by feel different?’ Your nerves go up, worried about your siblings. ‘Is anyone hurt?’

Pogo sighs, after much contemplation he begins ‘Y/n dear. Today’s happenings uncovered that there are stranger yet special things about you children.’

You nod, not wanting to interrupt but also wishing he would hurry up and continue.

‘Ben isn’t the only one who have gotten powers today. During the kerfuffle, Diego has shown skill with a knife, Luther immense strength and Five had shown ability to teleport.’

Once again you found yourself in shock.

‘Your father has gotten the idea that you children have varying power wish are “activated” so to speak when reached the age of 7.’

‘Haha-OW’ You clutch your side.

‘Careful y/n, try not to do sudden movements—yes and that includes laughing too.’ Mom says, caressing your cheek.

‘When can I see them?’

‘I’ll try to persuade Reggie to allow them for a visit dear. But now I need you to rest.’

~

Sibling Visits are limited to 30 mins a day, right before the bedtime curfew.

All your siblings (expect Ben who was still under strict supervision and is recovering himself) came to see you the following night.

Allison was the first one through your door and ran to give you a hug. ‘Y/n! We are all so worried!’

‘Aww thanks—OW OW OW’

‘Oops sorry’ releasing you from her death grip of a hug.

Seeing that movements still hurt you. The rest opted not to hug you, Klaus and Diego held your hand, Vanya is sitting on the edge of you bed, Luther gave you forehead a quick kiss and Five being Five, greeted you with the typical sibling teasing. ‘Glad to see you not drop dead in front of me.’

Diego showed off his leg cast and asked you to sign it, which you happily did so. Signing ‘Badass as always. -y/n’ beside Ben’s note of ‘Diego is cooler than Batman’

The 30 minutes consisted recaps of what happened the day before, the gushing of the boys showcasing their powers and debating on who’s the most powerful.

And just like that, the time was up and each had to go to bed. Everyone kissed your head for goodnights, even Five.

‘You know I love you right?’ His eyes softer than you ever seen before

‘I know’

‘You really scared me yesterday when you blacked out.’ Five had his tough façade down. ‘I thought you died y/n.’

‘But I didn’t.’ You reach up to wipe his tears away. ‘It’d take something bigger, if you wanna get rid of me.’

He chuckled. ‘Night, y/n’

‘Good night, Five.’

~

3 weeks had passed, and your siblings never failed to visit you. Over that time, Klaus and Allison had manifested their powers. Klaus can conjure the dead while Allison could ‘rumor’ people to her will.

Ben came by 2 weeks later. His color is back to normal, not like the blueish tint it had the last time you saw him. Though he still had a few remnants of bruises and scars across his arms and face.

‘I’m sorry y/n.’ He said leaning on your door frame.

‘Ben!’ You exclaimed. ‘I’m so glad you’re back up and running!’

Ben was caught off guard. ‘You—You’re not mad at me?’

‘Why would I be mad at you?’ You questioned, genuinely confused at your brother’s words.

‘Cause, Cause I almost got you killed. I am a monster.’

You sat up straight at those words, your ribs hurt a bit at the sudden movement, but you didn’t care. Your brother was blaming himself for something he couldn’t have controlled.

‘NO BEN!’

Ben jumped from your sudden outburst.

You motioned for him to come closer.

‘Ben…’ looking into his eyes. ‘Ben you are no monster.’

‘But—’

‘uuh uh I’m not done’ You held his hand in yours. ‘You are no monster what happened then was an accident, nobody knew, heck nobody expected powers to just show up. It was beyond anyone’s control. It took us by surprise.’

His shoulders relaxed.

‘It wasn’t your fault. I don’t blame you for what happened.’

He gave you a bone crushing hug. ‘Thank you y/n. You don’t know how guilty I was feeling.’ Voice muffled by your shoulder, which is now wet with his tears. ‘I kept thinking about the pain I caused you and I wasn’t allowed to leave my room even when I begged dad to see you and say sorry. y/n’

‘Shhh shhh’ Rubbing his back. ‘It’s alright Ben. What’s important is that we’re all here now. Alive, Safe and sound.’.

~

You still have a month left for recovery.

Only you and Vanya are the one left who haven’t had their powers revealed.

Dad had created a group called ‘The Umbrella Academy’ in which he trained your super powered siblings. He even given them codenames to go along with their newfound powers.

Number One - Luther Hargreeves aka Spaceboy

Number Two – Diego Hargreeves aka The Kraken

Number Three – Allison Hargreeves aka The Rumor

Number Four – Klaus Hargreeves aka The Séance

Number Five – Five Hargreeves aka The Boy

Number Six – Ben Hargreeves aka The Horor

With this new training program comes with the downside of spending less time with your siblings. Your traditional Sunday afternoon sister bonding time Allison and Vanya is basically non-existent now. Sure the rest of siblings still drop by to check up on how you’re recovering but it is not as frequency as they once were- you totally understand though, it must be tiring to be part of ‘The Umbrella Academy’ but girl were you still hurt and wanted more than anything to be a part of it.

So, you spend most of your time with Vanya nowadays. You didn’t mind, it is nice to have someone along. Most of the time Vanya practices her violin in your room.

‘That was beautiful Vanny’ you commented after she finished a rendition.

‘Thanks y/n’ Her face flushed. ‘Maybe someday I’d be a famous violinist!’

‘I know you would.’ You say truthfully. ‘And I better get the best seats at your concerts okay? Nothing short of VIP treatment for your favourite sister!’

‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure Allison would get that.’ Vanya teased.

Placing a hand dramatically to your chest ‘uhh I am offended! I thought I was your favourite sister!’

‘well... you thought wrong.’ Vanya tried to keep a straight face but failed. ‘You y/n are the VVIP guest!’

‘Now that’s more like it.’

~

That night you were tossing and turning in your bed.

In the training room, huge boulders were being tossed onto Luther’s back. He currently had 3 on him. ‘More’ he cried. It was an impressive feat to see. A 7-year-old carry the what had to be at least 5 times his weight.

It was at his 6th block when his legs start to shake.

‘Straighten up Number One!’ Reginald voice came through the speakers.

‘I-I’

‘Fix your posture! And stop babbling!’

He was trembling all over, the weight was far too much and carried far too long for just a young boy.

Any second now, he is gonna be crushed by the boulders.

‘LUTHER!’ You screamed. Cold sweat was plastered all over your face. You were still in your room- but it all felt so real.

You look over to your bedside table, 9:07

Training would have started an hour ago. You had time.

You took the stairs two at a time, bursting into the training room. ‘STOP’

Reginald stood from his seat. ‘Number Eight. What in the world are you doing here?’

‘STOP! Luther is gonna get hurt please stop it--.’ Ignoring his question.

‘Number Eight, what are you talking about? Number One is doing perfectly fine!’ He gestured towards the front.

He was right. Luther looks fine. In fact it looked like it was carrying a light backpack instead of 3 boulders. ‘But- But I saw—’ Then it hit you 3 boulders. 3 not 6.

‘More’ You heard him cried out, just like you had in your nightmare.

You stared at Luther, how could this be?

‘I saw him sir, he is gonna collapse from 6 boulders.’

At this, Reginald took interest. ‘You saw?’

‘Yes, I-I must have dreamt it.’ You slumped against the free chair, defeated. ‘but it felt so real.’

‘Let me everything you saw, and don’t miss a single detail’

And so, you did. By the time you finished, Luther was with his 6th block.

It was exactly like how things went down in your dream. ‘No No NOOOO!’

‘Release him!’ Reginald called at the last second. Standing he faced you. ‘Now y/n dear would you please come with me.’

He didn’t speak again until you were both in his office. ‘It seems to me Number Eight that your powers have finally manifested.’

‘what—’

‘A slight delay compared to your siblings, but I presume that it was due to you recovering from your injuries that your body had focus on your recovery first then powers.’

‘What about Vanya? Would she have powers?’

‘It seems that Number Seven has no powers gained.’ Standing in front of you. ‘But no matter now, what’s important is that you’ve got them.’ He placed his hands on your shoulders. ‘You would do great things Number Eight. To see into the future is a valuable asset to have indeed. For this I shall name you Foresight.’

This was it! You own codename!

Number Eight -  y/n Hargreaves aka Foresight.

��I’m gonna be part of The Umbrella Academy?’ Overjoyed by your father taking pride in you that every other thought left your concern.

‘Yes Foresight. You will.’ Standing straight again. ‘However, your training would only start once you have fully recovered.’

‘Thanks Dad.’ Hugging him and for once showed the affection back.

You wish you could say that it was at this point where you and your siblings finally gotten a loving and healthy childhood. But you were wrong. Things only deteriorated from here on out with the Hargreeves household and by extension the dissolve of The Umbrella Academy.

END OF PART 1

READ: [PART 2] [PART 3]  [PART 4]

Taglist [All]: @gruffle1

Taglist [TUA]: @herecomesthesun1969  @ultraviolet-m​ @winterierwriter @lordofthunderthr​  @alabaster1223

[r6sedust]

Gandra's redemption arc has already started. here is why:

When Gandra was first shown in the episode, she was trying to reach the handle (whatever that's called) and she didn't even care if anyone was gonna come after her or not since she just kept running and didn't do anything to ensure her victory until after dewey loudly announced himself.

Then when she saw the kids and analyzed them she says

"On one hand I don't wanna hurt you two, but in my other hand I have a flash bomb."

Then she threw the bomb and kept running. however, even though Dewey and Webby were blinded they were still able to climb up the platform. both of them were right behind her so Gandra obviously noticed that they were making progress and

did nothing. She just kept running. literally at one point she looks back at Dewey who is like 5 feet away from her, did nothing, and kept running to get the handle.

After they all reached the top, Gandra compliments their teamwork before throwing another flash bomb at them, which gets kicked back at her. she's then blinded, ends up falling off the platform into a pile of trash bags and that is it for the Dewey and Webby vs. Gandra side plot.

Now you may be wondering, why did i just recap that entire side plot?

Did you catch the theme of my recap?

The theme of Gandra doing nothing?

She did nothing prior to ensure her victory

She did nothing to the kids after blinding them

She did nothing to the kids when she noticed they were catching up

She. Just. Kept. Running

But why?

Because as she stated, she didn't really want to hurt them.

But, why didn't she really want to hurt them?

Well there are two possible reasons actually:

1. The most likely reason is because of their connection to Fenton. She knows that he's friends with almost all of Scrooge's children and hurting them would probably make her feel bad cause she's hurting people who are close to Fenton.

2. She just doesn't like the idea of physically hurting children or anyone that doesn't truly deserve it.

Either reason, she did something to them anyways because...

She puts her job first and her feelings second.

She didn't want to hurt them, but she had to for her job.

Let's face it, this episode just proved that Gandra is the most merciful agent in FOWL. Because if it were Steelbeak or Black Heron there instead, they would've for sure messed with the platform to not only knock them down but to probably injure them badly in the process for the hell of it. Rockerduck is pretty merciless too but he doesn't count cause...he's Rockerduck.

And besides Rockerduck, all the FOWL agents have intentionally put either the kids, Scrooge and Beakley, or all of the above in life threatening situations. except Gandra.

"what about that time in Dangerous Chemistry?"

Her mission was to grab the passcode for the gizmosuit, what happened afterwards had nothing to do with her. Plus, what Beaks did was completely unexpected and she helped Fenton in the end.

"what about in Impossibin when she hacked the security system?"

Yeah, just hacked. Bradford did all the fighting stuff afterwards.

So we have:

Never put the family in life threatening situations prior to/in Swanstantine

Helped the guy she was conning in the end

Didn't do much harm to Dewey and Webby even though they were a threat (I'm guessing the bomb just stung for a bit and that was that)

Even though it's not much of a list to work off of, it still proves that Gandra has a heart.

And that might be her downfall someday.

Let's say, what if one day she has to actually fight one of the kids, hand to hand? Going off of the analysis, she'd be very hesitant to do so but she'd give in anyway cause it's her job. But what if she doesn't give in? What if she let's the kid win and run away? If that were to happen, Bradford would not be happy.

At all.

[theemptyskies]

Real talk.

Note that this is all my own opinion.

In an Azula Redemption fic, in my opinion, she would not have to apologize for anything she did during the war to anyone. Not Aang for shooting him with lightning. Not Mai or Ty lee for imprisoning them. Not the Gaang for chasing them. The only one I might concede is targeting Katara during an Agni Kai.

What she probably should do, is apologize for the way she treated Mai, Ty lee and Zuko when they were children. If it takes place post smoke and shadow then she should apologize for what happened then as well.

She does not owe Ursa anything. While Ursa did love her, she very much neglected Azula which left her feeling that something was wrong with her. She has every right to never let Ursa in her life again. There is no argument that can be made against it. Azula's feelings are valid. She was neglected by her mother. Ursa's personal feelings don't matter. She may have loved her but I don't recall any instance where she actually told Azula that, or spent time with her, or showed even close to the same level of affection. Ursa did kiss her on the cheek the night she left, however I will point out that she woke up Zuko and made sure the last thing she said to him was basically I love you while she left Azula unconscious, unaware of the action. We never even see a scene where Ursa says "I love you" to her.

It's what makes the hallucinations so tragic at the end of season three. Those scenes can be read in a multitude of different ways. My reading of them, examining Ursa's relationship with Azula, noting that every interaction they had was shown to be confrontational, referencing "The Beach" where she did show that Ursa's relationship and abandonment did hurt her deeply, implying that she did want her affection, is this.

Ursa's neglect of Azula throughout her childhood caused Azula to develop feelings of inadequacy. This feeling pushed her to try as hard as possible to earn Ozai's affection, where she succeeded until he left her behind before the final attack in the Earth Kingdom. Coupled with Mai and Ty Lee's betrayal, this caused her feelings of inadequacy to resurface stronger than before. Everyone left her behind. Her mind conjured the image of Ursa, the origin of her feeling, saying "I love you Azula, I really do.", things we never saw her say.

I read these scenes as the hallucination saying things Azula always craved to hear. Affections that were always withheld from her, hammering away at her already fragile psyche. Reminding her repeatedly that she was never good enough for either of her parents.

So no. I don't think Azula ever needs to forgive Ursa or give her a chance and there isn't an argument that could be made to convince me. At most, I think Azula should confront her as the core of a majority of her trauma, similar to how Katara did with Yon Rah.

For me, an Azula redemption is about her coming to terms with her trauma. It's about her finding her place in a post war world. Her rebuilding her relationship with Zuko, the only family she was ever truly close with. It's about her seeing through the lies and manipulations implanted by Ozai from a young age. It's about her gaining a good, healthy support system that won't give up in her.

It's about her, in the end, finally finding peace, whatever that happens to mean for her in your particular fic. If it involves romance, that's great. A lot of people who make "shipping tier lists" rank almost every ship with Azula at the bottom, often saying things like "nobody deserves to deal with a relationship with Azula" which, as someone who grew up in an abusive household who also relates a lot to Azula, I gotta say it kind of hurts hearing people say those things. Everyone deserves love.

If your fic doesn't include romance and focuses on her familial relationships then that's also great. She definitely has a lot on her plate and building that healthy support system is an amazing route to take your fic, leading to a great heartfelt ending.

Please note, Azula's misdeeds should not be overlooked. Anyone you want to have her connect with, she will have to earn it. But I feel like it's important to understand why some people behave the way that they do. Not excuse thier actions, but to help map out how they can make up for them. That's why we were shown Zuko's tragic past while also seeing him burn down a village and threaten defenseless elderly people.

With the way she's portrayed, it easy to forget this powerful, intimidating character, is just a child. She's just 14 years old. It's something I think a lot of people who write off her character as irredeemable don't account for. Whenever I dig past her surface level "bad guy" traits with this in mind, admittedly, I'm often brought to tears. She's very much a product of her environment. It's because of that, that I think she can learn to be a better person.

To recap, an Azula redemption in no way shape or form NEEDS to include Azula trying to make the Gaang like her. It was war and every one of her actions during it have no bearing on her, from her perspective. If you want her to connect with them then you can, just don't be someone who talks bad about a redemption fic because she doesn't. 🙂

She did treat Zuko, Mai, and Ty lee very poorly as a friend and sibling. So she does owe them an apology and they are also under no obligation to give her another chance.

Ursa does not need to be forgiven, nor should it be portrayed that Ursa did nothing wrong. Azula's feelings are valid.

The core of a redemption fic (for me) is character growth, in this case for Azula.

Romance is ok in an Azula redemption fic. I personally enjoy Azutara fics where she helps Azula through her mental health recovery and trauma. Citadel is an interesting fic that takes place several years into Azula's stay in a mental institution. Here's a link if you wanna check it out. Keep in mind, it's nine years old so comic events aren't a thing 🙂 https://www.fanfiction.net/s/6939866/1/5

Not having romance is equally ok. There are a multitude of great fics both post canon and AU that follow this route. Here is a fic recommendations for it. This one is an AU taking place during the war.

Her actions should not be excused because her story is a tragedy. She still did bad things.

Hopefully you all enjoyed my little ramble that I also hope is understandable. I tend to go off on tangents a lot. Considering it's 6:30 am where I'm at and I still haven't slept, this probably has horrible grammar and is likely riddled with typos. So I'm sorry about that bit lol 😅

[chalkrevelations]

SO, Episode 28 of Word of Honor was a roller-coaster ride.

(Spoilers, as ever, so scroll away and come back later if you want to see it unspoiled.)

They managed two entirely separate scenes in this one that had me going “Did … did that just happen? Is this really happening?” Let’s get this one out of the way first: The scene of Zhao Jing in his serial killer lair with the altar and memorial tablets and his serial killer trophies. Y’all. I swear, scene opens with a shot from behind of drunk Awful Yifu in his Fantasy Ancient China underwear staggering through a set of doors into a room with candles and draperies, and before I was able to register the rest of the set design, my brain gave a terrified squeak and started rabbiting around like, “Oh my god, please do not let this be Xie’er’s bedroom. Oh my god, they wouldn’t actually go there, not even hinted, surely that would be too far!” Then my eyeballs caught up and registered the set, so I thought I was safe, but that didn’t even turn out to be the moment in the scene that had me going “Is this really happening?” (Although I do think the fact my brain immediately jumped to that scenario speaks to the creepy vibe the show has managed to build between Awful Yifu and Xie Wang). So, Zhao Jing is a sloppy drunk and absolutely shitfaced, stumbling around and yelling at his dead brothers, and I’m sitting here watching him, feeling like I need a shower, with my skin a little bit trying to crawl off my body, and then he picks up Rong Xuan’s memorial tablet and pours an entire stream of alcohol out of the pitcher all over it, and I say, out loud, to the screen, “Oh my god, they just had him figuratively piss on that tablet.” Only, no, they didn’t, because there was no need to have him do it figuratively because then, he literally whips it out of his pants and takes a piss on the tablet, complete with sound effects, and I’m open-mouthed, thinking “Is this really happening?” As some background, I grew up in mainstream U.S. culture where ancestor veneration isn’t formally practiced - although it isn’t an entirely absent part of our cultural mythos, it’s just that now when I when I offer cultus to the Patres Patriae, it’s deliberate and intentional – but I’ve been doing ancestor work in my particular flavor of polytheism for long enough, and intensely enough, that I had a visceral reaction of disgust and horror to this. Hand literally clapped over my mouth in shock, even after watching all of his ranting at his dead brothers and spitting at his dead shifu and just generally being a disrespectful asshole with delusions of grandeur building up to it. So, yes, show, you have indeed convinced me that Awful Yifu is the worst, even in an episode that also devoted that much screentime to Prince Jin.

Fortunately, the other “Is this really happening?” moment was at the other end of the spectrum, somewhere in the face of how married Zhou Zishu and Wen Kexing are, which I cannot believe passed censorship. I know I keep saying that, but every time I think I’ve adjusted to how far they’re going to go, the show laughs gay-ly as it pushes the envelope another mile down the road. Truly, this show is the gift that keeps on giving where these two are concerned, and not just because of Zhang Zhehan’s face. I realize I had to spend 50 episodes deciphering Lan Wangji’s smallest microexpression (not that I’m complaining), but I can’t believe how expressive both Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun are in these roles, with Gong Jun’s little sadness eyebrows when WKX wants ZZS to humor him, and how soft Zhang Zhehan’s face gets when ZZS looks at WKX, and how great they both are at making all this look like a pair of adults who are in an established relationship and confident of each other. I’d be as weak as Wen Kexing if Zhou Zishu pouted at me the way he does when he tells Chengling that he can’t do anything to help decorate the Manor except observe and direct because he’s oh, so injured and frail, poor him. Wen Kexing can laugh at Zhou Zishu when ZZS pokes at him by saying the papercrafter was such a beauty! (Compare this to his reaction back in the day, when ZZS deftly manipulated him out of bringing A-Xiang along on their honeymoon adventures by calling her a beauty and implying she might draw attention away from WKX!) Wen Kexing waves kitchen knives at Zhou Zishu in (somewhat fond) exasperation! Zhou Zishu now accepts Wen Kexing piling his plate with food at the table as perfectly normal! There’s no crying in Spring Festival! They send their kid outside to watch the fireworks so they can have sex some alone time! (Merciless killers. How the fuck so adorable?) Someone must have backed up an entire truckful of money to the house of someone very important to get this aired, because what is the heterosexual explanation for … any of this?

Other thoughts:

We continue to get small things that maintain the parallels between Wen Kexing/Zhou Zishou and Gu Xiang/Cao Weining, including the mirrored theme of finding a home with a welcoming family, shown through family dinner, and expressed through WKX’s description of his former self as a “lonely ghost,” echoing A-Xiang’s self-description (to Shen Shen in an earlier ep) the same way.

HAN YING! Listen, I am stupidly attached to this bit player, and not just because he’s a familiar face (because half of Wen Xu’s screentime in The Untamed was just a disembodied head hanging at the entrance to the Unclean Realm, so it’s not like there was time to get … attached). And I say stupidly attached because ever since we first saw the way he looked at ZZS with big puppy heart-eyes, I knew he was going to be a goner. I just know they’re gonna fridge him for the next step in ZZS’s journey, because something has to pry ZZS out of Four Seasons Manor, as much as I, personally, would like nothing better than to see 8 more episodes of wedded bliss for two gay dads and their son. (OK, one thing I would like better would be if their daughter and son-in-law came to live with them, too.) At least it looks like Han Ying will get to die taking a figurative bullet for ZZS, which will make him happy and might prevent him from finding out the Glazed Armor he’s so proud of bringing is actually pointless, because don’t think that didn’t hurt to know while I watched him being so proud of managing to get his hands on it. But I’d prefer he didn’t die at all, show. Also, why on earth are there only two (completed) stories under the ZZS/Han Ying label on AO3? Because yes, I have looked. I have the search open in another tab right now. Why haven’t more people taken advantage of this guy’s utter devotion for ZZS? How are people looking at the way Han Ying reverently brushes his fingers over the single white blossom on the wall mural in ZZS’s rooms back in Prince Jin’s palace and not falling all over that?

Xie’er, oh, Xie’er. You’re killing me, here. I need someone to rescue you, you desperate affection-starved little sociopath. So, to recap, last time we met, your Awful Yifu finally let it slip that he was never ever going to acknowledge your existence in public. So now, you’re being a very clever boy, setting up a scheme to manipulate him into having to publicly acknowledge you if he’s going to claim credit for your successes (because I’m sure you can’t even contemplate failure) in service to Prince Jin. So clever, but I hate to tell you, you’re clever at everything except learning from your mistakes when it comes to your Awful Yifu. You really learned nothing from Beauty Ghost, did you? Ugh, your sad little face as you watch your hot mess of an Awful Yifu while you wait for the maids to make tea – it hurts me. Please tell me you’re playing some kind of long game, and you’re just a really great actor. Because he’s sloppy drunk, and right now, watching your face journey, I think maybe you think that makes what he’s saying true – that he’s not guarding his words, and he means it when he tells you that of course he loves you and would never leave you. “Are you still angry with me?” Awful Yifu literally asks. “Alright, I’ll apologize. I was just mad. It didn’t mean anything. We’re together in this. I’ll always stand by you.” Xie’er, you have got to stop believing gaslighting abusive men who shovel that BS. This is what they call the honeymoon period in the cycle of abuse. Seriously. This is textbook. Please stop making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe think about the fact that your Awful Yifu is, single-handedly, the reason the Department of the Unfaithful actually exists in the first place. He is THAT AWFUL. I would like to think actually seeing his serial killer trophy room will make a difference, now that you have some confirmation of what Tragicomic Ghost told you and not the ability to wave it off as part of some he-said, she-said situation where how could we ever possibly know the truth, despite the fact that Zhao Jing has shown he’ll stab anyone in the back in his quest for power? But, then, I also thought maybe learning last ep that he never planned to publicly acknowledge you would make some kind of difference. Are you going to roll the dice again, gambler? Because I’ll tell you right now, the house always wins. (Not that you’d listen to me anymore than you listened to Beauty Ghost.)

(Also, wait wait waitwaitwait. Waitaminit. This is pure speculation and probably way too out there to be true (oh, but, someone’s going to write this AU for me, right?) Hot-mess drunk yifu tells Xie’er that they’ve been depending on each other “ever since I picked you up and brought you back home.” I can’t remember if we know anything about Xie Wang’s background at this point, but it does sound like Zhao Jing might have literally yoinked him off the street to raise him. He … he doesn’t think Xie’er is actually Yan’er, does he? Only he kidnapped the wrong orphaned urchin by mistake? I’m just sayin’, thinking back to Shen Shen’s reaction to finding out Zhen Yan was still alive, it would be exactly the kind of thing Zhao Jing would do, to keep this kid that his brother(s) wanted to find hidden right under their noses.)

Chengling and the chicken. I can’t, y’all. And Zhou Zishu’s face as soon as he realizes what Wen Kexing is telling Chengling to do – he knows this is going to be a show.

Prince Jin, you are almost as bad as Xie’r and his awful Yifu combined:

Prince Jin: Zhou Zishu, you mastermind, your super-secret spy network continues to spread everywhere, including into my very own palace. Oh, the things you must be plotting against me!

Zhou Zishu, chillin’ at Plum Blossom Manor, day-drinking, dressing up in pretty festive robes, taking advantage of his disciple’s unpaid labor so he doesn’t have to raise a finger for himself, and providing his husband with sex so incredible he is never required to actually cook: “OK, my gay husband and our son-with-two-dads, how about we just stay here together forever and be happy?”

Also Prince Jin: *Creeps on Zhou Zishu like a gaslighting m’fker*

Anyway, if Prince Jin always knew what Han Ying was up to all along, is the letter about ZZS’s father a plant, with false info? It was just kind of suspiciously hanging out in the open on Prince Jin’s desk.

[vaguely-concerned]

R-r-r-rewatch thoughts for The Mandalorian S2 Ep2

(or Chapter 10 as they seem resolved to call it)

- can I just express my joy for a moment that in one episode we get peli, the answer to my pleas for female representation in the ‘sketchy middle aged car mechanic’ niche, and a female alien designed with no consideration towards sexiness. (I mean I’m sure there’s someone. There is always someone somewhere on the Internet, is the bitter truth history has shown to us. but it’s not the intention behind the design haha)  

- they do take great pains to deliberately show you boba’s armour several times both in the recap and in the episode itself, so never despair he is very likely still on his way onto our screens once more

- this dude holding the baby hostage wanting specifically the jetpack in exchange is the one (1) break this whole episode gave din lol 

also the Patented Mando Finger Curl of Stress while he talked softly and calmly to not promp this asshole to make a sudden move... the most endearing character tic, I love my space cowboy dad so much 

- fun continuity detail: din is all out of whistling birds now, and you can see it here!

I wonder if he could still use the same mechanism with different ‘ammo’, it’s just not as effective? from the way the armorer spoke whistling birds seem quite rare and it would be an inefficient use of beskar if that’s the only thing it can be loaded with

 - I love how after the last episode, a 50 min epic with a bunch of original trilogy significance and impressive technical achievements and exciting character reveals, I was like ‘yeah okay I suppose that is quite interesting’, and this mess/comedy of inconveniences is the thing that fully makes my brain tip into the obsessive ‘BABY AND DAD SHOW!! BABY AND DAD SHOW!!!!!’ mind state lol

- ah the traditional ‘mando trudging slowly but steadily through the desert’ montage we all love to see (I hope this is going to be a Thing for the second episode of every season from now on) 

Also I assume his suit has some sort of temperature regulation built in and that’s how he didn’t, y’know. die under the blazing desert sun

-

CAT FIGHT CAT FIGHT man I love the jawa. also mando doesn’t even glance over at them, really emphasizing how he’s like. done with this entire day (and it’s all barely even getting started din! i’m sorry)

 yodito’s look in this scene tho... he’s like ‘we’ve Seen some shit lady’ (actually I think he’s staring at ‘dr mandible’ like O___o. it’s been a long day for a lil boy) 

you get to see dr mandible’s cards a few times, so I assume anyone who knows the rules of... sabacc? probably? could figure out beforehand that he was in a bad spot. (the star wars fanbase is one of those where I KNOW the rules exist somewhere, and I know people who know those rules exist too)  

- that sound the baby keeps making -- the ‘boo-a’, sometimes with a p-sound at the end -- if that’s the precursor to him saying any variation whatsoever of ‘dad’ or ‘papa’ or ‘baba’ or even ‘buir’ or anything, I will die. I will sink to the ground in a heap and never get up (the way he keeps seeking out gaze contact with the helmet and seems perfectly satisfied with it too... fasdhfaskdjhl my FEELINGS)

- it seems confirmed in this ep that the mandos who died on nevarro did so while holding off the enemy so the rest(probably especially the children) could get away; some of them appear to have escaped. which I guess is a small relief

- 

frog lady stepping out of the shadows and into our hearts

I like that her firm nod after Peli translates ‘her husband has seen them’ lets us know she understands... basic? is that the common tongue thing in star wars there’s just so many to remember across fandoms lol? perfectly well, even if she can’t speak it. 

- mando might be running low on ammo for the pulse rifle, if the fact that he hasn’t replaced the missing cartridge on his... bandolier belt thingy is any indication

ETA: actually ignore me this has been a thing since the literal first episode of the show my brain just had a hiccup lol

- so baby seems to use a little bit of the force to pull the eggs towards him -- I wonder how often he ‘taps into it’ or if it’s always ‘on’ in the background for him. if so I guess there’s no wonder he’s so hungry (but also... kid you can’t end this lady’s entire family line like that one cat who singlehandedly made extinct a whole species of bird! D:)

- din so rarely gets openly angry, he just gets passive aggressive and grumpy. and that’s probably not the healthiest way to deal with things but I love him

- frog lady reacts so strongly to when din sends the ping when nothing else woke her up, I wonder if she can hear more frequencies than a human

- 

hello darkness my old frieeennnddd

- 

proof nr 1508 that din does not starve this baby you guys, he even has his own little tray just the right size for him! as it happens the baby simply seems to prefer eating things that are... still alive in some capacity. which, uh. maybe they can invest in some form of non-sentient crickets or something for him to hunt down and.... oh dear

- 

Look how they massacred my boy

By the way I finally managed to put into words why the Razor Crest -- and particularly the way it keeps getting beaten to hell and back and patched up again --  is so symbolically important and meaningful to me in this show in this post over here! it’s always a great relief to me when I can finally understand what the hell I’ve been going on about all this time and this was one of those lol

-  honestly if it weren’t for frog lady and (more importantly) the baby I think there’s a slight chance din would’ve gone ‘well I had a good-ish run of it for a while there’ and just let the ice claim him haha   

- “Why don’t you come over here and give me a hand. Make yourself useful” This is the one time in the episode I think he crosses the line into just being a dick for a moment (but noticeably the baby isn’t just a little hurt at this reaction, he’s clearly surprised and confused, which means this really does not happen often. after the time mando’s been having recently I guess a moment’s snappishness is understandable haha. he does follow up right after with being much more responsive and attentive when the baby toddles away from him, so it feels like it’s going to be okay)

also the ‘boo-ap’ sound is there again when he’s trying to get din’s attention. just sayin’ 

when din comes over to see the footprints baby makes a declarative little meep like ‘see??? I did tell you!’ haha

- it is very funny that mando is using all his technology meant to track down dangerous bounties in the grungy depths of the criminal underworld... to find a naked lady just chillin’ in a hot spring 

- 

cue the ‘father is evil?’ memes fsadfda. actually the funniest thing about this moment (apart from the fabulous finger acting) is that din actually snatches a few eggs out of the baby’s reach more subtly right before, and that baby only whines for ALL OF ONE SECOND before he goes to sniff around for other food possibilities fkadfhjkds. from my experience with human children he’s a lot less prone to tantrums. yodito doesn’t get mad, he gets even 

- baby running towards din through the hatching spiderlings like ‘DAD I FUCKED UUUUUUP’, din’s little strangled ‘ngh’ sound as he picks the baby up and watches all the creepy crawlies come out... *chef kiss* impeccable 

(that little ‘ngh’ and the soft shocked ‘ah ah AH!’s from when he goes flying at the beginning of the episode... pedro pascal and his voice work for this character gives me so much life. in some ways din has this sort of dignity and grace and in other ways he uh extremely doesn’t. he gets to be cool but also vulnerable in ways a lot of male main characters don’t and it’s probably why I love him so much) 

btw here is that moment when din moves to hold the baby tightly against him with both hands as the big spider appears, because it gets me right in the heart... it such an instinctive thing of holding on to the dearest thing you’ve got before something bad is about to happen

fdsafhsdakjlfhsdkjlhfsdajhf oh my god the baby is clutching din’s finger with his little hand during the chase!!!! 😭😭😭

this FUCKING SHOW has just WEAPONIZED putting in small details everywhere to convey the love and tenderness and attachment felt by a little muppet doll even where only weirdos like me will frame by frame their way through the video to see it I am so MAD

- frog lady going ‘fuck this’ and bounding along is  e v e r y t h i n g 

- din is an amazing shot, though, he doesn’t seem to miss a single one in this whole scene (then again there’s something to shoot at basically everywhere one can take aim so lol)

-

baby hiding behind/half hugging din’s boot as he tries to get the doors closed hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I can’t breathhhhheeeee 

honestly every single one of the baby’s proximity seeking behaviours in this ep has me on my knees 

- it’s very unfair to play the heroic happy mando music like everything is going to be fine and then have a huge fuck-off spider drop down from the ceiling and break it off mid-tune, the mandalorian, you have trained me in certain ways and now do you betray me??? how can I trust again

- the camera work in the scene with the new republic guys gives such a good sense of the discomfort of being judged from on high by someone or something you can’t really see -- the glare of the lights blocking out everything in the shots from din’s pov makes it feel like a tense interrogation (the new republic dude who is actually dave filoni has such a look of fondness as he watches din tho it’s kind of sweet)

- ...oh no I think baby was actually considering munching on that dismembered spider leg YODITO NO JUST EAT YOUR KRAYT DRAGON BABY

- hngh this is a weird filler episode and it has my entire heart. I suspect we might get some episodes of a more stationary baby between active ones like this -- you can tell a little bit in this episode that especially having him running around fast is quite difficult to have look natural, they likely save that effort up for when it best serves the narrative  

[phati-sari]

Hello Phati Sari. I asked the question about the suicide attempt. And I just saw the answers about Arnav’s abuse. That is what I am getting at. I feel like he reflected on his feelings for Khushi and realized her innocent or not didn’t matter because he loved her. But I’m not sure he ever reflected on how his actions drove her to the state of mind where she would carefully plan a suicide based on the reasons she gave. And jumping from a one story building could have caused multiple broken bones.

This continues my earlier ask. Couldn’t type anymore. Besides broken bones, head injuries and lacerations could occur. I am at a disadvantage because I don’t speak Hindi so depend on blogs for translation and analysis sometimes. He does say sorry on the way to remarriage but in the light of the real abuse he did I am not sure it showed effectively enough his understanding of that. I just discovered the rewinds where he reflects and I understand he does show it there sometimes but I can find no

To continue. Sorry so long. I can find no English translations for his dialogs in the rewinds. Is there a place you know where some might be available or can you throw some light on pieces of his dialog that shows some deeper understanding of how his actions were abusive and he takes ownership for that abuse aside from Khushi letting him off the hook because she knows he loves her and her tears hurt him too. Sorry that isn’t enough for understanding even in fiction. Please edit ask if need. Than

Hello!

Firstly, I have to say that I think I’ve answered your question already. I realise it was not to your satisfaction, but in my mind I’ve already given my answer. I’m going to answer using specific quotes from your ask to make this a little easier because I think you’re actually asking a different question entirely.

But I’m not sure he ever reflected on how his actions drove her to the state of mind where she would carefully plan a suicide based on the reasons she gave.

But explicitly on-screen, no.

And jumping from a one story building could have caused multiple broken bones. Besides broken bones, head injuries and lacerations could occur.

Well yeah, I wasn’t minimising what could’ve happened. Your earlier question, however, explicitly asked whether Arnav could chalk it up to drama, and I said he could. 

That you didn’t like the answer doesn’t change my outlook -- yes the outcome could’ve been serious but a man who thinks he was duped by this woman’s faux innocence, that she was always trying to entrap or confuse him, could absolutely have come to the conclusion that she was faking her attempt at suicide because she wanted something from him.

To clarify, I’ve never thought her attempt was anything but serious, and have written essays about how much I disagreed with the track being given a comedic treatment.

I just discovered the rewinds where he reflects and I understand he does show it there sometimes

Does he though? I mean, Arnav spends most of his time spouting poetry in the Rewind, not genuinely reflecting on his behaviour. I’ll admit to my bias -- both EJ and Rewind strike me as out-of-character bullshit that I enjoy if the mood strikes me, but they’re not canon in my eyes.

Is there a place you know where some might be available or can you throw some light on pieces of his dialog that shows some deeper understanding of how his actions were abusive and he takes ownership for that abuse aside from Khushi letting him off the hook because she knows he loves her and her tears hurt him too

You’re not going to find this in the canon. I’m sorry, I understand why you’re looking for it, really I do. The closest we get are vague statements in EJ and in the Rewind. 

(This turned into a bit of a live-blog on the Rewind.)

In Episode 1 of the Rewind, Arnav reflects on their first meeting. He says that he was angry at Khushi because his show was ruined. He says that he rained upon her like lava. (Lava?? That’s taken straight from fanfiction my God.)

Arnav: “Aaj yaad karta hoon toh lagta hai ki kitna bura bartaav kiya maine uske saath uss din.” -- When I think about it now, I think of how badly I behaved with her that day. 

He admits to wrongdoing but as it immediately follows a justification, I’m not convinced it’s particularly reflective or deep. He always knew he was wrong -- the countless flashbacks to this meeting showed this in the canon.

In Episode 2, when he talks about the release of the video footage, Arnav smilingly tells the camera that he didn’t realise it would ~complicate~ Khushi’s life so much. This one action invited Shyam into her life and he smiles while he recalls it???

Ugh, this is the episode with the naaaaaavvvvvvv. Naaaaaaaavvvv. Fuck me dead I hate the Rewind so much, anon you’d better send me loads of virtual potatoes for this!

Episode 3, in which Arnav reduces his abuse of the employer-employee relationship with Khushi to a video game in which one has to defeat their opponent.

At least she apparently took the raksha bandhan seriously.

OH MY GOD THE MUG I’D FORGOTTEN THE MUG, BLISSFULLY WIPED IT FROM MY MEMORY. MY EYES. MY EEYYYEEESSS.

In Episode 6, Arnav admits he feels guilty when he thinks of the things he said and made Khushi do on the night of the photoshoot. His punishment is taking his wife to eat parathas -- a punishment Arnav admits is inadequate because he made so many mistakes.

In Episode 7, Arnav admits that regrets many of his decisions in his and Khushi’s story. But he hedges, saying that his mind wasn’t listening to his heart at the time. And then tries to justify his anger by bringing up that she told everyone about Lavanya.

In Episode 8, Arnav says that he gets goosebumps when he thinks about something happening to Khushi at the guesthouse. He says he still gets tears in his eyes when he thinks about how her arm was hurt. And yet, no examination of physical abuse.

In Episode 9, he admits that he’d crossed too many lines and Khushi’s anger was justified when she resigned. He admits that he made her life miserable, that he was “torturing” her. He says that he’d never send her where her life was in danger, though, and that she was wrong in saying that.

Ahh I’d totally spaced on him saying that he’d heard his dhak-dhak for the first time on Teej. 

In Episode 14, Arnav reiterates that he regrets how he treated Khushi, and he wishes they knew what they know now: that they were falling in love.

And then Arnav disappears from the Rewind. His behaviour in the contract marriage and beyond is not reflected on.

I’m not seeing anything in the Rewind that constitutes Arnav showing a deeper understanding of his abusive behaviour and taking ownership of it and its influence on Khushi. I mean, it’s there in the edges of what he says, but it’s not actually what he says. And what he says was always in the serial -- in his monologues, in his flashbacks, in his moments of introspection. It should not be news to anyone.

When I say IPKKND is set in a fantasy world where Arnav’s behaviour is not coded as abusive, I don’t mean and so we shouldn’t examine it through that lense. I mean that the characters will not admit to it being abuse any more than Aragorn is going to comment on the lack of women in LOTR or Aslan is going to say “I’m actually Jesus.” The conclusion that his behaviour is abusive is external to the serial, internally he’s driven by the trauma of the Tragedy and has the blessing of Devi Maiyya.

And so, there is no examination -- internally -- of this behaviour. Even in Lavanya’s case, Arnav never mentions the gross power imbalance and her ready acceptance of his abuse as reasons for the breakup. The show is silent on the topic (though my recaps aren’t) and the audience is left with the genuinely absurd idea that it was about how he didn’t love her. It wasn’t -- he knew he didn’t love her when they first broke up lol. It was about their interaction at the poolside where she admitted he’d never been nice to her. Ever. And that she just accepted as it as a given in their dynamic. Even in the Rewind, Arnav emphasizes that he didn’t love Lavanya, that he only saw her as a friend, instead of admitting he was emotionally abusive.

Coming back to Arnav’s reflection -- Arnav always, always, will be able to justify his point of view. Everyone is the Hero in their own story -- the entire thrust of this blog is to show that.

Now, I don’t need Arnav to say he was abusive -- I know he was, but I also think the redemption he was offered in the serial was fine (I’m qhsahil in that exchange, but I reckon you will agree with the others). I think it was in keeping with the characters shown in the serial and I have absolutely no desire to see any come-upperance or vengeance on Khushi’s behalf.

In conclusion, I get where you’re coming from, and I even understand why you want to see him say and admit these things, but I disagree that we see (or ever will see) them in the canon, or that we even need them in general.

Thanks for asking!

[what-breaks-my-heart]

Episode 10: Misunderstanding from Understanding (이해라는 오해) - Episode Thoughts

It is safe to assume many viewers are ENRAGED at Woo Yeon’s behaviour in this episode, particularly when she agreed to have dinner with Joon Soo just a minute after Lee Soo introduced her to his parents as the person he likes, and when she showed up in front of Lee Soo’s door afterward.

I was enraged myself that I went to several posts made by other people and shared my displeasure by her actions. No matter how I tried to find the reason behind Woo Yeon’s actions, I found nothing. It seemed to me that her actions were not only unjustified, but also unbecoming of her character.

Buuuuuut, and that’s a big but here (no pun intended), after sittting with my thoughts (more like tossing in bed) and going through all of the over 1,000 screencaps I took during the episode (oh god I am becoming more like my tumblr mutual with 50 GB of screencaps), I realised the writer pulled a grand scheme of shifting the viewers’ rooting from Woo Yeon to Lee Soo, while also laying down another piece of the puzzle in Woo Yeon’s and Lee Soo’s eventful relationship. I promise this will make at least some sense further down

This is going to be a long post so more under the break!

A quick recap: episode 9 ended with Lee Soo walking past Woo Yeon with a straight face at the exhibition, with Woo Yeon feeling upset about it.

At the beginning of episode 10, we were shown the conversation between Woo Yeon and Young Hee about her attending this exhibition. This conversation which took place before the exhibition, seemed to be out place (more on that later), because it could have been cut short to just Woo Yon telling Young Hee why she’s not worried about attending the exhibition. Heck, it could have been done with the three girlfriends having a drink and them teasing each other. But no, this conversation only took place between the two of them. Apparently Young Hee is acting like a big sister to Woo Yeon with her sage advice too.

Young Hee: Will you be okay? Both Mr. CEO and Soo will be there.

Woo Yeon: Why wouldn’t I? It’s all over anyway.

Young Hee: With whom?

Woo Yeon: With both.

Young Hee: When?

Woo Yeon: Well, it ended a while ago for me. And I haven’t heard from Mr. CEO or Soo since. It’s over.

Young Hee: Mr. CEO is one thing, but Soo said he’d wait.

Woo Yeon: He’s selfish. If he wanted to, he would’ve called long ago.

Young Hee: Who are you to conclude that?

Woo Yeon: Because I understand. Because I was like that. When someone I thought would like only me started seeing someone else, and when I saw him saying and doing things that I thought were only for me to someone else, I got jealous. How ridiculous is that?

Young Hee: You don’t want him, but you don’t want anyone else to have him. Something like that?

Woo Yeon: Something like that.

Young Hee: And so, that’s how it is for Soo.

Woo Yeon: Correct.

Young Hee: Are you sure about yourself?

Cue the episode title in calligraphy writing.

At first, I really thought this conversation was out of place and didn’t deserve to be followed by the episode title calligraphy. Some of you would notice that these episode title calligraphy would only appear after some heavy conversations in the middle of the episode. Putting this conversation and the episode title calligraphy right at the beginning of the episode was way too heavy.

However, by putting the title this early in the episode, the tone for the entire episode has been set, and everything that is bound to happen will follow this theme. Earlier this morning, I was mad at myself for not noticing how this ties back to Woo Yeon’s outrageous behaviour at the end of the episode.

You see, what this episode is trying to tell us is how the characters thought they have understood the others, and acted based on that perceived understanding.

Why Woo Yeon acted that way, you ask? Because she thought she understood Lee Soo. She thought she had seen it all, being the closest person to Lee Soo during their last year in high school together.

Woo Yeon knew how she has a moment of burning jealousy everytime someone she thought would like only her, suddenly acted in a similar way they were to her, to other people.

Woo Yeon also interpreted Lee Soo’s sudden act of clinging onto her when she was in a relationship with Joon Soo as Lee Soo being jealous and frustrated that Woo Yeon, whom he thought would only like Lee Soo, suddenly showed any sign of interest to someone else.

Premised on the above, Woo Yeon concluded that she and Lee Soo are similar in that sense, easily becoming jealous.

Now, let’s jump ahead to the night when the incident took place.

What we know:

Woo Yeon wanted to leave upon learning that Joon Soo had tricked her into having a dinner with him by pulling some strings with his friend who told her it would be a business meeting with the said friend on the future project.

Joon Soo guilt tripped her into staying, saying her leaving would embarrass him in front of Lee Soo’s family who noticed them at the restaurant.

Woo Yeon reluctantly stayed, and rejected Joon Soo’s proposal to be in a relationship. AGAIN. Girl, you could have finished early and left right away yet you didn’t

Lee Soo, who was only a moment ago, lit up after running into Woo Yeon at the restaurant and introduced her as the person he likes to his parents, turned sour, and the entire family had an awkward birthday dinner.

The thing that made me furious about this is how Woo Yeon felt obliged to stay to save Joon Soo’s face, while ignoring how the entire fiasco would HUMILIATE Lee Soo in front of his own parents. Not just Lee Soo. In front of Lee Soo’s PARENTS. I was fuming mad.

Both groups finished dinner, and all of them were leaving the place. Unlike Joon Soo the creepy stalker, Lee Soo waited for her in front of the building, just to speed off in his car when Woo Yeon tried to approach him.

Never stop being a drama queen, Lee Soo

And now what? Woo Yeon actually took a taxi to Lee Soo’s apartment? Just to explain to him what had happened?

*flips table*

“No matter how hard I try to understand you, there’s only one conclusion. Kyung Woo Yeon thinks I’m a joke.”

“What?”

“It looks like you still don’t believe me, but I really like you. So don’t trample on my feeling.”

Set it straight to her, Lee Soo!

“But I just snapped right out of it. I’ve regained my balance.”

Let me reiterate how this made me outraged. If Woo Yeon was planning on getting pay back for his mistreatment of her over the years, she really has gone overboard this time. Lee Soo might have been a selfish jerk, but everything that he ever told her was his understanding of his feelings during the moment. Never once has he tried to hurt her on purpose. He did hurt her nonetheless, and that’s why I gave her a one-time pass when she quoted his own words to him at the cafe. But repeatedly hurting him on purpose? I started to feel like Lee Soo deserved better.

Okay, here’s what I promised.

“When someone I thought would like only me started seeing someone else, and when I saw him saying and doing things that I thought were only for me to someone else, I got jealous.”

“It’s like a moment of burning jelaousy. Something like that.”

Remember I said earlier how Woo Yeon concluded that Lee Soo became jealous at her once she dated Joon Soo. Their fateful (I keep repeating this wordplay but it’s funnier in Korean) encounter at the restaurant was their second time seeing each other since Lee Soo took that long trip, and Lee Soo was being treated to the sight of Woo Yeon having a dinner date with Joon Soo.

Based on her own conclusion of how Lee Soo would react to this, she tried to explain what happened to stop him from getting jealous. Why? Because she needed him to continue worshipping her. She needed to keep him by her side, close enough that she could feel herself being chased by Lee Soo who was madly in an unrequited love, but not too close, because she didn’t want him. Woo Yeon must really like tuning into the home shopping channel huh

“You don’t want him, but you don’t want anyone else to have him. Something like that?”

It was a eureka moment when I joined all of these dots together. I could finally understand why Woo Yeon did what she did. She basically acted in the way that she understood her own feelings, and the way she understood Lee Soo. But no, it still does NOT justify her actions.

“Are you sure about yourself? Do you never misunderstood yourself in any way? I just wonder if the emotion that you say you’re sure about really is what you feel. It’s human nature to misunderstand yourself at times. Is it possible to understand someone else? I just wonder if it’s right when you think you understand someone is when misunderstandings form.”

I now believe that Woo Yeon is still confused about her own feelings and misunderstood herself (and Lee Soo). It may be some time before she can finally clear all of that misunderstanding, but I believe just like how Lee Soo finally understood his own feelings, Woo Yeon would soon understand hers too.

In conclusion, I would say that this episode integrated the episode title, Misunderstanding from Understanding really well. Perhaps a little too well.

[abybweisse]

How do you think the manga will end?

Please do a search on my blog for “end of the series” (“series end” will bring up even more posts, but some of them aren’t quite as pertinent). Other tags to check out would be “series ending”, “end of the manga”, “predictions” and “mother3 predictions”. You can simply click those tags at the end of this reply to see what comes up.

A (not very) short recap of my series end predictions:

A lot more people die. Well, I think most of us knew that already. Here are two versions of me trying to figure out who’s in that pile underneath our earl. Yana-san could change her mind and save one or more of these people. She could also kill all of the people shown... as well as kill off others never included in this panel. In fact, she’s definitely going to kill off people not included in panel, since this pile seems to only represent our earl’s supporters, allies, friends, etc.

Madam Red is already gone. Others here that are easily identified are: Finny, Tanaka, Lizzie, Bard, Mey-Rin, Chlaus, and Lau. There is a dark-haired person that could be Soma or Sieglinde (or someone else, for that matter). The one I initially identified as Snake could possibly be Edward, but I think it’s meant to be Snake. There is also a person at the back, with their head behind the throne, someone in a pale suit and a hand up but hanging limp. I suspect that is a character that hadn’t been introduced at the time of that chapter release. Given the clothes, it could be numerous people, including Othello... though I’m not sure this pile of bodies should include anyone who is no longer human, like a reaper. 🤔 It also shouldn’t include anyone who was never an ally, so it shouldn’t be the Viscount of Druitt. Perhaps... we have Snake and Edward shown here. Keep in mind this is quite a pile, and the people we can see are not the ones at the absolute bottom... or on the other side of it. Expect quite a death toll by the time this series is over.

Our earl and Sebastian will have to defeat the queen and her servants... or at least the queen and John Brown. I say that because I still think they are behind the attack at Phantomhive Manor. If that’s not true, then it’s been set up that way for us to believe it, not just in the anime but in the manga, as well. Victoria and John Brown are pretty shady (with their matching shades, no less). I think they have a contract like the one between our earl and Sebastian, but I have a feeling the contract terms are not nearly as well-defined. That puppet of Albert — that is not simply a hand puppet; it’s a control device.

They will have to defeat Undertaker and the Lords of the Stars; that, of course, includes the bizarre doll of real Ciel. Real Ciel will have to be destroyed, most likely. In fact, at some point real Ciel might come to realize how messed up things have become, and he might ask to be destroyed. The other “lords of the stars” will have to be destroyed. Undertaker? Three possibilities I see: 1) destroyed by Sebastian and/or the reaper organization, 2) captured by the reaper organization and returned to their realm, or 3) sees the outcome (good or bad) of his actions and willingly leaves the human realm.

Once the contract has been fulfilled, Sebastian will devour the soul of our earl, his Young Master. This might happen in conjunction with the battles against Undertaker, the Lords of the Stars, and whoever else joins the fray, like some reapers. Because I have a feeling that Undertaker, at least, will not make it easy for Sebastian to get his meal/payment. It could include Undertaker trying to manipulate any loopholes he thinks he can find in the contract. It could include Undertaker trying to collect/steal our earl’s soul and placing it into the body of real Ciel (Undertaker is experimenting with Baron Heathfield’s wife’s body and souls of a matching shape for a reason, you know). There is also the slight chance that Sebastian gets to take his time, after all the battles, and truly savor his meal, but I do have the feeling he will have to fight for it, and that might force him to rush his meal. Even our earl might have to demand it be done quickly. I do not expect to get a scene in the manga that looks like the ending scene of s1 of the anime. None of this morbidly romantic nonsense about making it hurt, making his agony add extra flavor to every bite. Because that anime scene was Sebaciel with vore kink. **Shudder** I do expect, however, that fans that enjoy that sort of thing will still get something to cling to... just because; Yana-san does like to do fan service, and she knows those fans are out there. I’m just — hoping, really — that she chooses to portray the manga canon death/soul devouring scene in a way that isn’t so... shippy.

Eating our earl’s soul should change something in Sebastian. Eventually, I do think our earl and Sebastian will succeed in completing the contract, including the matter of payment. Like Hannah devouring Luka’s soul in s2 of the anime, I do expect Sebastian to be forever changed by devouring our earl’s soul. Sebastian is the main (even the title) character, after all... and he has seriously lacked any lasting character development, so far. There has been much foreshadowing about this, like telling Beast he understands not one “jot” of the feelings of love or loss “yet”. How he cries from the mustard gas and is shocked by it, saying to himself he lacks the emotions to do so. Heck, even Mother3 has a character who never cries until the very end, and it’s a shock to everyone, including that character. (Yes, Gregory Violet is the main parallel to that character, Kumatora... aka “Violet”, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get another shocking crying scene. Besides, in Mother3, the crying scene with Kumatora/Violet is described as “beautiful” or “cute”... and our Violet has a really “ugly cry” in Bath.) Sebastian could finally cry from all the emotions that wash over him, and it might be just... beautiful.

The earl’s death should happen December 13, 1889, the day before his 14th birthday... and a Friday the 13th. It could happen just as midnight approaches, heading towards the 14th. That’s not much timeline left in the series, only about two weeks, but the way it’s being dragged out chapter by chapter (flashbacks, overlapping “Meanwhile...” action, etc.) we will see monthly chapter publications for... probably at least a few more years. The series could end just like that, with our earl’s death, but I suspect not; Sebastian is the main character in this, so the story doesn’t completely end with our earl’s death. We should get to see how Sebastian has been affected by our earl’s death (an ultimately willing sacrifice, I should think). How will this change the demon’s behavior toward humans? I expect he won’t consider them mere insects anymore. If ordered to do so before our earl dies, he would stay afterwards and help “tidy up the mess” in the wake of all these battles. But, it’s also possible that our earl never orders him to do anything like that... and Sebastian does it anyway. Then, perhaps Sebastian leaves, having learned a valuable lesson? Having grown up a bit? This is his Bildungsroman, right? I hope so.

I don’t think Undertaker will be able to get rid of Death, the way the reapers seem to fear he might. Some reapers might die before all is said and done, including possibly Undertaker, but I think most of them will have to deal with the soul collections and all the paperwork this generates for them. Talk about massive overtime.

I guess that’s about it, without me getting way deeper into details.

And this could easily lead to a setup for a sequel to or spin-off from the manga.

Sequel idea: What Sebastian does later. Does he make other contracts, or does he decide to help humans without claiming their souls...?

Spin-off idea: What Undertaker does if he returns to the reaper realm. Does he get severely punished... then make new plans for escape and basically try to destroy the organization again...?

Spin-off idea: Stories about the other reapers. Before, during, and/or after the events of the first series.

Thanks for the ask! 🖤

Please make sure to look at this post’s tags for more about this, though this post includes some ideas that have changed a little over the past four years or so.

[george-mackay-macfine]

Dear Diary prt. 6

A/N sorry I’m a idiot, who doesn’t post things properly, here is the second go at the next part of Dear Diary. 

Requested:

Word Count: 6,000

September 29th, 2011

Dear Diary, 

Sorry I haven’t had the chance to write much over the last few days, Classes have just started and things are crazy, but to quickly update you. 

Living with two boys is easier than I thought it would be. They’re both respectful, and I haven’t seen any stray penis’ yet. Which is a good thing I suppose, 

Harry is still seeing that girl, Elle. She’s actually really nice… Even if she is over far too much for my liking… Sometimes a girl just wants to come home from class, have a red wine and sit on her settee without having to engage in small talks with her roommate’s booty calls. 

Henry and I have gotten to be good friends. We walk to class together nearly every morning. Talking mostly about boys… Mostly George, and how pathetic I am. 

Well, mostly it’s me complaining about how pathetic I am, and Henry telling me to shut up.

Speaking of George, after lunch the other day I came home and had a solid cry before pretending my heart hadn’t been ripped out of my chest and trodden all over ONLY to go out into the living room to find George, Dean, Harry, Elle and Henry starting the first Harry Potter movie. 

Let me tell you, sitting between a guy who you nearly… well, you remember, and a guy you want to kiss is not a comfortable experience. 

It’s going to be a great year, I can tell already. 

October 13th, 2011

Dear Diary,

So it’s been fourteen days since I last updated you. That is fourteen days since I had to sit between George and Harry for 159 whole minutes. Shoulders bumping against one and other as either of us shuffled. 

Don’t even get me started on how uncomfortable it was to see Harry whisper in Elle’s ear as she hung over her lap when not even a week prior he and I were curled up with one and other about to make out on some random’s bed. 

George and I are okay. As far as he know’s we’re just friends. I don’t have a crush on him. 

Did you read that? 

I do not have a crush on him. 

I do not have a crush on him. 

School’s pretty good, going okay. A lot of course work, but what else should I have expected when I decided to study medicine? 

Not sure if I really want to keep doing it, but for now. It’s all I’ve got going for me. 

The big event that everyone is looking forward to this month is Halloween. That guy who threw the party, you know the one where ‘the incident’ happened is throwing another huge bash. 

Harry, Dean, Henry, George, Elle, Jordan and I have decided to go as comic book characters, and right now I’m tossing up between Scarlett Witch, Black Widow, Poison Ivy or Batgirl. Still not sure though.

Do I be a villain or a hero?

October 18th, 2011

Dear Diary, 

We finally decided on our costumes, or rather Elle did. She’s studying costuming at Uni and has decided she’ll make both mine and her costumes for the party. 

I’ll be Poison Ivy, she’ll be Bat Girl, George is going to be the Joker, Harry is going as Batman, Henry is going as Robin, Dean is going as Superman and Jordan is going as the Riddler. 

Not my choice to be Poison Ivy, but I really don’t have it in me to argue with them especially with how insane classes have been. 

Talk to you soon. 

October 23rd, 2011

Dear Diary, 

This costume…. Christ on a bike…

I know the saying goes ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ but I can’t not judge this. Elle is pretty much demanding I have either my boobs or my arse out. She’d rather both, I’d rather none. I’m not sure how exactly to say no without it sounding like ‘No, sorry Elle I have self-respect, even though Halloween is the time you’re not meant to,’ without her taking offence to it. 

Speaking of Elle, she’s still being nice enough. She and Harry are still seeing one and other. They’ve toned their PDA down to a minimum, which is good because Dean and I have had to stop each other, and ourselves from throwing a bucket of cold water over them once or twice.

Harry’s started speaking to me again, which is good. We’re almost past that awkward, ‘We nearly made out, but we didn’t, but we would have if we’d had the chance’ stage, which is good. 

We’ve got two days until the Halloween party, and that means two days until I need to wear this ridiculous costume. 

Save me,

October 26th, 2011

Dear future Y/N, 

Congratulations. 

You’re a fucking idiot. 

The biggest idiot, If all the idiots of the world, moved into a community together, created a nation. You’d be their fucking Queen… 

Perhaps in your years of maturing, you’ve become less of an idiot, though with how we behaved last night I’d doubt it.

Let’s recap shall we? 

           October 25th, 2011

Its Halloween, and I’m sweating like a pig. Absolutely sweating,

I don’t know how else to put it.  

The costume Elle had designed and made me fit like a glove. Perhaps too much like a glove. The green bodysuit was embellished with ivy leaves and gold glitter, a garland of flowers wrapped around my waist.

“Y/N? Are you ready?” Elle’s voice called through the door. “Do you need help with a hook or something?” 

“No, I’m fine… I just… Can you send… Can you send Henry in? Just need to talk to him for a second.” I called still looking at myself in the mirror. My breath hitched again as I pictured myself walking out into the living room where everyone was waiting.

“You right babe?” Henry smiled as he peeked around the door. I looked away from the mirror, turning my head over my shoulder. “What’s the matter?” He stepped around the door, shutting it behind him.

“How do you know if you’re having an anxiety attack?” I moved my hands up and down, shaking my head. “Because I think I’m having one.”

“What?” 

“God, I’m stupid.” I shook my head. “How stupid was I to think I could walk out those doors and pretend this was me? That I would ever be comfortable showing this much skin, I haven’t shown this much skin since I was born.” I leant forward, stomach suddenly turning “Everyone is going to laugh at me.”  

“What was that?” 

“I can’t do this Henry.” I motioned down to the costume. “I can’t go out there in this, I look horrible.” 

“Are you mental?” He grabbed onto my shoulders and put me in front of the mirrors. “You look fantastic Y/N.” 

“Are you mental?” I shot back at him. “How am I supposed to walk out there and face everyone? I’ve seen how Elle looks, how all you boys look… How am I supposed to stand next to her, next to any of you.” I whispered trying to keep my voice down. 

“Firstly, you look ten times better than she does. Secondly, I don’t think anyone will be looking at any of us with you there.” He ran a hand comfortingly down my arm. “Come ere’.” He pulled me into his chest, arms wrapping around me. “You’re going to walk out of this room, and every set of eyes are going to be on you, no matter their sexual preference.” He pushed me back so he could look down at me. “You look amazing, I promise you Y/N.” 

“Henry…”

“Just trust me Y/N.” He smiled. “You ready?” 

“I think so,” I nodded my head. “Thanks.” 

“We’ll do it together.” He pulled me towards the door. “You really do look fantastic Y/N.”

“You’re just saying that so we can leave.” He cracked a smile and shook his head.

“I bloody am not.” 

“Let’s go in there, the parties started.” Jordan’s voice boomed through the door. “What are you guy’s doing in there, fucking?” 

“Shut the fuck up Jordan.” I heard Dean yell. “Show some damn respect.” 

“I’m ready,” I called back taking a deep breath through my nose watching as Henry pulled open the door. The fluorescent light from the kitchen hurt my eyes as I stepped out. “Sorry, I just needed him for a minute.” I looked over Dean and Jordan. “Nice costume boys.” I smiled at Jordan’s question mark suit and Dean’s fake muscles. 

“Fuck me…Y/N,” Jordan shook his head. 

“Is it too much?” I looked to Elle who was smiling her head off. “Elle said it was what she wore in the comics?”

“It is.” She piped up, her black cape swaying around her body. “It’s made off multiple illustrations I saw when I was researching.” 

“Y/N,” I turned to George whose eyes were on my chest… “You look.” He cleared his throat shrugging off his velvet purple dress coat. “You might need this.” He stumbled over his words. “Cold out,” I stepped forward and took the jacket. “Do you need help.” He moved behind me and helped me slip the jacket on. “You look…” He started again, words cutting off. 

“Let’s go, shall we? MacKay is officially lost for words.” I turned to Harry, his eyes were on my face. I couldn’t help myself but give him what I’m sure was a pathetic half-smile as George finished helping me with his jacket. 

“You all look great.” I looked over the group. Elle looked gorgeous in her Bat Girl outfit standing beside Harry with his black batman costume. “I’m sure you guys will get all the girls tonight.” I smiled at Dean and Jordan in their Superman and Riddler outfits. 

“What about me?” George whispered in my ear, I turned around and looked at him. Even in his own version of Heath Ledger’s Joker costume, he looked unbelievably hot. 

“We got two cars this time,” Harry called again. “C’mon Elle,” I turned in time to see him pulling Elle towards the door as he spoke, nearly running down the hallway. 

“Guess he can’t wait to get a drink.” Henry chuckled holding the door open for the rest of us as we filed out. 

“Never seen him run so bloody fast,” Dean added. “Not even on the field,” He chuckled.

“We should hurry. The cabs are probably waiting.” I smiled at Henry linking our arms together. “Ride with me?” I looked up at him, waiting for his answer.

“I’ll ride with you Y/N,” Henry and I both turned to look at Jordan as he levelled up beside us. “You look hot tonight Y/N.”

“Don’t even try it, Jordan.” Dean’s hand grabbed onto his shoulder pulling him backwards. “For that comment, you’re with Harry and Elle.”

“Don’t do that to me, I don’t want to be with the PDA King and Queen.”

“Shouldn’t have been a prick then.” He chuckled throwing an arm around his shoulder. “Enjoy the kiss, kiss, kissing.” He chuckled pulling the shorter guy in closer.

“C’mon let’s go party,” I called sarcastically to the group as I pulled Henry even faster down the hallway, to what I’m sure was a night of pure misery and horrible mistakes. 

Stale piss and old tennis shoes. 

From the minute we walked in the door’s it’s all I could smell, and no matter how much this place was scrubbed from top to bottom, I was sure the scent was never going to leave. No matter how much bleach was poured on the floor, scrubbed over the surfaces it would forever smell like stale piss and sweaty tennis shoes. 

At least to me, Maybe it doesn’t to other people. Maybe to others, it’s still a place of joy, and happiness no matter the smell, but to me, it was the same mundane, piss scented house I’d almost kissed Harry in. I know people come here to find love at the bottom of a whiskey filled glass, hoping for a night of meaningless passionless, lust-driven sex. Maybe sometimes they find it, maybe they don’t, but for me, this was not the place I wanted to spend my evening. 

The living room had been stripped of all its furniture, people stood on the empty floor and danced their way to the current pop hits. Couples smashed up against the wall hooking up with each other as shitty Christmas lights created a ‘mood’ I could only describe as a third class strip club you saw in those b-grade movies. 

“Come on Y/N, at least pretend to have fun.” Henry pulled at my hand, “This could be your promise land, any of these boys could be yours for the night.” He motioned around us as guys in costumes looked girls up and down as if they were some sort of meat on display at a butcher. “Maybe more, if you’re lucky.” He winked at me. 

“I feel naked. This is not a promised land, where I can meet new and interesting people, hold intelligent conversations with people. All it is a place for twenty-something-year-olds to come in the chance of getting a quick lay.” I bit back stomping my hell on the toes of some passerby who decided to grab my ass. “I’m going to get a drink,” I yelled over the loud obnoxious music. “I need to be wasted to be here.” 

“I’ll come,” George called over the music, grabbing onto my elbow as he began to lead me away. 

“As long as it ends up with me drinking alcohol that’s fine with me,” I called to him, watching as a girl shamelessly looked George up and down as we passed by her. “You looking for a girl tonight?”

“Are you offering?” He smirked over his shoulder. 

“Not me, the mouse back by the stairwell would be interested though, if you’re looking for someone I’m sure of it.” He stopped looking behind me to where the girl dressed as a mouse was pouting. 

“Not for me,”

“No?”

“No,” He grabbed onto my hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “I’m with you all night.”

“I’ve heard that before,” I muttered pushing past George and into the kitchen. I stopped midway through and examined the safest, less intrusive way to get to the counter where all the drinks were set up.

“You playing the games tonight?” George called into my ear, his breath hitting my lower neck as his hands fell onto my waist.  

“What are the games?”  

“Usual ones I think.” He tapped his hand against my hip and used his strength to drive me forward towards where two guys were handing out bottles of drink. “Cider?”

“Please.” 

“MacKay.” The guy smiled and clapped their hands together. “How ya doing man?” I began to fiddle with my costume, pulling at some of the garlands of ivy. “You two want a drink?”

“Cider.” George nodded. “This is Y/N.” George pulled me forward, under his arm. “Y/N, this is Dylan, and Kane they’re in a class with Harry and me.” He pulled me in tighter, like a proud mother showing off their golden child. “Y/N and I are from the same town.”

“Nice to meet you both.” I smiled awkwardly reaching out to take one of the offered bottles from Kane. 

“Nice costume Y/N, big fan of Ivy.” Kane smiled, his face hidden behind half of a Jason mask, “You might just have the best costume in the bag.”

“Oh no, I don’t want that.” I shook my head. “Like, at all.” 

“Really?” He raised his mask off his face, pushing it up to his head. “Most girls are looking to win.”

“Not this one,” I grimaced. “Literally the last thing I want.”

“Y/N, there you are.” Dean walked by and grabbed my shoulder pulling me to him “Need to borrow her for a second.” He looked at George. “Roommate stuff.” 

“What’s wrong?” I grabbed his hand pulling him to a stop. “You okay?” 

“You gotta come with me.” He shook his head trying to walk again. I waved at George, Kane and Jason as I let Dean pull me away. 

“Where are we going, Dean?”

“You gotta see this.” He shook his head, pulling me towards the stairs. “Knew I didn’t like her for a reason.” 

“Like who?”

“Elle,” He shouted stopping us at the bottom. He pointed upwards towards where people climbed up and down. “See the couple making out? Halfway up the stairs.” I squinted, trying to find who he was talking about. “Costume look familiar?” My eyes caught it, Elle’s batgirl costume, wrapped around someone who definitely wasn’t batman… Someone who definitely wasn’t Harry. 

“No fucking way,” 

“What are you two staring at?” 

“No one,” I shouted. “I mean, nothing.” I grabbed onto Harry and pulled him into me, his back to the stairwell. 

“Y/N, what are you doing?” 

“I just need a hug.” I held Harry’s head to my chest, watching as Elle continues to make out with the stranger. “How you doing?” I asked pulling him tighter. 

“Mefh hefd if in four fits.”

“Huh?” 

“Mefh hefd if in four fits.”

“What?”

“He said, My head, is in your tits,” Dean cleared his throat. “I’m pretty sure.”

“Oh.” I pushed him away, head moving out of my cleavage. “Sorry.” I dropped my arms and held them behind my back. 

“Everything okay?”

“Yeah, you know parties, aren’t really my thing.” 

“Right.” He nodded his head, biting his lips. “You seen Elle?”

“No, not me… Dean, have you seen them?”

“Them?”

“Not them, her,” I shouted, correcting. 

“You okay?” He raised his eyebrow. 

“Peachy… Dean.” 

“No, haven’t… Sorry mate.”

“Why don’t we swipe a bottle of vodka and go have a smoke,” I suggested looking up the stairs anxiously.

“You don’t smoke…” George popped up over my shoulder shaking a bottle of vodka.

“No better time to start.” I smiled at George picking the vodka out of his hand. “Oh look at that, I’m double parked.” I brought the bottle of Cider to my lips downing the contents quickly. 

“You sure you’re okay?” I nodded as Harry looked into my eyes. Don’t crack Y/N, do not crack. 

“Roof?” George suggested taking the vodka back from me.

“Yeah, maybe we’ll see Elle on the way.” Harry piped up. 

“Last I saw her, she was at the bar talking to one of the girls from her class, Laura I think.” Dean rattled on as I peaked up the staircase to see Elle’s disappearing figure bounce up the top step. 

“Maybe I should look for her.” 

“No come on, let’s have a drink together… C’mon Harry you’ve been ignoring me for ages, surely I deserve some quality roommate time.” I pouted pulling on his cape. 

“Are you sure you’re alright?” 

“Just enjoying the party,” I grabbed his hand and dragged him towards the staircase if this were any other time I would have been caught up with how it feels holding onto Harry’s hand, but this was another time, and I was trying to stop him from being hurt. “Up we go.”

Sweat. Smoke. Alcohol. Body Odour. 

That’s all that I could smell wherever I went, wherever I turned. Around me bodies moved pushing themselves up against any surface they could, grabbing onto other people as their bodies gyrated against another person. Even as we made our way up the stairs towards the roof. I could see the door it was so close. 

“There she is.” Harry’s resistance pulled me to a sudden stop. “Elle,” He waved his arms above his head. “Roof.” He called to her pointing upwards. “Five minutes,” I watched as she nodded her head, smiling sweetly.

Smiling as if the bitch hadn’t just had her tongue down some other guys throat. 

“What’s going on?” George whispered in my ear, hand resting on my hip.

“Elle and some guy,” I was cut off by Harry who drew back to me. “She coming?”

“Yeah,” He nodded his head, a ridiculous smile coming to his lips. 

“Great,” I gifted my teeth grabbing the bottle of George, twisting the cap off. “Let’s go then.” 

“Y/N, don’t drink all of it, you know what happens.” George chided as I pushed myself faster up the stairs, the bottle still to my lips as the liquid burnt my throat a little dribbled down my chin and down my chest. 

“What happens?” Dean asked George as I stepped out onto the roof. I looked around to him as the three of them stepped out behind me. George smiled at me, heartwarming… No, Y/N that’s just the vodka talking. 

“She tries to burn down settees.” George chuckled. 

“Only floral ones who belong to mothers.” I corrected passing the bottle to Harry. “George, do you have any smokes?”

“Going all out tonight Y/N.” He raised an eyebrow, pulling his packet from the top pocket of his dress shirt, passing it to me. 

“Call it self destruction,” I began to sway from side to side, feeling the vodka take over my body as my hips began to move to the loud Nelly song that played downstairs. 

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you dance Y/N.” Dean laughed as he drank from his beer bottle, taking the bottle of vodka Harry offered him as he lent against the side of the house. 

“Dance with me?” I called out to him.

“Don’t dance.” He laughed shaking his head. “Unless I’m planning on sleeping with the girl.”

“No matter what I do, All I think about is you.” I began singing swaying my hips, playing with the ends of George’s jacket. “I haven’t heard this song in years.” I laughed at myself grabbing onto the jacket and pulling it off my shoulders. “Even when I’m with my boo all I think about is you.” I threw the jacket towards Dean and smiled over at Harry who’d taken the bottle back off Dean. “Sing it with me, Harry.”

“I’d rather enjoy the show.” He smiled looking me up and down as my hips continued to move.  

“Spoilsport.” I pouted swaying my hips regardless. “George?” 

“I don’t really dance, or sing.” 

“I can teach you.” He beamed at me as he walked towards me before grabbing my hand pulling me to him. 

“Didn’t know you liked Nelly?” 

“I don’t usually.” I shrugged and started to sway side to side, “But I’m pretty much half-naked, so I may as well make more of a spectacle of myself than usual.“ 

“You look the best out of anyone here,” George whispered in my ear before grabbing my hands and started to pull them above my head and make me move more freely.

“Shake it, baby.” Dean catcalled to George and me. 

“There you guy’s are.” George and I pulled apart looking over to Elle who burst out onto the roof, a guy, the guy she was making out with trailing behind her. “This is my friend Oliver.” Oliver was dressed as Al Capone, the complete opposite to sweet, sweet Harry. 

“You right mate.” Harry reached out and shook his hand. 

“Fucker,” I whispered, hands falling to George’s chest. 

“What was that?” George chuckled. 

“Huh,” I looked away from Oliver and up to George. “Oh, nothing. I’ll tell you later.”

“Or you could tell me now.” He whispered back. 

“You two alright? Whispering like mothers over there.” Oliver laughed as he walked towards us he extended his hand out towards George. “Oliver,”

“George.” George grabbed his hand and shot up and down in quick succession before turning his head to me.

“I’m Y/N.” 

“Nice to meet you Y/N.” 

“I wish I could say the same.” 

“Excuse me?” Olivers face shrivelled in confusion. 

“Y/N.” George chastised me. 

“I think what she meant was, it’s more than nice to meet you…” Dean pushed off the wall and walked over to us. “She’s always looking to make friends.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “Isn’t that right, Y/N.” I pushed my lips together, holding my tongue between my teeth before nodding. 

“Lovely to meet you even.” I managed to mutter out after an awkward beat passed between us. “You know what, I heard the games are starting soon, and dancing.” I looked across to George. “Should we dance? We should dance.” I nodded my head. “Dean?” 

“Yeah, we should dance.” 

“Thought you said you didn’t dance,” Harry called out to Dean. 

“Gotta find a girl somehow, mate.” 

“They’re having a competition actually,” Oliver started. “You get a number, whoever gets the same number as you, is your partner, and whoever is best wins like 200 quid or something like that.” 

“Great, shall we.” Dean looked over at Elle and Harry. “You two love birds coming?” 

“You want too?”

“Yeah,” Elle smiled wrapping a hand around Harry’s waist. 

“You three go down, just need to talk to these two for a minute.” George blocked Dean and I. “Won’t be a tick.” 

“No worries, make it quick yeah? Don’t want to miss the games.” Called Oliver as he opened the door for Harry and Elle. As soon as it shut George spun to us.

“What the fuck is going on?”

“Don’t worry mate, just leave it.”

“Y/N?” 

“Don’t tell him Y/N, it’ll only make it worse.”

“Make what worse?” 

“Y/N.” Dean spurned. “We can tell him another time.” I nodded my head. 

“Another time, George.” 

“Are you serious?” George’s jaw was pretty much hanging open. “Y/N, you can trust me.”

“I know, I know, but trust me when I saw this is for the greater good.” I grabbed onto his hand. “I promise, tomorrow we will tell you everything.” George was quiet for a second, I could tell he was deliberating between continuing the argument or succumbing to finding out the next day. 

“Fine.” He cleared his throat, throwing the burnt-out cigarette on the ground. “Let’s go find a drink, then play this game.” 

“Or we could just chug the rest of the vodka between us and then go find them?” Dean suggested. 

And that is exactly how we ended up squished into the living room while a slightly overweight Darth Vader read out the rules of the dance competition. 

“The name of the game is ‘Sex on the dance floor’ with that name in mind you and your partner must be touching at all times, but you are not permitted to have sex. You and your partner stop touching, you’re out.” He stopped reading and pointed around the room. “Anyone dressed in a Clone costume.” A guy in a white suit waved. “Is a judge, you get tapped, you leave. Simple.” 

“So he says,” Dean whispered in between mine and George’s head. “He’s clearly never tried to dirty dance with a stiff before.” 

“A stiff what?” I hissed back, eyes keeping on Vader. 

“Y/N.” Dean chuckled. “You’re too cute.” 

“When you all walked in, you were given a slip of paper, open them up.” Dean, George and I opened our papers. “Find your partner, we start in five.”

“Number fourteen.” I read aloud. Peaking over to Deans. “Number thirty-two… How many people are in this completion.” 

“A lot.” He looked at George’s. “Number fifteen.” So close. 

“There you guy’s are.” I looked up from my paper to see Harry, Oliver and Elle pushing their way through the crowd. 

“What numbers did you get?” Elle held the crisp white paper in front of her. “Oliver and I got number six.” 

“Fourteen.”

“Fifteen.”

“Thirty-two.” George, Dean and I chorused. “Any match up?” He grabbed Harry’s. “Twenty-eight… Damn… Imagine if you have to grind and bump with a guy, who wasn’t me.”

“It’d break my heart,” Harry chuckled pulling Dean into a headlock. 

“Sorry.” A guy pushed his torso into our group. “Did someone here say they had Fourteen?” I nodded my head. “My girlfriend is fourteen,”

“Oh. That’s cool.” 

“Y/N, babe.” George laughed. “I think he wants to swap,”

“Oh, yeah. Shit of course.” I gave him the slip and took the one he held out in return. “Twenty-one.” 

“How are we going to find these numbers?” 

“NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT.” Dean’s voiced boomed. “LOOKING FOR NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT.” 

And so it went, Dean played the matchmaker right until it was just George and I left. 

“Still no one.” 

“Sorry Y/N, at least you can be with George.” I saw a devilish smirk as he turned and dragged the blonde bombshell he was with away from us. 

“What do you say?” George held out his hand as the music began. “Partner?”

“Sure, but first I need a drink, all the numbers ruined my buzz.” He shook his head, grabbing my hand and pulling me back to him.

“Shut up and dance.” George had my breath hitching with the way that he pressed against me. His hands came to a rest on my hips, fingertips ticking my lower back. I ran my hands over his chest, feeling his six-pack as they tensed under his tight shirt. 

Turn around Y/N, don’t let him see what he’s doing to you.

I spun around, pressing my back to his front, smiling when his hands wrapped themselves tighter around me. With more alcohol than blood running through my veins, the things that came to mind were anything but G rated, even for a virgin. 

“Didn’t know you could move like this Y/N,” George whispered in my ear. I ignored it and continued to swap my hips, George and I’s conjoined hand hanging over my shoulder. 

“Neither did I.” It was true, I’d never danced like this before. The next song blurred into the last and we didn’t stop, George kept his arms wrapped firmly around my waist. My eyes closed as I leaned my head onto his shoulder. My free hand holding onto his forearm as we swayed together in time to the beat. George’s hands left my waist and ran up my ribs, pushing my hair off my neck, before running back down my ribs once more resting back on my hips. I felt his breath on my neck, heavy and warm. It made goosebumps rise in its wake, then when I felt his lips my legs shook a little. 

“George, what are you doing?” I felt his tongue touching the skin on my neck. I pulled away turning to him. He chuckled, looking surprised. 

“What?” My hands run up his chest again, touching his cheek. “Y/N,” He whispered, just loud enough to be heard over the music. He leaned in, my eyes closed automatically. I felt his hot breath on my lips and then felt his lips brush gently over mine. 

“We can’t,” I whispered just as our lips were about to touch again. His forehead rested on mine. Eyes opening to meet mine. “I want to.” 

“Then why not?” 

“We’re friends, remember George.” His hand ran up to the back of my neck, holding onto it. “Let’s just be friends.” 

“Friends kiss all the time, Y/N.” I spun around so my back was pressed to his front, “It’s just a kiss,”

“Is that all they are to you?” George spun me back around, his hands pulling my waist closer to him. 

“What else should they be?” Don’t do this Y/N. It’s not worth it. 

“You’re right,” I whispered, lips running along his jaw. “It’s just a kiss, nothing else.” 

“Nothing else,” George nodded. “Just a kiss,” He leant his forehead against mine, “Cure my curiosity Y/N,”

I could do this, just a kiss. One perfect kiss with George… 

Without thinking I lent forward and pressed my lips to his. They were soft, but hard from the pressure he used to countermine. I opened my lips to bite onto his bottom lip. George groaned and pulled my body closer, keeping us swaying to the music. One of his hands moved down and wrapped around my waist the other wound into my hair. I pulled away, my mind running on a high from him, from the kiss. George’s lips moved from my lips to my cheeks kissing everywhere they touched before they reached my neck, leaving a trail of kisses down my neck moving the trail of ivy vines from my costume aside, before coming back to my lips. If someone told me that one of the best first kisses I would ever have would be with George MacKay, a boy every girl in my home town wanted, I would have laughed in their face, but here I was on some dark, grimy dance floor, dressed in a costume I thought I’d never wear, with his hips pushing into mine, kissing him like it was my dying wish. My hands were pushing up George’s shirt, allowing me access to the skin underneath as I pulled his lips back to mine. He licked and nibbled on my bottom lip, begging for me to open my lips, when I didn’t he pulled away and kissed over to my ear. 

“Ivy, Joker… You’re out.” Overweight Darth Vader screamed from the podium. George didn’t pull away, his hands pushing my hips towards the nearby wall, stepping us backwards until my back pushed into it, his lips going back to mine. 

“Sorry we lost the contest,” I whispered, George, pulled away, his hands lingering on my chin, 

“Fuck the contest.”

[thevampirediariesdiary]

I was pretty out of sorts with Stefan this episode.  he’s been nervously aware of the fact of his being positioned in a love triangle before, of course; he’s been jealous and insecure and resentful, but I’ve never been quite so angry at the way he handled it as I was during “Dangerous Liaisons”.

so, naturally, I did a casual scroll through some old episode recaps, which turned into a not-so-casual scan of a handful of episode transcripts, and what I ended up with was a non-exhaustive collection of conversations demonstrating the development of the Salvatore brothers’ relationship, especially as regards their mutual love of specifically Elena.  the emphasis is strongly on Stefan’s side of the triangle, because if you wanted to read about Damon pining longingly for Elena while she was clinging to Stefan, you could just read *waves hand vaguely and expansively* the entire rest of my blog.

the first real sparks of jealousy begin to appear after Damon and Elena’s trip to Atlanta in “Bloodlines”.  

we get various exchanges in “Unpleasantville” as Damon’s presence in Stefan’s life, near Stefan’s girlfriend grates on Stefan:

S: Putting Elena in harm’s way, that is my concern. D: What are you talking about? S: I’m talking about Atlanta. D: Oh yeah. Elena and I had a blast. S: I get it, you’re just bitter that one of us gets to be with the person they love, and poor Katherine’s just out of reach.   

D: Why should I trust you? S: Because I’m your brother. D: No, that’s not gonna cut it. S: Because I want you gone.

S: It was a lie.  I let him believe he could trust me. E: Why would you be worried about telling me? S: Because he can be persuasive, and you two have…bonded…lately.  E: That doesn’t mean I trust him.  It’s gonna take a lot more than just a road trip and a rescue for me to forget who Damon is and everything he’s done.  

which leads to the infamous-to-me “you and I will have a vampire girlfriend” exchange one episode later in “Children of the Damned”:

D: Course I was gonna do it by myself, because the only one I can count on is me.  You made sure of that years ago, Stefan.  But you [Elena]...you had me fooled.  So what are you gonna do now?  Because if you try to destroy that I’ll rip her heart out. S: You won’t kill her. D: I can do one better.  Give me the book, Stefan, or I’m snapping her neck, and you and I will have a vampire girlfriend. S: Let her go first. D: The book.  S: I’m not gonna give this to you until she’s standing next to me. D: The problem is I no longer trust that you’ll give it back! S: You just did the one thing that ensures that I will.  

then Elena crosses the picket line to help Damon in “Fool Me Once”, Damon again calls her “our girlfriend” in “A Few Good Men”, and subsequently ends up back in the doghouse for killing Isobel and then gloating about it.

so for this whole first era of the show, the tension between these three characters is pretty straightforward.  Stefan doesn’t like Damon hanging around Elena - but that’s (at least ostensibly) because he’s dangerous, because he’s unpredictable, because he puts her in bad situations.  he tries to compel her.  he tries to kill her friends.  he grabs her and threatens to turn her vampiric.  Damon might already love Elena, on some level, at this point - but it’s still not exactly a love triangle, because neither Stefan nor Elena seems to suspect - or, even if they suspect there’s something, they’d never call it love.  there is no way in which Elena’s torn, no way in which she has to make a choice.  her connection with both brothers is an asset.

this starts to change in the second era of the show, after the watershed moment of “Miss Mystic Falls”.  Stefan falls from grace, Damon’s perspective on vampirism and on Stefan’s relationship with it is validated, and Damon and Elena waltz and then shack up together.  when Stefan comes back to himself, it’s to a brave new world, and to Isobel’s bombshell, “because he’s in love with you”, which gives us the first real jealous boyfriend speech in “Isobel”:

S: Well, I know that you and Elena have bonded, and I know that she cares about you. And, uh, I know that you care about her. D: Well, this is going in an interesting direction. S: I’m just concerned about Elena getting hurt. She considers you a friend.  D: Same here, Elena’s a very good friend. Actually, she might qualify as my only friend. Is that a problem? S: So, at the risk of sounding like a jealous boyfriend... D: Oh there’s no risk. You do.  S: History will not be repeating itself where Elena is concerned. 

Stefan lays it down like a proclamation, like an order - as if by telling Damon what he wants he can control the whole picture, because if history were to repeat itself, it would invariably be Damon’s fault.  so much so, in fact, that he doesn’t approach Elena with his worries at all.  Elena has to bring them up herself in “Founders Day”:

S: I try so hard to hate him. I guess it’s just pointless.  E: You care about him. So do it. But I love you Stefan. And I know that you’re worried about that.  S: Nah, I just, I know my brother.  E: But I love you, Stefan.  S: I know the trouble he can cause.  E: I love you, Stefan, you. You have nothing to worry about. 

and that may be true, on Elena’s side, but we find it absolutely isn’t on Damon’s.  he tries to kiss Elena, and now we get a whole new flavor of jealousy from Stefan - one which Stefan is, to his credit, actively trying to fight against.  he knows that he and Damon have to present a unified front against all the forces of evil if they’re ever going to be able to protect Elena. 

S: Katherine’s gonna try to play us against each other, you know that right?  So yes, as much as I would like to kill you, I’m not gonna fight you.  D: I kissed Elena.  S: Because you feel something for her. Because you actually care. And I’m not going to let Katherine come in here and destroy that part of you that after all this time is finally willing to feel something. 

Stefan chooses to allow Damon’s love for his girlfriend in the hopes that it will have positive effects: Elena’s safety, brotherly agreement, Damon’s regained humanity.  this attitude persists through "The Return” into the latter half of the season when the non-Katherine threat is looming, though the choice is perhaps made a little simpler by Damon having screwed things up so spectacularly with Elena.  what does it matter if Damon loves Elena, when Elena hates him?  there is no threat there.  thus, Stefan’s much more casual approach to the subject in “Rose”:

S: We both know you being in this car has absolutely nothing to do with me anyway. D: And the elephant in the room lets out a mighty roar. S: Well, it doesn’t have to be an elephant!  You know, let’s talk about it! D: Nothing to talk about. S: That’s not true, sure there is.  Let’s get it out: are you in this car because you want to help your little brother save the girl he loves, or is it…is it because you love her too? Come on, express yourself!  I happen to like road trip bonding. D: Keep it up, Stefan. I could step out of helping as easily as I stepped in. S: Nope, that's the beauty of it.  You can't.

even when Stefan is trapped with Katherine in “The Sacrifice”, he gracefully hands over Elena’s protection to Damon:

S: Promise me whatever happens you'll protect her. D: Promise.

Katherine’s response to this, of course, is to tell Stefan, “That right there was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made.”  and yet, it’s a choice he keeps making.  Damon is on Elena duty.  there’s that excellent moment in “The Last Dance” wherein Stefan, dancing with Elena, signals to Damon and then twirls Elena into his brother’s arms, and leaves.  he places Elena into Damon’s care, again and again, and he never seems to regret it - until after the dance Damon verbalizes for him what that means:

S: Don’t you understand what you put her through? D: See, that’s why I didn’t tell you.  Because you’d never have been able to do it.  Don’t get me wrong, Stefan, I don’t mind being the bad guy.  I’ll make all the life and death decisions, while you’re busy worrying about collateral damage.  I’ll even let her hate me for it.  But at the end of the day, I’ll be the one to keep her alive.

Damon puts words to their roles: Stefan wrings his hands and keeps his hands clean, so that he can stay in Elena’s good graces, and Damon protects her, whether she likes him for it or not.  Stefan’s role is largely passive, Damon’s is active.  the only thing he’s wrong about is that actually, Elena doesn’t hate him for it.  they’re maybe closer than ever.

for the rest of the season, Stefan resists Damon’s interpretation of their triangular dynamic as hard as he can.  in “Klaus” Stefan tries to pretend control by reminding Damon that he’s the one benevolently granting permission for Damon to protect Elena:

D: You should be thankful [Andi]'s here, it keeps me from going for what I really want. S: You’re right, thank you…for being in love with my girlfriend. D: And there it is. S: There it is.  You know, you can be in love with Elena all you want, if it means that you’ll protect her.  But I have the one thing that you never will. D: Oh yeah?  What’s that? S: Her respect.

the “respect” comment is a bit of a non sequitur - as if Elena’s undeniable fondness for Damon is like the affection you feel for a pet who’s too stupid to listen to you.  it misses the mark - Damon knows, by now, that Elena thinks he’s capable of being the better man.  she holds him to a standard, and that is more respect than anyone has ever shown him.  she respects Damon and she gratefully accepts his protection.  the only thing Damon doesn’t have is her romantic love.

this is briefly easier for Stefan to bear once Damon digs himself into another hole.  Stefan is able to admit to Elena in “The Last Day” that Damon’s horrible actions were motivated by love: Damon’s trying to keep her alive, the only way he knows how, even if he forgot for a moment that vampirism isn’t really life.  Elena is too angry to see this, but Stefan, who’s thought about it before, is a big enough person to tell her.

and then in “The Sun Also Rises”, Stefan tries to switch their roles: he sends Damon to carry Elena away to wring his hands over collateral damage, so Stefan can keep watch over the life and death choices: 

S: I need you to get her out of here. D: What about you? S: I'm not leaving until he's dead.

Damon’s still protecting her, of course, but he also gets to cup her face in his hands and ask how she feels - which would normally be Stefan’s job. 

and then, after this last switch, there’s no place for jealousy anymore.  because Damon is dying: 

S: He told me not to tell you [that he's dying], but I figured if you wanted to talk to him...I wouldn't wait.  ....Go talk to him.  Just tell him that there's still hope.

I do wonder if Stefan knew what he was doing when he left with Klaus - if he thought about Elena at all, and what would happen with her, or if he could only think about his brother’s life.  but at least by the time season three opens, Stefan seems to be trying to set aside any possessiveness of Elena.  while Stefan is still in possession of his humanity, we see something like a repeat of the same brotherly dynamic from when Stefan was trapped in the tomb with Katherine.  when he sees Damon, all he says is to keep Elena away, so she’ll be safe.  he figuratively spins Elena away from him and lets Damon pull her into his arms, and when he walks away he tries very very hard not to look back, he tries not to think about the fact that he left them both behind, together.  note that when we do see Stefan and Elena encounter each other - in the closet in Chicago, in the school on senior prank night - Damon isn’t there.  Stefan doesn’t see the dynamic they’ve developed without him until his humanity is gone.

and Stefan-sans-humanity has a very different reaction than he would under different circumstances.  he walks in on Damon knelt in front of a weeping Elena, promising that he’ll never leave her, and Stefan says “Well, isn’t this cozy...by all means, carry on.”  he notices that Elena’s staring at Damon hitting on Rebekah, and says, “My brother’s got his flirt on, and you’re jealous...It’s alright, be jealous, by all means. I’m sure Damon will be thrilled.”

so we don’t start to see Stefan really react to how much closer Damon and Elena have grown in his absence until his humanity is creeping closer to the surface.  you could argue that’s what he’s referring to in “Our Town” when he says, “I lost you the minute I left town with [Klaus], you just haven’t let yourself admit that yet,” as if he was saying “I lost you to Damon.”  but I think the more interesting interpretation there is that Stefan’s talking about his own actions, “I lost you the minute I left town and started killing.”  so that makes Stefan’s first reaction to Damon and Elena’s season 3 relationship “The Ties That Bind” and Elena’s confession:

E: There's something I need to tell you, and it's not because I feel guilty that it happened, it's because I feel guilty you don't know.  I kissed Damon.

Stefan is laid bare, and we see for the first time how much of his apathy is now a mask he puts on consciously and purposefully.  as much as he’s talked a big game about pushing her away, and despite all the moments of casual intimacy he saw while his switch was flipped, he didn’t see this coming.  either because he didn’t think this new relatively-responsible Damon would actually make a move on his brother’s girl, or because he didn’t think Elena would allow it.  but Elena doesn’t even give him the dubious comfort of saying that Damon kissed her and she just kissed him back.  all she says is she didn’t plan it.  it was a surprise for her, just like it was for Stefan, but it did happen and she doesn’t feel guilty about it.  when Stefan finally responds, all he says is:

S: You're better than him, Elena.  You're better than both of us.

the words go along with what Stefan’s been saying and doing all season long: pushing Elena away, letting her go, so she can be free and happy somewhere without him - but now also without Damon. she’s better than both of them, she should let them both go.  but later that night Damon asks if Elena is okay, and Stefan punches him - kissing Elena was an offense against Stefan, because Elena’s still off-limits for Damon, she’s still Stefan’s.  and so he retaliates.  

Stefan’s feeling of vengeful possessiveness starts to shift into something else in "Bringing Out The Dead”:

S: I love her, Damon. D: So do I.

this is Stefan letting Damon know that Damon’s not going to “take” Elena without a fight.  Damon responds in kind, because he’s not going to cede to Stefan’s prior claim.  they both love her.  neither of them currently “has” her.  may the best man win.

which brings us, at long last, to "Dangerous Liaisons”.  both brothers have declared their love for Elena - but both of them aren’t completely all-in on showing it.  for Damon, “it is right, but not right now”; for Stefan, his humanity is still only partially on, and, we soon discover, when he lets himself care, all he feels is pain.  

the episode begins with this exchange:

D: Can we go back in time where the old Stefan cared if Elena lived or died? S: What for? It's your job now.

this is neither brother at his best, a definite dick move on both of their parts.  but the real meat of their conflict in this episode is here:

S: You know, maybe you should stop being such a controlling dick, Damon. D: Wait, hang on, I’m the problem here? S: You’re a liability, brother. D: I’m trying to keep her alive, Stefan. S: Yeah, well, your emotions are getting in the way of our plan. D: Wh - my emotions?  How is this even happening right now? S: Maybe because you care too damn much.

the crazy thing is, “you may be trying to keep her alive but your emotions are getting in the way of our plan because you care too damn much” is, in essentials, almost exactly the same as “you can be in love with Elena all you want, if it means you’ll protect her.”  Stefan takes the very thing that Damon has always had going for him - “at the end of the day, I’ll be the one to keep her alive” - and turns it into a weakness, a fault.  and it’s not explicitly because Damon will keep Elena safe without consulting her wishes, i.e. feed her vampire blood rather than risk losing her.  it’s not about his not respecting Elena’s freedom enough to let her be protected the way she wants.  it’s not about some harm or injustice to Elena at all.  it’s about the big picture, the big picture that Damon is incapable of seeing because all he sees is Elena.  Damon will never care more about defeating Klaus than he cares about Elena.  and somehow, Stefan twists words around, hints and implies and accuses, and makes that look like a bad thing, and Elena buys it, and then Damon does too.

but there’s something just absolutely nonsensical and a little insidious about that framing of things.  if Damon didn’t care more about Elena than the big picture battle between the good guys and the bad guys, then he might as well have let her hand herself over to Klaus in “The Sacrifice”.  but he didn’t - he stepped in, and saved her against her own wishes, risking himself in the process.  and he was right to do so - his actions weren’t motivated by nebulous “emotions”, code for “selfishness”, but love, real love, which looks out for the true good of the beloved.  the fact that Damon’s love for Elena is a preferential love, a love that has always put her first, is exactly what makes it a romantic love.  he doesn’t care too much, he’s not crazy impulsive, being driven by blind feelings.  he’s doing what love does: prefer the good of the other.  and Stefan understood that, before - he was the one who told Elena, in “The Last Day”, “he did it because he loves you”.  but now that Damon hasn’t done anything truly heinous in a while, now that he’s holding himself together so well that he’s starting to be a romantic threat, Stefan suddenly isn’t so gracious with him anymore.

so yeah, I think Stefan's not playing fair.  rather than facing Damon honorably on the field of love-triangle-battle, his strengths and love against Damon’s strengths and love, he tries to paint Damon’s strength as a weakness so that maybe Damon will forsake it.  if Damon doesn’t have “I’ll be the one to keep her alive”, if he has to be ashamed of that, what does he have?  it’s underhanded and manipulative, and I do not like it.

[itsclydebitches]

Oscar Pine: Treatment and Characterization in Volume Six

It’s Friday! Which means I get to spend my time writing meta if I so choose. Today’s topic is Oscar. Specifically the question posed by @dreanner95 on another post of mine: “How have the characters in the show treated Oscar badly?” (Full asks are at the end of the meta.) I’ve covered this topic at length in my episode recaps, but I want to pull everything together into one post, both for easy, future access---here’s the answer to this question!---as well as to put the whole of it into perspective. Because as we’ll see in a moment, Oscar’s treatment is something slow and perpetual. You’ve got to take it all into account to understand just how badly things are going for him.

To start, though this meta is focused on the material of Volume Six, it’s worth pointing out something from Volume Five. Namely that Oscar isn’t an integrated part of the team yet. Volume Five is easy-going material compared to Volume Six. A whole lot of hanging out around the house as opposed to stressful, traumatic encounters with baddies. Meaning, that was the perfect time to start incorporating Oscar into the main group, but that didn’t happen very much. Not to the extent we need it to. Because Oscar isn’t just Oscar anymore, he’s Oscar housing Ozpin, and it’s Ozpin who bears the focus of everyone’s attention (a problem that becomes exacerbated in Volume Six). The vast majority of Oscar’s scenes feature Ozpin speaking, or are about Oscar’s new relationship with Ozpin, or are more generally about the war and how to prepare for it---see the training scene where Oscar is struggling to learn the basics of combat. For the most part Oscar is not at the center of anyone’s attention, Ozpin is, with the exception being Ruby’s talk with him downstairs. There Ozpin keeps quiet to let the two work out their grief and fears, making it one of the most powerful moments of the volume. But it’s not nearly enough. I’ve spoken before about how we don’t know much of anything about Oscar. Unlike the other characters who all embody details that help us to see them as well-rounded individuals---Yang loves making jokes and her bike, Blake is a bibliophile and invested in faunus rights, Jaune still wears a Pumpkin Pete sweatshirt and trains at night with Pyrrha’s video, etc.---three volumes in and Oscar is still defined almost exclusively by that moment when Ozpin slammed into his head and everything that has happened since then. No hobbies, no dreams, no talk of his family... we’re given only one, narrow lens to view him through. Which doesn’t just make it more difficult for the audience to become invested in him, but difficult for the other characters as well. Oscar doesn’t join the group during their bonding dinner. With the exception of Ruby, he doesn’t get to form strong ties with them. He’s the outsider here, the one person who doesn’t have a year of Beacon friendship and life or death missions to draw on, and it shows. Because though the cast clearly loves him (more on that later) his outsider status remains, making it really easy for the others to dismiss him, hurt him, or shrug him off when things start getting tough. Because he’s not really one of them. This isn’t Jaune with Ozpin stuck in his head. Or Ruby. Or Yang. It’s just Oscar, the random kid who appeared on our doorstep one day, joined our group when we never asked, and who we still know next to nothing about even after three volumes of material. The characters just don’t care about him as much as they do the core group, even though at this point they should, setting up a situation wherein he becomes expendable. Especially when everyone is focused on getting back at Ozpin. They’re willing to hurt Oscar to get at Ozpin in a way I don’t think they’d be comfortable with if it was anyone else. If Nora had Ozpin stuck in her head? No one would be assaulting her or saying she’s doomed to just be his meatsuit her whole life. They’d defend and support her in ways no one is willing to do for the literal child of the group. Because no one has been given the chance to get to know the kid and come to truly care for him. 

So let’s rehash what the group actually does to Oscar over the course of Volume Six.

To start, there is that ongoing sense that he has no place in this group. Oscar exists only as a vessel for Ozpin. When everyone is waiting for the train the focus in clearly on team dynamics. “I know you’re worried, Weiss, but trust us. Team RWBY won’t leave your side for a second!” Yang and Ruby are interacting as sisters. Nora and Ren are interacting as a couple. There’s a clear division between RWBY and JNR visually, with the former on the right side of the screen and the latter on the left. 

Oscar sits sort of between both, not speaking, not being spoken to until Ozpin makes a joke about the train goons hopefully not being from Beacon. Then Oscar expands on the humor and gets a round of appreciative nods. That’s it though. On the train Team RWBY and their Uncle Qrow all make plans to play video games. We know Team JNR was hanging out because they all arrive together when trouble starts. Meanwhile, we find Oscar in a cabin full of random people. He’s not spending time with or being invited to either group here. He’s just got Ozpin. Ozpin who is the focus of everyone’s attention. When the others arrive Jaune immediately asks, “What’s going on?” and it’s pretty clear the question is directed at Ozpin, not Oscar. Because Oscar just insisted that he wanted to keep control, but now he’s fumbling. He doesn’t know what’s going on and now here Jaune is (unintentionally) reminding him of that. He’s a farm boy, not a huntsmen. Certainly not the huntsmen either. Everyone wants Ozpin around to fix things and if there’s nothing to fix? You don’t need to stay.

It’s a dynamic that’s going to repeat throughout the volume, starting at the farm house. Ruby will go off with Weiss, Blake will go off with Yang... and everyone is going to leave Oscar to stay behind with Maria, doing nothing and being babied. 

Team RWBY will go retrieve the relic. Oscar can once again stay behind and figure out how to fix their transportation. Because Qrow will be busy drinking. 

And then again in “Dead End,” which I’ll get to below.

After the train we have the punch scene and I’m not sure how else to explain to people how not okay this is. I don’t care how high emotions were. Oscar is bearing the brunt of Ozpin’s (perceived) sins in a truly horrendous manner. He’s intimidated, screamed at, chucked into a tree. Keep in mind this is the body that only started figuring out aura a few weeks ago and we’re shown straight out that Qrow’s punch, a punch from an incredibly powerful huntsmen, hurt like hell. The second Ozpin leaves Oscar is wincing and touching his cheek.

What stands out to me is not that the cast is human and makes mistakes and loses their temper---because obviously all those things are valid---but rather that we see throughout the course of Volume Six that no one is willing to acknowledge, let alone act on, the fact that Oscar is a victim of circumstance. No one calls Qrow out on hitting the innocent kid along with the guy he’s mad at. No one tries to calm things down so that Oscar isn’t shouldering their tempers when he’s done nothing wrong. Everyone is happy to vent their anger and fears on him because he’s convenient. Case in point, even with Ozpin gone Yang is still screaming in his face. She doesn’t care if that’s Ozpin or Oscar. Same body, no difference.

No one cares enough about Oscar as an individual to question how their actions might hurt him along with Ozpin. They don’t care enough about him as an individual, period. With the knowledge that Ozpin is truly gone for the moment, the group segues into ignoring him. Oscar is in the process of breaking down right in front of them---grabbing his hair, yelling about how he needs it all to stop---but the group talks over him, jumping straight to panic about what they’ll do now that Ozpin has left. Oscar is no longer functioning as their go-between. He’s useless, he looks like a man they hate, and he doesn’t have that emotional connection to the group. So why do they care that he’s having a breakdown? They don’t. Imagine if this was literally anyone else in the cast. The group would be all comfort and sympathy. Instead, we’re given a shot that could easily be from Oscar’s perspective. His entire identity is falling apart and all he’s given in response to that is Weiss looming over him, still talking about Ozpin, still only worrying about how this all effects them. A ‘them’ Oscar isn’t fully a part of. 

It’s a problem that Ruby tries to address by giving him back his cane, but Qrow undermines that like whoa.

I shouldn’t have to establish how utterly horrible this is. The adult telling the child, ‘No. You’re not your own person. Get over it. I’m a good guy for telling you the hard truth.’ It’s made even worse by Ruby’s silence. She doesn’t challenge Qrow’s words. Her sad expression conveys that she agrees with him---her earlier words were indeed “lies”---and Oscar is left to walk away, once again without any support. What little he was offered was wrenched away from him by an authority figure. Throughout "The Coming Storm” we see just how isolated he is. He walks at the very back of the group, away from everyone else. He looks terrified entering the house, re-emphasizing that he’s not a trained huntsmen like the rest of the group and was never given a choice about adopting this life. When he helps Blake and Weiss move the dresser in front of the door, they hold a short conversation over his head. As Ruby approaches the pictures on the wall, we hear Oscar theorizing about how this room is a study or a library, but no one answers him. Then, as said, they all split and leave Oscar behind, despite the fact that he’s the first to back Ruby’s plan to look for supplies. On their own none of these details necessarily mean anything, but put together they paint a bleak picture---and one that I am personally familiar with. I’ve been in groups where I’m clearly the outsider and this is precisely how I’m inclined to act: try to be helpful even when it goes ignored, try to start conversations even when no one answers. You just keep trying because what else can you do? You feel horribly awkward, but it’s better than accepting that no one wants to interact with you. 

Note that all of this is a direct parallel to what we get in “Dead End.” Both moments begin with Oscar trying to help the group, first by giving them a means of accessing the secrets they so desperately want---“Say her name to summon her”---here by starting a pep-talk when Ruby is unable to. “Look, none of this is great, we know,” Oscar says. “But we’re not the bad guys here.” To which Jaune responds with, “Are we sure about that?” Now, suddenly, Oscar isn’t just the bystander who happens to be hurt along the way. He is the immediate victim here. All the dialogue is directed to and about Oscar, blaming him and putting the responsibility on his shoulders: “He’s in your head isn’t he?” “Did you already know about this?” “How much longer can we even trust him?” “How do we even know it’s really him?”

We have another physical assault, this time with Jaune slamming Oscar against the wall and shaking him. 

Weiss, Yang, and Ruby yell out, but none of them make a move to stop him. Everyone just stands there, allowing Jaune to do as he pleases. In the past year people have been very uncomfortable with me referring to the group as kids or children, insisting that real life markers of adulthood (hitting 18) trumps their lack of experience and emotional instability. These are adults, Clyde. Okay then. Let’s work with that. This is an adult attacking a child. For the second time in as many days. We have now twice seen an adult use a 14yo as an emotional and literal punching bag, doing whatever they please to the real life equivalent of a middle schooler.

And once again, no one cares. Oscar was just attacked again, he flinches when Jaune walks past, and the first words out of anyone’s mouth are worry for Jaune. Not the kid who just dealt with a much bigger, much stronger, much older man taking his anger out on him. Not the kid who is standing right there and listening to where everyone’s loyalties lie. Oscar learns fully in this moment that when push comes to shove, he’s never going to be anyone’s priority.

We see the split in teams again. “I think it would be best if we had some time to ourselves,” Ren says, clearly talking about Team JNR since they’re all going upstairs together. Team RWBY is left in the living room... with Oscar outside of that.

So he leaves.

Which is when the writing shows us its priorities too. Oscar is housing the most important character in this entire war and, like it or not, he’s supposed to be a part of the team now. If there was ever a time to provide him with space to grow and to give the audience insight into who he is outside of Ozpin’s influence, this was it. Ozpin is conveniently quiet. The group has driven him away. We have a two week hiatus implying a major episode when we come back. Anything could happen, from Oscar getting kidnapped and coming into some power, to him working through his issues and deciding why the hell he should stay with a group that doesn’t need him and clearly doesn’t want him. Instead, we get another episode about Jaune and EVERY bit of potential character development for Oscar happens off screen. All we learn is that Oscar went shopping. Oh, and cooked them dinner.

Notice that Oscar is desperate to prove himself useful; to do things in the hope that it will earn him some form of praise and acceptance. Jaune yells about how I’m a liar and not to be trusted? I get thrown around and no one cares enough to check up on me? That’s fine. I’m gonna give them space, not kick up a fuss, make a nice meal for everyone to come home to... Oscar can’t stick up for himself because if doing nice things---helping you get Ozpin’s secrets, trying to cheer everyone up, etc.---results in violence, what the hell would they do if he actually got mad at them? No, no, no, I’ll just keep being calm, perfect Oscar.

Yes, Jaune apologies for his behavior, but notably Oscar interrupts him and tries to justify it. I’m worried about the same things too, so it’s totally okay that you expressed those fears the way you did. I’m the expendable one. 

It gets even worse when Oscar starts speaking as if he has a terminal illness. Once again he’s buying into the idea that he’s no one now, existing only to ferry Ozpin’s soul, and like out in the snow this idea isn’t challenged by anyone. This exchange boils down to, ‘I’m convinced I’m going to cease to exist so I’ll just keep helping you all as much as possible until I’m gone.’ Oscar is making the claim that helping them---being the good outsider who makes them meals and promises not to worry them again, despite the fact that they’re the ones who drove him off in the first place---is all he's good for now. 

And what’s the group’s response to this? 

Along with a whole bunch of smiles. 

Combined with their overall treatment, this reads as horrendously alarming. Why worry too much about how you’re treating Oscar when Oscar is destined to die, merge, whatever? He’s literally theorizing about a scenario where one day the group won’t have to deal with him anymore, but until then he’ll be as helpful as he can. It’s an easy out for them. Yay! We won’t lose the Ozpin vessel who we technically still need, but now he says we don’t have to worry about his trauma anymore. Those pesky things like terror over his identity are being buried and the problem is that no one is inclined to challenge that. A few days after Qrow claims he’s not his own person, Oscar announces, ‘You know what? He’s right. I’m not. So I’ll just be useful until I disappear.’ And everyone is happy with that new plan. No one cares enough about Oscar to push back against this passiveness, to worry about his mental health, even just to express grief that they may one day lose him. There’s so much concern and care shown among the group, from the big (everyone supporting Yang through her PTSD) to the small (Blake finding an extra blanket for Weiss). But twice now we’ve seen Oscar breaking in front of an audience and no one bats an eye. Twice we’ve seen him harmed and no one cares. The rest of the time he’s barely acknowledged at all. Not unless he’s making himself known and that, as we’ve seen, is dangerous.  

I mentioned way at the start that the concept of the group loving Oscar would come back into play. In short, I think you can love someone---or convince yourself you love someone---and still treat them like shit. The group might be “worried sick” when something major happens to Oscar like a disappearance, but on a day-to-day basis they treat him pretty horribly. They care about his physical safety, but not his emotional or mental well being. He’s not truly a part of their teams, he’s constantly conflated with Ozpin, his fears about losing his identity are reinforced multiple times, and there’s now a pattern of the group using him as an emotional and physical outlet when it proves convenient for them. Could they treat him worse than this? Yeah, of course, but they could treat him a whole lot better too. For me, Nora giving a big “OSCAR!” hug or Blake exchanging pleasantries on the farmhouse steps doesn’t mean a thing when, during more significant moments, they don’t stick up for him. Not when he’s being physically assaulted, not when others are emotionally harming him, not when Oscar himself basically announces that he’s accepted a death sentence. The group loves Oscar... but it’s highly conditional. If they love someone else more (like Jaune) or hate someone else enough (like Ozpin) then he’s going to suffer for it. Oscar is not enough of a member of the group for them to ever prioritize and sadly it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

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