#but it's only 8 episodes so it's not much of a commitment

[dramashii]

The day's not over yet.

SERENDIPITY'S EMBRACE (2024) | Ep 2

[iamacolor]

oh, hello there

[arciam]

Underrated JayVik moments/lines (20/∞)

"That research is everything, my - my whole life!"

After grazing this line in multiple entries already, here is finally the dedicated one. I have a few different things to say about it:

1. He is not kidding here.

As I talked about in part 9, my man was literally ready to end it all when he found himself with no one who would support his work - or rather, everything it meant to him. His dreams, his heart.

Whichever way you look at it, Viktor spared Jayce so much more than just a tumble to the pavement; he gave Jayce a reason to keep living.

2. "Our HexTech dream."

...says Jayce, not even one minute later.

So, after considering himself incapable of working with anyone else for who knows how long, he just straight-up commits to making the guy whose name he learnt like an hour ago an equal proprietor of his "whole life"..? Cool, cool. Talk about moving fast.

3. "You've no idea how beautiful it is."

This line - which Jayce said a short while before the scene above takes place - may not seem at all related until you think about what it was that turned the idea of magic and bringing magic to the world into his whole life in the first place.

And yes, it's a great many things: having his life saved, seeing his mother's life saved, the potential to save many more lives. And yet, when explaining to Viktor what this dream (not theory) means to him, he chooses to equally emphasise the beauty of what he saw as a reason for his obsession.

Now, I would consider it low-hanging fruit to say "and because the mage was Viktor all along, this means..!" - if not for the fact that the idea of beauty is referred to by Jayce not only in his first, but also in his last episode:

"There is beauty in imperfections. They made you who you are."

Truly Jayce's (whole) life within the show bookended by the understanding of what beauty means: not an ideal, not the perfect miracle, just one man's indomitable will to live and do good in spite of hardship.

After all: whereas Jayce had always believed it was the desire to "give magic to the world" that was his whole life... ultimately what he wants more than anything is just his - beautiful in every way - partner back.

Part 1/2/3/4/5/6/7/7½/8/9/10/11/12/13/14/15/16/17/18/19/20

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[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 9 part 2

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

I'm glad nicky came up with a cool new tune because according to period movies and shows greensleeves is the only song anyone ever knew

look at that meek little smile, ughhhh. nicky is like two days old and this asshole has already figured out he's the perfect prop for her murder sprees. and these poor women are calling her sister and are willing to help too.

the spell is te accipimus in circulum, we accept you in the circle, and yes that makes me cry a little. we accept you in our community. and the spell is yellow air magic, which sounds like the most empathic kind if Lilia is any indication.

that's interesting, you can't really tell that well from screencaps but go rewatch the scene, this witch is making mushrooms grow with yellow magic instead of green?? is it just a spell (she is holding a book) or have I been getting it all wrong and color has nothing to do with the type of magic one has?

or maybe??? the color depends on the coven you're in?? the salemites all had blue magic for example. and now that I think about it the stone circle is a protection spell but it's not red/orange.

the meaning of this scene is so glaring dear lord. agatha was never going to give these women a chance to prove that yes, there are people out there who could love and help and accept her. she has shut herself up to that possibility a long time ago.

and she stole the soup too. awful.

I've seen all the different theories about nicky needing to feed on witches too, or nicky needing soul sacrifices to survive because he's the son of death etc. we don't have enough evidence to prove anything yet, but personally I headcanon nicky as a totally normal kid, that makes this story even more tragic.

and aww that baby suckling on the little pudgy fist

nicky doesn't look that happy about what he's been asked to do, does he?

we establish that nicky was sickly (maybe he was born with some internal defect that rio temporarily patched up?) we also see him steal the bell agatha will use for her Road scam in the future.

and we meet yet another witch being kind and wanting to help.

agatha: I love this six year old so much I'm gonna make him accessory to murder

dO yOU ShaME YouR MOtHER

and the big fake gasp too. as usual this bitch has conned a whole community

like, she's convinced herself that other witches are bad and are after her WHILE relying on witches's good hearts to con and kill them. what sort of mental gymnastics???

color goes from yellow to purple. nicky waits outside while his mom commits murder, it's not a good look on agatha. completely fucked up, actually.

(I'm terrified that the goat will end up being an agent of mephisto or something idiotic like that, lemme tell you. I hope they're just keeping it for milk and company.)

and here's the million dollar question. nicky has seen his mom kill literally since he was born, and now he's old enough to start realizing what that means.

oooh I know that look, that's agatha when she's put on the spot. she avoids his gaze, she can't be sincere with him.

and of course she's teaching herself spells from a book. nerrrrrrd

nicky, bless his soul, appears to give it a good thought and then offers a practical suggestion. I guess he wouldn't mind to have a roof on his head and some friends too.

GREAT acting from kathryn here. the quick OH SHIT face followed by the super final NO, with her jaw so rigid. in typical agatha fashion, when she's upset she becomes avoidant.

this is evanora's legacy. despite agatha's immense love for nicky, she is passing all that pain down and inflicting it on him.

remember when she called billy a survivor? this is the greatest asset in her opinion, the one she wants to teach her son. the truth is, she is angry at witches because she is scared of them, she's scared of being targeted again. but look at that kid's dark circles, I can't believe she's making him sleep in the woods, sick as he is!

really really fantastic subtlety. agatha wants to sound wise and strong, but she looks scared, uncertain, guilty.

see how nicky looks at agatha while he sings? he's checking to see if she's noticing, because his mom likes music and likes his voice. he's afraid he has upset her and wants to make her smile. he tried to reason with her, and now he tries to soothe her. this is what happens when you have an immature parent, a child will want to help, they will try to fix things. they'll end up parenting their parent, and it should always be the other way round.

agatha takes the bait. she's relieved that the conversation has moved to a safer subject. but oh, this script is so good. this is a mostly innocent, mostly sweet remark, but with a possessive undertone. don't forget that you are mine, she says.

and still, the love is real. even in a fucked up situation like this, these moment of happiness are precious and genuine and will linger on. look at how adoringly nicky looks at his mom, she's literally the sun and center of his small world, and that's how agatha likes it: she created nicky because she needed someone who could be hers without any baggage or consequences. but it turns out that raising a child is not a cheat code for love, it's one of the most difficult, most significant and impactful decisions a human can make.

go to episode 9 part 3

[haru-dipthong]

Fansub Release + Translation Notes on Utena Ep 16

I’ve been dreading this episode since the beginning of this project. Most translations of the cowbell episode have two major problems that I knew were going to be really hard to overcome in my translation.

How on earth does Nanami not know that a COWbell is something that a COW wears?

Why does Nanami keep saying moo in regular conversation?

When I actually got into the translation though, it was so much more difficult than I had even anticipated! Not only were there two very large episode-spanning translation problems to solve, but there were also TONS of difficult individual lines. And on top of it all, a song to translate!

I was not happy at all with my first draft. I sent it to @dontbe-lasanya and went to bed. When I woke up and saw their edit, it was like magic. They had transformed my extremely rough script into a work of art! I’m so so happy with this episode now, and the majority of the credit for that has to go to Anya.

So anyway, how did we fix those two big problems?

How on earth does Nanami not know that a COWbell is something that a COW wears?

Obviously the Japanese word for cow is not “cow”. It’s 牛 (ushi). However, the Japanese word for cowbell is カウベル (kauberu) — it’s a loanword; it’s just “cowbell” turned into katakana. There’s no obvious connection between the words for “cowbell” and “cow” in Japanese, unlike English. Also, カウベル is not a very familiar word for most Japanese kids and teens (the target audience of Utena) and sounds foreign and therefore fancy (given the right context). On the other hand “cowbell” is a very familiar word in English, or even if it isn’t, “cow” and “bell” are. It also doesn’t sound fancy or foreign.

In Japanese, Nanami falls into some cringeworthy teenage social pitfalls in this episode. 1. The classic japanese kid thing of assuming katakana loanwords are cool or fancy. 2. The universal kid thing of pretending to know a word she doesn’t know to seem smart/cool. These things are like, a HUGE part of the conceit of the episode. IMO, it’s crucially important to get these ideas across in the translation. To fail to do so (i.e. by translating カウベル as “cowbell”) would be akin to cutting out the first 8 minutes of the episode.

Translators will often translate katakana loanwords directly back into the original word, but that clearly doesn’t work here. Anya decided to go with almglocken as the translation for カウベル because Miki is the first person to give the cowbell its name, and almglocken doubles as the orchestral term for a musical cowbell (plus the yodelling in the cutaway scenes really sells the German choice, which we only discovered after we had committed to it!). I love how that scene feels where Miki names the bell - it really feels like he and Juri call it an “almglocken” and Nanami just goes along with it, not wanting to admit that she doesn’t know what almglocken means. She totally reads as a stupid kid who wants to be a part of European high fashion without actually knowing anything, which is exactly how she reads in the original Japanese script!

Why does Nanami keep saying moo in regular conversation?

First things first — the sound a cow makes in Japanese is not “moo”. It’s モー (mō/mou) which is prounounced almost exactly like the English word “more” in non-rhotic accents like my Australian accent. In an American accent it probably sounds like “mall” without the ending L sound.

So, cows say “mou”. But もう (mou) is also a dictionary word in Japanese. It can mean “already” as in “I already did that”, but it can also be used as an interjection (similar, but not exactly the same, to how “already” can also be used as an interjection as in “enough already!”). もう (mou) carries other nuances with it as well — there is a cultural image that teenage mean-girl types (like gyaru) tend to use it a lot. I like translating it as “ugh”, which I did several times in this episode.

The writers are getting a lot out of the cow metaphor in this episode. There’s the whole thing with Touga selling Nanami away as a metaphor for his manipulation of her (and women in general) in order for him to gain patriarchal power (he even eats her meat!!). But there’s also this equating of cow mooing with the word もう which is associated with young girls. Whenever Nanami moos this episode, even right up until the end when she physically transforms into a cow, you could translate it as “ugh” if you didn’t want to preserve the cow sound meaning. Every moo fits into her sentences as a bitchy interjection.

This is a hard thing to get across in translation, so I used a combined approach. Sometimes I directly translated もう as “ugh”, which morphed into “mm-ugh” and then “muuoo”. Other times I compensated by using words with “ooo” sounds in them and drawing out the sound (like “moOOove”.

Dona, dona, dona, donaaaa

As I mentioned in my post yesterday, while translating the song, I made particular pains to match the meter of the Japanese lyrics with the English lyrics.

あるはれた　ひるさがり　いちば　へつづくみち

One day on a clear lazy afternoon, on the road to the marketplace

A literal translation of the line would be something like this

One clear afternoon, on the road to the market

But I’m sure you can see how this doesn’t have nearly enough syllables, much less stress on the correct syllables. Because Japanese has less consecutive consonants, it tends to have words with more syllables, but shorter syllables than English. They don’t have words like “cramp” where 4 consonant sounds exist in one syllable — usually there’s only 1 consonant per syllable. This means that if we’re matching beat-for-beat, English can fit more words in per bar, which means when translating literally, we end up with lyrics that are too short! That’s why I’ve added “One day on a” and “lazy” and extended “market” to “marketplace”. This came up constantly during the translation of the song, where I was consistently needing to create words that didn’t exist in the original to keep the meter similar.

A few little notes to finish

This scene where the girls in PE class are chanting ファイト！(faito) while they run is hilarious to me because both other translations I have access to translated it as “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” which is just… not what they’re saying. Obviously in English chanting “fight!” makes it sound like you’re encouraging two people to physically fight. In Japanese, ファイト is a loanword and does come from the English word “fight”, but it only means “fight” in the sense of like, metaphorically fighting: overcoming mental barriers, pushing through, doing your best. They’re just chanting to get their motivation up. I translated it as “Move those feet! Move those feet!” so that when Nanami brings up the rear I could switch it to “MoOOove those feet!”

Translating it as “Fight! Fight!” is just completely unacceptable no matter what your translation goals are tbh. If you care about “preserving aspects of Japanese culture” in the translation, you should translate it as “Faito! Faito!” or “Fighto! Fighto!”.

I want to note that I’m so happy with how the characters talk about fashion. They really sound like they know what they’re talking about (thanks to Anya). So much of the time translations sound like they were written by someone who doesn’t have any knowledge about the field the characters are talking about, which makes the dialogue sound super forced even when the characters ARE supposed to know what they’re talking about. To give another example, Anya flagged this before with how Touga talks about Miki’s piano playing. The standards are so low for this kind of thing that my limited knowledge of music helped me write a translation that sounded knowledgeable enough to be worth commenting on!

Also, I’m REALLY glad we went with “dyke” as the translation for 男女 (otoko-onna) a few episodes ago. Nanami uses that word again this episode and Utena’s reaction really works with the slur.

Thank you so much again to @dontbe-lasanya. This episode wouldn’t have been possible without you!

Be sure to follow the blog to stay updated with new episode releases! See below for all episodes released so far.

[uneducated-author]

I have a little conspiracy theory. I think Belinda was never supposed to exist.

Lemme explain.

So, I believe that Ruby was supposed to be a companion for two seasons. I think they had fair notice, probably before they started filming the first, but I think the general storylines were already put in place, and major episodes, specifically 'Robot Revolution', 'The Well' & 'Interstellar Song Contest' were already largely drafted.

I didn't dislike Ruby as a companion, but I really did quite love Belinda. But I feel like this ending feels matched with Ruby's themes, as well as the FINAL episode basically fridge Belinda, literally trapping her in Stepford before having her literally locked in a box.

Final episodes, especially Companion final episodes always involve the active companion. Especially in an RTD season. Rose becomes the Bad Wolf/gets locked in an alternate dimension. Martha walks the entirety of the earth to unionise the human race. Donna unlocks the metacrisis. Even in Steven Moffat, Amy brings back the Doctor, Clara jumps into his timestream, Clara basically drives both the season 8 and 9 finale two parters.

Belinda does... Very little, comparatively. Even her moments with the Doctor feel strange, there's no fallout of her calling the Rani's forces on him, not even any fallout to them being married. She gets a scene where she runs off into the woods to scream, but she doesn't even get an explanation as to who Poppy is from Space Babies, and how the Doctor knows her.

Comparatively, Ruby not only has the emotional weight of stopping Conrad, she also convinces the Doctor of Poppy's existence. Hell, Belinda isn't even THERE when they give the God of Dreams and Wishes to Ruby's family for them to raise.

Theory. Alan Budd was Conrad. Ruby was Belinda. Season 2 starts with a flashback of her kissing Alan, noticeably sexist and disrespectful, names a star after her, and we cut to seventeen years later. The MissBelindaChandra Bots, now known as the 'MissRubySunday Bots' grab her and take her away. The Doctor, of course, comes chasing after her, and the two reunite. This also answers the question as to how Mrs Flood is both Ruby's and Belinda's neighbour. They're the same character. It should be the same house.

The season, largely, continues as normal. Ruby and the Doctor have very much the same dynamic as Belinda and the Doctor. They probably rewrote a lot of the dialogue for a more combative dynamic to distinguish the two. But generally, the two are pretty close, best friends, dressing up and goofing off, and on a rewatch, even when Belinda's words are her own, her actions never feel far from Ruby's.

(I'll admit that's a stretch as 'companion' characters tend to have the same actions, but I hope you understand what I mean.)

Season 2, the vindicator isn't a thing. Ruby admits to enjoying life with the Doctor, and they commit to a couple of funky trips. Replace the 'something is connecting us' speech with Belinda with something like 'the whole universe, and I found you twice/Doctor, I thought I might have to live my life without you, without the universe, let's go everywhere'. This even helps the moment where the Doctor promises Rose that she Will see him again seem to make a lot more sense. Bear in mind, Joy To The World still takes place, so he still has his 'missing Ruby, making two coffees' arc.

(This opening would probably be a parallel to Partners In Crime in some senses? The Doctor and Ruby in the start of Robot Revolution being like the Doctor and Donna constantly missing each other.)

Here, the vindicator never existed. Anyways, it's never mentioned more than a couple of mentions per episode, and even as the deus ex machine weapon against Omega, you could remove every mention of it from the season and it would be fine. The Doctor and Ruby don't have any pressure on getting back on time, they're vibing. It is very much like the last season, only replace the Susan Twist cameos with Mrs Flood cameos.

In 'The Well' we get an indicator that the human race is not in fact gucci. And in 'Interstellar Song Contest' Graham Norton pops up and tells them that the Earth was destroyed on the 24th of May. And this is like Journey's End, when the Doctor and Donna return to Earth, and then the planet vanishes.

(I really see a LOT of Donna's era in this season)

So, in Wish World, the Doctor and Ruby are married. Replace the scene where Ruby knocks on the door and says everything is fake with Ruby being the Doctor's wife telling him that she doesn't remember their daughter. Keep the scene of her being asked about giving birth to Poppy and screaming in the woods, keep the scene of her finding Shirley, only this time, someone else calls the police on both the Doctor AND Ruby. Which is why we get zero fallout of the Doctor feeling like he can't trust Belinda. Because here, they were BOTH reported and taken in.

So in Reality War, Ruby is the companion confronts Conrad, except it isn't Conrad in this version. It's Allan. Noticeably sexist Allan. Belinda even says 'all you ever did was correct me' and that's what he's doing. Correcting the World, in his image. His obsession with obedience.

Hell, it even makes Poppy make more sense. Poppy is born because 'Allan' would want 'Ruby' to be a mother, and in season 1, we see Ruby ask the Doctor if he has children, to which he responds that he will have. Ruby sees him with the space babies. And RUBY, who remembers Poppy, tells the Doctor NO, that she was real, that Poppy existed and he NEEDS to save her. Ruby even tells Poppy 'I wish we were (your parents)' which would make space babies make sense.

Maybe the Zero Box exists, maybe it doesn't, but midnight hits and it's the 25th. And Ruby convinces everyone as to Poppy's existence, and the Doctor leaves, pours regeneration energy into the time vortex, bringing Poppy back and entrusting her to Ruby. (Poppy returns, but is fully human.)

This works for Ruby's themes way stronger. Ruby's arc was always about finding her mother, and being a foundling. I mean, she was even wiped from existence. (They try to make Belinda relate with being trapped in a time storm which is weak).

This is RUBY'S story. Even the idea around family, we get wonderful moments with Cherry and Carla, and after a whole season of Belinda nattering about her parents, we only see her mum for three seconds. And I think they wrote Lucky Day to establish Conrad, and explain why Ruby matters to him.

I don't think this makes the season bad at all. I am a bit upset that Belinda seems like such an afterthought as a character. But here's my theory all the same.

[mswyrr]

Why spend so much of ep 8's run time on Sanctuary Moon? IMO, because the show-within-a-show is going to compare or contrast with the events of the actual show. For example -- bot as threat is raised in BOTH the SM episode and ep 8 and the questions around what exactly is going on (what crimes the bot has actually committed and under what conditions of agency) are left open in both cases too

Notably, NavBot isn't proud of killing her lover -- she is extremely broken up over his loss! I suspect the NAVBOT WAS FRAMED (dun dun DUN) or forced to do it -- one of the scenarios Murderbot suggests for its own mass killing, actually. And probably the mystery of the dead miners won't be fully solved this season (there's only, like, 40 minutes of narrative left to go... unless it is as simple as it was another situation where a combat override was inserted into it; maybe a prior GrayCris or GrayCris like baddie attack on a group??? In that case, perhaps it tried to kill itself rather than hurt these humans because of the subconscious/buried memory of the last time...) but certainly the specter of those possibilities will be raised and important to the resolution of the season -- and since Murderbot IS a good person at the end of the day, I doubt it was Bot Hannibal Lecter in a past life, just serial killing for funsies

And if SC is actually a decent show that, while cheesy, genuinely draws fans and means something to people - then challenging or messing with the "bot mass murderer" tropes inside the storyverse would be clever. Playing it straight would not.

Whether or not we know for sure what happened to the miners, I think the possibility of "innocence" (and agency and free will) will be raised by the exciting conclusion of the SC show-within-a-show. And that a positive ending of the SC storyline could balance out and contrast with a more fraught/cliffhanger ending for the season -- or that a more positive ending for the season might be contrasted with a negative ending in SC and how media in their world depicts bots as inherently dangerous.

*i don't care what happens, in my heart NAVBOT IS INNOCENT of all charges! NavBot loves Captain John Cho 🥺🥺🥺 OTP 5evah brb writing fanfic about them in my journal with a purple glitter pen

[dreadfuldevotee]

I'd like to discuss the elephant in the room. Why did we get zero Loumand sex scenes? We got hints and implications, but season 1 was pretty explicit. Do we think that that's a creative choice or something else is happening?

I'm glad I ended up ruminating on this for about a week because episode 7 & 8 really solidified my opinion on it.

I do wanna start by saying that it's very clear to me that there was supposed to be more explicit scenes between them. There has been some thoughts tossed around that censorship happened with the 9 pm timeslot (as opposed to the 10 pm timeslot of S1). I believed this hearing Assad and Jacob talk about the BDSM dynamic between Louis and Armand, but what really sold me on this was Production Designer Mara LePere-Schloop talking about the bedroom set and more specifically about their beautifully carved custom headboard. (If you're a production nerd like me or just want to know more about the design philosophy of IWTV I recommend giving the entire thing a listen!).

I think there are several reasons I think as to why they decided to leave any more explicit scenes on the cutting room floor but above them all is: you cannot separate Armand's sexuality from his abuse. I am really against pulling a "well if you read the books" card but reading just the first couple chapters of "The Vampire Armand" makes me understand so much about not only Armand as a character, but the care being taken to his adaptation. It's clear to me that alongside Rolin & Co.'s commitment to not watering him down to a one-dimensional villain they are also trying to not fall into Anne Rice's tendency to romanticize his trauma.

Sex and sexuality is not the same pillar of Louis and Armand's relationship it was in Louis and Lestat's and so I don't believe their story suffers from the lack of on-screen sex. But I also firmly believe that maybe we don't need to be slutting out the character who we literally just watched talk about how he doesn't remember his life before being sex trafficked. And even when he was "freed" he was still being repeatedly assaulted at the hands of, and under the eye Marius de Romanus. Like it is extremely important to remember that Armand's craving for dominion in his relationships is a manifestation of trauma that deserves the same level of care and depth given to every other trauma portrayed in this show.

I think people have gotten too comfortable calling IWTV a romance when it has always been Gothic Horror. Romance and sex are pivotal to the story but I have found the demands for sex scenes this season a bit absurd and also? unfounded? Loustat share more kisses on screen but there are two sex scenes and both are very plot relevant. I truly figured we were all in agreement that the eroticism of this show is found in the various displays of power, and the dynamics it creates and not the actual clapping of ass-cheeks...which also wasn't happening in S1 either. S2 does not suffer because of the lack of sex-scenes, but the likelihood if it suffering trying to make one work is

[raidark]

One thing I find funny from Show Dany haters is how much they call her an egomaniac tyrant who just wanted to control everything and everyone to obey her, that she only cared about the throne and power. How much they laugh at the idea of her trying to help common people, break the system and in general, give power to powerless people, etc. That she would only want power for herself and would loathe democracy more than any other character.

These people are also the ones who laughed along Season 8 Sansa, Tyrion, Arya and others when Sam proposed democracy as a system for Westeros at the end of the show.

To all that people, I'd like to kindly remind that before leaving for Westeros, Daenerys established democracy in Meereen (and the rest of the Bay of Dragons, I suppose). She and Tyrion spent some undetermined time to plan it and then left Daario and the Second Sons to keep the peace while people chose their rulers and a new government was appointed.

Now, while I'm sure we all would have liked to know the aftermatch of that, how things worked there after her leaving and especially after her death, we won't ever know thanks to certain writers who kinda forgot about it after S6, only remembering the Bay when deciding that slaying slavers was apparently a sign of madness and evilness ?¿

If you ask me, with Dany dead, most of her army destroyed as well, and no one else strong enough to protect the Bay, slavery will return and way worse. But that wasn't something D&D wanted people to think about because that would add some grey to the situation and they wanted Dany to be irremediably unjustifiable in her acts and her death the only option with only good consequences. Just to be clear, I think S8 Dany, a total different character from previous seasons, deserved to die after what she did. But go and visit the Bay in ten years, Jon and Tyrion, and ask them if what you two did was good. Surely and certaintly there were consequences.

In any case, since we'll never know what would happen, the series ends with Daenerys being the only ruler who actually cared for her people enough that she actually gave them total power to choose who should rule them... just 12 episodes before the writers decided she should mass murder innocents for literally no reason at all

She remains the only one who established real democracy that considered people no matter their origins or status (and not merely in a organization like the Night Watch) while the high nobles of Westeros laughed and considered the idea ridiculous. What a tyrant, right?

I'd have liked Sam to know the one who actually established his idea in a different place was the queen he hated so much, while all the others laughed. I'd have also liked if he was told what his family did and how many people died because of their betrayal, how many chances were even then offered to them, rather than just "they didn't bend the knee so i killed them lol". But the goal in Season 8 was always to paint Dany as a villain with no gray in the middle, just like they made Jon lie to his family and the lords and say Dany forced him to bend the knee in order to help the North when she actually swore to defend it without any commitment to her cause the moment she realized the threat was real and no fantasy. Yet no one, not even Dany, ever blinked an eye about this. Like it was retconned to frame her as evil.

[fromxxthexxashes]

no matter how this plays out, there is no un-fucking what tim fucked up. if that script leak was real, not seeing the body, and those comments about the government still holding Bobby’s remains lead to a big reveal in the finale that he’s still alive, or if Bobby is very much dead, there is no fixing what was broken.

if he’s dead, you killed off a main character in the worst way possible, with his death and funeral being reduced to the last 5 minutes of the episode, because somehow killing off a main for the first time in 8 seasons is something you rush into the last few minutes of an episode. if he’s dead, you killed off a character whose actor didn’t want to leave, and you broke the trust of your cast because you fired their friend for no good reason. if he’s really dead, you sound so incredibly stupid when you say it’s for realism purposes, considering this show is the same one with bee-nados and injuries that completely heal in two weeks. if he’s dead, you completely sidelined his relationship with Eddie, a main character, who didn’t get to say goodbye to a father figure and mentor, whose reaction was off-screen, and who only showed up 45 minutes into the episode. if he’s dead, you had the worst send-off for his character in history, in which only two characters were given the space to substantially react and grieve his passing. If he’s dead, you’ve completely altered the show forever for no good reason, threw away what made it special in the first place, and basically tanked your viewership.

if he’s alive, you’ve committed emotional terrorism against your audience. if he’s alive, you’ve further alienated a dedicated and loyal fanbase that talked about your show all the time, and who carved out time to watch live (for some that meant staying up until the early AM). if he’s alive, there’s no walking back how poorly Eddie was treated. if he’s alive, there’s no erasing the fact that only two characters actually got to have big reactions to someone they thought was dead, or that you gave more screen time to the bigoted ex-captain to grieve Bobby than an actual main character. if he’s alive, you’ve done such a piss poor job of keeping up the momentum and giving weight to the tragedy of Bobby’s apparent passing, that people are still gonna underwhelmed by the big reveal. if he’s alive you halted storylines that have been building all season for no reason, but to feed some fantasy or maybe just your ego.

either way, you fucked up big time, and there’s no world where the fans ever forgive and forget what happened.

[secriden]

Genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, I'm so grateful for the journey Fadel is forced to take in episode 9. In previous meta posts, I shared my thoughts on how the show chose to tackle previous discussions about 'love': for eg Episode 4 was really a promise of safety (which tragically becomes unfounded) and Episode 5 was really an exploration of trust and trust betrayed -- but I think Episode 9 is finally when we are dealing with love in a head-on collision between Style's unflinching commitment to stay by Fadel's side and Fadel's anger and fear of loving; a conflict which utterly demolished the last of Fadel's crumbling walls.

Because, while Episode 8 did give us this beautifully tender moment of shared camaraderie -- one where they were both filled with wonder at witnessing the way love can overcome hurt and anger, the way forgiveness can make a pathway to happiness; and a moment they were both aware of and wordlessly acknowledged to each other -- it was, unfortunately, also almost immediately tainted by this:

You can see the resignation and cynicism in the way Fadel is holding himself. This wasn't a betrayal from Style, but it was a harsh reminder for Fadel that love can be deceptive and harmful no matter the guise. Even when it (love) isn't aimed at him, he winds up betrayed (deceived) and in danger, and literally hurting (it's the first time Fadel overtly shows how much pain his broken arm is causing him), and it makes sense why we see Fadel harden once again after this point.

And as frustrating as it was for us to watch, I'm also glad that the show made room for Fadel's retreat behind the last of his walls. Because at the core of Fadel's fear is the experience he’s had that love, and more importantly loving, has always brought him pain: the traumatic and sudden loss of his parents and the cruelty of a lover who (maybe? I have my suspicions...) chose not to stay with him were both lessons Fadel has deeply rooted in his heart; a fear which his desire and now love for Style is constantly at war with.

Which is why we see Fadel so firmly choosing resistance at this point. Everything about his demeanour and the harshness of his words depicts a cornered animal with his hackles raised in self-defence. You can almost see the bared teeth behind his words. He doubles down on the assurance that he will see this decision through, that Style is destined for death by his hands. It's interesting because in Episode 9, Fadel seems to have mostly given up on denying that he has any feelings for Style whenever it's brought up (partly because Style has already made it clear he doesn't believe Fadel when he does), but has instead decided to claim that those feelings aren't strong enough to save Style from Fadel's decision to kill him.

So I kind of love that the narrative immediately forces Fadel face the reality of his claims. For what better retribution could there be than Style dying by becoming tangled up in the very thing he was supposed to put Fadel in jail for? What could be more fitting then to see Style destroyed by the very aspect of Fadel's life that caused Style's betrayal?

And even more, I love that the writers chose to have Style become injured like this. Because of course the boyfriend of a hitman who is on the run from the law was going to be shot -- the trope practically demands it -- but it is just deliciously dramatic that Style gets injured precisely dressed in the clothes he'd picked out so he could "at least die in something that's actually my style" and in the place Fadel said Style would haunt only minutes prior. It forces Fadel to face not only the thought of losing Style, but puts front and centre what it means for Fadel to be the cause of that loss.

Because the thing is, Style only needs to be bait at all because Fadel forgot to bring the extra bullets for his gun; because he does not have a plan when Style asks what they should do. I love that all of Fadel's training, and even his fastidious and careful nature, is being fundamentally compromised because his mind has been too preoccupied with his complicated feelings for Style. Fadel is being forced to face the consequences of choosing to fight against his heart about Style, and that directly puts both their lives in peril. And all Fadel can do is look at Style with a wordless plea to stay safe, even as he watches Style run directly towards danger.

And I love that Style's immediate instinct is to throw himself into the situation to help. There's no hesitation, no momentary pause where Style considers running away and leaving Fadel to handle the gunman alone. Style fully embodies the promise he made to stay by Fadel's side and moreover it shows that, on an instinctive level, Style trusts his life in Fadel's hands (even though we get verbal confirmation later in the episode that Style actually was only about 50% sure that Fadel wasn't actually going to kill him in the end!! That's! Fucking incredible!?!).

Which is also why I think Fadel's anger redirects itself once they get to the island. He's at the end of his rope, a mess of emotions, arm probably still aching and then he sees Kant: the source of not only the very real threat of Fadel and Bison being caught by the police, but also the reason why Style became entangled with Fadel in the first place. Fadel cannot help but lash out at him despite it making no sense to deny Style an additional pair of helping hands and, moreover, the comfort of a true friend that he trusts and who cares about him. Fadel is not thinking clearly, but it's also a sign that the choices he is making are still fuelled more by his anger and hurt then his love.

And again, this makes a certain amount of sense. For Fadel, anger is a familiar friend; something almost comforting, that gives him a sense of control, because he understands what to do with his anger. He understands how to direct his rage in ways that are productive and help to keep the things he cares about safe.

Until, that is, Style puts his life on the line next to Kant's and suddenly the gun in his hand becomes a danger to someone he has already been forced to acknowledge (in the conversation with Bison) that he cannot kill. I adore Style so much for immediately bringing this point up, because it means that Fadel has to actually consider why he didn't just let Style die. If Style had bled out and died from the wound, it wouldn't have technically been Fadel's fault; Style was simply caught in the crossfire. It was, in some ways, a relatively guilt-free way of getting rid of Style. But everything in Fadel rebelled at the thought of letting Style die and Fadel is once again forced to confront why he held Style's hand so tightly in both of his own, why he told Bison to be gentle and careful with Style, why hearing Style yell in pain was agony to Fadel too.

And this beautiful moment of friendship also gives both us, the audience, and Fadel this incredible understanding of Style's loyalty. To Style, the thought of dying next to Kant is not something he resents, but something that merely makes him wistful. And for Fadel, this puts into perspective what it meant for Style to promise to stay by his side; the full weight of Style's devotion is laid out for him to witness, and it's enough to shake Fadel lose from the hold his anger has on him.

But even then, even now, there's still something holding Fadel back and I think it boils down to the fact that Fadel has gone down this path with someone else before, and found only betrayal at the end of the road. He has loved and thought he was loved in return; he was ready to give up his job (his security, his sense of control, his “family”) for someone who he thought he could hide his darkness from and live in happiness whilst keeping the lie between them. It's so interesting to me that Fadel was about to do the exact same thing to Style (try to get out of the hitman life without ever telling Style about it), without knowing that the possibility of it was never on the table for him.

Because Style is the very antithesis of Fadel's ex: not only does Style find out his secret well before love truly blossomed between them, Style has no fear in him (anymore) of it. This gesture is legitimately insane, but it also illustrates how thoroughly Style embraces this aspect of Fadel's past and character. Fadel has just learned a very tangible lesson about Style's loyalty to the people he cares about, so this gesture carries the weight of knowing this matters to Style, despite the carefree manner of his expression. Style gives Fadel the security of knowing that he is making his commitment to Fadel whilst also giving Fadel permission to stay the way he is. Style's love isn't for what Fadel could someday become, but for who he already is, and that encompasses a level of acceptance that is as crazy as one would expect from a person who is in love with a hitman.

And it's just so great that they actually addressed the whole "dated me for a car" thing, because Style is right. Fadel is grasping at the last embers of his anger but all of it is directed at a Style who doesn't even exist anymore. I don't even think Style was avoiding telling Fadel about this; it just genuinely was a non-issue to Style because getting to know Fadel changed so much about Style's motivations (he said as much as early as episode three), that this wasn't even a factor that Style was aware needed to be addressed. But I also appreciate why Fadel insisted on coming back to this -- because I've said before that I think the biggest part of Fadel's hurt and betrayal comes from the thought that Style's interest in him was a lie, so this was important for Fadel to vocalise, especially because it took a certain amount of vulnerability to even admit that this bothered him that much. So as silly as I personally found this plot point to be, I'm glad the show actually decided to have our boys talk explicitly about it.

But my absolutely favourite part is that the final hurdle, the thing that ultimately makes Fadel completely let go of his anger and resentment is Style threatening to drown himself (or at least make his wound become infected). Partly because it was the exact kind of hilariously overdramatic gesture that feels fitting for Style, but mostly because this gesture opens the door for Fadel to finally (literally) take steps towards Style. Fadel's previous actions in this episode -- making sure Style was stitched up after he was shot and letting Kant live after he threatened to kill him --- were both incredibly significant, but largely leaves the relationship between them at a stalemate because for the most part Fadel is reacting to the circumstances whilst still maintaining the emotional distance between them. But what Style wants, ultimately, is not just to survive this very lethal roadtrip but to actually bring about a mending of their relationship and for Fadel show that it's what he wants too.

And I've seen some call this manipulative, but I think Style actually does understand Fadel well enough to be accurate in this claim. I've mentioned before that Style seems to have an almost instinctive understanding of when to push Fadel and when to back off (in this meta post on ep 5), and I think we're finally seeing a moment when Style could tell Fadel needed a little nudge. And the reality is that Style wasn't in any real danger, but it shows us just how much of Fadel's walls have been dismantled that Fadel's concern for Style overwrote his logic and reason.

And I just find it so lovely how it cumulates in Fadel kissing Style because it's an expression of his own desire. If Fadel had kissed Style at any point between the confrontation by the empty pool and before this moment, I think it would have, at least somewhat, felt like Fadel was giving into Style's demands (for his attention, for his affection, for his forgiveness). But this moment is different because it's Fadel giving into himself -- because Fadel doesn't truly want to hold on to his anger anymore.

And this journey was so important, so necessary because it's the reason why Fadel is able to be so completely transformed by the end of episode 9. We see him become almost carefree in his affection, everything about it is open and honest and loud in a way Fadel has never been able to be before this point, and it was only possible -- only realistic from a narrative standpoint -- because the show took the time and made space in the story for Fadel to have to face the truth of his love for Style over and over again.

Because this vulnerability, this clear comfort he feels around Style, this ability to rest in Style's arms, was only possible because Fadel was forced to grapple with the full depth of his love for Style and found forgiveness and happiness and peace in letting go of the last of his fear of being in love — and in doing so, proved the truth of Styles words in episode 4: “It’s okay to (be in) love”.

[idrellegames]

Hello all,

This is a general announcement post to cover a few changes, as well as a public build patch.

This patch addresses some lingering issues and bugs in Episodes 1 & 2. This is not a content update.

✦ Playthrough Restarts

Because of changes and fixes, if your save file is from June 24, 2023 or earlier, you should load a save file from the beginning of the Lethalis meeting in Episode 2 or restart from the beginning of the game. If you do not, you may encounter continuity, UI issues, or other errors. None of these are game-breaking. 

If you keep Wayfarer running in a tab, please either refresh your browser or close the tab and open the game in a new one. This is the only way to ensure the patch takes effect.

Full patch notes can be read here.

✦ A Statement on AI

NO AI TRAINING. Using Wayfarer, its images, or any of its written work to train generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. Creating chatbots based on the game’s text is not allowed. 

✦ A Statement on the Alpha Build

Wayfarer’s public build is free to play. It will not be updated until the alpha build’s Episode 4 is complete. Half of Episode 3 is available to play on my Patreon (available for the Recruit tier and above). Currently, the alpha build is a couple months behind the planned trajectory announced in the 2024 roadmap. Progress will be reassessed in July and updates made. 

The last alpha build update was on May 28, 2024. 

✦ Updates to the Game’s Structure

Since 2021 Wayfarer has been conceptualized as 3 acts and 15 episodes. While that story structure is still at its roots, it’s very apparent now that this is far too much story to be contained to a single game. So, I am breaking it into a trilogy.   

I have had this idea for a while, but I have held off on doing anything about it because of technical issues. Because of the way the story builds on itself, I need to ensure that continuity (including details like the player character’s inventory and locations they have visited) is preserved across all three game. However, even with some technical things to still test and figure out, I am at a point where I would like to move forward with the new structuring.  

WAYFARER 1

Prologue

Act 1: Episode 1, Episode 2, Episode 3

Act 2: Episode 4, Episode 5, Episode 6,

Act 3: Episode 7

Epilogue

WAYFARER 2

Prologue

Act 1: Episode 8, Episode 9

Act 2: Episode 10

Act 3: Episode 11

Epilogue

WAYFARER 3

Prologue

Act 1: Episode 12

Act 2: Episode 13, Episode 14

Act 3: Episode 15

Epilogue

The structure is still very much the same as it was prior (what is now a single “game” in the new structure was an “act” in the old one). The change has been updated and reflected in the Story Log, which now only goes up to Episode 7. 

With this change, I will be looking into getting new cover art that is more specific to the first game’s events. All titles are TBA. 

If you’ve enjoyed Wayfarer and would like to support my work, please consider supporting me on Patreon. Patrons receive access to the alpha build, a private Discord server, exclusive previews, bonus content, side stories, and other benefits.

Wayfarer is a passion project and creating it is a full-time commitment. Any little bit goes a long way to help me bring it to fruition.

If you aren’t in a position to support financially, reblogs, shares, ratings and comments, and spreading the word about the game are much appreciated and do a lot to help me out! 💕

[rootspiral]

Agatha All Along deep dive: episode 4 part 6

(Wandavision entries: [1][2][3])

(AAA entries: ep1 [1][2][3][4] ep2 [1][2][3][4] ep3 [1][2][3] ep4 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][+1] ep5 [1][2][3][4][5] ep6 [1][2][3] ep7 [1][2][3][4][5][6] ep8 [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] ep9 [1][2][3][4][5][6])

(I can't believe I squeezed six entries out of this dang episode!!!)

agatha sees billy waking up and takes her usual moment to wipe all genuine emotion from her face and put on her mask. it's getting increasingly clear that this wretch of a woman is always wearing a mask and playing the larger-than-life uncaring witch she wishes she could be

not that she cares about you or anything.

billy does that thing children do. he doesn't say thank you or ask why she's crying, he asks about himself, his current troubles and fears, looking for guidance. that's the wonderful thing about a parent, they give a child a safe environment to grow and make mistakes and explore. A parent is, or should be, selfless. That billy feels safe doing this with agatha tells you he instinctively trusts her much more than he realizes.

agatha never lies to billy

and the way she's always drawn to teaching and explaining and guiding despite herself. deep, deep down agatha is a nurturing person who only ever got to nurture for a short time

I just realize agatha cannot actually say the name billy, can she? because of the sigil. so this is her going, I know it's still you kiddo, behind all that. I see some people arguing that agatha might actually think he's Nicky at first and personally I don't believe that's the case, the dialogue is muddy only to mislead the viewers before the big Wiccan reveal.

Two reasons agatha knew this was billy all along: she's had three centuries to sit with nicky's loss now. nicky is gone for good, no matter all her tricks and her pleading and her endless pit of sorrow, that is the one irrevocable fact that she will never be able to change. that is the cornerstone, the whole core of who agatha is today. she has lost nicky, she has committed unspeakable horrors to cope with that loss. she is afraid to die because nicky is on the other side and she cannot face him.

The second reason is that agatha loves billy for being billy, not just as a nicky stand-in. she was uniquely equipped to understand and empathize with wanda, and that's even truer for billy because he's a little boy and agatha's whole heart is wired and predisposed to reach out to him. she saw the miracle that was his birth, she saw first hand what chaos magic can do. this is a child flung out in the world carrying an immense power and no instructions on how to use it. he's capable of terrible things that could easily turn him into a monster and a pariah, and agatha is, besides wanda, the only person in the world who truly understands what that means. do you remember what happened to agatha at around the age billy is now? everything in her is demanding to guide and help. selfishly, because all that power would be hers to control. selfishly because he reminds her of herself and she wants to undo what her mother did to her. and selfishly because helping billy would in a way redeem what she did to nicky.

and also, selflessly. because she wants to help him grow and be successful and be happy.

billy created the Road to find tommy, sure. but what he's been doing on the Road is finding community. or rather, getting close to witchfolk to find out who he is in relationship to them, exploring the identity he was born with that he cannot express with his adoptive parents. he started with a lot of silly ideas on what witches should and shouldn't be and created trials that are, let's face it, rather stereotyped and demeaning. next trial is agatha and he is puzzling her out now, willing her to become the ideal witch and mentor he's looking for. he's doing it with the grace of an elephant in a china store, but that's just what being a kid is.

aaand the wall is all the way up and she runs away. but we made some progress there, didn't we?

oh to be a vampire and getting to bite patti lupone's neck

rio looks so engrossed and fascinated listening to lilia! rio just loves people, you know? she loves life in all its multifaceted forms, and that's not at odds with her job description at all. she is The Green Witch, she has embraced nature, which is to say life, so completely that all of it is important and precious to her. my headcanon is that as the original green witch she started ferrying souls because she deeply understood and accepted death as natural and organic and sought to help it along. it's funny, lilia is terrified of her but if asked, rio would have such a long list of things that make lilia special.

and that such a being would fell in love with agatha of all people?? god that is amazing. that is how you write a beautifully doomed epic love story. billions and billions of humans throughout history, and agatha is who caught her eye. and not because agatha is a serial killer mind you, that's just foreplay. it's because she is the most intense, the most interesting human Death ever came across. while others saw a damaged girl, rio saw poetry in her extraordinary complexity

and then, through agatha and nicky, rio experienced grief from a new point of view. Death, no longer impartial.

a wiser future Lilia pays another brief visit

and she's gone. her puzzled little face!

from being awkward and fearing her oddities to laughing with her about it. another step toward a deeper understanding, and acceptance, and love.

look at agatha's body language when she approaches. uncertain, arms crossed. these people have seen her without her mask now, openly weeping about billy

and then she puts her hands in her pockets and postures, ready to underplay things. pppft, crying? moi? you guys must have dreamed it.

alice with her big compassionate heart will never be able to think of agatha as cruel and distant again

agatha picks up rio's flower

rio looks at her

pretends she wasn't looking when agatha looks back

you could cut the damn tension with a knife

jen trying to include agatha??? man they did really see her cying fr

look how interested lilia is! I wish shows could just be 15 hours of women hanging out and chatting, no plot, just vibes

agatha glances at rio as if saying, you know exactly which scar this is. and rio chuckles because she remembers the story. THE INTIMACY BETWEEN THESE TWO. I'm going feral again.

what is this, camaraderie? community? perhaps even, dare I say it, friendship???

agatha doesn't know what to do with herself!

behold the textbook definition of 'awkward turtle'

oh rio's DETERMINED

'no you don't' 'yes I do' STOP IT YOU STUPID GAYS

agatha all casual like honey I've seen every inch of that body

just... the way they fell into a rhythm. the doMESTICITY.

lol jen's and alice's gaydars pinging at the same time. like somETHING FRUITY IS AFOOT. AND WE WOULD KNOW.

and fuck fuck fuck fuck I cannot believe I've run out of space again and I need to do a part 7

LOOK WHAT THESE LESBIANS ARE DOING TO ME (it'll be up in like an hour guys don't worry)

go to episode 4 part 7

[genericpuff]

ten storylines u think could have been amazing in lo if they had been handled better?

10 already feels like so much for a story like LO buuttt:

1.) the act of wrath plotline, seriously this one felt like it had some of the most lost potential as one of LO's more unique plotlines (and it lost that potential as soon as it was turned into some "oopsy" committed by persephone due to her wrath being a 'gift' from eris when she was a baby??? still bugs me so much ugh) give me back that dichotomy of Persephone and her internalized wrath, dangit.

2.) the Eros and Psyche plotline. it started off so promising as a parallel B-plot to H x P and then seemed to just get dropped halfway through S1 when Psyche got turned into a nymph.

3.) Echo's involvement as a double agent for Zeus. that was clearly the intention when she was introduced but then she was promptly dropped and only showed up again to say "fuck you Zeus" with zero build-up or implication that she had a change of heart. Like imagine if we actually saw her leaking info back to Zeus but then also getting closer to Hera on a personal level and realizing that she didn't want to keep snitching on her. it would have also made the 'big reveal' of Hera kissing Echo a lot more impactful because then they would have had an actual story arc.

4.) Persephone's character development into becoming the Dread Queen. Right now the story wants us to think that Persephone is somehow "better than ever" despite the fact that her version of the "Dread Queen" is being an absolute Karen. But think of how it could have been if her character de-evolution was the point, to show how Hades had corrupted her. Or if they were meant to be actual shitty people and not shitty people that the narrative was trying to convince us were good.

5.) Hades' and Minthe's relationship. It goes without saying that Minthe was wrong to turn to physical violence, but I'll die on the hill that Minthe wasn't being treated fairly by Hades, either. Those three flashback episodes in S2 leading up to Minthe getting turned into a plant were such a missed opportunity to showcase how Minthe became as bitter as she did towards Hades and what their relationship was actually like in the beginning (and why they liked each other in the first place which they very clearly did) but instead it just dragged its heels because obv Rachel didn't want people empathizing with Minthe.

6.) Ares being used as a tool for war by Zeus. It's clear being sent off to these wars is taking its toll on him and it's created a steep divide within the family, especially concerning how protective Ares is of Hera esp when it comes to how Zeus treats her.

7.) The Aphrodite / Hephaestus plotline. Good god I have no idea what the thought process was behind this one, some of the myths she kinda got away with flipping but this was the one that made the least sense to flip. There was so much potential there that was squandered, a lot of it at the expense of Aphrodite and Ares as traditionally powerful and respected gods.

8.) Hades' alcoholism. Minthe was right, simply falling for Persephone and dropping the cigars and brandy to make himself look better for her doesn't make him a changed person. If the alcoholism was linked to his trauma, why didn't we explore that more? Why couldn't we have seen him actually pursue proper recovery and have it not just be "I'm hot for the 19 year old girl but if I'm drinking constantly that'll make me look bad so I'm just gonna put on the best fake persona I can to make her fall in love with me" instead of actually getting to the root of his issues?

9.) The SA plotline. As much as I talk about how shitty it is, I have zero issue with the original depiction of it, I think it was very accurate especially when it comes to coercion. A lot of people assume SA has to be violent, kicking and screaming, begging for help, but coercive assault is often a lot quieter and more about manipulation which that scene nailed in depicting. It's just everything after that that feels completely misfired and more so for the purpose of making Hades look like a better person simply by comparing him to Apollo on the basis of "he never assaulted Persephone!" and it drives me nuts.

10.) Demeter's winter. In the most recent FP episode, while discussing it with pals, all I could really say was, "This was supposed to be a retelling of the Abduction of Persephone". And Demeter's winter is a core part of that story, one of its biggest purposes in Greek culture was using the myths to explain the creation of the seasons. Despite this being a "retelling" of the Abduction of Persephone / Hymn to Demeter, one of the most important characters in the entire myth has been reduced to, at worst, a Mother Gothel Disney villain, and at best, a pointless NPC.

[fiona-fififi]

1000% agree with all of your tags on that ask!!! literally everything you said. like first off i hate this tendency for people to completely decontextualize people's actions from their existing relationship that has been built up for the last 8 years. and ALSO that buck literally DOES call eddie for help with one of his problems in this episode (showing us he has absolutely NO problem relying on eddie even now!) and lastly that providing support to eddie IS helping buck!!! my biggest pet peeve is when people act like buck doesn't LOVE helping his friends and doing things for them....like how can you not see it literally makes him happy. to be relied upon and to make their lives easier. everything from giving eddie parenting advice to throwing chim's bachelor party (as misguided as that was...) to doing hen's yardwork. he is THRILLED when he gets to help!

Sorry for the delay on this—it got stuck in my drafts.

But yes to all of this! I tend to be especially sensitive to the complaints about their relationship being one sided because people so often misrepresent (or misunderstand) the reality of their relationship and pretend like relationships are built on one-to-one transactions, and that any perceived imbalance is a slight to one of the characters. But that ignores the fact that people love (and should!) to help the people they love. Spending time with Eddie and with Christopher and providing advice and help when Eddie and Chris are in need is not a burden on Buck. In fact, it is the very thing Buck worked hard to push through with Abby, because back then he was viewing that imbalance as a burden, but after working through that with Bobby in the "step in with her" conversation—and then committing to that—he learned that being a part of a relationship is about providing the support the other needs when they need it and understanding that not as a burden, but as an act of love. And that is how he perceives it now that he understands the way that kind of love deepens a relationship. That was an integral part of Buck's growth. To pretend that it is somehow awful, terrible, abusive for the people he loves to lean on him for support is contrary to Buck's entire character growth, and pretending like it's anything different is to misunderstand the most integral part of Buck's character.

Buck loves his family. He does everything in his power to show that love by offering the support they need at any given moment (and Eddie also absolutely does this for Buck, as well, which people love to overlook). And Eddie and Christopher are a part of that family, and, I would argue, at the top of the list.

But even moreso—and I know I said this in those tags, but it bears repeating—being there for Eddie is what Buck needs.

Buck has been so afraid of losing Eddie, in so many ways, and over so many years, that the fact that Eddie—even with so much distance between them needs Buck and wants Buck is exactly what Buck needs from Eddie. This is Eddie keeping his promise that distance doesn't take them away from each other. That there will be no losing touch because one of them can't be at the 118 or even in L.A. They are family and they love one another and they lean on one another when they need support. And right now, the support Buck needs is for Eddie to demonstrate exactly that and to keep that promise, just like Eddie is doing.

Buck needs to know that distance doesn't mean abandonment, even when it always has before. I mean, his parents basically never thought twice about him upon his departure. Maddie, even though it was for very valid reasons both times, lost touch after sending him away with the Jeep and, to a certain extent when she fled to Boston. None of his old friends seem have kept in touch. Abby ghosted him. It's just been string after string of distance meaning loss for him.

So for Eddie to not only be the one to declare that that will never happen to them way back in 3x15 and then to keep that promise when it's not just leaving the 118, but also moving 800 miles away?

That means something big. Eddie leaning on Buck from a distance, allowing Buck to be part of the resolution with Christopher not just because he deserves to be, but because Eddie needs him to be?

Eddie is giving Buck everything he needs here. While Buck is giving Eddie everything he needs, too. Their needs are a perfect match, and they both know how to give the other precisely what they need. There is nothing that's not beautiful about the way they love and support one another.

People pretending there's something unbalanced in the way they love one another are watching with their eyes closed.

[iloveseraphims]

8. Warlord

F!WarlordReader

Part 1 / Part 2 /

Yes congratulations for our first episode. Honestly I thought I wrote too much but actually I wrote too little...well done. I lived the scenes so sincerely, that's probably why. Also I had no idea for the first episode but I have a lot of ready ideas for future scenes! So I can say that the series will get better and more fun to read in the future, and will be longer. Or don't expect much anyway!

Honestly if you have an idea for this story or want to chat about it. Feel free to bother my inbox, I'm open to ideas.

Content: It's just plain stupid. It's unclear how the series will progress, other than the basics. But I recommend you give it a shot! It seems like the reader will alone or probably end up with Mihawk or Crocodile. English is not my native language, you understand. Maybe nsfw in the future? If you want. I've never written before.

!! Words Count 2,5k !!

The government's plan never included an additional warlord. Until you showed up at sea with the words "I'm a trouble, you're welcome." Yeah even though it wasn't on you, it did indeed say that on the flag of your small boat. You had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, causing major problems before you even had a bounty on your head. You had gotten on the admirals nerves. Yes we know very well which admiral is are. If he hadn't been convinced for desk duties, he would have come and dealt with you himself, but you had been saved by Kizaru without you knowing.

Wherever you went, you were a nuisance. You were not only causing trouble for the government, but also for the pirates. You were a nuisance for both sides. but they had to give you due, you were strong, that's what made you a nuisance. Skilled enough to steal food from the marines ships, agile enough to take the pirates flags in plain sight, brave and crazy. There was no purpose to what you did. You spent the money you earned either in your stomach or gambling like water and you weren't even making any significant progress. Akainu couldn't understand how you could be such a purposeless person while committing so many crimes.

Unlike other pirates you didn't harm the locals in the places you went, except for those who were pirates, sailors or anyone you could consider a rival regardless of gender who could enter with any type of weapon. So much so that some of the locals even opened the door of their houses to you. This led to your reward money being increased in order to scare the people, which resulted in you raiding one of the marinss ships in a fit of rage. You didn't care who was talking to den den mushi, "You're wrong, you're wrong! I didn't do shit all weekend! I just sat there and fished, did my laundry, made flower crowns and stole wine-"

"You…despicable." This angry voice had cut you off. You didn't understand why he was talking so rudely to you.

"My name is not despicable sir, my name is L/n Y/n. Also we are in the new age what is this anger, it's like it's from ancient times hahahaha." Your big smile spread from to mushi, unknowingly making the other person even angrier.

"You doesn't even know who the person you're talking to is you're a stupid woman-"

"Oooo stop stopp! What's this misogyny while I'm not attacking your manhood!? Aren't you ashamed!? Did your mother bring you into this world for free so that you could insult other women-"

"Do you realize you're talking to an admiral right now-"

"That curly-haired hottie?" you said excitedly.

"What...no. I'm Admiral Akainu, you stupid worthless pirate trash."

"Ehh...AHH YOU'RE THAT GUY WHO LOVES WEARING FLORAL SHIRTS AND LOOKS LIKE TEA HOUSE UNCLES! HAHAHAHA I hate you man. You're awfully good at your job." you said, chuckling as you carelessly spilled your words out. So much so that the marines who were lying on the ground unable to get up were shocked and speechless.

However a small silence occurred in front of you with your words. You raised an eyebrow, shouting "Hey?! Don't you dare have a heart attack while talking to me! I don't even have money to pay for the hospital bills-"

"Shut up, woman." Akainu said angrily. "You have a foul mouth than I thought. You're so thoughtless it makes me sick." He said with contempt.

But you weren't impressed. "You're just like my mother, when she had a problem she would always refer it to me. She passed away without seeing a doctor but...what a shame. I loved her cooking. Oh, that one time-"

Den den mushi had closed your face harshly. "Hah?..What is this rudeness!" you said, puffing out your cheeks. You looked at the half-conscious marines on the ground. "Marines have no manners either! Whoever we tell our troubles to, they find something to cover our faces with. There is no humanity left in this day and age!" You let go of den den mushi and stood up from where you had tied your legs. While adjusting your feathered hat you thought, "Why did I call for him anyway..." and left the ship. The marines were relieved to see you go but they didn't have the courage to return to Marineford. No one wanted to taste or hear Akainu's wrath.

At the Marineford far from the ship you had left, Akainu was glaring darkly from under his hat. No one dared to pass his door. That was until Sengoku appeared in the room with crackers and a goat. "Go." Akainu said, trying to make it clear that he didn't want to talk.

"You're the same whenever I see you. I've never seen you happy before." Sengoku said carelessly as he sat down on one of the chairs in front of the table. "So who made you angry again?" He gave some crackers to his goat.

Akainu looked at him with exasperation. "Who else do you think the damn pirates." he said. "Think about me who the Grand Admiral." Sengoku said while eating a cracker. "You know I would give it to you but you're in a bad mood. I don't want your energy to transfer to me."

Akainu looked at him judgingly. That was all the answer he needed. Sengoku continued talking as he emptied the box of crackers. "So who is the pirate that's making you angry? Is he important?" he asked with a knowing look. "L/n Y/n."

"Ahh..that woman who can't walk without getting into trouble." Sengoku said, looking up at the ceiling as if thinking. "So what does she want?"

"Her darned."

"I see. Which ship did she call from?"

"From the 37th Marine Force." Akainu said as he gathered the notes in front of him and put them in his drawer. He was obviously trying to control his anger. "Well then I'll go now." Sengoku said as he stood up and headed for the door. Akainu didn't seem to care about either his coming or his going.

---

"P-PLEASE CA-CALM DOWN-" The marine had fallen to the ground with the coconut he had eaten in his mouth. "ARE YOU WANT TROUBLE HAHHHH!? IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR IT'S, I HAVE LOTS OF THEM!" you said while throwing the coconut in your hand in the air.

After calling from den den mushi, you had gone to the nearest island with only the low morale you were experiencing and wandered around without any money. In the end, you had reluctantly chosen nature instead of the city and went to the forest. While you were resting at the top of a beautiful tree, this marine had come and was bothering you. You watched the marine, who had difficulty recovering from the blow of the coconut he ate, got up. Without thinking, you aimed for his head and threw another one. He dodged your attack by thrashing to the side with his arms in the air. "CALM DOWN FUCKER CALM DOWN!"

"I AM CALM DON'T YELL AT ME!"

"YOU ARE ATTACKING ME WITH A COCONUT!"

"WHAT SHOULD I THROW, IS THAT WHAT YOU WANT A FLOWER!? DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THESE COCONUTS ARE? SOME PEOPLE CAN'T FIND THESE, CAN'T FIND THEM UNGRATEFUL MAN!" you screeched and threw another one. He barely dodged that one too by luck. He quickly took an envelope out of his pocket and threw it at the tree. Or rather, tried. The envelope floated directly to the ground and fell. "You idiot of god... YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT PHYSICS!"

"SHUT UP I'M TRYING!" the marine shouted. "DON'T YELL AT ME!" You raised the coconut in your hand, causing him to go into a defensive stance. You said, your lips and face twisting in an inhumane way. "I'LL THROW ANOTHER ONE!" "Whatever you are, you crazy woman-" "You're..." You threw the two coconuts in your hand at him. One hit his shoulder while the other didn't even touch him. You stood up to get down from the tree, but he had already heeled and run away. "DIDN'T I SEE YOURS FACE?! I'LL BE AFTER YOU UNTIL THE END OF YOUR LIFE, YOU SCAMMER, RUN RUN! YOU THINK I WON'T LEAVE YOU ANYWHERE TO RUN-" You fell on your back on the ground when your foot slipped. Your head hit one of the coconuts on the ground. "Ahhhhhhhh- I think I'm dying. This vile dog have one's curse take effect.." you said in pain as you held your head and writhed on the ground. You had hurt your back really badly and you were writhing on the ground, the pain was not going away. "1000 of my brain cells are gone right now....ahh- my backk!" you said in pain, trying to get up from the ground. Thinking about your pain, you absentmindedly chewed your hair that got into your mouth. While you were chewing, your eyes shifted to the envelope next to you. Your hand left your head and reached for the envelope next to you. You couldn't help but groan in pain. "What is this, a white envelope... they have no taste."

You opened the envelope in your hand and read the contents. Your eyes widened with every line your eyes glanced at. Your hand shook for a moment, but you stopped it. The damn government had offered you the position of Warlord. "As if I'd accept."

“Hello?” said the Grand Admiral in front of you, his voice more polite than you thought. You left the voice hanging in the air as you watched the nervous looks of the marines around you as you dove back into the previous ship. “Hello sir I’m L/n Y/n, the Warlord you’ve been dying to meet.”

"Not right away, I just offered to-" You quickly cut off Sengoku's speaking. "Okayy I understand that you are a marinee you have honorr monor, my dear Sengoku but I am not in the mood to see coy right now. Which already," you said, looking at the white envelope in your hand and throwing it on the ground. "If it looked like anything the envelope you gave me. Even a child wouldn't notice it. Luckily I have perfect eyes~" you said, flattering yourself. The marines watch you with strange looks while you puff out your chest . Sengoku grumbled. “I heard in the early report from my men that you attacked with a coconut, L/n.” He said.

Your eyes opened, you waved your hand in the air quickly as ıf he could see. "What me? He misunderstood, I was giving it to him to cool off. He really couldn't get enough. He exploited the tree." you said glancing at the marines. If you don't find that filth later and mop it up, they won't call you Y/n either. You hid your mouth with the back of your hand and whispered. "He broke up with his girlfriend or something, and he was whining like that.." Sengoku sighed patiently. It was obvious why Akainu was angry. In a way he already see you like Garp but you seemed very opposite. "L/n, what do you think about the Warlord offer?"

"Money…ay I mean wow I'm really honored. Who wouldn't want to be the government's dog, am I right?~ Hahaha!" you said with a laugh. You looked at the marines, they silently looking at you. "Laugh up! LAUGH!" They all laughed reluctantly at your shout. You turned back to den den mushi as if you were pleased. "I don't mean to brag but I've been bringing joy wherever I go since I was a kid. My mom said I was a rainbow fairy when I was a kid-"

"If you accept I would like to come to Marineford with the marines and talk this over with you to make it official, L/n." Sengoku said, not knowing how he could stand this conversation any longer. He was expecting an evil pirate who would even challenge Akainu, not a terrible clown.

"Ahh yes, you literally took the words out of my mouth, Mr. Sengoku!~ Ah, but let's keep Impel Down away from the beginning of the relationship, so that we don't get spoiled." You said cheerfully. "Okay." accepting your condition. But contrary to what he thought, you didn't finish it.

"And why is the name Impel Down anyway? I mean, we all know it's at the down, right hahahahah what was the need for such an name-" he had closed your face. Your head slowly leaned forward. "I go to wear mourning…"

---

Sengoku looked at you, who was fidgeting with excitement you was sitting across from him. You looked more like a child with too much energy than a pirate. "I have a feeling we'll get along really well." you said, your eyes sparkling like stars with excitement, he could have sworn. He rubbed his eyes. "Yes I hope so too, L/n." he said. "No need for formalities, let's just call Y/n." "No need." "Okay..." you said pouting, your eyes scanning your surroundings.

Sengoku pushed the papers in front of him and handed them to you. You quickly leaned forward and looked at the papers. “These are the agreement papers. You need to look over them and talk-” you quickly cut him off. Your face turned serious. Maybe you were worse than he thought. “Is there a free meal?”

“No?” he said. There was a huge tension between you that he didn’t understand. “What kind of nonsense is this? While your marines eat for free, me? Me? Doesn’t your Warlord get free food?” you said angrily. “You are, as the name suggests,said are Warlord, not our employee.” Sengoku said, frowning at your logic. “At least pay a certain amount of money per day for food." you said. “Well you will definitely earn money on the missions you do, L/n.” he said.

You leaned back in chair. "Of course except to grow asses and give orders, while people stuff throats and dig graves lie in their warm beds and dream, what do you understand about the mental state of a single mother of two? Your only job is to talk nonsense." You said harshly. You had a look that didn’t seem like you were going to back down. But Sengoku didn’t know whether to be surprised by your words or the fact that you had children. It was new information about you. If you had children, he could use it against you.

He folded his hands on the table. “I didn’t know you had kids,” he said in a political tone. Your hands went to your breasts. “This one’s called JeyJey and the other one’s HeyHey.”

You stared blankly at Sengoku, your hands still on your breasts. He hoped what he heard wasn't true. That was his only wish right now. But no the only true thing was that you were completely crazy. You were a cat on a mat that Sengoku couldn't throw out of his door anymore. The kind that got possessed even if he didn't touch it.

And Akainu, whom you met in the hallway when you were making a deal with Sengoku and leaving. No one can describe the chaos that ensued. "Hey what's up buddy-to! You're putting old grannies to shame with your flowery, insect-like attitude!" You were only a moment away from turning into ashes.

Dividers creds: @cafekitsune