#but seriously tho I MUST be misinterpreting something right?

[redhoodinternaldialectical]

People talking about remembering early childhood has me fucked up because they keep distinguishing between 'remembering a handful of events with very little context and only a poor sense of which ones happened when or even if they're real or not' and... and some OTHER kind of memory??? Bitch the sea of blackness with the tiny floating Singular Event islands is all I've got! What the fuck do you mean there's supposed to be something that develops after that?! I though the whole point of chronological memory was just that you had something to play connect the dots and logic puzzles with in order to get kinda close to what happened???

Like if you asked me what happened last Monday, there is NOTHING there in my head, no record at all, the best I can do for you is pull up what I think my scheduled was supposed to be, and that's how it is for 80+% of all my days. In terms of actual things I've experienced, I feel like I can't possibly be forming more than like 200 new memories a year. Heck, anything over 50 still sounds fake af

On the days where something really impactful happened I can give you maybe up to as many as 5 brief, indistinct sense memories and a mostly coherent sequence of events.

And you're telling me that's not normal???

What the hell is happening in other people's heads when they try to remember last week? Can you... replay a whole day like a daydream movie?? Do you really, actually form at least one memory around every single day??? If so, what the hell do you DO with all that? Where the fuck does it all GO?

Is this why my psychology classes kept acting as though memory being unreliable was supposed to be surprising instead of the most 'duh'-moment obvious thing on the planet?

[lucyreviewcy]

The Three Three Musketeers (or Where The F*ck Did All The Stupid Hats Go)

I read The Three Musketeers and then I watched the 1973, 1993 and 2011 adaptations. Which one wins tho?

Adaptation is a fascinating concept, especially of texts which are frequently adapted or parodied. After I rewatched the 2005 Pride and Prejudice I was reminded how weirdly divisive the two dominant adaptations of that book are. A lot of people consider the 2005 to be an inferior betrayal of the 1990s BBC version. I actually prefer the 2005 because I think Matthew McFadyen’s Mr Darcy is a wonderfully complex character. McFadyen imbues Darcy with social awkwardness and anxiety, which Lizzie misinterprets as his pride. To overcome the “Lizzie doesn’t fancy him ‘til she sees his house” debate, director Joe Wright includes a moment where Lizzie glimpses Darcy alone with his sister. He’s comfortable, his body language is completely different, and he’s smiling broadly. That moment really sold me on the entire film because it made Darcy a full character and was a really simple addition that rounded out the story. I still like the 90s version but for me, it’s the 2005 that takes first place.  (Although an honourable mention for Pride and Prejudice and Zombies because it is an excellent romp.)

Look: adaptation is always a complicated topic. You can’t untangle one adaptation from another, because it’s pretty rare that somebody adapting a classic text like Pride and Prejudice or The Three Musketeers is not already familiar with existing adaptations. The most recent adaptation of any classic text is not simply an adaptation of that text, but the next step in a flow chart that includes all the previous adaptations and the cultural context of the newly created product. These three adaptations of Dumas’ 1844 novel are all texturally and stylistically very different, and two of them diverge significantly from the original text. What I found truly fascinating was what all of them had in common, and what each new era (these were made at around 20 year intervals) decides to add or remove. What do all these movies agree are the essential parts of the story, and what are some adaptations more squeamish about including from Dumas’ original narrative?

Before we dive in, no I have not seen every single adaptation of the story, that would be a dissertation level of research and I do actually have things to do right now (although, I will admit...not many.) I’m looking at these three Hollywood adaptations because they all had star studded casts (for the era they were made in), they’re all English language, and (crucially) they were all easily available on the internet for me to stream.

What are the essential ingredients of a Three Musketeers adaptation?

Firstly, there should be at least three musketeers. Secondly, D’Artagnan (Michael York 1973, Chris O’Donnell 1993, Logan Lerman 2011) should be a young upstart who is introduced part way through a sword fight. He should also have silly hair. He is also consistently introduced to the musketeers in all three films by challenging them each individually to duels at noon, one o’clock and two o’clock. 

The films all maintained some elements of the original “Queen’s Diamonds” storyline, and featured the Queen, Milady and Constance. The characterisation of these three varied a lot.

Our villains in each case are invariably the Cardinal, his pal Rochefort (who always has an eyepatch, although this trope is not in the book and is actually attributable to the way Christopher Lee is styled in the 1973 film), and Milady de Winter. Satisfyingly, at least two of the villains usually wear red because they’re bad. Red is for bad. 

All three are very swashbuckling in tone, have elements of physical comedy, and two of them include one of the three valet characters Dumas wrote into the original story, Planchet (1973 Roy Kinnear, 2011 James “ugh why” Corden). They also all bear the generic markings of the movies made during the same era, our 70s D’Artagnan feels like a prototype Luke Skywalker. The 90s version features a random martial arts performer. The 2011 version has CGI and James Corden in equal measure (read: far too much of both.)

What are the big differences?

I’m going to divide this category into three main segments: character, story and style. My own three musketeers, the three musketeers of movie making.

Character

D’Artagnan

D’artagnan in the book comes across as a pretty comical figure. He’s nineteen and there’s something satisfying about how similar Dumas’ caricature of a nineteen year old is to a modern character of the same age. He’s overconfident, has a simplistic but concrete set of morals, and falls in love with every woman he sees. If D’Artagnan were a 2021 character, he’d really hate The Last Jedi, is what I’m saying. He’d definitely have a tumblr blog, probably a lot like this one, but perhaps a scooch more earnest. He really loved The Lighthouse but he can’t explain why. Isn’t it nice to know that awkward nineteen year olds have been pretty much the same for the last three hundred years at least? 

In all three films he’s kind of irritating, but at least in the 1973 this feels deliberate. This version has a certain “Carry On Musketeering” quality to it and D’Artagnan is your pantomime principal, he’s extremely naïve and he takes himself very seriously. This is the closest D’Artagnan to the book, and the 1973 is, in general, the film which adheres most faithfully to that source material. 

The 1993, which is (spoiler alert) my least favourite adaptation, has Chris O’Donnell as the least likeable D’Artagnan I’ve come across. I’ve only seen O’Donnell in one other thing, the Al Pacino movie Scent of a Woman. He’s bearable in that because he’s opposite Al Pacino, and so his wide-eyed innocence makes sense as a contrast to Pacino’s aged hoo-ah cynicism. Rather than being introduced in a practice sword fight with his father, as in the other two films, D’Artagnan is fighting the brother of an ex-lover. This captures the problem with the film in general: this adaptation wants D’Artagnan to be cool. He is not. The comedy of the 1973, and indeed the book, comes from D’Artagnan being deeply uncool, and from his blind idolisation of the deeply flawed Musketeers who actually are cool, but not necessarily heroic, or even good people. Their moral greyness contrasts with D’Artagnan’s defined sense of right and wrong, but he still considers them to be role models and heroes. 

2011′s version also suffers from “Cool D’Artagnan” syndrome, with the added annoyance of that most Marvel of tropes: the quip. One of the real issues with this film is that the dialogue has a lot of forced quippery that doesn’t quite land, and the editing slows the pace of the entire film. D’Artagnan’s first interaction with Constance is a bad attempt at wit which Constance points out isn’t very funny. The problem is that Constance has no personality so there’s no real indication that she’s in any position to judge his level of wit. She’s just vague, blonde and there: three characteristics which describe an entire pantheon of badly written female characters throughout the ages. Cool D’Artagnan also means that Constance should be additionally cool, because in the book, Constance is older than, smarter than and over-all more in charge than D’Artagnan. 

Female Characters

Let’s go into this with an open mind that understands all these films were made in the sociological context of their decade. The 1973 version would absolutely not be made in the same way now. Constance is a clumsy cartoon character who is forever falling over and accidentally sticking her breasts out. This is not the character from the books, but does at least leave an impression on the viewer one way or another. 

In contrast, the 1993 has a Constance so forgettable I literally cannot picture her. I think she holds D’Artagnan’s hand at the end. That’s all I can say on the subject. 

The 2011 has Gabriella Wilde in the role, and absolutely wastes her. Anyone who’s seen her in  Poldark knows that she can do sharp-tongued beautiful wit-princess with ease. It’s the writing of this film that lets her down, in general, that’s the problem with it. The storyline and design are great, but the actual dialogue lacks the pace and bite that a quip-ridden star vehicle needs. This Constance is given simultaneously more and less to do than the Constance of the original book, who demonstrates at every turn the superiority of her intellect over D’Artagnan, but doesn’t get to pretend to be a Musketeer and whip her hat off to show her flowing golden hair like she does in the 2011. 

The best character, for my money, in The Three Musketeers is Milady de Winter. Even Dumas got so obsessed with her that there are full chapters of the book written from pretty much her perspective. In the book, she’s described as a terrifying genius with powers of persuasion so potent that any jailor she speaks to must be instantly replaced. My favourite Milady is absolutely Faye Dunaway from 1973. She’s ferocious and beautiful and ruthless, but potentially looks even better because the portrayals in the other films are so very bad. 

The 1993 version has your typical blonde 90s baddie woman (Rebecca De Mornay), she wouldn’t look out of place as a scary girlfriend in an episode of Friends or Frasier. 2011 boasts Milla Jovovich who presents us a much more physical version of the character, even doing an awkwardly shoe-horned anachronistic hall of lasers a la Entrapment except instead of lasers its really thin pieces of glass? The “yeah but it looks cool” attitude to anachronism in this film is what makes it fun, and Jovovich’s Milady isn’t awful, she’s just let down by a plot point that she shares with 1993 Milady. Both these adaptations get really hooked on the fact that Athos used to be married to Milady at one time (conveniently leaving out the less justifiable character point that Athos TRIED TO HANG HER when he found out she had been branded as a thief - doesn’t wash so well with the modern audiences, I think.) Rather than hating/fearing Milady, the two modern adaptations suggest that Athos is still in love with her and pines for her. This detracts from Athos’ character just as much as it detracts from Milady’s. Interestingly, and I don’t know where this came from (if it was in the book I definitely missed it), both films feature a confrontation between the two where Athos points a gun at Milady but she pre-empts him by throwing herself off a cliff (or in the 2011, an air-ship.) I think both these versions were concerned that Milady was an anti-feminist character because she’s so wantonly evil, but I disagree. Equality means it is absolutely possible for Milady to be thoroughly evil and hated by the musketeers just as much as they hate Rochefort and the Cardinal. If you want to sort out the gender issues with this story, round Constance out and give her proper dialogue, don’t make Milady go weak at the knees because of whiny Athos (both Athos characters are exceedingly whiny, 1973 Athos is just...mashed).

The Musketeers

These guys are pretty important to get right in a film called The Three Musketeers. They have to be flawed, funny but kind of cool. Richard Chamberlain is an absolute dish in the 1973 version, capturing all those qualities in one. Is it clear which version is my favourite yet?

Athos is played variously by a totally hammered Oliver Reed (1973), a ginger-bearded Kiefer Sutherland (1993) and a badly bewigged Matthew McFadyen (2011). They all have in common the role of being the most level-headed character, but the focus on the relationship between Athos and Milady in the 93 and 11 editions undermines this a lot. Athos should be cool and aloof, instead of mooning over Milady the entire time. The 2011 gives Athos some painfully “edgy” lines like “I believe in this (points at wine) this (flicks coin) and this (stabs coin with knife.)...” which McFadyen ( once oh so perfect as Mr Darcy) doesn’t quite pull off. 

Porthos seems to be the musketeer who is the most different between interpretations. A foppish dandy in the 1973, a pirate (!?!) in the 1993, and then just...large in 2011. I think the mistake made in the 2011 is that large alone does not a personality make. There are hints at Porthos’ characterisation from the book: his dependence on rich women for money and his love of fine clothing, but these are only included as part of his introduction and never crop up again through the rest of the film. Pirate Porthos in 1993 is... you know what, fine, you guys were clearly throwing everything at the wall and seeing what stuck. 

Aramis is our dishy Richard Chamberlain in 1973, followed by womanising Charlie Sheen in 1993 and then strikingly suave Luke Evans in 2011. I actually didn’t mind Luke Evans’ interpretation, his dialogue is forgettable but his sleek charm stuck in my head. For some reason, this version has Aramis working as a parking attendant for horses, it worked for me as a fun A Knight’s Tale-esque bit of anachronistic character development. Charlie Sheen has never managed to appear likable or attractive to me and so his role in the 1993 falls flat. In fact, in that edition there’s not much distinction between the musketeers as characters and they’re all just very 90s and American. As anyone who’s read this blog before will expect, I think Keanu Reeves as Aramis would have really upped this film’s game. In fact, Keanu Reeves as Aramis, Brad Pitt as Athos and Will Smith as Porthos could have been the ultimate 90s adaptation, throw in DiCaprio as D’Artagnan and Roger Allam as the Cardinal and I’m fully sold. 

The King and Queen

All three films try and do the “Queen’s Diamonds” storyline, but only the 1973 actually includes the Queen’s affair with Buckingham. The queen, played by Geraldine Chaplin, is a tragic romantic figure (she doesn’t have a tonne to do besides being wistful and sighing over Lord Buckingham). The king is played as a frivolous idiot by Jean-Pierre Cassel (voice dubbed by Richard Briers). He doesn’t really think of the queen as a person, more as a possession that he doesn’t want Buckingham to have. 

In the 1993 version, Buckingham doesn’t really feature, and it’s the queen’s refusal to get off with the Cardinal that prompts his fury at her. The book does touch on the Cardinal’s desire for the queen, but it’s placed front and centre in 1993. This is definitely the boobsiest version, with quite a lot of corsetry on show and a cardinal who hits on literally all the women. The king is shown as a stroppy teenage boy under the thumb of the cardinal, who just wants to ask the queen to the dance but doesn’t have the nerve. The king is, essentially, a Fall Out Boy lyric. 

The 2011 also seems to be really squeamish about the idea of the queen having an extramarital affair. It paints Buckingham (played with excellent wig and aplomb by Orlando Bloom) as a stylish villain, who’s advances the queen has rejected. Like the 1993 version, the King is a feckless youth rendered speechless by the presence of his wife. Both these versions want the King and Queen to be happy together, while the 1973 doesn’t give a fuck. 

The Cardinal and his Cronies

The cardinal is kind of universally an evil creepy guy. One of the characters from the 1973 version who actually left the least impression on me, played by Charlton Heston. I think he’s overshadowed in my recollection by cartoonishly evil Christopher Lee as Rochefort. Lee’s Rochefort is dark, mysterious and wonderfully bad, and so influential that all other incarnations’ design is based on him. The 1993 version had truly over the top Michael Wincott as a character I could honestly refer to as Darth Rochefort from the way he’s framed, while 2011 boasts a chronically underused Mads Mikkelsen in the role. 

Cardinal-wise, 1993 was my favourite with Tim Curry in all his ecclesiastical splendour. It was disappointing that everything about this film, including the Cardinal’s sexual harassment of every single female character, really didn’t work for me. Tim Curry is a natural choice for this role and gives it his campy all. 

2011 has not one but two trendy bond villain actors, with Mikkelsen working alongside Christoph Waltz who was...just kind of fine. I was really excited when he appeared but he didn’t really push the character far enough and left me cold. 

Story

The story is where the different adaptations diverge most completely. 1973 follows the plot of the novel, D’Artagnan comes to Paris, befriends the Musketeers and becomes embroiled in a plot by the Cardinal to expose the Queen’s affair with Buckingham through the theft of two diamond studs. D’Artagnan, aided partially by the musketeers, must travel to London to retrieve the set of twelve studs gifted by the King to the Queen, and by the Queen to Buckingham. He does so, the plot is foiled, he’s made into a musketeer! Hurrah, tankards all round.

The 1993 version drops D’Artagnan into the story just as the Cardinal has disbanded the Musketeers. I found the plot of this one really hard to follow and I think at some point D’Artagnan ended up in the Bastille? There was this whole plot point about how Rochefort had killed D’Artagnan’s father. In the original, and in the 1973 version, D’Artagnan’s entire beef with Rochefort is rooted in a joke Rochefort makes about D’Artagnan’s horse. I guess for the producers of this one, a horse insult is not enough motivation for a lifelong grudge. That is really the problem with the entire film, it forgets that the story as told by Dumas is set in a world where men duel over such petty things as “criticising one’s horse”, “blocking one’s journey down a staircase” and “accusing one of having dropped a lady’s handkerchief.” The colour palette and styling are very 90s “fun fun fun”, but the portrayal of the cardinal and the endless angst about D’Artagnan’s father really dampen the mood. 

The 2011 version, this is where the shit really hits the fan. We meet our musketeers as they collaborate with Milady to steal the blueprints for a flying ship (it’s like a piratecore zeppelin). Milady betrays them and gives the plans to Buckingham, they all become jaded and unemployed. D’Artagnan arrives on the scene (his American accent explained by the fact that he’s from a different part of France) and befriends the Musketeers. The cardinal tries to frame the queen for infidelity by having Milady steal her diamonds to hide them in Buckingham’s safe at the tower of London. Something something Constance, something something help me D’Artagnan you’re my only hope. MASSIVE AIRSHIP BATTLE. The king and queen have a dance. James Corden cracks wise. 

It seems like as time has passed, producers, writers and directors have felt compelled to embellish the story. I think, specifically in the case of the two later versions, this is because they wanted the films to resemble the big successes of the period. Everybody knows no Disney hero can be in possession of both parents, so D’Artagnan is out to avenge his father like Simba or Luke Skywalker. In the 2011 version, the plot is overblown and overcomplicated in what seems like an attempt to replicate the success of both the Sherlock Holmes and Pirates of the Caribbean franchises. Remember the plot of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End? No, me neither. 

Style

The style of these films grows increasingly wild along with the plots as time passes. The 1973 features a lot of slapstick comedy, some of which really made me cackle, and some of which was cringeworthily sexist (Constance’s boobs through the window of a litter.) That’s the 70s though! I love The Godfather but Diane Keaton’s character is unbelivably dull and annoying. Star Wars features a pretty good female character but she does end up in that bikini. The 70s seems to be a time of movies that were great except for their occasional headlong dive into misogyny. That doesn’t mean the entire movie is bad, it just means it’s suffering from the consequences of being made in the 70s. There were other consequences of this, I doubt many modern productions could get away with physically injuring so many of it’s cast members. From a glance down the IMDB trivia page, this film yielded a higher casualties to cast ratio than the My Chemical Romance Famous Last Words music video, and that’s a hard figure to top. 

The 1993 version is a Disney feature and suffers from having a thin sheen (not Charlie in this instance) of “Disney Original Movie” pasted over every scene. It looks like The Parent Trap might be filming in the adjacent studio a lot of the time. The vibrancy of the colours makes the costumes look unrealistic, while the blandness of the female characters means this movie ends up a bit of a bland bro-fest. Also occasionally the sexual and violent moments really jar with the overall tone making it an uneven watch. One minute it’s Charlie Sheen cracking jokes about trying to get off with someone’s wife, the next minute you see Milady throw herself off a cliff and land on the rocks. Weird choices all round. 

The 2011 version, as I’ve already mentioned, was trying to borrow its style from the success of Sherlock Holmes and Pirates of the Caribbean, with a little Ocean’s 11 thrown in. The soundtrack flips between not quite a Hans Zimmer score and not quite that other Hans Zimmer score, and after the success of Stardust it ends with a Take That song (for it to match up to the story it should have been Take That feat. Harry styles imho). Visually, there’s some fantastic travel by mapping going on, there’s far too much CGI (one of my friends pointed out that the canal in Venice seemed to be full of Flubber). Everyone is dressed in black leather, and there are not enough big hats at all. One of the best things about Musketeers films is that they’re an excuse for ridiculous hats, and in a film with a quite frankly insane visual style, I’m surprised the hats didn’t make it through. The cast, unfortunately, really lack chemistry which means the humorous dialogue is either stilted or James Corden, and the editing is just very strange. It’s one of those films that feels about as disjointed as an early morning dream, the one where you dream you’ve woken up, gotten dressed and fed the cat, but you actually are still in bed. 

Conclusion

Adaptations focus on different things depending on the context they were created in. The 2005 Pride and Prejudice is deliberately “grittier” than its 1990s predecessor, at a stage when “grit” was everywhere (The Bourne Identity, Spooks, Constantine). The Musketeers adaptations demonstrate exactly the same thing: what people wanted in the 70s was bawdy comedy and slapstick with a likeable idiot hero, the 90s clearly called for... Charlie Sheen and bright colours, and the 2010s just want too much of everything and a soundtrack with lots of banging and crashing. The more modern adaptations simplified the female characters (although the 1973 version definitely is guilty of oversimplifying Constance) while over-complicating the plot. There’s a lot of embellishment going on in the 2011 version that suggests the film wasn’t very sure of itself, it pulls its plot punches while simultaneously blindly flailing its stylistic fists. 

The film that works the best for me will always be the 1973 because it’s pretty straight down the line. Musketeers are good, Milady is evil, falling over is funny and the King’s an idiot. The later adaptations seem to be trying to fix problems with the story that the 1973 version just lets fly. The overcorrection of Milady and the under characterisation of Constance is the perfect example of this. If you want your Musketeers adaptation to be more feminist, don’t weaken Milady, strengthen Constance. Sometimes a competent female character is all that we need. A Constance who is like Florence Cassel from Death in Paradise or  Ahn Young-yi from Misaeng could really pack a punch.

I adored the energy of the 2011 adaptation, I loved how madcap it was, I loved how it threw historical accuracy to the wind. I thought the king was adorable, and I really enjoyed seeing Orlando Bloom hamming it up as Buckingham. I was genuinely sad that the sequel the ending sets up for never came, because once they got out of the sticky dialogue and into the explosions, the film was great fun. It was a beautiful disaster that never quite came together, but I really enjoyed watching it. I love films that have a sense of wild chaos, some more successful examples are The Devil’s Advocate, Blow Dry and Lego Batman. I think the spirit of going all out on everything can sometimes result in the best cinematic experience, it’s just a shame the script wasn’t really up to muster for 2011 Musketeers. 

I’m excited to see what the next big budget Musketeers adaptation brings, even if I’m going to have to wait another ten years to see it. I hope it’s directed by Chad Stahelski, that’d really float my boat (through the sky, like a zeppelin.)

[matoitech]

this is for when you wake up tomorrow, but can you please talk about galos superb emotional awareness?? he's got some serious emotional skills!

yeah of course!! i think its important to mention first and foremost that promare is built around compassion and willingness to listen and understand people you think are different from you just bc you dont have the exact same experiences. but in the words of nexus, we’re not so different. galo represents that! him and lio are literally the bridge of understanding and empathy. and because of this, both their characters hinge on love! love for other people and love for the earth. that’s why people misinterpreting characters like lio to be mean is so upsetting, because its missing the point of the movie. but anyway we’re talking about galo and his epic emotional intelligence so lets DO THAT.

so we gotta start with the obligatory “people think galos an idiot BUT ACTUALLY-” because its true! he may be oblivious about some things but he has an ability to look at a situation and know what to say and do to fix it; he’s passionate and has a solid belief in himself so whether or not he’s wording something perfectly people FEEL that hes being genuine. when you’re unapologetically yourself, people respond to that!

more than any other character it was galo that was the one who knew that lio needed help and was the only one who knew how to help him. and galo proves this isnt lio-exclusive (tho it definitely shows a lot with lio, and that’s for a reason lol). he knows what to say to reassure aina at the lake, he knows what to say to get heris to question her decision with helping kray, he knows what to do to get his teammates on his side to help, he saves lio and inspires him to save the earth. you could write an entire essay on any scene he surprises people and gets them thinking, he does this so much! i dont think this is something he’s totally aware of and uses to his advantage as much as its just people responding to how earnest he is about wanting to help others. 

the scene with lio as a dragon is brought up a lot when talking abt galo because its through his pov that the movie tells us that galo noticed lio was crying. we, the viewer, know what happened at the burnish camp. we saw lio lose his people and his best friends to freeze force, we know why he feels he’s lost everything. WE know why it isnt just rage, but its grief and pain as well thats fueling him, but galo doesnt know that. he sees the dragon, he knows its lio, and he notices right away that hes crying. he met lio a couple times and he’s kept in mind what lio’s said about burnish not killing- so he knows something is very wrong. something must have spurred lio to react like this. something must be hurting him. so now he knows that lio’s hurting and he has to do something to help, both for lio and to stop the fire in the city. no one else noticed or cared that lio was in pain. but galo’s whole thing is figuring out what people need and saving them! so of course he noticed. 

galo and lio save each other, MULTIPLE times. its through their differences they find strength! galo and lio are both passionate, emotional people, though they show that in different ways. its really lucky that galo and lio found each other; they work so well together, well enough to save the world! they’re both written with each other in mind, to draw out the best in each other and do together what they can’t do alone. they find strength through each other. that’s really important. 

to get back on track cuz i kinda went off on a side note there, i think it’s important to mention that galo being emotionally perceptive goes both ways. he notices whats going on with other people and notices how they feel and what he can do to help, but that also means he notices how people feel about him. people tend to assume galo just doesn’t notice when people get frustrated with him or when they’re rude to him, but i dont think thats true. its not that he doesnt notice, its that he’s used to it. he chooses to let a lot go. but when he snaps at lio for calling the matoi stupid, its from a buildup from ppl, whether jokingly or not, calling him or his interests stupid. u cant talk abt how galo perceives how ppl feel and acts accordingly without acknowledging that that also means he is aware of how ppl feel about HIM. another reason why him and lio work well together, with lio listening to him and taking what he says seriously, just like galo does for him.

anyway, the movie itself is all such a good example of galo showing rly good emotional awareness, and part of that also comes from him being open to trying to do better when he messes up. he apologizes when he does something wrong, he LISTENS, and he CARES about making things right. he cares about how lio feels and he cares about how the burnish feel. he cares a lot about making sure people are safe and happy, that they know he’s listening and is trying to help.

there’s a small line that i’ve always appreciated when galo is explaining the spaceship to lio. he says that the ship is human powered first, only adding that its the burnish specifically powering it afterward. this is an important line because its galo showing lio that he listened to lio earlier when he said the burnish were human beings just as much as galo. that small word choice means a lot, bringing the interaction in the cave back- galo said something insensitive, lio told him why that was wrong, and galo apologized and learned from it. the movie does a good job of showing you that galo has no problem with owning up to his mistakes and learning from them. that’s pretty good emotional awareness lol

also, at the end i will mention that galo’s pretty good at understanding his own emotions and knowing what to do about them, like when he goes to the lake to clear his head and work out his emotions bc he knows him being in the public eye and ppl associated him w the governor means he needs to be in control for his sake. he has trouble with this sometimes, not always making smart moves bc he is so emotionally driven, but he does acknowledge his emotions and try to deal with them in the best way he can. he could do this better if he went to THERAPY which he NEEDS -_- but that. is another topic. promare 2: everyone gets therapy

this got very all over the place, there’s so much you can talk about with it, but!! galo is a really good character thats a lot smarter- and more importantly, kinder- than people give him credit for, and i like talking about him :]

[unproduciblesmackdown]

You're so right about the Will Roland fanart problems. It seems like back when Will Roland was only known for Jared people were way more proWill because he could be their funny meme boi who ate bathbombs but now that he's a lead with all these emotional songs it's like God forbid he's not their "twink bby". Idk it annoys me so much especially when people draw the rest of the Broadway cast and still use WillC or do an animatic with WillRs voice and WillCs character ugh like. Accept the Roland pls

lmao we are all just out here grabbing the mic like “attention all bastards: Look, just because will roland isn’t your ideal fancast for most adorable twink of the year - “

really like, i have never come across any signs of there having been any pattern in the deh fandom of ~taking issue~ with will’s Abilities to sing or play the part of a struggling teen or whatever like what crops up re: him being the lead in bmc.....it also is unsurprising yet disappointing that like, jared and alana are so easily completely ignored, but when they Are acknowledged it’s super flattened interpretations like, either they’re both hypocritical jerks (just based on evan’s gfy accusations basically lol) or if they’re actually viewed in a positive way it’s just like, alana is your friendly local Model Student and jared is memes and neither of them are in the way! :3

you litrally cannot ignore jeremy the Whole Entire Main Character tho and also like. can’t ignore the fact that caring about jeremy as a Romantique Lead is ahhh important to many ppl in the fanbase? so him being regarded as ~less cute~ is more of an Issue b/c the character must be taken seriously and is the sympathetic hero and has a lot more solo material / more of Any material / more focus than jared does in deh.........you Have To Look At Him and care about his actual feelings and not just misinterpret the character as “has no serious emotions b/c he doesn’t say serious things in a serious tone” the way ppl misinterpret jared. there’s the assumption that someone who is good / sympathetic should also be attractive / cute / Personally Appealing To Look At and that wasn’t as much a conflict when ppl didn’t think it was important to sympathize / care about / pay attention to jared too much, and the “conflict” of caring abt jeremy’s capacity for a romantic relationship but that’s less important if he’s not as Cute also not being as much an issue when most people don’t care about jared’s romantic feelings or think that they exist despite jared being in love with evan But Anyways

like it is wild the things people will just make up to “justify” their Dislike for will, which has only manifested as apparent Issues thanks to him playing jeremy rather than jared........there’s the classic “mm idk i don’t think he can sing that well” approach which like. some people are just trying to say they do not like the inherent descriptive qualities of his voice, which is more nasal obviously and don’t anyone come in here with the “Actually the Technical definition of Nasal re Vocals is” b/c we know what i mean, alright? nasal voices are not considered ~serious~ and there’s the kneejerk dumb-annoying-loser-nerd association. god knows that jeremy heere canNot have characteristics that could be automatically judged as irritating and unappealing. then there’s the notion that He doesn’t have the (vocal) range!! which like. do you honestly think they would cast someone who doesn’t have the correct range. you’re aware that will roland was being considered for the part of jeremy in the two river run up to the last round of callbacks. you know that the song that was literally written expressly to suit will roland’s individual voice and singing abilities makes use of his falsetto which people go “omg he can’t hit those high notes” except sometimes when they misattribute his falsetto to other singers they suddenly find it worth complimenting. and then you get people who like, want to subscribe to this softened version of it and get all backhanded like “oh i think will’s vocals are improving whew that’s good” in any random video and always Only single him out apparently like. did you think he gets worse with experience? you don’t wanna talk about any of these other professional singers improving or worsening or anything? only wanna give ur assessment of william’s huh

honestly i for real haven’t seen the 1.0 version b/c i’m here via will roland in the first place & i’ve never gotten the impression that there’s some Essential Content i’m missing out on by having only seen 2.0........but between a) people complaining that will r’s jeremy is Too Frustrated He Shouldn’t Be That Angry It Makes Him Less Sympathetic and b) saying just as a point of comparison betwixt the depictions that will r’s jeremy is more frustrated and c) i haven’t read That much bmc fic but people sure talk about jeremy being like five seconds away from bursting into tears at any given moment which like, okay yeah aren’t we all, but also i presume this stems from will c’s apparently Sadder portrayal of jeremy. i almost forgot where i was going with this one but i think it’s just that yeah people truly take issue with will r’s jeremy being more frustrated and it’s like you realize there’s no Right or Wrong portrayal / interpretation even if you prefer one for whatever reasons......theatre just is Like that.......you have a slightly different portrayal during ever performance even from the same actors, and you’ll often have different actors playing the role........yeah people usually are attached to the first performance they see / have that as their Standard and that’s fine, it’s just like, you don’t have to decide that’s an Objective view and that you have Objective issues with everyone else’s take. 1.0 is still there for you

uhhhh oh yeah and the whole Clout idea lmao......people really putting themselves out there shaking their heads at the supposed fact that will was cast for the off bway run to Boost Popularity b/c he was part of the deh obc......besides the whole thing that it’s hardly likely that would’ve been considered necessary anyhow, there’s the little thing that a) again, will roland had already been very seriously considered for the part even before will connolly was decided on for the original run and b) like.....these people had been collaborating for eons and you really think will roland only popped into their minds thanks to being in deh....and c) joe iconis has repeatedly said they specifically did Not want to cast people based on who was Known enough and whose names would be good for marketing and d) maybe anyone has noticed that the marketing never involved any mention of anyone in the cast? no? cool. and yet people like so truly think they’re Wise to ~real reason~ that they’d go and cast will roland as the lead. like people are making shit up and really just thinking it’s true b/c they Want it to be true b/c they Want to be validated in having actual contempt for will’s casting despite the “issue” being that he doesn’t seem as Likeable (worthy of sympathy...cough...) thanks to his deemed-unattractive looks and sweetly-adenoidal voice and more-frustrated portrayal all seeming less cute or whatever

and i mean i haven’t seen it crop up of late but the one particular Grasping At Straws ~justification~ for will being unworthy of the part thanks to perceived acting/singing incompetence which is soooo wild is when people are like “ough i Hate when he just holds his arms out when he sings” like fmslkdj if anything that’s just an individual quirk and the fact that it was something you noticed means you just latched on to it as potential fodder for “the fact i registered this information abt someone whose existence i Resent means it distracted me which means i hate it and it’s bad”...like another thing he does with his hands while singing is when he makes the loose claws and kind of half crosses his arms in front of his chest! where are the complaints about that?? nowhere, b/c people have not really processed it as a particular thing, so they can’t deem it a Particular Thing To Criticize. people sometimes Notice that his jared talks with his hands a lot, which will says is an acting choice that came from an unconscious tendency, but people really only bring it up to juxtapose will’s jared’s dramatic tendencies and nervous habits with sky’s jared’s more outwardly still and smoothed-over behavior. aka they don’t Complain about it or deem it a weakness / bad thing. and yet people caring about bmc are really jumping on that chance to be like oh ugh there he goes again, having a characteristic i associate with him as an individual, disgusting, can’t believe will connolly was murdered for this..

it’s a bit clearer too with bmc moreso than deh that people aren’t super willing to accept how will roland Looks b/c like, thanks to will connolly’s jeremy having the long hair thing you can Tell The Difference In Which Actor Is Represented when ppl draw the character even if the rest of the features are kind of “generic” (and how even the costuming isn’t a dead giveaway since ppl will draw connolly jeremy in 2.0/3.0′s outfits) and it even serves to specify the actor in writing format too if they mention the hair lol........and honestly?? this fact is one of the most damning things lol in that people the reason so many ppl continue to produce connolly-based jeremys is Not because for whatever reason they can’t / it’s too difficult to draw a will roland lookin jeremy......like a lot of the time The trait which serves to distinguish between the two is the hair thing. people are adopting jeremy’s new costuming and stuff but choosing to make sure we know that jeremy does not Look like will roland and the clearest indicator of this is the longer hair thing......which also means that for many people the main effort they’d need to exert to make it clear they’re drawing wrol jeremy would just be to....shorten the hair. And Yet!!!! it is apparently beyond people to do this

like uh nice on making a lgw animatic but really.........really we’re gonna take the song that is specifically from the 2.0 / 3.0 runs, so it’s obvious we’re Accepting that non-1.0 content, okay......and we’re Accepting will roland’s vocals, which, a person’s voice is a physical trait of theirs too, same as The Existence Of Their Body........and yet jeremy Cannot Look Like How Will Roland Looks, that’s too far, can’t do that. we can take material from the specific versions the actor was cast in, that material being a song written specifically for this individual actor’s voice, in the form of this actor’s actual vocals......but can’t have the depicted image of jeremy be based on this actor’s appearance..............of all the......

really all that it is is that more people find will connolly more attractive than will roland and this makes them feel like will roland Is Worse and then the people who just run with that either just embrace that and are crashing around on public forums saying Lol i hate him cuz he’s ugly lmao....and then you have people who don’t wanna do that but don’t wanna actually examine why they ~take issue~ with will being cast and so they’ve gotta leap on any Other things about him that feel more acceptable / Objective like oh the portrayal is “Wrong” (that’s not how this works) or he can’t sing well enough (yeah he can) or high enough (yeah he can) or he was stunt cast (no he wasn’t) or they wanna label every characteristic / trait they can think up that Isn’t his physical appearance as Annoying And Bad like. maybe stop and ask why you find it SO pressing that this other actor has the part and it Must be objectively inferior if not ruinous for reasons you gotta invent about him being incompetent cuz it’s better to make stuff up about how a professional actor isn’t good enough for a part than to say you don’t think he’s cute enough and are bothered by that

it didn’t matter as much to people when they viewed his character as either Just A Joke or Just A Jerk or flat-out disposable material. being attractive is for serious sympathetic beloved characters, natch

unfortunately jeremy can’t be written off as The Unimportant Meme Friend With No Real Feelings so now there’s a whole problem if an actor is not as cute

like b/c of the way he looks ppl can accept that a character played by will roland can be funny or can be rude or can really not be too important to take seriously / consider complex or sympathetic or likeable beyond being a walking Running Joke, but when it comes to a sympathetic main character whose emotional state is so important it’s practically assigned a character and who’s a romantic lead? now people have a problem with him looking the way will roland does

[marigoldbaker]

very really married (9/15)

read it on ao3!

WOULD YOU LOOK AT THAT. WE HAVE AN ACTUAL NUMBER OF CHAPTERS. EXCITING !!!!!!

for real, tho, this started off as a very self-indulgent half-conceived plot bunny that came from me wanting to write a s1 where giles and jenny were fake married, and then it turned into....something...with a plot. incredible. i am so so happy to say that it’s finished, and it’s coherent, and it is something i am so proud of--and i am super looking forward to posting the remaining chapters !!!!

Giles supposed that the mystery of Jenny might trouble him more if he hadn’t gotten to know her so well over the last few months. She had proven so many times over that her primary goal was to protect the people she cared for. It was perhaps foolish of him to trust her so implicitly, but the feeling in his chest when he looked at her felt too strong to be incorrect. It also felt too strong to be simply attraction, but…that was a problem to be addressed later, he hoped. There were other problems they were facing at the moment.

“Principal Snyder’s trying to leverage that one time he saw us holding hands in a faculty meeting to get me to pass all the athletes taking his class,” Jenny was telling Giles, carding her fingers absently through his hair. Her wedding ring caught briefly, but the light tug just made Giles smile. He liked being reminded that it was his wife sitting atop his desk while he took his tea. “And I was like, I mean, we’ve done so much worse on the premises. Didn’t you feel me up in a broom closet on Monday?”

“You make it sound so crass,” said Giles, his smile widening. Leaning back in his office chair, he tilted his head back to rest it in Jenny’s lap.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said Jenny, and leaned down to kiss him. “Didn’t you rest your hand upon my heaving bosom on Monday?”

“That’s worse,” said Giles seriously, delighting in Jenny’s laugh. “That’s—that’s terrible romance novel language, Jenny.”

“A poet I am not,” said Jenny unapologetically. She grinned, thoughtful. “Can you come up with something better?”

Giles considered this, resting his cheek on her leg as he did so. “I felt you up in a broom closet on Monday,” he conceded. “Though if I recall, you did a fair amount of feeling up in return.”

“And who could blame me?” Jenny kissed him again, then sighed. “I should probably go set up the lab.”

“Should you?”

“You’re the worst,” said Jenny, not very seriously. “Really, I should—”

Outside Giles’s office, the sound of loud, cheerful voices could be heard as the library doors burst open. “GILES!” Buffy called, heedless of any rules regarding the library being a quiet place. “We need to talk!”

“Duty calls, huh?” Jenny brushed her fingers gently against Giles’s cheek. He shivered. “At least they aren’t gonna flip if they see me coming out of your office.”

“I wouldn’t bet on it,” said Giles ruefully, sitting up. “I rather think we scarred Buffy for life with our little morgue drawer display.” He stood, turning to offer Jenny a hand. She took it, and he tugged her gently off the desk, taking a deliberate extra moment to steady her. “Be out in a second, Buffy!” he called, then kissed Jenny’s nose. She laughed.

“Giles, can you please stop making out with your wife and just come out here?” Buffy called.

Giles rolled his eyes a little, opening the office door and leaning against the doorframe. Jenny stepped up next to him. “What brings you three to the library this early?” he asked, a little concerned by the answer. “Generally our—ah—study group doesn’t meet before lunch.”

“Yeah, well, that was before Angel and I had to fend off three really nasty—” Buffy stopped, glancing furtively at Jenny. “Um, they—”

“Vampires?” said Jenny.

Buffy, Willow, Xander, and Giles all stared incredulously at her.

“Look, I, uh, know you’re shocked,” continued Jenny, completely misinterpreting their stares, “but you all seem absolutely hell-bent on placing yourselves in progressively weirder and more dangerous situation. After that stuff with the hyenas last week, I think it’s important that you all know about the whole vampire situation in Sunnydale.”

“I’m sorry?” said Giles.

“Vampires are real,” said Jenny patiently.

Buffy gaped at Jenny. After a very pointed look from Giles, she seemed to remember how to speak again. “Yep!” she managed. “Vampires! Wow, that is some shocking information right there, Ms. Calendar, and it brings up a lot of questions!”

“Like, say, how does Ms. Calendar know about vampires without Giles knowing Ms. Calendar knew about vampires?” Willow asked.

“That is a very good question, Willow,” said Buffy, giving Giles a death glare. “Why would Giles not know that his wife knew about vampires? Especially considering—”

“—that I myself am working on a paranormal book,” Giles finished very loudly, glaring right back at Buffy. “Jenny, why on earth didn’t you tell me?”

Jenny exhaled, looking up at Giles. “I didn’t want to put you in danger,” she said softly. “You find it easily enough even without knowing about vampires.”

This made sense, and didn’t surprise Giles in the slightest. Most of this information wasn’t new to him, after all. What was new was the fact that Jenny had just made her knowledge of the supernatural very clear to the children, and the children now knew that Jenny knew about vampires, which raised a lot of obvious questions as to why Giles hadn’t yet told her he was a Watcher. “I understand,” he said, smiling weakly. He did his best not to look at Buffy, Willow, and Xander, who all looked varying degrees of disapproving. “That, um, must have caused you quite a lot of worry.”

Jenny waved a dismissive hand. “We’ve been through that part before,” she said. “You know I worry about you. That’s not in question. What I want to know is why there were vampires chasing Buffy and—” She stopped, a strange expression on her face, and then said, “Angel.”

Buffy didn’t miss this. “Do you know Angel?” she asked curiously.

“You said he helped you fend off some vampires last night?” Jenny asked, so confident and casual that only Giles noticed she hadn’t answered Buffy’s question.

“Yeah,” said Buffy. A soft, slow smile spread across her face. “He had to spend the night with me.”

Jenny blanched. Willow beamed. Xander said, loud and furious, “He spent the night? In your room? In your bed?”

“Not in my bed,” Buffy corrected, still smiling. “By my bed.”

“That is so romantic!” Willow sighed. “Did you, uh…I mean, did he, uh…”

“Perfect gentleman,” said Buffy dreamily.

“Did you invite him in?” said Jenny suddenly.

Buffy looked surprised by the question. “What do you mean?”

“Did you say the words come in?” Jenny had a strange look in her eyes.

“I don’t know,” said Buffy slowly, looking a little amused. “It was kind of a life-or-death situation. You know how it is with vampires.”

“Unfortunately,” said Jenny grimly. “Buffy, Angel isn’t the kind of guy you want in your bedroom.”

“Thank you,” said Xander loudly, looking extremely pleased. “See? Even Ms. Calendar thinks Angel’s bad news.”

“You said yourself he’s not dangerous, didn’t you?” Buffy said plaintively, directing large puppy eyes at Jenny. “And nothing happened. He’s a good guy.”

Jenny bit her lip, considering. Then she said, “If anything happens, you let me know, Buffy. Do you understand that? Any single, solitary thing that seems out of the ordinary—”

“And I come to you, I got it.” Buffy beamed angelically.

Giles was beginning to frown. It was one thing for Jenny to have her secrets, but quite another for her secrets to intersect with his authority as a Watcher. Anything out of the ordinary that Buffy experienced had to be first and foremost reported to Giles, not Jenny. “May I speak with you in private?” he asked quietly, tugging at Jenny��s sleeve.

Jenny looked a little surprised. “Sure,” she said, and let him lead her back into the office. As he shut the door, she sat down on the top of his desk, surveying him with a hopeful interest. “Stealing a kiss?” she said lightly.

“Not quite,” said Giles. “Jenny, what is going on between you and Angel? It’s clear you know something about him that you aren’t divulging.”

Jenny considered this. Then she said, “Rupert, you took that new information about vampires a lot better than I expected you to. What’s up with that?”

Giles exhaled, impatient. “I research the supernatural quite extensively,” he said. “The concept of vampires being real is a possibility that has crossed my mind more than once. What don’t Buffy and I know about Angel?”

“Something that isn’t any of your business,” said Jenny. “Something that shouldn’t be any of your business, not if I have anything to say about it. He shouldn’t be staying in a teenage girl’s bedroom.”

“He seems a decent enough fellow,” said Giles quietly. “Certainly not the type to take any liberties.”

“You don’t know him,” said Jenny, looking directly up at Giles.

“And that’d be helped if you told me why I should be worried!” Giles snapped, frustrated.

Jenny flushed, looking genuinely hurt. As she crossed her arms against her chest, Giles felt a sudden, painful twinge of guilt. “If you trust me like you say you do, you’ll know I wouldn’t ever keep something from you without good reason,” she said quietly, “Believe me, Rupert, this is something I want to tell you, but there are so many other factors in play. The moment I can tell you, I swear I will. Right now isn’t that moment.” She drew in a shaking breath. “I wish it was.”

Giles felt terrible. Here he was guarding his secrets with every intention of keeping them from Jenny for as long as possible, and here she was telling him she wanted, badly, to share her own with him. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “It’s difficult to know that there are parts of you I don’t understand.”

“Well, hey, that’s marriage,” said Jenny with a wobbly laugh. “Not exactly a picnic, but…worth the work.” She reached out, squeezing Giles’s hands.

“I do trust you,” said Giles softly. “More than most.”

“I’d hope so,” said Jenny. There was that beautiful smile, tentative and sincere, the one that only he ever brought out.

Giles was tempted, badly, to kiss her again, but the children were outside and waiting. Reluctantly, he dropped her hands. “I’d best get back to the children,” he murmured. “And I—”

Jenny gripped his shirt, pressing her mouth firmly to his. Giles laughed a bit breathlessly, kissing her back.

Things had changed between them. Giles, half-awake in bed that night, was quite comfortable admitting that. Jenny touched him because she wanted to touch him, and kissed him because she liked him, and did the washing up because he did the cooking and she felt like it was only fair. He liked talking to her at night, both of them drowsy and safe in bed, about art and literature and that frankly ridiculous thing that some student in her class had done. Saying that he was smitten with her didn’t quite cover his growing feelings for her—not when everything he found out about her seemed to solidify how very much he cared for her.

It was these feelings that posed a problem. Giles was deeply afraid of losing her if ever she found out how much he had been keeping from her. It was true that she understood secrets, especially with some of her own, but he didn’t at all know how she would feel about the entire extra facet of his personality. To her, he was Rupert, a gentle librarian, but to Buffy and Willow and Xander, he was Giles, a Watcher and a researcher. He couldn’t at all imagine her loving both.

Caring for both.

Giles let out a frightened breath. When had he started wanting Jenny to love him?

Jenny, as always, had fallen asleep first, her head pillowed on his shoulder. It was giving Giles a frustrating amount of time to think—about her, about him, about the impossibilities that he wanted for the both of them. He imagined meeting Jenny the way they were supposed to have met, not roundabout, not married to her in Vegas before they had even learned to like each other. He thought about how they might have met in a staff meeting before school started, and he might have found out she knew more than he had expected, and she might have gotten to know him as a Watcher and a friend all in one. Him asking her out to dinner, their stumbling through a sweet, awkward courtship, them falling in love without secrets between them.

“Jenny,” he said softly.

Jenny stirred against his chest. “Mm?”

“Do you think—would we have been better, had we met the right way round?” Giles asked, his own voice weary. He wished he could fall asleep as easily as her.

Jenny hummed, cuddling into him. “I think I’m happy I’m here,” she whispered.

Something about that made Giles feel better and worse at the same time. He kissed the top of her head, closing his eyes.

The next day brought alarming news.

“Angel’s a vampire?” said Willow disbelievingly.

“I can't believe this is happening,” said Buffy, small and tired. “One minute we were kissing, and the next minute…” She looked plaintively to Giles. “Can a vampire ever be a good person? Couldn't it happen?”

Giles kept on thinking of Jenny’s words. He shouldn’t be staying in a teenage girl’s bedroom. And yet if Angel was truly a threat…how could Jenny possibly put Buffy’s life at risk? “I don’t know,” he said quietly. “By all accounts, a vampire isn't a person at all.”

“But Ms. Calendar let him stay with Buffy!” Willow objected, distressed. “Why would she do that if Angel’s a bad guy?”

If you trust me like you say you do, you’ll know I wouldn’t ever keep something from you without good reason.

“Giles?” Willow turned to him.

There had to be some other explanation. But Jenny knowing about Angel, Jenny knowing about the supernatural, Jenny showing up in Giles’s life and being so distracting, so lovely, so absolutely wonderful—god, he should have known. There was always a catch. “I need to speak to my wife,” said Giles acidly, and hurried past the children, up the stairs, through the hallway, not bothering to look back.

Jenny was setting up her classroom, humming the song that had been on the radio when they’d driven to school that morning. She turned as he stepped into the room; her smile faded at his expression. “What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Angel is a vampire,” said Giles.

Jenny paled. “Did he hurt Buffy?”

“I think the time for games is very much over, Jenny,” said Giles coldly. “Tell me what you know.”

“There aren’t any—any games, Rupert, and I can’t believe you would think—tell me if he hurt Buffy,” Jenny demanded. “God, please, I—I would have told you if I’d known—” She let out a choked sob, pressing her fingers to her mouth. “She’s so small,” she whispered. “She’s sixteen. I couldn’t tell you, I should have told you—”

“Buffy is fine,” said Giles. Then, “You knew he was a vampire.”

“It’s family stuff,” whispered Jenny. “It’s complicated.”

“I’m an intelligent man.”

Jenny swallowed. She stepped around Giles, shutting the door. “I don’t want to tell you this now,” she said. “I don’t. I want to tell you because I want to tell you, not out of guilt. You know me. You know I wouldn’t do anything if I thought it would hurt you or those kids. He’s a vampire, but it’s—complicated. He isn’t like most of them.”

“If there’s any chance he’ll hurt Buffy, it would help if we had some extra information,” said Giles sharply.

“He—” Jenny stared at him, wide-eyed. “You don’t trust me,” she said quietly.

“Jenny.”

“How is my word not enough on this one?”

“He’s a vampire, Jenny!” Giles shouted. “You can’t just—just speak in vague terms and tell me to follow you blindly! Buffy’s life may very well be at stake, and you’re concerned as to whether or not I trust you enough? You need to get your bloody priorities in order before you start chiding me for not trusting the stranger I drunkenly married!”

The second after he had said it, he realized his mistake like a punch to the gut. He was treating this situation like he didn’t know Jenny, like she hadn’t bandaged his hands and kissed him in a morgue drawer and looped a cross around his neck just to keep him safe. She had given him every reason to trust her, had gone so far as to beg him to understand that she didn’t want to keep secrets from him—she had even been honest enough to admit that she had secrets in the first place. And here he was yelling at her as though he didn’t have a thousand and one secrets of his own.

But Jenny was looking at him, her expression now utterly, purposefully unreadable. “You know what?” she said. “You’re right. I’m some stranger you barely know. You have every fucking reason to think I might want to hurt the kids under my care.” She nodded, a jerky motion. “I get the message loud and clear, Rupert.”

“Jenny,” said Giles weakly. He felt sick to his stomach.

“I think we’re done here,” said Jenny, and turned on her heel, walking out of the classroom without looking back.

Giles sat down, head spinning, on the edge of Jenny’s desk.

“Giles?”

Giles looked up. Willow was standing in the doorway, looking shaken and sad. “How much of that did you hear?” he asked tiredly.

“Um, you guys weren’t exactly quiet,” said Willow uncertainly. “It’s pretty lucky that everybody else is in class. This is my TA period for Ms. Calendar, though, so—”

“Willow,” said Giles.

“I heard drunkenly married,” mumbled Willow. “I covered my ears after that, though, I promise.”

Giles removed his glasses, shakily cleaning them with his handkerchief. He couldn’t quite look at Willow as she sat down next to him. But he couldn’t leave things so ambiguous, especially not if she might tell Buffy or Xander about what she had heard. Someone, at least, deserved the truth. “We met in Las Vegas two weeks before term started,” he said quietly. “We were both laid over there. She swept me off my feet in a bar, we got ridiculously drunk, and we woke up the next day legally bound.”

Willow was silent for a very long time. It took Giles a good two minutes to look up at her, and when he did, she gave him a weak smile. “Just trying to process,” she said.

“I quite understand,” said Giles wryly.

“It’s just…” Willow sighed. “You guys click,” she said. “It’s hard for me to imagine the both of you being complete strangers to each other.”

Giles swallowed. “There are many mistakes I have made in my life,” he said. “I don’t think marrying Jenny was one of them.” This felt too much of an admission. He hastened to change the subject. “But she knew Angel was a vampire, and that—I—I was afraid she was using me. To get to Buffy. Hurt her, somehow.”

“You know she wouldn’t do that!” said Willow, all but affronted.

“I had it in my head that I didn’t know her well enough to make that judgment,” said Giles heavily.

Willow huffed. “That’s crazy talk,” she said.

Giles exhaled. “I’m well aware,” he said, rather unable to look at Willow. The thought that he had caused Jenny needless pain was so much worse than Jenny being some sort of manipulative spy. “I should talk to her,” he said finally.

“Yeah, you should,” said Willow, giving him a momentary smile. “Just give her some space. I think she’s gonna need it.”

Giving Jenny space wasn’t as hard as Giles had imagined it to be. Jenny missed absolutely all of her classes, and when Giles headed to the parking lot at the end of the day, she had already left in her car. Seeing as she’d driven him to the high school, he ended up having to walk home, which gave him an unpleasant amount of time alone with his own thoughts. By the time he finally made it up the porch steps, it was dangerously close to sunset.

Jenny opened the door for him. “I’m sorry,” she said stiffly. “As mad as I am at you, I shouldn’t have left you at school.”

“Don’t you dare apologize to me,” said Giles quietly, shutting the door behind him. He made sure to give Jenny a wide berth; physical space was just as important as emotional space. “I was utterly horrible to you today, Jenny. I don’t know how I can begin to make it up to you.”

“I don’t know either,” said Jenny, staring him down.

Giles shoved his hands into his pockets, mostly to stop his physical compulsion to reach out to Jenny. Though her expression was one of resolute anger, he knew he had hurt her in a way that went beyond fury. “I was afraid,” he said finally. “Of you being too good to be true.”

“Skip the Hallmark-card bullshit, Rupert,” said Jenny flatly. “Tell me something real and I’ll consider—”

“Angry, then, how’s that?” said Giles, humiliation sharpening his words. “I was angry, Jenny, that you didn’t tell me any of this. I hated that you gave me a reason to doubt you—”

“That’s your own damn fault for not listening, then!” Jenny’s eyes flashed. “I told you I wanted to tell you everything, I just needed time!”

“How much time, hmm?” Giles took a step closer, unthinking, then stopped himself. Give her some space. “What happened if we ran out of time and Buffy ended up dead in her bed? If she knew he was a vampire, she’d have never let him in and you know it—”

“This isn’t about Buffy and it never was!” Jenny shouted. “You’re angry that your wife is a complete stranger to you and you don’t know every single fucking thought in her head! Well, guess what, Rupert, that’s what you sign up for when you’re a drunken moron who marries the first pretty girl that gives you the time of day!”

Giles reeled, drawing in a sharp, shaking breath. “I suppose I deserved that,” he said finally.

Jenny froze, mouth half-open. It was clear she’d been expecting him to throw another insult at her, and the absence of it had taken her off guard. No, not off guard—oh, no, oh, Jenny—

Without even thinking about it, Giles took two running steps across the living room and tugged a sobbing Jenny into his arms. Not once had she cried like this in all the time he’d seen her, and the thought that he had caused this was unbearable. “I’m so sorry,” he whispered into her hair, close to tears himself. “Jenny, please, I never—never meant to hurt you like this.”

Jenny sobbed something incoherent into his shoulder that sounded very much like an insult, but she was still holding onto him very tightly.

Giles drew in a soft breath, steadied by her presence. “You’re right,” he said quietly, stroking her hair. “This was never about Buffy. I was—afraid, and don’t tell me that that’s Hallmark-card rubbish—”

“I think what I said was Hallmark-card bullshit,” said Jenny. She was still crying, but her words were now at least relatively understandable. “Making our argument a little more G-rated?”

“Bloodbath would be more apropos for what went down in that classroom,” said Giles ruefully. “Though I think we both know that we have the propensity for rather explosive fights.”

Jenny made a noise between a sob and a laugh. “You could say that, yeah,” she mumbled.

“I was afraid,” said Giles again. “That your arrival in my life was somehow not a coincidence, that…that your designs on me were meant to hurt Buffy and myself.”

“Dumbest conspiracy theory ever,” said Jenny flatly, turning her head to rest her cheek on Giles’s chest.

“It’d explain rather well why—” Giles stopped, rather afraid that she could feel his heart pounding. “The more I get to know you, the more I find myself—smitten,” he said. The words didn’t come easily. “And you’re,” he laughed a little tiredly, “quite right that these admissions shouldn’t come tinged with guilt, Jenny. I’d much rather have told you this under happier circumstances. But the fact remains that my feelings for you are rapidly becoming large enough to eclipse any nefarious intent you could have had, and that’s frightening. I am, I am a man of logic, of reason, one who shouldn’t be swayed by—”

Jenny reached up, pressing her finger to his lips. Giles shut his mouth. Lowering her hand, she looked at him steadily, then said, “I believe you, and I get it. But none of that erases what you said to me.”

“I don’t want to erase it,” said Giles quietly. “I want to learn from it. I want you to be angry at me, rightfully so, and I want to prove that I can make things up to you.”

Something in Jenny’s expression softened. “Well, that’s a damn good start,” she murmured, and placed her hands on his shoulders, steadying Giles before she kissed him.

Giles kissed her back for a moment, then pulled away. “You’re not a stranger, you know,” he said earnestly.

“No?” There was clear vulnerability in Jenny’s eyes.

“No,” said Giles softly. “It was cruel of me to say as such, not to mention entirely dishonest. I was afraid, and panicking, but that doesn’t absolve me.”

Jenny swallowed, hard. “I can understand that,” she said. “I’d probably react pretty badly too if I found out you knew stuff about vampires and had been keeping it from me.”

The guilt was like a physical pain in Giles’s stomach, but he couldn’t possibly tell her now. Things were too fragile; it would have to wait just a bit longer. Unable to respond in a way that wasn’t a lie, he kissed her instead, purposefully losing himself in the blissful wonder that was kissing Jenny Calendar—

The phone rang.

“Damn,” Giles muttered, pulling away from Jenny.

“So we’ll save the makeup sex for later, huh?” said Jenny, and gave him a small, wobbly smile.

“Don’t tease,” said Giles, smiling back as he picked up the phone. “Yes?”

“Giles, we have a problem,” came Xander’s voice. “It’s Angel.”

All of Jenny’s slowly-returning happiness had dissipated as soon as Giles had told her what had happened to Joyce. She hadn’t said a word during the drive to the hospital, and seemed either unwilling or unable to let go of Giles’s hand. Both, perhaps.

“Do you remember anything, Mom?” Giles heard Buffy saying from a nearby hospital room. Jenny swayed on her feet; he slipped an arm around her waist, steadying her, and she hid her face in his jacket.

“It’s not your fault,” he whispered.

“You don’t know that,” said Jenny flatly.

“No matter what idiocy I said today, you have more than earned my trust,” said Giles quietly. “A thousand times over, Jenny, you have been here for me.”

But Jenny shook her head, pulling back to look at him. “I knew,” she said. “I knew what he was capable of and I just let him—”

“You didn’t let him do a damn thing,” said Giles firmly. “He’s a monster.”

“He’s not,” Jenny burst out. “That’s—that’s the problem, Rupert.”

“What?”

Jenny exhaled. “I’m Romani.”

This was quite literally the last thing Giles had been expecting her to say. “What does that have to do with—” Jenny gave him a look, and he coughed. “Right. Sorry. Do go on.”

“My family, generations ago, lost a daughter to Angelus,” said Jenny, never looking away from Giles. “A favorite daughter. He killed her, and so they cursed him, and I’m here to make sure that he’s still suffering from that curse.”

“All right,” said Giles slowly. This made quite a lot of sense. “But—does this curse mean that he isn’t a danger to others?”

“The curse means that he has a soul,” said Jenny. “His soul. His moral compass, which should tell him right from wrong. The idea was to, to make him feel the guilt of all the terrible things he’d done—keep him suffering for eternity.” She exhaled, unsmiling. “I don’t like that idea,” she said. “It’s endless, pointless vengeance. I wanted to do as little of my job as possible, because he seemed guilty enough as it was.”

“If he had a soul,” said Giles, “then why on earth did he go after Joyce?”

Jenny’s hands tightened around his forearms and her head fell forward. “I don’t know!” she sobbed out. “I was the only one who knew what he was and I should have told you, you’re my husband, we could have stopped this somehow—”

“Jenny,” Giles whispered, gathering her into his arms. “This is in no way your fault. You had no idea this could have happened…” He trailed off, a lump in his throat. “And there I was blaming you for all of it. I’m so—”

“I’m gonna punch you out if you say sorry, Rupert,” said Jenny into his chest.

Startled, Giles laughed. Jenny raised her head, giving him a small, uncertain smile. “Then I’ll withhold my apologies for the time being, Jenny,” he said.

A strange expression crossed Jenny’s face.

“What is it?”

“It’s just—” Jenny bit her lip. “Janna,” she said.

“I’m sorry?”

“My given name is Janna,” said Jenny. “But it—I—Jenny Calendar’s the lady who married you, you know? I like being her.” She smiled exhaustedly. “You’re the simplest fucking thing in my life, Rupert,” she said. “The rest of it’s a mess, but…” She trailed off.

Giles could think of nothing less simple than being a Watcher’s wife. But the concept of telling Jenny the truth, of possibly hurting her more after she had just been so vulnerable with him, was worse by far than keeping this secret just a little while longer. “I am happy to be whatever you need,” he said instead, and kissed the top of her head.

Jenny snuggled into his arms. “We should tell Buffy,” she murmured.

“I quite agree,” said Giles, and let go of her, just enough for her to take his arm instead. Together, they entered the room, finding Buffy, Willow, and Xander all gathered around Joyce Summers’s bed.

“Ms. Calendar!” Willow perked up. “You’re looking—”

“—kinda awful, actually,” said Xander matter-of-factly. “Finally realize you’re married to the dorkiest man on the planet?”

“I also grade your assignments, Xander,” said Jenny, fixing him with a look that immediately shut him up.

“Are you another doctor?” Joyce asked Giles blearily.

“Oh, um, no, my, my wife and I are faculty at Sunnydale High School,” Giles explained. “We came to, ah, wish you a speedy recovery.”

“Boy, the teachers really do care in this town,” said Joyce, grinning a little.

Buffy’s face was tight. “Get some rest now,” she said, pressing a kiss to her mother’s cheek and leading Willow and Xander out of the room. Giles and Jenny followed. “She’s going to be okay,” she informed Giles. “They gave her some iron—”

“Buffy, Jenny has some important information about Angel,” said Giles, squeezing Jenny’s hand.

Buffy looked a little surprised. “So you do know him,” she said.

“I do know him,” Jenny confirmed. “And…I think you all deserve to know why.”

Jenny’s explanation led to Buffy deciding that there was a factor she was missing regarding Angel’s attack on her mother, which led to Giles asking a few more questions about the friend who Joyce had let into the house. This in turn revealed that it was Darla who had attacked Buffy’s mother, and so Buffy went after Darla, and Angel ended up helping Buffy finally take Darla down.

Giles found out about Darla’s death much, much later. He had instructed Buffy to take the night off, as Darla clearly wanted Buffy to go after Angel. He would later discover that Buffy had completely disregarded his words, as always, but currently, he was carefully shepherding Jenny into their house, then shutting the door behind him, hanging his coat on the coat tree by the door. “I’m sorry about the direction tonight took,” he said.

Jenny didn’t answer. Without a word, she grasped at his sleeve, fingers brushing his wrist.

“Jenny?”

“You didn’t have to be as kind as you were,” she said, and gave him a small, wobbly smile.

“You’re giving me much too much credit,” said Giles wryly. “If you’ll recall, I was completely horrible to you when first I found out—”

Jenny shook her head. “You didn’t have all the facts,” she said. “And now here you are with all of them, and you’re taking them in stride. I…” She trailed off. “You’re almost too good to be true,” she said. “I feel like there’s got to be some catch here, but there isn’t. There’s just you.”

Her fingers were drawing quiet, deliberate circles against the skin of his wrist, and the way she was looking at him brought back a sudden flash of memory—

“—have you heard that thing about annulments?” his new wife was saying, eyes half-lidded.

“Can’t recall,” said Giles, and took a sip of the horribly fruity drink from the hotel room mini-bar. It was the last alcoholic beverage left, or he most likely wouldn’t be drinking it at all.

“That thing where if you don’t consummate the marriage, it can be annulled like—” she snapped her fingers, “—that?”

“Don’t think that’s how it works,” Giles corrected, attempting to sound as dignified as possible even through his inebriation. “It’s more…more like, if a marriage is carried out while one ‘r both of the participants are…are unsound of body or mind—”

Jenny straddled his lap and kissed him. In his enthusiasm to return the kiss, Giles spilled the fruity drink all over the bedsheets—

“—come here,” Giles whispered, and kissed her. Jenny made a soft, shaky noise against his mouth and kissed him back—

—the sheets would have to be changed, he was certain, though he felt ridiculous for fixating on such a thing when he was married, for the first time ever, and wasn’t it romantic, meeting his wife and knowing right off that she was the one he wanted to be with? Marrying her because he didn’t want to waste a day? Jenny pushed at his shoulders until he’d fallen back into the pillows, and then he heard a sound like tearing fabric.

“Shit,” she laughed, pulling back, and Giles saw that the purple dress had ripped. “Okay, okay, hold on, I need to—”

“Take it off,” Giles suggested.

“Mmm, sounds good,” Jenny agreed—

“—only I wouldn’t want to pressure you into anything you aren’t ready for,” Giles murmured, breaking the kiss to rest his forehead against hers.

Jenny laughed softly. “Are you kidding?” she whispered. “Even after you found out I’m in Sunnydale watching a vampire with a soul, you’re still worrying about me? I can handle the decisions I make, Rupert. Kiss me.”

“No decision has been overtly made, Jenny,” Giles reminded her gently. “I did mean what I say about consent being important in this situation.”

Jenny smiled a little. “I want to sleep with you,” she said softly. “I want to be close to you.”

Giles studied Jenny, a lump in his throat. He was more than aware that Jenny’s vulnerability was something he hadn’t truly earned. Taking advantage of it under false pretenses didn’t feel right, no matter how very deeply he returned her feelings. The truth had to come out now, before they became even closer. “Jenny,” he began. “I have to tell you—”

Jenny exhaled, almost a laugh. “Whatever it is,” she said, “can it please wait? I’ve wanted—I want this. And I’m not stupid, Rupert, I know there’s still gonna be stuff I don’t know about you. That’s okay. I just wanna be with you right now.”

Giles wavered—

—his hands fluttered nervously to rest at her waist, gentle and careful. Out of the dress, she looked so much smaller, less polished and perfect. He felt as though he might hurt her if he wasn’t paying enough attention.

“I’m not a china doll, husband,” she said, trying out the word with a giggle. “Husband. God. Not gonna get used to that any time soon.”

“Do you regret it?” he asked.

She didn’t hesitate. “No.”

His hands gripped her waist as he kissed her—

—and kissed her, and kissed her, and carried her into the bedroom, overbalancing in the doorway so that they half-fell onto the bed. There was a sudden sense of urgency to Jenny’s kisses, one that Giles could understand. Their connection still felt so tenuous, especially after how easily he had been able to believe that there might be some—

“Catch,” he realized, and laughed a little.

“Huh?” Jenny blinked at him, moving up to lean back against the headboard. Her disheveled hair and half-unbuttoned blouse were bringing back much more explicit memories of their wedding night.

“I find it so hard to believe that you can just be you,” said Giles softly. “Much as you feel like there has to be a catch for me just being me. The likelihood of me marrying someone so, so kind, so brave, not just a belligerent stranger who microwaves plastic—”

“Now that’s the way I want people to describe me all the time,” said Jenny, and while her words were playful, her smile was something more akin to loving. “Come here, Rupert.”

“Yes, dear,” said Giles, a low purr, and her answering shiver was delicious as he moved up the bed to press her into the pillows.

[franeridart]

#kaminariprotectionsquad

Anon said:SHINSOU KAMI AND KIRI ARE THE MOST PRECIOUST BOYS WHO WE MUST PROTECT

None of these strong amazing boys actually needs protecting but is that gonna stop me from trying? Is it?? (the answer is no)

Anon said:Hi! If you haven't already answered this, would you mind listing the tags/ships you aren't comfortable with people tagging your art with?

Ohhhhhh what an interesting ask, I’ve been thinking about how to answer since I got it and?? I’m not sure, so let’s put it like this: generally, if the art is obviously meant as platonic I’d prefer it if you didn’t use the ship tag on it, but as a general rule I don’t actually mind people tagging ships anyway? I know how this site works so if I’m really uncomfortable with the idea of it being misinterpreted as romantic I’m just not gonna post anything with those characters in it from the start

That said, sometimes people tagging ships confuses me a lot??? For example the majority of people who’ve reblogged my latest bnha comic have tagged it with the bkdk tag and? There’s nothing romantic about it?? Bakugou is literally off to kill Deku why is that romantic we just don’t know, bkdk shippers seem to have an understanding of romance completely different from mine haha

Ah, also I’ve been having people tagging my bokuro and akaken arts with the ot4 tag, even if I rarely ever draw all of them in the same place. Please don’t do that. Like. Seriously.

As for the general tags, there’s a lot of tags I don’t understand, but from there to saying I’m uncomfortable with them is a bit of a huge step... the one thing that comes to mind is people trigger-tagging Bakugou’s mom. That’s. Hm. I happen to really like that woman and my drawings depict her in a positive light always, so if people could stop that it would be very nice? That’s about it tho~

Anon said: Bakugou smiling omg bless your soul

!!!!!!!!!!!!! Smiling Bakugou is a happy Bakugou and happy Bakugou is a happy Fran so you can 100% expect more of it 👍👍

Anon said:I'm rooting for Kacchan as his hero name. I feel like it would be a huge step personality wise for Katsuki, just like 'Deku' was for Izuku. I feel like they might become civil with each other and hopefully even friends. For Shouto it would be amazing if he could find a name that shows he's accepted who he is but that he isn't a prisoner of his blood...... even though I have no idea how to show that with a name lol

Ah, I’m sure in the future Bakugou and Izuku will be on civil terms, but here’s the thing anon. Deku was a name with a negative connotation given to Izuku the degrade him - someone Izuku holds dear changed the meaning for him, made it something positive, and Izuku took the name back and made it his own, like a phoenix reborn from its ashes. It was a positive thing because it used to be a negative one, you follow me? It also didn’t have anything to do with Bakugou. Izuku took that name away from him, he didn’t accept Deku as a name to show some sort of positive change in his relationship with Bakugou, it was more about him cutting Bakugou of a source of power he had over him. It was distancing himself from Bakugou, not growing closer

Kacchan doesn’t have anything like that tied to it, it’s just a childish name Izuku has been using since he was four, most probably because everyone used to call Bakugou that - Bakugou doesn’t actually care for the name, or else he would have found a way to make Izuku stop using it. He doesn’t like it, but he doesn’t actively dislike it either, he just does not care, right? So there’s no way him accepting it as the way the whole world knows him as would be some sort of positive change for him, imho

What I meant when I said that I really hope it doesn’t happen is that all it would be for Bakugou is just yet another smack on the growing list of things gone wrong for him - there’s no way Bakugou would willingly accept such a childish name as his hero name just for the hell of it, one thing is growing up and a whole other thing is him making a 180° on his personality like that. So, like, I really don’t want it to happen because I want Bakugou for once to have things go as he wishes, but considering the amount of times the narrative has punished Bakugou and how often his plans have gone on the opposite direction compared to what he was working for, would I be surprised if that choice too were to be taken from him? Absolutely not

As for Todoroki, as I said I have never spent time thinking about his hero name? I kind of assumed he actually wanted to be known as Shouto, but you really never know with him! His character is always going in directions I don’t expect one bit, so his hero name too, if it comes, is probably gonna be something I hadn’t seen coming at all haha

Anon said:THE TAGS ON THAT LAST BAKUSHIMA KILLED ME THATS SO SWEET AND IT ALSO MADE SENSE AND I LOVE THIS IS MY NEW FAVORITE THING THANK YOU FOR BLESSING ME WITH THAT YOU AND YOUR ART ARE INCREDIBLE I HOPE YOU'RE HAVING A LOVELY DAY

Anon said:I love your ring hc for that last post omg it's perfect

OHHHHHHHHHH I’M GLAD YOU BOTH LIKED IT!!!! I hope you’re having the best days too!!!!!!!

Anon said:dude, your art output is simply incredible, you post something pretty much every single day, and its not even just single pictures, its comics! with lots of poses! and anatomy! ahhh, bless you, youre a gift!!! A GIFT!!! your comics are adorable and funny and so in-character <333 (how much time do you spend drawing every day? >u<) anyway, may inspiration never leave you and have a wonderful week!

Thank you!!!!!!!!! So much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh my gODS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Annnnnndddddddddddddddddddd.............. actually............... I kind of............................. not do much aside from drawing................................. r i p

(The thing is that I draw to make myself feel happy when I’m sad. I’m. Always sad. So.)

Anon said: Fran why are people shipping Todoroki with Kaminari ? i mean the pics are nice but i was wondering if there was an interaction between them ?

They were on the same team during the cavalry battle! And!! That’s about it!!! Horikoshi has doodled them together now and again in his twitter sketches but as far as canon goes that should be the only significant interaction they’ve had. I don’t mind the ship? They could be cute, but I don’t exactly ship it. Then again I lowkey ship Todoroki with Sero so who am I to talk

Anon said:Ao3 dealing with a wildcard

I don’t!!! Understand this ask!!! Anon help me out please!!!

Anon said:BRO, that last comic with Bakugou's hero name is PRICELESS! I know you said you actually would prefer him to have a cool name, but could you imagine if this happened in cannon?! I would DIE of laughter! Or worse, imagine if Bakugou did end up with the hero name Ground Zero, but everyone in the public decides to call him Kacchan ANYWAYS, because it's adorable and if deku can call him that, then why shouldn't anyone else? XD I just can't!

Bakugou spending the rest of his life trying to make people use his actual hero name and failing miserably is the single most rational and canon comment I’ve gotten about that comic I’m not even gonna lie hahahaha

Anon said:As soon as I finished reading your Teacher!Bakugou post, I couldn't help but think of that meme/twitter compilation. The one where the teacher is going over safety procedures only for the students to show how much they love their teacher. Like, one student says they'll avenge Bakugou if he ends up getting hurt while another says they'll go after the perpetrator's kids. This idea is gold~!

The problem here is that I can’t really see Bakugou giving a straight “no you can’t do that” answer to those suggestions oh my god what a disaster lmao

Anon said:I just wanted to say that I love your terushimas and your bokuroos and especially your kiribakus (actually the hole bakusquad) and that I'd love to see tokoyami more in your art style (as he's my fav in bnha)

Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!! More Tokoyami is definitely coming!!! I love him so much and he’s so much fun to draw!!!!!!!!!!!

Anon said:Hey! I love your art, seeing it on my dash always makes me happy! I'm sorry you have people demanding things from you and not respecting your work, you don't deserve that

Anon you’re so sweet o<-< oh my gods - it’s fine tho! I mean, it’s not fine but I’m used to it? Sadly. Haha.

[meizworld]

85 Statements Tag Game

Rules: you must answer these 85 statements and tag 20 people as many people as you like 

I was tagged by @rezeren. I’ve never been tagged before by someone other than people I personally know so I’m actually really happy xD Thank you! I tag: @keombeobaechi @seokjinings @rose-tylers @taehyung-the-baehyung @vergina-spva @coffeeindaegu @hobiemin @chimchams @slushiesandsawyer (obviously you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to)

The last…

1. drink: Ice tea 2. phone call: My temp employment agency? (I don’t know how to call this in English) 3. text message: My mum, that she was coming home from work xD 4. song you listened to: War of Hormone by BTS 5. time you cried: I don’t really remember, a few days ago? I cry a lot xD 6. time you dated someone twice: uhm never 7. time you kissed someone and regretted it: not even that 8. time you were cheated on: not officially 9. time you lost someone special: luckily no-one I was exceptionally close to, I did lose my grandma in 2013, she was the grandparent who lived longest and whom I therefore was the closest with (my other grandparents all passed away when I was younger and I wasn’t really close with them) 10. time you were depressed: it never really stops 11. time you got drunk and threw up: never

Favorite colors

12. Purple 13. Viridian (I just learned of this color name today lol) 14. I love all colors actually In the last year have you…

15: Made new friends: yep, thanks to my exchange year in Japan ^^ 16. Fallen out of love: yep, it’s what I do 17: Laughed until you cried: yep 18. Found out someone was talking about you: nope, maybe people did but I haven’t found out :P 19. Met someone who changed you: this is kind of vague, I guess I met people who didn’t personally change me as a person, but helped develop my personality, helped make me stronger, changed my feelings about something, etc. 20. Found out who your friends are: yep (I already know, but I keep getting reminded of how much it’s actually true) 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: nope General 22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life? Everyone, I principally don’t add anyone on Facebook unless I know for sure I really know them, met them and had at least one face-to-face conversation with them  23. Do you have any pets? Nope, I used to have a cat but she passed away in 2003 24. Do you want to change your name? No, I like my name 25. What did you do for your last birthday? High tea 26. What time did you wake up? 10:15 or something 27. What were you doing at midnight last night? Translating 28. Name something you can’t wait for: uhmmm short-term or long-term? Short-term: graduating - Long-term: something working out for me in life 29. When was the last time you saw your mum? We just had dinner together so 30 minutes ago? (Question 30 is missing ooohh) 31. What are you listening to right now? Silence 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom? Sure 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: People judging me for being my age and not having had a single boyfriend or a job or independence or whatever society expects of my generation and isn’t always achievable for everyone 34. Most visited website: ondramanice.com  35. Hair colour: dark brown 36. Long of short hair? short 37. Do you have a crush on someone? kinda, even though it’s fictional 38. What do you like about yourself? my eyes and my honesty 39. Piercings? nope 40. Bloodtype: O 41. Nickname: roebs I guess? 42. Relationship status: single 43. Zodiac: Gemini 44. Pronouns: (I wasn’t sure what this meant so I looked at other people’s answers) but ‘her’  45. Favourite TV show: Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. etc etc etc 46. Tattoos: nope 47. Right or left handed: right 48. Surgery: nope 49. Piercings: again? nope and no thanks 50. Sport: theater 51. Holiday: There’s a bunch of places I still wanna visit in Europe, and I suppose outside of Europe as well xD 52. Pair of trainers: I don’t get what the question here is but I like sneakers more than heels xD my favorite pair of sneakers are my Adidas which are sadly  More general

53. Eating: nothing at the moment  54. Drinking: nothing at the moment 55. I’m about to: probably watch some more Modern Family and then go to sleep 56. Waiting for: something to happen to my life which will magically fix everything 57. Want: something to happen to my life which will magically fix everything 58. Get married: I wish 59. Career: I honestly don’t know 60. Hugs or kisses: Hugs 61. Lips or eyes: Eyes 62. Shorter or taller: Preferably taller 63. Older or younger: I’m guessing this is about guys? xD in that case, not too old and not too young :P 64. Nice arms of nice stomach: nice arms 65. Hook up or relationship: relationship 66. Troublemaker or hesitant: hesitance is one of my main characteristic features, I’m indecisive as heck xD 67. Kissed a stranger: nope 68. Drank hard liquor: I don’t think so… and even if I do it never really had an effect on me x’D I’ve never been drunk 69. Lost glasses/contact lenses: nah 70. Turned someone down: yep, most awkward situation of my life 71. Sex on the first date: that depends entirely on the situation, me no 72. Broken someone’s heart: *see 70* I got the feeling I did Dx 73. Had your heart broken: countless times woohoo 74. Been arrested: nope 75. Cried when someone died: definitely, mostly fictional characters tho x’D 76. Fallen for a friend: I guess once but that was just me misinterpreting my feelings

Do you believe in…

77. Yourself: I should more 78. Miracles: Only if one actually happens, I’ll believe it when I see it? I think this is a very relative question, I basically mean that if something would happen to me that I would consider really special and didn’t think would happen, I would probably call it a ‘miracle’, but I’m not talking about anything religious or theoretical here :P 79: Love at first sight: nope, not for me at least 80. Santa Claus: haha nope not anymore (In The Netherlands we have another festive holiday close to Christmas called Sinterklaas and I did believe in him for quite some time :P) 81. Kiss on the first date: again, depends entirely on the situation 82. Angels: I don’t know, I used to fantasize about angels and draw them a lot when I was young, I guess it would be nice if there were angels who would watch over us or something, but idk there are so many inexplicable things in this world… I really don’t know :P Other 83. Current best friend’s name: I don’t have one single best friend, I have a couple whom I’m equally close with, the ones with Tumblr are @vergina-spva @keombeobaechi and @hazelnootpasta :P 84. Eye colour: bluegreenish 85. Favourite movie: Okay I’m having that moment where I suddenly forget every single movie I ever saw and liked xD (seriously why are these questions coming only now, these are like the basic starting questions xD) but I love the Lord of the Rings trilogy very much oh and I just remembered my favorite Disney movie is The Hunchback of Notre Dame, I watched that recently xD Plus I really like movies by the Japanese director Kore-eda

[ryodan]

SasuNaru and the pinhole : part 3

If we do a time skip to after the akatsuki arc, Naruto comes to understand why someone wants revenge when their loved is killed and admits yeah he didn’t really get sasuke and this is where it gets :/ on Narutos behalf for me

In the land of iron sasuke is falling rapidly deeper into the curse of hatred because he is using mangekyo more and more, he is doing very unethical things like attacking the cloud and trying to live capture a man..he is a full blown S ranked criminal whos name alone was capable of triggering a war, no matter how I a sasuke fan can justify and explain his behavior people who don’t know about the COD can’t. Naruto himself was like?? Who are you dude. But obito shows up and he is told. Naruto is woke about the curse of hatred and he says ‘sasuke loved his clan a lot and that’s why he cant forgive.’ But at that time that was not the case. During his fight with danzo his mangekyo evolved the most to a point where afterwards he was losing vision, and his issue wasn’t just that he wants his clan back, his issue was was the massacre and the discrimination. Naruto was like near the point, but homeboy missed it. In fact, the one who actually point its out is Kakashi, but he says both Naruto and Sakura see it, meaning when they both saw sasukes way of talking about Konoha, they understood him better. I cut Naruto slack because he tried understanding sasuke constantly, no matter how much sasuke cut him off. But this shit does not get an easy pass, where he jumps in to clash with sasuke so they read each others thoughts,,its funny bc he says he gets it…then proceeds..not to get it

Why is he talking about himself here? I respect that Naruto always tried his best to understand him

but he knows about the fucking curse and he says one bad move and I would have been like you? Nah, sasukes fate was chosen the second he saw his parents corpses. Naruto hears him talk about the uchiha,,,,and says this. :// It’s insensitive to the fact that sasuke isn’t just a survivor of a tragedy, hes a survivor of a national genocide. But he literally doesn’t mention it.

Meaning they both know Indra and Ashuras charka are in them

Lol another misinterpreted scene is the ill shoulder all your hate scene, while im sure he did want to end sasukes miserable suffering, he was talking about protecting Konoha and ending the cycle of hatred.

‘sasuke wants to kill naruto bc he knows his love will save him!111! No, it’s because the annoying orange stands in his way..also naruto still feels disrespected 

And sasuke atm isn’t having that ‘ill stop you because you are my friend.’ Stuff, which is mistranslated as ‘I am your friend’ but this entire arc was naruto speaking in I terms. Im meh about it.

Oh lol and the bane of my existence..’sakura and kakashi are selfish and tried to give up on him..naruto wanted to save him!11!!’

Lol to which sasukes response was ‘im itching to kill you kakashi’ so futile arguments remain futile

It’s not Kakashis fault sasuke is a man who lent his hand to a terrorist organization, attacked a village, live captured an innocent man who is a jinchuriki meaning he was actively help start the war,  and as shikamaru said a war would have started out in his name and he even attacked an international peace meeting..his motives were not to change the system but pure revenge over Konoha who even though is problematic has innocent citizens in it. Itachi is a good guy for killing his loved ones to stop a war and protect his brother the second Kakashi and Sakura do it they are selfish and don’t understand him.  Kakashi acknowledged he adored him no matter how far he is fallen and that he doesn’t want to kill him but he must do whats necessary, sakura knew that the current sasuke isn’t a sasuke the real sasuke would condone and she did what kakashi tried to do with obito, aka end his misery, as well as keep naruto from the akatuski, prevent a war, keep konoha safe and shoulder kakashis burden.

In fact, they acknowledged his victim status, but still a war in his name is a war in his name

‘sakura gave up on him!11!!’ she had a moment where she realized he would never do something like his own teammate and she noticed right away, no chakra sensing needed that he is definitely changed. She didn’t betray him when she didn’t even know any part of the truth, just like to innocent people in konoha like Kiba, he was the one doing the betrayal.

 ‘he doesn’t care and wanted to kill her’ is also funny bc he trusted her for a moment but called bullshit very fast

His face is not exactly ‘im itching to kill you sakura’ when she is all like im here for u :) fuck konoha :)

Sasuke chose not to frontally attack her. She is here to kill him and he knows it but deep down (like,,really deep down) this fuck still cares about team 7. This scene is fucked man, but it is not abusive in the context of the series at all.

Yeesh the second attack was sakura protecting kakashi, and self defense on sasukes part,,so no still not abusive..and if refutes the ‘she gave up on him’ argument because

The attack starts with her remembering all the shit he is causing right now,,he ain’t sasuke,,and poor kakashi is being burdened by this

But the second she is about to? She remembers real sasuke and isn’t able to do it, meaning no she has some hope for him. When naruto gives his speech she has a moment of sad realization that she isn’t able to stop sasuke as naruto emphasized only he can, so she decided to trust them both..trust naruto that he can bring him back and trust that sasuke isn’t as far gone as he seems.

‘he tried to kill her because he hates her’ ‘he doesn’t care at all!11!!’ ‘he wants her dead!11!!’

Lol this isn’t the most murderous face hes done so far tbh

Aint trying to say this scene is hallelujah but at least the context isn’t he wants to kill her and laughs about it in her face like he did to 3 people who really did not deserve that.

Misconceptions about the war : Sasuke only cares about naruto (seriously this trend needs to die) and he gives 0 shits about Kakashi and Sakura.  Ignoring the fact that when he first arrived she’s the one he acknowledged and answered to, the reason he had to keep saving Narutos ass is said multiple times by the s man himself..yin release and yang release

 But no,,,he doesn’t care about sakura or kakashi

‘whatever he would have let them fall in lava, even tho naruto said that isn’t true’

‘whatever, he still called her useless’ No, he asked ‘if you heard whats going on outside, what would you do?’ then he shuts kakashi up and says he is in charge to which Naruto scolds him for not being a team player. Not for verbal abuse. ‘He said that bc he thinks shes weak.’ No he really didn’t.

Clean PC : sasukekun on tumblr

Sasuke goes on to talk about his revolution

And Sakura confesses asking him not to go any further into hatred. It’s funny how people call her selfish for confessing or pretend that you’re annoying has negative connotations beyond volume 18,, when her literal confession states that she wants to do anything for him that she can and she hates that she isn’t able to talk to him about his issues, nor is she able to exchange blows with him. Its really?? That people call her selfish bc all she literally says I hate that I cant help you despite how much I love you but please don’t go further into hate, lets just stay united and get through it. The..exact..same..thing..naruto…was…communicating

And it did make his resolve falter..it literally made him shake, people pretend he was happy to show her that genjutsu (to ensure she hated him) but,,,that is not the case he doesn’t look happy at all

Oh and ofc the famous argument lmao

‘He said he has no reason to love her..so he only married her for pity’ gross, sasuke is the biggest leo bitch there is, too much pride to stick his dick in something he doesn’t really want

‘are you suggesting I enjoy a little renai?’ (romantic love) ‘I have no reason to love her and she has no reason to love’ /= I hate her and I have no feelings for her considering this was his mental view of everything…Kakashi saying only hate needs a reason isn’t guilt tripping..bc that’s..what..naruto communicated to him

Again, sasukes jaded way of thinking is a theme, he does not believe in the unity of the shinobi alliance, he believes they got together for a common reason.

‘she suffers from loving you’ ‘only hate needs a reason’ Sasuke immediately flashes to his own selfless love that never needed a reason, the love that made him suffer the most.

but no he has no feelings left for her :/ lol

‘Sasuke wanted to kill naruto bc he is his light, and the only thing holding him back from total darkness’ except, no this is a shonen

‘narutos bond can be romantic bc naruto said they aren’t indra and ashura…sasuke said one and only friend..they clearly have romantic feelings for each other’

Sage : my children will continue the cycle :/ this sucks

Naruto : no bc we aren’t indra and ashura

Also Naruto :

‘well sasuke called naruto still his closest friend and he knew no one else accepts him’

That was his mentality and it was wrong, just like when he was confused why Taka still looked for him after what he did. Naruto still remains sasukes best friend, that is true..but the one and only term sasuke uses is the exact same term Itachi used  yuuitsu to describe their relationship. So, no it’s not romantic, it is still brotherly.

 And the fight is the biggest proof of what ive been trying to say, they represent the naruto quite well . Naruto learned that power comes from unity and the sharing of pain, that the world isn’t perfect but we can endure  and change it little by little. Hagoromo confirms ss will happen lol

Read those 3 pages carefully please, specially if you are pro revolution

Sasuke goes off to state what his experience made him learn and ofc misses the point

And heres a page to focus on, if you really don’t believe this was a dictatorship

dictator

noun

1.    a ruler with total power over a country, typically one who has obtained control by force.

Synonyms:

Autocrat, monocrat, absolute ruler

How a dictatorship works : Dictatorship is a form of government  where a country or a group of countries is ruled by one person or political entity, and exercised through various mechanisms to ensure that the entity’s power remains strong

A dictatorship is a type of Authoritarianism, in which politicians regulate nearly every aspect of the public and private behavior of citizens. Dictatorship and totalitarianism societies generally employ political propaganda to decrease the influence of proponents of alternative governing systems.

Literally a dictatorship.

Naruto wants to teach him power and change come from love and comradeship, he doesn’t want his friend to do that to the world or himself, and since he is the only one who can save him, its pretty noble of him to try and understand sasuke and open him to interpreting the world differently instead of charging at him with hate, which given everything would be justified.

This goes back to Gaaras speech

When they wake up lol sasuke says the exact same thing Kakashi did except after the fight sasuke is free from the curse so he is able to think properly . this is the one aspect I really love about their relationship. Naruto knows loneliness so well, just like sasuke and he never gave up trying to teach him what he learned along the way. 2 boys, different experience, same feelings. The entire series on a small scale level. Thanks to Naruto persevering instead of hatin, sasuke found salvation. Why did Naruto persevere? Like Iruka said,, he just did. No reason needed.

Theres no fucking reason for love and friendship, you just want to share peoples pain because they matter and that’s that. 

The lesson that sasuke was taught was the message of the entire series, by the hero Ninja Jesus..thats why im not particularly anti ending in a political respect unless you count the uchiha massacre which btw you say its why youre anti ending but lol naruto agreed on this in volume 50 something…when  he met itachi under edo tensei, so its not an ending issue it’s a naruto issue…this series never addressed things as politics, it addressed them as conflicts due to hate and misunderstanding.. it’s a kids series after all. One piece takes political issues and gives them political relevance but naruto was never about that. Im anti Naruto uzumakis ending bc imo NH is crap, hinata is up there with Karin on most badly written characters and it makes no romantic sense..the guy in the hokage chair is not Naruto and I hate it. But in boruto when an issue arises, we see the 5 kages fight together..in the war (and tbh from the moment Hiashi prostrated to Neji) we see the hyuga issue is no longer a thing Kishimoto chose to be politically relevant he stuck to his comrade theme. So hating kishimoto for an ending when it’s a consistent message is useless..but in some aspects yeah ew

‘sasuke felt pain when he saw naruto in pain bc hes special’ lol no. he was always watching Naruto desperately try to make bonds and it reminded him of his own lost bonds. He saw a kid, unlike him try his best to find people and although he saw him a brat first he later thought it over and saw that it made him relieved that theres somebody out there trying to make bonds..at the same time he saw it a weakness bc bonds mean attachment and not killing Itachi..the pain thing? Stop excluding team 7 like they don’t all matter to sasuke the same

That’s why..no reading up or down..thats why

Good for him, he got the message the entire shinobi alliance learned from Naruto..a little late but hes always been a special snow flake

Lol he explained it better than I did almost. That’s it..he explained their entire relationship.

Sasukes ‘I lost’ came from the realization that Naruto got his power from his comrades, by feeling their pain and wanting to protect them and from shouldering their pain. Like I said, the whole point of the series echos in these 2s relationship. Countries used to be at war because they were no t allied bc they had no reason and war bred fear, fear bred hate and caused conflict and acts of injustice, along comes the child of prophecy changing the hearts of the people teaching them about unity and sharing burdens because of what he learned.-

He apologizes to Sakura, which I don’t think hes apologizing only for what he did to her per se, as much as its like what he said ‘everything’ …trying to say he was never wrong is :/ trying to say she guilted him is :/ he himself apologized for the emotional pain she did not ask him too

He apologized to sakura bc he wanted to take back that bond..its funny how a lot of sns hate sakura when its sasuke who initiated the apology and made the ship canon its petty and has a blind double standard imo..you cant erase sakura, nor Kakashi..theyre all his bonds

Naruto doesn’t seem so depressed about them reuniting either, so where is the romantic context? 0. Null. Nada.

Or people who try to twist sasukes words here as ‘hes ignoring her’ when he literally stated himself she had 0 to do with his crimes and he needs to understand the world before jumping full turkey into a relationship when his entire life was viewed from a skewed perspective

‘the forehead poke means distance and its negative’ mata condo da, next time maybe. Mata condo na, next time definitely. A promise for a better future after he is ready..he deserves some time after all he has been through, so? There we go.

 The forehead poke had both a negative and a positive connotations, but it was still an act of affection from the person he loved the most and he does not look hateful doing that.look at that smile he is so cute

k

Once again, the series goes full circle.

The most important message of the series people miss

I never said devaluate naruto and sasukes bond, I said realize sasuke is a character who bought the series together, who had many bonds of different kinds. If you look at the series with the point of perspective as a reader whos just reading instead of a fan of a particular aspect of it, you’ll see that despite it’s inconsistent parts sometimes, it’ll seem a whole lot more enjoyable.

Bye, this has been a PSA.

Oh and I think I saw on your blog you said sasukes arm isn’t cut in the flashback?

Theres literally a clear cut line of the cut

[helianthus21]

*Singsongs* Hunting we will go...

I did the liveblogging-in-one-post-thing again. *Shrug*. Look at my attempt to have a better title than “12x15″:P

Aww man that couple was cute:/

Okay I get the outrage about Dean germaphobe Winchester’s ooc-ness here. But then again he did spend over a year in purgatory and they didn’t exactly have showers there. Maybe he just wanted to gross out his little brother? (Seriously though, Jensen, that didn’t ring weird for your Dean at all?)

“Frodo”.. Really, Sam?:P What’s it with the hobbit nicknames. Is there something I don’t get? Don’t tell me there is, you have no idea how often I watched those movies

Caaaas:D it’s been too long:))

Aww he’s holding his badge upside down:) Sweet little hunter angel. I wish Dean were here to see this

You know, I’ve been told not to follow strange men into the bathroom t- oh they’re going... somewhere else (*whispers* what the hell is this)

He’s so uncomfortable, poor angel

Cas is an MIB. True.

YOU GO GIRL TEll ‘EM (I’m so proud of random motw girl)

she has the same hairstyle as Alicia

Lmao Crowley doesn’t have a soul. We established that when he wanted to bid it to that demigod or whoever that was..?

Stupid question, but haven’t the demons lost their respect of Crowley back in the S11 finale..? Did I forget something, or why is it suddenly ‘My Lord’ again?

A black and a white demon.. I wonder who’ll die first

Dean is a dork

“Oh you remember!” Another angel fanboy? Sweet

That girl has balls holy shit. She’s taking those news pretty well

Aww Dean’s little smile at the word ‘koalas’:)) This is the best thing of the episode yet

Wrong, Crowley, our favorite Fallen Angel is Castiel:P

I cringe every time Dean says “This gig couldn’t be any weirder”. Depressed. Teddybears, Dean. Depressed teddybears

Now I want human!Impala to be a guy even more:P “Beautiful, beautiful man“

Oh, I am here for your hands alright, Cas:P

Uhuh, now that they need him, they’ll take him back? #notimpressed

Ooh temptation

JOSHUA

Called it:P (about the demons who die)

Crowley parrotting Dean lmao:P Never knew I needed this

“Just to spare myself the Winchester manpain” THANKS CROWLEY

oh wow that was pretty damn gay. Where’s the no-homo moment when they need it

How to win Dean Winchester over? Oh, that’s right, save his husband from certain death

Ohh she wouldn’t have said yes to Marcus

Oh so she lied about loving Marcus to ‘make things easier’.. Might somebody be lying about having brotherly feelings for someone to make things easier..?:P Idek bear with me

YOU GO GIRL. Damn she’s cool. Also, haven’t they learned that the ‘Stay in the car’ thing NEVER works?:P

She’s hugging the King of Hell omg. (You think she can write that into her resumé?)

Yep that was almost as awkward as Dean thanking Ruby:P

“He seems nice” Aww Crowley’s got a new friend

THE VESSEL IS HIS PRISON goddamn this is good shit. After the vessel usually being prisoner of the possessing angel, this is a just retribution

Dean knows his husband. What else is new

Uhm.. “They get results”... did I misinterpret that 12x14 set the BMoL up as incompetent morons..? Guess I’ll have to watch again

Good on Sam for telling Dean tho

Dean’s really internalized the ‘accepting the other’s choice even if he doesn’t like it’ thing from S11.. Doesn’t mean he has no right to be angry...

“We work with people we don’t trust all the time”.. Well, he’s not wrong:P

And Dean still can’t resist the puppy dog eyes:P

Okay now about the Cas thing.. I already saw the outrage about “Cas is going back to Heaven? Why is this still a plot line?” But I gotta say.. I kinda.. like it? The Winchesters are is family, we established that. Cas knows it, Dean and Sam know it, the whole universe knows it. Cas made his choice, that much is clear, but what choice is it exactly if going back wasn’t even an option? Personally, I think the perfect endgame for Cas would be what Kelvin(?) described. There must still be some angels who root for him, there always are, and I want Cas to be genuinely loved back by at least some his Brothers. Because Heaven might have turned his back on Cas, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still love them, miss them. They’ll always be his family as well. Think of Hannah, Balthazar, Samandriel.. What I wish for Cas is to have this healthy familial love with the family of his past. The chance to come and go as he pleases, because no matter what, his home will always be at the Bunker. What I don’t like about this arc is that Cas kept this from the brothers. And that this perfect endgame I envision for him will probably not ever happen, knowing that show.. Probably, the Angels will stab him in the back and it will be even more awful for Cas, but here’s to hoping *crosses fingers*

Also, no Cas for the next three eps? Whaaat:((

[tumblunni]

OKAY JUST TO GIVE ERROL AS AN EXAMPLE

His story just...?? Does not have?? "The call"?? At all??

Ive really tried stretching but just no, sorry.

The plot starts with our duo already off on the quest to climb the mountain, and figuring out why they wanna do it and what happened to them in the past is a gradual mystery that gets unwravelled throughout the story. So if you interpret "the call" as just "the start to the adventure" then already we dont really have that.

Tho again cos of anxiety about being weird i did end up writing a potential more call-ish intro scene but seriously its just like five seconds of "hmm i will try to cilmbe dis mountaine" "BUFF FRIEND WILL HELP U"

Like there was really no damn thing that "forced" either of them to "take up the hero's mantle" and they dont even really do anything "heroic". There's no destiny reason, its just a dude making a kind of dumb decision to risk his life on an adventure to try and settle some personal anxieties he has about something he hates about his personality. And his good friend coming along to protect him, and try and help heal the hurt. Theres really no damn reason why they had to start their adventure on that day as opposed to any other, it was just coincidence that this was the one time in a million that his "god i am filled with self hate and i have this stupid idea that The Magical Local Legend can solve my problems" anxiety attacks actually won out and he decided to really do it.

Also LOL in retrospect he's flipping the cliche even more?? Cos i was just thinking "well i guess the only reason he picked now is because he's had years of practise and planning for this thing." Like seriously he not only isnt "thrust into adventure" but he's already gone through a training montage before it even started!

And like i suppose i GUESS you could say that the stuff that happened to him years ago was an "inciting incident" but it really wasnt a "refusal of the call". It was a tragic backstory event that led to our duo becoming friends and also becoming hella depressed, but it really isnt the reason why they do this adventure. Errol's idea that he was "cursed" on that day and has to do this dangerous quest to "break the curse" is supposed to be a complete misinterpretation due to his trauma. the whole point of this story is that sometimes bad stuff happens to you and its not "for a reason" or "part of god's great plan" or "you can make it go away if you just try hard enough". He doesnt really discover that his destined enemy is at the top of the mountain and they caused everything wrong in his life. He just discovers that the guy who was right next to him wants to help him through these tough times and together they can cope with the darkness, even if there's no easy solution to banish it forever.

So yeah you'd think "sad thing happens in the backstory and then over a decade later he does this thing" would be a "refusal od the call" but really the sad thing was just a sad thing and it was never calling him anywhere. Less "refusal of the call" and more "doing the rational thing and not giving in to paranoia and self doubt", with honestly the start of the story being a BAD THING for him! Like at the start you think that Beau forcing himself into Errol's "quest" is just "lol funny comic relief man" but really its a guy seeing his best friend make a potentially self destructive choice and being REALLY WORRIED so he has to come along. And just putting on this funny comic reliefy persona extra hard because he's trying to keep his buddy's spirits up, while also hiding that he also has his own personal anxieties that are a reason for him to wanna climb the mountain too. I hope i have the writing skill necessary to pull off that foreshadowing, haha...

Oh and also lol there IS technically a real curse just cos i felt like itd be lame to tease people with the idea of the supernatural and have literally none of it. But also its not a "curse" as in how Errol sees it, with a culprit and a journey and a solution.

SO

Going into spoilers a bit when discussing this

Woop woop

Spoilers incoming

Okay...

I haven't exactly decided yet but Errol is either a vampire or a ghost, depending on whichever i can create a cooler design for. He actually didnt survive the accident in his childhood, and this whole time he's been some sort of supernatural creature trying his best to hide the signs he isnt human anymore. He thinks that there must be some sort of greater plot behind all this because he's desperate to find any way he can cure it. But really there isn't a cure, and there wasnt an evil cause for it, it was actually kind of a good stroke of luck that saved his life! So its all kinda more of a metaphor for how its easy to feel "broken" or "not human anymore" when you suffer a great trauma, or become mentally or physically disabled. And how thats not really true, you're still you and its just that society exerts stigma upon people who "can't ever be fixed" into being "normal". The message is kinda gonna be that even if you have something in your life that left its scars on you, even if it'll never go away, it doesnt make you any less of yourself and any less deserving of love. So this would be shown by Errol fearing that he'll become a mindless beast while showing no signs of it being true, getting obssessed with finding this "cure" even when it'll hurt himself in the process, and trying to find some sort of villain or cause or way to personify the illness as separate from himself as something evil. (I.e those "i am autism i will make it impossible to talk to your child, uwu u can defeat me by feeding your child bleach" ableist commercials...) And then in the end his worst fears are realized, there is no magical solution at the top of the mountain and the person he cares about the most has found out about his secret. But really none of his fears came true, because Beau accepts him, confesses his feelings and the two of them start piecing their life back together again and finding new hope for the future. Even if that future still happens to contain things like having secret bat wings!

(Oh and also Beau isnt completely a sattelite character he has his own different traumas and life problems and ways they get brought out into the open and counteracted by the power of love and acceptance. Its just that since errol's side of the thing is slightly supernatural it was easier to talk about in the hero's journey framework)

(Oh and also at some point they adopt a talking crow)