#but she's not a hero she's a brat so she doesn't do any of those things

[fandom-rants]

It's so weird that people keep saying that Wanda's trauma is because of Tony. "Tony's weapons attacked her home! It's Tony's fault!" Actually, those weapons were sold by Obadiah Stane (if they were Stark Industries' weapons at all, but we'll ignore how the logo is wrong because it might just be a continuity error). Tony actually is the person who stopped Stane the instant he found out about it. So in fact, Tony is the one who prevented what happened to Wanda from ever happening again.

But for some reason we can't say that. Everyone cries foul. They say we're trying to erase Wanda's trauma. Instead of, you know, redirecting it to the proper source. But I guess it's easier to take up the narrative Wanda created (and loudly and consistently spouts) instead of looking at the truth (which is never said out loud in the movies and is left to be inferred). Because children don't understand how to think critically.

[envy-of-the-apple]

ok I'm SO glad you love to answer questions bc I have so many. First of all, how will gojo act when Ms moon is completely under his thumb as a pregnant housewife? Will he be kind until she hurts his domestic fantasies (by having breakdowns from being trapped in a golden cage, for eg), will he put up with her pregnancy mood swings and try to spoil her or will he leave all that to the servants and just come home for the sex or wtv? And omg what kind of a dad will he be?? Basically, will he maintain any actual intimacy (beyond sex) w her after he "owns" her or will he be typical neglectful rich husband and father? And omg will we cover any of this in part 2?? Love ur writing btw ❤️

Gojo will definitely be the MOST romantic. Yeah, he basically bullied you into becoming his subservient partner, and you can’t ever leave him, but that doesn't mean you can't have fun together. After your 'reunion,' he'd definitely drag you out to ride those swan boat things. And pictures! He's big on pictures.

I feel like now, when he’s older, he’ll find other ways to keep you in line other than pure bullying. He’ll probably threaten to financially ruin you. Ruin the lives of everyone you love etc etc. Technically, your new life isn’t horrible enough for you to break completely. You still have some semblance of freedom. Just don't ever run from him, again.

Satoru would definitely be a bad dad. He’ll see any kids you do end up having as “collateral” or an inconvenience he has to put up with you staying with him. Again, he doesn't truly want kids but if it'll make you stay....I think the one good thing would be that he won’t be obvious about it. He’ll smile at them, ruffle their hair, the occasional “good job buddy!”. Behind closed doors, when it’s just you and him, he’d definitely complain about the brats and the rising hints of sending them to a school overseas. He’s DEFINITELY petty enough to get jealous of his own kids. Especially when they’re babies and really dependent on you, he’ll often say things like “again? Can’t it just sleep it off?” or “you’re really lucky I’m willing you share you with them”. It’d get better as they grow older and less and less dependent on you.

He provides for them, financially at least. Gojo will hire Nannies and whoever you want to come care for your kids. If it’s the middle of the night and your child wakes up crying, with enough begging from you he MIGHT reluctantly get up to rock your kid back to sleep. But mostly, you and the nannies care for the kid.

He’s not completely heartless. Once the kids get a tad bit older and start relying on you a little less, his relationship with them may change. It entirely depends on the kids, though. If they consider him their personal hero he might develop a soft spot for them. If they don’t, then he’ll just tolerate them for your sake.

[flowery-laser-blasts]

*inhale* 🗣 Okay, listen, I'm going to rant over this moment again, but this time in a post so the world can read about it 🗣

It doesn't matter how many times I've watched Graduation part 2... But THIS HERE.

THIS IS MY FAVOURITE MOMENT. THIS IS WHAT THE ENTIRETY OF THIS SERIES HAS BEEN BUILDING UP TO FOR DRAKKEN AND SHEGO AND I JUST--

HE'S SO VULNERABLE IN THIS MOMENT. Look at that FACE. YOU KNOW WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS?! YOU CAN SEE SO MANY THOUGHTS GOING ON BEHIND THOSE EYES. THE EYES ARE THE WINDOW TO THE SOUL AND OH MY GODS IS IT FRAGILE NOW.

THE MAN FEELS INSECURITIES, DOUBTS, WORRIES, A HINT OF BASHFULNESS BUT HE'S ALSO SCARED, ASHAMED, TERRIFIED EVEN; HE WANTS TO RUN AWAY, BE ANYWHERE BUT HERE! his face SCREAMS: "What am I doing here?" and/or "Do I even deserve this?"

BUT MOST OF ALL: "What will others think of me now?"

And then ALL of his questions get answered in the form of his partner in crime's expression: A genuine heartfelt and sincere smile that says "You deserve this."

Shego, the femme fatale who is wanted in 11 countries. The villain who insisted by all means necessary that she's evil through and through and will NEVER be a hero or want to be associated with heroes STILL stands by his side. Do you know what the most important aspect of this very moment is? Shego doesn't stand on 'equal' grounds as him and she doesn't mind it, she lets it happen.

Shego and Drakken's dynamic throughout the story has been Boss-and-Sidekick for the longest of times. Both of them fought: Drakken for wanting to feel superior over EVERYONE and Shego wanting as much power (and/or more) as Drakken would have when they had taken over the world.

However, the happenings in graduation changed everything and now the world recognizes Drakken as a hero, a world savior, and a protector of peace. But if it weren't for Shego flying all the way with Ron to the Lorwardian ship, Drakken couldn't have possibly stopped the invasion.

Look at Shego's expression. She genuinely feels happy for Dr. D. She could've stepped in at ANY point before or during this (press)conference, demanding her own medal and telling everyone that it was in fact her who helped Drakken save them all. But she doesn't. Shego knows how important this moment is for Dr. Drakken. After years of hearing his stories and knowing how much recognition means to him; she lets him have his moment in the limelight, the sun, and she's going to let him bask in all of it for as long as he needs to. Because the most important thing is that she knows what she did and that's enough: She went into space to bring back the man she wanted to rule the world together with. Never ever again would she let Dr. Drakken think, for even a second, that she'd abandon him.

Again, look at the distance between them in this shot.

Yes, the distance is closer but then

As close as they can possibly get in public

They're on even grounds now. Drakken wants to let the world and most importantly Shego KNOW that they are a team and that they saved the world together.

I once saw someone pointing out that they looked very uncomfortable in the last image, but let me put it like this: - Prior in the episode Shego and Drakken almost flew into each other's arms but became VERY reluctant, why??? Because Kim and Ron were there! What must those brats think of them!? Certainly, they cannot show any weaknesses in front of their arch nemeses!

And now let me show this again:

They're embracing each other... in FRONT OF THE WORLD LEADERS. OF COURSE IT'S A BIT AWKWARD, YOU'D BE AWKWARD TOO, but the KEY here is that They're NOT looking away from each other like they did before.

In the previous scenario, they avoided each other's eyes: no connection, desperately trying to show no weaknesses, trying to change the subject matter at all costs.

Now they lock eyes, and they read each other. How I read it (both facial expression as body language): Drakken: Hopeful, nervous, apologetic "Did I hurt you? I hope I did not", kind of embarrassed because his foliage acted out so assertively by his thoughts of wanting Shego to be at least on the same level as him for the world to know. Shego: Surprised but not at all distressed, disgusted or upset about this sudden change. Most of all, I think she's deeply moved: Drakken always called her a 'sidekick', but now? She's recognized by him and the world as his partner. If you look at her face, those eyes seem to be on the verge of tearing up and that smile, how shy and embarrassed it may look holds warmth and happiness.

Both of them acknowledge each other's worth and in a certain way, they took over each other's world.

[capcavan]

🗣️ (also sorry this got long, turns out i have thoughts) so like riko is one of the weirdest fandom cases i've ever seen. i've been in fandoms where characters who commit actual war crimes and genocide are badass babes or uwu soft bois, and even spoiled mafia brats who commit terrible crimes against the heroes for daddy's attention that get love and redemption. it's so weird to see just how isolated from all that riko is to me.

i do think it's partly how aftg is written, and that's also partly because niel's pov is not at all forgiving of riko, while is entirely forgiving of people like andrew. but i also think it's because of how riko himself is written. he's one of these characters that's better on paper than he is in the book to me. because he's never presented as smart enough to fall into the magnificent bastard trope where everyone applauds how devious his plans are, but he's not outright hammy enough to just be a fun read, he doesn't even get the same stupidly dramatic flare as andrew. and while we're told he's powerful and doing dangerous stuff, he's presented on page, more often than not, as a petulant child that neil is just done with or a guy who likes to torture people who neil is also done with. neil is never actually scared of riko, or even particularly threatened by him, and i think that hurts him and makes his position in the narrative weaker. especially when nora is trying to play him as a villain and a threat in a mafia story rather than a good old fashioned rival in a sports drama. for example, his first impression on the kathy show should live up to the hype of this imposing charismatic villain who broke kevin's hand, but instead loses him temper, forgets all of his media training and lets a nobody like neil goad him into losing control of the interview, and then his payback, things like shoving neil around and seth's death, are basically brushed off because neil doesn't really care that much. it's not given the weight to be a seriously omg this guys a threat first impression. and this isn't uncommon, lots of media hamstrings their villains at the start by making sure we know the main character is too sassy for them and can humiliate them, without thinking about how weak that can make the villain seem. it feels sometimes like nora wanted riko to be this chess master villain or tragic child who's lashing out at the world, without committing to it fully to either, or was just not an experienced enough writer to have known how to write either of those things in the pov of someone who hates riko's guts, which is understandable, writing is hard and that sort of nuance takes practice, especially if you just go by the books and not the extra content, and i do wonder how differently nora would have portrayed riko if she rewrote the main trilogy now with presumably a lot more practice under her belt. in the end riko ends up in this weird grey area to me where i understand why he's not popular, given he has none of the usual obvious traits that fans like to latch onto when redeeming a villainous character, and even the ones that are there are glossed over pretty quickly because of neil's pov, and a lot of his more interesting pieces are on paper not actively presented in the book, and not everyone reads super deep, but i also don't understand the amount of hate. i have literally never seen a character in any other fandom i've been in have this much fandom wide hatred.

See I have nothing to add here because you single handedly dropped the best analysis of Riko's character in the series I had pleasure to read so far and summed up all my feelings about why and what of the fandom. If the goal was to write a character that is impactful yet easy to hate then that goal was achieved but for me it real takes away form the magnitude of feelings Riko could evoke in reader and questions he could provoke in narrative if he was given bit different presentation that woudl still align with the lore we already have.

[tokillamockingbird427]

yes !!! exactly !!!! u do it get.

elias was like 23 when Hesh was born so like YOUNG and the military is def all he knew. I think the walkers are probably a military family. I can just imagine the brothers grandfather telling them abt The War and hesh is super into it and Logan's eyes are glazing over bcs hes 5 and doesn't know jack abt shit. point being elias treats them closer to soldiers/war dogs (side note do you think elias had to use one of those baby leashes for them?) despite loving them. he's trying he just wasn't prepared for any of that.

also yes I am an autistic logan bpd/attachment anxitey hesh and elias/rorke (worke, if you will) truther

-angel

Yay I get things!!!! :D I'm literate!!

Oh yeah, that's the vibe I get too. Hesh and Logan seem like they'd be such brats lol. Makes me wonder if maybe Mrs. Walker was military too? Maybe that's how she and Elias met.

"doesn't know jack abt shit" adopting that into my lexicon.

He absolutely had those fucking leashes for them but they were like the backpack harness kind and Elias only needed one (That was styled to look like a lil chimp hugging the wearer.) because Logan would follow David no matter what so all he needed to do was leash his oldest. Boom. Solved.

Mans really wasn't ready given he's like... Barely an adult by the time he has two damn kids and THEN Sand Viper trauma and THENNNNNNN his wife also dies so now he's a single dad. Mans had it rough. AND THEN ODIN COMES IN WITH A STEEL CHAIR-

Oh we 🤝 LISTEN THEY HAD TO HAVE S O M E T H I N G alright. You mfs who've read Devil's Breath know this; What other explanation is there for the few sane moments Rorke has in the pit being "Elias Elias Elias Elias Elias Elias-" Like there's some codependant hero worship right there we should talk about HEAR ME OUT--

[fangirlingpuggle]

Even more thoughts on my Jack and Omi alignment swap AU mostly Wuya related (other posts are here 1, 2, 3 and 4)

So Wuya tries to discourage Jack's shen gong wu making, especially when he succeeds and she lived through Dashi's shen gong wu making process (only barely) she doesn't know if she can do it again (especially because Kimiko and Rai are enablers and keep giving Jack ideas, Clay is the only one with the common sense brain cell a lot of the time)

Only then Raimundo notices which leads to this

Raimundo: So you seriously not letting Jack try anymore experimenting

Wuya: Nope and whatever your planning isn't gonna work brat

Raimundo: I'm not trying anything

Raimundo: I just was curious why you wouldn't let Jack make more Wu, I mean him making Wu that overshadows even Dashi's wouldn't that be something you could really rub in his face

Wuya:...

Dojo:WUYA NO IT'S A TRAP

She is so very proud of him for being so sneaky.

Before they leave some of the older monks try to get Wuya to use the old methods, teach the monks how are they are 'meant' to be trained and Wuya goes off on them, because those methods was what broke her forcing the fate of the world on children, making them be perfect or else the world fails, that they cannot fail and must be perfect in the way they want them to be, that they have to legends and have legacies and be heroes or else everyone doomed, that they can't be themselves and have to be an ideal.

She's like oh no I don't want a 2 out of 4 success rate I think i'll try something new so 2 of the don't become the biggest threats to the world because of your teaching methods and bullshit.

She pretty much scares any lingering monks off after that, she's gonna make sure these kids are great xiaolin dragons (just so she can rub Dashi's face in it) but she's gonna let them stay themselves they're gonna good heroic chaotic brats and if they are stuck having to save the world she's gonna go along with them... she's not letting them go off my themselves. She'll be there so she can lighten the load to make sure it doesn't crush them, like it did her and Chase.

[quickspinner]

"I would really love to know what you are trying to prove or accomplish with these questions, since it seems like you don’t actually read the work of any of the authors you petition."

Just wondering how you or other authors would fix the show.

Well, that really depends on what you mean by "fix." I'm not sure how Luka and Adrien being friends would fix anything because they ARE friends in the show.

If you want a love square endgame, I think you have to go all the way back to Despair Bear, which is where the LS peaked IMO. Up until that point it seemed like Marinette and Adrien were inching closer to each other. I would've reversed the love square at that point, with Adrien becoming more interested in Marinette and Marinette being more torn between him and CN, preventing her from confessing while she tried to figure out her feelings.

With no hate to Kagami, it's her introduction and more importantly, Adrien's reaction to her, that really tanked any believability for the LS for me. When contemplating moving on from LB, he consistently chose Kagami without even a thought of Marinette as an option, and that was just completely it for me. It's not just that Adrien is interested in Ladybug, it's that he is totally *uninterested* in Marinette, and that's where all the "he's socially awkward"/"he doesn't understand his own feelings" completely fall apart for me. The show doesn't generally let us inside Adrien's head the way they do Marinette's, so if there was any internal conflict there, they completely failed to convey it. They could have had him think for some reason, possibly through Chloe or Lila's manipulation, that Marinette wasn't actually interested in him and so he pursued Kagami and Marinette then thinks she would have to give up on him, and go at the alternate love interests to keep the drama going, and there could have been some interesting ground to explore there. Imagine how Frozer would be with Adrien going, well, Marinette would have good advice and I know she's not interested in me so it can't hurt to ask her about Kagami instead of being blatantly oblivious.

I also have beef with the way Adrien handled the hero team becoming more prominent; given his background it is reasonable for him to be upset and think that he has to shine above the rest to get LB's attention, but instead of sulking around and not showing up in fights (which, up until this point, was an aspect of salt fics I thought was comedically far-fetched) I would have had him seek out Su Han for training, potentially giving him a mentor figure/someone to talk to about it his relationship with LB, AND give him something solid and specific to contribute to the battle and relieve the burden on LB. (Who did they end up having do this though? *Luka*. Who had every reason to legitimately consider himself out of the fight. Just saying.)

Yes, I'm aware that was a really long sentence. Wordy bitch don't care. 😂

This would also require Su Han to be less of a dick, but there you go. Fix those things, and the godawful speech about "I can't help disrespecting your feelings because my own are so strong," and I would be nicer to Adrien. Give him some narrative accountability instead of acting the spoiled brat.

Oh yeah and also fix the speech where the rich white male supermodel teen icon tells Nino that asking out girls is easy. I've never forgiven him for that. And have him apologize in Frozer for letting his feelings get in the way of teamwork and leaving LB in danger without backup.

[bethanydelleman]

I was thinking about your Edmund vs. Frank poll and it made me revisit Frank's arc. I'll go straight to it - this guy exhibits massive red flag behavior at times.

The worst of it was the box hill episode. The day before, Jane had refused to walk with him (for very reasonable reasons though I'm sure she was also acting more out of frustration at Frank than any actual caution there). He outrageously flirts with Emma the next day in Jane's full view knowing she dislikes it. It's obvious he's doing it for revenge - to hurt Jane or get a reaction out of her. He brings up marriage completely out of the blue, brings up their engagement and makes a veiled threat to break up with her, and - this is what I can never forgive him for - he makes the comment about women in their "own set" which I'm sure is a dig at Jane's family's poverty. (please correct me if I'm wrong). And when Jane says something along the lines of "maybe we should break up" he loses it again and makes a dig at Jane's appearance and personality this time - asking Emma to find him a wife who is "lively, with hazle eyes", the opposite of Jane basically. And he wanted JANE to apologize to him after that.

Now the whole thing is very delightful to read as a reader. We can very easily see through Frank and his actions as those of a spoiled brat who has never been denied anything in life; with very little emotional regulation or control over his reactions. But imagine how horrible the whole thing must be from Jane's perspective - to be insulted like that by someone you love and plan to marry.

Frank's greatest redeeming quality is that he loves Jane. He really does love her, there is no denying that. But you can still be horrible to people you love. I also keep thinking about Andy's comment that Frank subconsciously resents Jane for the power she has over him, which makes him act out on her - the premise of the concealment allows him to hurt her, slander her character, criticize her personality and appearance all under the cloak of hiding the engagement. The ABC game is the greatest example - he already believed that Emma knew about the engagement by then, so there was no point to it except to harass Jane with a tasteless joke at her expense that he knew she didn't find funny.

The thing is I can totally see Box hill and ABC game becoming a pattern in their marriage later on. Whenever Jane doesn't do something that Frank wants her to, I can totally see Frank going unhinged, make veiled barbs at her in company accusing her of having married him for money and making digs at her for coming from a poor family; or express regret at having married too fast and young; or even making slight fun of her with their other guests like he had done with Emma. Later he is going to apologize profusely, love bomb her and buy her lavish gifts. But that doesn't change the fact that this is abusive behavior. You may say I'm overthinking it but consider - all of the future behaviours I noted is based on things he has already said or done canonically in the book.

One of your anons said that Frank had the potential to become Arthur Huntington in the future and unfortunately I can see that. Though I agree with you that Arthur had never loved Helen and Frank does love Jane, but you can still be abusive to people you love. I think of all Austen heroes Frank has the potential to become abusive in the future - because the abusive traits are already in his personality. Although I'm sure this dark side of his character probably appeals to a lot of Frank Churchill's fans.

I know this turned out to be Frank hate rant but I do like Frank. He is super fun to read on the page, and his love for Jane is endearing inspite of everything. And unlike the actual villains like Wickham and Willoughby, he doesn't have harm in his heart and all the harm done is because of his poor emotional regulation and lack of situational empathy. But my point is that a novel from Jane's perspective would be a lot darker than Emma is, and I doubt we will like Frank as much as we do then.

I don't regret voting Edmund because he annoys the fuck out of me, but I doubt he would ever make digs at Fanny's poverty, or make deliberately hurtful comments at her when he loses his temper, or make fun of her socially.

I know you like Frank so sorry if this comes off as hate, I promise it's not. Just a new perspective on "the worst Frank did was not talk to his father." Jane loves him inspite of everything and I can also see why. I hope she fixes him and they have a very happy married life.

English is not my first language so sorry for any mistakes.

Your English looks perfect to me. This question is in response to this question.

I don't know if Frank is as bad as you present him or as Andy thinks (I heartily disagree with him). Frank is a spoiled brat and he doesn't have much emotional regulation, but I think a lot of his acting out at Box Hill and the day before is due to his frustration at the engagement taking so long, not at Jane herself or her situation. He talks about how his aunt has only ever denied him a few times, one being going abroad. I think when Frank entered the engagement, he thought he would win his aunt over and it would be done and he'd be happy. The separation is wearing on him.

I think he has a bit too much fun "keeping" (he is not good at this) his secret but he also does not take the secret as seriously as Jane. He's annoyed with her because he wanted to walk her home and she said no. He's desperate to spend time with her but he can't. I think his problem at Box Hill is he takes Jane's rational secret keeping as a rejection of him (it's not). He thinks Jane's love is wearing out.

I could see them having a very happy marriage now that the moral dilemma facing Jane (secret engagement) is gone and Frank is more free to do as he pleases.

[sapphic-agent]

There's one thing I wanna ask Hori about the narrative that I'm surprised isn't talked about more.

Why weren't any of the characters allowed to question their society and heroes function as a whole?

Because when kids start off with hating heroes (Kota and those brats from the second movie), they're treated to be in the wrong and has to see how great heroes can be.

Which given the context that this is a society that turns a blind eye to it's corruption and how the minority suffers, it just comes across as putting rose tinted glasses on them to keep them away from the truly bad stuff.

Like, I get it with Kota, because his hatred of heroes stems from watching his parents die and believing they chose work over him, and that this hatred could grow into a problem later to where he might end up as a villain.

But at the same time, how come this didn't let Izuku to think about the society that shunned and berated him for being born different from everyone? How come no one else stop and think that this society is on the path to collapsing on itself if nothing is done?

In a story like this, characters should be allowed to question things around them and wonder if there's anything they can do make it more bearable for others, to seek out the change they wanna see so others wouldn't have to suffer like they did.

Kota is a great example, but I raise you Stain and the LOV.

Stain made sense. He went about it in entirely the wrong way, but he was right about false heroes and how much of a problem they were. But he's a murderous psychopath so we're supposed to take his words as out of touch rambling because he attacked Ingenium who was one of the good heroes.

(We're also given no proof. He says heroes are corrupt but we aren't shown why he thinks that and we don't see it beyond Endeavor. Even more reason not to take what he's saying seriously)

Hori could have really sold this by making Tensei perhaps not so virtuous. Maybe he had or started with good intentions but ended up contributing to toxic hero society in some way and Iida was blind to it because he was the big brother he admired. That would have made Tenya's character development hit harder in my opinion. Having Tensei confess this to Tenya would have made the Stain arc even better.

Which brings us to the LOV.

I feel like Hori forgot that Dabi and Toga also joined the LOV because of Stain, not just Spinner. They, on some level, absorbed his words and wanted what he did even if they were also fueled by other motives.

That's why a lot of Dabi's later character doesn't make a whole lot of sense. For those who knew he was Touya, it was implied that he was abused similarly to Shoto and was angry at Endeavor's treatment of his children. And then was inspired by Stain to call out his father as a false hero and take down the system that (indirectly) destroyed his family.

But no, he wants to kill Shoto, doesn't give a shit about Rei or Fuyumi, and almost got Natsu (the brother he was close to and presumably cared about) killed. And all to get back at Endeavor and make him suffer. Dabi's motives were a major let down and it reduces him to a one-dimensional villain, one who only wants to hurt people for the sake of hurting them. There's no hint of the influence Stain apparently had on him.

Toga is the same. She, presumably, admired Stain because of the similarities in their quirks. It's implied she joined the LOV to be with people like her (which is why she- as Camie- asks Izuku what kind of hero he wants to be, she's trying to see if he's one of those people). Who were outcasts and wanted to be able to do what they wanted with no persecution from others. She wanted to be free, even if she had a warped perception about what that meant. But over time, Horikoshi made her a creepy, predatory yandere type (seriously, what the fuck was the point of having her grope Uraraka??) with no depth to her actions.

Both Dabi and Toga never mention Stain or his ideals again. They're just psychopaths who need to be stopped. It dehumanizes them and uses mental illness for further antagonize them.

Spinner is the only one who still attempts to embody Stain's ideals. But of course, he never gets any focus. He's a "coward" who never stands up the the LOV (except when he stopped Magne from killing Izuku) even though he feels guilty about what they do. So most of the time, he isn't portrayed in a way that makes us stop and think. It's all too easy for the audience to dismiss or forget about him.

Anyone who (rightfully) questions or criticizes or openly despises the corrupt society in this universe is portrayed in a negative light. Even if what they're saying is technically right, we throw it away because they're doing something bad.

Really, there's only one character who's the exception. I'm, of course, talking about Lady Nagant.

Listen, me and Hori got beef all day everyday. BUT Nagant is one of the most exceptional characters I've ever seen in anime.

What I love about her is that she's someone who genuinely started out with good intentions and wanted to do the right thing but was torn down by society. It destroyed her from the inside out. The actions she took aren't even that extreme, they make sense considering everything she went through. Her problems with society aren't inane or hypocritical ramblings, she's 100% correct in her assessments because she was an unwilling participant in the corruption.

The problem with Nagant, however, is that she's with us for such a short amount of time that we don't get to take a deep dive here. We don't get to dissect why, exactly, society is so corrupt or find a solution to it.

It sucks because Hori was SO CLOSE to hitting the mark with Nagant. I think introducing her- or someone similar to her (missed opportunity with Hawks)- a lot sooner would have really improved the story

[pigeonwhumps]

Gagged

Kidnapped masterlist

Taglist: @extrabitterbrain @wolfeyedwitch @fuckcapitalismasshole @ghost-whump @whump-tr0pes

@rainbowsandwhumperflies @whumpinggrounds @actress4him @painful-pooch @i-eat-worlds

@a-funeral-romance @rainydaywhump

AI-less Whumptober day 8: rope burns | gagged | "you're so much prettier this way"

Brynn wakes up a prisoner.

1k

CWs: hero whump, immortal whumper, gag, restraints, stress position, revenge whump, former parental figure whumper, drugged, ableism, imprisonment

Brynn's surroundings are a blurry white blob when she first awakens. She blinks, and blinks, and blinks again. With every blink, the world comes more into focus.

It’s still very white. White tiles on the floor, walls, white wallpapered ceiling. Metal table. Camera in the top right corner.

Oh no. She recognises this place, she thinks. She has to get out.

She twists her wrists behind her back, feeling the rough power blocking rope tight around them. It bends but not enough. She tries to stand but her limbs are so drowsy, her legs like lead weights. Her head is like cotton wool too.

What did he give her?

Still, she has to move, she can't just stay like this, especially not now she suspects who has her. If she wasn't immortal he'd kill her, but as it is…

What’s he going to do?

Brynn scoots backwards on her bottom, back and back until she hits the wall, until she can dig her fingers into the edge of a tile and drag herself up, up, willing her feet to keep her upright. Come on, legs, stay strong.

They won't for long, she knows. The drug is far too strong for that. But she's not weak and helpless anymore, and she's going to meet Sovereign on her own two feet.

The double doors swing open.

Sovereign is…

She swallows.

He's big, looming, imposing. It's his territory, and he knows it, swaggering in. There’s going to be no stumbling, no looks of well-concealed panic, not here, not now. Not now Brynn can't double-cross him, doesn't know the environment far better than him. Here, she’s nothing, and they both know it.

No. No, she's not nothing. She's Brynn.

For whatever that’s worth.

“W-w-w-where’s H-h-Horus?”

“Alive. Unharmed. That’s more than will be said for you soon.”

He wouldn't lie about that, there'd be no point, and a weight lifts off her chest. But he's still keeping him hostage.

She's not going to ask. She's not going to ask. She's not going to give him the satisfaction.

She narrows her eyes as he stands there, eyebrow cocked, waiting. Waiting.

She's going to win this stand-off.

Eventually, Sovereign heaves a sigh. “I can see you are planning to be uncooperative. We will just have to proceed as planned regardless. You always have been a disappointment.”

And despite everything that's changed, that makes her heart crack, guilt attempting to intrude. She’s always hated disappointing him, even before he started hurting her. He always got this… look.

One he doesn't have now, as he reaches into his utility belt and pulls out a mask.

She freezes, guilt replaced by flooding, icy fear.

No. No. Not that.

“Yes.”

She stares, transfixed. She promised herself she would, but that was before… before… only for Kai. If he needed that to trust her again then she would. She'd take any punishment from her team, after she betrayed them so badly but they're still letting her back.

But not here. Not for Sovereign. She can't.

She ducks.

“You little bitch.”

“N-n-n-not y-y-y-y-yours.”

“You're my prisoner. And you still have the audacity to speak? You can't even do it properly, who would let you? It's disgraceful.”

Everyone she cares about would let her. Or they have so far. But she doesn't think she can say that so she stays quiet.

“I still know your measurements. Stay still or I'll make it so much worse for you. You deserve it, after what you did. Double-crossing me for those brats.”

“Th-th-they’re g-g-g-good p-people,” she retorts, surprised at how strong her voice comes out. Too good for her, certainly. She tries again to dodge but he grabs her hair, spinning her and pulling her head back.

“They're not coming for you, Brynn. Why would they? You're not worth their time. But you still betrayed me for them. And I don't need to hear your excuses, in fact I don't want to hear anything that comes out of that dumb mouth of yours. Maybe ever again. Certainly not when you can't even speak properly.”

Stupidly, tears fill Brynn’s eyes. She remembers a time when he was nice to her.

He wipes her eyes with one finger. “You should feel lucky. I've decided not to cover your whole face this time.”

Lucky. Sure. She still squirms, even knowing it’s futile, refusing to thank Sovereign for something that’ll cut and tear and shred.

Sovereign rolls his eyes, and pushes the mask over the lower half of her face. The mouthpart forces its way inside her mouth, tearing the soft tissue of her cheeks as it invades.

The stiff cloth covers her cheeks until it reaches just below her eyes, and over the bridge of her nose. The strap pinches at the back.

“Much better. Silence is better than stuttering, remember, Brynn?”

He drops her to the floor. She goes, unable to hold herself up any longer, knees smashing against the white tiles. She isn't– she isn't staying on her knees. She isn't. She slides her legs out, head down, refusing to look at him.

Sovereign clicks his tongue. “Come on. You've observed intake. You helped. You know what position I require of my prisoners. Because that's what you are, Brynn. You don't get the same luxuries you did as my sidekick anymore.”

Brynn forces back a sob-laugh. That’ll only hurt now. ‘Luxuries’. Does he mean a bed? Food? Shower? They’re luxuries to his prisoners.

He unties her wrists and then forces them above her head, retying them. When she tries to tug them there’s no give at all. He hoists her up and kicks at her legs until they’re back under her, and her body is screaming with the strain.

She wishes it'd stop. There's nothing she can do.

“I'll see you soon, Brynn. And I promise you, no matter how much you ‘care’ about those little irritants, it won't be long before the only thing you can think about is how you wish you hadn't double-crossed me.”

He stalks out, doors swinging shut behind him, and all is silent, all is pain. All she can hear is herself, and she really, really hates that.

[allgirlsareprincesses]

What did you think about fourth wing??? I'm dying to know. There isn't enough hate (coherent analysis) about these US Air Force Propaganda books. Please share your thoughts ☕ if you feel like it of course. I just really love reading your analysis about character building and romance 💋

HOOBOY. Brace yourself for the negativity. And for those of you who enjoyed Fourth Wing, turn back now and preserve your peace!

Firstly, I lowered my expectations going into this book. Not so much because I thought it would be bad, or I wouldn't have bothered, but because I've been burned before (I liked ACOTAR but hated ACOMAF and quit it about 3/4 the way through... I try to keep my negativity to a minimum but maybe some day I should post my full rant on that series, too). For the most part, I can be satisfied with a proactive heroine and a brisk pace.

And for the first half of the book or so, that's what I got. I liked Violet and the way she used her wits and studies to overcome obstacles, and I was charmed by her friends and dragons. Xaden struck me as kind of a cookie-cutter Sexy Emo Bad Boy, but that's okay. As long as Violet was having a fun adventure, she could have a steamy romance with the tattooed hottie, too. Dain sucked, but to his credit, at least he was written as sucking from the jump instead of like Tamlin who was character assassinated in the second book...

But then, once Xaden decided that he needed to personally oversee Violet's protection instead of just Liam, I started to notice that our heroine had stopped driving the action. Suddenly, she was reacting to things that happened instead of making plans and following through. She stopped using her wits and her book knowledge, she didn't pursue the obvious mysteries that should have intrigued her, and she just generally retreated into more of a helpless damsel than she had started. And here was Xaden, being JUST as controlling and protective as Dain, but because he's sexy and has a magical justification for his protectiveness, he gets a pass.

And then the worst part. It's revealed that Xaden's not ACTUALLY a bad boy at all. In reality, he's secretly noble and generous and self-sacrificial. Just like Rhys, this guy with the Dark Prince aesthetic is actually secretly perfect, and he's also been obsessed with the heroine since he first met her. So there's not REALLY any way for him to grow or any conflict for him to overcome, because he's already this perfect, flawless, blameless hero. And Violet doesn't figure out his secret on her own through clever sleuthing, doesn't defy expectations to do something no one else will do, she just discovers Xaden's noble crusade and decides to go along with it. Because why wouldn't she? He's already done all the hard moral work (or so we're told) of risking everything for an enemy. Now she just gets to go into battle and nearly die so that Xaden can have Man Pain.

It was just deja vu. Once again, a proactive heroine became passive when confronted with the perfect sexy man with the bad boy aesthetic. So BORING.

And lest you think I'm being too critical, I want to point out a variation on this story that I actually love: The Folk of the Air series, by Holly Black. In that story, Jude is similarly a proactive heroine who meets a sexy bad boy, but there are two key differences in her story: one is that she never STOPS being proactive. Take a look at all of the major plot points in that trilogy: nearly all of them are created by Jude herself, and frequently when she's taking action in opposition to what other characters (even allies) want. Jude makes plans, she follows through, she takes risks, she defies convention. The other major difference is that Carden is ACTUALLY a bad boy at the start of his story. He's a selfish, vindictive brat, and it takes him a long time to grow to a place of maturity (at which point he's still not perfect, but he's better). So he doesn't just have the Dark Prince aesthetic while being secretly perfect - he's actually a real antagonist to Jude, which makes their story much more compelling.

So yeah, those are my thoughts. Hope you enjoyed this rant.

[the-courtsjester]

Greetings Ladys, gentlemen and... things, today I'll be posting my first headcanons but for what you may ask? ...go on ask me... I'll assume you asked

It's for Honkai Star Rail!

Now over time I will indulge in a bit if smut but for more I'll just probably mention characters doing something lewd or shit for one reason or another anyway let's begin!

Honkai Star Rail headcanons 1:

Stelle:

She's a lost puppy god damn, if she gets attached to someone and they wander off from the friend group she will not hesitate to go off with them

Stelle has more then occasionally had to run from law enforcement because she beat someone for bothering her friends too much

She occasionally just doesn't wear a bra and if someone points it out she'd genuinely have to remember what that is

She can and will bring a trashcan into the Astral Exress if no one stops her last time no one stopped her record was twelve in one room

Stelle will spend a good while on figuring out the perfect song to play in the Express for the day... only to just put it back to Take the Journey it's a good song I can't blame her

Stelle has made copys of their wanted posters and put them up in the Express Welt and Dan Heng have learned to not both with them but March can't stop taking the ones of her down only for seven more to appear

Silver Wolf:

As a gamer you'd expect her room to look like a tornado rolled through well you're very wrong! You foolishly foolish fool she's so meticulous in certain games she's had it bleed out into her real life

Wolfie have more then once stolen Blade's crdit card to use on monthly subscriptions ...not like he knows how to use that thing anyway

Sliver Wolf is a brat change my mind doesn't matter the scenario as long as it isn't life threatening if she finds it funny she'll be a brat

While yes she is amazing at multiplayer games she actually prefers single player and party games think, Mario Party, Smash Bros, The Jackbox series stuff like that one time she got Kafka and Blade to join her in Smash Bros and dear lord the look of Confusion on Blade's face

On the daily she will wear something similar to a hazmat suit and take all her limited edition collectibles and clean then meticulously from dusting off boxes to fixing any mistakes it has to make it absolutely perfect

She try's to make a ligament playlist to listen to but it somehow always get infested by video game osts and when asked for good song recommendations she takes a second to not say a video game song unless it's unironically good

Natasha:

Ask her what sleep it she'll take a couple seconds to respond because this woman doesn't sleep yet she tells everyone else to sleep

An entire corner of her room is dedicated to stuffed animals and she'll have a full on ceremony when she plans to gift one of them to one of the kids

She definitely listens to to System Of A Down in the same playlist as Barbie Girl but no one knows ...about Barbie Girl no one except it from her for some reason

Natasha sets up play dates with the kids and herself many times she has played the princess needing rescue and on occasion she'll play the hero or villain if requested to

On accident some of the kids managed to get her grenade launcher and she had a full on panic attack luckily it had no ammo but afterwards she kept it closer by at all times

Natasha in her free time likes to spend it with a cup of coffee and any one of the solitaire versions or any of those old computer games like minesweeper and has become unironically really good at it

Ah well that will do it for now, I'm only doing three for now as they're the three I would say, I know the best but I do feel like Natasha's wasn't as good as it could be I don't know why though, but I may see you all tomorrow with another post

Goodnight my lovely audience!

[simply-wlw-kpopstan]

38. Lesser twin

Things had been getting out of hand and the peanut cookie incident was the last straw. You had sent yuna a text to come and meet you on campus which lead you to now.

"peanut butter cookies really?" you glared at her as you spotted her.

"not even a hi? Straight to being hostile," she rolled her eyes and sat down on one of the benches.

"I'd say those cookies were hostile."

"it's not like it would've killed you"

"what about yujin? Or her other classmates? You dropped off random cookies, what if one of them had a cookie while having a severe allergy?"

"then they would be dumb to eat random cookies?" yuna shrugged. "is that what this is about?"

"this is about you being a brat" you took a seat on the opposite side and the both of you just stared at one another.

"i'm the brat? You're the one who's constantly making a scene!"

"because you were trying to hurt yujin!"

"you didn’t even like her! You didn't know her until she became your tutor and then you saw me rejecting her and decided to be a hero? How superficial can you get huh? I'm willing to bet you wouldn't have jumped in if she wasn't your tutor."

"I stepped in because she didn't deserve all the shit that you put her through!"

"then why now? Why her? I've done this plenty of times before and you never stepped up for them."

"She's not like the others and we both know that. Those guys are after one thing, she actually liked you. "

"and you couldn't take it could you?"

"what?" you frowned.

"you couldn't take the fact that someone good liked me because you think I'm evil. You always paint me as the bad guy! You've been doing that shit since we were kids!"

"you cut me with a knife yuna!"

"that was an accident! How many times do you want me to tell you that? I'm not a fucking psycho! Do I hate you? Yes, but you're still my sister. For better or worse, I know at the end of the day if I'd get a call telling me your hurt I would be there for you. "

"then why can't you just leave yujin and me alone?"

"this was never about yujin. This was about me getting back at you for alienating me from everyone! Do you have any idea how hurtful it is to grow up like the lesser twin? Everyone looks at me in fear, nobody talks to me except for yunjin and giselle. They were the only two who actually talked to me. The rest of them just stare and whisper to their friends. Those jocks and frat boys constantly ask me out because they know I say no, it became a competition for them. Who would be the one to win over the ice queen. "

"explain the restaurant then. You were just sitting there with your friends watching yujin as she waited."

"because I know you," she smirked and let out a chuckle, "I knew Brian was going to be there because giselle heard it when he got asked out. Knowing you and your little friends, he would text you and you would come running."

"but you looked angry when you saw me?"

"I was angry that you two ended up having a fun date, that was never the plan. I thought yujin would've wanted to go home and that she'd be a bit more hung up on me so you would feel worse but I guess her feelings weren't that deep."

"so what now? Jennifer said you were done with us? I find it hard to believe." you crossed your arms as she stood up from her place.

"it's true. It's always been about hurting you and based on the last weeks I'd say I succeeded in that." she checked if she had everything with her before making a move to leave, "Yujin is tougher then she looks I'll give you that."

"Yeah, she wouldn't let me break up with her." you chuckled at the thought of her stubbornness.

"if you ever need to break up with her and she won't let you, let me know" she smirked at you. "just so we're clear, I'm not apologizing and this doesn't change anything between us"

"i'm aware of that." you stood up yourself and then you spotted Brian lurking behind a tree.

"he's been there for 5 minutes." yuna said as she followed your gaze. " thought you knew about it but since he dived behind the tree when you turned to his direction you clearly don't"

"I didn't. I'll see you around." you gave her a nodd and then parted ways, "Brian what the hell are you doing?" you asked the guy as he's hugging a tree.

"you know... Just giving nature some love."

"you may be our fairy boy and Peter pan but you aren't a tree hugger, please don't turn into one."

"yujin was worried after your posts and then you disappeared, didn't pick up her calls and dani didn't know where you were which made it weird since she always knows where you are. I just came back from a date and saw you talking to yuna so I reported to home base that you were doing and they freaked."

You took your phone out of your bag to see 5 missed calls from yujin, bunch of texts from her and then the notifications from you posts," guess I have some explaining to do. "

" what were you doing? "

" you'll have to wait 'cause I'm not going to say it now to then repeat it all over again in my dorm since everyone is in there" The walk home didn't take to long and the moment you opened your door you were bombarded with questions "First let me talk the ask one question at a time please" they all agreed and you ended up telling them everything that happened.

"so that's it?" dani asked, "after everything you're okay with just doing nothing?"

"I may have recorded everything on my phone just incase anything would happen." you grinned.

"that's my girl" yujin smiled and gave you a peck on the cheek

masterlist | next

[bottlepiecemuses]

One Piece Shows Even If You Topple The Celestial Dragons There Could Be Other Types Of Tyrants To Take Their Place

As One Piece shows in the series, the world is under a dictatorship that is run by a tyrannical king who is hinted to be hundreds of years old and hides in the shadows so no one really knows that there is really a true ruler with puppet agents following his orders. All under the rule of Imu through the world government we see systematic oppression and authoritarian practices seen as normal by the people of the world or weakly excused as a price to pay to have any sort of peace. And the emphasis in the story is that this is an unfair system and that one day they will finally topple. However, despite all of this I do think there is another theme that comes with how tyranny stinks.

It's the fact that who can replace a corrupt system if it was finally out of power. When you look at the pirate side you see many figures like Kaido and Big Mom who are offered as an alternative authority for people who seek protection. Despite the fact they themselves are in conflict with the world government, it doesn't mean they would bring the dawn to the world and end the darkness.

First we have Big Mom who espouses equality and peace among all people and lets her subjects eat in a land of plenty. However, despite her claims of being a kind, just ruler the reality is more bittersweet on the surface. Big Mom at heart is an overgrown child who never truly grew up and as a result she has a self-centered view of things where everything she does is good and those who don't obey her are bad. As a result, she endorses ruthless methods to get people to comply what she wants like forcing them join her tea parties or have a loved one killed. Or the fact that those who try to leave her crew have to give up their life or appendage like the case with Pedro. There is the most galling fact that she makes the population give a portion of their lifespan to fuel the homies that litter the land or make them be exiled. It's really is a deal with the devil where everything seems grand on surface, but it's really shitty underneath the surface. It has the face of kindness but the hands of a tyrant that strangles you if you don't do what you claim. It's barely better than what the world currently has where the world nobles are overgrown royal brats who demand everyone cater to their needs and never return the favor.

Interesting enough Kaido as well speaks about equality and merit for all based on strength. Unlike Big Mom, he doesn't emphasize peace but war and thinks it's the true equalizer and endorses anarchism. However, as seen in Wano this also leads to a form of tyranny through might makes right. Those who are stronger can easily overpower those who are weaker. This as as a result leads to just as much of a world of bullies like the World Nobles who trample everyone they think as inferior and exploit those who can't fight back. It would be just another world where the weak have no voice and they will always be trampled by the ruling class. In this case, it would be the warrior class instead of the noble class who wouldn't act any different. The world would know no peace and everyone would be fear for their lives like in Wano under his 20 year rule. It is why he doesn't become the new joyboy because he becomes another tyrant that stamp on the freedoms of others while saying he is bringing up equality.

And that is where Luffy comes into the picture because unlike those other two he's actually someone who liberates whoever he goes without conditions or drawbacks. Even though Luffy never intended to be a hero, he always manages to still make the world a better place because when he sees injustice he knows and emphasizes with the suffering people go through. He might not do it out of selfless heroism but he does show gratefulness by returning a small favor by liberating them from whatever oppressor a new friend is under. Luffy ultimately is the perfect counterpart to those who would be just as bad as the government if they were truly in charge. It is for that reason he's the new Joyboy because he understands the importance of freedom and that someone who doesn't undrestand that is no different than the world government.

[fancyfade]

I saw the post saying Batman fans think dc intentionally make Bruce a terrible parent to give Damian angst…just…have these people seen what dc writers and editors in interviews?

A lot of writers and editors revealed they see Damian not more than an arrogant and entitled brat that needs to learn his place and follow the status quo…which is hilarious as a lot of modern writing heroes make fucking frustrated with their holler than thou personalities.

Heck I remember the writer got Tim Drake last recent book said she liked Damian but he can be difficult at times

Oh like Ra’s and Bruce? Almost like he related to the some of the most complex mainstream comic book characters.

And from my experience, a lot of writers want to write the idolized version of Batman that made up as a kid. Which unfortunately makes Bruce treat Damian as afterthought unintentionally.

Now I don’t expect Bruce to be the perfect dad, but as you stated months ago. A lot of modern Batman writers have a fundamentally lack of desire to have Bruce act like a parent/figure. In fancy I notice this with the other batkids where their bonds with Bruce have been extremely watered down. Can you confirm that as you read more older comics than me.

Sorry for a long anon, I don’t think Bruce is meant to be a terrible father. Just a lot of writers project their personal bias against Damian into other characters…which in turn make a lot of them worse as writer forgot Damian is a child…not to mention Bruce bio son. Not saying parents and kids have 1:1 of personalities. But do writers remember Bruce can be an asshole too?

yeah a lot of the writers do project their personal biases - as well as they personally don't view Bruce's adopted kids as his actual kids* and it's more comfortable for writers to just have them do different things when batman doesn't "have" to be a parent. like dick and bruce have pretty good rapport in silver and bronze age.

for older comics its strange. like I'd say even tho golden/silver age bruce didn't refer to dick as his son, he still definitely had "dad like" qualities. like we see a golden age bruce knock dick out to stop him from following him to his presumed death**, and silver age Bruce encourages dick to spend time being a kid and enjoying basketball and for example 1 comic dick goes to his school's spirit night instead of on patrol.

bronze age dick is college age, so their dynamic is different. dick's out of the house in college, and honestly I wish writers would do this more if they just didn't want to write Bruce being a dad. Like for Damian's situation instead of Bruce being criminally negligent/stupid why can't we just see Damian living with Talia he literally has a mom. you don't want to write bruce being a dad there are options.

jason we see him being a good dad but also his tenure as robin is pretty short, and then for a while the robin of the time (tim) is important in that he is not bruce's son. he's a trainee. Bruce doesn't have any minor children for a while, and only after OYL (occurs 2006 in our world) do we see him adopt a nearly adult tim.

For which Batkids have had their bonds with Bruce watered down, I'd have to read more current batcomics. The old comics I'd say we do have phases where Dick and Bruce don't talk much, mostly due to the annoying post COIE retcons of how Dick becomes nightwing (Bruce initially tells him he can't be Robin after he gets shot, then immediately adopts Jason to make him Robin, and then later that is retconned for Bruce to kick him out). I've spoken multiple times about preferring pre COIE retcons where Dick had more agency.

Cass I am not sure if we've seen her interacting a lot with Bruce lately, due to the aforementioned not keeping up with current batcomics that don't have Damian. She does show up in spirit world but :P that's about Xanthe.

From what I hear from people who read current Tim comics, Tim's bond with Bruce is very strongly emphasized, tho I haven't read those comics myself so I can't comment firsthand.

Overall I think a lot of portrayal of Bruce as straight up negligent or abusive*** is due to writers just not caring about portraying him as a dad, they care about loner batman which maybe is the version from their head as kids? or could just be because that's a lot of what DC likes to emphasize. also the general "men express emotions by being angry and violent" thing many writers like. and DC was going to set up Damian as the villain for 5G, so they had to put him in a place where Bruce couldn't have seen this and stopped it, so they decided that he was going to claim any level of ignorance in order to not look bad (because I guess just not knowing what's going on with your child is fine)

*for a similar thing not in batman comics: i think that if Death of a Prince writers viewed Garth as Aquaman's ""actual"" kid, even though Garth was adopted by him and raised by him for a large portion of his childhood, they wouldn't have had aquaman being willing to fight aqualad to the death to save his biological child, arthur jr, at black manta's threats.

**which is also what Talia does for Damian in Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul - she knocks him out to take him away from battle and protect him

*** as opposed to realistically emotionally unavailable for his character, which I think works especially post Jason's death. but also WRT for why I think the negligent stuff is OOC (here - post)

[cardboardboxy]

Rick shouldn't've ended Hero's of Olympus with everyone in a 'happy' relationship

Heres why :)

So happy is in quotes because piper had textbook comphet and caleo existed, but there wasn't any indication that those couples were going to break up, but I'm going to go through each couple and explain what could've been done better in my opinion

Percabeth: I absolutely love percabeth, but I dislike the fact that almost all lighthearted interactions these two had were with eachother or with people collectively, there was hardly any bonding that they experienced separately which isn't great

Frazel: Setting aside the... questionable age gap, they were very fast paced which logically doesn't make much sense. They were in a very fast paced environment and a lot of their interactions were in high stress situations which isn't the best for getting to know eachother, excusing trauma bonding which shouldn't be used as the basis for a long term relationship, they really had no reason to get together until later on in HoO or potentially even after, so they would've had time to actually form a relationship beyond both of them having crushes and being friends

Jiper: The main issues in their relationship are pointed out in ToA, piper was manipulated by hera/juno to believe she had feelings for jason. I'm unsure whether or not its actually mentioned directly, but jason also felt obligated (in the beginning) to get with piper due to piper having memories of them as a couple. Both of these caused the pair to lack chemistry

Caleo: Apologies to caleo lovers for what comes next. These two are only together because leo is desperate and calypso was cursed, none of their romantic interactions feel natural and their personalities completely clash. In ToA leo talks about him having how calypso would hate him talking about their relationship like a machine even though that kind of thinking is hardwired into his being as a son of hepheastus, which means leo would have to completely change himself in order for him to be palatable to calypso

As individuals they also have issues, leo feels out of place with his own friends and feels inadequate when he isn't in a relationship, the solution to that is to work through whatever is causing those feelings and ideally to strengthen his connection with his friends outside of life or death settings. The last thing leo should do is jump into a relationship with the first girl who reciprocates his interest, let alone one who was cursed to do so

Calypso hasn't had a platonic relationship for over a thousand years, she needs to acclimatise to the current world and create multiple connections before getting into a romantic relationship. The only reason Calypso even remotely likes leo is because of her curse, without it she would still see him as an irratating brat and I doubt she'd even consider him a friend, if her love curse ever faded she'd also probably feel an obligation to stay with leo considering he freed her from basically eternal imprisonment

This concludes my yap session 👍