#but the point is that she's smarter than him in other ways! they balance each other out which is why they're such a good team

[quantumshade]

can anyone explain to me at what point rose tyler was "unbelievably stupid". was it when she was inventing transdimensional travel

[aimedis]

redacted asmr hcs pt.8 - shaw pack edition

-milo and asher have had a super complicated handshake since high school (tried to teach it to david but he was not having it)

-milo and sweetheart are the type to bully kids on roblox 

-sam and darlin’ will start giggling to each other about literally nothing (milo and sweetheart as well) 

-sweetheart and milo insult and fight with each other all day (the first time the pack heard sweetheart call him a bitch and milo just laughed, they all freaked out because milo never takes insults from people) ((milo and sweetheart swing at each other even while sweetheart’s cloaked and they giggle the whole time)) (((milo: “don’t even try it, you brat. i’ll beat your ass”)))

-angel is one of the smartest in the pack (sometimes smarter than david in certain areas) ((during pack trivia they beat him for first place and he glared at them for all of ten seconds))

-angel gets progressively more irritable the more hungry or tired they are (like a toddler) and david points it out because he thinks it’s cute (angel: “can you like shut up? you’re starting to piss me off” david, smirking in amusement: “I think you’re just hungry” angel: “say that to me again and you lose your head”) 

-angel has anger issues (more like easily irritated) it just takes a lot for them to show it

-sometimes for date night, asher and baabe just put on comfy socks and clothes and make pillow forts to sit in while they watch crappy tv shows to giggle at

-milo and sweetheart are horribly possessive when it comes to anyone outside of the pack and sometimes even within the pack (not in a toxic way) ((milo: “touch them again and i’ll rip your hand off” / sweetheart: “unless you want your entire upper body to go invisible for the rest of the night, get your hands off of my mate”))

-asher spends the entire summer solstice pouting and whining into baabe’s chest while they rub his back and occasionally give him little massages where it hurts

-david covers angel’s face for them when they yawn in public (he also does it when they make questionable faces or if they start crying around other people, he’ll cover their face for them) ((he does it so often that angel doesn’t think to do those things on their own anymore when david’s not around)) 

-sam and darlin’ play the “that’s a body”/“that’s cheating” game with things they’ve very well done

-in shifter culture, wolves pressing their foreheads together is a very intimate but casual show of affection and it really means a lot when shifters do it to a non-shifter (most shaw wolves have done it to the non-shifter mates at this point) 

-darlin’ loves sam’s hands on their face (they close their eyes and lean heavily against him) 

-asher and baabe are literally johnny and mavis 

-darlin’ has learned to lean on sam (metaphorically and literally) they take the hand he offers when they need it to keep balance when with anyone else they would’ve denied it ((the wolf bois were understandably shocked))

-david hates straight black coffee but he insists on having it all the time. angel on the other hand proudly drinks their sugary milky coffee and david steals sips from it all the time (claims it tastes better coming from them so they don’t bother getting him their regular) 

-darlin’ cracks all the crackable bones in their body (back, fingers, neck, ankles etc.) and it drives sam insane because he can hear it so clearly

-when milo was younger, marie would run her finger between milo’s eyebrows and down his nose to remind him to relax whenever he made a face so he didn’t get a line on his forehead (she still does it and she does it to sweetheart as well) 

-david can tell when angel is in a bad mood within seconds, he can just feel it without even seeing them (he'll randomly text them "are you okay?" and they're like "how did you-")

-milo gets really cold on the summer solstice and sweetheart gets really hot (milo clings onto sweetheart the whole day and sweetheart let’s him no matter how sweaty and agitated they are) ((fanfic idea??))

-darlin’ gets mad when they’re bored 

-darlin’ is really really good at pretending things don’t hurt (physically or emotionally) 

-whenever david gets really angry at darlin', he starts acting like them (they are so siblings)

-david thrives off of knowing how flustered he makes angel with no effort (he looks into their eyes for a second too long and their face flushes/they smile nervously and turn away)

-angel being an angry jealous and asher being a pouty jealous (rarely) 

-despite being a wolf, asher sneezes like a kitten. david's sneezes are a nuclear bomb

-david and asher being childhood best friends, have had their fair share of arguments but one of the big ones was surprisingly, not during the period of gabe's death but almost immediately after they both got off their honeymoons. they had a pretty bad argument that milo and darlin' somehow got roped into (they weren't ganging up on one or two people really, it was a free for all) -the argument was bad but because they're all as close as they are, it wasn't tense afterwards

-david and milo bicker quite often, as do sam and sweetheart

[trentcrimminallybeautiful]

i was talking about how i like to have s1 trent get his brains kissed out (bc he deserves it) and also how if it's ted like. the earlier in the season it is the funnier it becomes. when you're not taking it too seriously. ANYWAY. and now i'm thinking about like. okay, so, ted charms trent pretty early. obviously. he wins him over in episode three, with the interview, but i think he was already at least a little bit reluctantly charmed by his second press conference in episode two. now, i've done plenty of scenarios where they meet pre-canon/ep1 for whatever reason, and i've done plenty where they end up kissing/become closer than in canon during s1. usually during or after episode three. however i am now thinking of what would happen if they somehow met, in a relatively in private, non-professional, one-on-one (or with only their kids, no other adults?) context, etc, between episode one and two, when trent's opinion of him is at the lowest it ever gets (and honestly, probably vice versa, too). and i am just... spinning that.

because, i mean. you know ted's gonna charm him. even if he isn't trying quite as hard without the interview giving him a direct reason, he's gonna charm him. just by being his kind, goofy self, he's gonna charm him, and without the interview to give context and reason to be talking professionally--assuming they are still talking and not avoiding each other, for whatever contrived reason--it's gonna put poor trent in such a snit. liking ted personally, so much, and not knowing how to handle it because as far as he's concerned, this is still someone who is putting the team and everyone who cares about it in a bad situation, but also, even after talking to the man for a few hours, it's already hard to believe he would do that. trent catching on to the fact ted lasso is smarter than he pretends, catching on to the fact that nice and kind and positive attitude is at least mostly if not completely and utterly sincere, and all that--just a little bit earlier. not enough to really make a difference in canon but. idk man. a) assuming this is a barely canon divergent thing it's just kind of fun to imagine that happening b) however back on my s1 trent gets kissed agenda i have literally no idea what circumstances could possibly arise to make that happen however i am CACKLING at the thought.

ANYWAY, back to the point: i just think there's something kind of compelling about that. between episodes one and two, when both of them have the lowest opinion of the other they will ever have, meeting in some innocuous way and being helplessly, unwillingly charmed. ted sees That One Reporter outside the press room only he's affectionately wrestling a frog hat onto a small child, grinning at her when she boops his nose, and can't help a smile at the reminder that even the coldest, rudest people are people, capable of kindness and goofiness, and he hadn't forgotten but it's still nice to see. trent, confronted with the full blast beam of The Lasso Effect right to the face and up close and outside of the press room, away from where he feels most confident, off duty and balance, sans notebook and pen, stumbling just a little into awkwardness, the edge of rudeness that comes from dislike that's tempered by some standard of british politeness and a hint of confusion and then quickly melted away entirely into utter bewilderment and oddly endeared charm, because what. trent crimm has no idea what to think of him. ted finds he actually likes trent, quite a bit--their conversation, however odd, had been entertaining, and despite their, uh, eventful, less-than-ideal first impression, ted may or may not have a favorite journo suddenly. because that sharp-cutting no-holds-barred journo from the press room is also strangely warm, and perpetually bewildered at the smallest kindnesses, and a good dad, nevermind that ted's heart is aching interacting with little kids like that.

idk man i'm just going in circles here i'm rotating and spinning because something something each seeing a better side to the other just a teensy bit earlier and it doesn't really change that much in the long run, unless it does; something something ted has only seen trent once, at his worst, being outright hurtful, and now here they are outside of that context, and trent has only reasons to think ted's incompetent, careless, greedy, an asshole, or some combination of the four, and yet here they are, and just. idk man! something

[aishabellasbigblogofeverything]

No, but can we talk about how, despite allegedly being a "feminist" movie, Barbie 2023 actually mocks the idea of a female fantasy and Barbie being an inspirational role model for young girls?

It's so upsetting that not enough people bring this up, even the other haters of Barbie, but it needs to be addressed. Barbie was meant to provide an empowering fantasy for young girls. A lot of people have differing opinions on whether Barbie is feminist or not and what she represents. But at the end of the day, Barbie was designed to give girls a role model to see themselves in, to show them that they could pursue any career, that they can be the heroines of their own story, and reach their fullest potential. She was meant to tell girls that anything is possible. And the movie not only shits all over that, it makes that feminist message out to be something unrealistic and bad, and even worse, portrays it as something that oppresses men and makes THEM victims, because everything needs to be about men. And it's fucking disgusting. Allow me to explain how.

(spoilers for the Barbie movie below...I mean, if you even care, lol.)

We start out at the beginning of the movie with an introduction to the magical world of Barbieland that our well-known and universally familiar dolls live in. Barbieland is a feminist utopia, one that many women would be eager to live in. Women have all the power, are well-respected, can and do pursue any career, and support and uplift each other rather than tear each other down over their differences(aside from Weird Barbie, who they do apologize to in the end). They are happy and free in their female-empowering land, they don't fear the leers and catcalls from men as they walk down the streets, they dance together happily late at night, and they are confident in their bodies. There is diversity in the Barbieland. There is a plus-sized Barbie, a transfem Barbie, a wheelchair Barbie, and plenty of Barbies of color. The President of Barbieland is a Black woman. And none of these differences hold the Barbies back from being able to have power and they are not treated any differently from the other Barbies.

Femininity isn't seen as a weakness. Neither is expressing emotion, and in fact the fat Barbie even has a miniature speech about how she can balance her emotion with her logic and this makes her a smarter person, which the other Barbies support. It's a world where women are empowered and have unlimited potential to achieve their dreams and live freely without fear of their oppressors. Stereotypical Barbie isn't even afraid to reject Beach Ken's advances, she doesn't fear being stalked, raped, or killed by him for saying no. She just turns him down, and not only that, but she turns him down in favor of having girls' night, showing that in this world, girls support each other and value their female friendships over heterosexual relationships with guys(I'll touch on this point again later). I don't know about you, but that sure as hell does sound like a world that I dream of living in. Minus the fact that all the food and drinks are fake.

But the story doesn't frame this matriarchy as empowering, like they should. It portrays it instead as something ridiculous and far-fetched, something that the audience is meant to laugh at rather than support, which becomes more blatant as the movie progresses.

And then we get to the "real" world. Where men instead rule over women in a patriarchy, and we see Barbie experience misogyny for the first time. And this was the moment I started fully hating the movie, and realized it for the sloppy, anti-feminist mess that it is. The first part of the movie set in Barbieland was campy and fun and happy and feel-good, providing the exact type of feel that Barbie brings. But the moment she steps into the real world, everything becomes sad and hopeless and cynical.

And I get that the patriarchy does exist and women are oppressed by it every day, but the way the movie executed this was really overexaggerated and cringeworthy. They made it seem as if women are constantly and completely powerless in every aspect of life, like seriously they didn't even show ANY women in positions of power and the only women we did see with jobs besides a female doctor, were Gloria who works an office job at Mattel and Ruth who is already dead and is for all extents and purposes relegated to the fucking kitchen. They made the world out to be a complete and total dystopia where women aren't capable of achieving anything and the only two women of importance who are from the real world are Sasha and her mother Gloria, the former is portrayed as bitter, cynical, and constantly angry, the latter is portrayed as stressed-out, depressed, and somewhat suicidal with her thoughts about death. Is this all that the Barbie movie thinks that women can achieve in our world? Being miserable and frustrated with no hope of achieving our dreams and desires? With no power or satisfaction in our day to day lives? Is this all that this shithole movie thinks that women can amount to?

And the worst part is how Barbie is derided and mocked for thinking that she has provided a female role model for women and girls. The start of the movie mocks Barbie for thinking that it solved all women's problems and completely advanced women's rights/feminism, even though Barbie/Mattel has never claimed that. Yes, she was meant to be a role model. But she was never portrayed as the be-all, end-all of feminism. Even people who look up to Barbie and were encouraged by her aren't naive enough to think that a twelve-inch tall plastic doll is enough to smash the patriarchy. The movie makes this up solely so they can tear down Barbie for something that it never claimed to do in the first place. When our main Barbie leaves to go to the real world, the other Barbies encourage her(as Barbies tend to do) by saying that they bet all the women in the real world will thank her for giving them rights. Which is obviously meant to be an overexaggerated and satirical jab at Barbie once again, for thinking that it has created feminism or whatever, and that sexism is over solely thanks to the Barbie franchise. Cute. Too bad no version of the Barbie brand has ever claimed that in the first place. Again, it's a ridiculous and false claim that only exists to further unnecessarily jab at Barbie and propel this backwards-thinking message.

And then when she gets to the human world she is mocked even more. Sasha and her friends laugh at her when she claims to be Barbie and asks them to thank you for inspiring them, and then when she says she loves and wants to help women, Sasha aggressively informs her that EVERYONE hates women. This movie actually has a pretty nihilistic view of womanhood, when you think about it. The Barbie world is portrayed as an empowering world where women can achieve anything that they set their minds to, and aren't held back by sexism, causing them to have full power, reflecting the female fantasy that Barbie was always supposed to represent. But that's just a fantasy land, and is portrayed as cheesy and superficial. When Barbie gets to the real world, she is confronted with the supposed "reality" of being a woman, and comes to realize that it's not actually about empowerment and being smart and capable after all, but about suffering and never having your voice respected, and never having any power and freedom but instead losing your idealism and optimism as you age, causing her to break down in tears upon realizing how stressful it is to be a woman and that she never actually empowered them like she hoped. Seriously, whose idea was it to make Barbie constantly crying and miserable and incapable of doing anything on her own? Is this the Barbie I know? No, it's a pathetic, nonsensical knockoff. I'm telling you, they were TRYING to tear Barbie down.

This is especially true when Gloria gives her entire speech to Barbie about how contradictory and painful being a woman is, ending it with "not only are you doing everything wrong, but also, everything is your fault!" Come on! What is this? It's such a painful and harsh message to try to send through BARBIE of all things, that the essence of being a woman is just pain, pain, pain and guess what else? More pain! How being a woman sucks because all you do is get hated by everyone and treated as an object worthy of scorn and ridicule. It's just so unnecessarily cruel, how they violently ripped away any feminist empowerment Barbie was meant to possess in favor of forcing her into a depressive world where women have no rights or value, and had the nerve to portray this as "realistic", because obviously more negative automatically means more realistic, right?

Rather than provide a middle ground where women face hardships and adversity but are still capable of rising above their struggles and finding the strength within them to make their voices heard and get what they want in society, they opt instead for a stupid false dichotomy: the world is either a stupid frivolous Amazon utopia wrapped in pink and glitter with girl power up the wazoo or a bleak, heartless, and grey dystopia where nothing good ever happens to a woman and only men can do anything important. And it portrays the second one as clearly more realistic and the "better" option. Which, in doing so, sends the message that a world where women rule and are respected and have power and are encouraged to have ambition and pursue any goal they want in life...is unrealistic and impossible, if not outright deserving of scorn. It's so miserable and aggravating. When Barbie said "the cognitive dissonance required to be a woman under the patriarchy" I had to resist the urge to roll my eyes. THAT'S how badly the movie annoyed me with its nihilistic and negative preaching. I watched the movie in two days and when I stopped watching it on the first day I felt such a frustrated, hollow feeling in my stomach. I felt so unsatisfied. Like, is this it? Is this all I can dream of having as a woman? All that praise this shitty capitalist crapfest received for being so feminist and eye-opening, ultimately led up to this? For real? So disappointing.

But that's not even the worst part. The worst part is when the movie introduces the KENdom, aka, when Ken brings about the patriarchy...and if the movie hadn't already been hot stinkin' ASS, this is when it would've REALLY started to drag, and where it REALLY reinforces the idea that women can never have any actual power and authority and must instead constantly suffer under the patriarchal status quo.

Ken comes back to Barbieland and introduces the other Kens and Barbies to the patriarchy and horses(ig no one told him that horses are a matriarchal animal, but whatevs), and within hours, revamps the world into a patriarchal hell, just like the real world(except it's portrayed as very childish and simplistic because the witers don't actually take the patriarchy seriously and think it's just "boys think girls have cooties".). And the other dolls instantly buy into it? First of all, am I really expected to believe that the Barbies, who have been established as champions of strength, power and dominance, and who have always ruled the Barbie world, would instantly and easily give in to Ken's brainwashing and allow all of their power to be ripped out of their hands, becoming the happy devoted sexy slaves of the Kens? You think they would casually be like "I for one, welcome our new male overlords!" and let the Kens have all the power? Am I really supposed to accept that shit? And am I also supposed to accept that the other Kens in Kenland, including the Asian one who competes with the white Ken over Barbie, would easily leap at the chance to oppress their female counterparts, rather than laugh at Ken for being silly and tell him to sit his ass down somewhere? Really? Don't piss me off.

The only way you could accept this series of unfortunate events as plausible is if you accept the fact that we're supposed to laugh at Barbieland for being a girl power feminist matriarchy in the first place. If we're meant to laugh at the women for being in power and at this imagined society for being so gynocentric and girl-positive, then of COURSE we're meant to laugh at them for getting their power ripped away that easily, as women could never hold power for so long realistically! Eventually the men would realize their true potential and make society work in favor of them! It's natural and inevitable! The Barbie movie said so!!! And so we watch as the intended "humorous" scenes go on and on, of the men happily running around, flaunting their muscles, and chugging down beers like it's going out of style, while the women happily submit to this newfound male authority, massaging men's feet and serving them drinks. Because obviously a matriarchy could never last long, women are so weak and fragile that any sense of power that they think they possess could easily be ripped away from them within a moment's notice. Peak feminism, everybody.

But it's cool, because eventually the Barbies prove me wrong. They DO get their power back, and establish their rights again. But how do they do it? Do they stage a coup and violently and angrily fight the Kens? Do they march for their rights, as real life feminists have done? Do they balance logic and emotion, as fat Barbie praised herself for doing in the beginning of the movie, and reason with the Kens that oppressing the Barbies is not the right thing to do? No, no, they...put on sexy skimpy outfits and pretend to be dumb bimbos so as to lull the Kens into a false sense of security and think that THEY are in control. And later on they let the Kens sing to them a song about how they want to control women, before turning them against each other by pretending to be in love with different Kens than the ones they were originally listening to. Are you kidding me? This is supposed to be a feminist revolution! But instead of actually using their genuine power to put the men back in their place, they instead use their feminine wiles and dumb themselves down so that the men can feel strong. It is literally leaning into the sexist trope that the only weapon women have, especially against men, is their sexuality, and that this is the only way that women can get their way. Despite this going against EVERYTHING that Barbie stands for! She is supposed to be a strong, smart, and capable woman who can do it all and look glamorous while doing it! She is NOT supposed to be a fucking femme fatale, vamp, or sex object!

So not only do they have their matriarchy easily ripped away from them, but they also are forced to abandon their actual female empowerment and instead conform to the patriarchal status quo to get ahead. By using their bodies, stroking men's egos, and allowing men to mansplain to them. Because the only weapons women are capable of using are the ones men gave us. Because women are just bodies. And this is portrayed as a GOOD thing. Seriously, two of the Barbies even high five each other as they trade Kens at the fireplace, as if to say, "go girl, you are doing it!" Like, seriously, are we supposed to see this as a girlboss moment? Because I sure don't. It's giving "weaponized femininity". It's giving "eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man". It's giving "men are visual creatures." It's giving "kill me with a chainsaw right fucking now because I'm done with this shit." Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on how the Kens have a violent manly war, while the women only get to flutter their eyelashes and use their sex appeal. Because men are strong, women are pretty. Of course.

And then the worst part in the entire movie, the part that really infuriated me and let me know that this movie was the antithesis of feminism, arrives...the Barbies get their matriarchy back and are in power again, and everybody cheers and is happy, except for Beach Ken, who runs away to go sulk. And then...Barbie...fucking apologizes to him. She apologizes to him for casting him aside and making him feel unwanted and unvalued, and even says outright, "not every night has to be a girl's night." Why the fuck, movie? Do you remember earlier in this post when I mentioned how Barbie blows off Ken to hang out with her female friends, because it's girls' night, and female friends matter more than a guy? Sisters before misters, and all that jazz? Well, fuck that. Near the end of the movie, Barbie ends up apologizing to Ken for having a girl's night all the time, as if she was a bad person for not seeing how much she owed him and not hanging out with him all the time when she simply didn't want to. Here we have a woman apologizing for putting her girl friends over a man. The man doesn't apologize for making women his and his brethren's personal slaves. The woman apologizes for making him feel the need to go there by not catering to him, by being too focused on herself to the point where she ignores him, by being so empowered and strong that she makes him feel overshadowed, dare I say, emasculated, and thus need to reassert his fragile, threatened masculinity.

Because this isn't a feminist movie, not really. This is an MRA movie. This is a movie that, rather than focus specifically on the women and their problems, brushes their problems under the rug so as to remind the audience that "men matter too" "men have issues too" "men also suffer under the patriarchy!" And other such claptrap. I don't understand why the fuck cishet Reddit incels/conservatives/right-wingers/other such reactionary groups hate this movie and think that it's anti-men when actually it is pro-men and aligns fucking PERFECTLY with their bullshit line of thinking. That feminism oppresses and victimizes men, that men are the REAL victims of sexism/oppression, that women being granted rights is ultimately more harmful to MEN, that women need to be nicer to and pacify men and apologize for having too much power, that we all need to be quiet and listen to MEN and their experiences more. And I FUCKING HATE that. MEN have been listened to ENOUGH. And I am SICK of being forced to include them and their viewpoints more. How about instead of centering the Kens, we focus more on the Barbies and exploring THEIR issues, and using THEM as templates to convey issues about misogyny? Instead of focusing on Ken and his issues and his unrequited love for Barbie??? Instead, it was made all about the Kens and how oppressed they feel because the women are at the top of the hierarchy, to the point where THEY got the fun little dance number near the climax, RATHER than the actual fucking BARBIES that this movie was NAMED after. Because last time I checked, this WAS the BARBIE movie. NOT THE KEN MOVIE!!!

Oh, and don't even get me STARTED on that shitty ass parallel the movie tries to pull between the Barbieland matriarchy and the real world patriarchy. The movie tries to make the claim that the Barbies being dominant and the most powerful in the Barbie world is just the same as men being dominant and the most powerful in the real world, because the Barbies oppressed Kens just like men oppress women in our world. It also tries to raise the point that the Kens felt insecure and overshadowed by the Barbies and were treated as second-class citizens, thus they installed the Kendom. AND I FUCKING HATE THAT comparison for two reasons. The first is that the Barbies never oppressed the Kens or treated them as inferior in any way. They were simply more important because...it's the BARBIE company. Not the KEN company. Barbies are toys meant to be sold to little girls to inspire THEM. So of course the women are going to be the ones in charge! Why is that such a bad thing?

And the second reason is because I haaaaate the dumb fucking trope of "matriarchy bad because woman oppressing man is just as bad as man oppressing woman!" that this movie and countless, endless other pieces of media also try to push. Like, do you know why female-dominated societies(particularly utopias/positively portrayed ones) are so often represented in media??? Because the world we live in is so heavily male-dominated in almost every society and culture, and has been this way for centuries!!! Sure, there are and have been a few matriarchal cultures in society, but they are few and far between. The overwhelming majority of the world is run by men! Sad but true! And this allegedly feminist movie is for real gonna sit down and tell me "okay, but we can't allow ourselves to dream of a world where women are the ones with positions of power and men are not the privileged ones"? Hell no, fuck that. This movie is giving multiple people, both men and women alike, the opportunity to argue that sexism against men is "just as bad".

But women should be allowed to dream of our matriarchy. We should be allowed to fantasize about a world where we are in charge. We should be allowed to dream about a world where we are protected, respected, and catered to, and can live freely and without fear and oppression, without being told to "think of the men." It doesn't mean that men should be abused, mistreated, or oppressed just like women are and have been. But then again, the Barbies didn't even do that either, like I said. This movie, in its shallow attempts to "critique" the matriarchy(lol) ends up reinforcing exactly why the two aren't comparable in the first place. When the Barbies were in charge, they didn't oppress the Kens or treat them as second-class citizens. They simply lived their lives, going about their day and having fun while pursuing awesome careers.

The Kens, on the other hand, actively oppressed Barbies when they were in charge. The second they were given power, they leaped at the chance to treat Barbies like garbage, the same way that they somehow believed that they had always been treated. They treated the Barbies worse than the Barbies ever actually treated them, to be quite honest. They were the real oppressors, not Barbies. It ironically enough sends the accidental message that the world actually IS better off with women in charge. Can you really blame the Barbies for taking their matriarchy back again(I certainly was happy when they did!)? But no. Instead, the movie expects us to sympathize with the Kens, after everything they've done, and tries to portray the idea of a matriarchy as "just as bad" as a patriarchy. And if that's not an EXCELLENT example of a false equivalence, then man, I don't know what is. Don't even get me started on the audacious slap in the face that was "the Kens will one day have as much power as women do in the real world." As if women got rights and seats in high office because they asked the men kindly? Barf.

And then at the end of the movie, Barbie of course leaves the false, silly matriarchal utopia to live as a boring ass regular human in the "real" world. She no longer gets to live in a world where she is fully liberated and empowered and not relegated to a lesser human being with lower status. She now must live in the "real" world, the hopeless, bleak, and oppressing real world where she will be faced with relentless misogyny and looked down upon by men and society. The movie could have had her form a bridge between the Barbie world and the human world, trying to mend the problems in both worlds while still staying true to who she is at her core. But instead, she is forced to say goodbye to her past life, abandon all her female friends and her old home, in favor of living in a world where she is denigrated to a second-class status in society. Because the female empowerment Barbieland trumped? Is a lie. Nothing short of a sweet, comforting lie designed to shield girls from the bleak and cynical realities that womanhood actually entails. Real womanhood is adorned with thorns at every corner.

But it's all right, because at least she gets to see the gynecologist! That's her ultimate ending. Not actually improving life for others and herself and making the world a more equitable place for women with the help of the other Barbies, as well as Gloria and Sasha. It's going to the gynecologist. Because having a vagina makes you a woman. Yay! Some people have tried to reclaim this as a trans metaphor, but I highly doubt a movie as shallow and lacking in intersectionality as this was aiming for anything near close to that. And it's a crying shame that this is what the movie thinks is an empowering and satisfying ending to Barbie's arc. How pitiful, sad, and pathetic.

It's such a shame, as well, because the Barbie movie could have actually had genuine critiques of the patriarchy and how it affects women without making everything out to be pessimistic and dreary, and without trying to center the Kens and coddle their male fragility. It could have discussed beauty standards and the expectations to always be conventionally attractive and perfectly presentable to a tee for women(something that Barbie has oft been criticized for, and with good reason, and has also been brought up in the movie too, but of course got dropped and barely mentioned again). It could have tackled gender norms and compulsory femininity, and showed Barbies who subvert or have complex/unique relationships with femininity(esp women of color and queer Barbies, who have different relationships to femininity than white and/or cishet women), even include some masculine/tomboyish/butch Barbies who aren't portrayed by the narrative as the butt of the joke. It could have used Weird Barbie to portray both of these messages and given her a more complex arc and concrete role in the narrative besides being just a comic relief character who gets called ugly all the time(by both other Barbies and herself, which is just sad, self-deprecation much?) and then at the end of the movie gets an apology thrown at her by President Barbie(and also, who was she before she became Weird Barbie? The movie doesn't say, and that is such a let-down, that we never get to know who she was before.).

They could have showed lesbian and sapphic and aroace Barbies, whose characters could be used to challenge amato/heteronormativity and compulsory heterosexuality. They could have explored what Barbie meant for women of color, trans women, fat women, disabled women, and mayyybe not? Cast a conventionally attractive white cis thin blonde woman as the main/regular Barbie? Especially if they were going to make that joke about how a woman who looks like that shouldn't be casted for a character who cries that she's ugly(which raises unfortunate implications as to what type of woman would be correct to cast in that role...but like every other genuine aspect of feminism in this movie, it gets forgotten about and erased as soon as it's brought up.) But they didn't do any of that. Because this is a white "feminist" movie written by a white woman and created in partnership with a capitalist company for one specific purpose: To sell toys.

Which wouldn't be as much of a problem if they didn't try to slap a feminist message on top of that, and then fail at delivering their message, hard, so hard in fact that they sideways-shuffle all the way into (trans)misogyny. For all the hype this movie gained(from the same people who will then turn around and silence genuine critique of the movie's shallow portrayal of feminism with "it's not that deep, it's just comedy, you shouldn't have expected Barbie to ACTUALLY be introspective and profound despite everyone claiming that it was!"), the actual contents therein gave us NOTHING to chew on. Just an empty parody of feminism that was more about the Kens than the actual Barbies, and portrayed suffering in silence and manipulating men with your looks as the ultimate pinnacle of womanhood.

I can't say I'm surprised. I'm just disappointed.

[themoodyestj]

I'm actually friends with a married couple, they've been together for a while, and they are adorable. one time I heard her call him a retarded pig, and I thought "wow, rude" but, you know how he responded? he started making pig noises on her face, and she freaking melted at that. he jokingly calls her an evil dictator and whenever she asks his opinion he always replies first with "I don't know, you are the dictator here, tell me what to do" I've heard her say things to him that are way meaner than anything Danneel has ever said about Jensen, but whenever anyone points out to them that she's too mean to him, he's like " oh yeah she treats me like trash, please help me" in a melodramatic voice. please note that I'm talking about adults here, older than 30. point is some couples are like that but that doesn't mean they don't love each other and even if they are my friends, I'm not entitled to poke my nose onto their business.

Ok, first of all, if you're the same anon from before, thank you for reading my reply and for using critical thinking while interpreting it. It makes you a far smarter anon than the ones I have been talking to this week. It is actually a pleasure to talk to someone who actually tries to consider a different opinion even if they disagree. You have my full respect.

Also, thank you for your anecdote about your friends, it actually helps me make my point. People have weird dynamics, right? We can be easy on making a wrong judgement, and even though I have a very strong opinion about this, I don't assume I know everything. But let me show you why i feel your friend's case is actually different: one time I heard her call him a retarded pig, and I thought "wow, rude" but, you know how he responded? he started making pig noises on her face, and she freaking melted at that. he jokingly calls her an evil dictator Here's the difference between laughing at and laughing with: he clapped back. It's an established dynamic between them, they both give as good as it gets but they know what the other means. In J and D's case, it's only her doing the talking, and he's taking it. Most often than not, he's praising her, but im yet to hear her say something nice about Jensen. It's not balanced, it's not a game with the same rules for both. Even the setting is different: would your friend call her spouse a retarded pig in front of his boss, or in a setting where he needs to look professional and presentable? D does it in interviews, where Jensen is trying to establish his image. Of course couples will have a weird dynamic in more private environments. But when a spouse refuses to adapt to the environment for the couple's needs (because his needs are the couple's needs) and uses said environment as a platform for veiled verbal abuse as a way to become relevant... that screams disrespect. Especially because he's making the money to feed her children, but even if he wasn't. whenever she asks his opinion he always replies first with "I don't know, you are the dictator here, tell me what to do" She asked his opinion! She considered his feelings! J, at some point in time, expressed his wish to take a break and live a bit more with the kids. He even expressed his joy for simple things, like spreading peanut butter in his kids' toast. He was away for months on end while shooting, he wanted to enjoy his family, and what does she tell him (which the AAs surely supported): "Get a job." Never once he said (to my knowledge) that they sat and discussed things. She mocked him for wanting to stay at home, and told him to get a job, even though she has none. I bet even though your friend's husband calls her a dictator, he deep down knows that if he expressed his opinion, it would be considered. I know other couples have different dynamics, different love languages, and they may not all make sense to me, but there will always be something that tells me they're in love with each other.If it's not words, it's actions. It's a mutual touch. A mutual understanding with their eyes. Something that tells me wihout telling me they are in the same team. Something that needs no words, but it's still there. I'm yet to figure out what Danneel's love language is. I've never seen an ounce of love in her. Not even self love, to be honest.

[skyeeuphixia]

𝚕𝚒𝚙 𝚐𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚐𝚑𝚎𝚛 // 𝚒 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚕𝚒𝚔𝚎 𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚔

lip gallagher x girlfriend oc (Delilah)

summary: in which lip is given an ultimatum

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warning/s: alcoholism, violence

words: 3.4k

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"I don't like it when you're drunk Lip. Find me when you're not."

That was the last thing that Delilah said before leaving the Gallagher house. 

Lip stayed glued to his spot as he stared after his girlfriend, his eyes filled with nothing but regret. He couldn't turn around. He couldn't face his siblings, or Kev or V, all of them stood behind him. 

He didn't want to see Veronica judging him. He didn't want to see Kevin looking shocked. He didn't want to see Debbie sad. He didn't want to see Carl and Ian angry. 

But most of all...

He didn't want to see Fiona look disappointed in him. 

2 years ago, when Lip asked Delilah out on a date. Fiona gave him one piece of advice:

'Don't fuck this up, cause that girl is special'

But now he's afraid he had done just that. 

How did he let himself get to this point? 

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After building up this reputation of being the family genius, it was a real smack in the face when he got to college and realised how difficult it was. Suddenly he wasn't a genius surrounded by stupid and average students anymore, now, everyone was smart, smarter than Lip, and he found himself unable to keep up.

College wasn't as easy as Lip believed it would be.

Lip excelled in school, acing every class, scores so high and consistent that a college professor believed he was a cheat (which Lip swiftly disproved) and the first Gallagher to get into college. 

Not to mention, he didn't realise that College would take up a lot of his free time as well. Sure in high school he'd get homework, but it would take about 30 minutes, and then he'd get the rest of the day to himself. But college was an entirely different story. He was drowning in assignments, a never-ending stream of readings, essays, and exams. He barely had time to sleep. Trying to balance; College, Family issues, assignments, a relationship and taking care of his basic needs were proving difficult to manage. And it was beginning to take a toll on him. He was almost never able to relax.

But the occasional drink did seem to help, however.

"Hey, so I was thinking-" Delilah says, walking alongside Lip in the direction of his class, Delilah went to the same college as Lip, unfortunately, their classes were at different times, so their schedules rarely lined up, they stayed in different dorm buildings and those dorm buildings were at opposite ends of the large campus.

"-after my class, either I can go to your dorm, you can come to mine or we can go to the library or something and do some studying together. Cause I have an essay to do, and you have that essay due tomorrow which you'll probably want to go over, and we can help each other out," she suggested with a smile.

"Yeah uh, I can't I'm going to that party tonight," Lip says his hands in the pockets of his jacket, looking down at his feet as he walks.

"The frat party? But you hate people like that," Delilah remarked, a puzzled expression on her face.

"Yeah, but, it might be fun. Plus, free booze is a good way to forget about all the jerks," he chuckled.

"But what about the essay?"

"Don't worry about it, Del," Lip replied nonchalantly.

Delilah stops walking, tilting her head as she looks at her boyfriend, analysing him intensely. Lip takes a few moments to realise that she's no longer beside him, he turns to look at her but she speaks before he has a chance to question her.

"Have you even started the essay?!"

"Yeah, yeah of course I have," He excuses, looking back down at his feet. Delilah walks back up to him, standing directly in front of him.

"Look at me," She says, still staring at him intensely, causing Lip to reluctantly raise his head to look at her. "Have you started the essay?" 

Lip had one weakness and that was Deliah. Delilah seemed to be the one person he could not lie to. He didn't want to say it out loud, she already knew the answer, he could tell, so he simply shook his head at her. 

Delilah looked at him with an indescribable look of shock, disappointment and disbelief, "Lip it's due tomorrow! This isn't like homework, this will affect your grade!"

"Yeah I know, but I'll...I'll get it done I swear!" Lip promises.

"So you're not gonna go to the party?"

"Nah I'm still gonna go I promised my roommate but I'll just do it when I get back,"

"Lip...this really isn't a smart idea, please just come study with me," Delilah begged, she already knew his grade was currently at a D, and she was worried that missing this essay would be the beginning of the end. 

"Del...I'll, I'll just go for like an hour, and I won't drink and I will go straight to my dorm and do the essay," He tells her, looking at her genuinely. 

Delilah looked at him with a look he couldn't quite describe, but it was the look she gave him when he initially doubted going to college and the look she gave him when he briefly dropped out of high school. It was the type of look that said 'I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed.'

"Promise?" She asked, holding out her pinky to him, causing Lip to chuckle at the gesture.

"I promise," He locked his finger with hers, and they continued walking toward Lip's class, sharing a small smile, their words no longer necessary.

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No drinks turned into one drink.

One turned into two.

Two into four.

Four into seven, until Lip woke up in his dorm the next day with no memory of how he got there. A quick look at the clock indicated to him that it was two in the afternoon. Not only had he not done the essay, he hadn't even shown up to his lesson. 

Lip just lay in bed staring at the ceiling, wallowing in his own self-pity before there was a knock at the door. Somehow, in his severely hungover state, Lip got himself to the door, opening it to reveal Delilah, whom he let in without question. 

"Hey, Emma mentioned her boyfriend told her you didn't show up today, you ok?" Delilah inquired, her concern evident as she stood in the middle of the dimly lit room.

Lip, battling nausea, managed to mumble, "Yeah, just uh...not feeling great today." 

Delilah, however, was beginning to notice the telltale signs – Lip was wearing the same clothes as the previous day, avoiding the light streaming through the window, and his breath reeked of alcohol. The pieces fell into place. "Are you hungover?"

Lip, still battling the pounding headache and the queasy feeling in his stomach, attempted to conjure up an excuse, but Delilah's perceptive gaze left him feeling exposed. He scratched the back of his head nervously. He shifted uncomfortably under Delilah's gaze, his attempt at avoiding eye contact was now more conspicuous than ever. He cleared his throat and mumbled, "Hungover? Nah, it's not that... I just had a rough night's sleep, you know?"

Delilah's expression remained sceptical. She was no stranger to Lip's occasional indulgence in alcohol, and she was also aware of how alcohol affected his family so she knew all too well what could happen if he overdid it. Her concern deepened as she approached him, placing a hand gently on his arm. 

"Lip, you're wearing the same clothes as yesterday, and you look like you haven't seen daylight in a while. And why does your breath smell like a distillery if it's not a hangover?"

Lip sighed, realizing that he couldn't keep up the charade any longer. He looked down at the floor, feeling ashamed. "Okay, fine," he admitted, his voice barely above a whisper. "I had a few drinks last night, and then a few more, and... I messed up, Delilah."

"Lip, you promised me you wouldn't drink, especially not on a school night. I trusted you. And what about that essay you were supposed to finish?"

Lip's guilt was written all over his face as he tried to avoid the confrontation. "Look, Delilah, I know I messed up, but it was just one night, you know? I didn't think I'd end up like this."

"Lip you're not in high school anymore. You can't do this. If you keep making mistakes, if your grades continue to slip, you'll get expelled and then what? Love, you have so much potential, you can do so much with your life, why are you wasting it?"

Lip finally met her gaze, and he could see the disappointment in her eyes. "Delilah, I promise, this was a one-time thing I won't let it become a problem. I messed up, and I'm really sorry. I'll work harder, I'll catch up on the essay, and I won't let this happen again."

Delilah looked at her boyfriend, she didn't know how to feel. She wanted to believe him, and part of her did, but part of her was screaming at her not to believe him, part of her believed Lip was already in too deep, but Lip was as stubborn as they come as if he would ever admit he needed help.

"ok...I'm choosing to trust you,"

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As the days passed, Lip's descent into a pattern reminiscent of his father became increasingly apparent. The vibrancy that once characterized him began to fade, replaced by a weariness that settled in his eyes. His dishevelled appearance mirrored the neglect of his responsibilities, and the promise he made to Delilah seemed to be slipping through his fingers.

His academic life suffered the most. Lip was back to his high school ways, and started missing classes regularly. The threat of expulsion from his professors became a persistent shadow, hovering over his academic career. Lip's disregard for his education mirrored the same lack of concern that had marked his father's life.

Alcohol, once an occasional escape, became a daily crutch. It wasn't just about relaxation anymore; it was a way to numb the growing dissatisfaction and disappointment within him. The scent of alcohol clung to him like a familiar companion, and the lines on his face deepened as the weight of his choices pressed down.

Delilah, consumed by her exams and unaware of Lip's unravelling, found herself distanced from the person she once knew. Their interactions became infrequent, and Lip's excuses for his absence grew thin. She knew something was wrong, but she was busy and was never able to find a time to meet him, and over text, it's hard to tell what state someone's in, so Lip was able to perfectly mask his drinking through the protection of a screen. The promise of love and support now seemed like a distant memory.

The similarities to Lip's father became more pronounced. The cycle of self-destructive behaviour, a pattern Lip had sworn to break, now threatened to consume him. The downward spiral was not just about missed classes and too many drinks; it was a reflection of a deeper struggle within Lip—a battle between the person he aspired to be and the shadow of his father that loomed over him. But every day he still told himself the same thing.

I'm not my fucking dad. 

When the next break in the college term came, he returned home to his siblings, which was both nostalgic and haunting, as he realised how much he loved it yet didn't want to be stuck there. And how did he handle those haunting thoughts? By drinking of course. 

The Gallagher siblings noticed this of course, but they wrote it off as Lip destressing after a long college term, after all, they didn't know this was an everyday occurrence for him. He's lip! He's supposed to get out, he's supposed to be ok! He's fine!

And for the first few days he was, he was able to fall under the radar as his siblings dealt with the usual Gallagher chaos and was currently drinking a beer on the couch as his siblings did their own things around him. Yet he had forgotten something, in a drunken haze a few nights previous, he had invited Delilah over, reality was about to smack him in the face, and he had no idea.

When he answered the door and saw Delilah, he felt his mind running at a million miles an hour. He didn't know why she was there. What she wanted. If she could tell he was drunk. His mind was both blank and full of thoughts at the same time, and the sudden shock of his girlfriend being stood in front of him, made all the guilt he had been drinking away come back.

"Del! Hey...uh what are you...what are you doing here?"

"You invited me? You don't remember?" She chuckles.

"Sorry sorry, things have just been uh, crazy you know how it is here, come on in." He says, stepping to the side to let her in. 

Delilah offered a faint smile as she stepped into the chaotic Gallagher household, where the usual mayhem of the family's daily existence continued unabated. Ian was nowhere to be seen. Frank, was ranting about some new get-rich-quick scheme in the corner to Kevin. Fiona and Veronica were cackling about the events of their last night out. And Debbie and Carl were arguing about something stupid. Lip's siblings had become accustomed to the chaos, and so the presence of his girlfriend had gone unnoticed.

"I tried to call and check it was still okay for me to come over but you didn't pick up, I thought I'd come anyway though...I've missed you"

Lip's heart sank at the sincerity in her voice. He had no idea how to explain the disarray of his life to her, especially now that she was standing right in the middle of it. His attempt to mask the smell of alcohol on his breath with a forced smile was feeble at best.

"Missed you too, babe," he mumbled, his words slightly slurred. "Sorry, it's just a bit chaotic here, you know how it is."

Delilah nodded, seemingly understanding, but there was a flicker of concern in her eyes. She had always been perceptive, and something about how Lip was acting didn't sit right with her. Delilah finally at Lip more closely, her brow furrowing. "You seem...off, Lip. Is everything okay?"

Lip tried to laugh it off, but it came out as a nervous chuckle. "Yeah, just... you know, dealing with the Gallagher circus. It's uh...it's been a long day."

Delilah wasn't convinced, but she let it slide for the moment. However, as she continued to talk to Lip, the pieces of the puzzle were slowly coming together. Lip's slurred words, the distant look in his eyes, and the fact that he was clearly trying to hide something were all red flags. Delilah notices the two empty beer bottles on the coffee table in front of the couch, the one place nowhere else was and the final piece slides into place. "You're drunk again...aren't you?" 

Lip's eyes darted around the room, desperately searching for a convincing response. "Drunk? No way, Del. I mean, yeah, I had a couple earlier, but it's nothing. Just needed to unwind, you know?"

Delilah's concern deepened, and a mixture of disappointment and hurt flashed across her face. "Lip, we talked about this. You promised me you wouldn't let alcohol become a problem again. What's going on?"

Lip could feel the weight of his broken promises pressing down on him, and he struggled to find the right words. "It's not a problem, Del. Just a couple of drinks. I've got everything under control."

"Don't lie to her," Ian's voice suddenly came from the stairs, in a tone so cold so...displeased, it caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"What do you know Ian?" Lip slurred slightly, becoming slightly agitated as all the attention in the room was now on him, there was no hiding from the truth now, and Lip knew it. 

"What do I know? I know that since you've been home you've drank up to 5 beers a day, some days more. I know that it's clearly a problem if you're lying to Delilah about it. I also know that you've missed almost all your classes and you're on the brink of being kicked out of college!" 

Everyone in the room stared at Lip a few people letting out a shocked 'what?!', except for Delilah who just looked hurt, she trusted him...and he broke it.

"How do you fucking know that?" Lip slurred, pissed off that his issues were being exposed. 

"You left your email on your laptop open," 

"You had no fucking right-" 

"Ok! Lip this is not the right time for this, if there's a problem we can talk but right now let's just leave it," Delilah says sweetly, almost as if she was talking to someone younger than her as she places a gentle hand on his shoulder, which Lip only shrugs off.

Lip's anger flared, fueled by the alcohol coursing through his veins. "You had no right to snoop around my stuff, Ian! This is my life, my business, and I don't need you or anyone else judging me!"

Ian's expression remained unyielding, his concern masking any irritation he might have felt. "Lip, this is everyone's business when it's affecting you like this. We're your family, and we care about you. We don't want to see you self-destruct."

Lip's voice grew louder as he tried to defend his actions, his words slurring together. "Self-destruct? I'm fine! I can handle a few drinks, and missing a few classes is not a big deal. College is overrated anyway."

The room seemed to grow tense as Lip's rant continued. Fiona, his older sister, exchanged worried glances with Ian. Delilah, however, remained remarkably composed in the face of his anger. "Lip, I'm not here to judge you. I'm here because I care about you. But you can't deny that something's not right. We can work through this together, but you have to be willing to admit that there's a problem."

Lip's frustration only mounted as he felt cornered. He shook his head, a bitter laugh escaping his lips. "You're all overreacting. I don't have a problem. I can stop whenever I want. You all don't get it," he ranted, his voice rising. "I can handle my shit. I'm not like Frank. I'm not some fucking alcoholic!"

Delilah could see that Ian was also starting to get heated, and she was worried that he and Lip would begin to get physical and fight one another. She knew Lip's defences were up, she knew he felt judged, intimidated, and guilty, and having everyone there was making things worse for Lip, not better. 

"Ok, maybe this isn't a conversation we should be having with so many people," She chuckled nervously her voice still gentle, She moved closer to Lip, trying to defuse the tension. "Love, let's just go outside, and we can-"

But when Delilah's hand touched Lip's shoulder, he reacted with more force than he intended, shoving her away, unintentionally causing her to hit the wall. The room fell silent, and everyone took a defensive step closer, their faces reflecting shock and anger.

Lip stared at Delilah, his eyes widened with regret, realizing he had acted impulsively. Delilah, after a moment of anger, looked down, composing herself. She glanced up at him, restraining her tears.

"I don't like it when you're drunk Lip. Find me when you're not." Her voice quivered slightly before she swiftly made her way out of the Gallagher house. 

Lip stayed glued to his spot as he stared after his girlfriend, his eyes filled with nothing but regret and tears. He couldn't face his siblings, or Kev or V. He didn't want to see the judgment. He didn't want to see the shock. He didn't want to see the sadness. He didn't want to see the anger.

But most of all he didn't want to see the disappointment. 

It took a few moments, but he turned around to face them, his body trembling slightly, as a few tears escaped his eyes, the Gallaghers distraught at the sight of their broken brother.

"W...why did that happen?"

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(fin)

[indelen]

The plot kicks off in earnest and the midnight hour is close at hand, it's time for honey cake (medovyk) and tea.

This is my reread of the Lockwood and Co. Books, organized by @blue-boxes-magic-and-tea, I'll make a general summary of several chapters and then post bits and pieces that jumped out at me.

Part III, Chapters 9-12:

Things continue to go pear shaped. I find it interesting how Stroud manages to thread the needle of reader sympathy towards the protagonists. The writing makes it clear that they did mess up and the house fire was avoidable. And this is not all on one person - Lockwood could have pulled rank and insist they leave but didn’t, Lucy had the chance to leave after the first manifestation but didn’t. Lockwood forgot the chains. Lucy lobbed Greek Fire indoors. All of this is bad. And when you meet Barnes you sort of agree with him to a point about them being irresponsible, but he’s so high handed and dismissive of the trio you can’t help but be on their side. The government keeps telling these kids they should listen to the government, because the government is full of adults that know so much better than they do. But if this was really the case the government would not allow children to do this dangerous work at all. You can't have it both ways! Either these kids know nothing and adults really are smarter, in which case let them go study trigonometry and pass notes in class already and, as smart adults, find some different way to battle The Problem that doesn’t involve high mortality child labor. OR. Let the kids do their job and admit you’re not operating within some perfect and fair system where the presence of an adult magically fixes everything or makes anyone safer. We meet so many adults in this universe and the majority of them are awful and take horrific advantage of children to enrich themselves on The Problem. None of them are sufficiently controlled in this universe because it is not in the government’s interest to do so. The kids sense this and revolt, if they are to die they want to die on their own terms! This is what happens when governments fail the people they are supposed to protect and when the desire to make money trumps acting in the interests of the public good.

Odds and Ends, Side A:

10/10 chapter opening. On par with “the building was on fire and it wasn’t my fault”. Reader attention fully captured.

Lucy “no I totally don’t care how I look, I swear” Carlyle maintaining if she ever came back as a ghost she’d be a hot cool ghost thankyou very much is so funny to me, just peak teenager insecurity and vanity but in a very endearing way.

There’s the thing about George – he can learn. Not just from books but in real life he can take criticism to heart if it’s laid out plainly. Even if it’s mean. This is probably his most amazing attribute. He dislikes hypocrisy and doesn’t have time for any kind of jabs or hints that are difficult to interpret. But someone lobs a criticism straight at him, he won’t dismiss it outright. In so many ways he is the most emotionally mature of the trio.

I’ve been thinking a lot in this reread about why George was so hostile to Lucy from the start and I think it comes down to the fact that he saw Lucy as someone who would make Lockwood more reckless. She is a gifted Listener, George knew Lockwood enough to realize this will make him more likely to rush off into the fray without research and Lucy being not especially academically minded would not stop him. I think he was worried that they would feed negatively off each other and outvote him. Which … they did at first, it’s true, George was completely right. Lucy goes along with whatever Lockwood says because she trusts him, because she admires him, because she doesn’t want him to think less of her. This behavior continues later too - she snarks at him plenty, calls him names, makes fun of him, sure. But ultimately she has a hard time saying “no” to him. And finding that balance of how much to go along with Lockwood’s plans and when to contradict him is I think a huge part of her arc in this series.

This pantomime of Victorian gentility is hilarious. The year is (arguably) 2013 and yet this sounds like a scene from Agatha Christie. Barnes knows Lockwood is home, Lockwood knows Barns knows he’s home but this presenting of a visiting card and “show him in” ritual has to be observed because this whole society hasn’t moved on from 1953 in six decades.

I am not the right person to give a post-colonial literary analysis of the Lockwood books but I would be the first to want to read it. There’s a lot there in terms of portrayal of indigenous beliefs, what colonial powers learn and refuse to learn from them and how they appropriate them. Barnes sees a collection of artefacts from all over the world meant to deal with ghosts and immediately dismisses them, seeing only the methods he’s familiar with as correct. He does not stop to appreciate the fact that the idea of contacting the dead and laying them to rest is an issue that in some way or another humanity has been dealing with for millennia and all around him is evidence of the fact that not one of these cultures resorted to shoving their young to act as meat shields to do it. The variety of the artifacts speaks to the idea that there may be different approaches possible, different avenues to explore. On what basis but good old-fashioned racism is this dismissal of a ghost catcher in a universe where ghosts are real and do real harm to real people? Does a country dealing with such a crisis not owe it to its citizens to investigate every possibility instead of just consigning a large proportion of their children to a very high possibility of death and telling them that they can’t even do it on their terms, no, the government and large corporations must manage how they die!

And the idea of “it belongs in a museum” is especially laughable in this context. Presumably he means a British museum despite the fact that all these artifacts are foreign. There’s something so on the nose about a very British man dismissing knowledge from other cultures as useless and indicating he views those cultures themselves as extinct when he himself lives on the bones of a long dead empire enforces the practicing the most barbaric shit imaginable.

There is also something so very sad about Lockwood’s encyclopedic knowledge of every gord and mask in the house. Like he never to a chance to know his parents to he memorized everything about their research to get as close to them as possible.

George is the most verbally brutal of the trio and I love that for him

Here again is that Lockwood duality. We later learn sleeps in his parent’s old room - the ultimate symbol of his attempts to play the adult. Like the suits, like running his own agency, like his many successful and unsuccessful attempts to mimic adult behavior. How successful he is really is … not certain. Lucy is not a reliable narrator and even she is clearly unconvinced sometimes, but he clearly can pull it off to some extent. But every now and then we get a glimpse into the fact that he also, in a very sad and stubborn way, clings to a childhood that was horrifically and unfairly ripped from him. The baby mobile in his seemingly adult bedroom is a neat encapsulation of Lockwood himself.

This man is incapable of staying angry at his beloved for more than like … 15 mins tops.

Please turn the cassette over to side B (see reblog for more)

[cal-daisies-and-briars]

yay emojis!

🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨

🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼🔼

💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐💐

🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮🦮

i love them all but these are the ones im like !!!!!! 30 of each pls!

THANK YOU!!!!

30 for 🚨:

---

Can’t really shake himself of it. He’s thinking about it a lot. Distracted by it. When they aren’t at work, it’s not like there’s a ton to do but think. Think. Do housework. Call Chris. Try to balance interacting with the new house populace without all becoming sick of each other or outing his relationship. He’s calling Chris a lot. 

But then there’s the other thing. The fact that, before Hen and Chim moved in, he was having a considerable amount of sex. A considerable amount, after a very long dry spell. The now reduced frequency has left Eddie a little frustrated, especially considering Buck is around him all the time. And considering resuming said frequency might help him feel at least somewhat better right now. Like an endorphin filled bandaid. 

To sum it up, Eddie feels sort of depressed and horny. Which is a bad, icky sort of place to be, he’ll admit. But on this particular day, Eddie lets that yoyo spectrum of emotions rule him, just a little. 

He and Buck get sent home sooner than Hen and Chim. A med call goes long, but neither of them were needed to begin with, so they leave at the natural end of their shift. 

“This means we have alone time,” Eddie points out on the drive back. The tone and intention in his voice is clear. 

“Some alone time, sure,” Buck nods. “We don’t know when they’re coming back.”

“We can be quick.” 

Eddie doesn’t want to sound like he’d pleading. But he’s sort of pleading. He just wants to feel uncomplicatedly good and happy for a little bit. Even if he’s tired after a shift.

---

30 for 🔼:

---

“No, not really.”

Fuck. That’s not really like Eddie to admit. At least, from what Buck knows of him in a little under a year of friendship. 

“Come in,” Buck ushers him inside. 

Eddie walks inside, looking around Buck’s new, box-covered apartment mildly. He doesn’t comment on the space. Like he’s far too out of it to form an opinion. 

“Can I get you something? Coffee?” Buck asks. 

“Uh… Beer?” Eddie asks.

It’s quarter after noon. 

“Beer it is,” Buck says, heading for the fridge. He doesn’t have a lot in there yet, but he does have a six pack. 

“Need me to clear out?” Ali asks from the top of the stairs. 

Eddie looks at her and his face twists with alarm. 

“Oh, god. Sorry. I didn’t know. No, you don’t… You don’t have to go.”

“Eddie, it’s really okay,” Ali smiles kindly. She’s already descending the stairs and reaching for her purse. “I’ve got some work calls to make anyway. Talk to you later, Buck?”

Buck nods. “Thanks, Ali.”

She blows a quick kiss in his direction, and then she’s gone.

---

30 for 💐:

---

“Why me?” May asks. “It’s so clear that you think you’re way smarter than me, so-”

“I don’t think that.” April interrupts. 

May squints, incredulous. 

“You definitely do!” 

“No!” April protests. “I wouldn’t ask for your help if I thought I was smarter than you. Do you see me asking Trevor Leechman for help?”

Trevor Leechman is another student in Dr. Kellemeran’s ethics seminar. He is… Well, he’s an idiot. May would doubt his literacy, if not for the fact he made it this far in the program.

“Glad to hear I’m better than the human equivalent of a cement slab,” May grumbles. 

April snorts. 

“Okay, that’s good. I’ll be using that.”

“Why are you being nice to me?” May asks.  “You’re always competing with me. We’re supposed to hate each other.”

April’s expression twists. May thinks she sees a flash of hurt. Suddenly, May feels like an idiot. A child. What an immature, dumb thing to say. 

“I don’t hate you, May,” April says. “But I guess that feeling isn’t mutual.”

---

30 for 🦮:

---

Buck almost laughs. “What?”

“My friend Leah said her dad is really bored all day and annoying everyone because he got a Covid layoff,” Christopher explains. “Like Cranberry. Because she used to go to work with you and now you don’t need her to do as much.”

Buck blinks. 

That’s not entirely true. Is it? He still uses Cranberry for retrievals. He still finds himself relying on her when he’s anxious. But… Yeah. Yeah, he’s kind of sedentary. And he’s definitely been more focused on Christopher’s needs. 

“Crap,” Buck mutters.

Christopher giggles. “That’s a bad word.”

“Don’t tell your dad,” Buck waves it off.

“We need to find Cranberry a job,” Buck says. “Maybe something all three of us can work on together? Like a project?”

Christopher nods. “Leah’s dad started building birdhouses.”

“Well, Cran doesn’t have thumbs. But something like that, yeah.”

“Like what then?” Chris asks.

“I’ll have to do some research,” Buck admits. “I’m not sure yet.”

“Okay! Well, when you figure it out, I want to help,” Chris tells him.

[blackjackkent]

OK, done a bit of armor and inventory sorting and now time to go meet Jaheira's friends! ^_^

The Harper safehouse is in the basement of the shop; Hector's getting flashbacks to the Zhent hideout all the way back in Waukeen's Rest, which seems like another life at this point. The basement itself seems to be designed specifically for hauling up goods from the river below, as has one wall completely open to the air.

Several Harpers are standing about when Hector and Jaheira and the others arrive, and one - a painfully young man - locks his attention on Jaheira immediately.

"High Harper. May Selune's Tears shine on this meeting," he says earnestly, his eyes wide.

Jaheira raises an eyebrow in mild puzzlement. "...A very formal greeting, Geraldus. You are well?"

"Y-yes, High Harper," the boy stammers. "Standing beneath *Selune's Tears*." He leans on the words a little more strongly. A muscle twitches in his jaw.

Another of the Harpers, an older halfling woman, steps forward into the awkward silence. "The lad's a little nervous, Jaheira," she says. "We heard of your great victory against Ketheric."

Jaheira nods calmly - but she isn't fooled, and neither is Hector.

Narrator: [INSIGHT] Geraldus isn't nervous - he's terrified. And he's using 'Selune's Tears' as some kind of code.

"I understand, Geraldus," Jaheira says smoothly, reaching out to lay a hand on the boy's arm. "Take a moment." Her eyes flick to the halfling, and she gives a pleasant, casual smile. "And you, Harper - there is something familiar about you."

She nudges her elbow into Hector's side. "Doesn't she remind you of our old friend Marcus?" she asks, and grins, as if it were some old joke.

Hector's ingrained self-control serves him well here. His eyes widen very slightly but his face otherwise remains frozen in the expression of polite respect with which he came in.

Narrator: Jaheira's meaning is clear. Marcus was a traitor laying a trap. The same, it seems, is happening here.

(A/N: Jaheira is such a goddamn badass. I love her. XD Hector has the option to say one of several tone-deaf dialogue options that would have blown the whole situation wide open, but he is much smarter than that.)

Remain silent and wait for Jaheira's signal.

Subtly he shifts into a posture balanced on the balls of his feet, ready to move as soon as his friend gives the word.

Selune's tears... a fitting code for a traitor among the Harpers. Brothers-in-arms turned against each other, as the siblings Selune and Shar are turned in conflict. It pains him because he know it must pain Jaheira to come into a place where she expected safety and instead to find danger almost at once. And it pains him to see the boy, so frightened and so terribly young and forced to bravery in spite of it.

Jaheira takes a few slow steps to the side, subtly widening the area the party is covering on their side of the basement. Her eyes narrow inquisitively at the halfling woman, and then she smiles again - and this time there is no humor in it.

"The problem with Marcus, of course..."

She trails off, and there's a long, charged pause. And then she moves like lightning, the swords coming off her back as she charges forward on the attack.

"We didn't end of the best of terms."

[simplegenius042]

What's at your OC's core? Quiz

Tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton

Tagging @shallow-gravy @strangefable @strafethesesinners @direwombat @derelictheretic @voidika @onehornedbeast @josephslittledeputy @g0dspeeed @carlosoliveiraa @cassietrn @chazz-anova @ladyoriza @adelaidedrubman @deputyash @purplehairsecretlair @corvosattano @ec-10 @inafieldofdaisies @minilev @nightbloodbix @neverthesameneveranother @vampireninjabunnies-blog @wrathfulrook @thewanderer-000 @a-rose-in-a-garden-of-weeds @snake-in-the-garden @henbased and @fourlittleseedlings + anyone else who wants to join.

You can find the quiz here. Results below.

Joaquin Cobalt (The UnTitledverse)

Honestly this describes Joaquin's core character almost perfectly. Due to being classified as a Balancer, the multiverse unfortunately revolves around him, even when he'd rather it not. Though his status of "supposed to be non-existent" also means the multiverse is trying to "correct" its mistake and get rid of him. Joaquin doesn't even know he's running from his past opposition as he didn't think he had much of a past to begin with, so yeah, he is at a disadvantage. Though there's nothing here about his protection over his friend nor his lack of mercy over his enemies, which is slightly disappointing.

Silva Omar (Far Cry The Silver Chronicles)

Geez... this result actually holds a lot more merit to it than I expected. Silva is a mentor in a way, and becomes a more personal one to Azriel and Mercy. Her whole arc is about whether she'll continue her brutality and black-and-white view on the world or soften up and find the grey in the middle, understand it better. Show some mercy to those who deserve it. There's also the "reincarnation" thing... becoming smarter and quicker as each life resets. In a way that's how the Third Eye works... while Silva doesn't entirely know it, in each world she is "reborn" in, her Third Eye installs subconscious memories of her past lives to make her instincts quicker.

Haoyu Anabuki (Life, Despair & Monsters)

The problem with Haoyu is that they were solely focused on finding their long-lost half-sister they only focus on that one goal and ignore everything else. Well... at least they try to, but the guilt of not helping others when they have the power to do so pushes them to go on ahead and do just that. Haoyu has seen so much general and cosmic horror for someone who really should be in, like, university at that point.

Marissa "Ress" Bishop (A Radioactive Calamity of Love, Bombs & Gore, a Fallout fanfic series)

It's not that Ress isn't genuine in her emotions. Not at all... in fact that's mostly thanks to her half-human side. However, she has extreme difficulty with understanding emotions and extending that kind of support to others. She's also extremely powerful thanks to the magic on her non-human side. It also sucks that the first people she connected with (Amata and the Lone Wanderer) were the first people she cared for that died. She closes herself off to other companions, and becomes more distant with each new loss (her brother, mother, Charon, Raul, Christine, etc) . Eventually by the events of Fallout 4 she comes across as a bit of an asshole, and thinks every negative thing about herself is well deserved.

Crawford Klaus (The UnTitledverse and Far Cry The Silver Chronicles)

A self-absorbed and careless pharmaceutical tycoon, Crawford would sell out anyone just to save his own skin and keep the status quo of him in power at peace. Even if it means drugging a British town stuck in a 1940s mindset and might be a cult, to test out knew strains of medicine and whatnot even if those people die in the process. Alexander Khaos hates this man with a burning passion, and is regretful he didn't kill the dick when he had the chance. How pleasantly unfortunate that Mr. Klaus gets the attention of the ICA and the ire of the infamous hitmen; Agent 47 and "the Cleaner" aka Albert Paczkowski.

[shivstar]

It's the anon who talked about the Map and Peter XD First of all, sorry for going anon, I'm just shy and a bit socially anxious and I never talked on this site.

Thank you so much for your reply and your post about Peter! Let me say, I totally agree with you about who's the more talented and intelligent among the marauders, and in general I love your blog so much!

As for Peter, I don't know, it's a lot of things. Sorry, I tried to keep it brief, but I end up rambling a lot.

I totally agree that the McGonagall saying Peter was always trailing after Sirius makes it sound like a fanboy behavior. She also says he hero-worships them, and ok. Totally understandable. But she's also a professor. She might not know everything.

And we know James and Sirius weren't always good to Peter. (though... could the fact that James got annoyed at Peter mean that Peter knew better and James knew that Peter knew better... maybe? Not sure about that, actually XD)

But that's the problem with James and Sirius, they are the best and they know it. They have each other, James is the only one who can keep up with Sirius and vice versa.

They befriend two other boys: Remus and Peter, and I think James and Sirius care about them equally. But it's JamesandSirius, inseparable, quite the double act, and then there's everyone else. Which is why I actually think Remus and Peter were very close to each other - they had to be, to balance the duo that was JamesandSirius, otherwise the Marauders wouldn't have lasted. Take just three people, and anyone would end up third-wheeling PadfootandProngs :)

When I read the book, I got the impression that Peter was actually well integrated because: the order of the names in the Map, the whole secret keeper thing, Srius saying he would die for Peter (like he would for any of them - and I choose to believe Sirius meant that. And yet Sirius thought Remus was the traitor.).

I actually care more about Sirius and James and would happily ignore Remus and Peter if possible, though I wouldn't mind it if fics portrayed the Marauders as equals, because at least on paper they were supposed to be. But fanon Remus had to go and ruin everything. So I decided Peter deserved to be promoted a little bit XD

Weirdly enough, it was the fics portraying Peter in a negative light that convinced me. The more I read those fics, the less likely it would be for him to be the secret keeper, which he was. So how was it possible?

(I read a fic where little Harry didn't like Peter. It made it impossible for me to believe it when they followed canon and Peter was the secret keeper.)

James and Sirius are so brilliant, there's no way, no way, they would befriend someone they found genuinely annoying or weak or pathetic or stupid or unreliable or coward etc.

And given their personalities, I don't think it's because the four of them were the only boys in their year, so James and Sirius felt obligated to include Remus and Peter out of pity. Or maybe, yes to a friendship when they were at school, but they wouldn't have stayed in touch after Hogwarts.

Peter did prove to be smarter than them when he betrayed them (as you said, it wouldn't be accurate to portray him as dumb), but I also think it proved how well he knew them, given how well he orchestrated the whole thing, and how well he could predict Sirius' reaction. 

Sirius wouldn't have entrusted the lives of the persons he loved the most, the life of James, to someone he wasn't 10000% sure of.

Same with James. It was not about himself. It was about his family, his wife, his child.

And then there's Lily. She too agreed to this plan. 

Three persons all loved and trusted Peter enough.

Cue the angst! I mean, how much worse would the betrayal be if Peter was truly part of the group? The tragedy, the devastation. It all works so much better in my head!

Peter was a trusted, beloved friend and he threw it away. Maybe at some point he got insecure, just as Remus had his own insecurities - I have all these parallels in my head about how both Remus and Peter actually didn't trust the Marauders enough (as in didn't trust themselves to be part of it). They both wanted so desperately to belong that they didn't realise they already were part of something great and beautiful, and they ended up losing it. While James and Sirius got too comfortable, too arrogant. They took their four-way friendship for granted because to them, it was. For James and Sirius, anything less than perfect devotion among friends would be unthinkable. They didn't think they had to show it, while Peter and Remus, not being as intense as J and S, and being normal persons, needed proof, needed concrete things that made them believe that the friendship was still the same even after Hogwarts, even with a war going on, even with James marrying and only including Sirius (best man, godfather).

Whatever friendship they had had, at that point, I think Remus and Peter doubted it.

Maybe James and Sirius weren't able to convey their love for Peter in a way that made sense to him, but the love was there, I'm sure. It's the only thing that makes sense to me.

In the end, Peter didn't trust them to die for him, and he chose not to die for them. The tragedy is so deliciously excruciating to me. But it only works if Peter was a true Marauder.

I'll always have love for pre-betrayal Peter.

It is completely alright Anon. I mean tumblr gave this option for a reason right. You are not alone in being shy and anxious about putting your thoughts out.

Thank you for your kind words Anon!!!!!

Also my view on Peter and Marauders in general are almost similar to what you mentioned.

Beginning from how McGonagall didn't have much clue as to what what kept happening with harry and friends so why would she know any better about the marauders dynamic.

Or the theory that post school, in a no war au, they will surely drift apart. Peter and Remus. They are the two people whose personal growth is overshadowed by the other two. Not in an evil way. But because of j and s being overprotective of these two. Or because they are always in the like light.

Remus and Peter, in a world with no war have to do a long soul searching. Finding out themselves. They didn't get to do that in war.

It's like when some parents push a kid to a certain career. They are so busy and single-minded in their teen and early adulthood that they keep on going. Only for find out later that the career they are in doesn't suit them well.

War was not for Peter. I will give his sorting the benifit of doubt that he was brave. But bravery doesn't excludes stupidity. To have it doesn't mean you can't be self preserving too.

Peter got lost in all this whirlwind is my theory.

War makes you unrecognizable to yourself. Let alone for people who don't even know their own purpose. So it is easy to use them and throw them away.

Peter is just that.

Also I will like to appreciate you mentioning secret keeper thing involved three people. Mostly people say Sirius was responsible for the Halloween because he suggested it. But it is wrong way of framing it.

Like taking away the agency of 2 adult people. Sirius proposed, they agreed. Then execution of plan. It stopped being his idea and became their collective plan. All three of them.

Sirius feeling guilty is understandable because he is alive and jily are gone. But for readers to interpret it as ,beside Peter, Sirius being solely responsible for their death is plain stupid.

I love a good rant. So don't worry. I am like you too in the sense that fanon Remus made me averse to Remus Lupin in general. And now I would rather seek Peter if I am reading something about James or Sirius.

Also yes. Most fics are like James and Sirius didn't respect Peter. Or Sirius hated his guts. These people are living under the rock it seems.

Thr things that Sirius himself says to Peter in the shack is after peter's betrayal. Peter hurt Sirius the most. Because James and lily atleast got an easy death. But Sirius had to live in hell because of Peter's mechanisations.

But this is a very hurt Sirius wanting Peter to hurt too. That is in no way an evidence to young Sirius Black's view on Peter.

Lily specifically mentions about Peter to Sirius in her letter. If it was such a common understanding that Sirius just tolerates Peter than why would she bother to tell him about how worried she is about Peter???

His ways may be a bit condescending. But what do you expect from him? He is Black. That comes out in small ways.

I truly believe that Sirius did cared for and loved Peter in his own ways. A whole lot more than he did Remus.. For Sirius Black is a dog. And dogs are about loyalty and trust. Sirius giving you his trust is as good as him declaring he loves you.

My HC. For a pre Halloween Sirius- Peter > Remus.

Thanks for the ask and sharing your views.

[g-oblincat]

One of my favorite manga ended 3 hours ago and I must talk about it

I actually wrote this two days ago and of course, the finale comes out RIGHT when I was about to post lol

On Twitter, I used to maintain a yuri manga recommendation thread to keep track of what I read and recommend my fav works to others. Now that I'm back on Tumblr, a platform that actually allows you to write why you like something, I want to start doing more in-depth recommendations. Starting with this one!

Koroshiya Yametai (I Wanna Quit Being a Hitman!) by Tonoki Sun

Rose is a hitman who dislikes her job, but she has one thing to look forward to: dates with her girlfriend, Benika. However, not wanting to go on dates with a guilty conscious, she always confesses her sins (murder) to a priest in a confessional booth that hides both their faces. The priest, Father Shirafune, happens to be Benika’s actual biological father.

Rose doesn’t know the priest she’s told about all her jobs to is Benika’s father. Benika doesn’t know Rose is a hitman, and is also keeping her queer relationship secret from her religious father. Shirafune is curious about his daughter’s new “boyfriend”, and has no idea the “boyfriend” is the person who keeps confessing murders to him.

The initial chapters of Hitman remind me of Spy x Family, where the comedy and appeal comes from the dramatic irony and near misses of each character trying to keep their own secrets, but the tone is different. There’s definitely lightness and comedy there, but underlying is a story of Rose, a refugee fleeing her war-torn home and being forced to work as a hitman in a rich country who doesn’t care about her people. She’s a pawn for greater political powers, and the story is how she tries to break out of that.

A quick, non-spoiler list of why I like this manga - if any of these appeal to you, I beeeeg you to read this comic:

Really cute loving relationship between the main couple! But also: well-fleshed characters outside the main couple! Father Shirafune is GREAT

Plot is more political than I expected, in what feels like a very grounded, real way. The main plot of the story is about refugees that are discriminated against and mistreated and what happens in a country when that mistreatment reaches a boiling point.

I need to think more about the story to be confident in talking about this outside of surface-level observations, so I desperately want smarter people to read it so I can also see their takes haha

The writing is just GOOD and appeals to me specifically. The plot is fast-paced with no filler. There’s a good balance of comedy, lovely moments between the couple, action where you can see Rose get out of tough situations (more on this in the spoilers), and scheming and double-crossing between various political powers.

I read this comic on Dynasty Scans, translated by Gouma-Den. The site’s tags are usually good for content warnings - the main ones are violence/killing/etc. There isn’t a ton of gore though. I believe the raws are here. I don’t think it’s licensed as of me writing this, but you bet I’m buying it all if/when it is.

I want to ramble more about what I like about it below, but it will contain **spoilers**! All images are from the Dynasty Scans translation.

The precise way action scenes are written

The action scenes are super fun to read. Most of them are about Rose escaping pursuers in clever ways that don’t give out her identity, and focus on the steps she took to prepare for these situations and how she outsmarts her enemies. There is a similar appeal here to detective or heist stories where Rose is put in a tough spot, and you see how her knowledge and wild amount of foresight let her escape.

In general, I like the scenes where characters are thinking to themselves and trying to problem-solve in any manga, and this happens a lot in this manga. One of my favorite scenes is when Rose tries to figure out if Benika’s new friend is another hitman, without tipping off either of them.

I just think this is soooo cool. The story is full of Rose’s cleverness in these kinds of situations that is so fun to read.

The romance

The romance is so sweet. The girls have an adorable meet-cute and throughout the story, you really see why Rose likes Benika- she’s kind and energetic but doesn’t hesitate to give Rose a piece of her mind when needed. Rose clearly loves Benika a lot and is always thinking of her. The characters’ interactions feel cute but realistic, and they’re fleshed out outside of the romance, which makes me like them more as people and root for them more.

But also (huge spoilers ahead, please skip this paragraph if you plan on reading this at all) it’s soooo yuri to have one girl try to make a huge high-stakes emotional sacrifice for the other one while confessing that it’s all for love. And it happens in the latest chapter and I went wild.

The themes the story tackles outside of the romance

This to me is both the most striking part of the story!

The first, smaller thing that stands out is Benika and her hesitance to tell her father about her relationship because she assumes her father is homophobic since he’s clergy. Father Shirafune is not homophobic actually and the two have a good relationship otherwise, but it stands out that this is a consideration Benika has. I feel like a lot of yuri is characterized by being only about romance, not identity or society. Characters will like girls, but not be gay. I don’t think this is a bad thing- it’s a characteristic of the genre and TBH in my head, it’s the difference between yuri and LGBTQ manga. However, that’s why this aspect of the story stood out to me- it serves to show queerness plays a bigger part of Benika’s character and the world, is an important motivator in the story, and is good worldbuilding. It also is important because it adds to the grounded tone of the story- it’d be weird to have a story that is full of politics and religion otherwise but say nothing about the two main characters’ queerness.

Speaking of the politics of the story, the main non-romance plot is about how the unspecified first-world country the story takes place in (probably Japan, even though they never say?) treats refugees. There are multiple chapters about how poorly the refugees are treated, and what will happen to the country if it goes too far unaddressed (and if the country deserves what it gets).

This sequence of panels in one of the latest chapters was really good!

That’s it! The Dynasty translation is nearing the end of the comic (EDIT: It got posted right before posting this LOL that's what I get for being slow) so it’s a great time to catch up! Please read this comic and talk to me about it!!!

[kitkatt0430]

For 5+ headcanons AU - what if Stein had been the one to die during the singularity instead of Ronnie?

Oh poor Martin, but yay! Ronnie lives. :D

Much like Martin, Ronnie would start to destabilize, so they'd still have to seek out Jax around the same time as in canon. I think Ronnie would be more proactive and opinionated about things than Martin was - though the canon episode was about Martin needing another half to Firestorm the focus was on Caitlin's grief over Ronnie when it came to choosing a 'copilot' as it were. So I think here it would focus on Ronnie's grief. He struggled to learn to get along with Martin in part because all the time spent with the merge gone wrong where Martin was directly piloting Ronnie's body, so he's understandably uncomfortable with having to let someone in.

He's definitely going to take a dislike to Hewitt upon meeting him - the guy isn't a team player and he kinda looks down on Ronnie for not having a doctorate. And maybe Ronnie absently corrects something that Hewitt has wrong in his lab when they visit him, so they're both really rubbing each other the wrong way there. Since Ronnie wouldn't want to merge with Hewitt, maybe a polite handshake is what sparks Hewitt's powers into overload.

Jax on the other hand, Ronnie takes to immediately. They get along well and Ronnie is frank about the situation he's facing. He just got legally acknowledged as alive again, is married to Caitlin (twice over since they would have had to have a second ceremony for legal purposes once they were actually able to file the paperwork), and he really does not want to die. He's as uncertain about being a hero as Jax is, but he's not asking Jax to help him save the world. Just his life. Which, as Jax points out, is arguably Caitlin's world. What they're doing will make Jax's life dependent on Ronnie's in the same way Ronnie's will become dependent on Jax's - but they can work on finding a way to stablize them both without Firestorm eventually. They're both young, they've got the time to figure things out.

Obviously Jax agrees, they merge successfully, but oh no! Hewitt is melting down and they wind up going to fight him alongside Barry.

At some point during these events, Ronnie and Caitlin would let Clarissa know what's going on and that there's a possibility that Ronnie and the as-of-yet unknown person who balances him out as Firestorm might wind up in the papers again. They want to make sure she's prepared to see that happen and isn't smacked in the face with it on the Sunday Times or whatever and left wondering if that's Martin.

Also!!! When Jax and Ronnie merge, it winds up being Ronnie riding copilot while Jax is in charge of his own body. Which puts Ronnie in what was Martin's position. And in some ways makes Ronnie feel closer to the friend and mentor he lost. But it also kind of cements that he's the advisor in the Firestorm equation now. The one who has to run the mental calculations for flying and transmutation while Jax concentrates on the actual physical actions going on. It's an adjustment for them both, but they manage to make a good team.

They still get recruited by the Legends - Firestorm would have been killed by Zoom otherwise, due to Zoom being smitten with Caitlin. Ronnie is less interested in time travel than Martin was because it would take him away from Caitlin, but Jax talks him into it (after Jax is visited by his future self in a stable time loop that doesn't involve drugging anyone to get everyone aboard the Waverider, wth Legends S1???)

Ronnie would probably make more of an effort to get to know Mick than everyone else does. He knows what it feels like to be dismissed as the 'dumb muscle' - much as he came to like Martin, it felt in some ways like Martin maybe never got over his impression that he was smarter and wiser than Ronnie was and it's gotta sting when someone that important and integral to who you are... dismisses you like that. It's probably not enough to keep Mick from blowing up at the crew because Len keeps picking them over him and even trying to erase their partnership via changing the history of Lewis Snart, but with both Ray and Ronnie being more friendly to Mick he perhaps double crosses the Time Pirates rather than sticking with them permanently. They wind up leaving Mick in 2016 as requested, only for him to wind up immediately kidnapped by Time Masters the minute the Waverider disappears.

Ronnie's survival turns out to be caused by Barry's time travel in the Flashback episode; it's not just Hartley turning over a new leaf that changed. And while Barry is glad Ronnie is alive - if gallivanting off with the Legends which includes Barry's favorite thief (crush) Leonard Snart - he's horrified to realize that Martin didn't survive in this timeline. And so Barry does not create Flashpoint because of this. He realizes that he might save his parents, sure, but who will suffer in his place? He can't do that, can't take that risk. Not even for his mom and dad.

[ddwcaph-game]

This is the stats screen for Kathryn “Katie” Emmerson, my MC for the story. She is the oldest twin, but she is more soft-spoken. Her younger twin brother Landon was always one to wear his emotions directly on his sleeve and take charge of the situation, while she is one to observe before acting. She is a lefty and loves to write, and tends to get lost in her thoughts and daydream often. She is a bookworm and introverted, while her brother is more athletic and social. *Very* much opposites. Katie struggles with her self-image a lot, doubts herself and her abilities. She is one of the top students in the class, but she believe it to be because she works hard, not because of any real talent or intelligence.

While Landon is irresponsible and carefree, she studies and keeps herself on the straight and narrow. After all, *someone* had to fill in the shoes Maggie left unfilled, and their father Arthur… well, who knows where he is? So she kind of had to grow up a bit faster as a result.

I have the headcanon that Katie’s *not* close to her mother Maggie while her twin is, hence him throwing away the locket picture. It hurt Landon more, hence not wanting to keep it. She has lost hope of her mother returning, but she tries to give her brother hope by trying to be more optimistic in front of him about it. Now if Landon can sense that… no idea :O

Rosie, her best friend, does make life a bit more gentle, though– when Katie has a bad day, she knows just who to go to for a hug. Always more willing to listen than to speak, the two tend to balance each other well, with Katie being the more quiet one and Rosie being more outgoing.

In terms of confrontation, Katie acts with words/smarts. So when confronted with B, she cut straight to the point on the matter. She loves learning new things, but in a more innocent way than Lily, I suppose– not as intense of an investigator, but curious of the world just to learn everything about it. (If this is too much, let me know! I got a bit inspired xD)

Hello, thank you for consulting Roselyna’s Matchmaking Service! Rosie had to finish her homework first, so sorry for the late response!

And nope, I don’t think it’s too much. But anyway, here are our Top 3 picks!

1. Well, I can’t *not* choose Roselyna as the top candidate now, can I? 😛 It’s true that Rosie’s more outgoing, but she’s also a great listener for when Katie has to vent, and they’d be able to relate/help with each other’s insecurities. Rosie also admires the much smarter students since she wants to be a teacher, so with Katie believing it’s a result of her hardwork, I think they’d be a good influence for each other. Bonus points too for also being a Daddy’s girl, hehe.

2. Wayne’s probably the second best candidate. Not just by virtue of being Rosie’s bestfriend, but also because Wayne also had a lot of experience with Rosie, back when she was much more reserved. She might not be fond of his troublemaker nature, but she’d probably appreciate his natural curiosity. And he’d know just the thing to cheer Katie up (and uplift her insecurities) with his playful teasing. Would she follow Wayne when he runs away in the Chapter 6 preview? Because I can see that being the scene where they can truly open up to each other.

3. We didn’t have a clear choice for number three, but we’ll go with JM. Being one of the top students means she’ll naturally be interacting with JM quite a bit, so I can see that being the starting spark of their relationship, especially with JM always looking out for her. JM would never make the first move (especially with school being his top priority), but he’d always be there if she needs someone to talk to, and I can see them having a late night conversation where everything just clicks with neither of them realizing it.

[saulwexler]

what'd you think is more catholic coded, nacho and all the parallelisms with jesus and all that stuff, or the rightful holy repentance through punishment and suffering of mcwexler 🛐

as the world's shittiest former-catholic, i'm really glad you asked!

would it be bad if i said mcwexler is more catholic than this 😬

way smarter people have discussed nacho and any input would be lovely. personally i respect nacho’s role as scapegoat, ransom to the devil, and shirtless guy coated in oil – but even if the aesthetic is👌 comparisons sort of start and end their for me 🤷🏻‍♀️ nacho’s morally gray and therefore not catholic-coded enough. but the catholic lense of  confession, penance, and redemption is just soooo mcwexler<3

thinking about jimmy’s two versions of the heisenberg story, and how by elevating his involvement from victim to accomplice helped regain his soul according to gould:

"Jimmy gets his soul back. But he’s going to be incarcerated for some amount of time. And that just felt right (x)"/ "I don't know if he's redeemed himself... but he has won his humanity back (x)"

the soul as something that can be gained/lost gives general christian vibes, but there elements that feel specifically catholic to me"

(1) the sacrament of reconciliation: really, the *only* sin god cannot forgive is failure to repent for mortal sins. jimmy’s first confession to marie fails this, but on second go around jimmy *does* confesses to a mortal sin (adulation with deliberate consent). and since confession 2 was voluntary, thats 79 years of self-imposed soul-saving penance (bonus points for the insurance thing – confession is also a salve for guilt).

(3) satisfactory punishment. when walt et al. selfishly died without repenting, they left an imbalance in the moral universe. luckily, catholics believe one may follow christ’s example and bear another's cross. by accepting full blame in building walt’s empire he can pay walt’s debts and restore balance.

(4) penance as medicinal: a self-induced punishment should equal the pleasure obtained while sinning through self-denial. take the opening and final scene of s6: gaudy lust-filled den of sin (damanged soul) is contrasted by barbed wire and slave-labor bread (healed soul). so a prison where he can have ice cream and golf would not do!

It felt right that Saul has been in court so many times as an attorney, and now he's there as a prisoner. And it felt right that he's made a mockery of the justice system, and now he's part of it. He's gone from being one of the people in the courtroom who runs the courtroom to be the subject. And that just felt right (x)

importantly, punishment is meant to help the sinner only – the 79 years do not meaningfully improve the lives of the victims or others involved (jimmy did not save kim from consequences nor would she want him to – idk why so many reporters think this???). kim’s confession is not as catholic, since giving cheryl closure is somewhat beneficial. but penance is a moral good in itself.

I personally don’t think what he’s doing is to save her from being implicated. She has already confessed to exactly what she did. There’s nothing Jimmy can save her from with that. Yeah. But I do think that those last moments in the courtroom are the two of them seeing each other without masks, like they used to (x)

(5) virtue of good works (this one's such a stretch): after regaining god’s grace, mcwexler can once again be given the virtues that were lost upon mortal sin, such as giving and receiving love from each other/ acts of charity (legal aid). other virtues (prudence, fortitude, temperance, humility) are woven into this too - regaining these virtues helps jimmy go from near-strangler to stable human without years of therapy.

with all that, no one suffered more than the girl writing this

[aconflagrationofmyown]

How do you do it, how do you raise my expectations after every update when I’m convinced each time it is not possible for your story to get any better. Keep proving me wrong, Marina. I don’t even no where to start, what part exactly I want to rave about first, so I guess the beginning’s gonna have to do it huh? We are starting where Captain Presley left off in Chapter 12, starving and in need of his damn breakfast. I remember being upset with him because I needed him to focus on Rosy, not on some damn food, but at this point I have ‘sym-pa-thee’ for the poor man. SOMEONE PLEASE FEED HIM AND ALLOW HIM SILENCE! I was as in dire need of touch from Elvis to Rosey as Rosey was, my heart was content every second they were together. Without even realizing it, the Captain missed and needed her touch as well as he processes all the information he’s gained in the last few hours. How he hasn’t lost his mind yet I have no idea. “… taken by surprise and eager for the tiniest of his touches, just as he suspected.” Captain do not try and fool, her being pulled into your lap did just as much to soothe you as it did her. His forehead leaning on the nape of her neck, her ensuring his food gets to him, the business being cleared away to accommodate him if only for a moment, comfortably perched on his lap - if that isn’t love what is? “She stroked and petted the tan hands now interlocked over her lower belly and his wrist twitched in response, a helpless little tremor and she wondered if maybe all the bravery he stoked in her had made her forget to be gentle with him.” Excuse me but should I jump off this building now or later? Both these characters need to give themselves a break but my poor sweet Rosey who still holds so much love and care within her but may not know how to express it and has not trusted anyone in ages to truly allow herself to show it. Rosey, who’s own father betrayed her, Rosey, who lost a mother, sister, and faux mother, who lost her friend Elvis, was subjected to witnessing an innocent die, had to commit murderer herself to survive, has been stuck living a lie for years and is still fighting daily to live her truth, who was kidnapped and sold and bought, Rosey give yourself a break. You show more love and strength and care than is to be expected for someone who has gone through what you have, how you continue to want to take care and care for others baffles me. Life has not been gentle with you and no one blames you for not recognizing gentleness when it’s being given or had. And her heart continues to show with her feeding him seated on his lap - do they realize they’re already married? I once said you toe the perfect balance of nasty and sweetness and I will be adding this chapter to the numerous stack of factual evidence I have to prove my point. You take this gentle loving moment and have the girl come on his lap after a light pinch on her inner thigh as a scolding for her smart mouth. And then you have me loudly cackling as he takes his gun and shoots to create silence when seconds earlier my own bloomers had a matching wet patch to Rosey’s and my heart was still soaring from the touches they bestow upon each other. The way your mind works Marina is truly a gift to us all who get to experience your works. Since you are the creator as I get in to how much of a genius Captain Presley is, the compliments apply to you as well. He tests and studies those arounds him, has a smart mouth but a smarter brain and uses it wisely (most of the time) to read the people around him and get his way. Him egging Parker on, having him bordering on a nervous breakdown, only to show him fake gratitude and appreciation as the truth becomes more clear to him. Cal not hesitating to take his moment and give kisses to Rosey - Cal that is your soon to be mother, boy, have more respect! I truly love that kid. Realizing he’s already a Presley and once Rosey becomes one they’ll legally be a little family and on their way to creating a larger family - not as large as Sarge’s mind you.

Baby, I’m gonna cry, thank you for this. I love this story so very much and…the fact all it’s meanderings still captivate you means so much. I’ve reread this a dozen times, thanks you for gushing 💋