#but yeah it was interesting to think about this considering how invested i am in dazai's character

[pokemonblack3white3]

HI OMG

Okay first getting this out of the way: I LOVE when people use my ideas literally anybody is free to take them and do whatever the fuck they want with them. I don't care how far it diverged from my original vision if you want Drayton as part of this family instead of being an aloof jackass or give her a redemption arc EEL FREE. If you want Drayton as Ingo's kid instead of Andrea's or to use any of your other headcanons for this family instead of mine GO CRAZY!!!! Tear the Canon I have created to shreds until it is UNRECOGNIZABLE!!!! Like yeah I'm pretty attached to some ideas for this au but if you want to veer all the way back to Drayton and Sylas being the heroes of truths and ideals I'd love to see how far you can take this. I've always been of the opinion that the best part of fandom is collaborating and sharing and expanding on ideas, regardless of if that's through dissecting canon or extreme fanonization to the point of complete bastardization. Like I'm so serious if anybody EVER wants to take my headcanons or aus and do their own thing with them go right the hell ahead. I mean like obviously don't repost my fics or art but I think y'all get what I mean. You guys can copy my homework just change it up a bit so the teacher can't tell.

I am DEEPLY invested in this unforgivably problematic toxic yaoi thing you've got going on here you had me hooked as soon as you mentioned Drayden on a leash (but those conversations are probably better saved for incredibly private channels with friends who already know the way I am lmao). In a more appropriate tone for discussion here I love exploring different kinds of relationships and how they impact dynamics and individual characters, it's why I try and make every au version of a character as different as I can to really spice things up (ie: Grey au Dietes making amends with her family and finding her own path, Blast to the Past au Drayton fulfilling the expectations of his family but only completely absent of their influence, currently unnamed Bad End au Drayton desperately rejecting her family and becoming a workaholic). Ghetsis is a little harder to do stuff like that with and still keep him in-character or interesting at all, but finding new characters to play off him is always so !!!!!!!!!!!! to me. Drayden isn't one I've considered before but it genuinely makes so much sense to hold them up next to each other.

So clarifying something in my canon of the au so far (plans may change but. For now), Iris and the resistance finally stage a full-scale attack against Team Plasma because Amarys tips them off that Sylas is alive, as well as filling them in on some important stuff about the base so they could actually get inside and have a fighting chance. This is all full ensemble attack so every member of the resistance and then some (Lacey, Drayton, Kieran) are here. Epic final battle stuff. Lacey is here because fuck Team Plasma, and Drayton and Kieran are here because they desperately need to get out of Unova after an incident I won't get super into right now (it sees like it may direactly interfere with an idea you've brought up and I very much want to see where this is going without me playing referee too much, but the long and short of it is that Drayton killed a member of Team Plasma) and Iris was the only one who could help them. She said she would but only if she could borrow Pecharunt's power for their raid. Anyways this is when the hero of ideals Iris and hero of truth Amarys thing happens but again do what you will with that. I believe that's what you were wondering about earlier?? Sorry if I misread what was unclear.

I think if I've got anything to add it's definitely from the angle of some of the characters you haven't discussed here. Specifically Amarys, Keys (my OC, adopted son of one of the Shadow Triad who I'm officially folding into this au), and Sora ( @purgatory-is-life 's OC I'll tag them in case xe wants to add on), since those three would be closest to Drayden.

So Amarys is having an internal struggle with being a part of Team Plasma, and Sylas helps push her over the edge to betray them. Drayden would ABSOLUTELY play a ton into this in this sidebar au, especially as Amarys would probably be one of the few people Drayden is ever really consistently around. Even then, though, Amarys probably has even less access to him than Sylas, with Ghetsis being so protective over his prize. It has to kill Drayden to see Amarys grow up in this environment, especially with how close in age she is to Drayton. Amarys tries to show kindness to him in her own stilted way, and as an expert in showing kindness in somewhat awkward, unconventional ways, Drayden understands. If Drayden makes it through to the other side, Amarys feels guilty as hell about the part she played in what happened to Drayden. She would stumble around him so much.

Sora is a Hisuian Zoroark pretending to be human, a fact that only Colress knows (and like maybe Ghetsis but Amarys definitely doesn't). Sora and Amarys are siblings of a sort, and Sora hangs off Amarys like a leech because she's the only person they feel halfway safe around. I'll wait to see if Void has any input on this, but I can only imagine how terrified Sora would feel seeing Drayden's treatment, thinking how that could happen to it if Colress ever got bored of him or Sora ever let down his illusion.

As for Keys, being taken out of an abusive situation by one of the Shadow Triad when he was young, he has an undying and obsessive loyalty to them, the same that they hold for Ghetsis. Keys genuinely considers Team Plasma his family and would do anything for them. He does have a moral compass, but he's become very adept at slapping a sticky note over the needle whenever he needs to "protect his family". He is FAR less remorseful than Amarys or Sora about all this bullshit, and though he thinks Drayden's treatment is in incredibly poor taste, if Ghetsis wants a war prize to show off that's his right as their leader. He feels bad for the guy and won't cause him harm if he doesn't have to, but of the three he's definitely the worst with Drayden and a very genuine obstacle to Drayden or even Sylas getting the hell out of there (Keys also considers Amarys and Sylas family, but dad's orders come first . He ABSOLUTELY draws the line at hurting either of them but he's got no qualms with restraining them and/or putting them in timeout). He's pretty similar in age to Amarys here, maybe a year or two older.

Anyways those are a few of my thoughts! Hope I added something interesting to the discussion (:

I love sidebar AUs.. one that’s been plaguing me is the idea of a sidebar AU of the Bad End AU where Drayden actually lives

Could you imagine the angst

Realizing Drayton has become a snitch, completely removing herself from any association with family

Realizing Sylas has joined Team Plasma on false promises and lies, losing a decent amount of sanity and pressed under their thumbs

Confronting either of them and missing the recognition of the family he once knew. His own grandkids gone. He himself is too weak to march up to Ghetsis and break his spine for what he’s done.

Getting reports that Sylas just paces and talks to himself. Not getting any feedback on Drayton whatsoever.

Drayden is a family man. Taking his family from him is worse than taking his life, the worst form of torture you could place upon him. Ghetsis relishes in it.

[evanescentdawn]

AHAHAH I totally was gonna do something for Lucifer ship month. I didn’t end finishing this one sadly. sharing a fav bit. well. it shares fav with another part. it was really fun n interesting to write this ^^

Saburouta walks further into the dim hallway, door creeking close behind him and further encapsulating him into the dark. There is barely any brightness to make out the place but there's no need. It's a bare hallway. Just him now, and the walls surrounding him. It seems to go on forever. Saburouta knows it doesn't though.

He walks. The echoes of footsteps fill the hallway, keeping him company in the almost-dark.

He reaches the end of the hallway, stepping into another place. A large room that feels exceedingly larger than life too. Just as empty, but more well-lit despite the contining lack of source. Saburouta smiles. He soon comes to a stop at middle, the echoes of his footsteps ceasing. He's in complete silence now.

Just him and this room.

[hadescavedish]

Some snippet of Jon Steinberg interview from Fathoms Deep on Silver's background (probably someone showed before but I hadn't seen one):

Steinberg: No, I spend a lot of time thinking about it. I think– I don't think it's that he doesn't have one [backstory]. Everyone has one, and I think, when I watch it, the clear implication is that his is awful. Which if– I think, if this story is going out of its way to suggest it's unspeakable, considering the things we have spoken about, I, as an audience, I think, am willing to take its word for it, I guess, is I guess a way of putting it, that if you are invested in that character and you understand where all of the norms are set for the show, for someone to say “I can't say it out loud” suggests that it really is awful. And we played with versions of what it could be. In the moment you name it, it just becomes less scary.

And it weirdly becomes– there is some instinct to explain it, to rationalize it, to suggest it's his fault, to suggest it’s someone else's fault, to suggest it could never happen to me. I think it's the “it could never happen to me”, maybe, that's the most destructive to the story we were trying to tell, that it had to feel like he was everyone and that requires him to kind of be no one at the same time, which sounds like bullshit, but I don't think it is, I think– the less specificity he has, yeah, the more you can see in him what you need to, and so– and it also felt right.

This is one of those moments that I think it depends on how you turn it, it will look different, is that it is clear, I think, from the first frame of season four that there is a point at which these two guys aren't connected. It takes a little while for that to get said in text but it's clearly Flint's concern, and I think on some level Silver's aware of it, and it was it felt both meta and interesting to me that the point at which they were not connected is how they feel about story and how they feel about their obligations to it, their place in it, the burden of it. They just don't agree that there is some need to create stories to explain things, and that that ultimately is the death of that relationship, that they– because they have that discontinuity between them, they– that is the thing from which everything else unravels, it's the thread of the sweater. So, you know, that felt right, too, that we were able to kind of strangely name something you didn't think you were looking for a name for, which is the space between them and not, you know, specifically who did what to Silver when he was a kid. [...]

I think it suggests the horror from another direction, that whatever happened was so terrible that it broke his ability to exist within a story. There is something that is therapeutic about existing within a story and something that I think is normal and also a part of the human condition, to find a place in a story in which you feel like you make sense, and I think whatever it was that happened to him that made him incapable of reconciling that, that is his trauma, you know? His backstory was that he was removed from his own story.

[x]

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Can you perhaps elaborate on the "Ganondorf should get to pummel Rauru"

As far as I'm recalling, we don't actually get that much of their issues in totk? We see leaders clashing, and then essentially Ganondorf kills Sonia and steals the secret stone, kicking off the imprisoning war. It's been a minute since I looked at the lore of totk (No Urbosa, so I'm nowhere near as invested as I am in botw) so I wouldn't be surprised if there's something big I missed, or even subtext I never picked up on

Sure! It's always very funny to me to receive the occasional ask like this, since I have been Renowned as a Rauru hater since release, but to briefly recap my perspective: I think Rauru was one self-conscious writing decision away from being the most compelling morally gray character in all of the Zelda canon, but unfortunately is heralded as being a near-perfect ruler (though even his imperfection is an extremely unclear and unexamined flaw that no character ever hold him accountable for --except for Ganondorf, and even what Ganondorf does call him out on is also unclear and also depends on translation because it wouldn't be a Zelda game otherwise) even though Rauru is mostly responsible, not only for his own problems, but also for everybody else's --including, crucially, Zelda's.

In a few words, he cannot be excused (like Zelda or Rhoam) by having to bear the weight of a kingdom for his poor decisions since, you know, he invented the damn thing (then of course maybe he would have to uphold the zonai legacy or something, and this is his motivation, but we don't know, since the game isn't interested in giving us this kind of information). His repeated invitations to the gerudos (and others but the gerudos are the only one not drinking the kool aid? which should be completely ok), being this new ruler of a brand new kingdom that didn't exist 5 minutes prior and yet feeling like he is somehow owed extreme levels of loyalty and devotion from everyone around him, being considered reasonable by the writing, is really baffling to me. Him dismissing Zelda's warnings (as tame as they are, which is just incomprehensible writing contrivences) even though he accepts that she does indeed come from the future, from a Hyrule ravaged by war, is crazy. Him running off to hunt and leave his priestess-wife in charge of the kingdom he founded on her lands while still speaking over her politically is.... sure a choice that was made in the writing. Him then choosing to warn Ganondorf that Link is a guy that exists and will kick his ass, is literally the reason why Link doesn't get the advantage and gets his arm destroyed. And then, in spite of all that, in spite of having the full picture, Rauru is vague and utterly unhelpful as a spirit while Link recovers, pondering that it's so sad that Constructs have to toil for all eternity for no purpose... :(

And like, yes Rauru, indeed Rauru, but maybe, just maybe, that should tell us something about how incredibly self-centered this goat-dragon-dude is --not realizing what he was imposing to his servants and people for his own leisure, in the name of his peace. I don't think he is evil, as in: he's not a cackling unsubtle and vapid caricature like Ganondorf is, but wow is this guy the most self-unaware and entitled character accidentally written in a game that fails to realize the absolute metric ton of red flags inserted in every single one of his scenes that I've... ever seen.

Again, if all of this was intentional, he would have been a masterful character. Maybe my favorite guy.

But the game destroying all other characters' interiority (and botw's worlbduilding) to tell this incredibly uncompelling tragedy about this super-cool perfect king and his series of completely avoidable failures... yeah, that really did not sit well with me at all.

Other posts about the topic that I've written previously:

A post about imperialism themes and aesthetics in TotK (I think it probably deserves an update with more specific historical examples)

A post about intent VS execution (especially re: good rulers and good kingdoms, and why this trope needs to be earned --contrasting TotK and EoW)

So yeah! Rauru. Weirdo guy. Compelling weirdo guy I think, but in a way the fandom really uhh disagrees with overall haha

[loriache]

Thistle & Senshi: Missed Connections

continuing my thistleposting... here is my manifesto for thistle and senshi: friends. In another life 😥

For one thing, they've been unknowing cohabitants for most of senshi's life. thistle doesn't think much of the non-golden kingdom residents of the dungeon, of course - he considers them trespassers and thieves! but there is a difference between trespassers and thieves who mind their own business, and even help keep other adventurers out (he obviously knew about and tolerated the orcs), and trespassers and thieves who make a mess of his dungeon (hateful, to be killed).

which I can't blame him for!

Based on what it looks like when marcille became the dungeon lord, we could assume that creating a dungeon is super easy - just rely on the winged lion for everything! But we see in thistle's flashbacks, that isn't how he did it.

Thistle did a lot of the work of building the dungeon manually. Perhaps because he was trying to build a sustainable dungeon, that could support a large population of living people - who he was invested in surviving themselves, not being replaced by puppets by the demon. They need a functioning ecosystem!

Of course, this is all pragmatic. After working on it for so long, I am sure Thistle is attached to the dungeon and its ecosystem, but more as a means to an end than for its own sake. As we see from the way that Laois defeats him, Thistle isn't really interested in monsters, and doesn't really understand the value of food...

Though I think he once did, and the fact he doesn't anymore is more down to the lion's interference than anything.

Senshi is attached to the dungeon's ecosystem. It's his home, even though he lost his family there, and he's come to care about it in its own right.

There are aspects of it he finds distasteful or dislikes, such as the immortality spell. But overall, if he had a chance to talk to Thistle about his hard work building up and maintaining the dungeon, he'd be greatly appreciative of it - this is his home, and it's a place that Thistle made to be a home.

In fact, Senshi (and the orcs) have been willingly living in the dungeon. Whereas the people that Thistle created the dungeon for have to be kept there by force. I doubt it's something he'd be easily appreciative of, but it's something, isn't it?

I also think it's incredibly cute that they both keep diaries.

Senshi's diaries have drawing, Thistle's have poems... they're both artists! Thistle with his music & Senshi with his cooking, they both have arts that they share with others to make them happy, and art that they keep to themselves.

Based on the diaries, including the ones in the complete Adventurers Bible..... it doesn't seem like Senshi ever learned Thistle's name! This makes sense since they really don't have much interaction - mostly Thistle talks to Laios or Marcille.

I don't think it should have gone any other way, since they're the protagonists and foils, but I do think in a more chilled out setting, Senshi and Thistle could get on.

Like Izutsumi, Thistle's a bit of a brat.

(I love him)

He probably had good table manners once upon a time, but I reckon he is very out of practice.

And we see he isn't in the habit of sharing:

Senshi would disapprove!

Senshi's desire to get everyone living well can be a bit overbearing. He already cleaned Thistle's kitchen for him!

But like Izutsumi, Thistle is another character that Senshi's habit of assuming non-dwarves to be children would be appropriate for. He's much older than Senshi, yeah, but his maturity levels seem to have stagnated along with his physical form in some ways. I doubt that anyone has treated him like a kid since way before he became a dungeon lord. The humans around him didn't understand his age, we can see that from the responsibility Delgal puts on him!

I think it would be good for him to have a person in his life who treats him like a kid, after he's had to be an adult so early and have so much responsibility for so long. And I'd like him to sit down and eat a delicious meal.

Sometimes that does happen! But Senshi would have done better </3

Thistle's ending is sad, but it's cathartic and makes sense. After being consumed by the winged lion, I doubt he'd be able to persist for a little longer, like Yaad - why would he even want to?

But I do think it would be nice if he could have met new people, formed new desires outside of his codependency with Delgal, and eaten a meal together with new people. Senshi could have helped him with that, if he had had the opportunity.

[call-me-casual]

@thunderversary-rewatch-party

I know we’re onto a new week but I’ve still got some comments on Brink of Disaster I’ve been meaning to write down.

-First it may be my favourite TOS episode. Or one of them (attack of the alligators anyone?) at least. The comedic interludes with Lady P and Parker were great, although I still want to know why those two blokes were chasing her at the start!

-We also get rare footage of Gront beyond the confines of Tracy Island! His handlers must have sedated him enough. It’s an all around good episode for him, and his calmness about everything borders on funny to me. Like damn old man, do you feel anything these days? You can tell he met Grafton and immediately disliked him but is trying to be so polite about it.

-Speaking of, I googled it and one of the definitions of ‘Graft’ is apparently “combine or integrate (an idea, system, etc.) with another, typically in a way considered inappropriate” (copied straight from Google there). I think that fits pretty well!

-I feel like the portrait beeping was particularly frantic this episode, like John’s slamming whatever button there is to connect to the living room like “SHIIIIIIIITTTT!!!!”

-Pretty interesting that Scott doesn’t take up position at Jeff’s desk. Obviously that idea was likely just for Atlantic Inferno, and they didn’t expect him to be gone that long, but did they seriously not have any contingency plan for when their dad is off the island and there’s an emergency? Maybe it came around because of this incident?

-Not even a launch sequence. Damn, the boys really are rushing. This is probably the closest they get to becoming TAG-ifed in the og series

-Please correct me if I’m wrong, but if the signals are cut off, shouldn’t that make the train stop? Because there’s nothing tell it what to do?

-The music for the monorail is absolutely perfect (I believe the track is “monorail drama”), it feels stressful in just the right way and I am definitely inspired by it whenever I work on my own TOS scripts

-Can you imagine how it must have felt for the brothers on this rescue? They could have lost two people who are practically family and their dad, the last parent they have. And then they don’t even get to go down and check on them after all’s said and done, they have to go home and wait. That must have been agonising. Maybe I should write something about that one day-

-If I could only choose a few episodes to be done in the TAG universe, this would definitely be one of them. I could see it in a hypothetical series 4, although it would probably need some reworking here or there to give a new cause to the monorail not stopping. We have already had two runaway vehicle episodes in TAG… fuck it, maybe it’s fischler’s fault again. He is known to skip out safety.

-Thinking about it now I’m honestly surprised no one got nervous about going for Jeff Tracy for investment. Like yeah no one knows who runs IR and these crooks only care about money, but surely someone would have gone “Jeff Tracy? As in Colonel Jeff Tracy? Famous astronaut Jeff Tracy? Could sue us into the ground with the wave of a hand Jeff Tracy? THAT GUY?!” This would also be pretty interesting if there was a TAG version, because people KNOW who are IR are, so would some crooks even have the balls to go near him if that plot point was retained?

[homosekularnost]

banned from ao3 for anachronistic music references...

✨️✨️✨️ system collapse chatfic ✨️✨️✨️✨️

(or "scooby gang reacts to tarik/ratthi" or "dont tell hr")

girls only chat

iris started this chat

iris added turi and kaede

iris

alright who knows whats happening with tarik and matteo

kaede

hi hello i understand “girls” can be gender neutral but you will have to explain to me why matteo isnt here then

oh we are gossiping about them, nevermind

turi

everyones a girl when theres gossip

ART

seconded

iris

oh my god

turi

HELP

iris

i hate it when you do this

ART

It isn’t polite to leave team members out.

kaede

who tf is art

ohhhh peri

iris

yup

ART

Yup.

iris

its what its secunit calls it 🙄

ART

Yup. 😊😊

kaede

awww

okay wait wait FOCUS

turi

yeah im not staying a girl for much longer

who needs to spill

kaede

maybe we could respect our coworkers privacy

(joking!! perihelion if you would)

ART

i would

tarik and matteo have started meeting individually 32 cycles ago

they have been avoiding each other for two cycles now

matteo appears to be initiating it

everything else is confidential

kaede

matteo has been listening to casual by chappel roan on repeat for the last two days also

feels important to the context

turi

oh noooo

new guy fucked up

kaede

don’t be mean to the new guy

turi

two weeks and your ship invites me to a mission in space

iris

this is why you get to be one of the girls

-

ten cycles later

-

iris pinged girls only chat

iris

a revival was needed

turi

RIGHT

iris

god scrolling up and im getting distracted

it really does call you ART huh

peri

i no longer like it

iris

liar

anyways

is matteo ok??

kaede

as okay as any of us can be after what has just transpired

which is the only reason im not telling your fathers this still exists @ iris

iris

calling that bluff right now

turi

maybe our inability to mind our business is a trauma symptom. have you ever considered that

kaede

:)

good thing perihelion is here then, huh?

iris

matteo has been listening to their normal music so i think theyre coping

TARIK, on the other hand,

kaede

oh??

iris

who needs to tell the captain now

turi

nepo baby

iris

he keeps blocking me on the music feed but i swear i have seen some taylor swift on there

kaede

well that might mean nothing

there is a stigma about listening to her work

iris

yeah lets look at what kaede is listening to

kaede

im not ashamed of who i am

i am also not ashamed of how invested i am in tariks love life so if you need me to @ dr. ayda mensah

turi

were not inventing you an excuse to @ a milf karime

iris

hey now

also

by god we might be stupid

iris added amena

turi

WE ARE SO STUPID

amena

oh wow, people calling my mother who raised me a milf

just what i love to see while i am stranded in space

iris

sorry sorry we wont mention how hot your mother is again

turi

pffffffff

iris

scroll up thoughhh we need intel

amena

you need a filter

give me a sec

iris

all yours baby

kaede youve gone a little quiet

kaede

yeah i think im a little mortified

ART

Understandable.

kaede

it was okay with just turi here but now we really are shittalking people with teens andHEY

amena

okay im back

what was happening with matteo???

turi

see youre already asking the right questions

amena

yeah i have no idea what ratthi is doing though

sorry

(theyre all my mums friends they dont tell me Anything)

iris

if i give you admin priviliges will you add the three lesbians

turi

the three lesbians?

amena

whatever sure

iris

you know

iris added pin-lee, overse and arada

turi

ohhh

overse

uhoh what is happening

pin-lee

perihelion if this is another attempt to get dirt on preservation im suing for entrampment

amena

dirt on preservation??

iris

another??

perihelion

neutral ground . pdf

pin-lee

i hate that i will be reading all of that

oh no youre gossiping about rattthi

kaede

oh no?

pin-lee

you added the wrong person

—

arada sent a screenshot

ratthi

huh

interesting

—

arada

he says its over between them

turi

oh noo is one of the lesbians a snitch?

overse

watch it now

pin-lee

yes

overse

you watch it too

pin-lee

id die to

turi

um

amena

i will throw myself off this vessel

pin-lee

fuck the kids

arada pinned a message

iris

the kid literally added you maam

pin-lee

im distracted!

tell your ship to stop rewriting my drafts and maybe ill keep track of shit

overse

highly unlikely

turi

can the kids also know if ratthi said anything else?

arada

let me check

he said yes

arada sent a screenshot

—

arada

okay but according to their timeline they were over long before you entered the picture

isnt that good

ratthi

hhhhhhhhhh it doesnt even MATTER anymore

hes so stupidly secretive about everything so if its not matteo its something else

like clearly hes not interested in communicating anything openly and clearly hes dated like a jerk before

so i think im calling it a loss and moving on. moving on!!

arada

:( im sorry

and this will make it worse but can i tell his coworkers

ratthi

oh what the hell why not

—

girls only chat

kaede

oof

iris

tarik!!!

amena

are we adding him next

kaede

absolutely not

hed quit

iris

pfft he would

overse

do you do always this to your coworkers?

kaede

only if theyre new

pin-lee

sounds fair

perihelion is typing

pin-lee

oh i wish you would

perihelion stopped typing

—

arada

i mean, he could have something from his past hes embarrassed about

this is corporation rim. secunit is the norm here

ratthi

eeeh

i really dont know what itd have to be

to make his behavior normal

like. if he killed someone id understand but anything less

—

(five cycles later)

—

ratthi

arada no way

[pangaeaseas]

for the ships game:

Percy/Rodolphus

Narcissa/Voldemort

Rita/Sirius

OH YEAH. thanks for the great ideas.....sorry I took so long th

Percy/Rodolphus is one of those ships where I probably would have been like 'what? no' about it except. except. there's a fic. And a good fic can convince you of anything. May I recommend Subluxation by @saintsenara to anyone willing to be convinced of the appeal of Percy weasley/random death eater shipping? (and like I'll go for a LOT of Percy/DE ships...)

Why do I ship it? Well: I read the fic, that's some part of it. And y'know what? I buy it! There's a dark side of Percy which Rodolphus allows him to explore and I am here for a good corruption arc. And you can do something super interesting with Percy being the overlooked one in his family where nothing he does is never enough and Rodolphus being the same way in his marriage/relation to the death eaters: always second best to bellatrix.

the way it reveals how even the most terrible people are still capable of love. and the way it could reveal how people can do the most terrible things they do for LOVE--percy feeling like an outsider only finally accepted and loved by someone who will cause him to lean into the worst parts of himself. delicious.

that it exists! also that like I can totally see Percy full on supporting the death eaters at some point with his appearance at the battle being an actual turn, or like even if he was privately against them he was probably complicit in a Lot as he was working for the ministry during voldemort's period. so that one action isn't the culmination of him being a resister--i don't think it was--but his first real act of resistance. and if he was fucking a death eater...that makes it even juicier.

Narcissa/Voldemort

I'm gonna go with yes. Would it be healthy? No. Would it come out of genunine attraction on either's part? Probably not. Would it be interesting to observe like bugs in a lab? yup. and would be very very dubcon.

It's a situation where I could see narcissa trying to seduce voldemort to try and get back into his good graces. or him sleep with her to fuck with Lucius/Bellatrix/both--totally in character for him to do considering I think he'd see her as an extension of them and he loves fucking with his followers bodies' and things (and narcissa is either Lucius or bellatrix's thing). and it's one of my fave kinds of fucked up ships where it's about a third party: like I don't think Voldemort cares much about Narcissa except as a proxy for the people he's really interested in, her husband and sister ---and the same goes for her.

i could see narcissa being able to manipulate Voldemort through this and that's a win for her. and just. the mutual fucked-upedness. there's no feeling, I don't think--but it could easily be seen as an expression of love for ANOTHER character like Bellatrix which is fascinating. Also I just love death eater infighting and this would cause that. it pushes narcissa to dark places but also gives her a twisted and very partial sort of power. maybe. which she doesn't want she doesn't want to be the cult leader's mistress but...if it saves her son or her sister....

that it would happen at all?? ig that Voldemort would sleep with someone other than Bellatrix but like I totally think he would in the right circumstance. or that I see narcissa as prioritizing 1.draco2.bella with Lucius as a distant third so this would be to spare Draco or bella before sparing Lucius.

Rita/Sirius....gotta say: don't ship. fun concept though.

I think he'd have a real hard time getting over her attacks on Harry. like he's not going to willingly associate with anyone who'd slander his godson publicly. so Sirius would not go for this at all. I could see Rita trying to seduce him as a source but he'd turn her down. and like I don't really see Sirius as someone who'd use sex as a tool to get someone on his side politically, I don't think he'd be super invested in like rita's moral development anyway and he's someone who has a strong sense of personal ethics who would look down on her amorality and not in an 'i could fix her' way in an 'im much better than this person and I don't want to associate with her' way even before she goes after Harry. I think he'd see her as symbol of everything wrong with wizarding society. that's generally not someone you're going to date! and she wouldn't hang out with someone who won't put out and who she will have a hard time manipulating--she doesn't know him well enough to manipulate him effectively idt. and so why would she waste her time? plus...post Azaban Sirius is NOT hot enough for her. sorry.

i guess maybe it could be a fling before he went to Azkaban, though I don't really see Sirius as a fling person. in some kind of situation where Rita never ran attack articles on Harry mayyyybe but I still don't think it would work.

I do think they would find each other funny, and them interacting could be really interesting.

[be-it-so]

Okay, I lied, I'm not done with vengeance saga.

For some reason I'm still so angry and sad because of it, that I need to criticize it more or I won't be able to sleep.

I'm again so fucking disappointed, the whole saga felt like some kind of joke. I mean, the song I was worried the most about - "not sorry for loving you - turned out to be the most normal one. Like, yeah, Calypso is still very selfish and manipulative, Odysseus just want to be as far from her as possible and etc, I don't like that we are clearly expected to sympathise with her, but you know, in the context of this saga I'll go with it.

Dangerous felt a little overdone. I love Hermes, "wouldn't you like" was my favorite song for a long time, and maybe compared to it "Dangerous" is trying so much to go with the same vibe, but feels so deliberate about this.

I don't have much to say about "Charybdis" because there is nothing really to talk about, visuals were great, but everything felt so rushed, and also so meaningless, like they just needed to show at least one obstacle for Odysseus before Poseidon and nothing more.

And, yeah...

"Get in the water" and "600 strikes".

If you haven't guessed it yet, I'm very disappointed.

First of all, it is a lot weaker musically that I've expected. Okay, maybe there are good. Maybe I just am not able to hear this, because through these two songs I just stared at the screen with the confused and disappointed look, so I wasn't able to enjoy music or acting on its own.

Second, I was so interested in "get in the water", i liked the snippet we had so much before. It was so cool, emotional, and dark. I was so invested in finding out how Odysseus could escape this, what he might have said to change Poseidon's mind, maybe expected there to be some gesture towards the Odyssey, where Odysseus would tell Poseidon that he will go on this quest with the oar and so on. Also, i hoped to finally see "snake tongued" Odysseus in action because, like, that's what he is the most known about, for his mastery in words.

But this?

This was so bad. It also feels so fucking disrespectful to Poseidon, like, don't get me wrong, i like the change in power balance, I love when a character who wasn't able to do anything at some point now is beating the shit out of his former abuser and etc, BUT THIS IS NOT WORKING WITH THE GODS AND MORTALS IN GREEK MYTHOLOGY. AND THIS IS NOT WORKING WITH POSEIDON AND ODYSSEUS, THE STORY OF THE ODYSSEY IS NOT ABOUT HOW TO BECOME STRONG ENOUGH TO BEAT THE GOD. IT IS SO FAR OFF!

Like, yeah, the original is neither about "learning that you need to be ruthless to be able to return home if that's what you want so much", but there is difference in the level of what level of getting things wrong is normal and can be called "creative liberties" and what level is just bad. If you wanted so much for Odysseus to show how ruthless he became, well, we've already seen "different beast" to show us his cruelty, don't you think that maybe if they showed us how epic-Odysseus is able to put aside all the men Poseidon has killed and all of the pain he himself have gone through because of Poseidon and just talk with him, bargaining about his own life or something like this it would have also shown his ruthless side in a new way and be so much more believable? Even if he pulled out "there are other ways" move I think I would belive it more than that he is able to defeat Poseidon, the god of SEA, STORMS and EARTHQUAKES, PHISICALLY, in the SEA, with the STORM and fucking power of friendship (no, I will not stop calling it like this).

You know, I have a lot more to say about this, but I guess i'll stop with this. I guess I feel so bad about it because I really liked epic, yeah, I had problems with it, but I considered it nice adaptation even if it's kind of far from the source material, it felt very good and respectful to the original Odyssey, but now it became this. So yeah, I'm really disappointed.

And also, even if epic Odysseus was somehow able to defeat a god, what the fuck will stop epic Poseidon from returning after couple of months recovery and just wipe whole Ithaca off the face of the earth after such offense and shame? Like literally what? Or little epic Poseidon is now so afraid of big bad epic Odysseus that wouldn't bare even think about his name again?

[fae-morrigan]

It's probably too soon to ask, but given the latest issue of Secret Six, what do you think will happen to everyone? Especially Nia and Jay.

Part of me hopes Jay puts an end to Amanda, honestly. I don't know how, but I hope so. I also wonder, am I the only one who thinks Nia is written in a very opaque way?Almost like an anti-hero turning into a villain or is it just my perspective, I wonder if the author is aware of it, What's his intention with the boys? I've had that question for a while, and this latest issue made me ask it again. What do you think?

Her* intentions, but yeah.

Despite my status as a mutual of Nicole's, I am not privvy to her machinations any more than you are, and this latest issue really threw me for a (very good) loop. Like, I fully did not expect Nia to tell Jay JACK SHIT, and yet here she is, telling him the one secret that would totally nuke what remains of her life if it got out. Yknow, the guy whos entire skillset is leaking information. Sure Nia, that'll go well for you.

I think Nia's writing is actually pretty complex right now. She's kind of hard to get a read on in that final scene, but I think she's being genuine, just short-sighted. This is her attempt at an olive branch and its............ well, its a really weird olive branch, and I think it displays her naivety in some pretty interesting ways. In her pursuit for justice, she doesn't think of consequence. Unless she plans to take the fall for it, what does she think is going to happen to Jay if he pulls the trigger? You think the US would just let him walk away from that? In a lot of ways, despite her good intentions, this proposition is validating everything Jay said about her at the start of the scene. She's selfish, she's careless, but she has a choice in her actions. Its really good stuff and I expect it to backfire on the both of them.

I think we're gonna see this book end with Jon totally alone, honestly. I could totally see Jay and Nia on the run after whatever happens with Waller since at the end of the day they are currently co-conspirators, and I think Jon's himbo nonsense of not being able to choose between supporting Jay and defending Nia is gonna bite him in the ass. There's no situation where I can see Jon/Nia happening and being totally flowers (or possibly even being requited period, I mean, like, Nicole HAS said that Nia's song is one ABOUT BEING LED ON by a guy, lmao) or even happening period considering what Jon doesn't know about her, and clearly Nia's current priority is JAY and his feelings and HIS justice (which is NUTS) Jon Kent be damned, and Jay and Jon... Jon needs to get his head out his ass, period. I love Jayjon and want them to be endgame, but Jon needs to go rot in bed for awhile so he can realize he's being a huge dickweed. Maybe spend some more time in the volcano.

I'm really invested in what happens next. That cliffhanger totally threw me for a loop as I didn't expect Jay and Nia to EVER get on the same page again, and yet, here they are. Murder buddies. Its beautiful.

[trans-jon-rights]

What is the Magnus Protocol ?

(And how does it tie in with the Magnus Institute ?)

With MAGP 19 being the bombshell it was, I think we might have enough information to at least draft up the beginning of a theory.

So what could it be ?

I suppose it might be just that, a Protocol of containment. To contain Newton's creation and whatever happened in London*. Still enacted to this day by the government, the O.I.A.R and Starkwall**. And maybe it is the reason why the Institute burned.

*I suspect what happened in London to be the Great Fire of London, which did help stop a plague and happened 18 years before the letter was written.

**As mentioned in MAGP 4

So with that we have the more concrete stuff set up, I think we can go into the slightly more crack theory, because I've had too much coffee and my brain is going to explode.

Albertus Magnus was a German alchemist from the 13th century. He was very interested in stones, and believed they held power, as stated in his work 'De Mineralibus'. There were also numerous rumours that he achieved immortality using the philosopher's stone, which was a huge achievement in alchemy (basically the ultimate goal).

His work inspired numerous others, including :

Metals and Materials

The Secrets of Chemistry

The Origin of Metals

The Origins of Compounds

Doesn't this remind you of something ?

The case also refers to Wilhelm Homberg, though I couldn't find much on him other than he was an alchemist, and that he looked to create the philosopher's stone as well (which confirms that whatever Newton found, it was about that).

Anyway.

Let's consider this. Sam confirmed in the latest episode that it at least somewhat related to alchemy. And look at this from MAGP 9 :

They were looking for catalysts. Even better, they had an entire department dedicated to them ! Maybe I'm totally wrong, but the direct synonym of it in my native language (un catalyste) is something that was used in alchemy, at least to my knowledge.

So yeah, we know it has to do with alchemy. I've yet to found it again, but I recall tumblr user @misfitmagpie did this very extensive post about alchemical symbols on the logo of the show, and others on more alchemical stuff if you are interested.

But it is very obvious the Institute studied alchemy, looking for something. I do have a theory as to why they studied it, but its not about the Protocol, so we'll hold that thought for slightly later.

To me, the Protocol is something meant to regulate things, and was enabled by the government. But the government might have at some point considered the Institute dangerous, much like Robert Hooke did with Newton's experiment, and decided to destroy it. Usually the destructions involve fire. Newton's lab did burn down, and the mentionned previous iteration was likely to be the Great Fire of London in 1666.

(It is also notable that, although irrelevant to the current theory, the charity shop in MAGP 7 did burn down as well, which would further strengthen the idea that Starkwall is the current enabler of the Protocol for the government)

What else burned ? The Magnus Institute.

The very same Institute that was invested in alchemy, and that I am uninclined to believe was well intentioned.

And here I'd like to introduce you to something. The Franciscans.

Those guys held the belief that the Antichrist was coming and that the philosopher's stone was essential to stop it.

There's also a concept of balance (something something Robert Smirke something something) involved which dictates that for an Antichrist there needs to be a Christ.

And the Institute did research on children, measuring their development, empathy and compliance. Whether they were looking for the Christ or the Antichrist is unsure, (though seeing that high empathy level children were rejected speaks for itself) but they were looking for something.

So here, I could conclude. Say that the Institute was looking for the philosopher's stone, and the Antichrist, and that the Protocol was used to destroy them. But there's more.

Do you remember MAG 140 ? In this episode, Basira says this about Maxwell Rayner :

And here I have a fun fact for you. Did you know that Albertus Magnus wasn't originally named like this ? His name was Albertus the Great, and he became 'Magnus' after his death (Magnus meaning 'The Great' in Latin).

So what if ?

What if Jonah discovered Albertus' old works, and decided to follow them, resulting in an imperfect immortality like in TMA, and founding his Institute to further his research it and access a perfect one ?

And maybe he succeeded, and then decided that he wanted more, and tried to find the Antichrist. Finding use for the child would be easy, and he could hold it as a Damocles sword up everyone's head.

Then, he almost found them, and the Protocol was executed. That would give us a potential identity for [ERROR], being either Jonah or the child that yhey couldn't destroy. If it is Jonah, that would explain why he was following Alice, if she was indeed Connor Dyer (and Alex confirmed that she was trans mtf, so the possibility is more than likely). But also, considering [ERROR] I voiced by a woman, I rather think it might be the child.

I don't believe Albertus to be Jonah, mostly because if he already had access to immortality that early, why wait so long to look for the child. Though Jonah being a relative would explain the origin of his last name and how he found Albertus' old works.

In short, I believe the Magnus Protocol to be a Protocol of containment/destruction of knowledge by fire, related but not only limited to alchemy. It was used in 1999 to stop the researches conducted at the Magnus Institute. These researches were looking for an Antichrist, and conducted by the maybe immortal Jonah Magnus, who had discovered the secret to eternal life and the philosopher's stone exploiting the work of Albertus Magnus.

I am going insane.

Please send opinions and corrections ! I am far from an expert, I'm just a sleep deprived guy who did some research so don't hesitate to correct me ! You won't come out as rude and I won't be offended I promise.

[alpaca-clouds]

Solarpunk and the Internet

Alright, I have promised you all to write a bit more on Solarpunk again, so this is what I am going to do for the next two weeks once more - before doing a week on narratology, and then some more history/religion stuff for the two weeks after. At least that is the plan.

Something I have been considering a lot lately, is the role of the internet in a potential Solarpunk world. Because I think we can all agree that the internet is amazing. Never before the internet exited was it so easy to get any form of information that you wanted. Basically everything is - or should be - just a short search away. And I mean, while Google definitely does not work as it once did, at least for me it still works well enough.

However. Ever since we switched from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, there is a lot of stuff happening on the internet that is an issue. And mind you, there some stuff with Web 2.0, that was also quite important. Most notably it was the first time that minority groups had a voice that really could be heard, and it helped most certainly to find like-minded people.

But I am not even kidding when I say, that most of the issues we are facing today are because of Web 2.0 - and how easy it is with this to spread misinformation. Trump would never have happened, if it had not been for GamerGate, and GamerGate would not have happened, if not because of social media. If it had not been for social media, those hate filled asshole guys who ran that entire thing would have been stuck in some sort of forum, and nobody would have listened to them at all.

At the same time people have become so attached to their social media stuff, that a lot of them fail to interact with the real world. Something that was most certainly not helped by COVID, but it is a thing that we hear so much about how lonely and socially isolated people are. I mean, even the WHO is now talking about it. And of course it is true, that for some people the internet is important in reducing loneliness. (As a queer kid who grew up rural, I can most certain say stuff to that.) But at the time, a lot of people are also so invested in their social media and their followers, who rarely are real friends, that they often forget the real life.

And do not get me wrong: You absolutely can have real online friends and good online friends. It is just that your followers in general are not really that.

Of course, the way in which Social Media is toxic for people and isolating is not made better by the people who tend to run social media. Look at Elon Musk and Zuckerberg.

And all of this makes me wonder: If we were to create that Solarpunk Utopia... What will we do about internet and more specifically, what will we do about Social Media?

Reading through quite a lot of the Solarpunk short stories out there - and some of the few novels there are - it is quite interesting, how the internet does not play a role in most of them. In fact most of the time it is not even brought up at all. We have a genre of mainly science fiction works, and characters in this tend to never use the internet in any way.

From the more than 100 short stories in the genre I have read, I remember a total of 3 that brought up the internet in any major way. And one of them basically was a story focused on an anarchist news organiation that, yeah, posted their news on the internet. The other two were a story about a scientist who was physically very isolated because of their research, and a crime story that featured social media postings as part of the evidence.

I also might note that I once wrote a story for a Solarpunk anthology, that was supposed to feature "Solarpunk and Art", that involved artists collaborating over online spaces for their art projects (that explicitly were commenting on the ideals of Solarpunk). It got rejected for not being "Solarpunk enough".

Which is quite interesting. Solarpunk of course - other than older forms of punkpunk media - very much exists thanks to the internet, right? And yet, it does seem as if the Solarpunk community in general does somewhat reject the internet.

Of course, there is this thing about Solarpunk and being connected to the real world, having more places in your neighborhood that are accessible to everyone and so on and so forth, which is good and right. And I think in some way there is the wish expressed to be able to go out and meet with real people, because a lot of people falsely feel that right now they can. (Once more: Yes, there is things happening around that you would enjoy in the real world. Things were you, as an adult, will be able to make real life friends. Just like in those Solarpunk stories. You just have to look for it.)

Something that bugs me about this though is that the internet is also an unprecedented place for scientific and artistic exchange on any possible level. As a scientist, the internet is so important for exchange for people researching a field. And for artist, too, it is a great place to share their art with more people - no matter what kind of art it is. Not to mention how much information you can get online for free. Be it this specific thing you might need to know right now, or be it just something you want to know about.

Obviously, in a Solarpunk future, there would be no longer an Amazon, or a Facebook or X, formerly known as twitter. But I do think there is some value in considering some approached to how the internet in Solarpunk might look like. What about a user governed form of Social Media? I am always thinking of U in Mamoru Hosoda's movie BELLE. And of course: Good old reliable Wikipedia.

We have to remove capitalism from the internet - but that does not mean that we need to remove the internet completely. The internet was originally developed for scientists to be able to exchange data - and as such it is so much worth.

We might just want to get back to something that is a bit closer to Web 1.0, with some more communally governed platforms in between for social media - platforms that have fact checking of course and will get banned for calling people slurs. And stuff without adds. Duh.

After all, Solarpunk also loves ideas of self-reliability, self-repair and such. But those things get a whole lot easier if you have access to information.

[drdemonprince]

ive seen you talk about FIRE/mr money moustache and i am interested in how you balance that with your politics. i ask because i am also interested in FIRE but struggle with the idea of saving 2mil+ to retire early when people need money NOW to survive. not just broadly but even loved ones and community members in my immediate vicinity. i dont mean this in an EXPLAIN YOURSELF sort of way, just so many of the FIRE etc people i find writing about it dont really address this aspect and its something i struggle with internally myself.

Sure, I don't mind speaking about this at all. I wish I more frequently had the occasion to because it's a major special interest of mine.

First, I'm not interested in the saving 2 million dollars (if that were even feasible) school of financial independence/ retire early. I'm more of an adherent to the r/LeanFire, r/BaristaFire type approach of maintaining a consistently very frugal standard of living that is sustainable for me, on a relatively smaller savings, and pursuing a life of relatively little consumption.

I also think that MMM, despite his many flaws, is broadly accurate in stating that when people continuing working all their lives, they also create more ecological devastation by consuming a whole of a hell lot more resources on convenience and burning more fuel, while chasing after a steadily rising living standard set by the norms of their profession. By taking myself out of the workforce sooner rather than later, I will be contributing less to climate change and waste because I'll need fewer convenience meals, fewer car rides, fewer flights, fewer hotel rooms, fewer fancy professional clothes, and so on and so on.

I also spend a lot of time on the Socially Conscious Mustachians group on Facebook, which focuses on investing one's savings in ways that are less ethically problematic. The easy mode version of this is simply putting one's money into index funds that exclude oil companies, gun manufacturers, etc. But honestly, today, with interest rates being as high as they are? It's pretty easy to just sock one's money into a CD or a bond, collect the cool 5.4% interest, and avoid having to contribute to the stock market directly at all. There are even high-yield savings accounts at credit unions that pay out about that much interest these days, and those entities typically do not invest in oil pipelines, BDS targets, or anything all that objectionable.

As for the hoading money while others are in need piece: Well. yeah. that's a difficult ethical challenge that we all must consider. how much can i hold onto for my own wellbeing in the spirit of "putting on one's oxygen mask first" without it being wealth hoarding? how much should i give to other people when i see that they are in need --someone could easily make the case that I have the moral obligation to give away what i have to my very last cent, and I couldn't really argue with them on that. maybe a person should do that. but i'm not going to do it. and of course the effective altruism freakos would counter that if i invest my money and grow it now, i will have more to give to others in the long run than if i cash out now.

realistically, i won't be able to continue working for much longer without having another health episode or worse. i will not qualify for disability benefits because high maskers who have had careers usually do not. and social security's coffers will be entirely drained long before i reach the age to qualify for it. if i enter my non-working years without any resources, someone else will have to worry about me staying housed and medicated and fed.

i tend to think of my retire early stash as my own little private disability benefits fund that will allow me to live safely and will hopefully allow me to take care of other people that i love as we age, and that will give me the freedom from having to do any morally compromising capitalist labor ever again, and only put my energies towards causes that either fulfill me or benefit others.

but it's still rooted in a highly individualistic capitalist system, this holding onto money under my own name and investing it thing. im sure a lot of people would choose instead to sock all of their money into some kind of cooperatively owned communist farm or something, and you know, some day down the line i would love to put money toward a big multi unit building that lots of people i am in community with could live in, with no financial obligations for them. but i dont have anywhere near that kind of scratch. as hannibal buress (that landlord piece of shit) said, "i don't have fuck you money, i have strongly worded email money." and you know, being able to write a strongly worded email to people who would otherwise be exploiting me into another huge burnout does feel good.

thinking that one day i might not work anymore is one of the only things that keeps me going. i am always on the razor's edge of not functioning, i dont think people really realize that, how could they, the mask is there to prevent them seeing it. im beyond privileged to even get to CONSIDER the dream of getting by on my savings for however long human society continues to exist. and it sure would be better if i could extend that kind of freedom and peace of mind to others. my life still feels very precarious and it always has and ive had to be stable for the sake of others for a long time, ive had to be financially responsible for others for a long time. i cling to the idea of FI/RE because it offers me a way to finally break down and be weak. but something more community oriented and interdependent would sure as fuck be better. in the meantime i guess im saving for something like that i could trust enough to give myself over to.

i also have a really strong fetishistic desire to be someone's completely brainwashed sex pet for the entire rest of my life, and having an early retirement account would really help me facilitate that

[userarmand]

so since you watched Portofino and I'm currently going through season 2 (I'm on episode 3) (please don't ask why, the pull that man has on me is truly unfathomable, my dick has led me places etc etc ANYWAY) and I need to talk to someone about it bc I feel like I'm going a bit insane, so I thought I could ask your thoughts on this.

so like, season 1 wasn't like... good... right? like we're all aware of that and I'm fully aware the entire series is built on what I'm gonna call at best shoddily constructed narrative cohesion and probably can't be watched without a huge amount of suspension of disbelief, but I simply can't believe they let this insane mess of a storyline just go to production like that. WHY are these people letting a pacifist doctor join in on the assassination??? WHY is Gianluca suddenly so gungho about Nish either joining in his resistance fight OR straight up leaving him for Lucian??? WHAT IS HAPPENING in that goddamn group of resistance fighters??? IS it a group or are those just four guys who don't have anything better to do??? WHY IS THE WEAPON OF CHOICE A HAND GRENADE?? again WHY ARE WE LETTING THE PACIFIST BE PART OF THIS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS, VIOLENT SITUATION?? you don't bring someone to the shooting range unless you KNOW he can pull the trigger!! he's a DOCTOR, he's the guy that stays behind so that when you guys come back from trying to beat up fascist there is someone there who knows how to patch you up!!!

and worse than all of that!!! is that I can't believe they couldn't come up with something better to put Nish out of commission than this bullshit bit of conflict that they literally fabricated out of thin air!!!

also, there is one glaring continuity error during the first scene in Turin where Nish and Gian have their 'fight' about the letter, when Nish comes in from the balcony where he wears his glasses on the balcony and then three seconds later they're nowhere to be seen. which isn't the worst thing in the world, but MAN if that doesn't summarize how invested they were in this goddamn storyline, I don't know what does.

okay, sorry for that, I'm a bit tipsy, anyway: man this shit sucks, but the worst part of all of it is truly that there are like... TRACES of a reasonably interesting story scattered across the show, but every time I think they're getting close to actually properly engaging with one of them they do a hard left and someone commits a micro aggression.

jesus fuck, this show is awful. that said I AM writing a fix it fic, which is less fix-it and more 'let's try and make this less stupid'-fic

anyway sorry for this, I... am going back to watching...

gianluca definitely didn't know what he was doing but idk if that was intentional on the writer’s part or not. his little anarchist faction was very much in its infancy considering it was literally just him, his two mates, and his extremely reluctant boyfriend. gian knew that nish's heart wasn't it, knew he didn't like conflict, literally said that's why he loved him, but basically pouted about it until nish agreed to join, at no point acknowledging the added danger nish was in as an indian national. neat.

so here we are with gian and his merry band of mugs who instead of digesting any actual communist or socialist theory, decide that blowing up some rando fascist would make any sort of difference in mussolini’s italy. nish had to be directly involved in the grenade shit so he'd get injured which would put him back in lucian’s orbit and reconnect him to the 'main' plot in portofino. the show wasn't wiling to delve fully into what exactly gian and the resistance movement were trying to achieve outside of individual terrorism so that storyline didn't really result in anything beyond establishing that fascism = bad, which, yeah we know :/

also i don't disagree that they were half-assing things but regarding the continuity of nish's glasses: he takes them off when the camera's on gian lol u can see them in his hand

[imthepunchlord]

So, out of curiosity, what's Zoe's set up in the Zodiac Heroes story? Is she still Chloe's half-sister, or are they full siblings? Is she a stepkid, an affair baby, or maybe an orphan/adopted kid the Bourgeois family adopted for good PR and only really picked her specifically because she just happened to look like she could fit in with family (appearance wise)

So, this answer will also extend into the future Rewrite, as Zoe's whole thing is (from what I've heard and gathered) is really vague, confusing, and inconsistent.

But Zoe I'm ultimately going to go with being a stepsister, as, ultimately, it really feels like Audrey and Andre should just straight up be divorced. And Zoe just wants to keep and get along with her stepsister, which is why she joins her stepmom to Paris to connect with this extended family.

I think that's the best solution working off them being sisters, and the messy relationship that is Andre and Audrey, and working off Audrey being gone for so long. Especially as the wife of the mayor of Paris, I would expect the spouse of a big political figure to be more present. So them being divorced just makes sense, and it can work off Andre spoiling Chloe even more to make up for it, plus she's now the remaining precious family member in his life.

I will say, I did consider having Chloe and Zoe being cousins, having Audrey's last name be Lee and Mr Lee is her brother; but wasn't really sold on the idea. I think I'd rather do that for the Couffaines, especially as I did think Jagged was potentially Anarka's younger brother and he just felt younger than her (so canon's choice of making him the dad was so awkward, and from the little I've seen, I don't really like it so I'd rather skip out on that romantic history from Anarka and Jagged, just overhaul it).

And, yeah, recently, adoption came to mind, given what I learned recently on how s5 ends. Only thing, by set up, that can give Zoe a lot of attention and investment plot wise, and this is a character I just don't really have strong feelings for, and I'm not that interested in her at all. I also don't like the outcome of Andre adopting Zoe.

Like, wth ML crew.

I know Mr Lee isn't really brought up much, and we don't know anything about him as a person or parent, but he was established. But you can't just hand wave away his existence so Andre can adopt her. If this is keeping Zoe in Paris, just have her attend school abroad.

And I also call bs on Andre dropping the monster of his own creation for a "better" child. I know Audrey gets a lot of rightful blame for how Chloe turned out, but between the two, I blame Andre more as he's the active parent in her life, and we see he spoils and enables her. To me, he's more at fault for how Chloe came out as he actually raised her. He can't just wash his hands of her and have a different kid. That's not how it works.

Especially when this show confirms over and over again how terrible he is as a person. Honestly, this whole family sucks. Andre should've just ended up in jail for corruption. I don't like this route of him being a victim/the good Bourgeois cause no, he's terrible. He's freaking ending s5 kidnapping a kid. And given his history of parenting, I'm not sure I'm going to like where Zoe ends up.

Anyway, the adoption thing could've been better if Mr Lee didn't exist and Zoe was an orphan and picked for publicity and because she looked like she could fit in, but they didn't plan far enough ahead for that. And I guess decided they liked Andre enough to be officially adopt Zoe?

But that set up does mean she should get a lot of attention for her situation and I am just not invested in her that much.

So, stepsisters it is!

Attending school in Paris for at least a year (for ZH anyway, not for Rewrite as Zoe is not going to stay) and to get a chance to bond with her sister. It just makes the most sense to me given her initial intro, Audrey and Andre's relationship and them being divorced just makes more sense, and you can still get that same sort of drama you expect between the two very suddenly now sisters.

[starchaser45]

JJ eating Cheetos: so they did it to you too huh

Lila :yep, they summaries my whole complicated character to an unnecessary love triangle so that the male lead who was my best friend can have a love interest * fully sends a shot*

JJ: same but mine was kinda worse he was also my kids' godfather and it didn't even do anything or go anywhere other than confuse him it's was totally pointless none even knew about it it just made things awkward for literally no reason

Lila : wanna hear worse this whole thing blew up in front of my entire family my kids included his siblings including my husband

JJ*gasp*: no you were married to his brother

Lila: yep and it was a great love story that they ruined for no reason like I was still in love with my husband too I mean I fell in love with five for survival

JJ: totally understandable, his name is five?

Lila: stop interrupting me

JJ: sorry

Lila: anyways he genuinely fell in love with me so he got his heart broken cause I didn't choose him so I broke both of their hearts and relationship basically and yk the kicker this bullshit was never resolved we all just fucking ceased to exist

JJ: Jesus Christ you all just fucking died

Lila : nope ceased to exist it's like we were never there we never existed

JJ: fuck I feel like in owe my writers an apology , nah

In another room

Reid*holding his coffee *: so you really couldn't stay in a timeline where there was other people

Five*holding his coffee*: stop scolding me I don't even know you

Reid: ik you're stupid, like you couldn't have told anyone

Five: none of them would have understood

Reid: but Lila did why couldn't you go alone or take one of your siblings let Lila copy your power so if something happens she could get you instead of going with zero knowledge

Five: we didn't think of that we wanted to be discreet

Reid: but why it makes no sense it's completely irrational and I find hard to believe that you would do that considering last time you did it you ended up lost in an apocalypse

Five: the writers decided that I shouldn't think ig

Reid: god I hate when they do that so another character could shine

Five: nope that didn't happen

Reid: what

Five: they kinda ruined all of us and then killed us off sorry wrote us off as if we never existed

Reid: Jesus poor Diego he losses his wife and brother then gets killed off

Five: hey you're not better than me you fell in love with a married woman too

Reid: oh yes I am and I didn't fall in love with her more like old feelings resurfaced and was managed quickly I didn't cheat on anyone it just made thing a little awkward*sips his coffee "

Five: lucky asshole *sips his coffee "

Reid : eguh that's really bad coffee

Five: yeah it sucks

Reid: not worse than you tho

Five: hey!!

I just love how JJ is like super invested and Reid is like you dumbass there was literally 10 other better ways to do this 😭

I might actually make more of these with different characters this is so much fun 🦦