#but yeah nothing to really contradict that statement anon))

[thevalicemultiverse]

Mowing your lawn is an exclusively middle-class chore. Neither the poor nor the rich have to do it.

Victor: . . .as someone who grew up with our back yard tended to by a veritable army of gardeners, I cannot dispute this claim.

Alice: We actually had a mix -- Mama hired someone to come in and help with some of the more delicate plants, while Papa wasn't afraid to do his own mowing once in a while. Which probably fits with us having a decent amount of money thanks to Papa being a university dean, but not as incredibly rich as your parents.

Victoria: Our back garden ran fairly wild because my parents couldn't afford a gardener and wouldn't sully their hands tending it -- whatever Hildegarde or Emil could do when they got the chance, that's what got done.

Emily: My father had enough to pay a gardener to come around and look at our plants, so I guess I'm on the high end of the scale -- probably between Alice and Victor.

Christopher: Solidly middle-class upbringing, and yes, we mowed our own lawn. First chore I did that my parents tied to my allowance.

Richard: Grew up in an apartment! Which I guess puts me at the lowest end of the scale, i.e. not even having a lawn, much less a need to mow it.

[one-sad-human]

•Dinner First• Vince Neil

Pairing: Vince Neil x Reader

Requested? Yes! By an anon

Theme: Angst(?) to fluff

Warnings: Language, drinking, peer pressure

Word Count: 1.3k

A/N: Just when I was starting to post consistently. Sorry! I took a break from writing for a little, but I’m back now! Also, did you guys here that new GnR song? Tell me your thoughts!

You grimace, pulling Nikki's hair back as he pukes into the toilet. You're in the cramped bathroom of a tour bus, wishing you were literally anywhere else.

"Alright, I think I'm good now," the man says, contradicting his statement when he starts heaving again a moment after.

This isn't the first time you've been in this position, you doubt highly it'll be your last. You've been in similar situations with all of the men in Mötley Crüe, although Mick usually handled himself.

You're something that could be compared to a babysitter, except instead of taking care of children, you watch over almost constantly intoxicated men on tour. Their manager had hired you to do so, as you're one of his old friend's children and the most responsible young person he knows.

You don't drink or do drugs, you wear put together clothes, and— in the nicest way to say it— are a tad stuck up. You're a goodie two shoes, you don't have a rebellious bone in your body.

You're the perfect person to take care of the Crüe. You're paid to make sure they make it to all their shows and don't overdose or do anything equally as stupid. The job isn't glamorous, but you get to tour the world and get paid along the way.

"Ok, Nik. Time for bed," you say, a mockingly sweet tone to your voice. Nikki nods, going along with it and leaning against you heavily as you walk him to his small bed. You make sure he takes two Advils before passing out.

You sigh, rubbing your temples as you feel a headache brewing. You take some pain relievers yourself before stumbling over to your bunk and passing out shortly after.

The morning comes too quick, and you heave yourself up. You half walk half shuffle over to the coffee machine, moving on autopilot to make a fresh pot of pure caffeine.

"Mornin' good lookin'," says Vince, the blonde leaning on the counter next to you.

"Good morning," you say, ignoring the nickname. "You're up early."

"Heard the coffee machine," he lies. He wanted to talk to you alone without anyone bothering him. "Listen, we have the day off in a new city. I was wondering if maybe you'd want to—"

"Coffee, outta the way," Nikki says, shoving past you and Vince. There goes that.

Vince has been desperately trying to get a date with you for months, ever since the tour started. It seems like every time he works up the nerves to do it, he's interrupted.

"Sorry, Vinnie, what were you saying?" You ask, patiently waiting for Nikki to get his coffee so you can. The blonde shakes his head, waving a hand to dismiss the question and walks away.

"Nothing," he says and walks to sit in a small booth. Vince has never feared rejection like he does with you, usually he has all the confidence in the world. Vince is usually the definition of cool confidence. He isn't sure what there is about you, but it makes him nervous and gives him butterflies.

"Day off, no gig, what're we doing?" Tommy asks, now coming to join everyone to get coffee.

"We're in fucking New York, we're hitting CBGB!" Nikki says, nursing his cup of coffee you can only guess he made Irish seeing as his eyes have opened all the way.

"Fuck yeah!" Tommy speaks up. Vince sighs, knowing he won't get a date and you'll end up taking care of all of their drunk asses by midnight.

     You sigh into your cup of soda, swirling it around and watching the bubbles fizzing and popping. It had ended up like every other night, in a bar with overly obnoxious, head pounding music playing.

     "Having fun yet, Y/N?" Tommy asks, doing that weird trick where he sticks the cigarette in his nose. You make a disgusted face, rolling your eyes before agreeing.

     "You're such a fucking buzzkill. Would it kill you to just live a little? Have a drink! Here!" Nikki chimes in, sliding a shot of liquor. You slide it back.

     "No thanks." He rolls his eyes.

     "They don't want to drink, Nikki. Just leave them the fuck alone," Vince says, narrowing his eyes at the bassist. Mick takes his leave and ventures into a darker corner or the club, not wanted to be apart of the fight that is sure to ensue.

     "Well, excuse me!" He says snootily. "I'm just trying to get Y/N to have fun! All they ever do is breath down my neck. Makes me fucking nervous."

     "Nikki's right Y/N! Have some fun with us!"

     "I'm not here to have fun, this is my job," you say, you're face getting flushed and hot with anger. "I'm just here to make sure you live to see your next gig."

     "Killjoy," Tommy mutters. "Just one shot? I'll do it with you!"

     "Shut the fuck up!" Vince suddenly yells, his fist hitting the table and making the glasses and bottles rattle. "Leave them the fuck alone, all you're doing is making them upset. They said no, so stop badgering them."

     "It's alright, Vinnie—"

     "No it's not! They're constantly pestering you and I'm fucking tired of it!" Vince suddenly stands up. "Come on, lets go."

     You hesitantly stand up, grabbing your coat and following Vince out the door. You're already embarrassed for them causing a scene, you wouldn't want to stay behind where you're sure to get strange looks.

     "Where're we going?" Vince shrugs, protectively putting an arm around your shoulder and leading you farther from the crowed club. It sends tingles all the way down your spine, and you have to be extra careful walking to make sure your knees don't give out.

     "Away from those dicks. I hate the way they try to pressure you into shit all the time." You raise a brow and turn your head to look at the handsome blonde. The street lights bounce off his tanned face in an angelic way, his light locks of hair swaying in the warm breeze.

     "Why did it bother you that much?" You ask him, your voice low. Vince suddenly looks nervous.

     "Because," his voice is quiet and shakes with nerves. "I like you, Y/N. A lot." He stops walking and turns to you. "You're always so cool and chill, you always have an answer to everything and you're put together. You so goddamn smart, if I have a problem I know I can always go to you because you'll have a solution. It pisses me off when they think you're some weakling who'll do whatever they say."

     You're shocked into silence. Your mouth opens and closes a few times but no words form. You had no idea Vince had any feelings for you, you always thought he just liked that you made sure he didn't kill himself doing something stupid.

     "Seriously?" You ask once your mouth and brain start to function again. "You really feel that way?"

     "Would I lie to you about this?" You answer him by pressing your lips to his, your soft plump lips moving against his slightly chapped ones slowly and lovingly. His lips taste of cheap beer and cigarettes but there's a shadow of minty toothpaste. Vince has had his share of make outs, but nothing has ever felt this close and intimate.

     "I really like you, too." You smile when you pull away, your head dipping down slightly with a blush tinting your face. Vince smiles back and places his hands on your hips.

     "What do you say to heading back to the bus? It's empty." You shake your head, and Vince deflates instantly and disappointment floods his eyes. Maybe he got his thoughts up too soon, maybe you don't like him as much as he likes you.

     "Dinner first, and if you're nice and gentlemanly, and only if you're nice and gentlemanly, I'll think about going further," you say, and Vince laughs a little in relief before nodding. "Deal?"

     "Deal."

[sailorhyunjinz]

~ Stray Kids reaction to public sex ~

Warnings: SMUT! fem!reader x skz, teasing, public sex, fingering, degredation, nicknames, penetrative sex, unprotected sex, (consensual) somnophilia, blowjob, explicit language, explicit sexual content

Requested: yeeeyeee thank u anon~

Note: NOW HEAR ME OUT,,, not all of these are PUBLIC. some are like... semi-public or a place which chance of getting caught SO yeah..

also covid got me forgetting how airplanes look AHSHAHA also some of these scenarios are shorter than others so pweasie forgive me :((

(Gif does not belong to me)

Bangchan

The movie theater was dark and half empty. Blue light emitted from the big screen onto Bangchan’s angelic face as you rubbed your thighs together in desperation. You didn’t want to interrupt the cute boy, him being totally immersed in the movie and not noticing you shifting in your seat. Suddenly you felt his big hand land on your exposed thigh to which you whimpered, catching him off guard. He turned around with a questionable expression.

“What’s wrong?” he asked quietly. 

You grabbed the wrist of his hand and guided it under your skirt. He furrowed his brows at your action but as soon as he felt your clothed dripping cunt he smirked a devilish grin, his gaze turning evil. Pushing the fabric aside he grazed your wet folds, forcing you to muffle a moan by biting your finger. 

“What if I finger you right here?”

Minho

You tried to hold on to anything but the wall of the dressing room was completly bare, only a mirror that displayed you getting pounded from behind by Minho. The cocky boy could see your roseate cheeks and pained expression which only made him hornier, if that’s even possible. His grip on your hip would certainly leave marks and so would the wall, your cheek pressed up against it. Minho hissed as he neared his release, slamming your body against his hips and down his veiny length. The whines erupted after his hand snaked around and started circling your swollen bud. In a raspy voice, he whispered out loud enough for only you to hear.

“Shut up, slut” 

Changbin

The ride was bumpy, especially with 7 rowdy boys in the front of the van. Evening summer road trips with the boys occurred often but what didn’t was Changbin fingering you in the back of the van. The open window let in a cool breeze in the stuffy van, giving you opportunity to breathe before Changbin’s fingers curled up inside you. You looked at him with a glint in your eyes and nodded carefully when he looked at you, asking for premission to go harder with just his brown orbs. 

You bit the inside of your cheek to stop from moaning out loud for all the boys to hear which Changbin enjoyed. He enjoyed seeing your pained expression and your desperate attempts to hold back from slamming him against the seat and riding him. His fingers entered and reentered your sopping cunt at a pace fast enough to make the other boys wonder about your broken noises.

“y/n, you good?” Felix said while playing on his switch, not letting his eyes off the screen. 

“She’s good, right y/n?” he smirked at you as he grazed your g-spot. 

Hyunjin

The sign for seatbelts was lit in red on the display above your head. What didn’t help the situation was how Hyunjin’s hand traced on your thigh, making you shiver everytime he came close to the place you wanted him the most. You were looking out on the clouded landscape outside the cirular window of the airplane, trying to distract any lewd thoughts but you were simply to weak from Hyunjin’s touch. 

“Help me out y-y/n” he said, grabbing your hand and putting in on his hard-on.

Your eyes widened as you looked around suspiciously in the cramped plane before looking at Hyunjin with unease. He smiled at your reaction before he put his hand over yours, rubbing himself against your palm. 

“Please..?”. How could you say no to those eyes? Hell, you were getting turned on from seeing him so desperate for you in a public space, his whimpers being loud for anyone to hear. 

“Meet me in the lavatory in 5, ok?” you tilted your head as you stood up, removing your hand from his erection. He nodded and smiled. 

Jisung

“Jisung, not now” you whispered, leaning towards his ear. 

He smirked with arrogance filling his dark brown eyes as he continuted to rub your inner thigh, not giving a shit about who saw. It wasn’t until his fingers lightly grazed your soaked clothed cunt that you let out a small whimper. You thought nobody heard but oh were you wrong. 

“y/n, are you ok?” Chan asked as he was eating, looking at the other boys around the table before his gaze lingered on you and Jisung. 

“I’m fine, the foods just spicy” you lied to his face as you coughed. 

The other boys shrugged it off, continuing to laugh and make fun of each other as they ate and watched some bad reality show. They were busy but so were you, busy trying to hold back from moaning everytime Jisung’s fingers entered you making your pussy squelch as your juices covered his long digits. You were grabbing onto the chair as hard as you could, biting the inside of your cheek as you watched Jisung’s devilish grin with despise. 

“Just wait until the boys leave” you groaned at him to which he sneered. 

Felix

“Make this shit quick Felix, we have 10 minutes before anyone notices” you said hurriedly as you pull down your jeans and panties in one swift motion. The cubicle of the college bathroom was confined but both you and Felix managed to make it here, sneaking away from your lectures like two teenage delinquents. You look at Felix impatiently as he unbuckles his belt, the sound associated with anticipation. His erection sprung free from his boxers, the crimson tip hitting his abdomen. You froze as you admired how the veins ran up his length, how his small hand wrapped around the shaft and pumped the erection a couple of times.

“Can you stop staring and fucking bend over?” he growls at you, his aggression being more prominent the more he’s turned on. You obey his command as you placed your hand on tank of the toilet, the cold surface contradicting with your burning, dripping cunt. 

The tip teases your entrance making you whine out slightly before biting your lip, scared that anyone might walk in at any second. Two fists were formed with your hands as Felix slips into your wet pussy, you legs felt uneasy as you barely managed to hold yourself stable on the toilet floor as Felix thrusted into you quick. 

“F-fuck...Felix s-slow down” you stammered, a hot flash running through your entire body. 

“Shut up, you told me to hurry” he spat out as he grabbed your hair, twisting it around his firm grip as you jerked towards the toilet everytime he thrusted into you. 

Seungmin

You entered the hotel room with Seungmin following behind you. The whole wall infront of the bed was made of wide glass panes which made you squeal in excitement, seeing the whole city bustle beneath you. 

“Look, baby! You can see the farris wheel from here!” you spoke as you put down your luggage on your way to the window, standing infront of it and seeing how high up you really were. 

“This should be fun” he said cockily behind you, his smirking expression reflecting on the glass. 

“Yeah, I mean it’s so cool? Minnie, you are the best! Thank y-” You were cut off by Seungmin placing his big hand on your ass before pushing you against the glass, your cheek squishing against the frigid window as hit hot breath foged it up slightly.

“How fun wouldn’t it be if I fucked you here so that everyone can see?” he smiled at the end of his sentence making you gulp. A wet patch formed in your panties as your core ignited from his obscene statement. 

“Anyone can look up at any moment and see who you belong to, babygirl”. You nodded frantically as the sound of his belt buckle echoed in the hotel room. 

Jeongin

“hng...y-y/n” he stuttered in his sleep, his hand loosly grabbing your head that was underneath the covers, bobbing on his member. You reached up to cover his mouth with your hand, not wanting to wake up the other boys that were sleeping peacefully in the same room. His muffled moans made you clenched  around yourself, wanting nothing more than to wake him and be stuffed by his immense girth. 

“y-y/n what are you doing” he peeked under the blanket to see you swirling your tongue around his red sensitive tip. He smiled but was shortly cut off by his own moan as you licked long stripes up his length. A loud pop erupted as you pulled away from his erect dick, a line of saliva seperating your lips from him. Jeongin crawled under the blanket and hugged you tightly.

“You have to be quiet, ok baby?” he said with big innocent puppy eyes before you nodded and a blush dusted across your features. 

[zv5x]

Hey guys! An anon requested some Yandere ABC'S with Sen, but I had to reupload cause the formatting was wrong!!! I hope it works this time, and I hope you find it anon! Let me know if you did!

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Original text ...

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Hey Anon! Don't worry, requests are open permanently! So feel free to request as much as you want! I'm so glad you enjoy my writings, that makes me feel so happy! I hope you enjoy the ABC's prompt and I hope I did a good job! (*´ω｀*) Stay safe and take care of yourself, you're valid and loved! ( :̲̅:̲̅:̲̅[̲̅:♡:]̲̅:̲̅:̲̅:̲̅) Affection: How do they show their love and affection? How intense would it get? - Sen is a major giftgiver. So, expect him to really paint his love for you with lavish spending. Also, along with that, he's a hopeless romantic. So be sure to expect love letters and love notes to be littered around your apartment (whether or not he had permission to be where he placed them...that's up for debate). You met Senpai when you stumbled across his game, and were there to play it before you discovered a way to get him out. So, he was just as affectionate as your average visual novel character. Meaning, he's basically infinitely affectionate. He's very gentlemenly as well: kissing the top of your hand and brushing his lips against the tips of your fingers, helping you get ready each morning (he has to, considering you're literally restrained and rendered unable to do so), and other things. Blood: How messy are they willing to get when it comes to their darling? - I always imagined Sen to be more of a yandere "stereotype" considering his source (a cheesy Japanese romance game with pretty pastel colors and overly sweet and cheesy dialogue). So, Senpai would in that case be willing to make his murders messy. Their lives don't matter to Senpai, and he'll gladly paint a pretty picture of romance with their blood. He'd do anything to emphasize the fact that you belong to him and him alone. Not to those filthy, impure worms. Cruelty: How would they treat their darling when they're abducted? Would they mock them? - Senpai has a bit of an ego problem. So, if he feels it necessary, he'll gladly make you feel inferior to him. "Out of the hundreds of people in the school, you're the one that I long for so strongly. Shouldn't you be greatful for that? I'm sure there's people willing to eat themselves alive just to be in your place." Among other similar statements. Senpai isn't physically cruel unless giving out punishments for "bad behavior", so that's something to be greatful about I suppose. Even with the taunts and reprimands he speaks to you, he doesn't really mean them. Especially the ones about you being inferior in any regard. You're the definition of perfection in his eyes, to the extent he doesn't even really see himself being worthy of your love. But, nobody else is either. While he's not 100% worthy of an angel like you being by his side, he's more worthy than the people that surround the two of you. Darling: Aside from abduction, would they do anything against their darling’s will? - Just like Spirit, the only other things he'd do against your will is take away your rights to freedom, family, friends, along with some other similar things. He doesn't want to traumatize you, and as much as his actions contradict the idea that he's far from a monster, he's truly not. He just wants what's best for your love. Is that really something that's worthy of him being called a monster? Senpai doesn't think so, not one bit. Exposed: How much of their heart do they bare to their darling? How vulnerable are they when it comes to their darling? - All of it. His heart is an open book. Senpai wants to woo you, he wants you to know how adored you truly are. He wants you to know how much space you take up in his heart, and he'll do anything to show that to you. Whether it be by taking you out to a nice dinner after you've been on your best behavior for a while, or by murdering past enemies or foes, Sen will do virtually anything Fight: How would they feel if their darling fought back? - Completely and utterly heartbroken. How could you, (Y/N)? Here he is, your precious and beloved Senpai, just wanting to take care of you, and this is the thanks he get's? Senpai's little heart will be absolutely crushed, and he'll be sure

to let you know that, even while he's angerly punishing you. Being the main love interest is literally in his code, basically the A.I. equivalent to DNA. He's not used to not winning a person's heart the minute he expresses interest, especially the heart of someone he's putting all his effort into romantically seducing. Senpai will go ballistic after such a rejection, throwing the closest thing to a toddler's temper tantrum that you'll be able to see in an almost full grown adult. Screaming, stomping, crying tears of pure rage, Senpai will display all of it right for you to witness in absolute fear and horror. Game: Is this a game to them? How much would they enjoy watching their darling try to escape? - Is this a game to Senpai? Well, yeah. But only considering he's literally a game character himself. He still sees this as the silly dating mechanics from his own game. Even if this is real life, and even if this is completely against your will. He's not used to anything else, so he'll continue living his life and gaining your love the way he's been built to. Hell: What would be their darling’s worst experience with them? - You're not really in the position to cheat on him considering he's holding you in complete isolation, but if you were to cheat on him? Whoo boy. Sen would react in a similar way to Spirit would, only 100x worse. The psychotic laugh yanderes are so infamous for, the brutality, the murder, and then the confrontation of you. A cheater, a liar, a betrayer. You'll pay for what you've done to Senpai, you won't get away with thinking you could pull him around like a toy. He loves you, but now he sees no other option, you must die for what you've done to him. It won't be quick either. No, you're going to feel exactly what you made him feel the moment he found you cheating on him. It's only fair, after all. An eye for an eye. But don't worry, your body will be in good hands! Senpai will still take care of you, and he forgives you for what you've done! Now the two of you can be happy together once again! No more distractions this time! Ideals: What kind of future do they have in mind for/with their darling? - The usual...marriage, honeymoon, perhaps some kids or pets (but only if you want them, of course!). Senpai is really up to any kind of future, as long as it's with you, his beloved Jealousy: Do they get jealous? Do they lash out or find a way to cope? - Senpai is EXTREMELY jealous. He's suspicious of basically everyone you come into contact with, and you're always having to deal with him wrapping his arms around you from behind and gently laying down some boundaries for whoever you're just trying to talk to. Expect a few statements like/similar to, "Hey, worm! They're mine!", considering Sen is always trying to show people just how much you belong to him Kisses: How do they act around or with their darling? - Like some kind of flawless prince, but you know damn well that it's just a facade. He tries very hard to keep his yan tendencies hidden from you, but his emotional instability makes him fail miserably at that. But, that doesn't take away from the fact that he's *usually* acting very cool and charismatic Love letters: How would they go about courting or approaching their darling? - The usual things you'd see from a hopeless romantic...love letters, cards, poems, hand kisses, dinner dates, and everything else lovey dovey that people do to show a certain person how much they love them. Being a dating game character, Senpai is VERY good at courting anyone he seems romantically compatible Mask: Are their true colors drastically different from the way they act around everyone else? - His true colors are different from the way he tries to appear, but they come out so much that the people closest to him (specifically meaning you, and only you, as all of his other friends are just a.i. in the game that he once took residence in)) consider it apart of his actual personality Naughty: How would they punish their darling? - Probably just by breaking things around the two of them as he screams at them

for whatever they did to anger him. Senpai is very childish, especially when he's rejected, but he's still able to be calmed. You just need to know exactly what to say and when to say it. Which...is shockingly hard, considering how unpredictable Senpai can be Oppression: How many rights would they take away from their darling? - Just like Spirit, he won't really take away any. But, he'll take away all of it if he feels as if he has to Patience: How patient are they with their darling? - Senpai's patience is quite literally in the lowest of negative numbers, so tread lightly, (Y/N). The slightest and smallest things can set Senpai into hour long rages Quit: If their darling dies, leaves, or successfully escapes, would they ever be able to move on? - No. Not at all. Senpai would be absolutely devastated. He wouldn't be able to move on, you were his absolute everything. He can't imagine living a life without you, and he won't. Regret: Would they ever feel guilty about abducting their darling? Would they ever let their darling go? - Regret? No! Absolutely not! Why should Senpai feel any regret? For loving his darling angel? No. That's nothing but foolish. There is no room for regret or shame in Senpai's heart, only love for you Stigma: What brought about this side of them (childhood, curiosity, etc)? - Rejection is against Senpai's code. You weren't supposed to not want him romantically. Because of this, Senpai quite literally doesn't know how to react. So, he acts...insane? Obsessed? Call it what you want, but make sure its definition doesn't neglect his love for you. Tears: How do they feel about seeing their darling scream, cry, and/or isolate themselves? - Senpai would probably just get angrier. Why are you so upset?! Just love him, for fucks sake!! He just wants to take care of you, why won't you just let him? Stop being so difficult, let him take over, and things will be so much better for you! Unique: Would they do anything different from the classic yandere? - Not really. Senpai is pretty much a walking stereotype, with a few small changes here and there. Vice: What weakness can their darling exploit in order to escape? - His lovesickness, probably. Escaping Senpai would be hard to say the least, but not impossible. Just do the usual, try and act like a sufferer of Stockholm Syndrome and maybe you'll have a good chance at getting away from him Wit’s end: Would they ever hurt their darling? - Without hesitation. If he needs to do it to get his point across, Sen would do it without hesitation. It's all for you, that fact alone removes any chance of hesitation or remorse Xoanon: How much would they revere or worship their darling? To what length would they go to win their darling over? - Senpai practically treats you like some overglorified love deity, the definition of a perfect partner. Perfect for him, at least. His entire heart is like an open book, but one that only you can read clearly. It's all for you, after all. Yearn: How long do they pine after their darling before they snap? - He's good up until he witnesses even the slightest sign of distance or rejection, then he snaps Zenith: Would they ever break their darling? - Like hurting you, he'd do it without any hesitation. It means nothing to him, unlike you. You mean everything, and he'd do everything and anything for you. This is basically nothing to him. He loves you, after all! More than anything else in his world.

[itsclydebitches]

so ironwood was confirmed to be dead by Miles in a $42 cameo session, where the person who bought it had asked for "comforting words to soothe our anguished souls" bc she was an ironwood fan and wanted a pick-me-up after that devastating finale. miles' response was to essentially mock his fans (it really sounded like that, especially since he ended with "thank you jimmy, may you rest in pieces, crushed beneath the weight of the kingdom you tried so hard to hold up above your head."

apparently the VA, jason rose, confirmed it in DMs w the same fan who sent in the cameo ask. so like, quite apart from how rude and disrespectful it was of miles to make a mockery of james in a cameo where he'd been specifically asked for comforting words regarding the character, ngl but i think that if you have to confirm a MAJOR CHARACTER is dead outside of canon bc you failed to actually show it on screen.....you've failed as a writer. and also that kind of thing shouldn't be confirmed in an expensive and exclusive interview lmao like how hard would it have been to just talk about good aspects to james' character instead of calling him a dickbag and saying 'don't do a genocide, guys!!'

it reeks of unprofessionalism and also it just makes everything surrounding ironwood's character arc even worse since apparently 'his fate was sealed' from the moment he was introduced to the show.

Me, who received the first Moderna shot yesterday (🎉 🎉 🎉 ): Ugh I feel too crappy to answer asks today

Me, upon hearing this news: You know, I have suddenly found an untapped source of energy

Okay, all joking aside, I watched the vid and it’s definitely a lot. I don’t have any information about the request itself except for what Miles mentions in the recording, so I can’t speak to what the fan may have been looking for outside of that, but some highlights include: 

“This is for the filth in my degenerate discord server” - Yeah, that’s how a lot of us (fans) talk about ourselves. It sounds like someone who really enjoys Ironwood and makes joking, self-deprecating comments about their love of a character. That’s familiar to me and speaks to the expectation that they hoped for something other than what they got. At least, if I’d sent in a request like that I wouldn’t be happy with the vid, but that’s obviously my own perspective and not this fan’s. I’d be very curious to know their own thoughts though... 

“Sometimes a character we like doesn’t make it, does something we don’t agree with... or both!” - That is indeed how characters work! The real question is whether their death/actions make sense within the story, which is not addressed here. Many fans who enjoyed Ironwood don’t have a problem with him dying or turning into a villain  — I’ve been honest about my acceptance of either/both, regardless of personal preference, provided it was written well  — and that was always the issue. Not what happened to Ironwood, but how it happened. 

“James Ironwood’s fate was sealed the moment his character was conceived many years ago.” - Personally, I don’t believe this. RT makes a lot of grand, sweeping statements about what’s been planned “for years” or “since the beginning” and too often we’re faced with writing that directly contradicts that. Though it’s unlikely we’ll ever know the truth, neither option paints the writing team in a good light. Either they’re straight up lying about what’s been planned (or twisting tossed out possibilities into assurances after the fact. For example, someone once suggested Ironwood might become a villain somehow at some point and now that’s presented as, ‘We’ve deliberately been working towards this specific ending for years’), or they’re being truthful and just... can’t write what they want to write. It doesn’t sound good when a writer says, ‘I’ve planned this the whole time’ and a good chunk of the fandom responds, ‘Then why couldn’t we see that planning this whole time?’ 

“When James was introduced we intentionally made him look like kind of a big dickbag, but then we realized that dickbag had a heart and was also half metal, and that was pretty cool!” - I don’t even know what to make of this. I’ve deconstructed his introduction before, but to summarize here, he’s presented as no more of a “dickbag” than Ozpin who may not be doing enough to protect the people, Winter who allowed herself to get taunted into a fight on campus, or Qrow who deliberately started that fight while drunk. Glynda is the only one who is arguably innocent here. The implication seems to be that obviously Ironwood became a villain because “we intentionally made him look like kind of a big dickbag” but then... does that mean Qrow will become a villain too someday?? 

The comments about them realizing he had a heart and was half metal just speak to that lack of planning. No, you obviously didn’t plan this downfall from the start if you “realized” something as basic as him caring for others partway through writing him and then allowed that care to drive his character for so long that the decent into villainy read as OOC, rather than inevitable. You obviously weren’t writing him with a backstory that influenced his character  — of which his semblance is a major part  — if you “realized” he was half-metal... whenever that happened. The fact that we never saw that backstory, or the semblance on screen, or returned to his half-metal nature outside of a ‘That’s coding for evilness’ theme again speaks to the fact that either a) none of this was actually planned or b) the execution is seriously lacking here. 

“Let us all take a moment to thank General James Ironwood for his service to the Kingdom of Atlas, but... at the end of the day, don’t do a genocide [laughs]” - I’m having trouble articulating why I dislike this. I’m really too tired to be unpacking this right now (lol), but it has something to do with  — as you say, anon  — that mocking tone. Something else to do with the surge of purity culture in recent years. The tone feels like it’s tied up in an unsaid, ‘You like the character who tried to commit genocide?’ accusation when, you know, he’s a fictional character. People can like characters who do bad things. More significantly, he’s a fictional character Miles wrote. There’s something particularly distasteful about writers who feel like they’re laughing at fans for liking something when they created the thing with the intent that we would like it. And many did. So they gave attention, time, money, passion, etc. to the work and then when that part of the work finished, the creator appears to make light of that investment? Idk, I’m speaking about more than just this one line  — the tone of the vid as a whole, really — but it feels much less like “You enjoy Ironwood! 😄” and more “You enjoy Ironwood...  😬” Like yeah, fans enjoyed the character that you wanted them to enjoy who you wrote to have a heart and then suddenly commit genocide instead. There’s definitely nothing complicated in all that. 

“Thank you, Jimmy. May you rest in pieces crushed beneath the weight of the kingdom you tried so hard to hold above your head. Amen.” - All of the above x2 with the added issue that this was never shown on screen. Miles presents Ironwood���s arc like this seven year long plan when in fact they couldn’t even manage the basic move of telling the audience what happened to the character in his final hour. The fact that a fan had to pay to find out whether Ironwood is dead is not a gold star for the writing. 

Every time the RWBY crew speaks about the story in supplementary material the canon itself gets worse. Hyping Clover/Qrow on social media pushes the canon closer to queerbaiting. We’re way closer to that with them hyping Blake/Yang. Long ago comments about Ozpin’s cane suddenly make Volume 8 a retcon. A Q&A about Ironwood’s semblance makes his arc a thousand times more confusing about how we’re supposed to read his character  — to name just a few. Now this. When a friend first told me this info had dropped I thought, “Thank god. He’s not coming back then. I don’t want them writing Ironwood’s character anymore,” but really... can we believe anything the crew says? “Crushed beneath the weight of his kingdom” doesn’t mean Ironwood won’t show up in Volume 9 if it’s a spirit world type adventure. It doesn’t mean he won’t show up three years from now with even more metal in his body and a, “We said he was crushed, not that he was dead ;)” explanation. Hell, it doesn’t even mean he won’t show up with no explanation at all because, as established, what’s said in supplementary works and what happens on screen are two entirely separate things. Iffy as the vid may come across to those who did like Ironwood, I was initially happy that it at least gave us some closure... but now I’m not even sure about that. 

[miraculouscontent]

Ask Explosion #6

Asks answering previous posts:

Oh, okay! I’m glad, thank you!

(the post this anon is referring to)

Ohhhh.

And fjbgjnfkjgfg thanks >////<

I don’t think there’s much wrong with liking the design itself; I prefer Riposte personally, but that’s just me.

The best way I could put the “insensitive” part (I’m sort of dumb when it comes to this stuff and I talked about it before when I was working on that 3D model of Marinette) is that it’s so heavy on Japanese. I mean, they already have Kagami constantly wear what looks like a school uniform and Tomoe is just like--super heavy Japanese. It’s like the show doesn’t know how to balance “can’t tell at all” (with Marinette) and then “okay this is WAY strong” (with Kagami+Tomoe+Kung Food).

That makes sense! I guess the only problem then would be that the kwami can’t really act as mentors of any kind because “you’re saying this just because that’s all you can say” (like Sass, hypothetically, always willing to give someone a second chance, no matter what; I know that’s not what his power specifically entails but it’s just an example).

I would however definitely lean towards kwami being very strict in one alignment, so Tikki would always be on the path of pure good and thus never want to take/steal/whatever, whereas Plagg is always on the path of “bad,” but there are times where Marinette will have to ignore Tikki while Adrien will have to listen to Plagg.

And yeah, the guardians existing and the kwami not having so much control... not a huge fan.

Someone asked about Chat Noir’s flirting and he claimed that it was “on purpose” (you know, while throwing episodes like “Felix” at us but okay) and then he followed up with this:

There was also this other comment he made a while back when someone tried to make a suggestion to him:

Except he’s missing the point completely. When he talks about constructive criticism, he acts like it doesn’t matter, especially not anymore now that they’re working on Seasons 4 and 5:

(I mean, personally, I don’t think I need “engineering knowledge” to know when a rollercoaster I’d ridden nearly tossed the cart off the tracks and had questionable design decisions, but you do you, Astruc.)

Yes, constructive criticism is mainly for seeing a product improve, but that doesn’t mean ignoring it because, “well you haven’t seen the full product.”

“Animaestro” even has a bit of commentary on it:

Ladybug: What's with that trailer too? I am not scared of cats, at all.

Animaestro: You haven't even seen the movie and you're already slamming it?

Chat Noir: He does have a point, you know.

Ladybug: I wasn't slamming it. It's called constructive criticism!

(firstly, of course Chat Noir bows to Astruc on that one because he’s Astruc’s sunshine boy, ugh)

Ignoring the fact that a movie/printed book is usually a “full product,” criticism is also to say “you did this thing wrong, don’t do this in the future.” It doesn’t have to be referring strictly to the show. It’s just, “you did this thing wrong and here’s why, try to catch yourself if you accidentally do it again in the future, whether in what you’re working on now or otherwise.”

(He’s also talked about “unsolicited critique” before and I don’t know what that means? Like, dude, this isn’t someone’s fanfiction where I’d actually agree that you can’t go after them for their work. This is professional work.)

Anyway, remember “Chameleon”? When everyone saw the trailer and absolutely flipped out over it, then there were people who were like, “Wait for the full episode!!”?

Guess what? The full episode came out and people were either just as mad or even madder than before.

Astruc wants to have his cake and eat it to. He wants to say that his episodes are “stand-alone,” and that the order isn’t that important, but when people start pointing out issues, it becomes, “No! You have to wait for the rest of the episodes to come out!” and when people do that, it’s gonna be like, “Well, we already did the whole show so it’s not like I can change anything. *shrug*”

Also, just blaming it on “the industry” when everything else has been exhausted:

(He’s literally brought up before that the New York special was meant to have subplots about other characters, so it’s not like he can never say anything when something didn’t fit the “original vision”; I’m not asking him to get on his knees and say he’s sorry - plus, I do recognize that a lot of influence comes from the industry and people like Jeremy - but I expect a little more than the “whoops” he gave when people pointed out that “Weredad” contradicted his statement on Miraculous Ladybug.)

I think the reason people see it the way they do is because of Fu’s line in “Robostus” seems to imply the exact opposite thing happening.

Master Fu: Universe must always stay in balance. For every action, there is a reaction. For every wish, a price to pay in return. Had your robotic friend asked to become a real boy, someone would have lost his humanity in return.

New Asks:

Marigami is acceptable. I’m not crazy about it but it’s likable enough.

Lukadrien though... no, absolutely not. On a conceptual level, because it’s such a slap in the face for Marinette, and on a fanon level, because most of the jokes around it is Luka going to Marinette like he’s about to ask her out and then just asks for Adrien’s details. It’s just... ugh. I hate it (throwing Marinette into the ship still doesn’t help for me though because I’m not into the love square).

Bi erasure is my least favorite thing.

And yeah, it’s like--they set the love square ship(s?) out onto the water, then the Lukanette ship later with the plan to either sink it or just kinda... return it to the harbor if they don’t make a huge fuss about it?

Meanwhile, the love square ship has been in piece this whole time, and instead of letting it sink, they put it on a raft to keep it floating.

Depends.

In LadyBugOut? It’s already written and I haven’t posted it.

For canon? Like, Marinette being super disappointed at her view of Adrien being shattered or? :P

That’s accurate. I dislike about a fourth-ish of Season 1,then about half-ish of Season 2, then like... almost all of Season 3.

So we’ll just have to see what happens in Season 4.

I like Adrimi, but I’m not crazy about it and I don’t really write for it unless Lukanette is already the main ship (making Adrimi just a background ship). Adrien tends to dismiss Kagami a lot (like in “Frozer” and then “Miracle Queen” with him not committing) and I don’t want to see Kagami hurting like that (I agree with the anon completely that Adrien is more at fault than she is). They’re both emotionally-stunted so I usually have them wait it out or something to have them get together.

My ideal endgame is Lukanette while Adrimi is more like “let’s wait, let’s work on ourselves (especially Adrien; Kagami at least has on firm crush and wants to commit to it), and we’ll see where we go down the line.”

I don’t know if they really have the guts to arrest Gabriel. I also think that Lila might pick up the butterfly at the end of Season 5 or something after she’s been “dealt with.”

Chloe also is the mayor’s daughter so even if the law was that strict on teens, nothing would happen to her unless Andre got replaced.

Big yikes.

Maybe that the thing forcing Marinette away from Adrien and causing things to go wrong is the part of the curse trying to prevent the ladybug and cat miraculous from coming together?

So, close enough to be attracted and want to work together, but forcing the ladybug away from the cat to prevent the miraculouses from being used to make a wish?

I CHOKED ON MY DRINK.

ugh

ugh

ugggggggh

I’m 100% sure that Marinette wouldn’t be as uncomfortable around Adrien if Alya hadn’t constantly intervened. She’s the enabler of both Marinette’s anxiety and her crush on Adrien.

I went back and looked at the scene and it does kinda look like it, yes, because it basically goes from the intersection Marinette is in to another intersection that looks very, extremely similar and I don’t see Marinette in that intersection.

It was just a really, really bad transition. I remember being thrown off for a second too so I don’t blame you, anon.

I think Bob Roth’s intent was to scare Marinette away from showing that proof? He probably knows very well that Marinette has all the evidence she needs to make a case and already had a story planned for the press about how “the young talents they found didn’t measure up and the people deserved better.”

He just needed enough pressure on them for them to believe that he had enough authority to silence them.

And then Silencer tried to silence him instead. :3

I don’t think Marinette’s relationship with her parents would change too much. Like, they already let her just go out whenever she wants which obviously Plagg approves off, although Marinette might become more numb to the idea of being grounded because Plagg just teaches her, “hey lol Ladybug isn’t grounded tho,” so Marinette sneaks out all the time.

Yeah, Tikki would probably justify Gabriel’s behavior, and she wouldn’t really be able to get on his case for flirting as Mister Bug because she’s not aware of it.

lol it helps no one to have Tikki I guess.

Adrien overall and then honorable mention to Alya for Winny’s comment about her being Marinette’s conscience (which is probably why they almost never nail Alya for stuff she does).

KHNJFDNGFD THE LUKANETTE QUEEN MONIKER RETURNS >///<

And ugh, the absolute level of bias in that. Even if the video was made in, like, Season 2 (don’t know, didn’t see it), Season 2 still gives examples of why Adrienette isn’t making Marinette happy at all (and has some of the love square failings too).

The name and the fact that they gave it that name tells me everything I need to know.

Goodness gracious.

Yeah, people can talk about character’s flaws. I mean, we talk a lot here about Marinette’s struggles in getting over Adrien (partly brought on by a lot of outside factors but still).

Also, sure, Luka is a “pushover” because he’s one of the few characters who understands Marinette’s tunnel vision and isn’t bothered by it, okay. :P (Interesting that the topic of Chat’s entitlement towards Ladybug but Luka respecting her choices and just enjoying being around her makes him her punching bag).

Every time I hear, “Adrien needs more spotlight!!!” I lose a part of my soul. How people can’t see that Marinette is the show’s true punching bag is beyond me.

[paradife-loft]

Hi! I absolutely love the meta about NMJ's Empathy memories being unreliable, and it's got me wondering about how his qi deviation and death actually went. Since LXC says he saw the qi deviation (and Fatal Journey says it was in public), what's your take on how JGY got NMJ into his secret room so he and Xue Yang could use the Tiger Seal (and eventually kill him)? Fatal Journey has the Nie sect holding a funeral for him, so presumably NHS had /soneone's/ body to bury, but then in The Untamed LXC later says something like he 'hasn't heard from' NMJ in years and had feared the worst, so things... don't seem to add up? What do you think?

Aaah, okay, so: first off, I’m incredibly sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this, and I nonetheless  very much appreciate your interest in my opinions here <3 If you’re still hanging around/following me/reading my blog, anon, idk how obvious it’s been that I’ve… not been having the best few months brain-wise, but that’s basically all I can offer as an excuse for why this reply is coming so late. Thank you for your patience!

So, okay, I think I’m going to try and tackle this question from a couple different angles. First of all, I think it’s worth looking at the material provided in the contained story of the 50 episodes of The Untamed on its own, to see what that suggests, before bringing in outside or supplemental sources, which is what for this purpose I’d consider spin-off movies, details in other versions of the broader MDZS story material, etc. to be. Also, I want to note upfront that while I do tend to incorporate different details and versions of events from both CQL and MDZS into my personal headcanon, what I write in my fic, etc. because I think they tend to provide interesting possibilities, elaborations, and what-ifs for a broader composite MDZS-adaptation-universe – for the purposes of this post, I’m going to stick to material from The Untamed and Fatal Journey only. Mostly, my reason for that is that there’s a few logistically distinct details of how the qi deviation happens in MDZS compared to CQL – one being, it happens at Qinghe rather than Lanling – that I believe affect the timeline of what Jin Guangyao is doing with Nie Mingjue’s corpse in the first place.

Alright so, in The Untamed alone, the evidence such as we have includes: the Empathy sequence involving the qi deviation in episode 41, and Lan Xichen’s statement in episode 39 recounting that he saw it happen himself at Jinlintai, and that after hearing nothing from/about Nie Mingjue since, he’s been “mentally prepared” - presumably, for the news that he’s dead. What I’m inclined to take from those two pieces of information, is essentially a story like this: NMJ qi deviates, very publically, and at some point while this is happening, he makes a break for it and leaves Jinlintai, and whatever presumably messy trail he leaves in the process ends up going cold for anyone trying to follow, with no NMJ around to be seen. With various factors at Jinlintai invested in retrieving him for attempting to turn him into a controllable fierce corpse, it’s pretty easy to imagine that, besides whatever above-board search party tried to follow him, there would also have been another party closely watching his movements for an opportune moment to slip in and scoop him up to bring him back to the secret treasure room for fierce corpse experimentation – hence why the trail would’ve gone cold.

Now, the actual scene showing the qi deviation itself doesn’t include multiple elements I’m positing or including here – specifically, the presence of a bunch of third parties actually witnessing it, LXC included, and then also the idea that NMJ ever left that one landing at the top of the stairs during the qi deviation at all. But, since we see in other parts of the Empathy sequence that the events shown can be… a bit more impressionistic than accurate; and furthermore since it seems reasonable to posit that the memories of the time when he has a literal break with reality might be even less literally reliable than the rest of them – I think those aspects can be reasonably explained away as that scene portraying more of what the qi deviation felt like from the inside, than what an outside observer would’ve seen. Nie Mingjue’s focus is Jin Guangyao, so Jin Guangyao is all he sees – up until Nie Huaisang breaks through that monomaniacal focus and is seen, finally, as himself.

(If you particularly want to pull out some feelings, I might even suggest the idea that finally seeing a distraught NHS was the thing that pulled NMJ sufficiently out of his rage to be lucid enough to flee – and that he booked it in part because he was terrified and ashamed to possibly hurt his younger brother, whether physically or emotionally by letting him see NMJ in such an awful state.

So then, aside from that: the question of what we see in Fatal Journey. I’ve actually been trying to find an answer about what kinds of mourning customs would be followed or even possible if a family didn’t actually have their loved one’s body on hand to bury, but thusfar my internet searching hasn’t really gotten me any useful information one way or another – if anyone reading has an idea or some good sources to point me to, I’d love to hear them! Everything I’ve read so far seems to very tightly marry the performance of appropriate rites and the presence of a body together.

That said, looking back through the actual funeral scene in Fatal Journey, I also wasn’t able to notice the presence of a coffin anywhere in the set, either? We see a memorial tablet, set up in the front of the throne room at Qinghe, and what looks like a brief shot of some offerings, and NHS stoking the fire, but in the couple brief scenes of the inside of the hall, I don’t think there was a coffin set up there? (Or, for that matter, out in the courtyard which we get a longer look at, either.) Compared to what I at least assume is a coffin with Jin Zixuan’s body inside during the mourning scene in episode 32, I feel like it’s reasonable to guess that, even with Fatal Journey included, whatever mourning rites took place at Qinghe after NMJ’s death, they may simply have not involved a body or a burial at all.

- And actually, now that I’m thinking about it, taking Fatal Journey into consideration overall suggests that it might ultimately be the norm at Qinghe to hold mourning rites without a body present – because per the lore additions in the movie, the Nie sect leaders go down to die on their own at the bottom of the saber tomb, and it sure doesn’t look like anybody had been going down there to retrieve them once they did? So, I don’t know, maybe there’s some sort of symbolic burial of something associated with the sect leader as a Nie custom, to keep things looking a bit more normal and less “we build a tomb for these resentment-filled blade spirits that eat our sect leader’s sanity”, and that’s also what ended up being done for Nie Mingjue?  But, yeah, there’s no real confirmation happening even in the movie that NHS was able to come back with a body to bury, so I don’t think that necessarily contradicts the idea that NMJ could have gone missing during his qi deviation and never been properly recovered for a 100% confirmed death.

(That said, I personally don’t tend to incorporate, oh, most of the specific events or points of lore from Fatal Journey into my own readings on various elements of the story? Like, quite frankly, I don’t really like the movie that much, and I think it opens up a lot more unnecessary character and worldbuilding questions without doing a good job of integrating them back into the rest of The Untamed’s continuity (er, such as it exists XD). So I don’t necessarily have an opinion on whether “the Nie sect generally doesn’t do bodily burials of is clan leaders” is an idea anyone should pick up for The Untamed canon; merely that if you do take the events of Fatal Journey as canon, it certainly seems like it could be a possibility.)

(And again, big, big big disclaimer here that, e.g. if holding any kind of mourning rites without a body present is actually super Not Done, then what I’m saying with this part might be totally moot, and then well…. who knows, there’s plenty of speculation that could be used to cover that gap up – maybe “they never found the body” wasn’t actually widespread knowledge, but rather just information LXC had special access to due to the relationships he had with the people involved? – and some set of people depending on your preferences conspired to get another body to stand in for NMJ’s to allow them to hold a funeral? ….Which honestly sounds incredibly sketchy to me on its own, but considering all the other professionally Yikes-style desecrations of bodies that happen in this story…. who knows? I’m really just tossing out ideas here at this point, not saying I necessarily endorse any of them outside of “I think this could potentially work in some way without being out of character for anybody”.)

Anyway… I hope that answers your question, anon, and is otherwise interesting for everyone else reading? Thank you for the ask, and apologies again for taking so long to respond! <3

[cyn-00]

37? from fluff? with morgan tryna be scary and tough but spencer is like no no no. you’re a teddy bear😂

OH this turned out so cheesy and fluffy Dumb Anon Who Hates Fluff from the other day is gonnna throw up 💞 (also: this is much longer than the others! hope you don't mind).37) "You're just a softie."

Prompt list (requests currently closed)

Read it on AO3

-------------

Reid, JJ and Rossi's attention was abruptly captured by the doors of the police station slamming open; the handcuffed unsub along with some officers, Prentiss and a very angry-looking Morgan making their way inside.

The genius stopped taking pins off of the map, a nauseous feeling boiling in his stomach as he registered a second too late that the guy's gaze was fixated on him and him only; regardless having a whole room of people among which his eyes could wander, a whole room of people staring at him like you would stare at an exotic but icky bug trapped in a glass box.

The look deep inside the criminal's eyes was disgusting to say the very least, but something similar to fascination denied the young profiler to tear his gaze away.

It was only when the man smirked at him that the feeling of being violated overpowered whatever sort of "scientific" interest Spencer had toward the pedophile they'd just caught.

-

"Reid?"

Spencer swallowed almost audibly and met Morgan's eyes.

"Mmh?"

"You alright there, kid?" the man asked taking a step closer, concern drawing his eyebrows together as though pulled toward one another with invisible threads.

Spencer made the mistake of glimpsing one last time at the unsub, only partially hidden by his boyfriend's broad shoulders.

Derek stood imperceptibly straighter, carefully turning his head.

He didn't need more than a fifth of a second to pick up on what was happening.

"Wh- son of a bitch." he hissed, taking large steps toward the man sitting on a chair by the wall, at safe distance from Spencer - apparently not safe enough, though.

"What the hell, man??! Get him out of here!"

The distracted police officer hardly guarding the criminal winced at the loudness of Morgan's voice.

"Wha-"

"NOW!!"

A shorter but older officer came to his inexperienced colleague's aid, forcefully dragging the unsub toward an empty room.

Morgan never stopped glaring at the man, a dead weight lazily thumping his feet at each step as though all his physical effort were being exploited to keep his eyes glued on the young genius' figure, even if the space parting them increased by the second.

As Derek turned around, everyone including the members of the team present in the room feigned being busy with whatever, jerking their gazes away. Everyone except Spencer, who on the contrary watched attentively as his boyfriend walked back toward him. With each feet of distance his legs erased it seemed to him Derek's features got softer and softer and the tension in his muscles leaked from him drop by drop.

-

"I'm sorry about that, Spencer." he apologized with a deep exhale, once he'd got close enough to drop the surname and indulge in that mirage of intimacy.

Reid frowned. "It's not your fault."

The older man sighed again and leaned ever-so-slightly closer, cocking his head to one side as if trying out another perspective to look at him better.

"I always feel like it is when anything happens to you, sweetheart." he claimed in a quieter voice, bringing a hand up to briefly stroke his boyfriend's cheek with his knuckles.

That statement and the profoundly affectionate way Derek was staring into him were nearly overwhelming, enough for Spencer to feel the impulse to avert his eyes and direct them toward his shoes.

"B- but it's not." he reiterated in a murmur. "plus, nothing happened anyway."

Morgan shook his head in the attempt to un-convince himself of being guilty in whatever way he thought he was.

"I know." he agreed at last, looking down to take Spencer's hand in his own. "I'm just really tired. Can't wait to get the fuck outta here and go home with you, pretty boy."

There was something irredeemably frustrating about the rate Spencer's brain had fried up once it had processed that Derek was referring to whichever house they'd get to that night as "home", without having decided yet whether they'd stay at his or Reid's place. And the umpteenth pet name on top of that.

"...you're just a softie." he mumbled to himself, smiling at the ground.

Awkwardness materialized in the form of a brief silence.

Derek cupped the other's chin in a hand to lift it back up.

"I'm a what now??" he asked with disbelief and most of all amusement radiating from every pore of his skin and facet of his demeanor.

Spencer slid his hands in his pockets, acting laid-back despite the regret for having let that slip out tinting his cheeks bright pink.

"Garcia always says it. Not to your face, I'm guessing." he shrugged - that was true, at least. "At first I looked at her exactly as you're looking at me right now, but finally I understand what she means."

The other man's eyebrows shot up in indignation. "Just 'cause YOU turn me soft it doesn't mean I'm a 'softie'." he air-quoted. "Besides, that's on you, sugar."

The short relief Spencer had felt once it had become clear that Derek didn't need an explanation for why Penelope and him labeled him as 'soft' was unpolitely dismissed by literally everything else the other man said.

Reid tried to ease the feeling of his face torching up by digging his teeth in his bottom lip. He slightly ducked his head once again but couldn't give up on returning Derek's gaze, albeit through his lashes.

Morgan broke both the eye-contact and the silence with a snort that quickly escalated into a chuckle, folding his arms on his chest and shaking his head.

"Spencer, I can't, if you look at me like that."

The genius mistook that for some weird type of reprimand and pouted meekly.

"Y- you can't what ?"

The other's grin widened and that didn't but confuse Spencer further.

"I didn't do anything!" he was not playing dumb. His failed attempt at understanding was authentic, but that damn smile was contagious and Derek must have rightfully thought Spencer's mirroring of said smile meant he did understand.

The man in front of him didn't bother responding, instead looking around non-chalantly before grabbing Reid's wrist.

"D- Der- wh- what-" Spencer only managed to stutter as he was being pulled toward somewhere, zig-zagging between desks and occasionally people, who luckily were not in the least interested in what the two were doing. Which anyway, he didn't know.

-

Before he could process, Spencer was in an empty room - the one JJ had used to talk to the victims' families - poorly lit by the lamps in the lobby alone, pressed up against a wall and smothered by his boyfriend's kisses, landing all over his face with no specific order or preference or hierarchy or regard for the genius' germophobia.

"Der! Come on!" he protested in between giggles, scrunching his nose. "There's-" his phrase was cut off by one of the kisses shutting his lips.

Derek let out an annoyed close-mouthed sound before stopping to get air.

"What is there?" he asked in a breathy whisper, tucking flying hairs behind the genius' ears tentatively.

"There's, uhm..." Spencer gulped, toying pointlessly with the collar of the other's t-shirt, slightly frayed from use. "...there are people outside. A lot."

Morgan nodded. "Let me think..." he murmured teasingly.

The man leaned in with such slowness Spencer was melting under his ever-lasting gaze; his timid smile only growing bigger the more Derek's face inched closer.

He placed a kiss on his lips just as slowly.

"I don't care." Morgan finished his phrase, before continuing with a trail of pecks that passed by his cheek and eventually led to his ear until his face was buried in Spencer's curls and his arms were squeezing him in a hug.

The slimmer man gladly returned it, letting a solid 20 seconds pass before speaking up against Derek's shoulder.

"...see? You're a softie."

Morgan scoffed but agreed nonetheless. "Alright. For you I'm a softie."

Saying that the genius wasn't expecting him to give up so easily was an understatement - which only strengthened his theory. He found himself bursting in a laugh.

"If garcia finds out you admitted it..."

"Oh she's NOT gonna find out." the other rushed to contradict, pulling away enough to see Reid's face again. "Because you WON'T tell her, am I right?"

Spencer arched a brow. "...that's supposed to be threatening?"

"Mhmh." Derek nodded. "It is."

"Well, not to shatter your dreams or anything, but it's not really worki-"

A syllable away from the end of the young agent's sentence the light in the room switched on, and the couple barely had the time to scowl at that that the door was being opened.

The two took their arms off of each other and parted a few feet, quickly turning heads to look at the intruder.

"Oh !- sorry guys," Emily grimaced; only half of her body inside the room and a hand still gripping the door handle. "...but we gotta get going."

The cringe on her face morphed into an amused, knowing look.

"I looked everywhere for you..." the woman added, because for some wicked reason she always found it extremely fun to make things more awkward.

Spencer braced his arms around his torso and looked at the floor, hoping that avoiding her eyes would suffice for stopping either the blush from dusting his face or the ridiculous chuckle from escaping his lips; both in the best case scenario.

"Ah, yeah, sorry. We'll be right there." Morgan offered to answer in the other's place; the utter embarrassment his voice and attitude delivered were yet another point at Garcia and Reid's thesis' advantage.

Prentiss lingered in the room a while longer - an eternity - glancing between them, and ultimately got out, leaving the door ajar because keeping it completely open would be too much of a mockery, but shutting it would mean she'd have to come back 10 minutes later and witness that very pathetic scene a second time.

Spencer's body let go of the chuckle he'd been holding - sparing him the most part of the blush, though, which he was grateful for - and finally detached his back from the wall.

"You are so soft." he casually remarked once again, brushing past by his boyfriend to get out of the room.

Derek managed to reach him with a couple of strides before he could get too far to hear his reply.

"Only for my baby boy."

[paipayaseeds]

as much as fumiko cherished her mask, even she had to admit that it felt nice to take it off every once and a while. though she was alone in her lab, she still got that familiar feeling of anxiousness in her heart as she slid the mask off her face, allowing her to breathe in some fresh air. her mask wasn’t uncomfortable or anything, she designed it to be that way, but she still wished for the day she’d be able to take it off for the last time. her moment of reflection was cut off as she heard the handle of the door start to clatter. she quickly readjusted her mask, petting down any loose hairs that might’ve gotten messed up in her rush. she sat down quickly on the loveseat that was located in the middle of the room and stared at the door as it opened.

when she saw a familiar blue-haired detective rush in, she felt a little relieved. at least it wasn’t someone like kokichi, who’d been doing nothing but pestering her about her disguise since the day they had woken up in this place. she saw him freeze when he lifted his head after catching his breath, only to immediately bow his head back down as an apology. he couldn’t see it, but she was smiling. the killing game hadn’t started yet, and the more time she spent with her classmates, the more she came to realize how fond she was of this timid boy. he always seemed to get scared, from what she could tell, when he saw her. it wasn’t anything new. with her mask, she seemed a lot more intimidating than she would normally. though, it did make her a little sad that the boy she’d grown to like seemed to be terrified of her. she saw his hand fumble around on the door behind him, looking for the doorknob. her heart dropped a little when he finally reached it. she didn’t want him to leave... wait, what? what was she saying, she purposefully stayed cautious of people, why would she want him to stay? despite herself, she couldn’t help but speak up. she stood up from her seat and said something for the first time in days.

“w-wait...!”

-teapot anon

Jerking up from the abrupt sound of her voice, he felt his blush worsen and his body stiffen. His hand paused on the door, and he slid off as he turned around to face her. Though he was facing her, his eyes were averted, looking to the side nervously as he fidgeted at his spot. His body was stiff, the boy looked as if he had just been caught doing something bad, in which, he sort of was. The girl he had been crushing on— Crushing on..? No, this was purely platonic! Nonetheless, as a detective, he felt himself find a contradiction in his own statement. There was so much evidence against him, even so, he ignored all of it.

He had never heard her voice before, at least, not up close like this. Hell, he had never even held a conversation with her! He wasn’t going to mess it up, he wanted to talk to her, he really did. And now that he knew what she sounded like, he felt a new urge to hear her more.

He made a small noise of realization as he seemed to forget to respond, too lost in his own thoughts to remember he had to actually talk back. Nice one, Shuichi. “Ah! Y-yeah? D-did you n-need something?” His voice was shaky, fidgeting hands shakier as he hesitated to step a little closer to her.

[delta-roseblr]

I absolutely love the last prompt, but that made me think about what would happen if Will or Nico where the ones to walk in on them? I think Will would want to crave into a hole and die. It would be so hilarious. If you ever write something like that it would make my day! Thanks 💖

Hello, Anon. 

And hello everyone else!

First, I originally got this prompt following the fic where Wash and Watts walked in on Dean and Felix making out at prom and really ran with the idea. That being said, around the same time another lovely follower, @lua-bruma sent me an amazing illustration she created and challenged me to write a fic based on the illustration. The picture and this prompt went together so well I just combined the two. 

I will include @lua-bruma‘s illustration at the bottom of this fic.

Dean pulled up and parked outside hisaunt’s house. Felix was pretty excited about the invite to Solace familyThanksgiving, at least more excited than he had been the year before. Thatwasn’t that surprising because being there with his dad was nothing to becompared to being there with Dean. Still, with all Leonard’s stupid rules aboutwhen Felix could see Dean (and where, how, and what he could do) he wouldrather skip all the turkey and stuffing and spent the day in Dean’s bed. He hadreally tried to convince Dean to do so, and he was pretty sure that Dean wastempted, but in the end, he didn’t give in.

They climbed out of the car, and Deanpractically ran to catch up with him so they could hold hands on the way to thedoor. Naomi Solace lived in the middle of town in one of those little peoplefarms were the houses were way too close together. The risk of people seeingthem holding hands was so high Dean would have never done that before, butsince Felix had sort of kiss ambushed him at school a few days earlier they justdidn’t have to worry about that anymore. School was definitely different nowthat people knew, but it was well worth it to not have to hide.

Yeah, Felix was all for all the cutelittle public displays they could now engage in, but that didn’t make Dean anyless of a dork because he fucking looked at their hands and blushed. Thequestion became who was more of a dork, the dork or the guy head over heels inlove with the dork?

They made it to the front door, and Deangave a quick knock before pushing it open and walked in tugging Felix behindhim. That was the thing about the Solace family, everything was so open.Felix’s family was never like that, so it seemed strange to him, but he waspretty sure he liked it better.

They were just through the doorway whenDean’s aunt immerged from the kitchen, pulling off an apron as she went. Felixknew Ms. Solace from school even though he didn’t have her for English. She haddated his dad too, but she had rarely come around the house or anything whenshe did. He was used to her looking a certain way when he saw her at school.She looked like a normal teacher. Seeing her outside of school was a totallydifferent thing, not that she looked all that different at that moment, but herwhole aura was different.

She tossed her apron over the couch as shecame to greet them with a bright smile. “Oh Dean,” she exclaimed happily, “You’rehere on time!” She sounded so surprised by that fact as she pulled Dean intowhat looked like a brutal looking hug. After a minute, she released Dean fromher grasp and turned to Felix with the same bright smile. “Felix, I’m glad youcould make it,” she stated before giving Felix a quick hug.

Felix didn’t know they were at the huggingphase yet, but that didn’t mean he didn’t hug back. When she pulled back, shedid that southern thing where she patted his cheek affectionately. It was akind gesture and one that made Felix a little uncomfortable. Dean’s family wasjust so cool about everything. Felix could deal with John because it was John,but with Naomi it was different. She was more like a normal parent. Every timeshe was nice to him, Felix felt bad for how his parents dealt with everything.His mom was cool enough except that she went way overboard with what she calledsupport, but his dad was a complete dick.

Felix tried not to be too fucking awkwardas he tried to sound gracious. “Thanks for the invite, Ms. Solace.”

“Naomi,” she reminded with a soft smile.

She had been so nice to him since shefound out that he and Dean were dating. Well, she had been nice for the mostpart. She had overheard Felix cursing at school a month or two ago and hadgiven him the most unpleasant lecture of his life. Otherwise, she had beenalmost motherly to him. She checked in with him subtly during school to makesure things at home were okay. She never said anything, at least not to Felix,but she seemed prepared to offer Felix a place to stay if Leonard became toomuch of an ass about the fact he and Dean were dating. She kept insisting thatFelix could call her Naomi, but it felt weird. The fact that she was so niceonly made Felix feel weirder about calling her by her first name. “You onlyneed to call me Ms. Solace at school.”

“Um,” Felix hummed. He could tell that shewanted him to call her Naomi right then, but he couldn’t do it. It was just toofucking weird. “Okay.”

“Both you and Will,” Ms. Solace declaredwith a chuckle as she turned to Dean to pat his cheek affectionately, “Bringinghome boys who refuse to call me by my name.”

She really didn’t seem bothered. Actually,if anything she seemed amused by it, which was kind of sweet, Felix guessed.The fact that Dean also seemed amused was less sweet, but Felix was going tolet it go. There was no point in calling him an asshole when he was only goingto be home for a week. Also, Felix wanted to get laid at some point and wasn’tlooking to shot himself in the foot.

“Sorry?” Dean replied uncertainty.

Naomi just shook her head like it was afunny family joke or something as she stepped out of the doorway. “Come on in,both of you,” she ordered but in a friendly way. He and Dean did as they weretold and stepped into the house. Ms. Solace watched them enter and then lookedout the door like she was expecting someone else. “Where is your father?”

She was definitely talking to Deanbecause Leonard was not invited to the Solace house for Thanksgiving this year.“Um, he was a bit slow to get up this morning,” Dean explained. He was clearlypicking his words very carefully, so if Felix had to guess he would assume Johnwas hungover as fuck. Dean hadn’t mentioned it, but that was hardly an event inhis house. Dean just shrugged, “I had to pick up Felix, but I would guess heand Bobby will be along soon.”

Ms. Solace shut the front door and hummedthoughtfully for a moment. “I really shouldn’t be surprised, John has neverbeen a morning person,” she admitted finally.

Felix had to admit he wondered what it hadbeen like when Ms. Solace and John were younger because they were just sodifferent. While he had never had Ms. Solace as a teacher, he heard that shewas quite challenging but still fair. Even though she was a very unmarried womanin the south with a kid, she didn’t seem like the reckless or impulsive type.She had dated Felix’s dad for Christ’s sake, and that man was about as boringas dirt. Of course, she had also hooked up with a Greek god, so it was possiblethat she had simply had her fill of interesting and attractive men. John, onthe other hand, was what people liked to call a free spirit when they weretrying to be nice about it. The fact that he had hooked up with Apollo was notshocking in the least because that was a very John thing to do. How the twosiblings could get along, Felix didn’t know, but they were actually reallyclose. It was a fascinating contradiction, to say the least.

“Still not ideal,” Dean’s aunt admitted.

“Is there something we could help with?”Dean was quick to ask. He sounded so damned eager, which was just so Dean to anabsolute T that Felix had to smile a little. He had really been missing thingslike that with Dean away at school.

Of course, there were other things Felixhad been missing too. “Do you need us to pick anything at the store orsomething?” he questioned and was damn proud that he didn’t come acrosssounding overly excited at the prospect.

Felix remembered Thanksgiving when hisparents were together, and his mom always had to pick up something last minutefrom the store. That was pretty much just as much of a tradition as the pumpkinpie. And if he and Dean had to run out and they just happened to find a nicesecluded spot to pull over and fool around a little, well that was just a rewardfor being helpful.

“Oh that is a sweet offer,” Ms. Solacedeclared sincerely, “I’ve actually already sent the boys to the store.” She wasquiet for a moment, almost like she forgot they were there before snapping backto reality. “Would you mind watching all the food while I run out really quick?”she asked, and before they could even think to respond she added, “All you haveto do is watch and maybe stir.”

“Of course,” Dean assured with adismissive little wave of his hand, “I could definitely handle that.”

Felix didn’t miss the I in that statement,and he knew that wasn’t just Dean’s southern manners showing through. The Solacefamily was just full of amazing cooks (except for Will, apparently), but Deanknew Felix was nowhere near that skilled. He could fumble his way through boxedmacaroni and cheese or ramen noodles and that was about it. Dean had once askedhim to watch the onions that he was sautéing, and it had not ended well. Afterthat, although Dean never said it aloud, Felix had been banished to kitchentasks that did not involve actually cooking, like chopping or doing the dishes.Felix was fine with that too because he had no illusions about his lack ofskill.

“Thank you,” Dean’s aunt declared as shegrabbed her purse off a nearby table, “I should be back in no more than tenminutes.”

She ran out the door without saying muchelse, which left Dean and Felix to themselves. Finally a little privacy,Felix thought, but before he could suggest they could actually use that totheir advantage Dean was already heading to the kitchen.

Felix followed because he literally didn’tknow what else to do. Ms. Solace was very nice, and it was kind of her toinvite him along for Thanksgiving, but he still felt a little like an intruderin her house, especially when Dean wasn’t right next to him. As soon as hestepped into the kitchen, he was overtaken by all the best food smells. “Wow, itall smells so good!”

“It’s a kitchen on Thanksgiving,” Deancommented with evident amusement. He was lifting the lid off pots and peekingat their contents as he continued to speak, “If it didn’t smell good, I’d beworried.”

Felix could have reminded Dean that hismother wasn’t much of a cook beyond the basics, so Thanksgiving in the Jacksonresidence growing up wasn’t all that impressive, but he didn’t. He would muchrather focus on the present.

“Yes, but I also get the extra benefit ofwatching my boyfriend being domestic,” Felix commented as he eyed Dean standingnear the stove. He always liked watching Dean in the kitchen, and he didn’tquite know why. Maybe it was the potential in it. God(s) knew that when he andDean ended up living together, Felix wouldn’t be doing any of the cooking. “Ithink I like it more than the food.”

“Oh really?” Dean questioned in anexaggerated way that made Felix know he just loved the attention and praise. Hepicked up a spoon off the counter and started stirring the contents of one ofthe pots. As he stirred, he peeked over his shoulder and smirked back at Felixwickedly, “Well, if you go to Berkeley, you can enjoy that sight more often.”

Felix made a show of rolling his eyes likehe was annoyed even though he wasn’t even close. “Subtle,” he commented as hewalked over to lean against the counter so he could be close to Dean as heworked but not in the way.

Dean had recently developed a newsuperpower, and it was turning any conversation about where Felix would go tocollege. More specifically, Dean could turn any conversation into a fifty-pointthesis on how Felix should go to Berkeley. It was honestly impressive thenumber of legitimate reasons Dean could come up with, and how easily he managedto fit them into almost every conversation. Felix was pretty much used to it atthis point.

Dean replaced the lid of one pot beforelifting the lid of another. He peaked at the contents quickly before looking upat Felix and grinning wickedly. “Not what I was going for,” Dean declaredwithout shame.

Felix could have rolled his eyes again. Hecould have pointed out that he didn’t want to follow Dean to college like alost puppy or listen to Dean talk about how good Berkeley’s computer scienceprogram was. Dean was right too. Berkeley’s program was pretty fuckingincredible, and that opinion wasn’t just based on all the brochures that Deankept sending him.

Felix could point out just how much hisdad would freak out if Felix went to the same school as Dean. Of course, if(and when) Felix brought that point up Dean was quick to reason that Felix’smom would be the voice of reason since Berkeley was such a good school. Yeah,Felix could have brought up any or all of those things up, and he had plenty oftimes in the past. He could only have the same conversation so many times.Besides, things had changed a bit since the last time he and Dean had talkedabout it.

Felix gripped the counter with both handsand used that grip to heave himself up so the was sitting on the countertop. Hemade a show of peeking into the pot that currently had Dean’s attention. Itlooked like gravy, and it smelled absolutely fucking delicious. He dared to diphis finger into the pot just enough to get a bit of the fluid on the tip of hisfinger, examined it there for a second, and licked it off. It tasted evenbetter than it smelled, which was fucking impressive.

“Then you will be happy to hear that Isubmitted my application a few weeks ago,” Felix commented in the most casualand off-handed way he could muster as he made a show of looking back in thepot.

Felix didn’t need to look at Dean to knowhe was staring at him. He could feel his eyes on him just like he could feelhim stop mid-motion. “You’re serious?” Dean questioned with a sudden nervousenergy that wasn’t really like him.

Felix looked up to meet Dean’s gaze andwasn’t surprised by what he saw. Wild hope was written all over Dean’s face. Itwas the thing that Felix had been worried about and was probably why he hadn’tmentioned it yet. “It doesn’t mean I’ll get in or that I’ll go there if I do,”he pointed out sharply. It was a total fucking buzzkill, he knew, but it was awarning that Dean needed to hear. Dean, for his part, did seem to at least tryto reign in some of his visible excitement. “But yes, I applied,” he admittedbefore shooting Dean a fake begrudging look before asking, “Happy?”

Dean grinned ear to ear as he replied,“Extremely.”

Dean stepped away from the stove leavingthe spoon he had been stirring with to sit haphazardly in the pot of gravy toapproach Felix. His hands landed on Felix’s thighs and slowly slide upward ashe moved closer. Felix opened his legs to make room for him to come even closer,and he took every advantage. Even when Dean was standing as close as he could possiblyget - like his pelvis had to be jammed into the counter - Dean kept his handson Felix’s thighs. He did something between a rub and grip at Felix’s fleshythighs in the most seductive way as he admitted, “I feel a little likeChristmas has come early.”

Felix could have told Dean he wasridiculous, but he was just so fucking cute about it, he couldn’t help butsmile. “Good,” he declared before leaning into kiss Dean.

It was meant to be a quick thing, but Deanapparently had different plans. Instead of letting Felix pull away from thekiss, he pressed his lips against Felix more insistently turning the quick kissinto something hotter and more intense. Felix was far from complaining aboutthe attention. It was something he had been craving since the moment Dean hadgotten home. He kissed back happily and probably more eagerly than he should havebeen proud of.

As they continued to kiss, Dean’s handsbegan to wander from Felix’s thighs and toward his back. Dean’s aunt’s kitchenwas so not the fucking place, but Dean’s hands on his ass felt good, so Felixcouldn’t even fucking care. Or at least that was the case until Dean grippedhim and pulled him forward in one swift motion, so that they were pressedtogether.

Felix had absolutely no control over themoan that escaped him. Dean took that as a sign that he should start kissing atFelix’s throat in the most overwhelmingly sexy way fucking possible.

“Naughty,” Felix only barely managed topant out.

“Are you complaining?” Dean questionedwith his lips still so close to Felix’s throat that he could still feel his hotbreath against his skin sending chills down Felix’s spine.

Again, it so wasn’t the place, but thatdidn’t stop him from using his thighs to grip at Dean’s waist more tightly. “Notin the slightest,” he admitted.

Dean caught his lips, and they werekissing again. It was like the flood gates opened on the months they had barelyseen each other. They clearly lost track of all things that weren’t each otherbecause neither of them was aware that people had entered the kitchen untilWill spoke.

“Oh, come on,” Will declareddisapprovingly. Dean jumped away from Felix, and they both turned toward thedoorway to see Will, Nico, and Cecil standing there. “Not near the food,” Willstated in the same disappointed tone before walking toward refrigerator withthe grocery bags he was carrying. Apparently, he was already disinterested inwhat he had caught Felix and Dean doing.

“Gods,” Cecil laughed, “They are just asbad as you two,” he commented looking between Will and Nico with amusement.

“We are not that bad,” Will defendedoverdramatically. If he was trying to be taken seriously, he was reallyundercut by Nico looking unconvinced behind him.

Again, illustration is by @lua-bruma 

[awesomefan]

Why I Have Never Liked Elena Gilbert

So for the past few years I’ve seen a lot of Anti-Elena anons explain why they hate Elena and when they started to hate her. The majority have said that they have hated the Elena from Season 4-6, and miss the old Elena from Season 1-3. Looking at some new Anti-Elena posts on why they have always hated Elena has really woken me up, and convinced me to re-watch Season 1-3 Elena. Boy oh boy how much of a bad character she was from the get go. I wanted to make this post to show my beloved Anti-Elena community how much of a problematic character Elena was ever since Season 1.

She was never a good, kind, compassionate person:

This is how Elena has been described as...

...but yet plenty of her actions contradict this statement. For example, in episode 1x16 when Caroline, Matt, Stefan, and Elena had a double date all Elena did along with Matt during the whole entire date was reminisce about the times they were boyfriend and girlfriend. Caroline was clearly uncomfortable and upset during the whole thing, but it wasn’t Elena (you know warm, compassionate, kind Elena) nor was it Matt (Caroline’s boyfriend) who noticed her discomfort. It was Stefan who noticed and asked her if she was okay. Elena was too busy going down memory lane with her ex-boyfriend who’s dating her best friend to see that her best friend was clearly upset and uncomfortable at what they were doing. Then later on when Caroline brings up the fact about she’s essentially second choice and Matt’s Elena back up, all Elena does is dismiss her insecurity and claim she’s being ridiculous. Wow, what a nice way to talk to your friend who already feel that she’s never first choice when it comes to you, and is heavily insecure about that. Also, during this same episode when all 4 of them go to the Salvatore Boarding House Caroline states that she feels like she’s been there before. And what does Elena do? She says “Why don’t we watch a movie?” So she’s going to bring her “best friend” back to the residence of the same guy (Damon) who almost killed her? Who lured her to that same house and tried to kill her? Who she (Elena) saw bruises and bite marks that he put on her? Who compelled her best friend to be his sex toy blood bag? Wow! Is that what you call kind, compassionate, and selfless? A kind person doesn’t take their bff back to the home of the person that tried to kill them. A compassionate person doesn’t say that her friend is being ridiculous, and not see that her friend clearly is insecure for a reason. A selfless person does not sit here and act like her going down memory lane with her ex-boyfriend in front of his new girlfriend who is her bff is “just trying to make conversation”. If you don’t believe me check out the clip:

Another example is 3x17 when Alaric is going through his crazy murder phase, Elena calls Bonnie for guess what a favor! And this is after Bonnie’s mom had to be turned into a vampire in order to save damsel-in-distress Elena.

^ (Katherine basically said it) And of course Bonnie is upset and wants nothing to do with Elena because she has to suffer in order for Elena to survive. But even when Bonnie needs time by herself and space from Elena what does Elena do? Call her for a favor even though she was indirectly responsible for her suffering. Instead of consoling her friend or checking in on her, even though she didn’t want to see her, she needs a favor from her. And then has the nerve to give some sappy ass half assed apology. But yeah Elena is oh so selfless right?

She��s a hypocrite:

In this clip from 1x15, Elena finds out that Damon killed Isobel and is upset when Stefan keeps making excuses for him and protecting him. Now I find this really hypocritical on her part when she in 1x11 protected Damon from Lexi’s boyfriend killing him.

She made up some bullshit that he shouldn’t kill him because he needs to be better than Damon. So, she allows the guy who killed her boyfriend’s best friend on his birthday to live and not allow her (Lexi) boyfriend to kill him because he can be better than Damon? What kind of sense does that make? None. None at all. And for her to get mad at Stefan for protecting his brother especially when she protected him from getting killed for his actions is just baffling. Another situation is during 1x07 when Vicki becomes a vampire, and Jeremy is trying to find Vicki. Elena tells him that he should stop seeing her and that it’s for the best. Now that is also hypocritical on her part because it isn’t until a couple of episodes later she’s all buddy buddy with Damon, and is defending and sympathizing with his psychotic self. You can’t tell someone to not hang out with someone else because they’re dangerous when you are doing the same thing yourself.

She’s not a good sister nor a good friend:

The first statements above pretty much explain Elena being a shitty friend and sister. But honey Season 2 just showed how much of a bad friend she is. 

Now before anyone yells at me asking why is Season 2 Elena a bad friend, let me explain. So, during the whole sacrifice ritual thing going on Elena found out from Katherine that she was not the only one involved in the ritual. Look at this clip:

She learns that Klaus needs to kill her (a doppelganger), a werewolf (Tyler), a vampire (Caroline), and a witch to perform the spell (Bonnie). During this whole season Elena was trying to be a martyr and a “hero” and sacrifice herself so her family and friends wouldn’t die. But here’s the problem, Katherine already told Elena that she was not the only one involved in the ritual. Elena knows this already, hell she even listed off the people Klaus would need for his ritual. So why the hell was Elena so busy trying to give herself up to Klaus? Why the hell did she think that giving herself over to Klaus was gonna keep her loved one’s safe? Like I said she already knows that she isn’t the only person involved in the ritual, so what sense does it make to try to give yourself up to the enemy when all you’re doing is putting your loved ones in even more danger? None. None at all. The problem is this Elena wasn’t really being selfless or trying to protect her friends she was being selfish. She was spending too much time trying to make herself look like a hero and like a good person because she’s risking her life for her loved ones when she wasn’t. All she was doing was be selfish and was being too busy on looking like some type of hero martyr when all she did was put more people in danger. Just because a person claims that their actions are for intentionally good doesn’t mean that they are being selfless. They’re not they’re being selfish, and that is exactly what Elena did during this season. She put everyone in danger with her suicidal actions thinking that she was protecting and saving everyone when all she did was put them in more danger. She wanted to be a hero so badly and prove that her actions were for a selfless good reason when they weren’t. 

Another moment is during 2x02 when Stefan, Elena, and Damon find out that Caroline is a vampire and figure out what to do. And this clip pisses me off.

At 3:17 Elena says “She’s doing this to me isn’t she?” in response to Caroline becoming a vampire. All I can say is: WHY THE HELL ARE YOU MAKING THIS ABOUT YOU?! What does Caroline becoming a vampire have to do with Katherine trying to hurt you?! If anything Katherine turned vampire Caroline into a vampire to use her to her advantage and manipulate her. Caroline is the victim in the circumstances not you! Not everything that happens in Mystic Falls has to do with you Elena. It’s not always about hurting you or trying to get even with you. Sometimes the villains just do things because they are villains. Not because they want to hurt precious Elena Gilbert. Which brings me to my next point is when Elena found out that Caroline was spying for Katherine and she said this to Bonnie in 2x06: “It's a lot, I know. Katherine's doing everything that she can to drive me and Stefan apart and Caroline just got trapped in the middle.” and this to Caroline in 2x05: “I know and I've been so mad at you. But then, I tried to put myself in your position so that I could understand why you would do this to me and to Stefan because he's been such a friend to you. Who did she threaten?” Now the 2x05 quote really pisses me off because why the hell is Elena assuming that Caroline, who got sucked into the supernatural world with no knowledge of it and almost died just to die and become a vampire, just all of the sudden wanted to spy for Katherine on her and Stefan?! Why is does she not understand that Caroline was a victim in this, and that she didn’t just decide to wake up one day and do something like this? Why is she making this about her, and not realizing that her is in danger as well? Oh wait, cause Elena’s love life is more important and god forbid that her friend is a victim of the circumstances that she was forced into all because she was associated with Elena. But no how dare Caroline spy on me and Stefan for Katherine? How could she do this to is? Why is she working with the enemy who wants to tear me and my love apart? Why is this all happening to me?! 

^ Basically Elena in a nutshell.

She was just like Katherine:

Season 3 was pretty evident that Katherine and Elena were no different from each other.

What pissed me off was that Katherine got called a manipulative, nasty, little slut and an evil slut vampire who only loved herself. All because of what she did to the Salvatore brothers, meanwhile in this ^ clip Elena is sitting here making excuses as to why she won’t chose between either brothers. So it was wrong for Katherine to do it, and therefore she’s an evil slut? But when Elena does the exact same thing it’s okay because she just needs to figure out who she wants to be with? Horeshit! It’s not okay for either one of them. It wasn’t okay for Katherine to be with both Damon and Stefan, and to compel Stefan to keep her secret. It wasn’t okay for her to string them both along and ruin their relationship. But it was not okay for Elena to do it as well. I don’t care what the circumstances were if it was wrong for Katherine to do it then why does Elena get a free pass? What cause she’s worth? (This was said by the brothers in this same episode 3X21) And what Katherine wasn’t? Neither Elena nor Katherine were worth the brothers fighting over. Elena was always jealous when one brother was off with someone else even though she was supposed to be in love with the other brother.

And Katherine wanted to have Stefan for herself, but still flirted with Damon.

You see what I’m saying? What both of them did was wrong, and shouldn’t be excused for. But for Elena to say stuff like this..

...she just needs 10 hot cups of STFU. She is no different from Katherine when it came to her actions. 

Overall, Elena was a terrible excuse of a protagonist. She was not interesting at all, she didn’t really do anything that was memorable or wowing, she did nothing throughout the whole entire show but get kidnapped or cry and whine and make everything about her, she was not a good friend nor sister, and did I mention she liked to make everything about her.

[amwritingmeta]

dean said cas to stop being their nurse. what’s wrong in that? this is how people show their love - for protect and support someone you are loved. it’s like dean with his sam - yeah, they are more codependent but the same reason - take care, show love. and dean has nothing like "this is wrong". so why he told that to cas? he doesn’t need his help bc cas blundered? Or he doesn’t care at all? I can’t believe in that tbh

Hello, my dearest darlingest Anon!

I believe that you’re referring to the scene in 12x19 when Dean tells Cas off for acting like their “babysitter”? 

This comment comes off of Cas explaining his reasons for not contacting them when –>

a) he went off piste and decided to bring Kelly to Heaven instead of shooting her with the stolen borrowed Colt

b) his truck broke down and he knew he needed help

And Cas’ foremost reason for not contacting them is that he believes Kelly and the baby - because they’re an extension of Lucifer being free from the cage - are his responsibility. 

A sentiment he’s stated more than once throughout S12. 

A sentiment rooted in his need to feel useful and to have a purpose. 

This need, in turn, rooted in the fact that, at this moment in time, he’s never felt more lost or uncertain of where he truly belongs, feeling like he doesn’t belong anywhere, like he doesn’t even know who he is anymore, loving Dean with all his heart and feeling no hope that the love will ever be returned he’s drifting, without any anchor whatsoever.

Of course, Dean then doesn’t help the situation when he negates Cas’ biggest motivator and dismisses it as though it’s really all in Cas’ own head: protecting them isn’t his job.

Dean is right, of course. It was never his job. He made them his job, he interpreted his orders to protect them in a way that would justify staying close to them and I think that’s underlined in 7x21 when he tries to stop Hester from hurting the brothers by saying “Please, they’re the ones we were put here to protect” and Hester replies simply with a “No, Castiel”. 

And that’s the truth.

Cas has extended his order to bring Dean out of hell and secure Michael’s vessel to protecting the brothers against all odds. Because he’s falling in love with Dean, and he can’t make sense of that emotion.

This has made him dress himself as the hammer and assign all his worth to that role because, again and again, it’s underlined the brothers only call on him for angelic assistance. The problem is, again, miscommunication, because throughout S12 Sam finally, and very vocally and earnestly, contradicts Cas every single time he says that Lucifer is his responsibility. Sam is the one to repeatedly tell Cas he’s wrong in S12, they’re in it together, and he should come to them for help.

But Sam isn’t the person who needs to say it.

Dean agrees, but he agrees in vague ways, like being pissed off - which to our literal angel is the same as negating Sam’s words or being nothing but hyper critical of Cas’ opinion, which for our as-stubborn-as-Dean-Winchester Cas more or less means he’ll just dig his heels down even deeper - or Dean agrees by saying stuff that only underline Cas’ belief that Dean can’t possibly see any real worth in him. That he’s a liability. And expendable. Only useful for the powers he brings to the fight.

This is in 12x23, of course, where they’re together, TFW about to assemble, but instead of there being a sense of team spirit, Cas gets a Dean who barges in, takes over and then asks if he still has the immense power that killed a Prince of Hell.

In 12x19 they finally begin to open up the doors to open communication during the Mixtape Exchange, but that episode is titled The Future and I believe that cornerstone was placed there to show what they’re working towards. That scene is a beautiful study of body language because both of these actors are remarkably attuned to using it as a tool of expression. And that’s more or less the basis for the entire Destiel narrative because it’s so much in the subtext of how these two interact with each other. 

That’s how you build a will-they-won’t-they, btw. No matter the genders involved. There has to be a dance of long looks and glances when the other isn’t looking. There has to be stuff neither one says out loud. There HAS to be miscommunication because complete honesty takes away the obstacles and without obstacles there’s no character growth and there’s absolutely no fucking intrigue to following the progression of the love story.

But now I digress.

So if 12x19 gives a cornerstone to open communication, then why don’t they keep building on that? They are, and they will. Moments of misunderstanding - like this one in 12x23 where Dean is more or less hinging their survival on whether Cas still has the power up juices flowing through him (look at Cas’ face - it hurts him!) - are more or less essential at this juncture, and these misunderstandings stem from the fact that these two men care so much about what the other thinks of them that they can’t stand the thought of disappointing the other, or failing them in any way, neither understanding that how they feel the other can’t disappoint them or fail them no matter what they do is how BOTH OF THEM FEEL ABOUT EACH OTHER! 

(dance my pretties dance!)

There is all the love here, darling Anon, don’t you fret!

The reason Dean tells Cas that he isn’t their babysitter comes from Dean’s conviction that Cas still thinks of himself as their protector foremost, like he stated out loud and unequivocally in 7x21. That statement came as a horrified surprise to Dean back then, because that was Dean’s biggest fear, wasn’t it? That Cas was one of those angels that, when they try to care, it ends up breaking them apart? 

That’s how he views Cas’ choices and sacrifices by the end of S7: they’re breaking Cas apart and Cas made them because he cares.

The problem for Dean is that he’s wanted to humanise Cas - to make him CARE - almost from the moment their story began: giving him his nickname is just the beginning. Why did he do that? 

Because Dean Winchester is a control freak, plain and simple. 

I don’t believe it’s love at first sight with these two. It’s attraction at first sight for Dean (that I do believe), but Dean is out of his depth with Cas and he has an immediate need to bring him down to Earth. To make him feel like an equal. Possibly even an inferior.

Which is why, at least this is my interpretation of it, whenever he gets to put Cas in a tight spot doing human things - such as taking Cas to a den of iniquity - Dean is practically bouncing in his seat from having the upper hand completely and irrevocably.

S12, however, does a lot to tell us that much has changed since S7, including how the brothers view Cas and his choices and his sacrifices. 

In 12x10, after the whole Ishim incident, Sam tells Cas that Cas may have changed, but it’s for the better. And Dean voices support as well, telling Cas he’s not weak, like Ishim proclaimed him to be.

So for Cas, nine episodes later, to come off as though he still considers himself the brothers angelic protector rubs Dean the wrong way. He doesn’t want Cas to feel like he has to protect them because he’s not their defender, he’s not the hammer: he’s their friend and brother in arms and worth a helluva lot more than whatever responsibility he feels like placing on his own two shoulders. 

(Also Dean is completely in love with him and, I’d argue, is subtly terrified that Cas still, after all these years, is so much an angel that whatever that “I love you” in 12x12 was, it sure as hell didn’t mean Cas is in love with him, because Dean’s still nothing more than a mere ward for Cas, someone he feels responsible for, someone he’s formed a bond with, sure, but a bond that never could be romantic based on how they’re from two so completely different worlds - hence the mixtape from Dean, as he tries to over-subtly test the waters)

So, you see? Dean telling Cas off for acting like he protects them by excluding them comes from a place of love.

“You, me, and Sam - we’re just better together.”

Dean tries to convince Cas with this statement, but the Mixtape Exchange is a Destiel scene, and Cas is done now, after having said “I love you” out loud, no matter how vaguely, to pretend like he doesn’t want more. That’s why he gestures between him and Dean when he says “We?” and Dean ruins it when he says “Yes, we. You, me… and Sam.” Unable to give Cas more than his little finger and leaving Cas thinking that, after all is said and done, Dean Winchester does not love him back. And again, neither is stating the whole truth, nothing but the truth, so help them Chuck - dancing around each other for this fear of rejection, this fear that stems in the feeling that they’re really not worthy of the other’s love.

There is a complex web of emotion that these men are stuck in, and I, for one, cannot wait to watch it slowly detangle.

And Dean cares. Oh, he cares.

Looooooook at his faaaaaaaace! :)

xx

[mittensmorgul]

I think one of the things about SPN that is so interesting is... characters lie. All the time. And we aren't always given obvious reasons to suspect they're lying until later when they say something contradictory. I saw a post the other day about Rowena and how she'd mentioned Crowley was conceived during an orgy (something I'd forgotten) and it occurred to me with later information we had... that doesn't sound likely if she knew who the father was and was abandoned by him. (1/2)

This has a point that's relevant, sorry. What I was referring to is the post about Becky and how we don't know why she and Chuck broke up because there is conflicting info, so we have to make our best guess. In a weird way, "canon" isn't canon, because a surface text reading doesn't account for characters being disingenuous. We aren't told which is the lie and which is the truth every time, we kinda gotta figure it out for ourselves using what we make of the characters and additional context(2/2

Hi there! And if this isn’t a potentially loaded question, I don’t know what is. And it’s something that’s even been raised as a question in text on multiple occasions, which makes it a valid thing for us to question and carefully consider. You may have seen this old post I reblogged a little while ago with an addition about context:

http://mittensmorgul.tumblr.com/post/162709800125/mittensmorgul-i-offer-this-up-as-a-metaphor-for

Congrats, you’re the anon I was referring to in the little blurb at the bottom of that post :D

I’ll start by saying that yes, we know the characters are capable of lying. In 6.03, Dean tells this to Ben in plain words:

Dean: Ben, I know you're lying... Because I lie professionally, that's how. Now tell your mom that you broke the damn thing and take it like a man. Okay? Okay.

He lies professionally. In 5.03, he explains why he lies to Cas, by lying about it:

Dean: Seriously? You're going to walk in there and tell him the truth?Castiel: Why not?Dean: Because we're humans. And when humans want something really, really bad, we lie.Castiel: Why?Dean: Because that's how you become President.

Dean’s explanation of why they were going to lie to the cops was also a lie. Walking into the police station and politely informing them the gas station explosion was caused by an archangel taking his vessel would’ve resulted in them being either laughed out of the police station or locked up on a 72 hour involuntary psychiatric hold. Yet Dean didn’t need to explain that to the audience, because we’re supposed to understand that fact. That’s where critical thinking skills come into play. We understand the humor of what he said to Cas anyway, without having to be led by the hand and told that Dean was joking there.

So I’d argue with your assertion that “Canon isn’t canon because characters lie sometimes.” It’s all still canon, because the characters DID say these things, but it’s up to us if we accept or reject the surface text reading as honestly intended dialogue, or sarcasm, or humor, or a misdirection, or a warning that there’s something deeper happening beneath the surface layer text. Sometimes the surface layer text sets off alarm bells because it directly contradicts other facts that have already been established, and in those moments we’re SUPPOSED to react by yelling out at the TV, questioning the character’s motives for saying something we already understand to be incorrect, you know?

It’s still incorrect to assume that EVERYTHING the characters say is a lie, or untrustworthy, or unreliable. Just because a character CAN be unreliable as a narrator doesn’t mean that they’re ALWAYS unreliable as a narrator.

It’s our jobs as viewers to apply critical thinking skills, combined with our previously established understanding of the characters, and the information we already have about the situation the characters are dealing with on screen, and then interpret the subtext and visual narrative cues the show has established over more than a decade of telling us this story, and not just make willy-nilly random assumptions about scenes, but incorporate ALL of that into an educated assessment of what’s most likely.

Because despite all of that ^^, and the fact that multiple interpretations are certainly possible, and character motivations and unverifiable statements (like Rowena’s story of how Crowley was conceived, or even Crowley’s story of having sold his soul for “an extra three inches below the belt” since that’s another character statement I’ve personally always doubted) are more open to potential interpretation than things like entire plotlines and situations that are directly contradicted by events we have seen or will see with our own eyes, not all interpretations of those larger events are equally probable.

It reminds me of the scene in 2.14, after Sam-possessed-by-Meg told a very one-sided and hurtful version of the story of how her father had died, having been shot in the head by John Winchester, leaving room for Jo to doubt whether it had been an accident that her father could potentially have survived if John had tried to save him instead of shooting him. Meg was deliberately trying to upset Jo, and it worked, to an extent:

JO: I know demons lie, but ... do they ever tell the truth too?DEAN: Uh, um, yeah, sometimes, I guess. Especially if they know it'll mess with your head. (Another swig.) Why do you ask?

Thing is, your very first assumption there, that the characters lie all the time, is equally untenable. Because just as often as they lie, they DO tell the truth. Not everything they say is equally open to interpretation or doubt. For a random fun-fact, like the situation in which Crowley was conceived, didn’t affect the larger narrative. It only provided characterization for Rowena. This was how she CHOSE to present herself when we were first introduced to her, but then we watched her character develop over the next few seasons. We began to understand her, her history, her motivations.

We saw her less as a carefree villain and more as a woman who’d been used, abused, wronged, and who’d reinvented herself multiple times as she amassed the power to not only take back control over her own life, but in search of revenge against those who’d wronged her. In 11.09 we learned the painfully harsh truth about why she may have originally been so flippant about Crowley’s father. And again in 12.11 we learned yet more reasons why she’d carefully crafted her cool facade, during her conversation with the witch who’d once thought of Rowena as little more than a disposable sex toy. So understanding Rowena’s history with the benefit of later canon and context, it not only helps us understand that her original self-narrative was a lie in the first place, but it gives us the ability to understand why she would’ve told that particular lie about herself. This is how you write complex, three-dimensional characters with depth.

Now with the Chuck and Becky situation, we have learned many things over the years about both of those characters, as well. Ultimately it doesn’t matter to the narrative why they broke up, nor does it matter whether Becky was telling the truth about why. The only thing a varied interpretation on whether she was lying there could potentially change is how we feel about her as a character. Do we sympathize with her? Do we have a greater insight into her as a “person” and what her motivations in life may be? Does a varied interpretation also affect the way we view Chuck as a character, especially when taken through the lens of late s11 Chuck episodes where it’s confirmed not only that he was God all along, but also in 11.20 we see through Metatron’s questioning of him, his motivations, his entire autobiography, that Chuck was sort of veracity-impaired as well? Being able to question the veracity of Becky’s statements all those years before lends us a greater understanding of Chuck as a character, too. Especially once we understand the depth of his denial over the original act that made all of creation possible in the first place.

Ultimately it doesn’t affect the larger story, other than to support our understanding of the characters, and offer a depth to explore the characters more fully.

That’s just good writing. It forces us to question things, forces us to really think about things, and hits us on an emotional and sympathetic level that colors our interpretations.

If the narrative just came straight out and told us all these things, it would be boring. The characters wouldn’t be three dimensional. We wouldn’t be able to think about them as if they were real people. They’d just be paper cutouts with words written on them telling us exactly who they were and what their motives and intentions were. There’d be nothing to actively engage us in the narrative.

That said, this is why looking at isolated incidents out of context of the rest of the things we already know and understand about the characters will often lead to wonky interpretations that don’t really work when viewed in context with the rest of the narrative.

I think this kinda-sorta addresses your question? I hope? This is such a difficult topic to discuss, because it does introduce subjectivity into the narrative. The thing is (and this is partly where the concept of “meta” differs from “headcanon” or “speculation”), at least the way I approach it, meta is grounded in postmodern literary critique, and not just random commentary on random things without a foundational understanding of how stories are told.

Not everything is as open to interpretation as everything else. There are rules to this gig, and actual meta will at least acknowledge that those rules exist. :P

[him-e]

anon asks:

Hi! I really enjoy your asoiaf m/eta - I was wondering, do you think that Jaime is on his best way to become Tywins "true heir", a scenario in which Brienne has a role similar to Joanna's? I.e. Jaime's genuine affection for her becomes his only sympathetic quality in the end, much like Tywin's genuine love for his wife appears to have been is only truly likable trait? Not to reduce Brienne (or Joanna) to that alone, but it would emphasize Jaime's doom and her rise nicely.

Hi, thank you! A couple things first, before I sink my teeth into the rest:

a) this is in no way an objective statement, but no matter how his arc ends, even if it goes the darkest way possible, Jaime has plenty of sympathetic traits (not necessarily qualities, mind) that allow me to find him relatable, and this makes him ALREADY incomparable with Tywin;

b) I don’t believe in love being a sympathetic quality or a mitigating factor per se, and I don’t think people who love are necessarily one step closer to *goodness* than people who don’t. For example, while I don’t see Stannis as necessarily incapable of love—I quite like the idea that under his stern facade there’s a lot of feelings, for his child, for Jon, for Davos, and maybe even for Melisandre, on top of his complex issues with his own brothers—even if we stick to the interpretation of Stannis as a loveless character, I don’t think this diminishes his fundamental goodness. On the other hand, there are the Lannisters, who are fifty shades of questionable, but they ALLL love so much!

The truth is that anyone can feel love. It’s not that special, you know? It’s just a human emotion—powerful, but not inherently moral. Not intrinsically a virtue, an end to be pursued at all costs, in itself and for itself, as traditional romantic narratives would want you to believe.

This is particularly true for a character like Jaime, who has been established as a lover since his first notable appearance in the books.

“The things I do for love (he said with loathing)” is probably his most iconic line, and it’s no coincidence that it’s associated to the TERRIBLEST, EVILEST THING he’s ever done (no irony). Jaime's debut in asoiaf is tied to the concept that lovers aren’t ALWAYS right just because they love, and to some extent the character himself is aware of it ("loathing” refers not to Bran, whom Jaime has really no reason to loathe lol, but to “the things I do”, aka the repulsive action he’s about to commit in the name of his love for Cersei). So the idea that Jaime’s ~one and only~ sympathetic quality can be his love for Brienne, when loving is both his original sin and virtually the only thing he’s done in his life, doesn’t work for me. (you might argue: but Jaime’s love for Cersei is incestuous and Badwrong, and Cersei herself is Bad whereas Brienne is Good! yeah, I think that line of reasoning is a slippery slope, because it places all the emphasis and the responsibility on who you love rather than how you love, as if the moral fiber and ~appropriateness~ of the object of your love is what makes your love noble. Mind, this is a very courtly-romance logic, so it’s nothing especially offensive, but I still don’t like its implications. It runs a bit too close to “bad people don’t deserve to be loved” to suit me).

with that said…

denying the centrality of love in these novels would be a terrible mistake. George is a romantic, and his attitude towards some romantic tropes isn’t deconstructionist at all, but rather a vibrant (albeit complex) celebration of them. Yet not all fictional depictions of romantic love are equal: I think Jaime/Brienne and Tywin/Joanna belong to two different genres. 

Jaime/Brienne is essentially a fairytale. It’s, of course, Beauty and the Beast. A tale about transformative love—love as acceptance of the other, love as understanding of the other, love as healing, love as the driving force for a radical viewpoint shift, a change of attitude and lifestyle (symbolized in the original tale by the physical metamorphosis of the Beast), love as having an actual positive impact on the world. As everyone knows, Martin loves the trope and makes it integral, more or less subtly, to several dynamics throughout the books. It has been stated repeatedly, even by the author himself, that Jaime and Brienne is one of those; the only question is whether there will be a subversion, and to which degree. Personally I’ve always seen as subversive the way GRRM gets rid of the problematic goodness = beauty equation (that exists in the original because fairytales are highly archetypal and symbolic and they rely heavily on simple visual associations, but they’re also inevitably intertwined with societal/cultural biases and the primordial fear of the imperfect and the deviant) and throws in the mix a Beauty who is actually Super Ugly! and a Beast who is a splendid, glorious, golden lion. When the Beauty is the Beast and the Beast is the Beauty, and the gender stereotypes inherent to the trope are repeatedly broken, the metamorphosis is necessarily mutual.

Can this fairytale have a tragic ending? Absolutely. Martin is a master at this—it’s actually what his deconstruction is about, taking fantasy/fairytale tropes and adapting them to completely different genres, causing that sort of cognitive dissonance in the reader, who isn’t used to see THAT trope take THAT form (see: “Martin kills all the heroes!”). However, whatever the deconstruction at work is in JB’s case, i doubt it will end up completely negating the transformative nature of the trope itself. But let’s set this aside for now, because it’s not relevant to the discussion.

Tywin/Joanna is different in genre, scope, meaning, basic tropes. To begin with, I don’t see Joanna as the Beauty to Tywin’s Beast. There’s no clash between two conflicting worldviews here; their love isn’t of the transformative kind, it’s a love that cemented their established identity, rather than challenge it. I think this pairing is written around a completely different cluster of tropes—the power couple, the “behind a powerful man there’s always a powerful woman”, and the dead mother/wife. I like to think of Joanna’s death as transformative in the sense that it represents the loss of the feminine---it creates an unbalance in an already awfully masculine-coded family, whose aftershocks still affect the lives of all her children even decades later. In short, Tywin/Joanna is a tragedy.

(seriously: if you’re looking for a parallel to Tywin/Joanna in Jaime’s narrative, a “humanizing the monster” kind of love, look no further than Jaime/Cersei. Jaime’s love for Cersei humanizes him, and Cersei’s love for Jaime (and her children) humanizes her. Unfortunately, the narrative makes it clear that theirs is a (figuratively) sterile, doomed kind of love. Like in a greek tragedy, we feel sympathy as we clutch our chests in anticipation for its inevitable collapse. Fate did to Tywin/Joanna what a downward spiral of irreconcilable differences, deep-seated grudges and destructive actions did to Jaime/Cersei, but the end point is equally tragic.)

Also: Jaime’s BATB dynamic with Brienne is not a “sympathetic” footnote squeezed in between his villain arc A and villain arc B, nor something that can be reduced to “his only likable trait” and waved off. It’s a crucial aspect of his arc (and Brienne’s, who is—let’s not forget—a major player from AFFC on) and has ramifications on the overall plot (Oathkeeper, sending Brienne after Sansa, Lady Stoneheart, not to mention the discussion around honor and oaths that is a central theme in asoiaf). It’s not a coincidence that Jaime is introduced as a pov only after he meets Brienne. This dynamic is integral to the story George is telling.

In comparison, Joanna (and by extension Tywin/Joanna) is something that belongs to the past, and only affects our story indirectly. It’s a dead character and a dead relationship. And that’s what marks the biggest differences, not only with Jaime/Brienne but also with Jaime/Cersei. Joanna, in the context of the narrative, is remarkable for her ABSENCE. It’s her death, the void that she created much more than her life, that has an impact on the characters. It doesn’t help that Tywin, the one person who’s able to remember her as a fully fledged human being, isn’t a pov either. GRRM gives us only scraps, and it’s up to those of us who care to put together the pieces of the puzzle of who Joanna used to be. This is, of course, a despicably convenient treatment of a female character on the author’s part, even more despicable since it’s not an isolate case in asoiaf. There’s no easier way than a dead mother to fabricate a sad background for your protagonist, and it also solves the problem of making her fit within the narrative, giving her an actual personality and things to do, etc. We expect better from a writer of Martin’s calibre, and that’s where the criticism comes from.

But lazy sexist writing aside, why does George give us so little?

I think it’s (in no small part) because he understands the power of certain romantic tropes, how they seduce the reader’s imagination—how humanizing they are. Tywin’s love for Joanna and Joanna’s love for Tywin, if explored in depth, would humanize Tywin to the nth degree.

But Tywin isn’t supposed to be given the sympathetic treatment. Of course, GRRM knows better than make him a cardboard villain, so he gives him nuance, he gives him contradictions, among which there’s a dead wife he loved fiercely. But he doesn’t flesh it out. He doesn’t give us a detailed story, only scattered bits and pieces, generally second and third hand information. This relationship isn’t made for the stage but for behind the curtains, because Tywin’s ~feelings~ need to remain veiled and largely inaccessible to us, just as his inner monologue is: we aren’t supposed to sympathize.

Jaime, on the other hand? Jaime gets a pov and TWO romantic relationships fleshed out in depth, one of which is a BATB dynamic with a heroine. His heart is on stage for everyone to see in a way Tywin’s heart isn’t—cannot be. I think it’s essential to recognize that Jaime and Tywin occupy different spaces in the narrative, and their potential to be seen as sympathetic characters is largely different. It’s hard for me not to see authorial intent in the way Jaime is perceived VS how Tywin is perceived.

This brings me to the other question you raised, if Jaime is on his way to become Tywin’s true heir. I can only try to answer this is by looking at what motivates him, at what could be a significant and satisfying resolution of the issues his character raises. 

Jaime never cared for power but, like every Lannister, he strives for greatness. Now that that greatness is unachievable through his swordfighting skills, he’s looking in other directions, other possible fields to excel in. One of those is certainly Tywin: family. The other is knighthood: his other family. Both failed him, and he failed them both. The way Jaime failed knighthood is obvious to everyone, but the way he failed his ~responsibility~ towards house Lannister is subtler: by trading his birthright for a place at Cersei’s side, he basically washed his hands clean, giving Tywin free rein to further hate and abuse Tyrion in an escalation of desperate and delusional attempts to avert the latter’s ascension as heir to Casterly Rock, that climaxed with Tyrion being accused of regicide and Tywin’s death. There’s a great image in Jaime’s narrative, of the crimson and gold Lannister sigil VS the white shield of the kingsguard, but the real question isn’t which one Jaime will eventually /choose/... it’s whether he’ll ever realize he can be NEITHER. 

The great lion of Lannister? That’s Tyrion. Every attempt to turn the clock back is futile. The Rock is Tyrion’s by right since the moment Jaime chose to step back and join the Kingsguard for life.

And the white shield… is Brienne. It’s always been her.

a scenario in which Brienne has a role similar to Joanna’s […] would emphasize Jaime’s doom and her rise nicely

But is Jaime Tywin in this scenario, or is he Joanna?

Because Joanna died so that Tywin could rise as the character we all know (once again, I side-eye the idea of Joanna being Tywin’s “conscience” or her death being his ~villain origin story~, but it certainly made him more unbalanced). For the parallel to work, Brienne has to die for Jaime to rise (as a true villain, as his father’s heir, as Cersei’s valonqar, whatever), which has been speculated, and which I’m aggressively AGAINST. Because Brienne is the next generation, Brienne is a character who can have a REAL positive impact on the world, while Jaime… let’s be real, Jaime is a relic. He’s a relic of Robert’s rebellion, of a time that doesn’t exist anymore. The “Greatness” ship has sailed for him long ago: 

he’s never going to do anything as remarkable and controversial as murdering Aerys (oh sure, there’s Cersei, but I wouldn’t consider killing her an accomplishment. A mediocre rehash of his one and only teenage hit, at best)

he’s never going to be Arthur Dayne, either. Who the fuck wants to be Arthur Dayne anyway? That guy kept a pregnant girl prisoner. Being THAT guy would be only a regression for Jaime. He understood that there are orders you can’t follow at seventeen, why should he revert to performing his duty uncritically at thirty-five?

oh, and of course, he’s not going to outmatch Tywin. DUH, he’s TRYING, but it isn’t a primary concern or a central motivation for him the way it is for Cersei, for example. Everything he accomplishes in his military campaign in the Riverlands, he does only because people fear Tywin’s shadow, not his own. We can talk until next week about whether the trebuchet threat crowns him as Tywin’s true successor, or is actually a strategy more similar to the way Jon and Dany (and Ned) use their enemies’ children to maintain THEIR peace terms (which are fair and righteous whereas Jaime’s aren’t, and that makes all the difference of the world, or not, ymmv!), but what really matters is how his military campaign ends: he dumps garrison, orders and all without a note as soon as girlfriend shows up with a missing cheek and a quest to fulfill. It’s not that he lacks the intelligence or the ferocity to follow Tywin’s steps—he lacks the resolve. He lacks the commitment, because he’s always, perpetually, split in two.

I think it’s that split, and his ultimately futile attempts to become great at one thing or the other when BOTH are no longer available for him, that is the central obstacle that Jaime needs to overcome. Because Jaime wants Honor and Glory, but you know what Honor and Glory are?

Two horses.

Enter the valonqar impasse, and a lot of speculation on Jaime focuses on how he will ~choose violence~. He’ll drop all pretenses of honor, forget about Goldenhand the Just, (optionally) embrace his role as a Lannister commander and dig his own grave in a pointless, doomed last stand to hold Casterly Rock from Tyrion’s attack, and when it falls, kill Cersei and himself. And to be honest, a lot of this sounds plausible enough—I think it’s almost a given that at some point he goes back to Casterly Rock, has a last confrontation with Tyrion, and yeah, likely kills Cersei. 

But it’s a tad too close to Tywin’s wishes to suit me: sure, Tywin would never want Jaime to kill Cersei and commit suicide, but would he want him to defend Casterly Rock against Tyrion? Fuck yes. He’d be DELIGHTED to see Jaime step up as his ~heir~ and fight against his own paranoia of Tyrion the monster child eating the Rock from the inside just like he devoured Joanna’s life. The greatest irony about Tywin is that the kid he wanted to be his heir couldn’t be more ill-suited for the role, whereas it’s the other two—the girl and the dwarf—who deserve to claim that role for themselves. Why change that in the end? More to the point, how does Brienne factor in this? What kind of impact does she leave? Jaime’s resolve to embrace his role as the heir to Lannister does not, in any shape or form, need Brienne to happen. Nor does his choice to fight against Tyrion, or to murder Cersei. Tyrion confessed Joffrey’s murder, and the relationship with Cersei was meant to go to shit since the moment Jaime lost his hand and stopped being her perfect mirror, possibly even earlier. Remove Brienne from Jaime’s entire timeline, and you still have basically the same arc. OF COURSE, Brienne’s importance on the story doesn’t hinge on her impact on Jaime’s narrative. But I wonder what’s the point---like, structurally---of writing a BATB dynamic where transformative love is a crucial aspect, and end it with “and so they parted ways and each one continued to do the shit THEY WERE GOING TO DO ANYWAY, Brienne as the knight who believes in vows and Jaime as... whatever Jaime’s up to”. Bruh, what a waste of narrative space.

And this is where I switch to purely speculative/wish fulfillment mode, so, HANDLE WITH CAUTION, lol. I think Jaime will reject both Honor and Glory and die as the Kingslayer, as nobody’s heir, as the Lannister who lost the Rock, unredeemed… in the eyes of everyone but us, and whoever will be holding his hand in the last moment.

A few weeks ago, I went to see Logan. As I watched Wolverine sacrifice himself so that his daughter and the new generation of heroes could, well, inherit the world, so that they could have a chance for redemption when it’s too late for him, I thought, THIS, this is I want from Jaime. To die, but not before he’s pushed HIS heir forward, the person who will save the world, who will be the hero he cannot be. To “plant seeds in a garden you never get to see”. Unlike Joanna, who had no choice in this nor any idea of how important Tyrion was going to be for the world, I want it to be Jaime’s decision. This is the only way we can go back to “the things I do for love” and redeem that statement.

Because it’s that statement, even more than Jaime himself, that needs redemption. What matters isn’t the “for love” part, it’s the “do”. See, Jaime has already done something unequivocally good for love. He jumped in a bearpit and saved Brienne. So why are we still having this debate? Because, well, the scope of that action was limited to him and Brienne, to that particular circumstance, and to the relationship between them. There’s still something egotistical in saving the life of someone you care for—it’s still a “I’m doing this because you are important to ME” logic. Me, me, me. The real heroism, the real sacrifice, is renouncing to the person you love—renouncing to your “dream of spring”, so that others can have it. It’s what Brienne does, when asked “sword or noose”. It DESTROYS her, but she INSTANTLY gets that her feelings of loyalty, devotion and, yes, love for Jaime are no justification for letting two innocent people die.

AND THIS IS WHAT MAKES HER THE REAL DEAL, FOLKS.

We still have to see how Jaime receives the choice she made. Badly, some argue, he’ll be pissed and she’ll fall from grace in his eyes, because what else can the Lady Stoneheart ordeal be if not a plot device to make Jaime go finally berserk, a set up for the valonqar? But I think the whole incident is going to leave Jaime genuinely Shook (TM). Not only because he’s suddenly getting all the receipts of why he’s a bad person in his face, not only because he’ll see what his father’s brilliant military logic has done to a formerly admirable woman like Catelyn, but also because Brienne’s lesson will HURT the way TRUTH hurts. He’s a person who’s sacrificed a lot for love, thinking it was worthwhile; Brienne’s choice will prove that it’s not. That he should have sacrificed his love to do the right thing, instead.

You need to serve something greater than your own emotions. This is the most important of Brienne’s lessons, and I think there’s a possibility that Jaime actually UNDERSTANDS it, because that would be the ULTIMATE change, for him. (so powerful that it could potentially break that thrice damned prophecy, even.) To see that his feelings, desires, hopes and dreams aren’t important. It’s neither Honor nor Glory, and in the end, it’s not even Love. It’s about doing the right thing, full stop.

I realize this is very fanficcy, but boy, do I love Jaime Lannister and want his arc to end in a not completely nihilistic way. :)

(sorry it took me so long!)

[a-reocurring-dream]

hey we're all so positive about the secret ep. and i'm just here, super deep into the conspiracy. VERY DEEP AND IT'S A VERY DARK PLACE and i wonder. what would you do if none of these actually happens? that this is already the end and that we're going to age 2 years, 3 years, slowly, gradually losing hope in the lost special and then we don't realize that tfp is it. THAT'S FINISHED.. i would go insane. any advise?

Lots, apparently. xD This got very long - and yeah, deep, too (hopefully, it helps you and maybe others who feel related to this topic):

Well, dear, I hope I can help you with my personal way of coping. I don’t know you or the circumstances you are in, and I don’t think that there’s a general solution to everything, but I myself handle it as the following:

Because I assume that everything in series 4 is messed up on purpose, since some things are certainly nothing but fucky (like TST as a title and a blog entry that coexist without being referenced and without denying the blog at this point at all, rather emphasising in the episode that it’s there and will be updated (made a meta post about it here); or like the glowing skull or making random, unreasonably voiceovers and mocking The Three Garridebs by making them dangle and just kill them off) and Moftiss and everybody else are so quiet regarding the harsh critique, there is intention behind everything. That’s generally why I believe in a Lost Special episode or another series. But, if it should really be the case that we don’t get more footage (which, in my opinion, is rather unlikely by now with the levels of obscurity and coincidences we have reached) and there is nothing more to come - not even a statement by Moftiss, an apology for the queerbait, an explanation of events or anything regarding Sherlock -, I would stick with my favourite theory/theories regarding everything and leave it be. For my own well-being.

I was depressed after TFP, but I got on my feet again fast, because this fandom and its theories are unbelievably convincing and my belief in TJLC is unbreakable, since the narrative doesn’t make sense without including it at all. This show taught me many things, and that’s why I won’t let the show itself down even if Moftiss turn out to be arseholes. Yeah, you’re right, dear anon, we might not know what is yet to come nor how long it will take until we have answers (or answer things for ourselves), and nothing’s fixed, and I’m not saying that being skeptic is a bad thing, BUT:

I discovered for myself that I am much better not sinking into doubts and drowning in them, because (as Sherlock sort of says himself in TGG): Does it help if I let sentiment and doubts overlay the logic I can make of it (by writing meta for instance) and the obvious contradictions that I see and that tell me that I am on the right track? No. It’s a “balance of probability”. (stole this phrase from @teapotsubtext, because it is really everything this is about; hope you don’t mind, by the way - if so, let me know)

I know it’s hard. But the conspiracy doesn’t necessarily have to be a “very dark place”, as you phrased it, anon; you can turn it into whatever you want it to be, there are people to support you, and if you feel exhausted or feel like you can’t go on like this anymore: Take a break, dear. Honestly. Take a break from everything that’s Sherlock-related. I did it once. It’s good. And you may be able to look at things differently if you decide to return afterwards. If not, it’s fine, too.

In conclusion: In case all this turns out badly (a.k.a. we don’t get anything) and you feel disappointed/outraged/depressed/disregarded regarding everything:

Stick with your favourite theory/theories; there’s no more footage coming to prove you wrong.

Write meta or comment about the shit, if you feel like it would be relieving for yourself.

Talk about it to other people in the fandom, if you need support.

Don’t torture yourself by searching for Sherlock-/Moftiss-related stuff when you aren’t 100% sure you are able to handle it emotionally.

Take your time. It’s okay to feel the way you feel; but, if you want it to, it gets better as time goes on.

Remember all the knowledge we gained from conspiring - all the information about ACD, Oscar Wilde, Shakespeare, ARGs, codes, media, ads, story-telling, analyses, subtext and so much more.

And, of course, never forget: Who we really are matters.

Hopefully, this answered your question.