#cobra narrator

[dragonswhomstyeet]

So I drew the Narrorator

Narrerator

…narrororator

Narorrator

Narrorowrwter

Narrror-

The guy, from Stanley parable. But as sexy cobra man thing I guess.

[mo-hawk]

Still angry about the fact that Demetri just instantly got back into karate after the arm break.

There was absolutely no reason for him to stay with it at that point. He didn’t have a deep, personal relationship with karate ir his Sensei. Karate lost him all his friends and fucked up most of his life: Miguel almost died after a horrible karate brawl, Aisha was forced to move away because of karate, Robby went to juvie for nearly killing Miguel with karate, Sam was horribly traumatized and had literal karate PTSD, and Eli, who he was absolutely in love with, either platonically or romantically, became a toxic, violent bully. All because of karate.

Demetri only started karate because his friends were being jerks and he wanted to protect himself. After Hawk breaks his arm, he has no reason to keep doing it. Karate has done nothing but hurt him and everyone close to him, and Demetri is the character most likely to realize that and duck out. Yet he apparently has no negative feelings about it at all and is right back with Miyagi-do for the season finale 🫠

[abushelandablog]

The way he looks at her here after Daniel came out all covered in the gender reveal paint.. yea when they’re of the appropriate/ financially and emotionally mature and stable age she’s so having his kiddo 😂❤️

[weirdbabs]

as someone who got into one piece when they were twelve and has rewatched/reread thru it multiple times, and every time i saw sauls death i went “okay but are we sure hes actually dead?” before remembering it was a flashback and therefore oda had no reason to reveal he was actually alive only to be vindicated 15!!! years later, garp being shown frozen and impaled and smiling as he “dies” doesnt mean i think hes dead

[unloneliest]

taboo iv the homecoming fans you are so right. doing research for my water/transpo essay and you're literally so right.

[yetanotherlesbianonthiswebsite]

An overly complicated analysis of everything we know about Neve Gallus in canon, as well as some additional thoughts of mine on the themes surrounding her (because I am so gay for her already)

1. Canon information

- Her age is, as of yet, unknown. In the Tevinter Nights story The Streets of Minrathous, narrated in the first-person perspective by Neve, we read “He greeted me with a dismissive ‘young lady’ that made me think he’d forgotten my name” (216). However, this is a description by an older man, whose nephew is alive long enough that his “parents had disowned him years ago” (213). In another passage of the story, the following can be read: “The man was a con artist I’d turned in the year before. To be fair, he’d nearly gotten me killed the year before that, so we were even” (221). We can therefore be certain that she has engaged successfully in detective work for at least two years, and has likely been doing so for a while. We do not know when the story is set, neither do we know anything about the parallel stories of “The Wigmaker Job” and “Luck in the Gardens”. We get the information that a Venatori cultist was wearing clothes that are fading (220), and that the cult had long since lost much standing in society; it has likely been quite a number of years since 9:42. At the same time, we know of a Qunari invasion in the eastern part of the Tevinter Empire from 9:44/45 onward, with several major cities falling to the invaders. Neve describes the catacombs as “a place to hold a year’s worth of food and supplies, securing the city’s survival in case of blight or Qunari invasion” (232). A woman as observant and politically savvy as her would likely not frame an invasion as that much of a hypothetical in case of an ongoing war. It is reasonable to assume that the story takes place sometime around the middle of the forties. Which means that by the events of Veilguard, in the middle of the fifties, we should expect Neve to have had at least twelve years of experience as a private investigator, which places her likely age at minimum in the early thirties. (Not that I am hoping for anything 40 or upward, no, there is no MILF agenda here)

- She describes the manor of a rich man as “a residence nowhere near the third-rate bookseller where I rent a room” (216), locating her residence both outside of the rich parts of town, and informing us that she does not have the greatest of means.

- Likewise, we learn that her “family has more templars than mages. I’m sure that says a lot about me. The point is, I’m not from an old family and I felt as at home in Lady Varantus’s house as Jahvis looked” (218). Within the rigid social hierarchies of Tevinter, she is privileged by magehood, but not by blood. To the degree that Tevene social classes can be broken down so neatly into stratified categories, she seems to be somewhere in the lower ranks of the middle class.

- She is canonically disabled; an amputee wearing a prosthetic leg made of dwarven metal (215). In the comic The Missing #4, we see her prosthetic, it is designed as a cobra standing up in intimidation of an attacker, and the metal seems to be predominantly a bronze or gold with blue or silver accents (6). On her foot on the other leg, she is wearing a boot which has a bronze or gold tip symmetrical to the tail of the cobra, and a high plattformed heel (ibid). Combining that with the fact that she fights and runs with a prosthetic and a heeled boot (TSoM 215, TM4 16), we learn that she expresses immense control over her body.

- Likewise, she approaches all her actions, her appearance, and her communication verbal and physical with a high degree of precision and deliberation. Her outfit is perfectly composed, with white and dark leather as primary colours, the same blue-gold metal that her prosthetic is made out of for accents as well as her belt (which is a coiling snake, TM4 6), a dark turquiose for some of the cloth (such as pants and cravat), a light turquiose for such accents as her fingernails and her meticulously applied eyeliner, and some manner of cap akin to a graduation cap at the right side of her head, in an almost black brown, with gold details. The shape of the cap has the exact same angles as a rhombus as her earrings (TM4 9). The detail on the cap forms a snake. It has been posited by tumblr user @cleric4vampire that even her movement in the trailer reinforces the cobra/snake motive (https://www.tumblr.com/cleric4vampire/752850000700194816). Despite sometimes excrutiatingly long workdays (223), Neve puts an extreme amount of emphasis on her appearance. Even in the comic, while the style does feature very dynamic character movements while talking, her gestures stick out as particularly deliberate; she talks with her hands a lot, and with deliberation (see the appendix of this post for more). This speaks to a plethora of willpower, control, and a desire to maintain a controlled barrier between the self and the larger world.

- While writing this, I have come up with the theory that the blue accents of her apparell might partially be lyrium. If she is literally wearing lyrium makeup, I will marry her.

- The only two offensive types of magic that we see her use are ice magic (e.g. TSoM 226, 227, 235, TM4 16, 17), and a manner of magic that lets her freeze the moisture in the air around a person to stagger them (e.g. TSoM 214, TM4 17). Through cooling the air around herself a bit less, she manages to hide herself in mist (e.g. TSoM 214). She is capable of some healing magic (227).

- She has a network of contacts, acquaintances, and informants all over Minrathous, particularly in its underground.

- She loves salty fried fish (221). This is not only in line with Minrathous being a coastal capital, which has a distinct influence on the caloric inflow into the city and cuisine at large, but also, once again, stresses that she does not have much money at her disposal, by emphasizing that she eats fried fish from a cheap street food stall very regularly (221), which she calls her “fish dinners” (228).

- She canonically has straight dark brown hair, meticulously kept at the left side of her face to keep space for the cap on the right, brown eyes, and brown skin. It is furthermore canon that anyone who has a problem with that or wishes to change that with mods will be exploded via elemental magic. It is furthermore canon that I will not buy Veilguard if the game whitewashes her.

- She is involved with the Shadow Dragons in helping fugitive slaves (TM4 9, 20). She expressly approves of the use of armed violence against the institution of slavery. At one point, she comments: “The cult’s dead god wanted to bring Tevinter back to what it was—to its “glory.” It was nonsense, of course. It always was. The old empire was even more corrupt and heartless than what it is now, no matter how pretty the picture Corypheus painted” (TSoM 221). In her vocal resistance to the empire, she sees it as a good usage of her time to track down Venatori (214). In spite of her resistance against the empire, she considers the city her home and would like it to be better than it is (214, 221).

2. Themes: The noir detective and the empire

It goes without saying that the formational archetype behind the character of Neve Gallus is that of the noir detective. A solipsistic cynic with little means, a private investigator, called to investigate a crime scene in dance with and against the police, depending on the point of the story. The noir detective of the movies of the first half of the 20th century, the formational corpus from which stems the archetype, is distinctly tied to the metropolis; a story that needs the urban context, the urban scenery. While of course featuring a plentitude of settings and configurations, at the root of the archetype rest particularly a white, male, US-American figure. To bring Minrathous in parallel with New York particularly is in so far a welcome change as it means a partial departure from the orientalism underlying a lot of early descriptions of Tevinter in Dragon Age canon. But, to me at least, it raises the question of how well Dragon Age is equipped to tackle the arising thematic implications. Just like the Tevinter Empire, the United States of America is a slave society fueled by the deprivation of Indigenous communities and the physical exploitation of a racialized, disenfanchised class. The metropolis is the core of the imperial core; and Minrathous is, as the largest city of Thedas and the capital of Tevinter, certainly that. The Streets of Minrathous manages but a partial critique of the society of the imperial-colonial metropolis. While Neve remains critical of the templars, the undeniable cop stand-in, the critique remains bound to corruption the higher one goes in the chain of command, as well as the bureaucracy (231). The story, in particular, follows the very dangerous trope commonly found in copaganda that the base-level officers should be allowed to disobey the chain of command and act on their own, particularly when it comes to the deployment of heavy weaponry (234). That the base-level officer is as much an agent of imperial violence as the top of the hierarchy, turning the systemic and depersonal violence of the system into concrete interpersonal violence, cannot be formulated by the text.

Furthermore, the Venatori, in their supremacist-fascistic death cult, remain cast in ableistic terms that deprive their ideology of systemic connectedness: “that didn’t stop remaining loyalists from acting delusional and stirring up trouble when the mood struck. That’s fanatics for you” (213). That fascism is but the logical conclusion of empire, particularly a weakened and collapsing empire, remains just as unacknowledged. And yet, what haunts the story is a profound sense of loneliness and alienation. A rich man estranged and alienated from his nephew because of his fear of social repercussions for the nephews behavior, said nephew dying while grasping to any semblance of connection he can (“He knew what came next. He was searching for whatever company he had left” 215), Neve facing the cultists in their hideout alone because the templar Rana does not want to breach protocoll, hell, even the Venatori preacher making a ridiculous figure, alone and ignored on his soapbox while the masses rush by him and shut him out of their attention; everyone is lonely, seperated by the dividing and isolating forces of the empire. The imperial metropolis condenses people, yet they are emotionally distanced from one another. Neve’s final action in the story is to return to the rich old man, explaining to him that his nephew was trying to be good after all; a post-mortem attempt to mend but one severed connection between humans. Her entire character is defined by the trajectory that comes from wandering almost aimlessly in a desperate attempt to escape the solipsistic nature of the empire. Her defining emotional conflict is with the reality of empire, as much as her status as a brown, disabled, bisexual woman clashes with the roots of the figure of the noir detective. We see by the time of The Missing #4 that she finds a sense of fulfillment in working with the Shadow Dragons for the slaves and against the slavers, which hints at a character arc from TSoM to TM4. As Varric correctly observes, she has a heart of gold (TM4 20), one which she hides behind a particularly controlled facade, as stern as beautiful. How well her character plays out in Veilguard hinges entirely on the stories limited ability to discuss empire in meaningful terms, and the story’s willingness to further explore her emotional arc suggested between TSoM and TM4. I am furthermore worried about how well a series known for its overt centrism can handle the nuances that make her character so great, as well as fearing the reaction by gamers[TM] to having a brown, female, disabled, bisexual detective.

3. Appendix: I am gay for the way she talks with her hands and body

TM4 9

TM4 9

TM4 5

TM4 10

TM4 14

TM4 19

[starrynightsoversunflowers]

I made a rec list for Latin American books that have queer themes

*DISCLAIMER: "Queer" is not a theme per se. Sometimes it's about identity, sexuality, love, horror, violence, etc. All happening around queer characters.

Most of these deal with pretty heavy themes: prostitution, rape, violence, aids, death. Some representations can be considered "problematic" if you're boring. There are different ways to approach queerness.

Feel free to yell at me about these books/ask where to read them/make recommendations/etc. I definetly have favourites. Also some have movie adaptations.

Descriptions and warnings under the cut

La condesa sangrienta (The bloody countess):

The story of countess Erzebeth Báthory, a medieval hungarian countess know for committing more than 650 murders and inspiring the figure of the vampire. There´s no explicit queer relationships here but there´s absolutely some homoerotism in the narrations of torture. Pizarnik was a lesbian also. TW: disturbing, torture, blood, murder, you should not read this in one go.

El lugar sin límites (Hell has no limits):

The story about la Manuela, a homosexual transvestite that owns half a brothel in a small town. Her daughter owns the other half. The novel shows crudely the misery of forgotten towns and the day to day life of prostitution. There's also a movie. TW: prostitution, murder, homo/transphobia.

El mundo alucinante (A Hallucinations):

A fantasy and free version parody of the Memoires of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier. Known for the uses of magical realism and innovative prose.

Cobra:

Two stories meet. The first is of Cobra, a transvestite, and her transformation. The second of her initiation in a band of black jackers. Erotism and death.

Evita vive (Evita lives):

A controversial book around Eva Perón (after her death) who lives among prostitutes and homosexuals, having orgies and living a life of debauchery.

El beso de la mujer araña (The kiss of the spider woman):

The meeting of two prisoners living in the same cell. One, Valentín, is a political prisoner and the other, Molina, is a sexual deviant. During their weeks there, Molina narrates movies to Valentín and their relationship develops. There's also a movie.

Stella Manhattan:

During Brasil's military dictatorship, the apolitical Eduardo, a.k.a. Stella Manhattan, is expelled form his country for his shameful homosexuality. He returns to the surface as a brazilian counsil in New York and is immediately accosted by a military called Colonel Vianna, a sadomasichist known as the "Black Widow", and by the guerrillas seeking his befall.

Antes que anochezca (Before night falls):

Th 7th of december of 1990 the Cuban author Reinaldo Arenas, in a terminal phase of AIDS, would commit suicide, leaving behing this moving and political testimony, which he finished mere days before taking his own life.

Salón de belleza (Beauty salon):

In a large, unnamed city, a strange, highly infectious disease begins to spread, afflicting its victims with an excruciating descent toward death, particularly unsparing in its assault of those on society's margins. Spurned by their loved ones and denied treatment by hospitals, the sick are left to die on the streets until a beauty salon owner, whose previous caretaking experience extended only to the exotic fish tanks scattered among his workstations, opens his doors as a refuge. In the ramshackle Morgue, victim to persecution and violence, he accompanies his male guests as they suffer through the lifeless anticipation of certain death, eventually leaving the wistful narrator in complete, ill-fated isolation.

Bajar es lo peor (Going down is the worst):

With gothic resonances, Enríquez shows crudely the Buenos Aires of the 90's. The confinement and the paranoia of cocaine, sex as a means to escape or survive, political unbelief, mix with a romantic love that never reaches satisfaction. There's also a movie. TW: drugs, prostitution, rape, suicide.

Loco afán (Mad eagerness):

These "chronicles of aids" narrate stories of homosexuality in Latin America, focused on drag, transvestites and AIDS.

Sirena Selena vestida de pena:

Discovered by Martha Divine in the backstreets of San Juan, picking over garbage, drugged out of his mind and singing boleros that transfix the listener, a fifteen year old hustler is transformed into Sirena Selena, a diva whose uncanny beauty and irrisistable voice will be their ticket to fame and fortune. Auditioning for one of the luxury hotels in the Dominican Republic, Selena casts her spell over Hugo Graubel, one of the hotel's rich investors. Graubel is a powerful man in the Republic, married with children. Selena, determined to escape the poverty and abuse s/he suffered as a child, engages Graubel in a long seduction in this mordant, intensely lyrical tragi-comedy - part masque, part cabaret - about identity (class, race, gender) and "the hunger and desire to be other things."

Tengo miedo torero (My tender matador):

It is the spring of 1986, and Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet is losing his grip on power. In one of Santiago’s many poor neighborhoods, a man known as the Queen of the Corner embroiders linens for the wealthy. A hopeless and lonely romantic, he listens to boleros to drown out the gunshots. Then he meets Carlos, a young, handsome man who befriends the aging homosexual and uses his house to store mysterious boxes and hold clandestine meetings. And as the relationship between these two very different men blossoms, they find themselves caught in a revolution that could doom them both. There's also a movie.

Adiós mariquita linda (Goodbye pretty pansy):

Chronicles of ire, delation, passion, resentment and loves. Stories of different cities and travels.

Sexografías (Sexographies):

In fierce and sumptuous first-person accounts, renowned Peruvian journalist Gabriela Wiener records infiltrating the most dangerous Peruvian prison, participating in sexual exchanges in swingers clubs, traveling the dark paths of the Bois de Boulogne in Paris in the company of transvestites and prostitutes, undergoing a complicated process of egg donation, and participating in a ritual of ayahuasca ingestion in the Amazon jungle--all while taking us on inward journeys that explore immigration, maternity, fear of death, ugliness, and threesomes. Fortunately, our eagle-eyed voyeur emerges from her narrative forays unscathed and ready to take on the kinks, obsessions, and messiness of our lives. Sexographies is an eye-opening, kamikaze journey across the contours of the human body and mind.

Los topos (The moles):

The son of missing persons of the Dictatorship casually meets a half-brother who poses as a transvestite to investigate ex repressors and cops.

La virgen cabeza (Slum virgin):

When the Virgin Mary appears to Cleopatra, she renounces sex work and takes charge of the shantytown she lives in, transforming it into a tiny utopia. Ambitious journalist Quity knows she’s found the story of the year when she hears about it, but her life is changed forever once she finds herself irrevocably seduced by the captivating subject of her article.

Falsa liebre (False hare):

The darkness at the port engulfs everything. Pachi and Vinicio go deeper into the beach, approaching an improvised party. They are looking for something to numb their bodies, something to finally erase themselves. Summer has been long, and that day was much worse. Not far from there, Zahir fantasizes about his next travel to the capital city or the northern part of Mexico, away from the aunt who keeps asking him for money, controls him through physical violence, and has driven his little brother, Andrik, to run away from the family home and end up in another: a man’s house, who caresses Andrik and then strikes him with the same hand. Now Zahir must not only convince Andrik to start a new life, but make sure they find a way out of that seemingly endless beach. TW: rape, prostitution, violence.

Ladrilleros (Brickmakers):

Oscar Tamai and Elvio Miranda, the patriarchs of two families of brickmakers, have for years nursed a mutual hatred, but their teenage sons, Pájaro and Ángelito, somehow fell in love. Brickmakers begins as Pájaro and Marciano, Ángelito’s older brother, lie dying in the mud at the base of a Ferris wheel. Inhabiting a dreamlike state between life and death, they recall the events that forced them to pay the price of their fathers’ petty feud. The Tamai and Miranda families are caught, like the Capulets and the Montagues, in an almost mythic conflict, one that emerges from stubborn pride and intractable machismo. Like her heralded debut, The Wind That Lays Waste, Selva Almada’s fierce and tender second novel is an unforgettable portrayal of characters who initially seem to stand in opposition, but are ultimately revealed to be bound by their similarities. TW: violence.

Cuerpo a tierra (Body to the ground):

We aren't always owners of our own decisions, sometimes we´re pulled by an irrecognizable impulse and, sometimes, the only truth is that of the body. Betrayal and deception, love and heartbreak, love and search are the protagonists of these stories.

Temporada de huracanes (Hurricane season):

The Witch is dead. And the discovery of her corpse has the whole village investigating the murder. As the novel unfolds in a dazzling linguistic torrent, with each unreliable narrator lingering on new details, new acts of depravity or brutality, Melchor extracts some tiny shred of humanity from these characters—inners whom most people would write off as irredeemable—forming a lasting portrait of a damned Mexican village. There will be a movie by the end of the year. TW: rape, paedophilia, prostitution.

Pelea de gallos (Cockfight):

Ampuero sheds light on the hidden aspects of the home: the grotesque realities of family, coming of age, religion, and class struggle. A family’s maids witness a horrible cycle of abuse, a girl is auctioned off by a gang of criminals, and two sisters find themselves at the mercy of their spiteful brother. With violence masquerading as love, characters spend their lives trapped reenacting their past traumas. Heralding a brutal and singular new voice, Cockfight explores the power of the home to both create and destroy those within it. TW: rape, incest, violence.

Las aventuras de la China Iron (The adventures of China Iron):

1872. The pampas of Argentina. China is a young woman eking out an existence in a remote gaucho encampment. After her no-good husband is conscripted into the army, China bolts for freedom, setting off on a wagon journey through the pampas in the company of her new-found friend Liz, a settler from Scotland. While Liz provides China with a sentimental education and schools her in the nefarious ways of the British Empire, their eyes are opened to the wonders of Argentina’s richly diverse flora and fauna, cultures and languages, as well as to the ruthless violence involved in nation-building.

Mandíbula (Jawbone):

Fernanda and Annelise are so close they are practically sisters: a double image, inseparable. So how does Fernanda end up bound on the floor of a deserted cabin, held hostage by one of her teachers and estranged from Annelise? When Fernanda, Annelise, and their friends from the Delta Bilingual Academy convene after school, Annelise leads them in thrilling but increasingly dangerous rituals to a rhinestoned, Dior-scented, drag-queen god of her own invention. Even more perilous is the secret Annelise and Fernanda share, rooted in a dare in which violence meets love. Meanwhile, their literature teacher Miss Clara, who is obsessed with imitating her dead mother, struggles to preserve her deteriorating sanity. Each day she edges nearer to a total break with reality. TW: violence, cannibalism.

Las malas (Bad girls):

A trans woman's coming-of-age tale about finding a community among fellow outcasts. Born in the small Argentine town of Mina Clavero, Camila is designated male but begins to identify from an early age as a girl. She is well aware that she's different from other children and reacts to her oppressive, poverty-stricken home life, with a cowed mother and abusive, alcoholic father, by acting out-with swift consequences. Deeply intelligent, she eventually leaves for the city to attend university, slipping into prostitution to make ends meet. And in Sarmiento Park, in the heart of Córdoba, she discovers the strange, wonderful world of the trans sex workers who dwell there. Taken under the wing of Auntie Encarna, the 178-year-old eternal whose house shelters this unconventional extended family, Camila becomes a part of their stories-of a Headless Man who fled his country's wars, a mute young woman who transforms into a bird, an abandoned baby boy who brings a twinkle to your eye. TW: rape, prostitution, transphobia, murder, child death.

Nuestra parte de noche (Our share of the night):

A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality. For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate? Moving back and forth in time, from London in the swinging 1960s to the brutal years of Argentina’s military dictatorship and its turbulent aftermath.

Tesis sobre una domesticación (Thesis about a domestication):

A single transvestite is enough to undermine the foundations of a house, to untie the knots of compromise, to break a promise, to give up a life. The familiy clings to brief moments of happiness without noticing it´s been defeated since the start.

La hija única (Still born):

Alina and Laura are independent and career-driven women in their mid-thirties, neither of whom have built their future around the prospect of a family. Laura is so determined not to become a mother that she has taken the drastic decision to have her tubes tied. But when she announces this to her friend, she learns that Alina has made the opposite decision and is preparing to have a child of her own. Alina's pregnancy shakes the women's lives, first creating distance and then a remarkable closeness between them. When Alina's daughter survives childbirth – after a diagnosis that predicted the opposite – and Laura becomes attached to her neighbor's son, both women are forced to reckon with the complexity of their emotions, their needs, and the needs of the people who are dependent upon them. TW: child disease, family violence.

Huaco retrato (Undiscovered):

In an ethnographic museum in Paris, Gabriela Wiener is confronted with her unusual inheritance. She is visiting an exhibition of pre-Columbian artefacts, the spoils of European colonial plunder. As she peers through the glass, she sees sculptures of Indigenous faces that resemble her own - but the man responsible for pillaging them was her own great-great-grandfather, Austrian colonial explorer Charles Wiener. In the wake of her father's death, Gabriela begins delving into all she has inherited from her paternal line. From the brutal trail of racism and theft that Charles left behind to revelations of her father's infidelity, she traces a legacy of abandonment, jealousy and colonial violence, in turn reframing her own struggles with desire, love and race. Seeking relief from these personal and historical wounds, Gabriela turns to the body and desire as sources of both constraint and potential freedom.

Sacrificios humanos (Human sacrifices):

An undocumented woman answers a job posting only to find herself held hostage, a group of outcasts obsess over popular boys drowned while surfing, and two girls suspect sinister behavior from the missionaries lodging in their home. Simultaneously terrifying and exquisite, Human Sacrifices is "tropical gothic" at its finest. Ampuero considers the decay and oppression beneath the surface of our humid and hostile world, where those on the margins must pay the price for the comfort and safety of the elite. These twelve stories contemplate the nature of exploitation and abuse, illuminating the realities of those society consumes and leaves behind.

Soy una tonta por quererte (I'm a fool to want you):

In the 1990s, a woman makes a living as a rental girlfriend for gay men. In a Harlem den, a travesti gets to know none other than Billie Holiday. A group of rugby players haggle over the price of a night of sex, and in return they get what they deserve. Nuns, grandmothers, children, and dogs are never what they seem. These 9 stories are inhabited by extravagant and profoundly human characters who face an ominous reality in ways as strange as themselves.

Las indignas (The unworthy):

A searing, dystopian tale about climate crisis, ideological extremism, and the tidal pull of our most violent, exploitative instincts. TW: death, animal death, rape, cults.

[vivalas-vega]

I'm in the mood for something angsty... would you write something where Jake's partner is hospitalized for some reason? Feel free to explore it any way you want, I'm sure it'll be great!

this gave me the perfect opportunity to rework something I'd set aside for Jake and Cobra if any of you are readers of real friends :) (this was orig going to be how they confessed their feelings hehe)

add yourself to my taglist

“Break right, Phoenix, break right!” You yelled in your cockpit as you and members of your squad were engaged in a training mission… one rooted in showing a new class of Top Gun recruits what teamwork sounds like in the air but you were all having an off day. She broke right but a second too late, almost clipping into Jake who whizzed past her.

“Phoenix, what the fuck?” He shouted, temporarily wavering in the air before recovering,

“Sorry, sorry.” She mumbled and you sighed.

“Everyone on the ground, now.” You ordered. You weren't sure you had the authority to do that, but everyone was off their game and you figured it was the best thing to do to avoid disaster. As you began to descend a flock of birds came out of nowhere and you cursed as you tried to fly around them.

“Birdstrike,” you said, “right engine on fire, climbing, throttling back. Shutting off fuel to right engine, extinguishing fire,” you said, narrating everything you were doing to keep ATC informed.

“What’s going on?” you heard Bob in your ear and you ignored it as you focused on the task at hand.

“Fuck,” you said as alarms rang throughout the cockpit, “left engine is out, trying to restart.” Your chest felt tight as you furiously pressed buttons, “throttling up.”

“You’re on fire!” Phoenix shouted in your ears.

“Extinguishing left engine,” you said and you felt a sinking feeling as more warning lights popped up. “Fuck, fuck, fuck,” you muttered.

“Punch out.” You heard Jake in your ears and you shook your head though no one could see you. In his own jet he was hovering idly, watching as yours spun wildly out of control and he could feel his heart hammering in his chest.

“God damn it, just- give me a minute,” you yelled, but all of your hail mary’s were coming up short, “hydraulic failure,” you said as you pulled up.

“Damn it, you can’t save it, punch out,” you heard him again, not even attempting to hide the panic in his voice that mirrored your own that was radiating throughout your body. Your jet started to veer off, starting a spiral directly for the bluffs ahead of you as everything became unresponsive. 

“Lost all controls, trying-”

“Eject now,” Phoenix yelled and you exhaled sharply, looking at the rapidly approaching hillside.

“Fuck, ejecting, ejecting!” you shouted, pulling up on the loops between your feet and gasping as the wind was knocked out of you. You desperately tried to get in a breath of air as you pulled your parachute cord but it was futile with a rather ungraceful collision with the ground below. You heard the sounds of a rescue chopper before you could even finish detangling yourself from all of your gear and once you were free you took a deep breath and counted to ten, naming things you could see out loud to ground you, needing to come down from the adrenaline high to properly assess if you’d been hurt or not.

“Trees, rocks, smoke from my damn jet, clouds in the sky…” you breathed, feeling the adrenaline coursing through your veins begin to subside. As you began to calm down you stretched out your muscles, bouncing your weight between each foot and decided you were unharmed, spare a gash on your forehead that was oozing blood faster than you would have liked. You dug around in your pack, grabbing a pack of gauze and tearing it open to press against the wound as you waited. As your body came down from the high of a near death experience you felt yourself slipping out of consciousness no matter how hard you tried to hold on.

“I don’t understand what the hell she was doing,” Jake said as he paced outside of your hospital room with Rooster and Phoenix standing by and trying to figure out how to help.

“She thought she could save it, any one of us would have waited until the last second too,” Phoenix tried but Jake wasn’t having it.

“She could have died,” his voice cracked just as a nurse came out of your room to let him know you were asking for him.

“Hey, sweetheart…” he said, softly sitting on the edge of your bed. “How are you feeling?”

“Like a battered highway cone,” you groaned, trying to sit up but every bone in your body protested. “How long was I out?”

“Just a few hours… what the hell was that?”

“Birdstrike, thought I could save the engine,” you answered and you saw the disappointment in his face.

“You should have ejected as soon as it went out,” he replied.

“You know that’s not protocol, I had to at least try.”

“I don’t care about protocol! We can replace your jet, we can’t replace you,” he said, voice thick with emotion and you just smiled softly at him.

“I’m okay, Jake, really… just a few bumps and bruises.”

“And a concussion,” he pointed out and you grimaced… that’s why your head hurt so badly.

“It’ll heal,” you tried but he just shook his head. “I’m fine, I promise.”

“Yeah well, you almost weren’t so stop saying you’re fine,” he shot back and your eyes widened. “Because I’m not, and you shouldn’t be. I mean, what the fuck, sweetheart? Was I just supposed to be okay with watching you burn in?” you could tell he was trying his hardest not to yell, to still be gentle with you. “You don’t get to be reckless like that anymore.”

“Okay, honey,” you nodded, reaching up to cup his face.

“I’m serious, no more of that. I can’t- I can’t do that again, just watch you spin out of control. I can’t-”

“It’s okay, come here,” you said, pulling him down and wrapping your arms around him. “I understand, it’s okay.” 

“I’m supposed to be comforting you,” he mumbled against your chest and you laughed despite how much it hurt.

“That’s okay… through thick and thin, right?” you asked and he nodded as he sat up. 

“Don’t ever do that to me again,” he said looking into your eyes and you nodded.

“I promise,” you whispered, pulling him in for a kiss. “I love you, you big softie.”

“I love you, too.”

[bubbleberrypunch]

Been thinking about actually sitting down and writing a full fledged shuggy fic, and Idk if anyone's thought of this yet.

Disney's Robin Hood. I think I had the idea because I've seen people make art of shuggy as that one scene from The Aristocats ("Wow, your eyes are like sapphires! Gee... bet that's pretty corny, though, huh?"), but I don't see a whole lot of other Disney classics. I also think Robin Hood can be very easily turned into a shuggy AU- two childhood friends who separated and then meet again after they've become adults, one being this largely famous icon who the people adore and the people in power hate, the other finding themselves in a somewhat prestigious position so to speak.

Right now, I've only been deciding which character would fit which role the best. Aside from obvious ones, of course. Like who else could be Little John, it's clearly gotta be Benn Beckman. Luffy will be Skippy (the little bunny boy who was given Robin's hat and bow). And since Buggy will be Maid Marian, I think it would be fitting to have Sir Crocodile fill the role of Prince John.

I did have a momentary crisis for King Richard. On one hand, I'm all down for Roger coming back from the crusade and immediately setting up a wedding for Shanks and Buggy. But on the other, I do want to have Ace in the story and I don't know how I would explain him not living in the castle aside from a very weak "he doesn't wanna be a stuffy prince and live with his father". Instead, I shall have Cobra as King Richard. Which leaves me with just figuring out an explanation for how exactly Buggy got in his court and what his court position is. (If Roger was King Richard, Buggy would be his ward)

Instead of being King of the Pirates, Roger here will be known as King of the Bandits. A notorious legend, even after being publicly executed.

I think this is a fun idea. I keep picturing the part where Skippy and the other kids meet Maid Marian, which I'll get to rewrite as like the mini Orange Town encounter because it's literally Buggy and Luffy. Honestly, if this movie was written as more of a tragedy, this would be THE shuggy movie.

On a side note, Shanks as Disney's Robin Hood makes me think of this one author's characterization of Shanks. Rewatching the movie, I just keep thinking of their fics Stages of grief and Fortnight (highly recommend these two fics btw, they're so good). Would anyone agree with me that Shanks just might be Robin Hood coded? Just a little?

Anyway, yeah. Imma try to not abandon this idea like every other idea I have. Sooo, I guess keep a lookout! And if anyone has any character suggestions, I'm more than welcome to them. Like, who the heck am I gonna have as the Friar guy? Or Alan-A-Dale, the narrator/minstrel?

[rahuratna]

Synopsis: Nanami, Ijichi and Nitta foil a bank robbery with a cursed twist ...

Genre: Suspense

Contents: Canon-typical violence, foul language, reader character narrator, reader perspective of sorcerers.

He’d never signed up for this.

When he’d joined, Ueno had gone on about the fun they’d have, the risk, the high of getting away with things like this. It was a release, a way to escape the drudgery of his long shifts at the convenience store and the hollow-eyed, resentful presence of his mother at home. If that place could even be called a home.

In the beginning, they’d just wandered the brightly lit streets of nighttime Shinjuku, vandalizing the shops Ueno’s boss had told them to target, getting into scuffles with rival gangs, keeping an eye on the activities of people of importance. Each time he’d left home, the door would swing shut behind him like the unseen gateway to another realm. The street before him would be familiar, but not, the night air crisp with possibility. He’d never been aware of the perilous web being woven around him, of the fact that none of these jaunts were disjointed activities, each with their isolated goal.

And now he was here, in the back of a dark blue minivan with no windows, the humid damp of the balaclava he wore sticking to his face, making breathing difficult. He couldn’t do this. He’d never known they would ask him to – but there was no time for that. No time to think about the number of times he shouldn’t have walked out that door, the number of times he should have turned Ueno down, the many, many nights he should have decisively put an end to any and all association with the present company.

They were crowded in on all sides, shoulder to shoulder, the cramped space filled with the smell of sour sweat, cheap cologne and the heavy funk of strong tobacco. These men would have no patience for a boy who backed out, even if he said he was young and stupid and regretted everything he’d done. They were wily, experienced, razor-edged and slick with survival instinct. There was no way out for him, not now.

The power of his fear roots him in place, even as his body rebels, his muscles catch and quiver, his breathing hitches sporadically and his bowels cramp and protest. If only … if only he were someone else, someone more equipped to deal with this. If only something, anything, would take over his body and mind, just for tonight. If only something would come along and turn him into the man he should be in this situation; fearless, aggressive, raring for battle, a spitting cobra rearing for a shot between the eyes. But he was not any of those things.

And they were on their way to rob a bank.

You'd made it something of a game over the years. Each person that swam into view in the window of your counter formed a portrait of an unknown life, one you tried your best to embroider.

Head, shoulders, knees and toes, just like the song you used to sing in elementary school. What would the shifting window bring you today?

Ah, here was a grandmother, feeble and infirm. Collecting her pension fund and rambling about her three adult children, including her son who was staying for the month. Most of that pension probably ended up in his pocket.

And here was the man who came every Tuesday since three months ago. Sweating, nervous, smelling faintly of cheap perfume. You'd bet your whole salary that each trip to the bank was followed by a sharp detour out the door to the seedy motel nearby.

Then, the antique shop owner, the family name a well-known one in the area. Pity his father gambled most of their inheritance away. Everyone knew that he lived in the once-fabled traditional home, now dilapidated and infested with mould, a Havisham who rotted beside his antiques in the wedding dress of former renown. His cash withdrawal was minimal, enough to feed him for a week at a time.

Today was spectacularly ordinary. As a financial services representative at this particular branch for an odd five years now, you'd come to recognise your usual patrons, along with the occasional tourist or visitor who'd pay a once-off visit. These were usually recognisable by their clothing, or accents.

Here were two such individuals right now. You'd definitely never seen them before. The man looked to be in his late twenties, wearing the harried, hollow-cheeked look of someone much older. His dark hair was neatly parted, a pair of rectangular spectacles enhancing the earnest, studious nature of his face.

Beside him was a girl with bright blonde hair in an untidy bob. In severe contrast to the man's sober, dark suit, she wore a pair of baggy black jeans, a crop top and oversized jacket, unzipped, over it all. The glitter eyeshadow she wore only served to emphasize her thousand-yard-stare and she looked you up and down appraisingly.

Oh. It was time to adjust to your customer service face. Feeling the stiff muscles of your lower jaw stretch into a wide, practiced smile, you bowed slightly.

"Good day. How may I be of assistance?"

"Ah, I'd like to open an account for my niece here. She's starting college next year and just landed a new job to help pay things off. A flexi-save option would be nice."

"Of course! Mister ...?"

"Ijichi. And my niece here is Miss Nitta."

"Pleasure to meet you."

You turn to the girl in question, eyebrows raising in slight query.

"Would you like to have a look at our options? There are varying interest rates with different benefits to each type of savings account you can open."

She shrugged with the kind of nonchalance that could only come with long practice.

"Uncle's handling all that. I just do the legwork and get my shit together. That's the deal."

Wow. The youth of tod -

You clear your throat and turn to your PC screen, avoiding the errant thought that had come dangerously close to leaping out of your mouth.

"Of course. Give me a minute."

The fairly youthful uncle nods, adjusting his glasses. He looks slightly tense, the poor thing. You would too, if you were planning the financial future of a niece like this. You wondered if he took care of her full-time.

The niece, Nitta, was focused elsewhere, eyes roaming across the high-ceilinged atrium, the neat and ordered rows of seats where clients waited for service, the row of reinforced glass windows that gave way to many small booths like your own.

Out of the corner of your eye, you saw her glancing in one particular direction more often than not. Following the path of her gaze, your own is arrested by the sight of a tall blonde man in a dark suit, red patterned tie vivid against his white shirt. He stands in the queue of a neighbouring window, eyes inscrutable behind dark lenses.

Well, you could hardly fault her for looking at that. He has a stern, cold face, but his chiseled features and imposing stature make him hard to look away from. Speaking of which, you had a job to do.

Turning back to your screen, you complete the series of prompts, until you're finally within the authorized programme for creating a new account.

"All right, can I see some identifica- "

A scream tears through the still peace of the atrium, carving a sudden flaw in of the passage of time. In that moment, you do not think, you do not feel, and your body seems foreign to you. A group of people, dressed in black, waving weapons that were definitely acquired illegally, charge into the open space. Still frozen, you watch as they move like an oil spill across the room, smooth, practiced, herding the panicking crowd with sharp, barked commands and prods of their weapons.

Ijichi and Nitta duck down immediately, and you vaguely hear the bespectacled man shouting at you to do the same. Finally, dragged against the opposing current of shock, your body responds to your wishes. Dropping boneless to your knees, you reach up, fumbling for the panic button beneath your desk.

You press and hold, releasing after 20 seconds. Your mind still hasn't fully caught up with what is occurring, but your body is guiding you through the motions, stilted and half conscious.

The gang that has infiltrated the banking hall seals the doors. One of the burly men is obviously the leader, standing at the centre of the chaos while his lackeys form a co-ordinated chain of carried instructions, the spokes of a turning wheel. One of the gang comes right up to your counter, screaming instructions across to you.

You are still slow to respond, but panic has now asserted itself and you let out a sob of a breath, scrambling to raise your hands above your head and stand as he tells you to. You, and the rest of the employees behind the safety of the barrier, are forced at gunpoint to open up the inter-leading door, flocking out among whimpers, soft pleas and muffled cries to the atrium floor where you are made to lie down along with the rest of the crowd.

You find yourself near Ijichi and his niece, Nitta. You meet his eyes with a blank, stricken stare, mouth half opening in an apology, before you realise how stupid and pointless such a thing would be. How could you have known? You still can't quite grasp what is happening all around you.

Strangely enough, it is Ijichi who counters your disoriented glance with a square sense of reassurance. There is something ... different about him. He seems surprisingly calm, a far cry from the nervousness he showed earlier while opening a bank account for his niece, of all things. The niece in question is also unusually collected, her body coiled with the readiness of physical conditioning. That isn't a normal response to this situation, you're sure of it. She's too young to -

But there isn't time to speculate on this. The gang is rushing behind the tills, one of the managers held at gunpoint pushed roughly to the interior vault where his superior security clearance will allow him to gain access.

Granted, your security isn't state of the art, but it is fair enough to cause some small delay. There are five different checkpoints, each with a unique pass code, and a thumbprint, voice recognition and retina scanner that need to be applied simultaneously.

Turning your attention back to the interior of the atrium, you notice that one of the gang members is behaving a little erratically. His eyes, visible through the small opening of his balaclava, seem just as terrified as that of the people he is holding hostage. His blue, long sleeve shirt is soaked through with large, darker patches of perspiration, creeping down from his armpits, neckline and across his back. His breathing is harsh, audible from where you lie as still as possible, and the way he is holding his weapon is far from expert.

There is a small movement from beside you as ijichi straightens slightly. He is, for some reason, watching that young assailant like a hawk, eyes steady, something like recognition stirring in their depths. Nitta has moved to a crouching position, one of her hands braced on his back.

What are they doing? Surely -

And then, the boy in the balaclava stiffens, as if stuck with a knife. He is now staring past the man next to him as if dazed, his limbs as limp as a marionette whose strings have been abruptly cut. The gun tilts dangerously floorward, and one of his companions yells to him to -

"Get the fuck back in line!"

Something, the likes of which you've never seen, is occurring right before your disbelieving eyes. A jet of viscosity, black as pitch, shoots from the boy's mouth, tearing past the balaclava. The remnants of the knitted fabric land a few feet away, exposing his pale, terrified face, the damp strands of hair that cling to his forehead, the strange look of relief that briefly crosses his features before his eyes close.

They re-open, and you utter a small, involuntary scream. Behind his lids, two neon rings of purple form a flickering gateway to madness, the slow, unhinged smile that sweeps up the corners of his mouth as unnatural as his posture. The men around him pause, exchanging uncertain glances, some of them even re-directing their weapons to his quivering form.

The boy, if he can still be called as such, takes little to no note of the threat from his own former comrades. The crowd of hostages has now noticed the change, cries of alarm ringing out as they see the boy's body contort, arms and legs snapping and twisting to distorted, elongated proportions. One of the other gang members shouts out a hoarse warning before firing a round into the boy's contorted head and chest.

He is ... unharmed. Instead, the nightmarish head sweeps back, the neck stalk-like, flexible. The features seem even more inhuman, his grotesque smile now jagged-edged, the teeth sliding like nails past the shredded, bloody lips. The heist completely forgotten, the men in dark clothes back away, yelling in fear and consternation, weapons clutched in sweat-slicked palms.

What is this? What is -

You scramble backwards, coming up against a firm, warm palm in the small of your back. The muscles of your abdomen and legs are now plagued by small tremors as you turn your head to see Nitta behind you. She doesn't seem quite so young and nonchalant any longer. There is a certain hard quality to her, a readiness for what is to come that takes you completely off guard. Beyond her, Ijichi shoots you a quick glance of apology before nodding at his 'niece'.

His hand raises towards the glass of the atrium ceiling, the cloudy sky outside clearly visible. Nitta mirrors his pose, palm pressed flat against the smooth tile beneath her. Their voices rise above the cacophony, a steady chant that somehow resonates in the furthest reaches of your being.

"Emerge from the darkness ... "

The vision of horror that used to be a human sweeps out an arm, narrowly missing the men who scream and return fire. It seems that he - it - is still learning the use of that body. It stumbles, clawed feet scraping across the floor, leaving deep grooves in its wake.

" ... blacker than darkness ..."

Out of the corner of your eye, you see the group of civilians who has been standing at the counter being ushered to safety further into the lounge at the other end of the room. The man who seals the double doors behind him is one you recognise. The imposing blonde businessman, the one Nitta had been looking at earlier. This was now, in your mind, no mere coincidence.

Who were these people?

" ... purify that which is impure."

It slides from the fingertips of Ijichi and Nitta, a layer of otherness, a barrier between your world and the distortion of reality that has happened in here, in this space that used to be your everyday stronghold of familiarity. Ijichi meets your bewildered gaze and he pauses momentarily, mouth drawing into a regretful line.

"You can see it."

You nod wordlessly and he adjust his glasses, that incongruously stern set of his features directed at something past you.

"Don't worry. It'll be over soon."

One of the criminals spots the movement of Ijichi and Nitta, screaming out to them as they get to their feet on either side of you. 

"Get back down! Don't you fucking move! I'll - "

His words are cut off as one of the monster's flailing, spiked projections lob his left arm right off at the shoulder, the gun falling from the nerveless clasp of the severed hand. The noise that leaves his throat is thick, animal, full of existential fear. He slides forward, the floor now slick with his own blood, eyes bulging as his choked cries echo across the hall.

Two strong hands assert their grip under each of your armpits, dragging you to your feet. You realise that a sound, similar to the one the maimed man had made, was exiting your own throat.

"Easy," comes Ijichi's voice in your ear, "Just breathe. Move with us. It'll be all right."

How? How could any of this ever be all right?

You cannot comprehend how this man could possibly say that, but when you look over at him, there it is, in his eyes behind those rectangular frames. He does believe what he says. He means every word. But how can he -

"Step back, please. You're in the way."

The voice that echoes across the atrium is unlike any of the others, cutting through the chaos with calm, clipped, precise enunciation. It's the blonde businessman, who, you are rapidly realising, is also not what he seems.

He strides across the hall, completely ignoring the threatening gestures and shots fired in his direction by the gang who are now in disarray. He sheds his pinstripe coat, revealing a leather harness fastened across his torso, the dark straps stark against the white of his shirt.

And there is something else, something similar to the strange current you sensed from Ijichi and Nitta earlier, coursing along the powerful lines of his shoulders and arms. It is ... different, but holds a deadly latency that can't be denied. The businessman reaches up and removes his dark glasses, revealing a sharp-cornered, intensely shadowed gaze. He glances across at Ijichi, who straightens and nods in response.

"We'll leave things to you, Nanami."

"Thank you, Ijichi. Get the rest of the hostages to safety."

The rapid gunfight that had been punctuating by yells in the background had now taken a worrying turn. The force of the automatic rifles, puncturing skin and shattering bone, had been driving the monster back, but no longer. It was healing itself, shards of bone annealing, flesh knitting itself back together, blood decanting back into torn vessels as it slowly gained momentum, moving forward and driving them back.

The man called Nanami turned back to the battle, surveying it with the calm of a seasoned veteran. As Ijichi and Nitta help you along, you slowly regain your ability to move, but something kept your gaze fixed on Nanami's broad back as he reached behind him, fingers grasping the handle of what seemed to be a blunt blade wrapped in an oddly patterned cloth. It appeared to be a similar pattern to the one on his tie.

Is he mad? Bullets don't work on that thing! He was going to -

Your thoughts still and die away as an electric rush of that strange energy jets up around Nanami's body, coating him in what looks like armour. One polished leather brogue slides back along the tiles, giving him enough momentum to propel himself forward at inhuman speed. Your eyes can barely follow his movements as he streaks across the atrium, right towards the spinning, shrieking monster.

Now that it had become accustomed to the body it inhabited, the creature was darting forward with swift, jagged motions, dealing terrible slashes and blows to any flesh it encountered. Nanami reaches it, dancing around its flailing arms with ease and grace. It takes note of him, the slide of its bulbous eyes sickening as they gather on either side of its skull, as if to pin down his location better. The remaining gang members take this opportunity to scramble to safety, kicking and clawing each other to the floor in their urgency to escape.

You shout a wordless warning to Nanami, but Nitta's grip on your shoulder gives you a measure of reassurance. They seem to have full faith that this deceptively understated salaryman can handle the reality-bending situation unfolding before your eyes.

And he does.

From the little snippets of the battle that you can follow with comprehension, Nanami's movements match the creature's every step of the way. When its limbs elongate with a sudden snap, he adjusts his distance. When it sends tendrils of smoky substance across the floor, he seems to coat his shoes in that luminous energy, skidding effortlessly across the top of it. When it tries to close in on him, limbs splitting and weaving in tendrils that catch and ensnare, he slices clean through them, that blunt blade doing far more damage than you would have ever thought possible.

The confidence and surety of his block and parry sends a sudden flare of hope through your chest.

Maybe he can beat it! Maybe he can -

The creature let's out a howl of fury, the force of it battering the walls and shattering the windows. You scream as shards of glass blow outwards from the booths where you and your fellow employees had been crouched just a short while before. Covering your face, you brace for the tearing pain, but nothing happens. Peering between your fingers, you see that Ijichi is muttering under his breath, creating another kind of barrier, this one of a smaller radius, around the three of you. The faint patter of glass reaches your ears as the flying shrapnel falls harmlessly off the surface.

But what about Nanami?

A sharp breath escapes your lips as you see him, still standing, facing the wrath of the creature. He remains unphased, but his sleeves have now been rolled up, the smooth shift of sinew and muscle visible beneath skin. You watch as he reaches up, loosening his tie and flicking his wrist out, the spotted red material wrapping around his fist. He begins a measured pace towards the creature, and for the first time, you see it take a step back.

Nanami's smooth, mellow voice sounds through the hall again.

"It's now three in the afternoon. I started work today at nine and I'm going to clock out at five. That leaves me exactly fifteen minutes to finish off with you, forty five minutes of travel time and one hour to complete my paperwork for today."

... what? 

He continues, striding forward as the creature staggers back even further, defensive spikes slowly sliding into place on its arms and knees. He doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by this.

"I would prefer not to incur overtime, so if you would please co-operate with me, I would highly appreciate it."

For all your years in retail and finance, you had never seen customer service handled quite like this.

Nanami flicked his blade straight out, those keen eyes sighting right along the upper edge. He seemed to have assessed something of the creature, because his subsequent lunge was precision itself. The dappled sword swung down, then up and away, severing along some vital line. The ghoulish scream that exited the monster spoke of the damage dealt. It collapsed, clawing at its body as Nanami approached with that predator's prowl; decisive, tranquil.

He crouched right before the recoiling mass of darkness, one arm bending back before his fist slammed with impossible strength right into where the midriff should be. The blast stripped away the last vestiges of whatever had possess the original 'host' in the first place. The slick darkness shivered in its death throes, snaking along the ground before Nanami's heel came down on it with crushing finality.

You let out a breath you'd been holding as the boy, whose body you'd felt would be beyond any kind of repair, slumped to the floor, unconscious. Nanami knelt beside him, fingers enclosing his wrist before glancing up at Ijichi and nodding.

He was alive!

Nitta rushed forward immediately, a cellphone appearing from within her coat, balanced between shoulder and ear as she patted the boy down, searching for further weapons or injuries. She appeared to be calling for some kind of assistance from the outside.

Beside you, Ijichi raised two fingers, and suddenly, a rush of noise reached you from outside; the blare of sirens, the snap and flash of cameras, the commotion of many voices. The barrier they had cast earlier had been lifted. You clamber slowly to your feet, with his assistance.

You have so many burning questions, but you feel that the answers will hold information that might take you some time to process. For now, you'll simply ask about -

"You can see the cursed energy."

Ijichi is watching you, following your movements with attention.

"Cursed ... energy?"

"That's what we call it. Some civilians, like you, can see it, although that's quite rare. It's the duty of those like us to protect humanity from the curses that roam this world. Curses that appear, much like this one."

"So ... you knew it was going to come here? That's why you ... "

"Suspected," he corrects you. "We traced it to this area, but could not pinpoint its location. Then we received a tip-off from law enforcement about a heist that was about to occur at this bank. We made an educated guess as to where the curse would manifest next."

"With ... law enforcement? So all of you are ..."

"Sorcerers, affiliated with Jujutsu Tech. Well, I'm no qualified sorcerer. Simply an assistant director. Nanami is the sorcerer. You'll ... have to come with us, of course. To sign a waiver. There's a lot of paperwork involved with civilian witnesses and victims."

You nod, turning to where the boy who had been ... possessed, for want of a better term, was now being loaded onto a stretcher.

"Was he a victim too, then?"

"Yes. He will have little to no memory of what occurred when he wakes up. Just the events leading up to his arrival here. Everything before that ... will have to be processed through regular law enforcement."

"I see."

You really didn't, but the matter-of-fact manner with which Ijichi was rattling off this information made this fever dream seem halfway believable, if the protocol was anything to go by. Ijichi gestured to you, and you saw that the other hostages were being led out of the safety of the lounge where Nanami had sequestered them earlier.

Speaking of Nanami, you saw his tall figure stride ahead of you. He'd looked over you and the rest of the captives and seemed satisfied that his work here was done. You called out to him as he approached the doors.

"Thank you!"

He paused and turned slightly, that cool, appraising glance taking you in.

"No need. I'm simply doing my job."

"Well then, allow me to thank you ... for letting me clock out on time."

You see the barely perceptible change in his expression, the slight lift of his eyebrows, the tilt at the corner of his mouth.

"Noted."

He turns away and Ijichi ushers you after him, out into the sunlight that strikes your skin like your new-found awareness of the unseen world.

Dividers by: @saradika-graphics

[b4mpyre-k1zz3s]

HEYY girl 💗 could I req a bam x fem reader where they’re enemies to lovers becuase y/n is just as reckless as he is?? Thank you 🫶

The Stuntgirl Rule

Bam breaks the one rule the crew all agreed on when they first added a girl to the group, which wouldn’t be as big of a deal if they didn’t hate each other. All this animosity builds and builds until Y/N finally figures out how to knock Bam down a peg.

Bam Margera X Fem!Reader

(Fluff, Angst)

3.8k Words

Warnings: Extremely suggestive content, enemies to lovers, crude language, blood, snakes, misogyny, Madonna-Whore complex, injuries, hospitals, flirting, slut shaming, situationships

An: Thank you so much for the request!! I’ve come to find out I really do love writing for enemies to lovers pairings :) More than that, I got to do a lot of research for this fic with psychological complexes, especially (as the tags indicate) the Madonna-Whore complex!! If you can’t tell by now, I’m a bit of a nerd when it comes to writing XD I also experimented with making Bam a bit of an unreliable narrator in this one to wort of show his thought process better. I’ve been told my writing takes the asshole out of him but I’m pretty sure this fic put it right back in, so be warned! If you want an idea of the dynamic I was going for, the dynamic betwen Bam and Y/N reminded me a lot of this clip from the 2016 revival of the musical, Falsettos! Ah, my theater kid past…But thank you for the request and please keep sending more!!

Kneeling on the grass, you sat eye to eye with the King Cobra you somehow got a permit to film with. The whole “Kiss of Death” stunt got shuffled around to a couple of the other guys before it landed on you but hell, you couldn’t complain- dangerous shit was kinda your thing, and otherwise the next person in line would’ve been Bam and you knew exactly how that would turn out- the yelling, the laughing, the storming off set. All the guys stood around, looming over you with bated breaths as you slowly leaned over the snake, the hot Florida sun beating down on your skin as the air swam with anticipation. But as you were creeping in, right before your lips made contact with the Cobra’s forehead, the thing lunged at your neck. Everybody hooted and hollered as you grabbed the snake and lurched back in an act of quick reflexes, chuckling in surprise, but before you could crack some wise ass joke, your cockiness betrayed you and that smug grin on your face was wiped right off your face when you felt a pair of fangs sink into your wrist. “Agh! Fuck…” Yanking your hand back, you shook out the sting as you stumbled to your feet. Steve, who was serving as impromptu cameraman after Rick ‘refused any part in your dangerous bullshit’, focused the lense in on the blood that was tricking from your arm, “Shit…that’s gnarly, dude.” Though you probably should have been concerned for yourself, you couldn’t stop thinking about how awesome it looked as Johnny patted you on the back appreciatively, “That was great, Y/N!”

As you were getting walked to the medic tent, the only one who didn’t want any part in your little victory parade was Bam, still sitting half slumped back on set, glaring at you as you walked away. Big whoop, girl gets bit by snake. Last week he got on a teeter totter in the bullpen and you don’t see that on any headlines. Maybe he hated the way the guys talked and joked with you like you were one of them even though you joined the Jackass cast less than a month ago. On the other hand, maybe he was still pissed off by the very real but entirely unspoken ‘Don’t Fuck the Stuntgirl’ rule. Of course Bam brought that sorta thing up when you first joined because he’ll there’s a lot you can do once you’ve got a chick in your group, but Johnny quickly shut the idea now by saying since they wouldn’t screw any of the other guys in the crew, they’d be keeping their hands off of you. Keeps things from getting awkward when you gotta see eachother on Monday, you know? But since Bam’s running theory of you only having gotten on set after getting into Knoxville’s pants hadn’t been disproven, he wrote it off as him making the whole thing up to keep the pretty girl all to himself. Greedy asshole. Who was he to say what he could and couldn’t stick his dick into? God, he bet the whole crew was passing you around- behind trailers, in empty hotel rooms, or what about those porta-potties on set…Bam decided to stop thinking about that once some things got stirred in his mind he didn’t really want to think about too long.

Getting bandaged up in the medic tent, you hardly noticed when Bam walked in after everybody left, watching quietly and scanning you up and down from where he stood. He looked from the bruises on your knees Bam was sure he knew the source of, to your baggy clothes that always made you look like a guy with the way they sat on your body, to your hair that was unkempt and showed just how little you cared about your appearance in his eyes. You were the exact opposite of Bam’s type in women- that dark lipstick tight bootcut fantasy goth chick with a great ass that also wasn’t a bitch. Looking up from where you were bleeding through your gauze, you made eye contact with him nonchalantly, “What is it?” Bam’s eye twitched at the disinterested tone in your voice but he kept up the whole smug thing, “You cryin’?” The medic had to scoot out of the way as you leaned in towards him and squinted at the realization that Bam was getting that whole ‘hating you’ stick up his ass again. “Does it look like I’m crying?” Part of him wanted to see you cry. Bam’s eyes drifted back to your hair, thinking about how satisfying it would be to grab a handful of it and yank you to your feet with his lips pressed tight against your ear as he said every awful word he was too nice to say to your face- that he knew everything about nasty hoes like you worked, and while it was cute how quickly the guys took to you, he was getting pretty damn sick of it so it was time for you to get the hint and hit the road. But he didn’t.

The medic passed you a container of pills that you palmed and that’s when Bam got an idea, “That snake oughta be on antibiotics instead’a you.” Scoffing at his unoriginal joke, you cocked your head to the side, “Really? You think a little blood’s that nasty? Y’damn baby…” Outside the tent, there was no doubt amongst the guys that another one of your petty fights were starting and nobody was looking forward to it. Well, except you. You found the little bickering thing you had with him fun, especially with all the weak ass insults Bam threw at you. “I mean, anything that comes outta you’s nastier than whatever Steve-O’s got goin’ on in him- that guy’s a disease nest.” This was too easy. “Yeah, says the guy who let him tongue his ass wound...” Wait, you were at that party too- the one where Steve popped ecstasy and went around kissing everyone cause he ‘felt good’? Bam’s jaw clenched at the way you always had an answer to him- how dare you one up him. He jabbed a finger at your chest, “Oh, don’t talk that shit. You wouldn’t even have the balls to get branded in the first place!” Unable to help yourself from cracking a smile, your giddiness was apparent in your voice, “I got more balls than you do.” As much as you hated how much of a little bitch he could be, you always thought the back and forth thing you had between him wasn't ever that serious (a contrast to the way Bam viewed it). Delight filled you as he stormed out of the flap of the white medical tent, blushing and emasculated and- while he would never admit this, kind of turned on by the angry banter like it was some kinda foreplay.

You needed soap. That’s how it started- after shooting one day, you went back to the hotel and noticed halfway through your shower that the room service lady forgot to leave any of those tiny complimentary soaps. Groaning, you got out of the comfortable, warm, sorely needed shower and put on a towel, thinking you could go next door and get some from the guys. It’s not like you hadn’t seen them naked before, so them seeing you in a towel was no big deal. Water dripped off of your legs as you walked out into the hallway, pushing open the door to their room which was left unlocked. From what you could tell, they had gone to the hotel bar promptly after filming, so you didn’t bother to announce your presence as you walked in. However, you had one major oversight in this- Bam, who you didn’t notice from where he was sitting on one of the beds on the near side of the room. Now, you and him could have gone on just hating and fucking with each other and everything would’ve been fine, but this one incident would change it.

From where he sat on the bed, Bam silently watched as you walked around like you owned the place, softly humming to yourself as you rummaged through their shower- through his shower, the towel you wore riding up dangerously high on the backs of your thighs, skin still glistening wet as you bent over, nabbing a few little bottles of shampoo and conditioner. He glared at you with contempt through your reflection in the mirror. You’d probably do this even if the whole crew was here, wouldn’t you? Just stroll on in, nearly naked, parading yourself around in front of all those dudes like it was nothing. Shameless. He knew better than anything what that kinda porno logic setup would devolve into. Wait- christ, was he…? Oh, oh yeah. Yep. Bam couldn’t believe himself- he was actually getting hard. More than that, you had no clue he was there in the first place even as you turned to leave, and you wouldn’t have noticed him at all if he didn’t stand up to catch your attention. “What’re you doin’?” Turning around, you met Bam’s gaze, maybe six inches away from his body as you held up your towel with one hand and presented him your spoils in the other, “I’m getting soap…?” Unceremoniously plucking one of the bottles from your hands, he squinted at you like he was accusing you of something, “So you think y’can just waltz on in here and take my shit whenever you feel like it?”

Looking around at the empty room, you got an idea to really get under his skin. You know how Bam uses his little rich boy MTV paycheck to get whatever he wants? Well your pockets may not be lined as generously but you still found a way. Taking a step forward, you pressed your body right up against his, the same way you saw all those flirty girls do to him at the bar, letting your towel slip down a little as your voice dropped into a teasing coo, trying to provoke him, “Aww, what’s the matter? You don’t like sharing?” While you were referring to the soap, Bam took it as a double entendre and thought there was no way you didn’t mean it in the way he was thinking- what with the way your chest was squished tight against his torso or how you were practically straddling his thigh in, and this is important here, only a towel. In your eyes, this was the same as any other day you were going back and forth on set, but Bam, oh. He could feel the surge of hormones in his bloodstream as his breath caught in his throat, Adam’s apple bobbing slightly. The way your body was curving against his nearly made him forget about why he hated you so much. Snapping back to reality, he couldn't tell if this was anger or lust that made him speechless, but it was probably a mix of the two. Leaning in closer, you pressed your lips close to your ear, his very obvious state of arousal only fueling your teasing as you words fell slow, melodically from your lips as you enunciated, trying to keep yourself from laughing and fucking it all up. “I’m gonna take this soap back to my room, and I am going to rub it over every inch of my wet. Naked. Body- and you are gonna do nothing about it. So, uh…” Reaching out with a grin, you grabbed the bottle back from Bam’s frozen hand. Now, logic would dictate that this is right about when the two of you would say fuck it and start going at eachother, but that’s not what you had in mind. “Thanks!” Slipping out the door and shutting it loudly, you left him standing there- unable to respond, entirely conflicted, and hard. Fuck.

Why was this happening? He was Bam Margera- Bam fucking Margera- he could have hordes of playboy bunnies folowing him arround wherever he want and fawning over him like their lives depended on it, but noooo. He had to fall for the gross chick he worked with. Perfectly fine, well-adjusted (debatable) women literally threw themselves at his feet on a day to day basis, and the one he’s got his eye set on? Yeah, last week she was doing lines of Tabasco sauce with Steve-O off the table at Denny’s cause they got bored waiting for their food. What a catch. He didn’t even want to meet up with the guys to go pick up chicks at the bar anymore- you know, the civilized kind that wore makeup and shoes you couldn’t skateboard in. And you didn’t even want him the way those girls wanted him- you were messing with his head like some succubus. Very quietly, he sat back down in the bed and thought about some things.

Bam was having a hard time letting everything that was happening with you go- that’s not the kind of guy he is, you know? Too many big feelings in a small package gotta go somewhere. So when he showed up on set the next day, hyped up to do that stunt where he was set to get shot by a riot control shotgun wearing nothing but a leather jacket for protection, his emotions were not in any way subdued when he caught word that Knoxville gave the stunt to you. “Dude!” Storming up to confront him, Bam pulled the asshole away from whatever conversation he was having with Jeff, “I mean, seriously? You got Y/N to do the stunt and not me?” Sticking his hands up in a mercy gesture, Johnny stammered but managed to explain himself, “I’m just sayin, man- It’d work better for her! You know- you have your skating stuff, she’s got the dangerous stuff! You could always watch from the sidelines…” Yeah, real nice save there, Knoxville. Bam hated whenever you did stunts- not because he didn’t like that you were equally as reckless as him, no way- it’s just that he thought chicks shouldn’t be doing dangerous shit, and you were always there to throw yourself in harm's way, and that annoyed him. You were standing off to the side, joking around with Chris and Steve when you felt someone suddenly grab your shoulder from behind and roughly spin you around to face him, “You know, I had some fuckin’ ideas about you, Y/N, but this really takes the cake.” Grimacing, you stood eye to eye with Bam, a little too close to his body to be comfortable. “What the hell are you talking about?” Bam took a step back, eyeing you up and down as he got ready to say what had been eating away at him for weeks. His voice was tense as he nearly growled, “You’re fuckin’ Knoxville.” What?

“Wait, I’m fucking Knoxville?” You certainly were not, but your mind put two and two together lightning fast, tracing his train of thought. It was like a switch flipped in you as rage curled up in your stomach, springing out of your mouth in words that dripped with venom, “Oh, please! You’re probably takin’ it up the ass from all of ‘em!” It was only natural that you would deny it- I mean, it’s kinda taboo for people to admit that they’re sleeping with their boss. But Bam couldn’t summon the words he needed to use to defend himself from what you claimed, so he said the only words his anger-fried brain could come up with, “Fuck you!” Flashing a grin, you got all in his personal space as your voice went from anger to condescension, “Oh, you wish.” Back to the snarky shit with this woman. Okay, maybe he did, but that was none of your business. Bam pressed his lips together as he could feel the tips of his ears heating up, and he couldn’t tell if he was getting flustered from the way you were challenging him or how correct what you were insinuating was. The fact that your lips were nearly touching his wasn't helping either. Taking advantage of your close proximity, Bam quickly reached out and snatched the shotgun from where you were gripping it and dashed off.

Oh, you said Bam had no balls? Yeah, he’s got more balls than the tri-state lottery, bitch. Shoving the gun into Ryan’s hands, he didn’t even notice when Rick started filming from where he was setting up the camera for the stunt you were supposed to do. Stepping back, Bam smacked his own chest twice in a challenging gesture, looking at his best friend but saying words he wanted to say to you, “C’mon, man. Hit me. Do it!” Knowing better than anyone the way he could get into these kinds of moods, Ryan knew the only way to talk him down was to go along with whatever stupid plan he had in mind. Groaning, he steadied the sight on where Bam was standing, aiming for his stomach where it would result in the least damage, and pressed his finger against the trigger. This loud, sickening whip cracking sound made everyone on set jump. The man on the other end of the barrel doubled over with this noise you only hear out of dying animals, falling to the ground with a thump as every ounce of air wooshed out of his lungs in a second. It was the way Bam looked like roadkill with how he curled up on the ground, not making a sound or movement, that made you feel a shred bad for him for the very first time. Looking around, you were the first person to call out, “…Medic?”

Internal bleeding they said. Three broken ribs on account of Dunn’s stellar marksmanship and a gnarly bruise, or so you heard from when the guys gathered around his bedside and were all gasps and oohs after Bam pulled down the sheets in when Steve asked to take a look at it. But after everyone was done grimacing and telling him how awesome the footage would turn out, they flooded out the door and the only person who remained was you, smugly sitting in one of those stiff hospital chairs as Bam lay across from you in his bed, hooked up to electrodes and shit like they do in movies. But there was something different in your eyes as you got up to his bedside- not so much your usual loathing towards him, but more so fascination. Bam got knocked down a peg, and you were satisfied knowing his ego was bruised alongside those abs of his he so loved to flaunt.

Bam’s words came out in a weak mumble as he looked up at you, “What d’you want?” As much as he tried to appear all tough and be a big angry man, you couldn’t help but find the sight of him laying back with his hair a little messy and that glossy look in his eyes from the epidural kinda cute with how vulnerable he was. He couldn’t make fun of you when he was at your mercy like this, what with not being able to even sit up on his own, much less fight or come up with any worthwhile insults. With one finger, you pointed down to the swollen, dark purple mark on Bam’s pale skin, lit up from the light flooding in the window. You nearly snickered, “I wanna touch it.” Crossing his arms over his chest, Bam scoffed at your suggestion, “Fine, whatever….It doesn’t even hurt- oh, fuck!“ Recoiling when you poked the tender bruise, Bam nearly let out a whimper as he winced, pain shooting through his chest. Letting out a breathy groan, he muttered, his head falling back against the pillow, “Don’t- don’t do that…” Part of you wanted to laugh at him, call him a pussy, and go find out wherever the other guys were headed, but another part of you, maybe one you went too eager to own up to, couldn’t deny that he looked kind of pretty when he got fucked up, all fragile and defeated. Like it activated something primal in you, this unconscious attraction towards broken things. You came to the realization that, when that mouth and that attitude of his wasn’t fucking it up, he was pretty hot.

The thing is, both of you liked each other, but neither were too eager to jump at that whole romcom style ‘confessing your feelings’ thing, so for the next few weeks, you tried to keep up the whole hating each other charade. Like when you and him were on the mini-ramp Chris hauled to set with his truck to give you something to do in between filming, and Bam just kept messing up whatever trick he was intent on doing that day. Up he’d go, then down to the plywood with a slam that left him a shiny new bruise- back and forth. “Y’know, it’s a lot easier to do tricks once you’ve learned to stay on your board.” You taunted, kicking up your board to stand on the one side of the ramp. But as he was about to reply with some smart ass response, Bam nailed whatever stupidly over complicated thing he was attempting. “Hahaha! Yes!” Popping his board up with one foot and, turning to you with a triumphant grin, he did one of those victory crotch grabs. “Suck it!” Ignoring the fact that, given the right circumstances, you probably would’ve taken him up on that offer, you rolled your eyes, looking him up and down in a way you hoped looked sarcastic as you spat, “Yeah, in your dreams.” Still, while the venom in your words was still there, it was dulled in a way, like a swallowing a spoonful of sugar after bitter medicine. “Oh, I’d rather rip my dick off and shove it up my ass before I let you suck it!” Bam had the same shitty comebacks as ever.

And the fact that you two were phoning it in wasn’t lost in the slightest on the rest of the guys. They’d try to drop hints to Bam and say that if he’s got the hots for you that it’d be a good idea to try not being an asshole for once, but he’d just laugh them off and tell them that that’s what chicks like nowadays- assholes. But they had no clue. All anyone else knew was that the seemingly boiling hatred you had for each other had melted into a mere simmer, practically friendly banter. Maybe Bam didn’t hit the mark when he said you were fucking the whole crew, but was right about you being shameless, as he would come to find out a few weeks into whatver the two of you had going on. But now, he wasn't one to complain when you pulled him behind a trailer on set, or into an empty hotel room- hell, even into one of those porta-potties on set. Honestly, it was just like how he imagined.

[purpleheartskies]

Robby is the protagonist

... in terms of the role a protagonist plays in a story

Also titled: Robby is the underdog - Part 3

Other posts in this series:

Robby is the underdog - Part 1

Robby is the underdog - Part 1.5

Robby has a Hero's Journey (Robby is the underdog - Part 2)

Robby is the underdog- Part 4

The Road Back in Robby's Hero's Journey (Robby is the underdog - part 5)

Robby is the underdog - Part 6

Robby is the underdog - Part 7

Robby's Hero's Journey - The Character Archetypes (Robby is the underdog - Part 8)

Putting Johnny and Daniel aside for now, I'm going to first focus on Robby as the protagonist amongst the younger generation. Then, I'll go into Robby's importance in Johnny's and Daniel's stories, followed by Robby's importance and role in the dojo war. I'll be making comparisons between Robby and Miguel, specifically.

Protagonist vs main pov character

The protagonist of a story isn't always the main pov character, or may not be a pov character at all. By definition, a protagonist has a specific role in the story compared to a pov character. It's not often that the protagonist and main pov character are separate characters in a story, but there are stories like this. Popular examples include Sherlock Holmes, The Great Gatsby, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and To Kill a Mockingbird.

There are different reasons writers may do this:

One reason may be because the perspective of the protagonist isn't as easy to understand and relate to. The Cobra Kai writers have said that Johnny and Miguel are archetypal characters that fans can relate to.

Another reason is to allow for observation, and moreover, to disguise the motivations and intentions of the protagonist. The role of any pov character is to provide the view into the story. They are the audience surrogate. By keeping the protagonist's pov hidden, writers can provide an air of mystery to them, until the writers want the protagonist's view to be known. They can do this either by shifting to the protagonist's pov or by having the pov character(s) learn the protagonist's pov. Interestingly, the CK writers have said that the story is from the bully's perspective. Johnny and Miguel are two of the main pov characters. Miguel has provided the perspective of his and Robby's rivarly so far.

The third reason may be to create irony and juxtaposition. This is in the case that the pov character and the protagonist have opposing characteristics, some that aren't always explicitly portrayed. Although Miguel seemed to be the "good kid" and Robby the "bad kid" at the start of the series, their true characters are weaved into the story. For example, throughout the series, Miguel is entitled, lacks empathy, and doesn't take accountability, whereas Robby exhibits humility, is empathetic, and takes accountability.

The irony can be stretched to outright unreliability. The pov characters' views of the protagonist may be entirely wrong. This is definitely the case for Robby. The story is being told mainly through Miguel's and Johnny's povs, and they are "unreliable narrators". Their povs and the povs that other characters have of Robby are skewed because of how they perceive themselves and how they perceive Robby.

Ali: "You both think there's only one side to the story." Johnny: "I know. There's two." Ali: "No, there's three. There's your side and your side, and then there is the truth."

The purpose of dramatic irony is to present a juxtaposition between what is presented on the surface of a story and what is really occurring under the surface. Doing this adds layers of meaning to the story, offers deeper insights into the thematic principles, and shows the audience something that the characters themselves are missing. In Cobra Kai, these additional layers in the story are present throughout. For example, the contrast in Johnny's behavior with each boy is presented with this juxtaposition in all 5 seasons. Some examples of juxtaposition in s5 include the scene where Johnny calls out Daniel for reeking of booze and then hands him a beer, which Daniel thanks him for later. In this same scene, Johnny claims to have gotten Robby out of Cobra Kai, which is far from the truth. Daniel also said that Johnny cares for both boys, which doesn't match what's portrayed in all 5 seasons. After the apartment fight, Miguel told Robby that he learned karate to find balance and not hurt people, which isn't true. He learned Cobra Kai first, which doesn't involve finding balance. He's also used his karate to hurt Robby multiple times, including choosing the apartment fight so that he could hurt Robby again as he's always felt justified to. Afterwards, Johnny said that the boys beat each other into submission. Also not true. Submission means that one party becomes compliant to the other, and the audience was shown that Robby submit to Miguel. The list goes on. All of this is intentional as it's meant to show the audience that, for example, Johnny hasn't changed---he just believes that he has and tries to present to others that he has---, and that Miguel is the bully and not the underdog character between him and Robby.

If the role of the pov character is to provide the view into the story, what is the role of the protagonist?

The protagonist in a story is the character who offers the most conflict in situations, has the longest emotional journey, and has a primal goal to root for. Their transformation shapes the story's theme. Their choices and motivations affect the direction of the story. They're at the center of the conflict and their decisions push the plot forward. In a story with multiple characters with journeys, there is ultimately one character who is the primary driver of the overall story and their story tells the theme of the overall story. The other characters' can be protagonists in their own journeys but these become subplots of varying levels of importance. The protagonist is the character whose fate matters most. They have the highest stakes and the greatest obstacles.

Compared to Miguel, Robby has all the characteristics of a protagonist.

What makes Robby the protagonist of the overall story?

Robby has a Hero's Journey that is related to the story's theme of "finding balance".

Robby has a "want", "need", and "internal struggle" that drive his Hero's Journey. The "internal struggle" is usually tied to the "need". Miguel has "wants" and he probably has a "need", but he doesn't have an "internal struggle" related to that "need". In fact, he doesn't have much of an overarching emotional journey throughout the series. His injury arc and the Mexico arc for example could have been used to give his story more emotional depth, but they weren't used for this. In fact, those two arcs were used to emphasize that Johnny is willing to sacrifice his relationship with Robby and sacrifice Robby himself to maintain his relationship with Miguel, which in turn resulted in more trauma for Robby and made both his "want" and his "need" harder to achieve. That is, those two arcs served Robby's overarching journey more than they served Miguel's. Along with Miguel's lack of relevance to the overall plot (the dojo war), Miguel's lack of an overarching emotional journey is becoming more and more apparent each season. Miguel overall is a static character. For example, in the school fight, he did "strike first, strike hard, show mercy sometimes". In the apartment fight, he did the same thing, despite his injury and learning some Miyagi-Do. In contrast, Robby is a dynamic character who is constantly growing, positively and negatively, throughout his journey.

Robby's character introduction / Ordinary World for his Hero's Journey was his scenes in s1e4 to s1e5, up to the Inciting Incident. In turn, Miguel has no character introduction that fits the "Ordinary World" stage of a Hero's Journey. His first scenes are introducing himself to Johnny, being saved by Johnny while being bullied, asking Johnny to open a dojo for him, and Johnny eventually telling him that he'll be his sensei. All of those scenes are about the role he'll play in Johnny's character story. His scenes in the next few episodes continue to build on the plot and his role in Sam's story, while not building on his character or his Ordinary World.

Each season, many of Robby's decisions play a crucial role in the story. Moreover, he has a very character-driven story, where his decisions and actions as he reacts (mostly trauma responses) drives his own story, but greatly affects the plot and other characters' journeys as well. In general, Robby's character provides the most uncertainty in the story. For example, Robby showed up unexpectedly at the s1 avt, and Johnny's students using "no mercy" on Robby, specifically, changed Johnny's view on "no mercy" and prompted Daniel to reopen Miyagi-Do. Also, Robby's actions at the end of the school fight impacted all of the characters' stories moving forward. At the end of s3, the most resounding shifts in alliances occured because Robby chose to stay with Kreese at Cobra Kai and Johnny allied himself with Daniel. Even Hawk changing sides was most greatly influenced by Robby's change in alliance. In fact, Robby has played an important role in Hawk's journey despite them barely interacting throughout the series. In s4 and s5, Robby continued to make decisions that impacted the other characters, such as officially joining Cobra Kai and teaching them Miyagi-Do in s4 and deciding to stay and help Johnny find Miguel after Johnny ditched Robby at the bus stop in s5.

Robby's had independent arcs and is the only teen with side characters meant for him only and whose involvements served purposes in his arcs. In s1, he was dealing with his partners-in-crime and bullies, Trey and Cruz. In s2, he was dealing with Shannon abandoning him. In s3, he had his juvie arc with Shawn. In s4, he mentored Kenny. In fact, Kenny's introduction and character journey were created as an extension from Robby's character journey, which hasn't been done for any other kid. Robby continues to play an important role in Kenny's journey.

Robby is distinctly given the same importance as the senseis. He mentored a student, taught an entire dojo a style of karate, and was the "next one to land on their arms" when Silver and Kim were talking about Daniel, Johnny, and Chozen being pests. Robby is the only kid to fight alongside a sensei (Johnny). Robby is also the "mentor" trying to resolve the rivalry between Kenny and Anthony.

Robby is being built up as a leader / central figure for the kids. In s5, Robby was shown in a front & center position for both dojos in s5.

Robby is the only character to be in one of the conflicts in every mid-season episode and finale since s1e10:

s1e10 - avt final match

s2e5 - mall fight

s2e10 - school fight

s3e5 - juvie fight

s3e10 - dojo fight with Kreese and Johnny

s4e5 - Cobras shaving Hawk's mohawk

s4e10 - avt final match

s5e5 - apartment fight

s5e10 - dojo brawl

Robby is the most connected overall to all the other characters. For example, in s5, Robby directly influenced or interacted with the following characters: Johnny, Daniel, Miguel, Tory, Kenny, Carmen, Sam, Hawk, Demetri, Anthony, Chozen, and Silver. Robby was mentioned in important scenes by Shannon and even Kim when he wasn't present.

Robby's portrayed to have deeper connections with Sam and Tory than Miguel has with them. While Robby was in Miyagi-Do, he had the "love story" with Sam, the main girl in Miyagi-Do. While Robby was in Cobra Kai, he had the "love story" with Tory, the main girl in Cobra Kai. Robby's relationships with each of them were developed slowly as friendships first. In turn, Miguel started dating each girl soon after the first time he talked to them. Robby had the "meet cute" with Sam, while Miguel just stared at her from afar because she was with another guy. Robby got the prom entrance and main dance, despite not being a student in school, while Miguel watched Robby steal the show. Robby has fought successfully alongside each girl: Sam in the s2 mall fight and Tory in the s4 prom fight. Despite being broken up and in other relationships, Robby and Sam still have a deep connection, like Robby appearing in Sam's dream and them still being able to do the wheel technique in s5. In turn, Miguel and Tory have shared just one "moment" (during the prom fight) together since their break up.

Between Robby and Miguel, Robby has the traits of a traditional hero, rejects the toxic empowerment of Cobra Kai philosophies, and is the best example of positive/healthy masculinity in the story. Rocky is referenced a lot throughout the story as someone Johnny looks up to. Rocky is a popular protagonist, underdog character, and example of positive/healthy masculinity in film.

Throughout s5, the narrative did an interesting recap of Robby's journey. References to or redos of moments from Robby's character journey from s1 to s4 were sprinkled throughout the entire season. (This is yet another post or series of posts I can make.) This makes sense because Robby is the protagonist, and s5 was priming the audience for Act 3.

Although the story started with Miguel as seemingly the protagonist, Robby's role as the actual protagonist becomes more apparent at the end of s1e5 and more so as the series has gone on, making Miguel a "false/decoy protagonist". In s1e5, Robby's story picked up with the Inciting Incident in his Hero's Journey.

Miguel hasn't been an underdog since he beat his bullies in s1e5. Even after his injury, Miguel has resumed his position as one of the top fighters, if not the top fighter. Robby wins important fights, but by the end of s5, he has lost two avts and lost to his bully/rival. Robby started out the series with the most odds against him. Going into the final season, he still has the most odds against him and is even worse off than at the start of his journey. He faces the greatest obstacles and has the most uncertainty and stakes for his future. The Karate Kid story is about the underdog winning in the end against all the odds that are against him/her. Robby has the greatest odd against him, making Robby the underdog in the story.

Robby's importance in Johnny's and Daniel's stories

Robby has always played an important role in Johnny and Daniel's rivalry. In s1 and s2, Robby was the link between Johnny and Daniel. He was a reason for contention between them in a lot of their scenes in s1e9/10, s2e1, s2e5 (Johnny found out that Robby was living with Daniel), and s2e10. In s2e10, Robby suggested that Johnny and Daniel can learn from each other. In s3e2, Daniel and Johnny teamed up to look for Robby. In s3e8, they both came to juvie to pick up Robby and argued. In s4e1, Sam approached Robby believing that he was needed to unite Johnny and Daniel. This was despite Robby choosing to stand against them and with Kreese the last time they saw each other. Sam even went behind Miguel's back to do this. In s4e5, Robby and the Cobras shaving Hawk's head led to Johnny and Daniel's already weakened alliance falling apart because they disagreed on how to handle the situation. In s4e10, Robby teaching the Cobras Miyagi-Do led to Daniel teaming up with Johnny to coach Sam in her match. Even though Robby wasn't physically present with Johnny and Daniel, he played a critical role in affecting their alliance in s4. In turn, Miguel was clearly used as a plot device in Johnny's rivalry with Daniel in s4. Miguel has no significance in Daniel's story otherwise. Meanwhile, Robby has deep connections with both Johnny and Daniel since s1.

Amongst the kids, Robby narratively plays the most important role in Johnny and Daniel's stories.

In the opening shots of Johnny's story and the series, Robby's picture is shown on Johnny's fridge setting up Robby's significance to Johnny almost immediately. Johnny's relationship with Robby is the first relationship introduced for Johnny's character in this series. They have very few scenes together other than the Mexico arc in s5, but their relationship overshadows Johnny's character journey. The goal of Johnny's redemption as a character is his "need" to fight his inner demons and make amends with Robby.

"I love you too Robby"

Subtle similarities are shown between Johnny and Robby throughout the series using various shots or actions. For example, Robby and young Johnny put their headphones on to block out their parents, the way Robby is dejectedly sitting and eating a sandwich in s3e2 is exactly the way Johnny is dejectedly sitting and eating a sandwich in s2e5, the shot of Robby going to Kreese at the end of s3e8 is framed similarly to the shot of Johnny stopping Kreese at the end of s2e1, Robby's fight with Kenny in s5e10 is similar to Johnny's fight with Robby in s3e10, and Robby's most used move is sweeping the leg (Johnny's iconic move from kk1) though Robby is never shown learning that move.

Johnny and Miguel's popular and seemingly generic sensei-student story has always been overshadowed by Robby's existence in the story. It makes Robby an unpopular character, however his existence is the basis of Johnny and Miguel's relationship. Robby was right when he said that Johnny is just using Miguel to feel better about screwing up with Robby. Robby's existence is one of the greatest subversions in this "deadbeat loser meets a kid who changes his life" and "underdog kid meets a mentor who helps build him into a champion" generic story. In fact, the generic layers of Johnny and Miguel's story have lost emphasis as the series has gone on, and they're both somewhat sidelined in the dojo war, Miguel much moreso than Johnny has been.

Meanwhile, Johnny and Robby's relationship continues to be a highlight. Kreese and Silver make a point to remind Johnny that Robby is his "real" son and remind him of his failures with Robby. Kreese wanted to pass down his legacy to Robby because he's Johnny's son. Narratively, Robby is Johnny's weakness, and Kreese and Silver use Robby against him. In s3, Bobby met Robby in person and experienced Johnny choosing Miguel over Robby. Ali asked about Robby specifically, despite seeing Johnny's Facebook page filled with pics and videos of Miguel.

Throughout the series, there is an overarching plotline since s1e4 that Johnny chooses Miguel over Robby. In s5, the Mexico trip and apartment fight were used to portray the continued dysfunctional dynamic in Johnny's relationship with Robby: Johnny will choose the Diazs over Robby, even if Robby is compliant to Johnny. After Johnny found out about the baby, Johnny kept bringing up his failures with Robby, even late into s5. In fact, the last statement made by a character about Johnny becoming a father again is Silver's jab that Johnny will "screw up another kid", a reference to Johnny's abysmal behavior with Robby. The statement was bookended by scene transitions between Johnny and Robby. (End of this post.)

In s5, Johnny kept mentioning his failures with Robby when it came to the baby plot device. Johnny obviously hasn't been redeemed, as he himself keeps bringing up his failures. (Another example of irony and juxtaposition in s5.) The plot device baby had the greatest impact on Robby's character journey though, not even on Johnny's. Johnny once again went through his round-about arc of trying to change but ending the same, as in previous seasons when he's tried to make positive changes. The impacts of the plot device on Carmen and Miguel were barely explored. Johnny used the baby to force a violent "resolution" to the rivalry, which Robby lost. (Again, more juxtaposition. Johnny is failing Robby more as Johnny selfishly prepares for the baby coming and tries to use the baby to make up for screwing up with Robby.) After Johnny accidentally dropped the baby new, Robby completely adopted a fawn response and spent the rest of the season people-pleasing.

In Daniel's case, Robby is the student that Daniel has the greatest attachment to, aside from his own kids of course. Robby, not Miguel, is the most connected and cared about by the LaRussos, especially the OG Karate Kid. Daniel wanted to be a Mr. Miyagi to Robby (though Daniel has failed in doing so since s2e10).

Compared to the other mentor-mentee pairs (Miyagi-Daniel, Johnny-Miguel, Robby-Kenny), Daniel offered to train Robby (Robby's Call to Adventure). In s1, Robby is shown receiving the Miyagi-style training from Daniel that Daniel had received from Miyagi in kk1. In s2, Robby helped Daniel rebuild and bring back Miyagi-Do. Daniel brought Robby into his home and called him family at one point, fulfilling parental responsibilities for Robby in addition to being his sensei. After the school fight, Daniel searched continuously for Robby for 2 weeks. After Robby got out of juvie, Daniel went to pick him up and told him that Miyagi-Do will always be a home for him. Later, Daniel was so worried about Robby that he was taking it out on his students. In s4, Daniel went to warn Robby about Silver. In s5, after Daniel gave up his fight against Silver, only Robby was able to convince him to come back to the fight, showing just how important Robby is to Daniel.

Robby played a role each time Daniel closed Miyagi-Do. At the end of s2, Daniel closed Miyagi-Do because of Robby's actions at the end of school fight. At the beginning of s5, Daniel closed Miyagi-Do because they lost the tournament. Although they lost because of Silver paying off the ref, Robby teaching the Cobras Miyagi-Do had put Miyagi-Do at a noticable disadvantange, to the extent that Daniel gave Robby a talking to about giving Miyagi-Do "secrets" away.

Although Miguel is Sam's boyfriend, he barely has importance in Daniel's story or to the LaRussos. Daniel had no conversations with Miguel in s5 despite the time they spent together in s4. Amanda and Anthony haven't even spoken to Miguel alone, while Robby has had one on one conversations with each of them. Anthony praises Robby's karate and looks up to him, while not interacting much with Miguel. Anthony was excited about karate for the first time while watching Robby fight Hawk in the s1 avt. Anthony is connected to Robby through the rivalry with Kenny, which is Anthony's most important storyline.

Robby's importance and central role in the dojo war

Throughout the series, Robby has been at the center of the dojo war between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai. In s1 and s2, Robby linked Daniel and Johnny. In s3, Robby was the only kid approached by all 3 senseis. Each offered him a place with them. In s4, Robby was the only kid to have one-on-one scenes with each sensei. In s5, he was the only one in Miyagi Fang who had people in Cobra Kai that he cared about. (I'm not counting Johnny and Devon cause Johnny forgot about her pretty quickly, while Robby kept making efforts with Tory and Kenny and had rejoined Miyagi-Do to take down Silver to help them.)

Robby is the only one of the kids to have had full season arcs in each dojo. Robby is also the only kid to have fought in a final match in both avts and for each dojo in a final match: Miyagi-Do in s1 and Cobra Kai in s4. Interestingly, both times he wasn't wearing the dojo's emblem when he finished each match. He was wearing the plain white gi in s1 and took off his gi top in s4. At the s4 avt, the two main dojos in the dojo war were introduced with reference to Robby. Robby has had avt matches with all the main boy characters: Miguel, Hawk, Demetri, and Kenny.

In contrast, Miguel's role in the dojo war has noticably diminished since the school fight. This is another reason Miguel fails to fulfill the role of a true protagonist in the story, as many are starting to notice. Overall, he's mostly been a supporting character to other characters and is a foil to Robby's character. The injury and Johnny creating Eagle Fang effectively sidelined Miguel in the dojo war, while still giving him some scenes here and there to make it seem like he has some relevance to the overall plot in s3 to s5. Johnny is still pulled into the dojo war from time to time because of Daniel, Kreese, or Silver. Johnny also helped coach Sam in the s4 avt final, making Johnny as a sensei significant during the avt finals, while Miguel ran off to a plotline that essentially went nowhere for him.

Of all the kids, the cycle of generational trauma is being passed down to Robby specifically from all the senseis: Kreese to Johnny to Robby (as emphasized in the s3 finale flashbacks and confrontations at the dojo) and Silver to Daniel to Robby. (Daniel's history with Cobra Kai affects his view of Robby, "too much Johnny in him".)

Robby in turn has tried to mentor Kenny better and actively try to break the cycles of generational trauma from both Johnny and Daniel. In s5e4, Robby told Kenny a combination of what Johnny told Robby about Kreese in s4e4 and what Daniel told Robby about Silver on s4e6 wrt Cobra Kai. In addition to dealing with external rivals, he has the greatest internal battles out of all the kids. As Daniel said, "The biggest battle is always the one within."

Robby has been using both styles of karate to try to cope with his "hate"/traumas and "find balance", the goal of his character journey. From late s1 to the end of s2, he tried to follow the Miyagi-Do way of finding balance but failed. In late s3 and to the end of s4, he tried to use Cobra Kai to channel his anger into fighting to help him find balance but he quit Cobra Kai after his match with Kenny because of "what it turns you into".

In s5, Robby wasn't focused on finding balance but was instead focused on dealing with his situation with Johnny and Miguel and with trying to take down Silver and Cobra Kai. Interestingly, Robby rejoined Miyagi-Do, instead of Eagle Fang, in his fight to take down Cobra Kai.

Robby carries the essence of Miyagi-Do with him, wherever he goes, including juvie (The Heart of Miyagi-Do - Part 1 and Part 2). Although, this show is called Cobra Kai. Cobra Kai represents the generational trauma that is being passed down from Kreese to Johnny to Robby and from Silver to Daniel to Robby. Miyagi-Do is presented as the opposition to Cobra Kai: The goal of Miyagi-Do is to teach a better way. In fact, all the important avt final matches and the ST trial matches were Miyagi-Do vs Cobra Kai. The whole goal is to take down Cobra Kai. In s4, Robby beat the whole Cobra Kai dojo using Miyagi's teachings. Of course, the kid who carries the essence of Miyagi-Do will be the one to take down Cobra Kai for good in the end.

In a story about every character having their own pov, Robby's pov not being shown is significant. At this point, Robby has been wronged by the most characters, especially the "good guys". In s5, he had one-sided "resolutions" with these characters. So far, the "bad guys", Kreese and Silver, haven't hurt Robby to the extent that the "good guys" have. The writers have said that every character is gray. Robby's pov of the characters would support this notion. The fact that, in s5, Robby can stand up to Silver fearlessly but can't stand up to Johnny without fear of abandonment speaks to this.

s6 is Act 3 of the story. Act 3 is when there is usually a significant paradigm shift for the characters. In s5, Robby's one-sided resolutions and the "recap" of his story from s1 to s4 indicate that his side of the story is yet to be told but is now set up to be told. In s6, the writers could shift to telling the story through Robby's pov, or they could continue to tell the story through the other characters' povs and have them learn and understand Robby's pov.

Johnny's redemption as a character lies in his relationship with Robby. If Johnny were already redeemed, he wouldn't be repeatedly bringing up his failures with Robby himself throughout s5, while he is shown continuing to fail Robby. Since s1e4, Johnny has been using Miguel as a do over. Since s5e3, Johnny has been using the baby as a do over. The Diazs and the baby are plot devices to make Johnny's relationship with Robby worse. By the end of s5, Johnny has everything to lose, which he even foreshadowed in his self-centered speech to Carmen, while Robby has nothing to lose including himself, which he gave up to stay in Johnny's good graces. Miguel is Robby's bully in the story. If Johnny starts to learn Robby's pov, not only would Johnny truly realize how and how much he has hurt Robby, Johnny would also realize that he trained, supported, and enabled Robby's bully to hurt him and get away with it as long as his bully "shows mercy" in the end.

In s5, Daniel relied on Robby to get back into being a sensei. He'd told Johnny to ask Robby how much he'd helped Robby. Robby is the student that Daniel has failed the most. In s5, Daniel repeated exactly what he'd said to Robby in s3, and Robby side-stepped Daniel's apology. To repair their relationship properly, Daniel has to actually listen to Robby's pov. Daniel also has to come to realize and accept that the teaching "no bad student, only bad teacher" applies in his relationship with Robby. He has to let go of the belief: "I'm willing to admit when I fail, or maybe Robby has too much of you [Johnny] in him."

This is Johnny's redemption story, and Johnny has failed his Robby his whole life including all 5 seasons. Robby is also Daniel's most important (non-related) student, and Daniel has failed as Robby's mentor. Johnny's and Daniel's character journeys won't be complete until they start repairing their relationships with Robby, start helping him overcome the odds that are against him, and support him to win the world tournament and succeed in his future.

Robby is the protagonist in the story. He has been since the start.

Cobra Kai has always been Robby's story.

Some references:

https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/

https://thewritepractice.com/

(As always, please don't comment or reblog with dismissive comments about the nuance in the story. The nuance is part of the story, and the story is exploring important topics like trauma, bullying, neglect, and dysfunctional relationships.)

[msfbgraves]

Terry's backstory confuses me.

He's in Vietnam, but with his brains, and the implication that he comes from a wealthy family with his dad's business, why isn't he in a fancy Ivy League college? Or why couldn't his dad buy his way out of the draft, if Terry was drafted in the first place? But then Terry himself subtly implies in the parlor scene that he and his dad might not have the best relationship, so maybe Terry "drafted himself" to prove something to his dad, or his dad didn't care about him potentially dying?

And the other thing: how did Terry get into to special forces in Vietnam, and go on that mission that got Ponytail killed? He seems out of his element in Vietnam, very young and a little dorky and much more naïve and innocent than (the presumably older) Ponytail or Kreese. And physically Terry is still growing, and comes off as very young, 17 or 18 at the very most. (I headcanon his birthday to be 1950/1951).

He doesn't seem to be on the same level as Kreese or Ponytail either physically or mentally. Maybe Terry was chosen for his intelligence?

Only after "the cage" does Terry seem to grow up a bit, but then he's shown to still be under the thumb of his dad in the parlor scene.

The whole thing is a mess to me. That's why I don't care for the scene where Terry tells Kreese about the Sekai Tekai. They both look way too young for the era, and they both still come off a way too nice and normal. It clashes with how we see Kreese just a few years later in KK1, and Terry in KK3. Those are enormous and negative personality changes!

Yes, it is inconsistent writing - UNLESS

All these flashbacks are only through Kreese's eyes. Indeed, the Sekai Taikai scene especially makes no internal sense, except when you consider that Kreese may be an unreliable narrator, even to himself.

He sees himself as a sweet guy to his protegees Da Eun and Johnny. We know from the film that he demonstrably insn't, but that doesn't change his perception of himself. So how he sees Terry, as a scrawny, scared sidekick, has as little to do with reality as anything else. Often, in flashbacks, characters imagine their younger selves or other people as shorter, to symbolise immaturity. Kreese remembers this scrawny boy Twig, the sidekick he saved. But was Terry ever that insecure Twig of a man? Granted, Terry confirms the nickname in Cobra Kai. But this boy in Special Forces, the way Kreese sees him? No way. Did he play a weakling? Certainly could have been a strategy. It worked in the cage, didn't it? Got Kreese to take the fall? If people think you're weak they think you're less of a threat. Why did they shoot Ponytail? He SEEMED the more threatening one. Which gives Terry the element of surprise to work with. He does it in the fight with Chozen too. He seemed beaten, which made Chozen lower his guard - big mistake. He teaches Kenny this. Feign weakness, win. Use the fact people underestimate you as a weapon.

Definitely worked on Kreese!

And yes, why is he even there at 18 (can't have been much older with how young he looked in 1985. I would have never given him 35 there, let alone more than that). Why would anyone let a boy like that join a war that was known to be going poorly, casualty wise? He wasn't drafted. No way. Not with his smarts. He joined.

His father was likely a WW II vet, and if he fought in the Pacific and got his status from there... Terry will fight in Asia too. He clearly knows about the heroes of WWII and he is very jealous of their status and heroes' welcome. None of that for him, and we see that's a big wound. He risked his very life in a war to be like his father, to no avail. And the man likely didn't stop him joining. Terry needed to prove himself worthy in his eyes too, and it didn't work. He still has something to prove to his father after the war. John disdains that, that's why he remembers Terry, again, as a weakling. "I'll go where you lead, Terry"? It's certainly what Kreese expects, but even Kreese becomes aware that this is not how Terry acts now. And John feels that he only needs to pull rank to restore that dynamic, except that it never existed. Terry has always used feigning weakness as a trick, but when Kenny asks him: "What should I do?" He says: "I want you to stop asking me, or anyone, that question." Kreese simply has a warped view of Terry and himself, and Terry has used it against him, likely more than once. And that talent might have well gotten him into those special forces. The talent for trickery. Using the more obvious super soldiers as a smokescreen, even for the enemy. For all we know Terry speaks fluent Vietnamese. It's like the scene in Men In Black: who is the most dangerous foe? Everyone goes for the scary looking aliens, only the smartest one goes for the little girl among all the monsters. Terry is likely there to make them all look like regular draftees, when they're in fact anything but. And if he can make his comrades think he needs protection, he's far more likely to survive.

Indeed, he's the most dangerous one. If he had been forced to fight in the snake pit, he would have tricked his officer, the same way their officer messed with Kreese's head. Indeed that's what command may have seen in "Twig". Kreese simply never saw through it.

Now, in business as a ceo looking a weakling is not an advantage, so Terry changed his image (he does that). But by that point the way Kreese saw him was too deeply entrenched already.

His mistake.

[headknight-oh]

Cobra Kai really became a cw show after season 2 huh? These first two seasons are so good and have genuine good inter character conflicts and believable character growth. And the shot composition and scene transitions are super good. And they play with the idea of unreliable narrators and how narratives change depending on who’s telling them.

Then season three happens and karate riots become a regular occurrence and people try to kill each other over under 18 karate regularly. And the tournament structure becomes much less grounded in reality. AND THEY WRITE AISHA OUT. Really pissed at that one actually. She was such a good character but god forbid there be plus sized girls in sports

[qweerhet]

you know, regardless of the details of this week's drama, i truly do not think that we will get anywhere with trans liberation so long as the response to people with supposedly "contradictory" transition experiences & coercively assigned sexes at birth is to publicly hold up occasional examples of bad actors as, like, representative of the entire demographic.

is the individual person described in the particular AITA drama that took off this week operating in good faith? probably not, at least not if the narrator of the drama is to be believed. trolls like that tend to stop eventually when they get bored, though, and it tends to be unhelpful to give them the outraged attention they're looking for if you want them to stop.

is the existence of this one particular troll a good argument for using CASAB language and ousting all intersex and genderqueer individuals from transfem language & spaces unless they are willing to reveal they were CAMAB? i mean, i would very much argue no. TMA people of all genders are experiencing a wave of social and state violence over the last few years; i would say that cutting TMA people off from trans support networks, even transfem-specific ones, is violent.

the entire reason TMA/TME is a better framework for viewing transmisogyny through than CASAB language is because CASAB as a lens can't accurately represent how gendered violence manifests for intersex and (non-sex-binary-conforming) trans people; someone who was CAFAB, goes through testosterone-dominant puberty, is categorized as male in middle/high school, and has to fight to access estrogen-based HRT as an adult, certainly has material experiences of transmisogyny simpatico with traditional transfem ones. to view this person through the lens of what they were coercively assigned at birth is to miss their experiences starting near-immediately after birth--hence the term TMA to discuss those of us for whom transmisogyny is a relevant, daily concern in our material realities, without relying on intersexist and exorsexist concepts such as CASAB-as-gendered-lens.

the existence of a cobra starship song where the singer flaunts how he only makes out with men in order to get women to sleep with him does not mean that authentically bisexual men do not exist, nor is it compelling evidence for interrogating every bisexual man you come across to confirm that he is, in fact, genuinely and authentically attracted to men, nor is it a compelling argument to go back to "gay or straight" language and decommission multisexual labels for fear of them being co-opted by obnoxious trolls.

[cocoa-rococo]

miscellaneous things i think could be good (or just funny) in a modern freakazoid reboot

dexter has a small friend group he plays dnd and other games with (because help him, this boy needs some legitimate friends)

more of dexter and freakazoid interacting with each other, being able to see how their internal communication works. bonus if freak can just. pop up on dexter's computer or phone to chat with him

a new villain or plot device based on generative ai, messing with freakazoid's sense of what's true and false (possibly deadpan? the early villain in the s1 finale?)

an episode on just how exactly to do a freakazoid reboot. freak himself is in the studio trying to find the best pitch to turn into a show, and even in the writing room, telling people that no, actually, he'd never say that, have you even SEEN the original show --

a whole episode's running joke of being sponsored by an mmorpg (with 20% off if the viewer uses the code RPGFREAK20XX). freak goes after the game's creators near the episode's end when he gets sick of the interruptions

valerie returns with a bit of a larger role, being steph's friend and possibly becoming the previously cut-from-production witch girl (because we need more women in this show)

short joke of freakazoid stopping a fight to tell someone who's playing a video loudly without headphones to stop it, it is DRIVING him UP the WALL. GEEZ

fanboy makes a return, and introduces his little sister: a freakazoid fan who's a little too into him and her favorite fandom ships. freak wants nothing to do with her, her brother, and her "intense interest with cargo and freighters"

cobra queen has an online shop where she makes snake-themed jewelry and does makeup tutorials. freakazoid is happy to support small businesses. he is not happy when she still uses her massive pet serpents to break into stores to steal things

gutierrez, with the internet taking off, also deals in developing software at apex. the new social media app they make leeches info from others to sell, but its main use is to find, tag, and track freakazoid wherever he goes

one of the villain's plans involve those fridges that come with a touchscreen and built-in wifi. imagine their surprise when freak is able to zap inside. he's on one of the shelves eating food and asking for condiments

an episode where lobe's scheme is based on one of those viral, seemingly silly mobile games everyone plays (flappy bird, candy crush, cookie clicker, etc). even the show's staff are taken with it. the narrator interrupts the program at one point to mention that he will no longer be announcing things because he's too busy playing the game himself

freakazoid learns about vr being a thing, and becomes a cryptid by popping into random games and streams. there's a whole short done like a found footage film or documentary based on people's attempt to find him

freak does a parody of youtuber apology videos for a segment, saying sorry to the viewer. by the end, it's clear he's badly reading off a script, and admits he doesn't even know what he's apologizing for

cave guy's plan for an episode being intimidating various scholars, professors, and newspapers to hide articles and research behind a paywall (which goes directly to him, of course). freak learns about it because dexter needs to write a paper for class, and needs to race against the clock to get his sources unlocked before its due

a short based on dexter trying his hand at streaming games. he ends up temporarily famous for his really well-done "custom freakazoid vtuber model" (it's just freak himself)

a short based on longhorn trying to get into nashville by becoming a music influencer. he does not get far

you-know-who has happily settled into his role as an internet creepypasta. there's an episode where freakazoid needs to follow a string of disappearances, linked with a recent internet "challenge" and posts trailing off after saying candlejack, which is harder than it s --