#could not give less of a shit about that storyline

[milogoestogreendale]

the testers should quit fighting over carol and just make out

[sashayed]

ok now it is time to air my grievances with severance s2, a season of television i thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to every week. s2 is mr milchick putting on a spectacular drumline Just For Me and what do they get for it. trapped behind a vending machine (readmore cut) while i batter them with a trombone. classic ingratitude.

my umbrella gripe btw is that showrunner dan erickson's figurative innie is actually Ricken and he won't admit it and until he does we are never going to see the show that severance Could Be. like ricken is a pretentious nightmare who is insulated from the consequences of his own actions. he's also got a fascinating way with words (fond, derogatory) and a heart that yearns for love and he is really trying to Say Something. ok well that's what this show is. accept this and reconcile with yourself Dan Erickson (or should I say DAN: SO RICKEN??? boom anagrammed!!) or keep displacing all your sins onto that one character and doom this show to eternal alienation from its own core themes.

i think we can all admit that pacing in this season sucks and they had enough time to do it better. and the thing is imo if you were really committed to storytelling you would have to cut some of the most fun/fanservicey individual scenes of the season. i can see why you might choose not to do that! like for instance the baby goats thing. i get it. it looked soooo fun to film with the baby goats. visually the pasture room is great. gwendoline christie is a gift. it's fun! but it doesn't actually uhhh serve the story to spend all that time on it. it doesn't shed any new light. "they are sacrificing the goats because lumon is a creepy cult." we KNOW they are a creepy cult. "lumon thinks innies are non-people who don't experience love and care, but they DO experience love and care and that motivates them." brother we know that too!! "ok but wasn't it all worth it for that heavyweight christie/olafsson finale fight scene." i will concede this point. that ruled.

pacing problems never worse than in "sweet vitriol," an episode i actually enjoyed more than everyone else, but it didn't need to be a standalone and in fact was badly served by the format!! many in your audience have forgotten to give a shit about ms cobel so the revelation that she invented severance doesn't hit for them. splitting her storyline up and dividing it among episodes starting earlier would have kept her more consistently in play and opened up space for underserved character arcs, like dylan aND IRVING—

—because as much fun as burving demon threesome is it is so underbaked and wastes one of the show's coolest characters. WHO IS IRVING. WHY IS HE SLEEPERAGENTING LUMON. you're gonna put him on a train to the farm for old dogs and be like "all was well because love is more important than revenge :)" ??? like sure but again it DOESN'T HIT because it doesn't require the viewer to struggle with WHAT IRVING'S DRIVING FORCE ACTUALLY WAS. and he doesn't even get to kiss. let him kiss!!!!

I actually think having reintegration move at an unpredictable pace and having its side effects be unclear is not the worst idea, and in fact as an allegory for like, real life healing and becoming a Whole Person i maybe even prefer it. but the pacing problems move it beyond "this process is unfolding gradually and erratically" into "we have forgotten this is happening" and it just didn't have to be that way, man. side note there is something fascinating going on with helly's uncomfortable, unwilling quasi-reintegration from the innie side! from the moment she finds herself in front of that gala to hearing jame say he doesn't love his daughter, she is accepting the fact that SHE IS HELENA. she is thinking about how She as a first-person experiencer of the world could find herself in helena's position (which helena—who is less of a grownup than her innie—is still unable/unwilling to do). i've read some criticism of that final scene (which i loved btw) that was like "helly's goal has always been to dismantle lumon, why would she give that up for A Man? wouldn't she push mark s. out the door and be like BURN THIS PLACE TO THE GROUND?" sure, but i think that doesn't engage with helly's arc either—which is not about revolutionary conviction OR about A Man but about about discovering that SHE wants to live, she doesn't want to hang herself in the elevator out of spite, she wants her half-a-life even if it means a degree of complicity with her evil outie. on the other hand, does the WRITING actually engage with helly's arc? or am i getting all that from britt lower??

speaking of making actors do all the work: we as a show are going to grapple with corporate racism and the Black experience :) no we're not :) or are we? ;) you're welcome :)))

i don't love gemma's backstory boiling down to Woman Want Baby. "Greatest Agony for Woman Is Want Baby and Can't Have Baby" is a storyline that makes me personally grimace. but i accept that that's a personal preference and honestly dichen lachman sells her character/s so beautifully that i didn't even remember to bitch about it when i originally wrote this. i just remembered it and had to edit this post because god forbid i don't complain about something. (although. now that i AM complaining about it: putting someone through three years of torture and then being like "we'll prove this fresh consciousness is unaffected by suffering by going all the way back to the baby thing, because 'no baby,' not years of torture and isolation, is the fundamental pain at the root of this woman's being," is...........a choice!!!!! it's a choice. and if it were a deliberate narrative choice, like if it were about how the lumon ideology fundamentally conceives of women, that would be one thing! but i just don't think it is.)

did i mention i really liked this season and had a great time. i did. i am bitching about it because i have a fun time rotating it in my mind. maybe it's actually very brave and artistic to make a show that is not as well-crafted as it could be because then you are opening up intellectual/creative space for your viewers. what about that. if you think about it maybe a slightly less good show is better than a great show. in a way. checkmate haters

[beifong-brainrot]

I don't know why I feel so numb towards the new Avatar announcement. Like I'm not excited for it. But I'm also not as devastated and pessimistic about it as a lot of people are about it.

Like yeah, Korra haters are crawling out of the mud and shit again, but they would've taken ANY excuse to hate on her. Like, even if it were all sunshines and rainbows in a post Korra world they would probably be going on about how she was a 'weak avatar with no accomplishments' or a Mary Sue or something like that.

I'm cautiously suspecting that Avatar Studios are going for a Kuruk-style story with Korra, where she was somehow defamed. It seems that the Avatar books were a sort of testing ground for them, as the 'Avatar's twin' plotline was also teased in the Roku book.

I understand why this upsets some people, as it gives Korra an ultimately unhappy life and leaves her as hated in-world. However, I don't think we should jump to conclusions of Bryke somehow wanting to 'destroy' Korra's character, just because they didn't give her a happy life. Characters like the aforementioned Kuruk, and fan favourite Toph Beifong didn't have 'happy endings' in the traditional sense, but that enhances their characters, in my opinion. Like yeah, it's tragic that sometimes storylines are sad- but that doesn't make them bad storylines.

Is it a bummer that Korra seemingly had a tragic life? Yeah. But also, she's the Avatar, and would inevitably face a lot of strife in her life- and not do things perfectly. Aang also faced difficulties and had problems in his adult life.

It also feels like there's a potential meta storyline going on there, potentially having the in world hate towards Korra tied to the IRL hate towards Korra. This isn't the first time Korra's character has been used for more meta-style commentary, as a lot of her character surrounded her trying to measure up to Aang, whilie also trying to be her own person- a potential coentary on what making a follow up to atla must've been like.

And also- we are JUMPING to conclusions over leaks and blurbs.

I think my main personal concerns with the Seven Havens lie with the fact that it feels like a soft reboot of sorts. With tlok, despite its technological advancements, which I did have issues with, we see very clearly how we got to point A to point B. The world Korra inhabits feels the same as the world Aang inhabits.

Seven Havens seems to have had a post apocalyptic vibe, where the world has changed drastically, reshaping the four nations into seven new 'havens' and changing the way the Avatar is percieved. It feels like a huge departure from the previous series - which could be fine- but also feels like waste.

The world of Avatar is so complex and has been built up through multiple series, books and comics. To have it reshaped completely feels like throwing out such a rich compendium of lore and stories.

It also worries me, as it likely throws away tlok's very imteresting work with politics. While tlok didn't always tackle the dissection if politics correctly, it at least had the courage to discuss these complex topics. Getting rid of the four nations will probably toss away a lot of these politocal effects of Korra's tenure as Avatar, for example- the democratisation of the Earth Kingdom.

Reading the atla comics (while the fandom loves to bitch and moan about them) is a satisfying experience, because I get to see the building blocks for Korra's time being set up- for example the creation of Republic City. However, my concern is that any future tlok comics will feel unimportant- due to the fact that the characters accomplishments will likely be undone several years later.

I also worry that they're going to try to 'depoliticise' the next show. Dismantling tloks' complex political climate is one alarm bell. Making the new avatar a young child, seemingly even younger than Aang, despite a good chunk of the fans being adults at this point, feels like its hinting towards making the show less complex and 'grown up'. Of course, a protagonist being a certain age doesn't necessarily mean the target audience is supposed to be that age too- however it does set a model of how the world will be mainly shown to us- through the eyes of a young child.

And while Avatar gave us a serious show for kids- atla being relatively deeper than most kids shows of its time, I don't know if Seven Havens will be able to replicate that perfect storm, especially with a lot of kids media nowadays being so heavily scrutinised and policed.

Also not really as hyped for the earthbending twins concept because I already have MY preferred set of earthbending twins. "Oh but one of them is the Avatar and-" don't care. Beifong twins my belovedst.

They should've somehow kept the naming scheme set by Poi & Ping and Wei & Wing it would've been funny.

[v88sy]

Lmao but for real. Idk if it's bts drama with Ryan or something but it's getting more and more obvious. Bobby, his captain just died and the guy is just over there offering a cookie to Ravi in these trying times like an extra on set with a blank expression on his face.

I refuse to feel bad for enjoying this situation. Bvddie shippers have made their own bed. I don't like Ryan at all, but even I can admit there's only so much toxicity an actor can take. Buck was at least allowed to exist in his own right in their eyes even if they couldn't stand him canonically dating a man (so much for being LGBT warriors and caring for representation!). But the way they're obsessed with Eddie and try to bring every plot he has back to him being "gay" is exhausting and weird as fuck.

Imagine being an actor and being excited for the storyline your character is getting that season and your fans are just like "we don't care, when are Buck and Eddie going to fuck on screen tho?" Not saying Eddie's plots have always been exciting at all, lord knows they've done some stupid shit with the character, but still. Eddie arguably had the most interesting SL in years while trying to mend his relationship with Chris and they could not have cared less because it meant he was in Texas and not bending over for Buck. I wouldn't blame Ryan if he wants out, if his acting in this ep is any indication, his heart just isn't in it anymore.

I didn't mind Eddie at first, I really didn't. But, it kind of feels like after Shannon died, the writers just...didn't know what to do with him. His entire existence became about grief without any real action to address it or deal with it. I get it, grief never really goes away, but you can't just Fight Club your way out of it either.

I often wonder if the writers intended to write him as insufferable and selfish as they have. He says things to hurt others and never reflects or takes accountability. It's been talked about ad nauseum here, but his friendship with Buck is incredibly one sided. Again, I don't know what's more scary...to think this was all by design...or that it wasn't.

And, since we're just going for it here, Ryandrew Tateman absolutely hasn't done himself any favors here. I know what he did. You know he did. And I wish I could say that was the only thing, or even the most recent.

On a personal note, I've worked in healthcare for 20 years, including the height of covid, so being an anti vaxx/anti covid vaxx is an instant 'fuck off' from me.

And the memes he's been sharing about Pete/Bobby? Salty edgelord.

You make excellent points about anything and everything being boiled down to Gay Eddie™ in some people's minds. Not even bi or demi, or any other shade of queer. It has to be gay, and Buck has to serve as the trad wife self insert surrogate. Which, really makes me question their motives, because it ain't representation. We already got that, and have since day one. Not that they'd ever know.

Look, it's very clear by now that I'm not his biggest fan by a long shot, but it's absolutely disgusting that people want to disregard his body autonomy by saying things like "it doesn't matter what he wants, they're gonna force him to do bddie anyways because it's what the people want".

No, they don't, and honestly, that makes me wonder about your views on consent. The role would involve, at the very least, kissing Oliver, (not that I'd mind myself, but that's another topic for another day) so...yes. It absolutely is his choice, as it should always be when engaging in contact with someone, acting job or not.

And yeah, I'll give it to you that he's probably tired as fuck about being reduced to nothing more than "the guy who absolutely must be gay because *insert harmful stereotype here.*"

And that's in addition to having every. single. interview. harp on the ship that he has said repeatedly that he doesn't want to do, for actually valid reasons, assuming those are the real reasons and he's not just blowing smoke up our ass.

So, yeah, I don't blame him for wanting an out, but I also don't think we should be blamed for wanting to be able to enjoy our show and the fandom as a whole once again.

All that being said...are you trying to put me in jail, katey 😂

[sadhornydemons]

The Other Possible Stepfather and Daughter

Because it may be awhile until we see Blitz and Via interacting, I wonder what (if any) relationship Loona and Stolas could develop, living under the same roof, working at the same job and basically being two of the most closest individuals in Blitz's life currently.

I've seen some harsh takes, some claiming that Stolas simply thought of Loona as Blitz's pet, not knowing she was his daughter until the hug moment in Mastermind, ect, ect.

The current storyline hasn't given us many clues or interactions, but here's what I've gathered and some of my own thoughts:

The first among the few times these two shared the screen was in Truth Seekers were they don't really interact but Loona manages to record Stolas in his full demon form as he possesses and terrorizes their captors.

She's among the group as Stolas scolds them for getting caught, but Blitz, Moxxie and Millie seemed to receive most of his focus for these few seconds.

Grimoire in hand, Loona leaves the portal before Stolas can pick up Blitz to have an exchange of words and tongues.

Seeing Stars is when Loona shines as the only one with the nose and social media skills to locate Stolas' runaway daughter. (Nevermind that she was the one who allowed Octavia to break in and steal the Grimoire, because Blitz is certainly not going to tell Stolas this.)

And despite being a low ranking demon by Hell's standards, she's the only one besides Stolas who can take on a human disguise.

(not that anyone comments on this in universe)

So yeah, until the group is separated, they share a few scenes, but no dialogue.

Later when Loona does finds Via, she defends Stolas a little, while also reflecting on her own relationship with Blitz.

"You know, your dad's really worried about you."

"..try to cut your dad some slack."

That said, Loona still decided her own father needed a nice kick to the groan to make things right upon seeing him next, something which seems to freaks Stolas out a bit:

But Loona seems to brighten upon seeing seeing Via, whom she recently bonded with, making peace with her dad.

In Western Energy, Stolas' kidnapping takes place the same time as Loona's hellbies shot appointment, which took Blitz 5 years to book. During their phone call, Blitz explains this, to which Stolas responses:

"Oh, ha, ha. Well, I do agree that is very important…But, I-" Before Striker takes his phone away.

Which, while not the best reaction, is pretty short to base a lot of opinions about. Does Stolas know what a hellbies shot is? I'd say definitely not. Does Stolas believe he's in real danger at this point? Seemingly not, since he utters "Oh, shit. Am I in danger right now?" in realization after Striker crushes his phone.

Full Moon opens with Loona waking up to her father making breakfast while singing about his "Nice arrangement," situationship with Stolas,

But upon hearing at work that Stolas been giving Blitz excuses to not see him, she brings up the idea that Stolas is getting bored of him.

Blitzo: "Whaaaat?"

Loona: "Yeah, man. If someone wants to see you less and less, big red flag. If they give you chances to ditch, they probably want out themselves. Just wanna be more passive aggressive about it. Dicks."

Later in the episode, Loona is seen with Moxxie and Millie, following Blitz, in which they encounter and fight the members of C.H.E.R.U.B.

Loona: "Find ya? We were already following our dumbass boss to make sure he doesn't fuck up and lose our meal ticket."

Unfortunately the falling out of that night leads to Blitz abandoning his job duties and spending all the company's money on frivolous purchases including 300 taxidermy owls that he makes Loona burn.

Blitz eventually is able to recover emotionally, but his involvement with the grimoire is used to bring him to trial, sentencing him to death until Stolas intercepts,

taking the blame and losing his power, title and home as a result.

Upon hearing that Stolas needed a place to live, Blitz walks him back to his and Loona's apartment.

Blitz is greeted with cheers from the crowd, while they throw things at Stolas. Loona, rather wisely, tries to step away from the two, less she gets pelted with anything herself.

But when they are back home, she takes the time to embrace the father she nearly lost:

"Hey, um. I'm so glad you're okay."

"I love you, Dad."

Already in a depressed state, Stolas is further reminded that he is separated from his own daughter and appears to shut down physically and mentally, resulting in Blitz helping him clean off in the bath. During that, he hears a knock.

Unprompted, Loona gives Blitz two pieces of her own clothes so that Stolas has something to change into, apart from his old stained royal attire. Stolas gets a lot of use out of this outfit until Blitz attempts to purchase him more (which instead turns into a theft).

Weeks pass, and when Sinsmas comes, Blitz brings Stolas into the office with him and Loona, with the intention of Stolas helping or learning Loona's job.

Stolas is none too pleased about going to work, but gives a nervous wave to the room when Blitz introduces him and a second wave to Loona when Blitz asks her to teach Stolas how to "secretate".

Loona: *sighs* "It's literally this: Ring, ring. 'Hello? I.M.P. Yeah, we can kill that asshole. Wanna schedule an appointment? Thursday cool? See you then, dipshit.' Click. It's easy as sin."

However, after being placed at the desk, Stolas manages to have a breakdown upon realizing that he no longer has any of his personal wealth. An action that doesn't go over well with his new coworkers, all whom are all among the lower or middle class money bracket:

After an aborted mission, the group return to find Stolas missing and discover he went back to his mansion in an attempt to see his daughter. However, in the process, he is captured by Andrealphus. Blitz instructs the group to separate before fighting and Loona makes the first attempt to free Stolas:

Andrealphus is ultimately defeated, by Stolas is left devastated by Octavia informing him that she no longer wants to see him.

Blitz, Loona and Stolas return home, where Loona announces plans for the rest of the holiday.

Loona: "Whew. That was intense. I'm gonna see if my friends can still come tonight. I need some drinks after what happened today."

Despite being preoccupied with Stolas once again shutting down, Blitz makes sure to give Loona the okay. Seemingly, he spends the rest of the evening with Stolas until the party starts. But someone does gradually put Sinsmas decorations throughout the apartment.

And we've reached our end.

So, Loona and Stolas. Not many interactions, but I don't see any bad blood between these two.

Loona appears to have some respect that Stolas tries to be a good father. And although Stolas' relationship with her own adopted father started out in a very messy transactional manner, their disastrous fallout following the Full Moon episode, and fomer's actions in Mastermind might have clued her in that from Blitz's perspective, Stolas had become more than the company's "meal ticket".

Loaning out her own clothes at the end of Mastermind, speaks volumes, even for someone like Loona who doesn't hesitate to speak her mind. Her father suddenly brings his complicated, homeless ex home to live with them, but Loona shows her support.

She keeps her space, living her own life, but still supports her father as he begins something new in his own.

Stolas seems nervous around Loona. I think, despite them living together, Loona may spend the majority of the time in her room, while Blitz is constantly keeping watch over Stolas. Blitz's affection for Loona as his daughter is quite obvious. Stolas was even witness to it as each ran to their daughters at the end of Seeing Stars, so I doubt he would be unaware of how important Loona is to Blitz. I think that that may be where some of the nervousness, which wasn't present in their early scenes, comes from.

Time will tell if these two will have reason to interact or work together in the coming seasons. Or if Loona's brief bonding with Stolas' daughter will come up again.

[eddiesprius]

re tags on your last post...yeah lmao. my frustration with this episode wasn't even really about them 'killing off' bobby it was that it was just bad. and full of a bunch of shit i don't careeee about like cmon if this is the aftermath of a major character death, i shouldn't be bored watching it!! i shouldn't be rolling my eyes and wishing i could fast forward bc racistgerrard is back and for some godforsaken reason we're wasting time on his feelings when i truly could not give less of a shit. and we're doing that instead of seeing the 118 grieve, or interact with each other, or buck and eddie reuniting or eddie getting literally any meaningful screentime at all after being fully gone from the last two episodes, or even the full funeral. i don't careeee about this random woman and her maternity test. the show is telling me to believe that bobby is dead and im not even sad im just irritated. if you are going to make this choice and do this storyline then fucking commit!!!! examine how this affects the main fucking characters!!!!! fucking do something interesting with it!!! jesus christ!!!!

it's not even that i needed to see like. x or y or z. or this conversation or that character or whatever.

it's just that as an episode of television it....wasn't very good. it didn't really tell us anything interesting or new or surprising about grief or about these characters or literally anything. it didn't make me feel ANYTHING. and this show, for all its schmaltziness, is VERY good at getting me to feel things!

like my favorite scenes by far were athena yelling at chim (THAT we've never seen before!) athena breaking down in front of hen and the final scene at the gravesite. and that was literally all just angela bassett being good at her job. and selling a very honestly weak plotline (woman grieves husband....we've seen this before.....).

much like the whole fake baby kidnapping investigation it just felt like this episode went nowhere. and like. i get that there will be more story tell about the grief of losing bobby in the next episodes but that literally is not the point. the point is that THIS was the big send-off episode and it sent him off with such a whimper.......

[hecates-corner]

When I first heard There Are Other Ways, I was a little disappointed by the fact that Circe didn’t successfully seduce Odysseus, considering the huge Greek Mythology nerd I am.

Bear with me.

Then, I played the saga, and that song, for my wonderful mother tonight. About halfway through, I gasped.

The story is accurate to the Homeric version: he confronts her (clandestinely at first), she fights back, he pulls the sword.

But she’s not afraid. Of course she isn’t.

Why would an immortal being, with the rage and power of commanding a million different beasts if her Plan A goes down, be afraid of a measly man with a flimsy toothpick to her throat, just because he ate a flower and said “Be afraid!”?

That’s right! She wouldn’t.

Because Jay didn’t submit to the blatant misogyny of the tale.

Read this article for incredible information, if you please. It changed the way I saw Circe’s story.

If Circe cowered, simply because a man held a sword to her throat, only then would she have seduced him (if we’re going ultra-canon with the storyline, which Jay isn’t), which would have, yet again, thrown off the balance of power.

Circe could give less of a shit about the sword, in the song. She thinks he’s pretty hot, and maybe she’s manipulating him into coming to bed with her so she can trick him, so she offers a tryst or two. Here, if you read the article, she is throwing off the nature of men and women by being the active sexual partner.

He refuses, too enamored with Penelope, and shuns his curiosity in her. You can hear how it pains him, it’s a struggle to say no. But he does. He’s strong, he’s no god, cheating on his wife for the sake of sex appeal. He’s just a man.

He begs. That’s the thing that got me. Not her, him.

“So I beg you, Circe, grant us mercy, and let us puppets leave~”

Then, Circe offers to help him — not because she’s restoring the nature of being submissive — but because she has empathy and compassion for the man. She helps him because he’s proved himself, to be weary, and faithful, and human. She knows the feeling of love.

So, yes. So many layers. Like an onion, worthy of making you cry.

1. Jay is spitting in the face of misogyny and gender roles, and having her help him because she empathizes. Because she’s in power.

2. It’s sort of a jab, if interpreted a certain way, at sexual assault. He says no, and he holds true to it. Even though everything is telling him to give in, to let it happen, he refuses, and remains as sure as he can be.

3. It shows how very human Odysseus is. Athena forgot it, and somehow held him to it. Even the men forget it. But he never does. There is only so much he can do.

This is my favorite saga so far.

[starsreminisce]

I will preface this by saying I still do not give two shits whose book is next. But if we are looking at the plot threads that need to be addressed, I still believe Elucien's book is next, based on four key points.

The Trove is the bridge between ACOTAR and CC. In fact, we learned more about the Mask than we did about Truth-Teller.

Nesta and Elain still have not made up since their argument about finding the Trove.

There is nothing Elain could gain from Gwyn and Azriel getting together that she would not have already learned from her sisters' mating bonds, especially when she already has a mating bond of her own. If anything, the climax of ACOSF would have proven to Elain that ignoring the bond, for whatever reason, would not change the fact that she is mated to Lucien.

The final chapters of ACOSF already foreshadow what is next, with HOFAS reinforcing it. ACOSF ends with Cassian circling back to his observations about Beron's treatment of Eris and how it extended to Lucien. Nesta, in turn, places the rose marker from the HoW on their father's headstone in a flower field as she looks up to her mate. Then in HOFAS, Rhys and Nesta are shown to be disconnected about who actually owns the Trove, while Elain and Lucien remain notably absent.

The whole debate about who is suffering more, who is more or less developed, or who needs to do xyz is irrelevant when that is the entire purpose of the book itself. If we follow ToG's structure, Elide was introduced in HoF, played a major role in Manon's storyline, and then got a POV in EoS. Similarly, Yrene was introduced in AB before getting a POV in ToD. Both Elide and Yrene were not at their "lowest point" when they got their POV, but both were at a point where they needed to do something more to break their current status quo.

Elain and Lucien being absent from Bryce's arrival actually suggests an EoS/ToD setup, just like how Chaol was absent while Aelin and Dorian were gathering allies, only for him and Yrene to be the one to uncover the Valg's connection to their world.

Does CC/HOFAS set up the next ACOTAR book? Yes. In CC, we learned the Daglan and Asteri were the same beings and that their tools and influence still linger in Prythian. ACOSF also tells us, through Cassian, that a rejected mating bond is still felt even after death, only for HOFAS to reinforce just how deeply it affects the mates left behind.

I say all of this to explain why I believe Elucien's book is next. This is based on my reading of canon and how SJM structures her stories across her series. That does not mean I am diminishing Gwyn or Azriel's storylines or development.

But it is jarring that both Gwyn and Elain were healing from their own traumatic event, yet Gwyn was able to achieve her goal of stepping out of the library and becoming stronger in honor of her sister, while Elain was not only told to stay home but actively surveilled to ensure she did.

It is also telling that twice now, Azriel has fundamentally misunderstood the mating bond, first when he claimed Lucien was undeserving of his mate and second when he learned mates exist in Bryce's world and the possibility that his mate could be in another world entirely.

If we boil SJM's series down to just her mating bond lore, just like how everyone in TOG ended up cosmically paired, Azriel stands to gain a lot from witnessing through Lucien that a mate can be someone you have only just met and through Elain that accepting the bond is simply a matter of timing.

Meanwhile, what else can Elain do when the IC still did not even bother to bring her in to meet Bryce, just as they left her out of the discussion about finding the things left behind by Bryce's overlords?

That is where SJM always starts her stories.

The next book is going to bridge ACOTAR to CC, and it makes more sense to tell it through the POV of a couple who was not a part of it, especially when she can tease it to get people to buy the previous series. Not to mention, she has already established a vague connection by having Helion, Lucien's father, react to the mask and having Nesta feel vindicated in her decision to not let Elain near it.

[gffa]

If you could change anything about the Prequel and the Sequel trilogies, what would it be?

I love the prequels, in all their both brilliant and dumbass glory, so as tempted as I am to say that I would have had Lucas find someone else to direct the prequels after Spielberg said no (I think he was firm in saying Lucas should do them?), I really love that mix of something genuinely good and something genuinely bonkers. I would change the Tuskens storyline to be less racist/the Neimoidians to have a different accent and I would put more Asian Jedi into the scenes, if you're going to base them on Buddhist monks, we could use a little more real world reflecting of that. The sequels on the other hand need an overhaul from top to bottom. At a bare minimum they needed to have at least planned the storyline out ahead of time and had a single vision instead of the tug-o-war that we got. I would not have made Kylo and Rey's characters all about each other, I would have spread the connections around more, given Kylo and Luke more than just the one scene together, I would have given Finn a better storyline, I would have given Poe a better backstory, I would have connected the storyline better in the movies to the world they inhabited (ie, use more established settings and alien races, etc.), I would have kept the OT trio to secondary characters, but also let them have reactions to each others' deaths in the same room, I wouldn't have made Han/Leia into that because how am I supposed to have fun with rewatching the originals knowing everything went to shit, I would not have brought Palpatine back (or at least I would have set it up from the beginning otherwise), etc. The sequels were in a difficult place, but even as many issues as I have with TFA (too much of a palette swap of ANH for my tastes), the pieces for a satisfying story were there, it's just that everyone wanted to take it in different directions and none of the three movies really seemed to get what Star Wars' themes were. I love the characters and there were great moments in there, but I would have sat them down with a bunch of Lucas interviews about what the themes of Star Wars was before starting and tried to give them a better foundation for understanding it.

[navree]

How do you feel about the Nettles situation? 👀

As mentioned, haven't been watching season 2 and only been "keeping up" with it in that I see what the beloved mutuals are posting about it on Tumblr (and the occasional errant tweet from the fucking bad take brigade that is fandom twitter), so from what I know the Nettles situation appears to be that they're cutting her completely and just giving her storyline to Rhaena? Well the way I feel about that is that I think it fucking sucks.

The big thing for me is that the entire rationale for cutting Nettles and just substituting in Rhaena really smacks of racism. They couldn't be assed to do anything for Rhaena, so they just took the only notable Black character they could find and just went "well Nettles is a Black girl, and now we've made Rhaena Black, so it's the same thing" without thinking about the fact that Nettles and Rhaena are two very different characters with very different places in the narrative and aren't just interchangeable, and that it's fucking weird that you immediately got rid of a woman of color because you already had what you deemed to be a sufficient amount. The lack of care shown to Rhaena, specifically the version of Rhaena that the show created, is astounding, and it feels really weird that it's existing for one of the already few Black women in the show (it's something I've already talked about, that the show made changes without then thinking about how things come across in the real world to the viewing public, like Ryan Condal saying that women lie about being victims of gendered violence or making the Velaryons Black but then putting significantly less effort into them than their white counterparts, or not even thinking about how Targaryen-Velaryon intermarriage would make the current Targs visibly mixed).

Giving Rhaena the Nettles plot doesn't make sense for two main reasons, even beyond the BTS decisions that I outlined above: 1) you can give Rhaena an entirely original and interesting plot if you bothered to actually care about her or in giving Black women something to do in your show 2) Nettles has a very specific impact on the story that cannot be removed without drastically changing the history that's been set in stone.

So, point one: an original Rhaena plot. I've said this before, but it's a very critique that book!Rhaena doesn't actually do anything. She just kinda sits around in the Vale having her hair brushed for a year until the war's over. That's a bit boring, I don't mind the show deciding to change up what she does so she actually has shit to, like, do. But let's look at what the show crafted with the Vale plot before they just punted Nettles to Rhaena. On the Vale's side, the show has created a situation where their loyalty to Rhaenyra is extremely flimsy and quite likely to vanish at a moment's notice. Rhaenyra's husband, her major partisan, was infamously shitty to the Vale, he constantly degraded the region in open court, and then murdered one of Jeyne Arryn's vassals in cold blood, his own wife, for no reason. And not only that, he wasn't even remotely punished for it. Daemon's bad reputation in the Vale for what he did to Rhea Royce, and his treatment of her throughout their marriage, and the lack of accountability in that, should absolutely make it so that anyone in the Vale would be leery about allying themselves with him. Then, Jeyne gives Rhaenyra the Vale's allegiance so long as Rhaenyra sends a battle-ready dragon and dragon-rider to protect them in case the Greens decide to invade and force their submission. But after Rhaenyra's envoy promises her that, Rhaenyra backtracks, and instead sends her a teenager and three little kids and a baby dragon and some dragon eggs. That is insulting, that is a violation of the promised agreement that came at the cost of the Vale's allegiance to Rhaenyra, that alliance should absolutely be on the rocks. It makes sense for Jeyne to be as annoyed with the Blacks as she is in the show. And on Rhaena's side, she doesn't have a dragon at all, and she is undervalued in her family as a result. Her father straight up doesn't care about her and neglects her because she doesn't have that symbol of Targaryen supremacy within her, her sister may love her but doesn't value her much as a person (considering Baela is absolutely fine with Rhaena getting sent away to play nursemaid and doesn't even bring up Rhaena being the Lady of Driftmark even tho she has a claim through Laena and Hell, even being Luke's intended), Rhaenyra literally doesn't see her as worthy of keeping around since she just shunts her off not even for her own safety, but so that she can ensure the safety of Rhaenyra's sons. And that's weighing on Rhaena, it's been weighing on her since she was a child, she's only ten when she talks to Laena about how Daemon doesn't love her because she doesn't have a dragon, and those feelings have only grown as she has, and as more indignities have been heaped on her.

So you have Rhaena, who isn't really valued by the people around her or considered necessary for the war effort, in an area where the emotions are ripe for turning against Rhaenyra and maybe even siding with the Greens. So why not have Rhaena change it? Instead of having the Vale stay loyal for no reason in spite of their very legitimate issues, have Rhaena forge a relationship with Jeyne. Have them get a personal connection to get Jeyne more invested in the Blacks' victory. Have Rhaena work essentially in administration, use her connection to the parties on Dragonstone to enact more firm promises for the Vale, in writing. Have Rhaena become essential to Rhaenyra getting to keep a foothold in Westeros, since most of the South (should be) allied to the Greens, the Riverlands are under Daemon's purview yes but he's not trustworthy enough for that to be an assurance, and the North is loyal to Rhaenyra but still taking its sweetass time doing anything. Have Rhaena find her own worth within in her in the way she helps the war effort not with a dragon, not with the way others have told her she could be useful and necessary, but with a way she's found for herself. Have her grow internally in the process, and become more confident and self-assured. There's a plot to give Rhaena in the Vale, but it's not Nettles's, it should be her own, crafted out of a care for her as a character and to give her a story of her own rather than slap someone else's to her because you were being lazy.

And speaking of Nettles, cutting her is ridiculous because she is absolutely essential. It's because of Nettles that, ultimately, things end the way that they do for a lot of characters. And that is because of her very specific connection to Daemon. Nettles joins up with Daemon after the Blacks take King's Landing, and it's soon very clear that these two have a very, very strong connection ('oh because she's his daughter' considering that Daemon seems incapable of loving any of his children, nah, I've always been in the romance camp for these two), especially on Daemon's part. And that strong connection, combined with Rhaenyra's distrust of dragonseeds, leads Rhaenyra to demand that Lord Mooton break guest right and kill Nettles, to stop her from "stealing" Daemon and then betraying Rhaenyra the way Hugh and Ulf did. Daemon finds out about this and, to save Nettles's life, helps her escape, in a goodbye that left Nettles upset and Daemon evidently heartbroken, considering that Caraxes starts screeching like a banshee as they leave. And that is what then spurs Daemon not to return to Rhaenyra's side, but to instead strike out and try to kill Aemond, and thus leads him to his own death in turn. Which leads to a loss of power for Rhaenyra which culminates in her fleeing King's Landing for Dragonstone where she's killed which then leads to Aegon returning to King's Landing only for the Northerners to attack which leads to him dying (I'm a proponent of suicide theory) which leads to Aegon III becoming King and etc etc.

You see how Nettles's existence starts the ball rolling for what becomes the next two hundred years of Targaryen, and by extension Westerosi, history? She's a very specific person, and you can't replace her with anyone else. Daemon has shown absolutely no care or consideration at all for his children by Laena, so there's no reason for him to be anywhere near as invested in Rhaena as he was with Nettles ('oh but Rhaena would have a dragon' well Baela already has a dragon and that didn't stop him from punting her to Driftmark so he could devote his attention only to his pureblood Valyrian sons and still not giving any kind of a shit about her at all, he's a bad father even if his kids have dragons). Rhaenyra's mistrust of Nettles is fueled by her mistrust of dragonseeds, but Rhaena wouldn't be a dragonseed, she's Daemon's trueborn daughter, so that's not an issue. Nor is Rhaenyra necessarily gonna be worried that Daemon is falling in love with his own daughter and thus falling out of love with her, or then try to go "well then the only option is for me to murder Daemon's daughter" as a result. So there'd be no strong connection motivating Daemon to value Rhaena so highly, there'd be no betrayal from Rhaenyra that gets Rhaena sent away and motivates Daemon to pull away from Rhaenyra and instead keep on fighting even if it means his death, and with that, there's no way any of the historical facts can proceed the way that they do. Nettles can't be Rhaena, she needs to be Nettles. She is her own person, with her own specific impact on the narrative and the characters within. And yes, F&B is a narrative, it's formatted like a history book which makes for good thought experiments and injects ambiguity within certain elements, but it's still a fictional story dreamed up by George, who then put characters in that story for a reason.

Not to mention, Nettles and Rhaena are very different characters? Like, they have incredibly different personalities. Rhaena's we haven't seen much of, because the show has suffered in characterizing the younger TB characters as a whole and is also just really bad in characterizing the Velaryons specifically (hm suspicious). But based on what we have, Rhaena seems a bit quiet, a bit subdued, prone to shyness, and generally favoring a more traditional femininity than we see from even Baela. Nettles meanwhile is coarse and rough and loud and unapologetic in that, she's not timid but in fact fearless and bold. Rhaena is a highborn daughter of a prince, stepdaughter to a queen. Nettles is a homeless whore's daughter who grew up poor and on thin means struggling to survive. Which is why Nettles is able to claim Sheepstealer, having to grow up the way she did with the experiences she had gave her an industriousness and a way of problem-solving that allowed her to figure out how to win over Sheepstealer, a wild unclaimed dragon. She used her wits, as she likely so often had to, growing up the way she did, to figure out that Sheepstealer might not like people but he likes a certain kind of food, and thus create an association in his head of Nettles=that food he likes by bringing him sheep until she gained enough of his trust to claim him as a dragon to ride. Rhaena doesn't have that industriousness because Rhaena, like 90% of highborn nobles, has never had to actually fight for anything ever. She's never had to really problem solve in a blunt way for anything, let alone her own survival, that might then inform how she might try to do something as daring as claiming a wild dragon. I mean, Hell, Rhaena gets told out loud "hey if you want a dragon you need to claim a dragon, earn that right" by her own mother who did the exact same thing, and then spent ten years on Dragonstone twiddling her thumbs, I guess, since she never thought "hm let me try that".

Like, these are different people, with different personalities and different upbringings that shaped them in different ways, and thus have different relationships and impact the story in different ways. You can't just smush them together, it doesn't work. It's bad writing that is going to really wreck a lot of the future storytelling in some key ways. It shows a stunning lack of care towards not just a pre-existing Black character, but a Black character the writers themselves created as well, along with a lack of creativity and imagination on their part, and overall laziness that was already a bit present in season 1 but got kicked into overdrive in season 2 and has become endemic to this show overall. It's bad, it's dumb, it's lazy, it's borderline racist, and I don't like it.

(also there's a potent symbolism in rhaena's dragon hatching on its own and that she's called morning, after the dance killed so many dragons and created so much death and doom for house targaryen and the survivors that remain, but fuck the symbolism too i guess)

[flanaganfilm]

You have spoken about dealing with addiction in the past (congratulations on your sobriety, btw), and Hill House, Midnight Mass, Doctor Sleep, etc, all feature characters struggling with addiction. Do you find a sort of catharsis in writing those characters and their storylines, and do you find that having gone through that affects how you write those characters and their stories? p.s. if the question is too personal, I apologize. You are, of course, free to ignore it.

Happy to talk about it. I was writing about addiction long before I admitted having a problem. Looking all the way back to my student films, many years before Absentia, I can see myself starting to pick it apart. The fact is I was a really shitty drunk. I was absolutely a problem drinker. It was always that way, going back to school - I was never able to handle it, and there were times throughout my life starting very young when that thought would occur to me, and I'd get scared, and then I'd convince myself I was being dramatic and that I had no problem whatsoever.

The truth is that I didn't have an OFF switch, I was inclined to hide my drinking, and the older I got the more self-destructive I became when I was under the influence.

But I was also very committed to the belief that I could handle it, and that I didn't have an actual problem, so for years I'd coast by, telling myself whatever issues I may have had weren't so serious. "Nine times out of ten, I'm just fine - I'm the life of the party," I'd think. I wasn't, though, and soon enough it was 50/50 whether I'd have to make apologetic phone calls on a given hungover morning. And those stretches where'd I'd really let go and drink hard, the person who emerged was less and less like me. It got to the point I didn't recognize him at all - there was this stranger who lived inside, and if he got out, he was could destroy everything I held dear, and he didn't give two shits about it. Looking back at the last decade of my work with the perspective I have now, I can see an escalating subconscious urgency in the way I was talking about alcoholism and addiction. My 2003 student feature Ghosts of Hamilton Street features a wanna-be writer with a horribly self-destructive alcohol problem. The people in his life begin to physically disappear, and the world around him resets as though they never existed at all, so he's the only who notices. I was 25 years old when I made that movie, and looking at it now, the addiction issues are a huge blinking red light all over the movie. At the time, I thought it was just interesting context for the character.

I wrote the opening scene of Midnight Mass (which features Riley Flynn waking up from a blackout drunk driving session to find that he's killed someone) all the way back in 2010, eight years before I finally sobered up. That was always something I was absolutely terrified of - not that I'd die because of my drinking, but that I'd kill someone else and live with the consequences. That was probably my biggest fear for most of my life, if I'm honest. And there were mornings I'd wake up at home and wonder how the hell I'd driven myself there the night before. I remember those mornings with a stomach-turning degree of terror and shame.

It was always somewhat cathartic to write about characters with addiction issues. There's a long stretch between Absentia and Hill House where it appears that I'm not dealing with those themes in my work (though I'd argue there's a subtle addiction meditation at play in Before I Wake that I've only recently noticed), but I was also secretly working on Midnight Mass that entire time, and just pouring all of my thoughts and anxieties about alcoholism into that story. So while Oculus, Hush, Ouija: OOE, and Gerald's Game don't seem to dwell much on addiction, that's really because I was spending my nights pouring all of that into the pages of Midnight Mass, which existed alternately as a novel, a screenplay, and then a series during those years.

Working on Doctor Sleep is what brought it all to the surface for me. Stephen King's novel deals thoroughly with the theme of recovery (The Shining is about destruction of addiction, and Doctor Sleep is about the journey and reality of recovery), and a lot of people in my cast were sober. It was while we were shooting that film that I realized I needed to make a seismic change in my life.

My wife will say that reading the scene in Doctor Sleep where Dan sits at the Gold Room bar in the Overlook was when she knew I was reaching a critical moment. That scene isn't in King's book, and my first draft of that conversation between Dan and Jack was almost fifteen pages long. It's basically a prolonged argument between the addictive and sober voices in my mind, and writing that scene shook something loose in me. I stopped drinking just a few days before we filmed that scene for that movie, and I haven't had a drop since.

But for catharsis, Midnight Mass truly is the most personal piece of work I've ever made. Riley is a very thinly disguised avatar of myself. I look at that series and I see several distinct versions of myself in conversation with each other over more than a decade. I'm glad it took so long to get that show made, because if I'd made it in 2016 like I wanted to, I wouldn't have done a good job - there is no way I could have told that story until I was finally sober. If you listen closely to the AA meeting scenes between Riley and Father Paul throughout the series, you're basically looking directly into my conflicted brain over many, many years.

This year is my fifth year sober, and I spend my days happy, busy, and so grateful that I was able to make those changes before my drinking destroyed my career, my marriage, and my life. I was lucky. I am lucky. But since I finished Midnight Mass, I haven't felt that pull when I'm writing. I haven't felt those themes elbowing their way into my work. That part of me is still in here (it always will be), but I feel like I was somehow able, over many years, to coax it to sleep. I'm sure I'll return to those themes over the years, as I hope to learn more about myself and have more to say... but for now, those voices are peaceful and quiet. I have projects on the horizon that will touch on some of those things (if I'm able to make The Dark Tower, there's some wonderful elements with Eddie's addiction issues that I look forward to exploring) but it feels different.

One of the things I hold onto when I look back at that time is the hope that the work can be helpful to someone else who may struggle in a similar way. And talking to fans, I've heard here and there that it has, and that means the world to me. I think storytellers can't help but use their stories as a mirror, it's one of the ways we take ourselves apart, look at the pieces, and put them back. It's one of the only ways we can see ourselves clearly.

Sometimes we don't even realize we're doing it. It's only looking back that we can see ourselves, and our work, with any real clarity.

[rmbunnie]

Okay, here's part two of my Green Arrow: Seeing Red thoughts. I'm going to be talking about the much more well-debated side of things here, and that is, of course, the Mia-Jason side of things. I don't really have a thesis for this essay of a post, besides the basic ground rule that I don't think Jason intended to kill Mia, and that's written out pretty clearly in the text. Also that the idea that Jason was lying about his history and beliefs to manipulate Mia (to what end people never really say, as similarly to the "killing her" misconception, he also wasn't trying to recruit her or really make her do anything) isn't particularly supported by anything in the storyline OR any of Jason's previous characterization, adds very little to the story except maybe peace of mind that his entire presence and everything he says aren't worth thinking over because they're just lies anyways and one contribution to a hypothetical callout post for fictional character Jason Todd that needs to be beefed up with conjecture because actual published stories about him aren't cutting it, and kind of just doesn't engage in like, the basic concept of accepting the premise of a work of fiction imo. I do love a good theory, but there's no subtext really there to support it, and the only piece of evidence is just "what if the story itself was wrong." What if he was lying? Well, then it would serve no purpose and go nowhere. What if Oliver Queen was secretly named Pete Arrows and they just didn't say it ever. What if. This is really just going to be loose thoughts on the storyline, but having said that:

I think Seeing Red coming relatively close after Heading Into The Light contextualizes the story in several really important ways: it makes Jason's actions read even less as an attempt at lethal harm with Dr. Light's actual go at killing people in mind, and it gives Mia a reason to be on high alert. Whether it was an intentional parallel or Winick just had certain scenarios he liked to default to during the mid-2000s I can't say for sure, but Heading Into The Light gives us a benchmark to compare Jason's scheme to of a sadistic villain intending permanent harm through an attack with shared elements to Jason's... thing, only implemented much more severely. And let's be clear, two things can be bad, and Dr. Light is the genuine worst. He is potentially the easiest character to ever be a better person than. but lining them up side by side? Dr. Light attacks Mia's school with full attendance, remotely mass murdering her classmates in a very methodical and near-instant pattern as a way of drawing her out. Jason shows up in her high school gym at night, when the building is empty, and attacks with the single goal of prolonging their conversation as he goads her to fight against him more and more viciously. Dr. Light actually DOES explicitly mock Mia for her HIV status, both internally (implying Ollie would be predatory towards her if he wasn't afraid of catching AIDS) and externally "(I guess hookers really are street smart and tough,") as well as making uncomfortably suggestive comments towards her ("Not quite the schoolgirl in that belly shirt. I feel like you should be in a bar with eight other girls. I could always go for some jello shots.") Jason brings up Mia's history specifically as a response/correction to "You don't know anything about me." Tactless to say the least, but not unprompted like one would expect from a taunt (and like Dr. Light's references to Mia's abuse,) and much less derogatory than "you hookers are tough." The part of his statement that reads as aggressive is centered around Mia's (alleged) unwillingness to kill, her status as a victim isn't the target of his scorn. Which, that isn’t a feat to be clear, i just don’t think he’s mocking her for her diagnosis like I see claimed. In terms of reaction: Mia usually likes to dish it out back, and when Dr. Light disparages her her knee-jerk reaction is saying he has no right be talking shit about her when he's dressed like that (to summarize.) When Jason says they're similar in background she just goes back in for another attack with a yell. Which seems like she might be more upset with Jason's reference than Dr. Light, but not like her usual response to insults.

I also think it's worthwhile to note that the gym is, up until this point in the comic, exclusively the setting where Mia came out to her entire school as being HIV positive. I wouldn't assume Jason knows that specific info, but the location already has a strong association with Mia revealing a personal secret to her peers, and it's where Jason's little chat with her, another teen sidekick, about them having similar pasts and parents goes down. It could be adding a layer of legitimacy or subtext to Jason's speech through the parallel to Mia's earnest coming-out and bid for understanding from her peers, it could be tainting Mia's reclamation of her diagnosis to have the place where her past was owned become the place where it linked her to a guy who cuts off heads -- do with it what you will. The gym is blown up at the end.

Jason actually does lie to Mia in this one, just not about himself or his past. He says that when she runs out of arrows, she knows that's gonna be it for her, and he'll be coming for her. It's technically true in the sense that she does know that, but it's ultimately an incorrect perception. Her bow breaks halfway through the fight, and Jason tosses her a pair of swords, then waits for her to get back up to keep fighting. In the end when she's pinned down, unarmed, and he's coming towards her with a knife, there's a panel of her face as she more or less accepts her fate, before it cuts to her safe outside of the building. So. He will not be getting her when she runs out of weapons. (I am so curious what happens on their end in the time between those panels, besides "he lets her go.") This also establishes a pattern of behavior consistent with his Onyx encounter, and which leads me to believe the Onyx interaction probably wouldn't have ended with him killing her either: He starts the combat with a big display of strength (kidnapping Mia/stabbing Onyx in the shoulder,) frees the opponent from it (unties Mia/dresses Onyx's wound with his special instant suturing bandaid,) insists that he's going to kill them if they fight him, and then doesn't. With Mia, he lets her go, and with Onyx, he's interrupted before she can start attacking (which he's waiting on her to do.) But applying the Mia pattern to Onyx, I do in fact think he's full of shit, and that even if Bruce hadn't shown, we can retroactively assume he would likely have had little intention of actually killing Onyx.

I just think it's fun that Mia's high school is named after Dennis O'Neil (Green Arrow/Green Lantern) and Kevin Smith.

I find it vague what Jason means when he says Mia "understands that very bad things need to be done to accomplish a great right." Obviously it's just Jason's worldview, that evil can be a tool to accomplish good outcomes, and the simple answer is him broadly saying she can relate to it, but why is he telling her? "You do [understand]" feels more personal than that, and what the "great right" actually is, in regards to what Mia is doing, seems unclear. It's a separate statement to "doing bad things just to get by" which references her/their background/s, and frames the good outcome as just surviving another day. I'm sure for Mia it reminds her of the end of City Walls, when she shot that guy because she had to take his wall/police-state curse down, but the thing is, even if she didn't like it, and had a major crisis of conscience over it, she did kill that guy. Not that Jason knows. In general, Green Arrow has much less of a revulsion to killing and death than Bruce, for whom it's nothing short of a fixation. So unless Jason just doesn't know that about Green Arrow, nor that Mia had already killed, it's a really weird point to argue. That probably is the situation, Jason just straight up does not know and is projecting his dynamic with Bruce onto a more understanding father, but it's a weird page, with the cut from him closing in on her to her safe outside, the emphasis on his dagger. Could Jason coming over to her with his dagger, taking into account the fact that she's open and he's shown to not kill her despite this, be following the pattern, shown twice in this issue alone, of him providing opponents weaponry to use against him? Was the "bad thing that needed to be done" his way of prompting her to use the dagger on him, in line with his efforts to make her shoot for his face? Probably not. It's a stretch, but then again, he did move the encounter along to the "advanced readers group" where he starts to allude to his own past and their similarities only after Mia followed up on her threat to shoot for his eye, effectively setting up a system where she "progresses" for hurting not villains or criminals, but him personally. Reading too far into this, but something about that page feels odd to me. It's just SUCH an ambiguous place to cut the scene. Anyways, whatever he way saying there, Mia seemed to be convinced.

I think the thing that bothers Mia most about the Jason interaction, by far, is that it inspired doubt in her relationship with Oliver. That, and the idea that overcoming her circumstances might not be enough to actually keep her Good, which are kind of the same thing. Mia seems to take a lot of pride in being like Oliver, and almost sees him as a uniquely good man, in her history at least. (Connor too, but he's not in the same type of caretaker/authority role.) She spends a substantial amount of time majorly upset after she finds out he cheated on Dinah, which seems somewhat charged taking into account her history, and the fact that he saved her from that politician, saved her from her abusive boyfriend, always responded appropriately to her early series crush, while every other man she interacted with only continued to perpetuate her suffering. (I see Winick's Green Arrow critiqued for having Ollie cheat, and while I absolutely don't agree with the choice to kill Joanna off in the manner that she was killed, and Winick's interview answer when asked about the choice to have Ollie cheat was that he just liked writing Oliver flawed, which is fair, I also think it serves Mia's character really well to have this kind of trial come up in her new parental relationship.) In the same issue where Jason says she's emulating her new flawed "daddy," she lies about her favorite type of pizza so she can agree with Ollie. Throughout the issue, her points of contention with Jason are less about his stance on killing and more that his claims that they're alike are incorrect, at a point where all she knows about him is that he's no longer good, and his father thinks he's trash in the gutter. Ollie will understand when push comes to shove. Ollie is unlike every other figure she looked up to who came before him, and she is unlike Jason, who attracted the wrath of his father by turning to evil. And are their situations similar? In some ways. Like I said in my mentor thoughts, Ollie is much more aware of his role as a parent than Bruce. We see his reaction to Mia killing, which is nothing like anything Bruce would even consider with the extent of his hang-up. He does share his privilege and wealth with Bruce, which Jason talks about as the root of their unwillingness to compromise in their values, while he, Mia, and people like them sometimes have to make the choice to do wrong in order to survive. (I do also think there's something to the fact that Jason comes to the conclusion that Ollie wouldn't understand Mia after pressuring both of them to opt for lethal shots on him, which Ollie abstains from and Mia gives in to, when really, there isn't a ton on the line for them to lose against him? He makes himself out to be like the benchmark of evil for a hero to use lethal force to stop, but like, there's no real threat that needs stopping in these scenarios.) Neither show up to their sidekicks' explosions in time to help them. Whether or not they're the same, (which to be clear, I don't think Mia could be put in Jason's position with Oliver as her parent,) I do think Mia assumes pre-encounter that Jason was sort of passively on the unchallenged side of good until he got sick of it, with how she says "stay on the right side of the line," and I do think it scares her, a character so centered around overcoming her past, to see that another kid started out needing to do wrong, getting the opportunity to leave that behind, and then ending up finding it necessary again of their own volition. But the idea that she might have picked the wrong person to follow again, that even if you rise above you can still end up being Jason, and even rising above can mean putting aside your past and trailing behind your new dad's convictions while your own sit latent, is probably what has her pushing him away when he tries to hug her outside.

[linny-bloggs]

HOLE IN ONE! - oldmoney!gojo x golf scholarship!reader

warnings: body shaming, mahito, a little bit of violence(let me know if you think something needs to be tagged)

a/n: most of this is gonna be based off of my knowledge playing Varsity golf when I was in highschool, so if I have any college golfers, and it’s different please let me know, or just have the slightest bit of mercy. (It’s been a while)

this first one they are in highschool still, I have quite a few ideas for the characters and world building and a nice beginning storyline so if this is something people enjoy I’ll dive deeper into it!!

MDNI!!!

golfer!reader who’s school had an agreement with their town’s country club to use it’s course for practice. Every day on the course for hours playing holes, and hitting on the driving range. Though throughout the season you became less and less passionate about the sport, only staying because your best friend wanted to be on the team but was scared to play alone, and you had been playing since primary school so you figured ‘why not?’

golfer!reader who stopped showing up to practices because you hated playing on a team with such good players, while only being considered “average.”

golfer!reader who finally started showing up to practice again after your best friend told you about the guys on the team who wouldn’t stop joking about how she looked in the golf uniforms, making a clear statement to stay away from her when not yelling ‘fore’ after hitting a golf ball at their group.

golfer!reader who meets an arrogant jerk when waiting in line for the bathroom in the clubhouse, hearing a whistle then scoffing after you locked eyes with a pale boy, with blue hair and a few long scars across his face.

golfer!reader who feels the shift in his demeanor, once he realizes you weren’t going to fall at his feet just because he had money. Feeling incredibly uncomfortable when he walks up behind you, his face twisting into a somewhat condescending expression before opening his mouth to say something, Only to be cut off by a different person walking into the clubhouse, calling for the guy, who you now know is Mahito, and telling him to hurry up because their tee time is quickly approaching.

golfer!reader who’s thinks about that moment every time you walk toward the clubhouse, worried of encountering him again, until one day you walk in and see your best friend talking to him, with stars in her eyes, and a completely lovestruck look on her face. His face sporting a shit eating grin the second he sees you, “we should play golf together sometime, you look real pretty in that skirt, and I’d love to see more of it” he whispers to her, just loud enough that you could hear while getting tokens to hit more golf balls on the range. You shot him a look, only making him look more content with his actions before you walked outside.

golfer!reader who ended up getting taken along with on the day she and mahito went golfing, finding yourself in a golf cart with a self absorbed prick, with blue eyes and white hair. Every other shot talking about how amazing he is, even though he shot double par on every. Single. Hole.

You had to watch your friend fall into the blue haired jerk’s trap the whole day because she was so excited about the attention she was getting from him. And everytime she giggled or blushed at a comment of his, he threw you a smug look, acting as if he had just just won some type of game between the two of you.

You prayed to whatever god was there to give you patience, when mahito asked for lessons for him and the snowy haired jerk for a charity event they participated in every year.

This was gonna be a long, long season.

a/n: I’m so so sorry if this is bad!! It’s been years since the last time I was writing for other people, so trying to format this in a good way has been a little hard so far! Please interact if you enjoyed so I can tell if this is something people want!! Thank you!

[snarky-art]

Chimera and Cassandra!

In my rewrite, they’re both Lunarian , aka Deliosians (the actual name that most of them use to refer to themselves as)

Cassandra does indeed use Valtor’s influence to get them a higher ranking, in fact, the highest ranking one could get under Solarian rule.

Chimera is just a pawn in that, and although isn’t enthusiastic, is non the less shunned into obedience by their mother.

Info on their general storyline, content within my lore, and why I drew them Cassandra with a different skin tone and Chimera with a different hair texture below!

Cassandra ends up tanning to pass as more Solarian since they have an ethnic ancestry from those who stayed underground on Lunaria, which in my thing, results in them tending to have a paler complexion as well as increasing the likelihood for a paler hair color. Blond is considered a Solarian trait by those from Solaria, although the lightness of it would be considered Lunarian. Cassandra can just pass it off as being the result of some “impure Ancestry” though and that she’s mainly Solarian because,, the color of her hair, you see? Blond! And her iris color (also Lunarian, but she can claim the paleness is because of the small Lunarian part “tainting” it and resulting in phenotypic traits being less intense in hue) and that combined with her tan, she can prove she is Mostly Solarian,, right????

Spoiler alert: she’s totally 100% Lunarian.

In my thing, Stella will realize fairly quickly that Chimera is not someone who has much choice in this. On top of not being a willful participant, they hate pretty much everything about it. They straighten their hair because it’s easier than curling it to the 3c and various 4 texture curls that Solarian’s can have, but they still hate it. They refuse to tan or add glimmers or contacts to change their eyes. They don’t want to. Why should they?

Cassandra allows it, VERY begrudgingly. She can blame it all on Chimera’s father anyway (he had an ancestry from those who lived above ground hilariously enough, meaning his skin tone and hair color were darker overall, and he could’ve passed better as Solarian if he wanted to ((he didn’t for obvious reasons. Fuck Solarian Imperial rule.)) but shhhh he’s not in the political sphere there’s no reason for that information to pop up ever).

Even with all of this though, when all of this stuff is said and done, Stella can’t even really blame Cassandra.

For Cassandra, yes it is an attempt at a power grab, but, Stella also kind of Gets It.

“Well,, I can’t really blame her for this at the end of it all. I understand why she would want that power. How else would she get it? She’s Lunarian.”

She’s still pissed at her for doing what she could to get rid of her obviously and she thinks she’s a shitty mom, but the actual goal of trying to get on the throne? Stella goes, “well I think it’s fair to see why she would want more power. It’s not like they have much compared to me. To Solarians.”

And people are pissed she’s saying this, it was cute she was trying to play Dress Up and shit (how they referred to her connecting to her heritage from her mother, wearing actual Deliosian garb and paying respect to the Moons equally as much as the Suns). But she’s taking this seriously? Cassandra was just another power hungry Lunarian trying to get into court in a higher position. They’ve always wanted more than they have, say the Solarians in power.

Stella’s response? It’s because what they have isn’t equal.

The rest of the panel she’s speaking to during the court session: well,, I mean, that’s not the same as wanting equality-

Stella: why not? Because you’ve refused to give them independence. This wouldn’t be an issue if you did that. Or are you actually going to concede and give them equal representation?

The panel:…..

Stella ends it by pointing out she’s just as much Lunarian as she is Solarian. The panel hates it.

Stella and Chimera end up as sisters when everything is done, with Stella and Chimera referring to each other as such, and Chimera becomes one of the loudest people and a head representative for the Delios Independence Movement.

Cassandra is still in court sessions as a political figure, but is given shit for being such an ass to Stella and being seen as a shitty mom, forcing her daughter into this and using her mainly for a political pawn. It’s too soon to let her continue to hold influence though after the Valtor incident the others present decide, and she’s kicked out for a while. She’s still shit talked for the reasons previously mentioned, and for being a Lunarian that dared to want power, according to the Solarian Imperialists in court.

Stella invites her back after a time. Stella appreciates her thoughts on how to make things better for those of Delios because she knows Cassandra will never hold back on her real thoughts and feelings. Chimera and Cassandra don’t really talk after everything for a while, but eventually things do get better, and they do resume regular correspondence and communication. They’ll never be super close, but they know they can rely on each other when it counts.

[im-some-lionheart]

As much as I fucking love Queer as Folk with my entire heart and still regard it as one of the best show ever created about queer life (right up there with Sense8 and It's a Sin), I will never forgive them for having THREE textually bi/pansexual characters engage in bi/pan behavior IN THE SAME FUCKING SEASON, and still insisting on labeling them as either "Gay" and "Straight".

Hunter canonically had a crush on Brian. From the moment first he saw Brian, he flirted with him and tried to impress him, only stopping when Brian confirmed he had a boyfriend ("in a non-defined, non-conventional way, yeah"). But the second he got a girlfriend, everyone stared calling him "straight" and called it a day.

Drew canonically "had sex with every Texas cheerleader", and had a fiancée he claimed to love, but he still had sex with men "for fun". Until he fell for Emmett and decided to come out as "Gay". Which, I mean he could be. Some people don't realize their true identity until further in life and that's fine, but I feel that was another missed opportunity to explore less rigid views on sexuality, based on the character's experiences. And it's highly suspicious that it happened on the same season that the other two storylines about characters being attracted to more than one gender.

And, finally: Lindsay had a 10+ year old committed relationship with Mel, and had a threesome with her and Leda in s2 (thus proving it wasn't a demi thing about just Mel, but she's sexually attracted to women in general). Then, she became attracted to Sam in s4 and slept with him. But even before that, it was clear she had at least some romantic feelings for Brian during college, and they canonically slept together at least a couple of times (as mentioned in ep 1).

But when she questions the binary of "Gay" vs "Straight" to Brian himself, he tells her she has to choose, that she can't like both??? Which is honestly such bullshit, coming from Brian, of all people, given that:

a) he's is the most sexually liberated out of all the characters, and

b) his own personal policy is "unless I'm fucking you, [my sexuality] is none of your business". So why would he give a shit who anyone else is attracted to or decides to fuck (consensually) ?

Anyway. Other than that, that show is fucking perfect and I still love it, but goddammit is it frustrating to watch s4 as a bi person. It feels too much like they were building up to talk about the bi umbrella but chickened out at the last minute.

[jazziejax]

𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠

𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - Kelvin Harrison Jr. x Black!OC, Aaron Pierre x Black!OC

𝐒𝐮𝐦𝐦𝐚𝐫𝐲 - In which the invisible string finally tightens, bringing some back together for reuniting and others close to form a bond that’ll last a life time.

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 - cursing/swearing, mentions of a break up??, idk fr….

𝐉𝐚𝐳𝐳𝐢𝐞’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 - This is actually the beginning of my ‘Cozy Nights and Soft Mornings’ universe. This and following chapters will be giving the backstory and other storylines to the couples. Yes, I made a lion OC so this all could make sense. Yes, I know yall are tried of seeing OC stories. And NO, you don’t have to use the pictures of the OC’s I picked, when it comes to description, I really only do skin color and outfit, I could care less about what they actually look like beyond that. I got bored and the Bad Boys AU so taking too long to get to the good stuff and I have an essay due at 11:59 that I haven’t started on. Sorry for any grammar issues and spelling errors!

𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭 - 3,163+

| 𝐀𝐭𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐚, 𝐆𝐞𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐚 | 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 |

“AHHHHHHHHHHHH!” Was the only sound that could be heard in the separate apartments of the two women. The lighter-skinned woman was jumping up and down in her bed, screaming into the phone in her hands. She could barely hear the other woman over the phone, who was excitedly stomping her feet as she sat on her couch, her laptop a few feet away from her.

“Oh my gosh, this is so insane!” She shouted as she plopped down in her bed, and she was shocked the old thing didn’t collapse under her weight. Her sudden fall caused her slightly loose bonnet to slide down her face, the girl pushing it up as she laid down on her bed out of breath. “I can’t believe this.” She sighed, her chest steadily rising and falling in her loose top. The sun was peaking through her bedroom window, the glass pulled up to let in the wind from the outside. She could feel the heat from the sun on her bare legs as she listened to the giddy girl on the other side of the phone.

“I can’t believe this either!” Nala cheered into her phone with a large smile on her face. “I don’t want to speak too soon but shits really starting to look up for us, Eve.” She said as she moved to angle herself back to her laptop, looking at the confirmation email the pair got. Evette sighed again, her gaze focused on the loud ceiling fan above her. Her mouth was open as she tried to find words to convey her whirlwind of thoughts, but it was like she was stuck in a daze as she realized what her life could become after this flashed before her eyes.

Nala cocked her head away from the phone, looking down at her screen to see the call was still connected. “Girl, hello? You there?” She asked, looking awkwardly around her own place due to the silence she was now enveloped in.

Her voice snapped Evette out of her thoughts. “Yeah. yeah, I hear you.” She said. “I’m just…shocked.” She began as she sat up from her bed again, scooting herself off the mattress to make her way out of her room. “I mean, we just booked a Disney Production.” She stated, her hand rubbing against her forehead after she opened her door, still taking in everything. “A fucking Live Action Disney movie! Together!” She shouted as the excitement all came back to her, now standing in the small division between her kitchen and her living room. “This is the second role we’ve gotten together!”

“It’s fate, Eve! I’m telling you!” Nala grinned her gaze back on her laptop, rereading through the emails of her new life. She heard Evette sigh through the speaker as she scrolled her screen. “I’m just…at a loss of words.” She sighed, her eyes skimming over the names within the casting email.

“You know, I’m proud of us,” Evette spoke up, moving over to her small living room and plopping herself down on her couch, lying her legs on the seat cushions as she relaxed into the arm of the couch. “We’ve come so far in only a couple of years. Hell, I remember when we used the share this place.” She said, letting out a small laugh as she gestured around to the small, one-bedroom Atlanta apartment, thinking of all the memories the girls shared in the space as they navigated their dreams together. “Do you think this is it? I mean, I know we haven’t necessarily made it, but…Do you think this is the start?”

“Uh, hell yeah!” Nala scoffed from the other end of the phone, momentarily taking her eyes away from the screen that was beginning to hurt her eyes from squinting at the tiny font. “I told you that things are only going up from here when I first met you on set as an extra when I needed a place to stay and you needed a roommate for rent.”

“That was, like, five years ago,” Evette mumbled, blinking at what her friend was trying to convey.

“And look at us now! I’m finally getting booked for roles and you’re busy!” She could practically hear Nala’s grin. She couldn’t help but smile again, a warm feeling spreading through her at her friend’s happiness. After so many years of hard work and grinding, Nala was finally achieving her dream, and she couldn’t be happier for the girl.

She was about to speak, acknowledging her gratitude and admiration for the major changes that her ‘industry baby’ companion was about to experience before she was cut off.

“And stop trying to get all deep and sentimental on me, you know I hate that shit,” Nala mumbled as she went back to reading the multiple emails she’d gotten. She furrowed her brows at one of the names on the list for the movie the pair would be in, while Evette continued over the phone.

“Damn, a girl can’t be proud? This is really big for you, ya know? You never forget your first real big acting gig. But no, I guess you can’t even be nice to bitches no more.” She said. She crossed her arms in her lying position, still holding the phone up to her ear.

When she received no response, she furrowed her brows, knowing that Nala would usually keep the argumentative banter going. “Hello?” She said, only to be met with silence. She pulled the phone from her ear, looking down to see the call was no longer connected and she’d just been talking to the air, her home screen pressed against her ear.

“This bitch.” She mumbled to herself, just when her front door burst open. She let out a small scream, quickly sitting up and looking back at her open apartment door to see said friend in her pajamas still, laptop in hand.

“What the hell?!” Evette screamed, her hand clenched around her phone in fear at the commotion Nala caused. The girl just continued to huff, coming into the apartment and closing the door behind her, as well as locking it. Evette stood up from the couch, her arms spread in confusion as she stared at the other woman in shock.

Nala waved the girl off, still trying to catch her breath from how she got here. “No girl, you’re gonna want to sit down for this.” She breathed out, stumbling her way over to the couch with her open laptop in her arms. Her words only caused Evette’s face to morph more into pure confusion, eyes squinted and brows drawn closer together as she looked at Nala.

“Nanali, what the hell are you talking about? What’s going on? Why are you barging into my house like the fucking feds?! How did you even get in here, and why are you out of breath?!” She yelled as she watched Nala come over to the couch and plop down, meshing her body into the dark green corduroy as finally shanked her breathing.

“I have a key.” She said, holding up the bundle of keys that dangled off of her middle finger and poked through one of the many rings, an assortment of charms and keys clinging together. She let her arm drop back down with a clink before adjusting herself in her seat, placing her back against the back pillows of the couch and her laptop on top of her legs. “And I barged in because it’s an emergency.”

“What could possibly be so bad that you couldn’t say over the—.”

“And I’m out of breath because I ran up here. The elevator was occupied.”

This caused Evette’s face to drop, quickly sitting on the available spot on the couch next to her. “You took the stairwell? Oh wow, it really is an emergency.” She said, her face contorting into a wince at the thought of the stairwell. That place was like ground zero for anything you could think of in an apartment complex like theirs. From persistent crackheads that tended to get violent sometimes to a spot often used by corner girls trying to make a quick buck. The drug swaps were occasional now since the place got busted a few months back.

It was especially with Nala staying on the second floor. The first two floors were considered off-limits for most of the people in the building if you didn’t indulge in anything that it offered.

Nanali nodded as she looked at her friend, pursing her lips.

“So, what is it?” Evette asked, looking at the girl. Nala nervously nipped at her bottom lip with her sharp canines as her eyes darted between the laptop screen and her waiting friend. When Evette quirked an eyebrow, Nala let out a small sigh. She scooted over, awkwardly placing her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “You know I love you right?” She said, squinting her eyes at her blonde friend next to her.

“What the hell is going on?” Evette snapped, scrunching her brows at her looked at Nanali.

“And you know that I care about you. And that we share a mutual feeling of…uncomfortability when it comes to delivering bad news.” She continued, ignoring the woman’s words as she tried to deliver the news. “So, just imagine how hard this is for me,” Nala said, a silent wince in her face. Evette groaned, bringing her hand up to rub harshly at her eyes.

“Just spit it out, Nanali, you’re giving me a damn headache.” She spat.

“Hey! I’m just trying to be considerate of feelings here because I know you feel your emotions very deeply. I don’t want you breaking my laptop or crying a damn river!” Nanali snapped back, finally breaking out of her odd therapist-esque approach that made the two of them uncomfortable.

“I’m gonna break the damn thing anyway if you don’t just spit it out!” Evette snapped back, her gaze hard as she looked at the woman next to her. The suspense of it all was killing, and not even in a metaphorical sense because her heart was still beating erratically and she’s been sitting down for almost five minutes now with no movement, plus she had a headache all of a sudden. Her mind was racing with the anticipation of whatever Nala held on that laptop and if she had some condition that’s finally peeked its way through symptom-wise due to her friends' insistent behavior.

Nanali paused, staring at her intensely as she analyzed her.

“Well, now I don’t feel comfortable giving you my laptop.”

“Give me this damn laptop!” Evette gritted through her teeth, reaching and snagging the device off of Nala’s lap before she could even think about holding it longer. Nala let out a small gasp as the laptop left her possession, watching Evette’s eyes flicker all around the screen.

“This is just the casting email. What am I supposed to be looking at?” She asked. Nanali pursed her lips as she scooted closer to her, looking at the laptop that sat on her lap. She moved her finger to the mousepad and scrolled down, before pointing at the names at the end of the email. Her eyes flicked between the one name she knew from word of mouth and the mouth she heard it from, watching her as she read the names.

Evette paused at the familiar name on the list. The name that flooded her mind with a plethora of memories, some good, some bad. A name that caused her heart to skip a beat and her breath to catch in her throat. A name that caused her stomach to flutter as she froze as if his very presence lingered in the room.

It was a name she spoke to Nanali about often, especially after having downed a few drinks and being all nostalgic. A name that sometimes made her want to tear up at the mere utterance, being flooded with all the times they had together and how much life and first-time experiences they truly got to live together. The name weighed heavy on her shoulders, forcing her to remember the very details of how they first met, and how it all ended.

It was the name of the man she didn’t like to think about, a man that she still left love for.

Aaron Pierre as ‘Mufasa’, Kelvin Harrison Jr. as ‘Taka’, Nanali Campbell as ‘Sarabi’, Evette Hampton as ‘Lela’, Blue Ivy Carter as ‘Kiara’, Beyoncé as ‘Nala’, Donald Glover as ‘Simba’.” The names carried on, listing more and more actors and the characters that they voiced. But that one name was the only one she could pay attention to. The only one that she gave a damn about, which was shocking to her because Beyoncé was on the list. She could only let out a small breath at the sight of it, blinking.

Nanali let out a sigh as well, looking solemnly at her friend. Not even thinking about it, she brought her arm around the girl's back, rubbing her hand against the arm it landed on. “Are you okay?” She asked softly, not taking her gaze off the side of Evette’s face.

The sound of her voice caused Evette to snap out of her trance, blooming away her daze but keeping her eyes on the screen. “Yeah.” She said, although her voice was low and full of uncertainty. “Yeah, I’m okay.” Nanali didn’t believe her one bit, among her head down to look into the girls' eyes. Evette still didn’t move her gaze from the laptop, her face subconsciously morphed into a slight frown. “I know this is a lot for you. Especially now.” She began. “And…I—I don’t even know where to begin to make this any better.” She mumbled near the end, more so taking to herself now. “But look on the bright side, it’s animated and nothing but voice acting. We’ll probably never even have to see them in person. Which sucks because Beyoncé’s in this movie.” She said with a small frown, beginning to ramble to herself with her arm still wrapped around the girl.

“Maybe we can see her at the premiere. Even just a glance is fine with me because I don’t know if I can handle speaking to Beyoncé.” She continued before a thought crossed her mind, causing her to let out a small gasp and cover her mouth. “But that would mean we’d also have to see the others at the premiere. And maybe even a press tour, because it is a Disney film after all, which means it might be a huge press tour. I mean, it’s The Lion King, that’s, like, the best Disney film of all time and the first one did super well.” As she continued to ramble about the movie and its preceding environment after it was all over, Evette’s head slowly turned her way, contempt written on her face as she watched Nala’s mind work over her features.

“You’re not helping.” She cut in, causing Nala to halt and look over at her.

“I mean, I did say I wasn’t going to be any help.” She shrugged, causing Evette to let out a small sigh, but couldn’t help the small grin that graced her lips. Nala cheesed, looking at her friend’s face. “Ahh! Look who’s smiling!” She said, flexing the arm she had around the woman to squeeze her. “I’m not smiling,” Evette said with a clear view of her grin. Nanali’s face dropped as she released her grip from around her but kept her arm in its place. “Don’t lie to my face, you know I’m gaslit easily.”

“No, you’re just very gullible,” Evette said as she let out a small chortle. Nala just squinted her eyes at the girl suspiciously. “And how do I know you’re not still gaslighting me, huh?” She joked, causing Evette to let out a small laugh. Nala smiled at the sight of her friend smiling. “And there’s a laugh. Could’ e been better, needs more heart, but it was aight.” She said, only getting another laugh from the blonde, who was in need of a root touch-up, as a response.

“You’re good at cheering people up,” Evette said as she sat up a little straighter and leaned into her friend’s embrace, placing her head on Nala’s shoulder. Nala placed her head on top of hers, bringing her closer with the arm she still had wrapped around her. “Nah, I’m just really good at deflecting from situations that require too much effort.” She said nonchalantly, causing Evette to chuckle. “But you know what I’m not going to deflect from?”

“What?” Evette questioned, still in the girl's embrace.

“How you called me a bitch earlier.” She said before smacking the girl upside her cover head. Evette flinched, bringing her hand up to rub at the spot. “You heard that?” She questioned, face contorted into one of confusion since she could’ve sworn the call had ended by the time she said that.

“Yeah, I did,” Nala stated sharply before taming her again. “I have the ears of a snow owl hunting for its prey in a blizzard.” She said dramatically. Evette paused, frowning although Nala couldn’t see it.

“You have to stop binge watching those animal planet.”Nala then hit her again, this time in the back, causing Evette to let out a small yell in pain. “Now what was that for?” She asked, moving to sit up but Nala tightened her girl around the girl, keeping her in palace against her shoulder. “That was for the ‘bitch’ you said in that little rant of yours about me not wanting to get sentimental. Now look at me, hugged up on your couch while you’re in a time of need. It doesn’t get more sentimental than that, boo.” She said.

“I am not in a time of need.” Evette was quick to add, trying to take her mind off of the new information she’s had to face at some point. Now Amit wasn’t the time.

Nala rolled her eyes at the girl. “Girl, please. Just appreciate this hug while you can. You’re not gonna get another until this movie comes out.” She said, her head still on atop of hers. “And speaking of the premiere, I know this is all months, hell maybe even years in advance in this fucked up economic and social climate, but I’m gonna need the hookup with your stylist. You know I don’t have one of those and I do not want to look like a bum on the red carpet. I’d never live it down and if I see one tweet about what I have on, someone will drop dead in the preceding three days. I know people.”

“Here you go with this voodoo shit. Whatever happened to the heifer I needed turned into a goat?”

“Well, which is it? A heifer or a goat? You were never clear.”

“You’re a year late to clear that up.”