#could’ve only happened in the timeframe it happened in

[pop-punklouis]

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[comfortabletogether]

CW: mentions of racism, alcoholism, homophobia, and imperialism

tbh if you want to write a show like Hazbin Hotel you NEED to have writers who understand history. Like not just a general overview or base knowledge but to have severe interest of when the characters were alive. Because it will completely shape their pop culture knowledge, their jobs, their personalities, how they interact with each other. The writers I think don’t understand that.

For example, Alastor was a black man from the 1920’s and a radio show host in Louisiana, that would’ve only happened after 1929. And he uses no slang, no mention of prohibition, no mention of mobsters, no mention of severe racism. Angel Dust was an Italian mobster in the 1940’s, and that was not expanded on at all. That could lead to internalized homophobia and feeling lesser due to sex worker because of his surroundings.

I do not think any other character has gotten a historical timeframe of when they are from. But I have seen something (from an unreliable source but) of Husk being Russian in the mid 1900’s. Which that could lead to why he is an alcoholic, because between the Russo-Japanese War, WWI, Bolshevik Revolution, Russian Civil War, and WWII Russia had lost a significant amount of people. And Husk’s alcoholism could’ve been derived from coping from loosing almost everyone he knew (which could also lead to abandonment + attachment issues that he could have to work through.)

I have also seen that Nifty was supposed to be Japanese, and Sir Pentenous is British, could be a critism of imperialism. Idk you guys, this was my silly rant as a history nerd.

[sepublic]

What’s further absurd about Camila being more of a mom to Hunter than Luz in fanon is that. Camila and Hunter have two(2) solo interactions across the entire show and it’s Hunter kneeling to Camila to say thanks and her telling him not to do that, and then her pulling him out of the water. Thats it, the scenes transition to Hunter and Gus talking or the group worrying about Hunter. But then we see Camila interact with Luz at the end of the episode, in fact she has MULTIPLE interactions with Luz that episode and in general!!!

Meanwhile Darius is right there, he was mean to Hunter once, but he made up for it in the same episode by validating Hunter, looking out for him, giving him a way to talk to his new friends! He worries about Hunter in Hollow Mind. When the kids reunite with their parents, Hunter has nobody until Darius shows up.

And if y’all can forgive Eda for being immature with King a few times in S1, you can do the same for Darius. If you can forgive Alador’s abuse and neglect towards his kids by embracing their forgiveness, Darius is nothing. Darius is basically the only adult to actually talk to Hunter directly besides you know who and Eda, but that was twice and she was making fun of him the first time. Raine also showed concern but I barely see that dynamic.

It’s insane because it’s not enough that Hunter needs love from an adult for these people, they need it to be Camila’s love specifically!!! Despite Luz’s entire arc and the show in general being kicked off from Luz feeling like her mother didn’t love her enough by sending her to that reality check camp. Oh, Hunter needs someone kind for him because of trauma? Luz also has trauma, S3 has her go on a thinly-veiled suicidal rant.

Istfg I see Camila and Hunter more than I see Camila and Amity, and at least Amity is basically her daughter in law, plus it’s Amity getting away from her two abusive white parents. Meanwhile people denying Darius are demonizing him for being a black man who was mean once.

He’s not even Luz’s brother, and I’m sure part of the insistence of Camila as Hunter’s mom is an extension of that; Except the ‘Siblings’ dynamic between Luz and Hunter is inaccurate and exaggerated, esp in favor of Luz and King or Vee! We see so much fanart and fanfic of Camila just hanging out with Hunter even casually without angst, but not her own blood daughter.

Like yeah maybe it’s fun to explore the two-month period in the human realm and how Camila was the only adult these kids had; But people continue to hype her up as Hunter’s mom in settings outside of that timeframe!!! We see Luz come out to her mom and everything, we have her being raised by her mother! And Camila taking care of Hunter would not suck so hard if Luz wasn’t completely overshadowed, if Hunter wasn’t everywhere and inserted into everything! With fans insisting Hunter’s a Noceda and NEEDS to be in group photos like that, insisting on joint custody as if Luz and Camila don’t have that much of a relationship with Hunter to begin with and Darius is sufficient, crying about how he deserved more in the finale! Boohoo.

I’m gonna be real here, Hunter fans are the weakest link in this fandom despite being the most prevalent at this rate. They’ll rather make up stuff for him to talk about than acknowledge other characters, or even take other characters’ moments to give to him; Like remember when Luz had a nightmare sequence where she was dressed in Belos’ clothes and felt the weight of everyone’s accusations, and then some fanartist made a piece of that happening to Hunter instead??? I have to see Camila hugging Hunter while he wields String Bean, who is Luz’s Palisman when Waffles is right there without a confirmed creation date, so they could’ve easily been shortly after the finale!!!

It is SUCH an admission of envy and unconscious racism that y’all need to take traits and moments that belong to other characters and give it to your white boy to enjoy them, instead of enjoying these characteristics with the characters they actually belong to! And don’t make this about you and how you personally aren’t consciously racist or whatever, because this is about a group trend and PoC should not have to bear the burden of screening every individual of guilt. And yeah it is racist, hell it’s basically the Mammy archetype where a WoC is expected to prioritize her white charge over her own child.

And don’t even try to argue you’re innocent because you’re a PoC, PoC are just as capable of white favoritism and I speak from experience! For chrissakes everyone we’re snappy about this because being gentle about it has never worked for PoC. If you feel upset by this than actually do something about it and learn instead of wallowing in self pity or even denying it.

[act-like-anangel]

I don’t know what just happened

All i know was that i was looking at Batfam and PK civ and PVP civ fanart

next thing i know i’m wondering about what would happen if the batfam met either of the Evbos cause from what know, PVP Evbo is prob around 16-18 i think and PK Evbo is prob around the same age maybe a little older.

How would the Batfam react to PVP Evbo having to die over and over again, being farmed like an animal for his sword? We don’t even know the actual timeframe for how long he was being tortured and killed, for all we know he could’ve been there for a month or two just dying over and over again, barely being fed enough to live but not enough to stave off the hunger. Having to be the ‘chosen one’ for people who don’t even care about you, who see you as a tool, not a human with real feelings.

How would the Batfam react to PVP Evbo only knowing violence from the start of his existance to now, because that’s all his world runs on, barely blinking when he has to kill someone because of how normalised it is. He also deadass could’ve dropped his sword whenever he needed to be farmed but just decided to be killed anyways??

Having to live in a civilization where he has to pay for bare necessities with his life, living with the knowledge of when exactly he’ll die.

How would the Batfam react to PK Evbo who was put on the Noob level who had to do parkour for the barest amount of food, the food being RAW chicken. or a piece of RAW beef. Not having enough food to even sprint or run but still having to jump precisely from block to block or else he’d fall into the void. Only having one neighbour left because all his other ones had died, and even that one is gone now too. How would they react to him being surprised at the idea of cooked food at the Pro level not to mention actually being able to eat it.

How would they react to Evbo barely having any time to relax in the Pro level before being challenged to a battle where he could DIE and having a totem given to him and the task of ranking up again thrust onto him. Literally dying and coming back to life after dying from fall damage which definitely hurt. Ranking up to a master, meeting Seawatt and finding out that his earliest memories were fake. He never even had any friends.

Being drugged and sent to fight the champion right after waking up and having to kill people in a parkour battle and ending up losing anyways, their lives and deaths being in vain. Being given the boots of his old mentor and having to immediately go and beat a tyrant after just waking up from what he thought was his death. Winning and having to take the responsibilities and make all the needed changes to civilization because who else knows it better than him when he’s been a Noob, a Pro, a Master and now a Champion.

Jumping into the void just hoping he won’t die, finding out his best friend has gone missing with no knowledge about wether or not he’s alive. How would they react to him being manipulated and tricked into doing several courses and going through the glass and crystal courses, sharpness of both making itself known to his hand. Going back and having to immediately do the neo course. Going to the parkour temple to end up having to follow in with the plan of destroying civilization because if he doesn’t his best friend will die.

How would they react to him having his rank stolen and having to save his friend before going to the altar of the Parkour God and jumping in the void hoping again that this wouldn’t be for nothing. Having to face the mentor who he knows is the reason for all of this, the person who separated innocent people from the rest of civilization for the action of one man. Letting them die out.

Having to fail another jump and again hoping that it wouldn’t be for nothing. Going back to his civilization that he was supposed to protect and seeing what the villain has done to it. Seeing his people’s empty cells knowing it’s empty cause they’re dead. Going to the master level and having to kill one of his own citizens because they’re so scared of the villain and what he would do to them if they didn’t listen. Going to the top with the knowledge that he’d probably die soon by the Villain using the command blocks to auto-kill him, having his hope ignited once he realises he has to do a parkour race instead, confident in himself before that confidence and hope is gone as fast as it came.

Jumping into the void again, waking up thinking he’s dead, finding out that he’s inheriting the powers of the Parkour God. Beating the villain and sitting with the knowledge that he’s god now. He doesn’t have to do anything anymore.

How would the Batfam react to that? A boy who knows too much, has done too much, and gone through too much.

[skywxikers]

tua s4 spoilers ‼️

there’s my two cents on the five x lila subplot (as always this is my opinion, feel free to disagree)

the season itself is short, 6 episodes compared to the usual 10. that doesn’t give much time to develop characters or plots, and the fact that the subway subplot was thrown in episode 5 feels extremely rushed.

this will be long so everything’s below the cut

do i like the idea of five x lila? absolutely not. was this arc ok in terms of characterization? also no. but, there is a little merit to it (emphasis, little). lila and five are stuck together for 6 years with what seems like no way to get out. they only have themselves BUT this is where the disagreements start; they should’ve and could’ve stayed platonic. btw, i think both five and lila are at fault. lila has diego and her 3 kids, while five knows all this. they both made the (wrong) decision to get together. but also at the same time like. why get with the man who killed ur parents ?

ben and jennifer causing the cleanse is the main idea of the season, yet the ep right before the series finale turns into a whole new idea. if the writers wanted five to discover the deli with different fives, that easily could’ve been in a shorter timeframe. if the writers wanted some angst with lila and diego’s relationship, that also could’ve been done much much differently. lila is an assassin and diego a child forced to be a hero, the whole rift in their marriage is because neither of them are used to domesticity. yet when lila gets lost with five, she seems to be fine settling on a strawberry farm, being fluffy with five, and taking a break from trying to get home. fives character, on the other hand, has always been about how he’s simultaneously too old (mentally) and too young (physically) for love, which is why he had closure with delores, and half the time he’s too busy with apocalypses to care for love with a real person. i feel like most of that got thrown out the window. and it’s basically pedo like in both directions 😭

not to mention, all the aftermath when diego finds out is pointless compared to what’s coming, the cleanse. literally everyone dies, and the whole situation got unresolved as a result. even the argument at christmas dinner in front of both diego’s and lila’s family was not it, it lowk gave me cheesy rom com vibes.

imo, a better way to keep angst in their marriage without cheating is to have more interaction with diego and lila. the whole time she kept on avoiding him. they could’ve resolved the rough patch right at the end, like when diego said “i finally see u” and then the cleanse happens so they never get their happy ending together. in the actual finale, five got jealous and diego was upset and it was very messy.

not to mention that at the time of filming, aidan was 19 and barely a legal adult while ritu was almost 35 ish. the acting industry is so messed up.

i probably left some stuff out (i’ll edit this later) but thanks for listening to my ted talk

[genderfluidkai]

Misako is a good mother and i will die on this hill

I am stupidly passionate over little lego people, so I am compiling a list of reasons as to why Misako’s actions are understandable and to show that the logic some people use to call her a bad mother is maybe just a little silly. putting it under a read more though bc i am writing so goddamn much

Point number 1: leaving Lloyd at Darkley’s

Most points I see about this is people saying “well why didn’t she leave him with Wu” which there are MULTIPLE reasons for.

1. He had just banished Garmadon, yknow, Misako’s husband. While it was on accident, Misako likely would not feel comfortable leaving her son with Wu

2. Morro. Now, we don’t know when exactly Wu took Morro in, as we’re never given an exact timeframe, however I would put it somewhere between the FSM’s death and a little while before Garmadon’s banishment. Misako full well could have bore witness to what happened with Morro, or could’ve been told about it. Misako is thus very reasonable in not wanting to leave her infant son, the actual Green Ninja, with Wu, as for all she knew, the moment Wu figured it out he would start training Lloyd. She would not want Lloyd to miss out on his childhood while possibly also becoming a self-important prick with a massive ego (bc for how much I love Morro, I can admit that that’s what he became due to the whole Green Ninja thing).

3. If Wu DID realise Lloyd was the green ninja, and then start to train him, it’d mean Misako leaving Lloyd in the first place would have been for nothing. Misako was trying to prevent the prophecy, not speed it up.

And then it comes to Darkley’s itself, and the fact that there are multiple reasons leaving Lloyd there would have been a good option in Misako’s eyes

1. It is a school for future villains. It was likely the ONE PLACE Lloyd could go where he wouldn’t be ostracised by his peers like we see him being in the Ninjago movie, especially because we can guess that Garmadon had a reputation for being evil PRIOR to his banishment, as when the villagers of Jamanakai think Lloyd is saying he’s Lord Garmadon, they’re terrified of him, until they see him and realise he’s Lord Garmadon’s like, 10 year old son. Darkley’s was the one place being the son of Lord Garmadon would HELP HIM

2. She had no way of knowing Lloyd would get mistreated by other students. How was she supposed to anticipate Brad putting fire ants in Lloyd’s bed years before it happened? Also, she had no way of knowing the school itself would mistreat him. She likely wasn’t told he was kicked out/ran away from Darkley’s, or wasn’t given the time to come find/collect him, because she very much would have the common sense to know there’s no one else to look after him

3. For all she knew, Garmadon was the Dark Lord in the prophecy. She had no idea it actually meant the Overlord. She could’ve thought that if Lloyd looked up to his father and wanted to be on his side, and neither of them wanted to fight each other, it could help to stall the prophecy.

And then, we get to the fact that we don’t really see her make things up to Lloyd about the whole “abandoning him at an evil boarding school thing”, which is because Ninjago was originally only supposed to be 2 seasons long, and Misako only first appears SEVEN EPISODES IN to season 2. They had no time to give her any character development or show her bonding with Lloyd, because they only had 6 more episodes left after her first appearance.

Since then, it seems the writers have just chosen to imply she has family bonding time with Lloyd off screen. We can see that they now care for each other as a family, so it’s very likely that she DOES try to bond with Lloyd but the writers just didn’t want to/couldn’t find a way to fit it into the show itself.

She has made mistakes, yes, but she is trying to make up for them and none of the reasoning behind her mistakes was outright malicious. She wanted to protect her son as much as possible, and keep him from having to fight his own father.

[blnk338]

COD HEADCANONS 3

COD HEADCANONS 1

COD HEADCANONS 2

REAP WHAT YOU SOW | GHOST X READER ON AO3!

Price:

Generally grew up with a pretty dull family life; parents were distant, especially his dad

Made a vow that he would not only be a good father, but he would remind those around them that they are watched over, whether they liked it or not

Dad taxation like it’s the end of the fucking world.

Oh you got a little sweet drink? Better not look away, he’s taking a sip

Buy candy at the gas station? His arm’s already careened around the side of the driver’s seat, asking you for some

Big on movies, but will absolutely fall asleep while watching them, then shoot up and tell you not to change the channel when you even touch the remote

Struggles a lot internally trying to deal with the fact that every mission might be his last with his boys, mulling over the loss of Alex, wondering if the same will happen to Gaz

Genuinely sees Garrick as the son he never had and knows that the kid admires him

It’s not often Price gets a hug or a pat on the back, but it’s hard for him to hide the wide smile that spreads across his lips when one of his team wraps an arm around him or pats his shoulder.

Survivor’s guilt to the max, man. Every mission is a mental preparation for the worst, and the very idea that he could be responsible for any one of the 141’s deaths weighs on him like all hell

Couldn’t decide if he wanted to get ordained or be the best man at Laswell’s wedding, so he did both. He sobbed as he read out his lines, then threw dad ass during the after-party.

Has a habit of calling his team, especially Gaz, “son” and has just gotten so used to it that he’s stopped correcting himself, and not a single member has brought it up seriously (aside from gag gifts for the holidays)

The warmest, most loving hugs out of the entire 141. The other's hugs are great, but there is so much genuine care put into every single bear hug of his. Each embrace holds you like it's your last, enveloping you in warmth as he mutters a few words of comfort, thanks, or both.

Wishes he could be a better father to his own daughters, but continuously finds reasons to stay in the military

Because of that, he is the absolute worst at discipline when he's on leave. He can scold as much as he wants, but his kids know he’s not being serious. Spoils them to not end.

His daughters also love Gaz and see him as an older brother

Gaz:

Like Price, there’s a lot of internal blame for everything.

Maybe if he shot first, or got to the site faster—maybe if he was better... those soldiers, those people, could’ve been saved.

Sees himself often as a shield, a hand in battle, and with that, sees himself as expendable. If it means seeing his team come back alive, he’d do anything to make sure that they’re okay.

Selfless to a fault. He’s taken more bullets, more stabs, and more punches than anyone else on the team during TF-141’s active timeframe. Price worries like hell over him because, on most missions, he comes back with at the very least a swollen cheek.

Considered smoking to take the edge off, but hates the taste of cigarettes and cigars, and prefers edibles over it all.

Even with that, he still tries to handle it “naturally,” insisting he’s alright and doesn’t need anything to cope, that the stress and anxiety will just pass eventually.

Refused therapy for a long time because he was afraid of getting worse, but eventually started going and has overall enjoyed his time

Was a parkour kid and then just… never lived it down.

Because of this, it’s nearly impossible to get away from the guy. Soap’ll pull pranks on him and have the guy in a dead sprint across base, leaping and vaulting off of boxes, crates, and other soldiers just to catch the Scotsman.

Bit people when he was a kid, too

Says “bruh”

“A woman? The only woman in my life is Joann Fabrics.”

Knows how to sew, patches up his clothes all the time, stitching his initials into the tags.

What can he say? He likes to keep his stuff to himself (plus with all of the stuff that Soap steals, if he doesn’t put a label on ‘em, they’ll be right in the lost and found)

Bit his nails pretty far down to the point where they hurt, so he tried out different nail polishes to keep himself from biting. When on the field, if he feels like he needs to bite them, he just sharpie’s them in (it works well enough for the guy)

Is completely content with drinking things right out of the fridge, regardless of who’s home. The milk you got yesterday? He’s just takin’ a quick swing, no worries, no really, it’s fine—just a sip, JUST A SIP—

Soap:

This guy plasters on a smile to cover up his crazy anxiety and intense paranoia; the responsibility he feels for his team, especially his lieutenant, is fucking crazy

He’ll take a bullet for everyone, but he’s more than willing to take whatever is needed for Ghost or Price, knowing they’re a higher rank, therefore sees them as more important. He holds Gaz in the same way, but he can't act the same because he's supposed to see him as equal; yet he would willingly take an RPG for the kid

Loves giving himself and his teammates spa days; face and hair masks, deep conditioning, threading eyebrows

Big on physical affection, but really relishes in the idea that he can do things for the people he cares about instead of hugs if preferred

The guy’s filled with so much love, it’s hard to contain, but he’s really really good at waiting and holding back for those who aren’t as into touching.

Like he knows Price loves hugs, so he’ll take any chance to pat his shoulder or include him in the fun, wrapping an arm around him, engaging him with the rest of the team’s shenanigans

Gaz loves the silly stuff with Soap, so they’ll pretend to make out or make fake moaning sounds, smacking the walls to make it seem like they’re fucking or something just to mess with any poor bystanders on base; adores how much shit he can pull with Gaz, so at the drop of a feather, he’s up and ready to fuck around and find out with the younger Brit. They are responsible for thousands of dollars in property damage.

Quality time with Roach is a big thing for the two of them since Roach seemingly always has something he has to do, and Soap can’t always help him (paperwork and such); just sitting in the same room, making light conversation, or doodling on the scratch paper while his fellow sergeant files papers is enough for him.

He knows Ghost isn’t huge on physical affection, so all of his touches never go past a short, half-embrace; usually landing on things like a clap on the shoulder or punch to the arm. Otherwise, Soap’ll run around doing tasks for him, helping him with the privates for the day, and other mundanities for his lieutenant. If it makes his life easier, Soap would tell him to consider it done before he even starts.

Sometimes wonders how good the team would be without him; if it all came down to it, what would he need to do to make sure that the 141 could manage without his support?

Big overthinker. Spends hours sometimes just cleaning the same knife over and over again, staring off into space, eyes blank as his mind tries to click puzzle pieces together

Thalassophobia

Still calls it a “slumby” instead of a slumber party

“It’s not a slumber party”

“YES IT IS WERE HAVING FUN AND WERE STAYING THE NIGHT IT’S A SLUMBY”

Its an abandoned warehouse in the middle of no where, there’s leaks in the roof, and the ground is damp.

Ghost:

Was a really anxious kid that ended up trying to cover it all up in his teens. Was actually kinda popular in high school; athletic, good-natured, and genuinely tried his best in his courses. There was always something sort of off about him though, he’d sit in class with a faraway look, spacing out, sometimes coming into school with eyebags for days.

Bit people as a kid

Wanted to go to college for computer engineering, but was highly discouraged and ended up getting into the military instead (as well as other reasons)

Still sometimes wonders about working with tech instead of using firearms, but those are just dreams, nothing more. He has a job to do now, it’s useless to think about anything but that.

Trusts every single member of the 141 (eventually Alej and Rudy) with his life. Is absolutely terrible at actually saying it, but would take a tank to the teeth to make sure they all end up alive. He isn’t willing to let them be selfless—he isn’t willing to give anyone up.

Milk drinker

Raw egg eater

Likes almonds, does not like cashews. Has never given a reason why.

Does not care for bugs.

“Why are you screaming, it’s a beetle.”

Doesn’t really get the whole deal about insects because they're usually so easy to take care of, but will remove them once everyone quiets down, taking a little piece of paper and cup, scooping up the little thing, and placing it outside. If someone's got a fear, he respects it and will take care of it, but he does it all with a neutral look on his face.

His main party trick is that he can swallow a cup of jello without blinking.

Just bottoms up, down the hatch, and done

Soap tried to do the same thing once and it ended up with him making a HOUGH sound and the jello, still fully intact, shooting across the room and splatting against the wall

Likes to write down jokes he thinks of on his arm; carries a pen everywhere

On that note, his arm and hands are his notepads. You can easily find random numbers, dates, a few mismatched words, and a small grocery list all on his non-dominant hand

Feels like he can’t ever get married or have kids because he’s so afraid of what happened to his parents will happen to him, and he never wants to do that to anyone, especially someone he loves

Still struggles with a lot of self-worth, denying the idea of a family or a stable future. It’s easier to not think about the future when you aren’t sure if you’re going to make it through the next mission

Is Normal British Guy #81 in his civvies, unless with the 141. He’ll wear a scarf or a mask for hunting or for winter, but he genuinely doesn’t wear shit during normal hours. If he's with one of his teammates, he'll wear a face mask of any sort.

One time, Soap was down south to pick up a specific brand of coffee he likes (yes, he’s particular), and Simon, who was getting some last-minute groceries, just stared at him for a good nineteen seconds before walking to the back of the store.

Soap didn’t know it was him.

... and he never will because Ghost’ll never tell him

Nosey nelly, this one.

Knows everyone’s info, for some reason.

He knows your address, and your social security number, oh, tell your mom “happy birthday.”

The team’s gotten used to it because he’s gotten better, but they all know that he’s seen their files.

it's all precautionary, doesn't intend for it to be creepy

[houseofbrat]

If Kate was adamant she didn’t want this information out there before Easter, what strategies could’ve been deployed by their PR to prevent this mess? Hyperactive information environment or not, if she didn’t change that position, all the PR can do is follow the strategy and brief editors that there’s a very good reason for the radio silence and promise an update after Easter. The only thing I can think of is releasing regular ‘doctors are pleased with Kate’s progress and expect her to be back to Royal duties after Easter’ statements to manage expectations. Also presuming she didn’t want to take part in any ‘at home recovering’ style images or videos for social which given the circumstances is understandable. The big mistake was bowing to pressure and releasing an image on Mother’s Day that ended up blowing up in their faces. If they felt compelled to release something, an older picture with the caveat that it was taken last year as the Princess is still recovering and not posing for photos at this time would’ve been better.

If their hands were truly tied, then yeah, there's not a lot they can do. I think an important take-away is that we always need to be able to not only articulate what's going to happen in a given situation, but also explain why. In this particular case, by leaving an information vacuum, they created a much worse outcome. I hope someone explained that clearly to "The Firm". Of course we saw much worse with Andrew and his disastrous live interview where he wasn't able to answer basic questions, or even pivot to key messages. There is clearly a lot wrong with how the family handles the media - it's nothing new, but it is definitely broken.

Original statement should have given less detail. “Abdominal surgery”+10-14 day hospital stay+3 month recovery timeframe is just enough info to invite people to try to solve the puzzle. 

 2) Royal watchers twigged something was off early on because of KP’s unusual silence when they are known for being leaky as a sieve. Their usual MO is a constant drip of vacuous puff pieces by the Royal Rota. A good PR strategy would have been to continue feeding the Wales and Middleton happy perfect family stories (the kids have made their mum get well cards! Carole’s been by her daughter’s side! William is making breakfasts by hand!) This could have been done with no involvement on Kate’s part and a minimal burden on William to approve the briefs. Instead the absence of the usual drip drip drip got the public’s attention, especially in contrast to Buckingham Palace’s steady-on strategy for Charles’s procedure and cancer. 

 3) PR can only do so much about their principal’s demeanor and I can’t get too much on William’s case for his noticeably weird behavior while he’s been dealing with his wife’s cancer diagnosis. But at minimum someone should be empowered enough to look the man in the eye and had him practice saying “She’s recovering from her procedure, thank you for your concern” so that he could reel off that line when people or press asked him about Kate during his engagements. His pretending not to hear thing did NOT help.  

 4) I agree they should have never released the Mother’s Day photo. Nor the two car pap photos, which were obviously not candid but clumsy attempts to address speculation. Each one was fuel to the fire. The effort would have been better spent on a simple statement signed by Kate saying the PoW thanks the public for their concern, she appreciates the cards, and she reiterates her desire for privacy at this time. 

This woman was failed at every conceivable point.

Silence during a crisis breeds suspicion and speculation. Social media provides a broad, uncontrollable platform and rewards those who amplify the nonsense.

Mother’s Day presented a prime opportunity. An IG story with a carousel of past photos of Kate & the kids and a 15 sec voiceover of Kate saying:

”Thank you so much for all your well wishes. I’m looking forward to returning to my duties when I’m cleared to do so. I’ll be celebrating Mother’s Day quietly with my husband and children this year but I hope you all have a lovely day.”

There were any number of ways that Kate could have been briefly engaged without being intrusive or needing to show her face.

It should never have come to this.

Or a picture of her as a child with HER mom. Isn’t the point of Mother’s Day to honor your own mother, not tout your role as a mom? A nice post about her mom with some pictures of her would have been lovely.

My sense through this is that the PR people (who are professionals and handle sticky situations all the time) had their hands tied by what William and Kate did and did not want to do. Given the circumstances it is understandable that they would back down and follow the couple's script - even as they watched fires pop up all over that they were not allowed to address.

A lot of people on here who don’t understand there is a family of people who are “royals” and The Royal Family which is a public institution and has responsibility for public service and some constitutional duties, aka The Firm.

Does Kate deserve privacy? Sure.

Does, “The Princess of Wales” get to take 4 months away from her public duties without explaining why? No. It’s not how The Firm works. Does Kate get to approve PR about The Princess of Wales? Maybe, maybe not. That title belongs to the institution.

So these are two separate things. And this has been a great example of how digital and social media means carrying on with two distinct entities, is likely no longer viable.

The information that she was having surgery was already out. However, announcing that Charles had cancer as well while he was still being seen out was what led people to come up with wild theories. If the king can walk around with cancer then Kate can go out for a quick I'm ok wave was the thinking. And let's be real here, there is soooooo much more going on than they'll say. There was absolutely NO reason for a photo collage of a moment that never existed. She was already seen in the car with her mom -allegedly her because puffy faces don't go away that quickly - yet they felt the need to not say a darn thing. Either disappear until Easter with vague updates or quit with the pranks. I believe her when she said they weren't expecting cancer, and I'm sure there were already other high stake activities in occurrence, which led to them scrambling for cover. She's not the first public figure to get a life-threatening illness either. We all wish them the best as we would any mom with kids, but they're also living on public acceptance and dollars. They also threw her under the bus a couple times and it got RIDICULOUS.

They didn’t need to prove to the public that she was well. I know the monarchy has a history of hiding illness and I get that, but photoshopping a photo to prove that she is well went too far. The public isn’t dumb. She had major surgery she isn’t going to look herself. They should have posted a more simple statement for surgery, they should’ve posted a statement from her saying “thank you for your well wishes, I look forward to getting back to my duties when able” and then maybe a post on Mother’s Day of her children or her mother and sister.

VERY simple things would’ve prevented the fiasco and maybe given them more time to deal with this in private. They may have still made the announcement on Friday but all of this abuse could’ve been avoided. They made it seem like she was dead and The Firm was pulling a Weekend at Bernie’s.

Pull a classroom full of any PR majors from ANY school ANYWHERE and they all could’ve protected her and her family more than their freaking comms team. It’s an absolute abomination and embarrassment. I really hope they fire all the people involved. They brought so much shame and embarrassment to the crown.

I'm sure a lot of non PR professionals who have an understanding of the standard playbook for public figures and basic competence in business/personal communication could have done better than the "professionals" they hired. Some of it is ... not that hard. I mean, I'd have to think about Mother's Day - just the kids? W or C as kidlets with their moms or what? But thank early, thank often. Charles isn't spilling all his tea but he and his team have hit their marks and there is far less crazy chatter about him. If this is William's notion of "modernizing the monarchy" it's going to be a bumpy ride. As we used to say "don't throw the baby out with the bath water".

Why does a cancer patient need PR? There is nothing shameful about cancer. I get she needed time to process. There is still so much ambiguity around this. “Abdominal Surgery” “Cancer” but not specifying what type of cancer.

I don't understand why so many people are blaming their PR team or William ("he made her take the blame for the photoshopped picture!")

Kate is married to the future King of England. She has enormous power. She isn't Meghan Markle trying to adjust to life in the palace while married to "the spare." She isn't a mid level Royal. She isn't Andrew, Edward, Eugenie, Beatrice etc. People act like she has no power and influence over her team.

The reality is according to a post on X from a person who broke the news about her condition before the media did so apparently has some sort of inside information Kate has known she has cancer since January and started chemo after the surgery. She most likely did that at the hospital since it might be traumatizing for the younger children to do it at home and she didn't want to travel back and forth every day.

Kate didn't want to admit to the public she had cancer. In the initial statement they denied it was cancer. They had to admit it yesterday because unfortunately people got access to her records and it was being shopped around to media publications so she had no choice. According to "sources close to Kate" who spoke to US and People (they're not tabloids and usually have legit sources) she didn't want to tell even people close to her and decided to keep it private. She had no plans to tell the public that they knew about. Unfortunately Kate was being unrealistic. One of the most famous women in the world can't hide for several months without generating conspiracy theories. Kate has photoshopped pictures before. I don't know why so many people think it was Palace officials who forced her to photoshop the mother's day picture. It doesn't take much physical exertion to use photoshop. I believe she did and she apologized for it. She couldn't blame other employees when they didn't have anything to do with it. Nobody "forced her to take the blame" for the picture.

The point is her PR people can't divulge confidential medical information. The only way to handle this was to be honest from the beginning back in January. "The Princess of Wales had surgery and is undergoing treatment for cancer. Please respect her privacy." That's it. (Assuming the insider's belief that she knew it was cancer back in January is true but she seemed to be wearing a wig in the photo in the car so don't believe she is only now beginning treatment)

It's a horrible sad situation. But Kate is known to be stubborn and probably isn't the passive easily intimidated person people are portraying her to be. There is no way her PR team could have done anything differently when she wanted the public to believe it was simply "recovery from abdominal surgery" and nothing else.

Thank you! So glad other people are saying this!!! Can’t believe how many people have missed the point that she is literally one of the most powerful visible women in the world and you can’t just disappear without generating a frenzy. I agree if they’d been very simple and honest from day 1 they would have avoided this whole fiasco. They could have revealed even less as you note - not even mentioned “abdominal”!!

The problem started with the first statement that said her surgery was planned. The public already knew they had scheduled overseas travel/work during that time. Meaning this wasn’t planned in the typical sense and they were wordsmithing things. This set off people’s spidy senses. It was also proof that KP and Buckingham Palace aren’t coordinating between press offices. To have both health statements come out the same day was terrible practice. They should’ve coordinated both messaging, tone and timing.

Then it came out that someone was rushed to the hospital over the holidays.

Also, Will has been tied to Rose for years and there have long been rumors of his poor attitude as well as the family’s poor treatment of the women who have married into it. There were stories years ago that they used to throw pillows at each other during fights. It was natural rumors would start about her leaving him. For the past year they’ve been showing up to events separately- as if they live apart. The rumors have long been there. All the Harry and Meghan stuff confirmed some of the long-thought beliefs about Will’s handling of things.

When the AI photo came out, it was odd. But throwing Kate under the bus was wild. You know who approved that? Will. That made the public even more suspicious something was off about what was being shared.

Overall I would’ve handled this so differently. The balance of privacy and transparency is possible. I would’ve shared that Kate was taken to hospital over the holidays and underwent surgery, will be in recovery for timeline. Share flashback photos on holidays. Coordinate with Buckingham Palace on message timing. If she had been up to it, have her do Zoom calls with her charities and have the charity go on record about their interactions with Kate.

I think you're missing a step: the media went bonkers because social media lost its collective mind and MSM felt it had to respond to that hoopla, which was a palpable thing. I'm very much a student of PR, but I worked in journalism and I understand the impulse to have a line - any line at all! - on this thing people are apparently talking about. As somebody trying to learn the ropes, I'm very keen to know what a PR practitioner should do if the client says, "I pay your wages, and what's going on in my life is my business - I won't be adding to my previous statement until I'm ready."

[ad-astra-per-asparagus]

Ok dumping my thoughts right here now that I’ve collected them since reading Batman 138. It’s a doozy, so bear with me.

Honestly, the premise of Gotham War is intriguing and could’ve been good if not for the sloppy execution. It’s interesting to see Bruce’s psyche rapidly declining, but how Zdarsky is going about it is ham-fisted and forced. First off, Selina’s method is outlandish and riddled with plot holes. There’s no skirting around that. Now logically I could see the batfamily members not declaring an allegiance to either side because both Bruce and Selina are in the wrong here; Bruce is losing his mind because Zur is hijacking it while Selina thinks training criminals will magically solve all violent crime in Gotham and everything will be sunshine and rainbows. But having the kids blindly fall into line with Selina because they agree with her plan is dogwater writing that I’m surprised Zdarsky cooked up after his spectacular Daredevil run. Have them form their own faction and let them actually act like they have agency and purpose instead of shoving them into roles that don’t fit.

Now I’m a little skeptical on the whole Jason/failsafe stuff. On one end, it’s a daring concept to play with. It shows how Bruce is going off the deep end and raises the stakes of the plot. On the other end, it’s going to drive an enormous wedge between Jason and Bruce for the foreseeable future. Like, there is no forgiving Bruce for this easily. Maybe that’s a good thing though, considering Jason for the past few years has been cycling through the same character arc over and over again like a washing machine that spits out clothes that are more worn-out after every load. Taking him out of the batfamily fold and inserting him into his own corner of DC sequestered away from Batman might actually force DC to write him organically, depending on whether or not Jason doesn’t go insane himself because what Bruce did to him was quite literally torture that will now be perpetual. Wowza.

My next gripe is the timing between comics. Batman and Robin’s timeframe is vague, but after reading 138 it makes zero sense why Damian would steadfastly stick by Bruce’s side—unless of course B&R happens way later, and somehow Bruce regains minor control of his mental state. Or the most realistic explanation being that the writers didn’t communicate the timelines, leaving their stories to contradict each other. But what are comics if not zany contradictions of stories? So I guess this gripe can slide…for now. Benefit of the doubt to Williamson at least because he planned B&R way in advance, meanwhile Gotham War was strung together as a myopic copy of Marvel’s Civil War in order to—I’m spitballing here—have Bruce be alone for a while in his own comics because he’s “a loner”…despite his character being, at his core, a family man, and whose character revolved around family for decades. Family rift stories can be good. Packed with drama. Exciting. This is none of the above.

Finally, arguably my biggest complaint about this dumpster fire, is Tim. Writers tend to be biased toward characters, I understand that, but when favoritism bleeds into the writing it sours the story altogether. Having Tim assume this role of “Bruce’s savior” is incredibly cheap and a little laughable at times. I see that they’re trying to establish him as important again, reliving his glory days as the Robin who helped guide Bruce back onto the right path after Jason’s death, but throwing other characters under the bus to lift him up is crazy. Especially Damian, because Damian saved his dad’s life twice in the last few months. Seriously, I’d brush it off if Tim hadn’t told Damian he was the one who helped Bruce out of the darkness while Damian only pushed Bruce further into it. Paraphrasing, but that’s the general idea: Tim is a saint and the rest of his siblings (Cassandra? Who?) are a cut below him when it comes to helping dear old dad out of his bad place. That hug was cute, but it was sugar spread on a pile of shit.

[gremlinbabe]

Teen wolf head canons part 1 :

Derek isn’t Eli’s birth father but his adoptive father.

Laura Hale is actually Eli’s birth mom, which still makes Eli a Hale just not Derek’s direct kid.

Context: *Derek is 23 in the pilot, is approximately 26 in season six but he’s 35 in the teen wolf movie*

*Eli is 15 years old. Meaning that Eli was born when Derek was 20 & Laura who was 25-26 was most likely pregnant in ny when Derek was 19.*

So if Derek was theoretically the dad, the mom couldn’t be Paige or Kate because it’s already past that time frame & it can’t be Jennifer or Breadon because It’s too early to match the timeframe of Derek being 20 When Eli born.

Now let’s set the stage for pre-pilot:

Laura (21-22) who is now the new alpha after the Hale fire. She comes back from college only to find her super traumatized 16 yr old brother & her uncle (27-28) in a coma. The sheriff helps her and Derek take care of all there arrangements of funerals burials, the formal adoption of Derek, and lodgings for her uncle cuz he’s not waking up no time soon. All because Laura use to babysit stiles and he’d seen both hales growing up over the years enough that he met their parents and him and Claudia eventually became friends with the Hales. And he felt he owed it to those kids to help them out.

Laura tried to wait out peter’s coma hoping he’d wake up but something is wrong so her and Derek stay in beacon hills. But within a year and a half the Hale fire happened, her uncles in a coma, Malia Tate is missing (birth mom tried to assassinate her and she shifted into a coyote) and her mom and sister died from an “animal attack”, and the sheriffs wife getting sick and dying outta no where of dementia (most likely cuz her unrealized magic mutated cuz of nematon or nogitsune) leaving the man a single father of a 10 yr old stiles who turns into a mean alcoholic so can’t help them at all in that moment.

So Laura makes an executive decision to get Peter longer term care and gets her and Derek the hell outta beacon hills and moves them across country to Ny because she deems it too unsafe and needs to protect the last of her pack.

(All that happening back to back should’ve been some warning signs that some shit was happening w the nematon even back then. But the only family who could’ve figured that out early on was burned out and the only eldest surviving member that could’ve possibly had any idea was in a coma.)

Now Laura & Derek are in ny probably 22-23 & 17 and Derek’s probably realizing it was Kate and not an electrical fire and swears off ppl cuz he’s a lil martyr and treats himself poorly as SH & Laura realizes and put him in therapy and herself so she can lead by example.

They start doing a lot better, Laura meets someone at 23-24 most likely in college or a job & it goes really well. But doesn’t tell him about werewolves for safety reasons & Laura(25-26) was most likely pregnant while Derek was 19.

When Derek is 20 her baby is born and Laura lets him pick the name because he’s been doing amazing in therapy. He goes with Elias (for that one kid Laura use to baby sit with the name too hard to pronounce, who’s mother called him mischief, who talked his ear off, who was named after his grandpa aka stiles) Abel (possibly the birth dads name) Hale

And Derek is so happy to be a uncle and Laura happy to be a mom and her bd apart of their growing lil pack. * so much fluff & love & happiness and first steps*

Eli’s first word is my(mine) and if he deems it his he can & will steal whatever it is. Dada is his second word but not to his dad it’s always to Derek which Laura finds endlessly hilarious. First sentence is “my dada” to random lady in ny trying to hit on Derek while he’s in the park with Eli. Laura who’s not too far off is cackling in the distance and Derek is a tomato.

This all last like 3 years till Laura starts feeling a pull back to beacon hills because her pack it’s. Coming more stable and eventually checks on it through the grapevine only to find if there’s a mysterious alpha in beacon hills and decided to check it out before bringing her family back and to do a in person visit to coma uncle to make sure he’s ok.

PLOT TWIST There actually was a mysterious alpha and he was trying to take Peter out of his misery of being in a coma 7+ years as a werewolf.

The nurse being mysterious alphas human beta had gave the alpha updates.

Only peter wakes up and kills the alpha turning into a alpha and goes crazier with a alpha power surplus and recruits nurse beta into helping him gather into about the fire cuz he puts together the Kate thing pretty fast after finding out his hole family died (minus Laura and Derek) died and hyper fixated on getting revenge.

Still new to his powers his alpha whatever sees Laura as threat instead of niece and kills her.

*Laura dies in pilot at 28-29*

[steddielations]

i wanted to ask since you’ve read flight of icarus: is there a mention of a timeframe/specific date/season for eddie’s birthday in the book? i know that’s a small detail that doesn’t matter much but i’m so curious as to what it would be!

Okay I’m so bad at calculating dates and stuff, so I’ll just say that the only for sure date we’re given is that Al and Elizabeth got married on March 12th 1966. Since Eddie is 18 in the book (has been for at least a couple months) which is set in spring of 1984, subtract 18 and that’s the year 1966. But with American school year timeframe, Eddie could’ve turned 18 anywhere from summer 83 - spring 84.

However, the overlap of the year 66 though, you could assume Elizabeth was pregnant at the time they got married then that narrows it down more. she was 19 when they married and it seemed like everything happened quick, she moved right with Al to Hawkins.

and the other notable age is that Eddie says he was around 6 when his mom died so Idk if that narrows anything down too

[syldexter]

idk man I’m tired, I’ll title this later ➝  zaxter.

tagging: dexter sylvester, zach wilde @zachwilde.

location: psu cafeteria.

timeframe: october 18th, morning.

warnings: none.

summary: zach does nothing wrong. dex takes offense to it anyway: the sequel. follow on from [one], [two], and [three].

ZACH WILDE.

[Zach had felt terrible about what happened with Dex, and had been going back and forth on what to do. They decided they couldn’t just not say anything after what had happened, so they went looking for him. Zach noticed him almost immediately and walked up to him warily.] Hey, man. Can we talk?

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

[Turns out getting railed had actually done little to fix Dex’s mood. Who could’ve guessed? He turned towards Zach when they approached and then immediately regretted it.] I don’t think that’s necessary.

ZACH WILDE.

Seriously. I only have a few things to say, and then I’ll stop bothering you.

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

[Dex’s automatic reaction was to say no, but he figured that Zach would just continue to be relentless. He pulls out his phone and opens his clock app. He shows it to Zach right before pressing start on a 4 minute timer.] What?

ZACH WILDE.

[Zach couldn’t help but smile at the timer. Even though people thought of Dex as unapproachable, there was something about him that amused them — in a good way.] I just wanted to say I’m sorry for pushing you yesterday. [They sigh.] I’m an idiot. This lockdown has me feeling crazy, and I’m just not the type of person who pushes people’s buttons until they get upset. You didn’t deserve that. So, yeah. I’m really sorry.

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

You didn’t upset me.

ZACH WILDE.

[Zach nods. They figured this would be the case.] Well, whatever feeling I made you have? I’m sorry about that.

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

Don’t be so vulgar.

ZACH WILDE.

Vulgar? [They chuckle.] What do you think is wrong with feeling emotions?

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

Your four minutes are up. [His phone clearly has not gone off.] We’re done here. Enjoy the rest of your lockdown.

ZACH WILDE.

Come on. Whatever you say to me stays between us, man. This situation is fucked, and we’re all feeling really big emotions. You’re not the only one. [He shrugs.] I actually had a panic attack the other day.

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

I didn’t ask.

ZACH WILDE.

That’s okay. I’m telling you anyway.

DEXTER SYLVESTER.

Your normal does not equal my normal. Are we done now?

ZACH WILDE.

Sure. Sorry for bothering you, Dex.

DEXTER SYLVESTER

Make sure it doesn’t happen again.

ZACH WILDE.

[Zach salutes towards Dex and walks away.]

[midnightsslut]

Can I ask you what are the specific images of Joe that makes you feel cardigan is about him? I agree with you, but for me it was always a general feeling.

I think the 1 has Matty as a strong candidate as a muse, but I genuinely think it’s so vague that it could be about anyone else, like even Harry. The chosen family could easily be about his one direction days, since he always described them as brothers (I’m not a haylor btw) and didn’t Taylor say back during one of the 1989 secret sessions that Harry even bought a house close to hers? The 1 could’ve been reminiscing of that time

I think Chloe et al. was written after they broke up. It doesn’t have a feeling imho of reminiscing of the past after shit hit the fan, idk it sounds like a prologue to tsmwel in my mind, you know when you’re sad that things didn’t work out before anger kicks in, idk I feel this strong connection with her saying that she changed throughout the years and then saying “normal girls were boring” and him leaving as if saying that she changed and yet he still found her boring and left, idk if I’m making any sense

i agree with you on the general feeling. I’m mostly thinking of ‘living in a gold age, sneak into my bird cage’ (gold and cages), ‘you drew stars around my scars, but now I’m bleeding’ (willow parallel), ‘sequin smile, black lipstick’ (met gala - i generally hate ascribing lyrics to photos because i feel like relationships usually happen in private, but yeah), ‘to kiss in cars and downtown bars was all we needed’ (this is less specific, but it does describe the same timeframe as cruel summer imo). also ‘I knew to love would be to lose my mind’ is soooo 2020 taylor writing about joe.

she did say that about harry; she was describing how i wish you would came about because he would drive past her house every night or something. harry was always the only other real option that made sense to me, mostly because a) the roaring twenties line makes me think they were both in their twenties, and that was the defining early 20s situationship for her, and b) the line in question about the meteor strike makes their relationship sound super intense, way more so than what og 1989 described. it obviously wasn’t jake level, but it was something. the sex was clearly great idk.

that’s interesting about chloe et al. i always see it as fortnight in an alternate universe, but the ‘someone who seemed like he would have bullied you in school’ line def sounds like a post breakup musing lol.

[antvnger]

Soooooooo since I was only around in the movie for like 30 minutes or so, I missed loads of like actual important information that would’ve been nice to know beforehand.

The short answer rant is this: What. A. Shit show.

Like…like hell, I don’t even know where to start with all of this. It gave me a headache.

Brace yourselves, gang, I’m not holding back.

First of all, apparently sitting down and having an actual conversation about the Accords was a little too much to do for them? Like they started to but nothing came out of it. A stand still. I would think something that big would make them sort through it all until they came to some kind of collective agreement, but I guess not? 🤷🏻‍♂️

Secondly, both sides made mistakes. Big time. Both thought they were doing right, and I definitely get that, but both sides could’ve done better at what they were doing. I guess retrospect’s 20/20 but yeah.

Also, I really can’t stand Ross. Not the clean shaven Ross but the one with the mustache and the high and mighty, sourpuss attitude. Like what a creep.

The real bad guys here? The government.

How the hell did the Avengers just learn about the Accords 3 days before they’re supposed to be ratified? Shouldn’t that have been like breaking news from the moment somebody breathed about it?

And Ross being like “you’ll retire” if the Avengers decide to go against the Accords? As if he could actually do anything about it. I mean, who the hell does this guy think he is? Thanos?

Also what is it with baseball caps and sunglasses as disguises? I know I pulled the same stunt but it wasn’t my idea. I said no and got outvoted.

And look, I think Wanda’s great, but she wasn’t a kid at the time this all went down. I appreciate Cap wanting to protect her since she was like the newbie, but she messed up. That was really bad. I don’t know what she could’ve done to fix it, but maybe at the very least the Avengers could have issued a public apology.

I think Steve has serious Bucky issues and I genuinely don’t understand.

And Vision saying the whole world started having more enhanced since/because Tony said he’s Iron Man is bullshit. Last I checked, and Ant Mun backed me up here, all the big bads that have shown up in our world happened because of things NOT related to Tony! What, just because they called the move Captain America Civil War, they’re gonna make Tony the bad guy or something? Bullshit.

ALSO! When T’Challa was fighting Bucky and the UN chopper just started shooting at them both, thank goodness T’Challa was wearing Vibranium or that would have caused a plethora of other problems. Funny how the Avengers get fingers pointed at them over collateral damage for the sake of the mission when that chopper was literally doing THE SAME THING.

WHY DIDNT STEVE JUST EXPLAIN TO TONY TEN MINUTES INTO THE MOVIE THAT BUCKY WASNT BUCKY AND HAD NO CONTROL WHEN THE WINTER SOLDIER SHIT HAPPENED?!

Oh don’t worry. I’m getting to Siberia, hold your horses.

I’m not really sure on the timeframe here, but I’m think the Accords weren’t actually ratified yet when the whole airport fight happened soooooooo I don’t think Creepy Ross had any real power yet to tell Tony what to do.

I’m not going to touch on the lady who lost her son because I can’t even fathom that kind of grief. And I don’t want to. Ever. And I know grief makes you do things so I don’t know. My heart just hurts for her. I hate Tony got the brunt of that but still.

Speaking of grief making you do things? Zemo. I know who he is now, and I really can’t stand the guy. I hate he lost loved ones, and I hurt for him in that department. But when he decided to go all batshit psycho over it, some sympathy’s lost. Like he went through some hella trouble to make the Avengers unravel.

Siberia…*sigh* Siberia was really hard to watch. Like it was painful. It was…frightening. I almost wish I didn’t watch it. I had an idea what was going to happen because of what Tony shared but to see it for myself…

*sigh* This whole movie is a testament to honesty, trust, and open communication. Or rather what could happen with a lack there of. Ya know, me hearing about the Avengers before I joined them and seeing them on tv for interviews and stuff, I thought they were tight. An actual, close knit team. Maybe a found-family. But sooooooo much could’ve been avoided if they had just acted like that.

If they’d just sat down and talked it over. They could have an arguing match over it all if necessary, hell friends and families do that. If they had really trusted each other and let each other in on things instead of keeping each other out and building up secrets and agendas. Too many bosses and not enough coworkers.

It hurt, Iron Mun. It hurt to watch. Those are my friends and…there were times it felt like I didn’t even recognize them.

And then watching me show up felt so surreal. They got that whole interaction with the rest of “Team Cap” down to a T. I remember being so excited to be called up by one of the OG Avengers, one of my heroes, feeling honored and ready to do more and help people and do what’s right. Make a bigger difference than I already was. But God, I had no idea. I had no fricking clue.

In the end, Civil War was just like any other war. A mess. Both sides made mistakes, everything could’ve been done better, and nobody came out unscathed. In fact, everything ended up worse because of it.

@stxrksarc

[omoris-journal]

So... I assume the whole, er, "Bossman Hero" thing didnt happen in this timeline, but do you know of him/that it could happen? If so, thoughts?

// OOC. You’ve stumped me, anon. I would love to answer this question, but I have no idea how. what makes this difficult is, Sunny dreamt about Headspace every night for about four years. We only know what happened on three of those nights. So there’s really no way to know for sure whether that’s happened in Headspace already. I personally don’t think it would’ve happened multiple times, but it could’ve. Sure, it’s exclusive to the hikikomori route (also only on switch console I think), but Sunny was living the hikikomori route for four years.

// I personally think four years was way too long of a timeframe considering how much of Headspace is explored in three days. I just can’t see those three days looping over and over. I just did the math. If Headspace reset every three days, there would be 487 loops. That just doesn’t make sense to me. And it’s implied that the previous “loops” were different, for example Basil being in the Cattail Fields Barn instead of Black Space. Now we have 487 unique loops. Yeah right. Either I’m forgetting something, or this is a giant plot hole. I vote the latter.

[wobblinpenguins]

A few notes about Ch. 6

The fic: https://archiveofourown.org/works/49875277

The chapter I’m referencing isn’t currently done, but I’ve just finished the first part and I want to give a quick rundown on how I feel about it and why I’ve made Corrin a bit more emotional. I’ll try to keep this more focused on the work rather than bashing Fates’ writing. 

But I do have to bash the game’s character writing first. A lot of the characterization is botched thanks to the absolute hell that was the game’s development, but I think it really had potential (which is one of the reasons why I’m even able to write this fic in the first place). Not to mention, it also had a different purpose: as a part of a whole (a script for a game) instead of an entire work on its own. Obviously, it could’ve been better, but for the most part, it allows the chapters to flow (kinda, if you don’t take time to think about the plot). 

The tone of this work is entirely different, evidenced by the tag “Psychological Drama,” which I do plan to stick to. Perhaps it might not be a psychological drama at the level of Crime and Punishment, but I do want to craft characters with more realistic depictions — even in fantasy. Since the visual realism is mostly left up to the imagination (with vivid descriptions), most of the realism from the characters comes from emotional & psychological depictions that check out. But, of course, that takes a lot of time to think through and double check, which is totally NOT a copout of why these are taking so long. 

Honestly, when playing through the original game my first time (when I was like 14 or something), it didn’t strike me as odd when Corrin only barely reacted to the beginning of the story, but when playing again later, it struck me as incredibly weird. Their birth mother dies in their arms (shocking enough to make them transform into a fucking dragon) and then, with no time to grieve, they march to a field in the middle of Hoshido and proceed to alienate themselves from one of their families — both, in Revelation. 

In a sense, I also made Corrin more emotionally fragile, based on her context. She grew up tethered solely to her family: her only childhood friend was almost executed because she went on a picnic with him outside the grounds and the only people she had left to interact with were her adoptive siblings and her servants (loyal to Nohr). The person she thought of as a father then tells her to kill people before sending her on a death mission when she refuses. Then, her entire world shatters as she is told that she’s actually a princess of Hoshido instead! So the only deep connections she’s had in her life have been entirely based on family, and it’s all ripped away from her.

If someone like that suddenly loses all familial relationships, I’d be surprised if they didn’t melt into a pile of emotionally destroyed goo. And, in the games, it’s supposed to happen much sooner than the timeframe I gave in the story! I suppose you could make the case that they were deluding themselves that the rejection from Xander and Ryoma could easily be fixed and using that as a coping mechanism to prevent from entirely breaking, or maybe they were just sigma-pilled stoics or something. But even that makes no sense: they obviously feel grief and remorse at other points in the plotlines (see any sibling death, Mikoto), and they are emotionally expressive too, so how were they unaffected by that shit?

It’s a case of “I’m looking too much into this,” probably.

This incarnation of Corrin is not so fortunate, I’m afraid. When she gets hit with this, especially since she’s just beginning to grow emotionally, it’s a rather hard and long lasting sucker punch. She will eventually crawl out of this hole (real crazy spoilers). Her influences growing up (Xander & the Nohrian siblings) show in how she tries to bottle her emotions up but the total weight is too much after she has those around her to connect to. I’m trying not to have Corrin cry too much (having her come across as OoC), but the first few chapters of the game would be rather brutal to a girl who is seeing the world for the first time. I promise she won’t sob at a hat’s drop when she recovers from this.

I also wanted to talk about Elise, because she’s in a similar state of emotional distress. From my experience with Fates, Elise also seems to derive a lot of her emotional wellbeing from her family, so she would probably be sensitive to conflict between the siblings. Being at the beginning of teenagehood (no way she’s older than fifteen at most) brings its fair share of emotional instability just from growing up, and then when she’s hit with Corrin disappearing, reappearing, and then Xander shutting down any chance of reconnection! Rough. Honestly, until I was writing it, I felt a depressive episode was a little extreme for Elise, but after, I think it fits and gives her a bit more depth. 

Also, it feels like I’ve struck gold with a lot of the dynamics that’re building in the story (even if I might be trying to refine that gold with a janky set up in my backyard). Elise and Lissa being best friends was a shoe-in, but I’m surprised other crossover stories haven’t really touched on how perfect a friendship they would have. Unfortunately, since I don’t want the story to be 8 million words long and as focused as someone’s 20/200 vision, I wasn’t able to show much of Lissa’s stay in Nohr and interactions with the Nohrian royals. If it strikes my inspiration, I might write a few side-stories detailing that time — same for Robin’s month-long stay in Hoshido. 

Speaking of word-length, I feel like this story will easily break a million words and I’d rather not bore you guys with a rewrite of a plot you’ve no doubt played or read or seen a dozen times over, so I’ll be leaning more into plot divergence from this point forward. Also, I may disappear for a while before coming back and posting some chapters, like I just did for this chapter…. lol…… 

Well, I’ve spent too long with this story idea stuck in my head, so I’m putting it in words and doing it till the end, so don’t worry if I go no-communication for a while. I will still be working on it. And I’ll definitely try to get it to more than one burst of updates a year too. This thousand word brain dump likely rambles too much to get a consistent point across, but if you read it, thank you for reading. Chapter 7 is fully planned (ch. 8 is ~85-90% planned), but I’ve barely started writing it, so it’ll probably be a little bit until then. Who knows, though — I could have another burst of creativity before I go back to college in the fall. 

…

Okay, I’ve finished the chapter now, and I only have a few more thoughts to add: chapter seven is like 1% written and chapter eight is fully planned, so I’ll start working on those soon. It was super satisfying to click post on chapter six, so that’ll fuel me for the next few days or few thousand words. Also, Fates is over eight years old (internationally) at this point, which is kind of messed up, so I feel like I’m just constantly aging and then decaying into dirt at this point. Oh well… 

Wish they would announce a new Fire Emblem 4: Genealogy of the Holy War remake before I die… hmm, looks like I’ll just keep this clown makeup on, then…