#despite all the focus they put on him in the opening of s4

[chirpsythismorning]

It's giving audience was so distracted with 010 in the opening of s4 that they missed the willel wondertwin evidence right under their noses...

[bugsbenefit]

hellfire in s5, and how it's Really not looking good for the members

the hellfire club is, in my opinion, one of the most obvious set ups for s5 and i never see enough people acknowledge how blatant the show actually is with it. because it's a directly addressed ongoing issue that slowly worsens over time and directly threatens three main characters (Dustin, Lucas, and Mike), at Least

there's a clear structured progression of the threat getting worse, with a major part of the s4 Hawkins plot being only Jason and his team chasing Eddie down, and by the last episodes of the show the rest of the town sides with them and joins the objective. however, we never get any consequence of the town agreeing with Jason, aside form the kids parents getting reaction shots looking insanely worried. the only thing even resembling partisan participation is a dogwalker (the same man that agreed with Jason first and then caused every other member in the town hall to also agree) informing Jason and co about there being someone in the Creel house. a single character ratting someone out is not pay off for a scene that rallies the entire town with anger and fear. especially because he was the First one to agree with Jason, arguably the next reaction, in parallel to the town house scene, will have everyone else also involve themselves

and everything Jason actually said in the town hall looks INFINITELY worse by the end of the season because he not only died the same day (how odd that must look), the town was also hit by a severe earthquake. (and hell-gates open in town but we don't know how people will react to that yet, or if it will even be immediately obvious to them)

like. it's a Terrible look. and with Eddie being dead now, the main target that represented the hellfire club in s4 and got the primary share of blame is now officially un-prosecutable

s4 also goes out of it's way to associate Lucas, Dustin and Mike explicitly with the hunt on Hellfire, ages before the whole town gets involved

Lucas is put on edge by the basketball's team hostility towards his friends constantly and has to actively lie his way out of the line of fire multiple times. the basketball team is also looking for Dustin to question him about Eddie's whereabouts, even going to his house where a confrontation only doesn't happen because he's not home. and they even manage to go out of their way to drag Mike into it despite him being out of town, when Jason starts a conversation with Nancy specifically to threaten her and then asks about Mike right after

which leads to the other thing; not only are all the kids already on Jason's radar, he's also getting more and more direct with the fact that he doesn't just want to have a nice chat with them (culminating in actually physically attacking Lucas by the last episode)

and if them setting all of the kid members of hellfire up for a bad time wasn't obvious enough, it's also fascinating to see the posters of hellfire we get over the season also show a clear shift in focus

when we see the hellfire club year book photo for the first time the focus is on Eddie. he's who Jason sees as the main culprit and when we get a close up of the burning poster we see Eddie

but when we see the hellfire club photo again 4 episodes later the focus isn't on Eddie anymore. not in dialogue and not visually

the shot is from the Wheeler's pov (Karen's specifically), and the only part of the picture that's in focus is the far right corner, with Mike and Lucas. (makes sense that's her son that's currently being implicated in satanic murders). Eddie never gets unblurred, he's not who the audience is supposed to look at in this shot. verbally Jason is also explicitly blaming the whole club now. it's not just Eddie who's "crazy" and killed Chrissy, it's the whole club who's responsible (it's also very notable that he's handing out yearbook photos of the whole club, not just Eddie. a really distinct prop choice. everyone in town now not only thinks hellfire is directly responsible for multiple ritualistic murders, they also know Exactly who's in the club)

and looking back at the season in hindsight, there's actually more than enough instances that would make the members of Hellfire look kind of guilty, or shady at best, even if someone were to do some research. there's multiple instances of hellfire members lying to the basketball team about hellfire member's whereabouts which definitely doesn't make them look more innocent in the team's eyes. not only do Eddie's band members try to brush them off, Nancy pretends to not even know about Hellfire when Jason asks about Mike, and Lucas goes out of his way to keep Dustin and Eddie's locations from them by deliberately lying and sending them to wrong locations

and that's on top of the entire montage of Dustin and Mike trying to find a substitute player for a single game on the same day a student with no previous affiliation to Eddie Munson dies at his trailer? that looks Horrible in hindsight. especially with them asking pretty much every other student, from almost every club, while both prominently wearing hellfire shirts. if anyone actually remembers them and thinks about the events post Chrissy's death they could definitely make some assumptions

it's just bad looks all around. and that's not even mentioning how they have the potential to look even worse in s5. if it got out Lucas was with Max when she somehow died and broke all her bones? would look horrible. or Dustin now associating with Eddie's dad? and we don't even know how he'll fulfill Eddie's wish to "look after the little sheep"

and even Mike, who didn't even have the chance to attract suspicion post e1 due to being out of town has a whole thing going on with his image paralleling Eddie, with being the other DM and having his s4 style be directly in reference to Eddie's looks

while there's building hostility towards the hellfire members, and the focus (both visually and vocally) switches more to the members Other than Eddie, by the end of the season there just hasn't been a chance for the townsfolk to respond to Jason's speech yet. they all agreed with him, but everything immediately went to shit the same night. however, even the last few minutes of the show, that always have the most direct foreshadowing for the next season, include a shot focusing on the rise of religion and the fearmongering that started with Jason's speech

which serves as a great reminder that the entire town hall just agreed with Hellfire being a satanist cult they need to stop

s4 ends with the hellfire set up being one of the most explicitly obvious plot threads that are about to be a problem for multiple main characters in s5. like the few other obvious established about-to-be struggles: the gates opening, Vecna still being alive, Max being "gone"; we've gotten a full set up there but no payoff yet

and then there's obviously the question of what the people would even DO in s5? they all agreed that Hellfire needed to be stopped, so... what now?

on one hand there's the interesting concept of the town refusing to help the protagonists but they could also be acting as a hostile force against them

say anyone tried to warn the town about the upside down or it's creatures, the chances of people listening to them talk about actual "demons" and reacting in any positive way is probably near 0. even if you saw a Demogorgon nibble on your neighbour an hour ealier, would you really listen to someone you think intentionally opened the Hellgate that let the creatures through in the first place?

but then there's of course the active antagonistic angle they could also take. Jason was calling for Hellfire to be actively opposed and stopped, not passively. and the show Does go out of it's way to show the overcrowded weapons store in multiple shots post Jason-speech

we're supposed to know these people are armed going forward. whether they're buying them to go hunting, or wanting to go shoot Eddie Munson, the weapons are there now... also ignore the 7 separate hellfire wanted posters in the opening shot of the store alone 💀(it's actually 9, i didn't circle the two that are cut off in the bottom corner. that whole board is just plastered with that one photo)

(the implication of what the guns are for couldn't be more obvious if they tried. again, also the scene where Jason tries to intimidate Nancy and directly asks about where Mike is. also the scene where Erica and co try to hide from the basketball team members in the store. the scene features, guns, hellfire posters everywhere, and characters specifically asking about the whereabouts of a member while other people are actively hiding)

and the weapons could play out in a positive way in s5 too, say the lady from next door gets hands on involved and takes shots at the Demobats in her front yard

but the reactionary, scared, and angry town that blames a specific small group of people for everything that's happening could also lead to MCs having to actively worry about getting shot by someone they've seen at the supermarket for 10+ years on top of the supernatural threat

TLDR: re Hellfire, none of these members will have a good time in s5

Edit (because i forgot to include these images and am silly)

Hellfire even makes it on the local news by the end of the season

and in line with the focus shifting from Eddie to the other hellfire members, the news anchor then goes to say that Eddie Munson is presumed dead after the earthquake but that that isn't enough for the town. the news even mentions the conspiracy theory that the hellfire murders CAUSED the earthquake. so anyone who hasn't heard Jason's speech, now they're getting it from a "reputable" source too. call that high quality journalism, let's throw the local highschoolers under the bus

we're supposed to remember the fear of the "satanic cult killing children" that Jason spread to the town. it's still there. and it's not just in the local town hall anymore, its being broadcast on live television. so just in case you didn't catch wind of who caused a "gate to hell" to open in your suburban neighbourhood the first time, the news anchor thankfully tells you who everybody Says is responsible, it's the 14-18 year old satanist serial killers duh

[imminent-danger-came]

Hi there! Anon sent reeling by S1E6 again! And I would just like to say that your response to my ask made me So Normal. Especially you bringing up S2E6, which is why I’m currently setting up a lawn chair here on the brink of insanity, because apparently I’m not going anywhere anytime soon. 

Because yes, you’re completely right about S2E6 demonstrating this cycle of pushing others away while pushing themselves towards greatness and accidentally leaving pain in their wake that MK and SWK have managed to stick themselves in, but ALSO now I can’t stop thinking about how we get Shadow Play IMMEDIATELY afterwards. 

Like… how much do you think Macaque had seen? Obviously he could see MK getting too caught up in his own head (*cough* and trauma *cough*) and shutting out his friends, but… how much had he seen seen, you know?

And now I also can’t stop thinking about how immediately after Shadow Play, we get To Catch a Leaf. Which is obviously an incredible episode in its own right, but it’s also the first episode since Minor Scale where MK is surrounded by his friends and he lets them help him. Because in S2E6, Mei and Sandy are with him, but he’s not really with them. He’s focused on getting stronger, to the point where he ignores them telling him exactly how to do so. And in the beginning of Shadow Play, we learn that he’s been further isolating himself off screen and blowing off activities with them so that he could focus on ‘[being] ready’. 

But then To Catch a Leaf happens. And it starts off with MK surrounded by the others, having recently done something fun (curses aside) with Mei, and it’s not a big deal. He’s not stressing about getting stronger or being ready, he’s just… there with them. Present and in the moment, at least as much as he can be, and it’s fine. He’s fine, and more importantly he seems to be letting them in and being a bit more open with them. 

And this carries on into 72 Transformations! Because obviously he still hasn’t told them The Thing, but he does go from ignoring/avoiding them while trying to get more powerful to calling them all up so that he can involve them. Figure at least some things out, together. And it drives me insane because he was getting better! He may very well have worked his way up to telling the others about LBD! But then she came a-knocking with more trauma, and it blasts him two steps back and it’s just… AHHH! He was SO CLOSE!!!

Also, side note: Do you think MK believes he has a body count? And I don’t even mean the nebulous potential casualties from all the recent disasters that MK blames himself for, I’m talking about Spider Queen specifically. Because MK isn’t an idiot. If he didn’t know she was dead (or whatever getting sucked into the furnace counts as) immediately after the sewers, he would have put two and two together after Destiny Fulfilled. And considering this is the guy who blames himself for DBK getting out despite knowing that SWK was right next to him in bird form the entire time, I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that he probably thinks it’s his fault. So… do you think it’s possible he sees himself as a murderer? Or, like, murderer adjacent? And if he does, how much more layered and messed up do you think that’d make the potential ‘Wukong reveals he killed Macaque’ moment?

Sorry for the long ask, the monkey show has changed me for better and worse. I will never be the same. *reclines on my lawn chair, gazing out over the precipice of madness with a thousand yard stare*

One: never apologize for a long ask, especially when it has so much good stuff in it! Two: I KNOW RIGHT. The monkey show really does change you for the better or for the worst. I'm still reeling from s4 and it's been 4 months, and then the s4 special came in and permanently altered my brain chemistry once again. I have a house next to this abyss.

ANYWAYS.

The back and forth of MK's character is one of my favorite things about lmk (of which I have many)! He takes 2 steps forward and then 4 steps back, and I think that's a testament to what getting better can look like—it's not linear. Sometimes, it's not even moving forward, and that's hard.

I think a great example of this "2 steps forward and then 4 steps back" phenomenon is MK's growth in Revenge of the Spider Queen:

MK starts believing in himself, smiling at that face in the mirror. It's not a strong belief, not yet, but it's a start. You can even see him making this attempt to improve in 2x01:

(this got a little long so everything else under the cut!)

MK: "Ah! Ugh, come on MK you can do this! Self-confidence! That's Monkey King 101!"

"Wait! I am worthy! Definitely worthy!" I'm Monkie Kid! Basically the new Monkey King—might have heard of me? You know, the next chapter? I'm totally worthy!"

(2x01 Sleep Bug)

-

MK's even trying to mimic Monkey King here, the person he thinks he should be:

But then, as you've mentioned, LBD and 2x05 comes along.

And it's funny, because now we know MK did become more like Monkey King, just like he wanted, but it's in all the wrong ways.

((Kind of a side note: We also know that Monkey King couldn't have "picked the wrong successor", because there honestly wasn't another option for a successor to begin with. MK grappling with like, 3 levels of Wukong lies is what makes s2 so delicious to watch))

And then we have 2x06, and THEN 2x07, and I'm sure that's exactly why Macaque stepped in! He saw MK going down the same path Wukong did. The drive to become stronger, pushing his friends away—Macaque in Shadow Play knows exactly what he's talking about:

Macaque: "Well, with ol' Monkey King not around I thought someone should teach you a lesson! Ah MK, you really are dense, aren’t you. Haha, you saw a story about a hero who got handed everything, who didn’t have to work for anything, and you thought you were the other guy? The second the hero got real power, he couldn’t care less about his friends. That’s you bud." (2x07 Shadow Play)

("Everything I did was for us!" "You did it for yourself!" *head in my hands .png*)

Wukong leaves. That's what he does, and that's what he did to MK in both Revenge of the Spider Queen (leaving MK to fight Spider Queen and her mech alone) and 2x01.

And honestly, MK in s2 is simply doing his best to pick up the pieces, to be Monkie Kid alone, without SWK or even his friends. But it doesn't really work—hiding LBD's return from his friends didn't save them in 2x10, and it didn't stop the Lady Bone Demon, just like Wukong hiding LBD's return from MK didn't protect MK from any of it.

This pattern, of walking in Wukong's footsteps and making the same mistakes, keeps repeating itself.

MK's 2x08 parallel to Wukong in 3x10 is another good example of that.

MK's terrifying of hurting the people he cares about, so he leaves. He runs off, and this only hurts his friends further. ("Can't you see you're hurting the people who care about you the most?" and "I can’t risk hurting the people I care about—the one’s I have left.".)

And so, tying this all back to the s4 special, we're starting to see MK take 2 steps forward again:

MK: "You ever wish things will just stay like this, like they are right now?" Sun Wukong: "Pssshhkk, where's the fun in that?" Tang: "Uh um, Monkey King, we need to have a serious conversation about your idea of fun."

Mei: "At least we fixed something for a change, instead of destroying it!" MK: "Yeah! So long as we leave the world in better shape than we found it, then it's all good right?"

(4x14 Better Than We Found It)

-

And I'm waiting for the eventual 4 steps back.

Because well..."At least we fixed something for a change, instead of destroying it"...it's not that they didn't fix anything, but plenty was broken:

Flower fruit mountain was destroyed. Azure died. Whoever orchestrated all of this is still out there.

So, MK's current answer to "doing what you think is right" leading "to pain" might just not hold up. Because well, MK can try, that's for sure, but all that effort might still not make it a net positive, you know?

I think MK will blame himself for Azure's death, for SURE tough. He might have residual guilt about Spider Queen and everyone else harmed along the way, but Azure is the one I'm certain on. MK feeling like he's a "murder adjacent" and that compounding with the "Wukong Murdered Macaque" reveal and being "just like Wukong"...OH BABY. IT'S ALL COMING TOGETHER.

Like,

MK: "I just- I just want to be me. To be MK!" Curse MK: "Yeah well...we all know exactly where that leads." LBD Voice Over: "To pain."

(4x07 Pitiful Creatures)

-

Identity and destiny are very much intertwined in this show, and MK doing what he thinks is right and being himself leads to pain. That's exactly what happened to Azure—he took the Jade Emperor's throne to try and make the world a better place, but all he managed to do was barely fix what he himself had broken.

MK: "Yeah well...I'm kinda always the one getting the world in trouble to begin with so..."

(4x01 Familiar Tales)

-

All it's going to take is one antagonist speech towards MK that hits a little too close to home, and everything else is going to come crashing down.

I am very much getting geared up for my s5 lego tragedy, thank you very much!

[divinekangaroo]

In your writing of the earlier seasons, I like how you have Lizzie question Tommy on why he's at her place or have taken her to someplace where he could have easily have taken/gone to someone else. And Tommy never really seem to have a real answer other than to say "to fuck." I like how she is frustrated/conflicted that she's stuck in this loop with him, she doesn't/couldn't say no or ask him to fuck off. It's nice that you tackle that aspect of their relationship.

:) :) :)

One of my reasons for starting that early-season fanfic arc with a sort-of "Lizzie corners Tommy into sex" scene, was seeing some fannish conversations on how Lizzie trapped Tommy all the way through up to entrapping him into marriage... to which I thought, what the, that is not even *possible*, the privilege and power swings ALL his way -- so then of course I had to start thinking about how it *might* happen, where I came to the position that she might corner him (if probably only once) if she was leveraging an embedded personal/moral code or value set of his that he'd never step away from -- BUT, we know the whole point to his character is...not that...yeah anyway XD.

So I wrote my post-S1 scene with them with an undercurrent of wanting to test the feasibility of a 'Lizzie-corners-Tommy' in a way that might hold roughly true to their characters at that point in time, to see how some kind of scenario like this might play out. Even then, pressing on a moral/value point, the power dynamic is always in his favour, which that led to wanting to unpack this thoughtstream of what is yes/no/fuck yes/fuck off like for them, even more. (more under the cut, including reference to consent issues/dubcon situations)

So it's an interesting play throughout all my arc for them, especially when compared to Tommy's focus on obtaining some kind of obvious cue of consent in the immediacy of a sexual encounter. This difference between broader situational context/privilege and how that informs consent and participation, versus immediate situation let's fuck: yes/no.

It was important to me when I wrote their end of S4 absence-of-marriage-proposal story that that there was no 'will you marry me' question asked in any form at all, and therefore no verbalised yes/no from Lizzie; the inverted play being that if Tommy never asked, did *he* actually want it or would he have backed out unspoken, but then she put the rings on both of them -- and he had to open his hand to let her; he could have brushed her off -- with no words ever spoken. This kind of back and forth of the pair of them feeling bound to each other by situations and context and liking and affection and responsibility and debts and and and -> overall, ambiguity, complexity. It's probably one reason why I lean a little harder into a headcanon of Lizzie having nowhere else (safe or dignified) to go because it emphasises that privilege complexity, and also try to fill the stories with lots of cues that, despite his power and money, Tommy probably wasn't the guy she wanted to marry and he is achingly aware of this (her not-quite-romance books disguised as travelogues, her desire to travel when he is ironically not that traveller, her inability to trust/participate in the 'Gypsy thing', her longing for clear verbal praise and verbal acknowledgement/affection when that's his discomfort zone).

He's given her sooooooo much privilege and benefit and uplift but there's always that question of what doors has he left open for her, after all that. I also try to write it such that Tommy's not really overly conscious of all of this: mostly he does good things for Lizzie because he likes her, and because so much of it is good, uplifting, dignified, actual cash etc, he doesn't really consider how he's inadvertantly closed off other pathways for her. By the time he does, Lizzie's had his baby and it's sort of too late to go looking for those old doors and pathways.

(This interest in power, privilege, consent, and what it all really means carries on into my Mosley/Tommy/Lizzie fic too, because irrespective of Tommy and Lizzie making themselves available to Mosley in their own house where, in theory, they have the power, they could walk away, what is the broader context which means that this was not a situation of consent for either of them, irrespective of the power they had to simply have it all stop. And this lens of power and consent being totally different for all three in that room (swan, Lizzie, Tommy). Same with the canon Diana scene/my AU take on this scene.)

The other slightly more pervy reason why I lean hard into this yes/no/fuck yes/fuck off consent thing, is that I headcanon Tommy has Perverted Things (by his measure, which is pretty mild and friendly) he wants to do in bed, but by the time he's comfortable enough with Lizzie (end of S4) to actively engage with that, he understands Lizzie never says no to him. So he rarely goes that route (sometimes if drunk, not the best approach), because he can't trust that she'd tell him to stop if it crossed her line, and he won't be that kind of man. The flipside being the second Lizzie brings up any kind of out-of-the-box sex act, even flippantly, Tommy will *immediately* do it like *shoes off trews off floor wall or door right fucking now* because Lizzie said it so he can trust she wants it, even if it's not super his thing because at least it's something. Which overall is still the same kind of above consent/power/privilege ambiguity and complexity; if he does everything she says even when he doesn't particularly want to but because of physicality/position/privilege he still always retains the power to make it stop; but if he never asks on his own behalf because he can't trust her to say no, then....????)

Anyway the interesting dynamic in their canon relationship is that it never really reads as a traditional heterosexual relationship/marriage, despite that the tokens, visuals, patterns etc following a traditional het pathway. A huge part of this, methinks, is the unspoken context and this play between power, privilege, consent, boundaries, the way they slide around with who 'gives' (of self and agency) and who 'receives' (gifts of further agency), and the very dynamic way they move around on an arc of 'love for who they are (worship/respect)' versus 'love for what they do for you (service)', and the like.

It's an oversimplification but the dynamic in my fics for them I'm trying to hone is a 'broken carer' arc, where they change who is that carer over time and sometimes scene per scene, but it's that sense of one *needs* (or is dependent on) the care of the other in order to function, live or behave in a certain way, whether they want that need/dependency/care or not.

[sugarcubetikki]

A bit of end-card analysis here.

Portraying Chloe with a purple cloud/butterfly symbol standing away from the rest is a callback to Miracle Queen: a reminder why Chloe can’t be redeemed yet. In Miraculous, purple/akumas tend to represent negativity. This tells us that Chloe is a negative influence on Zoe and in the show as of now (I honestly have no clue what the future holds for Chloe’s character. Thomas is Thomas).

She’s always facing away from the heart symbols = which represent love and togetherness. Things that Chloe fails to understand as she’s shadowed (quite literally there with the purple cloud) with a sense of power and status. That’s what she understands and gets. When she was Queen Bee, she saw being a superhero as a position of status. She didn’t realise that being a superhero depended on values of heroism, caring for others around her. That’s why she’s still under that dark cloud of power and status now.

Zoe is represented on the other end of the heart symbols. It shows that she can grow, she can understand what togetherness is. I believe this is because Zoe understands how solitude (get that, the reference? that movie is symbolic in so many way) feels like. She knows how detrimental putting up so many facades is. She knows all the consequences of her actions. She knows what it feels like to not be accepted. Unlike Chloe, who has really never understood not being able to get everything she wanted, Zoe knows how it feels. She’s suffered through meeting the expectations of everyone around her too much. Whilst Chloe waltzes through anything like she owns the place. She doesn’t understand these consequences. Zoe can and she can strive to understand what love and togetherness is.

Another bit to focus on is Adrien. Whilst all the classmates are faced forward. He’s faced away from them, playing the keyboard in solitude. The classmates facing forward represents the sense of togetherness between them. Him facing away implies that he’s distant to that togetherness. He’s also so close to the purple cloud surrounded by Chloe. Hawk Moth’e colours. Or should I say Gabriel? It depicts how his family life isolates him from reaching togetherness. He wants to. But he’s literally under the negative influence of his father, he’s sheltered in solitude. Away from togetherness. Despite being together, he can never delve deeper. And the fact that S4 seems to be isolating Adrien a lot is very very concerning...the foreshadowing is scary.

Last of all, Marinette/Ladybug, they’re represented on the other end of the card. Away from Chloe and her purple cloud. Away from Adrien 😭. She represents light, goodness and togetherness. Marinette has all the values of heroism, she brings people together, as shown. Chloe being further away suggests that Marinette can’t help her. She can’t hell Chloe bask in the light. As for Adrien, it’s the size for me that’s concerning. He’s so miniscule on the other end whilst she’s a massive presence. It creates that feeling of how distant they are, it makes them feel untouchable. Marinette has so much in her territory that Adrien’s issues are a small pigment. She can’t see them. And he won’t open up. Adrien keeps his troubles hidden too well. And Marinette has so much going on that she can’t delve deeper to see them. Fuels on the wall between them. Really really does.

[nonbinarykai]

Ok since two people asked

Why Lloyd is my least favorite ninja and how I rewrite him

Notes:// you know the rodeo by now, long post so it’s going to be under a read more, and I’m not gonna tag this with Lloyd because of the criticisms I have against his character, if you don’t want to hear Lloyd be critiqued then don’t reas the post

Why I don’t like Lloyd

Maybe it’s because I’m a Kai kinnie or maybe it’s because I have a bias agaisnt the younger sibling but Lloyd has never really been a favorite of mine

He was enjoyable in s1 but after that he kinda lost all personality for me and I stopped enjoying him

I think this is mostly for two reasons:

1. His screen time

2. His “character arcs”

I’ll go ahead and knock out his screentime here because it pretty much speaks for himself

Lloyd takes up so much screentime in the show that it’s actually jarring, he’s the character with the most seasons, having s1-2, s4, s8-11, and finally s14 ((the island special)). Which I think makes lloyds writing flaws all the more noticable

A big reason, albeit a bit of a petty one, for why I don’t like him is because he constant hyjacks other characters plots and makes them about him, this happened with Kai in both s4 and s11

Even if he’s not the main focus of a season, he always has a side plot focusing on him like in s3 and s12

The writers need to include Lloyd in other seasons is making it harder for the other main characters to actually have enough screentime to grow and develop on there own

And as a side effect of this, Lloyd gets to become the most important character in every season he is, taking roles from other characters who needed them

My best example is Cole being leader, he was set up and established as leader in the pilots and s1, and he did pretty good in it! Cole being a leader is a interesting concept that I would have loved to see been developed

But after Lloyd grew up they threw that plot point into the trash so they could have the mystical green ninja be leader even though throughout s1-7 he hardly actually talks to the main cast and him being leader doesn’t add any interesting dynamic like cole and kais rivalry despite Kai being a sort of right hand man to Coles leadership.

And in s1-s7 especially everything literally revolves around Lloyd to the point where his existence is more important than everyone else’s, and everyone’s motivations are to protect him.

Again I understand he is important, he’s the green ninja, but you have to let your other characters grow and develop, Lloyd is not the only main character in your show

Like for fuck sakes I don’t need 3 arcs about Lloyd and his dad, can I finally have another Kai season

Lloyds character arcs honestly kinda suck

Im going to be honest with you

Lloyds kinda an ass

The reason I like jay more then Lloyd even though jay has been way more mean spirited then Lloyd throughout the entire series is because you can atleast make the argument that jay doesn’t know when his jokes can hurt. And the show doesn’t portray jay as in the right, he gets what he deserves for some of the meanier things he says.

The same can’t be said about Lloyd

Lloyd says things to the other ninja that is honestly so mean spirited it’s jarring to hear it from him

Best example being when Lloyd told Kai to get over his shit when Kai was grieving in s4

But what makes it so frustrating is that the show always portrays Lloyd like he’s in the right which is why a lot of his character arcs feel flat or uninteresting

The only time this doesn’t apply is in s2 and in s3, in s2 the show paints Lloyd as being unfair to Misako when he RIGHTFULLY gets mad at her for abandoning him, I’ll get back to this later

The second time in s3 is when he’s traveling with Garmadon and having to be taught to balance his powers, which is actually one part of s3 I really liked, it was nice to see these two bond and have Garmadon teach Lloyd something that wu would other wise not teach him. And it’s a real shame the season cut it short AGAIN

The biggest example of the show making Lloyd seem in the right no matter what is in s4, Lloyds whole arc there was to learn how to view things from a different perspective and appreciate the things others have done for him. And this is would work if the show decided to do the same.

Again back to that scene with Lloyd and Kai in s4, the show treats Lloyd as if he’s in the right and it’s never addressed after this. Even though this is supposed to be the beginning of lloyds arc where he’s supposed to learn to view things from a different perspective

This scene would have worked if

1. The show didn’t paint him in the right for this, either by having Lloyd apologize or having the show acknowledged how it might have hurt Kai

2. If the plot Lloyd has remained a side plot instead of taking up the entire focus

Seriously, s4 could have been the ONE season where you can have a Lloyd side plot thats not forced and yet they fucked it up and made it the entire focus of the season thanks a lot.

To quote what I said in my Nya anayalsis awhile back

“I’m not upset that he has a flaw, just that it’s not recognized as one”

Lloyd would work way better as a character if the show just let him have consequences for his actions

Ever since he grew up and got the green ninja role he’s been treated like he can’t do no wrong which is clearly not true

But since we’re already on this topic

Hurting Lloyd doesn’t make him a good character

I feel like Tommy ((and sometimes the fandom)) really misunderstand what the use of suffering for in a story

There atleast 3 reasons writers make there characters suffer

1. To undergo a arc and realize where they have been wrong or to give a character a lot more depth to expand upon

2. If the story is a fallen hero one and the character suffers because of his Huberius

3. If the story is a tragedy

Ninjago is neither a fallen hero story or a tragedy and his pain doesn’t develop him as a character

A lot of writers don’t understand that suffering isn’t what makes a character good, it’s what pushes them to become good, you can’t just throw a character at the wall and expect them to instantly be a well written fleshed out character

A lot of the suffering Lloyd has to endure is mostly for no reason and it’s really mean spirited because it adds nothing to the plot, it’s just there to hurt him

Let’s bring up s11 as an example, Lloyd didn’t HAVE to fight the ice emperor from a writing standpoint, if anything it should have been kais battle because his lose of power and Zane going evil would have been a perfect reflection of s4 and tie it up after it ended kais character a bit open ended

But no let’s have Lloyd do it instead because haha isn’t trauma COOL and HIP

Now to be clear, I’m not saying that all of your stories have to end on a happy ending or anything like that, if your a writer then your allowed to do whatever you want with your personal writing

What I am saying is that ninjago is an actual SHOW made by PROFESSIONAL writers and they can’t understand the concept of a story structure

And the lack of actually addressing his trauma is really bringing down Lloyd as a character

Because it comes to a point where you understand why Lloyd is sometimes mean or distrustful of other people and it’s frustrating because you know that it’s flaws of him that are never going to be fixed because there writers want there trauma baby

How I would rewrite him

I’ve seen a lot of people suggest Lloyd become a villain in a future season and you know what, I sort of agree

But not in the way you think

I feel like it would be way more compelling if Lloyd was a villain but is still a ninja, instead of Lloyd switching sides, the show is switching perspectives

More or less I want Lloyd to be a reflection of the “true” villain, which is how wu ((and subsequently Lloyd)) put small Victories as more important then the ninjas life, passion, and desire, and how there black and white thinking of good and evil ends up to a lot of problems because there’s a lot of grey area there choosing to ignore

I want Lloyd to start of being loyal to wu’s philosophy and the protagonist, for random example let’s say Kai, sudden turn on these ideas in order to look outside the box to find if there truly is a better way to protect people without harming himself

I want Lloyd to be upset over what he thinks is a turn to the dark side when in reality, it would make his motivations make sense and not make his turn to “villainy” be out of character.

And over the course of the season he starts to realize how wus and subsequently his leadership has hurt the others and himself, and have him reflect on if all the pain they suffer through just to clean up wus mistakes is really worth it like wu says, or if there’s a better way like kai says

As for Lloyds actual character himself, I’d like for his flaws to be more noticeable

Have Lloyd be a gifted kid who gets praise when he doesn’t deserve it but still kinda acts like a brat because he’s still mentally like 10

Have him be a control freak who follows the rules way to strictly and is all serious when they have to do missions

Have his idealization of wu be realized and critiqued because honestly wu sucks ass

Would this make his character less like able? Maybe, but then he’d actually have depth and something to improve on

He can still have his s3 and s4 arcs, it’s just now they’re more important because he’s actually learning to be better

AND BEFORE ANYONE SAYS IM PURPOSEFULLY MAKING LLOYD WORSE SO THAT KAI LOOKS BETTER

ILL HAVE YOU KNOW AWHILE BACK I MADE A POST SAYING THE EXACT SAME THING ABOUT KAI AND HIS FLAWS SO THERE (/hj /lh)

[quidfree]

I agree with everything you said about the finale of Stranger Things 4. The ending is rushed and kinda lacks of emotional impact (really annoying bc it could have been so much better, like El and Hopper reuniting).

I kinda think the Duffers want to keep everything vague as much as possible for, like they said, "the big reveal in ss5", "everything comes full circle",... there's been discussions and analysises where ss5 will go down but it's just based on small hints and subtexts. It's like the main role of ss4 is a set-up for ss5, like an 'open-ending' where every scenario is possible, which is hella confusing tbh.

I have to admit that I was rooting for Will and Mike in vol1, but Vol2 makes me realise that Michael Wheeler is really in need of character development (pls give my boy Will the protangonist era back)

Sorry for my rambling, but i do want to know your take on the character dynamics and what are your most favorite scenes?

ah anon sorry for not answering for like a week, i conflated this w my other stranger things ask and deluded myself into thinking i had

i agree w your finale thoughts- i don’t follow the media circus around the show much but i do get the impression s4 is meant to be set-up for s5, which is very annoying to me because if you’re a good writer set-up should not negate storytelling… there are many shows which use a season to set something up but still tell a compelling standalone story in that season!

re mike and will, i’m fairly neutral abt it, the same way i feel abt all the canon ships in stranger things- the kid ships are all sweet enough, although this season mike and el have been kind of tiring for me (in part because mike did p much nothing this season except be el’s kind of dumbass boyfriend). in any event i think will and mike both could do w a return to early season protag focus and that will deserves an actual coming out and general arc in s5. also you can do better, will!

response to your qs on dynamics and scenes beneath the cut :)

looove steve and his kids obviously- steve and dustin are a no-brainer, but i do wish the others got a couple of real moments with him too (as may be obvious bc i literally wrote that).

steve and robin are very fun. the whole older teen group was great this season, since their personalities were a nice mix- i have to say eddie and steve were really enjoyable together. their dual older brother energy to dustin was very cute. as was eddie’s flirting. or whatever that was meant to be.

on siblings- wish we got some mike and nancy interaction ever. glad lucas and erica got brief moments this season. jonathan and will bonding was very good if brief and a missed opportunity to talk abt the rainbow elephant in the room.

families except the bylers continue to be hilariously absent in the show. when can CPS be called on these people. mikes mom hugging him dramatically will not make me forget how bad of a parent they all are lol.

always enjoy the friendships between the kids- liked will and el a lot this season even tho it was tragically understated, loved mike and will seeing lucas again in hospital, and max’s memories of the group in dear billy. mike and will’s conversations were also admittedly good, despite the unrequited love of it all- they had a relationship core to the show once, so it still holds some weight. i do like lucas and max a lot but i wish lucas wasnt spent so much on Being There For Max hes forever sidelined for no good reason.

underwhelmed by the russia storyline in general- hopper grated on me in s3 and im always team joyce so kind of tired w her having to put up w him and murrays “oh you” vibes but i do enjoy their battle-readiness as a couple. didnt care much abt yuri or the other russian guy (dmitri?) bc it all felt so overdone.

fav scenes: obviously max escaping vecna to kate bush (deserving of her renaissance). the others are going to be random excerpts bc my mind is blanking. eddie telling steve “harrington will drive wontcha big boy” + steve telling nancy he has 6 kids already. the part in the finale where everyone jumps through to the upside down and then throws their weapons through too bc the montage was fun. el throwing the helicopter and then telling papa to choke. will singing neverending story. the ep 7 monologue where 1 reveals the whole plot to nancy (jamie campbell bower fun). the finale segment where everyone is kicking ass and nancy has a shotgun. the way will is like “what friends??” and el goes “stfu” in ep whatever it is. el and max’s reunion. etc.

[iam93percentstardust]

what i know about you (would fill a thousand books)

A fic for @tonystarkbingo

Title of Fill: what i know about you (would fill a thousand books) Collaborator: iam93percentstardust Card Number: 4012 Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29378016 Square Filled: S4 - Sharon Carter Ship/Main Pairing: Carter-Stark Cousins, Stony, Natsharon Rating: G Major Tags/Warnings/Triggers: Established Relationship, Past Abuse, Insomnia Summary: Here is what Tony knows about Sharon: she tells people she likes blueberry muffins because she thinks it makes her sound grown up, but she prefers chocolate donuts. She likes wildflowers and lilies and violets, but Queen Anne’s lace best of all and that’s what Natasha had brought her for their third date that had tipped her from liking this red-headed spy into loving her. On bad days, she curls up on the couch with the softest blanket she owns and watches old cartoons.

Here is what Sharon knows about Tony: he used to love carrot cake but hasn’t touched it since the day his parents died while he and Sharon were out at dinner. He insists on always having her burner phone’s number when she’s a mission because the one time Fury told him he couldn’t have it, Sharon ended up with three broken ribs. He hates roses because they were what Tiberius always gave him after he did something like cheating on Tony or hitting him or mocking him in front of the press (Steve gives him blue poppies the same shade as the arc reactor and Sharon loves him for that). Word Count: 2284

~

Here is what the world knows about Tony Stark’s childhood: he’s born to Howard and Maria Stark and grows up surrounded by luxury. His father worked hand in hand with the Howling Commandos. Every year, Howard hosts a reunion for the Howlies, and ever since they’re introduced to a newborn Tony, they dote on him, despite Howard’s insistence that his son doesn’t need more people to fawn over him.

Here is what the world knows about Sharon Carter’s childhood: not much. The world doesn’t really care about a single blonde child. But here’s what Director Nicholas Fury knows about her childhood: she’s raised by a single father, who happens to be the nephew to one Margaret Carter, and when her father is killed in a car crash when she’s three years old, her great-aunt swoops in to take her in. Director Carter never explicitly says that she retires to focus on her great-niece but Fury is more than capable of reading between the lines.

Here is what only a few people know about both of their childhoods: Tony spends every summer at Aunt Peggy’s house until he goes off to MIT when he’s fourteen. He never tells her but those summers are the happiest times of his childhood. The year he turns ten, his idyllic summer is interrupted by the arrival of his favorite cousin, who has no idea of how to care for a newborn and needs his aunt’s help. Tony doesn’t know how to care for a newborn either, but he’s as enamored of baby Sharon as she is of him so he helps as much as he can.

By the time Tony leaves for MIT four years later, he and Sharon are closer siblings than Aunt Peggy’s known some flesh-and-blood siblings to be. She never tells anyone, but she counts bringing the two of them together to be one of the best things she’s ever done in her life.

~

Sharon’s exhausted by the time she gets back to Avengers Tower. She doesn’t really regret leaving her job at the CIA to take on being the Avengers’ liaison to the UN, but it certainly leaves her way more exhausted than her old job ever did. She gets it now, why Aunt Peggy had hated politicians so much.

It’s late, late enough that even JARVIS sounds weary when he welcomes her home as she steps onto the elevator. She leans her forehead against the cool metal wall as the elevator rises through the tower, dozing off just a little. Her phone chimes and Sharon pulls it out, smiling fondly as she reads Natasha’s text: Let me know when you land. Just like her girlfriend to send her a text asking her to check in. Natasha doesn’t know that she came back early, planning on surprising her for their anniversary tomorrow.

“Hey, JARVIS?” she asks.

“Yes, Agent Carter?”

“Don’t tell Natasha I’m back yet?”

“Of course. Only Sir and Captain Rogers are aware you’ve returned.”

In her sleep-befuddled state, it takes her a moment to realize why Steve would know she’s back. But of course, the team leader would need to be updated of the team’s whereabouts, even those not currently on the active duty roster.

“Thanks.”

The elevator stops and she steps out onto the team floors, intent on putting the chocolates she’d picked up in Geneva in the kitchen for people to swipe in the morning. The TV is playing softly in the living room and she pokes her head in, curious to see who’s still up.

It’s Steve, watching the playback from the team’s last mission. He perks up as soon as he hears her footsteps on the kitchen tile, only to droop when he realizes it’s her. It makes her pause, that reaction, and she sighs.

“How long has he been down there?” she asks.

“Three days,” Steve says quietly.

~

Here is what Tony knows about Sharon: she tells people she likes blueberry muffins because she thinks it makes her sound grown up, but she prefers chocolate donuts. She likes wildflowers and lilies and violets, but Queen Anne’s lace best of all and that’s what Natasha had brought her for their third date that had tipped her from liking this red-headed spy into loving her. On bad days, she curls up on the couch with the softest blanket she owns and watches old cartoons.

She has a habit of taking on more than she can chew and going into what she calls “anxiety spirals” when she realizes what she’s done that only Tony can talk her down from.

Here is what Sharon knows about Tony: he used to love carrot cake but hasn’t touched it since the day his parents died while he and Sharon were out at dinner. He insists on always having her burner phone’s number when she’s a mission because the one time Fury told him he couldn’t have it, Sharon ended up with three broken ribs. He hates roses because they were what Tiberius always gave him after he did something like cheating on Tony or hitting him or mocking him in front of the press (Steve gives him blue poppies the same shade as the arc reactor and Sharon loves him for that).

He always blames himself for things going wrong, even when there’s nothing he could have done, and he’ll stay up for days making sure that it never happens again.

~

Sharon sighs again. Three days ago, Clint fell off a ledge during a mission; Sharon had watched the fight on the UN’s monitors. Clint landed in a dumpster, which broke the worst of the fall, but he still ended up with a broken wrist. He won’t be joining the team on their missions for at least another couple of months while he recovers. If she knows Tony, he’s been down in the workshop ever since, working on something that’ll make sure Clint never breaks another wrist.

“Code not working?” she asks Steve. He shakes his head, looking exhausted down to his bones. “I’ll go down there.”

“You don’t have to,” Steve says quickly. “I know you’re tired.”

She smiles at him, appreciating how much he cares, but... “I’m sure you two are both tired as well.” He grins ruefully back at her, confirming that he hasn’t slept either since Tony disappeared into the workshop. “Someone has to drag him out, and I’ll bet he hasn’t thought about blocking my access.”

~

Here is what Tony thought the first time he met Natasha Romanoff: You tried to shoot her the first time you saw her. You are not worthy of my little sister.

Here is what Sharon thought the first time she met Steve Rogers: You told him you knew men worth ten of him. You are not worthy of my big brother.

Here is what Tony thought the first time he saw Natasha and Sharon together: You bring her chocolate donuts and Queen Anne’s lace and know to put on Sleeping Beauty when she has a bad day. You might not be worthy of her but I don’t really think anyone is, and she loves you, so if I have to choose anyone, it might as well be you.

Here is what Sharon thought the first time she saw Steve and Tony together: I still don’t know if you’re worthy of him, but you learned how to make cheesecake for him and you bring him poppies and you always make sure my phone number gets to him, even when Fury tells me I have to go completely dark, and he loves you, so if I have to choose anyone, it might as well be you.

~

The workshop walls are dark when she steps out onto the floor, but the door opens for her as easy as it always does, and she smiles. Maybe Tony didn’t realize he’d need to block her access too or maybe he just knows that that won’t fly with her, same as it won’t fly with Pepper, same as it wouldn’t fly with Steve if he ever realizes that he’s one of the few people Tony would let pull him from the workshop.

“You weren’t there to say hi,” she says as she steps inside.

Tony turns and blinks at her slowly, the shadows deep under his eyes. “I sent a car for you, didn’t I?” he says eventually but he’s missing the usual venom in his voice. He goes back to his work.

“That’s not the same thing.” She comes up behind him and wraps her arms around his waist, hooking her chin over his shoulder. Just as she’d suspected, he’s working on a new wrist guard for Clint, something sturdy enough to protect him from breaking his wrist but flexible enough it won’t inhibit his mobility. Sharon doesn’t really speak technobabble the way Tony does, but even she can tell that there are several mistakes in his formulas, probably from his lack of sleep.

“Steve misses you,” she tells him.

“I’ll come up when I’m done.”

“Or you can come up now and catch up on sleep. This will still be here tomorrow.”

“No,” he argues. “I have to make sure this is ready for Clint—”

“When will he be back on the duty roster?”

“Seven weeks, three days, and twelve hours,” Tony says automatically.

“And you don’t think this can wait another day?” she asks, raising an eyebrow skeptically.

Tony hesitates and then drops his head back onto her shoulder, saying to the ceiling, “I can’t sleep.”

Sharon wrinkles her brow. She knows that already, but Tony is already shaking his head.

“I mean, before…all this,” he explains, waving a limp hand in the air in the vague direction of the plans for Clint’s wrist guard.

Oh.

This happens sometimes, she knows. Tony’s insomnia acts up and he’ll spend a few days in the workshop, unable to sleep, or working from his bed because he thinks he should at least spend some time there. But as far as she knows, this is the first time it’s acted up while he’s been with Steve, and knowing Tony, he’s probably worried that Steve won’t like it if Tony spends all night in their bedroom working on his tablet. A silly concern really, she thinks Steve wouldn’t care if he was in literal hell as long as he was there with Tony, but Tony gets in his head about things like this.

“Well,” she begins hesitantly, “I won’t say that going to bed with your boyfriend is a sure way to get you to sleep, because that’s ridiculous, but I know that Steve’s been up as long as you have because he’s worried about you. So maybe you could go up there so he could get some sleep?”

Tony tilts his head to look at her. “He has?”

~

Here is what Tony knows about Sharon: there isn’t a thing in the world she wouldn’t do for Natasha.

Here is what Sharon knows about Tony: there isn’t a thing in the world he wouldn’t do for Steve.

~

She steps off the elevator for the third time that night, Tony trailing behind her. He brightens as soon as he sees Steve, stumbling past her into Steve’s waiting arms. Steve leans down and kisses the top of Tony’s head before shooting Sharon a grateful smile.

She winks back at him and then heads for the team’s private elevators, only available from this floor and the only way to reach their rooms. Grabbing Tony hadn’t taken too long but it’s still longer than she’d like when she has Natasha waiting for her in their bedroom. Tony’s all taken care of, Steve more than up to the task, so she can head to bed now.

Her and Natasha’s floor is almost entirely dark when she finally reaches it, except for a small sliver of light stretching out from underneath their bedroom door. Sharon navigates the floor easily, stepping around the furniture she can’t see and over the heels she’s sure Natasha has left lying around.

The bedroom door swings open before she reaches it, revealing her beautiful girlfriend framed in the light. Sharon smiles and reaches for her, cupping Natasha’s cheek in her hand as she kisses her.

“Hello, beautiful,” she murmurs. “I’m back.”

“Early,” Natasha remarks, clearly surprised.

Sharon shrugs. “It would have been earlier but I had to make a stop to pick up Tony.”

Natasha’s expression clears. “Steve’s been worried about him.”

Sharon nods. “That’s why I dragged him out.” She lets Natasha pull her inside their bedroom, herd her into the shower, and rinse off. Neither of them are much in the mood for a lengthy shower, so as soon as Sharon considers herself clean enough, she turns the water off, deciding that she’ll take another shower when she’s better rested.

They collapse into bed, Natasha curling around Sharon as soon as they’re situated. Sharon’s phone chimes once with a soft text message. She reaches over to the dresser, intent on turning the phone off, only to smile when she sees the message from Steve—a picture of Tony curled up, sound asleep on his bed.

“Turn it off, babe,” Natasha says sleepily, and Sharon would never deny her anything, so she does, and then wraps herself around Natasha.

~

Here is what Tony knows about Sharon: she is loved, by Aunt Peggy and Nick Fury and the agents under her command and Clint and Natasha.

Here is what Sharon knows about Tony: he is loved, by Aunt Peggy and the Avengers and Pepper and Rhodey and Steve.

Here is what they know about each other: they are loved, by a thousand other people, but by each other most of all.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Just saw that the 'New' Queen Bee has a pink streak in her hair, just like that Chloe doll.

At this point I'm 50/50 as to whether Chloe will get redeemed in S4/5 or not. I kinda get the feeling That Guy thinks that Miracle Queen is the new Crossroads of Destiny and that he's written Chloe to be on par with Zuko with certain things that have been said/done, but I also wouldn't bee surprised if Chloe stays irredeemable and we get her as of now unheard of cousin Amber or something like that.

That Guy thinks he's clever and that none of us are gonna see what's coming, but at this point I could make a Bingo card and guess the rest of the series.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy.

Look as I literally just watched Crossroads of Destiny last night. I could go tf off.

Fuck it let's do this!!!!

SO

I've seen some people suggest that Miracle Queen is the "backsliding" stage of a Redemption Arc. Like how Crossroads of Destiny was for Zuko.

Here's why it doesn't work!

Chloé's redemption arc had nothing to do with Hawkmoth, other than the fact that Chloé was Queen Bee and being Queen Bee helped her.

Both Chloé and Zuko's "evil" actions stem from similar things. Namely, trying to impress an abusive parent who will never love them no matter what, combined with an upbringing about how they were supposed to act. Chloé has Audrey, and the whole idea of being "Exceptional" and degrading anyone who isn't also Exceptional. Zuko had to deal with Ozai, along with all the fuckery of the Fire Nation's Propaganda. I'll admit the latter is a bit worse but still.

In Crossroads of Destiny, Azula talked to Zuko and offered him everything he wanted. The ability to return home a Hero, to be loved by their father. And despite everything, Zuko thinks there's still hope for that. So despite the progress he was making over the past season, he sides with her. He slips back into those old ways, disappointing everyone and fucking things up for the protagonists.

Now. If we want to do Crossroads of Destiny with Chloé, we need to take a character that Audrey adores and compares Chloé to to put her down. Like Marinette! So we have Marinette go to Chloé and say "hey, if you give up on your redemption arc, your mother will love you!".

Oh wait.

That was Queen Wasp! Look at that! They already wrote their Crossroads of Destiny! Except they framed Azula manipulating Zuko into going back to Ozai as such a good and wonderful thing our protagonist did!

However, Zuko was given some time to regret his choice, realize that things still aren't "right", like he imagined, and decided to give up on his old dreams to make an actuak difference and do the right thing.

Chloé... Starts to get this. We don't focus on her and Audrey much longer. But it would be easy to show. Or even offhandedly mention it. But Chloé does continue to try and be a Hero and is somewhat figuring out how to be good.

But then before she can do a full "fuck this" turnaround, Miracle Queen happens.

And honestly? Even in my much more sympathetic and keeping the redemption arc rewrites of Miracle Queen, it is never a "Crossroads of Destiny" choice. Chloé feels betrayed by Ladybug and is being threatened by Hawkmoth. That says nothing about her and her arc.

And don't get me wrong! I like the idea of backsliding on the redemption arc! Because getting out of a toxic mindset is hard af. And progress isn't always linear. You can mess up big time and that's okay.

Hell. I wrote an entire Redemption Arc Backslide back when I wrote Glowing Embers! I am completely open to the idea!

But Miracle Queen is not that for Chloé. The closest is Queen Wasp but that was framed as a good thing so no.

That said, I am putting on my clown makeup and hoping they treat it as such because I want my girl to get a proper redemption arc. She deserves better.

Honk honk motherfucker.

[thatesqcrush]

Fall From Grace

Brian Kneef x Reader. Fandom: The Good Fight. Reference: S4, E.4, “The Gang is Satirized and Doesn't Like It.” CW: language, pining, Brian being a snarky asshole. Smut to follow in the next part. AN: Our lovely REE was on The Good Fight for all of 3 minutes so I am taking lots of liberties. I am obsessed with the anti-Barba. He was just delicious. 

WC: 2.7K

***

The first time you encountered Brian Kneef, you basically had collided into him as he came off the elevator and you were rushing in.

You were running late for work at Reddick, Boseman & Lockhart – or STR Laurie – or whatever it was called these days. You had a hard time keeping up despite having worked there forever. 

You were looking in your bag for your ID and held your latte in the other. You were, admittedly, not paying attention to what you were doing or really going. You crashed into what you thought was a wall, but instead was a thick, solid chest. Your latte, went everywhere – mostly onto the man and his sharp, navy suit.

Flushed with embarrassment, you peered up into the most beautiful green eyes. You began to open your mouth to apologize but found yourself at a loss for words. It didn’t matter – you were met with a sneer of disgust. “Ugh, watch where you’re fucking going! Jesus fucking Christ, my suit!”

The man pushed past you and stormed out, leaving you behind with your mouth agape. You shook your head in disappointment looking at your ruined coffee on the floor. Security waved you off at the front desk, and you could hear housekeeping being called. With a defeated sigh, you continued onto the elevator and up to the floor. But something about those eyes unnerved you. 

--

The second time you encountered Brian Kneef, you were in the corner of the office being used for a deposition. You were certain Brian did not remember you. You and the rest of the staff listened in shock as he continued to press on about some mysterious memo 618 which he referred to Diane Lockhart, as “her ass.” You couldn’t even focus on what was happening – you were transfixed in the power and ferocity of Brian’s anger.

Brian’s jaw was clenched as he seethed. “I have requested your ass. Do you want me to spell it out for you? I would like to call your ass.”

“What is memo 618?” Diane sharply questioned, ignoring what Brian said.

“Let it go on the record that I have asked plaintiff’s lawyer to call her own ass.”

“Look – can we just get down to it? What is memo 618?”

Brian ignored the other associate who piped up. “Have I not made it clear? Memo 618 is your ass. When you’re dead, and you’re on the autopsy table, and they’re taking photos of your body… when they come to your ass… that’s memo 618.” Brian suddenly stood, the chair screeched slightly as it scraped the floor. He leaned over the table, his face stoic yet at the same time, practically menacing. “Next time you come for me, remember, we have your ass.”

Brian stormed out of the office leaving everyone stunned in the wake of the aftermath.

You let out the breath you did not realize you were holding. You stood finally after the office emptied and you rushed back to your office. The rest of the day was a waste – all you could think of was Brian commenting about memo 618. You kept replaying his words like a broken record…

“Your ass.”

--

The third time you encountered Brian Kneef, you were furiously typing away in your office, trying to complete a motion in limine.

“Where’s YFN YLN?” you heard Brian ask. Your door was open and you could see him stalking through the office’s open floor plan, with some poor associate to his side trying to keep up. You saw someone gesture towards your office.

“Woah, woah, woah, why does she have an office? How does the paralegal have an office and I have a cubicle?”

“Because she’s a fifth year paralegal and you’re a first year associate. She’s worth more than you are.” You could hear him sneer in the distance. Suddenly Brian was in front of you along with the pitiful associate.

You gingerly removed your headset and looked up. “May I help you?”

“There’s a hearing on my subpoena. You have to help do research.”

You cocked your head at the litigator. “I… I am in the middle of drafting a motion in limine.”

“Not my problem. Find a way to handle that and my research.”

You sighed. “Noted.”

The associate gave you a sympathetic smile before placing a red weld on your desk before scurrying after Brian.

You quickly looked at the file.

“You're asking to look at the files without any evidence of your assertion.” You shouted. Brian paused in his step before turning back to you.

“Yeah, but the only way we can find the evidence is to look at the files.”

You raised your brow and scoffed. “A rickety argument at best.”

“But it's their precedent.

You slowly nodded. “Let me see what I can find; I will need to look in privacy and harassment.”

--

The morning of the hearing, you found yourself running through the Skokie Courthouse. You regretted wearing heels that day instead of your flats. The heels of your shoes clacked loudly against the marble floor, the sound echoing throughout. As you ran, you spotted Brian, who was standing outside of the courtroom doors.

“Mr. Kneef! Mr. Kneef!” You skidded to a stop in front of him. Panting you bent over to catch your breath. You stood and met Brian eye to eye. The look on his face was indescribable – part amusement and part annoyance. “I found this. This can help.” You shoved the law text in front of him.

Brian snatched it from you and he ran through the text. “This I can use. This is good.” He murmured.

You smiled in relief. You were about to turn away when an arm stopped you. “Come watch.” Brian suggested, his head nodding towards the courtroom.

“Really?” you squeaked.

“Come on. We’re going to have some fun.”

You took a seat and then watched mesmerized as Brian annihilated opposing counsel.

Brian was absolutely cutthroat and ruthless, handing it to opposing counsel. The way he commanded the courtroom, his voice boomed throughout. You were completely transfixed. He was ornery; it was downright delicious and sinful. You would have to been blind in order to not see his attractiveness. As he sat perched on the edge of the table, you wondered about what was underneath the suit. You tried to commit the bearded man to memory.

The judge found in his favor, ordering opposing counsel to surrender files. Brian looked back at you and gave you a victorious smile and you felt your panties dampen in response.

“That was great!” you quickly spat out, feeling your face flush as Brian approached you.

“It was your argument. I just framed it in a more realistic appearance. I brightened all of our mornings.” Brian winked, causing you to laugh.

Brian looked at his watch and then at you. “Want to get breakfast?”

Your stomach rumbled at the idea. You hadn’t had any breakfast – barely any coffee actually. You had spent the entire last few days doing research for Brian.

“But I have to get back to the office…my motion…” you began to protest.

“I’ll get one of the associates to finish it.”

--

By the time you were back at the office, it was near noon. Normally you would have felt awful and guilty for coming back so late, but you figured could talk to Mr. Laurie or Mr. Firth and it would be excused. You were basically floating on the walk back to your desk, when you bumped into Marissa Gold, Diane’s assistant.

“Heard Brian won his case.”

“He did.” You replied confidently as you sipped on the extra latte you had taken to go.

“Well the files are here.” Marissa replied, taking the coffee from you. She took a long drag of the hot liquid. “Mmmm – that is good. What is that?”

“Smoked butterscotch.” You replied taking your coffee back. “I am impressed the files are already here.”

Marissa gave you a pained expression and nodded towards your office. Your office was packed to the brim with boxes and boxes of files – so much so, there were boxes stacked even outside of your office.

Your jaw dropped as you came to a stop. “What in the actual fuck?”

Marissa put her hands on her hips. “It seems that they’re trying to bury you in paperwork.”

Your phone buzzed and you reached for it. You saw you had an email from Brian.

Heard the files came in. I am in a generous mood. Get it done in a week.

“Oh my fucking God.” You muttered repeatedly. “I am never going to get this done.”

“I’ll help you.” Marissa replied. “I’ll get a couple of the junior paralegals to help.”

--

Day turned into night. You were still knee deep in boxes despite having help. Everyone slowly faded – some had to get home to their families – others wanted to go out (it was Friday night after all). Arcade Fire’s ‘Reflektor’ was playing on loop and you picked at cold dumplings while trying to make sense of it all.

Your hair, which had been loose, was pinned up into a low chignon, with a pen stuck through it, trying to keep it in place.

Your watch beeped and you looked at the notification telling you to stand. You had been sitting for unreasonable length of time, so you decided to stretch. You felt all of the muscles in your body stretch in your pandiculation. Your eyes were shut and you let out a huge yawn.

The sound of throat clearing cause you to be startled. Your eyes flew open to see Brian there in the doorway.

“I heard you were still here.” Brian replied. His hands were shoved into his pockets and he leaned against the door frame. He noted that you look worn and fatigued.

“That I am.” You waved your arm towards all of the boxes. “These need to get looked through and you need it in a week’s time.”

“Have you eaten?”

You cocked your head and pointed at your cold dinner. “Just that.”

“You’re working late, dinner can be on the Firm’s dime and you’re eating that?”

“Sure, let the paralegal charge a steak dinner. That won’t come to bite me in the ass.”

“How far did you get?” Brian asked, stepping further into your office. He removed his jacket and folded it neatly over the chair across from your desk. You watched him intently as he made quick work of his tie and nimbly undid his cuffs in order to roll up his sleeves. The room seemed to grow warmer.

“Not far enough.” You murmured.

Brian studied you intently. “How come you didn’t go to law school?”

“Those who can, do; those who cannot, teach.” You replied. “I bombed my LSATs. I decided I’d get some first-hand experience and then… well, lets just say the work keeps me busy enough and the salary is pretty good for a paralegal.”

Brian scratched his beard. “You’d make one hell of a lawyer. You already know more than the imbecile associates we have.”

You nodded and gave him a half-shrug. “Thanks.”

Brian stood suddenly. “I’ll be right back.”

You furrowed your brow. “Okay.”

An hour went by and Brian still wasn’t back. You weren’t surprised – you really didn’t expect him to return. You had untucked your blouse and knotted it in front and kicked off your shoes. Looking at the clock it was almost midnight.

You decided to call down for a car-service home, figuring you’d try to sleep and come back early in the morning to start over with fresh eyes when Brian returned. In his hands was a bottle of whiskey and two lowball glasses.

“I called in for dinner from Bavette’s. I hope your hungry.” Brian replied as he poured the two drinks. Your fingertips brushed his as he handed you a glass and you felt a jolt of something.  You took a deep inhalation of the peaty aroma.

Glasses clinked and you took a large sip and let the whiskey coat your mouth. The whiskey was rich with multiple layers and a complex presence. “Mmmm…” you hummed contentedly.

Brian watched you intently. He wasn’t sure what had gotten to him – he never mixed business with pleasure. ‘You don’t eat where you shit’ was his life motto. But he felt like a moth drawn to a flame with you. You were incredibly gorgeous and smart. He had to admit that the attraction began when you ruined his suit. Any other time, he would have not even paid attention to whomever it was but when you looked up at him with those big, sorrowful eyes, your cheeks red with embarrassment – something was unnerved – and it sent a jolt right to his core. He could not get you out of his mind and after a lunch meeting, he had to go relieve himself in a bathroom stall, imagining it was you helping him out of his ruined clothing and then slowly sinking to your knees blowing him instead of his hand doing all the work.    

In this moment, Brian could almost visualize every trace of you. The roundness of your hip, covered by your pencil skirt to the dip of your waist, where your blouse was haphazardly half-tucked and knotted. Your blouse was painfully sheer, and he could make out the shape of your bra. The day that you ran to court – when you were bent over, trying to catch your breath, he could see right down your blouse. He wondered if you were as full and soft as he imagined. He imagined how they would spill onto his hands and how hard your nipples would get under his fingertips. Your hair that day had also fallen forward, and he wondered what it would be like to gather it all with his fist as he plowed into you from behind.

“Fuck.” Brian muttered. You raised a brow and he quickly shook his head, and waved you off. “Nothing.”

“Speaking of nothing…” you began, turning to hop onto your desk. “What is memo 618?”

Brian’s eyes narrowed and darkened. “Nothing. Don’t ask things you shouldn’t be asking about.”

You leaned back, bracing yourself. Your palms laid flat against the desk. “Oh. I thought…”

“You thought nothing.” Brian replied sharply. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Why? Because I am a paralegal?”

“No – because some things are bigger than…” Brian poured himself another drink and just as quickly as he poured it, he downed it. “Bigger than anyone can comprehend.” He continued. “And you’re too… you cannot get caught up in it.” Again he poured another drink.

“Try me.” You replied, continuing to sip your drink. Without even realizing it, you parted your legs and Brian walked up to you. His body was nestled in between you and suddenly, you felt like Little Red Riding Hood captured by the Big Bad Wolf. Brian leaned down – his face was mere millimetres from yours. He reached over and gripped your chin, tilting your face up towards him. Your chest began to tighten, and your stomach flipped. Your heart began to race and instinctively, you licked your lips.

“It’s fucked and you’ll be fucked up for it.” Brian replied, his voice low and coaxing. His eyes searched yours. He could see the heat in your eyes.

“Then I’ll be fucked.” You replied. A smirk graced your face as you jerked your chin out of his grasp. That defiant move alone caused Brian’s cock to thicken against his zipper. His blood was hot; all he wanted to do was to wipe away all evidence of that self-assured smile.

His lips crashed against yours. You let out a moan as he kissed you hard. Your lips were mashed against his and you willingly opened your mouth, allowing his tongue to swirl against yours.

One arm wrapped around you, pulling you into a tight embrace. You wrapped your hands into Brian’s hair as you returned the kiss. Another hand made its way to your breast and you cupped his hand, encouraging him to touch you.

You gasped as Brian’s lips trailed to a sensitive spot along your neck. “Memo 618…”

Brian jerked up straight. His eyes were dark and dangerous. You grinned like a cat who caught the canary.

“Memo 618 is my ass. And it’s yours for the taking.”

TBC.

Tags:  @melsquared79​ @madpanda75​ @youreverycolor​ @tropes-and-tales​ @neely1177​ @the-baby-bookworm​ @mrsrafaelbarba​ @skittle479​ @ottosuricato​ @delia26​ @sass-and-suspenders​ @mommakat32​ @dreila03​ @beccabarba​ @garturbo​ @lovebennycolon​ @imjustreallynosy​ @sweetsummertime99​ @whyissvuruiningmylovelife​ @scarletsoldierrr​ @cesarofangirl78​ @redlipstickandplaid​ @redlipstickandblacktea​ @zoeykaytesmom​ @differentshadesofgray​ @misssirenlove​ @esparza-army​ @bananas-pajamas​ @mishaissocoollike @fanficfaeriesrafaelbarbalibrary​ @theenchantedgalleryofstories​ @thefanficfaerie​ @trekinthruthestarwars @catnip987 @choppedgalaxynerd @pieceofshittytitty​ @ktiz90​ @evee87​ -anyone else, just ask, xo

[calliecat93]

ST: TNG S4 Watchthrough Episodes 6-9

Legacy: We have ended up on the home planet of Tasha Yar… and wow it’s not a nice place. We also find out that she has a sister, welp. So… it was alright. Ishara is very similar to Tasha in demeanor, but also very different. I tilt my head at the crew being so willing to trust and accept Ishara into their midst when they know nothing about this woman. I could see the ‘she’s using them’ plot a mile away. But to be fair, the episode addresses it. They wanted to see Tasha. They wanted to see the brave, loyal, strong-willed Security Chief that they lost so callously in her sister… and in the end, that took over. While I can see why Ishara acted as she did, she didn’t know these people and hasn’t seen Tasha in years so she’s under no obligation to care about them, it really has to hurt that she used them and almost committed mass murder and make them take the lame. Her world is a hellhole so her actions make sense, but that doens’t change the betrayal. Especially for Data. Riker sums it up well, with trust comes betrayal… but without trust, there is no friendship. That’s just the cruel truth. Anyways, it was a fine episode. I like that we have a pot-mortem for Tasha even if late… but it just makes me wish that tasha herself didn’t get killed sos he could have had her own plot and feeligns focused on. It still pisse sme off and is just a reminder of so much wasted potential. But ah well, for what they had to work with, they did it welll. 3/5.

Reunion: K’Ehleyr is back… and with a child. Worf’s child, to be exact. Huh. have been waiting very patiently for a follow-up to Sins of the Father and this was an excellent one! Back in K’Ehleyr’s first episode, she was unwilling to take the Oath and Worf wanted to so much and follow the Klingon traditions. Here? K’Ehleyr is ready and doens’t care that he was discommendated… but now Worf can’t. he’s been dishonored and even if it means nothing to K’Ehleyr, it means a great deal to him. He can’t let her or his son bear that shame. It’s so hard to watch him here. How anguished he feels, the way the other Klingons treat him despite it being their damn fault that he accepted it, to begin with, just knowing that he did nothing wrong… but for the greater good, he has to bear it. He doesn’t even want Alexander to be known as his son not because he’s unwilling to accept parental responsibility but to spare him of the dishonor. Just… freakin’ ouch. I was so happy to see K’Ehleyr back and her character is just so freakin’ good and her wanting to allow Alexander to find his life path? Excellent parenting. So… needless to say, her being killed off pisses me off. They at least allowed her character to shine, but… it feels like they only did it to make Worf suffer more. It was well-executed, I was about ready to tear up and Worf being driven to kill Duras for all the suffering that he put him through and now killing the woman he loved (which btw the romantic chemistry was MUCH better here than last time)? I can’t blame him at all. I get why he got reprimanded since Duras was a political figure and this can cause a whole host of problems and clearly Picard was sympathetic… but I just felt so bad for Worf. At least he admitted that he was Aexander’s father and hopefully the poor kid will have a good life with Worf’s parents, bu… yeah. K’Ehleyr’s death stops me form giving this a perfect score, very least I wish we had gotten to see her fight instead of goign to commerical and them walking in on her bloody corpse… but at least they got the tone down. I just hope that one day, Worf and his brother can truly expose the conspiracy because Worf deserves a Hell of a lot better. 4.5/5.

Future Imperfect: Let’s perform a thought experiment, shall we? Imagine going on assignment on your birthday, business as usual… then some kind of mishap happens. You wake up… and discover that you have lost sixteen years' worth of your memory. You can’t remember significant life changes, special moments for yourself and your loved ones, or even your spouse and child. Then just as you begin getting used to things and accepting this new life… you find out that it was all a lie and you were in an illusion all along. You were captured and tricked… and then you find out that was also a lie and it was all due to a lonely alien child left on a barren planet/within a highly advanced Holodeck system that can give him anything that he wants, everyone he knew had died and he did all of this just to have a friend. Congratulations folks, you have now experienced what Riker went through this episode! Yeah, this episode was crazy. I feel bad for the poor kid, while he shouldn’t have done what he did we’re talking about a lonely child essentially forced to live in a Holodeck and just wanted to interact with someone real. Also, I loved how Riker got clued in on how the future word was fake, excellent call-back to Season One! Not much else to say, but good episode! It was wild, that’s for sure~ 3.5/5.

Final Mission: Well folks, this is the curtain call for Wesley Crusher. I know that he pops back up once or twice, but this will be his final episode as a main character as he finally enters the Academy. We’ll get to my final thoughts on Wesley here in a bit, but l focus on the episode itself first. And… it was fine. We have Picard, Wesley, and some third guy crash land on a desert planet, the Enterprise unaware of if they’re alive or not. Thus the three struggle to survive which not only is the third guy essentially a paranoid asshole… but a cave-in seriosuly injures Picard. Thus Wesley is more or less on his own and has to keep Picard alive. Thankfully we avoid killing him off, and thus they make sure to give Wesley a proper send-off. They let him showcase his strengths with his intellegence, fast thinking, and compared to in the beginning he’s much more mature and capable of handling an Away Mission. This convinced me that yes, Wesley is ready for the Academy and that he will be a great Starfleet Officer someday. Meanwhile the Enterprise are dealing with their own issues because of course they are. Nothing can ever just go easy for these people. can it? It’s fine. The Enterprise plot didn’t have me invested aside form worrying about Dr. Crusher. The poor woman just burris herself in her work to deal with her worry about Wesley and evades Troi when she tries to assure her Otherwise the plot is there sot hat it can be a solo Picard and Wesley adventure without hem interfering. Which while I havn’t been the biggest fan of their dynamic, it’s clear how much Welsey admires Picard such as recounting their Samaritan Snare adventure, and Picard admititng that he brought him along because he was going to miss the kid. It’s a nice moment between the characters and allows Wesley to truly open up… though I wish it focused more on him and his mother since that’s been seriously lacking, but ah well. It was still a good send-off episode for Wesley and that’s how you want to treat your characters, whether they stay ont he show or not. 3/5.

As for Wesley himself… it’s been a bumpy road. Do I agree with the consensus that Wesley is an annoying child character that even his actor agrees with (albeit I think jokingly but still)? No. Wesley isn't a bad character. He’s a smart young kid, tries his best, makes mistakes but tries to do his best, and he grew. He’s a perfectly likable kid and this episode especially shows the best of him. Do I agree that the character's role and execution were annoying and contributed to his reputation? Yes. That is ultimately what it boils down to decent character, poor execution. In S1 Wesley was elevated far more than he needed to be. He was given privileges that no other character his age would have been granted no matter the competency level that borders on blatant favoritism. Whenever he made a serious error, he got praise for fixing it, never scolded for his actions with The Naked Now being the worst example. He still had good episodes like Coming of Age, but alas. I think having a kid character who aspires to be in Starfleet, has a parent who is a prominent crew member, and being able to use his skills to help was a perfectly fine idea… but there were just issues with how they did it. S2 and 3 were. While I disliked him at the end of The Dauphin and he still got showed some blatant favoritism, it was better balanced. I didn't feel he earned to be an Ensign until this episode… y’know, the one that shipped him off to The Academy. Crusher being written out in S2 and then brought back in S3 also really killed any and all potential that their dynamic could have truly brought which also hurt. It really feels like by S3 they just didn’t know what to do with the character anymore, limiting him to mainly Helmsman duty. He wasn't being elevated anymore… but he wasn't adding anything anymore either. Maybe promoting him was to help give him something… but Wil Wheaton decided to go, and that ended that. I can’t say I’m sad to see Wesley go because his potential just got squandered to the point that keeping him just felt pointless, and having him go to the Academy feels like the best natural end-point for him, so might as well be now. Nevertheless, Wesley was still part of the crew and for all that I criticized, he certainly didn’t deserve the hate that he got. If people like or even relate to the character, that’s great! He just didn’t work for me unfortunateley. Wil Wheaton obviously moved on to bigger, better things and is well-liked in the fandom, so that’s good cause he certainly did the best that he could. He just wasn’t given a lot of good material. Hopefully Welsey’s later guest appearances will give him somethingg ood and heck maybe they’ll convince Wheaton to come back in Picard one day, but for now… farewell Wesley. Can’t say I’ll miss you, but it wasn’t the worst ride either.

[takadasaiko]

Truth in the Lies: The Box

FFN II AO3

Summary: Liz and Tom unpack their new apartment and find Tom's old go-box. Set in S4.

The Box

It was quiet, the lights turned down low and Agnes finally tucked away and asleep in her crib so that her parents could continue the arduous task of unpacking their lives from the piles of boxes that filled the living room. Originally they had been packed away with the understanding that Kate would have them sent along to Cuba after things died down, but they never made it that far. Instead they'd gathered dust, waiting through their search for Agnes, the exhausting battle with Kirk, and finally until the Keens found their way out of Reddington's windowless safe house.

Somewhere along the way they had found Tom's old turntable in one of the many boxes. Soft music played out - not the Ramones, but just as good - and Liz leaned back for the partially-emptied bottle of wine that was sitting barely in reach to refill her glass. They hadn't found the appropriate glassware just yet, but the tumblers were doing the trick. She tilted a little too far and toppled off balance, straightening only enough to shoot Tom a faux-irritated look as he stifled his laugh.

"Yeah, what was that?"

"Nothing," he offered, holding his hands up, palms outward, as if he were surrendering before the battle began. Smart man.

Liz snorted and resumed her reach for the bottle.

"You need some help with that?" Tom asked, his tone more amused than not as she found far less wine than she expected left.

"Yeah. If we have another bottle that would be great."

"When have I ever let our wine supply run dry?" he teased as he stood.

Liz came back to sit cross-legged on the wooden floor and watched him as he moved to rifle through the bags of groceries he'd picked up while she'd been at work. "And that's why I married you. Twice."

"At least I know my worth," he laughed and returned with a bottle of Pinot. He shoved another box between them with his foot before taking a seat and starting in on opening the new bottle. "And the second time we didn't technically get married. We should probably fix that."

"Not sure we're going to find a reverend willing to meet us at eleven o'clock at night."

"Wine and unpacking it is then."

He refilled her glass and handed it over. Liz took a long sip before setting it aside and looking at the box between them. "I guess we should do at least one more?"

"You're the one that wanted this done by the end of the week."

"That's tomorrow."

"It's Friday, Agnes is asleep, and theoretically you don't have to be at work tomorrow. We've got this."

Liz watched as he took a box cutter down the center of the tape, expertly splitting each side and pulling it away. She leaned in, finding more packing material than she expected, and started to pull at it until she found something solid. A picture frame with the photo of her and her mother on the swing set behind the glass. A small smile tugged at her lips as she let her fingers roam across it, touching Katarina's hidden face and feeling a strange sense of warmth settling over her with it.

A soft breath from her almost-husband drew Liz's attention and she looked over, finding Tom holding his own prize that he'd found packed away. Paper lay abandoned to the side, loosing the old, familiar go-box from its hold and she watched him run his hands across the wood almost nostalgically before opening it. It was empty. She knew it was. He'd stored his various passports and less-than-legal documents in a folder that he'd had with him on his flight with Agnes to Cuba. That didn't stop his fingers from running across the edges of the lid or down into the crevice of the symbol. There was something strange about the movement. Something she'd never seen before when he handled it.

"I didn't know if it'd made it," he confessed softly.

"How long have you had it?"

"As long as I can remember."

There was something in the words that stopped her. Liz's head tilted to the side very slightly as she studied the man she loved, his focus on the box in his hands. The box that had been a symbol of her own blindness. It had housed lies and sheltered his secrets for so long. Buried down beneath the floorboards and the carpet of their dining room, if Reddington had never come into their lives, she might never have known it was there at all.

Funny thing, in the dim lighting of their new living room she felt like she'd seen the symbol on the lid somewhere other than on the offensive box before, and as she reached her free right hand out to touch his, she saw where on the burn scar on her wrist. Strange that she'd never noticed just how similar the two marks were before.

Dark blue eyes met her own and Tom's lips pulled into a thin, awkward, and questioning smile. "What?" he asked, uncertainty pulling heavily at the question.

Liz pulled in a breath, her mind working through the response. "I never knew you had it before… I guess I just thought it was a place to store fake passports."

He shrugged. "Yeah. I guess."

"But you've had it a long time," she pressed.

His smile faded to a thin, even line and he pulled his hand away to run it through his dark hair. "Yeah. I mean, as long as I can remember. I used to…" She watched his jaw clench and filed another one of his signs of discomfort away. "I used to take it from house to house. I don't know how many before I landed at the Phelps household. I didn't own much. A couple of comics, a baseball card that someone told me was worth something…. A photo that I thought was of my family. No clue what put that in my head. Turned out it was a magazine clipping or something." He tried for an other smile, his lips tugging at one corner lopsidedly. "I was six."

"Kids have held onto stranger things," Liz murmured, tightening her hold on the photo of her mother. Adults too, if she were honest. She cleared her throat. "You said you were adopted, but you never said much about them. The Phelps'."

And just like that the smile was gone again, his expression closing off and he looked away. "Not much to say."

"Were they that bad?"

She watched the struggle, the promise of open honesty that he'd given her just the night before hanging heavily in the air and he swallowed hard. When he finally spoke, his voice was tight. "The Phelps' adopted me when I was seven. I think I went to the ER five times in the six years before I finally got away."

Liz felt her chest tighten and her eyes held his. "They hurt you?"

"We don't need to talk about this."

"Tom."

He cringed at the sound of his name and she hated how he almost flinched. She shouldn't push, she knew she shouldn't push, but something in her said this was important.

"I told you I'd try," he acknowledged. The lines on his face deepened as he tucked his chin and clenched his jaw, every inch of his demeanor screaming discomfort. When he spoke again, his voice was rushed, as if he were trying to get the words out before some long-instilled precaution stopped him. "He was drunk, she was complacent. I was… a little bastard, according to Frank. Sarcastic, ornery. I don't know. I just didn't like being shoved around."

"How did you get out?" Liz asked softly, almost regretting it as she did. Almost.

Tom shot her a look like she was asking him to confess to a series of crimes. Maybe she was, but it sounded more like he was the victim. "Yeah, I uh… He cracked a beer bottle over my head," he said as he ran his hand across the scar covered by his hair. She'd seen it when it had been buzzed short for his op in Germany, even if she hadn't given it a lot of thought at the time. "I think there might have been an argument. I don't know, but I got a couple things together and ran far enough that they couldn't send me back. This is the only thing I still have from before then. Thought about throwing it away more than once but just… never have."

Liz sat for a long moment as she let the story wash over her. She'd had her fair share of pain, but at least she'd had Sam to show her what it was like to be on the receiving end of love. Tom hadn't. All he'd known was pain and abuse and manipulation. It was no wonder he'd spent the better part of his life trying to be anybody else. Somehow, though, he'd come out on the other side of it. He could be violent and dangerous, but there was a gentleness that had managed to survive through it. She saw it in the way he held Agnes and felt it in how he loved her. He had said that his biological mother had abandoned him, but there had to be something buried in his past that had made it possible to love as deeply as he did despite everything life had put him through.

"Do you think the box is a link to your past?"

He settled back, glancing at it as he did. "Maybe. Doesn't really matter."

"Maybe your mom could -"

"We've been over this. I don't want anything to do with her. I know your past means a lot to you, but mine doesn't to me. This. Here. Now. That's what matters to me."

Liz swallowed the argument. There was no point when he dug in like that. Maybe someday she could convince him, but it wouldn't be tonight. Instead she set the photo still in her hand down and shifted to stand. She could feel his gaze on her, his voice hesitant. "Liz…?"

"Just a sec," she answered, moving into the kitchen. She checked two drawers before finally finding the one with the screwdriver in it and moved over to the vent in the wall. She crouched down, starting in on loosening the screws.

"What are you doing?" Tom didn't move from his place, but at least some of the tenseness had finally eased from his voice. It was almost amused, like he knew exactly what she was doing, but wanted verification before believing it.

"Well we're four flights up and we're just renting the place for now, so carving a secret hole in the floor probably isn't the way to go." She pried the tin screen loose and looked over her shoulder. "Passports are in the bedroom, aren't they?"

"Yeah."

She shot him an expectant look and he chuckled as he stood, disappearing long enough to retrieve them. He crouched down with her, handing over his go-box. She took it, fingers brushing across the old wood, and slid it into its new hiding place.

"I know I push you about looking into your past," she said softly as Tom handed her the vent covering to put back into place. "And if you're ever ready, I'm right here. With you."

He didn't say anything and she turned to look at him, finding the man she loved staring at her with wide, glassy eyes as if he didn't know what to make of the promise. She rocked forward, her hand sliding around to the back of his neck to pull him in. He met her halfway so that his lips pressed against hers, and when they finally broke the kiss neither were in a rush to put any distance between them. "I love you," he breathed, his voice trembling a little.

"You too," she answered softly and looked up, a glint of mischief in her eyes. "I don't know about you, but I really need a shower."

His lips tugged outward in a real smile. "That an invitation?"

"Sure hope so." She pressed one more playful kiss against his lips before popping to her feet, Tom following immediately behind her, leaving the box from his childhood stored safely away. The past could wait.

------

Notes:

So... it's been a while. Hi! lol

I've been sliding down a slippery slope and back into the Blacklist fandom full-force between working on my original scripts lately. The episode where Liz pulled Tom's go box out of the hideaway in the wall cut the breaks on it I think. I've been doing a full rewatch and I'm hoping to pick a multi-chapter Tom Lives fic up again during the hiatus. Who knows? I haven't had a ton of time for fic writing, but we'll see. I definitely have ideas for it.

This one came about in part from that episode and also a conversation I had with @tessabltheorist about how long Tom has had his box. She had the fantastic idea that it might have been something he had with him when he was taken and I love it. I happily blame her for helping to spark this idea.

[maevelin]

So I have been receiving some lovely reviews for my story including some constructive criticism which I acknowledge fully. That been said I think that one of the good things that comes from such reviews is the chance to not only think about certain things but also to be able to have a constructive discussion too.

Some of the reviews I have gotten are not showing as of now in the site once I accept them but I have read them from my email too. Fanfiction net is malfunctioning so I assume all the reviews eventually will show up. 

Anyhow... Now since the two reviewers that left me basically the same review (are you two or one?....sorry I had to ask lol) were on guest and I can’t reply to them by private messaging I am going to do it from here so they’ll know my mentality over the things they are questioning and how I see things as I write the story and my characters. Replying on tumblr is not ideal and possibly they won’t be able to see the answer here but eventually when I post a new chapter in my story I will point them towards this post.

That been said I have a few things to cover mostly.

This story is a parallel to Seasons 1-3 and somewhat 4 of TVD. I haven’t watched TVD after that point and neither anything connected to that universe. I found the show to be doing a disservice to its characters and I found the writing poor so I stopped watching. So any allegory that can be found in my story that is connected with TVD and its characters is up to S4 of the show. 

After a point my story is going to diverge from that and for now there are parallels and I am trying to not write the characters extremely OOC but after breaking a certain word limit the characters you write, either they are part of fanfiction or based on some other characters that inspired you...well they start to get a voice of their own.

I acknowledge 100% the fact that a reader may not like some of my characters. It happens. We can’t all have the same perspective or taste and so on. 

So this is not me being critical over the reviews or trying to change anyone’s opinion. I am just here to point out how I view certain things and characters as I write them.

But let me clarify some things because this may not be a story for you after all.

1. If you are expecting Klaus Mikaelson to have a redemption arc in my story then this is not a story for you. Yes there are some glimpses of humanity where Caroline is concerned and as I will get into the second phase of the story and as Klaus’ background and main plot will get into the forefront more of these glimpses will appear. Along with more of his darkness.

This is why I chose this particular alternative universe as a setting for my story. Because vampires are monsters so I wanted a human version of despicable monsters too. 

I also chose an environment that is steeped in misogyny and is not progressive because if I wanted to parallel TVD I had to have such elements in the story since the writing in TVD was awfully misogynistic, racist and homophobic. My plan though, and I hope to be able to succeed on that, is to eventually subvert those tropes in my story which is exactly it is set that way in the beginning.

Back to Klaus now...I am not going to woobify the villain. I am not going to have love ‘save’ him. He isn’t going to change for the sake of love. Any development that happens to his character and to his relationship with Caroline won’t turn him into another character. He is an adult, a criminal, a psychopath really. Those aren’t traits to change.

2. I NEVER ever saw Caroline as a good or moral person even in TVD. So don’t expect that in my story either.

The fact that the writing in TVD told us so doesn’t make Caroline a good person. Since the narrative of her actions and character contradicted it. Yes she had good sides. She may have wanted to be good too. But she was still a Vampire. Which came along with a certain darkness despite the writers wanting to have their cake and eat it too by writing the vampires of the inner circle of TVD as Mary Sue vampires while they still murdered and killed and yet they somehow were the good guys.  

Caroline’s potential for me was that she was meant to have agency. To be a vampire and relish in the dark parts too. That was one of the reasons why I liked Klaroline so much. Not in order for Klaus to become better. Or Caroline to simply become worse. But in order to show the true nature of vampirism will all that came along with it. To focus on the mythology, the legend, the immortality and freedom, to the creatures of the night. And you know...blood, desire, gore and slaughter. Simple every day stuff really.

I wanted Caroline that sided by the ripper of Monterey because he was her savior but did so despite knowing that he ate children. Caroline that was raped by Damon but overcame the horror, that stood by Elena when she committed genocide, that took Mason down, that was tortured by the werewolves and then said goodbye to girly girl Caroline and said screw it all I will be cheery but I will be a survivor too and thrive. The Caroline that fought the tomb vampires. The Caroline that tricked Katherine. The Caroline that in order to save her friend murdered 12 witches in cold blood. The Caroline that manipulated Klaus’ affections to save herself and despite seeing the good parts in him was never fooled by those and saw him for the villain and menace he was and never coddled him. The Caroline that distracted the worst monster of them all and had fun while doing so. The Caroline that traded a date for the life of another person (a friend of the man she loved back then) because it suited her purposes. The Caroline that joined a game of life and death with Klaus Mikaelson and found the silver lining and was pulled towards him despite how much she fought against it. The Caroline that was a hypocrite in believing she and her friends were better than Klaus and still got the plan to put him Rebekah’s body and bury him forever. The Caroline that when Klaus saved her in the corridor she still toasted over his demise later on the same day. The Caroline that Silas saw how she wanted her perfect feathers ruffled. The Caroline that screwed Klaus despite him having murdered Jenna and Carol Lockwood, and Elena and having tortured all her friends. The man that despite doing all that and sending her boyfriend to exile she still wanted and was still attracted to him. Because she couldn’t underestimate the allure of darkness no matter how much she tried. Because it was a part of her too with or without Klaus.

That Caroline that for me was never a good person. It is just too simplistic to claim that she was. 

3. Sometimes sexual desire and connection is not translated by good actions. You don’t have to be a good person to feel lust for someone. To be infatuated. To be tempted. 

Sometimes it is physical. Sometimes it is intellectual. It doesn’t have to be love. It can be desire. Some times you can desire assholes too. It is instinct.

Do Klaus and Caroline love each other in my story? No. Not yet. Don’t know about the future.

Do they have the hots for each other and want to bone each other? Yes. Definitely.

And if we are being honest ...did that desire came out of nowhere? 

I don’t know ...didn’t it came out of the blue in the show too?

Here in my story the slow burn has been building up for more than 200.000 words. Maybe you feel I failed on communicating that correctly. Maybe I did. But I wouldn’t say that desire is always reasonable or gets there in a straight line step by step.

This is still a story based on the trope of enemies to lovers so of course those two are enemies now. Maybe you don’t approve or like that stage or makes no sense to you. But some times enemies can have desire for each other even without reason. If that isn’t a trope for you I digress.

Even in TVD though Caroline was never head over heels for Klaus. She covered her darkest desires and their connection with hostility. She always had walls up. She had put herself on a pedestal against him despite her own terrible actions and her own darkness she still wanted the villain. She was still at the beginning of the journey that give or take 1000 years would turn her into Klaus’ door as she by them she wouldn’t be that different from him. 

4. Is Klaus dragging Caroline to darkness in my story? Yes. In her own darkness that was already there to begin with all the potential. In the same way in TVD he was an Original and she was a baby vampire and he saw in her parts of himself. “We are the same Caroline”. “The allure of darkness.” “The darkness desires.” and so on. Klaus that in TVD his version of mercy and kindness also equaled darkness and pain.

So those are things that inspired me to write my story so here we are. Caroline is unlocking emotions in Klaus. Emotions that he never had before and he doesn’t know how to deal with or what they mean and gets destructive and confused because of them. While he still basically worships the ground Caroline walks on while he also still plays his fucked up mind games. In the same way Caroline is finding freedom in the darkness he opens up in her too and still wants to bring him down.

5. In the same way love can’t change a person fundamentally but show the best and worst versions of one’s character which is something that applies for Klaus in my story then in the same way the same counts for Caroline.

Her agency won’t be forgotten. She is not all of the sudden going to forget her plans and her desire for freedom because she feels desire or even love for a man. It doesn’t work that way. And she won’t be simply good, the vanilla version of good or simply evil or pulled to darkness. There is going to be a struggle of what she feels. Both for Klaus and for herself. That won’t change. It won’t be sacrificed in my story.

Caroline for Caroline comes first. Klaroline comes second. At this point I would even debate that comes third after her family too. 

Caroline won’t change to a doormat for any man. Not in my story. Not simply because I ship Klaroline.

If that makes her unlikable. Then so be it. If it makes her selfish then good.

If this is somehow lost in translation for you I get it. Maybe I didn’t write it as clearly as I could. 

But if you want to get a better feel of who Caroline is through the Klaroline ship in my story and her connection to Klaus and all her reactions to him and the ship in general then I am afraid you’ve lost the meaning of my story. You won’t be able to get who Caroline is only through shipping goggles here. I am not writing her like this despite this being a Klaroline fanfiction. 

And of course she is confused btw and not certain for things and is still building up her character through mistakes and uncertainty. Her age, her background and her current situation add to that. 

6. Disclaimer:  If anyone is expecting anything similar to what I have seen from TO in gifs (I didn’t bother watching those seens) regarding Klaroline then ...NO. I don’t know how more forward I can be with this. I cringed beyond belief by what TO had shown for Klaroline from what I saw here in tumblr. I double tripled cringed by any gifs I have see from TVD after S4 when it came to Caroline (O_O) and there is no level of cringe that can describe how I felt when it came to TO in general. So if anyone is expecting that or is basing their opinion of what they see in my story over THAT perspective...then I get it...yeah..my story will most definitely disappoint you. No questions asked about that.

And last but not least.

I get what you are saying about the long descriptions and not as much dialogue in my story but then again I am afraid that’s my writing style here. I won’t change that anytime soon.

Let me be honest here by saying that IF I was publishing this as a book I would probably be trying to contain the long winded texts more, to make a better pace and so on. The descriptions would still be longer than the dialogue though. Because that’s my style. That been said this is still fanfiction and I am writing it in order to have fun so this is me having fun. Letting go and even writing all this writing vomit lol...I get it. It is not always easy to read. It can be tiresome and jarring. But that’s how I write and I do feel that my writing is not for everyone. I am not saying you are wrong in your criticism here. Objectively you are right. I recognize that too. But it is what I like and feel inclined to write so...yeah.

Anyhow. This is my long winded answer too (see? That’s HOW I WRITE lol...if it is not dissertation what’s the point ha ha)...I hope I’ll get more reviews from you and thank you for your compliments in those reviews too. I am always open for more discussions of this sort either you are on guest or not.

Thank you and take care.

[mysterylover123]

BNHA Rewatch: Two Heroes

mysterylover123

And before we start Season 3, one more road stop: The Big Freaking Movie, Two Heroes, last year’s surprise anime blockbuster and HeroAca’s first excursion onto the big screen. Time to share my thoughts and rewatch this very entertaining film!

We open with bald eagles, deserts, and cowpoke themes, to make sure we know we’re in America. We fly into “California” which looks more like Las Vegas (not really complaining, I loooove that they picked my hometown state for this) to find young, white schlera eye-having All Might and his hunky bro David Shield kicking ass and taking names. My state’s name, to be precise. 

Some exposition follows, basically recapping the premise of HeroAca, as I’m reminded of what a stroke of genius Hori had when he decided to make the MC an easy expositor thanks to his geeky knowledge of all things Hero. Deku will always be Captain Exposition.

Melissa! She’s fun and adorable and amazing, and I just love that the first HeroAca movie chooses to focus on a geeky, kind and energetic lady. 

Deku looking back and forth between Melissa’s breasts and All Might’s crotch belt is peak Bi energy.

I’m so jealous that Melissa gets to touch Deku’s hand.

Melissa describing All Might as someone David ‘loves’ is just throwing away all pretence of his heterosexuality, if it ever existed. How the hell did this guy end up with a kid?

Deku blushing around and enthusing over both Melissa and David is max bi energy.

Uraraka’s Annoying Crush Counter: 5

But I’m glad the girls are here! The Bones animators clearly know well what the fanbase wants to see, choosing to give all 6 class 1-A girls at least a cameo in the film, and three of them involved in the main plot. I especially love that, despite being initially pitted against each other, Uraraka and Melissa develop a bit of a womance in the film. OchaLissa ship!

My one major regret about this film is that Mineta is included in the Main Cast. I wish either Mina or Tsuyu had come along for the ride instead - one, they’re better, more lovable characters who could do the same job he does, and two, then we’d have a nearly gender-even cast! (6 Boys: Deku, Katsuki, Tenya, Shoto, Kiri, Kaminari; 5 Girls: Ochaco, Momo, Jiro, Melissa, Mina or Tsu). 

Kacchan makes his appearance! This bit was leaked online before the film’s release and drew quite a lot of ire from BKDK shippers and Bakugo fans. I’m mostly annoyed that Deku is acting OOC here; this is Post-Final Exam Deku, post Hero Killer Deku. Would the guy who punched All Might in the face and Bakugo in the face and the Hero Killer in the face be cowering in fear behind Iida, the guy whose life he saved, from the guy he, only a few weeks ago, punched in the face?! Badass Deku Rights!

Ooh a wild Todobaku moment! I always love when they bicker. Or rather, Katsuki bickers and Shoto ignores him.

OH NO you cannot slap me with the Ingenium OST theme and hardcore feels out of nowhere! God this scene is heartbreaking. I love, however, the cut to the whole of Class 1-A and Melissa when they talk about the future.

AH Bakugo’s feet! Why are we staring up his crotch? So this movie has a lot of KiriBaku scenes, and I should probably talk about them a little, since their friendship is a big deal in S3. They’re the only major HeroAca ship I’ve never shipped as a romantic pairing, per se. Like, in this scene, I see Kiri as Katsuki’s wingman, his bro, the guy who teases him about his obvious feelings from someone, not as the guy he has feelings for.

And for Kiri’s sake, I kinda dislike making him basically Bakugo’s sidekick. He willingly hangs out with the guy, when he wants to, in canon, he doesn’t follow him around and become the butt of the joke, and he has lots of other relationships in canon to draw from, so this dynamic between them doesn’t appeal to me.

Melissa being a quirkless kid like Deku is a great idea for the film, especially since she and David still find a way to help others. They’re a brighter image of the person Izuku could have been. 

Full Gauntlet is pretty cool

Everyone dresses up pretty! The movie suits/dresses are awesome and (almost) everyone looks great. Why Deku is wearing a baggy zoot-suity mess is beyond me, but hey, he sheds it pretty quickly so I’m not complaining. 

If by ‘female assassin’ you mean Beauty Queen. Jiro is gorgeous.

OK the plot ensues! Darn, I could’ve easily enjoyed a movie that was just everyone hanging out and goofing off...ah well, I still love what we got.

This villain does what neither Tomura nor All for One could ever do! Subdue All Might! My god he’s a criminal mastermind!

Deku wants to help, and everyone but Shoto basically piles on the bandwagon afterwards. “And me!” “And me!” “Me too!” “And Me” “Nobody cares Mineta.” I like how they bring up the Powers dilemma, since that’s a big deal in Season 3.

I was pretty impressed by the amount of level grinding our heroes had to do to make it to the top floor. 200 freaking floors, that’s impressive.

Todoroki saved Bakugo! Yay! BTW I love all the tactical planning stuff in this portion, and how lots of characters get to contribute.

10 little superheroes, trying to save the day. Two got lost and then there were eight.

8 little superheroes, escaping from the garden. One saved the others and then there were seven.

7 little superheroes running against the sea, four were trapped by robots and then there were three. (i don’t count mineta). 

Three little superheroes, reached the top and flew; one had to float them so then there were two. (she’s fine, Bakugo saved her. Save to win!)

Two little superheroes, faced with a gun. One fell out the window and then there was - never mind, she saved him, he’s fine.

That was fun. Anyway, to sum, the group gets split up as they work to get to the top, leaving only Deku and Melissa to reach the final boss dungeon. Highlights include the usual Kamijiro bantering, Todobaku making an awesome combat move, Uraraka standing against the coming onslaught of robots in a weirdly dramatic scene, and Reciproburst.

Dislikes include Kirishima being portrayed as not much use and kind of stupid (c’mon, he can do better than that!) and Uraraka not getting to kick any real ass other than floating Melissa and Deku. 

So we make it to Dramatic Plot Twist Tower and find out that David set up the whole thing. I joke, but I actually didn’t see this coming the first time around and was genuinely surprised. I also think it fits really well with the story they’re telling here: about trying to hold onto the past and forgetting to look to the future. I usually measure good plot twists in terms of how they change the story, characters and themes, and this one does.

On the other hand, Sam betraying him is just kind of silly. “Oh no, not...that guy!”

The villain being named Wolfram makes me wonder if there are any secret Buffyverse fans on Bones’ writing staff. With the next movie’s villain be named Hart?

I love how Melissa is a quirkless character who gets to save the day every bit as much as the powered ones. Also, Deku is freaking awesome in this scene, ngl. It has vibes of his fight with Muscular, that “pinned by an unstoppable wall” thing.

And this has vibes of Deku vs Overhaul trying to save Eri. OMG S4 IS GONNA KILL ME. Anyway Deku tries really really hard to save David Shield and does lots of cool leaps and gets beaten up while doing it, enough to earn some of Wolfram’s respect, but is unable to. Fortunately...

Watashi Ga Kita!

But then...duh duh duh! Wolfram has that power-enhancer-plot MacGuffin! Actually, it’s not a MacGuffin now, because now we the audience kind of care about it. It has weight, it’s significant. The characters care about it, but there’s more to it than just being an interchangeable object.

I LOVE how they animated the metal on this guy. That’s Metalbending. OMG. 

Class 1-A showing up and kicking ass as always. I just wanna quibble for a second with how this movie uses Howitzer Impact: a giant mind-blowing explosion in manga canon, a small underwhelming fizzle here.

DUH DUH DUH DRAMATIC PLOT TWIST. Again this one floored me the first time around. My jaw actually dropped when AFO’s theme started playing. Holy crap WHAH How what how. I’m not as excited about this plot twist, as it basically just happens for the sake of being shocking, but hey, that is clearly something AFO would do, and I like seeing him and hearing his theme here anyway, so who cares. Just roll with it!

And now, the reason this movie was made and the premise behind it. We never, in the canon of the manga, actually get to see All Might and Deku fight the same villain at the same time, so the movie I think was made for that purpose: DOUBLE DELAWARE DETROIT SMASH + YSR

OH YOU SAY RUN. You could soundtrack a scene of people sitting around staring at the wall and turn it into the most epic thing ever. I will never get tired of this beautiful, peerless, impossibly good composition. And this is honestly one of my favorite YSR scenes, because dayum, you can’t get much cooler than the Double DD smash. 

Visual storytelling here is on point. David Shield’s image of All Might turning into Deku is perfect.

We end on a sunrise, fittingly, and Long Hope Philia sountracked credits - with a small bit of depressing to end on, as we see David is probably gonna get arrested and All Might can’t do nothing about it.

Two Heroes is great. My quibbles with it are all minor. It’s the perfect first movie for BNHA; it is big and bombastic and action-packed, but more important, it gets what MHA is about at it’s core. BNHA is a story about the prior generation of heroes (and villains) passing the torch down to the next one. You know, like how teachers pass info onto their students in Academia. The movie gets that, and it delivers it with aplomb. It’s a great script, every scene and moment is necessary and everything happens in the right place and right order. It’s a thrill to watch, and I can’t even begin to imagine what insane stuff they’re gonna put in Movie #2 BKDK Boogaloo. Starting S3 tomorrow!

BKDK CORNER:

On a rewatch, I’m a little more OK with this scene, because Deku pretty quickly bucks up and takes the challenge - and he doesn’t exactly cower from Kacchan, Iida just gets in the way. I also love that gay sounding “Kacchan, people are watching!” line in the sub. 

All of Deku’s Love interests where white flowers on their fancy wear.

NGL this is my favorite part of the movie. That is the sweetest, softest, most endearing smile Bakugo has ever had, and Todoroki seeing it and smirking is just perfect. Baku is peak Tsundere in this scene.

RANKER: The Formal Wear

Girls:

4. Momo - I like the tiara, and the dress is kind of a nice color.

3. Melissa - pretty but a little birthday cake-y.

2. Ochaco - Very cute and well-tailored. The tights really sell it.

1. Jiro - unconventional is the winner of the day here.

Boys:

6. Izuku - Deku where the f did you get that suit? Take it off, please. Why is your taste in clothing so bad.

5. Kirishima - it’s ok, but a little generic.

4. Kaminari - the waiter look isn’t half bad on him

3. Iida - sharp dressed, of course. It looks nice!

2. Todoroki - perfectly handsome, and of course his suit is white.

1. Bakugo - that vest tho. damn. 

[stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale]

I want to make a big post in regards to the survey I put out yesterday and talk about the future of this blog, as well as talk about [with you], my other writings and future posts. 

This post is massive, but I want to be thorough about everything I put in the survey and the responses it got. 

Before I start, I just want to say another thank you to everyone who has been supportive of me and this blog, and to everyone who took the time to take the survey and leave me feedback. 

Except for the 3 people [which I’m not even convinced is 3 separate people tbh] who answered NO on every single question and the proceeded to write paragraphs about how my blog and writings are awful. I’m convinced this is the anon[s] who has actively sent me hate for the past few months based on the style the paragraphs were written. I know it’s you, hate anon[s], and your answers and votes have been completely scrapped. 

Anyway, with that out of the way, I do want to add that the survey will be up for the rest of the week in case anyone still wants to take it. I’ll check it every night and close it after this Sunday.  

Let’s get into this. 

I want to start by prefacing that I understand this is MY blog and I can post whatever I want. 

If I wanted to do character nights every night of the week or spend an entire day posting the same picture of Omar with stew on his face with the caption “Omar’s daily skincare routine”, then I could. 

I won’t, but I could. 

That being said, while there are things that I want to do or have thought about doing, I don’t want to do them if no one wants it. It would be a waste of time to do it anyway and then have no one read or appreciate it. That’s a big reason for this- to get a feel for what I want to do but also know what you want to see. 

This was the first thing I wanted to confirm everyone was on board with. I LOVE doing these character and ship nights and I want to keep doing them every weekend! I get so many great responses [hell, most nights I get more responses than I can answer in a single night!] and have a blast talking about them! 

So, you can imagine how happy I was to see that 92% of the answers were YES. The 8% who said NO included the 3 hate responses, but also 2 random NO’s that I was curious about. When I made the survey, I thought about adding a WHY after every question but didn’t because I wanted it to be quick. 

We’ll continue to do character nights every Saturday and ship nights every Sunday. 

We’ve only got three more Ericson kids to do for the character nights, and then we’ll spread out and do some characters from the other seasons. One thing that popped up frequently in the final response at the end of the survey was more attention to the other seasons, which is exciting! S4 may be my favorite season of the series, but that doesn’t mean I don’t love the other seasons and it’s characters. 

I mean, c’mon, it’d be a SIN to not have a Lee night, right? 

We still have plenty of ships to get through for s4, but when we eventually get through all of those, I’ll draw in other ships from the other games. 

This one is important to me. 

As far as my list of projects and future posts go, this one is the oldest. I’ve collected one-shots and multi-chapter fics and put them on my TBR list since ep2 was released. 

Initially, I thought I was going to read all of them, then make a master list of my favorites with little mini-reviews. And then my list grew past 40 fics. Every time I would look at it, I’d say, “That’s a lot, I do it later lol.” 

And then I got fed up and said, “Y’know what? Why am I making this harder for myself? Just take it 3-5 fics at a time and give them the focus and appreciation they deserve!”

So I did. 

And if felt good to finally do it. 

If any of you out there within this community haven’t ever written fanfiction, maybe you don’t like to and you’d rather just read it or you don’t have any ideas or whatever the reason may be, then you might not know [or fully understand] this: 

Writing is hard. 

It’s fun and worth it, but it is so damn hard. 

And writer’s need to be appreciated for all the hard work and time they put into these stories.

This isn’t me calling out people for reading and not reviewing. Everyone has their reason for not reviewing a fic: They didn’t like it, they don’t know what to say, they loved it but can’t express how much they love it, they don’t think about it, they left kudos or likes and that’s enough- whatever! It’s all valid. 

You as the reader don’t have to review things.

I’m just saying that reviews, when given by those who are comfortable doing so, are appreciated, are a great way to boost a writer’s confidence in their work, and let the writer know that they’re creating something good. 

As a writer myself, reviews are something I cherish. I don’t care if it’s a review that says “Love it!” or “Can’t wait for more!” or if it’s a long paragraph. ALL of it is important to me. Every kudos or like is important to me. 

As a writer, I know that one review can make or break your spirit for writing. 

I am more than comfortable leaving long reviews, both on the story itself and on these posts I’ve started creating. I want these writers to know that they are so damn talented and we appreciate them and their work.

The mindset I go into when reading and reviewing these stories is “As a writer, what’s a review that I could only ever DREAM of receiving? What’s a review that would make me want to keep writing and better myself?” 

Then I do my best to give them that review that they deserve. 

Because you never know. What if this review inspires one of these writers and then they write the most beautiful story this fandom’s ever seen? 

What if this writer was having a shitty day, or week, or month, and this review made them feel better?

What if this writer felt they weren’t good enough and was on the edge of never writing another story despite their talent and this review made them rethink that decision? 

And if I have a chance at giving them that review? I’m going to take it. 

It’s worth it. 

THIS is the kind of positivity I want to share on this blog. 

Even if I have to do it 3 stories at a time, I will continue to make these appreciation posts, and based on the 92% of YES’s on the survey, you guys want more of them which I’m grateful. 

Much like the fanfic appreciation posts, this one has been on my mind for a long time. 

Like most of you, I’ve spent years plaything these games and watching Clementine grow. Seeing her story come to its conclusion [after the very real possibility that it wouldn’t] was emotional on every level, and it continues to be emotional every time I replay the series.

If there’s one thing that I LOVE to discuss and read about, it’s how different everyone’s Clementine is. 

None of them are the same. Sure, there are things about her that we can’t change [her race and sexuality] but as far as parts of her personality, how she interacts with others, who she falls in love with, and how she raises AJ is in our hands and how we want to shape her. 

Even when we’re not playing as her our choices affect her character. 

I’ve wanted to sit down and replay the entire series all over again, focus on Clementine, take even more notes, and then write a post of how MY Clementine grew throughout the series. 

Like I said, ALL of our Clementine’s are different. I want to make this post and then see how different YOUR Clementine is compared to mine. 

I want you to read the post and say “Wait, what? That’s not what my Clementine felt or did, she [blank]” because think of the possibilities for discussion that would open up? 

Honestly, I could spend hours talking about Clementine and the effects my choices had on her. 

So, yes, this is one that I will be doing. It won’t be done right away since I’m waiting for the Definitive series to release so that I can play that version. Not only that, but it’s not like I can beat the whole thing in a couple hours. This post will take weeks to prepare and I truly can’t wait. 

I’m super excited about this one! And based on the 95% of people who said YES, y’all are excited, too! 

This one was the most, um.... “controversial”?

That might be the right word, haha. That makes it sound TOO serious. 

I actually added a [+other characters] to this question because I was trying to get across that I wanted to do character studies in general with Louis as an example, whether it be an analysis post OR a character study one-shot, like what I did with Mitch and [gross feelings]. 

However, I’m dumb and was in a hurry, so I slapped down Louis’ name and that point was COMPLETELY lost when I posted this question and that’s 100% my fault. 

I should’ve worded it: Would you be interested in character STORIES/STUDIES of Louis AND the other Ericson kids?

I guess I could go on there NOW and fix is but................ would it matter? 

I got a few comments about this one, each with the same worry about it. I won’t directly mention it here, but I want you to know that I’ve read through them carefully and I completely understand where you’re coming from. 

What I can share is basically summed up in this one sentence [which I hope this person doesn’t mind me using]:  “I think your ship posts and fanfics are better for the blog because Character studies I feel like crosses over into some other blogs and it might ruin what they have going for them since you kind of do everything?”

Fair enough. 

However, I still want to do them, just... a little differently. 

The more and more I thought about it, I think it might be fun to do more stories like [gross feelings] where it’s character-centric, told from only their POV, and delves into their feelings towards a certain topic. 

[gross feelings]: Mitch-centric, focuses on his views of romance, how conflicted he is upon realizing he has feelings for James, and how Clementine and Louis’ relationship impacted his views. 

It’s not a character study in the sense that I’m sitting down and writing down every single thing I know about him with my observations and theories about his character. It’s a story that dives into his mind.

For Louis, what if I wrote a fic based in the week after Marlon’s death and they’re preparing for the delta? Completely his POV and focuses on his conflicting feelings on Marlon, AJ, and Clementine? It’d still be a character study but within an actual story. 

Or after Clementine comes back on the brink of death and missing a leg?

Or, hell, if I want to make myself sad, I could do one based on when he loses his tongue. 

That’s more along the lines I was thinking and just worded it badly in the question I put out. In my head, it made sense so I get where those comments were coming from. Y’all are gonna have to give me feedback on if you think that’s a better direction because I think it is. 

This one I thought could be fun.

In case you don’t know, another thing that I love to discuss is changes I [and everyone else] would make to certain seasons to improve the overall story. 

For example, I don’t like the Stranger in s1 and think Jolene should’ve been the one to kidnap Clementine. 

That’s a huge change to the story and opens up a shit ton of possibilities.

This is something that I think could be an entertaining thing to write and read and discuss. Again, this won’t be done for a very long time, since I’ll have to wait until the Definitive series releases and then do the posts between each season as I finish them, which will take a while. 

Also!

One comment that was left was “What if we have season nights?” like we so with characters and ships. I think that is a wonderful idea! Not only would we be able to talk about the things we love, but we’d also get to share our different ideas for what could’ve improved the season! 

Hell, maybe we could have a season WEEKEND. Since there’s a lot to talk about with each season, a night might not be enough. Maybe instead of doing a character/ship that weekend, we dedicate both days to Season 1/2/3/4?

It could be fun!

I’m still iffy on this one, but I was surprised to see such a high amount of people answer YES. 

I’ve always thought about live streaming the final season, but I still don’t have a full grasp of how Mixer works [I play on xbox so I have to stream that way and Mixer is their way of doing it, I guess] nor do I own a headset or microphone to talk to you guys through. I could always do a silent stream, but really, where’s the fun in that??

Then again, do y’all really want to hear my cringy voice...? haha

It’s something that I want to do, though. 

I even went into the gaming section at Walmart yesterday to look at their headsets and just “.......What does any of this mean??” 

Sometimes I feel like an old lady who can’t quite grasp technology. 

Then again, I had a lot on my mind yesterday and that might’ve distracted me. Needless to say, I did not buy a headset. 

I want to do it, but I’m iffy still. That sums it up. 

I was nervous about asking this one. 

And I almost cried when I saw 95% of people said YES. 

Most of the negative thoughts that I’ve had lately are related to my writing. Like I mentioned above, writing is hard. I love it so much but holy shit, sometimes it fucks me up. 

I’ve gotten pretty good at sitting myself down, forcing all the negativity out of my mind, and just writing. I’ve done a lot of other things to help with writing and most of them have worked. It’s just been these past few weeks that I’ve relapsed into that negativity and self-doubt. 

I guess I just needed to know that this is something that you guys still wanted, and now I know. 

Now, I promised at the beginning of this that I would talk about [with you].

It’s been a long time since it’s been updated. I promised the final chapter a while ago and then I dealt with personal issues that prevented me from doing so. Then, when I went to finish it, I did. 

And it was shit. 

It was rushed and not everything I wanted it to be. I was writing it just to get it done, and that’s not what I’m about. I want to write something because I love it, not because I feel obligated to. 

I want to finish [with you], but I want to finish it the right way and it took me a long time to come to this conclusion. 

Here’s the part where I let you in on a secret: 

I haven’t just been rewriting Chapter 6. 

I’ve been rewriting the whole thing. 

Chapters 1-3 have been revised with extra scenes, better grammar, and better flow into each other. Chapter’s 4-5 are currently being reworked, and Chapter 6 is being written. 

Not only that, but I’ve split up these long-ass chapters so that they’re easier and less overwhelming to read through. 

I can already hear it: “CJ?? Post chapter 6 first??? then go back a revise?? it’s been six months??? why do you hate us??????????” 

Going back and “fixing” Chapters 1-5 have done nothing but improve Chapter 6 and the overall story. I’m sorry that it’s been so long that a lot have given up on it, but if I’m going to finish this, I’m going to finish it so that I’m proud of it. 

When the final chapter is finished, I’ll be “re-posting” the entire story on AO3, FF.net, Wattpad, and here. And what I mean by that is I’ll go in, edit the chapters and replace them with the new ones, as well as split them into their proper parts, and release the ending. I won’t take down or delete the stories because I want to keep the reviews they currently have. 

I’m just telling you this because right now, you’ll see this: 

Chapters: 5/6

And when it’s finished, you’ll see something like this:

Chapters: 10/10 [or something, I don’t know the exact number yet]

That’s where [with you] stands. 

Thank you to everyone who has stuck with me and this story. I hope you love it when it’s finished. 

I added this in as an opportunity to tell me what you wanted to see from me or suggest prompts for future stories. 

I’ve looked over all of them and tucked them away in my prompt folder. 

I added this as a “final thoughts” section where you could suggest other things or say something that’s on your mind. 

Again, I’ve looked over all of these several times and took them into consideration.

I also want to express a huge thank you for the amount of support I received while reading through them. 

I hate to get mushy-gushy here at the end of this long post [and kudos to you if you actually made it this far holy shit], but I love you all. 

Except you, hate anon[s]. Still iffy on you. 

Seriously, you guys make running this blog, writing fics, and replaying these games worth it. I can’t express how much y’all have helped me and I’m happy to still be here. Yeah, Clementine’s story is over but that doesn’t mean I’m over it and I’m happy to have so many people here who I can talk about this with. 

Thank you. ❤️

[nyandereneko]

*eyes emoji* free pass to gush about Saruhiko GO! (I miss K project so much)

I know I’m late answering this and I’m sorry but hopefully I can make up for it now lol

👀👀👀👀 my boy….my pride and joy……the love of my life…………I’m always so excited to encounter people that also know what k proj is since the fandom is so dead but I’m still going strong!! And it’s pretty much all thanks to him lol, thank YOU so much for asking and despite my best efforts to keep this short, knowing me things will Just Not pan out that way so I’ll put it under a readmore jic…

WHERE TO BEGIN,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,I don’t get the chance to just “gush” that often and I’m kind of bad at it because open ended things like this make me a little nervous…which isn’t a bad thing, I’m still really glad you sent it, I just always worry without any constraints I’ll just ramble on and on (admittedly like I am now) and end up getting off track so I’ll just focus on what I like about him I suppose!!

Saruhiko is kind of a bastard ghielsjfesf or definitely, no question about it, but that’s because he never learned how to properly regulate his emotions or manage relationships. I identify with him a lot because his antisocial and antagonistic demeanor and the betrayal he feels from being replaced (imagined or otherwise) really resonates with me…I’ve been replaced by people quite a bit in my lifetime and it’s lead me to have all sorts of issues with relationships and how I handle things, and I feel like we would understand that about each other and be able to read each other better as a result.

Having dealt with similar issues and understanding where they’re coming from, I like to think we’d be able to help each other from a place of experience and offer the kind of help we wish we’d had before. We’d also be able to watch out for each other, picking up on little signs and things that other people may not usually notice, but that we recognize because ofc we’ve gone through it before. He really is kind under all the pent of layers of frustration and apathy, and despite all his complaining and fussing he does a lot to help others whether he realizes it or not. 

That isn’t to say I want to excuse all the bad stuff he did and I really disagree with a lot of the lashing out and immature pettiness he exhibited, but as a kid that practically raised himself and very expressly didn’t matter to his family, he just had a lot to learn and nowhere to learn it from. As nice as H0MRA is I think joining S4 was one of the best things he ever could of done because not only did it give him an opportunity to showcase his talents and abilities (which he kind of just wants to be recognized for) but it also gave him a chance to warm up to the other Clansmen on his own terms rather than just being expected to be buddy buddy right from the get go? Forcing those kind of bonds and emotions never would have worked for him, clearly never did, and being placed in an environment where he could feel things out and still keep people at a distance if he wanted, if he needed to, allowed him to test the waters of companionship in a less pressured way I guess?

Now I’m kind of getting more into character analysis though so gheislfjes I’ll try to wrap this up with a quick list of things I love about him:

his appearance! everything about it; his hair, his eyes, in casual clothes or pjs or uniform, just GOD everything about him is so attractive I love and adore him so much T^T

his fighting skills, the way he wields both knives and swords is downright mesmerizing to me, sometimes it even looks like he’s dancing and I LIVE for shit like that!!!

his powers in general!! my SI is a blue clansmen so it’s nice that we get to share that Aura, but also I like to break canon and do all sorts of things with his Red one too…the bulk of which is just him being able to alter his body temp and stuff with it so he can make himself all warm and perfect for snuggling AND sometimes when he’s startled or flustered or whatever his Red Aura will flare up uncontrollably (like making his hands extra warm, maybe even glow red, or something along those lines…a literally burning blush lol) and it’s just cute

his humor, this bitch is so snarky and seeing him banter (especially with the Captain) is hilarious. or getting to see the other squad members trying to interact with him in a friendly manner or pull him into their shenanigans…I just love my entire Blue Fam so much!!

he’s really so smart and talented!! he’s a certified genius and even if he wasn’t he’d still probably be more impressive than me lol, but I think it’s amazing he’s been able to accomplish so much! he likes to tinker with things and improve them to his standards or specifications and he’s just a really quick thinker and I want to love and support any and all endeavors he happens to undertake!

I feel like a lot of that stuff is vague but that’s about the best I can come up with at the moment, if you want to know anything specific I’d be happy to answer any other questions you have, and thank you again for giving me the chance to do this I don’t get to talk about Saruhiko as often because no one really knows who he is ghiesljfgelgh which is fine!! But I love my darling dual Aura boy so much he’s so special to me and I just want to shower him in all the love and affection and appreciation always.