#destroys everything to have you and kill you to save the world is literally what happens with wintersberg

[crumb-crumblet-s-crumbington]

guhh... i was so depressed making the mithan one the entire time

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[dolche-tejada]

You know, I think this ending would have been slightly less of a fucking disappointment if the heroes hadn't been so unfairly favored by Horikoshi compared to the villains. I mean, seriously

Deku destroys every bone in his body multiple times throughout the story and is warned that if he continues, he'll permanently lose the use of his limbs ? Everything's fine, his body's just got used to being reduced to a bloody pulp somehow so there's no consequences for him. In fact even when he literally loses his arms to Shigaraki, he gets them back two minutes later thanks to Eri because guess what ? Her horn still works even when cut off from her body. How convenient.

Gran Torino gets his ribcage obliterated by Shigaraki ? Don't worry guys, he'll survive that despite his old age and injuries, and this to have no particular role in the plot afterwards.

Bakugo dies heroically trying to buy time before Deku arrives ? Lmao, did you really believe it ?? No of course not, Edgeshot just uses his last-minute Deus Ex Machina to save his life at the cost of his own and- Oops nope he's fine too, my bad !

Hawks murders a criminal fleeing for his life in cold-blood ? The best Hori has to offer is him completely free and in charge of the HSPC.

And no, losing his quirk isn't a real consequence for him because not only it literally played a major part in saving the world with Vestige!Hawks raising an insurrection among AFO's quirks, but also because his quirk has always been the element through which people exploited him.

Endeavor abused his family for years and completely destroyed his eldest son ? No jail time and no media backlash for that, the only blame he received was due to the heroes' failure to stop the League during the Raid Arc.

And don't even get me started on this bs about facing hell or whatever for what he's done : He's literally free and wealthy ; he has Rei, Fuyumi, Shoto, his sidekicks and Hawks on his side ; and all the difficulties he's apparently going to suffer are off-screened.

Deku had to sacrifice OFA and his future hero career to save the world ? Guess what, Bakugo invested all his time and money to make him an Iron-Man suit and now he can still be a hero with everyone else.

There are plenty more examples of this but I think you get the idea. Now let's take a look at the villains' ending :

Toya is now a piece of charcoal kept artificially alive for the few years he has left, unable to move a finger, and whose few minutes a day during which he can stay awake will be spent talking to his father who abused him as a child.

Toga, a literal teenager, killed herself to save Ochako and because she knew it's still better than rotting at Tartarus her whole life.

And not only did she die but she did by bleding to death. Let me repeat for those who have trouble grasping what I've just said : In a manga where the heroes can survive having their heart blown to bits, being impaled Kakyoin-style or smashed against buildings like a fly on a windshield, one of the main antagonists died of a fucking hemorrhage…

As for Shigaraki, after learning that his very birth and all the tragedies of his life have been orchestrated by AFO, after all this development and narrative promises about him being saved in the end... Deku just kills him.

Because despite all his speeches about saving him, it seems like the best our MC could do was beating him both physically and mentally until he crumbles to dust…

Compress on his side is apparently locked up for life and kept alive by machines too.

A begging Kurogiri tried in a desperate attempt to save Shigaraki, only to be unceremoniously blown up by Bakugo and dying off-screen without anyone giving a shit, including Aizawa and Mic.

And Spinner will now spend the rest of his life struggling with the extra quirks inside him that affect his body and mind, while having to cope with the thought that his boyfriend best friend and companions have either died alone or are locked away for life in horrifying circumstances.

Clearly not the same as with the heroes...

Now don't get me wrong, even if they suffered just as much from the consequences of their actions or the plot as the League, this ending would still be a disaster in terms of writing but AT LEAST it wouldn't reek that much of hypocrisy.

[internalloops]

DA:TV rant … if you are of the mind that BioWare can do no wrong /its games can be criticize or if you truly enjoying the game and are loving everything that you’ve seen so far this post is not for you. Please move along and if you don’t want me showing up on your feed please block me.  I will not be engaging with any fan that will not allow me to take up space and vent my feelings on the disaster that is this fucking game.

*Also a lot of spoilers!!

.. it’s horrible, like I knew I was going to be disappointed but holy fucking shit …

I’m about to finish act one and .. they destroyed their entire lore … BioWare destroyed their ENTIRE lore /world build of Dragon Age

Minrathous has NO SLAVES !!! They are briefly talked about via shadow dragons but they’re are none visible at all in the city ( but they have the animation to give a poor person “fake money” )

The qunari who literally fought and tried to kill solas in trespasser have been turned into mindless brutes who willingly joined the evil gods … because they command dragons ?

The blight except for one mission is harmless. They purposely turned it into a bio weapon and then (besides the dark spawn spawning from it like something out of an MMO) due to *plot armor, no one actually contracts the blight ???

The black chantry minus one building that you go through in a side quest doesn’t exist? No chantry members , no talk of the black divine ..

Dalish are all engineers now and part of the veil jumpers ( which should not exist lore wise) and all elven magic has been converted into cyberpunk technology and artifacts. Very little talk about their oppression and they are all very willing to drop all their history , even their distrust of solas , to flight the old gods .

Varric Has been demoted to inspirational speaker and narrator he has no other role and the entire team acts like he died , even when he’s in the room with him ( I think BioWare actually planned to kill him but then chickened out ) and is a husk of his former self

Same with Morgan , you can’t interact with her at all and she’s given the same mysterious background as flemeth ( the theory that she carries mythal spirit is very strong right now )

Lyrim potions don’t exist, in fact lyrim doesn’t exist at all besides the dagger. All magic has turned into technology, and if you play as a mage mana just has an automatic replenish rate /cool down effect that you can level up.

Evil gods go back and forth between an actual intense adversary and threat to the world, and a typical Disney villain.

These are just the few I can think of off the top of my head, there is so much more than this …

The game can literally be summed up as Mass effect andromeda x2 with God of war animations and marvel style writing ( not the avengers I’m talking about the recent shit)

Also for the people who want to kill solas or simply dislike him, the game pushes a sympathetic view of him on you ,even your companions who outrightly want to kill him will feel sorry for him. And I’m saying this as a solavellan fan. Yes they’re options to be mean to him and antagonize him, but you won’t get anyone agreeing with your actions ,at best they’ll be neutral about it. Now this might play out differently for those who picked the “chooses to stop him “ option , but for those who’s inquisitions wanted to save him but they wanted their rooks to hate him … you’re not gonna be happy about what you get ..

The only thing that keeping me playing is the reveal of history of ancient elves and Titans and solas’s story. And Assan!! Assan can do no wrong !! Everything else is a slog to get through.

[chickren]

hiii, could you elaborate on jaime's relationship with tywin in the books? and how tywin's introduction in the show diverges from that? 🥺👉👈

lol because that scene never happens in the books?

because nothing like it really happens in the books?

lmao, because, the first time we see any real sign of tywin and jaime’s relationship it’s tywin saying ‘tyrion, why do you suck while jaime is a god?’

it’s such a disservice to tyrion and cersei to pretend that jaime doesn’t have tywin’s approval, or perhaps even admiration.

unlike that weird season 1 deer scene, in the books tywin doesn’t blame jaime for being in the kingsguard. that’s aerys’s fault as far as tywin knows. after all, if tywin himself couldn’t prevent it, how could jaime? (sure we know better, but tywin doesn’t.)

and do you think tywin isn’t proud of jaime for killing aerys? do you think tywin wasn’t thinking ‘that’s my boy’ after the sack of king’s landing? that shit was right in tywin’s wheelhouse.

and then there’s the one interaction we see between jaime and tywin. jaime walks in knowing what he’s facing with twyin vs tyrion. that’s because jaime has always had tywin’s number in a way cersei and tyrion never did. why? because jaime has seen what tywin is capable of and he doesn’t like it. jaime quite literally takes tyrion’s kidnapping in agot into his own hands because he doesn’t trust tywin to look out for tyrion. as he’s on his way back to king’s landing in asos he thinks about just what he’s actually worth to his father and how much that calculation has taken a hit now that he’s short a hand.

so when tywin asks jaime to give up the kingsguard, does jaime hang his head and scuff his toe like his show counterpart? lmao. this is the difference in privilege between jaime and his siblings. jaime immediately says: noooo. and means it. not only means it, but from that moment starts plotting against tywin and cersei to save tyrion.

we see this reinforced when cersei begs jaime to save her from tywin’s machinations to marry her off again and he’s like, lol, tell that bitch no. to jaime it’s a very simple, very accomplishable thing if you don’t give a shit about tywin’s disapproval.

because jaime’s been walking away from tywin since he was a kid.

the only moment jaime even wavers in that interaction with his dad is when tywin disowns him. lol and that is not about approval. it’s because all jaime wants in the world is love, and up to this point love was a thing that existed exclusively in the realm of his family.

and lest there be any doubt, i ask you, who breaks first? the last real thing jaime hears from his father is a message sent through kevan. a peace offering, in the form of oathkeeper. here it is, son, the valyrian steel i’ve been trying to reclaim for the fam for years. it’s yours. you’re my boy.

and what does jaime do with tywin’s sword? lmao. i ask you. what does jaime do with tywin’s sword?

see, book!jaime’s story with tywin is not about tywin’s disapproval of jaime. it’s about jaime’s disapproval of tywin. it’s embedded in his chapters. it’s embedded in his character. everything about jaime’s latent lust for honor is a repudiation of twyin’s ethos.

he disapproves of tywin’s use of gregor clegane and amory lorch. he disapproves of tywin’s orders to kill aegon and rhaenys. any lack of understanding of tywin’s nature is destroyed by the tysha incident, which appalls jaime.

he isn’t looking for tywin’s approval. all he ever wanted was tywin’s love.

all of this is reinforced in feast. it’s everywhere in jaime’s vigil for tywin as he tries to do his duty but can’t cough up a single tear and even chucks the appearance of grief out the window when his living breathing son, who he definitely feels late breaking affection for, needs him. it’s when he looks around the realm and goes oh shit, this would have been tywin’s problem but now it’s mine and uses tywin’s reputation to accomplish his goals without actually employing tywin’s monstrous ruthlessness.

but mostly we know the whole show concept that jaime’s just always been trying to earn tywin’s approval is bullshit as far as book!jaime is concerned, because we’ve read jaime’s chapters and we know the truth.

it’s joanna’s disapproval that literally haunts jaime. not tywin’s.

[maenefa]

This kind of Denethor discourse is so frustrating to me that I am literally pacing back and forth like a panther in a zoo enclosure. Ugggggggghhhhh

A lot of people will tell you that the moral of The Lord of the Rings is “never lose hope,” and that Denethor is bad because he loses hope.

Please read THIS and THIS and especially THIS, which is one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking meditations on LotR you’ll ever read. Tolkien’s ideas about hope are so much more radical than “hope good despair bad.”

Denethor—Tolkien’s Denethor, not Peter Jackson’s Denethor—is unsettling because he tries to hope, but his hope isn’t strong enough to save him. Here are his thoughts on hope, just a few days before his death:

The time will not be long. In what is left, let all who fight the Enemy in their fashion be at one, and keep hope while they may, and after hope still the hardihood to die free.

Denethor has a more “realist” worldview than Gandalf or Faramir, but he’s not a nihilist. He’s still hanging onto hope even though he’s grieving Boromir and he’s positive that Frodo is going to be captured by Sauron. He only breaks when Faramir is mortally wounded and he sees the black ships in the palantir. And I don’t mean he gives up, I mean his mind snaps:

And as [Pippin] watched, it seemed to him that Denethor grew old before his eyes, as if something had snapped in his proud will, and his stern mind was overthrown.

Tolkien repeatedly uses language like “madness,” “madman,” “he is not himself” and “his mind was overthrown.” It’s not subtle!

Denethor is having a psychotic episode. His culpability is reduced, either partially or totally; we can’t know for certain. But I don’t think that everything he says and does in his last moments is “the real Denethor.”

We can do our best and try to have hope, but sometimes life crushes us. How are we supposed to live with the knowledge that this can happen?

Tolkien was haunted by the idea of heroes who fail, heroes who are crushed by their burdens:

Frodo indeed 'failed' as a hero, as conceived by simple minds: he did not endure to the end; he gave in, ratted. (Letter 246)

….I think it can be observed in history and experience that some individuals seem to be placed in 'sacrificial' positions: situations or tasks that for perfection of solution demand powers beyond their utmost limits, even beyond all possible limits for an incarnate creature in a physical world – in which a body may be destroyed, or so maimed that it affects the mind and will. Judgement upon any such case should then depend on the motives and disposition with which he started out, and should weigh his actions against the utmost possibility of his powers, all along the road to whatever proved the breaking-point. (Letter 246)

Tolkien himself tended to judge Denethor harshly, but the character fits very well into the same template as Frodo: a “sacrificial” person who is pushed beyond his limits. The palantir aged him and weakened his mental health, but what truly pushed him over the edge was the wounding of Faramir: Tolkien says that Denethor “maintained the integrity of his personality until the final blow of the (apparently) mortal wound of his only surviving son.”

It’s easy to judge Denethor for using the palantir (although Tolkien said that he had the right to use it and Gandalf admitted that the palantir’s knowledge had often proved useful!) but what should Denethor have done differently regarding sending Faramir into battle? We know that the defense of Osgiliath was necessary because Tolkien had the Rohirrim arrive at the exact moment the Witch King is about to ride through the gate of Minas Tirith. If Faramir hadn’t delayed Mordor’s army, the Rohirrim would have showed up to a conquered city.

Denethor believed that it was necessary to send Faramir to Osgiliath… and he was right! But the pain of being responsible for Faramir’s death was too great for him to bear. You can say that his craving for information killed him, but it’s just as accurate to say that his love for Faramir killed him.

Gandalf tells Denethor’s servants that they were “caught in a net of warring duties,” and this is also true of Denethor. His duty as a father conflicts with his duty as the leader of Gondor, and the strain destroys him.

It may be true that Denethor’s need for control is a character flaw, but I wonder about his final use of the palantir. His son appears to be dying: why does he leave his side to go look in the palantir? I actually think this was a hopeful act: Denethor was hoping to see the Rohirrim, or some kind of good news about the war, some indication that Faramir’s death would not be in vain. But the palantir shows him that he sent his son to die for nothing.

It’s the tragedy of Denethor lamenting “I sent my son forth, unthanked, unblessed, out into needless peril” and dying before he can learn that the battle wasn’t needless… you can’t reduce this tragedy to a morality play!

Okay, I can’t deny that the palantir is a very topical analogy for the internet/smartphones/the tyranny of “data” in general.

But Denethor is so much more than a blackpilled internet doomer, and I will defend him forever.

[autumnbrambleagain]

everyone jokes about how they'd be different if they were a vampire wizard immortal they wouldn't lose track of mortal life they'd be So Normal About It but in playing a single morrowind save for like a year now with a ton of mods im experiencing the strange growth of my characterization in it from powerless outsider with no home to wizard to becoming increasingly strange to maintain power and like

okay see i can just. you can't teleport infinitely but my alteration and vampire Jumps are so good i can just literally launch off and land anywhere in the world. space no longer matters to me. a 10 minute walk is now a 10 second jump.

vampirism means i'm immune to normal weapons and my stats are so dang high i can just stand there and even with MDMD and the 4nm PVP mod most things can't really hit me or hurt me and i have 100 ways to kill anything at will. i have so many limiting mods on to keep me from going Broken but i still have destruction 130 strength 140 stealth 150 and like it took me like a real life year of playing on and off to get that far so it feels Earned and there was a real sense of progression (excluding the vampire boost jump) but it's made me Strange power makes you Weird

and having such absolutely drunken insane power over mortal life really fucks with me doing the main quest for the first time in a decade where like

the erabenimsum are like "you'll... have to kill the warlike leaders of our tribe. we warn you they are very powerful" and i'm just like. what. you guys were my neighbors for a year at this point i could have just killed a bunch of you and changed your society in 30 seconds and you'd have let me yeah ok. hold on. brb. and i just kind of pop in and explode everyone and come back like yeah that was easy no worries.

and like i started this game deeply immersed, like taking everything slow eating different foods every day to satisfy my ashfall meters doing paintings of places i liked hanging out fishing and now i'm just this vampire Force of Will teleporting and flying and destroying things with a black-eyed glance and i'm playing with doors of oblivion and finding there is such a Bigger World out there like

i think the actual natural progression of this character is complete disassociation with the world and graduation from like ALL of this this fucker is piercing the Aurbis and just Leaving which you know is like

a distressingly resonant thematic with my own experiences and that i am playing this character as my 1:1 self insert like haha yeahthat. that. that hits a lot closer to home than i wanted it to. as above so below no matter how many onion layers huh.

[darth-jess]

Anidala rant

Alright I really don't understand people saying that Anakin didn't actually love Padmé, he was just obsessive and then used her as an excuse to get more power.

First off, love in general is just a tad bit obsessive okay? I'm a bit obsessed with my husband, I love him, he's amazing. You have to be a little obsessive to have the courage to bear your heart and soul to someone who you are absolutely NOT supposed to be with. Also, can we talk about the fact that after Padmé "rejected" him he totally backed down? I mean he still loved her, but he wasn't going to push it anymore until she admitted that she loved him too.

Also…ANAKIN LITERALLY SACRIFICES HIS SOUL because he can't bear the thought of living without her. If it isn't clear enough in the movies (it is crystal clear) then the Revenge of the Sith novelization makes it even more so. He is genuinely horrified when he discovers that his friend, the Chancellor has been a Sith Lord this whole time, and multiple times he wishes Obi-wan was there with him because Anakin is so confused and has no idea what to do. And the ONLY reason he goes back to "save" Palpatine is because he can't let Palpatine die without learning how to save Padmé.

EVEN WHEN MACE IS FIGHTING PALPATINE Anakin wants Palpatine to BE ARRESTED. The only time Anakin moves against Mace Windu is when Mace is about to kill Palpatine, who has convinced Anakin that he is the only one who has the knowledge to save Padmé.

His turning to the Dark Side has nothing to do with power, and solely to do with wanting to save his wife from certain death. Dude was literally about to leave the Jedi Order, and he honestly didn't care anymore about being granted the rank of Master. The only reason he NEEDED the rank so badly is because he wanted to look up stuff in the Jedi archives ways he could possibly save Padmé, but only Jedi Masters were able to access some of these files. Add in the fact that his nightmares had made it impossible for him to sleep for literal days (weeks?) before the battle in the Chancellor's office.

Even when he's choking her on Mustafar, it's not because he never loved her, it's because he is in so much pain. All he sees is that the woman he loves most in the world, the woman he has sacrificed everything for and destroyed his soul for, WANTS HIM DEAD. Which of course isn't true, but why else would she have brought Obi-wan with her? He chokes her because every one of her words is a dagger, he feels betrayed and he can't listen to it anymore or he'll shatter. –This is not an excuse for any kind of abuse, but you have to understand the emotional turmoil he is going through. This is also not an argument that what he did was RIGHT in any way after turning to the Dark Side, but you do have to see how his actions (to him, at least) make perfect sense and that NONE of his actions hint at the fact that he either didn't love her or stopped loving her. He loved her even as Vader, he loved her forever.

Anyway, sorry, I've been reading the ROTS novelization and I'm almost done with it and I'm sad and emotional.

[yandereforme]

Okay, I’m still working on all of my bat family stuff, but consider… x

Yandere ASTV x O’Hara! Child! Reader

Like, in your universe, you were raised by Miguel O’Hara after your bio parents died, and you became a spider hero at age 10.(I kind of like the idea that your situation is similar to Miles, there was a Spider-Man but he died protecting you. Extra angst if it’s your Miguel who died.)

Your Miguel wasn’t yandere, but he was an overprotective parent. He definitely homeschooled you, and tried his best to shield you from the world, leaving you with a pretty optimistic outlook on life, and oblivious to life’s challenges.

You would end up in another universe on accident about half a year after you became spidery.(In this au, you were bitten about two weeks to a month before you started your vigilante gig.) I am seeing four different scenarios.

You end up in Hobie’s world, which would definitely be a shock, since your universe is very similar to our world, and as you are very sheltered, you definitely freak out and end up attracting Hobie’s attention. I see him trying to show you the good side of rebellion, and getting very protective on your behalf.( The climax is definitely you taking a bullet for him because a cop tried to shoot him in the back of the head. The bullet injures you but doesn’t kill you. Hobie fucking destroys the cop, but definitely makes you go somewhere safe so you don’t see it. Hobie likes your growing rebellious tendencies, but he doesn’t want to ruin all of your innocence.)

You end up in Gwen’s universe. There would definitely be confusion in the civilians, since they are used to a very different Spider-Woman. Gwen finds you quick, and 100% gets attached within minutes. You are completely alone and so small and you look at her with big hopeful eyes.(She has several mini heart attacks as she learns about your world.)

You end up in 1610 Miles’s world. He would 100% bond with you over taking over a different Spider-Man’s mantle, and facing criticism for it. He would definitely try to shield you from any problems, especially since you are so young. (I kind of like the idea of him introducing you to his parents and them getting attached too.) I don’t have any exact idea for how he would become yandere, but finding out about your Miguel would definitely confuse him.(he would have to figure out how someone like Miguel could raise you, but would remind himself they are different.)

You end up in 42 Miles’s world. You definitely catch his attention, especially since this is after ASTV.(The ending killed me, so I’m saying 1610 Miles escaped and defeated Spot with a semi truce with 42 Miles.) Prowler would definitely be interested about you, but what changes everything is you saving his mother’s life. You were patrolling and saw her be attacked, probably by a villain who found out Prowler’s identity. You save her life, just as 42 Miles arrives.(I’m imagining 42 Rio Morales doesn’t know her son is the Prowler, but finds out, culminating into a very tense dinner you get dragged into.)

After a few weeks, you definitely want to get home. Since every Spider has some weird abilities, I’m going with you being able to find portals easier, and if you strain yourself, you can make them.

You definitely have an argument about trying to go home, and use your power for the first time. However, you are upset and unsure and all you are thinking about as the world around you glitches is that you want your dad.

This leads to you quite literally falling at the feet of Miguel in the Spiderverse Headquarters, disoriented and exhausted from your powers, only able to manage a strangled “Papa?” before you pass out at his feet.

[coffeegnomee]

genuinely i think alot of kaboodle's actions on lifesteal can be explained by her scripted lore background. the world of scripted lore is fraught with the idea that "lore" is just... being miserable. it was something that made it difficult for me to get into ksmp (though i did eventually enjoy it), because it felt just so awful all the time. pointless arguments didn't tug at my heartstrings, it made me frustrated. but that's besides the point

i think maybe one of the reasons she takes everything way harder than she should and exaggerates relationships and disagreements is perhaps because she is drawing in past experience to be a good entertainer, in the way she is familiar with. which is so fair! we are formed by our backgrounds. it does unfortunately make it difficult to watch her if you're accustomed to the more ""live action"" sort of format lifesteal is usually in, where people seperate their characters from themselves a little less. but she has a good size audience that seems to fw it, so i dunno

that's just my take on the overuse of the word "betrayal" and such

agree but disagree. yes scripted is usually just being miserable but zam is just miserable all the time and his lore actually makes sense and is very entertaining to watch and he also separates himself from his character (to a degree). but when he is miserable he is consistently miserable while also doing some fun things to distract from the misery or making some impact on the server like cleaning up spawn while being miserable to chat. kab just sits around and talks and does fuck all. sorry. hating. a lot of hating below.

and it's annoying because she is miserable but then will go be fighting her inner demons of destruction, but then won't destroy because she doesn't want to be mean and she cares so much, but then she plans to destroy anyway but then she doesn't do it and doesn't have any consistency in any motivation or characterization and she's all over the place. every hour her emotional state is different and there's absolutely no effort at a throughline and everything before is just thrown out the window.

And it pisses me off that she does come from scripting because surely her characters on ksmp had some throughline and consistency.

and yet her inconsistency on ls does make sense bc in scripted you can plan and succeed with every plan you make when you are literally scripting the outcome.

but on lifesteal you can plan for something cool and fun and it can be taken away in an instant by the very same people you were trying to impress and that is hard and will send anyone into being tilted.

and trying to decide how to react to that is wildly difficult and i dont really envy them having to figure out what to do, but i do wish she would DO something. but that's also unfair because she is doing something, she's rebuilding. but while rebuilding she's going between wanting 4c to help her while also trying to convince him to betray his team while also trying to convince him to give her a heart without a fight while also planning to kill him while also reminding herself she has to be nice to him. so she's just using him. just say it with your full chest. you never cared about him and you just want someone else to do the work to get your own selfish self-pity plan back on the server.

you want to complain and then have someone swoop in and save you. and you dont want to make any effort to actually care about that person.

it's miserably sad and annoying to watch because lifesteal is about caring about people, and she goes on and on an on about caring *so much* but she doesn't give a shit about anyone but herself. and she lies to herself and and chat and insists that she cares.

and yes that's a rather consistent characterization to through at ls!kab but damn if it doesn't read like that at all and she went from genuinely apologizing to 4c to just using him flat out and reminding herself that she needs to use him and cant just kill him.

maybe its just that she's vilely unlikable. maybe that's the point in her scripted mind. make a hatable character. and yet her actions also speak to desperately trying to make a likable character whom youre sympathetic to, she tries desperately to guilt trip and pull at the heartstings about how shes just been betrayed so many times and life is so hard for her and shes so weak and how could you be mean to someone so pathetic and wounded.

but she's not likable at all. she doesnt care about a single other soul or what they care about. the second they put a boundary up she wants to run and leave, which, fair enough, actually a cool characterization of trauma but like also so abusive-coded. but in the end she chose to not abandon bacon as far as we can tell, but i can tell you give it two seconds and that thought will come back and she'll decide to betray him anyway. because nothing is consistent and nothing she says has any long term value. she just goes on the past five minutes to decide what she will do.

she's just so fake and that fakeness can be attributed to the character, but it only feels even more fake because she insists it's a character and not her as she turns around and does something that makes more sense for her to do as herself than the character. she is being two people existing on the same account, swapping out whenever necessary. but that's stupid. take responsibility for your actions and your emotions. stop blaming others.

and yes. it all goes back to how painfully different scripted mcrp is from unscripted.

and i know for damn sure that this will not be like this next season because she will learn from this season. or she doesn't. and that's what's so frustrating. the possibility that she never learns why lifesteal is lifesteal.

the possibility that she keeps writing asshole abusive characters that just get more abusive because of her own internal mental problems that lay unresolved and shoved under the rug like they aren't part of the character even though they are part of herself. she refuses to look at herself and acts like if just just acts hard enough they won't affect anything. they effect everything. you can't run from yourself when you are making unscripted content.

and yes. i am being really mean about someone who clearly has a lot of baggage. yes i am being mean about someone who is abusive as a defense mechanism and hates boundaries because of fear of being alone and all these things that are basically the bully being bullied at home type beat.

but she embraces none of it. doesn't even see any of it. thinks she has written a cute story with kazam, a cute ship that may be a little messed up but is at it's core cute.

it's fucking abusive and shit. it makes my skin crawl. zam is screaming to be let out of it and she thinks it's sunshine and roses. she is, to use the word literally, delusional about her actions. she thinks they are one thing when they are anything besides that.

but we do have one success story. and the trend goes that every lifestealer learns what lifesteal is by their second or third season. they all eventually get it. vi chose to do a very distinct character vs streamer in s4 and he crashed and burned to a degree unfathomable. and he learned from it. and he now says that was his favorite story he ever told. he see's how he's grown as a person because of it.

there is only hope in the future when it comes to kaboodle. lifesteal genuinely changes you and makes you grow. not because you choose to grow, but because it forces it out of you.

but in this moment im just constantly a ball of rage and constantly sent into sadness every time i watch. and she keeps interacting with my mains so im not going to just miss the story, and the progression is already happening, the kablantis shock is a genuinely lifesteal trauma moment for kab and is already changing her in good ways. this is the story, this is part of watching lifesteal. the meta conflict is what makes this server painfully unique. this difficult encounter with players that piss you off. because people in life are like this. people can suck and hurt each other and don't look at their internal mental state, they shove things under the rug and think they're fine and cause sorrow and pain when life gets difficult. that's life. encountering it as story really helps understand the people around you. to be more compassionate, be able to see when theyre hurting and chose to be kind anyway. to learn how to feel the negative emotions and process them and not run from them yourself. or learn how to stick up for yourself and put up your own boundaries and learn that you can. to figure out who you are. it's the best. and the worst. and leaves me hating until i realize it is interesting even though i hate it.

[raayllum]

The thing (or one of the things) about Ezran in early S7 is that while he's not being unreasonable, he is being hypocritical and unproductive ("You forgave Zubeia"). 7x01 is his breaking point after seasons of trying to keep everyone else together and weathering each conflict in as most an unaffected manner as possible, and he quite simply couldn't do it anymore.

Zubeia sent an assassin to kill your father? You long for your mother so deeply, you don't know your dad is dead yet, you do everything you can to get Zym back home because you love him (you can literally see through his eyes) and because it's the best chance for peace. Forgive her for killing your father and trying to kill you because she was grieving and Zym's dad for killing your mother because he's dead and they miss him. Put all your anger in a box at the one person who actually did kill him, because Zubeia saw her baby and changed her mind, and your found family sister (who is also missing) defected and spared your life that night, and he didn't.

Deny the ugly truths as long as you can by focusing on peace ("I ignored something that was true. I denied something that is undeniable"). Why should you have to acknowledge anger? Can't you just get past that? And then you can't, with the picture. (Then you can't, later, with yourself.)

Rayla comes back and Callum is fighting with her? Forgive and welcome her back unconditionally and try to counsel Callum through his big feelings. Rinse and repeat when Soren and then Zym goes missing. Advocate for and refuse to give up on Rex Igneous until he sends you sprawling into a wall.

Take on the responsibility of negotiating with the dragons. With Finnegrin (you offer up your hand, and so do your friends, your family). Talk your brother out of a more violent solution, and Rayla sides with you. She does again about hiding with the pearl and you save each other's lives. You look after home while she and Callum leave to save the world, and tell Soren the hard truth and deal with Viren till you don't. You try to spare Karim and his forces. You believe in peace. You believe in breaking the cycle.

"I am a king, and as a king, I choose love over strength."

"King of what? King of ashes?"

Ezran looks at what two years of trying to do the right peaceful thing has earned him — a destroyed kingdom while he was away — and he desperately, angrily, grasps at any semblance of control. This can't be all it was for. He feels like he's failed as a king, and is therefore a bad king. He needs to punish Sol Regem for it, but he can't. It needs to be Runaan's 'fault' because Runaan made him a king, even though keeping Runaan chained up in the Banther Lodge basement doesn't do anything but keep another family (Rayla's family) apart and make him feel in control. His pendulum swings so hard and strong, the target of his anger constantly changing to the most recent wound stacked upon themselves. After 7x02, he's not visibly angry at Runaan again until the finale; he's angrier at Callum than he is at Rayla because he thought he had control over his brother ("Callum. High Mage. We need you at this council meeting") even if that shouldn't be the goal or the focus at all anyway.

Callum doesn't betray him just because of Rayla, but because Ezran is perpetuating the cycle in a way that is antithetical to everything all three of them have striven to break, which is exactly what Callum points out to him. (If Rayla had surrendered or Callum had stayed, they just all likely would've been arrested, as it's unlikely Rayla and Runaan would've made it in the boat with Callum's magic, either. Would that have made Ezran, or anyone, feel better, hunting down his brother and friends, bringing them back in chains? No, and only Aanya is brave enough to say it out loud after Ez proves he values his bond with his brother / Callum's life over destroying Runaan's and Rayla's by proxy.)

"Because pain and loss feel so terrible inside, you want to hate. You want to hurt someone else."

What would killing or imprisoning Runaan (again) really have done?

"Hasn't he already been punished enough? Viren trapped him in a cursed coin for years. It's time to set him free." / "How much suffering is enough to pay for the mistakes we've made? No amount of suffering, yours or mine, will ever bring him back."

("As a father, I have a selfish wish, and that is for you and Ezran to be... free.")

"A life for a life. Is that justice?"

We also see that his scene with Runaan is one of the very last in the season. It's been months, if not nine, before Ezran was ready to have that conversation, ready to do with Runaan what he willingly did with Aaravos ("A king must look into the face and hear the words of those he judges"). A few days or a week by Callum's estimate wouldn't have been enough.

Ezran set Terry free to see if they could really trust him. He refused to do the same with Runaan even when it was causing clear pain and fracturing within his own family unit, nor did Runaan come to Katolis to face justice; it was just happenstance. But in Runaan being freed, he was then able to choose to come back to face Ezran's verdict. And then Ezran makes his own conscious choice.

"I'm going to forgive you. I don't know how, but I have to try."

He told everyone else that they had to acknowledge the weight of the pain and loss in their hearts while also holding love. It was hard before. It was hard now. But he has to try.

(Nor does Harrow being in the bird erase the two years of mourning hell that Ezran went through, remove the crown from his brow, make things with Runaan any easier tbh, or mean he's 100% getting his father back.)

[evilartreblogger]

Imagine the mental states of some of the bosses in Elden Ring? No matter how bad these people are, I feel so bad for them. They’ve been subjected to the worst tortures any fictional universe can have.

Radahn? Can you imagine how awful it felt for his mind to slowly be ripped away from him, year by year? Even if it made him harder to charm…. Imagine the pure pain. The loss. The worry that maybe Leonard won’t make it, or worse, he’ll kill Leonard. He’ll release the stars when he can’t think anymore. Perhaps, maybe, he’d die at some point from the rot. Of course, maybe, he knew his Great Rune would burn at the rot and keep his body, but not his mind, going.

Mohg and Morgott? The Omen twins. Do I really need to go into this? Imagine, being cast into the sewers and being told you’re lucky for not nearly being killed as soon as you were born. Your dad can’t save you, even if he should and wanted to, lest he face the literal wrath of a god. Your mother hates you, you don’t know why yet, and it’s all scary. You’re around bigger omens, who are angrier at the world than you are yet. For Morgott, he gets to watch his brother’s horn grow INTO his eye, all while horns grow out of above his eye, half blinding both of them. For Mohg, the slow pressure of having that horn stab into his eye, and having no way to remove it without it getting infected in this sewer water. After you get out, the world you loved is crumbling, the Frenzied flame needs someone to gaurd it, Leyndell doesn’t have a ruler anymore.

Godfrey? He’s not allowed to have emotions. Everything he wants to feel, wants to get out, ultimately suppressed by Serosh. He wants to yell, he wants to sob at Morgott’s death, we see this, but he can’t, Serosh took that ability from him. Even if Serosh mourns for him, it isn’t the same. Say he’s a warlord, a general, but he still has emotions. He’s human, just like the tarnished. He’s steeled against losing comrades, not the child he never had the chance to spend time with and hoped to see once more. His wife betrays him for what reason? He doesn’t know. He’s cast away, told to die or else he wouldn’t have his strength back, and sent OUT of the land of the Erdtree.

Take a moment in this horrible world, to think what your tarnished is doing, and ask, how much pain have they wrought? Should an uprising be against them?

No I’m not voting against you destroying the world, i’m asking you to look at it from a character’s perspective. Is your character doing it just for the sake? How terrifying is this tarnished? This immortal force, coming to kill you, and all you can do is hope and prey they give up attacking you or don’t absolutely need to kill you yo reach your goal. Because the Tarnished is an omen of destruction, they don’t give up no matter what you put them through.

The world of Elden Ring is so scary to look at it from within. To know the doubt, to know the eternal pain, the everlasting stalemates, and this force of reckoning that runs across the land causing mass destruction…. Yet this force is called your savior. Wouldn’t you try to destroy us too?

[yutori-do]

The four things I notice and hate the most in Gai's (bad) characterization:

Intelligence: In some fics they make him completely stupid, with no ability to conform to social labels or understand what they say to him without rethinking it, and that makes my blood boil because this guy is anything but stupid; He is an avid learner and always seeks improvement (genin at 7, chuunin at 11. He may not be Kakashi but he is still quite a lot, right?), able to predict, if I remember correctly, up to a hundred movements of his enemy before to be executed, someone who thinks quickly in battle and very adaptable.

My God, he drives NUNCHAKUS and you think he's incapable of concentrating? I understand that it is one thing to sit down and study and another to train, but I don't think GAI, of all people, wouldn't take on such a challenge. Appearing empty-minded is his facade, his mask. The only way I can accept that he's pretty stupid is if it's because of the trauma of losing his father, he clings to the attitude of a child as a way to feel like he's back in his childhood. AND YET-

Okay, next point.

Darkness: This man was literally beaten by chuunin because when he was a child just for being the son of a outcast of Konoha, they made fun of him and probably isolated him from the rest as a child, and he has also been under a strict exercise regimen since he was 5 years old. An exercise that made him fall from fatigue and pain, and he, despite everything, continued to get up, continued to force himself to overcome the pain. Gai's darkness is not easily detected because he is not visibly cruel to anyone but himself; The only way he is easily seen is with his relationship with Lee, his dedication to put him through everything he put Lee through even though he is the person Gai loves the most (possibly after his father). The way he pushed his (Lee's) limits to the point of telling Lee that he should face death to hold onto some hope for a better future (to be a shinobi again) is very dark. The relationship he has with Rock Lee ironically brings out the worst parts of Gai, and there we enter the next point.

Cruelty: Gai is a character who has been shown to have an extremely strong code of values, in which benevolence always comes first; He is empathetic in a world where that is condemning, he is kind to people who at best only make fun of him for how he looks. In short, a great person. But that does not mean that he is not cruel, that he hesitates when killing; he is still a soldier, a child soldier who participated in a war based more on ego than anything else. His moral code does not prevent him from killing, but rather makes him limit himself, to limit himself to what is absolutely necessary. If he has defeated his opponents and thus achieved his mission, then he will not kill, because the rest are shinobi like him and also had a mission.

We've only seen traces of Gai's cruelty throughout Naruto, small flashes of what he truly is in battle. Do you seriously think that the title of Beast is achieved only by defeating enemies? It is not even a specific animal, but literally: Konoha's Beast of Prey.

And what is a beast but an animal that kills cruelly? One kick of his was capable of breaking rocks when he was just a child. What prevents him from punching through his opponent's chest? Breaking skulls using just his fingers? You're not going to tell me that someone like him, with his strength, is not capable of ripping off your arm in a single movement.

Gai is capable of great, great cruelty cultivated by years of being humiliated by the village he now protects with his life, by the Village for which he destroys his body day by day. Still, his morals prevail, but it does not mean that cruelty is inappropriate for him.

And possibly the root of all his problems...

Death Wish: Dying for the Village is something that is as ingrained in how Gai thinks as any Konoha child, but this takes a drastic turn when his father sacrifices himself to save him. His father was, despite being ashamed of him, his World. The only person who loved him with everything, who showed him sweetness and tenderness in everything, he who took care of him as the most precious thing he had. In a place where everyone hated him and slowly began to change because Gai was useful to them, only his father loved him unconditionally, no matter what.

It is not specified how old Gai was when his father dies, but he can be placed after 11 and before 14, and that is possibly the source of what he is like; totally adhered to what his father was in an attempt to demonstrate that Maito Dai was a great man and shinobi through his legacy of the Eight Gates, his greatest and only technique. It is known that before he was 20 he had already acquired his title of the Blue Beast of Konoha, so it is accurate to say that he already knew how to open the Seventh Gate, at LESS THAN TWENTY YEARS OLD, the time it took his father to master the technique.

Gai's desire for death and his perspective of it is shown by his speech about Lee's highly risky surgery; If he can't live fully as a ninja, then he doesn't want to live. For him, Death is a price, the most precious coin that he is able to throw to prove something, to prove that he is worth something in a world where Death is common, where he was expected not to survive, much less prosper.

He lives life to the fullest, being his best person, enduring whatever it takes because he knows that his end, his death, when it happens, will show everyone that he was never weak, that he was incredibly powerful, and for someone who grew up being treated as the lowest scum except by his father, who ended up dying in a blaze of glory as an outcast, a death like that is the highest he can aspire to. For him, the only destiny is death, and the only way to prove his worth. And that's not fucked?

(And if you want to add another tragedy, possibly the Eighth Gate was a relief during the war because Gai's death cannot go unnoticed, hidden. Being someone who had so many limitations, being at a significant disadvantage, and being sent to war so young, where the majority are children or other young people who die anonymously, the Eight Gates were his way of establishing that no, he would not be killed, because he would kill himself first. Oh, now i know why he respected Kisame so much at the end.)

[infizero]

actually, silver's time traveling DID make sense... until sonic forces - an analysis

hello! this is a follow-up to my previous analysis post i made about why silver's time traveling is so weird.

everything i said in that post still applies, but upon looking at things closer (and creating an entire timeline map), i came to the realization that sonic forces actually kind of singlehandedly ruined everything. but hey what's new amiright

in all seriousness though, creating this timeline map helped me better visualize just what the hell is going on with silver's time traveling and various futures, and i hope it's able to do the same for you all as well! (full analysis under the cut)

FULL BREAKDOWN:

EDIT: i sort of forgot to take into account that sonic rivals and especially sonic rivals 2 DO seem to imply that silver's future is currently bad, though it's not stated outright. 06 also IMPLIES that silver's future is good at the end but it's not actually stated/shown to be the case. so in that case, it'd be future is still bad after 06 -> thus future is bad in rivals 1+2 -> rivals 2's resolution causes the good future mentioned in sonic colors ds. even in this scenario, it'd still be forces' fault for making the future bad again, but it wasn't AS crystal clear before forces as i may have originally made it seem like in this post. live and learn lol

so, let me explain what all this means lol (using different versions of this map)

silver is born into a timeline that's basically the bad ending of sonic 06 - where sonic is killed, elise cries, and iblis is unleashed, destroying the world. this is where silver starts:

the events of sonic 06 create a new timeline where solaris is never split into iblis and mephiles. thus iblis is never created and never destroys the world, causing silver to return to a future where everything is good.

silver starts in the 06 bad ending timeline, but he returns to the future of the new 06 good ending timeline, AKA the canon timeline:

(please excuse my shitty gifs lol)

this is where he remained for a WHILE, and where he should have remained. in all games between 06 and forces, the status of silver's future is either not mentioned, or is explicitly stated to be the good future. (specifically in colors ds)

so for a while, it was pretty simple and actually made sense. silver went from the 06 bad ending timeline, to the 06 good (canon) ending timeline, and then stayed there ever since. everything was fine. we could've just left it like this.

but then, sonic GOD DAMN forces decided to mess ALL THIS UP.

because when silver shows up for the events of forces, it's because his future... is taken over and polluted by eggman. as a result of forces. which doesn't make sense ANY way you cut it.

whether silver lived in a timeline where forces ended good or bad, EITHER WAY the events of sonic forces HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED. THEY SHOULD NOT CAUSE SILVER'S FUTURE TO ACTIVELY CHANGE BEFORE HIS EYES. THAT'S NOT HOW TIME WORKS

so because of forces, we then get this incredibly weird jump where silver LEAVES the canon good future... and goes to a random non-canon, bad ending timeline. for some reason:

from there, it's a bit more straight-forward. sonic forces happens and when silver goes back to his future, it's no longer the bad ending of forces, but the bad ending of the metal virus arc:

thus, silver goes back to the present to help stop that. the metal virus is eradicated, and we are EXPLICITLY shown that this is what directly causes silver's future to be saved:

and for now that hasn't changed. (and god willing, it never will)

ever since the end of the metal virus arc, silver's future is a good one and he's just been hanging out in the present, freaking out about not having a purpose anymore.

the literal SINGLE problem with all this is that silver was IN the good future before, but got yoinked OUT of it for some reason.

if after 06, he hadn't returned to a good future, but rather the bad ending future of sonic forces, then that would have made sense! that's the next point in the timeline where things can split off.

he fixes one problem, but it doesn't save the future. now the future is just ruined by something else. so then he has to go fix the next problem, and then the next, etc. etc.

that would've, y'know, made sense.

but you wanna know what's even more aggravating? they could've STILL done what they did with forces without changing silver's future!

it would've been so easy to have silver, in his good future, realize (through history books or something) that there is a point in the past where eggman almost fully takes over, and decide to time travel back to that point to make sure that things go as they're supposed to.

that would've made so much more sense! this goes back to the quirk of silver's time traveling that i pointed out in my first post, which is that silver tends to time travel to change the future, rather than make sure that the future happens the way it should (like a lot of other time travel stories do)

at this point however, silver's future IS capable of somehow changing at will. and i think there's really only two options to fix this.

the first and easiest is to just retcon stuff. either retcon silver's good future after 06, or retcon the forces + idw stuff about his future changing. this would be the simplest option i think.

the other is to try and come up with an explanation for silver being plucked out of his good future and shoved into other bad ending futures. i think it IS possible but it would still be incredibly convoluted.

i think you could spin it so rather than the good future becoming bad, it's actually just silver specifically as a person being transported from the good future to the bad future timeline. as to why, maybe whatever force sends him to time travel wants to... show him the consequences of that "canon event" getting messed up?

like, he's supposed to make sure that things go as they should for their good future to exist. and in order to make him understand why he needs to do this, he's like - shown a vision of what could happen if he doesn't? by him being transported to that bad ending timeline?

in all honesty, i really don't see a clean, easy way of explaining everything in one neat little package without retconning anything.

either things get way more convoluted and stupid, or things get retconned. and i dont know about you, but i would much rather take the latter. even if retcons can be frustrating, i feel like it's way better than the alternative.

but idk, what do you think? did any of this make sense? i hope it did. i quite like my silly little map.

anyways that's all for now bye <3

(bonus: here's the original version of the timeline map that i doodled in my notebook lol)

[child-of-the-danube]

MASSIVE AGATHA ALL ALONG SPOILERS SO SKIP IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE EPISODE

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Time to yap, my sisters in the craft 🔮🧙🏻‍♀️

Positives of the final two episodes:

1. Jen finally being free

2. Agatha showing she actually learned from her coven in her final battle with Rio - she used Alice's protection spell, Jen's moon water spell and listened to Lilia's advice about hitting the deck

3. The parallels of Agatha and her coven:

- She was in the same situation as Lorna. A mother who knew her child was doomed from the start and did everything in her power to protect them and keep them alive for as long as she could, only for it to be fruitless in the end. And despite it being fruitless, the children did feel the love and were aware of the sacrifice, and sometimes that is enough. Alice and Nicky's memory will forever live through the songs their mothers made for and with them. The memory of their love outlived both them and their children and will keep on living on for long after.

- She chose to give her life for someone she just met but clearly felt strongly for the same way Lilia did. A lifetime of running from Death. A lifetime of collecting knowlegde for it to appear useless. A lifetime of seeing Death everywhere, of being persued by her, of being lonely and heartbroken with grief. And then going out by embracing Death by your own will to give another a chance and do at least once what you failed to do for centuries - protect.

- Her and Billy making a story come to life out of love and grief for their family. She set the foundation and he made it come to realisation. Both took away from others but only one gets be exempt from the consequences and able to achieve what they were after from the start.

4. Agatha being the happiest she's ever been when Nicky was with her

5. The acceptance in her voice when she says "Sometimes...boys die"

6. The fact that the dandelion seed in Nicky's hair that she kept for centuries saved her in the final trial oh my god 😭 😭

7. Agatha's love for Nicky being so strong that a silly little song they made together became world known. "You...I made from scratch" AAAAAAAAAAAAA

8. She calls her power "my purple" cause Nicky called it so 💔💔

9. THE KISS

10. Showing that it was Agatha's desire to keep Nicky alive and later on when he died her grief turning her to addiction that caused her to become this famous witch killer. She was never purely evil. What she did was, and it is not an excuse, but still. The parallels between her and Wanda being ready to destroy entire worlds and lives just to get their children back... A mother's love can make whole valleys bloom but it can also make mountains crumble to dust and my heart is not ok

11. Agatha doing for Billy what she couldn't do for her own son. Giving him a chance to live

12. Ghost Agatha's first move being annoying her adoptive son lmao

13. The road's entrance becoming a memorial to Sharon, Alice and Lilia

14. Billy getting the wake up call that he is not so different from Agatha or Wanda. His grief created a literal death trap and consequently killed Sharon, Alice and Lilia, even if Agatha is telling him Alice was her doing and Lilia was by her own choice

15. Agatha finding her purpose as a mentor in death

Negatives:

1. We were cheated out of a proper Agatha and Rio backstory. How did they meet? How did they fall in love? What happened in the centuries between Nicky's death and entering the road? How often did Rio come to Agatha for Agatha to be so clear about the one thing she wants when she passes being not seeing Rio? She is Death's only exception, only love, only scar. WE DESERVED MORE!!! How did Agatha bag a literal god????

2. Once again, a story that started out and was marketed as a story of women ends up being just means to help a man's story build up. I mean, I should have expected that but still leaves a bitter taste. Wiccan is an interesting character but I feel cheated out of knowing more about Jen. I wanted her backstory before being bound. I wanted Agatha pre-Salem trial and post Nicky's death for more than a power draining sequence through the ages. I wanted Agatha and Rio developing this bond that held up for 300 years. I wanted the Salem Seven to be more than a 5 second threat. Billy will get his own show anyway, like come on.

3. In connection to that, I know this one is a very subjective sentiment and I understand completely but it still pisses me off to no end. The fact that these witches, these centuries old women, who all had being covenless, lonely and in dire situations with their powers in common, went on this death wish trip with someone they didn't like at all as a last resort and got what they were lacking, learned to care for eachother, got their powers back, and that Agatha had the possibility to finally have a family and people genuinely care for her, turned out to be practically worthless in the end cause they had like 5mins of it is making me go insane. Alice said it best: "This is it? I was finally able to do something with my life and this is all the time I get?". The only one, aside Jen, coming out alive and having time to bask in the glow of his new-found power AND have the chance to do something with it is a fucking teenage boy who already got the privilege of cheating Death and the privilege of his family members still be somewhere out in reach to search for. The finale said "your life, struggles and resolution were just means to get someone else ahead". Call me a misandrist, so be it, but I'm fucking tired. Is one story where women are the focus and have a happy ending so fucking much to ask for????

4. THE KISS cause at what cost??? I repeat, this was the fastest, literal, bury your gays move I've ever seen. We knew it couldn't possibly end well, but damn. However, kudos to Kathryn and Aubrey making it so hungry and desperate, but also soft and real and full of emotion.

5. Billy being a dick and wanting to send Agatha back to "Rio's toxic embrace" like he didn't just watch her give up her life for him and tell her that she's "not that bad". My boy, you are truly strange in your holier than thou attitude sometimes

[itsvenera]

helloo! back to humbly ask for more content for him hehe but this time I wanna add for his brother as well!💜

how they'd react to their s/o sacrificing themselves to save them/for their sake? how they are in their last moments together and how they handle the aftermath? I love the Uchiha boys being soft but i cant resist the angst sometimes 🫣

thank you again! adore your work as always!

author's note: I am in an angsty mood right now, so I literally RUSHED to my drafts, so I can finish this request! Thank you so much for sending it and I really hope I did it justice! <3

➤ Sasuke

The death of his s/o would be one of the two things: either the birth of the greatest villain to ever exist or the end of the 'ninja path' for Sasuke Uchiha.

It really depends on WHY did they sacrificed themselves for him or more importantly WHO took their life.

I think no matter when Sasuke has met them (before or after the war), he would take them as granted. He didn't even want to think about a scenario where they would not exist or be part of his life, let alone accept it.

So when they fell in front of him, a giant hole in their chest, his immediate reaction was shock.

This could not be happening... This should NOT be hapenning!

His whole body would be frozen and he would stay in place for at least a few minutes, till your weak attempt to mutter his name brings him back to reality. He immediately rush by their side, cradling their face in his hands while he kept muttering the same words over and over again.

"No, no, no... Don't close your eyes, you are fine! Don't... don't do this! Please!"

(the first and last time he ever said the word "please" to his s/o)

Once the realisation that there was still a battle going on hits him, his rage would erupt like a volcano. He would make sure that whoever is responsible for his s/o being gone would suffer not only painful, but also a gruesome death.

Now like I said above, why did his s/o sacrifice themselves for him and who was on the other side of the attack would be KEY details in shaping Sasuke's future.

I think if it happens way after the war (let's say 10 years+) and his s/o sacrifices themselves for him during mission or during an attack by foreign ninjas, he would most likely retire as a shinobi and seek quiet life somewhere outside Konoha.

(he not only looks like John Wick, but he also follows a similar path... 👀)

He would no doubt contribute their death to him being a ninja and I don't think he can accept the idea of continuing being one, knowing it has costed him so much. He lost EVERYTHING to that lifestyle and now all he had left were memories.

If his s/o, however, died during the war or shortly after, and have the fate to be killed by a Leaf Shinobi there is NO GOING BACK for Sasuke.

Full 100% Villain Mode!

I have no doubt that he will put all his effort, time and energy in avenging his s/o or even worse - try everything to bring them back to life!

Would wage a fifth and even a sixth world war if it means that he will finally find a way to destroy the villages, especially Konoha once and for all.

➤ Itachi

The idea of death never scared Itachi.

He was responsible for countless deaths, including the ones of his own parents, and he himself was clearly seeing the upcoming end of his own life.

Yet the idea of his s/o dying was not one that ever crossed his mind. He has always imagined that they would live many, many years after him, having a beautiful family with someone who can give them everything he could not.

I imagine his s/o would die either during the fight with Sasuke or shortly after.

Just like Sasuke he would be in disbelief and shock at first, but instead of just staying frozen to the place, he would rush toward his s/o and catch them before they hit the ground.

"No... What have you done? You should've stayed away, you should've listened to me!"

Itachi is usually calm and collected, but this may be one of the few times he actually loses control (or maybe even the only one?).

If his s/o was killed before that battle by some other enemy, he would kill his enemy the same way as Sasuke - slow and gruesome, leaving the battlefield a bloody reminder of what an Uchiha is capable of in the name of love.

If Sasuke was the one that took his s/o life, he would not hold back and unleash all his power, despite his weakened state.

He would forget all his initial goals and feelings when it comes to his little brother, and would use every attack in his arsenal with the sole purpose to kill.

However, in that instance, I do think there will be a moment where he will get some clarity before the end of the fight and he is immediately filled with guilt.

If his s/o has never met him, they would still be alive. The fault was not Sasuke's - it was only his.

This would be the key moment when he loses all determination to fight and let's his younger brother take his life.

With his s/o gone, he actually looks forward death. Because maybe someday, somewhere, in another life, he would have a chance to make things right.

That moment when Zabuza died next to Haku... yep, that is Itachi next to his s/o.

He would use the last remaining energy in his body to crawl over to them and slip his hand in their cold one.

(I think I may have made myself accidentally cry with this one... :( )

cc artwork: Karine Vilette

[atrwriting]

epilogue – a jackson j. maybank story

hi everyone

****major obx season four spoilers ahead****do not even thinkkkk of pushing past this line if you have not seen the latest season

ok now that only season four viewers are here -- holy smokes. i will never recover. wtf. literally wtf. i had to write this because i needed closure. im hurting all over and i dont even know what to say. here is how i deal with the death of this very sweet boy who deserved so much fucking better

summary: jj meets his mother in the afterlife.

warnings: mentions of death, depression, loss of hope, anxiety, the afterlife

here's epilogue:

He didn’t realize it was supposed to feel like this. 

This… whatever this is. 

Fucking shit, he thought. He didn’t even know where he was.

The last thing he remembers is Kie.

There was an ache in his chest. 

A real ache. One he hasn’t felt since he was a kid. The type of ache that he felt when his – old? first? fake? – dad would kick him around. Busted lip and cheek, whatever he felt like should be on the menu that day. He realized then that he wished he would’ve been with Luke rather than Groff in his last few moments, because at least he could walk off whatever Luke had in store for him that day.

Groff, he scoffed in his head. 

The ache of missing Kie and his friends was beginning to mingle with his anger for Groff, his real dad.

It curdled in his chest – mixing with bile, blood, regret, guilt, shame, and anything else in his chest that would never get the chance to leave nor heal. It was grotesque and poisonous – spreading like sickness throughout his body – the only that reminded him that he was sentient.

Right, the present – where the fuck is he?

He whipped his head from side to side, like a scared animal in the forest. He had his legs spread shoulder width apart, defensive stance, and he had his elbows bent in front of him – he wouldn’t be bested twice, no – not after Groff, not after he already lost everything. 

This was different than when he was destroying the storefronts of that one street – he thought he had nothing to lose then, but he was wrong. So fucking wrong. He had never been so wrong before, and his friends had never been so right.

It was then that JJ Maybank realized that if he had just listened to Kie or any of his friends a little bit more… Maybe… Just maybe…

There was no “maybe.” Groff’s blade was the killing blow, but his recklessness had been the beginning of his own end. 

The end of his relationship.

The end of his friendships.

The end of any possibility of saving his business or home. 

The end of being a Godfather. 

The end of his own happiness. 

The end of any fucking chance he had in a world that never stopped to remind him that he was fucked from the beginning. 

All of that – and for what? For fucking what?

He died the exact way everyone said he would – because of his own stupidity.

That’s all folks, he thought. That’s the show. Most predictable fucking ending on this planet.

He felt the hot brew of emotion well from his chest rise into his throat, burning his esophagus like acid. It choked him. It beat his pain into his skin, blood, bones, organs, and psyche until it was the only thing he felt and knew. 

He didn’t have any fight left in him. He usually flipped off any fucker that would dare demand authority – but he was done. He had lost everything besides the pain that plagued him in life – and he thought that was the worst punishment of all. 

“…Jackson?” 

He looked up then. 

He realized he was surrounded by – well, he didn’t know. He just knew it was bright. Really fucking bright. He could hear wind somewhere – maybe flowing through trees, maybe making small boats sway in the waves, or maybe in the grass in the marshes. He really didn’t know – he couldn’t place anything. The sounds were familiar – he knew those sounds. His eyes were adjusting, blurred by tearsandpainandregretandshame and everything and anything in between. He knew those sounds – but not that voice.

However… he felt like he should.

“Mom?” he gushed, voice breaking. “L-Larissa?” 

“Hi, sweetheart,” a voice whispered. 

Her voice so sweet, like a flower petal. Soothing like getting out of a sticky situation that Pope yelled at him about prior. Warm like a beach day. It felt like everything he had been searching for and everything he couldn’t find all at once.

He didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know how to feel. He didn’t know –

Tears. That’s what he could do. That was all he could do. 

“No, sweetheart –” warm hands were beginning to cup his cheeks, soft thumbs pushing away tears like they didn’t belong on his face. His cheeks were stinging hot with every emotion that welled within his chest, but the hands were a type of warmth that made him realize he was actually cold. So cold. Cold, lonely, and full of grief. 

He realized then what all of those asshole adults were talking about all of his life.

His anger was a mask. Something he hid behind, something he used as an excuse to be reckless and a nuisance. What he really felt… what his real identity was… was grief.

JJ Mayback was full of grief. 

He crumbled then – falling forward and wrapping his limbs around the woman – his mother – before him. 

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say, tears flowing down his cheeks and onto her sweet-smelling silk shirt. “I’m so fucking sorry –"

“Shhh, sweetheart,” she cooed. “Everything is okay now. I’m here.”

Sobs racked throughout his chest, attacking the inside of his throat. His voice grew hoarse, unable to keep up with every emotion that exploded out of him. He had pushed it down for so long. So, so long. He didn’t even know It existed, much less that he could feel it for himself. He thought when people described this feeling they were lying or being fucking dramatic. They had to be lying. How could they be telling the truth about this? How could they live with this How could they fucking get through this without fucking killing someone or themselves?! Only kooks had the luxury of crying about their feelings or missing people who weren’t there anymore or expecting assholes to change when they had always proved they would never change. It hit him all at once. Over, and over, and over, and overandoverandoverandover. It hit him worse than anything Luke could’ve thrown at him, or any knife that Groff could’ve plunged into his stomach. Every tear… every fuckingtear…

He wanted to say either of his dads, fucking any of them – they didn’t deserve his tears. That’s what he would tell anyone that asked, and that’s what he would tell someone if this was happening to them.

But right now? Right fucking now? When he had lost everything? For real, no way of getting it back? No final card up his sleeve? No Pope to save him, or Kie to talk some sense to him? 

Right now… all he could do was sob. Fucking sob. 

“It hurts,” JJ cried. “It fucking hurts so bad.”

“I know, baby,” the woman wept. “I know. I’m so, so sorry…”

“I fucking hate him,” he spat into her shoulder. “I fucking hate them both…”

“I know…” she continued to weep, obviously overtaken with her son’s hurt. 

He didn’t know what to do with this. By all accounts, he was a fuck up. Parents, teachers, and, frankly, no adults liked him. If he wasn’t consumed by grief, he would’ve pushed her away – as this feeling was foreign to him. However, even if he wanted to, he couldn’t – her grip around him was too tight and her embrace felt too warm.

“I can’t give you what you lost…” she spoke, wiping his tears as she pulled away to face him. “They will be here one day – your friends, and that sweet girl that I would love to meet – but hopefully not for a long time. I hope you can agree with me on that, sweetheart. Until then – there are so many people that want to meet you.” 

He laughed then – almost akin to a scoff. “Bunch of people I don’t know? Bunch of people that would probably look down on me?”

“No, son –” she insisted. “Don’t speak like that ever. Not about yourself – not about the thing I am most proud of for creating. Do you understand?”

For whatever reason – he nodded then, but he unable to meet her eyes. He didn’t believe her – but how could he? Who had ever wanted to meet him? He would’ve scoffed at her, told her to fuck off like the rest of the people in his life – but he didn’t have the energy. Plus, something was different about her. Her face. Her voice. The look in her eyes when she was actually insulted when he had spoke down about himself. He couldn’t help but stare at her then, wondering why she felt differently about him compared to the rest of the people in his life who were supposed to protect him, love him, care for him – but didn’t. Would she be different? Could he trust her? 

He stare at the rest of her face then. Soft, fair skin. Blue eyes. Blonde hair. Skin that never had time to wrinkle. Hair that never had time to gray. Bones that never had time to get old. However, the one thing she couldn’t shake, and bothered JJ immediately… was the look in her eye. Pain. Hurt. Grief. Shame. Guilt. All mingling into one. All twisting and turning like the snakes in the garden that hurt them both. JJ knew that look. It was the same look he saw in the mirror, and the same feeling he felt in his chest.

He knew what type of person she was then. 

Her life was taken from her… just like his was taken from him. 

“I understand,” he spoke, voice breaking. 

“I know you do,” she spoke, and the allusion was not lost on him. It didn’t have to be specified – JJ was not quick in life, as he could rely on Pope for that, but in death and purgatory or heaven or hell or wherever the fuck they were – he guessed he was. “Take us for a boat ride, son – and we’ll go home.” 

He would never go home – at least not to the one that actually felt like home, the one he yearned for. He didn’t even know what his mother meant – much less wherever the fuck it was. 

“I know you have doubts – and that it’s hard for you to trust –” she began, voice breaking as she fit her fingers in between his. “–but I’ve been hurt, too – by the same people that hurt you. Can you trust me? Just once?”

After all he had been through – he didn’t know how he had the strength to even lift his gaze to reach hers. Her eyes were glassy and red, almost raw. He didn’t like the look of it. He found himself wanting to wipe it way with a towel – anything to get it to go away. The same raw look in his eyes was the same raw ache in his chest, and he knew that she had felt the same way. They were mother and son, bound by the same curses and people that trapped them in death. The hurt those people inflicted – it opened and hurt – festering like an infected wound – demanding to be felt, and demanding to spread, demanding to infect everything in its fucking path and leave no survivors. There was no fight left in him, nor his mother. He didn’t have the energy to keep up his walls. His defenses. The things that kept him alive for so long in a world that wanted to crush him. He needed safety. He needed salvation. He needed a place to rest his head because for once in his fucking life he could admit that he wasn’t strong enough to even turn his nose up at the thing that only wanted to kick him down and keep him there. He needed… he needed… he needed –

“Just this once,” he spoke, squeezing her fingers back.

She led the way, and JJ Maybank embarked on his last ever adventure: getting to know the woman that had waited his whole life to meet and love him. 

And he couldn’t wait to tell his friends when he saw them next. 

---

love you guys lmk what you think xoxox