#doesn’t mean you agree with their actions

[waynes-multiverse]

What d’you mean you didn’t “hate it”?! Those were fucking awesome, love!! Every single one was crafted perfectly (and I fully agree with all of them lol). And as a huge Swiftie, let me just tell you that every time I listen to that song, I think of Soldier Boy without fail 😂🤍

Favorite lines below the cut:

He’s a walking contradiction.

He can be crude and crass and violent, but his hands that are scarred and calloused from years of supposed war and bloodshed, are so uncharacteristically gentle when they touch you like he’s terrified of breaking something he doesn’t know how to stitch back together.

That’s such a beautiful description of him 😭💕

"Fuck, you’ve ruined me" he murmurs one night, pressing his forehead to yours, breath warm against your lips. “You made me a goddamn pussy.”

This user has melted into a puddle 🫠🫠🫠

But he’s fluent in actions.

I loved that comparison! He does seem like someone who’d be better at actions than words 💚

He’s an asshole. A menace. A walking disaster.

The son of all bastards 😂🫶

“Because it was fucking beeping” he answers when you find bullet holes in your microwave.

Dead 🤣🤣 Gramps ain’t a fan of the microwave, I see lol

Loving Soldier Boy is fighting for feminism while actively losing the war.

Truer words have never been spoken when it comes to SB lmao

He’s trying? (He’s not.)

He didn’t mean to? (He absolutely did.)

He’s a work in progress? (Is he?)

Ahaha I loved this! Such a realistic layer to loving him 😂

Absolutely amazing job, Pam! They were beautifully written, damn funny, and even a little fluffy 😍💚💚💚

Loving Soldier Boy…

Soldier Boy x reader (drabble)

Summary: Just a short n’ (bitter)sweet drabble about what it’s like to love Ben.

Warnings: language, innuendos (c’mon, it’s Ben), mention of violence

Song inspo: I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can) by Taylor Swift.

Loving Soldier Boy isn’t easy.

You knew Soldier Boy was a handful. Hell, he knows he’s a handful. And you know Ben has never been handled before. Not properly. Not by someone who knows when to push and when to pull, when to hold steady and when to let go.

But you?

You thought you had him figured out.

He’s bad news — at least that’s what everyone keeps telling you.

“That man is not safe” MM says, arms crossed.

“He’s straightdown psychotic” Annie agrees, looking at you like she’s waiting for the spell Ben must have put on you to break.

Hughie just grimaces, rubbing the back of his neck. “Are you sure about this? Like, really sure?”

Frenchie sighs. “I have seen many dangerous men, mon coeur, but that one?” He shakes his head. “That one is the iceberg that sinks the ship.”

Even Kimiko seems to eye you with pity.

And Butcher — he just tsked.

“That’s a bloody dangerous game you’re about to play, luv.”

But all that didn’t matter.

Not when Ben flashes you that cocky, wolfish grin. Not when he pulls you in with that fiery gaze that makes your pulse stutter. Not when he touches you like you’re the only thing keeping him from unraveling completely.

He’s a walking contradiction.

He can be crude and crass and violent, but his hands that are scarred and calloused from years of supposed war and bloodshed, are so uncharacteristically gentle when they touch you like he’s terrified of breaking something he doesn’t know how to stitch back together.

And you love it.

You love that you make him hesitate.

That you make him stay.

"Fuck, you’ve ruined me" he murmurs one night, pressing his forehead to yours, breath warm against your lips. “You made me a goddamn pussy.”

Loving Soldier Boy is mastering the skill of interpreting nonverbal communication.

You see, Ben isn’t good with words. Not the important ones, anyway.

But he’s fluent in actions.

Like how he always, always keeps a hand on you — your waist, your back, the nape of your neck — like he needs the physical contact to remind himself you’re real and still with him.

Or how, when you’re pissed at him, he won’t apologize outright, but he will fix your coffee just the way you like it, set it down in front of you with a grunt and a pointed look, like There. Happy now?

Or the way he watches you when he thinks you’re not looking. Like he’s trying to memorize every inch of you because no matter how much of a dick he is sometimes, the thought of him possibly outliving you haunts him.

He’s an asshole. A menace. A walking disaster.

And yet, when he pulls you into his lap, his fingers threading through your hair, his lips ghosting over yours—

You think maybe he’s worth the trouble.

Loving Soldier Boy is a delicate art.

It’s catching the flicker of rage in his eyes before he explodes, steering him away from the fire instead of into it.

It’s letting him run his mouth, knowing that half the shit he says is just to get a rise out of people, and the other half—

Well.

“Because it was fucking beeping” he answers when you find bullet holes in your microwave.

Ben’s not stupid.

But when he came back from the dead, or, you know, from 40 years of being locked up, you’re starting to realize… he might not be as up to date as he thinks.

You blink. “Because it was beeping?”

“Yeah.” He shrugs, leaning back against the counter like he didn’t just pull some absolute batshit nonsense. “Wouldn’t shut the hell up.”

“That’s… literally its job, Ben.”

“Well, now it’s unemployed.” He smirks. “Like half the people I’ve worked with.

Loving Soldier Boy is like wrestling with a live grenade.

Violence isn’t just second nature to Ben — it’s first.

He doesn’t do restraint.

Like the time some guy got a little too close to you at a club and ended up with a broken jaw — because Ben doesn’t do warnings either.

Or the time he punched a cop without even thinking about the consequences.

“To be fair, he was being a dick.”

“He was giving you a parking ticket.”

Ben scoffs. “Exactly.”

“Oh my God.”

“What?” He throws his hands up, all mock innocence. “I told him not to touch my car.”

Loving Soldier Boy is fighting for feminism while actively losing the war.

There’s something infuriating about Ben’s shameless, unapologetic brand of horniness.

His jokes are always just a little too loud, just a little too offensive, making you cringe even as he smirks, because he knows damn well what he’s doing.

And yet, you’d be lying if you said you didn’t enjoy it.

And he knows it.

No matter how many times you glare at him, no matter how often you mutter “Ben, we are in public”, he sees the way your breath hitches, the way your thighs press together when he leans in too close, and he can practically smell the forming pool in your panties.

“C’mon, sweetheart.” His voice is low, dripping with amusement. “Don’t act like you don’t love it when I talk dirty to you.”

You glare at him. “You literally just told the bartender that I needed something ‘to keep my mouth occupied.’”

Ben grins. “And I stand by that.”

You fight the urge to groan. “You are insufferable.”

He leans in, his lips just barely brushing against your ear. “But you like me insufferable.”

And fuck.

Maybe you do.

Loving Soldier Boy is realizing you’re the one really losing the fight.

When the team calls you out on his bullshit, you just sit there and listen.

You have no defense.

Because what are you even supposed to say?

He’s trying? (He’s not.)

He didn’t mean to? (He absolutely did.)

He’s a work in progress? (Is he?)

And despite what everyone says — despite the fact that he probably won’t ever change — you can’t seem to stop yourself from diving headfirst into the madness.

Maybe you can’t fix him.

But damn if he doesn’t make it worth trying.

The chokehold this man has on me is insane — help

Also… This sat in my drafts for months, but I gave it a reread and didn’t completely hate it — so here you go. Hope you enjoyed!🤍

xx Pam

[dostoyevsky-official]

The Courts Can’t Stop the Trump-Musk Coup

Many of Trump’s orders are illegal, and unconstitutional, and brazenly so. Most good-faith lawyers can see that, but “good faith” does not describe the current state of the federal judiciary. Trump and MAGA have captured and corrupted the courts: They have seeded the lower courts with federal judges more loyal to Trump and his white-supremacist movement than they are to the law. They have stacked the Supreme Court with justices hostile to civil rights and equality. This doesn’t mean that cases brought by the ACLU, AFL-CIO, or Democratic state attorneys general are destined to fail. Their cases are righteous (and, legally speaking, right) and must be brought. Some might even succeed.

But the courts will not “save” us. They will not be the backstop protecting us from the Trump-Musk takeover, and any person who tells you otherwise, especially if that person is an elected Democrat in Congress, is selling you an excuse for inaction and complacency. Trump and Musk are barbarians at the gate; calling in the lawyers to tell them they’re trespassing isn’t going to halt their advance. Courts are not known for their harm prevention—they’re best used when trying to hold someone accountable for the harm they already caused.

The most obvious reason for this is that the courts move slowly. They are designed to move slowly. [...] If we’re very lucky, in a year or two we’ll get final rulings on whether Trump is allowed to do the bad things he started doing two weeks ago.

[...] The quickest tools the courts have at their disposal is the “temporary restraining order” (aka “TRO”) and the “nationwide injunction.” You’ve likely heard these terms before. These are temporary orders issued by a court that purportedly prevent the implementation of new laws or policies pending a full trial (or hearing) and ruling on the “merits” of a legal challenge. Often, these temporary orders themselves are appealed all the way to the Supreme Court (which potentially delays the timeliness of these emergency actions), with the administration trying to lift the temporary stops so it can implement its policies while the courts sort out whether the policy is legal.

[...] In theory, these orders should be effective stopgaps. The problem is that the court has no enforcement mechanism. It has no army, no police force, no power to impose its will. Instead, the executive—in this case the president—is supposed to enforce the court’s orders. But what if Trump doesn’t? There is little reason to believe that Trump will enforce an adverse court ruling against himself. There is no reason to believe he’ll enforce one against Musk. He’s clearly not interested in enforcing the court order (and, you know, the entire piece of legislation passed by Congress and signed by his predecessor) against TikTok.

[...] Consider the constitutional crisis unfolding right now. Musk has reportedly seized access to the private information of every US taxpayer, and the payroll information of every government employee. He has no right to this information but… he has it. Who’s going to undo that damage? A court order released Thursday afternoon purportedly limited Musk’s access to Treasury files to two “special employees” with “read-only” access to the data. Musk has reportedly agreed to follow those rules. Who is going to make sure he does? Who is going to lead the crack team of forensic digital investigators to make sure that Musk is in compliance with this or any future court order? My guess is “no one.” Musk currently has a stranglehold on the government, and enforcement of his limitations is going to run on the “trust me, bro” system.

[...]There are any number of Trump orders that this Supreme Court is going to rubber-stamp, all while promoting the conservatives’ “unitary executive theory” that grants the president powers more commonly associated with those of a king. As we’ve already seen with the court’s decision to grant Trump immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, Roberts and his co-conspirators have pre-decided that the best way to handle Trump is to ride it out, generally give him what he wants, and accrue as much power for themselves as possible. Power that they’ll be happy to redeploy once he’s gone and they are again dealing with an executive who will faithfully enforce their orders, like literally any sad-sack Democrat who ever manages to win election again.

I’m not saying that the courts do not matter. As I said, some good decisions will squeak through. [...] But the courts will not save us. Even a friendly court is not designed to save democracy from a democratically elected president, and most courts are not our friends to begin with.

[infiniteeight8]

Stephen is desperate for Tony to love him back, to the point that he uses his knowledge of Tony to manipulate him into a relationship. (Potentially manipulates things so Tony and Pepper break up? Or this could be after that?) After all, he knows he'll treat Tony right, what does it matter how they get to this point. The ends justify the means, right?

I love this prompt so much. 😃 So much potential here. *rubs hands together*

This is a “they won on Titan” AU. So Pepper and Tony are, prior to this fic, engaged. I did a google for how long Pepper has known Tony and landed on almost 20 years, since she says she’s been curating his art collection for ten years in Iron Man 2 (2010) and Infinity War happens in 2018.

-

Stephen knows the instant Tony lands on the Sanctum’s doorstep. By the time the armor is retracted and the Sanctum’s doors have swung open for him, Stephen is already halfway down the stairs. Tony stalks into the foyer and the doors quickly close behind him. A protective gesture, Stephen’s connection to the Sanctum tells him. “Tony. Is everything okay?”

“The wedding’s off,” Tony says shortly. He starts pacing.

Stephen’s heart lifts. “I’m sorry,” he says carefully. 

Tony snorts. “Don’t be. I’m the one who called it off. Pepper’s probably still trying to call me.”

“What happened?” Stephen positions himself so that Tony will pass close to him on his traverses of the foyer, but doesn’t try to stop him.

“I took your advice,” Tony says, “and talked to Pepper about DUM-E and U. About what they would need if something happened to me.”

“I take it that didn’t go well.” It never had in any of the futures Stephen had seen. 

“Understatement of the year.” Tony raises his hands and scrubs them through his hair. “Pepper has known me for nearly twenty years. She was around when DUM-E literally saved my life! She’s known him and U almost as long. How can she not get it? How did I not realize that she doesn’t get it?”

“If you explained—”

“No,” Tony cuts him off, as Stephen knew he would. There’s a line to tread here; Stephen can’t risk making Tony feel defensive of Pepper. “If she doesn’t get it after all this time, she never will. And frankly, after what she said, I’m not interested in giving her the chance.”

Stephen winces. “That bad?”

Tony stops pacing and turns to face Stephen. “She said, and I quote, “Tony, I know you’re attached to these things, but this is really too far. They’re machines, not children.’”

Stephen lets himself look as appalled as he feels. That was one of the more extreme options. “She called them things?”

Tony barks a harsh laugh. “Yeah. And when I told her that I made them and they have thoughts and personalities of their own and that as far as I’m concerned that does make them my kids, she asked if I’d thought about having real kids. Like we weren’t even talking about the bots anymore, like that conversation was over.”

“I’m sorry, Tony,” Stephen says gently. “I can’t imagine how anyone could meet either DUM-E or U and not understand that they’re people.”

“Me neither,” Tony deflates. “But I’m starting to think that you and I are two of a kind there. I mean, did the other wizards recognize Levi?” Tony waggles his fingers in belated greeting and Levi waved a corner at him. 

“The Ancient One once called Levi ‘fickle’,” Stephen says dryly.

“Yeah, no, she clearly didn’t understand them at all,” Tony agrees. He sighs and takes a heavy seat on the Sanctum’s steps. “I thought I was finally going to get my happily ever after, you know?”

Stephen sits beside him. “Would the kind of white picket fence life that Pepper wanted really have made you happy?” he asks. It actually had, in some of those futures. But Tony could be just as happy, often happier, living a different life with Stephen.

“I don’t know,” Tony says. “But I was willing to try.”

Levi flares out and wraps around Tony’s shoulders, giving him a kind of hug where Stephen can’t, not quite yet. And if the action pulls Tony against Stephen for a moment or two, well, so much the better. Levi has been on board with Stephen’s plan from the beginning.

Tony laughs and pats the fold of cloak curled around him. “Thanks, Levi.” He turns to Stephen, almost close enough to kiss. They aren’t there yet, but Stephen can’t help thinking about it. Tony goes on, oblivious. “Want to come hang out with the bots with me? I’m feeling the need for some quality time.”

Stephen smiles. “I’d love to.” 

Everything is going exactly as planned.

[chimuelo2005-blog]

More yapping about Jayce and his relationship with Viktor and Mel cause why not?

One of the most interesting things about Jayce’s character arc is how Mel and Viktor act as these two opposing forces in his life; both guiding him, both shaping him, but in very different ways. Mel represents power, ambition, legacy, the political weight of Hextech and everything it could be. Viktor represents innovation, raw intellect, and the heart of why Hextech even exists in the first place. Jayce is caught between them, constantly being pulled in two directions.

Mel teaches Jayce how to navigate Piltover, how to gain and control his power instead of letting it control him. She gives him the tools to actually use Hextech as more than just an invention— turn it into something that changes the world. Without her, he never would’ve made it onto the council, never would’ve learned how to play politics, never would’ve become the leader Piltover needed. But at the end of the day? Jayce was never truly Mel’s.

Because no matter how much Mel shapes him, no matter how much power she hands him, Jayce’s first and strongest connection is always Viktor. His first choice is always Viktor. Viktor is the reason Hextech exists. Viktor is the reason Jayce even believes in progress in the first place. And you see it in the way Jayce prioritizes him over and over again.

Mel offers Jayce power, and yeah, he takes it—but he hesitates. He falters. With Viktor? There’s no hesitation. Jayce is willing to risk everything for Viktor in a way he never does for Mel. Like, when Viktor starts slipping away, Jayce drops everything. He stops caring about politics, about his reputation, about the carefully constructed path Mel laid out for him. The second Viktor needs him, that’s it. He’s done playing the game. He’s ready to throw away everything if it means saving him. Mel is an influence in his life. Viktor is his foundation.

And what’s really sad about all of this is that Mel knows. She sees it. She knows that at the end of the day, she’s teaching Jayce how to be powerful, but Viktor is the one who actually owns his heart. She sees how quickly Jayce pulls away from her when Viktor starts getting worse, how his priorities shift without a second thought. She spent the entire second part of the show shaping Jayce into a leader, a politician, a visionary—but the second Viktor is in danger, Jayce doesn’t care about any of that. He only cares about him.

Mel may have given Jayce power, but Viktor is the only person he was ever willing to lose that power for. Mel was the one who taught Jayce how to build an empire. But Viktor? Viktor is the one thing that could make him burn it all down.

And that says everything about Jayce.

I've seen some people in the reblogs make good points I missed while making the post, so I'll add them here.

This post is about jayce's perception or what I think his perception is based on his actions. Once said that: No, Mel is not the black girlfriend, that's a huge disrespect of her character, she's a powerful, intelligent woman with complexities and flaws that go far beyond some guy.

I agree that Jayce loved Mel, to a certain point. His favoritism towards Viktor is not even conscious most of the time. He obviously loved and cared for her, if he didn't they wouldn't have been together. My point is that he loved her in a way that would never be matched to the way he loves Viktor, and that's ok. They are two separate people, it's obvious Jayce won't love them the same.

While writing the script, I believe the writers made their relationship to put Jayce between a rock and a hard place at times. Mel is progress, she's powerful, beautiful, kind, She symbolizes everything Jayce wants to achieve (talking about her symbolism in jayce's character, not her own character) . Viktor is his foundation, he's beginning, he's the constant in his life even before he knew it. That's what I mean by saying Jayce was never fully Mel's.

I agree that as a fandom we don't talk enough about characters individually, but I firmly believe that there are characters that you need to talk about while talking about others. You cannot really talk deeply about Mel without talking about her mom, her brother and so on.

I love my girl Mel and I will yap about her soon because she's just too pretty and interesting not to.

[controlcontrol]

Tonight is race night!

This is a project for the entire community of Starlight Express role play blogs of Tumblr! Every character is welcome to participates, including doubles, any production, and OCs!

Here is how this will work:

Please read carefully before joining the community!

A community will be made for this tournament, joining is necessary to sign up.

Pairing is necessary- specially between an engine character and a carriage character (a carriage can be freight, coach, component, etc.)

When you join the community, there will be a post in which you submit your pairing- one engine and one coach (posted through your rp account) stating the character’s names, their @‘s, which production they are from or whether they are an oc, as well as if they are an engine or a coach.

In this community, there will be a post meant for finding a racing partner- but it is very much encouraged to roleplay these interactions out outside of the community beforehand! Please ensure that both parties are agreeing to partner up before one of them submits a pairing.

Depending on how many sign up, the first round of races will consist of groups of 3 or 4 pairs. There will be one winner of each race, and those winners will be split into groups of 3 or 4 pairs for the next round of races. So on and so forth, until a winner is declared.

A community post will be made offering different dates for each race in the first round, which pairs can determine which would work best for their schedules and sign up for the best date. It is not necessary to be attentive all day during the race, as long as you respond at least every 3 hours. If you fail to respond to a turn notification within an hour, your turn will be skipped. When the groups for each race in the first round of races are declared, the participants will be @‘d in a post on the Control account both inside and outside of the community.

When a race begins, all participants will be @‘d in a post in the community and a separate post on the Control account. Do not reblog with an action until what the action is, who does it, and the order is sorted out inside the community. Under the post inside the community, details including whose turn is first will be added to the post under which actions will be sorted. The engine of the first pairing will describe what it is they want to do in a reply under that post- ex. “Greaseball pushes Golden Eagle aside to get in front of him.” Control will roll a dice to determine if the action succeeds, fails, or if nothing happens. This will be determined with the roll of a 20-sided die. 1-7 means a fail, meaning the action somehow backfires and sets the racer back a place. Ex: In response, Control would reply with the action, “Fail! Greaseball trips while trying to push Golden Eagle.” 8-12 means nothing happens. Control would reply with, “Nothing happens! Greaseball misses.” In this case, the racer would maintain their previous order. 13-20 means a success, in which Control would reply with, “Success! Greaseball pushes Golden Eagle to the ground.” A successful action against another participant can knock a competitor down a place, but would not push the racer taking the action up a place. If the action is not taken against another racer (ex: “Greaseball takes a shortcut”) can boost the racer up a place if successful. Offensive actions can only be taken against other racers either directly in front of or behind the train taking the action (during the first round of turns, this doesn’t apply). Yes you can start fights! A fight will lower the places of both parties, but the loser (determined by a coin flip) will be knocked out of the race.

The carriages take an action too, and can either support their engine (ex: Dinah knocks into Golden Eagle) or to sabotage their engine (ex: Dinah brakes to slow Greaseball down). These work the same as engine turns, but are taken after the other partner.

Be creative with your actions! Inspiration points can be awarded if your action is particularly interesting, giving the racer advantage on the next turn (an extra dice roll). Yes, powers or skills specific to a character can be utilized. If you are unsure about whether you can take an action, don’t be afraid to ask.

When the outcome of an action is determined in the community post, the racer playing the action will move to reblog the race announcement post on the Control account describing what happened. The train taking the first action will reblog the original post, then their carriage will reblog from the first engine’s action when their own action is determined, the next engine will repost from the last carriage’s repost, so on and so forth.

There will be a total of 4 rounds of turns from each pair, and the final placement will determine the winner of that race. The winner of each race in the first round of races will move on to the next round.

Please let me know if you have any questions! This is a lot of information, so please let me know if you don’t understand.

Please reblog to spread the word!

Here is the community:

Race time minus one minute! Race time minus one minute!

[didalexiabreakupwitholgaisback]

i think two things can be true at once

mapi intended to tap daniela’s leg and does not and daniela feels violated by an action that from her pov is intentional

daniela is still the victim regardless of anything else that happens

but mapi genuinely believes she’s done nothing wrong hence the nature of that statement (i take great issue with the ‘alleged’ wording surrounding the online abuse because that is in no way ambiguous

mapi obviously at the very least still needs to apologise to daniela, even if she doesn’t believe she touched her or intended to touch her where she did. daniela still felt violated and deserves an apology

i don’t think mapi is this big bad predator that everyone has made her out to be, i honestly believe it was unintentional from her viewpoint but it’s caused real harm to daniela that needs to be addressed and in which the statement was lacking

thanks everyone for sending me your thoughts. i'm making a master post with different perspectives under the cut, but at the end of the day, i think we can all agree that this situation calls for a lot more empathy than what we have seen so far...

this doesn't need to be a situation where you are defending mapi. bottom line is that touching occurred. we can argue whether she touched her leg or private areas, but it doesn't change the fact that there was no need for mapi to touch daniela at all. and second, it negates daniela's own lived experience too.

either way it's intentional and not needed. mapi should not have done it, and 100% agreed that a little empathy goes a long way.

yes, like i've said before, there is a way to defend yourself without losing all empathy.

we don't know these players. and even if we do, that doesn't mean that people we know cannot act in a bad manner. rivalry or not, you cannot stoop so low as to retaliate in such a manner. this is a serious matter and cannot be reduced to a derby. we sure need to take this seriously!

the truth is rarely black and white, but what is more black and white is that there is no need to engage in any type of touching that has nothing to do with the play itself.

i hope it doesn't affect it at all. it shouldn't but people have their agendas...

it wasn't the right tactic. i would have handled things very differently and think the club has a lot to answer for as well.

i'm going to have to disagree with you in the "expected" part of contact. sorry but we need to change the attitude that being grabbed and groped should not be expected. that's not a part of football and we should not accept that it is.

there's a lot to unpack in your response, anon. but i think i've addressed a lot of it in my previous responses. bottom line, multiple things can be true at once, but the touching shouldn't have occurred at all.

[eneslobby]

I’m just going to talk about the “abuse” implication here. I’m a Caitlyn defender, but that doesn’t mean I think her actions her *justified*. I mean that I understand how circumstances and emotions led her to hit vi.

In my eyes, vi is not innocent here at all, at least not from Cait’s perspective. I completely agree that vi stopping Caitlyn from shooting was a good thing and I’m glad she did it, but in Caitlyn’s eyes it was a betrayal. Vi, before they found jinx, was basically telling Cait that her sister is gone and just shoot to kill her. Vi, in this way, fed into Caitlyn’s revenge, justifying her and giving her thumbs up to kill her sister.

So when they fight jinx, caitlyn is in overwhelming distress because she is facing the creature of her nightmares and is so tunnel visioned she can’t see anything else, not even that she’s about to shoot a child. She wants so badly to kill jinx and expects vi to be on her side, but then vi stops her from taking the shot (vi did the right thing here). This is the second time vi stops Caitlyn from taking the shot. After the first time, Cait was blaming herself and not vi (I think deep down she was blaming vi a little bit). But after the second time, Caitlyn is fully blaming vi. Caitlyn feels betrayed by the very person that encouraged her earlier and she thought stood by her side (and I kinda understand her). Caitlyn tells her that vi is no different from her sister, and then vi tells Cait that “she is the one acting like her”. I agree with vi here, but can you imagine hearing the person you love comparing to your kidnapper and your mother’s killer? In Caitlyn’s eyes, vi chose jinx over her and she’s enraged and feels betrayed. Caitlyn is trying to get away from vi in that moment, but vi stops her. Caitlyn, who in a in a state of rage right after a panic attack from facing jinx, hits vi with the back of her gun and and leaves her there.

Now, what Caitlyn has done is bad and we should definitely be upset at that (I can’t even rewatch this scene Because it upsets me so much). She hurt vi deeply, but when you call her an abuser is when you lose me. For a person in immense pressure that feels so betrayed by the other person, it makes sense to hit them to push them away. It’s not okay, but it is understandable. Usually anti Cait people just call her an abuser and don’t try to understand her side and that’s what upsets me. Vi and cait both hurt each other in that situation, but only Cait gets the blame.

To sum up, what upsets me is that anti Cait people don’t try to understand both sides and call Caitlyn an abuser for snapping in a high pressure situation. Caitlyn is not justified, but she is not an abuser nor vi is completely innocent here. They are both flawed humans in a tv show where tragedies happen regularly. So in my eyes the haters never really criticize the writing, they just don’t like what happened and can’t make sense of it, so they are trying to blame the “bad” writing.

Sorry for the long post I’m passionate about this.

MY TAKE ON THE CAITVI DISCOURSE

total wordcount: 1591

I will say that I've briefly commented on their dynamic in the past, but it was worded really badly so I feel like I need to defend my writing skills a little bit as well with this, but that's just a sidenote. 💀

I think what a lot of people are missing when people do criticise CaitVi is that they aren't necessarily hating on the ship, it's what writing choices have done to it.

I'm not even going to even say I'm a CaitVi hater, I'm not (S1 CaitVi my beloved, you deserved better), but I do think the choices that writers made this season heavily effected how audiences portrayed the ship, even including myself.

Idk I hope this insight might give some people more perspective on why CaitVi became so hated in this season, people rlly need to start looking at both sides and not taking criticism as a personal attack. It really could've been avoided too if the writers had added more time or extended the series onto a third season, but that's another issue on its own.

1. Caitlyn hits Vi

I really don't get why people are so quick to defend Caitlyn on this one, especially considering the amount of hate Vi got when she hit Powder. Are both inexcusable? Yes. But I do think that the situation is a little different when it's a fifteen year old child who had just witnessed the death of her entire family and a twenty something year old woman who took out her anger and grief on the woman she loved because she blocked her shot.

I do think that people also do ignore the immense amount of trauma that Caitlyn suffered at the hand of Jinx, but unlike when Vi 'abandoned' Powder, (again, that's a whole other conversation, we know she was not abandoned), Vi was not that direct source of anguish to Caitlyn the way Powder was to Vi. (Pls lmk if you want me to expand further on this)

Again, not excusing Vi hitting Powder, I'm pointing out the differences.

It's then also incredibly tone deaf when Caitlyn hits her on two more occasions with the same gun, the third time being played off as a joke. It really doesn't come off well, especially when Vi had been a victim of police-brutality even before the abuse she faced at the hands of the enforcers in Stillwater.

And then, even after all this, it's never addressed. It's brushed over, like Vi's entire trauma in the show, the most we get is Caitlyn brushing her hand over Vi's abdomen in the cell scene. Again, can be taken as an apology, but I think that for some very specific things (like hitting your romantic partner), verbal apologies do need to be made in order to communicate healthily and somewhat build a healthier relationship.

I don't really want to talk about the abusive implications of this, because I don't think I'm someone who can talk about it with a full understanding because that's something I've fortunately never been through, but the blatant disregard and shunning of abuse survivors when they pull up the red flags raised because of this is disgusting. In real life, or if it had even been someone else in the show, if the ship had been a heterosexual relationship, people would call Caitlyn an abuser and would be outraged that Vi had been paired with her in the end. But I digress.

1. The cell sex scene

Initially I hadn't been too bothered about this when I had first watched the episode, but when you really think about it, it shouldn't have happened. Hell, they could've had sex in Caitlyn's office and half of the criticism wouldn't have happened, the ship wouldn't be so hated and the fandom wouldn't be half as divided as it is now (from what I've seen).

First and foremost, the cell.

All I can say is wtf. It was such a poor choice it's actually unfathomable to me now. I don't know why the writers thought that it'd be a good idea for Caitlyn and Vi to have their first time in a jail cell, not only the one Jinx had been locked in, but the one Vi had herself been locked in for what we can assume to be hours. The place of her abuse should not be somewhere where the writers could possibly think would be a suitable for a victim to have such an intimate moment with her partner.

Then there's the fact that Vi had looked to have had some sort of breakdown, we see she's sh and there are literal crates in the wall from where she punched it as well as her knuckles bleeding. As soon as she sees Caitlyn, there's a parallel to when they first met, to when Vi is quite literally caged. She's clearly not in the right state of mind, and so when the scene eventually happens it inevitably comes off as wrong because Vi is incredibly emotionally vulnerable in that moment.

"But Vi initiated it!" That still doesn't make it okay. I do think that this also came with an issue of timing, but then again, as I mentioned earlier, it literally could've been in the office as they argued and it would've been recieved so much better then the cell scene was. Vi wasn't breaking down, she wasn't locked in a reminder of the abuse she faced and her sister hadn't just ran off to do goodness knows what (in Vi's POV, us as the audience know exactly what she's about to do). They could've even have it fade to black and cut to the next scene tangled in bed doing whatever they would've been doing in the cell, Vi would assumably have had time to calm down, would be having sex in a warm and safe environment, and guess what? The audience would've been even happier.

Sure there would've been criticism, but Vi could literally save a thousand babies and adopt them all and still face hate, because a lot of the hate is being directed to Vi too because of the situation with Jinx. That, again, is a whole other situation.

3. "Dirt Under Your Nails"

Again, for the love of god, there can be so many takeaways from this sentence but do not be surprised that people didn't like it. I didn't, it made me cringe horribly.

And before people throw 'media literacy is dead', this whole post (practically essay), is analysing a piece of media that I love. To be literate, you can draw different interpretations and conclusions and that's exactly what I'm doing. It's like saying literacy is dead if two people were to disagree on what the meaning of Macbeth's quote 'I am in blood' meant.

I digress.

I think the main issue here is the class difference between Vi and Cait. Caitlyn is from the aristocracy, a direct heir to a position of power in Piltover, while Vi is lower class, effected indefinitely by growing up in poverty. Even though she grew up as Vander's kid, they were still 'scraping for scraps'. The wealth margin between the two is almost immeasurable, and with the difference in money comes a difference in experiences, as we - the audiences - know.

It especially comes off wrong considering the class tensions and political themes heavily focussed on within the first season. The conflict between Piltover and Zaun, the abuse of power and exploitation of Zaunites by both topside and the chembarons, the prevalence of police brutality on the streets of the Undercity. Again, Vi is someone who is directly effected by this, while Caitlyn came into this blissfully naïve. She did learn yes, and in s1 she was so determined to help, but when then this progress reverts into her calling zaunites 'animals' and using the grey as a weapon, it again makes Vi's words feel uncomfortable.

Again, I think this was a massive timing issue, I would've love to see Caitlyn succumb fully to a villain arc. It would've been so interesting to delve into.

I think Vi has always had the image of herself that she'll always be viewed as less by Piltover, that she herself views herself as less. She says it herself to Vander in s1 ep2 while they're on the bridge, "I grew up knowing I'm less than them." So when she then says as her final words in the show, "I'm the dirt under your nails" obviously, that's going to come across as tacky.

People are free to think of romantic connotations for this, I won't stop you, but when you think about how the show was so focussed on class tensions, police brutality, oppression and exploitation, it doesn't come off right. Idk, that's what got me so interested with the show in the first place, the way these themes were explored so deeply but subtly in a way that didn't feel forced, so Vi's words really rubbed me the wrong way.

Conclusion

So I hope everyone that read somewhat gets where I'm coming from, this was my attempt to try and explain what I think needed to be, badly. Again, you can like the ship, I'm not saying I don't, but it also needs to be acknowledged that there is so many things that could've been worked on properly, done properly or addressed properly, and ignoring criticism won't help these issues to be fixed in the future.

Feel free to ask any questions and thanks for reading this long ass rant :)

[scribe-cas]

hiii!! i'm coming with an ask for the wip folder names tag!! i'm curious to hear more about "rose colored glasses" - it's such a nice title :D

OMG HI!!!

Okay, so long story short, Rose~Colored Glasses is my hyperfixation fanfiction.

I’m not sure if you’re in the Hazbin Hotel fandom, but if you know me you know I love fucked up characters.

So of course, the moment an abusive bitch walked on screen, I found myself enamored and filled with the need to pick apart their entire personality (despite them being on screen for less than three minutes total and speaking no lines. At all.) because I love psychoanalysis and frankly, traumatized and terrible people are way more fun to pick apart personality wise for me than anyone mentally healthy.

So what I did after gaining a fixation on this one specific character, going by my mindset of “you weren’t always evil. So what got you there?”, is I broke down every single thing they did that could possibly be a trauma response, located a reasonable kind of trauma for them to have, added on a few headcanons, coping mechanism and personality wise, and then proceeded to fantheorize on his backstory.

Basically, this fanfiction is me being self indulgent and giving this massively fucked up character therapy, because despite the theme of the show being redemption, people get really angry at this character specifically because he’s abusive. (Personally I think I am allowed to like him anyways because everyone else’s faves murder characters on screen during the first 5 minutes. Either all fictional crimes are bad or none of them are. If you can like the cannibal killer I can enjoy the abusive moth thank you very much). So I honestly doubt very highly that he’ll be getting an actual decent storyline, or be made out to be anything more than a one dimensional caricature that is “Angel’s abuser”, before being killed off to the delight of most of the audience. So I’m being nice to myself and exploring the nuances of his character outside of canon :>

Anyways if you’d like to read it, I’ve got like 5 chapters published on AO3 and if you’d like spoilers, I have at least 90% of an outline done and ngl most of it is a character study /lh, so feel free to let me know! I’m always happy to share :DD

[demigodofhoolemere]

Me through most of Boom: Wow, this is a really solid dramatic episode.

Me when Moffat needlessly sprinkles in anti-faith sentiments without specifying that it’s blind faith in bad things that the Doctor doesn’t like, which makes it come off like the Doctor is just against religion generally:

[swordmaid]

lolth-sworn society beauty standards must be so crazy and strict tho…. like if the red eyes are a gift from lolth and if not every drow are born with the red eyes I just imagine you’d get ostracised if you’re born with white eyes or purple, like ur not wanted by lolth from birth so ur inherently worthless. in the same vein if you also don’t have white hair then you’re treated as an Other bc you don’t look like everyone else. and I imagine that lolth is THE very definition of their beauty standard so they aspire to look like her, and all the beauty trends and ideals are influenced from her or from her spiders and if there’s anything any feature about yourself that deviates from lolth’s standards then you’re considered as ugly and grotesque.

likewise, I’d imagine the upkeep of beauty is a sort of status symbol because if you manage to keep up with the elaborate outfits and hairstyles without worrying someone is gonna kill you with it it means that you have the luxury to be comfortable. and also the means to afford such things in the first place bc resources in the underdark are pretty limited and gems from the surface needs to be imported and id imagine they’d be more expensive bc it’s already so risky going down the underdark let alone doing trade in menzoberranzan.

like unsure if this an actual thing too but I like the hc so it’s real to Me! But I like the idea that hair is essentially a status symbol towards the drows, and they favour elaborate braids and updos that resembles a spider’s web and cocoon, and a way to punish and shame someone is to cut off their long hair. like imagine if the matriarchs wore gigantic elaborate braided hair with all these head pieces and designs to show off the status of their house and the power they themselves have, and the lesser houses’ braids are much more smaller in comparison. she would have the means to do her hair like that daily because she has designated servants and slaves attending to her needs, and she has the money to afford all sorts of accessories. and the same goes for their clothes too, since silk is a favourite amongst the drows and it’s a pretty difficult fabric to work with. I’d also imagine lace being a highly sought out fabric among them since it’s so delicate and flimsy, and it could easily snag. but the fact that you’re able to wear something fragile as lace is a power play in itself since it’s a show off your own strength and power �� kind of like a taunt ?

anyway, this isn’t really going anywhere I’m just typing aloud but I’d imagine in a society where almost everyone’s colouring is similar to each other, where beauty is one of the most infamous traits they’re known to have, and where they claim that red eyes is a gift from the goddess they’re all expect to covet and worship id imagine the beauty standards there are so crazy and toxic lol

[genderqueersammy]

This is one of the funniest things I have ever read

[starrrbakerrr]

“Peeta’s a pacifist!!”

Yet Peeta said: “I want to die as myself(…)I don’t want them to change me in there. Turn me into some kind of monster I’m not(…)when the time comes, I’m sure I’ll kill just like everybody else. I can’t go down without a fight. Only I keep wishing I could think of a way to…to show the Capitol they don’t own me. That I’m more than just a piece in their Games.” In a world so violent, not killing anyone in the Games is an act of resistance.

Yet Peeta committed to giving one month of his earnings as victor to Rue and Thresh’s families every year for the rest of his life. He did this without consulting Effie, Haymitch, or Katniss.

Yet Peeta did not spend his training evaluation with the Gamemakers showing off his strength and skills, but painting a portrait of Rue, a victim of this system. He used art as resistance. And like Katniss, he receives the highest score as punishment and warning. After, Peeta said: “I just wanted to hold them accountable, if only for a moment…for killing that little girl.”

When Peeta asked for a ceasefire, he was being held by the Capitol. And since the book is in Katniss’s point-of-view, we have no idea what he really was thinking. And after his torture, Peeta was in no state to have an opinion. His identity had been broken down and ripped from him. But evidence shows his constant acts of resistance.

Peeta is not a pacifist.

Addition: I forgot this happened…

[no1ryomafan]

In my constant brain rotations of “why are people in the west so hard on mecha aside from the fandom can be a bit unfriendly” I think one thing I realized as much as I hate to say is how mecha is sometimes treated remind me of the constant hatred superhero stuff gets.

It’s such a weird comparison because with mecha I do not know what the root of it was-and I’d love to know why but I feel there’s either no clear answer or there is one and it’s stupid-where as for superheroes in the west while there’s still a dedicated community the mainstream audiences have become tired of them due to over-saturation, which I understand, but it’s caused such a massive dismal to the entire genre of it much like mecha.

People think superhero stories can’t have any substance because it’s all about fighting and not about the characters- yet forget the SIGNIFICANT impact they had to so much pop culture. How superhero stories were rooted within comic popularity, how superheroes inspired countless of stories, even so far as reaching japan since so much early anime was taken off of western media which birthed its own genre of superheroes. It’s no different to how mecha help started up the anime industry making it one of the most important genres to japans history, yet most people don’t know it and belittle it.

Yet in superhero story cases it’s even WORSE when people are against it yet then go to see one superhero movie because it’s animated and put it on a pedestal and don’t bother to try other superhero content even though they consumed is no different from the norm. It’s the exact same shit when people watch eva and then think all other mechas don’t compare to it, when the genre always had darker, mature and emotional elements, just only a select few decide to canter to a audience who doesn’t even accept what genre it’s from which makes it all the more frustrating to deal with.

I’m someone who’s hardly into superhero stuff even if some of it catches my eye but it sucks to see that the situation is pretty identical to how mecha is seen, that I can’t help to feel sympathetic whenever I see some comic book fans upset at the mainstream audience even if they too can be a little hostile.

[theeviltriplet-fromao3]

It is completely ridiculous that this is up for debate.

People are dying.

There shouldn’t be any question, debate or hesitation when it comes to stopping genocide. Not now. Not after what happened to so many cultures in our world’s history. We know better, we should do better. We can’t keep letting the Israeli government kill innocent civilians, people like us.

[sun-lit-goth]

Oh nooo confrontation 🤮 honest opinionsss 🤢

[moraymiso]

fyi if you plan on reposting my shit just to argue with ghosts in the tags and make assumptions about my EXTREMELY summarized version of a complex and nuanced take, please just make your own post

i am happy to discuss this at more length. this, however, is not how you go about that

the strangest thing to me about the BSD fandom is the fact that the vast majority of people in it are dazai fans, while also consistently assuming the absolute worst of him, disregarding the circumstances around his actions and giving him no grace or consideration of his situation whatsoever.

there's no doubt dazai is a bad person in many ways. he did plenty of unjustifiable, inexcusable things. he's pathologically manipulative with a totally skewed moral compass, most of which was undoubtedly brought on by his upbringing in the mafia. but at the same time, i see such a huge number of people taking that and somehow ending up with - and vehemently defending - this idea that he's a remorseless, indifferent, innately cruel person by nature?

are we forgetting this is the same dazai who was forced to false-witness a murder at fourteen years old? the same dazai who already wracked up numerous suicide attempts barely out of his pre-teens?the same dazai who was referred to by everyone around him as a 'demon' at fifteen years old? the same dazai consistently described as having grief-filled, empty expressions and detached, vacant reactions to practically everything when he was so young? the same dazai that oda described as "a child crying in the dark, alone, left to fend for himself with a hole in his heart as large as the world itself"?

that dazai is an indifferent, heartless, innately psychopathic person? really? i'm not convinced.