#don't even come at me for misinterpreting this narration.. i know

[allthegothihopgirls]

'affectionately' 'OUR lives' ???? ok jason 'this isn't a team' todd, what happened to solitude and darkness??? you finally found a twink boyfriend to be solitary and dark with??? i'm going to be sick

[zukkaoru]

i support women's wrongs but i have to say i'm also a rather big fan of consistent characterization,,

[sturnsdc]

ART CLASS AU!

pair: Carl Grimes x fem!reader

synopsis: Yn has feelings for her classmate, Carl, but she never does anything about it. However, things seem to work in her favor when they have to work on a project together for the art class.

warnings: no TWD scenes, just fluff, slight angst, somewhat obsessive behavior ??

words: 2,4k

A/N: to make the narration clearer: at all times, Yn is writing in her diary, which is why at times she will speak about Carl, and at other times it may seem like she’s speaking directly to him (but she’s not)!! For the most part, it’s just a bunch of fragments from her diary, as she explains a bit at the end.

this came to my mind suddenly; i apologize for it being so short.

the words in italics are the lyrics of the song !!

dividers from: @cafekitsune ! ♡

main masterlist carl masterlist

YN´S POV

you look pretty good today

is it me or did you shave?

sometimes i wonder if it's normal, if it's real. With each passing day, he seems to become more handsome, and like a magnet, he keeps drawing my gaze again and again. It feels like i can't control it.

i notice when he wears a new shirt, or when he’s wearing the same pants from a few days ago. I notice when he forgets something, when he’s focused, or when he gets distracted.

i just can’t stop noticing him.

good, you've been looking at me twice as more

so i can see your face

when we make eye contact, i feel like i’m going to die. My heart races, my cheeks turn red, my hands sweat, and i stop breathing. Even my stomach tightens, my whole body tenses up. The first time it happened, i thought i was having an attack.

secretly, i enjoy it because when i feel his gaze, i have an excuse to turn my head, look at him, and smile. I don’t even know where i find the courage, but he smiles back at me, with tight lips, then looks away after a few seconds.

my friends told me not to overthink it, that maybe i’m just misinterpreting things. They say if “i keep analyzing every time we make eye contact”, i’ll end up falling for him, and then he’ll break my heart by not feeling the same way.

you sit across from me in the classroom

but do you even know my name?

then i tried to avoid him. He probably doesn’t even know who i am. Does he even know my name? i doubt it; they hardly ever say it out loud in class. I don’t even know everyone else’s names.

but then everything seems to align, and the teacher walks to that side of the room while giving the lesson, as if she knows i’m following her with my eyes. And there he is, on the other side of the classroom, in his plaid shirt and with those pretty eyes, taking notes on everything she’s saying… while i lose my breath and forget what i was listening to.

Carl... i do know your name.

if you want to ask me how i am

don't hesitate

it was a couple of days after the teacher announced the final project. The art class would have to hold a fair, showcasing our own works, from paintings to ceramics. It had to be in pairs, but we couldn’t pick our usual partners. We had to step out of our bubbles and take a risk.

i thought about him, but my embarrassment consumed me, so i let the days pass. And just two days before the next class, i ran into him in the hallway. He seemed surprised. His blue eyes looked at me in a strange way, almost like he was unsure of something. Then he made a move to come closer, and i started to get nervous.

he did it; i didn’t expect him to. He spoke to me, asked if we could pair up, and all i could do was say yes, with a dazed look and stumbling over my words. Then he smiled, like i’d never seen him smile before. His face lit up, and he walked away, happy.

did i do the right thing? how am i gonna focus if i could barely even speak to him?

'cause you're my cru-cru-crush

and i like you very much

i have to admit, Carl Grimes is a special guy. I can’t stop thinking about him, about the little details i’ve noticed, about the brief interactions we’ve had. It’s like my world is starting to revolve around him.

he’s a gentleman—so masculine yet so gentle. He speaks to me with such care, even though i’ve seen him outside of class, joking roughly and arguing with his friends. He’s the complete opposite.

i like this side of him, when he focuses all his attention on me, asks for my opinion, and smiles at me. I haven’t seen him talk like that with anyone else. 

should i get my hopes up?

and i'd appreciate if you'd like me back

but it's okay 'cause you make my heart

we started talking about the project.

he’s so smart, coming up with amazing ideas, and i stress over not knowing which one to choose. however, he doesn’t seem worried; he waits for my answer patiently, as if we had all the time in the world, which isn’t true since we have to submit the work plan by the end of the class. but he doesn’t pressure me—he asks for my opinion on each idea and helps me weigh the pros and cons.

we chose one together, and then i started writing our plan.

but… something… feels off. We keep making eye contact, and i smile like a fool, watching as he does the same. Is this really happening? i feel like we’re in a bubble. time no longer exists, air isn’t even necessary—just us.

and then i find myself hoping that he feels the same, because i love how it feels to talk to him, to be the center of his attention, even if just for a moment.

an art class

an art class

art class used to be my escape from other subjects, a room where i felt safe. Then i saw him, and it became more than just that. Thinking about art class sends tingles through my body and instantly puts a smile on my face. My heart races like crazy, and i’m filled with excitement. And it’s all because of him.

now, art class has become something that makes me genuinely happy, motivating me to go to school.

even with the project, i’ve never been this excited to work on an assignment before, but now that i’m at his house, meeting his dad and his sister, and then heading to his room to start working on our project… i feel like i love classwork.

why do you always stick to smiling

and sit still being so quiet?

i feel like he's in the hallways more often now, because i see him every day. Sometimes i'm just turning a corner, and there he is, with his group of friends, laughing and being the smiley guy i used to see only once in a while. 

he's everywhere, all the time. What's going on?

now it's impossible not to notice him, because he's always there. Sometimes i don't even have to see him, because i can hear his laugh, or his friends', and i know we’re in the same place. 

how can he be so loud, but so damn quiet in class? i don’t get it.

it's like a completely different version of him, but i don't mind at all, it's just... weird. 

i've been pretty distracted for some days

and it's ruining my diet

the days go by, and each time i get to know him more and more. He's amazing, funny, super smart, mature, and adorable. I've also gotten to know his family better, and i understand more where that calm and controlled side he shows in class comes from.

everything seems wonderful, and i know my feelings are only growing with each passing minute, but he's starting to occupy my mind all the time, and that's becoming a problem.

my friends talk during lunch, but all i can think about is our conversation from the day before, when we got sidetracked from the project, and he started explaining the story of one of his comics. I can remember how his eyes lit up as he told me about it, and i just kept asking questions, even though i already knew the stories. I love the passion with which he spoke about it. I remember his tone of voice, the way he moved his head, and how his eyes looked at me so attentively. I recall almost every word, but then, when my mind is at its peak, i see my friends getting up from their seats, looking at me with puzzled and concerned faces.

lunch ended, and i didn’t even touch my food.

Carl Grimes, i need to figure this out soon.

if you don't take the hint already

i'm afraid i'll start a riot

i’m trying to figure out if it’s just me, Carl, but i really don’t understand—do you look at me the way i look at you?

now i try to avoid looking at you if i don’t have to, but then i feel a constant gaze, and when i turn my head, there you are, trying to look away as quickly as you can. Am i imagining this?

i feel the frustration building inside me, Carl. I need to know.

today, i try wearing different clothes, the ones i save in my closet for occasions outside of class, the ones i wear when i feel confident. But this time, i don’t feel that way. This time, i’m scared. I want you to notice. I want to know if you care, if you’ll say something.

'cause you make my whole world go crazy

yeah, your smell just sends me flying

and you did, Carl. You told me i looked good, then you got nervous and said i always look good, just that this time i looked different. If you only knew how much that meant to me.

since then, days have gone by, and i feel like you’re paying more attention to me— or have you always done that and i’m just now noticing?

you also started wearing a new cologne; it’s stronger and lingers in the air when you pass by me. Is that on purpose? now i can’t stop thinking about how good you smell, and that alone is enough to keep me floating, my mind in paradise, thinking about how much i like you.

'cause you're my cru-cru-crush

and i like you very much

today i told my friends how i feel about you. They looked at me with pity and talked to me like i was a little girl. They say you don’t feel the same, that i’m imagining everything, and that i’ll end up hurt if i keep this up.

am i really that out of my mind? they say i’m obsessed, that i’m seeing things where there aren’t any.

but they were the ones who told me the first time you looked back at me.

and i'd appreciate if you'd like me back

but it's okay 'cause you make my heart

i've spent some nights crying, and now i’m trying to avoid you. It's so hard when we still have to keep working on the damn project.

i’m scared of getting my hopes up. I started this on my own. you’re not to blame, but now i wish i didn’t have to see you for a couple of weeks.

an art class

an art class

and yet, that day of the week arrives, and along with the anxiety, i can feel the excitement trying to break free. My heart races, my hands sweat, and i can’t catch my breath.

“art class,” says the sign on the door, and just that is enough to shake my entire world and bring back the feelings i’m trying to ignore.

all my days

been trying to find a reason to stay

i keep hearing my friends' words every time i see you, and now i feel guilt, embarrassment, and a horrible pain in my chest that settles in my heart, right next to the happiness you bring me. It makes me feel sick and confused.

you've asked me a couple of times if i'm okay, but how could i answer you with the truth?

say my name

and i'll go ahead and pick a date

i'm okay

if you understand that this is fate

the day of the exhibition arrived, and i’m nervous, and you notice it, so you take my hand and smile at me. You told me everything would be fine, that we did great, and that we would do really well.

you were right. Of course you were...

we spent the whole day there, answering questions and receiving compliments. We really did a good job, and everyone keeps saying that.

now i feel exhausted. All day i had to manage my emotions—the mix of anxiety, the pain in my chest, happiness, satisfaction... and love, the damn love. I feel like handling all that drained me more than talking to so many people and repeating the same words over and over.

finally, we can leave, but then you take my hand again and make me look at you. This time you look more serious, and i start to get scared, but you don’t say anything bad.

“i’m going to be honest, Yn, i loved working with you on this and getting to know you better. Since i saw you in class, something about you caught my attention, but i didn’t know how to approach you. This was the perfect opportunity, and i took it. I understand if you don’t feel the same way i do, but if you do... i’d like to get to know you more and see what can come of this.” that’s what you said, your face blushing and your eyes looking everywhere but at me.

if you only knew that when i got home, i cried, feeling so happy, kicking my legs on the bed like a tv character, and squealing into my pillow so no one would hear me. with my face red and a huge smile.

now we’re going on a date, and i just hope this turns out well.

Carl Grimes, what have you done to me?

art class

art class

i don’t even know when i started smiling, but i finished reading aloud and looked around. Carl, beside me, was smiling widely, and our two little ones had tears in their eyes; apparently, they were moved by the story of how it all began.

i recently found my diary from when i was a teenager, and i told Carl about it in front of the girls, and they both begged me to read it to them. Of course, i paused at the perfect part, at the true beginning of our relationship, but within those pages is everything, including the story of our first time and countless anecdotes from our school days.

i will always be grateful for that class because that’s how i got to know the man who makes me happy.

Carl Grimes is more than my words can describe, but i think i did a good job explaining how i fell for him.

who would have thought that a couple of years later, this would be our life?

in the end, maybe it was part of our destiny.

taglist: @jamiesturniolo

[sincerely-sofie]

Chapter 4 of Sofie Plays "Slay the Princess": The Wild (Part 1)

I can hear what sounds to be a crying woman in the background music amidst ethereal vocals and I am not happy about this.

[ Beginning ] - [ Previous Part ] - [ Next Part ]

Okay wait wait wait WAIT. I'm really latching onto that last line but hear me out as I ramble for a bit. The Princess is not human. As far as I know, she can't even die--- though that might just be my bad luck and decision making at play. She describes herself as having no beginning and no end. This game tinkers with the concepts of time being cyclical, and the Hero and the Princess's memories are both untouched by time looping, unlike the memories of the Narrator...

... Is she the reason time is looping? The Princess is without end and beginning. In other words, a circle. Is she the embodiment of a time loop?

Alternate theory is that this game is a surreal allegorical story for man's quest for immortality. The Narrator is somehow a representation of the fear of death, and the Princess's imminent threat of destroying the world isn't as pressing of a threat as the Narrator makes it seem. She's inevitable, but she's not in a rush to end things. She said in the first chapter that she likes the world--- though that might have been a lie, come to think of it. The Hero might be a representation of an individual's struggle with death, and how oftentimes when we fight against it, we only draw closer to it. Maybe the whole "this is a love story" line hints at the Hero accepting the inevitability of death, and therefore falling in love with life?

Y'all I'm just slapping things at the wall and seeing what sticks. I don't think either of these theories will prove to be true, but they sure are fun to speculate over!

Okay yeah no I'm definitely playing an allegory for accepting death aren't I. Mankind trying to fight against death and prolonging lifespans past that which would be natural seems to be the symbolic undercurrent of that line.

Narrator are you even listening? It's the wifey talking. But in a disconcertingly neutral, mystically monotone voice that concerns me.

I wasn't even asking myself that second question before now and now I have MANY CONCERNS.

OH MY WORD the narrator's memories are affected by the loop but he's aware of its existence. That's what this means, right?

... I might have disobeyed the entire premise of the game? Just a little bit?

Okay okay this implies that the Hero, if my "allegory for the inevitability of death" theory is true, doesn't represent mankind. But if he doesn't, then what is he?

YOOOOOO NEW PARTY MEMBER!!!!

I'm picturing an exchange like the following:

Hero: Do you ever want to talk about your emotions, Hunted? Hunted: ... No. Broken: I do. Hero: I know, Broken. Broken: I'm sad. Hero: I know, Broken

I mean, there are probably worse things to be... eaten alive, for one thing.

Reading this and thinking about how "this is a love story" and losing my mind and losing my mind and losing my mind and---

Asked the Princess why she was being nice to me after the whole, y'know, swallowing me whole thing, and she's a bit touchy on the subject. She just as quickly resumed the otherworldly calm front, though. Does she have multiple Princesses like I have multiple Voices?

Ah. Hm. Well then.

If I'm going to be assimilated into the world around me and the being I'm struggling against, I'd like to do so after acknowledging the repressed fear I carry. It is time to ponder the orb--- I mean, terror in my heart.

Hahaha thinking about Twig/Ark's early relationship and not crying whatsoever rn :))))

Got a little worried that maybe I actually was a magic all-encompassing forest and had grossly misinterpreted the situation, but hearing the Broken express reluctance to leave a situation in which he's playing pretend at everything being okay makes me feel much more confident in the decision! Nice.

... Are we the same being, but divided in two? That definitely doesn't sound right, but this line makes me wonder...

OKAY ONCE AGAIN I KNOW THIS IS A SERIOUS SCENE BUT I'M JUST SITTING HERE THINKING ABOUT THAT DOG IN MONSTER HOUSE

Broken sweetie you read uncomfortably literally as someone who's been through a very bad relationship and I think you need therapy even more than the Hunted does.

I'm really tempted to see what would happen if I actually fulfilled the premise of the title... but I'm really curious about where that first dialogue option will lead.

We cut her free.

The Narrator threatening us for letting the Princess go is something very interesting and I don't know what else to say other than I'm worried.

Hey chat why are the borders of the screen turning red?

Hey chat why is everything going dark?

HEY CHAT WHAT'S WITH ALL THE ARMS THAT SWALLOWED THE PRINCESS UP AND DISAPPEARED INTO THIN AIR, LEAVING NOTHING BUT A MIRROR BEHIND?

I barely got a screenshot of the last frame of whatever that was and nearly threw my mouse across my room in the attempt.

I am once again coping with humor:

Hero: I'm sorry I'm such a handful. Princess: I have two hands. Hero: I--- look. If you want to play semantics, fine. I'm sorry for being a hundred handfuls. Princess: Hero: Princess (while sprouting several hundred arms): Try me.

(Ran out of image uploads. See you in the next post!)

[darklinaforever]

This person is talking about this video :

For those who know this video, it's precisely a video analyzing tons of moments / events from the Atla series... And not just a girl talking about "vast misinterpretations" for two hours (for those who don't know it, I highly recommend it). There are literal scenes used to prove / support the point of view, exactly as this anti want.

But obviously, this anti will never bother to watch this video, while pretending to know what she is talking about. But, that's the whole principle when we talk about Zutara. We talk about their scenes in the series. No scenes from our imagination ! Wtf ?!

Let's be clear, if I generally post or send this video it is to prevent me from wasting my time unnecessarily sending messages to people who will not change their minds anyway. For what ? Because this video is essentially a summary of my opinion on the Zutara question with the arguments very well illustrated and supported by the scenes of the series and or its narration with the explanation of the character arcs, etc.

What I like the most is seeing people proud to affirm that they don't watch or read Zutara analyses, and then try to pretend they know what we're talking about in our analyzes dedicated to the Ship.

How everything we say is just fantasy, our imagination. That we are actually talking about events that never happened ! Or everything is misinterpretations because Zutara makes us horny. This ship is only based on thirst and the superficial pairing of the color blue and red in addition to their physical appearance ! Nothing deep ! (Thank you again for confirming that you have probably never read or watched Zutara analyses)

I don't understand why it's so hard for people to understand that canonical events aren't always good (especially for the characters) or well done in a story. We have to stop the bullshit. There are tons of examples of series with poor writing choices. Stop pretending that having a different opinion from canon is inherently wrong. (Or the show Atla is perfect)

Especially when your only arguments are to say that the opposing team's analyzes are like this or that, when in fact, you don't even look at them ! You have no credibility.

To say that we like a certain relationship because we are superficial / horny, and that if we like it is because we have understood nothing about the series, to see frankly that in fact we do not like it and that we do not like the characters, just because we don't accept certain choices of creators, is essentially admitting to not having any arguments in my opinion.

The anti Zutara piss me off with their fucking condescension.

Also... saying the Zutara fandom is dead ? Make me laugh.

Also, if you actually like Zutara for these reasons, namely the fire / water, red / blue pairing, the fact that these characters physically fit together and you find them sexy, well there is no does nothing wrong, because it's fictional. But the fact is that I've never seen Zutara fans like this ship for these things (except for the fire and water aspect, but generally in its context of Yin and Yang, therefore complementarity, which is in fact each time associated with the characters, their behaviors, relationships and arcs. So always in a deep and not superficial perspective). In fact they are never even named in the analyzes which I come across. Quite simply because generally, Zutara fans are very intelligent people with remarkable analytical skills regarding the Zutara relationship, canonically a friendship, but also clearly with a romantic connotation of very / too many times... But I won't dwell on that since the very video on this post already talks about it.

Kisses to all Zutara fans. And fuck anyone who comes and tells me, or even thinks, that I don't have a brain.

Merry Christmas to everyone.

[writingduhh]

you were looking for suggestions i see... smirks..

yumi fic about him misunderstanding your tone while hes streaming?? like, hes streaming and you ask for him to come over for a minute and he gets mad because he misunderstood your tone, then the reader gets upset and he comforts them?? kinda like fluff with a lil bit of angst :3

HERE YA GOOO! I hope this is what you were asking for 🙊

Yumi || Misunderstanding

Yumi had been streaming for a few hours, immersed in the game and engaging with his viewers. The excitement in his voice was evident as he narrated his moves, jokes, and many frustrations with the game. You were in the next room, finishing up some work and enjoying the background noise of his stream. After a while, you really needed his help with something, so you decided to call out to him.

"Yumi, can you come here for a minute?" you asked, trying to sound calm but slightly urgent.

Yumi, caught up in the intensity of the game and not fully processing your tone, felt a flash of irritation. He thought you were interrupting him for something trivial.

He muted his mic, turning to the direction of your voice. "Can it wait? I'm in the middle of a stream, and I don't have time for something stupid right now," he snapped, his voice sharper than intended.

His words stung. You hadn't meant to bother him, and the urgency in your voice was because you genuinely needed his help. Feeling the tears welling up, you took a deep breath and retreated to the living room, trying to hold it together. You didn't want to make a scene or disrupt his stream, but the misunderstanding hurt.

A few minutes later, Yumi finished his game and noticed the silence from your direction. Realization dawned on him. He replayed the moment in his head and understood that he had misinterpreted your tone. Guilt washed over him, and he quickly ended the stream, apologizing to his viewers for the abrupt end.

He walked into the living room to find you sitting on the couch, your eyes red from holding back tears. His heart ached at the sight.

“Hey," he said softly, sitting down next to you. "I'm really sorry. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I thought you were just... I don't know, interrupting for something small. But I realize now that I was wrong."

You looked up at him, your eyes filled with hurt. "I just needed your help with something important, and the way you spoke to me... it really hurt."

Yumi wrapped his arms around you, pulling you into a comforting embrace. "I'm so sorry. I should have listened better. You mean the world to me, and I hate that I made you feel like this. Please forgive me."

You leaned into his embrace, feeling the warmth and sincerity in his apology. "It's okay. I understand you were caught up in the moment. Just... try to be more mindful next time, okay?"

He nodded, holding you tighter. "I promise. I'll do better. How about we spend the rest of the evening together? No games, no work, no streams, just us.”

A small smile broke through your sadness. "I'd like that."

Yumi pressed a gentle kiss to your forehead, relief flooding through him as he felt you relax in his arms. The misunderstanding had caused a brief moment of pain, but the love and comfort you shared overshadowed it.

Yumi got up and extended a hand to you. "Come on, let's make some dinner together. We can try out that new recipe you found."

You took his hand, letting him pull you up. "That sounds perfect."

In the kitchen, you both moved around in harmony, chopping vegetables and preparing ingredients. Yumi kept glancing over at you, making sure you were okay. Every time he caught your eye, he smiled, and you could see the sincerity in his eyes.

As you worked together, the atmosphere lightened. Yumi cracked jokes, trying to make you laugh, and you found yourself smiling more and more. The tension from earlier slowly dissolved, replaced by the warmth of shared moments.

After dinner, you settled on the couch with a blanket, Yumi's arm wrapped around you. You watched a movie, but neither of you paid much attention to the screen. You were too busy enjoying each other's company, talking softly, and sharing quiet laughter.

At one point, Yumi looked at you, his expression serious. "I really am sorry, you know. I never want to make you feel like that again."

You reached up, cupping his face and in your hand. "I know, Yumi. I forgive you. Let's just focus on this moment, okay?"

He nodded, leaning down to kiss you gently. "Okay."

[ceaseless-rambler]

Okay in regards to this poll I'm going to do some Doc Carmilla analysis because I don't like having back and forth conversations in tags. This is long, I couldn't really find a way to cut it down

The biggest thing that fucks me up about her is Brian's morality switch. The concept of a morality switch at all is horrifying to me, taking that control away from someone. Brian's about page on the mechanisms website says the reasoning was because Doctor Carmilla found it "amusing" which. Makes me hate it even more. @x-ca1iber pointed out the fact that Jonny is an unreliable narrator, which is a good point. However, I doubt Jonny wrote everyone's bio and I don't think either morality mode would really let Brian lie about it, lying is wrong and I can't come up with ends that would justify it. Brian could be wrong about reasoning, of course, but I'm not sure why he would be. Because a lot of that second half is speculation, *please* let me know if there's anything to agree or disagree with any of it.

The two other things that make me not willing to chalk all of anti-Doctor Carmilla sentiment up to unreliable narration and character misinterpretation are the end of this video and near the end of Lashings. The first video shows Jonny cut the music and, sounding somewhat frantic, ask Carmilla what she's going to do about being thrown out the airlock. When she doesn't respond, he backs away and accuses her of planning something. This is something that isn't attributable to unreliable narration because the premise there isn't that it's a retelling but an actual event occurring. Also, the way Jonny is on edge, expecting her to do something but not knowing what/when and having to just kind of act like it's fine really makes me read it as a bad relationship for him. The end of the Lashings performance shows Nastya stressed about various other things and Doctor Carmilla coming up behind her and hugging her. Nastya visibly tenses and remains as such for the entire interaction. I've seen people argue that this was due to the aforementioned various other things, and it could very much be that! This is definitely my least compelling piece of evidence. But it's worth noting that Doctor Carmilla doesn't back off from the hug and remains sort of in Nastya's face until Nastya steps away. The situation is either Nastya being generally uncomfortable with physical contact at that moment (or in general) and Carmilla not caring, or Nastya being distrustful of her in general. Either way doesn't reflect well on their relationship.

None of this is to say that I think she's trying to cause them harm. She does see them as her kids, in her own way. The only other close relationship she had that I'm aware of is Lorelai (please let me know if you have any more information on this! I'm always open to corrections) and that wasn't exactly healthy. She could very well not know any other way to treat them, and I really do think she meant well. The problem with meaning well is that is doesn't change the ramifications of your actions. The best of intentions don't change the fact that you hurt people. This is, in my opinion, especially prominent in parental figures, which she is.

That is all about her as a person, though. As a character? She's fantastic. Trans lesbian vampire scientist with dubious ethics? Great!!! And all of the things I just talked about that make me dislike her as a person make me love her as a character. That disparity is what makes it really hard to answer the poll I linked at the beginning, because holy fuck morality switch but I love her as a character

Tags that inspired this under the cut

[kandisheek]

FIC REC WEEK 29 - SOULMATES

SERIES: The Importance of Dynamics by haemodye

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 50,372 Tags: A/B/O, Forced Bonding, Angst

Summary: A soulmate a/b/o AU with Austenian influences. Includes mutual pining, the perils of social mores, and a lot of misunderstandings.

Reasons why I love it: This series isn't finished yet, but I couldn't help myself, I HAD to rec this one. From the first fic I was completely emotionally invested, I mean – the angst, the glorious angst! It's so good! I love everything about this one, so I hope you give it a shot! Since the last fic isn't finished as of now, I won't include it here, but just know that there is even more gloriousness than I'm mentioning in this rec.

This series consists of:

the groundwork of disapprobation

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 1,517 Tags: Misunderstandings, Pre-Slash, Light Angst

Summary: Steve and Tony don't touch skin to skin until their first handshake at Bethesda Fountain. There, in front of Bruce and SHIELD and everyone, they discover that they're soulmates. Neither of them quite know how to feel about this development.

Reasons why I love it: Right from the start, it's misunderstandings galore. I love how haemodye leads us into the conflict, especially because I can totally understand Tony's reasoning in light of his total lack of self-worth. The first time I read this, I couldn't wait to see how it continues, and I bet it'll be the same for you, so I hope you check it out!

the inconsistency of all human characters

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 3,749 Tags: Touch-Starved, Steve Feels, Daydreaming

Summary: Steve knows Tony's not ready to complete their bond. He understands why. But that doesn't prevent him from aching to touch his soulmate every waking minute.

Reasons why I love it: I really, really love the insight into how much Steve is struggling to adjust to the social norms of the 21st century here. The A/B/O dynamics are really interesting, and Steve's almost desperate attempts to be closer to Tony are as sweet as they are heart-breaking. I love this one so much, and I hope you check it out!

I have faults enough

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: T Words: 6,888 Tags: Tony Stark Feels, Infidelity (sort of), Unreliable Narrator

Summary: Tony's handling being soul bonded to an old-fashioned alpha who can't stand him about as well as you'd expect.

Reasons why I love it: Oh Tony, you are so blinded by your insecurities that it makes me physically hurt. Poor Steve, he has no idea just how much Tony is misinterpreting every one of his actions, and how much deeper he is inadvertently digging the hole. This fic hurts so good, it's amazing.

how insufficient were all my pretensions

Pairing: Steve/Tony Rating: M Words: 19,851 Tags: Catholic Steve, Intersex Tony, Misunderstandings

Summary: Steve is doing his best to adjust to both the future and having a soulmate that is unlike anyone he's ever met. Tony is doing his best to cope with his deteriorating mental health and adjust to having a soulmate that's still unlearning the gender and sexuality politics of 1940. Bruce just wants his stupid friends to kiss and make up. Sometimes your best just isn't good enough.

Reasons why I love it: Oh my god, the Steve feels in this are enough to make me cry. He's so pained and troubled by not just his relationship with Tony but his place in this century. I just want to give him a hug, and oh my god, Tony, please just – I don't even know, I want to shake him and hug him at the same time. This whole series just gets me so emotional, and I want all the happy endings for them. Come and follow along to suffer with me, if you haven't read this already!

[takeariskao3]

I also read it and what striked me the most was ginny saying harry treated her like an afterthought and then the riddle in her mind says he always treated her well. low blow. reminds me of that discussion in your blog recently, about how people write harry being really dismissive of her feelings/treating her like a prize. I hated the last scene in dh when instead of going to ginny he 1. had a scene with luna 2. looked primarily for ron/hermione.

it was like...wow...you don't really care about her at all isn't it. rest assured I love harry, im just in the mood of defending ginny today

in that fic specifically, i do think there is a level of … unreliable narrating (?) happening with ginny right now. HOWEVER that doesn’t mean she’s misinterpreting harry’s attempt at connection as polite obligation. he flat out admits “sometimes it’s like i don’t know how to talk to you.” and that’s GUT WRENCHING. and i think there’s a couple of ways it could go but i don’t want to guess and be disappointed.

and i think—generally speaking—when it comes to harry’s intentions concerning ginny and him setting her aside vs actively seeking her out, it’s very much up to interpretation. and i’m probably more forgiving than most when we actually sit down and think it through because i like to think harry’s lack of communication comes from a place of not wanting to do something wrong and somehow mess things up. he doesn’t want to pop the bubble that keeps them from living in reality when they’re with each other. because reality hasn’t been kind to him, and he wants to keep what he has with ginny as far away from reality as possible out of fear that it will end.

that was a tangent sorry WE’RE DEFENDING GINNY TONIGHT

our girl deserves—NAY, SHE DEMANDS nothing less than first choice. she’s not sticking around if she’s playing second fiddle. she’s not gonna dawdle until someone finally decides she’s worth their time and effort. even mr hjp himself.

she’s not going to go gentle into that good night, she’s gonna be a total bitch about it! and we love her for that!!

[melon-mastermind]

Kafka and Trailblazer

I think as the game progresses, more and more people need to realize that Trailblazer and Kafka are not really written as a mother and her child. I can understand the confusion, seeing as I used to feel this way too, but some of you must not have finished the companion mission “Letter from a Strange Woman,” or misinterpreted it.

Since photos seem to grab people's attention the most, this is a photo that Kafka can send to Trailblazer in order to confirm that it is her who is messaging them.

The main focus of this image is what you think it is. You aren't being gross for noticing it. It's literally the focus of this image. You see only a fraction of Kafka's face, but can see everything underneath it. This is not something that a parental figure would—or should—send you. The act of sending images like this is not viewed as platonic.

Secondly, a common misconception is that Trailblazer is made of Kafka's DNA due to what she says in Truth and Lies, but this has been confirmed to be the lie. The truth is this:

"One day, Elio handed you over to me. He said that if things continued to transpire according to the future possibility he foresaw, you would eventually change me and I would change you.

In other words, you and I are each other's destiny.”

The phrasing of Kafka's last line isn't quite platonic either. If you think of the phrase by itself, and not in relation to Kafka and Trailblazer, you'll likely think of a couple more than a parental figure and their child—adoptive or not. There's so many romantic quotes out there that have something to do with destiny, and although destiny can be viewed platonically, as in you are destined to befriend someone, that doesn't seem fitting for Kafka and Trailblazer's relationship.

Additionally, after fighting Yanqing, Blade will come to thank Trailblazer, mentioning their old relationship with Kafka.

“You once followed Kafka, didn't you? There was a time when she was on a mission — you were next to her. I remember.”

In order for Trailblazer to have been on a mission with Kafka, Kafka would have to see them as an equal, or at least trust Trailblazer not to get hurt, even when she did her best to keep them alive. This trust can be hard to obtain in parent-child relationships, since it's typically a parental instinct to make your child avoid danger in the first place. For Blade to be involved, it was obviously a bigger mission too.

Since Trailblazer's memories would be erased, I don't think it's crazy to believe that Kafka really did just want to spend time with them in some way.

Later, in “Luofu Myths: Haunted House,” Trailblazer will encounter a wanted poster of Kafka in a seemingly haunted house. One of their first thoughts can be that she is beautiful, to which the narrator will confirm, but say that now is not the time to be saying such things. Immediately pointing out someone's beauty doesn't feel platonic, not when Trailblazer knows who Kafka is, and not when Trailblazer has been known to flirt with other characters through such compliments.

Things can be seen a lot earlier too, like in "Stars Sun, Prescience Sprung,” where Trailblazer finishes finding clues. When March 7th voices that Kafka is probably loving the chase, Trailblazer can say that she sure is a Stellaron Hunter, to which March 7th will reply:

“Ugh, why don't you go and marry her, huh?”

Even if March 7th doesn't know the relationship that Trailblazer and Kafka share, it would be in really poor taste to include this line if their relationship was that of a parent and a child.

Now, I personally don't ship Kafka and Trailblazer, but I really don't want people to be so surprised if Kafka and Trailblazer's relationship gears towards something romantic. They have to change each other, and it seems like the threat of losing Trailblazer will be what let's Kafka finally feel fear.

If you acknowledged my previous points but still want Trailblazer to have a mother figure, Himeko is right there, and she's amazing. You'll probably get the angst you crave too, if you know anything about the previous games.

[galvanizedfriend]

hi, love <3 so, here's a random thought I'd like to share with you.

I always mention how much I would've loved to see The Wolf instead of The original as a TVD spin off, but, even though my though I still stand this statement, I think it would've not been the same.

Let me elaborate:

as I said many times before, your writing is the key of the whole story. Since you always narrates things such as inner thoughts, feelings and point of views, we also get an explanation about why a certain thing is happening ( i.e. the ending smut of chapter 30). However, no matter how talented the actor is, this thing never happens in TV shows, and it sadly leads to misinterpretation (either of the character or their action) and "randomness".

For example: Caroline is my babygirl, but I just know that if people would've *watched* instead of *reading* The Wolf, they would've hated her. Calling her a bad s/o, mother and friend because they would just judge her by her actions without knowing what's going on with the characters, misinterpreting her struggle for bitchness or something along those lines.

In conclusion, even though I would pay MILLIONS to just erase TO and bring TW to live action, I'm also happy to know that my favs are "covered" from the hate they have already received because the shows never portrait them and their issues in the right way.

that's it, just wanted to share this piece of mind that have been floating around my head for a while! lemme know what you think!

Under the cut because I got rambly. 😂

That makes sense. Obviously books/fics/any written content will always be much more dense than TV shows or movies because you get to be inside characters' heads, while on TV content you can only count on actors finding a way to translate these emotions, and some of them don't even have that capacity tbh.

Not to say that The Wolf would've been better than the actual show (I mean, I have my biased opinions, but that's just me 😂), but I think the writing on The Originals obviously contributed a lot to how bad the show was a lot of the time. It simply lacked substance, there were many times when things just straight out didn't make sense. At first glance it might seem like TW and TO are almost interchangeable, but they're really not, and this is a point I have been making over the years. It's not just about the obvious changes (Caroline instead of Hayley, which is a BIG change btw), but it's especially about the more subtle ones. The amount of thought I put into those scenes, characters, dialogues - it might not seem like it, but it's crazy. And so if you read the final product and you think 'wow! this makes sense! it should've been like this!' it's because there were loads of changes done to not only that part, but parts that came before, that suddenly, when put together, paint things under a completely different light.

The problem with TO for me is that it starts off from a place of complete nonsense, so everything that comes after that is building on top of a fragile foundation. I mean, they start off the show by retconning every single character to a certain degree. What can we expect after that? They were more interested in erasing everything that came before on The Vampire Diaries than in doing justice to the characters, so there's no way that could've ever been 100% solid. It had its moments, I can't say that it didn't, but it was mostly scattered scenes here and there, or ideas you could see that were good in theory (like the premise of S3), rather than entire story arcs within the show.

My point is that I don't think the lack of inner monologuing is the main problem with TO. There is a way to have compelling and profound writing even when you don't have narration to compose your scenes, and the fact some screenwriters are incapable of doing that is the reason why so many book to TV adaptations are so crappy. You have to be really inventive to make it work, and the crew on TO simply wasn't. But there were moments!

However, regarding Caroline and the things she does throughout the story, like going back to Mystic Falls in TW2 for instance, or when she leaves the compound in TW1. Honestly, even if that had been written by the best screenwriter in the world (obviously not me), and if Candice King had given an Oscar-worthy performance, people would still call her a bitch. 😂 There's a real edge of misogyny in how people judge female characters a lot more harshly than their male counterparts, especially when the things they do displease the male character, which was the case here. I got so many comments from people who were mad at Caroline because 'she should've just trusted Klaus, Klaus is a hybrid, he's the strongest, he knows better', completely disregarding the fact Klaus is basically a psychopath with trust and anger issues who was by no means a pillar of warmth and sanity a lot of the time. Caroline was, from start to finish, the most reasonable, stable person in that entire story, but there were many times when people were blaming her for things that were just not her fault. She was pregnant, alone, scared, trying to stay alive, to protect her child, and Klaus was at the peak of a downward spiral where he was listening to absolutely no one, but somehow Caroline was the one in the wrong for not trusting that he wouldn't act like a maniac. 😂

I'm not saying that is what you're saying, btw, I'm just saying Caroline would've been judged no matter what. But yes, she probably would've been very harshly criticized if this had been the show. Already she is! There's a lot of people who dislike her for how hard she was on Klaus, like he didn't deserve it. 😂

Having said all that 😂 I do give myself some credit for the fact people were feeling so much for Klaus in spite of everything lol He's very intense and dramatic in how he takes offense. If he thinks he's been wronged (and he thinks he's been wronged whenever someone doesn't take his side in a dispute, whatever that might be), he just goes all out, and he's merciless in how he judges the people around him, alwaus making himself out to be the victmized party. He might regret his actions later (usually because of that darned little thing called consequence), but never initially, and he's also terrible at apologies. So I wanted his POVs to be about how the whole world was against him, and how he knew what he was doing, and he couldn't trust anyone, etc etc, and people bought it. Personally, I was always on Caroline's side, but even though I know people were likely to side with Klaus anyway because that's the way it is, and people are biased towards him, I also think I might have manipulated them a little bit.

But I just reminded myself today that there is a very basic difference between canon and TW that means one could never replace the other which is that Caroline is a witch. 😂 That justifies her getting pregnant, but then it changes her entire backstory.

I hope my response didn't come out as though I'm being harsh or anything. Your pondering just got me thinking, and that's actually something I've thought about a lot throughout the years because I have certainly gotten many comments like what you said. Thanks very much for sharing! I really love reading that kind of thing. ❤️

[luminouslumity]

THOUGHTS ON: BARBENHEIMER

Finally got the chance to see both (specifically, Barbie, Oppenheimer, and then Barbie again) and I'm glad I did! Watching them back-to-back was certainly an experience and I'm not even joking when I say they really made me think about life and all that it entails.

As someone who grew up on the old animated Barbie movies, I had a lot of fun watching the new film, especially when it came to all the doll jokes and references had me laughing more than once (Magic Earring Ken, anyone?). Kinda mad they didn't have any references to the animated movies though, or at least none that I'd noticed.

Speaking of Ken, wasn't sure about him being the villain at first, but I can see what they were trying to do and I thought it worked pretty well all things considered, that Kens have just as much of a right to live alongside the Barbies as the Barbies do them and not just in the shadows of each other. If this film is anti anything, I'd say it's anti-Patriarchy as well as anti-Matriarchy. Preachy, sure, but understandable. Really, I'm more annoyed with how this apparently went over so many people's heads even with how blatant it was; seriously, President Barbie even says the message of the film after the Kens fail, so how anyone could've misinterpreted it is beyond me! The only thing that comes to mind is when the Narrator says that the Kens will be treated just as well as women are treated in the real world, and to be fair, that statement alone can be interpreted in a lot of ways depending on certain factors, but I don't know, I feel like that should be a wake-up call more than anything.

Barbie herself was also really interesting, though throughout the film, I found myself wondering if she was meant to be the Original Barbie with an upgraded look or just a random Barbie who's basically just an amalgamation of all the others (like she says, she's what everyone else thinks of when they think of the doll). Either way, this certainly adds a whole new layer to the relationship between her and Ken because keep in mind, when the film says that Ken was created for Barbie, they mean it literally.

Going into a bit of history here, Ken Carson was created in response to the backlash Barbie was facing two years after her own creation for the horrific crime of... *checks notes* being single. Since then, Ken has had a few jobs of his own, but it's still nothing compared to Barbie's—this even becomes a joke in the Life in the Dreamhouse series, where the Ken in that series worships the ground Barbie walks on. Probably literally. This man didn't even get his own car until 2012! Then there was the whole seven-year break-up incident because Ken apparently didn't want to put a ring on it (yeah, Barbie has in-universe lore and it goes hard!) so keeping all this in mind, it's no wonder Ken seems to be as attached to Barbie as he is in the film, all while also struggling with his own identity as an individual.

Yes, I probably am looking too deep into a children's film about dolls coming into the real world. This is my life now.

The Mattel scenes were definitely one of my favorite things about the film, especially with how dedicated the CEO is when it comes to his job and how he genuinely wants what he believes is best for everyone, but my favorite part are definitely the scenes with Ruth, which absolutely had me crying! And hey, glad to see I was at least partially right! She made an appearance, just not in the scene I thought it was going to be (also, apparently the sweet old lady on the bench isn't even Barbara, it's costume designer Ann Roth).

Narrators also tend to be hit-or-miss for me, but I thought it worked really well in this film! I especially loved how self-aware the story is and how if you're going to try and make Barbie look ugly, Margot Robbie isn't the way to go. And the cutaway to Depressed Barbie? Hilarious, but now I low-key want that to be a thing lol! And just the world in general was super fun!

Honestly, if I had any complaints about the film, it would absolutely be the pacing. Sasha in particular seemed largely unnecessary and her turnaround to at least tolerating Barbie happened way too quickly, even if she did only want to help for her mom's sake. It would've been nice if the film had had at least one or two scenes where she realizes that while the Barbie brand has its issues that deserve to be addressed, it's also not as bad as what she'd originally thought it to be. And also, it would've been great to just see more of this world in general; after all, Barbie and Ken only spend time in LA for less than a day, and even then, it's only for a few hours at most.

Basically, I wish the film had been longer, but what we got was still great.

As for Oppenheimer, I never really have much to say about biopics, but I love history in general and am always fascinated when it comes to warfare and all of the ethical questions that come with it. This is also the first Nolan film I've actually watched, so I knew this was going to be an interesting time, at least. Let me start by saying that the special effects with the bomb dropping and tense silence afterwards were beautifully done and I thought the use of black-and-white for some scenes and color for others was a really nice touch too, as well as the fact that the film went beyond just WWII and that we get to see Oppenheimer deal with the guilt he'd faced afterwards. I also always forget that Einstein would've still been alive during the time most of the film takes place, so his appearance was certainly a surprise, but a pleasant one nonetheless. I was also wondering in what context the "I am become Death" line would come up, so the fact that the film actually addresses that it comes from Sanskrit rather than suggesting it originated from Oppenheimer himself was such a great detail! Overall, a great film about a very complicated man!

[licorishh]

I finished Black Ops 2 yesterday and I have some... thoughts 😭. Fair warning, I kinda put it through the ringer and bash it a bit because I had a less than enjoyable experience so if you absolutely love it then... yahoo for you, I guess. You are not my target audience per se but you are welcome to educate me if you feel that I have wildly misinterpreted the way this game works.

There is genuinely nothing I can say about this game other than the fact that it's the first Call of Duty game I've ever played that I actively dislike, which sucks, because it's one of my favorite franchises and y'all frickin' know by now I'm of the opinion the original Modern Warfare games are three of if not the best video games ever made.

First of all, BO2 is so freaking glitchy??? Genuinely unplayable sometimes. Models spawn and despawn at will, textures flat-out disappear (in one of the first missions when I pulled Woods out of the train car thing his arm suddenly turned black and it just. Never got fixed for the remainder of the mission), voice lines don't trigger or they trigger multiple times (that happened three times in the part where Woods shoots Mason thinking he's Menendez; completely ruined the immersion), the way the voice lines are censored with the graphic content turned off is absolutely ridiculous and causes whole entire sentences and sometimes even whole pieces to be cut out when there’s only a word or two needing to be censored; it's insane. Did they even test this game before release?? WHO QA'D THIS?????? And I played the whole thing on an Xbox Series X we got like three months ago so don't frickin' tell me it’s my system. 😭🙏

This is a VERY common complaint, but the AI in this game is abysmally bad. It's unspeakably bad in the strike force missions but even in the base campaign I might as well have had no teammates at all.

He also has, like, no reason to even be considered a threat up until the VERY END OF THE GAME when he finally launches the attack. Up until that time we didn't see him do literally anything worth the game making him out to be this terrifying Makarov-esque adversary. Why should I even care??? And he says the stupidest cheesiest most Dreamworks-villain junk and he's just so fundamentally NOT dangerous that it's almost awkward to watch.

I was hoping Menendez would be another cool villain to get invested in, but... goodness sakes he was not. He's boring and flat as freak and the motivation they gave him for doing all these things is wildly underwhelming and makes no sense at all. I get it, dude. Your sister died (accidentally, I might add) and you are apparently so creepily obsessed with her and so unable to live without her that you... become a supervillain with a master plan to overthrow the major powers of the world by launching a cyber attack......???????? Like???????? Where is this coming from????????????????

(To clarify, I'm talking about the bit be

David and Harper are... fine, I guess? They just didn't really jump out at me like at all. Salazar's whole character just annoyed me and made me roll my eyes. It didn't feel like a betrayal; just a halfhearted attempt to shoehorn in some shock value. That and the whole bit with Menendez taking over the ship was just... so dumb. There was no lead-up to it and yet somehow I completely saw it coming.

It also felt like the exposition in this game was crazy. The whole time it felt like "Menendez is bad! Menendez is soooo bad! He's so so so so sooooooooo bad! Trust me bro he's like AWFUL" but then he just. Never... actually does anything. Until the very frickin' end of the game. That and the characters frickin' kept narrating everything that was obviously happening but didn't explain literally any of the parts I had trouble keeping up with.

Smaller nitpicks but really?? A THIRD voice actor for Hudson??? And this one just sucked. Didn't sound like Hudson at all so it made me feel practically nothing when the guy got capped. It didn't remotely feel like the same Hudson from BO1 and Cold War. Not at all. That and all the ridiculous scenes with fast switching between camera angles and slow-mo. It felt so frickin' cheesy in a dadgum Call of Duty game. Our lives are supposedly on the line with a supposedly reaaaally really bad (<- like really really bad trust me guys 🙏) bad guy right outside the door and you're gonna do a 2002 quick-zoom on Salazar as he pops the other two soldiers in the room. IT'S JUST SO UNNECESSARY I'M SORRY 😭😭😭

Don't even get me started on the ending when you either capture or kill Menendez. It's over so quickly, he's literally JUST STANDING THERE WAITING TO BE CAUGHT, and no matter which option you pick, THE GAME INSINUATES THAT CORDIS DIE IS GONNA KEEP GOING ANYWAY SO IT DOESN'T EVEN FREAKING MATTER. If you kill him he becomes by his own admission a martyr and inspiration for Cordis Die, and if you capture him, he frickin' says "Yeah lol I'll escape again (<- JUST LIKE HE ALREADY DID EARLIER IN THE GAME WHICH THEY LITERALLY EVEN BOTHERED TO POINT OUT BECAUSE HARPER REMINDS DAVID THAT CAPTURING HIM DIDN'T WORK LAST TIME) so I'll see you in a year" SO ALL OF THE EVENTS OF THE GAME JUST ACCOMPLISH FLAT-OUT NOTHING. NOTHING IS ACHIEVED IN THIS GAME. LITERALLY NOTHING.

On TOP of all of THAT, CHLOE SERVES NO PURPOSE. IN THE BAD ENDING MENENDEZ DOESN'T EVEN NEED HER BECAUSE HE LAUNCHES THE BIG BIG BIG BAD ATTACK SO THE WHOLE DEAL ABOUT BRINGING HER BACK AND SALAZAR SUBSEQUENTLY KILLING HER JUST MEANS GENUINELY NOTHING.

This game was so maddeningly frustrating I cannot quite even. Normally I'm either neutral with a positive lean or I really like COD games (World at War is the only other game I've been more "meh" on but that one at least had a very sensible story and felt like a Good Game). Black Ops 2 is just... bad. It genuinely astounds me that this one is most people's FAVORITE. WHAT DO YOU PEOPLE LOVE ABOUT THIS GAME SO MUCH IT'S COMPLETELY UNPLAYABLE AND NOTHING MAKES SENSE AND IT'S OVERDRAMATIZED TO SUCH A LAUGHABLE DEGREE THAT I FEEL LIKE I'M PLAYING A ROBLOX SHOOTER I CAN'T EVEN FHRJSJDHDHD

Maybe I missed something. I don’t know, but I played it with my dad and he feels the same way. He was nicer about it because he likes to pretend like bad things aren't as bad as they are but he definitely was confused by many of the choices made for the story and was frustrated by the blandness of Menendez' character.

It's unfortunate because I really liked what Treyarch did with Black Ops 1 and Cold War. They really popped off with those and then just royally flunked with this one. I don't know what happened. Even the models look like they were straight-up made by a different studio. It feels completely out of place with the rest of the Call of Duty games. There's zero flow or synergy or connection beyond some nostalgia bait with Woods and the couple of times Mason gets to do something (Alex, not David).

It feels like a Titanfall fan-game reject at its core. Maybe that's harsh or whatever but like honestly. Just. Eugh.

[hello-nichya-here]

Gotta love how people keep saying Azula's claim that her mother liked Zuko more is just "her biased, unreliable narration" when:

1 - The creators/showrunners themselves, as well as the head-writer, confirmed that Zuko was Ursa's favorite.

2 - The only time we see Ursa on the show it is through ZUKO'S eyes, and we have her gently explaining things to him when he makes mistakes, but goes straight to scolding when it comes to Azula.

3 - The comics (which I don't even consider canon, but I know lots of people do) ALSO confirm the favoritism, and actually escalate it to the point of Ursa waking Zuko up to say goodbye, but not doing the same with Azula, letting her daughter not only think she wasn't important enough to get a goodbye but also having a fight be her last interaction with her mother (and let's not even get started on the topic of her CHOOSING to forget her kids).

4 - The ONE time we see Azula being paranoid and seeing slights/threats that weren't there was in the finale. She demonstrated INSECUTIRY on "The Beach" about guys being afraid of her - which is confirmed to be true, much like Ursa being disturbed by her behavior to the point of asking "What's wrong with that child?" was also shown to us as being true. She isn't creating a false narrative in her head up until the finale - and the narrative she creates to cope with life is "Actually, maybe my mom did love me." That's why Ursa is suddenly being understanding like she was with Zuko.

5 - The episode in which we first her about her issues with her mother is "The Beach", and the whole point of it is that Ember Island will reveal THE TRUTH about these characters - and Azula's truth is that her mother prefered Zuko, Azula SAYS it doesn't bother her, but it clearly does.

People got way too fucking comfortable dismissing anything Azula's says as irrelevant because "crazy" or "Azula always lies" (which is canonically false), to the point that they even do it with things the show never gave us any reason to suspect her version of events wasn't accurate, and I fucking hate it. Again, we even see her relationship with Ursa through someone else's eyes and it confirms Azula's memories of it are correct.

This fandom really has to learn to just say "This character I like is flawed" and "This character I don't like had a point on this situation" instead of doing mental gymnastics to wildly misinterpret the story.

Ursa did not favor Zuko, she just stopped Azula from being problematic and abusive towards Zuko

Stop believing Azula’s unreliable narration

She knew deep down Ursa loved her, as shown in the mirror scene

I, too, just like to make shit up.

[nalyra-dreaming]

what WAS up with the mirrors??? the one in her bedroom looked like it shattered for no reason. like the obvious interpretation was that she distorted or misunderstood what happened but the next episode depicted the events exactly as she recorded them.

Hey there! That is the question :) I first thought they would backtrack, but I'm now actually glad they didn't... it does come across as a dissociative hint, but I actually think it's more trust issue. Here's my two cents: Claudia shattered the bedroom mirror with her scream, symbolizing her shattered trust in her guardians... her parents. They read her journal(!) and though only Lestat admits to fully reading them, we see Louis open her diary. We know that he read them, later (at least). She must have felt pretty violated, I know I would have. And... she must have known they would continue to. It's a line that's been eviscerated, never to come back. Trust was almost impossible after this. And I do not think she trusted Louis a lot more than Lestat, but she could read his thoughts. She could... reach him (manipulate him), whereas Lestat is waaaaaay too much like her, which is also why they butt heads so viciously. He calls her "Evil of my evil" in the books, and yes, she is. The mirror at the end of episode 5 is a callback to that scene imho. Again, something shatters that cannot be repaired. Trust, a sense of self and safety. They had problems, Lestat may have held her, both may have yelled at her, but their home was always safe. Up until that point she was bodily safe there. Now, I have written about how Lestat was, totally apart from the DV parts that were to follow (I am NOT taking away from that here, please don't misinterpret me here) a soft coven master. He has tried to keep them as human as possible. If they had been made (i.e.) by the coven under Les Innocents (before, ironically Lestat came along and upended it), she would have been locked in a coffin, put into the wall until she would have been strong enough in madness to claw herself out of it. Just... imagine. (Lestat was absolutely right to just... flip them the proverbial bird, tbh). But for the two vampires he's sired in the New World... this burst of violence was a life-shattering experience. And they had nothing to put it into relation to, nothing, which in and by itself, had been Lestat's intention. Not only to be confronted with the fact that Lestat kept things from them. And massive things. (Flying? Hello?) No, but also that they could de-facto do nothing about it if he didn't let them. There was no scratch on him, nothing, though both went at him. And a part of me wonders if that is why Louis kept charging him, too, because it must be horrifying to realize you have no chance. In hell. Literally. And we know Louis hates being powerless. (It is also quite the testament imho that Lestat lets himself get hurt by Louis in the next episode, but that is another subject and a beast in and by itself.) So when Claudia sits there, upstairs, and sees herself hurt... she sees the bloodshed. The destruction. Her physical and mental integrity got compromised by those supposed to protect her. The mirror ties it back to the initial violation. And she breaks. And the pieces of her are never fully healed ("there's a darkness in her that wasn't there before"). One more thing, others have said it as well - but from the moment that her parents read her diaries... Claudia's diaries were also a tool. She knew they would read them. She knew she could use them to manipulate. If (!) and when she actually used them like this may be up for debate, but for someone as clever as she was...

So from that first mirror on - she was no reliable narrator anymore either. Which makes the fact that this was from her diary... and under Armand's influence confirmed by Louis later on... it just makes it all very suspicious. (Why would Louis not remember Lestat flying/floating during sex? It's even repeated that they float a bit in episode 6, such a weird little detail to include. For example. I know, there's this joke as to it being too good to remember, but... seriously? And this getting thrown off heights is something both Lestat and (supposedly) Amand experienced (at Lestat's hand). Where is the truth here?) I do think the fight happened, I do think Lestat got carried away, to put it mildly, because in order for the events to have happened that everyone agrees on that happened... well. Something must have happened. And... imho - it is something that Louis isn't particularly keen on remembering. OR Armand thinks it's better he doesn't, as he so likes to do.

[balillee]

tommy's character gets far too much shit.

hi tumblr. i'm gonna need a few bitches to spread this post everywhere, essentially because i want someone, or just tommy really, to see it. so if you really want, you can screenshot it and post it on twitter, reddit, link it everywhere - go absolutely buck wild. i know he reads the VODS comments a lot, but they're chock full of people just insulting him, his character, his writing and everything about his story in the dream smp simply because they don't understand it and because they refuse to acknowledge his character's perspective (mainly because they only care about the pig). reading that many critical comments on something you've created can only make you feel worse about it eventually, and in light of all the awful techno apologist takes on his character, i wanted to basically just word vomit about how wonderfully crafted c!tommy is, as well as compile some other tumblr posts about his character.

there is a massive fuckin community of people who enjoy the character of tommy, because the character is incredible. i myself have made post after post after post commenting on and analysing tommy's character because i find that there's so much to pick apart. but that enthusiasm for his character only seems to be found on tumblr. reddit and twitter seem to hate his character, the VODS seem to be filled with comments from people who only care about techno's perspective (and treat techno as a reliable narrator, which, is the furthest thing from the truth - that guy lies through his teeth all the time), and the smp wiki is a hellscape of godawful takes and mistruths, not even on just tommy's character.

c!tommy is brilliantly acted and brilliantly written, and almost everything he does is either justifiable or has been rectified or admitted as a mistake. you can clearly make connections as to where he got his conclusions from. you feel what his character experiences, as a member of the audience, vividly.

if you look in the more objective sense, c!tommy, and this is especially in the context of him being the youngest character, is a scapegoat. people claim he's awful and destructive when in reality he's a lot less destructive than most characters on the server. a moment that comes to mind is where he diverts schlatt and quackity's attention from pogtopia by breaking part of the flag in manberg, and then replacing it so as to buy tubbo some time - he literally monologues after it about how he doesn't want to destroy but instead rebuild, and how he feels as if nobody else seems to understand that.

his arc in season two was incredible. it was very character driven, and it gave a spotlight to his motivations. at the start we see him in new l'manberg, and he's enjoying his time there, he's skeptical of his friend's presidency, but his main goal is to get back the discs so that he can stop dream and eliminate that threat. he made one screw up that didn't even matter to george, and he paid for it tenfold, even after dream had spent a while with puffy griefing the server and framing it on tommy - what tommy and ranboo did was convinient. then, in exile, we see c!tommy straight up get abused. he's gaslit and conditioned into being c!dream's friend, and in his brain he teaches himself that those acts of abuse are moments of bonding, and it eventually brings him to the point of wanting to end his own life - he's been torn away from his friends and his support system, and nobody will visit him consistently anymore because they only showed him pity, and all he had left was dream, who had hurt him.

but he doesn't die there, because while he didn't understand the full gravity of it back then like he does now, he recognises that dying isn't an escape, and he can beat dream, even if he doesn't know how. so this is where he goes to techno's place, and here's where the fandom starts to misinterpret the situation wildly.

it's the problem similar to when your parents tell you that they're owed something back because you put a roof over their head, despite that being Not How It Works. techno took tommy in and severely mistreated him emotionally. sure, and i understand this, c!techno is a bad communicator who isn't really that empathetic to anyone who isn't phil or wilbur, but that doesn't excuse the blatant lying to c!tommy's face, the guilt tripping, the friendship buying and the degrading. the day before the festival, tommy finally does something violent in his interrogation of fundy, and only then does techno tell him,,,,

that tommy's not equal to him, that techno doesn't respect him all that much, and that they're not friends.

from techno's perspective, and at the time, this was viewed as a positive development in their relationship. oh, he's starting to warm up to tommy! this friendship could really blossom!

no. from a more objective standpoint, what techno has just said to tommy is : 'i respect you only a little bit more now, because while you're starting to act more like me, you're still annoying and a burden.'

and i haven't even touched on the whole 'erasing the words 'Destroy L'manberg' from techno's to-do list' thing, because that instantly refutes the point of 'techno was upfront with his intentions the whole time' - because he wasn't! he may have said it the first time, but you also know what else he did? he repeatedly told tommy that they'd 'air the details out later' whenever the discs were brought up, and from a tommy viewer's perspective at the time, it was framed as if techno was no longer going to do that.

and i also haven't dared touch the 'i would have fought them all for you', because that's major guilt tripping if ever i've seen it.

so, the day of the festival comes, and here's where c!techno and his apologists completely misread c!tommy's thought process, and why he makes the decision he does.

tommy instantly regrets valuing the discs over tubbo, and it's framed as the culmination of tommy having become all the people he said he would never want to be like. and what does he immediately do? he tells tubbo to give up the disc, and he sides with tubbo. he puts his value in his friends, and, by proxy, l'manberg. and when he betrays techno, he tells him 'i'm sorry'.

from a more objective standpoint, tommy's time with techno is him valuing the discs over almost anything else. so, in leaving techno to be with tubbo again, he is valuing people above the discs. so when, on doomsday, techno says his 'discs aren't people' line, what he doesn't realise is that he himself fueled tommy's valuing of discs above people when attempting to fuel tommy's vengeance against tubbo and l'manberg. techno doesn't realise that he was an unhealthy presence for tommy, and an even worse influence.

what techno also doesn't seem to understand is that tommy never hated tubbo or l'manberg - tommy recognises, now at least, that his exile wasn't a product of tubbo, but a product of dream's manipulation, likely in part because at the time, especially with dream lying about tommy blowing up the community house, tommy was the only one who could see it because he had experienced it firsthand. so when techno sides with dream, it's like kicking tommy in the teeth.

and i want to mention that betraying someone doesn't necessarily make the person who was betrayed good, or in the right, or even justified, because tommy was entirely justified to leave techno. you know who else was betrayed? schlatt. but i don't see many schlatt apologists around angry at quackity for joining the rebellion.

tommy stole the axe of peace? good. it was a moment of tommy defining his self-worth, instead of having it defined by others. gone is the age of c!techno belittling him and deciding how much c!tommy should be respected. NEXT!

here's a moment i wanted to talk about that will forever be funny to me.

'i am a person.'

techno's very famous line from doomsday. techno says to tommy that discs aren't people, and that tommy should value people, despite not understanding that by leaving techno, he did just that. and what does tommy say in return, which has been omitted from every c!tommy-critical analysis, and every animatic?

'yes you are, but so are we.'

an acknowledgement of techno's hurt, to which tommy has already apologised for. a statement that says 'your hurt does not excuse, nor justify, the hurt you have inflicted onto us.' an acknowledgement that tommy has already learnt the lesson techno seems to be trying to 'teach' him. but you can't teach him anything by destroying.

c!tommy has had almost everything he has ever owned or built either taken from him or destroyed. ranboo even points out that the only two things of tommy's left standing are his house and his hotel, and if i'm honest, his house is dissheveled. it's a labyrinth of terror due only to how many times it's been torn apart. l'manberg being blown up didn't teach anyone anything about anarchy, or about valuing people over possessions. logstedshire being blown up didn't teach tommy to be obedient.

i could honestly ramble for ages about how nuanced tommy's character is and how much depth and complexity there is to his character's process and his relationship with others, but more than that, c!tommy is forgiving. he invites almost everyone who hates him to the grand opening of his hotel - if that isn't an indicator that he just wants friends, and not to be treated like the embodiment of evil, then i don't know what is. he holds grudges, but he doesn't really actively hate anyone, other than c!dream. but, we'll let him. c!dream deserves nothing but to be pummeled into the floor.

tommy doesn't spoonfeed his character nuance, and he doesn't really spell it out for his audience. he'll mention things like trauma and triggers in passing, but a lot of analysis on his motivations has to be picked up from what is said in passing or from what can be seen in between the lines.

i'd be here for hours if i were to talk about everything i love about c!tommy, because honestly he's one of my favourite characters, and there are so many angles you can look at his character from in terms of his age, his relationships with others, his motivations, his personality, his character arcs etc etc. so instead of doing that, i'm going to compile some much more specific analysis posts below to skim through because they highlight so many good aspects of his character.

^^ A thread about the 'yes you are, but so are we' line.

^^ About how shit the VODS comments are.

^^ A comment on how c!Tommy is actually pretty peaceful, and is actually less destructive than most characters on the server.

^^ Possibly the best c!Tommy analysis thread I've ever seen in relation to his trauma, which gives multiple perspectives.

^^ About how c!Tommy is treated as a scapegoat, and how, from an objective standpoint, he is no more violent than any other character, it's just that the little violence that is committed is blown far out of proportion.

^^ Tumblr user flypaw being a bad bitch, as per usual.

^^ c!Tommy being incredibly intelligent, and talking about wanting to rebuild and not destroy. A very underrated monologue of his.

^^ Something short about c!Tommy and c!Wilbur's relationship in Pogtopia.

^^ Less about c!Tommy, more a meta on L'Manberg. Really interesting to think about.

^^ A take on Doomsday.

I'll add some more posts in a reblog in the notes, but if anyone's post(s) is on this and they want me to take it off, let me know and I'll do that for you! Feel free to add your own banger c!Tommy takes or ones that you've found.