#during the dance arc i think he deserved a suit that actually looked good on him

[remorsefullyunapologetic]

shit still fucking sucks for me but mercury in a suit is an improvement

[five-rivers]

Mask

Danny slouched against the back wall of the ballroom, mask dangling from his fingers. He didn't want to be here. If his parents weren't out there having the time of their lives, he wouldn't be here, but someone had to keep an eye on them and keep them from getting sucked into whatever scheme Vlad had this time.

He sighed, tracking the bulk of his father across the dance floor. His mother was harder to see, but she was never far behind.

A masquerade ball. Really. Ancients, Vlad was so pretentious.

(Internally, Danny thought that a masquerade ball could be cool... except, well. Vlad.)

His mother briefly emerged from the crowd, caught his eye, and mimed putting on his mask. Apparently she was watching him, too. With a grumble, he put the mask back on. Vlad had given it to him, and although he couldn't see or feel anything wrong with it, he still felt that it was suspect.

"Did your parents make you come, too?"

Danny glanced over. A girl was standing a few feet away. Her dress was red and puffy, and her mask was golden. Her hair was done up in complicated braids. She was, perhaps, one or two years younger than he was, though it was hard to tell with the mask. She was certainly shorter than him.

The silhouette of her dress crumpled as she also slumped against the wall. "You'd think that a masked ball would be, you know, cool, but it's just a bunch of old people jumping around and trying to talk business with the 'great Vlad Masters.'"

"Ouch," said Danny. "At least my parents aren't trying to do that, I guess."

"Oh, yeah? What are they doing, then?" asked the girl.

"I honestly have no idea," said Danny, watching his parents gyrate across the floor again. "Dancing? You could call it dancing." He shrugged.

"Ah," said the girl. "My name's Ellie, by the way."

"Danny," said Danny. "Nice to meet you."

"Same. So, what do your parents do?"

"They're scientists," said Danny, not wanting to get into the whole 'ghost hunting' thing. This wasn't Amity Park. Most people didn't believe in ghosts.

Ellie bobbed her head. "Cool, cool. I kinda want to be a scientist. Like, finding out new things, it just sounds really awesome?"

"Yeah, it can be fun sometimes," said Danny. "I don't understand most of it, though." He rolled his shoulders. Actually, he understood a lot more of his parents' work than he let on, in some specific areas more than them, even. Admitting that wasn't wise, however. "What field are you interested."

"Astrophysics, definitely," said Ellie, firmly. "Space is the coolest thing."

Danny grinned. "Oh, yeah. There's just so much. I mean, have you ever looked at the Hubble Deep Fields?"

.

Two teens talking together and having a good time evidently had a magnetic property. Three other high school kids had come to join them, all boys.

One boy was very tall and broad. During their introduction, Danny reflected that if he was on Casper's football team, Dash wouldn't be the star player anymore. Unlike Dash, however, Dustin was quiet, barely speaking at all and always deferring to the others.

The second boy introduced himself as Damien, and he was also tall, but thin and skeletal, like a strong breeze would blow him away. He seemed to realize this, because he had a pair of small enamel pins on the lapel of his suit: a skeleton and a scarecrow.

The last, Dmitri, a redhead, was about the same size as Danny. He reminded Danny of Jazz, for some reason (clearly, her psychology-camp-induced absence was driving him a little crazy). And, less pleasantly, of Wes. He had... a lot of questions. Not quite to the point of being annoying, but still a lot. There was also something wrong with his mask. It was hard to tell, but it looked almost as if one eye of it had been filled in. Danny didn't want to mention it, and ruin the atmosphere, though.

There was an atmosphere. Shockingly enough, these kids liked him, and they were much cooler than Danny would have expected of kids who's parents had been invited by Vlad. Which, yeah, was maybe a weird prejudice on his part. His parents had been invited by Vlad, after all.

Danny liked them back.

"... and the names of the dark matter candidates, whoever thought them up was a genius," said Dmitri, waving his hands.

"Well, yeah," said Danny, grinning, "if they were allowed to pick the names, they probably were the ones to come up with the whole idea for it in the first place. But I think MACHOs might be more likely than WIMPs. You've heard about the exoplanets they found last year?" He let his eyes briefly lose focus. "I bet there are even more of them, that we just can't see yet."

"Yeah, but there have been a lot of tests for MACHOs," said Damien. "You'd think we'd have seen a least a couple. And what about dark energy?"

"I don't think those two are actually related," said Ellie.

"Sure they are. They both have the word dark in them."

"Yeah, but I don't think they actually have anything to do with each other," said Ellie.

"They just have similar names," said Dustin.

"We can look it up, later," said Dmitri.

"Speaking of related," said Danny, "how are you guys related?"

There was a pause. "How'd you know?" asked Ellie. "Like, I could understand if you could see our faces, but..."

Danny shrugged. "I don't know. It just... Felt that way?

"We're cousins," said Damien, leaning forward. His body language spoke of nerves.

Danny couldn't imagine why Damien would be nervous about that, but he probably had his reasons. Family drama, maybe. It wasn't Danny's place to ask, he was a stranger.

Even if he was rather wishing he wasn't. How often did he meet people who shared so many of his interests? Never.

(Well, they were mostly just talking about the one interest, space, but still. And Dustin had mentioned liking Dumpty Humpty.)

"That's cool," he said. He would have liked to have helped. Maybe he still could, somehow? He and his parents were going to be here for a few days.

If he focused, there was an aura of something being not quite right with the cousins. Nothing he could put his finger on, and nothing to do with them as people, but... something.

"Hey," said Ellie, "what do you say we raid the snack table? It can't all be super fancy stuff we can't name, can it? I mean, at least there's punch."

Danny followed Ellie's gaze to the refreshments table. When he'd been over there before, everything had been covered, and he hadn't felt like fighting his way back across the floor and potentially losing sight of his parents. He glanced at them now. They looked like they were having fun.

He lightly bit at his lower lip. He knew Vlad had to be up to something. Otherwise, why bother with all of this?

But... new friends... He liked friends, and Vlad was always up to something. Danny deserved to have a little fun now and again, even so.

"Sure," he said. "We can ruin our dinner."

Ellie snickered. "That's the spirit!" she said, patting Danny on the back and slipping past him.

He smirked at the pun, even if it was unintentional.

"Yeah, better do it now, before there's a punchline," said Dmitri. "Wouldn't want people to think we're in a joke."

Danny choked a little, trying to swallow a laugh.

"That was terrible. You're terrible," said Damien.

"Hey, our new friend seems to like it," said Ellie.

Danny's core did a little bounce when she said friend. He really did want to be friends. "What can I say," he said, shrugging. "Better a joke, than a fist?"

Dmitri smiled broadly. Damien groaned, arcing his long body back dramatically.

There wasn't a line for the punch, or even very many people around the snack table at all. What few people had been there moved off, glaring, when the five children descended on the table. He caught Ellie sticking her tongue out at a woman who was giving them a particularly dirty look.

They gathered cups of punch and piled tiny plates high with pastries before retreating to a nearby corner to resume their conversation.

Danny was having a harder time following it this time, though. He felt tired. Drained. A little overheated. He wasn't used to wearing this suit. He went back to refill his punch a few times.

Words started to blur together. The inside of his head felt staticky. But he also... really content... New friends... His core felt strange...

"Danny?" a hand on his shoulder made him flinch, which made him sway rather dangerously. "Are you okay?"

Danny blinked at Ellie. "I don't feel..." he mumbled. What? What didn't he feel?

"Did someone spike the punch?"

"There's a room back here, you can lie down."

"I'll go get Father, he'll know what to do."

He was gently guided out of the ballroom, most of his weight resting on Dustin. There was a reason he should stay in the ballroom, but he couldn't remember what it was. Was someone missing?

Wait, spike the punch? Was he drunk?

The thought was lost almost instantly. His core, and therefore his mind, was lost in delirium and delight. New friends! But they needed his help, there was something wrong with them. But he could help! So, everything was good, and he loved his new friends very much.

The place they took him to was darker and quieter than before. They laid him down on something soft and squishy, and he giggled, weakly. They were talking. They might have been talking to him, but he couldn't understand aaaaaaaaanything.

He was so happy, helping his new friends.

The light changed as the door to the room opened. Music and other noises from the party briefly grew in volume, and were muffled again as the door swung closed.

"Well, that was faster than expected."

Vlad's voice briefly pulled him back into lucidity, and he struggled to sit up before collapsing again. No, all his energy had to go to his friends. They needed it. No time for Vlad.

Still, he glared up at the older man as he leaned over him. There were two Vlads. Was that because he was seeing double, or because Vlad had split himself?

The question was answered as Vlad picked Danny up. Danny was distressingly limp. He couldn't redirect any energy to his muscles, and thinking was hard. There was a thunk, and one of the walls opened up, revealing a hidden staircase. Vlad carried Danny down, but that was okay, because his new friends came with them, and- Oh!

There was another new friend down here!

Danny's core reached out to his newest new friend.

.

He came back to himself with only the sensation that something was wrong wrong wrong. He jolted up, only to be stopped by a pressure across his chest and shoulders. He squinted, trying to see. His mask was gone, and the clothing he was in felt different, looser.

"What'd you do with'm?" he demanded.

"They're just in the next room, Daniel," said Vlad. "Calm down. I had no idea you'd get attached to them so quickly. I had a whole program for this week for you to get to know them."

"No," said Danny. He finally managed to get his eyes open. He was in Vlad's lab, lying on something padded. He'd been strapped down, and there were various IVs running into his arms. One of them was a lurid ectoplasmic green.

"No?"

"Won't calm down. What did you do to me?"

"Nothing."

"This isn't nothing." He finally managed to find Vlad with his eyes. The man was sitting almost behind him. It was difficult to bend his eyes to look that way.

"Oh, very well then. I increased the energy levels in your core, allowing you to wake up and us to have this lovely conversation. The rest, my dear boy, was all you. An instinctive reaction on the part of your core, although you, as usual, took it too far."

"What?"

Vlad walked around the tube, to a position where Danny could see him more easily. "This will require some explanation. I realize this situation isn't intuitive, to one such as yourself." Vlad waved a dismissive hand.

Danny scowled, but had the presence of mind to bite his tongue. He needed to know what was going on. He was beginning to suspect that Vlad had drugged him, put something in the food or punch that only affected ghosts and half ghosts, but he had a feeling that wasn't quite right.

"After you and Jasmine blew up my football field, I came to the conclusion that you would never accept me as a father," said Vlad, with the air of someone narrating a tragedy. "I was forced to reconsider my methods and goals. You see, Daniel, all I really wanted was to be loved."

In Danny's personal opinion, that was a load of crap. Vlad, more than anything else, wanted control, he wanted power.

""To be loved," continued Vlad, "and understood." He looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "And who could understand me, but a fellow half ghost? So, I decided to make one."

"Wait, wait, hold up," said Danny, beyond horrified. "You made someone a half ghost? You killed someone?"

"What? No, don't be ridiculous, Daniel. I cloned you."

He pointed at something behind and to the left of Danny, and Danny craned his head back to see a tall, vertical tube full of ectoplasm. Inside floated a boy who looked just like Danny in Phantom form. The boy's eyes were closed, and there were tubes and wires connected to his body.

"That's just as bad. Oh my gosh, Vlad, you can't just clone people! Why didn't you clone yourself?"

Vlad's face twisted like he had just bitten into a lemon. "I had attempted to do so, initially, however, my ectoacne and other instabilities in my makeup precluded me from doing so. Cloning you was my only choice."

"We cured your ectoacne," said Danny.

"Yes. But I had already started this project. It did take time to grow your brother into maturity, Daniel. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts, David was unstable."

"David?"

"The name given to him by your other siblings. Do keep up, Daniel."

"Other- You made more clones? Why?"

"I had done some research," said Vlad. "Into how ghosts normal reproduce and stabilize children. I discovered that family members, those ghosts with similar ectosignatures and core properties, play a major role in stabilizing and providing energy to newly formed ghosts. My ectosignature was too different from David's, but I thought that if I could just make one stable clone..." Vlad trailed off, the look in his eyes almost haunted. "I tried everything. A mix of your DNA and ectosignature and mine, extra DNA from your sister, your mother, even your father. Nothing worked!" Vlad threw his hands up, angrily. "They are all more stable, but none of them are completely stable!"

It took Vlad several seconds to calm down, during which Danny put a few more puzzle pieces together.

"Ellie and the others, they're all clones?" That hurt, for some reason. Did they like him at all, or were they only being nice to him because Vlad told them to.

"Yes," said Vlad. "Danielle is the most stable." He smoothed down the front of his lab coat.

"So, you need me to stabilize them. That's why you drugged me?"

"I didn't drug you Daniel. Your collapse was a surprising to me as it was to you. Based on my readings, I can only conclude that your core recognized Danielle, Dustin, Damien, and Dmitri as family, registered their instability, and attempted to rectify it by boosting your ectosignature and sending them energy. Unfortunately, the effort overwhelmed you. You are only a child yourself, and..." Vlad trailed off, almost sheepish, "it is my understanding that they process is usually undertaken by multiple adult family members, and with only one child at a time."

"Great," said Danny. "And you didn't plan for that to happen at all."

"I had believed that you would bond with them more slowly," said Vlad. "That your reaction wouldn't be so extreme."

"Well, it was," said Danny. "But they're stable now, right? So, you can let me go." He tugged against the restraints again. He hoped they were stable. He had heard his parents talk about what happened to destabilized ghosts.

"Sadly," said Vlad, sounding like he was gritting his teeth, "that is an incorrect assumption."

There was a long pause.

"I want to make a deal with you, Daniel," said Vlad.

"You- Are you asking me for help?" Not that Danny could refuse. For one, he was tied up, for another...

"I suppose. For my children. They are children, Daniel, and they will die if they aren't stabilized. Painfully. Perhaps not today, but within the month."

Danny's heart clenched, and his core shivered. Even if Ellie and the others had been tricking him, he didn't want them to die. He would do what Vlad asked, if it stabilized his... cousins.

He was going to go with cousins for now. Siblings felt a little too close at the moment, and 'clones' was sort of dehumanizing. They were the ones who had started it, calling each other cousins.

But even if he was going to cooperate with Vlad, that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to get as many concessions out of Vlad as possible. True, he wasn't going to get very many, Vlad was holding the cards in this game, but he still might be able to get something.

"What kind of deal?" he asked, cautiously.

"You cooperate with stabilizing the cores of my children," said Vlad, "and I will make sure your little town stays safe and protected. Fail to cooperate, and not only will Amity Park be exposed and helpless against any ridiculous poltergeist that comes through your parents' portal, but you will be unconscious. As demonstrated earlier, you do not need to be awake for your core to be at work."

Danny frowned. Apart from the threat (honestly, Vlad was borderline pathological) that was a pretty good deal. Heck, Danny wasn't even supposed to be back in Amity Park until the end of the week.

It was a good deal... too good.

"Exactly how long do you think it'll take, anyway?" he asked. "To stabilize all of them?"

"I don't know, Daniel, this hasn't ever been done before."

Danny scowled. He hated it when Vlad said his name with that supercilious tone of voice. "Fine. How long does it take with ghosts, Vlad? You said you researched it, didn't you?"

"The time varied based on a number of factors," said Vlad.

"It takes a long time, doesn't it?" asked Danny. "I want a cover story. One that doesn't make me disappearing for Ancients know how long my fault. I want to be able to talk to Sam, Tucker, and Jazz whenever I want. And I want to be able to veto anything too invasive or dangerous."

"You're hardly in a position to make demands."

Danny made a shrugging motion, hoping that Vlad wouldn't call his bluff.

"I can do the first," said Vlad, finally, "but if you want it to hold up, the second is impossible. The last is ridiculous. Cooperation means full cooperation, nothing less."

That was about what he had expected. "If I can't communicate with them, they'll just show up here, guns blazing. You know that."

"I think I can handle three human teenagers."

"Sure, but do you want to have to?"

Vlad frowned. "I will consider the merits of your suggestion," he said. "I'm impressed, actually. I didn't think you had it in you, to bargain with lives on the line." Danny swallowed to keep himself from gagging. "But in the meantime, do you agree to cooperate, or no?" He drummed his fingers on something Danny couldn't see.

Between Danny's Obsession, and what were apparently ghostly family bonding instincts, there really wasn't any way for him to say no. "Yes, fine, whatever. I'll cooperate. You can let me out of these things, now." He pulled at the restraints again.

"Oh, no," said Vlad, smiling, then moving out of Danny's line of sight. "Those are for your own protection. You see, your core isn't really mature enough to cope with sustaining five other cores, so we are going to have to significantly supplement your ectoenergy levels."

There was a small click, and the table Danny was on started moving backwards. After a few inches, it angled up, until it was vertical. Danny discovered that there were little platforms under his bare feet, and other supports to keep him upright in his new position. Directly to his left, floated the clone, David, in the glass tube. Danny's core seemed to strain in that direction. His eyelids fluttered.

Vlad walked back over and pulled something with two tubes attached to it from the space over Danny's head. "Open up," he said.

"Why?" asked Danny.

"This is a breathing mask," said Vlad. "It will supply you with oxygen and atomized ectoplasm at three times the levels generally available in the Ghost Zone. But this part," he tapped part of the mask that was fitted with something like a bite guard, "needs to go inside your mouth."

After a moment of hesitation, Danny opened his mouth, and Vlad inserted the breathing mask. Almost at once, Danny could tell the difference. The air coming through was just so much richer.

Vlad pressed the cup of the mask over Danny's mouth and nose and sealed the edges with tape.

"Now," Vlad said, as he began pulling other things from the ceiling and attaching them to Danny, "in a few minutes, I'm going to start giving you instructions. I want you to follow them. Cooperate, do you understand? The first thing I want to do is stabilize David enough that he is no longer dependent on the containment chamber to survive."

Danny was getting a bad feeling. Many of the wires Vlad was attaching to him mirrored wires attached to David. Vlad attached a few more wires, and inserted several needles. Danny tried to hiss at those, but the mask acted as an effective gag. Finally, Vlad inserted two small plugs into Danny's ears and stepped back, half smiling.

As Danny had almost expected, a curved glass barrier sprang from behind him and encircled him, trapping him in a chamber much like the one David occupied. Ectoplasm began to bubble up from below, from a source Danny couldn't see.

"You will be submerged shortly." Vlad's voice rang clear in the earbuds. "This will allow you to intake ectoplasm through your skin. You will also be in the same environment as David."

The ectoplasm hit the soles of Danny's feet, and he flinched. It was rising rapidly.

"Do try not to panic," said Vlad. "Now, I want you to focus on David."

It was at Danny's knees, now. He took a deep breath, reassuring himself that the mask was in place. He wasn't going to drown. He looked over at David. What did it even mean, to focus on him? Danny had no idea what he was like, not really. Like him, he guessed, but not?

"With your ghost sense, Daniel," said Vlad. "Not your eyes."

Danny scowled at him, trying to distract himself from the fact that the ectoplasm was up to his chest. He closed his eyes and tried to do... that. It wasn't something he normally did and had no idea how to go about it but-

Ah. Oh, there it was. There he was, Danny's new friend. That was easier than expected. Danny's core began to purr, some of the euphoria from earlier in the night returning.

The ectoplasm closed over his head.

"Good," said Vlad, his voice slightly warped. "It appears that you have connected. Now, I am going to stimulate and amplify that connection. I want you to stay focused."

Of course Danny would stay focused. He was helping his friend, wasn't he? He always stayed focused when it came to that.

Several of the places Vlad had attached wires began to tingle. His core jumped and he twitched. Everything briefly took on a very severe cast.

It was very hard to think, after that.

.

Vlad smiled at his readouts. Securing Daniel's cooperation beforehand had been worthwhile. Had he been struggling, it would have been difficult to establish the connection to this extent. David's energy and stability levels were increasing slowly but steadily. Despite the measure he was taking, Daniel's were dropping. Some of the data concerning his human half was less than ideal. That would be troublesome to deal with later on.

He took a moment to check in on his duplicate upstairs. The party was going well. Jack and Maddie hadn't noticed Daniel's absence yet. With luck, they wouldn't until the next morning.

Overall, tonight had been fruitful. With Daniel, he would be able to stabilize all five of the clones, and, perhaps, he would even be able to win over Daniel. He had seen the relaxed smile on his face when he had been with the clones. Vlad knew how powerful ghost instincts could be.

He stood up and walked over to the room where he had asked his children to wait. They should be told that their elder siblings would make a full recovery shortly.

[anakin-skybreaker]

A Brief Analysis of Clone Wars Characters Via Knights Radiant Orders

Ahsoka Tano:

It’s been stated that the Edgedancers are the most religious of the Knights Radiant orders. Faith, I believe, is a cornerstone of Ahsoka’s character; faith in the Jedi Order, losing that faith and gaining it in herself, not to mention her faith in Anakin.

A good chunk of her character arc is centered around the common man, learning the plights of the disenfranchised and living up to what the majority of people believe Jedi to stand for without the restrictions of political alignments. Edgedancer ideals fit Ahsoka’s overall arc.

Second Ideal: “I will remember those who have been forgotten.”

Third Ideal: “I will listen to those who have been ignored.”

Edgedancers have the ability to ignore friction which I feel would be well-suited to Ahsoka’s fighting style.

“...they were elegant things of beauty. They could ride the thinnest rope at speed, dance across rooftops, move through a battlefield like a ribbon on the wind.” – Edgedancer, page 4.

“When Simol was informed of the arrival of the Edgedancers, a concealed consternation and terror, as is common in such cases, fell upon him; although they were not the most demanding of orders, their graceful, limber movements hid a deadliness that was, by this time, quite renowned…” – Words of Radiance, page 20.

Captain Rex:

This might be a controversial choice considering what we know of clones, but Rex is a bondsmith. Sure Honor is a whole, veritable, god on Roshar but Rex is a bondsmith and you can pry that from my cold dead hands.

What do I have for evidence of this? Why, the Second Ideal of course.

“I unite instead of divide. I will bring men together.”

Rex watching his brothers being forced to break their oaths of honor and kill their spren all for Palpatine’s agenda. That hits different, bro.

Honestly, I don’t think I need to go any further but for the sake of it I will.

Having a clone, who many consider to be less than, climb the ranks and become a must in terms on long term warfare just feels good. Long story short, Rex is irreplaceable and he deserves an order which maximizes how irreplaceable he truly is.

Commander Cody:

Here we have our first windrunner proper.

Cody is a good man, a loyal man, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t suffer the same ideological differences and hypocrises that plague the Republic. The side he serves condemns slavery and yet he himself and his millions of brothers are a slaves. He is a tool for war yet trying to bring peace. He fights to end the war and yet the Republic refuses to open peace talks. 

He’d be the closest to Kaladin, in terms of practically everything; Cody is a child of Honor.

Cody knows how the universe works so he settles on his own code of honor. He will protect those who cannot protect themselves, regardless of his personal feelings toward them. He knows he can’t save everyone, but what’s most important is that he try. Somebody needs to.

Padme Amidala:

Like Rex, Padme would be well-suited to the bondsmiths. She aims to unite instead of divide. But given her role in TCW, however, and her role as the one who steps up to call out people and be the one to spend her life trying to better society, Padme is an elsecaller.

She’s a diplomat at heart, individualistic and esoteric. Padme follows her own logic and goes out on the front line when she deems it necessary. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what Anakin or the Jedi or the Republic says, Padme abides by her own moral compass and what makes sense to her.

“...the Elsecallers were prodigiously benevolent, allowing others as auxiliary to their visits and interactions; though they never did relinquish their place as prime liaisons with the great ones of the spren…”

She is a senator who creates connections between peoples.

Queen Padme Amidala and Queen Jasnah Kholin, while having a lot of political differences and different approaches to warfare, would get along famously.

Padme contributes to the war effort by soulcasting food, medicine, and other necessary materials.

Anakin Skywalker:

Here’s where things get complicated.

If we’re going purely by plot, then Anakin is a skybreaker since that is one of the only orders that suit his personality which would still allow him to “fall to the dark side” while maintaining his oaths.

Also, I’m not going to slide past it. My URL is anakin-skybreaker for fuck’s sake. It would be a crime against nature for a man named Skywalker not to have gravitation manipulation like come on, he was born to fly. 

It’s just too good, too fitting. I can also see Anakin saying some variant of Kaladin’s line in Words of Radiance, but during a version of the Rako Hardeen arc. “You sent him to the sky to die, assassin, but the sky and winds are mine. I claim them, as I now claim your life.” Though entirely separate, the two have roughly the same amount of melodramatic entrances.

On the other hand, if we’re going for what’s best for Anakin as a person then he’d be either a windrunner or a dustbringer (releaser). The Fourth windrunner ideal says more than I ever could. “I accept that there will be those I cannot save.” Anakin is fueled by ambition so there’s no way he wouldn’t make it to the fourth ideal and then be forced to come to terms with himself and his fears or risk stagnation (or worse breaking his oaths and killing his spren).

As a dustbringer, Anakin would be taught how to control and channel his destructive/violent impulses. Dustbringers get a bad reputation because of their capabilities for mass destruction and because of that shared prejudice, I feel that might help Anakin settle in even quicker than he would in the other orders. Like if he were a windrunner, Anakin would be forced to confront aspects of his personality and truly learn restrain and responsibility.

“Most Dustbringers were tinkers who liked to take things apart to see how they work.”

Dustbringer spren canonically love to break stuff. So, Anakin making friends with a spren that wants him to break stuff because it wants to know what’s inside? 10/10

Obi Wan Kenobi:

A lightweaver in personality and a windrunner in mentality.

It hardly needs saying that Obi Wan is an honorable man. It would come to the point where, even as a renowned lightweaver other people would make comments on it. How he’d be better suited to the windrunners, how “I could’ve sworn you bonded an honorspren” and stuff like that.

Lightweaver ideals are tailored towards the individual, but generally follow the pattern of admitting personal truths. Obi Wan has more than a few truths to admit to himself. He and Anakin would be having an argument, only for his liespren to chime in to call him out going, “mm, lies” and forcing the two to actually talk out their feelings.

He would be Grand Spymaster of the Republic. Obi Wan is already known as the Negotiator, so he’d arrive at the palace of a government he needs to win over for the Republic dressed to the nines, positively glowing, standing at imposing six foot five, where underneath the lightweaving he’s going on three hours of sleep, is wearing yesterday’s clothes, and hasn’t combed his hair in three days.

He’s a lightweaver, but for the life of me I cannot get the image of Windrunner Obi Wan vs. Skybreaker Anakin, battle of Mustafar style, out of my head because the concept of them both being able to control gravity while representing opposite ideologies slaps okay?

Plus, Obi Wan would look immaculate in Kholin blue.

Anakin being busy blowing stuff up, turning canons to dust while Ahsoka skates past him as if solid ground were made of ice cutting through squads of droids while Obi Wan wears the face of the enemy leader and convinces them to surrender? 20/10

Maul:

This one is a lightweaver too and for the same reasons as Obi Wan.

He’s a charismatic bastard and he’d used his abilities to their maximum destructive potential. Just like in Clone Wars, he’d topple governments and overtake civilizations from the inside out. 

Lightweavers are not bound by honor so Maul can pretty much do what he wants so long as he’s able to admit truths about himself. Whether he’s successful in doing so remains to be seen.

An important sidenote, Maul has Nightblood.

Maul would have Nightblood and everybody would be in danger.

[razberryyum]

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The Untamed/陈情令 Rewatch, Episode 3 (spoilers for everything)

(covers some of MDZS chap 13 and erm...that’s it. They mostly go rogue for this ep*)

WangXian meter: 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

(a 🐰 is earned every time there is a WangXian scene or even when they’re just thinking of each other...some scenes deserve more than one 🐰...don’t worry about it, it’s not an exact science 🐰🐰🐰)

Really, bless Team CQL for transforming what was only an anecdote in the novel into one of the most beautiful scenes in the show.  The first time Wei Ying and Lan Zhan first crossed swords played out like a moonlite, rooftop ballet and it is completely breath-taking and romantic and perfect. What makes this scene even more meaningful to me now is the added sense of poignancy of knowing that they will never be able to spar like that again due to Wei Wuxian’s diminished abilities in his Mo Xuanyu form. Although, even before his rebirth they wouldn’t have been able to repeat this dance since Wei Ying's extraordinary swordsmanship had already gone away with his golden core.  It's yet another reminder of not only how much he’s lost, but also how great a sacrifice he made for Jiang Cheng. Just thinking about that is enough to make my heart ache like crazy all over again over how much Wei Ying loves his bro and how much he went through for him without JC even knowing it for such a long time.    

But back to happier thoughts, what I also loved about this scene is just how downright adorable Wei Ying was being. Actually, he really was being a total mischievous cutie during most of his time at Cloud Recesses, which makes sense since this is the Wei Wuxian that was still brimming with boyish charm and innocence as his life still hadn’t been touched by heartbreak and tragedy yet. That reminds me of another reason why I am so impressed with Xiao Zhan as an actor is because he basically had to portray three different roles in The Untamed—as the youthful, wide-eyed Wei Ying, followed by the more bitter and mature Yiling Patriarch, and then finally the carefree yet jaded Mo Xuanyu—and he performed each persona with equal aplomb while injecting noticeable differences in each phase of WWX’s life as exemplified by alterations in his posture, expressions and even the way he says his lines. I'm not familiar with what acting awards are available in China’s entertainment industry, but I hope he receives some sort of award recognition for his work. He definitely deserves some nominations at least.  

That is not to say that Wang Yibo was being a slouch either; even though I had my doubts about him initially, I do still recognize that playing a stoic character is not an easy task since he had to find creative ways to avoid falling into dullness. A good deal of microexpressing is involved that can be difficult for an unseasoned and non-professionally trained actor, but WYB definitely lived up to the challenge as the show progressed. But because WWX is the more blatantly dynamic character, one’s attention is naturally drawn to him, even I was more focused on him at first, so I ended up neglecting what was going on with WYB’s Lan Zhan. It was only after revisiting this episode that I was truly able to appreciate the subtlety of performance.  

While it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to resist Wei Ying’s charms, I do believe Lan Zhan was indeed mostly irritated by him during their initial interactions. At the same time, however, he also clearly noticed that there was more to WWX than meets the eye since he was definitely intelligent (after all, he correctly deduced, twice, what was going on with the injured cultivator Lan Zhan brought back) and he was also quite skilled since their sword fight ended at a draw. But because Lan Zhan had years of propriety instilled in him by Uncle Lan, his automatic reaction to someone who was as unruly as Wei Ying had to be instant disapproval and annoyance. The irony of that is most likely because Wei Ying was such an annoyance to Lan Zhan that he couldn’t help but constantly notice him as a result, as one would do with an eyesore, so even from the first moment they met, his attention was already captured. It’s not the most positive way to start a relationship to be sure, but obviously it worked out for the best in the long run, especially once Lan Zhan got to know Wei Ying better and that animosity turned into something more affectionate.

Big Brother Appreciation Time

There are many reasons to love big bro Lan Xichen—he is such a sweet, caring, gentle, considerate, and loving soul who is also a skilled and talented cultivator—the least of which is his intent on playing matchmaker between his little brother and WWX right from the start. I loved that he noticed something in Wei Ying immediately and realized he would be a good person for LWJ to have in his life. Bless him for being so observant and intelligent.  

Random Bits of Randomness

If Lan Qiren knew that this rude, improper kid would one day be the person to “corrupt” his beloved nephew and steal his pure, innocent heart, he probably would’ve spit up all the blood in his body and dropped dead right then and there. I will always laugh at just how offended he looked when Wei Ying dared to rest Suibian on his desk, as if he had dumped dog shit in front of him instead. 

I just wanted to commend Mian Mian’s fellow sect-mate on the left there who, even though she was not complimented on her good looks or even given a second glance by WWX, still generously talked Mian Mian into allowing the Jiangs to stay at the hotel. I thought she deserved some credit for her nice gesture.

Not having read the novel yet when I first watched this episode, I was actually shocked at the reveal that Shijie was engaged to Jin Zixuan because I would never have thought they had that relationship from this scene. I know JZX didn’t really have any intention of honoring that arranged marriage at this point in the story, but the rudeness he allowed his servant to get away with was still unbelievable. I mean, seriously what the hell, she was still his fiancee, he hadn’t broken off the engagement yet, how DARE he allow that nobody back there address Shijie and his potential future in-laws in such a rude way. The fact that he actually kicked them out of the hotel was also shocking because it felt completely unnecessary. I really didn't like JZX because of this moment and that sentiment stayed with me for quite some time. What made the scene sadder is Shijie obviously was crushing on him and for the longest time I couldn’t understand why because I thought she totally could do better AND deserved better. I can’t say that I ever learned to love JZX, but I definitely don’t dislike him anymore.

Though I’ve been pretty critical of the CGI in The Untamed for the first two episodes, I do want to point out that not all of it is horrible: I was actually impressed with how both Cloud Recesses and Nightless City looked, even though I think their design for Nightless City was rather off the mark since it no longer suited its name. Since they were going to go with the dark theme and make the Wen Sect as blatantly villainous as possible, the production team should’ve just changed Nightless City’s name to Forever Night City (“長夜城”). Personally, I would’ve preferred it more if they had just stuck with the design of the Wen sect’s residence and uniforms as they were described in the novel (which was beautifully brought to life in the donghua) since I liked how deceptively righteous the Wens seemed. In CQL, they were so obviously the bad guys that they bordered on being cartoonish, especially Wen Ruohan (portrayed by Xiu Qing). Man, his performance simply was NOT working for me AT ALL. Even his make-up was a mess...looked like it was melting off of him all the time. In contrast, I thought Wen Chao (portrayed by He Peng) was bit much at first too, but then eventually I started to appreciate the actor’s performance, especially during his last scenes where he actually made me feel bad for his character because he was so convincingly pathetic. WRH never won me over and I was really relieved when he finally died. I actually thought they gave the actor too many scenes already leading up to his death. Felt like a lot of unnecessary filler to stretch out the episodes.  

Xue Yang is absolutely evil and horrible and psychotic and a total mass murderer and villain, but dammit, as soon as he showed up, I couldn’t help but immediately take a liking to him, and it’s all the actor’s fault. I have never seen Wang Haoxuan in any other show before...then again, I think he’s only been in two other shows prior to The Untamed, both of which I haven’t watched...but much like with Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo, I think the show struck gold by casting him as Xue Yang. In addition to making his character difficult to hate, he has also made him so interesting and magnetic that I couldn’t wait to see him pop up again. I am so glad that Team CQL altered the Yi City arc so that we were introduced to Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan sooner than in the novel. Not only did it allow us to become acquainted with the characters early on so that by the time Yi City rolled around, everything that happened in that arc would be even more emotionally effective because we were already invested in them, but we also got Xue Yang sooner and more often, and for that I am thankful. I already liked him before I read the novel so by the time I came across his character in the book, all I could imagine was Wang Haoxuan. He completely fit the image of Xue Yang for me. I don’t know if I would feel the same way had I read the novel first before watching the show, but I would probably still like Wang Haoxuan’s portrayal.  I know there have been criticisms that he is overacting, but for me, everything he did worked. It worked so much that I wish things had been different with his character, that Xue Yang wasn’t the monster that he is and committed all those atrocities that he did. I mean, he’s literally worse than Charles Manson. And yet, I still like him; I can’t help it, he’s just so much fun to watch. His eyes freaking sparkles. How am I supposed to resist that?? Look, there are times in a person’s life where one must make certain decisions that are undoubtedly not wise ones, but one still must stick with them because that’s the choice that was made.  Liking Xue Yang is definitely one of those decisions for me and I’ll just have to live with it.  

**I didn’t want to put this right at top since they would be unavoidable spoilers, but Shijie, Wen Qing and Wen Ning never attended the studies at Cloud Recesses. I’m really happy for that change in the drama, especially since we got to know Shijie more.  As mentioned above, the early introduction of Xue Yang and the yin metals was also a deviation from the novel.  

Questions TBD:

I had questions regarding the whole yin metal drama, but I have a feeling it’s only because I wasn’t paying close enough attention to that part of the story every time I watched these earlier episodes. I tend to zone out when we dropped in on WRH because I just find him so ridiculous and his whole set up in his fortress ridiculous too. Those zombie/ghost puppet dudes are just silly and I think it's kind of hilarious that WRH would just have his precious yin metal floating in the main hall like that for everyone to see. He has a cool throne, I’ll give him that, but otherwise, I really just can’t with him.  On this rewatch this time around though, I am going to really force myself to pay closer attention to WRH and yin metal stuff so that I can finally make sense of it all, or at least know for sure that it was never meant to make sense because they actually botched that whole storyline.

Overall Episode Rating: 8 Lil Apples out of 10

[khentkawes]

The Russos think Steve’s ending made the movie “hopeful” rather than “depressing,” and I’m like...what?

While Black Widow and Iron Man get tragic, heroic deaths, Captain America gets a different kind of emotional ending – heading back into an alternate past to live a happy life with Peggy Carter. Not only was it a logical end for his character arc, but it offered hope where killing him would have destroyed it. “Once you kill a beloved character like [Tony], you've got to have hope at the end of the movie in some regard, and the only person to give you that hope is the other co-lead,” says Joe Russo. “Had we killed both the leads, I feel like people would have been walking out into traffic after the film. The intention is not to destroy people, it's to hopefully tell a complex and dimensionalised story in a way, that makes them feel a varied range of emotion.”

(via Empire)

Just read this in Empire’s summary of the “spoilers” they got from interviews with the Russos and Markus & McFeely (it’s #24 in their list of “juicy” tidbits) and I’m just like...what?

So the goal wasn’t to “destroy people” with that ending. They gave us brutal, tragic deaths for Tony and Natasha, but figured that Cap’s “hopeful ending” would save the movie from being too depressing? I think they miscalculated because that math does not add up.

I think they missed the fact that Tony is the most human (and therefore the more relatable) character and that Natasha has been, for the bulk of the MCU, the only real female hero representation we’ve had (until Age of Ultron, she was literally the only one, and it’s only since the women of Black Panther and Hope Van Dyne showed up that we’ve actually had a variety of female heroes). I think they are missing how utterly depressing it is to kill off the flawed characters who have struggled towards redemption and a life of heroism--killing off the guy with PTSD and anxiety who has struggled to cope with mental illness and to become a better person who has made up for past mistakes, and killing off the abused woman who has fought to regain her agency and make her own path in life, who was also the only woman on the team for way too long--in favor of saving the traditionally handsome, stereotypically “good” white guy. He gets the hopeful ending. They don’t. And that’s supposed to save the movie from being too depressing? Really?

And okay, I am not saying that Steve doesn’t deserve a happy ending. I’m saying that saving the old-fashioned hero, the one with no flaws who happens to look like the narrow stereotype of white Americana (a stereotype so few Americans actually fit into), and killing off the characters who are less than perfect and less than the ideal of white, blue-eyed, blonde perfection is not hopeful...unless you identify with the white male "good dude” archetype. I guess if you wholeheartedly believe you are righteous and good, and you have had that idea reinforced your whole life, then maybe you would identify with Steve and see his happy ending as the reward for all of his years of doing the right thing. But as a woman who struggles with mental illness, that narrative isn’t hopeful to me. That narrative tells me that only people who are stereotypically "perfect” and fit into this narrow definition of what it means to be “good” get happy endings--and yeah, apparently Hollyowood’s go-to story to reinforce that message is a white guy who “wins” the girl as his “reward” for being the “white hat” good guy. It’s such a tired trope, and in 2019, it’s over-done more than it inspires some sense of hope.

But let me be clear: the problem is not that they gave Steve a happy ending. It’s that they only gave Steve a happy ending. Tony and Nat are dead. Pepper and Morgan are mourning. The last images we see of Rhodey are of him with tears in his eyes (seriously, this franchise and even the fans are continuously doing Rhodey dirty. If one guy should be worthy of the hammer, it’s Rhodey, not Steve...but right, he’s not “the lead” and he’s black, so...). Thor is still depressed and has lost everything; he’ll probably go on a journey to heal and make a new life for himself, but it’s not a happy ending, not even particularly hopeful since he has no clear direction and is left adrift. Bruce gets no ending at all: his character is literally ignored at the end and we have no idea what will happen to him. Zero resolution there, and not much reason to hope that there will be more for his character later (the Empire article also suggests that Bruce/Hulk is a symbol of hope in the movie because he moves on to be an active hero during the five year time gap...but since they show us almost none of this, again, it doesn’t feel particularly hopeful). Clint is mourning Natasha (but he is the closest of the other characters to get a happy ending--and Joe Russo basically says that’s because he identifies with Clint as a father and family man). Sam looks confused and Bucky looks vaguely sad. The Guardians are a broken family trying to piece things back together, and Nebula is broken too (still). These characters don’t get happy endings. Sure, some of them have a chance to rebuild and live on. But the story doesn’t focus on giving them “hope” to salvage the depressing ending. We are given no real promise that things will look up for these people or that they have hope for their futures. It’s pretty much either bittersweet (i.e. Sam getting the shield) or very bleak. Steve is the only one who is truly happy and we end the movie on images of only him being happy.

So the problem is that the only person with a well-resolved happy ending is the white, male paragon of virtue. All of the other characters, who could have been on complex story arcs and could have been used as symbols of hope...they get nothing. We could have ended with characters rebuilding Avengers Compound, with scenes of Wakanda rebuilding and helping the rest of the world, with Rhodey taking the younger heroes under his wing, with Pepper showing Morgan her dad’s legacy or a shot of Morgan tinkering with parts of an iron man suit as a bit foreshadowing, with nods to the next generation taking up the mantel, and with Steve looking proudly at all of that, knowing that they followed his example and Tony’s legacy. That would have been a hopeful ending that all of us could find some hope in. But instead, the movie focuses almost exclusively on Steve--so “hope” is defining as a white dude getting the girl and dancing with her in the past...a regression, rather than progression, moving backward rather than forward. That’s what these writers and directors consider hopeful.

If Steve got some version of a happy ending (hopefully one less ham-fisted than what we got) and we also had much more focus on hopeful scenes for the other characters, then I would feel less like walking out into traffic after this movie. But as it was...Russos, your attempt was not successful. Your hope is only for the perfect white male heroes that you clearly idolize, but it’s not for women or POC or people with mental illness or people who have made mistakes or people who just don’t fit that “perfect hero” stereotype. And that’s not hope. That’s depressing as fuck.

I mean, at least Joe Russo actually called Tony a “beloved character,”  acknowledging that they knew his death would be devastating and they would have to mitigate that somehow...they just clearly had no fucking clue how to do that, so it failed royally.

[joesbbqandfootmassage]

We need to talk about Jane and Carlos…

So if someone had to ask me what one of the most underrated things in the world was, I would definitely say dcoms. (Disney Channel Original Movies)

They’re cheesy and dumb and not a single one lacks their flaws.

But they are still just so fun to watch and you just get a whole new experience from watching dcoms than you do any other movie.

Now among all those dcoms is a sub genre of musicals, being made popular by the one and only High School Musical trilogy. But we also have the Cheetah Girls, Teen Beach Movie, ZOMBIES, and the Descendants.

Now while all of those movie series are amazing in their own right, I’m gonna zero in on Descendants.

Kenny Ortega’s big return to Disney Channel and oh my gosh was it hyped up.

You couldn’t go two minutes watching Suite Life on Deck reruns without having this shoved in your face.

And you’d be dang right if you thought I was excited to see it. The children of iconic Disney characters all in one shared universe? Sign me the heck up!

Of course we got rid of cable before it came out and it would be maybe two years later until i finally considered watching it with my sister.

Needless to say our reaction could be boiled down to, “Oh. Oh no.”

Love it or hate it, as a movie lover I can say that D1 is a fundamentally broken movie on every level.

Nothing is developed enough and it relies way too heavily on you loving Mal as a character. Spoiler alert, I don’t.

But regardless of that, D1 also introduced me to a guy named Carlos De Vil.

Now i will never be able to comprehend WHY on Earth, puppy-skinning, vampire bat, inhumane beast, Cruella De Vil would EVER do the do with anyone and then still keep the baby after not killing it during pregnancy.

But she did and there he was.

Canonically physically and mentally abused by his mother to such a degree that he wakes up at night screaming.

Something Disney had never really had the guts to do before.

And immediately he charmed the heck out of me because regardless of how awful he had it on the Isle, it didn’t take a genius to see that he was a genuinely a good person at heart.

He was so clearly different and that was shown through maybe a culmination of like five minutes of screen time and Cameron’s incredible acting abilities.

And he deserved so much more in those movies than what was given to him but I won’t complain.

Because we still need to talk about another sweetheart.

Jane gets even less development than Carlos which is to be expected since she isn’t a main character, but you can still figure out and understand her if you read between the lines.

In D1 you not only get the fact that she likes to hide in her own little bubble, but she’s also incredibly insecure. So much so that Mal is quickly able to see it and take advantage of it.

Spending her whole life having to repeat that it’s not the outside that matters, it’s the inside, even though she doesn’t completely believe.

And then someone comes forward and basically validates her in her belief that she isn’t pretty, but she could be if she stopped focusing on the inside.

That’s what leads to her downward spiral throughout the movie as she lets her newfound “beauty” (seriously bobbed hair is cute and Disney needs to calm down) go to her head and she turns on Mal and the rest of the VKs.

Now while I find Mal to be completely irrational, her reversing Jane’s spell makes sense.

It’s Jane’s actions that follow.

Her, so desperate to be beautiful (literally she is so gorgeous how?) deciding to steal her mother’s wand isn’t paced very well and doesn’t make a lot of sense in the plot. But they just wanted to avoid Mal being the cause of the barrier being brought down so her redemption would be easier.

A classic Kylo Ren of avoiding direct contact and having it all be indirect so they can easily be forgiven later.

Now by all means after her actions that day, I’m surprised Jane herself isn’t sent to jail.

But I guess in D3 they show that they have an AK bias so whatever.

Now the important thing about this is that Carlos is there for all of Jane’s worst moments.

The moments where she is not at her best emotionally and it’s manifesting in bad ways. He knows that Mal had planned to use her to get to the wand in the first place before dumping her when that wasn’t going anywhere.

He knows that’s she’s afraid of them by the way she reacts to them in her first scene in Goodness Class.

He knows all of that.

And he still drags her onto a dance floor, refusing to let her be alone.

You could argue that Jay was there too, but her immediately ditched to jump on the Audrey train so…

This small moment, Carlos’ selfless act of kindness, plants a seed that most people laughed at or rolled their eyes - but all the same it was there.

And that little seed began to grow until two years later (six months in the actual movies) we get a beautiful Janelos flower.

Now D2 Janelos is some quality stuff and never have I seen so many people hate a ship that hasn’t done anything wrong.

And I think it’s fitting that Carlos’ arc for D2 is all centered around Jane.

In the first movie, he conquered his fear of dogs.

Now in this movie, he conquers his fear of being rejected by her.

Now if you’re an over analyzer by nature and a Carlos stan by choice, you tend to pick up on subtleties that Disney doesn’t have the guts to cover. Most notably, Carlos being touch/affection starved

You can see it in the ways his mother doesn’t show him love outside of threats and total, emotional reliance. In the way the VKs don’t particularly reciprocate his touches unless absolutely necessary. Or unless you’re Jay and you need to pull and alpha male moment and start wrastling.

And you can definitely see it in the way he thrives off of contact with Dude, and later, Jane.

Now somehow you people don’t think it is absolutely incredible that Carlos De Vil, physically and emotionally abused since birth, grew up on the Isle where love and dating were not a common place thing, fell in love.

And with the girl that was afraid of him in the first movie.

And omg I could talk about Carlos “Heart Eyes” De Vil forever and ever. Amen.

But instead I’m gonna talk about the three most major Janelos scenes in the film.

First one is gonna be the truth gummy scene.

First of all, Carlos’ puppy dog eyes when he’s thinking about Jane restore my life to the full one million years I am supposed to live.

People you are not allowed to overlook what Carlos was going to do in this short and beautiful scene.

Because he’s never really lived a life where he can speak his mind and share his feelings, the whole movie he’s struggling to even figure out how he can open up to Jane.

Not change his personality to get her attention.

Not making a love potion that’ll force her to love him.

No, he decides that the only way to approach it is honesty - by that I mean he agrees to sacrifice lying for the rest of his mortal life. And Mal gives him plenty of reasons to back out, most of them being about her but still, and he simply replies, “I’ll take my chances.”

Ugh.

The world did not do anything good enough to earn Carlos De Vil.

But the thing is, the truth gummy is his only hope to help him spit out how he feels about Jane. Because whenever he’s in her presence all he can do is freeze up and stutter. Simply due to the fact that when he’s faced with the chance, Carlos has no clue how to describe what he feels and what he wants.

But he knows that his heart does.

It’s in there somewhere and dang he’s gonna get it out because he cares about her so much and just wants to TELL her how he feels when he looks at her.

Of course then Dude eats it and all those years Carlos’ heart eyes had given me instantly went away again.

And then the whole Janelos plot line takes a bit of a nap until the third act of the movie when Carlos decides that Mal alienating herself from the Core Four ain’t helping her mental health and their friendship.

That’s when he drops the absolute BARS of knowledge, “Then don’t.”

He tells her that she never should change herself just to make someone else happy, you’ll never know if they really love you that way.

And I just wanna take a moment to wonder where Carlos got all these strong good person energies, because being raised on an Isle where love and dating aren’t even concepts should show in all the VKs.

Yet in D2 and D3 we can see that Carlos and Evie both seem to approach love with an impressive maturity that I can’t even fathom how they figured it out.

His advice is a comfort to Mal as well as Jay’s protective big brother move, and then we get to see the way his own advice affects him.

His Lovecraftian horror paraphrases what he said in the earlier conversation, “If she doesn’t love you for who you are than she isn’t the one.”

But this applies differently than in the Ben/Mal situation.

Carlos doesn’t try to change who he is or how he acts (unless you count the sacrificing lying thing but that wasn’t really used to earn her love so) but he gets the general idea.

And so, Carlos offers himself to her.

Just him, and a date and his love because that’s all he has to give her.

And she can either say yes and accept him and he can finally begin to understand what he’s feeling.

Or, she can turn him away - not wanting anything to do with what he has for her.

Which leads to such a beautiful scene, ugh I could write songs about the Janelos confession scene it’s that good.

First you see Carlos running at the speed of sound just to catch her, and he was definitely running around the whole campus because he absolutely needed to do this before he chickened out like every other time in the movie.

And at first it doesn’t seem to click in Jane’s head, because she’s only ever been just Jane.

Not pretty like Audrey or athletic like Lonnie.

Boys didn’t flirt with her or ask her out on dates, certainly not the boys she liked.

So of course, like the other times he had tried, she just wasn’t getting it. Too preoccupied with party planning and not getting her hopes up to let it sink in.  And that’s when Carlos does something that he didn’t even need a truth gummy to do.

He gives her a list of all that he can give her, looking into her eyes and waiting for her to take or leave it

And not only does she take it, but she fully adds all the things on the list that she’s always wanted to do with him, giving herself right back to him in the process.

Leaving Carlos absolutely shocked and overwhelmed and happy.

He just figured she’d either say yes or no.

Her giving herself to him wasn’t even a consideration in his mind.

And then she throws him for a loop once again, by throwing her arms around him and holding him tight.

And honestly, Carlos’ reaction says it all.

The first time somebody initiated legitimate affection towards him, and it’s from the girl he loves no less.

He’s at a loss for words and can’t even fathom what he’s feeling, but finally, Carlos is the one hugging back. Clinging onto her for dear life because it’s almost like he can’t believe this is real.

The next time we see them, they’re both looking super fine at cotillion; and let me tell you that seeing touch starved Carlos finally getting to hold hands and cuddle with his girlfriend makes me weak every time. You can see that for now, they’re figuring it out, they’ve both been super far away from the whole love thing so now they’ve just gotta go at a healthy pace for them.

Regardless of that, you can really see how much they not only love but need each other.

And then it was gonna be another two years until we’d get to figure what the writers were gonna do with Janelos, if anything at all.

During that time I had gotten well acquainted with the horrifying wall of Janelos hate you had to walk along before getting occasional content. So obviously, I chose to have nothing to do with the fandom and then Janelos fell off my radar again until I found the nerve to watch the third movie.

And oh my goodness remember just a few lines ago when I said that Jane and Carlos needed each other?

That was the key point of their story in D3.

While I think it’s poorly shown, Carlos’ character arc from a quiet abuse victim with a good heart to an honest to goodness hero (I’m talking the kinds they write songs about) is just amazingly beautiful and deserved so much more screen time than it actually got.

In D3, Carlos finally has something to lose.

Or, more accurately, something he needs to protect.

I really wish they had zeroed in on him worrying about Jane more, because while it was still there it wasn’t very focused on.

Not that I can be mad because their reuniting scene was something that made me immediately sit up in my chair and go, “Oh my fluffing gosh they have a thing.”

Like I’m sorry, what?

You’re telling me that whenever they cling to each other like that Carlos has that same look of just, pure happiness.

“She loves me and I love her, I’m never letting her go.”

Carlos De Vil went from someone who had never known or felt love in his life, to loving a girl so much it made me fall out of my chair.

D3 just wanted to remind us that the VKs have come very far, and now they’re happy and loved and we don’t need to worry about them.

All I can say is that Jane and Carlos are just an amazing couple if you step back and just look at what it means for them to be together.

A touch starved abuse victim and an insecure cheerleader fell in love and surrendered their hearts completely. And you don’t see that anywhere near Disney as a franchise, much less dcoms.

Bottom line, I know I went off for a hot minute but if we’re being honest I still have about a trillion things I could say about “Jarlos.”

But I’m pretty sure I’ve elaborated enough  to get my point across.

I just wanna say that Carlos would literally never let his mother come anywhere near the light of his life and that was some total BS.

[nellie-elizabeth]

Suits: One Last Con (9x10)

Okay, so then what happens next is that Harvey and Donna move to Seattle, and they become closer than ever to Rachel and Mike. At least once a week, Harvey and Mike have a "guy's night" while Donna and Rachel have a "girl's night." And then, gradually, they realize they've ended up with the wrong people. So they all get divorced and then Donna and Rachel become a couple, and Mike and Harvey become a couple. Someone please tell me they're writing that fic.

Oh, sorry. Was I supposed to talk about the episode? Let's get to it.

Cons:

I predicted last week that this episode would be overcrowded, and I wasn't wrong, exactly. I'm grateful that the conflict with Faye was over before the midpoint, so we could have a nice long goodbye with all of the characters. But while I do enjoy that, I also must admit it doesn't make a lot of sense. Faye was a season-long threat, and she's dispatched a third of the way through the finale. It just goes to show that as interesting of a villain as she might have been in the beginning, she didn't really matter. She was a figurehead. She didn't really change anything about these people and their perspectives on their lives. It all felt pretty pointless in the end.

No matter how much fan service a finale has, there are always going to be things that get missed. For example, it seems strange to me that Jessica couldn't have made a cameo at Louis' wedding. She's working on another show for the same creators; how hard would it have been to get her in for a few minutes? And I hate that Alex was the one to go to Katrina. On the one hand, I get it. They needed to find something for Alex to do in this episode, because he's been a pointless character for several weeks. But Harvey and Katrina never get a moment of apology, and that really sucks.

I've talked a lot in these reviews about my issues with Donna and Harvey. It's not that they're painful to watch, or actively unpleasant. The actors do a good job. It's perfectly serviceable. But I think I've finally figured out one of the reasons why they never quite clicked for me as a couple. Harvey is always talking about how Donna knows him better than anyone. But this is what editors mean when they say "show, don't tell." Donna knows Harvey. We've seen it throughout the years. But how does she show that she knows him? Well, she has the supernatural ability to read his mind and predict his requirements whenever the plot requires it. And she acts like is mommy just as often as she acts like his girlfriend, guiding him through his emotions like an enabler.

But Harvey can say again and again that Donna is the one for him, and how well she gets him... and then we can see Mike in the same episode, showing that same thing, instead of telling it. I'm not even pushing for a romantic interpretation, necessarily. It's just that Mike comes in, and they have their quippy banter. They work together to take down Faye. They re-enact Mike's interview with Harvey but in reverse. They find excuses to touch each other. And in an episode that involved two weddings and a health scare, the single most emotional moment in the episode is when Harvey tries to leave Mike's apartment dramatically after telling Mike he's never stopped trusting him, and Mike says "no," like the very idea of Harvey losing his license is torture to him. They have the chemistry. They have the beating heart of this show, and that's been true from day one. It makes the romance between Harvey and Donna pale in comparison.

Also, in an episode that had to accomplish so many things, so quickly, it was odd to add in that little health scare for Sheila. Why did her pregnancy have to have complications? It felt like something to add just to make for some more drama, but we really didn't need that. I'm glad that mother and daughter were both okay.

Pros:

I was always going to rant and ramble a lot in this review, since it's the last one for the show. But just because I had a lot to say in the "cons" section doesn't mean there was nothing to enjoy here. Let's start with my girl Katrina.

As I said, I was irritated that she and Harvey didn't have an on-screen reconciliation. But I am so, so happy for her that she gets to be name partner! It's so refreshing to have a character arc on this show be about a woman choosing her career over her love life, and having that be an empowering and rewarding choice to make. I'm all about it. She gets to come back to the firm, newly powerful, and stand with Alex, Samantha, and Louis.

Samantha and Alex were both underutilized in this finale, but I get it. I'd rather focus on the longer-standing characters, too. And the show did a good job of making this episode the end of an era for Harvey and Donna, and yet also a new beginning for the others. The image of the new firm name on the wall was really lovely. I especially liked that Samantha acknowledged how crazy it was that they'd kept changing the name, and decided that they can't change it anymore for at least five years. But Litt Wheeler Williams Bennett will be stronger for Katrina's presence among them.

Louis has one of the best glow-ups in TV history. There were times over the years where I didn't think I'd be able to forgive him. I still selfishly hold a grudge for that time when he physically attacked Mike. But at the end of the day, he has actually grown as a person. This is a great example of show vs. tell, actually. We've seen it all season - Louis has been calmer. He gets angry or worked up about something, but he doesn't fly off the handle. When he tells his therapist that he's ready to have him as a friend and have him officiate the wedding, it doesn't feel like empty words. Louis might still need therapy in his life, but he has the tools now to know how to get himself the help he needs. It was so fun to see his "final form" as it were. And then we see it put to the test, as Sheila goes into labor during their wedding ceremony. You might expect him to freak out, but he's calm. He's planned for this, and he's there to be supportive for Sheila during this difficult time. Even while he's frantic for her and the baby in the hospital, he keeps a cool head and doesn't do anything he would later regret. Yay Louis! (ps - Louis learning that Donna and Harvey were leaving was more emotional for me than Harvey and Donna's wedding). (pps - that scene of Donna and Louis holding hands in the elevator gave me LIFE).

It was predictable that Harvey and Donna would step up and take advantage of the pre-arranged wedding - a lot of fans predicted this exact outcome. And while I've spoken extensively on my mixed feelings about their relationship, I can't deny the cuteness of the scene. We get that lovely proposal, with Harvey's mother's ring. We get Mike putting his arms around both of them, with his little quip about being unlicensed to officiate. We get Harvey and Mike gripping hands as Harvey leads Donna out for their first dance. It's all very cute, and I feel happy for the big Darvey fans out there. They totally deserve to see all of that happiness, even if I don't agree with the couple at its core. This is the inevitable conclusion, and it was done quite beautifully.

Will I ever be over how much Harvey and Mike love each other? I really don't think so. Let's talk about the best parts of the episode.

First of all, I already mentioned it above, but that scene at Mike's place was just golden. Mike walking in to find Harvey already there was great - they have always just barged in to each other's personal spaces and that's such a testament to the trust between them. And then you have Harvey telling Mike the truth, and telling him that he's going to have to go on the stand and risk getting disbarred. Mike's reaction is genuine panic, and then the two of them concoct a plan that will save the day. I just love the idea of Harvey going over there not to ask for Mike's help, but because he couldn't stand the thought of Mike thinking he didn't trust him. That's love, baby.

Then you've got the interview-in-reverse thing at the end. I could spend hours just squealing about the fact that Donna and Harvey are leaving the firm and moving to Seattle (my home town! woo!) to be with Mike and Rachel. Hey, maybe the four of them could all be in a poly relationship... but that's for fanfic to decide, I guess. Good finales need to come full circle, and also need to set the characters up for changing futures. This idea of Harvey moving to Seattle, of Mike being Harvey's boss, manages to do both. They are quippy and cute with each other, but also genuine. Harvey decides to leave the firm in order to take out Faye, but he also genuinely wants a fresh start. His life changed forever when Mike walked into his life, and I really do feel like that was the final message the show left me with, when the dust had settled.

So... yeah. I can't find it in myself to be a hardcore Darvey shipper. This finale was never going to cater to all of my needs. But at the end of the day, I was mighty pleased with several of the scenes, and I love where it left all of the characters, in terms of their careers and happiness. For this finale, I'll give a rating of...

7.5/10

For the show as a whole? Well, I hate to break it to anyone who's unaware of this, but Suits isn't that great of a show. It has a couple of really strong elements, but over the years its stories became repetitive, and there's quite a lot that doesn't actually make sense about these characters and their motivations. But I don't grade these shows based on objective quality. I grade them based on the elements that I enjoy most in a show. For years, whenever Suits came back on the air, it was one of the things I looked forward to most each week. I longed for every scrap of content between Harvey and Mike that I could possibly get. There are moments over the years that I have gone back and watched in a loop because of those two. I also liked the way the show deconstructed toxic masculinity, and had a feminist message that didn't feel like something out of an after school special. I had fun watching this show, and I will think of it fondly for years to come. The show over-all gets:

8/10

[tartrazeen]

How That Hug Confirmed Irondad

Alright - that's the other thing I'm thinking: Peter's reaction to the hug at the end of Endgame.

Whatever relationship he and Tony had during the two years they hung out was enough for Tony to try to invent time travel, all the way down to the little things like framing a goofy photo.

But Peter was surprised by that hug. It kind of seemed like the first time and only time that it'd happened so blatantly - as in, not a blasé side-hug at the end of Homecoming, but a legitimate, emotional, no-holds-barred one.

But then we have Morgan again (who I'm surprised I like as much as I do when my first thought was her 'replacing' Peter and erasing him), who gets Tony carrying her around, brushing her hair, openly saying he loves her as part of a regular bedtime... and it's like, "What happened? When did Tony get so overtly nurturing? When did the cycle break?"

It broke with Peter.

That death. That loss of a son-figure who - again, was important enough to want to invent TIME TRAVEL (and certainly enough to want to brave all the risks that led to Tony giving up; thank you, goofy pic), and who apparently never shared sincere and open moments like this before, let alone ones like those between Tony and Morgan.

Peter's death meant Tony lost every chance to tell that kid how much Peter mattered, and it casts a dark shadow over any consciously canon takes on a lot of the Irondad tropes the fandom adores. Passing out on the couch together after watching movies? Probably never happened intentionally. Brushing Peter's curls or ruffling his hair? Never while Peter was awake and probably never not as a joke. Any other hugs? Nope - probably just those side-ones. How about saying "I lov-" oh, nope, hell no, definitely not.

Tony has always been terrible at admitting his feelings until shit hits a critical fan. He kissed Pepper only because she's getting ready to quit and leave forever at the end of IM2 after a movie-long car-crash of a fight between them, and doesn't hint at the PTSD until Pepper's got him cornered during IM3 in his workshop. The hug in Infinity War with Peter is from Peter clinging on to him while DYING.

And Tony's constantly clamping down and undercutting any moments of vulnerability with a joke or total avoidance, and it's not until everything's gone almost irreparably wrong that we get to see the sincere emotion hiding under the surface (e.g., that Disappointed Dad after the ferry scene, right after Tony steps out of his armour (symbolic!) and riiiiight before Tony clamps the emotion back down again to take Peter's suit away and dress 'im in Hello Kitty PJs (anything's better than admitting he's actually and personally disappointed!)).

When Peter dies and those chances to have a genuine, little moment of open affection are gone, that's when the floodgates open instead. When Morgan arrives, Tony has already learned how agonizing it is to not take that chance to say what he means. That's why Morgan is getting all that sweetness and involvement: Tony's not making that mistake again, going so far as to make a goodbye message if he fails that's only to be played if he can't come back to say it in-person.

And with that practice comes the pay-off. Peter's back, and yeah, sure, it's the middle of a battle after five years, but it's not like Peter's in some traumatically broken-down state where he wants to cling to Tony again. No - Peter's happy and confused and doing pretty great. It's a relatively quiet moment where (like Cap did with Sam) Tony could've said, "You're back. Awesome. Hey, stop talking for a second because we're not out of the woods yet." Honestly, this could've gone the route that Tony took with Peter at the end of Civil War, with Tony doing the whole, "Okay, stop freaking out, here's the plan, we'll talk in the car on the way home."

Instead, Tony finally hugs his kid. No bullshit, no pretending to grab a door, just open and honest emotion. What he learned from losing Peter gains him a closer connection to Morgan, and what he gains from that connection confirms the unspoken one with Peter.

We know Peter and Morgan are on the same level to Tony because Peter's all Tony can talk about when he gets back to Earth, and Morgan's all Tony can talk about before heading off to master time. Plus, like - did Dr. Strange get a hug? No. No hugs for non-kids, guy-who-saved-Tony's-life-by-trading-the-time-stone-for-him. But because the Irondad denial was REAL in those two years between Homecoming and IW (pick your reason: Tony thought he'd be overstepping, Tony thought that was rushed, Tony was scared by feelings, Tony thought he didn't deserve a kid like Peter, whatever), that hug shows us how far it's GONE when Peter's returned.

And - and!! - Peter hugs BACK. There's a few parts to it: he's surprised so he apparently never thought Tony would want to hug him, he hugs back so he obviously is very happy with this hug, and he says "This is nice" like he doesn't quite 'get' why he's being hugged at all. It comes off like part of him thinks they're still doing that "I don't really need another Father-Figure but oops I guess you are one now forever" deny-deny-deny-so-it's-not-weird-and-so-Peter-doesn't-look-dumb-in-front-of-Tony-Stark dance, so what that says to me is that Peter's kinda convinced himself to not read too much into how Irondad-like Tony is, and that it's... I dunno, wishful thinking? And that's because Peter straight-up closes his eyes and enjoys that moment, hugging back before he kinda checks himself and gives a very Tony-like "Imma just undercut the weight of this vulnerability real quick" brush-off, so it's even more like... we caught you, Peter, it can't be wishful thinking without a wish, that was fully canon Spiderson right there.

Remember: this Peter who came back is the Peter who hung out with pre-Spiderson-death Tony, who was still ascribing to that Irondad Denial in its entirety, so Peter's just trying to be the good mentee eagerly hoping to impress his mentor by also clamping that shit down. There's just as much Spiderson Denial on our plates as Irondad, and if it'd be too totally weird and dumb and maybe even creepy and pathetic to think that Tony Stark - the man, the brand, the Iron Man - would actually want Penis Benjamin Parker hanging around on a personal level, then Peter's just going to have to accept being the best mentee that Tony could ever want.

(except he's tony's son now, you did too well)

As it turns out, Engame is the exploration of Tony embracing his Irondad status. As ten times more painfully, part of Peter's arc in Phase Four looks set to be (as hinted by Pepper's presence in Homecoming) about Peter playing catch up and cracking through to his Spiderson role... and then having to come to terms with the fact that it's...

Well.

It's too late.

But, but, but, but, but! That means there's more Irondad to come, and it's been perfectly prepped by the events of Endgame, because we now officially HAVE Irondad. We'll get you yet, Spiderson, mark our words, but that's still on our horizon. There's hope! There's a future! THERE IS WHUMP. But there's also confirmation and validation and a buffet of Irondad realness that was served to us through a heartbreaking amount of tears and grief (and I'm hoping through further deleted scenes and bonus features).

And now we have to wonder if Peter's going to 'get' it during Far From Home and face the loss Tony felt five years ago, or if he's going to rationalize Tony's actions as being Iron Man saving the universe instead of Irondad saving his kids.

Whump, whump, whump.

[im-tops-bottom]

Natasha opens the door after the bell is rung and sees a crying baby. She picks up the basket and brings it inside. She picks up the baby and calms it down. Keeps it warm as it's only got a nappy on.

Natasha's husband Clint picks up the letter and reads it.

"dear hopefully kind hearted people,

This is my son Tony. Me and my husband Howard weren't planning on a baby. He got drunk one night and had sex with me. He is obviously gay and we only married so no one found out otherwise this would cause a scandal.

He doesn't know about the baby and hopefully never finds out. He said that if I ever got pregnant then he would kill the baby and divorce me making sure I never get a job or house ever again.

Please look after him and make sure he turns into a bright young lad. As soon as he is old enough on the back is my number so he can call me and we can sit down and talk about everything he wants to know.

I have a necklace with a photo of me under his pillow so he knows what I look like. Then again with Stark Industries he will know soon enough who his parents look like. Do not let him make contact with his father.

If anything should ever happen to me then please contact his Aunt Peggy. The number is also on the back.

Apologies dear people and i cant begin to thank you enough. I understand if you don't want to keep him but please keep him and everything safe when you find a nice loving home.

Love Maria Stark"

Natasha and Clint take a look at each other and let out a smile.

"I'll do some quick baby shopping"

"and I'll order in the furniture for tomorrow. I think we have a baby pouch in the fridge from when your niece and nephew came over"

"okay Tony dad is just going down the road"

Baby tony looks up and grabs Clint's index finger and giggles. Clint smiles before kissing Tony's forehead and leaves.

Natasha gets to online shopping while playing around with the baby waiting for Clint to come back with clothes, nappies and food.

"Tony we are your new parents now. Don't you worry about a thing because we will take real good care of you"

As Tony grows up he is taught different forms of fighting, how to be a great assassin, interrogate, how to live through a torture with fight left, how to use different types of weapons (especially bows) and instruments as well as how to dance, sing, draw, and several different languages.

Tony becomes really smart from a young age and in his spare time he loves doing science and creating stuff. He also learns first aid so he is prepared for almost any kind of situation.

Natasha and Clint spend most of their time mother Henning and being over protective of Tony. Teaches him how to respect people who deserve it and how to be sassy. They loved him like he was actually their own.

By the time Tony is 15 is when he asks about his real parents. They sit down and talk about everything that happened. Tony thanks them for telling the truth.

Next day they get a surprise visit from none other than a Peggy Carter. Peggy explains that Howard had found out about Tony and murdered his mother. She gives them coordinates on a safe house owned by a company called shield.

Peggy tells Nat and Clint that Shield have been after the two for awhile. Not to take down but to recruit. Tells them not to be surprised if someone from shield comes in every now and again.

When they ask why they have to move Peggy gives them a small smile and tells them that Howard knows where they are.

"At first he wanted to murder Tony however Hydra got a hold of Howard and now they are working together to bring Tony In as both sides made their own version of super soldier serums. There were 2 friends who joined they army but had split during the fight. One was Steve Rogers who became Captain America and the other is Bucky Barnes also known as the Winter Soldier"

"wait hold on are they still working for them? We are trained assassin's and have gone up against the Winter Soldier. There's no way we can go up against 2 super Soldiers"

"have no fear Natasha. Steve rescued Bucky and they did a runner when everything went downhill. Shield recruited them. Bucky has gone through brainwashing and torture so our team are finding ways to help him out. The mind wipes had been doing the most harm"

"wait a minute I have an idea"

"Clint no! We are not doing that to him. No way. We trained him incase something happened to us not so he can do shit like this"

"mum it's okay. I think I know what dad is trying to say"

"what's happening?"

"Aunt Peggy right? Your the aunty my real mum said i should contact if anything were to happen to her"

"that's right"

"great. So I have a blue print of a machine that I want to create. It would help with the memories. The only problem is I don't have the things I need to create it. If I can do that for him then maybe we can have it as payback for you guys giving us a place to stay."

"and what's the catch?"

"well I don't trust people around my things except for mum and dad. I would need full access to everything, be kept alone while building it, only access being mum and dad until it finishes and I would also need to meet this winter soldier fella so I can do some readings and tests on him."

"what about tests?"

"I'll be testing it on myself and if you could find me some people with memory issues then that would be great"

"deal"

"I don't like this. Not one bit. Trust is something hard to come by"

"I understand but let us prove that we have very good intentions"

"I'm going to regret this. Fine. Ok guys let's pack up everything. Nothing is to be left behind."

"we have a quinjet waiting out back so you guys can bring all the stuff there. We also have hands on deck"

"great then get them to do the heavy lifting while we pack"

"Steve! Bucky! Come on in! We need all hands on deck"

"they're here?"

....

Everything has been going well. Steve, Tony and Bucky have been getting along. Natasha still has trust issues but has decided that she can work for shield. Clint also decides to work for them.

The machine now known as BARF is built and all the tests are done. On Tony's 18th birthday is when everything is complete and a day later they use it Bucky.

They would have given it more time but Stark Industries and Hydra have located the main SHIELD building and is planning an attack to bring back their super Soldiers and Tony.

The machine works and Bucky recovers most of his memories. Tony manages after some hard work to remove the trigger words attached to Bucky's mind. He also puts in a word to send Bucky to sleep just in case it doesn't work. Tony also uses the machine on Steve just in case.

Since working alongside each other everyone has started noticing that Steve and Bucky have become very protective of shields new baby genius. It really shows when tragedy strikes.

2 days before Tony turns 19 is when Hydra strikes. There have been a lot of casualties between Hydra and shield. They couldn't capture the super Soldiers but managed to grab Tony who got hurt from the blast.

Tony is sent to one of their business partners in Afghanistan where he gets a battery in his chest to keep him alive while he gets tortured. They never give their names just in case. They send a video to shield telling them that they have tony and will keep him alive if shield hands over the super Soldiers.

Bucky growls at the video as a spoon breaks in his metal hand as soon as he sees the battery in Tony's chest. Steve hugs him promising that they will get him back.

The group that has Tony finds out he is very smart and tells him to build them some weapons. Tony is tortured beyond what he can handle because his parents never taught him how to handle this kind of torture. He says yes and gets tortured a week later when they find out he built something better to keep himself alive first. After someone is shot in front of him, he gets a new person to help. Yinsen who is a doctor that was taken from his family.

They devise a plan to make an armor with weapons to break them out. they plan it out as they make shitty weapons for their kidnappers.

It's not until a few weeks later once the suit is built is when trouble strikes. The kidnappers find out about the plan and murder Yinsen on the spot before Tony could reach his suit.

They are just about to shoot Tony when bullets come flying through their heads sending them to the ground. Tony looks up in surprise to see who is standing there.

"Bucky"

"come on let's get out of here"

Tony smiles as he runs over to his suit.

"meet me outside. I got something I want to test trial first"

"Tony now is not the time"

"Bucky trust me. I got this"

"fine but if you aren't back out in the next 10 minutes then I'm sending Steve in and you don't want that"

"absolutely not. See you soon"

Tony watches Bucky go before he gets into his suit.

"this better work"

Much to Tony's delight the suit turns on and he can feel his arc reactor vibrating as it powers the suit.

"I'm gonna need to work on that one when I get home"

....

Bucky is surprised when he looks up and sees people running out of the cave. He notices a machine come out and snorts because he saw it in the cell Tony was kept in.

"everyone weapons down, that's Tony"

He watches Tony set off flamethrowers from his arms turning everyone into kebabs before he destroys the weapons and tanks waiting outside. The enemies are done for.

"wait where is Tony going?"

Bucky notices steve following his line of sight to see Tony flying up in the air. 5 seconds later a large rocket flies past Tony and he starts chasing it.

"eyes on Tony. Follow him and do not let him out of your sights. The idiot is going after the rocket"

"as soon as we are done here, he is absolutely grounded"

After 20 minutes they find Tony in an open desert surrounded by broken parts of what looks like his suit. The quinjet lands and Steve races out to collect the genius who is unconscious.

As soon as they are on the jet, Steve and Bucky sit by Tony's side protecting him until they reach a new shield building where Tony is rushed to the medical bay.

They find out that whatever is in Tony's chest is acting like a magnet and keeping a piece of shrapnel away from his heart. They try to take the magnet out and race to put it back in as they see the shrapnel moving.

As soon as Tony wakes up, he demands to be taken to a lab. He's surprised when they tell him that he has his very own lab. Steve and Bucky requested it for a welcome back present.

"speaking of, where are they?"

"after rescuing you, they stayed by your side until Agent Carter demanded they get some sleep. I was to inform everyone on when you wake up."

"great then inform them as soon as I'm taking down to my lab"

"but t-"

"no buts just do it."

Tony is shown his new lab and locks the door as soon as he gets in. He gets to work right away.

"ok let's see if we ha-"

"good afternoon sir"

Tony jolts before looking everywhere.

"who's there?"

"I am an artificial intelligence known as Jarvis. I was created to learn and help you with anything you may need. No matter where you are I can be installed into whatever device or room you want."

"great we'll get to know one another and I'll question my sanity soon but first help me out here"

"what would you like help with boss?"

"I need to build a new arc reactor because this one in my chest won't last long. Oh and I want to open up another project called hmmmm tin man? Nahhhh that sounds dumb. Robot man? Nah. RoboCop? No I call Buckaroo that. Hmm hey Jarvis what would a good project name be for a robotic suit I'm about to make"

"iron man has a good ring to it"

"hmm that will do for now I suppose. I won't be making all my suits out of that."

"Project Iron Man is underway"

[gwiiyeoweo]

Reggie freaks out. Noctis brings out the ‘mother’ in Tidemother.

Pairing: Noctis & Leviathan, Noctis & Regis Rating: G

Accordo was nothing like Lucis.

The Crown City of Insomnia had her bright lights and towering buildings, monumental things that pierced the skies and scraped the inner Wall, Regis’ magic barely able to cover the entirety of their city. During the day, the sun gleamed harshly across her pillars of steel and glass, heated the concrete and asphalt until they threatened to blister. At night, the loud thrum of life never faltered, and the marching steps of commuters and businessmen only walked to a different tune. The lights switched on, the obnoxious neons and LEDs lighting billboards or storefronts and shady nightclubs, and the streets were filled with white headlights and the purr of engines. She was a carefully constructed system, all sharp edges and manufactured borders, and boasted the culmination of technology and ancient magics.

Altissia, however, was a stark but lovely contrast. While Insomnia was surrounded by steel and earth, Altissia bathed herself in sparkling waters and soft stone and perfumed air. There was history in every marred brick, a living piece of art whose splendor shone in her architecture and people. Life bustled here, but not in the same way as Insomnia whose citizens were much like drones in a hive; they were like schools of fish, some lazily flitting about or scurrying this way and that in vibrant spurts of energy.

Regis loved his kingdom and his city, and he was a king proud of all that he's protected and helped nurture. But he couldn't deny the breathtaking sights and the savory scents of Altissia. It had been years since he last set foot in this nation, when he had been but a young man set out on a diplomatic mission to build relations between Lucis and Accordo. Now, with the threat of Niflheim pulled back into its den — for however long that would be — he held high hopes he could finish what he had once failed to do.

Regis, accompanied by Cor and Clarus and a handful of council members, walked down the ornate brickwork as they followed Lady Claustra's advisor through the city. With one hand raised and held tightly, he occasionally looked away from the beautiful artwork and sculptures that filled the plazas and stole a few glances at Noctis, who had decided he'd rather walk atop the narrow stone fencework that kept its tourists from falling into the waters. No one had the heart to remind the prince of his manners, not when this was his first time overseas ever since Tenebrae; and children, even royalty, deserved to behave as children. So Regis kept his grip firm but gentle, helping keep his boy steady as he nimbly put one foot in front of the other on what could have been a balance beam.

Noctis listened with rapt attention to the cries of gulls and the crash of waves all intermingled with the bustling noise of tourists and street music; and when his eyes gleamed with such innocent excitement, even hardened councilman Ferriam caved and bought a pretty little berry tart from a street vendor for the young prince. Noctis devoured it in record time.

Beyond their retinue, where several people stood and watched in shared whispers and pointing fingers, there were those who recognized their faces, the Lucian black suits, and the Draconian emblems emblazoned into their regalia. Some only watched in quiet awe or hushed murmurs, others were more bold — paparazzi, most definitely — and clicked on their cameras with wild abandon, the telltale sound of clicks and shutters going a mile a minute. Regis noticed the look shared between Clarus and Cor, the silent language of their subtle gestures and hidden expressions. No doubt news of their arrival would reach Niflheim and ultimately stir up some trouble.

Accordo had been a target for years, barely able to keep neutral and fend off Niflheim’s political advancements, especially with the power play and snapshots of military strength Aldercapt and his men liked to remind the world of. But hopefully, with the very odd but very appreciated winterstorm that battered and froze over the nation, Lucis could take advantage of the weather phenomenon and make alliances where she could, and hopefully, end the tensions that threatened them all.

Regis knew he should think of the repercussions of the paparazzi — though his council had already planned for the worst and worked out contingency plans — but Noctis’ wide smile and glimmering eyes were a potent distraction. And infectious. He could feel a warm smile creeping up on his own face. Maybe, he blithely hoped, the reporters and journalists would get a decent candid shot, so he could clip it out of the newsprint and save it in his scrapbook.

It's the third day of their diplomatic visit when Regis about tore his hair out, one second away from breaking all protocol and proper decorum.

Everything had been smooth sailing. Claustra had kept her sharp wits and no-nonsense tone as expected, but she had been very open to his proposed terms and possible alliance. Their talks had only hit minor roadblocks, conditions that could easily be tailored to suit both nations’ needs, marked with little to few resistances on either sides. Clarus and Cor had actually learned to relax a little, as they were somehow delegated to be Noctis’ fishing partners when the boy dragged both of them by the hands to a pier. Last month, Noctis had figured out how to stuff more things into his Armiger, namely a rod and tackle box when he had become so engrossed in the hobby. (Regis had wiped a proud tear from his eye, and wondered what shenanigans his son would inevitably come up with.)

His darling boy had even eaten vegetables. Altissia's culinary greatness had managed to get Noctis to eat peas and broccoli, and Regis was still debating whether or not to abuse his authority as king to swipe whoever the chef had been and slap a visa on them. He could bring them back to Insomnia as Noctis’ personal chef, and Claustra wouldn't be too upset if he did, or so he hoped.

But that idea was tossed to the side, and a prince's personal chef would be pointless with no prince to cook for. Since Noctis was missing.

A handful of Crownsguard and battle-sharpened warriors and still the Prince somehow slipped out of sight. Were he not a patient and understanding king, Regis would be counting how many heads he needed to roll.

It had been Cor who rushed to his side and delivered the news first, right when the meeting called for a recess. Noctis had been strolling about the piers with a few guards — or so it was supposed to be — and when his keepers had turned their eyes for a split moment, poof. No royal heir to be seen, yet no sign of a struggle or silent kidnapping.

It took every remembrance of childhood lessons on grace and poise to keep Regis from gunning down the hallway, but his power walk and stark expression kept everyone out of his way. He only paused when Clarus placed a heavy hand on his shoulder, pinning him to his spot, and Regis reeled his head around to glare him down with a tempest and an inferno in his eyes.

“Clarus, I expect a good reason for you to —”

“Altar. Someone reported a child with Noctis’ description at the altar.” Clarus pressed two fingers to the small receiver in his ear, his lips set in a tight grim line.

‘Bahamut help me,’ Regis silently cursed but wasting no time. The Altar of the Tidemother was not only a sacred place of history, its original monuments and the altar itself dating back centuries, but a place of terrifying power. Leviathan was known to take on many forms, from a lithe woman with a sea creature's tail to a towering monstrosity that matched Titan's might. And while her visage changed throughout the history books, her temper did not. Despite Accordo's worship and homage to her, the Astral was known for her ferocity and rage, the tsunamis and ocean storms and gaping maw that could swallow entire islands. She didn't share Shiva's fondness for humans and only tolerated them, at least until her promised time of the Feeding.

And since she had no trouble eating whole cities, she would have no reservations with snapping her cruel teeth around a small boy — royalty or not.

But Regis? He had no qualms with throwing down with the god, even if it meant throwing a lasso around her scaly neck and riding her like a seahorse jockey.

When he heard Noctis’ scream, Regis nearly catapulted himself into the waters.

There, within the tidepool was the Hydraean herself, an immense serpentine creature that made midgardsormrs look like groveling worms. Every twitch of her muscle sent waves across the waters, threatening to drown the surrounding paths and stonework, to sweep Regis and his guards off their feet and pull them into her tides. Thick, swirling tendrils of sea rose into the air, some spiraling into each other in a criss-cross puzzle of ringlets, others taking a transparent form and mimicking the great god herself. Physics bent to her will, gravity failing to keep what should not be dancing across the sea salt air. What should not be his son trapped in a vortex of rushing waters.

Regis’ heart leaped to his throat, and he heard Clarus and Cor curse beside him. Taking no chances and letting no precious time waste, he sweeped his arm to the side to summon forth his sword — because yes, he was going to flay Leviathan like a fish fillet or die trying —

“Hi, dad!”

Regis choked , and it wasn't on the errant sea water that splashed across his face. His magic sputtered, along with the fear and terror that had gripped his limbs and mind. (So perhaps flinging oneself at a raging god was not the smartest idea, especially when one is king and still has a nation to guide, but he panicked.)

Noctis, high above the waters and cradled within a swirling Leviathan mimic, waved both his arms in wide arcs above his head. His smile was as blinding as the sun that reflected off the watery vortexes and the Hydraean's pearlescent scales. The watery serpent, however, as if miffed by the shift of attention, took the boy by the scruff and tossed him higher into the air.

Noctis screamed again, much like the scream that had nearly paralyzed Regis. Much like the scream of a child's laughter and glee, the father later realized.

Leviathan herself rose up from the tidepool, catching the falling boy atop her head. But her scales were smooth and slick with sea, and Noctis coasted down her back at a blood rushing speed as she guided him toward one of her lower fins. A quick flick sent him flying into the air once more, rewarding her with another excited whoop from Noctis.

Leviathan, apparently, made for the ultimate waterpark. The thought was almost as jarring as the knowledge that she wasn't going to eat Noctis after all, that she seemed perfectly content at sporting herself as a gargantuan water slide.

Regis could count on one hand how many times he's been left speechless and daft, but he'll take adding another finger and a soaked boy than have his son eaten alive.

Though as much as he wanted to believe Leviathan meant no harm, he wasn't relieved until Noctis slipped down a solid slide of water and landed back on firm ground, taking a few stuttering steps to find his balance again. With no grand announcement, Leviathan sank beneath her waters once more, withdrawing her powers back and leaving nothing but some light flooding in her departure.

Noctis shook the sea from his hair and limbs before looking up at his father with bright blue eyes and a mischievously angelic smile.

Regis bent down, ready to scoop his son into his arms, but a booming voice had him and everyone else cringing and withdrawing into themselves. Noctis, the dear boy, looked entirely unaffected and swiveled around to step closer to the water's edge.

Breaching the surface, a pale hand gripped the stone at Noctis’ feet.

Regis, with bated breath, could only look on as a tall woman hoisted herself over the edge, dark hair sticking to her bare skin and a shimmering black tail resting in the waters. She smiled warmly at Noctis, who's standing height barely reached her shoulders, and lovingly patted down his wayward hair, wicking the ocean and moisture from his locks and clothes. When her hands reached his sides, she teased her fingers into his ribs and frowned, narrowing her golden eyes before flicking her gaze to Regis.

Her sudden sharp gaze was unnerving to say the least, but when she spoke, it was in that same ancient language and resounding tone, and Regis knew this woman was unmistakably Leviathan, despite never having seen her in physical form before now. She seemed a bit cross at him, judging by her furrowed brows and judgmental stare, but he couldn't figure out why. Not without an Oracle or Messenger to play translator.

“Hey! I'm not a stick!” the boy whined.

Noctis pouted, puffing his cheeks out at Leviathan. She turned to him, gaze turned soft once more, and petted his head. When she murmured again in her archaic tongue, he grumbled some breaths and looked down at his feet, her soft ministrations doing little to settle his ire. “I eat! Lots. Like, um, chicken and sandwiches, if there's no tomatoes or lettuce. I like chili too, as long as it doesn't have beans. Beans are gross.”

At this, Leviathan gave him a suffering  look, even tutting at him, before she reached her hand into the waters and pulled out a small trinket. She unclasped her hand and held it to him, allowing his widened eyes to soak in the sight, before dangling the fishing lure in front of Noctis, waving the sparkling obsidian as bait before his eyes.

He reached both hands for it as she snatched it just out of his reach. The god waved her other finger at him, and shook her head, whispering another string of sounds.

“What! Nooo, please, I hate beans.” Noctis lamented, stomping one foot against the stone.

But while she would move the tides and torrents, she would not move for this, it appeared. If there was one thing Regus had to commend her for, it was for withstanding Noctis’ infamous puppy dog eyes. She raised the Leviathan lure higher.

Noctis squeaked, hopping up and down as his fingers barely brushed against the smooth weight of his distant prize. It didn’t take long for him to surrender. “Okay, okay. Fine, I'll try eating more veggies,” he groaned and with an added, “Promise.”

Leviathan laughed, her echoes like the silent cold depths of her seas yet like the thundering crash of her torrents, an odd juxtaposition that seemed to phase in and out of itself. She dropped the lure in the boy’s cupped hands, watching as he turned the shining thing in his hands and marveled at the design.

Before she slipped back into her waters, Leviathan turned her eyes to Regis, a predator’s deadly focus bearing down hard upon the king.

And this, Regis knew, and he didn't need a translator to convey the message. Not with the razor sharp teeth she displayed in her lethal smile, a promise and a threat set at each serrated edge. It was the exact same look he silently exchanged with Clarus, Cor, and Titus when they took it upon themselves to treat Noctis, to bribe for the child's favor in their attempts of nabbing ‘#1 Uncle’ for the month.

“Dad! Look what Leviathan gave me! It looks just like her.” Noctis ran up to Regis, proudly showing off the rare lure. Leviathan took the momentary distraction to swim off.

Regis, taking several deep breaths and willing his nerves to calm, took both of Noctis’ hands in his. He didn’t so much at glance at the gift, and instead focused his eyes on his son, to ground himself through sight and touch. To make sure he wasn’t having a stroke or some hallucination. “I…” — his mouth dry, he cleared his throat and tried again — “Well.” Ah, hell. ”Yes, it certainly does, son.”

Noctis bobbed up and down on his heels, closing his hands around the lure and treating it as precious cargo. “I want to go fishing! Pleaseeee. ”

Regis really should have expected that. And the begging puppy eyes.

But being merely grateful that his son wasn't drowning in the belly of a sea god, he couldn't find himself to be upset. There was, perhaps, a pinch of fear still left, though he would have to later analyze just what that fear was directed at or stemmed from.

“Of course, Noctis. I do believe I'll even have time later this afternoon to join you.” Regis glanced to the waters, expecting Leviathan to emerge again and surprise them all the more. “But could you tell me what she said to us earlier?”

To commune with the gods fell on the shoulders of Oracles and Messengers. Yet for whatever reason, his son seemed to understand the Astrals just fine — another idea to digest at a later time, perhaps over a bottle of whiskey with Cor.

Noctis huffed, obviously offended at his own answer, and poked at his little ribs. “She said I need to eat more.”

[quintessence-sentimentalist]

From 10 to 20

10, 11, 15, 17, and 19 have already been answered, but the rest are below! 

12. Will and Matt’s relationship?

…You ever have those pairings where you don’t really put the energy into shipping them, but you’re also not keen on shipping them with anyone else? Because that’s pretty much where I stand with comic Will/Matt at this point.

Look, their cartoon counterparts? The crown jewel in my carefully curated collection of OTPs. I adore them so much and season 2 really made their relationship a compelling story. Now in the comics, I used to like them well enough because they were one of the main relationships in the series, slowly gathering traction since issue #1. Will was my favorite growing up, so naturally I wanted her to be happy, and Matt seemed like a good, nice guy worth her affection. I was eager for the day when they’d end up together, and hopefully Will would tell him the truth and clear up any weird past behavior.

I think the fatal flaw with this relationship is the fact that they took too damn long to get them to a good place, and threw in way too many conflicts on the road leading up to (and during) their relationship. We got a fakeout of Will revealing all in issue #20 (when their relationship was still tenuous because of Matt jumping to conclusions regarding Will hanging out with other guys), and it took twenty more issues before we got any real payoff. So maybe forty issues isn’t so bad for a will-they/won’t-they relationship, but it’s clear from the beginning that Will is interested in Matt, and he seems to return her feelings; they just dragged it all out with at least three storylines where one or both let their actions be ruled by jealousy (not to mention Astral Drop Will) and set them back even further. You just never knew where they stood this week – one issue they’d be crushing on each other, and the next they’d be at odds again because of a misunderstanding. I’m not saying couples have to be all sunshine and rainbows all the time, but when you’re rehashing the same plot points multiple times to keep them apart before they can officially become a couple? Not a good sign.

So issue #40 rolls around, I rejoice, and… things don’t get much easier moving on from that. They’re a couple now and it’s cute, but the fact that Matt’s now in-the-know is its own conflict. But it eventually resolves, and Matt gets to take part in running damage control when the girls are away (listen I live for this as much as I do for battle couple scenarios) and they get to be a cute couple for a few issues and it’s all adorable.

And then the Ludmoore arc happens and Matt gets sucked into the book partway through. They get him back, and then he decides to tour with Karmilla. And then the New Power arc happens and I’m not touching that with a ten-foot pole and a hazmat suit.

The thing about Will/Matt is that they had so much potential, but they just ended up being the couple where nothing ever goes right and the narrative just wants to keep tearing them apart for The Drama. I think we really only had around 10 issues of them as an official couple sharing the same space – they were still together both times Matt was away but we never got to see them together. And by the time they’re sharing the page again Matt’s entire characterization has been put through a meat grinder and spat back out something unrecognizable.

I’m going to curb my tangent here because it already got out of hand, and end with this: I still feel protective about Will/Matt because of all the things it could (and should) have been, but the majority of their canon relationship can just flounce on off.

13. Caleb and Cornelias breakup?

Well, another one that I don’t think was handled very well in canon. To be honest, I wasn’t as invested in these two as I was with Will/Matt, probably because they were technically an official couple right away (even though the majority of their development can be summed up as “I know you, I walked with you once upon a dream”). Alright, cool, these two are going to be a thing, I can roll with that, whatever.

Then we get flower Caleb and the interlude between the first and second arc (which I still very much dislike), and then they’re separated until Caleb ends up in trouble again, and when they’re reunited right before a battle Cornelia decides it’s the most opportune time to reveal her true form, and her youth is off-putting to Caleb as if the Guardian form is the only one of value.

I’d say this is another relationship plagued by primarily one-sided views on the relationship rather than the duo together, as well as being a relationship framed primarily by conflict and battle. So much of their narrative is how much Cornelia loves Caleb and everything she’s willing to do to get him back and protect him, and a couple moments like this on Caleb’s end too. But when we see both of them together, it’s always in moments of crisis – even when Caleb returns to life and they kiss, they’re being held in Kandrakar for treason. They never get a moment to actually sit down and get to know each other in a moment of peace, to air out any concerns or crucial bits of information they feel the other should know before they go all-in with their love epic.

I ended up doing a better summary here of how things could have gone if they still wanted to do a break-up arc but leave the door open for a later reunion, or just develop this relationship beyond destiny and battle. But even if we look solely at their relationship as it was in canon, the break-up was poorly executed because it was done without regard to Caleb’s actual characterization. After considerable time framing him as the romantic hero, the narrative spins him as the tactless jerk solely for dramatic purposes. Maybe it could be passed off as a point that neither of them know the other as well as they think they do, but I find it incredibly hard to believe that Caleb’s always had this side of his personality and just kept it under wraps.

So let’s play with that idea a little bit more—keep the circumstances behind the breakup the same, but think on what would make it more believable/flow better. If they wanted to make us believe that Caleb’s jerky behavior is actually in-character, then tease it out a little beforehand! Let Caleb’s flaws shine through a bit earlier on, build up tension that maybe CxC aren’t the fairytale romance they think themselves to be (and have convinced the readers they are). When the moment comes where Caleb sees Cornelia as something other than a fellow warrior, an equal (or even superior), and turns condescending, the reaction should be “disappointed but not surprised, the hints were there” rather than the “this was badly written without any regards to the characters” we get with the canon version.

Curbing this one here too, but long story short, if I’m coming up with ways to both salvage and decimate a doomed canon relationship, that’s a pretty bit hint that the actual breakup was Not Good.

14. BatMatt? (that time Matt revealed he’d been from kandrakar All Along)

There isn’t a scream loud enough for how much I haaaaaaaaate this development. To save ourselves some time, I’m just going to link back to my New Power rant on this post, because the earlier paragraphs of that sum up how I feel about this situation, and if I try to rehash all my anger about it from scratch we’re going to be here all day.

Long story short, Matthew Olsen never deserved to be so brutally characterization-murdered and cobbled back together into something with his face and name but nothing else recognizable.

16. Taranee and Nigel’s relationship?

Hmm, this was another one I didn’t feel too strongly about. I think they were sweet at the beginning, where Nigel was learning to show that he was a good guy despite being part of a band of delinquents.

But that’s the thing: even after Nigel split with Uriah and his crew, the narrative never let us forget that he was “the bad boy.” Judge Cook disapproves of her daughter’s relationship many issues after Nigel was last involved in trouble, purely for drama, it seems. Then Nigel’s brother—with his own criminal record—comes back, and Nigel just falls right back in line. I can’t remember what happens between that and Taranee starting at the dance academy, but then we get their explosive breakup and that’s that.

I think that’s another breakup that was poorly executed. While I love that Taranee rediscovered her love for dance, it was used too often as a source of conflict in the later arcs, starting with the breakup. I do need to reread the breakup since it’s been quite a long time, but I remember originally I was angry with Nigel for giving Taranee the “dancing or me” ultimatum. While ultimatums like that are never a good thing, it’s also horrendously out of character for Nigel, because he’s actually been a pretty darn passive character in the past. Look at his time in Uriah’s gang—while he certainly doesn’t seem to be getting a kick out of delinquency like the rest of the crew, he also doesn’t make much of a move to stop it outside of a few wary comments. Even when his brother comes back to town, he’s reluctantly tagging along and letting his brother dictate their actions. And while we’ve had some moments where he’s finally stood up for what’s right and holds his ground (see: saving Martin from Uriah), he’s never been aggressive about it.

The breakup not only features Nigel giving an ultimatum (which seems pretty hypocritical of him), but he yells at Taranee and is generally framed in an intimidating manner—he’s backed Taranee up against a tree, and makes a number of vigorous movements. This is the only time we really see Nigel as the “bad boy” archetype, and it’s solely for the purpose of this breakup, to shove more of the blame onto him than he actually holds.

Because that’s the thing—Taranee’s also at fault for this, due to some equally out-of-character actions, but since she’s one of our protagonists there can’t be too much of a negative light on that aspect, so Nigel’s role in the breakup is blown out of proportion to take more of the backlash.

If these two had actually been written in character by the time this conflict came up, I would see this going differently. While I still think Nigel would finally reach his breaking point and confront Taranee about committing all her time to dance, I think it would go down more like his previous confrontations, where he’s firm and holds his ground but isn’t aggressive about it. Let him have the courage to tell the girl for whom he’s had to prove himself multiple times that he’s feeling used and neglected, but rather than giving an ultimatum he asks for a compromise. He can deal with seeing Taranee a little bit less than usual if she’s doing something that makes her happy, but it would be nice if they can build out a little time for just the two of them. Maybe he apologizes for getting annoyed when she talks excitedly about the academy, and expresses interest in meeting her friends or stopping by to observe a class.

Taranee, on the other hand, sees where she’s at fault and works to do a better job of balancing her newly rediscovered passion with the rest of her social life, because while she might really love dancing it isn’t worth neglecting everything from before the academy. And maybe she puts in a little effort into learning more about Nigel’s interests as a fair trade, so he can tell her about something he likes rather than listening to her talk about dance for a change.

Again, another relationship that was ruined by out-of-character actions and could have easily been improved by communication.

18. Phobos?

Hrm. I’ve never particularly been into villains, and Phobos isn’t one of the exceptions, so I don’t have many strong feelings here.

I’ll admit that he does make a good villain, and was particularly crafty upon his return in the fourth arc. And I almost forget about this part, but I also thought it was interesting that we didn’t even get to see his face until, what, the seventh or eighth issue? Over halfway into the first arc, and we learned in issue #5 that he had every image of himself destroyed, and Elias was punished for daring to paint his face. I don’t think we ever got an explanation as to why Phobos didn’t want to be seen, so this is still a fascinating little detail.

20. Cedric and Orube’s relationship?

*cries*

Like with Orube alone, I need to do a closer reread later on to get more in-depth with these two, but I know for sure that they deserved so much better. And like I said in the Phobos post, I really don’t do villains, so it’s noteworthy that I grew to feel this way about Cedric.

I do like how their relationship developed, because my complaints about other canon relationships is that there’s hardly any communication. With Orube and Cedric, we don’t know in the beginning that they’ll be attracted to each other—they’re still enemies-in-law, shall we say (because neither were direct opponents before, for Orube it was more “enemy of my friend is my enemy”). I should hope that, to successfully get from this point to lovers, there would be some communication and development, which we got. They were cautious about trusting each other, but being aliens on a strange world certainly helped build the connection.

I also love how Cedric gets so flustered over Orube, whether because of her outfit or her successfully sneaking in without his knowing, and of course the cappuccino. It was refreshing to see this man defined by his schemes and deceptions get thrown off his rhythm by Orube, who isn’t even in warrior mode.

[lady-divine-writes]

Klaine one-shot - “The Gourd You Give” (Rated PG)

It’s just another day at work for Kurt when a handsome man bursts through the door and begs Kurt for a pumpkin. (1577 words)

A/N: This is a re-write. Warning for mention of illness. Meet cute.

Read on AO3.

“Help me! Quick! I need a pumpkin!”

The words fire out so quickly from the man’s mouth that his request is finished before the bells over the door stop jingling. Kurt looks up from the issue of Vogue open on the counter he’s sitting behind and straight into the eyes of the most desperate man he’s ever seen – harried for certain, curls that have been gelled down within an inch of their life breaking free around his hairline, hazel eyes shimmering from the cold, his cheeks flushed from running (Kurt assumes, since he’s panting like a tired dog). Plus, the door has a brand new dent from where the man slammed into it before he realized it was a pull door and not a push.

“Uh … okay.” Kurt puts a worn business card into the binding of his magazine to mark his spot, then closes it to handle his manic customer. “You do realize you’ve just entered a costume shop, though. Not a supermarket.”

“I know.” The man nods vigorously, taking a deep breath. “I need a pumpkin costume.”

Kurt sits up straighter, intrigued by this man’s request, as well as his adorable, slightly antiquated clothing choices - a sweater vest, a button-down, a bowtie, and a vintage U. S. Navy peacoat. Paired with his dapper good looks, the man pulls it together nicely. Kurt’s eyes zero in on his brightly-colored shoes and go wide. Where on earth did he find a pair of Moods of Norway suede wingtips in pink? They’re sold out everywhere! Kurt has to find a way to ask.

Kurt also can’t help but notice the pride flag pin fixed to the collar of his coat - the new version with the brown and black stripes. Kurt grins.

His recent string of dull afternoons might finally be looking up.

“A pumpkin costume for yourself?” Kurt asks.

“No.” The man shakes his head, a bashful smile splitting his lips. “For my little man, Andy.”

“Oh,” Kurt says, only minorly disappointed at the mention of a son. But children have never been a deal breaker for Kurt. He loves children.

“He’s six,” the man explains, “and when his mom asked him what he wanted to be for Halloween, he said he wanted to be a pumpkin.”

Okay, wife is definitely a deal breaker, Kurt thinks, but he chuckles at the thought of a little boy, who Kurt imagines looks somewhat like this man – raven hair, possibly the same hazel eyes, and olive complexion, waddling around the streets of New York dressed as a giant, gap toothed Jack-O-Lantern.

“He doesn’t even want to be a Jack-O-Lantern,” the man grouses, stunning Kurt into wondering if he hadn’t voiced that thought out loud. “A Jack-O-Lantern costume I can find. He wants to be a regular, boring old pumpkin.”

“How adorable,” Kurt says, giving the man a flirty smile when he knows he shouldn’t. He can’t seem to help himself. Something about the way this man is freaking out over trying to find his little boy a pumpkin costume is too endearing.

“I tried to talk him out of it. For weeks actually. I’ve bought him every costume under the sun that I thought he might like – Iron Man, Captain America, Thor, Fluttershy …”

“Fluttershy?”

The man chuckles, but waves the topic off. “That’s a whole other story entirely.”

Maybe for another time? The words almost make their way out of Kurt’s mouth before he mentally slaps himself in the face.

Married. With a kid married. Gear down, Hummel.

“Anyway, he won’t budge. And his mom, she’s a really awesome seamstress, but she’s been sick …” He pauses and swallows after the word sick, and Kurt feels his heart double thump. He’s using the same inflection Kurt remembers his father using when he would tell people that Kurt’s mother was sick. It leads Kurt to believe that ‘sick’ might be a vague reference to something more devastating than the flu that’s been going around.

“Oh,” Kurt says. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

The man nods, pinching his lips between his teeth to keep from going into it. “It’s been kind of a tough time for the little guy. So I thought, you know, if he wants to be a pumpkin so badly, let him be a pumpkin. Only, I can’t sew to save my life.”

“Did you try papier mache?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” The man looks subconsciously at his hands. Kurt peeks and sees bits of dried plaster embedded underneath his nails. “But I thought that a professional costume shop might have something like a really kick-ass pumpkin. I’ve checked online, but I’ve had no luck. I even tried calling some of the performing arts schools, but nobody has one. I guess nobody ever plays a vegetable in a school play anymore.”

“I guess not,” Kurt says sympathetically. He looks at the distraught man and sighs. Kurt feels for him. He really does. He seems like a nice guy – sweet, kind, and caring to a fault, racing around New York City, trying to fulfill a little boy’s wish. Even with his bittersweet story, he’s a nice change from the customers this shop usually gets – cosplayers, Ren Faire folk, and, during Halloween, teenagers looking for whatever sexy comic book character they can get their hands on. In the close to four years since Kurt’s been part-timing here, it’s been a while since he’s had anyone come in asking for a child’s costume. They did outfit the Atlantic Children’s Playhouse performance of Cinderella a year back, but the pumpkin from that performance was six feet tall, and got trampled in the last act.

“I’m sorry,” Kurt says, “but we don’t have any pumpkin costumes here.”

The man stares at him blankly, lips parting an inch as if he’s about to argue, unwilling to accept what Kurt is saying.

“How about a squash?” he asks sadly.

Kurt’s heart breaks a sliver. “We don’t have any fruits or vegetables … or food costumes in general. I’m so sorry.”

The man sighs, looking about a foot shorter when he’s done.

“Well, this was the last store on the list. I can’t believe in all of New York City …” The man taps the counter with his hand, like putting a period at the end of his sentence, stopping himself before he unloads his grief at this situation on Kurt. “Thank you, anyway.” He smiles weakly, then turns to go out the way he barreled in.

Kurt watches him leave and knows he can’t let him. So, maybe the most compassionate (and probably the most handsome) man Kurt’s met in ages is married, but that’s not the issue, dammit! His kid still deserves to be a pumpkin!

“Wait,” Kurt calls out before the man’s hand reaches the door. “You know, I’m majoring in Musical Theater at NYADA …” The man turns back slowly, that hopeful look returning to his face. “I make a lot of my own costumes. Maybe I can help you.”

“Do you … do you really think so?” he asks, walking back to the counter.

“Yes! If I can make a Joan of Arc suit of armor in a day, I’m sure I can whip up a pumpkin. I mean, how difficult can it really be?”

“Oh my God!” The man jumps up and down, doing a tiny dance. “Are you serious?” Kurt nods, chuckling at the man’s ridiculous jig. “You’re a life saver! That would be … that would be incredible!” But then he stops dancing, and his face falls again. “Oh, but I’m afraid I probably can’t pay you what you’re worth.”

Kurt bites his lower lip. What he’s worth. He’s been so jaded by fair-weather friends since he’s moved to New York, he didn’t know there were people out there who worried about things like that anymore.

“Meh,” Kurt says. “I’ll take a ton of pictures and put them in my portfolio for school. Chalk it up as work experience. Just pay for the material, and the labor’s on me.”

“Oh, I couldn’t.” The man shakes his head to decline Kurt’s generosity, but with the widest smile growing on his face. “That’s too much.”

“I insist. I need the extra credit points,” Kurt lies. “You’d be doing me a favor.”

That seems to sit okay with the man because he stops shaking his head.

“Well, can I at least buy you dinner while you’re toiling over construction of this gourd?”

“Absolutely,” Kurt says without thinking. Then his mind skids to a stop. “Uh, will your … wife be joining us?” Oh, please don’t be a cheater, he prays in his head. I’ll lose all faith in humanity if you turn out to be a cheater.

“My … wife?” The man’s brow wrinkles, and he looks as confused as Kurt feels. “Oh no! No no no! Andy’s mom is my sister-in-law, not my wife. Andy is my nephew.”

“Oh!”

“No, no. I’m single.” The man emphasizes the word single. “My boyfriend and I separated over a year ago. I’ve been on my own ever since.”

“Oh. Well, in that case, my name’s Kurt.” He sticks out his hand, and the man takes it.

“Blaine.” He holds Kurt’s hand for a moment after he shakes it, giving it a gentle squeeze that makes Kurt’s toes tingle. “So, can we consider tonight a date then?”

“Absolutely. Meet me here tonight at seven,” Kurt says, “and we’ll turn your nephew into a pumpkin.”

[izloveshorses]

Alrighty so while I’m thinking about it here’s basically every element from Beauty and the Beast that I adored

can I say how surreal it was to be in a theater packed with young girls of all ages wearing yellow dresses with their Belle barbies 

not to mention all the adults and people my age who’ve been singing Be Our Guest for eternity were all so excited 

it was almost like when The Force Awakens came out and Star Wars was alive again and everyone, old and new generations of fans, gathered together.... ya know what I’m talking about? where everyone in the room is buzzing with anticipation

the CGI wasn’t as terrible as y’all thought, y’all need to have a little faith sometimes lol

the casting was excellent!!

i know people have mixed feelings about Emma Watson playing Belle but I honestly wouldn’t have casted it any other way. She’s always been a women’s rights activist, a bookworm and a thinker, and a strong role model for young girls. and her favorite princess was always Belle I mean come on. and her singing voice was so incredible!! that was what I was most looking forward to in this movie and it did not disappoint

she also said in a buzzfeed interview that she imagines Belle would open the Beast’s library to the public and start a school!!! How rad is that?? HEADCANON ACCEPTED 

shout out to Dan Stevens for waltzing in 10 inch stilts while wearing a 40 pound body suit 

ok Luke Evans and Josh Gad must’ve thought they were in Dirty Dancing because they had the time of their lives

and Luke was pretty attractive. just sayin

overall, the cast was really diverse! not one but two interracial couples! and in general there were a lot of poc in the village featuring a wonderfully sweet librarian dude

Everything about Belle’s character was fantastic I’m not kidding

i think the town had such a consistent routine that she could precisely time when the morning rush started?

despite the village blatantly gossiping about her she was still so nice and polite to everyone

so??? much??? sass??? it was unreal??? When Gaston asked why she wouldn’t go out to dinner with him he assumed she had plans but she was just like “No...” and she didn’t even explain further how freakin savage she shot that boy down

(a few more examples bc this girl was on fire) “Why would I be startled? I’m talking to a candle” and “Is that a joke? are you making jokes now?” and my fav “’Maybe you just haven’t met the right man?’ ‘It’s a small village Gaston, I’ve met them all’”

this is Elizabeth Bennet level Jane Austen would be proud

they touched on how women were expected to have kids in their late teens/early 20s and she’s like “screw that” yeah girl smash that patriarchy

how on earth did it take me 17 years to realize she’s considered odd because she’s the only literate girl in the whole village???????? how did I, a history buff obsessed with the French Revolution, never make that connection before???? this isn’t specific to the new film but still I applaud it good job disney

she was an inventor!!! i don’t know if i’ve ever been happier than when i saw her solving equations and tinkering and making a washing machine so she can read and get chores done simultaneously. emma totally had something to do with this decision absolutely no doubt

she doesn’t ride her horse sidesaddle and that was like a huge faux pas for ladies back then (again, smashing the patriarchy one step at a time)

SHE WAS TEACHING ANOTHER SMOL GIRL HOW TO READ!!! THAT’S SO IMPORTANT AND PRECIOUS I’VE BEEN UNABLE TO THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE SINCE THAT MOMENT

she planned to escape the castle from the beginning and was really creative about it, and no matter what she always found some sort of weapon lying around lol (a random stick, a chair, a pitcher Belle what would you do with that) but she was always prepared to defend herself with somewhat of a plan and attempt at thinking ahead

She was really curious about the curse and asked questions about it to figure out this mystery herself

she was always problem-solving and trying to find a solution to situations and that was so cool girls need to see that strong female leads aren’t always the ones that can fight, but girls with wit and bravery

there was lots of nice background info on characters that otherwise wouldn’t exist, like Belle’s mom’s death, why Maurice chose to stay in that boring village and Adam’s dad being a jerk and turning him into a monster (no pun intended)

Mrs Potts giving us a reason why the entire castle was cursed, not just Adam. They didn’t do anything to stop Adam’s dad from corrupting him and man that’s some heavy stuff

I feel like each character, especially the servants, were so much richer and stronger and more complex, and the stakes were higher bc each time a rose petal fell they became less and less human

even the enchantress had a name and she was gorgeous?

they went pretty dark in this one... like something caused that tree to fall in Maurice’s path and back into an upright position. the wolves wouldn’t cross the gates because of some boundary. the way the whole castle shuddered with each drop of a pedal. i could go on... and the added character depth really helped that dark stuff too

THE MUSIC!!!! WAS SO GOOD!!! I’ve had the album on repeat for.... four days now and I’m not sick of it yet?? please send help

seriously, they did an amazing job. it was perfectly balanced w both old an new songs, and neither of them overshadowed the other. each song got it’s spotlight, they honored the old ones while including new original ones that were awesome (cough forevermore cough cough)

Gaaaaaastonnnnnnnnnnnn omg that sequence was awesome. honestly i think everyone in the theater tapped their foot when he was stomping and dancing on the tabletops

Belle was really good too to me because i’m a nerd for that set design

Days in the Sun is extremely underrated!! but yes, Forevermore is breathtaking it’s growing on me more and more each day

lots of rotating cinematography and spinning i’m a nerd i love it

the costume and set design.... holy crAP it’s stunning

i read somewhere that Belle’s casual getup has large pockets for her books and she has part of her skirt pinned up so she can ride Philipe easier and that’s beautiful

each scene was packed with tiny details that most movie makers overlook and I’m so impressed???? not just visually but there were so many sounds that truly made it feel real like in the village I’d occasionally hear a crying baby or a dog barking or just constant chatter and that’s stuff you’d expect to hear in a crowded village square

the little twinkling lights during the ballroom dance was probably my favorite i may have cried

No one ever say anything bad about Belle’s dress again IT WAS SO GORGEOUS it floated across the floor like a bundle of sunshine

and there were so many details in that scene? did anybody notice her gold earrings she wore they were wonderful

her hairstyles throughout the whole movie were so cute (esp at the end with that updo!! and that pretty flower dress I need it)

the historical accuracies??? unreal??

so much baroque architecture with all of the elaborate gold designs ahhh i love it

half of it looked like a rococo painting, the other half a neoclassicism painting

girls weren’t allowed to be educated so that’s why Belle was hated so much--and so cool--and ohhhh my mind is blown why did i not understand this until now

lol a giant chunk of France was illiterate at the time too so LeFou realizing that halfway through trying to spell Gaston was hilarious

actually the mob song in general is scarily accurate. what starts with a small discomfort turns into irrational fear which turns into extremism in crowds and they did the stupidest things like “hey there’s a monster that we’ve never seen or heard of and it’s never attacked us before but LETS KILL IT” seriously the French loved mobs

they included a lot more intimate moments w Belle and the Beast to build up their relationship more carefully 

Belle almost in tears when she was in that library because honestly same girl

my favorite moment in the entire movie, although small, was when they were in the library during “Something There” and she just kept grabbing book after book and he was walking behind her holding this massive stack that was so cute

honorable mentions: when the Beast shook his head like the horse omg. and I freaking cackled when he threw that giant snowball at her face

when they were in Paris, and Belle figured out that her mother died of the plague and she said “let’s go home”

she just rode off while still wearing her ball dress

“no time to change gotta go save my pa i’m keeping this btw”

and then she strips down to her undergarments because they’re about to go after Adam and that’s the final straw nobody messes with him under her watch she has to save him and, sorry, but she won’t let a big bulky dress get in the way of that despite how beautiful it is

Belle participated in the climax fight scene she was not taking any of Gaston’s crap

and then Adam was like “stay there I’m coming” and she completely ignored him so she could step in if he needed her

“I am not a Beast”

the transformation scenes were amazing

LeFou’s character arc was surprisingly great! and I support him and his boyfriend

that one growl at the end... you know the one... I’m very confused why was that so sexy is that bad

there were so many moments where i got goosebumps and sudden tears from the swelling of the orchestra or a certain chilling line and i was just so moved by this movie

in every showing that i went to there was a massive applause from the crowd and i love it you deserve it disney

I'm running out of adjectives

There was hardly an aspect that I disliked. Maybe more of Mrs Potts would’ve been nice, maybe Belle asking Adam to grow a beard was a little strange, maybe Ewan could work on his French accent a little more (don’t get me wrong I love this man but it could use a little more work... other than that his acting was superb). my complaints stop there! I honestly loved this film so much and I’d been pumped since I first heard about it back in 2015. It didn’t disappoint! that means a lot coming from a person who had insanely high expectations for it.