#especially on the parents of the team radical

[captain-nohbody]

So I'm working on my own take on vat7k and the doomed parallels are killing me because hugo and varian are painfully similar to donella and ulla

[mirohlayo]

SUCH A SIMP

( The monegasque driver has no problem showing himself to be particularly affectionate with you )

warning : fluff, charles spamming you with messages (but it's cute)

note : race week again bby

word count : 2.2k

Oh. It's funny how the monegasque who seems so confident turns into a real man unable to breathe properly when he's away from you.

A young woman who has only just taken her first steps in the incredible world of F1. You were able to apply for the red team, the italian Ferrari team. A great and majestic racing team whose name demands respect and recognition, especially for Italians. And you had just joined these motorsport gods in F1.

Finally, you are not in charge of the most difficult and relentless job either. You were recruited as a new social media manager, certainly with a lot of tasks to carry out, but undoubtedly a little less important than those of the racing engineers and strategists. However, the media is a source of content that fans of the sport love and your ultimate goal is to create the best videos and content possible for Ferrari.

So little by little, you appeared in the Ferrari motorhome. Your colleagues were starting to remember your face and your name, and after a good three weeks on the job, a lot of things had radically changed.

Firstly, you had integrated well into the Italian team. Good relationships and understandings with your colleagues. And secondly, and not least, a new form... of friendship - if we could describe it that way - was formed between you and the famous Monegasque Ferrari driver. Charles Leclerc.

The young man found himself curious about you, interested in this young new woman of his age who, despite the difficulty of the work, completed the tasks required in no time, a fairly perfectionist quality. It must be said that we can clearly see that she really likes this job. And this had intrigued Charles, who often found himself looking for the young brunette.

With the support of his teammate Carlos, who pushed him to take the plunge to try to approach you, Charles ended up introducing himself to you - as if you didn't already know him in this environment. He approached with a shy, almost nervous smile, while he could not hide his completely admiring, almost affectionate look. He struggled to form his sentences, far too dazzled by your sublime beauty and presence.

You seemed quite shy and reserved at first, and that was the case in everyday life. But that's what made you so charming, and Charles felt his heart beat harder and harder every time he managed to make you smile or laugh, a blush that appeared on your face and that he loved more and more.

You blink suddenly, as you start walking with your shoulders straight again in the paddock. You were so lost in your thoughts, remembering how this friendship between you and the driver had blossomed, that you hadn't noticed that the Ferrari motorhome was right in front of you.

The automatic doors open as you enter the small cube, shyly greeting the employees and your colleagues. “Hey, Y/n.” Carlos smiles at you kindly, happy to see you there. You hadn't set foot in the paddock for 2 weeks already, the team had offered you the opportunity to work remotely. You jumped at the opportunity, the chance to spend some time with your family during the week.

“How were your two weeks away from us? I bet you missed us” He winks at you, knowing deep down that a part of you was eager to get back to work there. "It was great. I got to enjoy a little bit with my family." You smile sincerely, remembering the activities you shared with your parents. “But it’s true that I missed working within the stable itself. And then, I couldn’t wait to see you again.”

Carlos' smirk is evident, his arms crossed over his chest as he smiles more and more. You raise your eyebrows slightly, intrigued by his reaction. "Is something wrong? Did I say something funny?" Finally, he chuckles weakly as he shakes his head. “I’m just thinking about how a certain man here was also very, very excited to see you again” He purses his lips, narrowing his eyes, leaning down to your ear so he can speak in a low voice.

“And although I really like you Y/n, that man isn’t me. Besides, I’m sure he’s currently complaining about how much he misses you.” He stands up straight and gives you another wink, followed by another smirk. You feel your cheeks heat up, blush violently. You try to look away, embarrassed.

You know very well who Carlos wants to talk about. You wanted to deny it, to tell yourself that it wasn't true and that it was only your conscience playing with you, but after Carlos' words, all these questions seem true. "Come on, go. You must have a lot of work, just like me. See you later, Y/n!" Carlos pats your shoulder as he walks further behind you.

You don't know how long you stood there in the middle of the motorhome floor, but long enough for you to think about what just happened. Carlos is always honest, and when he saw you in the presence of Charles, he did not hesitate to make some embarrassing remarks to you, like that the monegasque looked at you with hearts in his eyes or that he particularly liked to seek physical contact with you.

These remarks made you blush and Charles always seemed to become embarrassed, more shy than before as he begged Carlos to leave you alone. Because the Monegasque driver knows that his teammate is aware that he has a weakness for you. More than a weakling, he's literally a simp for you. But he really doesn't want you to know.

Or rather, he would like to but he's afraid of rushing you or of you not feeling the same way. After all, three weeks might be too early for you, but for Charles it was enough to make him completely lovesick for you.

You finally come to your senses, and after checking that your face is no longer completely red, you sit comfortably on the chair in your office. You finally got to work, responding to the last email you missed. A notification vibrated your phone, and glancing at the screen, you saw Charles' name.

You really wanted to continue working seriously, you had promised yourself to get back to work but the notification and the message from Charles were running through your head. So, despite yourself, you grab your phone and open your messages to click on the driver's message. Your gaze softens as you read it, your heart racing.

Charles Lec

I heard you finally arrived to the circuit. can't wait to see you again, miss you y/n :(

see you at the 11 o'clock meeting

The message makes you blush again, more lightly this time. But just with a simple message, Charles knows how to make your heart beat and put you in all your moods. He is charming, funny, and caring. Of course you had to fall in love with him. And Carlos' words said earlier secretly gave you hope. Hope for something deeper.

You were about to respond, but your eyes drifted to the messages he had sent you earlier in the month, specifically during your two weeks of remote working. And reading the messages, that's where Carlos' words took on their full meaning.

Charles Lec

07/06

i just learned that you are remote working, that's why I didn't find you at the paddock

i'm sad that you're not here but you also need to rest during these two weeks :(

miss u a lot

09/06

hello you ;) hope everything goes well.

i don't know if you saw the qualifying but I'm starting the race p11

the race will start soon, I hope you can still watch it

can't wait to see you again, gorgeous

still miss u

12/06

it's not race week but I would have liked to spend these few days with you but you work and you must surely enjoy your family

eat well and don't stay up too late, pretty girl

have a good day :))

14/06

i miss u y/n

i feel like it's been forever since I last saw you

I have already planned a few little things to do when you come back, call me back when you can :)

15/06

hello youu

In 1 week I'll see you again but I can't wait any longer

i think I'm gonna die if I don't talk to you right now

can i call u please? :(

16/06

i did a little workout today and I will continue next week

we see each other again in less than a week and all I can think about is that

take care sweetheart

miss you a lot lately :(

not just lately, miss u always, every single minute of the day

Everything seems to fit together like a puzzle. So Carlos was telling the truth, the man who is so eager to see you again is definitely Charles. Come to think of it, he texted you almost every day. To tell you how much he missed you and that he wanted to see you again, not forgetting to add a few pet names here and there.

This kind of revelation changes everything. Your feelings, the way you think and behave. You were still surprised at the idea that Charles could potentially love you the same way you love him. But there is no doubt about it, after everything that has just happened in a few minutes. And you didn't know if you were looking forward to going to the meeting or not.

But there you are, in front of the door to the small interview room. And as you enter, a little late, almost everyone is there. You can feel several eyes on you, but one is undeniable. Charles is there, sitting, his gaze completely glued to you, totally absorbed and attracted by you alone. He follows you with his eyes, completely in love, while your angelic beauty completely takes his breath away. Oh, he missed your face so much.

You move towards your chair, painfully avoiding meeting his burning gaze. But after all, it's impossible. Why would you want to avoid him, when he certainly feels the same way as you.

So, calmly, you sit down, you take your pen between your fingers, and taking a deep breath, you end up laying your eyes on him. You meet his gaze and there, time seems to stop for a moment. His eyes burn into your face, and your breath catches. But a shy smile, which ends up widening, takes its place on the driver's face. And, shyly, you smile back.

And during this meeting, you couldn't help but glance at each other a few times. And in Charles' head, everything was panicking. He wanted to hold you in his arms and never let go. He wanted to spend every next minute by your side, making you smile and laugh until you lost control. He wanted to stay for hours admiring you, listening to you speak with your sweet voice. He was finally able to live and breathe properly.

The meeting ends, you take a strangely long time to put away the few things you had brought with you. And Charles strangely seems to take care to say goodbye to each of the people who leave the room. So that in the end, you find yourself alone in the room. No one speaks, your gaze each focused on the corners of the room. And finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Charles finally approached you.

So close, that he ends up wrapping his arms around your waist, nestling his face in the crook of your neck. You practically melt in his embrace, as you return the favor, your hands gently caressing his back. “I missed you so, so much.” His voice is muffled. You giggle weakly, and just that little laugh melts Charles' heart.

"Carlos informed me that a certain person here was very eager to see me again, hmm?". Your shy nature wasn't the type to tease people, but seeing Charles like this made him absolutely adorable and you couldn't help but tease him a little. He groans, because he knows that as soon as he meets Carlos again, he will make him understand that he, on the contrary, will never look forward to seeing him again. But for now, he's just enjoying the moment.

"If it's to be able to stay in your arms like this, then yes I assume that this person is me. And now that you are here, you are certainly not going to leave me." And in an overconfidence, he pulls back just enough to place a soft, long kiss on your cheek, while his hands gently squeeze your hips. The sudden touch makes you jump slightly, and your face doesn't fail to show your embarrassment as it turns a pretty pink.

Which absolutely makes Charles laugh, totally captivated by you. But he absolutely didn't expect you to kiss him back, on his cheek already crimson from the contact of your lips on his skin. The room is suddenly filled with giggles, while the two secret lovers, or rather the two idiots in love who see their relationship blossom into something more beautiful, remain there for a while longer, in each other's arms.

And Carlos, who wanted to make his way into the room to collect his Ferrari cap, had observed everything from the doorway. A huge grin on his face, he finally rolled his eyes, amused. “Such a simp.” He whispers these words, which, without a doubt, perfectly reflect reality. Because yes, Charles is just a simp for you.

[punkeropercyjackson]

It's a whole thing the Pjo fandom just,dosen't want to Percy to actually be neurodivergent representation.There's the obvious worst part they won't even let him be autistic despite objectively being the most autistic-coded character in the whole franchise but there's also just as glaringly they have never let him defy neurodivergent stereotypes

He's smarter than Annabeth by virtue of being more emotionally mature and making better plans way quicker and unlike her this was in no way an inherentence so he could qualify as a legit ex-child genius but he's constantly getting called stupid for not fitting society's idea of what intellengence is due to sucking at school as a result of his symptoms and he's said he hates it many many MANY times in his narration and only dosen't speak out against it as per irl trauma like his he's been forced into believing he deserves it and given strong ass Impostor Syndrome and the fandom falls for it hook line and sinker cause Annabeth forcing herself into the role of Percy's girlfriend without his consent and even a moment of verbal rejection to her FACE that she spit back at him('I am never going to make things easy for you' is a fucking awful thing to say to an autistic person and that's why you'll never convince me book!Annabeth is autistic like Leahbeth,being a nerdy jerk with ego problems is NOT more autistic than EVERYTHING Percy's got going on right down to his character concept)and proceeding to treat him the same as ever but with corny kissing and promises of a future nuclear family cisheterosexual marriage living in a place that directly goes against Percy's lifelong wish for ANNABETH'S is proof his self-hatred is accurate as if she knows or likes him as a person on any level and vice versa seeing how he talks about her and never returns her romantic effort

There's no 'smart himbos' or 'not dumb but a dumbass',if y'all are such Annabeth stans then expend your vocabulary so you can be even bigger nerds that don't have to be nice to make friends cause that's what privilege is for and you get to speak over 'slow' autistics thanks to that too irl.Percy's also meant to defy 'neurodivergent people are total losers','neurodivergent people think and act like little kids no matter how old they are' and 'neurodivergent people only act rebellious for attention and to look good' by being the coolest character and this was backed up in dialogues and actions by Percy himself without even trying almost ever,he's a Team Parent to younger minorities but especially Nico and Hazel as a way of breaking the cycle of abuse and out of a mix of found eldest sibling and pseudo-parental love for them and to heal his inner child and he's pessimistic and highkey mean and ruthless but is an anarchist with awareness to what corruption is and how to fight it and DOES it unlike Luke's pedo propagandist poser ass and 'rebel' is NOT Percy,Percy is a PUNK,i.e,a minority who was radicalized by their experiences growing up in a system that hates them for being one and takes direct action and does activism and always stays noncomforming instead of selling out

So y'all deny his off the charts swag like it's gonna effect you negatively to appreciate him for it,mock his special interests(blue,the sea and pg media)because they're not trains or neo-liberalism filled fantasy books or whatever the fuck and don't let him have the canon ones you'd obsses over in an allistic character(alt music and childcare)and straight up call him mentally a little kid as mockery with Annabeth as his mommy gf and Jason as whatever the male equivalent is i ain't googling that shit and you can just drop that r slur you're holding back because that would somehow be LESS ableist and you won't even let him hate authority figures despite your 'the only authority he respects is his mom XD' corn as if any of you actually care about Sally,you ship her with fucking POSEIDON over Paul,because yeah,Luke WAS authority as the Titans Army leader and The Gods are literally the highest authority you can get in general,not just within Pjo,Percy dosen't need to look for older men to 'satisfy him'(this is a CHILDREN'S BOOKS SERIES,go APOLOGIZE TO YOUR YOUNGER SIBLINGS)because he has 1.a backbone,2.rizz and 3.a life,the him being upset Nico for not being 'his type' and hassling him over it is literally sexual harrassment by an adult towards a minor and Hazel's more of a part of him AND her own character than any minor white character that TRANSCENDS THEIR SOURCE MATERIAL

Just say it:You want Percy to be a gag instead of rep and you're so set on it rather than having standards in mentally abled people you're ready to start harrassing other people on different ends of the spectrum for saying Percy is afrolatino-an ACTUAL afrolatino,not y'all's lightskin slightly big nose no lips with vague cultural roots you didn't research copout,or saying he's transfem-coded based off actual real life transfemininity,or even just that they hate Percabeth since book!Annabeth is a white pick me bully.'MY friends' insults and hitting eachother is our way of showing affection!!!Have you never had a friend before?!'I have a lot of years long friends and keep making more and one of them's now my trans girlfriend that's adhd and agrees Percabeth is super bad because Annabeth is too mean to Percy and that Percy's a tgirl and her and the rest of them shower me in praise and defend me when people treat me badly and the latter goes for my own little brother like i always did and still do him and i treat my friends the same way they do me and my girlfriend gets extra.Rip to your self-hating selfves but i'm different and so's Percy

[pansy-picnics]

winter solstice today. i wish i could’ve made a tts drawing bc i think they celebrate yule/the winter solstice in corona instead of christmas or anything but alas 🫡

oh well. hc time. they all kinda spend the holidays like kids of divorced parents tbh LOLL….. the royal family are very involved in corona’s holiday traditions and rapunzel really just loves Being with people so shes busy with her family and partners all day….like they always host a big feast at the castle where everyone is welcome and raps makes sure nobody leaves without presents. she picks out gifts especially for all the castle staff too!!! so all in all shes SUPER busy on the actual day of the solstice. rapunzels the kind of person who already started planning for the holidays in october. shes probably been making presents since like july. girl is PREPARED

varian and hugo usually stay with quirin for the holidays because they dont like all the big crowds at the capital, but later in the day they always try to make it for the party. lance and the girls go ALL OUT like theyre dressing up and hes making a huge breakfast and everything. their house always has the most decorations on it. also bc they live nearby quirin and the boys usually end up joining them for breakfast and they collectively have SOOO many sweets the girls make themselves sick

but the whole family always gathers at the castle at the end of the day to have a little sleepover and exchange gifts the next day teehee :3

its very based on ancient germanic paganism and how people celebrated the solstice before christianity took over. so there are a few traditions i like to pull from that, like hanging dried oranges on evergreen trees as a symbol of the sun, representing the return of light and warmth during the winter season!! since they follow the solar/lunar cycles very closely, the long night and the sunrise that follows is like a “rebirth” of the sun and its honestly very akin to a new years celebration for them even though its. Not the new year LOL.

they all exchange gifts both bc. yk. love and friendship and stuff and because it represents the “gift” of life given to them from the heavens. the whole celebration is very engrained in coronan culture so most people will celebrate regardless of whether they follow the sun or another celestial power….i think maybe the dark kingdom has different traditions but i havent fully fleshed that out yet.

nuru and yong both have different celebrations in their own kingdoms (like bayangor definitely has something akin to chinese new year) so they usually cant make it for yule, but team radical always try to get together early in the year. if not after the holidays, they always make it in time for varian’s birthday in march ^_^

[redbuddi]

Would love to hear what you have in mind for Jazz Fenton. Also Vlad?? 👀👀👀

Jazz time, baby!

Jazz was always my favorite character, I think that she added a lot to the show, so she's more or less unchanged, apart from some tweaks to fit her into the slightly different dynamics of the series.

Kindhearted and emotionally intelligent, but sometimes a little self-important, Jazz is the only member of Danny's family who knows that he's a trans boy. However, she does not know about Danny's ghost half at the start of the series, because while Danny confides in her about his struggles in the closet, he has a pretty good reason to not trust her with his ghost identity.

See, while Jazz does everything she can to support her brother, she doesn't always support him in the way he needs, and can be a little pushy if she feels like she knows better. In particular, in the start of the series, she is nagging Danny about when he's going to come out to their parents. Counter-intuitively, Jazz's desire to help her brother has made her somewhat tunnel-visioned. The way she sees it, the stress he feels is because he doesn't know how his parents would react, so the obvious solution to her is for him to come out and then deal with whatever happens after. She doesn't understand that Danny just isn't ready yet, and that it's okay to not be ready, and Danny has reasonable paranoia that she's going to out him to their parents to get it over with. While Jazz would never do that, she hasn't made herself trustworthy enough for Danny to believe that.

Jazz: How long are you going to keep this secret from our parents??? Danny: Which one? Jazz: What? Danny: what

Jazz means well, but needs to learn that her perspective isn't always the right one. She also doesn't get along with Sam too well, as she's the sort of person who believes that you can still work within the system to make progress, while Sam wants to dismantle the system. A huge part of her arc in the story will be to learn that change doesn't come from playing by the rules, and that there are many things in the world she just won't see or experience due to her place of privilege, and that she needs to make a concerted effort to lift people up rather than try to "save" them. Like in the OG show she'll learn about Danny's ghost half by mistake, without Danny knowing she knows, and this will be the catalyst for her to start trying to see things from his point of view, as she wonders why he wouldn't tell her. Sam will also radicalize her, and the two will end up becoming good friends late in the story.

Also like in the show Jazz won't believe in ghosts at first and harbors a lot of resentment towards her parents for not pursuing a type of science she considers to be useful, especially after the accident. Eventually it'll be too obvious for her to ignore the existence of ghosts, but even when it turns out they were right, Jazz can't let go of how she feels about her parents right away.

The Fenton's have always been geniuses in one field or another, but Jazz is the only member in the family who isn't interested in science. She studies therapy and thinks of herself as good enough to basically be a therapist already (she is not correct,) but begins to develop a fascination with ghosts and how they work both biologically and psychologically. She is deeply embarrassed by this, worried that her parents have started to "rub off on her," and does her best to hide it, but secretly begins to journal and catalogue certain ghosts that she witnesses, trying to figure them out. She is off-the-mark with a lot of her classifications, but makes an equal amount of useful observations and theories, and once she joins Team Phantom proper her research will become extremely helpful.

As for Vlad... I have thoughts and ideas for him, but I wanna wait a bit before I share it all... 😉

[mckinlily]

Um, okay this is a loaded question, and if you want to play it safe, you can answer me in DMs, but...I personally feel that there's something wrong about how VLD placed Keith in the lead. In a way, I can see him becoming Black Paladin, but Shiro...it feels more natural to me, it feels right that Shiro is Black Paladin. I'm not into VLD beyond Shiro, Keith's parents, and the Lions personally, but I know someone who loves it and makes good points about Keith as a leader, but something just isn't aligning for me. Maybe it's because Shiro and Keith are two radically different archetypes, and they got swapped when they shouldn't have, I don't know.

I came here because I saw one of your post S2 rewrites, and I appreciated it. So, again, feel free to answer me in DMs (if you have problems DM-ing me, let me know and I'll fix it for you) if you don't mind discussing this with me.

As a final note, I'm not trying to hate any particular character. They're all fine on their own, and I don't want to treat one as worse than the other. I just want to figure out this problem I'm having with Shiro and Keith.

Thank you for reading this, and take care.

You came to the right blog! Because I adore Keith and believe he certainly has qualities that could make him a good leader—and absolutely hate him as the Black Paladin.

The thing I never understood about Voltron fandom debates about who should be the Black Paladin is that they always seem based in the idea that because Shiro is a leader and the Black Paladin, that means the Black Paladin is the ONLY leader on the team.

It is worth noting that that premise was disproven in episode one. It was Allura who made the final call on whether the paladins should run or stay and fight Sendak, and Shiro explicitly bowed to her authority. From then on, Shiro and Allura both lead Team Voltron until the show decided to destroy their characters, accepting influence and trading responsibilities depending on which one of them fit the situation at hand. Typically, Allura functions more in a commander and diplomat role and Shiro is more of a field officer, but they both pick up the lead where needed.

I know you didn't bring up Allura, but I think it is vital she is included in any conversation about leadership in Voltron. She is introduced as THE princess of an entire planet, she has more knowledge and experience of the intergalactic landscape than any of the other characters, she's been set up to be a leader since birth, and she IS the leader of Team Voltron for two whole seasons. Shiro makes it VERY clear he considers her to outrank him.

So the question you have to ask any time you consider replacing Shiro as Black Paladin: why NOT Allura? If the Black Paladin is the "best leader", why are you skipping over the one character already established and thriving in a leadership role? (And then you have to ask yourself if that character being a Black woman has anything do with that.)

Now I do think there are ways narratively you could answer that question. For instance, if you keep the Lions as sentient beings, that means they can make choices—including wrong ones. For instance, for a time when I believed anything might be salvaged after season 3, my head canon for Black choosing Keith was that Keith was the one missing Shiro as intensely and desperately as Black in that moment. Therefore, the choice was not about Keith being "better" but rather them being at the same place emotionally and that allowing the bond. The major problem with the Lion swap in canon is that we're given NO reason for Keith to be Black Paladin besides "plot device said so". Especially when we have Allura right there. It's just bad writing.

(By the way, you don't have to be pro-Black Paladin Allura. There's nuance to be had, and I personally am actually more One True Black Paladin!Shiro. But you can't just dismiss her--a capable and proven leader--from the conversation. Erasing her character is not the answer.)

ANYWAY. Back to Keith. Or rather, leadership on Team Voltron. Thing is, there are many different WAYS to be a leader. We already touched on the differences between Allura and Shiro. Keith does a good job of making split second decisions in battle or calling shots if Shiro is incapacitated or somehow separated. If you're in the middle of a fight, the plan has gone to shit, and the team just got separated, Keith is great at telling people what to do and mobilizing because something needs to get done NOW.

But that's not the only way to lead. Keith, for instance, is terrible at pep talks. He misses a lot of the nuances going on between him and his teammates off the battlefield. He doesn't plan ahead, like, ever. Sure he's great at making up stuff on the fly, but sometimes you need a plan.

But it's not just Keith. For instance, when Shiro, Lance, and Pidge go on the mission to rescue Slav, it's Pidge who calls all the shots. Is that not leadership? Pidge is often the one telling people what they need to do to solve technical problems. She's a center for information, typically the one collecting it, organizing and interrupting it, and then instruction others based on her conclusions. We see her take point on a mission, give orders to her teammates, coordinate efforts, problem solve in real time and relay a new plan in order to navigate unexpected challenges. Why not argue PIDGE should be the leader?

And there's when they freed the Balmera and Hunk took the lead. That mission was more challenging, but I'd argue in that arc, Hunk's leadership mattered less in terms of orders and more in terms of determining what type of team they'd be. Hunk was ADAMANT they free the Balmerans and set a tone for the team where they didn't leave suffering people behind. Hunk set up a moral imperative for the team that they'd be lesser without.

And Lance! There's actually lots to say about Lance and his strengths and types of leadership. But it's easy to point out that Lance is the one initiating fun and team bonding outside of battle. And when you're operating a giant robot held together by emotion connection, that's pretty dang important!

Point is, they're ALL leaders. They all have the capability to take point when needed. We SEE them all take charge at different points of the show.

So what's the Black Paladin then? If Shiro's The Leader then what does that mean? And this is the cool part! Because you know what Shiro is really really good? Know who else to put in charge. He's the one who first acknowledges Allura as an authority because he sees she has knowledge and experience he and the others do not. He selects which paladins to go together on which missions based on their strengths and the situations. He steps back and lets Pidge or Lance or Hunk call the shots if they're in an area of their expertise. Shiro's job isn't to tell people what to do. It's to decide who to put in charge of what and place them in best position for success.

There's another aspect of Shiro's leadership that is supporting his teammates, offering comfort, teaching, and giving the kids something solid they can believe in so they don't have to care the full weight of the war. But like letting others take charge where they shine, Shiro's leadership is all about enabling those he leads. One of my favorite Shiro lines is "It's too dangerous—I'm coming with you." Shiro's goal is never control. He is support. He leads the paladins because he sees the best in them and helps them reach it.

Narratively, also, Shiro is just set up to be the Black Paladin. The parallels between himself and the Black Lion are too obvious. From both being controlled and abused by Zarkon to Shiro's missing arm and Black's mission bayard. It's a kid's show. The symbolism isn't all that subtle. And if that weren't enough, we literally get an entire episode A plot in Space Mall about it where Shiro literally fist fights Zarkon for the Black Lion and in the end, he wins because he makes it clear it's the Black Lion's choice and trust.

Remember when I said the problem with Keith in the Black Lion in canon is that we're never given an explanation beyond "because I said so"? We're shown repeatedly why the Black Lion chooses Shiro. Even before we meet most the Lions, the other paladins themselves choose Shiro as their leader when Lance asks him if they should go through the wormhole. We repeatedly see Shiro seek to understand the Black Lion better, and Black responding. We see the similarities between their situations and backstories. We see them bond.

And I think this is really important because when Shiro is in the Black Lion, it's not about him being "in charge." It's about his relationship with the Black Lion. Yeah, of course, the other paladins are leaders! And they should be! But none of them have Shiro's relationship with the Black Lion. In this narrative, the Black Lion isn't a prize to be won but a relationship to nurture, and Shiro has put in the work for that relationship.

Which is really important because it means the Lions aren't a hierarchy. The Black Paladin is one role, an important role in Voltron, but no more important than any of the others. "The Leader" is not the most important person in the room. Instead, Shiro is a facilitator who enables all the others to perform their roles better.

Also can I just remind everyone just how well the Red Lion fits Keith? The paladin who keeps throwing himself out airlocks get the Lion most likely to go AWOL and fly off to save him. Keith defends his friends and team by attacking first and asking questions later, and Red started destroying a planetary body to get to Keith. The kid with abandonment issues gets the Lion who doesn't hesitate a second to go after him. And even the way they're shown to bond—that it's so physical and based in action rather than words—it's so Keith. I freaking love Keith as the Red Paladin. He gets to be as chaotic and free as he was always meant to be and gets a Lion who meets him every step of the way.

But if you say, no, Keith should be the Black Paladin. Well. What about Red wasn't working? Why was that role not one Keith fit in? Because from my reading of canon, Keith was thriving in Red. He got a secure attachment to his favorite person in the world, he gets the freedom to fly while also being part of something bigger, and he's making friends. It's still in its beginning stages, but he's figuring out how to bond with Lance, Hunk, and Pidge and you get the sense these are a kind of friendships he's never experienced before. But you know what could kill that really fast? Making him The Leader, a position that inherently sets him apart from the rest.

This is actually a problem twice over for Keith because unlike Shiro, who is shown to be given his role voluntarily by everyone around him and repeatedly shows he's earned that trust and respect, Keith is basically thrown into the Plot Device Machine and gets a t-shirt that says YOU'RE THE LEADER NOW. And we never get a reason beyond that.

This is actually my biggest problem season 3 and the Lion Swap. Because as soon as they made that choice, the Lions became a hierarchy. But what other explanation do we have? Keith won Favorite Character status got "prompted" to Black Paladin. But as soon as Black Paladin is a promotion, that makes the other paladin roles inferior. Red becomes the "second in command". So Lance get prompted but can never be equal to Keith. Allura gets the "Training Wheels" Lion/Blue, and they didn't have to write that as a massive demotion, but they sure did anyway. Hunk and Pidge are no longer leaders because they aren't in the "Leader" Lions.

It makes me so mad. One of the things I loved first about Voltron was the message of equality and servant leadership. The idea that a leader (represented by Shiro) is someone who elevates and enables everyone else. A recognition for the more "feminine" types of leadership—nurturing, compassion, emotional support. Which support roles are seen as vital and just as if not more important than being the "boss."

But we only got two seasons of that before they pulled the rug out and said, "Nope. We're returning back to patriarchy." Suddenly the Lions were in a strict chain of command, one character was the boss and the rest were his subordinates. There was a top position and a bottom position, and the characters were all fighting over each other. Perhaps most damningly, the Lion lost all personality and agency and become trophies to symbolize a character's power. And I'm not saying they're an accidental representation of how women are treated in Western media but I MEAN. It's right there.

My response when anyone says "[X] character should be the Black Paladin!" is—Why? Is their connection with the Black Lion deeper than Shiro's? Do they have more in common with Black than Shiro does? What could they achieve or obtain as the Black Paladin that they couldn't where they currently are?

And, though I don't think most of us realize it, the answer to that last one is power. Because we're soaked in patriarchy and a certain portrayal of "leadership (derogatory)" that many fans automatically assumed the Black Paladin HAD to be in control of and have power over the other paladins. So of course you want your favorite character to be the Black Paladin! You don't want your self-insert to be inferior!

But that's all the patriarchy talking. The other paladins are NOT inferior. There is NOT a hierarchy of types of people. Keith doesn't have to have Shiro's role because he's already equal as Keith.

Keiths look different from Shiros, but they're all equal and valuable as they are. Same goes for Lances, Hunks, Pidges, and Alluras. The whole point is they're stronger together. Their differences make them BETTER.

So yeah. Of course, Keith has some good leadership qualities. There's plenty of situations where it only makes sense for him to take the lead. But why on earth does he need to be the Black Paladin to do that? He's already Keith!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Molly Sprayregen at LGBTQ Nation:

Four Southern states have joined together with four conservative organizations to sue the Biden administration over a recently issued rule banning anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination in education.

[...]

The idea is that it’s impossible to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity without taking sex into account, a legal argument that the Supreme Court has already used in its 2020 Bostock v. Clayton Co. ruling with respect to job discrimination.

With the new rule, any school that receives federal funding will no longer be able to discriminate against LGBTQ+ students. This could affect states and school districts with policies to out LGBTQ+ students to their parents or ban trans students from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender. The new rules could also give students who face discrimination recourse in federal courts. Alabama, South Carolina, Florida, and Georgia allege in the lawsuit that the Biden administration does not have the authority to make this rule and also that it goes beyond the original intentions of Title IX, according to CBS News. The states are joined in the lawsuit by the Independent Women’s Network, Parents Defending Education, Speech First, and the Independent Women’s Law Center.

“The role of Cabinet agencies is to interpret laws as written by Congress – not to redefine the meaning of words to suit a fringe group of activists,” said Parents Defending Education president Nicole Neily in a statement, which went on to claim the rule proves “the Biden administration’s contempt for families, trumping state laws which reiterate parents’ right to access information and make decisions about issues related to their children’s gender identity in schools.” “By lowering the standard of ‘harassment’ to little more than a one-off expression of humor, satire, or parody,” Neily continued, “the free speech rights of every young learner in America has become subordinate to how the most sensitive student might interpret a phrase. This Title IX rule is both unconstitutional and immoral, and we look forward to vindicating our members’ rights in court.”

“We will fight very strongly against this rule,” added Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R), “just to ensure this does what Congress intended it to do, and that is provide opportunities to everyone and especially protect the security and fairness for our biological females.” Moody also claimed the new rule “is really a radical departure from what Title IX was originally meant to do.” The lawsuit alleges that the rule “conflicts with many of the state plaintiffs’ laws that govern public institutions of higher education and primary and secondary education, including laws involving harassment, bathrooms, sports, parental rights, and more.” It continues, “The rule thus impedes the state plaintiffs’ sovereign authority to enforce and administer their laws and creates pressure on the state plaintiffs to change their laws and practices.” The new rules, however, do not discuss transgender student-athletes and which teams they can play on. The DOE is reportedly planning to issue a separate rule regarding what Title IX means for sports participation.

4 Southern states are suing the Biden Administration for the right to discriminate against LGBTQ+ children over the LGBTQ+-friendly Title IX changes.

[aibidil]

Lots of talk about boundaries lately, and how boundaries can only be about your own behavior/responses, not someone else's. I first learned about this when parenting littles, where it's often referred to as "limits." I think the reason the concept of boundaries is so hard for people to grasp is that, pretty quickly, you realize this means you have to let go of a LOT of control that society has taught you to expect will flow to you through power hierarchies.

So often, people judged my parenting, and I had to explain that I wouldn't set a rule, or even a boundary, that I couldn't follow through on. Which meant that I had to let go of a lot, because I happened to have kids who have never in their lives followed a rule because it exists or to make their parents happy.

With kids, this means letting go of unreasonable (age-inappropriate) expectations for their behavior and telling them "no" 500 times a day, instead child-proofing your home to protect your own shit. It means saying "I won't let you hurt me" (and then not letting them, either by holding them away from you or removing yourself from the room) instead of "no hitting/no biting." It means focusing on problem-solving where every person's needs/wants are taken into account, it means creating a home environment where everyone knows you're a team and on each other's sides. It means a deep acknowledgement of how little control you have over another person's actions, even when that person is your child.

This is hard with parenting, especially early on, but I've found that it's way harder with an adult partner. We have such high expectations of our partners. We believe they're capable of change and being better. We want to be in a relationship with shared values and priorities and we hate seeing evidence that isn't true. But at the end of the day, it really is the same. I fundamentally cannot make you do something you don't want to do, so I should never expect I can. I can decide what kind of behavior I want in my life and leave (temporarily or permanently—that's an option you don't have in parenting) if you clash with that. I can say with words and actions "I won't let you hurt me," but I can't stop another's tendency to violence. I can make sure that my needs are taken into account with the same weight as yours, I can help create a home where chores are problem-solved in an equitable way, taking everyone's situation fully into account. I can model what I believe is good behavior, but I can't force those around me to reciprocate it.

Sometimes we fall into a trap of thinking about what we "deserve" in our relationships of all kinds, but I find that any time the notion of desert comes up, I've already lost. Because I do deserve to be treated with respect and support and acceptance. But that desert doesn't magically change the people around me. All it can do is act as a mental example for me, a reminder not to accept a shitty life for myself out of default behavior.

(For an extreme example, hink also about the incel/mgtow/mra types who talk incessantly about what they “deserve” in a relationship.)

This is why so much of leftist politics quickly requires a radical letting go of all power structures. Because once you decide that punishing/hurting people into behavior isn't acceptable, you have to confront what it means to allow others—everyone—to do things you'd rather they didn't. And at the end of the day, no matter if you believe in the power structures or not, you can't force another person to eat. I couldn't force my son at 2yo into the carseat. I can't force my mom to really learn about ADHD. I can't force my partner not to spend $ on shit I don't care about. But I can make choices about my own behavior, which includes who I surround myself with and how. I can insist that I won’t let you bite me. (Assuming I’m paying attention in time. I should’ve tattooed the bite marks onto my arm as a reminder of this.) I can help create an environment where people care about each other and want to what they can for each other.

(Fwiw, i don’t think this means libertarianism is the way. Because notice that even though my only control is over my own actions, it’s still tied up with others. I can problem-solve solutions that work for everyone, which is more likely to work if everyone in my family knows we’re on the same side. I can figure out better ways of organizing shit with my partner. We can develop systems that fit the problems we have. All of that works better than a “go it alone” hyper-independence. Funny enough, acknowledging that every human is their own person doesn’t necessarily make me raise myself up to a position of importance over everyone else. When you dismantle the power structures, when you see that each person is fundamentally autonomous, you can hope that what it triggers a feeling of smallness in the face of all, rather than a feeling of unhinged importance. Because in the world, like in families, it’s not about getting what you want at the expense of others, it’s about problem-solving in a way that takes everyone’s needs seriously.)

[stillresolved]

💕!!??! almost missed this 🥺 mx ferre, what if we... put (more of) our goons in (more) situations 🥺

@mythvoiced / send 💕 and I will tell you some muses…

ahhhh lenlen, the other person on here who enables me with 283948230 plots and dynamics...time for us to add like 8293048293 more 💕💕💕

okay so this was at the top of my list since you said?? That you were planning on bringing EUNJAE into our wonderful thg verse 🥺🥺🥺…and so the first person I actually though of throwing at them was ANNIE….I dunno?? I guess I just have a feeling that Annie would like eunjae for their personality- like they’re rough in mannerisms and a tad messy, both of which Annie doesn’t mind bc she’s used to being around ppl like that ( ie. Ga-ram & ara ) and also…I think she actually prefers…I think being treated completely like a piece of glass will begin to drive her up the wall :’D also my interpretation of annie is suspicious of most men/male-aligning individuals….so eunjae already checks all her boxes there <3

another dynamic I had been thinking about when you changed their fc :’D granted I’m not too sure how well these two would work out since SABRIEL isn’t the best at reading between the lines and ANNIE often operates in shades of grey but it would!! Be fun to see how they interact with one another especially at least for me throwing Annie at someone who is peppy and yet still for most part?? has good intentions?? even if sabriel can’t completely empathize with what Annie is going thru, I do think Annie would appreciate their good intentions at the very least :’D

DOE is a revolutionist (and a hacker, I could have sworn I read that somewhere but if not ignore me jfksljfsl :’D) and so is NELL, do I need to say anything more? granted they are on the same side when it comes to #revolution…but that doesn’t mean they agree to the degree which they should go for it. Doe is all for changing the system, where as team checkmate is more focused on….taking out one and only one enemy and looking out for their community. Perhaps interacting with someone like doe could radicalize her? also if doe is a hacker, nell can always have…a rival :)

okay HEAR ME OUT, I know that we do have EUNJAE and Patrick in verse one but WHAT ABOUT?? Eunjae and MYUNGDAE in verse two bc if Patrick is the competent if not a tad distant parent ( aka he had to adjust to fatherhood ngl ), then myungdae is…well think of say, jeo*ng jin*man from a shop of ki*llers, :’D aka parent that’s there, he just looks ( okay always looks ) a tad exhausted?? Out of it even? But he’s doing his best for four year old Yuri (Elise) even if he doesn’t quite feel his emotions fjskldfjs this is all to say since I’m seeing that lynnie is throwing Dante at them we might as well…bring the rest of the crime world to eunjae’s doorstep JFKLSDJFLD <3

If AERI knows of hyun, then she’s also gotta know…hyun’s sister, MIYOUNG 🤩🤩🤩 granted, Aeri might be a tad testy with miyoung since well, it’s not like miyoung could exactly be there for hyun when they were younger and is that really any different from the way bel and sera treated Aeri as condescendingly inferior :’DD ….but I also do like the idea of LGBTQ+ icons being friends with one another / media pals with one another….that and if hyun is hanging out with bel behind Aeri’s back, Aeri might as well…do the same 😂😂😂

you know who MARÍA reminds me of? Yeah that’s right, our favorite pink hair menace Nimona 🤩🤩🤩 they’re both little gremlins ( but very lovable) who wanna start shit. The revolutionary kind of shit…so this being said….WHAT IF?? Instead of Nimona being the cause of BALLISTER’S shift in mind, it could be maría instead?? We could even do it in their modern verse since I believe María does have one and is a werewolf there 🤔🤔🤔

so I know we already have a lot for them, PATRICK and MARÍA and I am a sucker for hurt/comfort with these two, but perhaps?? Later when the revolution is in full swing and should hyuk be kidnapped by the Capitol, a thread there? Aka Patrick cycles between being 💯 focused on the revolution efforts and being two steps away from a mental breakdown bc literally hyuk is his rock and his peace so take away that and uh….not good things happen. This is all to say, it could be interesting to see a scenario where perhaps maría for once is the stabler one ( however much Patrick will try to still be a pillar of stability for her tho 🥲 )

[litcityblues]

For All Mankind Seasons 3 & 4: Some Men Would Rather Steal An Asteroid Than Go To Therapy

It's been a minute since I saw this show, but to recap: at the end of Season 2, Cold War tensions between the Soviets and Americans boil over. There's a firefight on the moon. Tracy and Gordo manage to keep Jamestown's reactor from melting down but die in the process. Danielle docks with Soyuz and astronauts and cosmonauts finally greeting each other does a lot to defuse tensions. In the final shot of the season, we see a human walking on Mars.

When Season 3 starts, it's 1992. Ed (Joel Kinnaman) and Karen (Shantel VanSanten) are divorced and Karen is in the Space Hotel business after a disaster at Danny Stevens' (Casey W. Johnson) wedding nearly takes out the hotel and takes out her new husband Sam (Jeff Hephner), Karen decides to sell to Dev Ayesa (Edi Gathegi), found of Helios Aerospace who wants to use it for his own commercial mission to Mars.

Ed and Danielle (Krys Marshall) are in the running to be commander of NASA's Mars Mission with Molly Cobb (Sonya Wagner) (now blind, because of her solar storm adventure in Season 2) clashing with Margo (Wrenn Schmidt) over who to choose. Molly picks Ed, but Margo fires her and picks Danielle instead. Ed switches teams, leaving NASA to join Helios as the commander for their Mars mission, which sets up a three-way race to Mars.

(Margo is under increasing pressure-- as her 'gentle back channel' to the Soviets in the form of her friend Sergei is rapidly becoming the KGB insisting that she sell secrets to them.)

With everyone on the way to Mars, Danny's new wife and baby are hanging out with his brother Jimmy (David Chandler) who- like Danny- is struggling with the legacy of his parents, Tracy and Gordo. Unlike Danny, who seems to have doubled down to follow in their footsteps, Jimmy wants nothing to do with NASA and is increasingly friendly with anti-NASA radicals.

On the way to Mars, NASA deploys solar sails to race ahead of the Helios crew, but an accident on the Soviet ship, which sees Ed attempt to go to their rescue, as Helios is closer, gets overruled by Dev and ultimately, it's NASA who has to go rescue the cosmonauts. They do so and while Helios arrives at Mars first, Ed's landing attempt is aborted due to bad weather and ultimately, it's NASA and Russia who land first, with Danielle and the Soviet commander wrestling their way onto Mars... together.

The Soviets and Americans are sharing Happy Valley, while Helios has its own base. Danny is spiralling hard and after he gets injured, develops a Vicodin addiction. Kelly (Cynthy Wu) has a romantic liaison with one of the cosmonauts. One of the astronauts, Will Tyler (Robert Bailey Jr), reveals that he's gay- which gives former Astronaut and Current President Ellen Wilson (Jodi Balfour) an opening to take down 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.'

(Ellen's plotline is probably the more underrated of Season 3: still married to Larry (Nate Corddry), they're both still gay, they have one kid and she runs for President as a Republican, defeating Bill Clinton in 1992 to win election. The twist is that it's Larry who gets caught in a lie about an extramarital affair to Congress, which you think is going to be the start of Ellen's 'Lewinsky Scandal' that takes her down but instead, after going to see Pam, Ellen makes the one move that I think no one expects her to make: she comes out of the closet.

IRL, I honestly think that scenario would play out exactly the way Ellen intended. It would have changed the story in a massive, massive way- especially in the mid-90s media landscape, IMO)

Danny's spiral leads to a drilling accident that results in an accident that leads to more deaths and Ed and Danny being trapped in Hab 1, buried and running out of air.

The noose is tightening around Margo, as the Soviets continue to pressure her and Aleida realizes that it was she who gave NASA's engine design to the Soviets and Jimmy's radical friends help him steal the statue of his parents. Things in Season 3 come to a head with Kelly- who is pregnant and suffering from pre-eclampsia, having to be evacuated back to Earth. The North Korean rocket that damaged the space hotel way at the start of the season? Turns out it was a Mars mission and the Americans/Russians find the sole survivor and the *actual* first man on Mars: a North Korean. Back on Earth, Jimmy's friends blow up the Johnson Space Center killing Karen and Molly Cobb in the process and Margo is presumed to be amongst the dead, but is in fact, alive, well, and living in the Soviet Union.

Season 4 opens with the Mars base having grown considerably. Ed is commanding a mission to bring an asteroid into Mars orbit so they can mine it and unemployed oil rig worker Miles (Toby Kebbell) (because they've discovered something called helium-3 that's become the main fuel source, devastating the oil and gas industries) was headed to the moon, but chooses instead to go to Mars for more pay and a long stint. After the accident with Ed's mission, NASA sends out Danielle to replace him for the remainder of America's term commanding the base while Ed, as it turns out is experiencing hand tremors.

Margo is finding that the Soviet Union isn't all it cracked up to be. She's out of the space game, but after a coup removes Gorbachev and brings in new management she finds herself working for the Soviet space program again (after a fairly brutal interrogation.)

On Mars, Miles finds that Helios doesn't pay that well but gets into the black market game to supplement his income and does so quite successfully.

Aleida is suffering from panic attacks after the bombing, Kelly is getting screwed by NASA so they take her robotic explorer program (whose goal is to search for life) on the road, looking for private funding and eventually, they get some from Dev.

Political tensions are rising on Mars with the Soviet crew forming factions over their power struggle, the North Koreans are keeping to themselves, and the Americans are kind of caught in the middle if we just fast forward through to the end of this, eventually, Ed, Dev, and company hijack a shiny new asteroid and park it in Mars orbit where it will be mined. (Margo is also revealed to be alive, comes back to America for awkward moments at NASA, and has the brief, tiniest possibility of running away to Brazil with Sergei dangled in front of her before someone- presumably the KGB shoots him dead.)

All right, so let's unpack this a bit.

From what I'm reading on the interwebs, this show is still waiting for an official renewal for Season 5. I don't know what kind of metrics Apple uses to make those decisions for its streaming platform, but at this point, if the creators/writers, etc, want 7 seasons, I think Apple should just do it at this point- but, that being said, having gotten through all of Season 4, I could also see why they wouldn't do that as well. I think Season 4 feels like the show was either laying the groundwork for a heavy 'reboot' season in Season 5 (because how old can Ed get, really?) or was designed in such a way that it could serve as a series finale without too much trouble either.

And I go back and forth about that. I think the show is at a weird transition point in its story because we're moving out of the alternate history aspect of all of this and more into the science fiction aspect of all of this and I think that might be a trickier balancing act to pull off than we realize. There were aspects of Season 4 that I liked. The introduction of Miles was a brilliant choice because it created kind of this Upstairs/Downstairs aspect to the show where you get to see the people who are doing the grunt work to keep Happy Valley going as a pose to our HEROES who are upstairs doing astronaut things. The black market/secret bar aspect all worked for me- you'd expect to find that in a situation like that as well as the labor tension that eventually leads to a strike amongst the workers. No problem with any of that.

The problem I did have was Ed and Danielle. I think the show should have just gone there. They kind of do, but it's more implicit than explicit and they've danced around this before in prior seasons-- but I think Ed could have seen some interesting character growth had Danielle explicitly called him on his sexist/racist bullshit-- especially given Kelly is a woman of color. There was an opportunity here for self-analysis and reflection for a character who badly needs it and you could have more of an arc between Danielle and Ed trying to repair their relationship throughout the season. They kind of do that, but I think had they doubled down on it a bit, it would have given both characters a better arc throughout the 4th season.

(Also, Ed, man... go home and deal with your fucking feelings, already! "Men would rather stay on Mars and figure out how to hijack an asteroid than go to therapy." Though, to be fair to Ed, when Kelly finally pins him down on why he is the way he is, his explanation seems genuine enough. I just don't understand why it didn't come earlier in the season and why a guy who has had two children of his own is so gosh darned awkward around his Grandson- though admittedly, that too gets better by the end of Season 4.)

We also have to go to talk about Danny Stevens: why the fuck didn't they just send his ass home? I can understand exiling him at the end of Season 3 when they were still trying to get fuel made to get everyone back home, I get that. But now workers are being shipped into the base, surely there's a shuttle he can go home on? Instead, he just sort of sits in the North Korean capsule until he cracks and is found dead and that's just sort of the end of it. (Personally, I think a better ending for Danny would have been them finding the capsule straight up empty. With no tracks or nothing.)

Margo not getting a happy ending seems inevitable, though I would have liked it far better had she gone to Brazil, even without Sergei-- but I do appreciate the fact that she takes accountability for her plan, if not her actions by season's end which I think is a good first step for her character who has been avoiding accountability for her choices for quite some time.

Eli Hobson as the new NASA administrator had me checking IMDB constantly because I was so convinced it was Bruce Boxleitner I got very excited at first, but it was Daniel Stern who was equally as awesome.

Overall: I do love this show. Season 3 was top notch and Season 4 felt like it lost a step or two but was still good. (I'm hoping Season 4 is setting up stuff for Season 5 we have yet to discover!) For All Mankind is a great show that everyone should be watching. Apple is really impressing me with the quality of the shows they've got on there and this one is a 'must watch' that should be getting way more hype than it seems to be out in the world. My Grade: Season 3 **** out of ****, Season 4 *** out of ****

[ultimatedaywriter]

Gravedigger's Mania

Emily was about to commit a great sin, but it was the lesser one that she worried about. Her hands shook as she listened to the low clacking of a cane on cobblestones. No one knew her quarry was here; the dhampir liked to move quietly. It kept the assassins away. That was good; she could ill afford witnesses or black knights asking questions. Emily was about to commit a great sin and a lesser one.

 

She held up a picture blurred from the glare of a low lamplight. That was the problem with being a vampire; even the lowest light cast a horrible glare. Her brother was the only one she made out in the picture.

 

It was ok; she barely remembered her parents anymore. At 8, she was turned, and she only aged half the speed each year until she turned 16. That was her problem; she looked so young compared to her aging brother. He might have been 30, but she didn’t like to count. It was embarrassing, 30 years old, and classless. Vincent didn’t use a spell like false data to fool spies like she did. Her brother’s attributes were so low he couldn’t see much of her stats.

 

The clacking was growing closer. Resneck shouldn’t be here. They both knew he was responsible for her brother’s team of gravediggers. Something always went wrong, and it was up to a powerful Dhampir like Reseneck to handle it. Every day sleds of corpses were taken to be buried to purify the graveyard with negative energy. It was the only way her brother could make enough money to keep her alive.

 

Or that was what he thought. The fool thought Emily was helpless. By the time Emily was 15 in the new life, she had already fed off another turned. It was a practice considered forbidden.

 

The door to the room opened, and Resneck entered all smiles. The fool always appeared confident with his rapier at his hip and crossbow at his side. Of course, no one would fight a lvl50 dhampir. A vampire especially wouldn’t challenge them under the sun.

 

At Emily’s meager lvl20, she was no match for Resneck, especially under the sunlight. He was confident enough to come to her home on the poor side of town without bodyguards. Normally a dhampir of the family would have an endless entourage. Still, lately, Resnick had taken to radical claims about the godless theocracy. He had a view on humans that the true vampires didn’t like. But, as one of the voting powers of the republic, the Camazotz couldn’t afford to look weak. So they took their protections away. Someone would have pounced. Emily was only the first.

 

She poured him a cup of tea as the dhampir took his wide-brimmed hat off and placed it on a dusty wooden wrack.

 

“It has been some time since we met. I believe 20 years, by my guess.” Resneck said.

 

Emily sucked on her teeth. She should have expected an insult from the start. Her brother was her greatest pride and shame. It would be better if they parted ways, but the fool was too devoted for his own good. She didn’t need his help. He couldn’t see it. Vincent, the lvl0 classless gravedigger, was the talk of many as his sister; her status was lower than dirt.

 

“We are forever grateful for your magnanimity. Offering a boy of 10 a dangerous job like a gravedigger was quite daring. Some would say you did it more for amusement than charity.”

 

“It's hardly charity. Vincent does good work and hasn’t died in 20 years. If only the boy didn’t have such sticky fingers. Has he saved up enough to give you a hunting tag?”

 

Emily watched the man sip his tea and smirked on the inside. The poison was already taking effect. The purple petals lightly fell from a flower on the table half fallen. It really was amazing how gullible Resnick had been.

 

“Are you expecting something to happen? I noticed you haven’t touched your tea.” Resneck said.

 

Emily smiled and tapped her foot.

 

“How much do you think your original amulet sold for? My big brother has such sticky fingers.”

 

She plucked a violet petal from the rose in the center of the room. Resneck tried to stand but failed to move. His body shook as he tried to hoist himself up on the cane. Emily kicked it, snapping the stick the dhampir had once beaten her brother with until he couldn’t stand. The offending instrument collapsed with the man, never to harm anyone again.

 

“Do you smell that pollen? It's called Nina, after a long-dead princess of the night. It weakens the powers of those unused to its effects. Much like a vampire in the day, you are quite powerless. Fortunately, I developed an immunity to the pollen. It took nearly a decade to become immune.”

 

She approached the beautiful man with dark curls framing his face. Emily grabbed a great handful of Resneck’s luscious hair and yanked him up. She felt her fangs extend and bit the man’s neck. This was the sin Emily had longed to commit, an act of treason that would set her free. At last, she fed from a member of the Camazotz and gained power.

 

A large family like the Camazotz eventually isolated itself and let its prominent members wilt on the vine. It was glorious and terrible. She drank until the dhampir’s heart pittered out and stopped. The body didn’t turn to ash or something silly like that. No, it remained a very dead heavy body, but fortunately, as a vampire, her strength was immense. She took it to a preprepared room filled with rats.

 

She had taken her time and considered what she wanted to use to dispose of the body. Rats were the best she could come up with. So Emily tossed the body to the rats and watched them swarm the fresh meat.

 

The camazotz's blood empowered her more than ever, and she basked in the feeling of superiority. Then reality set in. She used the spell glamour and false data to transform her status page into a copy of Resneck Camazotz. For a decade, she had invited him to tea and studied the man. Every insult had been worth it; the man hadn’t suspected she would bypass his defenses. The idea of a weak turned like her below level 10 managing to harm him was laughable.

 

She unveiled her second sin from under the blanket on her bed. In her bed was a girl who looked like her, altered with a glamour and drained dry by Resnik’s fangs. This was the minor sin she had dreaded. To have a clean break and give both herself and her brother a chance to move on, she had to die for him. He would hate her and bang his fists on the ground, but at the end of the day, Vincent would move on and find happiness.

[pansy-picnics]

LANCE IS THE BEST BECSUSE HIM AND EUGENE ARE JUST. THE DADS

Lance sees a mildly upset child and decides he needs to talk to them about it, because he won’t let more kids become like him and Eugene. He notices the way Varian seeks out praise and gives him praise, but encourages him to be proud of himself too. He noticed how Catalina and Angry hoard little things that they steal and offers them safe spaces to have those little things. He noticed how Hugo doesn’t do well with rich people and removing the mask he’s created for himself and invites him on scavenger hunts so he can have some semblance of his old life of scheming. He notices how Nuru tends to take on more than she can handle, as well as trying to “parent” adults and reminds her that Varian and Hugo can take care of themselves, but offers her books about princesses so she can steal read about people like her. He notices Yong struggling to get along with people because he’s loud and bad at social cues and makes it a point to spend time with him, and Lance is never gonna turn down an opportunity to create a good explosion. He’s just got the BEST dynamics, and I feel like after being one of the older kids at the orphanage, he’s good with kids. He remembers what it’s like to be a kid, and he doesn’t want them to have the experienced he did.

GODDDDDDD YES LITERALLY!!!! YOU GET IT!!!!!! IM SO INSANE IM GOING TO. GRRRAGGHGHHGGHHHH. i think lance was truly the first person hugo warmed up to when she moved to corona. like she’s very similar to both him and eugene but i think she and eugene are just Too similar at first and their egos clash a lot. but lance is chill. he’s not as adrenaline seeking and doesn’t have the same egotistical tendencies eugene does. he’s literally just. a dad. and hugo ends up benefiting from that a lot!!!

especially bc i think the idea of having to get to know everyone because of his new connection with varian stressed hugo out a LOT, he’s never been used to having this many connections or associations with people by default and suddenly he feels like he needs to be a part of this family when he’s Not because it’s Not His. they isolated for a while bc of it but lance never even mentioned it. when hugo came out of their slump and truly wanted to make an effort to bond with everyone, lance didn’t say anything. he just welcomed them and let them hang out at their own pace.

hugo messes with the girls like they’re his own sisters and he loves inventing all the stupid stuff for them that varian thinks he’s too good for. he has breakfast with them on weekends and he definitely calls lance dad by accident at least once and he actually is so embarrassed he wants to crawl into a hole and die

GODDD AND YONG AND LANCE………they cook together and yong teaches him all the recipes his mom taught him. yong’s been seen as too much or too annoying by so many people and he’s so happy to just meet a grown up who’s basically JUST LIKE HIM and is PROUD and THRIVING. yong admires lance so much he wants to be just like him and it’s the sweetest thing. and him and the girls are literally best friends. like they are The Trio Ever to me.

and LIKE YOU SAID EXACTLY nuru loves the opportunity to just let loose and have fun and be a dumb teenage girl for a change. yeah team radical is great but like have you ever considered yong nuru kiera and catalina? they’re literally the worst and lance encourages them and its fucking gold

[fukuokadivision1]

Ming's Thoughts on Ōta Division

Chinami Chinen

"My brother and Sanyu don't really care much for fortune tellers. I'll admit, the few that I've come across have been nothing but swindlers and scam artists. ...But a lot of my students' parents have spoken about this woman here who works as a scryer. They say that her predictions are actually accurate. I know my brother doesn't care too much about things like 'fate', 'destiny' or the 'future', but I think those things are important, so long as you don't get hung up on them. That was my... father's problem. He was so insistent to blame everything on fate or destiny that he became indecisive and couldn't make up his mind on important matters. He let other people make his decisions for him.

"But anyway, I think I'd like to have a talk with this woman, just to understand more about her. I'd also like to know more about what's it like to be a mother. ...You know, now that I think about it, there are a lot of single moms here in Japan, aren't there?"

Kira Chinen

"If this woman was just an investigator, then that wouldn't be so bad. But from what my brother tells me, she's also apparently an important figure in Chuohku, which is a surprise since she doesn't display any of the radical feminism that those women are usually known for. I'd like to think she has good reasons for joining, but I'm not so sure. Anyone who works for those women usually has nothing but the worst of intentions for Japan. I hope she can prove me wrong."

Taria Chinen

"I do not know why Sanyu and my brother like this woman! She is nothing more than a burglar, stealing other people's possessions and hard work. She reminds me of that widow woman from Shizuoka: both do not work for anything, but somehow manage to reap the benefits because they simply take what belongs to others with no shame! She should be ashamed of herself! It's a wonder her older sisters haven't caught up to what she is doing and punished her for it. Mark my words, her luck is going to run out soon, and when she gets captured, I am not going to be surprised!"

Birds of Prey

"While this team may seem a bit unorthodox, I don't think we should underestimate them, especially Chinami-san. Besides the fact that her ability may save her and her team from a dangerous spot, I've heard that she used to be part of a famous rap group. My brother seems to know about it, so I'll have to ask him if he can locate some of their old songs.

"But if we face this team, we should be very careful. If they are anything like the Buster Bros!!! of Ikebukuro, then it's a guaranteed certain that they are not going to be easy to defeat."

[kidflashimpulse]

i really like to think virgil and bart are science buddies!! the show has never touched on virgil's intelligence which i've always been kinda bitter about since him being a massive nerd is such a big and important part of his character (and he likes comics, RPGs, science fiction! he is a HUGE nerd). they're the main friend they have (besides maybe tim, but he's more of a hacker) who they can talk to about physics and chemistry and they appreciate that about each other.

oh i entirely feel the same way!! usually i just take a fair amount of source material stuff to fill in the blanks that the show doesn’t address as part of their characterisation so when apparently it’s been determined that virgil’s mother is actually still alive i was actually quite surprised because i always felt like it was a pretty significant part of his characterisation in the static shock series. That being said, i can still see him be characterised the same even with his mom being alive because that aspect mainly manifests in his relationship with his dad, so I don’t mind that retcon as much as i would say, him not being a massive nerd/geek.

edit: his mom being dead was a change made to the show, in the original source material of the comics Virgil has both parents alive and well and a stable family life which he has mentioned in YJ too, which actually makes me rlly happy so that’s pretty cool extra info, thanks again to the anon who mentioned this :D

him being a stem leaning nerd/geek is kind of integral to him especially in the context of his powers so YES virgil + bart science besties all the way from academics to tech to the geekiest sci-fi sht and video games, u name it, they’re the president of the club lol virgil would have loved bart’s free radical reference 🥹

despite his upsetting lack of screen time, i do like the way virgil has been portrayed generally in the show. Whilst i have MAJOR gripes on his treatment with Jefferson and the whole mentorship arc, i do like how he’s been consistently shown to be heroic. Not just being a hero, but it being a genuine trait of his. He’s had the skills of being a hero, team player and leader since the START and that’s what makes him such an easy and natural addition to the team. He fits in so nicely and i think it’s rlly cool. He’s also generally been cool, sweet and endearingly motivated in a way that it reminds me a lot of his static shock series days, so that’s why i really like his characterisation in the show and think he has so much untapped potential for more.

Him being in the same immediate friendship circle as Bart is basically everything to me, it’s perfect.

[denimbex1986]

'Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has been declared a masterpiece by the audience globally. The three-hour-long film has managed to impress fans to a great extent and many believe that this film is Nolan’s best work so far. Apart from the director, the cast of the film is also being lauded for their performance, especially Cillian Murphy as J Robert Oppenheimer. Florence Pugh who essays the role of Jean Tatlock, Emily Blunt as Katherine “Kitty” Oppenheimer, Matt Damon as Gen. Leslie Groves, and Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss are also garnering a lot of love from the audience.

Some scenes from the film have impacted the audience gravely. J Robert Oppenheimer’s interactions with Jean Tatlock, the team’s reaction to the testing of the bomb and the courtroom drama involving Lewis Strauss — the Oppenheimer hangover is real. A large section of the audience have also been discussing the one scene featuring Pugh. The tragic end of this character has rattled people, who cannot help but shake off the memories of the suicide scene. This has piqued people’s interest in knowing more about Jean Tatlock.

Born on 21 February 1914, Jean Frances Tatlock was raised by her parents in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her father, John Strong Perry Tatlock, was a professor of English at the University of Michigan. Just like her father, Jean also had a flair for writing. She finished her studies at Cambridge Rindge and Latin School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Williams College in Berkeley. After which, she entered Vassar College in 1930. She studied there for five years and returned to Berkeley to prep for Stanford Medical School. During this time, she worked as a reporter and writer for the Western Worker. It was an organ of the Communist Party of America.

Her hard work landed her in Stanford Medical School where she studied to become a psychiatrist. She was a graduate in 1941 after which she went on to intern at St. Elizabeth’s Hospital in Washington, D.C. She then had a residency at the Department of Psychiatry at Mount Zion Hospital in San Francisco.

Her relationship with J Robert Oppenheimer

Jean Tatlock and J Robert Oppenheimer began seeing each other in 1936. She was still a graduate student while Oppenheimer was a professor of physics at Berkeley. At that time, Oppenheimer was known to be surrounded by Communist people and he was introduced to Jean at a fundraiser by his landlady, Mary Ellen Washburn, who was a member of the Communist Party.

Despite the age difference of 10 years, Jean Tatlock and J. Robert Oppenheimer shared a passionate relationship. Oppenheimer even proposed to Jean twice. She is credited to have introduced the physicists to radical politics. It was also Jean who introduced him to people involved with, or compassionate to, the Communist Party or related groups. However, the two did not end up together. Oppenheimer married Kitty Harrison in 1940, and it is said that he cut all ties with Jean post his wedding. He did, however, meet her at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco when he was working on the Manhattan Project. It was during this meeting that she told him that she still loved him and wanted to be with him. Oppenheimer never saw her again.

While she shared a dynamic relationship with the physicist, Tatlock also claimed that she was a lesbian. Many people suggested that there was a possibility that Tatlock had a relationship with Mary Ellen Washburn. In the 1940s, being a homosexual person was considered to be a pathological condition that could be cured. This struggle with understanding her sexuality could have been a reason for her suicide.

Jean Tatlock’s tragic death

Tatlock was diagnosed with clinical depression, for which she was receiving treatment at Mount Zion. It was the year 1944 when her father came to visit her at her apartment at 1405 Montgomery Street and found her dead. Her body was found lying on a pile of cushions in the bathroom. Her head was submerged in the partly-filled bathtub. She left a note where she talked about giving up. Oppenheimer was informed about her death while he was still working on the atomic bomb in Los Alamos. The physicist named the first test of a nuclear weapon “Trinity” which was a reference to the poetry of John Donne, something that was introduced to him by Jean Tatlock.

The conspiracy theory

Many historians and her brother, Hugh Tatlock, believed that her death was not truly a suicide. Conspiracy theories suggest that the lady was killed by intelligence agents working for the Manhattan Project. This theory has been depicted in the TV series Manhattan. And the very scene in Nolan’s film where a gloved hand can be seen for a brief moment, pushing her head under the water, could be a suggestion of this theory as well.'

[alltimefail-sims]

Omg the Pleasants are some of my fav sims from the sims 2 the drama I had with them haha. As for lore yes Dustin is the criminal and hes dating Angela the "good twin" is perceived as the "bad twin" and she's dating popular boy Dirk Dreamer. Lilith isn't actually bad she's just misunderstood and neglected by her family which causes her to act out. Fun Fact Lilith never learned to walk, talk or use the potty which made her grow up bad while Angela did and grew up well.

SAME. Pleasantview has a place in my heart because of how absolutely messy the suburban antics are.

But that's what I thought!! Ugh sometimes I wish the sims team would stop throwing in nostalgic characters by name and literally changing their ages and entire personality to go against the "canon" timelines. TS4 is the only game that is radically wrong with the details, imo. I do remember that about Lilith actually!! I always wondered why she was never taught her basic needs while Angela was, especially because it feels like the girls were given equal treatment at least to the point of how they were permitted to decorate their room/given the same amount of simoleons they could spend on decorating their room.

Completely personal perspective, but I never thought either twin was bad - they're just teenagers in an environment that is less than ideal (parents who are unhappy, they're constantly compared to each other, and etc.). Mary-Sue, in my mind, would be a better mom without her asshole cheater husband always around 🤷. But I always see one of the twins made to be "the villain" and that intrigues me.

Also somewhat related but, full disclosure, I always broke up Dirk and Lilith but kept them as great friends into adulthood, and I never keep Angela and Dustin together. (In most playthroughs I actually put Angela and Dirk together while in college tbh 😂. Perhaps an unpopular choice because people seem to love Dirk and Lilith... but that's always what I did! Needless to say Angela and Dustin wouldn't really stay friends though).