#especially when those people say they care so much for victims

[ilyrafe]

after seeing so much one direction content these past couple of days, it got me thinking. one direction really was the last boyband to ever happen. no one will ever come close to what they did in only six years. it’s a once in a generation kind of thing to happen. they didn’t even win the x factor and ended up being the show’s biggest act, 14 years later.

yes, they were manufactured, but at the same time, they were the least manufactured band to ever exist in recent times. they didn’t dance, they weren’t actually meant to be a band, they got everything they had because of charisma and talent. these boys were so talented and charismatic. they didn’t really dress the same, they were working class teenagers with a dream and they did it. and it was beautiful.

after seeing their statements, it’s finally downing on me that one direction is really over and i will never see all five of them together again. 11 year old me is absolutely devastated, and so is 24, almost 25 year old me.

the fangirl in me never went anywhere, it turns out. i still have my 1d concert tickets (the only one i went to and zayn was still in the band!), my albums and dvds, books, theater tickets and every once in a while i would take them out of the box and reminisce of the good old days, never thinking i would mourn one of them so soon. i genuinely thought i would be way older when they would go.

i can’t help but feel so sad that liam’s last years were so erratic and horrible. he was hurting deeply and he deeply hurt other people, and there is no excuse for what he did. i mourn what he once was, what he could have been and how it all ended up being. i take maya’s allegations seriously and i encourage you to do the same. what she is going through right now is impossible to imagine.

for those saying they’re glad “an abuser died”, think about what you’re saying. his death helps no one. his victims will never get justice, he will not take accountability for his actions. no one will ever get closure.

for those saying they feel bad for hating or mocking him, you really should. he was called an opportunist for showing up at the boys’ concerts and yet, when harry would do it, everyone loved it.

liam wasn’t perfect, he fucked up a lot, but like anyone, he had the right to, at the very least, apologize. 31 is too young, and no one deserves to go like this.

all i think about is his little son, who will grow up without his dad. no kid should ever lose their parent, especially at such an young age. the fact that he never once exposed his son to the media (like many celebrities do) to protect his privacy tells me that he loved his boy and knew all too well the damage this exposure would cause.

i saw that some 1d songs are trending again, and as much as i would love to take the day to listen to them, it is too soon. i haven’t been able to watch friends since matthew perry died, haven’t been able to watch brooklyn 99 since andre bragher died and will not be able to listen to 1d for a while.

it’s too soon.

call me dramatic, i don’t really care. the most magical part of my adolescence has ended tragically and i am really at a loss.

for those who are conflicted as i am, take your time. it is okay to be sad he’s gone and, at the same time, feel disappointed or even angry. it is okay to mourn and, at the same time, support maya.

edit: i would also like to express my support to his parents, sisters, cheryl, kate and friends.

[revelboo]

Hello Happy new year.

I really wanted to thank you for all your transformers writing. Humans meeting Cybertronians will always make me happy, especially when it's followed with several angs and misunderstanding shenanigans.

I love how cybertronias either get their humans by picking them randomly (Autobots and Decepticons on earth) or the humans literally appear in front of them (Lost Light crew). Its like the universe is telling them "now bond" in the most awkward get alone T-shirt (*cough* transformers one au).

Also, where are you storing all the souls people are offering you? I would like to sacrifice mine for more of the sweet Murder Machine Tarn or (but just if you can and would like to) some Sunder.

Gotta save the Cybertronian race somehow- scenarios with the three least okay Cybertronians

Obsessive Cybertronians Scenarios 18+ 🌶️

Sunder x Reader, Tarn x Reader, Vortex x Reader

Sunder

• “Where were you?” That husky, low voice strokes over you as the inner door seals behind you. Can hear the shivery sound of his chains sliding as he strains against them. You know he can’t get loose, that he’s trapped, but the fine hair at your nape still prickles with a combination of fear and excitement. Unlike the Cybertronians on the ship, Sunder can feed off your memories but can’t shred them and destroy your mind. Understand that, but you can still feel it when he gets in your head and sometimes it goes both ways. His twisted thoughts and emotions spilling over into you. Spreading like poison through you. “I need you.” Eyes closing as he shifts restlessly, you gather your strength and remind yourself that you’re in charge here. Starting up the scaffolding that had been erected to give you access to his berth, your breath comes quicker. Fear and need. “I missed you, little love.”

• Head turning, he watches you, glossa sliding over his denta. They’d forced him to mass displace to make him manageable and bound him, giving him you thinking he can’t manipulate you. Fools. Though he’s enjoyed playing with you, dabbling in your memories. Finding all sorts of lovely insecurities. Like the fact that you’re surrounded by Cybertronians, but so lonely. “You’re just hungry,” you mutter, drifting closer anyway. Because you’re as hungry as he is. Afraid of what the crew will think of you if they find out what you do with him. To him.

• “Starving.” Hands bound at his sides, he flexes his servos. “What has you troubled? Come here.” Those blue optics stare at you, his lips parted as his hips lift as much as they can. Taunting you. “Let me taste.” Know he means your memories, but as he slides that glossa over his denta you shiver. Because you don’t trust him, know exactly what he is, how awful and ruined he is.

• “Not happening,” you say as you toe off your boots and strip off your lower coverings, leaving the rest on. Hips lifting again when you lay a soft hand on his chassis and shift over him. That little touch sparking through him, letting him in. Clever fingers finding the panel and releasing his erect spike. Optics shuttering and lips parting as you grip him and guide him to you. Letting you believe you’re in control as you take his spike deep into your wet heat. Taking your pleasure as he uses the contact to delve into you, feeding off of your memories. Living through them as you brace your palms on him and undulate against him.

• Is It how wrong it is that makes it so good? Or is his corruption spreading to you, making you as twisted as he is. Head tossed back as you bounce on him, your breath catches. Feeling him in your head, spreading like smoke through you. Whimpering as you remember the last victim. Hunting another Cybertronian, so hungry. Eager for the kill, his hunger twisting through you as you devour their memories. Under you, he’s whispering in that silken, terrible voice. Crooning to you as you ride his spike. “Let me go, little love. We could be free,” he groans as you move faster against him. “Take such good care of you.” Hear his chains rattle as his hips rock up against you, voice growing strained. Know he’s lying to you, but you want it a little more every time. Want him even as you fear someone checking on you and finding you on his spike.

Tarn

• Servos tightening on your hips as he kneels behind you, you whimper as he buries his spike inside you. “Weak,” he snarls, hips moving urgently against you to stroke deep. “Blasphemous.” Cheek resting on your outstretched arm, hips up as he ruts against you with deep, hard strokes, his optics glint at you from behind his mask. Because no matter how much he insists this is wrong, he doesn’t stop. Sneering at humanity and weakness in front of the rest of the DJD, but when it’s just the two of you, he can’t seem to stop reaching for you.

• Running a palm up your spine as he thrusts against you, lost in the feel of you gripping his spike, he hates it even as he needs it. Needs you. “Tarn,” you moan and his optics shutter, hips pumping frantically as you tremble under him. Every single time he claims you, he swears it’s the last time. That he won’t succumb to this weakness. This shame. And then he finds himself bearing you down, mounting you again. Wishing he was stronger. That he could just break you and be free of this addiction, but never able to. How many times has he wrapped his servos around that delicate throat while you rest against him, thinking how easily he can end this? But never following through. Unable to lose you.

Vortex

• “Do it,” he groans, mask retracted and denta bared as you press that little blade, the one he’d given you, to the mesh of his neck under his chin. Hands on your hips, he rocks himself against you. Feeling the way you tighten on his spike. “Is that what you want? Me to beg? Please.” Laughing, he lifts his hips and throws you off balance. Feels the little bite of pain of the blade cutting him, before you yank it away from his throat, eyes wide. “Frag, a bit harder. Deeper.” Not sure if he means the blade or his spike stroking inside you. Servos tightening on your hips as he rolls. Hears you swear as the little blade goes clattering and that lovely coppery scent fills his senses.

• Back hitting the floor as his hips surge against yours, you hook your legs around his waist. Feel the wetness running down your wrist where you cut yourself. Spike pounding deep, he catches your arm and drags your hand to his mouth. Latching onto you, the side of your hand gripped in his denta as his glossa slides over the shallow cut to make you squirm. Pain and pleasure spangling together as you dig your thumb into his neck, finding that little nick and pressing against it until he shudders against you, biting hard enough to make you cry out as he releases. Hips surging against you, as he runs his glossa against the inside of your wrist and stares down at you, venting raggedly. Slipping free of you long enough to flip you onto your belly, then he’s inside you again, hips pumping as his mouth brushes your neck and shoulder and he bites again. Gripping you in his denta as he ruts against you and you scream, coming apart. Trembling as he keeps moving against you, both of you unable to find pleasure without pain. The same kind of broken.

If they fully bond to him, he could, but they’re refusing to give in completely so far

[amomentsescape]

hello! Are you ok?, I hope so ❤️ (by the way, your writing is wonderful)

I would like to make a request for Yandere Slashers with an S/O who is a mermaid, who usually kills people who dare to invade her lakes, and she kills these people by drowning.

(I'm sorry if there are any writing errors, English is not my first language, and I'm writing this using Google translate)

Slashers with Mermaid! Reader

Yandere! Slashers x Reader

Includes: Freddy, Michael, Jason, Thomas, Bubba, Brahms, Norman, Billy, Stu, Vincent, & Bo

A/N: I'm doing good, thank you <3 I hope you enjoy! (Also, I decided I'm going to remove Lester from the Slasher requests. I'm still very much open to writing for him when specified, but I feel like he doesn't quite fit in with all the other Slashers).

Freddy Krueger

Meeting you was quite literally the best thing to ever happen in his undead life

He likes to team up with you, constantly coming up with different ways you both can contribute to someone's death

You pull them under, and they suddenly wake up in Freddy's world

Your dynamic is pretty ideal too

Whenever you sleep, you can visit him

And he has no issues with popping into your waters just to say hi

He does this quite often, in fact

He is very aware you can take care of yourself, but he still gets worried

You're his

He doesn't trust anyone being around you

Even if your only intention is to kill them immediately

He understands that where you are now is your home, but that won't stop him from doing whatever he can to have you live in his world

He can create the perfect environment for you

Miles and miles of nothing but water if your heart desires

Which hopefully it does

Since he isn't willing to wait much longer

Michael Myers

He never thought creatures like you actually existed

But the moment he saw your strength and darkness, he was immediately drawn in against his better judgment

He visits more often then you think

He's always around, watching

You can feel eyes on you almost 90% of the day, but you never really know where it's coming from

He enjoys watching you swim and just relax

But he especially loves seeing you drag poor souls into the tide with you

There's something so twisted and yet magical about watching you kill

But this fascination is also paired with extreme jealousy

He hates seeing you touch other people

And he almost envies the way they get to be so close to you, even if it means their demise

He hopes to find a way to take you home with him for good one of these times

You told him you loved him, so you'd be happy as long as you're by his side

Right?

Jason Voorhees

Out of all places to meet the love of your life, this one seemed especially unfortunate for Jason

But his feelings for you were strong enough to overrule his fear

He'll sit by the shore with you, hearing you talk and sing old tunes he's never heard before

He loves listening to your stories about the world underneath the current

But this always leaves him with such a deep feeling of sadness

He wants a life where you both can live together and share those memories

But he knows that's nearly impossible

He starts spending more time by the water side than the camp, finding that irresponsible teens like to be by the beach even more than the forest

You lure them in with your beauty and your words, and Jason finishes the job

He'll let you kill too if you really wish to, but he doesn't like the idea of those types of people being so close to you

He barely gets to touch you, so why should they get what he so desperately wants instead?

Thomas Hewitt

In this desert like area of Texas, Thomas has to travel quite far to see you

But the one time he accidentally stumbled upon you, he was smitten

And you surprisingly didn't turn him into another victim like all the others

He was kind to you

And now, he brings you food and stops by as often as he possibly can

You've made him little necklaces out of bones and shells

He wears every single one of them

Your bond only gets stronger each time he comes to see you

But Thomas can only take so much

Why can't you be closer?

He knows the family would love you

And he could make you so happy

His bathtub is big enough for you, he's sure of it

He knows that you won't want to leave your own home for his, but he loves you and knows what will be best for you

He's just got to be patient

Bubba Sawyer

His own family had to go on a search for him after he disappeared for a couple days

But he just couldn't help it

You make him so happy, and the more time he spent with you, the more difficult it became to leave your side

He's tried to jump in a few times to be with you, but you always persuade him out of it

He doesn't know how to swim, and you don't want him to end up like everyone else

That's when he decided that the best option would be to create your very own pond in his backyard!

That way, you could be with each other, and he would never have to say goodbye again

He hasn't told you this idea yet, but he's sure you'd be happy with it

This would also keep you from needing to kill anyone else

You're too beautiful to get your hands dirty

And it's unfair that they get to join you in the water when you won't let him do the same

He can make you super happy with his family, he's sure of it

Brahms Heelshire

He hates this dynamic between you two

He wants you at home with him so you can take care of him, and he can keep you away from everyone else

No one should get to touch you or look at you besides him

He's actually tried to drag you out of the water before, but the prospect of accidentally killing you was enough to make him stop

He never knew he could envy a body of water as much as he does

It gets to hold you, touch you, and be with you at all times

He wants that too, so desperately

Because of you, he's gone from house dweller to nature enthusiast in just a matter of days

Even when you think he's at home, he's stalking around, watching you

He insists it's to keep you safe

In fact, you haven't had to drown anyone in quite a while

And you can thank Brahms for that

The moment he sees a single soul in the area, he drags them off and disposes of them before you even have a chance to see them

He wouldn't dare let you touch another being that isn't him

Norman Bates

It honestly took him a really long time to believe that you were even real

He didn't think mermaids or sirens actually existed, so seeing you for the first time made him pinch himself to make sure this wasn't some weird dream

He also took a while to trust you since he didn't want to fall victim to your treacherous waters

But once he realized you were genuine, he dove straight in all at once

He visits you whenever he can for however long he can muster

Someone needs to run the motel, but God he wishes he could be with you 24/7

He's "jokingly" brought up the idea of you staying at the motel in a pool he could install for you

He just wants to keep an eye on you at all times

He constantly dreams of finding a way to make you human so you two can truly be together

Until you have two feet like him, it will never be enough

Billy Loomis

Doesn't tell a single soul about you

Not even Stu

And it's not because he's embarrassed or wants to see other people

He's honestly just scared that others will either think he's insane or try to capture you

Visits you every day and makes sure to pack his swim trunks so he can join you in the water

Constantly admires you and wants to run his hands along your scales

He just thinks you're all around incredible

But he has this hidden level of anger towards the situation

He wants to walk around town with you, show you off

He wants you to join him on his sprees so you can see just how powerful he can be

And he hates the idea of not having eyes on you at all times

He knows you kill anyone who isn't him, but he doesn't want you getting that close to anyone in general

He spends his nights studying ways to get you to live with him

He'll find a way to have you all to himself, even if it ends up being the death of him

Stu Macher

He actually first met you while you were seducing some poor soul to their death

And Stu was immediately enamored

He comes to see you whenever he can

He sometimes spends the weekend camping out along the shore just so he can spend more time with you

He thinks you're beautiful of course, but he can't help but fantasize what it would be like if you were human like him

You two come from very different worlds, but there's nothing that could keep you away from him

He likes to bring up the idea of mermaids and mythical creatures in casual conversations with people

How they react to it will determine whether they make his hit list

He likes to bring you jewelry and pretty objects from his victims, showing you items that you've never seen before

He talks about how one of these days, he's going to have a house built on the shore so he can be with you

And if you argue against it, he will shut down

The pent up frustration of not getting to sleep next to you every night makes his killings more brutal and his fantasies all the more darker

Vincent Sinclair

Every time he comes to see you, he brings a new portrait or wax figure of you that he made

You flood his dreams and his mind 24/7

He honestly thinks he's under some sort of spell

He doesn't mind that you aren't human like him

He's always felt very different from everyone else, so it's nice for him to have someone he relates to

But his jealousy constantly gets the better of him

Anytime you tell him of some poor soul you drowned, he can't help but feel his blood boil

Even if it ends in their death, he hates the idea of you flirting or seducing these people

The only one who should be receiving that attention is him

Barely sleeps at night

He has snuck to the shore countless time without your knowledge, just watching you and making sure your stories line up with what he observes

Is overall obsessed even more than you know

Bo Sinclair

If anyone saw you together, it would be enough to make them blush

The way you two can constantly flirt back and forth without any hesitation is otherworldly

You could have sworn he must have been a creature like you in a past life

He's so touchy when he's with you, not afraid to get his clothes wet in an effort to just be closer to you

He truly makes you feel accepted as you are and with where you live

But little do you know of his darker nature

He stalks the shore and kills off anyone that trespasses before you even have a chance to get to them

He doesn't need you looking at anyone but him

And he's already been renovating an old abandoned pool in Ambrose for you

You're going to finally be living with him like he's always wanted

You don't know this yet, but he's sure you'll be happy with the idea

It will be a great surprise

[everwalldigan]

My first somewhat controversial post but if you refer to Damian as “feral/rabid kitten” “stabby assassin child” or GOD FORBID you say that Jon TAMED HIM (I cannot even begin to describe how nasty that is.) your opinion on him is immediately invalid.

As an Arab who has been subjected to many microaggressions such as the ones above (eg: Arab people are uncivilised, uncultured and violent, dirty, animals), those kind of posts, even if they were meant in a lighthearted way are still really harmful. Just be mindful about how you talk about an Arab character who has been both subject to micro aggressions from other characters in universe and the victim of his identity being erased more and more with every new appearance.

Damian is not a fucking animal for the white angel Jon to “tame”. He is a child who has suffered immense amounts of trauma, negligence, physical and emotional abuse and is relearning how to interact with people, especially ones his age. Of course it helped that he had someone who understood his situation and with whom he could be himself with without compromising his identity. Jon was his friend but it was Damian who had the courage to put in the work to change his behaviour and rethink the ideals he’s been taught all his life. You could give him 100 Jon Kents but if he wasn’t brave enough to be willing to change, he wouldn’t have.

I also find it weird how people (and in fics) still insist on portraying Damian the way he behaved when he first left his abusive situation (the league of assassins) and are still acting like he’s the traumatised and violent child he used to be when now he is doing so much better and is acting more like people his age. Damian worked hard to be where he is today, he still has an immense amount of trauma because that just doesn’t go away no matter how loving his current environment is. He still struggles with morals and unlearning what has been hammered into him since he was a baby.

One more thing, if you portray Talia as a two dimensional abuser who doesn’t care about Damian (cough Tom king cough) then you’re doing both her and Damian a disservice because abuse is rarely a black and white thing and, especially with Talia, is incredibly complex. Talia has also suffered trauma and abuse her entire life. Her father literally runs a fucking cult. Talia is the victim of her generational curse, the cycle of violence that is now on Damian’s shoulders to stop.

[unbidden-yidden-deactivated20240]

I'm gonna be honest here: one of the more exhausting parts of the online discourse is how much of a tightrope I am always on, that those of us who care about human rights for all human beings are always on, because any statement made in favor of the "other" side is ripe for tokenism.

I, as a Jew, care about the safety and human rights of Palestinians and Arab Israelis. You will never convince me that there is an ethical way to kill civilians, especially children. You will never convince me that police brutality against citizens marching for their civil rights is necessary. You just can't. And yet I have to be so careful when/where I say that and how I say that, because too often this simple acknowledgement that all people are created in the image of Hashem and should be treated accordingly is ripped out of context and placed between a deluge of other posts denying my people that very same acknowledgement. The number of times I have said these things, only to go into the reblogs and see my words surrounded on all sides with violent antisemitism? I've lost count.

And guess what? It's made me less effective as an advocate, it has actively silenced me from speaking up sometimes, because I refuse to be your "good Jew," your token, somebody whose words can be misconstrued to kasher your vile hatred of my people. And to be very clear: Jewish Israelis are my people just as much as fellow diaspora yidden are, and they deserve better from both goyim and diaspora Jews alike.

And I've seen this go the other way, too: I've seen Palestinian activists and journalists who are trying very hard to balance the values of respecting other people (including Israelis and/or Jews writ large) as fellow human beings with the pain that their people are currently suffering. And I've seen their words ripped out of context and used to excuse more violence against them and their people.

And then there are lots of other people - genuinely well-intentioned people who are trying to learn from me - who keep treating me like I'm some paragon of nuance. I'm trying, truly, but I'm Just Some Guy. You know what I do? It's extremely simple and I promise you can do it too, any of you, if you slow down long enough to think before putting anything out there: "Would I say this about my brother? My mom? My daughter? My people? Would I be happy if the person I loved most on this earth was living under these circumstances and being talked about in whatever way I'm about to speak? Would it feel victim-blaming? Would it feel disrespectful of their struggle or dishonest? Does it ignore their history or trauma? Is it actually helping?" These are the types of questions I try very hard to ask myself every time I post about the conflict, about both sides. I try to talk about this as if the people on both sides were my family. Because truthfully? They are. Am Yisrael is a family, before anything else. Palestinians are our closest cousins. This war is a bloodbath and a tragedy, and everyone is suffering. For those of us who are not living there, please remember this and have some respect.

[magicalgirlypop]

i'm feeling controversial today so here's another hot take. and before you type away at your keyboards, know that this is all coming from a south asian.

white leftists have got to stop acting like christianity is the only religion that deserves to be criticized and you cannot touch any other religion because that'd be racist and bigoted. because as an indian who's watching my country progress towards hindu nationalism, this attitude doesn't help at all.

white people see hinduism as this exotic brown religion that's so much more progressive but don't know the violence of the caste system, how it others a large portion of the population on the basis of caste, literally branding them as "untouchables". they teach us in school that this problem is a thing of the past but the caste system is still alive and shows itself in violent ways. and that's not even covering how non hindus are treated in the country. muslims especially are being killed, have their houses bulldozed, businesses destroyed, and are being denied housing, our fucking prime minister called them infiltrators and there's this fear among hindu extremists that they'll outnumber the hindus in the country. portraying hinduism as this exotic religion does a disservice to all those oppressed by the hindutva ideology

similarly, white people see buddhism as this hippie religion that's all about peace but have no idea how extremist buddhists in myanmar have been persecuting the rohingya muslims for years and drive them out of the country.

if anything portraying these religions as exotic hippie brown religions is a type of orientalism itself.

and also y'all have got to realize that just because christianity has institutional power in america doesn't mean there aren't parts of the world where they are persecuted on the basis of religion. yes karen from florida who cries christophobia because she sees rainbow sprinkles on a cake is stupid but christian oppression DOES exist in non western countries where they're a minority. pakistani christians get lynched almost on a daily basis over blasphemy accusations. just look up the case of asia bibi, a pakistani christian woman who was sentenced to death on blasphemy charges because of something she said when she was being denied water because it was "forbidden" for a christian and a muslim to drink from the same utensil and she'd made it unclean just by touching it (which is ALSO rooted in casteism and part of pakistani christians' oppression also comes from the fact that a lot of them are dalit but that's a whole other discussion). and that's just one christian group, this isn't even going into what copts, assyrians, armenians etc have faced and continue to face. saying that christians everywhere are privileged because of american christianity actually harms christian minorites in non western countries.

and one last thing because this post is getting too long: someone being anti america doesn't automatically mean they're the good guys. too many times i've been seeing westerners on twitter dot com praise the fucking taliban just because they hate america. yes, the same taliban who banned education for women, thinks women should be imprisomed at home, and consistently oppresses religious and ethnic minorities in afghanistan. yes, america's war on afghanistan was bad and they SHOULD be called out for their war crimes there. no, the taliban are still not the good guys. BOTH of them are bad. you cannot pretend to care about muslims and brown people if you praise the taliban. because guess what? most of their victims are BROWN MUSLIM WOMEN. but of course white libs who praise them don't rub their two braincells together to make that conclusion.

this post has gotten too long and i've just been rambling so the point of this post is: white "leftists" whose politics are primarily america centric should stop acting like criticism of ideologies like hindutva, buddhist extremism, and islamic extremism BY people affected by these ideologies is the same as racism or religious intolerance because that helps literally no one except the extremist bigots. also america is not the centre of the world, just because something isn't happening in america doesn't mean it isn't happening elsewhere

[thoughtsfromb4]

The Demagogue

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to be free

So I can see all of their faces when I cast them back into the sea.

For I have no time to save them, nor be bothered by their fate;

As only I can save the nation from all the Dreamers at the gate.

First, though, I must deal with anyone who does not look or sound like me,

Especially all those sad, bad hombre types who would dare to take a knee.

I mean, they make tons of money right (though not nearly as much as me),

So why should they care if a few are victims of some police brutality?

It's not like they are suffering having all their history erased.

Not like those "fine folks" who’re having their monuments displaced.

Yet there's no need to fear, I know the monuments and parks to be removed,

And with the regulations gone, my new wells and mines can be approved.

And to those pathetic liars who say that this type of order is unfair,

Know that I am simply making room to bury you beside your Obamacare.

And once that’s done I can finally move on to updating our economy;

So that the full 99% are poor and all the rest are rich like me,

Because I know which type of people have suffered most of all — 

The bankers, brokers, and capitalists with their backs against the wall.

And so now you can see the "stable genius" of my “unpresidented” plan:

Stripping all the wealth and liberties from everybody that I can.

Because all the blood and treasure that we've paid for those liberties

Were really spent to secure the wealth of rich old guys like me.

--@thoughtsfromb4

[ririsasy]

This scene in May December broke me because how innocent and pure Joe is, how he knows that's something wrong with his life, he's trapped but couldn't get out and he didn't want anything that happened to him to ever happen to his son. It's heartbreaking to see how young he still is.

I want to give all the award for Charles Melton portrayal of Joe, especially in this scene, when he curled up in his son’s embrace like he’s the one who’s younger than his own son because in a sense he’s, mentally he’s, that tremble in his hands as he tried to explain his thoughts, thinking that he would do something wrong to his son, gosh he’s too young to be a father, and Charles Melton just completely nailed this role with his whole mannerisms, that small broken voice when he whispered “that’s all I do”. he's helpless, he's anxious all the time, but he bottled up inside because he has no chance to open up.

The way they portrayed Joe's naivety like he's still a young 13 y.o boy trapped in time because the manipulation worked with a vulnerable boy like he was. They showed his youthful spirit still with his hobbies with the butterflies, his timid movement or the way Gracie bossed him around and he didn't even realize it, that he couldn't even be open and honest with his feeling or be validated about what he's feeling because Gracie would just spin those words around and make it look like he's the one who hurt her, twisting his words to her advantage, the abuse never actually end, even after the 24 years of marriage.

Gracie is a predator, an unapologetic manipulative woman that thinks she does nothing wrong because deep down she's just evil that way, the scene in a forest when she met a fox and she look eye to eye with that predator, I feel like she was looking at herself. The way she’s interacting with her children from the previous marriage, how cold a mother she was, she didn’t care much about anyone feeling. Or the way even her children with Joe didn’t like her that much, because they’re old enough to understand that their parents relationship is not normal at all, but they just couldn’t say anything about it because at the end of the day she is still their mother.

Also it was incredibly eerie at the contrast love letter that young Joe sent to Gracie, where it was just so innocent, no ulterior motive or whatsoever, he was just a kid, feeling safe and at peace around adult and expressing it that way to her, it wasn't wrong at all, not a sign that an adult should make a move at that! Then compare to the one that Gracie wrote to him, she understood completely the situation they're in, the way she asked him in the letter not to tell anyone about it, she's always been on the upper hand, she took advantage of Joe's vulnerability and used it to her own sick desire. It wasn't told explicitly in the movie but seriously everything just feel so nauseating to watch thinking how young he was.

Now Joe is older and you know nobody can safe him except himself, If he wanted to be saved or not, or if he'd accepted his life just as it's, he's just a victim but he told himself that he didn't want people to look at him like one. It's all in the adult hands that should be the ones who do better because they know better and put a stop to something that's morally wrong, it's the adult responsibility to give the understanding, but the problem is Gracie is not a good person at all or a misunderstood individual or anything, she did everything with full conscience and with no regret because she’s sick in the head.

Also Natalie Portman’s character, Elizabeth, what’s up with her? I feel like her interest for the project itself was so questionable, she looks like a predator herself at the end, was she having an affair with the director that wanted to produce the movie? The phone call she had with the director asking him about his wife was kinda sus, when she was looking at the tape for young joe character and asking for a sexier looking actor, 13 y.o boy? What’s up with that?? And that euphoric masturbation?? complete with a laugh she did at the shop where Joe and Gracie supposedly had their first sexual encounter together, it’s all so weird and not to mention she end up sleeping with Joe as well! She was taking advantage of him nonetheless, I know that Joe is older now and should be able to make his own decision but considering that Elizabeth’s intention was never actually genuine and lure him in, flirting with him at his workplace, it’s manipulative as hell.

The way Elizabeth keep trying to mimic Gracie’s every movements, I know it’s for the role, but everything that she does also kinda eerie in notion. Perhaps she and gracie wasn’t that much different? She just didn’t act on it? Or is she such a psychopath in away she wanted to experience all kind of peculiar side of human? Where she's just so detached on human feeling and only sees everything just as story? That’s why she wanted to be an actress because that was her motivation? Is she a case of an actor that took method acting in extreme? To the point she lose the way to connect with story in away that still has humanity in it because this is real people lives she’s adapting and not a fantasy. I really couldn’t read her true motives at the end. Perhaps there were two predators in the movie?

Over all May December is a really thought provoking film, it’s a movie I’d recommend to anyone who just love a kind of movie that makes you think about it long after you watch it. Julian Moore, Natalie Portman and Charles Melton act so brilliantly in their respective roles. I feel like Charles Melton might get his first oscar nomination for supporting actor for this role because how good he was in this. 9/10.

[gatorbites-imagines]

I have a prompt idea, Trans reader (ftm) in the 1940s being bullied, steve and bucky find reader and help him, start to friends to poly lovers (steve x bucky x reader), fluff with a little angst and soft smut, just an idea

Steve Rogers x Bucky Barnes x FTM reader

Headcanons

I don’t actually know a whole lot about the era for trans people, especially in Brooklyn during those years. So, I’m just writing on a feeling and adding what feels right. Have I ever mentioned that pre-serum Steve is one of my favorites?

Writing this actually reminded me of something I wrote forever ago, called party of one, two, three? You can read part 1 and 2 here, if you are interested. I wasn’t really in the mood to write detailed smut, so.

Being a trans guy in the 30s and 40s wasn’t easy, but was anything during that time? Depending on where you were from and when you came out, you might have had the chance to live as a man.

If let’s say you moved to Brooklyn when you were old enough to know that you were a man, and you had always presented as such, then you might have been able to get a job, and if you knew the right people, fake documents.

If you had always lived in Brooklyn, then it was a lot harder, as most just assumed you were a lady who dressed like a lad because you didn’t want to “do your duty” as a woman, or whatever they had on their minds.

Either way, Steve and Bucky were some of the few people who supported you no matter what, if they only knew you as a man, or if you guys had grown up together. If you fit in Steves clothes you could borrow his, and if Steve was too small, well, then bucky had a closet with clothes too.

Being picked on was hard to avoid, in either situation. The first would be because you were such a small, scrawny and feminine guy. The second because you were a lady that needed to be put in her place.

The second was always more dangerous. The first, theyd just rough you up a bit and taunt you a little, but it always ended up as more of a “haha we are just taking the piss”. The second? It felt like the men who cornered you had something to prove, to you or themselves you didn’t know. But they wanted to prove that they could “fix” or “correct” you.

Living in Brooklyn and being a weirdo like you meant you knew how to fight, somewhat at least. Enough to not go down without a fight. But no matter how much you practiced, keeping up with multiple fully grown men was difficult.

If you already knew Steve and Bucky or not, the two would step in when they saw this. Steve first, being the righteous guy he is, would run in swinging. Scrawny arms and wheezing breaths, eyes burning with the fury of a thousand suns, the blonde so incredibly enraged at the very idea of someone treating another person this way.

Steve never lasted long though, but luckily Bucky was never far behind. In the end, Steve always looked as beat up as you, and maybe it was because he bruised and bled so easily with how sick he was.

Steve struggling to his feet and holding out a hand to pull you up, eyes still sparkling and teeth bloody as he grinned, was enough to make your heart race.

Bucky at least didn’t look like he was the main victim of your group of attackers. He was a bit ruffled up, sure, but he still looked mostly put together.

It should shock no one that Bucky easily led you and Steve back to his and Steves apartment, where Bucky got to work patching you both up as they made you talk about the guys who did it, and why. Steve because he wanted to go back out there and smack them straight, and Bucky to be on the safer side.

Be it the first or twentieth time they save you from your so-called bullies, Steve and Bucky stayed just as intense and caring. Even when they didn’t have a lot, or Steve was sick, you always felt like you belonged and was as much of a man as them.

When you three started dating it got a little easier. Everyone already knew that Steve Rogers as built like a twig, but would swing until there was blood if he needed too. He was snarling, snapping and as feral as those starving alley dogs. He was as protective as one too, not just of you but Bucky too.

Bucky wasn’t much better, though he hid it more successfully. Everyone thought that Barnes was the charming, sweet talker, who liked to talk it out without fighting. But they were wrong, when it came to you and Steve, Buck could be worse than Steve.

Both your fellas were protective and possessive in their own ways, but you couldn’t say you didn’t feel the same. You wanted to drown the men who antagonized Steve for his height and sickness in the piers. And jealousy reared its hideous head when the pretty ladies fluttered their lashes at Bucky whenever he passed.

The three of you were all a mess, but you were each other’s mess. You and Bucky never saw Steve was just his disease and lack of stature. Steve and you never just saw Bucky as his handsome face and face charm. And they never saw you as a lady, you were as much of a man as them.

The only time it ever became a challenge, your biology being different, was when you guys got intimate. But it was never made a huge problem. There were days when Steve couldn’t get it up because of his health, or where he could even participate because of his lungs. And there were days when you didn’t want to be touched because your body made you sick. You guys just found ways to make it work.

Sometimes you and Steve would just sit back on a chair each, one you’d dragged in from the kitchen, to watch Bucky pleasure himself and show off in bed. It was like your own litter theater, and Bucky really loved to be watched and praised by you two.

Sometimes it was Steve lying in bed carefully touching himself, at times it was just him caressing his own torso and telling you two all his wildest fantasies, his face and chest bright red from his flush.

And there were even times when it was you, when dysphoria wasn’t swallowing you whole and howling that your body was wrong. You never looked at yourself when you would be with them, but having two men with their own naked bodies made it harder to focus on your own.

Some days you would imagine that their body was yours, and the dysphoria wouldn’t be so bad. It also helped that Steve didn’t grow as much body hair as Buck, meaning Steve was almost as naturally hairy as you. Part of you just basked in the fact that one of your partners looked like you in that way.

The days you were fine with touch, Steve and Bucky never let it go to waste. You couldn’t fuck them like you three all wanted, they didn’t really have toys like that at the time, or at least accessible to you three. This just meant you guys had to get creative.

God gave humans hands and fingers for a reason, and you all had mouths. You always wore so many layers anyways, so the many hickeys your lovers left on you were easily hidden. The chest was always off the table though, and neither of the men complained.

Bucky was the best at praise, so naturally gifted that Steve would joke that he should become some pulp writer, that he should write those cheap sappy romance novels the ladies liked.

This didn’t mean that Steve wouldn’t praise you and Buck, he did, just in his own ways. The blonde always struggled with forming the right words and getting them out, but his sketchbook filled with pages and paged of you and Buck was all the praise you needed.

They would be good partners. Neither have a label for what you guys are, or what their sexualities are, they just know you three love each other, and that’s all that matters.

[adragonsfriend]

Use this one trick to instantly fix all childhood trauma (Jedi Masters don’t want you to know this)!!!!!

That is what every “if Obi-Wan had just— *adds one extra scene to canon* —then Anakin would’ve had perfect mental health and never listened to Palpatine at all,” sounds like to me. Look I am not an expert on any kind of psychology at all let alone early childhood development but,

It is possible to do your very best to help or raise someone and still have bad or imperfect outcomes, especially when you have someone actively, secretly working against you (cough cough Sith Lord of the month cough), (for many reasons, but in this case particularly), because unravelling the mindset built in early childhood is hard, actually.

Coming at this from the “raised in a safe and loving environment” side of things, it took me years to figure out and internalize that my friends whose parents weren’t as great as mine were functioning in an entirely different landscape when it came to their interactions with adults.

Many years ago when I was in middle school a friend (acquaintance? idk I think most people thought I was annoying) told me that her ankle kept giving out and causing her pain. I asked if she'd told her parents so she could rest or go to the doctor. She told me she had, but her mother either hadn't listened or refused to help. My (approximate) responses?

"So it's not actually that bad then?"

"You should tell her again."

"Are you sure you explained it right?"

The only explanation I could comprehend at the time was that there must have been some unclear communication about the situation or its severity--if her mother had understood she was in pain, she couldn't possibly have just not done anything about it? Adults are responsible, caring, etcetera! They wouldn't do that?!

With more experience, I've come to understand better, and learned to respond in kinder, more helpful ways, but the shift in mindset was not and is not intuitive.

And I had the luxury of figuring all that out whilst being safe myself. Coming from the other direction, being in danger and trying to figure out why other people act like the world is safe? I can't say for sure, but I imagine it’s a lot more complicated.

Point with regard to Star Wars being, it really is harder for Anakin, coming in later, to acclimate to the Jedi ways and thought processes than it is for his peers who grew up in the safe environment of the Temple. And whatever arguments people want to have about how much psychology and therapy exist in the Star Wars universe, or how much “Jedi just do cognitive behavioral therapy” (not totally inaccurate, but reductive on several levels), no matter what the answers to those questions, it will still be harder for Anakin.

There is a reason the council changes its mind on training him only after he is suddenly famous and the Sith are proven to be back. When Anakin was not in significant danger of being snatched up by someone else, it was genuinely probably the easier and safer option—for him and everyone else—for him to live a different life.

The Jedi are not necessarily fully prepared for a child with Anakin's history, and, there is nothing bad about living an ordinary life. Anakin would not have been somehow unforgivably robbed by living life as a mechanic or an engineer or something, rather than being a Jedi.

Anakin is a victim of many things in his life—Sidious, Watto, Gardulla, Tatooine’s everything, his own conscious choices—but he is not a victim of malice, incompetence, or idiocy by the Jedi just because they couldn't—in only a decade or so—help him fully and perfectly unravel the mindset he developed in his early childhood. If there was any lack of qualification on their part, it was one they were aware of—but which was outweighed by the danger of little Anakin getting kidnapped out of normal-kid elementary school.

Being brought up in and around slavery absolutely made him more vulnerable to Sidous and became the basis of their dynamic as master and apprentice. Acting like the trauma that affects his mindset and actions for his entire life can be obliterated just by making minimal changes to the plot is wild to me.

And don’t get me wrong, fics and headcanons can do whatever they want, not everyone wants or is trying to write a deep psychological character study (also fanfic and even fiction in general cannot and should not be held to any standard of realism if it's not serving the story and the author)—simple fix-it’s (my love) are fun and an excellent short-cut to other things like happiness and fluff (my other loves)—but don’t act serious about the idea that adding one conversation about his feelings or one extra explanation about Jedi philosophy would automatically lead to Anakin having perfect mental health outcomes and always making good decisions.

Disclaimer (if the ones throughout weren't enough) : please go forth and do whatever you want. the moral of this post is actually just that (1) you won’t convince me, (2) I wanted to talk about this, (3) the clickbait title was too funny not to post, (4) i literally can't open my mouth without phrasing things like i'm in the middle of a heated debate, and (5) i continue to not be an expert in early childhood development—my evidence is very literally anecdotal

[signanothername]

Hey!! I first want to say I love your interpretation of Nightmare, and was wondering what your thoughts about his shape shifting ability is.

I've seen stuff where he turns into papyrus and torments his gang with it, so I was wondering if he has done something simlair with it in your version.

Thank youuuuu!!!!

AND IM SO DAMN HAPPY YOU ASKED ANON >:)

Nightmare’s shapshifting is honestly one of my fave things about him! Cause it’s a horrifying ability, especially when someone like Nightmare uses it

And my idea with his shapshfting can be summarized in here

My Nightmare can and will make exact replicas of people, but those replicas are going to have some very subtle hints that it is actually Nightmare shapshifted into another person, but if someone is not observant or isn’t really aware of Nightmare’s ability to shape shift? Then it is a very big problem

Those signs that tell you are both look and behavior wise

Nightmare doesn’t use it often surprisingly, but when he does one of the biggest tells look wise is the eyes! There will always be a faint cyan outer rings in the eye lights, and his right eye light will always be a tiny bit dimmer than the left

Shapeshifting takes energy and so Nightmare has to be careful not to get too excited or careless, a tiny mistake means the negativity overflows and his right eye starts leaking, at that point there is no true reason to keep up the act

However, there are still people that Nightmare can’t imitate fully, and so he doesn’t truly bother doing so, like Killer, Nightmare is able to look exactly like him, and unlike many, Killer has no eye lights and his eyes almost always leak anyway so even if Nightmare’s right eye starts leaking no one will be suspicious… except for one tiny yet crucial detail, and that is Killer’s soul, try as he might he can never imitate the nature of his soul, it’s too much trouble for Nightmare to bother

But as I mentioned before, if he imitates someone, look wise it’s extremely subtle and so it’s difficult to actually notice unless whoever is with him is observant

So the next big sign is behavior

Nightmare holds no illusion to shapshift into someone who he doesn’t know well enough to be able to replicate their behavior, with Nightmare facing zero difficulty imitating Dream, but find extreme difficulty imitating Ink for example, as he’s fully knowledgeable of how to act like his twin, but not knowledgeable enough of Ink to be able to Imitate him without problems

And despite Nightmare’s Knowledge, habits are hard to break as he needs to keep a conscious mind not to do something he would do rather than who he’s imitating, for example, Nightmare’s formal hands behind back when he’s imitating Dream, Dream never puts his hands behind his back the way Nightmare does, but sometimes Nightmare slips up and does it out of habit

So shapeshifting is a great tool for Nightmare but can be a hassle

Still, Nightmare loves to use it to infiltrate the confines of his enemies’ homes, or simply to be an asshole

Cause Nightmare sometimes loves to use his shapshifting ability in twisted ways to get as much negativity outta his victims as possible, so Nightmare would shapeshift to his passive child self in front of Dream for example, to destroy whatever resolve Dream has left, or yes even shapeshift to Papyrus but making himself look in bad shape to torment MTT and so on

Nightmare uses his shapshifting abilities in very twisted ways that can be terrifying and nothing/nobody can stop him, all they can do is sit there and be tormented or flee, some (MTT) not even having the privilege to flee

[ebonyslasher]

Them Thangs Thanging, Unfortunately

Basically, reader is a woman who has extremely large breast. Aka ME, this shit isn't for the weak. Just wanted to write about a few struggles we have. This doesn't even cover half of it.

Big Breast!Reader x Michael Myers, Daniel Lamb, Chromeskull, and Ghostface (Danny Johnson)

-----

Growing up was a struggle. 

That statement is true for many, especially during early teenhood. Middle schoolers were the most ruthless and awkward looking individuals to exist. However, there was an extra layer of struggle for the girls who had very progressive physical development(s). Specifically, those who developed their breasts early.

That was you. And unfortunately, your breast kept growing and growing. Even through early adulthood, with your weight fluctuating, your breast kept growing. They were always big, mind you. But now, as an adult, they were humongous. And what other people called a blessing, you just called a problem. Many problems at that included: 

Price

Bra’s, already, were expensive. For one piece of specialized cloth was $30 to $40. Add onto the fact that you had big breast? Oh, now the price wanted to double. Good luck if you were so big that you had to order custom. Prepare for your soul and wallet to be hurt. Custom bras can set someone back at least $100 easy!

With Michael, it was an odd situation. He would hear you complain about the price, but never understood why. He could just steal them for you, either from the store or from a victim. You, of course, didn’t want a bra from some random, especially with blood on it. EW. His plan could work if he would remembered your size...and if they even had it in store. 

Well, price wasn’t an issue with Chromeskull! He already treated you like a queen. If you wanted, he would have someone find bras for you. That way, you don’t even need the stress of looking. You find the bras lined up on a table every few months for you to pick from. What a life!

Daniel listened to your problems and saw firsthand how much they could get up to. Eyebrows shot up at the $79 bra that sat on your screen. After his missions, he would steal money or cards off corpses to give to you. You’d find a pile laying on your desk when he couldn’t stay, with a note saying ‘For your bra troubles!’ He was so sweet.

Ghostface didn’t care. He didn’t have to pay for the bras, so not his problem! He barely listens, pretending to only see any bras you might get next. Pervert. He wouldn't mind you getting a smaller bra, trying to imagine you as those anime girls wearing the smallest bikinis. 

“So you want me to look like I'm from One Piece??! Natural breasts in real life don’t work like that dummy!”

Size availability

Speaking of One Piece, it felt like you had to travel through the seven seas just to find bras in your size. Trying to find cute ones? You’re asking for the impossible. Most stores didn’t have your size. Forget about places like Victoria's Secret and especially Aerie. Lane Bryant may have your size, unless your band size is small. So, that means you have to order your bras online. Sucks, since you couldn’t try them on before buying. 

Michael stood in the store, comically looming behind you, surrounded by multicolored bras. He noticed that your posture fell as you spoke with a store worker. “Unfortunately, we don’t carry those sizes in store. We have them online and you could get it shipped here.” No thanks. It’d just be better to get something shipped to your house. You sighed in disappointment. Michael squints his eyes at the worker. Maybe he could come back and look to see what they really have in the back…

Availability was no longer a problem thanks to Jesse. Your masked sweetheart hired a personal designer that would make bras tailored to you. And you can tell them just how cute you’d like the bra to be.

A comforting hand lands on your shoulder as you relay the issue of finding your cup and band size in store. Daniel listens on as you rant, throwing your hands up in frustration. “Of course, I’d be the one with a small band size and huge ass breast!”  While you talk, he peruses the internet for different online stores that may have your size. You two curate a list of some, avidly reading any reviews that pop up.

“Oh well, hey, maybe this gives you the excuse to not wear bras anymore. Heh, I definitely won’t mind the view,” Danny joked after you told him the news. You roll your eyes and tell him to shut up. He really doesn’t care about your dilemma, pushing you to go braless, so he could see those juicy tatas bouncing. Although, if you get on him enough and promise him something nice, maybe he could magically get you some bras.

Clothing restrictions

There were certain articles of clothing that you couldn’t wear. Sad, since there were some cute looks that you just couldn’t do logistically. Bralettes and button down shirts were the devil. You saw the bralettes trending and said, “Nope. No way I could do that”. Button down shirts were deceptive. It would work up until the point the button around your breast would pop open. Understandable, since the small button couldn’t handle the pressure of holding back such big bouncing melons. You tried again one day, hoping that the designs became better throughout the years. As you walked around, the buttons popped open. The image of soft brown breast were revealed to the world in…

Michael’s steel blues, which immediately pinpoint the wardrobe malfunction. His head slowly tilts. Michael stoically ogles, secretly licking his lips as he enjoys the view. He notices your embarrassment and frustration. He feels a little bad, but that was overshadowed by the deliciousness of your reaction. He loves seeing you get worked up. He wouldn’t mind watching you bouncing around to throw a tantrum.

Jesse’s eyeless mask gleams. He raises his eyebrows at the incident. You try to button your shirt back up. The button only stays a moment before it gives up, bouncing off the shirt for the sweet release of death. The button clinks against the marble floor. You look down in disbelief as Jesse’s shoulders shake in glee. This was the funniest thing he’s seen all week!

Daniel’s zenith blue eyes pop wide open, mimicking the poor button that flew off. His face was a light shade of pink as he observed the scene. “Oh Shit…,” he whispers. Trying not to stare at your obvious malfunction, he peers up at your face that looks beautifully frustrated at the button on the ground. His eyes were full of empathy as walks over. “How about we try another shirt, huh?,” Daniel asks as he chuckles lightly.

“Hallelujah!” Ghostface shouts as he zeros in on this fantastic view. His perverted chocolate eyes were glued to your happy accident. You scoff and cover the malfunction with your hands. The view of that amazing bosom was now obscured, which angered Ghostface. He marches over right as he says, “Hey! Don’t cover those. Ghosty wants to see!”

Back pain

These breasts weighed heavy as gravity worked against your favor. Lugging around these gigantic bust meant the pull and strain against your back muscles. Those back muscles were only so strong, which would get weaker as you got older. The random aches in the upper, middle, and lower part of your back plagued your existence. You tried your best to keep good posture, but it was tiring.

Michael will rub your back if you ask. Well, only if he gets something in exchange. Dessert, you bent over, a good meal, or a new knife. You choose and it better be the right choice depending on his mood. Be warned that Michael is heavy handed as hell. His digs feel like he’s punching through your body. It might be a while before his massages become beneficial.

Jesse will hire a professional masseuse when he's on a spree. However, he would never turn down the opportunity to knead your supple muscles. You don’t mind if he goes a little lower, right Princess? He’ll also treat you with a doctor to get some treatment options going. 

Skilled and dangerous hands rub your back, the heavenly sensation of warm oil glides with every movement. Daniel, the sweet man that he is, gladly volunteers to bring you temporary relief. If he’s unable to caress your lovely form, he leaves you some pain medicine and healing meds that he comes across. The healing meds were heavenly. He, later, suggests having a reduction so you won’t have to suffer anymore.

Danny will massage you only because he wants his hands on that perfect body. And lowkey wants you to stop complaining all the time. God, it was annoying. He frequently offers to hold your breast up as you walk around. “I’ll even hold them up out in public. Just think, you’ll have your own boobie holder everywhere you go.” That shit eating grin on his handsome face didn’t faze you. Your face scrunches at his perverted comment. You take him up on the offer…only at home. You wouldn’t admit that it was a big help for your posture. You didn’t need to, Danny could tell how much it was helping by your relieved expression.

[qu0rky]

As much as i can understand where Via is coming from, and her feelings are valid, she doesn’t see her dad as a living person outside of just being her father. And that isn’t right. It’s especially not right seeing just how many people feel absolutely no empathy for him.

“She was just a child having to endure all that!!” Okay, and how old was Stolas when he had to marry an abusive girl and have a kid of his own, exactly? At least he gave Via a chance to have a good childhood, he didn’t have one. He didn’t have anything except for his duties to carry out.

And while it’s heartbreaking that Via sees herself as an obligation, that’s literally what she was supposed to be. Though that doesn’t mean that was how he saw her. She was what saved him, what made him endure all the abuse, what kept him going.

But sometimes that’s not enough, he had NO ONE to confide in and couldn’t put his frustrations on his own kid (because he’s a good father, despite what some of you would like to believe, clearly you didn’t grow up with a parent trying to guilt you by traumadumping when you can barely understand it), so he also NEEDED the pills.

The thing is, i also had that mentality towards my mom for dealing with depression UNTIL i started experiencing it myself. Because it’s so hard to realize that your parents are also human beings, since they’re supposed to protect you, they’re supposed to have everything figured out, to be the shoulder you cry on.

But if i see another dumbass claim that he CHOSE to leave and made the wrong decision in Mastermind, i need you out of this fandom. The whole point of that was that he had no choice, was he supposed to throw away the man he fell in love with, his first friend, his first time that wasn’t for procreation, and the one who liberated him? Stolas is allowed to care for more than one person, and he deserves to be loved romantically by someone.

You’re being too harsh on Stolas because for whatever reason you hate an abuse victim finally having a say in how to live for once in their lives, adding on top of that the weird, underlying homophobia in some of your criticisms for him.

Also i have a bad taste in my mouth from Via only seemingly hating Stolas, despite having SEEN how shitty Stella is. Sure, she doesn’t know the full extent of the abuse, but she’s heard the yelling, she’s seen the throwing, the ridiculing, the insensitivity. And most likely that woman neglected Via as much as possible, because she also didn’t choose to have her, but unlike Stolas she didn’t give a fuck to take responsibility regardless. (Reminding you of the “You get up” comment from Loo Loo Land). This was all happening before the cheating, so that’s not an excuse for her behavior (not that the cheating was, but at least Via would have been able to reason with her reaction to it).

It’s a complicated situation and it’s so shitty to put all the blame on Stolas, he tried so much for his family, but it was never going to be enough, because he’s gay. I’m glad he got out of that marriage.

Honestly, had i been given all those responsibilities at his age in a loveless marriage, i would’ve gone insane. I wouldn’t have been kind to my child, the cause of my shit life. But he never saw her as a weight on his shoulders, he has so much love for Via.

[furiousgoldfish]

When people hear stories about abuse, they often get fascinated and interested in the abuser, and the 'mystery' behind their behaviour. They'll want to analyze what happened to this person to make them act in such twisted and sadistic ways, and they want to find the past event or past abuse that would 'explain it all'. Abusers will also, very happily recount the past abuse whenever it's time to explain away their behaviour, so nobody could hold them accountable, because after all, they had had it rough! Of course they're now abusive, it's only natural.

Fascination with explaining away abuser's behaviour often leaves victim's situation forgotten and ignored. Victims are supposed to just 'get over it', not be so sensitive, and be careful to not turn into abusers themselves, because after all, being abused means you become an abuser, according to the abuser. Except it doesn't, and victims often don't end up abusing anyone else, especially not in the horrific ways they themselves have been abused. So we're having two opposing stories: one is told by the abuser, and it's easy, simple, explains everything away, and it says, abuse causes future abusers, I am the proof, I was abused and now I am like this. Victim's story goes: I was abused, and now I struggle to function, I have cptsd, I have flashbacks, nightmares, panic attacks, anxiety, eating disorder. I struggle with suicidal feelings and wishing I didn't exist. I feel like I'm not important at all in this world and like I have no community, no family, no home. Failure of everyone to help me while I was being abused caused me to feel like an outcast from society, someone who isn't a part of it, who doesn't matter. I would never do this to another person, I feel like a part of me was torn away into pieces and I struggle to put myself back together.

Now that story is complex, it implicates the society in failing to stop the abuse and making the victim's life worse, it showcases the actual consequences of abuse, which are not 'becoming evil', but feeling ultimately traumatized and damaged, struggling to find joy and happiness in life in the aftermath. Society doesn't want to hear that; it makes abuse into a problem that should collectively be dealt with, rather than pushing it all onto individuals who find themselves trapped in it and suffering. It's much easier to pretend that abuse just makes someone abusive, and for people who are abusive, we need to feel sorry for, because they were 'made to be like this', and for those abused, we just need to shame them and control them so they don't become abusive themselves.

There are abusers who have lived privileged lives, there are abusers who have been spoiled and rewarded for their acts of abuse. Most abusers don't show the symptoms of trauma nearly as bad as the victims of abuse do, they're most often just having the symptoms of 'I lash out my anger on those who cannot defend themselves' and 'everyone needs to feel sorry for me because I am having the roughest time on the planet'. Weird how the victims almost never develop these two symptoms! Victims will go and compare their situation to everyone who has it worse, and will struggle to express or direct anger at anything. 

So what is the actual source of abuse, if not past trauma? There's no study or statistics that can tell us that for sure, and abusers are careful to maintain their story and are not interested in being studied past what makes people feel bad for them. I would guess that it's a mix of entitlement, being in a position of power over someone vulnerable, never having to develop empathy or compassion, being rewarded continuously for acts of abuse, and social influence (admiring other abusers and wanting the power they have). A lot of social structures support and enable abuse of those who are at the very bottom of it, with very few protections against it. A lot of people believe it's their right to abuse someone if they have the power over that person, and gain power specifically for that cause. Abusers will have children and believe this is their property and they can do whatever they please with it, abuse being a part of it.

If we don't know where abuse comes from, how do we combat it? I don't believe in feeling sorry for the abusers or giving them endless attention, chances, excuses and rationalizations; instead I believe we should stand firm on the fact that abuse is inexcusable, and will have consequences, regardless of how it came into their behaviour. If abuse always had consequences, regardless of the history of the abuser, they would know they can't get away with it, that they can't later make everyone feel sorry for them and go on with their sob stories. Abuse would get them punished, not sympathized with.

I also believe the abuser's point of view should be decentralized; it should be victims who get to speak. It's easy for the abuser to show themselves in the positive light, minimizing the abuse, insisting the victim provoked or wanted it, that it wasn't that bad and it was done with 'best intentions'. But if we listened to victims, we would quickly understand that anyone who can do this to another person is monstrous, and should not be extended any sympathy. Abusers don't extend their sympathy to the victims when they abuse, so why should they expect to get it? Society should take abuse more seriously and put defenses into place, so abusers are not as easily able to put it behind closed doors. Resources for recognizing abuse, especially child abuse and intimate abuse, should be taught, spread and shared in society, so nobody would be able to convince another that suffering abuse is normal, or justified.

One of the biggest barriers to escaping abuse is victim confessing what's been happening to a trusted family member or a friend, and then this family member or a friend shaming and blaming them for it, instead of offering help and protection. It takes a lot of courage to even say something out loud, knowing the abuser would punish them for it, and then to be punished externally for speaking out, it's devastating. If abuse was taken seriously, and victims understood to be fault-free, but singled out, isolated and hurt in a way that nobody should be, and it was understood it's a societal responsibility to protect them against this, it would be easier to speak out, and get support. It often takes a society to help someone get free, because abusers are hell-bent on abusing once they start to, the victims need multiple barriers before abusers could get anywhere near them.

And why shouldn't we want that? If we know there are people in society such as children, young people, people without regular income, poor people, disabled people, compassionate people, marginalized people, people who struggle to recognize and flag down predators, shouldn't we want to make sure they're protected? That nothing bad happens to them, and they're free to live their lives safe from those who would do them continuous harm and make them want to die? We want our young, old, kind, vulnerable, sensitive, disabled, poor, compassionate and marginalized people safe and happy. There's no reason to throw them under the bus and leave them to suffer abuse.

[verdantwyrm]

hello, i saw your post about how people should not censor out or analyse Jimmy for the fear that it’d look like excusing his actions, and honestly i agree. Particularly, what you said stood out to me, I think I will remember it from here on:

“Trying to constantly make out the fact that rapists are faceless monsters that have never been people completely ignores the fact that most of them are people we know and people we care about.”

ngl does kinda make me teary, very based take I haven’t seen anyone make yet. I’m a CSA and incest survivor, it’s easy to say rapists are horrible people and should die, but it’s more complex than that, especially if you grew up with them and care about them.

I wanted to share that post so bad, but I’m a coward reblogging hot takes in this fandom. Just know I screenshotted that post for personal keepings because it was so based.

There’s also one interpretation of Anya that I haven’t seen yet: the non-angry. It is understandable that people may feel empowerment drawing Anya killing Jimmy. My interpretation of her (because I’m projecting hard lmao), she may not be angry or killing Jimmy in her mind. “I don’t want revenge, I just want peace” type of thing. My version of Anya is just someone who doesn’t seek revenge towards Jimmy or berating Curly for not doing her justice; just someone who wants safety, a peace of mind. It’s kinda weird when I see art of Anya lowkey guiltripping a post-crash Curly, it just feels off. Anya doesn’t seem the kind to be vengeful anyway.

Sometimes I think something’s wrong with me for not feeling angry at my abusers just as others seem to be, but I remind myself that responses to trauma can be varying. Nothing’s wrong with the revenge interpretations, more power to those who feel empowered by it, but I would like to see the non-angry interpretation someday, especially on a soft-hearted character like Anya.

Hi Anon! Thank you so much for your question! And more importantly, from one survivor to another, I know more than most about how it feels to have someone you trusted or someone you were supposed to trust have them go and do something as awful as rape or assault, and it's true because that happens a lot. It's a part of grooming victims, so constantly trying to make out these people as faceless monsters who emerge to only do bad is detrimental to the fact that they can, will be and are the people you hold closest sometimes.

And I'm honestly just as teary-eyed thinking about how that resonates with people because it's a very uncomfortable truth that not a lot of people want to reckon with or even understand and completely ignore. I was much like you when it came to opinions like this, "fandom discourse" as people may say, and I was terrified of reblogging it or even making a suggestion towards it in fear of it being a bad take or one that doesn't even make sense, but after years of writing and reading, it's helped me a ton to grasp themes, nuance, metaphors- the like. That's why I post my own analysis: because I know and understand how much it means to have someone speak on such an overlooked thing. When you don't have someone doing that, or anyone to even bounce your ideas off of, you start to feel like you're stretching it or simply going mad.

I actually really, really dislike the interpretation that Anya is angry, resentful or has any revenge towards Curly, or that she has to be this, hysterical mad woman sent out to kill or hurt Jimmy. I don't believe she's either of this. Anya deserves peace, and I think it's extremely important to understand just how similar she is to Curly.

They're both victims to the same man, they both believe in the best of people (although to their own detriment in a way) they want to find peace, and fulfilment in their career and life. They're so alike in such delicate and intimate ways, that trying to constantly paint Curly as this great, horrible oppressor over her does way more harm than good.

I've mentioned in a couple of posts now that Curly's good heart and his kindness aren't inherently a bad thing, and that's because it isn't a bad thing. It was because Jimmy was so ready to abuse him every time he showed "weakness" and the fact that Pony Express probably had already been exploiting it for a very long time, that made It as catastrophic as it was. And that's not his fault, that's not Anya's either.

Curly’s biggest weakness is his forgiving nature. We all talk about how Anya is a victim of Jimmy, and she absolutely is, but so is Curly. His first immediate response Jimmy's reaction to Anya announcing her pregnancy is met with immense fear and anxiety with the added soundtrack of what could be equivalent to the sound of Curly's heart racing.

He is beyond terrified, and when he does finally get to Jimmy, he immediately fawns and freezes. He makes absolutely no mention of Anya or anyone else because all that mattered in that panicked situation was easing Jimmy down and resolving the situation. Curly was and has been a victim of Jimmy's abuse for a very long time on an emotional and mental aspect that clouded his judgements and perceptions in the scenario which devolved into physical abuse very quickly once Jimmy got his chance. It is also true that Curly had a responsibility to protect Anya as a crew mate and Captain but he failed due to bias towards his abusers, and his kind and forgiving nature of simply wanting to see the good in Jimmy, which is a manifest of his trauma and being a victim, also definitely something that Jimmy himself has instilled into Curly.

And like you say, it is perfectly fine to interpret her this way, but it feels very... out of character. This is the same character that so reverently believes that our worst moments don't make us monsters, and I don't think it's insane to apply this sentiment to Curly too, because his worst moment was simply being too forgiving to someone who deserved it the least- which is its own trauma response.

Again, so sorry for the long response, I've been sitting on this ask for a while simply because I wanted to answer the best I could, and I have a lot of feelings about Curly and Anya and how they're reflections of each other in being victims. Thank you so much for sending in an ask! ╰(*´︶`*)╯

[demonslayedher]

Higher Stakes, Lower Tension: The Swordsmith Village Arc

Although we love it for a lot of the moments and how we got to know more characters through it, the Swordsmith Village Arc is not as popular as other arcs, and there was a lot less excitement for it compared to other arcs. I'd like to break down why I think that is, especially in comparison to the Entertainment District Arc, the tough act it had to follow.

Follow below the cut for: How lore was prioritized over momentum How setting and consequences trivialize hard-earned victories Drama and character arcs that feel incomplete How much deeper and more satisfying this arc had potential to go

Lore Over Momentum

This was an important arc. Setting aside the major accomplishment of ridding the world of two more Upper Moons, this arc was the impetus for everything that would come later, thanks to Nezuko's triumph over the sun at the very end. However, in the overall structure of the Kimetsu no Yaiba plot, this arc also laid important groundwork about Yoriichi, thereby making sense of many later developments that will come in the Infinity Castle and Sunrise Countdown arcs.

It was also a chance to develop on the importance of swords, which has been brought up on high-stakes occasions like when Tanjirou's sword breaks in battle against Rui or is at risk of breaking in battle against Daki. We learn more about the Corp and the lengths they go to in order to protect their source of swords, and Tanjirou makes it clear from the very start of the arc how reliant everyone is on the fact that these swords exist.

We know this, and for clarity's sake it is worth having Tanjiro state it both for what this says about Tanjiro and for how it brings a tidy and heartwarming resolution in his ongoing bouts of danger with Haganezuka, but it's hard to care about what is said instead of shown.

The danger the village was in was, actually, the highest-stakes battle we've seen thus far in the series. If the swordsmiths and all their know-how is wiped out, the battle again demons may be done for. But why are we not as worried for them as we were for the residents and customers of the pleasure quarters?

The Setting Lowers the Our Perception of the Stakes

This comes out in the emotions of the innocent bystanders, including and especially those heartlessly slaughtered. It's not so much because of a lack expressions of terror due to the swordsmith masks, for their body language and desperation to keep fighting and protecting the swords is clear. However, it's because they keep fighting that there is a certain stoicism that keeps us from feeling as bad for them.

This is something they always knew to expect, and they were prepared to live with the consequences of their mission.

The people of Yoshiwara, on the other hand, were simply trying to go about their nightly lives, and we taken completely off-guard by the attack. We can picture how much losing a hand is going to impact a proprietor's daily life, how traumatized a woman will be seeing her friend's head taken off right in front of her, and how even non-life threatening injuries were painful and cause for alarm with how much they bled. We see how their lives were turned completely upside-down within seconds.

On the hand, the swordsmiths buried the dead, and then scurried off to a shadow village, ready to keep working without many setbacks. The extra ending Ufotable gave this arc with the mourning swordsmiths taking time out of their busy moving process to go happily throw confetti still doesn't sit right with me for how it trivializes what happened instead of celebrating it.

While Yoshiwara is a well-known area now destroyed by enemies that usual lurk so deeply in the shadows that the many witnesses have always doubted their existence, in the Swordsmith Village every witness already knew the enemy, but no one knew the victims. Their tragedy is a hidden tragedy, and their annihilation would only have been known to a secret society.

This issue is similar to how storytellers often add somewhat obvious yet hard to picture tension about the fate of the world at stake, when something small and innocuous can be far more gripping because the stakes are easier to grasp and imagine. However, the scale of the stakes are not the only issue with building tension; the pacing is also an issue.

Lack of Narrative Build-Up

Previous arcs, especially the Entertainment District Arc, pulled this off really well. We go in knowing there will be a demon, but we don't know anything about this demon aside that Uzui's wives have gone no-contact, likely because of its interference. The arc deliver tidbits that give us the satisfaction of thinking this is it, we've found her, we've found the wives, we see she's dangerous, but then we're stunned to find out she's not even the one we should have been worried about all along.

Conversely, in the Swordsmith Village Arc, we know right away that these two are Upper Moons and they are coming. They have transformations throughout the battle that keep it challenging (at least in the case of Hantengu), but we never feel much of an elevated sense of danger or loss partway through.

Yes, we easily could have lost two Hashira that night, and it would have been devastating. However, we were quickly gratified to see their mid-battle recoveries. In Uzui's case we had to assume the worst, especially coming off the heels of losing Rengoku.

Speaking of our Hashira heroes...

Incomplete Hashira Arcs

The Mugen Train Arc was essentially Rengoku's full and, despite its brevity, very impactful character arc. Not even so much of an arc as a very loud statement of who he was.

The Entertainment District Arc, following on its heels, was like a call and response answer to the loss we and the Kamaboko boys felt. They get adopted as Tsuguko again, with more time to get to know and appreciate their mentor this time, one who is also still grappling with the loss of Rengoku and how to measure up to that. We also get a full look into the multiple sides of Uzui, from his past to his motivation to how he handles the biggest struggles, from the fear for his wives' to having to fight nearly to his death. The fact that we got to keep Uzui in some form, even if it is no longer in fighting form, felt earned and a relief.

On the other hand, we got important back story and got to know Muichirou and Mitsuri very well in this arc, but in a way that we the viewers had a physic link inside their heads instead of appreciating them through how they fight alongside Tanjirou. Tanjirou is of course amazed to see how Mitsuri fights, but as far as fearing for her safety is concerned, he saw her very quickly recover from the one fearsome hit before they parted ways on the battlefield.

Muichirou and Mitsuri both had surface-level interactions with Tanjirou without necessarily feeling a propensity to raise him like a Tsuguko, and then they face their own battles with narrow brushes with death and moments which force them to confront elements of their pasts, resulting in renewed confidence and relatively easily-earned victories without many consequences.

At least, as far as we know. As we find out later, they've already paid for those easy victories with the majority of their lifespans. Again, this arc is important to the overall plot of Kimetsu no Yaiba because those victories show how much more powerful the Corp is after the struggle defeating an Upper Moon, at long last. That was the battle that unlocked the mark, which will be the game changing in upcoming battles. Again, the lore is doing a lot of heavy lifting, but at the expense of satisfying victories.

And, because we still have future battles for these Hashira to fight, their arcs are not over. That makes their incomplete arcs feel lacking compared to the completed arcs that came before them.

But it's sure not just the fault of the Hashira for surviving in (what looks like) good health.

Those Villains Sucked

Don't get me wrong, I love Gyokko and Hantengu, at least when it comes to being as amused by them as I am by any other element in this series, and appreciating their character designs. In the wider scheme of Kimetsu no Yaiba, a series known for making us feel deep sympathy for the villains right after feeling so thrilled about them finally meeting their demise, we don't get that sense from these two. That's because they are as wretched as demons come, and they are fun to hate for all the suffering they cause simply by having been rotten to their cores. We don't get any backstory for Gyokko until post-canon publications, so that makes him seem a bit hollow, and in the case of Hantengu, he created all his own problems by being such a terrible person that we relish the chance to deny him the pity he so desperately always clamored for.

But as a Kimetsu no Yaiba arc, this leaves us hanging. Where are the little glimpses of who victims like Kyougai and Mother Spider were, or the gut-wrenching memories of Rui that forever alter our experience of him? Even worse for this arc, it comes right after the Daki & Gyuutarou flashback, once of the hardest-hitting of the whole series. Sure, Enmu never earned our sympathy because he was likewise rotten to his core, but he had more rizz about it.

As far as their impact on the arc is concerned, you could have replaced them with any other kind of challenge the characters have to face, and the results probably wouldn't have changed much. Daki and Gyuutarou were integrated with Yoshiwara both in their dealings and their backstories, Enmu was literally integrated with the setting (and trains always make great settings for added tension) and his powers brought out different sides of the main cast, Akaza drove that whole battle by virtue of his own personality and value set, Rui's preoccupation with 'family' dragged everyone into a hell of his own making.

Meanwhile, Muichirou could have annoyed the hell out of any talkative demon that had brainless minions to attack the villagers, and Mitsuri could have looked just as cool fighting a giant table made of all that wood. It's refreshing to see Tanjirou have so much anger and hate for a demon and not spare an ounce of empathy after finally taking its irritating little head, but he had more important things going on.

Nezuko's Ultimate Victory, Also Trivialized

Nezuko fully masters the sun within one chapter, so was anyone ever truly scared for her? I was spoiled long beforehand, but even if that had not been the case, the popularity of the franchise itself has shot that tension in the foot; we never really got to be sacred for her (though the art in the manga and anime really sells how hard-earned her victory was).

It's sad that we don't see much of Nezuko after she accomplishes the biggest feat a demon has every accomplished, and a lot of people have said her character was underutilized. I agree, though having her in the Fortress would have only led to more mayhem. It's hard to (but not impossible to) justify an additional arc to put her in battle since her transformation is the catalyst for everything that comes later, but the issue I have is that this transformation makes Nezuko so close to human that, realistically, if Tanjirou didn't want to or couldn't fight anymore, he'd already have the assurance that Nezuko leads a somewhat normal human existence again.

What I could have loved to see is at least one more instance of Nezuko being tempted to eat a human, like the danger we felt in the previous arc. That would be a very satisfying reminder of the stakes, and why Tanjirou must keep fighting to regain her full humanity. Making her hungrier due to her new state would be satisfying price to pay for her new ability, wouldn't it? Having that lurk in the background of an otherwise peaceful Hashira Training Arc would add as much satisfying tension as the Nakime eyeballs did. We expect Nakime to succeed in what she sets out to do, but we don't want to see Nezuko fail in that which is most taboo. One last burst of violence would also make us worry a lot more about how that medicine is going to work out for her (and anyone around her) in the few glimpses we get of her throughout the lengthy Infinity Castle Arc.

In Conclusion

Chapter 112 started with us in the heart of action and bloody devastation of the village, and then you turned the page to see a celebratory two-page title spread and announcement of the anime.

When this was compiled into Volume 13 later, Gotouge apologized for how this made it look like they were celebrating the death of the swordsmith who was killed up in the watchtower, and how insensitive that appeared.

But that's the sort of tension we were working with in this arc. It doesn't feel out of place to step away from this battle, because we were never that concerned about a bunch of giant fish with no personal vendettas against the men who were stoically prepared for just such an attack.

Despite all the heavy lifting this arc did for the plot, it's biggest pitfall is being a functional arc with a to-do list of things to accomplish. It succeeds in those things, but sadly, it didn't grip us with worry as well as it should have, despite the stakes.

Or, maybe this arc could have been saved with more lore.

Build more love for swords in the audience instead of only showing us Tanjirou's appreciation, show us swordsmiths who tremble with worry about what happens if their supply chain is cut off, or if they lose the know-how of someone like Tecchin because the rest of them carry the knowledge of how the swords they made weren't enough to save the swordsmen who wielded them, let them struggle with their own drive to create art that is also purposefully to contrast it with Gyokko's, show us swordsmiths who love their weapons but are too afraid to use them. Show us Gyokko's flashbacks and how he's always been callous toward others, show how it is his loss as an artist not just for how he can't break Haganezuka's focus, but for how his art is hollow compared to the mission of the swordsmiths. Show Hantengu having a twisted sense of righteousness well before Zouhakuten appears like a deity to serve justice by protecting him; let all his clones re-enforce his worldview about the strong protecting the weak with perverse religiosity that would make Tanjirou's stomach crawl. Show Mitsuri contemplating how she might not live up to Rengoku's example and how his loss still stings and how even Uzui was so terribly injured by lower ranked demon, show us Muichirou contemplating more how strangely easy the battle became to give us uneasy foreshadowing and a suspicion that something isn't right. Show us whatever the hell Genya was doing in the village all that time with people who he was too awkward to interact with and how he is fighting to protect the swordsmiths he snapped at in addition to his stated goal of wanting to earn Hashira status, and how he struggled to not let any well-meaning villages worry about how he refuses to eat, and how those villagers were undeterred by his brash exterior and worked around his lack of Breath of Breath by giving him firepower, for they are artisans whose ultimate goal is to enable the Corp.

This arc deserved more. It needed to Breathe.