#ethics and morals and in doing so choose to throw away the life he has and eschew his peers to save the man he loves

[mr-independent]

Ok but.... Hear me out.

Y'all have watched Our Flag Means Death, right? Where a clueless overly-earnest anxious father who likes to rhyme runs away from his failing marriage to a smart and confident woman to do something completely unadvisable a world away and in doing so takes a group of rugged violent men and teaches them to be soft and to respect each other and the world around them (and has a panic attack when he meets his ex wife again and found she moved on and might be getting remarried)? And his love interest is a man with long salt and pepper hair who is well-versed in the ugly sides of the life the other man chose blindly, and who has become disillusioned by the whole thing and therefore completely compromises himself for the possible chance at a life with the first man since he was the first person who showed him how truly powerful kindness could be? Also the grey haired man starts off the series appearing aloof and stern and slowly gets more silly and authentic because of his exposure to the earnest man, and comes around to believe in the kind way of doing things despite himself, and spends the final season (barring renewal) following the earnest man around and trying to earn his place back with this crew who, rightfully, spurned him for his callousness.

Anyways. Wild coincidence, huh?

[melishade]

Z-King: So now that you have finished Beast Wars what do you think of it as a whole? What are your favorite characters? and What do you think you would have done differently if you were running it?

Beast Wars as a whole...7/10. Season 3 definitely lowered the score, but again, I don't put entire blame on the writers. I put blame on Hasbro because it's just a habit of them to cut Transformer shows for toys.

Because we see Season 1, which was a 10/10 btw, and Season 1 is phenomenal when it comes to story telling and character development. Maybe because season 1 had 26 episodes compared to both season 2 and 3 that only had 13. But season 2 was better than season 3.

Favorite Characters were Rattrap, Tigatron, and Dinobot. I mean Rattrap was just a menace and he's great. When first introduced, I thought I wasn't going to like him because of his attitude and cowardice, but you see him prove his metal and get the job done. He was so much fun.

Tigatron was so interesting because he was a Cybertronian that was more in touch with his animalistic side. If he survived the Beast Wars, he probably would have stayed on Earth. He was a genuinely and fascinating character because while the others were trying to ignore there animal side, he embraced it, and it didn't hinder him.

Dinobot was a redemption done right. There. I said it. He was a Predacon ousted by Megatron and tried to take over the Maximals. Even though he's allowed to join, he's still treated at arms length by many on the team. Even so, Dinobot was valuable because he brought up valid points on how Megatron would act in certain situations and that the Maximals needed to do what they had to in order to survive. He wasn't wrong. Dinobot brought up extremely valid points in the show about Megatron's behavior and war overall. And he was someone who valued honor, something Megatron didn't.

When Dinobot in season 2 is going through the moral, ethical dilemma about changing the future and his own fate, it's a difficult decision he has to grapple with. Does he even have a choice in his own destiny that's been written in stone, or would trying to change it solidify his fate? In the end, he chooses save humanity, even though he knows it will cost him his life. It was his choice, but he had no choice at all in regards to his fate. It was devastating to see him throw away his honor to survive, but it was also devastating to see him throw away his life to save the future of an entire species.

Now: What the hell would I cut?

-Silverbolt was clearly a replacement for Tigatron and I hate him for it. His honor was quite hypocritical because the fucking Chimera wanted to top the Spider, which is why he didn't kill her and kept going out of his way to save her! He wanted to get laid! If you wanted to do a romance story, Tigatron and Airazor were right there, compatible, and Maximals who enjoyed nature! And you decide to kill them for toys?!

And again! Why is everyone simping over Blackarachnia?! Like Cheetor seriously! Keep it in your pants!

(I would just scrap that storyline, and Silverbolt entirely)

-Blackarachnia I would have preferred her remaining a villain.

-The Dinobot clone in season 3. It didn't feel right, and why would Megatron clone someone again that clearly failed at it's previous job.

-The Aliens should have been like a season 3 finale and the final Predacons vs Maximal battle should have been a season 4 finale.

-The Starscream indestructible spark thing was never really explained. He really just showed up and left.

-Depthcharge should have been introduced earlier.

-Introducing Tigerhawk and then killing them off felt pointless.

-The whole season 3 Cheetor didn't sit right with me, it made me like Cheetor even less. Also his design in season 3 was even worse.

-I was sick of Waspinator being the butt of the joke. They didn't really have him do much, and I'm surprised he ended up surviving by the end of the series.

-Beast Wars Megatron was definitely more of the smarter Megatron's and I still stand by that, I don't think there'd be much to change about him.

-Also, more of a pet peeve if anything: why is death so inconsequential during certain episodes? Like Megatron got blown to pieces by Terrorsaur, but they dropped in the healing tank equivalent to Dragon Ball's senzu bean and he was literally back to life in the next few scenes. Some of these characters have gotten squished, blown to pieces, stabbed, and they somehow survive. Like...what are we doing here?

Anyway, those are my remaining thoughts on the show.

[guardian-angle22]

So what do you think Carlos’s gonna become? Texas Ranger? Detective? Homicide detective (there was a convo in 4x18 where he says “Sarina isn’t a homicide detective” and Tk replies “neither are you”)? Sergeant (Athena is a sergeant in 911 and she’s on scene. Also he got kinda close with O’Brien this season. They saved each other)? Or patrol officer forever?

The detective storyline has a lot of buildup (mentioned in multiple episodes, even in the crossover when he and Grace make find that guy) and it would be a shame to throw it all away but his dad died and this is definitely gonna affect his life plans. Also they gave him his father’s star so that might be a clue. I wouldn’t like it for many reasons, dumbest one being aesthetics (I don’t like what they wear).

Ooof. I don't know that I'm the best person to answer this given my track record of not giving a shit about the police stuff in this show. 😅 Honestly, I don't really care which of those he chooses cause they're all law enforcement so I will still dislike his job no matter what he does.

I think at this point after they made such a point to have Carlos on a high horse against the Rangers as an organization that having him decide to become one for the nepotism legacy of it all, kind of makes him look bad imo? Like his morals or ethics have changed? (I do think it would be fun to see him in a cowboy hat though ngl)

The two big cases that Carlos helped solve that got him the attention of Detective Washington were in 3x05 with the child abduction and I assume the serial killer in 4x04, right? (3x11 was him on a revenge quest off the clock with Grace so I don't know if that would count and then 4x15 it was more his interactions with the detective than anything he did on the case because Grace was the one that brought it all to their attention). In both of those instances, we see Carlos kind of obsess over the cases. In 3x05, he stays up literally all night long to review evidence at home. In 4x04, he's mostly obsessing because it's personal with Iris (same could be said for 4x18 when he's looking through his dad's files).

SO! I bring all this up because while I don't care about his job details and cases, I do think it could be interesting if he did become a detective and that obsessive nature/trend became something he and TK have to confront and overcome together as newlyweds. Like what are the boundaries of what work Carlos brings home? How does Carlos maintain the focus on the job that makes him so great at it while also not letting his personal life suffer?

[finitevoid]

Im like the #1 and only member of the Bart Allen Is A Lying Little Shit club and it’s so funny having an interpretation of a character that’s so opposite to everyone else’s. What I think throws people off about it is this idea that lying is a Morally Wrong thing to do and therefore bart is in the wrong for doing it. So this character trait of his is softened— and for genuine reasons. You cannot half ass telling a story about such an absolute glorious liar as bart is. You have to commit. and therefor your entire story must surround this deceit and its implications. and some people don’t wanna do that! completely understandable. but I wanna leave open room for the understanding that bart can lie for all of the right reasons. he can be a liar and be lying for reasons he thinks are just and reasonable. He comes from a world where survival is the only dogma humans can live by. so inherently his ability to weigh the pros and cons of a situation is different than ours. lying is like a -2 on the morals and ethics meter vs Potentially Crashing the Time Stream a -100000000 on the The Continued Existence Of This Timeline That I Bled To Create meter. Or even the My Ability To Safeguard Potentially Useful Information meter. or even the My Freedom To Choose To Not Put Myself In Danger meter. and he can lie because it’s instinct and lie because it’s easy and lie because he knows that nobody understands him and telling the truth isn’t gonna change that. and none of those are necessarily bad reasons to lie. The gory details of his painful past are not necessarily bad things to lie about. It’s simply the way these lies unintentionally affect EVERYONE AROUND HIM that comes back to bite him in the ass. keeping in mind that a) he has no frame of reference socially for what it means to exist in a functional society, so therefore he probably doesn’t even really grasp the ramifications of his deceit in the first place because he was socialized in small cosps of people working together only to survive, and things like intimacy and vulnerability Did Not Matter when you were all worried about keeping each other feed and watered and clothed and away from blue beetle and b) he doesn’t know what information is acceptable to share by the rules of said society he isn’t socialized in and what would rock the boat and fuck up his life and routine. He can’t tell the difference between info he can and should tell the justice league and what he absolutely NEEDS to keep to himself lest he risk 1) deterministic nightmare or 2) crashing the time stream and other such paradoxes. So yeah I think it’s perfectly believable that he would weigh those pros and cons and come out the other side deciding that not only does he need to lie, he needs to lie to EVERYONE about EVERYTHING

[pendragony]

Yes, this. In every episode that asks us to examine the effect on Sam of losing Dean, we get shown that he also loses his moral anchor. Without Dean, he becomes un-Sammed.

We get a foretaste in Faith, when Sam actually doesn’t care when an innocent person has to die if it means he’ll get Dean back.

Dean dies in Mystery Spot and Sam becomes an obsessive, relentless hunting machine who is willing to take a chance on killing Bobby - the closest thing he has to a remaining family member - in order to get Dean back.

In Time Is On My Side, Sam is willing to become a monster with Dean if it means Dean gets to live. (The same Sam who, back in Playthings, made Dean promise to kill him if he became unhuman.)

Dean goes to Hell and Sam falls apart, drinking, trying to sacrifice himself, succumbing to demonic influence and monstering himself through a demon blood addiction.

We see the obverse in Swan Song when Sam, possessed by Lucifer, is brought back to himself and his own moral intentions by the presence of Dean and his memories of their life together. This gives him the strength to go through with his own Apocalypse-averting trip to Hell.

Returning soulless, Sam doesn’t bother to look for Dean, and engages in amoral behaviour. On being reunited, Dean acts (textually) as Sam’s moral compass on his behalf, correcting his errant behaviour.

When Sam is re-souled but going mad with the hallucinations of Lucifer, it is Dean as ‘stone number one’ that connects him to reality and allows him to keep reorienting towards sanity.

When Sam thinks Dean is dead after killing Dick Roman, he goes through the motions of what he thinks Dean wants him to do, but again loses his moral bearings in his failure to help Kevin or other hunting friends. It’s a different type of moral failing. (In my opinion, terrible writing, because it’s so out of character for Sam to be passive like this, but I guess I see what they were trying to do in demonstrating why Sam stops looking for the apple pie life and commits to Dean instead.)

We get an upside down version when Sam goes on a relentless, self-sacrificing crusade (the Trials) in order to atone, which breaks him to the point of needing to be monstered by Dean (angelic possession) in order to be saved, which prompts Sam to force a separation. (Which, btw, is what allows the MoC storyline to start, because Dean is willing to throw himself away when he doesn’t have Sam.)

A season of Sam being reminded that he and Dean are better together culminates in Metatron killing Dean and Sam’s immediate effort to resurrect him by summoning Crowley (thwarted by Crowley acting first to make Dean a demon), despite Dean having asked Sam not to do it.

Then the gloriously unhinged beginning of s10 shows us Sam’s descent into his amoral, obsessive crusade to save Dean, where he doesn’t care who he hurts, or what damage he does to himself, as long as he gets his brother back. The distorted lens on that incredible “WHERE’S MY BROTHER?!” moment shows us Sam’s madness.

Throughout s10, Sam attempts to act as Dean’s moral compass (his Colette) to save him from the MoC, while going behind Dean’s back, working with monsters (demon, witch, arguably angel although it’s Cas) and convincing good people to work with him to do something that he is repeatedly being warned is dangerous, amoral/immoral and against Dean’s self-sacrificing wishes. This culminates in Sam actively choosing to unleashing the Darkness in order to save Dean.

Sam, the man who constantly questions the ethics of what he and Dean do, who has religious faith and strives always to be good, to purify himself, to be clean; this Sam will also sully himself and condemn the world if it means he can save his brother.

it’s always “he drank demon blood and had a hot demon gf!!! bloodfreak <3” and never “whose death was so unbearable that sam let go of his deepest childhood fear of being unclean and taint his body that way? whose absence ripped away everything that sam held dear because nothing mattered without him? who did the demon have to emulate to worm her way into his life and his confidence (and his bed)? whose memory was so inescapable that he was drowning in grief every second of every day? whose death caused such ruin to his being that avenging it became not only the only reason to live but also a cause worth sacrificing every principle he lived by?”

[deejadabbles]

Vampire Atem/Yami Alphabet Headcanons

Found this list of vamp-themes headcanons by @an-annyeoing-writer and I knew I had to do them for our favorite king-turned-spirit!

For those of you who read my Spells of Defiance series, these headcanons can be taken as 100% canon to that AU <3

A - Accident - would they turn someone to save their life?

Oof, already starting with a hard one. So, Atem is one of those vampires who hates his existence, he believes it’s a curse. However, he does still love and care for people deeply, and he knows that for many, life is sacred even if it’s a cursed life. I think in a moment of weakness, especially in his earlier years as a vampire, he might turn someone just because he’s desperate not to lose them, only to regret his decision later, especially if that someone is like him and hates what they’ve become. We all make mistakes, right?

B - Bite - how do they bite? Sensually, aggressively? Do they make it hurt or try to be gentle?

Atem is extremely gentle when he feeds off of people, always careful not to bite too deep or tear the skin more than needed, he even holds you and tries to soothe you with gentle strokes of his hands. Now, whether he tries to make it “sensual” or at all sexual...that’s a complicated topic. While Atem is almost always disgusted with himself when/while he feeds, he does recognize that there is a level of intimacy and even romance that can be connected with drinking blood, so sometimes he can be persuaded to make it a more sensual thing if you’re his lover. 

C - Control - do they take advantage of their powers?

That depends on who’s in the equation. I can see Atem using his new powers in order to bring justice to those he sees as wrong doers (like his season 0/early manga-self) as a way to make his vampire abilities useful, so from that angle he would “take advantage” of his powers. He might even get some small gratification in using his strength and speed to hunt down evil people, them cowering in fear is retribution for their wrong-doings, but even that’s not too over the top. Other than that, no, he doesn’t really use his powers for advantages over others.

D - Dangerous - how scary they can get? How bad things can they do? What’s their ethics?

So, while Atem does have a very strong moral code, Atem also has a temper, and said temper might be harder to control when he’s a vampire. Even when he’s not growling in anger, he can have this cold glare that could make bikers squeamish. There are moments, especially when he was a younger vampire, where he loses his temper and can get pretty scary. If you’re his loved one don’t worry too much, he would never lose control enough to hurt you, even though his yelling (and maybe throwing a thing or two) is pretty scary on it’s own. If you’re someone he sees a vermin though watch out, when he gets scary you’re probably going to end up dead or wishing you were dead.

E - Exchange - do they opt for blood bags or animal blood, if possible?

He opts for animal blood as often as he can. Sometimes he’ll hunt said animals himself but even that is a little too violent for his liking (Atem is a softie okay?!) so if he can go to a local butcher and get animal blood from them he’ll do it that way. He’s not fond of blood bags because A) they’re harder to acquire and B) having human blood in a cold plastic bag just makes him long for warm human blood and skin under his teeth more. Sure animal blood isn’t as sustaining for him, but Atem spent decades (maybe even centuries) figuring out how much animal blood he needs to consume in order to keep his blood lust under control so he’ll choose that over harming an innocent human.

Also, side note, if you live with him I hope you don’t have a sensitive sense of smell, because he heats up the blood on the stove to make it taste better and it can make the house stinky lol

F - First bite - on what occasion would they bite you for the first time?

Oooh that’s a good one. Like I said Atem has a very complicated relationship with feeding from his loved ones, especially his s/o, and he’s never going to ask you for your blood. So I’d say that not only would you have to offer your blood to him, but he would have to be out of other feeding options at the time. He knows that once he reaches a certain point of hunger he loses control and might kill you in a hunger-induced blood rage, so if drinking from you now, before he gets to that point, prevents that danger, he’d be willing to. Like I said above, Atem would be very gentle with you on that occasion, holding you close and stroking the skin around the bite mark to soothe any pain, and when he’s done he’d kiss the wound and the sore skin around it as amends.

The only other “first bite” scenario I can think of is if you spend months convincing him that you don’t mind (or even like) the occasional bite and finally convince him to drink your blood during an intimate moment, and again he’s very gentle and mindful of not hurting you.

G - Growl - are they more on the “civilized” side or do they enjoy hunting their prey down?

A bit of both, I guess? Since he tries not to drink from humans he’s more civilized in that way, but like I said before he does “hunt” evil people like an avenging dark angel, which he may get some small form of enjoyment from, so... 

H - Hate - how do they feel about their kind? About themselves?

It’s honestly pretty depressing how much self-loathing Atem harbors. He genuinely thinks he’s an abomination. It doesn’t help that in all his centuries of living, he’s met very few vampires who’re “good” like him. He’s also someone who’s on a high horse and if he met a vamp who didn’t kill human’s but also wasn’t self loathing like him, he’d look down on said vampire. I’m warning you now if you fall in love with him, his self-hatred is very upsetting and can be hard to deal with.

I - Intimacy - how fast would they let you close to them? Would they want to share with you what they are?

Surprisingly, I say it’s not that hard. See, even though Atem thinks he’s a monster and tries his best to stay away from people, he also craves companionship and love. Sure, he’s spent several chunks of his immortal life isolating himself in remote woods and tall mountains for decades at a time, but he always returns to humanity at some point. So if you show that you want to be close to him he’ll try to warn you or even scare you away a bit, but it won’t take too long to let you in. And yes, he’d share what he is with you if you started to get close to him, not only as a means to scare you away “before he can hurt you” but also so you know what you’re getting into by being near him.

J - Joke - would they do pranks on other people with the use of their powers?

Sometimes, yes. If he’s close to you, he’ll start to get comfortable and like teasing you, so he’ll do minor things like sneak up behind you soundlessly and jump scare you, or zoom past you to get to something before you and play keep-away. Also, he doesn’t do this one intentionally, but sometimes he’ll be sitting in a dark room, and when you walk in you just suddenly hear this voice calling out to you in the darkness, scaring the crap outta you lol

K - Key - what’s the way of making them open up to you?

Honestly just...continue to shove your friendship in his face. Like I said under “intimacy” he still craves relationships and companionship despite how much he fears hurting people. He may try to push you away at first but if you just continue to hang around him he’ll eventually stop trying to scare you away and start opening up to you little by little.

L - Life - do they wish they were human?

Absolutely. I can see Atem, ever the fixer of problems, spending the first few hundred years searching for a cure for his “condition” not just for himself but for others who view vampires the same way. He often thinks about what his life would have been if he hadn’t been turned, and daydreams about the possibility of becoming human again. 

M - Murder - would they kill someone while feeding? Have they ever done so?

Atem has killed while feeding, yes, but not voluntarily. I’m going with the general lore that vampires, when starved too long, can't control their bloodlust and Atem has killed while in that state. When he wakes with a limp, lifeless body in his arms, he’s a devastated wreck. Hurting innocent people is literally his living nightmare and the idea that his bloodlust can turn him into an animal sickens him. He would spend decades learning how much blood he needs to consume and how often, in order to keep that bloodlust from taking control.

N - Nature - do they justify their doings? Do they consider them natural?

Atem, the self-loathing martyr of a fanged prince, considering his bloodlust natural? LMAOOOO No. No he doesn’t, nor does he ever justify his actions. In fact, he uses the terrible things he’s done to justify why he shouldn’t be loved or even alive.

O - Odd - do they have any specific hobbies or habits?

Our gentle dark prince still loves games and puzzles, I think he’d like modern brain teasers that keep his mind sharp and un-ironically loves the puzzle games printed on the back of sunday newspapers, even though they aren’t hard (for him anyway). If you got close to him and showed him games he never got to play bc they’re multiplayers he’d honestly love you. He’d win most of the time, let's be honest, especially things like Clue, but his expression is just so cute and excited when you play his favorites that you’d lose 1000 times over just to see it.

P - Pain - are they sadistic? Do they enjoy what they do?

Nope. I think you all have the idea by now but Atem is one of the most self-loathing and gentle vampires you’d meet....or at least he’s gentle with you. Other vampires who hurt people for fun? Okay, I can see him being ever so slightly sadistic when dealing with creatures like that, he has no mercy for vampires who’ve embraced their monstrous curse, best you run the other way when he punishes them, else you may actually get a little frightened of him...

R - Roles - do they enjoy pretending to be normal people? How do they feel about leaving their life behind to start a new one?

I wouldn’t say that Atem pretends to be normal, in fact, the only part of his vampirism that he embraces is being an “other”, or rather, the aesthetic of being odd, something that most humans feel uneasy when confronted with. He’d see this as a good tool to keep people he may hurt away from him. He’s no stranger to stalking graveyards/cemeteries, creeping in the shadows in a way that has others scurrying past if they happen to spot him, basically anything that makes him seem creepy and makes others keep their distance. Ultimately it hurts him since he’s unexplainably lonely, but it hurts more to know he may hurt the humans he comes across. On the same note, leaving behind one life for another to avoid suspicion is a double-edged sword for him, while it reminds him how terribly lonely existence is, it’s good to keep those who might’ve grown close to him safe.

S - Scars - do they leave marks or try to make the wounds small and invisible?

If Atem feeds from someone voluntarily (as in, not in an animalistic state), he’ll do everything he can to not leave lasting marks. Leaving marks means more pain and we all know how much he hates causing pain to others. 

T - Turned - how were they turned?

In my fic, Marik turned Atem as a form of revenge, but otherwise, I could honestly see Atem being turned by any YGO villain. I say villain because him being cursed with this life by a villain (like Bakura for example, or maybe another minion of Zorc) kind of goes along with the original story’s need to punish Atem and cast him into darkness for things that ultimately weren’t his fault.

U - Universe - what’s their biggest wish that they can’t achieve as immortals?

Mostly just...being close to people without constantly worrying that he’ll hurt or kill them. I can also see Atem yeaning for the simple pleasure of growing old and dying with one's family. If he fell in love he would crave the ability to just settle down and grow old together. Hell, he’s even one of those morbid romantics who thinks couples dying within days of each other is sweet and wishes he could do that when he loses his lover to old age.

V - Vampire - would they turn you?

Man again with the hard ones! Oof, okay, so...If you asked Atem to turn you, he’d say no, reciting his monologue about how vampires are cursed vermin who shouldn’t even exist, even if you retained your humanity after the turn, he knows the deep reaches of this curse and what it will make you do, and he hates the idea of you going through what he has.

...However, much like in the very first headcanon on this list...Atem makes mistakes and has his weak moments. If your life ended unexpectedly, of you were taken from him suddenly, like attacked or in some fatal accident, he may turn you in a moment of weakness; a desperate need to cling to you taking over his better judgment. He’d hate himself after and the only way he’d ever feel okay with it, is if time proved that you retained your humanity. He would teach you how to control your blood lust so you don’t have to go through half the things he has, and only then would he be okay with what he did to you in his moment of weakness.

W - War - would they engage in fighting their own kind for the humanity’s sake?

Yes! No one even has to ask him, Atem basically thinks the only good thing he can do with his powers is to rid the world of other vampires. He’s basically an avenging angel who’ll hunt down any vampire who threatens a human.

Y - Yandere - would they become dangerous to you (their lover)?

For the most part, I’d say no. Atem is self-aware and emotionally intelligent enough to tell if he ever starts crossing lines into “unhealthy” territory, and if that ever happened, he’d literally run away. He would leave you in order to protect you, no matter how much it hurt. There may be one (literally ONE) incident where he does something to you that crosses the line, but he’d be instantly horrified and remove himself from your life, moving to the other side of the world with no means to follow him, if it meant protecting you from himself. Now the chances of this happening in the first place? Hard to say. I really don’t think Atem is unhinged or even violent enough for it to be likely, but, an argument could be made that after everything he’s gone through, Atem may start seeing you and his love for you in an obsessives, unhealthy way. Again though, even if this did happen he would realize it and run away before it can go too far.

Z - Zombie - are they on their way to losing sanity?

I don’t think so. Atem is as strong (mentally/emotionally) as they come. Maybe eventually, after millennia and millennia of constantly losing loved ones and dealing the the monster he’s become he would start losing his sanity, but that would take a long, long time. 

[terrence-silver]

Have you seen endgame? and the sacrifice scene? How do you think that would go if he and his beautiful beloved had to go through something similar?

The scene with Clint and Natasha?

If Terry was ever faced with a choice where his beloved had to die, or sacrifice themselves, either for him or due to unprecedent circumstances, I literally think Terry would rather allow the whole world (or the whole Valley) burn down than lose the one he loves. Literally. I don't think he'd care for anything more. Nothing is worth his darling's life. No cause is more important than his beloved. No reasoning. No agenda. No amount of casualties. No nothing. No morals. No ethics. The only morals and ethics Terry adheres to anyway is the ones he choose stop adhere to and that involves mainly people that are his. For all he's concerned, it can all rot, so long as he has them.

Meanwhile, in the case this is old man Terry (but, this isn't unique to just him --- goes for any era) if it absolutely couldn't be avoided, I imagine him sacrificing himself along with them by choice, being ever-so devoted, because he'd rather be together with them in death.

If he doesn't, though, feeling that the life John saved so many times in Vietnam would be dishonorable to waste by ironically throwing it away, in the aftermath of his beloved's sacrifice, I think Terry snaps so badly, loathing the lack of control he had over the situation, how he couldn't change the outcome of things, prevent his sweetheart from dying, believing it was all his fault, that he wasn't strong enough to protect them, a lifetime of trauma and unresolved issues bubbling up from the surface, that if the world so far wasn't destroyed so far, it will be now, because a world without his love isn't a world that deserves to exist. Everyone and everything around him should prepare for retaliation --- because the only reason Terry stayed alive is to wreak havoc.

[esepoimipullula]

Alright, so... this is the utterly self-indulgent essay. XD

For any non-Italian readers: remember the introductory note on my translation of Goofy and The Perfect New Year’s Eve Handbook? About Italian Goofy (Pippo) having a huuuuuuuuuge family? Well, everyone in this family is, ofc, either just as quirky or nearly as quriky as Goofy himself... which makes for a lot of interesting personalities. Like Goofy's cousin, Indiana Pipps. Or Arizona Goof, in English. Presumably to make the joke at least a little bit subtler.

... yes, "the joke" is that he's literally an Indiana Jones parody. Who happens to be related to Goofy and look almost exactly (or exactly, depending on the story) like him. He's an "adventure archaeologist" who spends most of his time scouring South American jungles for lost pre-Colombian temples full of traps and treasure, travelling through scorching deserts to find legendary Egyptian ruins, and stumbling into fantarchaeology/Ancient Aliens/magical/mystical relics. He's brave, smart, passionate, confident to the point of being actually a bit arrogant, kind of reckless and hotheaded, a little rough, rather snarky, and has a strong sense of justice... and a bunch of strange habits and quirks. Like his penchant from entering buildings from the window rather than from the door (because that would be too easy), his preference for sleeping bags over beds and tents over houses (though he does have a house just out of Mouseton... in a dangerous swamp complete with crocodiles), his dislike and distrust for city life in general, and his love for a particular brand of strong-flavored liquorice candies called "Negritas" that almost everyone else finds adsolutely disgusting. Through the years, he's fallen in love with a bunch of female characters (starting with Clarabelle Cow, or so the internet tells me... Goof guys trying to steal her away from Horace must be a bizarre family tradition) and he's had a bunch of female characters fall in love with him, as you can expect considering he's the Dr. Jones of the Mouseverse and everything. But none of these crushes has ever really gone anywhere... whether because of a bout of obliviousness preventing him from realizing his temporary sidekick had been head over heels for him the whole time (sorry, Martina), a misguided attempt to present as a more traditional academic for a nerdy professor who unexpectedly turned out to be really into the adventurer type, or fairy law forbidding him to marry his French fairy sweetheart (yup, that happened).

Ironically, his most constant and long-lasting is with his nemesis, Dr. Kranz. (Nope, no name given.) (Yes, this is going to be an "enemies to lovers" kinda thing... except with, like, A Twist. So if you don't like that kind of dynamic or think people shouldn’t like messed-up ships or anything like that, you'd probably better stop reading.)

Kranz and Indiana appeared together in Indiana's first story, Mickey and Goofy in: Raiders of the Lost Temple by Bruno Sarda, and have been chasing each other for one reason or another ever since. Kranz is an adventure archaeologist, too, but despite being (almost) as skilled and succesful at his job as Indiana, he spends an awful lot of time following him around and trying to steal his discoveries... most often by putting on some disguise, stalking him from a distance, and popping out of nowhere with a gun and a mocking smirk as soon as Indiana finds the hidden lost idol/treasure/artifact/city.

Despite some weird occasional foray into the world of attempted world domination, Kranz is (mostly) into the whole villain business for the money and the fame. The money because he loves luxury (especially fast cars and five-star hotels) and sells a good chunk of what he finds or steals to unscrupulous clients or outright villainous organizations to afford to live the good life, and the fame because he has a big ego and (somehow, still) a reputation as a respectable archaeologist that feeds into it... and he's always trying to overshadow Indiana, because he hates being always second best to him. Which is just as well, because Indiana hates his attempts to steal his own discoveries, his criminal activities, his utter lack of ethics, and his greed. Whenever they see each other without either of them ending up on the wrong end of a gun or tied up for the local authorities to find, they usually still end up at each other's throat anyway. Or at least, insulting and teasing each other the whole time.

Except... it wasn't always like that. Back in the day, Indiana and Kranz were actually students in the same college. And roommates (YES, "and they were roommates!"). And "inseparable" best friends who got along very well despite their differences and genuinely cared for each other. And after graduating, even adventuring partners, at least occasionally. Kranz already loved money and luxury, and Indiana had already started to develop his simpler yet more bizarre tastes, but they were good together.

There's actually a recent mini-series about their college years written by Bruno Sarda himself, Young Indiana. It's pretty much a shipper's delight, as it contains high amounts of fluff, overdramatic (and suspiciously coupley imho) friendship drama with a happy ending, hugs, kisses, straight love drama taking a backseat as the focus stays firmly on the friendship drama, and a certain amount of foreshadowing of (angsty) things to come. But their old friendship was already an established fact before that...

Like in the story Indiana Pipps and the Return of Doctor Kranz, where Indiana ends up telling Mickey the story of how they parted ways and became enemies. Which was apparently inspired by something that happened in the Martin Mystère comics, but I've never read them so I wouldn't know. Long story short, Indiana and Kranz where on an expedition together when they unexpectedly found an absurdly powerful ray gun left behind by Ancient Aliens. As it turned out, by that point Kranz had already been in contact with a shady organization that would have paid good money for something like that, so he proposed they should sell the gun to them and share the profits of the sale. Indiana immediately opposed the idea, of course, being all like, "wtf dude idk about YOU apparently but I have morals and also a sense of professional ethics"... so Kranz knocked him out, took the gun, wrote him a note about how you shouldn't slap good luck away, and fled to the other side of the world, where a man from the organization would await him. But when Indiana woke up, he immediately started trying to track him, eventually ruining the sale right before it could go through and throwing the gun into the sea, where it would never be found again. At that point, Kranz swore he'd have his revenge on him by basically costantly tailing him and ruining his life and career, never leaving him a moment of peace.

Which he's sometimes been pretty succesful at, considering there's been a whole story about Indiana being so stressed due to Kranz appearing out of the blue to ruin his day, it turns into some sort of bizarre mania where he believes everyone and anyone is secretly Kranz in disguise. However, the same story also has Kranz being so stressed due to Indiana constantly foiling his schemes that he goes on a cruise to just forget about him and relax for a while... and ends up jumping off the ship when he mistakenly believes Indiana might be on it, too. So, that's a two-way street, I guess.

So, basically... friends to enemies, genuine affection being ruined by greed and ambition and turning into resentment and spite and straight-up hatred, a degree of mutual obsession and general unhealthiness. But that's not really all there is to their relationship.

There's also stories where they're forced to collaborate to reach the same goal and have to behave more or less civilly, or even where they choose to do so willingly and end up actually still being a good team. There's stories where getting good results while working together makes them behave almost amicably, as much as they're able or willing to. Stories where they acknowledge their past together, if not their old friendship, and even the similarities between them. Stories where they find themselves with someone they both look down down or hate even more than each other, and find some common ground insulting and snarking at them in-between doing the same to each other. Where they grudgingly help each other out.

And then, there's Indiana Pipps e il soccorso obbligato. The story I blame for getting me into this ship in the frist place, when I could be here reading and writing Scroldie or Dimeshipping or Donsy or Mickey/Minnie or literally any other of my Disney comics ships that people other than me actually ship.

In Il soccorso obbligato, Kranz gets kidnapped by some shady guys while he's working on a revolutionary archaeological discovery, except he's not been kidnapped and he's not actually close to finding anything that awesome, and it's all just a convoluted trap to get back at Indiana for laughing at him one time because he's terrible. But Indiana doesn't know that, and so he and Mickey rush to the rescue and fly to a whole other continent to find him...

That story really has everything. From Kranz coming up with a ridiculous and ridiculously cruel plan because he might be used to Indiana insulting him and mocking him but sometimes his former friend laughing at him and acting all superior and better than him still hurts, to Indiana actually falling for it and trying to justify to himself why he does, telling himself that after so many years spent (fighting) together there's a bond between them and he owes it to Kranz... and admitting he’s worried about him. From Indiana still remembering little details about Kranz and their past together and looking almost fond as he talks about them, to Kranz being both petty and obsessed enough to leave a journal full of insults to Indiana for him to find as a clue and setting his password to a mocking phrase about him (and Indiana, who should expect some stuff like that or at least be used to it, still getting riled up and planning on giving Kranz an earful when he finds him). From Kranz assuming Indiana would only come save him if he threw an imaginary fantarchaeological discovery into the mix because then Indiana wouldn't be able to resist his "archaeological curiosity", to Indiana considering said discovery more of a secondary concern and actually regretting and feeling almost guilty for mocking Kranz the last time they saw each other before the supposed kidnapping... and recklessly, unthinkingly running over a thin ice bridge over a gaping chasm just to get to him, throwing all caution to the wind even as he tells himself he doesn't even know why he's doing it. And the way they still KNOW each other despite everything that happened, maybe even because of everything that happened! The angst! The complicated, unspoken, repressed things! Being a softie and a sap, I'm always a sucker for "the hero and the villain actually have a bond and care for each other on some level even if it's not the healthiest or most normal thing"... but considering the history between these two? Though the story in itself is very fun and entertaining, it never fails to break my heart a little.

And in all honesty, I might end up writing fanfictions about them. Fanfictions full of angst and pining and conflicted feelings and "we were never lovers but oh god we could have been --- if you hadn't screwed up everything in the end, at least" college stuff with a mess of obliviousness and repressed feelings, most likely.

[shortkingvi]

You know what I was thinking? Everyone thinking the team is going to be upset with Jaune & side with ruby especially Blake is off base. Because if anything Blake and yang will be the ones who understand why Jaune did it because of the Adam situation. Both of them didn’t want to kill him, as evidenced by them both giving him multiple opportunities to walk away, but at the end of the day if they didn’t kill him they’d be dead instead. The point of that truck scene is they both don’t want/like to kill people but if they had to they would, yes even Blake. Remember she was going to behead neo, even if she didn’t like it but then she thought it was necessary, again very similar to Jaune’s situation when he first confronted cinder in 5. Jaune didn’t want to kill penny but at the end of the day he helped (I think there was a suicide trigger warning which would mean penny had to have done it) to ensure cinder didn’t get the maidens powers. I think because of what Blake and yang went through they’ll understand both sides Ruby’s pain of losing someone and want to help her but also Jaune’s pov of not wanting to kill but had to because of the circumstances presented. I think weiss will be the one to help ruby understand though because she was there and not the other two for a reason because now weiss can help support ruby and address them bringing up the lack of interactions with them.

going on the assumption that this is all the same anon but i think the repercussions of penny’s will less so be about choosing sides and more so be about grappling with necessary (hate using that word her but it makes the most sense) loss

jaune will have to reckon with knowing he might have to do things that hurt one to save others (which is why i think he’ll die) and ruby will have to look at life and sacrifice in war from a more objective lens. she’ll be hurt of course but i haven’t spent much time thinking about what her feelings will be because truly all my v9 brain can handle right now is bees kiss yes so true

i will say though that these themes of necessary or unavoidable sacrifice DO extend to the bees too. blake was gonna throw herself after yang but like, why? for all they knew it wouldn’t bring her back so i could certainly see and reshuffling of the rwby girls’ ethics and morals regarding always trying to save each other

heading into the endgame, their goal has to remain saving the world, not risking themselves to save each other, so this will present a really interesting ethical dichotomy in v9

[theredhairedmonkey]

Why does Callum end up using Dark Magic? Was it to save the dragon or save Rayla?

He does Dark Magic to save both the dragon and Rayla in equal measure, with the added bonus that he also does it to shore up his own insecurities.

I’m a sucker for plotlines where a morally upright character does something ethically wrong, and as you can imagine, I think there’s a lot to unpack in this one decision. So, let’s dive into each of these reasons.

1. For the dragon

Once Rayla connects saving the dragon to the “cycle of violence” speech he gave her in S1, Callum agrees with her.

Callum: “You’re right. If we’re really going to change things, we can’t just watch while humans and Xadia keep hurting each other.”

Rayla tells him that, to break the cycle someone has to take a stand. Once he sees the connection between what he told her and what she’s telling him now, he agrees that leaving the dragon behind is wrong.

Callum has always been the kind of character who prioritizes doing the right thing. Rayla noticed that right away:

Rayla: “When we met, he could have had me captured or killed. But he didn’t, because without knowing me or anything about me, he saw past human hatred and did what he knew was right.”

Even before meeting Rayla in 1x02, Callum argues with his stepfather about the coming assassins.

When Harrow describes how there have been wrongs and crimes done on both sides, and that Harrow is responsible for terrible things, Callum doesn’t try to disagree. He doesn’t attempt to justify his stepfather’s actions or try to remain loyal to his side of the conflict. Instead, he says:

This scene helps highlight Callum’s naivete (“You’re the king, you can do anything”) but also his good-naturedness. He’s not taking sides in the conflict or dismisses the hurt that his own kingdom (heck, his own family) had caused Xadia. He understands that some of the people in his life, the ones he cares about the most, have wronged the side sending assassins to kill Harrow. A wrong had been committed, and Callum wants to set it right.

Indeed, after discovering the egg, Callum let what he hoped was the right thing guide his actions. He chained up Claudia to prevent her from attacking Rayla. Callum then confronted Runaan, letting him train an arrow at his head as he had Ez show him the egg.

He then confronted and even threatened Viren, putting himself in the crosshairs of yet another powerful figure (someone Amaya believes “may be the most dangerous human in the world”) while trying set things right.

He risks great personal injury (and perhaps worse!) in doing the right thing.

When all else fails, he’s the one who proposes the group take the egg to Xadia themselves, leaving behind their homes, family, and friends to set things right themselves.

Callum: “It’s up to us now. We have to return this egg. We have to keep it safe and carry it to Xadia.”

And when he needs to, he sacrifices his newfound power to save the Dragon Prince.

All of this helps lay out how Callum prioritizes doing the right thing over almost everything, even what was, at the time, his only source of self-worth. As Rayla says:

“He sacrificed everything so Azymondias could be born.” 

When Rayla helps him realize why saving the dragon was the right thing to do, it frustrated him to no end that he felt he couldn’t help, even before knowing Rayla was going down there regardless.

But once he realizes that there is a way he can help.

He immediately bolts for the dragon. After taking Claudia’s spellbook, he looks through it to find the spell that would set dragon free, and then does it.

Callum does the right thing…despite knowing that the way he did it was wrong. And it’s precisely this motivation that Dark!Callum exploits to tempt him to continue using Dark Magic:

Dark!Callum: “You can have unlimited power, and you can choose what to do with that power. You can make a real difference in the world. All you need to do now is accept it.”

And it’s not until Dark!Callum says this that Callum is even remotely tempted.

And once he is tempted, it takes quite an epiphany for him to shake that temptation.

2. For Rayla

@raayllum lays out here how much concern Callum has about Rayla in this scene. But, it can be summed up with this line:

Rayla: “If I don’t come back, you and Ezran can get Zym to Xadia. I believe in you”

In general, Callum will go to extreme lengths to protect those he cares about. He wants to join the expedition against the incredibly dangerous assassins to protect his stepfather. Callum wants to dive after Ezran in freezing cold water, or will pretend to be him to throw an assassin off his trail. He’ll leap off a cliff and master a rare ability on the way down to save the love of his life.

In 2x07, when Callum hears Rayla say, “If I don’t come back,” he’s sent into a panic. He’s lost almost everyone he cares about in his life, and Callum is faced with the very real possibility that he’ll lose her too.

For this and other reasons (more on that below), we see him drawing Rayla. To give himself comfort that she will come back, but also upset that she may not.

So, it’s no wonder, knowing what we know about Callum, that he’s willing to take extreme measures to protect/save her too.

But that still leaves one final reason why he casts that Dark Magic spell…

3. For himself

Callum is his own harshest critic—while he has a good grasp on what the right thing to do is, he regularly questions his ability to do anything at all.

And these doubts are severe, enough to paralyze him or send him off the rails several times.

When he’s prevented from joining Soren’s mission to protect Harrow, Callum blows up at Ezran.

When he drives Rayla away and feels he is unable to save her from her own guilt, he gets angry at himself.

And here too, while Rayla goes off to save the dragon and Callum has been benched, he’s left fuming until breaking his charcoal pen sets him off.

Callum is not the kind of person who gets easily angered, but when he does, it’s almost always because he thinks he’s too helpless to change anything.

His drawings of Rayla help highlight something else besides how much he’s grown to care about her—he has her posing heroically as she leaps into danger because, deep down, Callum wishes he could be that heroic too.

It’s for this reason that he’s so hard on himself. Callum is a capable guy; his artistic talents and photographic memory are amazing. He’s able to improvise and plan rather well, is a good listener, and has an emotional maturity that surpasses many adults.

But in Callum’s mind, none of these things really matter because it wouldn’t help him, in his words:

“Be the heroes who stop all the fighting and save the day.”

As a result, he has a very skewed perception of himself—someone who is utterly useless, who isn’t brave or strong enough to make a difference.

In many ways, this reason is an extension of the first one—Callum is insecure because he knows what the right thing to do is, he just feels he’s too inadequate to do that.

And that pushed him to try Dark Magic. Without a Primal Stone or an Arcanum, Dark Magic was the easy way around all these roadblocks—it lets him do something he was great at (magic) without having to work at (and potentially failing toward) connecting to the Sky Primal.

Dark Magic makes him feel powerful. It makes him feel useful. It makes him feel like he can be a hero.

But it also feels wrong.

So, all three of these motivations are at play here—Callum’s desire to do the right thing, his desire to save Rayla, and his desire to be useful (which in a way is an extension of the first desire).

If you wanted to pick out one of these motivations as the primary reason, it would have to be Callum’s desire to do the right thing (i.e. “to make a real difference in the world.”). Callum is a good-natured kid; he really wants to make things right, and the gap between what he wants to do and what he thinks he can do is where his insecurities come from.

Callum is not tempted to try Dark Magic before because he understands, at least in theory, that it’s wrong. But the above reasons create a moment of weakness where he gives in and decides to use it.

But thankfully, there’s hope that the same thing that turned Callum to use Dark Magic is the same thing that would push him away from it. According to an interview here, Aaron Ehasz says the following about this moment:

“I think that, sometimes, the hero goes into the abyss before they can come out of it. I think he explored something dark, explored something that maybe he wouldn’t feel good about, but he may understand more clearly what he does now and what he’s accomplished having experienced the depths of a different kind of choice. So, I think it’s more about his character and the range of understanding he has. I do think you can’t mess with something like that and not have it stick with you. There’s something about it that will stay with him.”

My takeaway from these lines is that Callum, having tried Dark Magic once, realizes now better than most people why it’s so wrong. Much like how in other great stories (think Luke Skywalker using the Dark Side against Vader), Callum succumbs to his worst impulses and makes a devastating, almost fatal, decision.

But in crossing the line, he comes out the other side knowing just what his worst impulses are. He learns from his mistake, accepts that what he did was wrong, and grows beyond it. He now knows full well where he stands and knowing where he’ll go from here.

Callum: “Destiny is a book you write yourself!”

[somnilogical]

like the evil people at cfar & affiliates have no philosophical leg to stand on and they know it. all they can do is violate their wistleblower policy, try and make a narrative where they see which transfem they can dismiss as crazy / rapist / brainwashed. trying tentative exploratory lies in each direction. then when challenged being like "ah no i didnt mean it like that!! i love trans women!" and then doing it again.

ive documented so many of them. a lot of the lies were calculated such that it would be mortifying to repeat them even to correct them. like elle benjamin saying emma thought torturing children was hot. thats a lie. or kelsey piper saying emma was indistinguishable from a rapist.

but the correct response at these tentative tries at defamation is to repost them in full and drive straight against the expectation that you wouldnt want to repeat these lies aimed to eliminate people who could disrupt the social order.

here's kelsey piper comparing emma to brent dill, saying they are indistinguishable from a rapist for talking about philosophy on the internet:

https://pastebin.com/tje4hN33

heres emmas parse of it:

<<actual lintamande quotes simplified:

glass said [they tried to do what a] person really endorsedly wanted [...] even if the person claimed they wanted something different

[they may have been seeking social] proof that we didn't really have an ethical injunction against it

and part of my main concern about glass, etc. is that their priors seem really really off to me?

so if they say they'll use their social priors to decide when it's appropriate to violate peoples' preferences, I am more scared than if someone whose social priors seem sensible to me says that

combination of two things. one is that, yes, people's "this person is manipulating me and coercing me" detectors ping, at glass in particular, and asking people to turn down their 'this person is manipulating me and coercing me' detectors is a big ask and not always good for them

with comments interspersed about Brent so that people would associate me with him>>

lex (trans) noted this pattern about the chatroom:

<<[11:19] alexander: they’re like... kiiiinda incapable of criticizing the ethical positions of a trans woman without lowkey calling her a rapist. which is like all cis people ever but i’m not happy with it>>

heres elle benjamin choosing to "believe" the lie that emma thought child abuse was hot:

(emma was never let in the "feminist" group to...talk about their experience of being abused.)

heres elle benjamin talking about how much she loves trans women and has empathy for emma being abused. while lying about emma thinking child abuse was hot and lying about them having been violent and banning them from the "rationalist feminist" group they mod. (using the same excuse kingsley did when he said that he chose to believe the lie that anna salamon, president of cfar, wasnt involved in hiring at cfar. "oh someone else told me this." as if that shunts responsibility on to someone else for you believing obvious lies. (it doesnt. someone telling you stereotyped lies about minorities doesnt abdicate responsibility for joining in with the mob.)):

its all so deeply evil what these people are doing. but all they have is "for vague unspecified reasons its Deeply Wise not to listen to what these people say" *sage nod* "they are infohazards, glitches in the matrix, we should all agree on a social norm of ignoring these people." because they are actually wrong and will lose in a debate if they have to justify, say, why they are saying OpenAI and DeepMind have 'alignment teams' when they know thats not true. or why 0 trans women have ever been hired by cfar. or why miri lied about what happened to the fundraiser. or why who is baked in to an fai as morally relevant is determined by a political process, excluding those who have died and nonhuman sentience. or 1000 other questions they can not answer.

these exploratory tendrils of "what lies based on nothing can we get away with?" they also did this with somni and ziz and gwen, the lies they try have a pattern of being blatantly transmisogynistic. for instance patrick sensa lavictoire after sinking a marginal 71,000$ into a failed fundraiser, tried the lie of [ziz is a "gross uncle" style abuser like brent]. https://pastebin.com/TUZ7EThz

there are a lot of avenues people tried that i have catalogued. pete michaud (listed on the cfar staff page) tried saying that ziz was tall and anna was a ~small vulnerable cis woman~. one of these people is the president of a large organization.

<<I'll preface by saying outright that what follows is a full throated, shameless defense of Anna, my friend and colleague, against untrue and ungrounded accusations.

[…]

1. An accusation of Anna that might actually land is that she is a little fast to feel threatened in social situations. She is a woman who is unusually small and has dealt with minor physical disabilities from childhood. She is a full-grown, competent person who navigates life fine (probably better than most, frankly), but the sense of physical vulnerability has deep roots, and she carries it into her social interactions.

2. The context with Ziz is long, and importantly begins prior to Ziz's gender transition. Anna's perspective on a lot of their early interactions is as a small, socially-vulnerable woman, interacting with a male-presenting person who towers over her, and has a penetrating social presence and quite unusual mannerisms that are a combination of low-affect and extremely direct (a combination easy to interpret as aggressive or depersoning).>>

https://pastebin.com/Y5E8d29D

pastel (trans) commented: <<pete michaud's post is invalid

you don't have to read ziz's blog to understand that he is doing bullshit stereotypy

"full-throated defense" suck anna's cock a little deeper, buddy

"anarchists are scary and evil, they throw bombs and wear black">>

pete is a sycophant and probably since he hangs around anna is used to an environment where you can just be this transmisogynistic. anna certainly expected the strat pete is trying to work on ziz.

<<At WAISS, my intent to not be net negative was partially consumed by the intent of Anna Salamon to prevent whistleblowing, and by her timeless gambit that trans women must know our place as inferior to not be “dangerous”.>>

there are a lot more. all playing on transmisogynistic stereotypes, all not true or not relevant. probably the easiest coordination mechanism for ostracism these people could locate.

fortunately for the fate of sentient life in the multiverse, transfems have been talking with each other and know the metagame so when cfar affiliates push the button that activates the trapdoor to flush transfems out im just levitating above empty space.

they could have read the metagame too, but i guess all they would have chosen to see was painful infohazardous static. frying their brain, making their eyes bleed. which honestly is pretty metal. credit to porpentine for neurotype stenography. i know way more about their strategy than they do.

[itsclydebitches]

Let me start by saying that I love all of your meta and analysis soooo much especially the ones about Ozpin. I was curious to hear what what do you think are some legit motally grey things/mistakes he did, not the garbage the haters love to throw around. The only things I can think of are either in an impossible situation with only shitty options (where I don't really consider the decisions as immoral since morality needs agency and the chance of a better choice) like with Pyrrha and Oscar (1/2)

Thank you, anon! And honestly? I couldn’t agree more. I often say that Ozpin has made mistakes partly so that people don’t blow off the points I’m trying to make with, “Oh an Ozpin stan. Ignore her, she thinks he can do no wrong and thus can’t provide an objective opinion.” But honestly? Not all mistakes are created equal. There are mistakes one makes because they’re selfish, foolish, didn’t bother to take precautions---things that are preventable and therefore invite heavy criticism and an acknowledgment of responsibility. However, there are also mistakes that, as you say, are simply outside of your control. You don’t have the information available to make an informed and therefore better choice, or you simply just have bad choices from the get-go. For me, the vast majority of Ozpin’s mistakes are the latter. 

Overall, I think the largest mistake he bears responsibility for is prioritizing his love for Salem over basic ethics. AKA, choosing to become a wannabe god with her and encouraging this mentality that they are intrinsically superior to everyone else in Remnant. Granted, there are many other factors involved in this, including Salem’s status as a creature now consumed by darkness (she was heading down this road no matter what Ozpin may have done differently) as well as her abuse towards Ozpin, her manipulation, and the sheer overwhelming terror of the goal Light set him. Which just reinforces that all Ozpin’s mistakes are understandable to one extent or another. He’s human and his mistakes resonate because, if people are honest with themselves, they’d probably admit, “Yeah. If I found the love of my life again I’d be tempted to ignore Light’s warning about her too. If I was offered a life of luxury and power under the guise of protecting the people, I might cave and go along with that as well...” We get how Ozpin got to that point, we may admit we couldn’t have done better, but we likewise understand that the man he became, regardless of how he got there---from natural human desires to abuse---isn’t okay. As Oz and his host ask themselves, “What are we doing?” And we see how he comes back from that edge. How he rejects that sort of power later when it’s offered to him after the Kingdoms were reunited. Ozpin learned from his mistakes. 

Which adds further complications to his choices in the present day. Just as Ozpin learned that the world doesn’t need him as an all-powerful figurehead, he likewise learned that sharing secrets leads to nothing but the worst kind of consequences. The first time he reveals what he’s hiding? His wife announces that she’s going to take over the world, then murders their children, then him. A more recent time he reveals information? A very close friend betrays him to said wife. Tries to kill him. Nearly kills his allies. Is eventually killed himself. The latest time he was forced to reveal information? People are shouting, grieving, he’s punched into a tree, the one friend still at his side completely rejects him. 

The fandom points to Ozpin’s lies and secret keeping among the group as his greatest mistakes and yes, objectively I agree. Without context I can say no, he shouldn’t have made a promise if he didn’t intend to keep it. He should have just told them that there were questions left, or that the relic attracted grimm. But the thing is that context is there and it always matters. I’ve spoken before about how I think Ozpin made that promise with precisely zero expectation that he’d ever be put into a situation where he might conceivably break it, that I’d also hesitate to tell a group that there were invaluable questions left when they were clearly eager to use them recklessly (which they then did), and that keeping the grimm aspect secret was the only logical course of action because telling them would just attract more. But even ignoring all of the potential justifications attached to each choice, I simply don’t believe we can ignore Ozpin’s trauma. I might not have lied to people like that, but I haven’t been horrifically traumatized for a thousand years whenever I do tell someone information. Ozpin has been conditioned not to tell people and though yes, everyone technically has free will, trauma like that will “force” you to take what you perceive as the only safe option. It fucks with your perception and your understanding of what even is an option in this situation. Ozpin simply no longer has the ability to go, “I’ll trust them!” like the others around him do and their reactions certainly didn’t help teach him otherwise. Imagine that for a thousand years you’re punched every time someone lifts their hand. Then someone you’ve just met demands that you stop flinching whenever they raise theirs. No matter how much you may want to stop, you can’t. Not immediately on someone else’s order. The human experience doesn’t work that way. 

(As a side note, the reason why I emphasize a thousand years so much is because I believe the extent of the trauma and its implied consistency is really relevant here. As is the close tie between that trauma and Ozpin’s choices. There are many other characters out there who I don’t believe “But they had a hard life!” excuses their actions: Snape, Bakugo, recently what I’ve read of Yennefer---among others. It’s notable to me that Ozpin didn’t endure traumatic events by revealing information and then, say, go abuse his students for years. Or tell someone to kill themselves. Or take over someone else’s mind. Not only is his trauma more extensive than the vast majority of characters we meet, but he hasn’t used that trauma as an excuse to get away with horrific---and unrelated---choices. The love of my life rejected me and then died... so I’m going to abuse eleven-year olds under my care. My mom is demanding and people cater to me too much... so I’m going to gleefully beat up my weakest classmate. I dealt with being ugly for a good chunk of my life and now can’t have kids... so I’m going to take away someone’s autonomy and endanger a whole town. Unlike most other characters with tragic backstories, Ozpin has a one-to-one correlation between that hard life and the mistakes he’s made: people hurt me when I tell them things... so I just won’t tell them things. By keeping that strong connection it eliminates the possibility that Ozpin is just using his trauma as an excuse (knowingly or otherwise) and he is, notably, still a good person beyond those very specific choices. We see his horror at the decisions he has to make. We see his endless attempts to be as kind towards others as possible. We see how much he’s fought not to allow his trauma to warp him into a person he’d despise. A person like Salem. Just like not all mistakes are created equal, for me not all people making mistakes are equal either. I’m less likely to forgive your mistakes if you’re an all around horrible person. You’re clearly a good person trying your best? Your mistakes are easier to stomach and, as discussed above, I’m more inclined to assume that these mistakes stem from things outside of your control. If someone who has been nothing but cruel to me lied I’d automatically be pissed. If someone who has been nothing but kind to me lied, I’m inclined to ask them why they did that, expecting that there’s a good reason attached to that decision.) 

So did Ozpin make mistakes? Technically yes, but I think they were mistakes largely outside of his control. Either he only had shit options available to him or he was in a position where the group demanded something of him that his mental health simply wouldn’t allow. People have to remember that we’re not Ozpin (insert obligatory, “He’s fictional” here). We have more options available to us when it comes to our choices, simply by means of not having gone through what he has. His choices are always limited, both by outside factors and his own experiences, and they likewise always have inevitable downsides. Ozpin doesn’t get the luxury of choosing anything that turns out well. 

As a final note, with Volume 7 underway I’d say that another potential mistake has been introduced: making Pyrrha the Fall Maiden. Meaning, unless the story reveals that Winter actually can’t become the next Winter Maiden due to her age (unlikely given that others have said the non-canonical age limit is 30), it raises the question of why he’d choose a 17 year old over a 20-some graduate. However, to me this is pretty clearly a writing issue. The creators were more concerned with keeping the story revolved around RWBYJNR than they were the implications of having Ozpin choose Pyrrha over a more suitable adult. So though yes, I’d technically consider that another mistake.... obviously not much Ozpin could do against his own creators lol. 

Which finally leads to me saying that although Rooster Teeth seems to want us to believe that Ozpin is a morally gray character, they haven’t succeeded in writing one well. That characterization requires a fair balance between what most would consider “good” and “bad” traits. Not a good person presented with only bad choices. Or a character so horrifically conditioned that his ability to make a better decision is almost impossible. We wouldn’t call a person who was manipulated or forced into doing bad things a morally gray character, nor would we use that term if, somehow, they were sick and that led to those choices. That’s how I view Ozpin, mentally as opposed to physically sick. After a thousand years he needs evidence that trusting people and giving them his secrets won’t result in him being hurt. Until he’s shown that, expecting him to trust people just because they insist they are trustworthy is like asking someone with a broken leg to run you a race. They can try, but good look expecting them to succeed. 

[travllingbunny]

The 100 (re-) rewatch: 4x12 The Chosen

4x12 The Chosen

While this is the only penultimate episode in the first 5 seasons that isn’t supposed to be the first part of a two-part finale, half of the episode (the storyline with Clarke, Bellamy and the rest of the team on the mission to fetch Raven) is practically Praimfaya, part 1, while the A storyline feels like the season 4 finale for everyone who is still in the bunker(Kane, Abby, Jaha, Octavia etc.), although she gets two more scenes at the start of 4x13, before that storyline gets a direct continuation in the flashbacks of 5x02, Red Queen.  

This episode also feels like the culmination of Kane’s arc. After this, it seemed like the show didn’t really know what to do with him, except to make him a supporting player in the story of Abby’s downward spiral, which really begins here. (I do really like Kane’s final episode in season 6, though.) Jaha will get one last hurray in his important role in Red Queen, but after this, it feels like the leadership baton has really been passed to the younger generation.

My thoughts on the complicated grey moral issues from this episode and season 4 in general got too long when I finished writing them, so I’ve put them in this previous post. 

Other thoughts on the episode are below.

This may be my favorite Abby moment in several seasons: going back on her previous statement that “Maybe there are no good guys” (from the season 2 finale) and telling Clarke that yes, there are good guys, and Clarke is one. She is a hero. It’s also a sign of the show starting to show that moral relativism of that kind is not its final statement on morality. Sadly, Clarke does not quite believe her (as we will see in 5x01, she still tends to think “There are no good guys”, and even after changing her mind and accepting Monty’s message to “Be good guys”, she still doubts in 6x02 that she is one of them – even hearing Abby in her mind, voicing Clarke’s own guilt and self-loathing, telling her she is not one of the good guys.) Instead, she is looking towards Bellamy – wondering if he will forgive her (which he does, just a few hours later) and needing to know if he also thinks that she is one of the good guys.

I’ve always thought that the moment in 4x11 when she aimed a gun at Bellamy and burst into tears as she realized she couldn’t do it, was what finally pushed Clarke to fully understand and admit to herself how she felt about him. When we see everyone at the start of 4x12, Bellamy is brooding and looking at no one, while Clarke is hyper-focused on him.

This is the last time Clarke and Niylah see each other before Praimfaya and the six-year time jump – and it’s a bit sad that Clarke doesn’t even seem to say goodbye to her, but – even though Clarke did care for her and has tried to make sure that she survives, Niylah has probably always known that she was not one of the people Clarke feels most strongly for. That was already obvious in 3x11, when Clarke was focused on Bellamy’s emotional state (even though she had learned Niylah had lost her father). Niylah was a good friend (with occasional benefits) who provided some comfort to Clarke when she was traumatized by Mount Weather and wanted to run away from everyone, when she was grieving for Lexa and when she was feeling the pressure of trying to find a solution to save the human race from the upcoming end of the world, but it was also a way for Clarke to avoid the potential pain of a relationship with someone she really loves. In any case, this short scene is where Clarke barely even sees Niylah or can’t pay attention to her because her focus is elsewhere - is very telling.

Later on, after Bellamy, Clarke and others leave, Octavia saves Niylah when she almost finds herself thrown out by both Grounders and Arkers – which makes her later devotion to Octavia perfectly understandable. Niylah’s laid-back, kind and empathetic nature (she doesn’t blame the Arkers who wanted her to throw her out for being a Grounder and points out it’s a result of people being afraid) seems like a perfect foil to Octavia’s anger. Unfortunately, as we saw in season 5, Niylah proved to be way too adoring of Octavia and unable to challenge her and help her moderate her actions.

During season 6, I’ve seen a comparison made between Abby bringing Kane back through bodysnatching to Kane saving Abby against her wishes in 4x12, but I don’t agree with that: it’s a very different thing to have to actively kill someone you love, and I think it was very unfair of Abby to ask that of Kane. She could have committed suicide instead, like Jasper did. She was not able to do the same herself – she smashed the radiation chamber in order not to risk Clarke’s life, she opened the bunker because she wasn’t able to let Kane die, so why did she expect him to be that strong, or that able to turn off his emotions, to actively kill the person he loves?

What in the world made Jaha think that Octavia would respond well to him, of all people, appealing to her loyalty to Arkers as “her people”? This is the second time in season 4 that a Blake sibling has called out one of the Ark leaders for what they did to them back on the Ark (after Bellamy told Kane “You floated my mother” in 4x07), and I really liked that. Forgiveness is nice, but it’s even nicer when people are not pretending that everything has been forgotten.

We’ve had so many instances of Bellamy saying “My sister, my responsibility”, and in season 5 we’ll get Octavia saying “My brother, my responsibility”, but here we get a unique version of that with her saying “My people, my responsibility”- in the same meaning that Bellamy said “My sister, my responsibility” in 5x08 after poisoning Octavia. Is this the first time she’s called Arkers “my people”? In any case, one noticeable change from seasons 1-3 Octavia is that, in season 4, she no longer says she is a Grounder –which used to annoy me every time, because it made no sense. It’s not like that’s a lifestyle and you choose it and just need to decide you’re a Grounder. By season 4, she seems to have realized that Grounders will always think of her as “Sky girl”, so she doesn’t feel that she belongs to the either group. Until she decides to make them all into one group, Wonkru. (Not that this will end “Us vs Them” divisions – because the Eligius prisoners will become “Them” in season 5!)

It’s not just Indra who’s had an “Enemies to Lovers” relationship with guns! Grounders have now raided the Arker supply to get the guns for the expected battle with them. OK, but how many of them have had even the basic training? We know some did in the camp in season 2. Have they been training the others? Has Indra? On the other hand, not all Arkers are guards or former guards, or Delinquents who needed to train in season 1, and everyone (except maybe Bryan) from the Farm Station is dead, so I don’t know how many Arkers are that good with guns, either, and having half of the numbers of the present Grounders (many – most? – of whom were probably warriors, knowing what Grounder culture values) sure wouldn’t have helped.

I don’t know if this is the first time Jaha has allowed someone (Kane) to change his mind, but it is sure a rare moment, whether he did it because he realized that the last remnants of the human race killing each other a day before the apocalypse was bad for the human race, or because he realized that Arker chances were not the best and that they could have all been killed.

This episode has obvious parallels and contrasts with 1x05 Twilight’s Last Gleaming, and it bookmarks Kane’s arc really well. Unlike the first culling, which Kane deeply regretted when he realized it wasn’t necessary, this one is, but few people are volunteering to die this time. One exception is David Miller, taking himself out of the lottery to give his son more chance to survive – another example of a parent sacrificing themselves for their child, which recalls Tor Lemkin’s sacrifice for his daughter.

In the end, Clarke’s list did end up being significant, but Kane and Jaha still would have a few spots to fill, since some of the people on the list were not there (Raven, Clarke, Bellamy) while Octavia did not count, but since Octavia left them with 99 spots, giving one to Niylah, that means they had 3 spots to fill with others. One of them was Miller (who did get chosen in the lottery) and I’m guessing that the other two were probably also lottery winners that Kane had already announced before the riot started.

The show was still trying to justify its name, with this storyline of having to choose 100 people to survive. Then it gave up in seasons 5-6.

By the end of season 4, and Murphy and Bellamy were still not friends, and Bellamy still didn’t trust Murphy and thought of him as someone who cares only for himself. Clarke had, by that time, spent more time around Murphy post-season 2 and gotten to know him better, and be aware of his love for Emori. But Murphy’s change has been about having someone he loves, and starting to care for his friends – it’s never been about starting to care about general morality or the lives of random people he doesn’t know. He’s never been that guy, so his season 6 arc of wanting to become a bodysnatching Prime wasn’t really a big surprise.

(Interesting how we see characters say this line to or about someone they love._

Murphy was never troubled with ethical dilemmas of whether to sacrifice someone he loves to save a greater number of people, which also means he is really not troubled by the hypocrisy of being angry whenever he or Emori seem deemed disposable, while he’s at the same time treating many other people as disposable. For instance, in 4x08, he was very much in favor of testing someone for Nightblood, pointing out that it can save them all, and even admired Emori for getting that random thief to get tested instead of (potentially her) – and only became upset and angry when it was his girlfriend who was going to be tested. This time, he sounds points to Bellamy that he “killed them” (him and Emori) by opening the bunker, since they have no chance of having a seat saved for them. True enough, but what did he expect? That Bellamy would let his sister die to save him and Emori a spot in the bunker?

The reason Bellamy forgives Clarke pretty quickly after she tells him she’s sorry, is because he completely understands where she’s coming from. And he knows he means to her a lot. Just like he understood her motives in season 5, because he had been there himself – but what upset him in S5 was that he started to think she didn’t care about him. Which is why he immediately forgave her when he realized how wrong he was about that. Bellamy and Clarke can quickly forgive each other because they understand each other better than anyone and can empathize with the tough decisions they have to make.

In this episode, they go back and forth, discussing that issue, whether to try to potentially save everyone, or to save a close friend who would definitely die otherwise. First it was Bellamy calling out Clarke on having been willing to leave Raven out of the bunker to die. Later, Bellamy is the one to bring up saving everyone - suggesting that, if Nighblood works, they should go back so Abby could make everyone Nightbloods; and it’s Clarke who retorts that it would mean that can’t save Raven. (I don’t like when people exaggerate the whole “Head and Heart” thing to the point that they try to make it look like Clarke is always driven by logic and Bellamy by emotion. It is much more complicated than that.) But I don’t know how I’d feel if it turned out that they wasted a chance to save hundreds of people in order to save their friend. This is not the case though, because, as Clarke points out, it’s too late to see Nightblood tested – as it would take days – and they couldn’t even convince people to let them in the bunker if she was sick, let alone start making people Nightbloods based on that.

If Monty and Harper hadn’t come to save the group when they had lost their car, and instead had gone straight to Polis, would they have been left outside of the bunker?

One of the rare interactions between Clarke and Echo happen when Echo tells Clarke: “I was just trying to save my people. Was that so bad?”, and Clarke obviously empathizes with her. Clarke has constantly shown the ability to empathize with people, even her enemies. 

On the other hand, when it turns out that Emori’s suit has been torn a bit and she’s starting to get radiation poisoning, Murphy’s first instinct is to suggest to take Echo’s suit by force, and he points out that she had followed them and saved them just out of self-interest. Which is true, though I don’t think Murphy is right that Echo would’ve attacked them. That wouldn’t have helped her. I think she was waiting for a chance to prove herself useful, make them owe her, so they would let her in the lighthouse bunker, exactly as she told them. Quid pro quo. But the same is true of Murphy and Emori – they are also there on the mission because they want to ensure their own survival, so it’s interesting that Murphy – who tends to sees the worst in people – blames Echo for the same things he’s himself guilty of.

I remember someone arguing that Clarke didn’t sacrifice herself for her friends in 4x13, because she would have died anyway if he didn’t align the satellite dish. True, she would have, but let’s note the fact that Clarke had a guaranteed spot in the bunker and was going to be safe, if she hadn’t gone on the mission to save Raven.

Let’s also note the fact that Clarke gave her helmet to Emori, risking her life again (since she did not know if the Nightblood solution worked), saving both Emori and potentially Echo. Maybe Murphy, too, since I don’t see Echo just going down lightly and letting him take her helmet off. This is the second time she’s risked her life to save Emori’s, a fact that *cough* certain people tend to forget.

Let’s also note the fact that it was Clarke’s idea that they go to the Ring.

Timeline: This episode begins 23 hours before the death wave is to hit Polis, at least according to the characters’ calculations (though those have proven to be unreliable throughout season 4, as the death wave proven to be much faster than anticipated). It’s mentioned that the team going to retrieve Raven will need 10 hours to Becca’s lab on the science island. However, they lost a lot of time because of the attack, losing the car, problems with anti-radiation helmets, before meeting up with Monty and Harper and getting another mode of transport. By the end of this episode, they have arrived to Becca’s lab, and by that time, the death wave has already hit Arkadia, though that’s unimportant as everyone who was there was already dead or had left.

My re-rewatch has also helped me figure out the timeline of season 4 more precisely. At the beginning of 4x04, Roan says it has been 3 weeks since they made the alliance (which means, 3 weeks since 4x01). Since 4x02 was set 9 days since Clarke destroyed the City of Light, this means that these were rare moments when some time passed between episodes: 8-9 days between 4x01 and 4x02, and additional 10-12 days spent in doing repairs on Arkadia, before, during and after 4x03. But since 4x04, things have been happening very quickly: 4x05 started soon after 4x04 (the period of time Octavia needed to reach Arkadia after Ilian found her, and less than the Azgeda army needed to march to Arkadia from Polis), 4x06 on the next morning, and Clarke was already in the lab in 4x07, making it all just a couple of days. And in 4x07, the characters said the death wave was coming in 10 days. So, the entirety of season 4 lasted  just a little over a month (and seasons 1-4, minus the last few minutes of the season 4 finale – a little over 6 and a half months). Not only was ALIE wrong when she thought Praimfaya was coming in 6 months, but Raven’s assessment, made 9 days later, that it was coming in “2 months or less” was not entirely wrong only because it turned out to be less – half of that time.

Body count: Several desperate Grounders who were trying to steal the anti-radiation suits. (What were their further plans, if any? Where did they intend to find shelter during Praimfaya?) One of them practically threw himself in front of the car and was over by Bellamy. “As if he wanted to die”, Clarke said – and he probably did. I can see why a quick death by your own choice and helping your friends would be preferable to a horrific death in a death wave or slowly from radiation. The seven others were killed - six by Echo, one by Bellamy.

Hundreds of other people, including over 300 Arkers, were left outside of the bunker, so while they did not die in this episode, they were practically left for dead, which makes this episode one of the most heartbreaking ones. At least one of them chose it – David Miller, who gave his lottery spot to his son Nathan, in another case of a parent sacrificing themselves to give a chance to their child (which reminds me of the first culling and Tor Lemkin). Ethan’s father (the same guy who was giving speeches against Ilian in 4x06 and who now started the riot with Jaha) is certainly among those who were left outside, asking Jaha to take care of his son. Which we will, but not for long, as Jaha himself would die not long after, during Kara Cooper’s rebellion. Cooper’s husband was also among those left outside, while she was presumably counted as essential personnel.

Rating: 10/10

[adevilchained]

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓 — * LEGENDS NEVER DIE 

JAIDEV ACHARYA is a FORTY-ONE year old CIS MAN from CHESTER, UNITED KINGDOM. he makes a living as a HEIST COORDINATOR, which takes him away from the town a few times a year. while he’s CONTROLLED and LOGICAL, he’s also known to be RUTHLESS and CRITICAL.

𝚃𝙷𝙴 𝙱𝙰𝚂𝙸𝙲𝚂

NAME — jaidev acharya

NICKNAME(S) — jai (like exclusively introduces himself as that)

AGE — 41

GENDER — cis man (he / him)

ORIENTATION — greyaromantic bisexual

ROMANTIC TYPE — monoamorous

OCCUPATION — heist mission coordinator

NATIONALITY — english

ETHNICITY — indo-mauritian

RELIGION — atheist

HEIST MISSION COORDINATOR ?

that’s a long occupational designation. it’s nothing you’re going to find in books, there’s no school that will allow you to earn a degree in it. for the moment, it’s a self-designation. so what does it mean? in one simple word: thief. he can get you anything, on a 20% profit commission base. pay the man, and he’ll get a team together to break into anything you want, get you that thing you want, the money, the art, the diamonds, the blackmail, the illicit drugs, the weaponry. after he gets his money, whatever you choose to do with what he procured for you is entirely not his business, and beyond what he needs to know to complete his commission successfully, he’ll not ask questions. he simply does not care.

CRIMINAL MASTERMIND…

so the things he does happen, by and large, behind the scenes. a few of the duties he takes upon himself are: planning the heist in question; briefing his crew through the main and alternate plans; guiding his crew through mission objectives; coordinating with outside connections; covering up evidence; explosive work where needed; hacking work where needed; monitoring police dispatches and incoming radios; ‘enhanced interrogations’ when information is lacking.

𝙰𝙿𝙿𝙴𝙰𝚁𝙰𝙽𝙲𝙴

FACE CLAIM — mahesh jadu

HEIGHT — 6′3″ / 191cm

WEIGHT — 179lbs / 81kg

ACCENT — cheshire (british)

EYES — brown

HAIR — black

STYLE —  when loose, his hair falls past his shoulders, but it’s most often in a bun, making his undercut visible

THEY CALL ME DEVIL !

for the most part, jai is incredibly difficult to read. there’ll be no grand displays of emotion on his face; the emotion expressed will be small tells. flared nostrils, narrowed eyes, a jaw muscle jumping under his skin. his entire behaviour is carefully curated and monitored, to the point where immediate aggression won’t make him flinch. such things are weakness, after all, cracks in the armour, and a way for the hostile outside world to break through his mental defences. just like his facial expressions, so his words are curt and concise. he’s not one to mindlessly reply — words mean things, and he’ll not simply throw them around without intent behind them. a threat is not a bluff. a promise is never empty. sometimes thoughts are better left as just that; thoughts. and sometimes, you don’t need to speak of the dagger before you plunge it into someone’s gut. they’ll know why.

HELL BENEATH A TIE…

jai puts no meaning to the word ‘relaxation’, and it shows in his manner of dress. full suits, ties, pressed, steamed, cuffed; when he’s working, he’ll look the part. there’s very few people who will catch the man on off-hours, and indeed, some might contemplate if he even has any, or knows the meaning of ‘time off’. his idea of casual is a suit without a tie. his crew will know that when the suit jacket and tie come off and sleeves are rolled up to his elbows is when the real work starts. but otherwise, anyone might believe he even sleeps in a suit, and he won’t bother correcting them.

𝙸𝙽𝙲𝙻𝙸𝙽𝙰𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽

MBTI — intj

ENNEAGRAM — type 8w9

TEMPERAMENT — choleric

ZODIAC — scorpio

MORALITY — lawful evil

TRAITS — + / perceptive, independent, self-confident, resourceful, intelligent; - / forceful, unforgiving, condescending, pragmatic, cruel.

THE DEVIL WITHIN !

if jai is hard to read, then he’s harder to get to know. he’s private and business-like to a fault, and he doesn’t ‘fraternise’, with anyone. needless to say, he’s never claimed friends in his forty-one years of existence, and he’s fine to keep it this way. those who do know personal details about him have obtained this information through sheer patience; such information is extended at the same pace as a glacier shifts down a mountain. there’s a few things that are public knowledge about him, however. he’s thorough and a detail-oriented problem solver — one would think he’d value order and structure, but these are exactly two things he absolutely loathes. order and structure only has value in how far they can be exploited, and otherwise he prefers dynamism and unpredictability.

A PROMISE, A THREAT…

anyone with eyes and a working brain can attest to jai’s immorality. the idea of ripping life from another person doesn’t make him blink, especially if that person gets in between him and his goal. he likes hurting others, exerting control, causing fear, but certainly won’t go out of his way for it either. the duality lies in that his word is his bond. a deal is a deal, and he’ll keep to it; aside from delivering good work, it’s how he maintains his reputation. he’s exacting and critical of those within his inner business circle, but in the same breath, they earn loyalty and dedication. the same work ethic that leads him to maim, torture, and kill will lead him to protect, avenge, and care for those under his charge.

𝚆𝙰𝙽𝚃𝙴𝙳 𝙲𝙾𝙽𝙽𝙴𝙲𝚃𝙸𝙾𝙽𝚂

SHEPHERD OF FIRE !

CLOSE ASSOCIATES — jai has a short list of people whom he relies on to fill his commissions; while not everyone within his crew is called upon for every job, they’re generally the people he trusts professionally and the first ones to get a call if their particular expertise is needed. he’s loath to outsource, and will only do so at the recommendation of members within his crew.

THE BLACK MARKET !

BUSINESS ASSOCIATES — an artist needs his commissioners. jai needs business associates, past, present, and future. someone who commissioned a job from him, or a job that’s just complete and only debriefing and payment remains. perhaps someone looking to hire his services. whatever it is, whatever the job or the goal, he needs it.

THE UNKNOWN !

OUTSIDERS — people to whom his reputation does not precede him. people to whom he is simple a man, albeit a very harsh one. relations that don’t revolve around work, a budding kinship. enemies to friends. friends to enemies. sexual relationships of whatever kind. call it.

[mwolf0epsilon]

Out of curiosity, what are your favorite companions out of all of the Fallout games, and why?

Fallout

The Original Dogmeat (After looking into it, it feels like this ornery dog had a lot more personality than the available human companions, enough so that he made a comeback in FO2.)

Fallout 2

Goris (A sentient and intelligent albino deathclaw scholar that wears a robe to hide his appearence from trigger happy assholes. What's not to like? Goris is an interesting character and I hope there will be another deathclaw companion in a future game!)

K-9 the Cyberdog (Cyberdogs are cool. Talking Cyberdogs with good moral compasses? Even better! Super pissed the NCR ended up destroying him to gather Intel on the Enclave. That's something I'd expect from the BoS instead, and it's left a bitter taste in my mouth. Rest in peace you poor pup.)

Fallout 3

Butch Deloria (He was an asshole and a bully during his and the Lone Wanderer's childhood, but you can't deny he isn't loyal to a fault. He's still a bit of an asshole with an unobtainable greaser teen dream, but honestly he's not that bad considering he was neglected as a child thanks to his mother's alcoholism. If you scratch his back he'll definitly scratch yours, even if he pretends he's not a goody-two-shoes like you. Plus he can give you a haircut, who wouldn't want a personal barber out in the Wastes?)

Charon (His situation is an uncomfortable moral conundrum since he's basically a brainwashed slave by anything but name. Oxhorn put it best in his video on Charon's situation, and I agree that the only good thing you can do for him is buying his contract and doing good out in the Capital Wasteland with him as your companion, as a form of atonement for any past shady/cruel actions his former employers have had him perform.)

Fawkes (A super mutant who may or may not have been a man named Shelton Delacroix, Fawkes is unfortunate in the sense that he was alienated by his fellow vault-tec security officers for having a conscience, and then alienated by his super mutant kin for being uniquely intelligent and kind. To add to these tragedies, Shelton was apparently married so Fawkes has a wife he can't recall who is either dead or a mindless super mutant herself.)

Dogmeat the Second (A loyal heterochromatic cattle dog who would fight to the death if just to avenge his fallen master. Dogmeat is a scruffy scavenger and definitly man's best friend. You have to wonder if he might be a descendant of the Original Dogmeat with just how strong his personality comes off. Some dogs in the wasteland are definitely smarter than others.)

Fallout: New Vegas

Arcade Ganoon (A gay mess of a doctor with social anxiety and a lot of personal demons related to his origins. Arcade is an intelligent and interesting character in the sense that he has a deep-seated desire to help everyone, but knows the consequences of one's ideals outgrowing the needs of others. He's grateful to the Enclave Remnants's loyalty to him and his mother, after his father passed away, and he definitly considers them his family. That in itself is an issue because the Enclave's sins will follow and haunt him for the rest of his life, even if he was just born into that life and not one of the people commiting atrocities.)

Craig Boone (His story is the typical wasteland hardened ex-soldier. He committed atrocities that left him mentally scarred and suffering from PTSD, lost his wife who was the only good thing in his life, his need to avenge her has left him dangling between cold-blooded killer and decent human being, and on top of that he's a bit of a cynical asshole. Still a pretty cool companion to have around, and honestly it feels nice to have him around doing some good for the Mojave wasteland instead of stewing in his depression and self-hatred. His sniping skills could help a lot of people with the Courier's encouragement.)

Lily Bowen (She's a super mutant elite spy soldier. She's also a sweet old granny with schizophrenia and a murderous imaginary friend. Lily is another tragic character who's story pulls at your heartstrings, and the three choices regarding her meds are another moral conundrum. Again I'd recommend Oxhorn's video on her story, since I wholly agree with his assessment on what choice is actually the best for her.)

Rex the Cyberdog (His background before he joined the Kings is shrouded in mystery, with the Legion's faded mark painted on his armour platting. Rex is a loyal pup with a hate for rats, hats and people who wear hats. His greatest ire is probably reserved for rats with hats. His recruitment story arc is also pretty interesting and it definitely affects his personality and endings. If you have Old World Blues and construct Roxie the Cyberdog he even becomes a father of a litter of "Boston terrifiers"!)

ED-E (Honestly it's my love for robots that make this little damaged travel companion so appealing. His mission is interesting, and the cashe of Enclave Intel he holds can be benefitial, but most of his endings point to ED-E continuing his journey eventually so there's a sadness with letting this little guy go if you get attached.)

Fallout 4

Preston Garvey (All Preston has ever wanted to do was help make the Commonwealth a better place for people to live in. He's a selfless man who joined a militia at age 17 to do some good, and it honestly breaks my heart that the Minutemen collapsed as hard as it did. Preston had to watch as the ideals of the Minutemen were crushed underfoot by a bunch of selfish assholes, along with an entire settlement of innocent people. He did everything in his power to keep the only four survivors safe and alive, and he's clearly traumatized, depressed and suicidally throwing himself at danger because he'd rather die fighting the good fight than caring for his own safety. He puts everyone else above himself and it infuriates me that people are so hellbent in painting him off as a bland character or a pest. Oxhorn puts it best in his profile of Preston.)

X8-88 (The Institute's top of the line Courser, the closest the Commonwealth will ever get to the Terminator, and livable despite his cynical remarks and persistence that he's incapable of emotions or attachment. It saddens me that X6 is only obtainable if you follow the Institute. It also pains me that if you do manage to befriend him and destroy the Institute, you're destroying this loyal synth's only home. You're basically stripping away everything he knows and believes in, inherently doing what the Institute has done to the Sole Survivor: Taking their life away from them. It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth...)

Nick Valentine (Moral conundrums are painful. Ethical conundrums are just as bad. Nick didn't deserve anything that happened to him, and it's obvious he struggles with his identity and purpose but chooses to follow in the Original Nick's footsteps to do some good, rather than hide away and mope. He's a good person overall, even if he's a bit of a smartass sometimes. He's the perfect robodad for anyone in need of a fatherly figure in the Commonwealth.)

John Hancock (This man has a lot of emotional baggage and has made a LOT of bad choices, but if there's anyone you can trust to be loyal and helpful out in the wastes, it's definitly Hancock! His crude humour and liberal use of drugs and knives to deal with his problems can be a bit off-putting, but Hancock will defend you no matter what. Heck, he would even defend Danse from the BoS and the guy's a racist dickbag to him from the very moment they meet. That says a lot about his character.)

Codsworth (He waited for the Sole Survivor to return. For 200 fucking years. Please be kind to him, he's probably one of the nicest companions and also one of the most lovable too! He is the friend you'd wish you had if you ever found yourself in the same situation as the Sole Survivor. Cherish Codsworth, he's all you have left, and he'll protect you to the best of his ability.)

Dogmeat the Third (A brilliant genius dog that is very likely a synth. Dogmeat, like Codsworth, is a lovable guy and should definitely be cherished. I'd recommend getting the "Everyone's Best Friend" Mod so that you can have him travel with you and another companion. It's almost like FO2!)

Deacon (He's intelligent. He's sneaky. He's a pathological liar with good intentions. Deacon is mysterious and charming, and definitly a little fucked in the head. I'd like to meet his plastic surgeon if they can make him flawlessly look like a woman and a ghoul, no questions asked. Oxhorn has a pretty interesting video that explores Deacon's character and intentions, if you're interested!)

Paladin Danse (I'll admit I wasn't all that impressed with Danse when I got my first impression of him. He's rude, he's impatient, he's condescending, and worst of all he is an asshole to anyone just a bit different from him. Still, the plot-twist left space for this racist Buzz Lightyear knockoff to go through some personal growth. The years of militaristic indoctrination will probably take a while to be resolved, but Danse IS redeemable if given time. He's not inherently evil, just in dire need of a tolerance lesson.)

[taggedmemes]

SENTENCE MEME ⟶ REVOLTING PEOPLE / 3.01 always feel free to tweak the sentence to fit your muse.

‘what month is it?’

‘you ever do that? forget what year it is?’

‘i drink to numb the pain.’

‘none taken, you insensitive pig.’

‘you planning to step in and stop their frolicking?’

‘if they want to do that they can go to the churchyard and do it behind a gravestone like any normal young couple.’

‘why’re you looking at me like that?’

‘that’d be disrespectful. as was once pointed out to me.’

‘no doubt my fame goes before me.’

‘now, don’t be modest.’

‘it was a shame about the massacre.’

‘you seem familiar.’

‘have we met?’

‘the man brought shame on our family.’

‘yeah, he has quite a few twin brothers who’ve brought shame on his family.’

‘would you like to buy something?’

‘they’re playing cards.’

‘perhaps you’d like to go.’

‘i just like the way you whistle, it’s very melodious.’

‘but his whistling has no melody whatsoever.’

‘have you heard about our cheese museum?’

‘what a delightful surprise! i wasn’t expecting you.’

‘i have much to be contrary about.’

‘i can speak when i choose.’

‘why have you not replied to my letter?’

‘it’s what made the royal family what it is today.’

‘i don’t want to.’

‘don’t want to? what does that have to do with anything?’

‘she’s got a face that can stop a clock!’

‘women are not things.’

‘how would i know? nobody’s asked her.’

‘she doesn’t give up, does she?’

‘your days are numbered.’

‘i’m gonna lay down.’

‘hello birds. hello clouds. hello girl with parasol.’

‘please don’t stop what you’re doing on my account.’

‘what are you doing?’

‘i’m staring at the sky. i like staring at the sky.’

‘my name’s... no, wait, it’ll come. _____!’

‘i wish i was big.’

‘that sounds exciting.’

‘everything sounds exciting to me.’

‘i’m afraid it’s actually rather tedious.’

‘sometimes i think about how pleasant it would be if i could just go on a killing spree and butcher all of them in their sleep.’

‘you have deep, sensitive eyes.’

‘do you want to see me wrestle a bear?’

‘it’s such a warm day, do you think it’s wise for you to wrestle a bear without taking your shirt off?’

‘i think you should take your shirt off.’

‘the flame of liberty is going to engulf you.’

‘impressive speech.’

‘she’s also a rebellious traitor.’

‘she’s bewitched you!’

‘that’s my brother you’re talking about!’

‘you went out with a nine foot tall woman?’

‘she kept saying i should have mentioned it.’

‘being married sounds like fun!’

‘he’s not a moron, he’s... he’s small-brained.’

‘well, he makes a good exit.’

‘they’re young, there’s no harm in it.’

‘do you believe in love at first sight.’

‘sometimes she imagines all the cynics having their livers torn out by giant metal birds!’

‘can we have jugglers at the wedding?’

‘are jugglers expensive?’

‘he can’t get married; they only met an hour ago.’

‘what did i do to deserve that?’

‘are you going to talk about the terrible hand that life has dealt you?’

‘we have this thing called knocking.’

‘i can tell that you’re a man of experience from the fact that so many of your limbs are missing.’

‘you look like you’ve played the game of life. and lost. heavily.’

‘your opinion is of no interest to me.’

‘you are of no interest to me.’

‘i shall do no such thing.’

‘love is a powerful thing.’

‘do you think i’d sell the future happiness of my loved ones for fifty pounds? i’d never do that.’

‘you’re not listening. i said i would never do it.’

‘that’s it. get out!’

‘____, give me a term of abuse.’

‘you rushed me.’

‘who does he take me for?’

‘what’d you say that for?’

‘why would anyone in the future want to listen to this conversation? i’m here now and i don’t want to listen to it.’

‘have you been at the funny tobacco again?’

‘it’d be wrong. and it’s not right to do wrong, right? it’s right to do right, right? that can’t be wrong.’

‘it’s not my place to interfere.’

‘it does throw up an interesting ethical question.’

‘i’ve a feeling that the old testament says that accepting money to end foolish romances is morally justified.’

‘jesus said it was compulsory.’

‘you wanted to see me?’

‘don’t worry, that was an old chair.’

‘i wouldn’t trade this feeling for a thousand pounds.’

‘whenever i’m with her i feel all toasty. and marmaladey.’

‘you don’t even know about the birds and the bees.’

‘i know all about the birds and the bees. that’s how babies get made.’

‘the bees grow the baby in their hive and then get the birds to deliver them to the mummy.’

‘what the hell is that?’

‘i don’t want to know. nobody does.’

‘see what you’ve done with your revolting diagram!’

‘i love her. and i love the way she makes me feel.’

‘don’t make me give all that up. or i won’t ever eat again! unless it’s pie. i like pie. but apart from that, nothing!’

‘sensitively handled.’

‘you know nothing about affairs of the heart.’

‘it won’t work.’

‘stay away from lightning, it smarts.’

‘i’m not scared of him.’

‘why are you trying to turn me against my own heart?’

‘i don’t understand why you’re doing this.’

‘america is basically just cornwall.’

‘and will you a, be put up against the wall and shot, or b, just shot with no wall in the vicinity?’

‘you must end it now. before it ends in tears. not to mention that hail of bullets.’

‘go home.’

‘you’ve not been to england, have you?’

‘fate is stacked against our love.’

‘he puts it about.’

‘we’ve had to confiscate his canoe.’

‘he thinks babies are grown in beehives.’

‘i find all this hard to believe.’

‘i don’t understand what you’re getting at.’

‘he disinherited me.’

‘what do you think, ____? what sort of person would do that? what sort of lying, interfering person would do something like that?’

‘i don’t know who you’re referring to, but he sounds like the sort of bloke who might push your teeth down your throat.’

‘i think that’s just the way he walks.’

‘i’m gonna do something adolescent. i’m gonna carve her name on my forehead with this hunting knife!’

‘this is all my fault.’

‘this is my responsibility.’

‘could you put down that knife?’