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electronickingdomfox · 7 months ago

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"My Enemy, My Ally" review

Romulans stole Spock's brain! (or at least, some Vulcan brains)

Novel from 1984, by Diane Duane, and the first of the five-book series Rihannsu.

The plot itself is okay: the Romulans have a new devious scheme (capturing Vulcans to extract the telepathic abilities from their brains), and the Enterprise must stop their plans. Only this time, Kirk will have to collaborate with a bunch of good, renegade Romulans to succeed. It's not terribly original, nor it's the first time that Kirk has allied himself with Romulans in these novels, but as a plot it's entertaining. However, the narrative drags a lot, specially in the first half of the novel, and it takes a reaaally long time to set things into motion. In part, this is due to a "tell, rather than show" approach. For example, there's a lengthy conversation about how the Enterprise and its Romulan allies are going to stage a fake battle between both ships, in full detail. And then a lengthy description of the ships doing just that. One of these two segments isn't needed. There's also a lot of fluff, specially in scenes at the Recreation deck, and plenty of new character introductions, that don't lead anywhere nor have any real importance. A lot of the new character roles could have been filled by the usual crew, anyway. Now, I don't think that a novel should just be barebones plot, but I didn't find these "extra" scenes particularly entertaining nor enlightening. So in my opinion, this novel would have improved greatly if it was cut short. Though the later sections suffer less of this, and are more focused.

The story is notable for introducing a lot of new material about Romulan culture, and specially language (which seems to me even more unpronounceable than Klingon). In fact, most of the time Romulans are referred to as "Rihannsu", which is the name of the race in their own language. I don't know to what extent Duane developed the grammar and vocabulary, but it seems to have a certain structure to it. There's also much emphasis on the power of names over things and people, and some glimpses into the Romulan worship of Elements. A lot of this has probably never been incorporated into the series, but Romulans having several names (of which only the first is revealed to strangers) seems to have its origins here.

As for characters, the most developed one is Ael, the Romulan commander that strikes an alliance with Kirk. At times she comes dangerously close to Mary Sue territory (for example, beating McCoy at a game she had just learned, despite the doctor being skilled enough to beat none other than Spock). But otherwise, she's fine for her role in the story. In many ways, she's both a mirror and a foil for Kirk, suffering also under the weight of command, and the difficult decisions between duty and her crew's wellbeing. Though not exactly a tragic character, there's also a lot of sadness and burdens in her past. On the other hand, Kirk rubbed me the wrong way. Or rather, his relationship with his crew. I found it way too lax and informal, and sometimes it seems he's more like a cool dad for them, rather than a Captain. Kirk in the series had his goofy moments, of course, and Shatner imbued him with much comedic potential. But nonetheless, there was always some gravitas about him, and a respectful distance with his subordinates. Even with someone as close as Spock, he was usually pretty formal. The only one who broke this pattern was McCoy, and that was precisely why their relationship was special. So yeah, I just don't see Kirk trading jokes with Sulu while under enemy fire, or receiving sassy remarks from Uhura, sorry. Also, as happened in The Wounded Sky, there's again a wide array of fancy aliens populating the Enterprise. I didn't mind them that much in the previous novel, since the story is so unusual, that it could have existed outside the Star Trek universe without damage being done. This time around... I've decided that I'm not a fan of this idea. Apart from being too distracting, Starfleet strikes me as a mostly human institution, at least at the time of TOS (after all, HQ is in San Francisco), and Spock often struggled being accepted among the crew. He was THE alien, and this led to isolation and even ocassional prejudices against him. Now, this wouldn't make much sense if the crew were regularly sipping coffee next to a gelatinous blob of tentacles... As for Spock and McCoy, they're mostly okay, though they tend to get overshadowed by the extended cast, and obviously, Ael.

I must be in the minority here, since most people seem to love this novel, but in general, I didn't like it much. Perhaps it's a consequence of having just read John Ford's masterful The Final Reflection, and his fascinating take on Klingons. Perhaps I simply don't care all that much about Romulans...

Some spoilers under the cut:

The first chapters switch perspectives between Ael and Kirk. While Ael reflects on her falling out with the Romulan Senate, because of her opposition to a certain revolutionary research, Kirk is ordered to patrol the Neutral Zone, as part of a task force. Ael has been "exiled" as commander of a shitty starship named Cuirass, crewed by shitty subordinates. But she keeps contact with her old, loyal ship Bloodwing, now commanded by Tafv, her own son. When news of the Federation ships arriving reach her, she sets her plan into motion. After sabotaging the Cuirass' systems, she escapes in a scout ship to Bloodwing. And the latter ship destroys Cuirass, whose crew she considers traitors to the Empire for their collaboration in the Senate's schemes.

After this, Bloodwing rendezvous with Enterprise near the Neutral Zone, and Ael asks permission to come aboard alone, promising some very important info. Then she explains to Kirk what's going on: The Romulan government has started developing a new weapon at the station in Levaeri V. They capture Vulcans and extract their brain tissue, in order to implant the genetic material into Romulans, and thus give them all their telepathic abilities, even enhanced. After leaving Vulcan centuries ago, the Romulans' divergent development made them unable to mind-meld, or do any of that cool Vulcan stuff. But now, with the new research, powerful individuals could read minds, control thoughts and subject any opposition. Ael believes this will ruin the Empire and its old code of honor. And in turn, will cause conflicts with both the Federation and the Klingons. Thus, she asks Kirk to "lend" her the Enterprise, to help destroy the research station. Her plan is faking a capture of the Enterprise by Bloodwing, then towing the starship into Romulan space and destroy the facility along the way. Spock confirms through a mind-meld that Ael's telling the truth.

Kirk is sympathetic with her cause, but refuses to go along with the plan, on the grounds that he can't intervene in Romulan internal affairs. Things change, however, when the Vulcan ship that was patrolling near the Enterprise is spirited away under their noses. Ael explains that its disappearance matches the modus operandi of Romulans. The Vulcans are being taken to the research station (and now I understand why Spock chose to serve in a human starship; Vulcan ships seem to have the worst luck, between being eaten by amoebas and now this...). Kirk can't ignore the matter anymore, now that the Vulcans are in danger, so he decides to go with Ael.

After faking a battle between Bloodwing and Enterprise, they proceed to Levaeri V. Ael's crew take positions in the Enterprise bridge, while Kirk and the rest of the officers play a bit of theater, faking their capture in the brig, to fool the escorts sent by the Empire. Once approaching the station, Bloodwing and the Enterprise suddenly turn against the escorts and destroy them.

In the last part, Kirk sends a large strike force into the station, to free the Vulcan captives and destroy all research with their brains. But meanwhile, the Enterprise is assaulted by a treacherous faction among Ael's people. Scotty, Chekov and Sulu must fight to recover the ship, while down in the station the battle continues.

Spirk Meter: 1/10*. There's a bit about Spock being particularly interested in the proceedings of Kirk's mind, while playing chess. But I can't think of anything else, and even this is really minimal.

There's also some Mcspirk. McCoy likes to study Kirk and Spock while they play chess, to delve deeper into their personalities and psyches. And when Kirk complains that, if Spock and McCoy keep babysitting him, he'll end up taking their hands, McCoy says that's okay with him. But warns him about Spock, and the kind of rumors that could run through the ship. Also, Ael observes that the three of them seem to share a single mind. Though that's downplayed by the comparison with the similar link between Ael and her son.

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #k/s #spirk #mcspirk

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tellthemeerkatsitsfine · 2 months ago

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Thoughts on Taskmaster s18e01, written as I watch it:

- It occurs to me, as I start the episode, that while it’s very very exciting that this season contains the guy who’s been my number 1 person on my Taskmaster wishlist for ages – Andrew Zaltzman – it also might be the first Taskmaster season ever where I go into it strongly disliking one of the contestants. I disliked Joanne McNally before s17 started, but I admitted that that was based on one story she told on one episode of Alan Davies’ TV show once, and it wasn’t fair to entirely judge her on that. By the end of the season she’d won me around, she was a lot of fun. I will be very, very surprised if Jack Dee wins me around by the end of the season, as my dislike for him is based on quite a bit more than my dislike of Joanne McNally was. But we’ll see how it goes. It’s fine. I don’t need to look at Jack Dee. Too many good people in the other chairs. Obviously Andy, I like Rosie Jones a lot too, Emma Sidi I’ve vaguely liked for ages from Radio 4 but I saw her live in Edinburgh this summer and thought it was one of the best shows of the year. And I know very little about Babatunde, but if he lets women talk while they’re on TV with him and doesn’t give interviews about the evils of cancel culture, then he’s got to be better than Jack Dee.

- Oh my God it’s Andy on TV!!! Okay, besides that, my first reaction to seeing him is to say – I think I once saw a relatively recent picture of Andy Zaltzman in which, for whatever reason, his hair looked extra white. Because when I picture the recent versions of him, I picture him with entirely white hair. So every time I see an actual recent picture of him, I’m surprised to see that it’s still visibly red, even if it’s greying. There’s also more of it than I thought. In fact, I think his hairline is in the same place as it’s been since about 2006. 2006 was the year (maybe one of a few years) when he had a stand-up bit about how some people ask him if his curly red hair is a wig, and he replies that if he were going to wear a wig, he’d choose a wig without a receding hairline. But it appears that it receded until 2006 and then stopped there for nearly twenty years. Okay, I promise that is the longest paragraph about a comedian’s physical appearance that I will write on this blog.

- I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I think the funniest ways for Greg to do his little insulting introduction of Alex are to imply he’s right-wing. It should have gotten old by now, but it hasn’t. Good start, saying he finds women’s sports boring.

- Alex Horne opens with that Jack and the Beans Talk pun, that’s got to be the most contrived pun ever used on Taskmaster. Just trying to show off for the pun master Andy Zaltzman. You won’t win, Alex.

- Look, if someone else had brought in someone else’s lungs for a prize task with a remit of “best thing that’s been inside you”, I would say exactly what Greg said, which is “Those lungs have not been inside you.” I’m usually a stickler for prizes that stick to the instructions, it annoys me when a prize wins despite not fitting the exact wording for the remit. However, because it was Andy Zaltzman who brought those lungs in, my reaction is: “Come on, Greg. Of course he’s putting his own personal lungs up as that prize. Do you know how seriously Andy Zaltzman takes sports? Clearly what’s happened is the first thing Andy Zaltzman’s done on Taskmaster is threaten to die for it.”

- I will be annoyed if Andy’s marked down for his prize because those specific lungs haven’t been inside him, and Babatunde isn’t marked down for the same reason. I do not believe he has personally eaten and vomited up that specific food that’s on the prize task table.

- I will accept Emma’s prize as fitting the remit. She didn’t physically bring in her ex, but I believe she fairly represented him, and the thing she represented was her actual ex, not just some other guy who’s never been inside her but is also a guy.

- To be fair to Jack Dee, he is the first person to bring in a prize that has actually physically been inside him. However, this is the sort of thing that annoys me, because the task remit was not just “thing that’s been inside you”, it was “best thing that’s been inside you”. Obviously that toothbrush does not qualify as the best of anything.

- Well done, Rosie. The only person to bring in a prize that has actually been physically inside her, and is a good thing. That should be five points. Though I’m still pretty impressed by the power move from Emma Sidi in bringing in a sex-based prize for her first episode. I guess she didn’t know that would be the first episode when she picked the task. Still, pretty funny.

- I largely agree with that scoring. Though as they’ve both not been inside someone so are equal on that and should be judged on the best thing, I think lungs are better than food.

- Okay, I got so caught up in the intrigue of that first task that I watched the entire thing without stopping to write anything. Having seen it all now, I have a few comments. First, I’m a little confused about why it said they can’t read the instructions out loud, as none of the instructions had a word beginning with Q. But I guess it was maybe to discourage speaking in general, to decrease the chances that they’d all accidentally say a Q word? Some of the contestants seemed to think it meant they couldn’t talk at all, even though the task never said that, just that they couldn’t read the instructions out loud.

Alex offered quite a lot of help in this one. Correcting some of them when they got the letters in SEAL wrong, or at least telling them that the letter was incorrect and to try again. I can see why because it would have taken ages otherwise, but that is a little way in which I find myself liking the NZ and AU versions over this. The Taskmaster UK allotted task times have got shorter and shorter over the years; NZ and AU regularly give them 45 minutes or an hour to make something, while the UK hardly ever does that anymore. I assume that’s to save on production costs and things, make thing shorter, but it is fun when they can take their time and make something bigger. And it’s also funny when they can let a contestant struggle for like two hours. Similarly, I’m not sure Paul Williams or Tom Cashman would have gone to get a second seal for Jack. Might have just made him stumble around until he accidentally said a Q word. Which it turns out he did almost immediately anyway, so shouldn’t the clock have been stopped at that point, if that was the end of the task? Also, to be far to Jack Dee, I have to admit it's pretty funny that Jack Dee got to light shit on fire in the very first pre-filmed task.

Anyway, Rosie Jones is killing it in the task as well as the studio, declaring that she has to smile because she’s so happy/doesn’t want to look dead. Though Emma Sidi’s probably the main one standing out so far, I was not expecting her to have such a… I don’t know how to describe it besides “forceful presence”, in the studio. I cannot stop looking at her and I think I’ve laughed at everything she’s said so far. Possibly a bit of that is because she’s got quite a distinctive voice and every time she uses it I remember how hard she made me laugh the last time I heard that voice, in Edinburgh last month. Also I might be in love with her.

My other comment is that I love Andy Zaltzman being upset with himself for missing a perfect opportunity to say the word “quesadilla”. Also being audibly annoyed when he had to remove a cricket glove to count words.

- Where the fuck is that location? I’m sure I can work this out by Googling, that is clearly an actual theme park and I can just look up which one they went to, and I will do that after I finish the episode, but right now, I will say again: where the fuck are they? I’ve not seen anything except the initial few shots of this location task, and I already think this is my favourite location in years. Favourite since the airport, at least. Top few ever. What the fuck, guys? There is so much going on. I’ve recently re-watched all six seasons of BoJack Horseman, and this looks like the nightmare theme park that Todd built that one time.

Also, that opening shot of Andy Zaltzman coming up the grounds in full cricket gear and waving his bat around. I told myself I won’t do screenshots in these posts, because I used to do Taskmaster liveblogging posts that were full of Gifs and screenshots but those make the whole episode take like four hours to watch, while doing text-only liveblogs are shorter. But I need to draw everyone’s attention to that shot of Andy Zaltzman waving his cricket bat around.

No one has ever dragged their own props around on Taskmaster before. Andy Zaltzman has invented a whole new dimension to the game because his cricket obsession is so powerful. It feels like this shouldn't be allowed - contestants are generally not supposed to bring their own things that could help them in the tasks (they've occasionally used phones before, but that's generally considered to go against the spirit of the game). Is a cricket bat an advantage in Taskmaster? I guess we'll find out.

- While I’m here, one more quick exception to my “no screenshots” rule:

I noticed this when I was in England last month - there's a surprising amount of tropical fauna out there. Mainly in the form of bushes with those spiky leaves, but sometimes there's just a straight-up palm tree. Like this thing behind Andy Zaltzman. Did everyone else know that England has palm trees? They weren't everywhere or anything, but in the four days I spent exploring London, I saw enough for it to be a pattern. And there's another one, in this screenshot. Why does England have palm trees?

- In the first task, Jack Dee had to stare at a camera without smiling. In the second task, Andy Zaltzman gets to throw a cricket ball. Are they all going to get something tailored to be what their comedy persona is supposed to do well? Will the next task involve them all playing characters, for Emma Sidi?

- I think Andy used to cricket bat to bring the tin closer to him, so I guess they are just letting him use that thing in tasks. Also, I greatly enjoyed watching him throw things at fences while narrating his ideas. And stroppily throwing a yoga ball at the end, and then over-dramatically hitting his pads. It is so unnatural to see Andy Zaltzman play for the camera like that, it’s really funny

- The reveal of how he actually did very well, followed by him complaining that he’s supposed to get the stats right – also very funny.

- First “Alex breaks and has to hide his laugh behind a clipboard” of the season: Babatunde throwing the yoga ball way too far and it going over all the cans. Good stuff.

- I’d wondered how they’d do this season with Rosie’s disability – if they’d adapt the tasks to be ones where you can do them just as easily with cerebral palsy, or if they’d give her accommodations to level the playing field. According to this task, they seem to have gone with… neither. Which is pretty funny. I mean, that’s not how anything should work in real life. But if I take a moment to remember my belief that it matters who wins Taskmaster is only pretend, that’s pretty funny. And I assume it’s how Rosie Jones wanted it, as she’s built a career on making jokes about how she does things differently from others, and there are more opportunities for that this way.

- Love Rosie throwing her hat and coat at the problem.

- I love that Emma Sidi is the only one smart/patient enough to actually properly count all the cans. Absolutely not fucking around, just going right out and doing it properly. We’re all in love with her now, right?

- …I wrote the above point before seeing that Jack Dee did the exact same thing. It was less cool when he did it, okay?

- Emma’s “how do you summon skills that you don’t have?” reminds me of Mark Watson’s “I don’t know how to open this, and I don’t quite know what to do if I can’t” line from season 5. I think of that Mark Watson line probably, quite literally, at least once every two weeks. Because about that often, a scenario arises where I struggle to work out how to do something and am very aware that I have no backup plan. I think “how do summon skills that you don’t have?” will become relevant in my life about that often. Also, I liked Emma jumping on the yoga ball to get more cans. You do what you have to do, if you didn’t have the foresight to bring a fucking cricket bat.

- …Seeing Emma Sidi’s actual throwing ability, I might have to take back that thing I just said about her being the hyper-competent one. But those are always fun contestants, the ones with very high skills in some areas and very low skills in others.

- Oh fuck you. How dare you? How very dare you? What the fuck?

- Fuck you.

- Fuck you, Alex.

- Oh, I’m sorry that Andy is a serious sportsman, and if you hand him a cricket ball (I think he was actually throwing the golf ball when he stepped off the spot, but ignore that) while he’s dressed in full cricket gear, he’s going to do a proper throw, with a wind-up and torque and follow-through, because he has too much respect for the game to half-ass it, and I’m sorry if that doesn’t conform to your little Taskmaster rules, Alex!

- Fuck you. God damn it.

- …All right I’ve got to the next task where Andy Zaltzman has just hit a plastic bubble with a cricket bat, and that’s cheered me up a bit. At least they let him have a weapon. Andy Zaltzman is the first contestant in Taskmaster history who’s been allowed to just carry a weapon around the whole time.

- I’m liking the running joke of suggesting that Babatunde being a comedian means he can never do anything else. It’s a shame the new audience for each episode prevents Taskmaster from having too many season-long running jokes, because that would be a good one.

- Okay, Babatunde’s massive bubbles are genuinely beautiful. I sometimes blow bubbles for the kids where I work, and I get genuinely into trying to make one as big as possible, because the big ones are pretty. Babatunde using those big things to make things that are just straight-up huge bubbles is more beautiful than the clever gimmicks. But I suppose the daughter thing is a nice touch.

- Watching Andy’s bubble video, I was thinking: “What is this? What’s the French thing? Andy Zaltzman has exactly one voice that he does whenever he’s doing any character at all, and this French accent isn’t it. Andy Zaltzman does not do theatre kid sketches. He occasionally does sketches, but they’re always about colonialism or the state of public discourse or the uselessness of God or some shit. Not parodies of French film. What the fuck? Who is this person and what has he does with Andy Zaltzman?” Then he tried to hit a bubble like a snooker shot, and I thought, “Oh good. There he is.”

- Having now finished the French film, I can only agree with Greg Davies about it. Genuinely good. Andy’s right, snooker is beautiful.

- They’re grouping Rosie and Emma, meaning that I’m pretty sure in every task so far, Andy Zaltzman’s clips have been isolated, with the other four being paired as two and two.

- I was joking about the third task being a character thing to play to Emma Sidi’s strengths, but that’s pretty much what this is. I am immediately a fan of both the bubble gum fairy and the crazy lady in the bath. I think they should have a sitcom together.

- Emma Sidi’s “Sorry bitch” to Rosie in the studio just got the first proper laugh out loud of the episode from me. They seem to have immediately gelled nicely in the studio – the banter isn’t usually this good from episode one, especially given that I don’t think these people know each other from outside the show (maybe a bit, I assume Andy and Jack know each other, you’d think Babatunde and Rosie would cross paths, but they don’t seem to know each other well).

- Yep, you’re God damn right to give Andy’s video five points, Greg. He should enter that in film festivals.

- I am also down for Emma Sidi’s winking to become a season-long joke. For personal reasons.

- Emma’s got the second laugh out loud in a few minutes from me, in her little glare at Andy while reading the live task, and getting to the point where you have to stay on the spot. She’s brilliant.

- Third laugh out loud of the episode: Andy moving the spot over to avoid breaking the rules. I love how much they’re all getting into this in the studio. This is going to be a fucking good season.

- Rosie Jones’ reaction when she realized she’d drunk the vinegar – also very fun. This is so much fun. I do find it funny how much this task says about the contestants. Rosie and Babatunde go straight for drinking, figuring they can just try stuff and it’ll work out. Andy, Emma, and Jack try to work smarter by gathering information and figuring it out from there. That all seems to track with their overall personas. But in the end, Rosie gets it on the second try, proving the efficacy of the first method. Just go for it.

- Wait, so they’re not going to tell us what the clue was? Does that mean we should assume she was right and it was prime number? Because I want to know. “Prime number” would be a very Horne-esque clue.

- Well that was fucking excellent overall. I'm pretty sure I'm not just biased by my love of Zaltzman here, when I say that was a very strong first episode, better than most seasons. They usually take longer than that to fall into a rhythm in the studio. I cannot wait for more of this.

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ohtobeleah · 2 years ago

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Roll Of The Dice // Jake Seresin

Chapter Three: “100 Tales”

Summary: There’s a book that haunts Jake Seresin everywhere he goes. But is it the book doing the haunting or the person who had last been reading it that’s doing haunting?

Warnings: Jake Seresin x dead!almostwife reader. Jake Seresin Angst. Grief and loss of life. Haunted memories—paranormal activity? Slow decent into madness?

Word Count: 3.9k

Author Note: This series is totally 100% a self indulgent one but thank-you for reading along. I dunno how many parts I’ll end up writing but for now? Here’s another chapter.

Series Masterlist

Jake thought he’d feel better after a shower. He was wrong.

There’s a book that sits untouched on the desk in his dorm room. He never did bother to finish reading it. Too afraid of what he may become inclined to believe. It was the last book you had been reading before you left him so unexpectedly. To Jake Seresin there had been no greater definition of an unexpected demise than the fact you hadn’t even used your beloved bookmark to mark your chapter with—you’d been so busy that you just ear tagged the page, stopping in the middle of your sentence with a huff. Not bothering to continue reading on because you’d come back to it soon.

But you never got the chance to.

Jake remembers it like it had been just yesterday because he was the one who’d interrupted you. He’d been the one to draw you out of the compelling world of all things paranormal so that you could help him with the guttering that had become clogged with decaying leaves.

That was the last time he can remember seeing you pick up that damn book in his memories. Now he took it wherever he went, determined to finish it for you, in honour of you. But he was too afraid of what he may find on every page he turned. Too afraid that if he started to believe for just a second, he’d see you watching over him—but you wouldn’t be looking at him like he was the love of your life. No. Jake was terrified that if for a moment he faltered in his belief systems that ghosts aren't real and there was no life after death that he’d see you looking at him like he let you down. Like he was the reason you were gone, looking at him like he could have done something, fucking anything to save you.

Jake Seresin would boast he wasn’t afraid of anything, that nothing could scare him. That there was nothing on this earth that could confront him. But that was a blatant lie—Jake was afraid of something. He was afraid of what lurked in the dark. He was terrified of the shadows that followed him aimlessly, the noises that haunted him. The sounds that went bump in the night.

He was afraid of whatever was following him, a vengeful presence that lurked from the shadows. He was afraid of you. The version of you that you’d become, grown out of guilt and regret. But the thing was? Jake had made that version of you up in his own head. For you weren’t vengeful nor spiteful. You were simply stuck because Jake Seresin couldn’t let you go.

As you watched from the edge of the bed you’d decided to perch on, crossing your legs and letting your elbow fall against your knee. Your hand holding your head up tiredly—Jake paused in his tracks as he held the damp towel around his waist. Fresh out the shower that didn't help. You watched as his eyes lingered on the book he took everywhere he went. Deployment to detachment, it went with him everywhere.

“If you’d just read the damn thing you could just put it back on the bookshelf and save space in your duffel.” You sighed knowing that your pleas fell on deaf ears. Jake couldn’t hear you, he couldn’t see you, but you knew deep down he could feel you. He balled his first around the engagement ring that hung from his dog tags as he thought for a second if he should skip out on beers and burgers and stay in for the night. Finish the book.

Looking down at the book, Jake remembered the first time you’d read the introduction to him. Catching himself smirking at the moment, Jake allowed himself a small hit of serotonin as he took a walk down memory lane. Closing his eyes as he let out a deep sigh of heartbreak. Remembering the moment he really did think he had it all.

***~***~***~***~

(Austin Texas—The Seresin Household , April 24th 2019)

The water was far too soothing on Jake's aching muscles to protest against your actions. He’d had a long day and coming home to you running him a hot bath was just the cherry on top of a pretty exhausting but pretty good day. What he didn’t expect though was that you’d join him in the warm bath. Watching as you sunk into the water between his legs and let your back fall against his chest.

“I don’t remember sending out an open invitation, Dice.” Jake chuckled as you made yourself comfortable against his chest. Water lapping at the edge of the bath as you settled in.

“You don’t want me to sit here and read to you while you soak up half a box of epsom salt I know you poured into this bath when I turned my back?” Jake simply wrapped his arms around your torso, pulling you flush to him as he kissed your shoulder tenderly. “Hmm.” You sighed softly at the feeling, accepting that the gentle act of affection had been Jake's white flag. “That's what I thought, Hangman–” It wasn't all that often the two of you used your call signs as terms of endearment outside of work hours. But still–sometimes, they crept in. “I got a new book at the store I really like in the mall today.”

“Bookface?” Jake mumbled against your shoulder as he watched you reach up to where you placed the book on the vanity. Nodding in response, you sunk back against your soon to be husband.

“That's the one.” Jake was attentive to detail. He knew everything there was to know about you and then some. He was your best friend, your wingman, your love, your soulmate. He knew what time you set your alarm for every morning but knew the actual time you'd get up. About half an hour before you had to be out the door.

He knew that whenever you poured yourself a drink you'd never finish it. He’d always finish it. He knew all your favourite foods, all specifically from the same carbohydrate family. From pasta to pizza to pastries and more. Jake even knew that some fabric on the duvet covers you both had were better than others. He noticed that the silk set his mother had gifted you both had barely been used and sat at the back of the linen cupboard more often than not. You said the fabric was hard to twirl in your fingers and even if he didn't necessarily know what you meant by that, he understood why you rotated between three specific sets. They were all made of the same material. “So why don't you just lay back and relax and I'll read to you.”

“I feel like this is entrapment.” Jake tried to protest purely out of need to argue with you. He knew he could get a rise out of you quicker than anyone else could. That was simply because for two people who were madly in love you couldn't have been more opposite. The only things you shared in common with your finance’ was the fact you were both Naval Aviators, and you both knew how to Roll The Dice when it came to risk taking behaviours. “What's the book about?”

Your silence gave everything away. Jake knew when you hid the cover from him that it was going to be something he would usually hate. But now that you had him trapped in the bath with his legs either side of yours? He had nowhere to go. Clearing your throat, you began to read to your soon to be husband as the candle in the corner omitted a lavender aroma into the air around you. The beer Jake had brought with him collecting condensation against the class as it sat next to the bath on the little stand.

“For a long as human beings have been dying, they have been turning into ghosts.” You started with the introduction page as you settled into Jake. He pressed his lips together as if to stop himself from accidentally insulting your intelligence for believing in this kind of crap. “Or maybe they haven't. That’s the great thing about ghosts: Nobody knows if they're real, so they are endlessly entertaining like Bigfoot or Elon Musk.” Jake let out a short chuckle, the ruble radiating against your back from his chest. “Ha! You laughed, I'm off the hook.”

“It's good writing, doesn’t mean it's facts are substantial.” You let that comment slide as Jake's hands roamed your body under the water, settling once again on your stomach. “Keep going.” Even if the paranormal realm of possibility wasnt Jake Seresins favourite subgenre, he did enjoy it when you took the time out of your day to sit and read to him. It was a favourite pastime of his, his little bookworm. “Like your voice too much, could listen to you all day.” That just made your heart swoon. Cleaning your throat as you turned your attention back to the book in your hands, you continued on.

“Australian history is riddled with ghosts, which is unsurprising given that our nation's past is filled with violence and sadness and people dying in entertaining ways.”

“Hold up–” You sighed when Jake interrupted you so soon after he’d asked you to keep reading. At this rate you were never going to make it off the first page. “Its an Australian book?”

“Ben Pobjie is an Australian author.” Explaining softly as you wiggled against Jake's crotch, forcing a groan from the depths of his soul to escape past slightly parted lips. “Now would you just be quiet and let me read? Or else i'll get out and go read in my nook.'' Jake had built you a little reading nook a few months ago. Complete with a massive bookshelf that he took the time to help you organise all your books in colour and alphabetical order.

“Alright, alright, I'll shut up.” Jake chuckled before kissing your head, taking in the smell of your hair as he did so. Sinking lower into the warm bubbly water, you continued on.

“Seemingly every country town has at least one ghost knocking about the place, laminating his or her unfortunate demise and whipping up that peculiar mixture of terror and civic pride that only a local phantasm can produce.” Jake Loved you–oh so much. He couldn't wait to marry you soon. The two of you still hadn’t broken the news yet that you were even engaged let alone dating let alone planning a wedding! The plan was to invite everyone to the ‘engagement party’ then spring it on them that it was your actual wedding.

“Of course, some towns are more haunted than others, as this book will demonstrate. Kapunda in South Australia and Picton in New South Wales are great examples of hamlets with especially strong paranormal resonances, where the ectoplasm is particularly sticky and around every corner is another spook ready to startle you.” Jake never really understood how he got so lucky with you. You tolerated all his bullshit and never let his ego get too big. You were his anchor in life. His rock, his entire world ever since he’d first met you. He thought you were the most beautiful women he’d ever had the pleasure of getting to know. Inside and out.

“Not that every ghost is an unfriendly one. In these pages you will find ghosts of both the menacing and the kindly types, as well as plenty who have no real agenda beyond wandering in the hinterlands between life and death, and making funny noises or giving off odd light.” As you continued on reading, Jake thought about what it would be like to listen to you reading to your children. The two you planned on having. Running his hands across your stomach thinking about what you would look like pregnant with his child. Letting his head rest against the back of the bath as he got lost in the thought of you carrying his children.

“Why do we love ghosts so much? Why do they fascinate us, obsess us, cause us to write books and songs and movies about them? Why, although we may be scared of them, do we simultaneously find ourselves so attached to stories about them and–let's be honest–hope that those stories are true?” You were the strongest woman Jake knew, you could kick his ass halfway to Sunday in a dog fight. The better half of him. Everyone knew you were the reason Jake hadn’t gotten lost in his own ego. Behind every great man was an even greater woman and that was the truth when it came to you and Jake. He’d be lost without you, he couldn't imagine a world without you in it. You'd take the colour and the stars and everything good with you.

“Part of the answer is obvious: ghosts are evidence of life after death. Even the most ghastly ghost story carries within it a seed of hope that when our body dies, perhaps our soul will carry on existing in some form.” As the water soothed his aching muscles, your gentle voice soothed Jake's soul, exhaling a sigh as he sank lower behind you until the water was lapping just above his nipples.

“That form might be a blood-soaked nightmare stomping around the upper floor of an old pub and banging on innocent peoples doors but it's better than nothing.” Being with you, his best friend, the better half of him, felt like a dream come true. Jake only ever thought people like you lived in the fairytales his mum would read to his sisters at bedtime when they were kids. He loved seeing you come home after a long day in your flight suit–he’d watch with a mischievous smirk as you strip down as you walked towards the bathroom, leaving a trail of discarded articles of clothing in the hall. Stepping straight into the shower before doing anything else. Much like Jake needed at least two coffees to get going in the morning.

“But besides hope for ourselves, it's just plain exciting to imagine there is something beyond this world. That material realm is full of interesting stuff, but it becomes even more thrilling if there's a whole other universe going on behind the scenes. To think that there could be an invisible presence brushing past you in a corridor: to believe that on a still, moonlight night you could catch a sight of a mournful rider galloping through your town: to hope that the shadowy figure on the far side of the cemetery is a lost child from the 19th century and not just a bush…. Our everyday experiences only ever hints at?” Jake could do this all day, listen to you read as you shared a warm, relaxing bath together. It may have actually been in his top five things to do, right alongside doing you. Kissing your shoulder as he knew you were nearing the end of your chapter.

“In these pages you will come across a dizzying array of ghosts, spooks, phantoms, apparitions, unearthly presences and inexplicable encounters. You will meet tragic lovers, brutalised convicts, gruesome murder victims, unhappy children, miserable asylum inmates and their callous overseas and even the old esteemed politician.” Leaving soft, butterfly-like kisses up and down the juncture of your neck, Jake grew underneath your ass as you wiggled around against his crotch. He couldn't help but to physically react to the sensation. Watching as the water lapped over the edge of the bath as you turned around to straddle his lap, still holding your book up protecting it from the water. Eyes trained on the pages in your hand as Jake's hands guided your hips. Steadinging you above him as his length rested hard between your folds.

“You will be taken all over Australia, from Queensland's blazing heat to the chilly greenery of Tasmania, from Western Australia's splendid isolation to the stories contained herein, or you may not. But beyond a doubt, you will come away knowing that whatever the truth lies, there is indeed a hell of a lot of creep stuff going on out there. Dim the lights, hold tight to the hand of a loved one and make your way inside.”

“What a bunch of baloney Bubba.” Jake grinned as you placed your bookmark in and reached over to put your book on the vanity. “But hey, if that's what you believe, I'll entertain it.”

“You're just afraid of the things that lurk in the dark Seresin, it's always easier to deny the unexplainable than to face them head on.” You chuckled as you leaned in to kiss your soon to be husband as Jake's hand roamed your exposed back. It wasn’t long before he was ducking to pay some attention to your nipples, sucking softly in the buds as you let graceful moans echo throughout the bathroom. “Jake–baby.”

“I think we should take this to the bedroom.” Jake wiggled his eyebrows as he came back up to kiss your jaw. Nodding desperately, you agreed, both racing to grab towels and book it to the bed.

***~***~***~***~***~

(North Island—Hard Deck Bar, October 17th 2019)

The Hard Deck Bar hadn’t changed a bit since the last time Jake Seresin was in North Island. The only thing he could really notice that had changed was the owner. Penny Benjamin. All the fixtures were still the same. The artwork, the ambiance, the smells were all the same–nostalgia oozed from the cracks in the stained wood flooring. There wasn't a part of the pub that didn't just bleed Navy propaganda. But for a Navy bar you had to at least expect that.

Jake Seresin however, well–he had changed immensely.

“Penny my dear–” Jake sent Penny one of his thousand-watt smiles as he leant on the bar, tapping the side of his debit card a few times softly against the glossed bartop. “Can I please get another round?”

“Sure thing Hangman.” Penny acknowledged the aviator she’d seen space out a little the other night. She wasn't one to pry into people's personal lives or coax out their problems–being a bartender by trade however? People seem to want to spill their deepest darkest secrets regardless. “Saw things get a little heated between you and Bradshaw the other night.” Penny mumbled as she worked to pop the tops off the four beers Jake had ordered. One for him, one for Coyote, one for Payback and one for Fanboy. “You wanna talk about it?”

“Not particularly, no.” Jake huffed as he rolled his neck, his shoulders were a little stiff from flying earlier that same day. His chest and triceps didn't enjoy the two hundred push-ups either. He stopped enjoying the exercise around eighty seven if he was being completely honest with himself. “He just likes to run his mouth.”

“Mmm–” Penny pressed her lips together as she sat the bottles on top of the bar. “Wouldn't have anything to do with Dice Dixon would it?” Jake squinted his eyes at the barkeep he had a soft spot for, tilting his chin up slightly as if to ask how she knew. Penny knew everything. “Phoenix was kind enough to fill me in.” Penny explained softly as she leaned on the bar, crossing her forearms over each other. “It was before my time, and I'm not prying–” Penny made sure to remind Jake she wasn't trying to insert herself into issues that weren’t her own. “I'm just making sure you and Rooster aren't gonna throw hands in my pub.”

“Bradshaw ain't worth it.” Jake took a sip of the closet beer to him. Rolling his eyes as he did so. But as the golden amber liquid hit the back of Jake's throat, he felt tears welling in his eyes as the thought of you crept up on him. He just couldn't shake the thought of you, especially while back at Miramar. “Dice and I were close friends, that's all.” Jake lied through his fucking teeth as he placed his beer down, licking his lips to taste the fabrication he’d just told Penny. Friends you were not. Almost married, now that you were. “Can't shake her Pen, she’s just everywhere.”

“You believe in life after death?” Penny asked as Jake handed her his card, she took it gracefully. Walking over to where the till was to ring up his total. “Because if you can't shake the thought of her maybe it's because she's still hanging around?” Penny was a firm believer in the afterlife but not in some heaven or hell kinda way. She believed though that the soul remained.

“Not really.” It wasn't that Jake was a firm no-believer, he just didn't really have any substantial evidence to change his mind to that of someone who believed wholeheartedly that there was something to look forward to after your time here on earth. “But if you had asked Y/n that then she would have said yes.” From the very first date Jake knew you were the one for him. His soulmate if you believed in all that soulbonding crap. He didn't. You did. He knew that from the first beer you sat and talked over that he was gonna spend the rest of his life with you.

Turns out though he spent the rest of your life with you.

Jake knew that from the first date alone you were something special, hell–he knew that from the first time he laid eyes on you in the locker room. But it was that first date, that casual conversation over a few beers at the Hard Deck that you had single handedly stolen his heart and never given it back. Jake just hoped if there was a life after death that you were somewhere keeping his heart saved for the day he got to see you again.

“Thanks for that chat Penny, put a ten dollar tip on my tab.” Penny just nodded silently in response. Watching as Hangman collected the beers he had ordered before turning on his heels.

As he made his way over to where he’s been hanging with his colleagues, Jake stopped in his tracks as he swore he caught a glimpse of you sitting by the table you used to frequent with him. The very table you had your first date at. Jake swore he saw you, smiling at him, waving him down as he paused in his tracks and turned the colour of china white heroin. He swore he saw the love of his life, reading that same book that sat on his stupid desk in his stupid dorm.

But it wasn't you, it was just some girl who looked an awful lot like you, waving to her friend who had just walked in behind him. Jake watched as she pocketed the book into her handbag, catching the title and he swore his heart stopped beating for a moment. It was the same damn book that sat unread back at his dorm, the same book you had read to him in the bath that one time. It wasn't you, but Jake surely knew that you were fucking with him now. The title sending a shiver down his spine as he swallowed to get rid of the cotton mouth he suddenly had.

“100 Tales.” Jake mumbled.

“By Ben Pobjie.” He heard you whisper into his ear. Scaring the ever living shit out of him.

***~***~***~***~***~***~

Tags: @potato-girl99981 @averyhotchner @dempy @abaker74 @a-serene-place-to-be @starkleila @some-lovely-day @phoenix1388 @auroraboreallisfine @avaleineandafryingpan @kikaninchen-2 @kikaninchen-2 @xoxabs88xox

#jake seresin x you #jake seresin x f!reader #jake seresin x y/n #jake seresin fic #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman x y/n #jake seresin fanfiction #jake seresin #jake seresin x reader #hangman fanfiction #hangman edit #hangman fic #hangman seresin #jake hangman seresin #top gun hangman #hangman x reader #hangman imagine

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clownsalot · 1 year ago

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uhm i come bearing milgram ocs can i come play in the sandbox with you guys 👉👈

anyways here are my silly guys!!

(im kinda too lazy to come up with my own entire prisoner roster and Es, so i basically just plopped my guys straight into canon. also, im only throwing in stuff from trial 1 because i havent really thought out trial 2 yet beyond vague ideas)

details and stuff below the cut!!!

introduction

015

t1 songs of the prisoners

No, I'm too scared to—!

t1 voice trailer

Ah, my name is Takahashi Naoto. Just Naoto is fine. I'm 18, in my graduating year of highschool. Nice to meet you, Warden. I think asking me about how I feel will just sway your decision making. It's straightforward, so let's keep it simple. Just take the facts. —"—"- What the hell...what the hell? I didn't think it would...it wasn't supposed to...

016

t1 songs of the prisoners

This is...payback!

t1 voice trailer

Yo~ I'm Hashimoto Akane. I'm 15 years old, 3rd year middle school. That makes us a similar age, doesn't it? Let's get along! Well, I will admit that what I did definitely made some people very upset. You'll be deciding if I should be punished on their behalf, right? —"—"- You deserve this. You deserve this! You're the one who chose to go that far...!

interrogation questions

Q: Family?

015: Both my parents. An older brother, too. I don't talk to them often since I stopped living with them.

016: Myself, my mom and dad, and my younger sister. She's 14, I love her very much!!

Q: Who was your victim to you?

015: A schoolmate. Her name was Asuka. You could say we were friends.

016: She wasn't anyone important to me or anything, so don't get weird ideas. I only knew about her because of my sister.

Q: How is your experience in Milgram?

015: It's not all bad. I've never had this much free time before.

016: It's alright but I still kinda want to go home. I worry about how my sister is doing...

Q: What do you dislike?

015: Just in general? Well, it doesn't matter i guess. I don't like things that are bothersome.

016: People who mistreat others for no reason. They're terrible. Terrible!

Q: Are there things you regret?

015: I try not to think about them. Regrets don't erase your mistakes, so what's the point?

016: I did everything believing it was the right choice at the time. But I wish I'd done more sooner. It would have saved my sister a lot of suffering and I might not even be here if I had.

Q: Do you have apologetic feelings for your victim?

015: You're the one responsible for judging if I should, aren't you?

016: Who knows. But I don't regret what I did.

Q: Any prisoners you're close with?

015: I'm on good terms with everyone. Though, I like talking with Kayano. He's a bit like an older sibling.

016: I like taking care of Amane and always try to look after her, we're the youngest in the prison after all. But I don't know if she likes it...

Q: Which prisoner would you say is most like you?

015: Mr Mukuhara. There's just something about him, like if he looks at me too long he'll know what I did. That he'll know that I broke a promise too.

016: Not that sure actually...maybe Kotoko?No...Kajiyama? I don't know. But Kajiyama's actually kinda nice when you get down to it, isn't that surprising? He looks out for Haruka, like I try to do for Amane.

Q: Is there a verdict you hope for?

015: That would defeat the point. I want to be judged properly by an outside perspective. Whatever you decide must be correct, right?

016: I'd like to be forgiven, since I think I did the right thing. But I know what I did also hurt others, so I understand if you choose not to forgive me.

bonus notes!!

i was thinking that the trial results would go something like:

for naoto (015) it'd be t1 guilty t2 innocent, something like fuuta. because his mv and song would be super vague and the prevalent theory would paint him in a terrible light, kinda like shidou except without the pretty privilege, and like fuuta whether he feels bad or not is hard to tell, so he gets guiltied. then somehow his trial 2 would garner him a crap ton of sympathy again like fuuta and his vote would turn around

for akane (016) it'd be t1 innocent t2 guilty, kinda like a reverse of naoto. she might be like muu or kotoko where the trial 1 paints her as super sympathetic/heroic, leading you to root for her, but in trial 2 she gets painted in a more negative light so she gets guiltied then

funny side note is that in terms of character parallels by complete accident i accidentally gave naoto like a wild number of paralles to kazui?? like i reached the 'which prisoner would you say is most like you' question, looked at it and suddenly realized, hey isn't this guy just like kazui??? it's that 'i personally relate to kazui a staggering amount' swag ig

akane's parallels were a lot harder to think of because she paralleled a lot of characters in different ways, so the way i ended up writing her response was deliberate and it's great fun to me lol.

i actually couldn't decide if akane would like fuuta or hate his guts, so i didn't include a 'who do you get along with?' question here since i didn't know how to answer it

for their names i ended up going down the 100 most common japanese surnames list on wikipedia and choosing ones that i thought fit, then put them in combination with their given names. i think what i came up with is a little morbidly funny in relation to their crimes that i still think i was kinda clever for, but i didn't write anything about their actual crimes beyond the vague hints in the interro questions, and i havent included the actual characters for their names. idk is that interesting to you guys

so anyways i was wondering if it'd be better if i elaborated on the crimes and wrote them out as it happened in another post or..? idk what do you guys think? should i continue to just be super vague about them

i did also come up with these guys with a prisoner pair theme in mind and it's supposed to be something like 'how much of yourself would you give for your loved ones' but im a little afraid that might be too similar to shidou and mahiru's theme about love? even though their crimes are vastly different i think

anyways that's it, have a nice day!! if you were interested enough to read all the way to here thank you so much <3

#I JUST REALIZED I MADE MISTAKES WITH AKANE'S SPRITE NOO #i forgot the buckle and to add shine to her hair...maybe ill fix it maybe i wont #milgram oc #my silly guys who i throw around like dolls <- oc tag #for the interro answers i ended up dropping the japanese honorifics and tried just conveying it through which name they use to refer to the #feels weird with the honorifics but also feels weird without so that's something #edited the post because photo format got fucked i hope it is now unfuckdf we shall see

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howdiditend17 · 1 year ago

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On Theo Raeken and Manipulation

Introduction:

The purpose of this is to explore what manipulation really does and the effects it can have on people – especially young children. And, as should be no surprise to anyone, it is also an ode to Theo Raeken. A defense of Theo Raeken, if you will. I’ll be referencing three scholarly articles, one Tumblr post, and the show Teen Wolf (obviously). But, I will admit, most of this is speculative. I’m going to try hard to keep it to canon, but I know my bias is going to be in there. But instead of stating it as fact, I’ll ask open-ended questions you can feel free to fight with me about. But this really isn’t the post I intended on making. I intended to write a pure essay on defending Theo Raeken, but that’s been done before no one listens. I thought I’d switch it up and put my Psychology degree to good use, finally. Okay, that’s enough introduction. Let’s roll.

Who is Theo Raeken?

If you don’t know, you should probably stop reading unless you really care about manipulation and its effects. I’m writing this assuming you know who Theo Raeken is and why he needs defended.

Definitions of Manipulation

All of this comes from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344540018_PSYCHOLOGICAL_ASPECTS_OF_MANIPULATION_WITHIN_AN_INTERPERSONAL_INTERACTION_MANIPULATIONS_AND_MANIPULATORS. They refer to different types of manipulation, and use other terms for it occasionally. They start by defining “influence during interaction” – a subtype of manipulation – from psychological dictionaries as “a process when an individual is changing the behavior of another person as well as his/her attitudes, intentions, ideas, as a result of the person’s activity.” Cause and effect changes occur in the person’s mind, such as psychological characteristics of the individual*, group norms, public opinion, et cetera. Psychological impact can be explicit or implicit, depending on whether the goals of the manipulator are communicated in advance and not hidden. This is clearly the case in season 5 – Theo knows all about the Dread Doctors’ plan – but whose to say it was always like this? You can assume perhaps it was, if he knew what he was doing it for when he took Tara’s heart. But just because they told him one thing doesn’t mean they told him everything – did he know of their master plan when he was 8/9/10 (I wish canon gave us an actual age)? We have no way of knowing this, so for the sake of this article we’re going with the assumption both occurred at different stages. But implicit (covert) psychological influence emphasizes its destructive characteristics. Meaning, manipulation, at its core, can be positive or negative, depending on what the person is being manipulated to do. But obviously Theo wasn’t selected to do benevolent things, so we can get a sense of implicit manipulation here.

There is a latent impact in manipulation that can make the victim susceptible to pursuing various goals and intentions of the initiator. I talked to Des (the wonderful @bendystrah) about this particular point. Once again, what we know about Theo’s childhood is very limited. We don’t know what all he did for the ten-ish years he was with them. We don’t know what all they did to him. We don’t know a lot. But this point is saying the victim can be persuaded into doing what the perpetrator wants, even if they’re not their own goals or intentions. I bring up this point for a reason. We all know in season 5 he was acting on his own free will most of the time (does he even have free will still? Or has it been totally warped and convoluted?), but we know little about what happened with Tara. We know how she died, and why she died, and who is responsible for her death (well, I’m about to refute that one actually). What we don’t know is if Theo woke up one morning and went, “Huh, I kinda want Tara’s heart actually.” You can hate Theo and claim he did, but again, we have zero evidence that points to the fact Theo was already an evil child. We all know he was being visited by the Dread Doctors before Tara’s death, so I think it’s pretty obvious they were the ones who wanted Tara’s heart to make Theo a genetic chimera. Why her heart? Why them? We don’t know that, but we do know their goals and intentions – to make Theo a genetic chimera – and they get Theo to do the dirty work for them for whatever reason. So, in this point, I am claiming it’s possible Theo was completely manipulated into doing this and didn’t have any intentions of ever doing it until he was visited by the Dread Doctors. I mean, this is literally laid out in 5x16, so I’m just talking to talk. If you aren’t insane like me and don’t remember every Theo scene in an episode by just its number, it’s where he’s talking to Stiles in the sewers.

STILES: The guy who murdered his own sister when he was nine?

THEO: Yeah, I was nine years old. I also believed a guy in a red suit came down the chimney to deliver presents. So when three people in leather masks showed up and said that my sister wanted me to have her heart, I believed them, too.

So we know what the goals and intentions of the Dread Doctors are. It’s not hard to assume Theo is telling the truth in this scene (for a number of different reasons, including why lie and it lines up nicely with our theory), and, if he is, it goes to show he was psychologically influenced into doing this.

Furthermore, manipulation is always negative. Even if the goals were altruistic – which they are clearly not here – the process of manipulation is a negative one. This doesn’t really tie into our thesis here, but it is important to note.

The object of manipulation is viewed “as a means of achieving one’s own goals . . . without taking into account the interests, will, desire of the other side.” Meaning: the Dread Doctors didn’t care what Theo wanted. He was not their equal. They didn’t sit around a table and gently ask Theo what his interests, will, and desire was. We’ll never know Theo’s true interests, will, and desire before it was warped* into something else.

Okay, this next point is a bit complicated and is giving me a little bit of a headache (and I’m also a little high, which is so fun to admit to in an essay). But basically, “the manipulative impact focused on personality structures is characterized by the actualization of an interpersonal conflict, when the recipient of the manipulation is held responsible for the choice made through suffering in doubt.” So let’s break that down. That’s basically saying, there’s an impact of manipulation in which the victim is held responsible for what they did while being manipulated and thus feels interpersonal conflict. And obviously Theo is. No one ever argues the point that he killed his sister. And I’m not claiming otherwise, so don’t come at me yet, but this definition is claiming the victim of the manipulation is not at fault for their actions, but the person manipulating them is. And, as a result of this, the victim has interpersonal conflict. I mean, do I even need to say it? Theo’s entire Hell is this interpersonal conflict. To continue, it is claimed that “this type of manipulation the exploitation of the personality, because here . . . the desire [is] to shift the responsibility for the committed actions to the recipient, while the manipulator gets the win.” Once again, this claims the victim is not responsible for their actions, but the perpetrator(s) of the manipulation is. Now is where it gets tricky, and starts to give me a headache. It is said in these cases “it is extremely important for the manipular to create an illusion of choice for the agent of influence” and “when a person is sure that he/she is acting of his/her own free will, he/she will do much more than when he/she knows that he/she is fulfilling someone else’s decisions imposed on him/her.” Okay. I took a break (finally) and now I’m back. Knuckles cracked and everything. So, what this is talking about is when the manipulator wants something but, for whatever reason, doesn’t want to do it themselves and thus use the victim as a conduit to carry out their crime. They make it feel like the victim’s idea, because this makes the victim more likely to do it. I talked to Des about this one too, and what conclusion I came to was how this could possibly – possibly, still no coming at me yet – be the case with Theo’s desire to kill Scott. We know Theo wants Scott dead for his powers. But do the Dread Doctors also want him dead? That, here, is the key question. Me and Des think yes, as having Scott out of the way would make their work easier. But they don’t care so much that they’ll do it themselves. But what if they, really, want Theo to kill Scott? We don’t know if they do or don’t, so we can’t say for sure either way. I’ve done a little research on this but can’t seem to find any solid conclusions on the matter (trust me when I say I looked). So this one isn’t really sturdy, but it’s an interesting theory that the Dread Doctors allowed Theo to feel like he was making his own choices when really he was just helping the Dread Doctors carry out their plans. Maybe they, too, wanted the chaos and discord within the Pack. Now, obviously bringing the Chimeras back wasn’t their goal – hello, why kill them, then? – but I believe they also could’ve stopped Theo had they wanted to. They could’ve stopped Theo from doing anything if they had wanted to. The fact that they didn’t doesn’t point to them being nice and chill and just letting Theo do what he wants. To me, this is more likely stemming from the fact that, somehow, this all fit into their master plan – or, at least, didn’t interfere with it. But, like I said, if they wanted to stop Theo from doing any of this, they could’ve. Which makes me wonder if Theo’s free will wasn’t as free as it appears.

This article also mentions how authority is a particularly sound influence, but I will also explore a similar topic later on so I won’t bother with it now.

*This definition refers to the fact manipulation can cause changes in the psychological characteristics. Now, as a later source mentions, we will never know the full story of Theo’s childhood. All we know is what the show tells us, which isn’t a lot. But we can assume he wasn’t, like, one of those “evil children” who were just “born that way.” Because Scott or Stiles would’ve mentioned that, if he’d gone around killing animals or something. You can argue they didn’t know, but we also have literally zero evidence that he did do anything like that, so it’s a weird assumption to make. He had asthma, and played Little League, and no one ever mentions anything blaringly wrong with his early childhood. What I’m getting at here is a change in psychological characteristics. Maybe Theo was evil before, and that’s why the Dread Doctors targeted him. Or maybe he wasn’t, and went through actual psychological changes in his characteristics which caused him to act differently than he ever would have had he not been put on this path.

*In season 5, his interests, will, and desire are having a Pack and having power. These are his intentions and goals. First of all, I want to note that none of his goals are “murder.” Does murder fall into his plan? Absolutely. He’s clearly very much okay with it. But it’s not like his motivations are as shallow as “killing is fun!” He has reasons to kill Tracy and Josh, and reasons for wanting Scott dead. You can argue what he did to Scott was the worst thing he did, because he killed him out of emotion, not gaining anything from it. I know I’m basically saying premeditated murder is better, but that’s not what I mean. I just mean it isn’t like he originally set out to kill people for a good time. Killing people just happened to be the way to get what he wanted. Furthermore, who knows what his intentions would’ve been had he not lived the life he did? His intentions were formed as reactions. Wanting a Pack was a response to, well, not having one. And wanting power was a response to having none. If he’d been able to live a normal life, there’s no reason to assume he would’ve ever had aspirations like that.

Who is Manipulated?

Everything in this section comes from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8905186/. This article, actually, does not explore the heading at all. It explores radicalization in a religious sense in prisoners who were manipulated. But, the data in the article made it worth using for our purposes here. Starting with the fact “that the process of radicalization follows several phases, during which the recruiters indoctrinate and prepare young people for the use of violence.” And that sentence is what this section is really about: youth. This section will demonstrate how crucial of a factor age is, and what that says about Theo.

“According to this model, recruiters identify their targets in vulnerable contexts.” What this means is that the victim is usually already vulnerable in the eyes of the manipulator. Now, we don’t know why the Dread Doctors chose Theo. We know, like, three things about his early childhood, and none of those three things are even his age. But one of the three things is that he had asthma. Okay, you say, so did Scott. Well, maybe the Dread Doctors were looking for someone who had asthma and also a sibling. That sounds unlikely, but I’m simply illustrating the point that it is a possible weakness he had in his health, making him potentially already vulnerable. Or maybe he had shitty parents. Or maybe he had great parents. We don’t know anything else about his childhood. So we can’t really confirm this point, but what’s important is that we can also not deny it.

Next, “the first phase is psychological submission (emotional radicalization), whereby the young person loses their autonomy and becomes dependent.” Well, this is pretty obvious. The Dread Doctors took Theo away from his parents, and thus he became entirely dependent on them. What else is an 8/9/10 year old supposed to do? He has to depend on them, he has no other options. He can’t just depend on himself, because how is an 8/9/10 year old supposed to have or make money? How’s he supposed to eat? Where is he supposed to sleep? So, yeah, he’s dependent. But, this is also “achieved by using persuasive and aggressive communication strategies, such as social isolation and inducing confusion between reality and fantasy.” We definitely can check the social isolation. Now’s where one of the Tumblr articles comes in. In this post (https://demonzdust.tumblr.com/post/178486817906/part-i-introduction-theo-before-the-dread) the author states that, “We know that the Dread Doctors kidnap and experiment on people while they are still conscious. We also know that they are capable of inducing hallucinations. They can do all of this unbeknownst to others. That leaves them with a lot of tools to shape a young Theo into what they wanted.” I reference this post because it says what I wanted to say better and more succinctly than I could. Especially the part regarding the hallucinations, and how that ties into the article’s point about inducing confusion between reality and fantasy. Like we’ve said, we don’t know what all the Dread Doctors did to Theo. But it’s entirely possible they confused his reality and fantasy, at least for a period of time.

Now we get more into the actual article, which is about religious radicalization. But we’re going to spin this into a Theo context. “Finally, in the third phase of violent disinhibition and legitimization (violent radicalization), the recruit validates the use of violence by associating with the mistreatment and oppression allegedly suffered by their new group, identifies the enemy, and shifts responsibility by making an attack essential to improving their situation.” Okay, that was a lot of words. Let’s break it down. In short, for there to be violent radicalization, setting a clear enemy and making the victim feel like attacking that enemy is the only way to improve their situation must be present. This goes back to my earlier point about the Dread Doctors and possibly wanting Scott dead/chaos and discord in the Pack. Did the Dread Doctors convince him this Pack consisting of his old friends was the enemy? Did they make him think they needed to be disbanded for Theo to get his own Pack and the power he’s craving? We don’t know. We can’t say yes, but we also can’t say no.

Next is where we get into the youth aspect of this section. Youth is noted as “a particularly relevant stage in the radicalization process.” We know Theo is young. As young as 8 when this started, and around 18 during season 5. This article talks about 20-28 being young, so Theo would fall into the category of being extremely young. If youth is a relevant age in radicalizing 20-28 year olds, what exactly does it do to someone who might be 8 years old? The article continues by stating, “Age could be considered a risk factor for radicalization.” Which just means that Theo had a risk factor already before ever being visited by the Dread Doctors. Why? Why is being young more of a risk factor? Well, I’m glad you asked, because I have answers.

The experience of more extreme and variable emotions

Greater threat/stress sensitivity

Commitment with violence

Basically, young people experience more extreme and variable emotions due to “deficits in both emotional regulation and emotion reactivity (sensitivity).” This also applies to the second point, and why threat/stress sensitivity is greater. Now, the last part is more for adolescents than a child. But it states that the youth are more likely to engage in risky behaviors and commit more violence than other age groups. Now, these are not reasons Theo is the way he is. Everyone is a child/adolescent at some point. But these are risk factors, and they could have played a role in making Theo more susceptible to manipulation and violence.

Barely Even Human

Yeah, I know it was cruel to name this section that. But it fits. Everything in this section comes from https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ethics-manipulation/. This article defines manipulation as “radical programming or reprogramming of all or most of an agent’s beliefs, desires, and other mental states.” The thought is that “that manipulative influences bypass the target’s capacity for rational deliberation.” This is implying that the Dread Doctors and their manipulation of Theo could’ve bypassed his ability to really think about the choices he was making. This has long-lasting implications. If we believe this to be true, it is possible that the Theo we see simply doesn’t have a “capacity for rational deliberation.” Meaning, he acts in irrational ways, or ways that look irrational to others but seem rational to him because he lacks the ability to purposefully and calculatingly make decisions. Instead, he acts in a way that meets his most basic survival needs. And what does a wolf need? A Pack. And what does someone who has been manipulated for a decade need? Power. He needs a Pack and power, and thus those are his goals. Are they rationally deliberated goals? We don’t know, but this article suggests the possibility that the answer is no.

“Manipulation is commonly used aggressively, as a way to harm the manipulator’s target, or at least to benefit the manipulator at the target’s expense.” This point doesn’t have a lot to do with the points I’m making in this essay, but it does make me sad for Theo.

“Another natural way to account for the wrongness of manipulation would be to claim that it violates, undermines, or is otherwise antithetical to the target’s personal autonomy.” This is, more or less, what we talked about earlier. That Theo may never have made any of the decisions he made if not for the Dread Doctors. This implies none of this was done out of his own personal desire to do so, and that it may very well be things he never would have done otherwise. The article goes onto further state that, “It is natural to regard [manipulation] as interfering with autonomous decision-making. The idea that manipulation is wrong because it undermines autonomous choice is implicit in discussions of manipulation as a potential invalidator of consent.” Meaning, Theo’s consent wasn’t important during the time he spent with the Dread Doctors. The Dread Doctors didn’t take it into consideration. This doesn’t mean he actively did things he didn’t consent to doing, but it does bring up the possibility for further discussion.

Lastly, this article states that, “In this view, manipulation involves treating the target as a device to be operated rather than an agent to be reasoned with.” We already know the Dread Doctors viewed Theo as an object. Whether he could be a success or a failure. They never cared about him as a person, merely as a tool to do things they couldn’t/didn’t want to do. If you view Theo this way – as a device to be operated – it takes away some of the blame placed upon him for his actions. He was wound up and made to go, simply put.

Conclusions

TL;DR: Manipulation is bad. Don’t do it. Theo was manipulated, and primed to be so because of his status as a youth. In this essay, we explored his actions and the possibilities behind why they occurred. Our conclusions are that it’s entirely possible he was completely manipulated by the Dread Doctors and thus acted as a puppet whilst they pulled the strings.

If you disagree with anything I said, let me know. But not just in a “screw you you’re stupid” way. Let’s have an actual conversation.

I hope you enjoyed this at least a little bit, or learned something from this. This is Kay, signing off (for now . . . ).

xoxo, kay

#theo raeken #teen wolf #meta #babygirl

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henrysglock · 2 years ago

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Henry Was Set Up To Fail In The Eyes Of The Viewers Before We Even Knew Him.

Hello class. Today I would like to talk about two things: Henry and NINA, and how he's been set up for reduction to a 2D villain before we even know him, and how his monologue dupes us into judging his child-self through a warped lens or perception.

The first time we see Henry in ST4 is El's entry into NINA.

She's not prepared, she's already confused and afraid, and so are we. We know as much as she does about the situation, which is to say nothing at all. We're a blank slate as much as she is.

She's inserted into a memory of Henry where he's already essentially directly behind her. He jump-scares us, through no fault of his own, but he scares us nonetheless. This, in combination with NINA glitching/the lights flickering wildly/vocal distortions as El tries to reject NINA and the fact that he supposedly holds a position of power in the lab, shapes our first impression of Henry.

He's associated from the very start with fear, dishonesty, and manipulation. This sets the tone for his entire story.

Our next impression of Henry is then, of course, colored by the fear El feels from NINA and the lab.

Henry isn't scary in that first memory. In fact, it's one of many moments where he's treating her with nothing but compassion.

He informs her that lessons are starting soon, which gives her the chance to mentally prepare for the day. She expresses fear/trepidation over the lessons, and he assures her that she's going to do well. It's nice. He's nice. He's an orderly, and orderlies aren't typically so nice (as we see in ST1). He's done nothing wrong, and yet...

It should be endearing, and on a certain level it is, but the fear from the opening scene colors our judgement so that we're already looking for faults. His kindness automatically comes off a little creepy. It's natural. We've been spooked by him. Now we're on alert, and we see him as a potential threat, even when he hasn't done anything to warrant threat status. We're looking for reasons to distrust him.

Throughout the rest of NINA (pre-massacre), we're shown nothing but good behavior from Henry. He's respectful, he puts himself on El's level so he doesn't loom over her the way Brenner does, he doesn't grab her or talk down to her or treat her like she's stupid. He actively builds up her confidence and even goes so far as to try to help her escape without him. Pulled out of context, he’s undeniably a good guy.

And yet, as soon as the violence starts, we all go "Aha! I knew there was something wrong with you!". We’re so caught up in the violence, so caught up in being right, that we don't spare it a second thought. We don't ask why, it doesn't strike us as unusual behavior, we just accept that he must have been an evil manipulator all along. This is because we were conditioned to from the start.

We're more than happy to ignore inconsistencies, because we've associated him with fear from the moment we met him. Henry never stood a chance. We were set up to expect something evil from him, even if his intentions were good right up until the massacre is underway.

This stops us from asking:

Why did Brenner look the other way about Henry’s conspiratorial behavior with El?

Why did Brenner let Henry, the supposed master manipulator, run around with the lab children at all?

Why did Henry try to free El with no personal gain?

Why were all of his meetings with her (besides the escape) public and interruptible, and why did no one interrupt them?

Why did Henry look so conflicted before he starts killing?

Why didn’t Henry kill El once she took Soteria out?

Why did Henry’s behavior change gradually rather than being an immediate snap when the killing started?

When did 1979 turn from self defense to unprovoked attack, and why?

We don’t ask questions because his new behavior fits with the preconceived notions that we were fed during our introduction to him. We immediately assume he was evil all along, even before he starts monologuing about being a predator. We never stop to think that maybe someone else is pulling the strings to put him in a situation where he’s forced to kill people and by extension absorb them, changing him intrinsically.

Granted, the monologue doesn’t help him going into the next section of this talk, but it also does one very important thing:

It influences our perception of him as a child based on what we see from his adult self who has finally snapped after 20+ years of horrific mental abuse, and who is no longer just himself but an amalgamation of himself and every person he’s just killed.

Including the bad ones.

But nonetheless, we take him at face value for everything he says after that point, because if fits our preconceived notion that he’s evil.

This plays into our perception of the Creel massacre.

So, now that we’ve been “validated” by the narrative (I was right! He’s evil!), we automatically take as fact anything that “proves” that we’re right about him. Because we’ve had our mind made up about him from the get-go, we don’t stop to ask questions. If we ignore inconsistencies, we stay correct. If we ignore the inconsistencies, we stay comfortable in our black and white thinking, our initial snap judgments and intentionally poorly-contextualized impressions.

We go “ah yes, we’ve just seen him commit mass murder. What he says about himself as a child must be true!” and ignore the fact that he’s a victim of MKULTRA and that he’s no longer just himself. We take him at face value because it’s spoon-fed to us, and we like it that way. It’s easy that way.

We see his recollection of the Creel massacre, and we don’t stop to ask:

Why does he look so scared?

Why is his plan so rushed and disorganized, if it was so premeditated?

Why are we missing so many details that were present in Victor’s retelling?

If Henry had Victor in a trance, then who killed Alice? Henry has never displayed the ability to trance and kill different people at the same time, and Alice was alive the last time Victor saw her.

How did Brenner show up so soon after the murders? What tipped him off to come collect Henry?

Why does Henry flip-flop between framing himself as both victim and predator? He’s a victim as a child, and then a predator as a child, and then a victim again as a child, and then a victim in the lab, but then a predator in the lab, and then a victim again as an adult, but now a predator as and adult…

Why can’t he keep his motivations straight? Is he a victim freeing himself from his prison, or is he an apex predator taking his rightful place at the top of the food chain? He talks about how hurt he was and how betrayed…and then he compares himself to a god using spiders as a proxy. He can’t keep his story straight. Does he want us to fear him or sympathize with him? (Both. The answer is both. The people he just absorbed have always been about fear as a method of control, and Henry himself has just spent the entire last arc giving us reasons to sympathize with him.)

Why does his retelling look so different from Victor’s in every regard, from color grading to MKULTRA/LSD hallmarks on the lights to missing subtitles?

How did Virginia know about his abilities, and how did she find an expert on psionic abilities so easily?

Were Henry’s actions that night a generally unprovoked preemptive strike, or were they reactive self-defense?

We just go with what they spoon-feed us. It fits our preconceived notions from our first impression of Henry combined with our impression of him as an intrinsically altered adult rather than the man we’re shown pre-absorption. We assume that, well, he must have done all that somehow. He must have been born evil. He must have been manipulating El from the start.

We don’t stop to consider that his truth might not be the full factual truth. We don’t stop to look closer because the story fits so nicely with what we’ve been expecting from him from the very first time we see him, and the monologue only reinforces that response.

Henry never stood a chance in the plot or in our perceptions of him. We’re as much chess pieces as he is. Brenner was manipulating Henry’s path, as well as shaping El’s perception of him by skipping footage, and the Duffers shaped our mental path in much the same way.

We got duped.

#henry creel #henry/vecna/001 #henry creel analysis #stranger things analysis #stranger things

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k7l4d4 · 6 months ago

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K Reviews and Rants: Miraculous Ladybug Season 5! Episode 4

Hello, hello, anyone and everyone willing to give me a chance! On the advice of a friend, I've decided to mix things up a bit by giving my thoughts on this episode now that I've had time to think it over, once the veil of incredible RAGE has passed.

I gotta say, what annoys me the most about this episode, in hindsight, is how... dismissive it is. It reduces basically one of the most potentially crucial and insightful moments for Marinette as a character, a chance to think back on everything she's done over the show, good and bad... and boils it down to the writers having Marinette and everyone around her fixate on her crush, as if it's the deciding point upon which her entire life revolves around. It's just such a waste of a good plot, of Marinette thinking on where she's gone wrong in life. And I'm left feeling depressed and cheated at what could've been. That's not even getting into how this episode in particular... really makes Marinette look like a completely self-centered jerk.

Anyway, with my brief pity party over, onto the review! Warning as always for profanity.

Episode 4: Jubilation

Alright, we get an introduction with Marinette looking at an ad for the Alliance Rings, and Tikki pointing out that she's still "in love with Adrien." Like, NO DUH!! You don't just "stop being in love, or having a crush" just because you want to, that isn't how emotions WORK!! We also got Marinette blaming what happened with the Miraculouses on her "loving Adrien" and I'm just... NO!! As much as I fucking hate the Love Square, THAT IS NOT WHAT HAPPENED!! SERIOUSLY, STOP TRYING TO MAKE EVERYTHING IN THIS SHOW ABOUT THE FUCKING LOVE SQUARE ALREADY!! This didn't happen because of "love," this happened because of freak coincidence, and while it's not unreasonable for Marinette not to realize that, given that Felix is nowhere to be seen, IT IS STILL IDIOTIC TO JUMP TO THAT CONCLUSION! What HAPPENED had nothing to do with her being "in love," and had EVERYTHING to do with the fact that she has not EVEN ONCE managed to keep her emotions under control when it COMES to Adrien!! Her problem is that she refuses to acknowledge she HAS a problem. Even THIS is just her avoiding the actual issue!! God DAMMIT Astruc, how do you fuck up what should be a fairly straightforward plot about Marinette analyzing herself and learning discipline!?

Oh great, and here comes everyone's "favorite Principal" playing superhero again. Now, to be blunt, I wouldn't MIND this... even with the last time he showed up in colored undies having him "realize" he should stop playing hero or something to that effect, it's clearly something he's passionate about and he's just honestly trying to help (in his own dumb way)... but this is fucking pathetic. Thomas, what in the world is portraying a man hanging by his clothing after failing to rescue a cat from a high place supposed to show!? It just makes him look sad and pathetic. For a series ABOUT Superheroes, mocking or portraying someone who honestly wants to BE a superhero as a joke is in poor taste in general.

And just recycling a plot? Seriously!? There wasn't any OTHER way to reuse this guy besides making fun of his passion? It's the height of laziness. And... we get a Ladybug Cosplayer. Who Marinette apparently knows... Oh boy. It's one of THOSE plots.

Socqueline... a "school friend from last year." Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't a MASSIVE part of the first season's set-up, Origins in particular, about how Marinette apparently didn't have ANY FRIENDS AT ALL!? Now, this... this wouldn't be that big of a problem... if it weren't for what's coming next.

Pardon me while I go on a rant within a rant: Monster. You had... a high school girl... call Chloe Bourgeois a MONSTER unironically, Thomas. What. The Complete. AND UTTER. FUCK!? No no, none of that, SHUT THE FUCK UP WITH THAT NOISE. She is a fucking HUMAN BEING who you have bent over backwards to demonize for either trivially petty bullshit, blatantly hypocritical double-standards, and just plain DENYING CHILD ABUSE EVEN WHEN YOU PORTRAY IT FOR THE WORLD TO SEE!!! you do not get to have ANYONE call her a monster. Ever. Shut the fuck up, and don't let the door hit you on the way out.

And now, to resume my original rant. See, Marinette knew exactly where to FIND Socqueline, without any issue whatsoever. She knew precisely where she would be. And yet, they apparently haven't seen each other in a while. Thomas... How do you portray Marinette THIS FUCKING BADLY AT BEING A FRIEND!? Because when you have it set up that Marinette knows precisely where Socqueline WORKS, then how the fuck has it been that they haven't seen one another in awhile!? Like, the ONLY WAY this really makes sense is if they either A) weren't that close of friends and meeting back up just hadn't occurred to them, or B) somehow BOTH OF THESE IDIOTS never thought to try and reach out and meet back up, even though there's no fucking law that I'm aware of that would've stopped them. Even ignoring the later bullshit, this is completely and utterly idiotic.

Okay, and it turns out that Socqueline has a crush on Adrien too (although it's more obviously a crush and not a crush dressed up as being "in love with him" like it is with Marinette). They really are just... trying to make Socqueline be on the exact same wavelength as Marinette, aren't they? That's just... you don't need to have people have the same overall personality and interests and living situations to pull of a fucking case of MISTAKEN FUCKING IDENTITY!!! Gaaahhh! This is gonna be annoying, I can just TELL.

Yeah, she's a fangirl. Ughh... also, if she's a big fan of Adrien as depicted, and she's Marinette's friend... how the FUCK did Marinette not know who Adrien was during Origins!?

Okay, the dialog just now included a moment of Socqueline stating "I should've stayed back a year." Which... to me... shoots a MASSIVE HOLE in her backstory regarding an upcoming episode. Namely, by implicating that she had a CHOICE in whether to stay or go.

Honestly? A bit of an aside, but I kinda would've enjoyed seeing standoffish Adrien, what with him being homeschooled for literally his whole life and his only public interactions being press events and model work.

Marinette... why the FUCK are you running your mouth about Adrien's personal life and secrets to a girl you haven't even TALKED TO IN ROUGHLY A YEAR!? Don't... you do not DO THAT. Like, I GET that this is supposed to be some kind of "can't you see how much she cares for him and understands him!?" moment by implying she's the only one who knows him that well... while ignoring how he tends to keep people at arm's length and she only "knows him so well" by the fact that she apparently is the only one in the class with EYES or who bothers to talk to him when he's visibly upset, not even his best friend Nino. FUCK THIS SHIT. It's crap like THIS that makes me hate the Love Square SO FUCKING MUCH!! It takes what COULD BE a fairly decent execution of realizing one's feelings... and butchers it both by how it shoves it down the viewers throat by people commenting on it basically every episode AND the numerous writing flops in trying to shove them together as a couple. I have seen better romance from kids taking a pair of dolls and smashing their faces together.

Like, this entire round of dialog is just Marinette rambling about her "feelings" because "OH EM GEE SHE LUVS ADREEAN!!!" Fuck this shit with a rusty spoon. Lemme guess, we're gonna see Socqueline devolve from fangirl (which could've AT LEAST set up something resembling interesting conflict between her and Marinette) into "rabid shipper." Garbage.

Marinette... on what BASIS DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON WITH ADRIEN!? Beyond being generically nice people who like video games (which can apply to MOST OF YOUR FRIEND GROUP), the ONE THING you two had in common (fashion) turned out to be something Adrien doesn't actually want ANYTHING to do with!!

And another round of mocking the Principal who loves superheroes.

Okay, and we got Marinette getting fed up with Socqueline dodging the issue of her impersonating Ladybug and going on a rant of her own about trying to be a superhero "because it's very dangerous without magical powers" and I'm just sitting here like... Marinette, if this wasn't about being a superhero, that would be VERY FUCKING ABLEST SOUNDING. Heck, it's ablest sounding ANYWAY because it's implying that only people with the "right abilities" should be allowed to do a dangerous thing, even though IT IS THEIR OWN FUCKING CHOICE WHAT TO DO WITH THEIR LIVES!! Like, Socqueline impersonating Ladybug alone is annoying to me, not because it's wrong of her to want to emulate a hero she admires, but because she's apparently CLAIMING to be her when helping people, which actually IS a valid concern. But when the person delivering that valid concern talks like THIS?! Marinette... god fucking DAMMIT go see a fucking therapist. NOW. And we got a word of Socqueline sharing her "words of wisdom" from her and Marinette's up until now unknown shared past... "you've got to step in if you want to change things in life." Which isn't BAD in the slightest... until you remember that Marinette in Origins was a fucking doormat, so if Socqueline was supposedly such a big influence on her, why didn't she stand up to Chloe more!? They are trying to imply the two know one another so well... and it falls apart when you stare at it hard because of how little thought they put into meshing Socqueline's existence with the show's history!

Also more of an angry rant by Marinette which is now pretty transparently about how much she hates being a Superhero. Like... Marinette, no one FORCED you to keep being one. It was literally a plot point in Origins that when she doubted herself, it was because she thought she wasn't CAPABLE, not because she hated the idea of it. So this entire angry rant is so much idiocy because it doesn't paint her as stepping up by doing what no one else is able to do, it paints her as someone complaining and being honestly a bit of a fucking control freak in that she's not thinking about what's best for the people she's thinking about what's best for HER by claiming no one can help her. This is almost NARCISSISTIC in how it is basically railroading the people of Paris into stepping back and leaving it all to the heroes, no matter how much of a burden it places on them, and it's all because of Marinette's personal feelings and stress. Okay, it's not LITERALLY that, given that the people of Paris are doing small things to try and keep from getting Akumatized, but for all that is good and decent in the world, WHY IS THIS SUCH A FUCKING BIG DEAL FOR MARINETTE!? It isn't even ABOUT Socqueline at this point, so you can't even claim that this is "anger born of worry." Why in the fucking world is someone who apparently hates being a hero so much and wants to leave it all behind still out in the field!? this is the kind of crap that results in permanent, life-long mental health problems.

Oh, and now that we've moved on from that, we get a scene that APPARENTLY there's someone in Paris making Dinosaur/Pigeon hybrids. Given a later plot point in the season involving what the superheroes can and can't get involved with, this is gonna get stupid, I just know it.

This is so idiotic. Just... it's completely idiotic because in this case, she ISN'T putting the safety of the people before her own feelings. If anything, she's doing the opposite, in that she's denying people the right to make their own choices for her own peace of mind. That's like expecting Superman to try and talk Lois Lane out of being a reporter, "because it's not safe for her to go and investigate dangerous criminals and organizations."

And now we get Damocles getting mopey about whether or not he's an effective hero... and Socqueline, rather than encourage him to try and keep going on, and help because he wants to help, tries to encourage him to "keep being an excellent principal." Which, given that her argument basically involved people having the right to help out however they desire, it just feels like kicking Damocles while he's down (and he's just plain NOT a good Principal honestly). Yeah, we're seeing him get akumatized this episode.

Marinette accidentally turns on the step tracker in front of Socqueline RIGHT after getting back from a big fight as Ladybug... and Socqueline just dismisses it as a bug. Which, yeah, I honestly buy... and makes a later bit of stupidity coming up more obnoxious to me.

And here's the stupidity: namely, Gabriel gets an alert on HIS Alliance Ring regarding the superhuman data Marinette ended up inputting in Socqueline's Alliance... I-I gotta ask, why the absolute FUCK is he not questioning why he's only NOW getting word on this!? Or rather, why is he not QUESTIONING why he's only getting this data now!? Like, given he's apparently got those things linked together and is spying on the data they input to search for Ladybug, it shouldn't be too hard for him to check out Socqueline and figure out that she's had her Alliance for longer than just TODAY, so how in the world has he not gotten this info before now!? Because let's face it, Socqueline is the most OBNOXIOUSLY OBVIOUS in-universe red herring you can HAVE for a case of mistaken identity. Has won awards for gymnastics several years running? Check. Takes Tae Kwon Do classes? Check. Used to go to Francois Dupont, where multiple students have been Akumatized? Check. Has her hair in pigtails!? Fucking CHECK. Plus the incredibly "heroic" personality and mindset. It's CRINGE INDUCING how obvious of a suspect they made her... and the fact that she's NOT Ladybug, but won't actually admit as such when cosplaying AS Ladybug IS NOT HELPING.

Okay... I GET that Dark Owl (or Darker Owl this time I guess) is meant to be a Silver-Age Batman/Adam West Batman Parody, but seriously, FALLING INTO A CAN OF PAINT IS THE BEST THEY COULD COME UP WITH!? This is just... what made Dark Owl effective in the first place was that he was VERY genre savvy regarding Superheroes and much more clever with his plans than he let on. So this?! Yeah, they are making him an absolute JOKE in the worst way possible. It's honestly a bit cruel.

They aren't just recycling a plot, they are DOWNGRADING the plot.

And now we move onto the fucking SHARED DREAM. You want to know the dumbest part of this bit?? It's the fact that we are given ZERO CLUE whose dream occupies which parts, or even WHY THEY ARE SHARING THE DREAM IN THE FIRST PLACE. The dream overall is just so ridiculously contrived it's basically running on the same campy Silver Age tones as Dark/er Owl does, and it makes any potential emotions regarding this just... fizzle away because how the FUCK do their respective dreams create a set-up where defeating Monarch is as finding his address, punching him, going to a movie together, and then winding up married... and how in the FUCK do they somehow NEVER NOTICE ANYTHING WRONG WITH THE FACT THAT THEY AREN'T DETRANSFORMING!? And... the babies.

EVERYTHING about the babies is weird, and creepy. HOW DID IT TAKE THEM SO LONG IN THE DREAM TO REALIZE IT'S A DREAM!? WHY DID IT TAKE THEM THAT LONG!? It's... completely and utterly obnoxious.

And what makes it more annoying is that they are trying to frame this as them losing this idealistic life... that they haven't put ANY EFFORT into making believable or desirable. It's just weird, disjointed, and doesn't seem to have any kind of logic to it at all. Ironically, just like a real dream.

It's like they were trying to rip-off Alan Moore's Superman run where Supes got put into an idealistic dream, and it just comes off more as a cheap parody of what that run, and adaptations of it, tried so hard to capture. Like, we are given NOTHING to go off of regarding what their "dream lives" are meant to be besides "together, and with four/five super creepy babies that don't age."

And I GET that "oh, Adrien is just upset at having gotten his dream life and then learning it's all fake," But it runs into the huge fucking problem THAT HE IS DEALING WITH A SUPERVILLAIN BOOSTED WITH A POWER ALL ABOUT GIVING PEOPLE AN IDEALIZED DREAM, and as stated above, the "dream life" was so blatantly fake and low-quality that the reaction he's showing is just... no. He is not sympathetic in this, he is coming off as violently unstable over a cheap, loweffort fake life. And he tried. To Cataclysm. AN INNOCENT MAN OVER THIS. Does Thomas NOT REALIZED HOW UTTERLY FUCKED UP THIS IS!? And this is AFTER he apparently had a fucking breakdown over accidentally cataclysming Monarch BY ACCIDENT. Like, if having his emotions toyed with like that made him less sympathetic towards MONARCH, I would get it... but that is not the case. He is royally pissed off over a cringy fake life that was so transparently nonsensical and taking it out on a fellow victim of the terrorist looming over their heads. No. Get his head out of his ass, this is insane, and not in a good way.

Okay... so Marinette refused the Alliance Ring because it almost revealed her to Socqueline. That... is completely and utterly stupid because SHE CAN JUST TAKE THE THING OFF IF SHE IS ABOUT TO TRANSFORM!! Even if it is a plot by Monarch, the fact that SHE DOES NOT KNOW THIS means that her reason for refusing it is idiotic and doesn't seem to have any solid basis for it beyond a very weak case of sentimentality or paranoia. I wonder when they'll reveal that Monarch can track people through the stupid things.

And with that, this episode review is done.

Wait, just found out that Chat and Ladybug have a discussion about the power of Jubilation... and it's transparently low-effort ship tease. I say "low effort" because it's pretty obvious that they aren't even TRYING to discuss it at all and are just setting it up as "Ladybug isn't honest about her FEELINGS!!" and it makes me cringe. NOW my review for this is done.

#miraculous ladybug #mlb season 5 spoilers #mlb season 5 salt #mlb writing critical #mlb writing salt

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enne-uni · 2 years ago

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Insert writeblr introduction here

Hi. Why are you here (jk thanks for being here). This post gets somewhat frequent updates.

About me

-You’ll find me as Willowquin or EnneUni. You may call me Willow or Enne. (any pronouns, but she/her mainly I suppose? doesn’t matter to me)

-Perfectionist in many things

-Gen Z

-From Finland! (timezone is EET or EEST in summer)

-Other interests than writing include flower symbolism, languages, and gaming

-Should add: I myself do not ship any ‘proships’, but I don’t have it against them. That technically makes me a proshipper.

-Feel free to reach out and chat!

About the blog

-I mostly interact with mutuals and reblog whatever crap I find, but a few useful tags you’ll find in my featured ones are #my writing, #poems, #writing shenanigans

-Open to asks and tags in games and everything else, though lately I've been too lazy to actually do them (but don't let that stop you)

-DMs are completely fine, too

About my writing (under the cut)

-Mostly fanfiction. Sometimes original works, although most of those are, ahem, on hold. Sometimes poems for fun.

-I rarely post anything here, unfortunately, but all my fics are on Ao3 under the name EnneUni

-Main original project is a steampunk airship thingy-wingy which is in it’s planning phase (a bit more about it below).

-Fandoms I’ve written for include: Ace Attorney, Moriarty the Patriot, Attack on Titan, Nimona, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Hazbin Hotel (red flag; I know)

-Fandoms I would like to write for include: SK8 the Infinity, Goblin Slayer, Cyberpunk (2077 or Edgerunners), maybe Overwatch even

-Most of those are probably red flags actually.

-Do still talk to me about any aforementioned fandoms if you feel like it. I rarely interact with other enjoyers of the same thing.

-Also I could take requests for writing. I’ve never done any before but I don’t see why not.

Some WIPs below, you may ask about more

1. Lost opportunities

Ace Attorney Wrightworth fanfic. Takes place during the trilogy and follows Edgeworth’s POV as he tries to make peace with the fact that he has Hanahaki disease because of a ~certain defence attorney~. His platonic relationships are a big part of this, too.

On my Ao3 2. Era of Grey Skies

Original work, created with my little sister. It doesn't have a plot yet... but if I had to summarise it in some way, I'd say it's a steampunk-airship-pirate-adventure with many characters.

It has a slightly better own intro post in this link here!

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aidylweiss16 · 5 months ago

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I watched an old movie last night and I need to talk about it so prepare for an in-depth wall of text XD

The movie in question: Now, Voyager (1942)

I don't even know where to begin. This movie feels simultaneously ahead of its time and so perfectly placed it could be a period piece.

I'm just blown away by the main character. She's so real, her breakdowns and the way she prickles and defends herself, her communication, her insecurities and worries. I love that her main introduction to us is a full on rant about how awful her life has been and the doctor listens and then goes right to her horrible abusive mom and says "You are a horrible abusive mother and you are actively ruining her life". I love that she carves gorgeous ivory boxes and hides cigarettes. And I love that she gets to live her life, gets to be open about who she is and how she wants to live. And then that when she has to come back from her trip she makes life at home better for herself!

I love how it treats her mental illness. Founded in how she's been treated, capable of improving, but also not being something that has fully resolved itself, continuing to inform her choices and how she views the world. How her psychiatrist is good because he listens to her, but also that the treatment center didn't actually know how to help Tina. His absolute professionalism the entire time, and especially that this is apparently one of the earliest portrayals of psychiatrists in media?! And that the author of the story on which it was based also had gone through mental illness herself.

And the romance throughline. Her hunger to be loved, but also that she doesn't just throw herself at men willynilly. Her verbal expression that she wants to be kissed and loved and how it isn't treated like wantonness or something that needs to be punished. The restraint she and Jerry show. Her recognition at the end that she needed to be explicit about how she was approaching the stuff with his daughter, Tina. The fact that it started as friendship because he's married and he's immediately open about that and you completely buy in that they fall for each other along the way without hating it (I found Doctor Zhivago so annoying for that). The whole engagement with Elliot was so good and thoughtful and he gets to be good, just not for her. And it was so interesting recognizing the signs of the time, the protests that are so she can say she did but also when it's clear that she's actually saying no, Jerry immediately stops. The "and she had something to drink when they got stuck at a cabin in the woods" line. It's so of that time period.

I should talk about the parts that made me wince - the weight comments and how weird they felt, and Dear Lord the stuff with Tina. So much of it feels predatory but also founded in caring about Tina and Jerry, and her own fraught relationship with her mother? How the doctor calls her out on it! But also, the movie only gets away with it because she's female and the time period has love and marriage and children as the only wants a woman could have. How the ending is that she'll raise his daughter and he'll come visit every now and then, even though his (never on screen) wife already hates the kid and is already jealous of any woman he interacts with, so it feels like only a matter of time for that to blow up. But also that Tina's so much happier now and so is Charlotte.

And this was all done under the Hays Code?! That blows my mind.

This movie is amazing.

#now voyager #filmblr

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visxionaries · 1 year ago

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who: @ofgoldengrove where: the council chamber, following mathis rowan’s first introduction back to the council of the reach. the room was empty now, and the two men remained sat within the great council chamber.

the reactions had been incredibly mixed; and yet if there was one thing that seemed to sear into the mind of the king, it was the incredible silence. so rare was it for silence to fall upon the personalities who sat on the reach council table, and yet, it felt as though they could hear their own hearts beating. he had not realised that he was holding the breath in his chest until he felt as though he were going to burst, and those in the room would not deny the fact that ocean hues glazed over in a sense of shock. that this was reality.

though the matter had been quietly discussed with tirius, the possibility of it being true, he had been sure - so sure, it was false. so sure it would be another test some cruel figure in the sky had decided to throw in his path. and the king of the reach had hugged mathis rowan as though it was the last time he could - only, it now felt like the first time. it had been months since most had seen such a break in his demeanour, had seen a lively spirit that wore no crown; they saw it then. as emotional and volatile as it was.

was this not cruel? they now sat in somewhat comfortable silence as the last individual left the room, closing the door behind them; and all cedric could help wondering was why whatever gods the others seemed to have so much faith and love for would ever do such a thing. what sort of a test was this? for mathis rowan, for the rowans themselves, for all of those who had loved and mourned him. it was not a king who had stood before them those months ago to report his death, his eyes stricken and red with grief; he had made no attempts to hide the tears he had shed.

“do you want a drink?”

the death of mathis rowan had made him so utterly human. it had made him feel so incredibly human, and vulernable, and cut open. he thought it would hurt less if he was cut open a hundred times over, for he did not only think of what he had done, but he thought of what he could have had done. he thought of what should have been. made him feel as though his very side had been ripped open, as though someone, some presence, had been ripped from his side.

and now, the life behind the eyes of mathis rowan made him feel something he was not entirely sure what to call. made him feel as though his heart would burst out of his chest, and stop, all at once. as though he had everybody and had nobody, all at once. for his death, the news of the corpse, was enough to set fire to whatever was left within him; whatever sense of morality wished for him to not carry the name of kinslayer. for regardless of it all, cedric tyrell had loved his brother. he wondered why it was their family needed to rip itself apart, just as the targaryens had done. was it their punishment for not following in their oath?

“...didn’t think i’d ever ask you that again.” and there was a laugh that came from him. it was shaky. he rested his hand on his cheek, looking upon his best friend. he truly was sat there. he was there. seven fucking hells.

what was it that mathis was even looking upon now? who was it? it was mathis who knew best how much cedric had not wanted to kill his only brother. it was mathis rowan who knew why cedric had resisted, time and time again. it was mathis rowan who lost the love his life because of it. it was cedric who lost his true brother because of it. so why did it still feel as though his chest was ready to cave in?

#c: mathis #mathis 005 #let us die young or let us live forever ; a taste of power and never say never (cedric&mathis)#and what left is golden within second sons: if not for the rose and the groves (cedric&mathis)

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lara635kookie · 1 year ago

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I already did Maelstrom so it's time to do the other psycho/sociopath character. Welcome to my Paper Star Character Analysis.

We first see Paper Star talking to Maelstrom (obviously). He asks her to bring him the hat of Carmen Sandiego. She was holding an origami of a sheep and she makes a paper star with it and shoots it to a skeleton, cutting his head off. Then Maelstrom says:"I'll take that as a yes" and the camera zooms on Paper Star's eyes, showing a little bit of her, but still in the dark. We must notice that Paper Star has the longest villain introduction of all the operatives. Usually they just show up, their names appears on the screen with a background and you're done. As for Paper Star, the episode makes a mystery showing glimpses of her in the darkness, creating a climax and a whole vibe of danger just so she could get a more impactful villain presentation than the others. Another thing that proves her spotlight and why she's far away from all the other villains is that she is the only character besides Carmen ("Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?") that has a theme song(I do not care if It's just a disturbing four melody high-pitched tune, a bop is a bop). Her theme might not have lyrics (besides some la la la la I guess) but the melody and the way she hums it It's absolutely creepy, scary and terrifying, I love it (God bless Kimiko Glenn for her outstanding voice acting). When presenting the Magna Carta heist plan we see the following dialogue:

Shadowsan:Would I be correct in assuming that you have a particular operative in mind for this misdeed, Professor?

Maelstrom:Well, the crime involves stealing paper, does it not? (If I remember correctly he says that and then looks at Doctor Bellum right after, which might be a hint that indicates Paper Star uses some different kind of paper that Bellum modificated its composition or something 'cause how tf paper is so sharp to the point is lethal?) (But apparently It's just normal paper since we often see her running out of her own papers and using regular papers nearby that somehow make the exact same amount of damage)

Shadowsan:She is far from ready.

Maelstrom:Questioning my judgment after my compelling intro, dear Shadowsan? (I think in some voiceovers he asks "Questioning my sanity?" which just makes it even funnier lol Maelstrom you are in fact insane and a threat to society, Shadowsan is right and should question whatever you say or do lmao)

Of course he questions your judgment, Maelstrom. He knows that Carmen can take down any other agent easily but Paper Star would demand more work from her. He knows that Paper Star is just as deadly as you and he doesn't want Carmen dead. Paper Star may be even MORE mortal than Maelstrom 'cause I don't know if that's just me but he passes me the vibe of killing quickly or having someone else killing for him and would just watch the victim die. I just have that impression that Maelstrom wouldn't want to have his hands and his fancy clothes dirty. He would like torture but it wouldn't be mandatory, a point proven as we see him using the crackle rod in the driver and letting Brunt almost die drowned in extremely cold water instead of doing something that makes the victim suffer even more. Meanwhile Paper Star, for having a cutting/stabbing kind of weapon style I think she would like killing in a slow, painful and torturing for the victim kind of way. And the more blood the better. She like big, dramatic and creative deaths, knowing thousands of innovative ways of murder with AND without paper, and some invented by herself(headcanon that you cannot convince me otherwise). I just feel like she would have killed that driver in the most horrible way possible and if Brunt stopped the car almost dying of cold, unlike Maelstrom, Paper Star would have finished the job. Her behaviour being like this is proven by her encounter in Mumbai's "historic elephanta caves" with Le Chevre, in which she tortures him with her origamis and I just KNOW she would have killed him without hesitation if he didn't give her what she wanted. If she did, she probably would call Maelstrom and invent a lie and he would tell her where to escort the papers.

Anyway, skipped ahead too much. So, back to the faculty, Shadowsan HIMSELF aknowledges the fact that Paper Star looks like Black Sheep:Unruly and another word I forgot(reckless?). As we all know all the members in Team Red have an evil villain counterpart, being:

Player:The Troll;

Ivy:The Mechanic;

Zack:The Driver;

Shadowsan:Lady Dokuso.

And logically (and canonically) Carmen's counterpart is Paper Star. So if Carmen is the most skilled person on the good side, it's only fair Paper Star is the most skilled person on the bad side. And it showed. Paper Star is like Carmen's Black Mirror (catch the reference here pls), possibly representing what Carmen would have become if she had forgotten her ethics and morals and fully embraced V.I.L.E.'s ideals. They have a lot in common, like:Both started as the youngest in their class, both showed to be prodigious thiefs with uncommon and distinguished natural talents and skills, both being teacher's pet of a faculty member(Coach Brunt for Black Sheep and Professor Maelstrom for Paper Star), both inclined to not follow rules that don't convey to them, both encounter pleasure in fighting, both with VERY sharp tongue using answers full of irony and sarcastic comebacks, both with high self confidence, both are very clever and possess an extremely high intellect and wits, both are shown to have a quick and strategic way of thinking, both are very insightful, both have very few weaknesses, etc.

So, again with the faculty:majority vote backfires Shadowsan (no one is surprised with it at this point) and Paper Star is sent on the mission, which only reinforces Maelstrom's persuasion powers and leadership over the other faculty members, given it was his idea.

We then see Paper Star singing and jumping(I have a headcanon that she has ADHD and that's why she's so hyperactive and she started origami to improve her attention) and breaking the security camera's screen with her paper shurikens. Then Carmen arrives and right after she says:"Hmmm Papers" (iconic, just like pretty much almost everything she does) she is officialy introduced. The first thing Carmen says after Paper Star is introduced is:"Paper Star, I see you haven't lost your touch." A compliment, instead of a teasing provocation, which is rare for Carmen. And the first thing she says after we officially know her appearance once and for all is:"Red is a smart color for you. It will hide the stains." Literally the first phrase she says after being completely introduced is implied murder.

This girl got so many iconic quotes besides that one, like:

"Mind your own mittens, Kitty Cat."

"Unless you care to find out who here has sharper claws."

"You should run." (Too many implied murder threats to count)

"Nowhere to hide, not very smart."

"In my world, paper beats steel." (It's Paper Star's world, we're just living it it) (Her world is crazy and unpredictable just like her)

"Such a pretty package."

"The more you struggle the tighter it gets."

"Bye bye little Black Sheep."

"But my ears were burning."

"If you insist."

"Guilty as charged, but I never come to a party empty-handed."

"Too bad I shred your pretty glider."

"I told you before:Sheep don't fly. Not on my watch."

"Oh, Is that why you want it so badly, huh?"

"Is there a point here?"

"Hum, sounds valuable."

"What are you hiding?"

"It really should reduce, reuse and recycle." (Environmentalist from the girl that kills trees, how ironic)

"You look like an operative who would get caught." (Amazing judge of character) (Goat Cheese's worst mistake was calling her Pippi Punkstockings) (I laughed tho)

"No need to speak in code." (Her absolute disdain and disrespect for the pattern protocols man) (It's really her way or the highway)

"Perhaps the fish does swim at midnight."

"It will give you a thousand paper cuts unless you tell me the last drop location." (He will bleed too much with these amount of paper cuts, she is totally capable and would have kill Le Chevre there, hands down)

"Your mastery over poison potions is legendary, Lady Dokuso. It would be prudent of me to respect my elders." (Polite Psychotic Princess)

"All this talk about the great Carmen Sandiego but in the flush you're just a paper tiger." (She is literally the only agent that has the honor to say that since, let's be real, it was easy for her, she thought it would be harder and she wanted it to be challenging, that's how good she is)

"There goes Paper Star."

"First one to bag our host wins."

"I know that voice."

"Boo."

"Is that what they say?"

"Oh, such a shame I don't believe in ghosts."

"Puffer fish. Very pointful."

"These brochures are chalk full of...Cutting edge information."

(I think I just listed almost everything she talks is the whole entire show but she is just THAT memorable and deserved more screen time)

Sadistic. Cruel. Maniac. Call her whatever you want but girl knows how to get shit done. They fight for some time("they never protect the face" Paper Star just protected her face, she isn't V.I.L.E.'s five star student for nothing)(Le Chevre, Tigress, Gray, LEARN)(But to be fair she was still at school at that time so the subjects were probably still fresh in her head) but at the end, to everyone's surprise, Paper Star WINS Carmen Sandiego, the only villain to do that so far, at least on that point on the story. She CAPTURED Carmen and stole the Magna Carta and I think y'all ignore the fact that if V.I.L.E. was competent and the cleaners were there with the helicopter, they would have got Carmen to V.I.L.E. and thanks to Paper Star we would have Evil Carmen WAY SOONER. But sadly for Paper Star, V.I.L.E., unlike her, can't do their fucking jobs right (how they survived centuries without getting caught is a total mystery to me) and the cleaners weren't there and as we see Paper Star is the type that likes doing her job by herself, she didn't have a partner and didn't seem to have any way of communicating with V.I.L.E. either so she had to improvise and ring the security alarm because she knew the local authorities would catch her and then she would be transferred to V.I.L.E. by Roundabout. I honestly believe it was pure script protection that made Paper Star, who had Carmen completely unable to move, kill Carmen right there(she made a knife and tried to stab Carmen on the neck eeatly in the fight). She would have had her hat, the Magna Cartas and would be V.I.L.E.'s savior and biggest idol. But she probably wouldn't have the A.C.M.E. card so I let it slide since they showcased how good she was still giving her a hell of a win over Carmen. I don't think she decided to not kill Carmen to obey V.I.L.E. but because she thought the cleaners would take Carmen to V.I.L.E. and she would be able to prove how good she truly was to the faculty. Unfortunately for her, that police waiting gave time to Carmen, allowing her to escape. I think V.I.L.E., even Maelstrom, underestimated Paper Star and didn't expect her first mission to go THAT WELL and didn't sent the cleaners because they didn't expect her to be able to capture Carmen. Shadowsan seemed to be the only one that realized Paper Star was a hidden gem and a rare jewel, like Black Sheep were, and she didn't want Paper Star to harm Carmen.

Much like Carmen and her risky behavior, drawing attention V.I.L.E. doesn't want on them, Paper Star is similar on that aspect, since she leaves a paper mess behind her crimes. And that's probably what made V.I.L.E. want Le Chevre to escort the Magna Carta to safety. Compared to Paper Star, who also like Carmen is a fashion icon and has a very characteristic kind of style that draws unwanted eyes(red for Carmen, neon for paper star) (and both have iconic makeup - red and purple lipstick, amazing eyebrows and eyeliner) (and iconic head things - Carmen's awesome long hair with her iconic fedora and Paper Star's Melanie Martinez hair with her iconic hairstyle), he is much more discreet. But of course Paper Star wants to prove herself and finish the job, making Le Chevre angry saying he had completed more successful missions than her. Yes Le Chevre, but have you ever been the youngest in your class and V.I.L.E.'s youngest operative, at the end of your teenage years, didn't even graduated yet but was so remarkable and gifted faculty gave you special permission to a important mission against an opponent that has defeated a lot of V.I.L.E.'s agents (including you) and not only you could steal it successfully from THE Carmen Sandiego, known for having a massive stealth reputation, but also capture her? No? Exactly. That's the point. Besides, all of the missions you completed were before Carmen. After her, you failed all of them(at least it seems like it). If Paper Star had already a level compared to Maelstrom and Carmen and was BY FAR better than all the other operatives, who unlike her had already graduated and had more experience, and her very FIRST mission was being THAT successful, being something completely unexpected for a trainee with less than one year of training, at THAT age, this girl would be UNSTOPPABLE in no time if she kept that rythm.

Like, we know by Coach Brunt that official codenames are assigned just after graduation. Until there, first names only. Yet we never get Paper Star's real name, even knowing her and Carmen had a few classes together. Also all the faculty members refer to her as Paper Star instead of her real name, which makes me think she got a codename (and probably a stealth suit too) earlier than she should. That's the power Maelstrom holds, 'cause we see Black Sheep being Brunt's favorite and Gray being Bellum's favorite and they didn't have the privileges Paper Star gets. If Countess Cleo or Shadowsan had a favorite as well(Shadowsan always pretended his favorite was Tigress) they would never be able to convince the rest of the faculty to break so many rules for an specific agent, I just know it. Paper Star clearly realized that and knew sticking to Maelstrom was the fastest way of success on that field. In my head, Paper Star always pretended to be Maelstrom's "puppet", pretended to fall for his manipulation and that she was a submissive little girl he could control, so she could win everything she always wanted and eventually a faculty member position that let's be frank Maelstrom would clearly give it to her when he dies/retires. And if he didn't, I can totally see Paper Star going on and taking it either way just because she can. She's the most qualified for it anyway. I think that maybe Maelstrom knew about Paper Star's true intentions, since he's a psichology doctor and psychiatry is his forte, and just rolled with it 'cause both of them bought mutual benefits for one another, each helping the other one to achieve their personal goals. But unlike Paper Star, Maelstrom seemed to be a little bit more aware that he's clinically insane than her.

Anyway, she almost kills Le Chevre, forcing him to tell her where to escort the magna carta and she goes by the name of "Tammy Origami". This name that no one would have in real life just shows how extra she is, just playing around and challenging Carmen to "come and get her if she dared." Unlike Carmen, for Paper Star stealing is a game. She wanted the thrill of the fight to get as many points as she could to win the game. Then Carmen keeps an eye on her on the train(Paper Star making a paper knife to eat was the cutest thing ever, prove me wrong) and then they have the gayest fight ever, almost kissing multiple times. But another thing about this fight that draws attention is how balanced it was, even after Paper Star ran out of paper. As Paper Star is that one villain with a long-range projectiles as a primary weapon, that stops you to get near her, you'd expect Carmen to easily beat her down in a physical fight, since It's not Paper Star's focus. But surprisingly, Carmen took longer in a face-to-face fight with Paper Star than with Tigress, for exemple, that has a close quarters kind of style. I think that happened not only because they were in a train in movement but also because deep down, in their subconscious, even themselves know how alike they are. Paper Star just immediately knew Carmen's fighting style, even having fought her just once, being able to think quickly, awnsering to it, just like Carmen knew Paper Star wouldn't follow the protocol.

So Paper Star jumps on those stairs with the Magna Carta and we don't mention enough that if that thing Carmen took from the train wasn't there, or Carmen hadn't thought about it, or didn't pulled that from its place in time, or had missed the shot, Paper Star would have fully completed her mission. Which means:Unlike all the other missions so far Carmen won out of pure and sheer luck. There were plenty of factors that could stop that improvised cutting boomerang or whatever of hitting its target, such as:Distance, wind power, weight, height, force applied in the arms and on the object itself. Things impossible to calculate in that speed, doesn't matter how good of quick thinker you are. Specially 'cause some of those things are imprevisible:They can change in a second. So, let's be real:Carmen had more chances of missing than actually getting it right.

Also she could have just get on the platform we see a bird on after Carmen's gone, making it even harder to Carmen to shoot that steel circle thingy but whatever, I guess you can't get everything right(My hands are itching to make an angry speech about how Paper Star only lost because Carmen is the main character, she's got plot protection and how that's a kids show so you gotta show good triumphing over evil even if it's not exactly so simple like that on real life).

Back to V.I.L.E. we hear the following dialogue:

Shadowsan:Did you not assure us that Paper Star was ready?

Maelstrom:I never instructed her to break protocol. (Another proof that even with most of Paper Star's and Maelstrom's interests colliding, Paper Star still prioritizes herself and what she wants over Maelstrom and even V.I.L.E. itself)

Paper Star walks in jumping and singing her typical horror movie kid/doll song.

Coach Brunt:Faculty only, Sassy-Pants. (I love how people aknowledge her socks) (Also yes coach Brunt, my girlie is a sassy bad bitch, the baddest badass alive, thank you for noticing)

Paper Star:But my ears were burning.

Maelstrom, standing up:You failed to complete your mission.

Paper Star:Guilty as charged, but I never come to a party empty-handed.

She shows the A.C.M.E. card and throws it on Maelstrom's direction. It's interesting to notice that while Maelstrom doesn't even flinch, Coach Brunt and Countess Cleo slightly go to the side, protecting themselves. It's funny how even faculty is scared of her. They know how powerful she is with paper in her hands(I know that A.C.M.E. card is probably not paper but I'm a firm believer that anything, even the most common things, becomes a weapon in paper Paper Star's hands, like fans, tinfoils, magazines, museum folders, etc).

They are scared like they should be scared. She single-handedly revealed to V.I.L.E. the most secret international organization of modern era. Can you relate, Le Chevre? No, I don't think so. No other operative can relate to her. She's in a league of her own. The only competent agent V.I.L.E. had in a long time.

So I guess Carmen knew that Paper Star was a worthy adversary and wasn't going to give her an easy time, since she stepped up her game on their next encounter. I think she was aware of her luck and tried to guarentee her win easily next time, considering Paper Star had very few weaknesses but using this weaknesses to her advantage in a better, yet more subtle way, that Paper Star won't notice. Yes, Paper Star it's way ahead of it's time and in a more advanced level than most, but she's still young. She's still impulsive, imprudent and has a lot to learn. Knowing that, Carmen does a better job in defeating her in Japan.

Instead of just running away with the sword, Paper Star chooses to hide in its box with it waiting for Carmen for the sake of her presentation. Girl gotta make an entrance. She wanted to fight Carmen and this time around Carmen was more prepared since they met before in a place, when Paper Star shredded her glider and they fought on a rooftop. Back to the present fight, it goes on a little bit with the fans and right when Paper Star is about to use the sword, Carmen steals it from her(still mad Paper Star couldn't use it). Carmen not only did what she did before(getting her out of paper, which works but not alone) she took her to a place the paper that was there was a glue trap that make her stuck. Way to go, Carmen!

Her third appearance was with Tigress on Halloween and I think y'all remember how that went. I don't got much to say about it but let's go. First:Girlie must have something against skeletons. If I had a nickel for everytime paper star cutted a skeleton's head I would have two nickels. It isn't much, but It's weird it happened twice. Second:Can't you see she's dressed as Melanie Martinez anime girl version? Third:You cannot convince me Tigress didn't fought Paper Star 'cause she knew Paper Star had the sharper claws there. Paper Star clearly wears the trousers in this relationship. Paper(Top)Tiger(Bottom). Jokes aside, they also have a mission to complete but if Tigress also wanted it, Paper Star would have killed Tigress right there. Prove me wrong after everything I previously stated(spoiler:you can't). Fourth:We see Paper Star saying she recognizes the chef's voice and Tigress saying she recognizes Carmen, which only highlights so far who's more committed to the mission, even Paper Star being "the plus one", since Tigress was the one that got the party invitation. Fifth:I like how Tigress is the one that sprays him and how Paper Star is the one that catches him when he falls. I expected to be the other way round, considering the fact the chef was a pretty big guy and Paper Star is pretty short and slim. We stan a strong queen. Speaking of which, love how Tigress says:"WE only play with the wicked witches" instead of "I only play with the wicked witches", including Paper Star, already falling for her charms lmao(they are so in love your honor, it makes them look stupid lmfao). Btw they should have worked together more often. I wished both of their characters were more explored, even though I don't like Tigress that much. They fought Carmen really well together. Carmen clearly couldn't handle both of them at the same time. She only won because Paper Star and Tigress mostly attacked her individually, after the other. We see this because the only time they attack together is on the very beginning of the fight. Paper Star shoots her shurikens and Tigress avances, being able to break her broom. If they had a better teamwork as a duo this episode could have had a different ending. Sixth:Paper Star is apparently a sponge 'cause girlie got soaked and then appeared all dried out on the next frame like it was nothing(I know it's just the animation but still, it was funny). Seventh:We got a compensation of the way we were robbed on season two:Paper Star finally used a SWORD! A tinfoil one. Not an ancient one way more cooler but I'll take what I can get. Eighth:Paper Star wanted to stab Carmen so badly. I remember the only other operatives that tried to actually kill Carmen were Spinkick and Flytrap when they followed Shadowsan with the tracker/locator in South Africa and cutted the head of a scarecrow with a red fedora thinking it was her(Gray didn't tried to kill her in the train, only tried to make her unconscious to take her back to V.I.L.E., argue with a wall). And that was on V.I.L.E.'s orders. The other operatives only kill when they have too, when they need, when it's something necessary, but still last case. Paper Star kills for fun. The only persons who tried to kill Carmen a couple of times and almost did it was her and Coach Brunt. Her evil counterpart and her former mother figure. Coincidence? I think not. Nineth:Tigress saying:"She was cramping my style anyway" lol bitch Paper Star's got more style than you. At least she ain't a furry. Tenth:My personal theory is that Paper Star read the recipe on the paper and thought V.I.L.E. could make money with that recipe, since she probably knows V.I.L.E. is going through a financial crisis(that isn't hard to figure), their rice is horrible and everyone loves this guy's secret recipe, so even though that paper had no material value, V.I.L.E. could make a little bit of money out of it so they can at least recover a little bit of the damage Carmen had caused.

Her fourth(fifth if you count her brief appearance in the steal or not to steal interactive special, but I don't because she doesn't appear in all routes) and last apparition was in the last episode, when we see her tied up with red strings in front of a museum. Two years later, Carmen finally got her. The fact she's the last villain we see Carmen capture speaks volumes. The fact she was the one chosen to be in that position instead of any other villain we see in that screen of villains A.C.M.E. hasn't located yet says something. Again, similar symbolism with Chief and Maelstrom. The most powerful hero defeated the most powerful villain(Just remembered Paper Star still owes both Maelstrom and Carmen a hat btw lol).

A curious thing about her character is that we tend to like her and hate Maelstrom(at least that's the case for me). So why that happens? For many reasons, such as:Paper Star, even appearing less than him, we know more about her. She's got more personality. She balances the evil with her cute and colorful style. People tend to underestimate her, like:"How dangerous can she even be?" and she proves them all wrong. Also because she's a very good villain. She's one of the reasons we like Carmen so much, because she makes Carmen not to look like a Mary Sue that wins all the time(I mean, she kinda wins all the time but Paper Star at least gave her more difficulties). With all the others I go like:"Carmen can easily win." With Paper Star(and Coach Brunt, but I also hate Coach Brunt for pretty much the same reasons I hate Maelstrom and Roundabout)(I kinda like Countess Cleo and Doctor Bellum tho)(And I love Shadowsan)I go like:"She can win, but definitely not easily." If Paper Star existed on real life I would hate her and be scared of her but we should normalize liking the villains because they are good villains. Because they move the plot and without them we wouldn't have the story we like so much. Paper Star actually represents a real threat to Carmen. It's good seeing Carmen fighting with an equal, someone who ACTUALLY has chances of winning her. So refreshing and revitalizing because if Carmen just wins easily every time the story gets repetitive, predictable and boring. So the villains are one of the factors that allow the storyline not to fall into boredom. And Paper Star is just so interesting everything she touched became too and we love her for it, so thank you Paper Star.

So, again, why is Paper Star so impressive? Because she had so much potential that was wasted and even still managed to be one of the best characters in the series. And because the first time we see her she didn't even had her graduation day yet, but she was so good and full of potential that they granted her permission to have an important mission and she was not only the closest to defeat Carmen being V.I.L.E.'s youngest operative and at least one year younger than Carmen, and even failing at her mission she still had a victory over Carmen, and a HUGE one:she revealed the most secret organization of actual days, A.C.M.E. We must not ignore the fact that if it wasn't for Paper Star stealing Devineaux's card, A.C.M.E. would still have the advantage of V.I.L.E. not knowing they existed. She successfully was the ONLY PERSON that could steal from THE Carmen Sandiego. That's worth more than the Magna Carta if you ask me(and the wiki I'm using information from agrees with me). And girlie still survived on her own for two years after V.I.L.E.'s take down, what a queen. Everything indicates that she was one of, if not the last villain captured because they show a screen with all the villains A.C.M.E. already captured with a red X and Paper Star wasn't one of them so I believe she wasn't one of the villains who were captured and then escaped but someone who survived without V.I.L.E. two years, proving her superiority. I believe that because they mentioned people who would hide in the dark just doing secret jobs like the cleaners so I believe that was also the strategy Paper Star sticks with. Also, they really missed an opportunity there:Everyone would love seeing an epic battle between these two and instead we just see Paper Star tied up in front like a Museum. Like, C'mon give me more. Carmen is the best but Paper Star got CLOSE. Like too close for confort. She got caught but I believe she's gonna escape just like it's said a lot of villains are doing. A.C.M.E. ain't enough to contain her. And that's it. Let's wrap it up for today. Bye!

#carmen sandiego #carmen sandiego 2019 #a.c.m.e.#paper tiger #paper star cs #paper star #v.i.l.e.#character analysis #yes that's too long and most likely no one will read but I needed to vent about her and decided not to divide in parts #i got carried away

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emmacreatures · 2 years ago

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A little introduction of what Ka'am would be. (and a fun piece of story attached to it as well💕 Thank you guys for reading my stuff, I've been writing since 2013 and had a HUGE stop for almost 2 years due to mental difficulties, so sometimes my writing is rusty and perhaps not as 'flowy' or rather smooth as others can, but it makes me SO happy people read our fanfics😭 Thank you beyond words!

As a little funfact, Ka'am supposedly would've been the new leader, the Olo'eyktan. But things didnt always go as planned. In fact, he got pushed to the side, each opportunity. Ka'am is the youngest sibling in the family. After Tsu'teys death.. He was to be the new leader in order, but as Neytiri bonded with jake, Jake got the place to be the Olo'eyktan. Pushing Ka'am far to the side. You could see Ka'am kind off like Scar in the lion king. Staying in the shadows, hidden while the man is dangerous due to the unappreciation and being in his own, figuring ways that others dont do. His way of dressing and handling his hair showed a bit of a rogue look. He too would be a bad influence at times without anyone knowing its him nor people figuring it out. Such as telling the younger kids from Jake and Neytiri that they shouldnt go to dangerous places.. Which made them all the more eager to do the exact opposite. He may even be the one to tell the kids to go to the battlefield, since only 'true and brave' warriors would go there. Ka'am himself was a rebel.. He shaped himself after being pushed to the side day after day.. But it made him strong, extremely dangerous.. Hidden, uncatchable, never noticed, like a python about to bite while watching his prey unnoticed. Jake did not agree with his behavior, but he didnt have much of a say about it. He knew from Neytiri the man was hard to talk to, especially since it was her younger brother. They werent far apart time wise, as Jake at first thought he was in fact the older one.. May it be due to the man's secretive ways of teaching himself.. Making him wise as the attention never was aimed upon him. And while he felt like Ka'am had never done anything wrong in ways that couldnt be excused, he just kept an eye on the man, always having felt a slight tension. Yet.. It was never proved that Ka'am couldnt stand jake.. So Neytiri made her husband stop to wander.. Which was perfect for Ka'am.

Even Lo'ak looks up to Ka'am alot.. seeing he does the things na'vi dont tell him what to do.. Like riding a thanator, or use specific venom that shouldnt even be touched by Na'vi hands to kill prey even faster. Ka'am was a determined man, and due he did things so precise, he might've even be the reason why lo'ak is such a rebel.. Noticing Neteyam got all the attention, becoming this perfect soldier.. The oldest brother. Making Lo'ak always stand behind him.. And Ka'am.. Was close to such a comparison as well. Neytiri was the older sister, and she so happened to be with this 'toruk makto'.. Pushing Ka'am far to the side despite he was promised and trained all his life to be a powerful leader.. Nonetheless, Ka'am had accepted his faith, but it made his thinking alot more dark.. Worse than anyone would even assume.

"uncle!!" Tuk called as Lo'ak and her approached the man, watching Ka'am who sat on his ikran, just being 'back up' in case they needed it.. which showed again how much of a priority he was. Ka'am just rolled his eyes as he didnt like to be called that way, and Lo'ak could tell. "Tuk.. You know he doesnt like to be called like that. You should know by now" Lo'ak said as he would approach Ka'am first. "Sorry sir, she's still having to remember" he said as Ka'am smirked hiddenly, hearing Lo'ak showed the same respect like he did to his father.. maybe a slightly more. "So.. What are the plans of the young warrior today" Ka'am said as he'd look down at them first, before getting off the ikran.. Walking a little as Lo'ak followed him right away. "Havent decided yet.. Is there anything you know off, or something you think I can take?" Lo'ak said rather determined, making Ka'am smirk gently. "My my Lo'ak. You are having the energy today" Ka'am said for Lo'ak liked to walk next to Ka'am alot. Hear his stories despite jake did not agree with it.. which made his younger brother all the more curious to hear more.. "Oh, speaking off. we heard of this.. battlefield a bit further away, far into the woods. Do you know about it" Lo'ak asked as he stopped walking, which made Ka'am realize exactly what he meant.. Stepping two steps further before he'd raise his head, let his mind wander before turning to the two kids. "Oh I know the place." the man sounded tricky, making Lo'ak get more eager. "Do you know exactly where its located?" Lo'ak kept on asking, for Ka'am's mind worked fast.. "No.. No Lo'ak" "But sir" "As much as I like you Lo'ak" the man said as a soft tricky smile appeared, before getting far more serious "there are things there that no one should ever see. There is a reason Sully does tell you NEVER to go there. Only the most profound and well trained na'vi dare or are allowed to go. Its full of the past.. Some things might even still go off" Ka'am said as he crossed his arms, his tail swooping slowly. "and what if you go with us?" Lo'ak said, making Ka'am tild his head. "So I'd get yelled at by your father?" The man said for Lo'ak was thinking of solutions. "But no one needs to know right. It would be just a quick look, please Ka'am" The young na'vi said for Ka'am hummed before approaching him and holding him a bit as his back. "I can tell you'll be.. or even already are a determined hunter lo'ak. But this is too risky, even for you. I'm sorry, I cant risk it, even despite my rather rebellious background" Ka'am said tricky, making Lo'ak nod. "Come tuk" he said as he respected Ka'am's words, wandering off as Ka'am raised his head with a more darkened look.. Feeling that was the easiest lure one could think off.

"Okay tuk, you stay here, I'm gonna go" Lo'ak said for Tuk sighed. "Lo'ak. What did he say.. Its too dangerous" Tuk said softly for Lo'ak rolled his eyes. "thats what they told Ka'am as well when he tamed the Thanator.. Yet all he got were the scar on his ear and eyebrow. Things like that will always be unaccepted unless you prove them wrong and he proved them wrong. common" Lo'ak said as Kiri and Spider ran into them.. Of course now wanting to come too. "Well.. if you're going, I wanna go too. I can be strong and- " Tuk said as Lo'ak sighed almosy in a groan. "Tuk?!" "I'll tell mom if you dont let me come" she said while pointing her tongue out, making them eventually sneak away.. all of them, towards that battlefield. Ka'am noticed the smaller kids eventually dissapear, laughing low in an almost hum once, before he'd dissapear into the shadows.. Curious what could possibly happen.

#quaritch x ka'am #niku30 #emmacreatures #miles quaritch #avatar #rebellious ka'am #ka'am #avatar oc

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