#even if i post about vietnam war boys

[shiftwux]

they sent me into no mans land after i said "jeepers its ypres"

[iamcautiouslyoptimistic]

🦅Russell Adler Headcanons

{Author's Note} Since I'm literally obsessed with this man, I thought I'd post my headcanons for him. All of these are based off of his canon backstory and character with bits of my own speculation thrown in so nothing should be too out of left field here. I may end up posting more of my thoughts on him soon so we shall see. Hope y'all like it and I'd love to hear what you think, as well as any headcanons you guys might have! Tagging @littlemissclandestine for this since she's an Adler fan. Let me know if I did this man justice lol🤭

‼️Content Warning: swearing, suggestive themes‼️

~ ~ ~

-Badass asshole

-Takes awhile for him to soften enough to really love someone

-Flirtatious jerk when he has a crush

-Shows he cares through small actions that can be hard to notice, as well as vague, rather backhanded compliments

-Shamelessly stares from behind those glasses of his

-Thinks it’s really cute when you wear his shades but would never admit it

-Stylish with heavy 70s influence

-Probably modeled for a male fashion magazine at some point LMAO

-Definitely knows how to dance

-Seems like the type to meme a bit on British people (specifically Park lol)

-Very sarcastic, sometimes to the point that you don’t realize he’s actually joking because he's always so monotone

-Secretly loves Belgian waffles (this is a reference to that one Bruce Thomas TikTok lol)

-Has a soft spot for the Beach Boys (I mean, look at that 🎶bushy, bushy blonde hairdo🎶 of his)

-Since so many people have asked and teased him about it (I see y'all in the fandom and I will not accept this slander lol) -> his hair isn’t fake, it’s actually pretty soft, very bouncy, he likes styling it

-Very particular about his appearance as it is one of the few things that he can truly control

-Prefers cats over dogs

-Can get obsessive about certain things and lose himself to them (i.e. his search for Perseus) -> Mason quote: “He spent so long searching for Perseus, he didn’t notice when he lost himself.”

-Still struggles with PTSD from his time in Vietnam, which, alongside his obsession with finding Perseus, is what led to his divorce

-Carries a lot of guilt and regret that he doesn’t like to acknowledge

-Started smoking to cope with the trauma of war, now has a nicotine addiction; when he’s really stressed, he chain smokes like a chimney

-Gets restless if he doesn’t have a cigarette

-Doesn’t sleep well and when he does, he usually wakes up every few hours

-Scars - Shrapnel? Abuse? Torture? Animal attack? No one knows and he’ll never tell

-Kiss or trace those scars and he WILL melt

-Difficult for him to let his guard down

-Has a tendency to isolate himself -> Mason quote: "You were never alone, Adler. Only in your own stubborn head."

-Always wearing those damn glasses cuz STYLE but also to hide his eyes to remain as a sort of blank, emotionless slate to other people

-Absent parents who never showed him real love or support as he grew up so he struggles to do the same for others -> they were the reason he joined the army as soon as he turned 18

-When it comes to cuddling, he loves holding you against his chest and running his fingers along your arm, cheek, or through your hair; small but intimate actions like that are his favorite

-Doesn’t like to show emotions at all, even during more intimate moments; he needs some coaxing to relax in that way, which takes time

NSFW Below👇🏻 (it's really not too bad tho)

-Sit on his lap👀

-Will pin your wrists during the sexy times🫣

-EDGING & OVERSTIMULATION

-After his divorce, he's tended to view sex as more of a transaction where both parties are fulfilling needs for each other so he'd be selfish at first but as your relationship progresses, he'd become far more generous

[intimacyequalsdeath]

Bubz's Slasher Fictober Day 9: Chop-Top Sawyer (Pumpkin Spice)

Almost to double digit days! This is also officially day two of the Pumpkin spice week which will make much more sense when I post the final masterlist so stay tuned!

Notes: Minors DNI, Porn with a smidge of plot. No pronouns or descriptions of reader used. NSFW. Not really anything to raunchy but it's also Chop-top so proceed at your own risk lol. Kinda off AU really the other thing I changed for story sake is Nubbins being alive. Short and spicy.

"Bobby your brother could walk in!" You screeched at him.

He gave a laugh that more so resembled a witch's cackle before wrapping his arms around and pulling you further down on his lap, subsequently shoving his cock further into your plush walls.

Cock warming was something you and Bobby did often, especially since he got back from Vietnam. It would help calm him down after particularly rough nightmares about his time in war and helped him to shut up after fighting with Drayton. Though you two never had dared to do it with the door unlocked when Nubbins could easily walk in at any moment.

If you didn't know any better you'd think Bobby lied to you that the door was locked just to get your pants off.

"C'mon mama relax! Nubbins ain't gonna come in here and even if he does I'm sure you'll be good and quiet" He breathed into your ear letting out another signature laugh. He jutted his hips sharply into you and continued to laugh at the squeal that was produced from your throat at the feeling of the tip of his cock brushing up against the sweet spot at the deepest point in side of you.

"Chop I swear I'll never you let you do this again if you don't quit it" You snapped at him, him and you both knowing you didn't actually mean it.

He brought a hand up to your chest and rubbed your nipple through your shit while sucking on the pulse point on the side of your neck. You threw your head back and groaned.

Your eyes widened when you heard the oldest Sawyer brother approach the outside of the bedroom door.

"Bobby! Goddamnit Boy are you in there?!" Drayton yelled.

"Better find a way to get him to git before he opens that door mama" Bobby snickered before reattaching his lips to your neck and giving another few random thrusts.

'Bobby I swear to god if you don't answer me right now you'll sleep out in the barn!" Drayton yelled again.

"He's Busy!" You screamed through a moan as Bobby began steadily thrusting back and forth in and out of you. You heard Drayton grumble something about sex crazed young people before he walked away from the door.

Bobby's hands gripped your hips, no doubt leaving figure shaped bruises, and slammed you continually into his girth. You turned your head pressing your face into the dirty mattress to suppress your moans hoping to save a little dignity with his brothers.

"Bobby on my bed again?!" A voice yelled as the door swung open, But Bobby's thrusts didn't stop on account of his brother.

"Godammit Nubbins get the hell out!" Bobby yelled panting from over exerting himself with his thrusts. You suddenly started loosing yourself, not caring that Nubbins was in the room as you began to push your ass back into Bobby to meet his thrusts.

You were chasing your own climax and didn't give a fuck whether Nubbins was in the room or not.

"Y-you also do it on my b-bed, you g-got your own!" Nubbins yelled again seemingly not caring himself that his brother was nearly splitting you open in front of him on his bed none the less. Bobby didn't answer that time focusing on bringing you to your high. You could feel his cock pulsate inside of you and knew he was close too.

The ecstasy washed over you at once, You could feel your walls clench around him while you came as you milked his cock of the creamy warm ropes that shot out into painting your walls white.

"Oh fuck baby" You moaned, Bobby's lips connected back to your neck and his thrusts became erratic trying to give you every last ounce of his cum.

When the world stopped being spotty and you were brought back to earth panting with a grin that matched Bobby's, You lips met as the two of you started to cool down. Only one thing brought the two of you out of your sexed out state. The click of a camera.

"Nubbins Goddamn you!"

And there went tonight's peace in the Sawyer house.

[docholligay]

I liked the folk song you exposed me to. If you feel like it, the first five that hit your mind go! I'll look them up and have a listen ^‿^

Boy I wish I could remember what folk song that was ahahah. I listen to a LOT of folk. A Favored genre. I basically listen to folk and country and then running music. Bless you for not asking for me to pick songs that are my favorites or particularly great, those almost always paralyze me for whatever reason.

HERE'S THE LAST SIX I PLAYED ON YOUTUBE THAT I THINK ARE MORE FOLK THAN COUNTRY

Billy Bragg -- Between The Wars

Iron and Wine--Passing Afternoon

Dave Carter--When I Go (Doc why are there two songs in a row about death? Mind your business, if you're not careful I'll make a whole playlist of the very best of death.)

Bright Eyes-- Land Locked Blues

Trials of Cato-- Gawain

Colter Wall--Sleeping on the Blacktop

And here's three bonus "if you know nothing about folk music here's some important foundational American Contemporary Folk music that you may have never heard" songs (In MOST of these the singers are important but the songs are just, ones I like)

Woody Guthrie-- I ain't got no home in this world-- You know this dude. He wrote "This land is your land". He's the one that has the guitar that says "This machine kills fascists" (Boy whenever people post something referring to that I want to be like, "WHOSE FUCKING GUITAR IS THAT FROM??? TELL ME WHO! TELL ME NOW!"

Pete Seeger -- What Did You Learn in School Today -- you know many many songs by this man. They have been covered by many many people. he wrote "Turn, Turn, Turn" he wrote 'Where Have All the Flowers Gone" he wrote "if I had a hammer" It is BUCKWILD to me that more people don't know who Pete Seeger is. Anyway i picked this song because both he and the below are part of my larger reeducation program that all generations have been politically aware, actually.

Phil Ochs--Draft Dodger Rag-- I fucking love Phil Ochs. He was the first one, by most reasonable evidence, to publish a protest song that named Vietnam by name. He was deeply critical of the US government. He wrote my favorite patriotic song too, though. He was a biting, funny, aggressive Jewish man who started fights even within his own circles (He directly attacks Pete Seeger, I know of at least, in one song. Bob Dylan shoved him out of a limo because Phil was dogging on his songs) and did not know when to fucking quit, and got himself into trouble. I consider his suicide to be one of the great tragedies of the music world, but also not the most surprising thing on God's green and verdant earth. I could give you just a top five Phil Ochs songs. Anyway, I picked this song because everyone picks the aggro ones, but I like also when he's funny. ANYWAY.

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

s2 episode 4 thoughts

i thought this episode sounded interesting! the plot was kinda: wasn't it fucked up when the vietnam war happened? and i was sitting here like, yeah, quite famously it was pretty fucked up. still, an interesting exploration into trauma and the american role of imperialism

the first thing i wrote was "a lot of people in this show fall asleep watching the tv but personally i have never done that". am i immune to the Curse or something?

so this guy who is a sleep doctor sees a fire and he calls the fire department right away, and everyone is evacuating, and we see a dude in the hallway with a suspicious smile and an even more suspicious scar across his neck. i am used to the episode structure by now, so i knew this was our mystery man of the week.

but the firemen get to the burning fellow's house and there is no fire! despite it looking so real to him that he actually burned to death... it's not there! well huh! must be our mystery man can psychically project fire

cutscene to mulder's place and it again looks like an entirely new set for his apartment. again, i ask, i'm not crazy, right?? can someone else confirm that this is an entirely different space than what we saw before?

(i hope we don't see scully in a new space as well- i thought her apartment was so cute in s1)

he gets a newspaper and a tape of the call dropped off at his door so he runs to skinner and begs with his big sad wet eyes to please let him take the case. and skinner is like maybe. but go transcribe a bunch of wiretaps first. so THAT is why he's always listening to weird stuff!

BUT WAIT! who enters our fair scene...? but a NEW CHARACTER? he is a guy who looks like he crawled out of a frat house where he majored in lacrosse and business... he introduces himself as alex and says that this is HIS case... mulder is PISSED he's all "i work alone >:(" but he can't shake the dude off... hmm.

(i recall seeing a post about people slash shipping mulder with a character in s2- i saw this post way before i started watching the show, so i only noted it in my passing interest of fandom history- and i'm wondering if this is the fellow they were referring to. in the same post i saw mulder in a speedo which i guess we'll get to in time)

scully's back at the academy!!! teaching another autopsy class! boy they must have a steady stream of bodies coming in for this. but an urgent call is coming from a "george hale" and she leaves class to go answer...

and it's mulder!!!!! he has a code name!!! he asks her to fly up to new york and do an autopsy and she's like "i'm in class til 4:30" and he's like "that's fine, we'll wrap it up for you and you can come up at 5!" and she sighs and. agrees.

now. again. this was shocking to me. mulder cannot have anyone else draw his blood or do an autopsy it HAS to be his friend scully. and she WILL get on a flight and do it. this is SICK and TWISTED how she will do anything for him.

mulder was being a real jerk to alex and alex said "i don't appreciate being ditched like a bad date" and to my shock and dismay i found myself agreeing with this new character... mulder WAS being unreasonable... i mean we knew he's been moody lately but this was downright hostile

(mulder walks in while scully puts an organ into a scale) "spleen or pancreas?" "stomach" <- LMAO his ass did NOT pass anatomy!

and they're all so smiley and happy to see each other when. scully sees this man behind him. and her smile fades SO fast.

(he tries to shake her hand but given that her hands are covered in stomach she wisely brushes him by. it may have seemed like a diss but i assume he doesn't want gore on his hands)

alex is GAGGING over the body (me too) so mulder gets realllllll close to scully to block out his amateur hour buffoonery...

(y'all need to not be that close and looking at each other in such a manner in front of a dead guy... or do it more for my sake)

she's whispering that it seems his body believed he burned to death despite there being no burns on him!

we see another guy with a same scar on his neck as the first!!! he knows the first guy and it seems initially that their reunion is wholesome... until preacher (scar man one) admits to killing the sleep doctor... and then things get... wild

"holy fuck", i mumbled to myself while also writing down the same phrase in my notes, as a blood soaked family appeared in the room, shooting the character we just met for his crimes. that escalated with an extreme quickness. it was clear that whatever traumas he had inflicted upon others in vietnam were being returned in equal measure via the psychic force of this preacher character

then we go back to mulder and alex, who i thought was handling mulder's hater energy quite well, all things considered. but little did i know what was to come...

so sleep doctor, the guy who just died, and preacher all knew each other... interesting... they were stationed at basic training together...

we get a visual on mulder's new source after deep throat's passing! he says he has no desire to be there, and that their mutual friend deep throat died for what he believed in, which he does not want to do. which is of course totally fair. at the end of the day the FBI is just a paycheck for some of these folks.

the sleep doctor was revealed to be doing experiments to make super advanced soldiers who don't need sleep so maybe that gives you the power to kill people magically. we can't really rule it out.

preacher then makes two cops kill EACH OTHER with his sorcery

back to scully cam <3 she's got her glasses on at the computer <3 she's got little yellow earrings in that look like flowers <3 and she thinks its so cool that they cut part of this guy's brain out and now he hasn't slept in 24 years... nerd

they're on the phone with each other and it is SO SAD because why. why can't they just be together! it's not fair. she says it sounds like his new partner is working out and he's like yeah he's okay...

"must be nice to not have someone poking holes in all your theories" "yeah, no idea how i put up with you for so long" and they're smiling into the phone while saying this

now, i won't lie. this scene, of all the scenes, was the first to bring tears to my eyes in the course of my streaming this show. because now we have seen what they'll do for each other and they're TAUNTING me by dangling it in front of my face. and i cannot stand it. i feel sick at the thought.

anyway back to mulder and his new partner. who i feel is too good to be true because he's willing to believe spooky mulder's theories. but they found another guy who also had the sleep surgery and he tells them that they went on a rampage committing atrocities in vietnam which was. very heavy for the alien show. but it is something that americans often pretend just didn't happen so i thought it was interesting that the idea of accountability was being explored in fiction.

so there's one more guy involved with the sleep surgery, and he's coming into town, so alex and mulder have to sprint down to the station and try and find him. they're really giving it a sprint, too. mulder is a track star. don't think i've forgotten

and mulder does see the guy they're looking for but preacher is behind him and shoots mulder! he falls to the ground! no, i yelled to my screen! not another bullet in mulder!

... but he gets up. the whole thing was a trick of preacher! it never actually happened!

alex is like dude wtf. and this is where he says "i want to believe" and this where i made the very astute note "i don't trust this guy, sorry"

so finally they find preacher still alive, and mulder tells alex to help out his victim, while mulder runs off to find him. mulder sees how much pain he is in, and tells him that maybe his pain can lessen if he testifies about what was done to him, and it seems they've come to an understanding...

until alex enters, pulls his gun up, so preacher also pulls his gun up, and alex and shoots him! preacher is dead

mulder looks deeply upset by this. he tells alex that he did the right thing, but you can tell he doesn't believe it in the slightest. i would venture to guess that this is when all the trust he had begun to place in alex vanishes. he seems entirely deflated at the unnecessary loss of life.

he goes back to the car and notices someone stole the secret files that his informant gave him, and he punches the car. this is simply too many L's for one day, and i sympathize.

but scully's freaking out too, because her office was broken into and all her stuff looked through! so what in the name of hell is going on here?!?!? ah, i realize, it is this alex fool... "i know ur related somehow" i wrote ominously in my quotes

and boy, i was right! the narrative the writers were going for was not lost on me! because remember skinner's old sidekick the cigarette guy? and how they had a sort of breakup moment? well, alex is reporting to him, and they have the file he stole from mulder!!!!!

alex says that scully is a "big problem" to which i say: keep talking like that, you overgrown varsity jock, and you're gonna have a big problem with my fucking hands catching your throat

anyway, interesting episode. i didn't want to like alex and then i did because i felt bad for him for being subjected to mulder's attitude and then i hated his guts by the end and reluctantly admitted to myself that mulder's crankiness was justified. i hope he won't stick around for long but i have a feeling he will.

also, they need to stop taunting me by dangling a real mulder and scully reunion in front of my head and then ripping it away. i had TEARS! in my eyeballs! i was sighing wistfully! it was sick!!!!!! this is my free time i'm spending here pining after these fools! it's me, the fan, asking for fan service!!!

[euph0riacc]

BlakelySpeirs? BLAKELYSPEIRS? I must know more!

BLAKELY SPEIRS!

HAH, yeaaaaah. It’s exactly what it says on the tin!

It’s going to be the sequel to “Say it (like you’ll come back)” of post war and going home to America and as the title suggests, it’s going to be Blakely and Speirs whom it focuses on.

I couldn’t even tell you where it came from but I can tell you that I am fully obsessed. Speirs and his Sassy Pilot who can match him crazy for crazy - *chef kiss*. They also become the information link between E Company and the 100th since they’re together.

It’s going to be SO SO fun, honestly I am so excited. It’s going to take them through post war, up to Korea and Vietnam!

Here’s a little snippet of what I’ve been working on:

————-

Blakely leans in to light his cigarette against his own and the boldness almost knocks Speirs back a step. Almost. He recovers quickly and places his back to the cool brick behind him and thinks maybe this was what DeMarco and his boys had been like before the camp had broken them. Cocky.

Blakely doesn’t seem to care about the prospect of a blue ticket, or if he does he has an impossible confidence in the men around him, enough confidence that he’s not worried about being ratted out to the brass. It makes sense. Speirs is in the lion's den now. He’s out of place here but Blakely’s in his element. Still, he can’t help but poke, just a little, to see if he bites.

“Careful Bomber boy, looks like you’ve had one too many.”

“Don’t think I've had enough, between you and me,” Blakely snorts, taking a drag with one hand slotted onto his hip like he’s testing him. “But maybe I'm just looking for something stronger.”

@scarecrowmax ( I know u asked about the boyz too! <3)

[damthosefandoms]

Umm will you please feed us (ME) more content about how Soda changed after the war because I’m obsessed with the shift in his personality and how drastic it would be for the rest of the gang and how not only is it soda having to cope with his new self but everyone else too….

Like the fics of him being in Vietnam are usually a little 🤨😬 but the character exploration of him post homecoming…. I eat that shit up (but I think mainly because I love angst and specifically Sodapop angst)

man I can’t even lie to you. 90% of it was I listened to (the Big Time Rush cover of) Revolution by the Beatles and went “post-Vietnam soda would’ve loved this song.” so do with that what you will.

actually i will! the Beatles are notorious for being a Soc Thing in the book, it’s stated that the Greasers like Elvis but the Socs like the Beatles, and I’ve mentioned this before probably in some tags somewhere but I think Soda’s guilty pleasure is that he doesn’t actually like Elvis, he likes the Beach Boys and the Beatles. Personally, my parents grew up in the 60s/70s so my music taste is whatever they played in the car for me growing up and this is entirely me projecting but it feels in-character to me for Soda to love all kinds of music, so anyway. One day when he’s home he’s driving around with some of the gang and Revolution comes on and they’re booing it telling him to change the station bc it’s a Beatles song but he just very passive-aggressively turns the radio volume up because that song is literally a fuck you to the world for the Vietnam War. Soda likes the Beatles now. Something is clearly wrong in the world. But they can’t tell him to turn it off now bc he’s belting the lyrics because it’s like cathartic for him. They cut his hair short when he joined the army. They cut his hair short and as a greaser that’s all he had, and now this song is all he has, too.

the rest is under a read more bc this may get long lol.

Soda would’ve turned eighteen a year after the plot (so 1966 in the book/movie timeline, 1968 in the musical timeline and the musical is the one I go by personally), and in my head it’s all pretty fast; he’s drafted and sent away as soon as he turns eighteen. His birthday’s in October and he’s gone before Christmas. He doesn’t come back until maybe the next Christmas, maybe right after—and I go back and forth on this depending how I wanna play it but I think for the sake of the rest of the gang still seeing the greaser/soc thing as something that matters, he’s just over nineteen when he gets back, and that matters bc they’re all still pretty young.

And Ponyboy’s probably still home and in high school and definitely is still in Darry’s care (he’s 16 now). and anyway at some point Pony & Soda are walking home and get jumped bc people are still mad about Bob’s death, and Pony steps in front of Soda bc Soda’s still injured from whatever causes his medical discharge from the army (I’ll get around to that) but when the socs pull a knife Soda just watches them tiredly, and he’s like “ain’t y’all realized there’s worse shit in the world than what side of town ya live on?” and that’s when they clock his knee brace and the bags under his eyes, the buzzcut hair that looks so silly on an east-sider walking around town in a too-big flannel and blue jeans, his hair’s shorter than Pony’s was after his trip to Johnny’s barber shop. Soda never ever let anyone cut his hair. He was so proud of it.

But now he’s there and they see the dogtags hanging around his neck, not the old rusty ones he wore in school but shiny new ones with his name and blood type and religion (yes, that used to be on dogtags, idk if it still is or was in Vietnam but I know it was during the Korean War so they’d know what kind of last rites or whatever it’s called to do for you if you died) (I also grew up on reruns of M*A*S*H can you tell. Soda would’ve loved that show btw) branded on there and they hesitate and Pony grips Soda’s arm tight and tells the socs to scram and they do, cause once upon a time soda was known around Tulsa for never having lost a fight and now he’s got military training and a shit ton of trauma and a bad knee.

and yes i think he went home after a year bc he got shot in the knee! I think he had a bad knee anyway (from the rodeo injury mentioned in the book) but now it’s kind of. he’s either on crutches for the rest of his life or once he recovers as best he can it depends on the day if he needs crutches or a cane or what. in an au where Johnny and Dally live, Soda post-war & Johnny bond over their legs not working like they used to anymore!!!!!!

they also bond over knowing what it’s like to be so scared you end somebody’s life, but like, that is something I haven’t thought too much about yet and don’t have the energy to put brainpower into tonight lol but I know Johnny feels bad about relating to him for a bit about it bc Soda was “protecting his country” and Johnny just stabbed Bob to save Ponyboy and thinks it’s not the same. But Soda’s trying to explain to Johnny that the “protecting his country” thing is a load of crap and they never should’ve been in Vietnam in the first place.

I don’t think any of the gang would be pro-war at all, but it’s the sixties so we’re talking blind patriotism bc they just simply Do Not Pay Attention To Politics Outside Tulsa Very Often (they’d all be liberal in today’s society tho) but I think Soda is so radicalized into the anti-war movement by the time he comes home bc of what he experienced they’re all like “ooooookay slow it down and explain one more time.”

[desire-mona]

forgive me for leftist-posting abt the gay movie, but the dead poets society is soooo leftist-adjacent in my mind. "mona wtf does that mean" im not entirely sure! something about rebelling against a school with such strict rules and reliance on tradition just to read poetry in the woods seems very.. path to leftism to me. i feel like i can explain better with the original dead poets so ill do that.

warning: this isnt even speculation at this point, its me making shit up about the og poets for the sake of projection + i think it would be interesting + og poets being taught ww2 propaganda is smthn im always thinking abt. if u dont agree, thats more than fine, u have literally no obligation to esp considering this barely makes sense. also this isnt meant to be informative at all so if i get shit wrong then lmk, im neither a historian nor an expert in leftism.

to specify off the bat, ive always hced keating as an avid and involved leftist, although probably not publicly. is there any merit to this? absolutely not, it's entirely just me projecting, so take this with a heaping spoonful of salt.

so, around the time the original dead poets society was formed, we were in the sorta beginning of WW2 (if we assume the dps was founded in 1941, definitely couldve been later. u should read @pencileraser1's post about keating.), and if ur familiar with US history, propaganda surrounding the war was RAMPANT, most commonly in the form of "we want u to join the military!!!!1!!!!" ive mentioned this in a previous post from however long ago that pro-military propaganda was so rampant that they often taught it in schools, no doubt especially so in private schools. now this could ultimately mean nothing in relation to the og poets, they so easily could have eaten it up and thought nothing of it, they did essentially just do homework in the woods. but in my joe biden's america ass brain thats not how it goes, just cuz. to me its sort of a pipeline of start to rebel by forming the dps > slowly realise after talking that the things theyre teaching u in terms of "rahhhh military!!!" is kinda fucked up > growing distrust of us military in general > something something US wasting money on weapons and war and shit > something something anti capitalism.

is this a stretch? absolutely, but it makes sense to me so thats what matters. also the leftist-ness?? exists on different spectrums in my mind, ranging from being against US military propaganda being taught in class to straight-up socialism (keating socialist...) so definitely dont take this as the dps being some sort of mini socialist party, in my mind its just a group of boys who happen to agree abt some aspects of society (hah). i also dont think this translated to any permanent ideals for a majority of the og boys, especially since anti-capitalism didn't exactly mix well with the cold war, the red scare, and all variants of etc after WW2 ended. except for keating, keating stays a socialist, CPUSA and eventual SDS keating (if he chose to stay in the US) are real to me.

now, would this translate to the reprisal of the dead poets (the movie ones)? i doooont think so? originally i was gonna say this only applies in my mind when the US is at war, but the US is kinda always at war, sooooooo. lets just say it applies when the US being at war is sort of a main concern to the general population (ex both world wars, vietnam, war on terror if welton was still around, etc). as to why this sorta hc only applies concerning militarism? i have absolutely no idea, probably something to do with my views on the military sorta long term leading me to my political opinions. but also! the effects that the red scare and mccarthyism definitely were still prevalent in 1959 despite soooooorta dying down around 1957. no doubt the US population's fear of anti-capitalism = ur a russian spy was still there. was that sorta thing taught in schools at that point? not sure, this is also a fictional school so it doesn't really matter and im going on a tangent. i suppose if the dps reprise continued for more than ~3 months then they could've gone down a similar path under the right circumstances? but i doubt it. although leftist neil is quite special to me. neil for SAG! neil for unionisation!

i like applying this logic to other periods, like the 60s for example (i knowwww keating was gone by then, lets just pretend, make it an au i guess) i can definitely see the poets (or some at least) delving into the hippie movement on the down-low, although its easy to call into question whether hippies were an actual group of activists or just a sort of cultural movement. again - i dont know much about the history of hippies so i dont have much to add, lets go with a general "anti vietnam war" ideology to keep things simple. sorta similar to the og poets in terms of war bad > socialism pipelines, and the SDS was formed roughly around this time? peak was in 1968-69, but thats kinda all i got. if anyone enjoys this idea and knows a lot abt that point in leftist history then definitely feel free to add anything on if u want.

in conclusion: mona hates war and the military and projects it onto the poets because they wanted to and also they had a conversation with tristan about propaganda in relation to dps. this is a bunch of random sorta points just strewn together so my apologies for how messy this is.

bonus: FANTASTIC point by @lookingglasswolf

[miyagi-hokarate]

I went full dumbass and the first thing I thought was that Mr. Miyagi was Daniel’s dad. 😂 That then transitioned into what has been talked about over and over within this fandom; the possibility of Kreese being Johnny’s father. That would actually be really cool, like what if Mr. Miyagi knew about the relationship all along and that Johnny was the real “karate kid” who would be the one to ultimately take Kreese down? It would be a good turning point for Daniel too. I kind of feel like we’re overthinking it and it’s going to be a let down but I sure would love if they went that route.

Hi there!

(in reference to this post)

This is going to sound harsh, but I'd be pretty disappointed if Cobra Kai were to reveal Kreese was Johnny's biological father. It's a thematically weak and cheap plot twist, and it's a theory I'd be strongly opposed to if confirmed.

My reasoning gets very long, but I have very strong opinions on this 😭

One of the themes the Karate Kid franchise had always been about was the legacy older generations pass onto younger ones; more specifically, the teachings mentors share to their students influence how they view themselves and the world, as well as how students then behave in society. Being as The Karate Kid is heavily male-dominated, this theme naturally extends to how men influence boys.

Fatherhood is another theme in the Karate Kid. However, the trilogy highlights father-figures and the relationships men build in life more than it does the relationships people are born with or are related to; Daniel's father was revealed to have died many years ago, and we never see Johnny's own father as well (both bio and his stepfather Cobra Kai added).

However, one of the most significant relationships Daniel develops in the trilogy is his with Mr. Miyagi — not only are they karate master and student, but best friends and ultimately family. This is mirrored in Johnny's relationship with Kreese, However, unlike being built on love and respect, brutality and control (or lack thereof) is what makes up Johnny's relationship with his sensei. Johnny is a terrifying war machine because Kreese sharpened him to being a terrifying war machine. Johnny literally repeats Kreese's words back at Bobby during Halloween night because that's what he's been taught and wholeheartedly believes. Johnny still follows Kreese's orders to sweep the leg, even if he was horrified of disgracing his own sense of honor.

In the case regarding Johnny, there doesn't need to be a biological reason why he follows Kreese so strongly in the narrative. The Karate Kid comments on the influences men have on boys, and where this influence can come from any person regardless of relation. Why does Kreese need to be the biological father of Johnny for what he's faced to be more tragic than what it already is? Just so the Karate Soap Opera has another plot thread to tackle?

There is a cruel mundanity to Kreese's mentorship of his star student, one he had the most pride in yet would still ruthlessly punish if he were to disappoint Kreese. There doesn't need to be anything more cosmic about the fact Johnny was in search of a man to look up to, and he found one who was strong and unshakeable and would drop Johnny in a second the moment he failed Kreese. Kreese slithered back into Johnny's life and he accepted him back because the chains holding down were marred into Johnny's skin, not something fate built into his genes.

This is not even mentioning what a mess this would be timeline-wise. How in the hell is Kreese's wang getting tang when he's too busy in Vietnam helping the US commit war crimes. How on Earth would Mr. Miyagi know. Why would a 23 in Me Result help with taking down Kreese, besides a potential heart attack. I'd be so mad if this were to come true.

Sorry for the long (and negative) response, but those are my opinions and thoughts ahdkkadjjskd

[that-one-english-nerd]

The Outsiders x EPIC : The Musical -

so i was listening to the new EPIC saga yesterday and naturally, because i can’t listen to music w/o relating it to my hyperfixations, i started thinking about the outsiders. specifically, i was listening to luck runs out and my friend and i were talking… and we were like “this song is so soda talking to darry about going to war,” so this sparked this post!

so i got to re-listening to the entirety of epic and was thinking how much it fits if soda were to genuinely survive the war but come back only a shell of himself… so this is what were going with.

(i will say before we even begin, i have limited knowledge on the vietnam war so if some of this is vague or inaccurate, forgive me)

i think there two ways you could picture this, a greek mythology au and realistic, vietnam war au. i was thinking, if we’re talking in reality standpoint, all the gods or even monsters are visions in soda’s mind (due to ptsd, other mental illness gained from war or physical injuries) as he’s traveling and committing more and more violence. is some of this a strench…? yes but this is js for kicks and giggles, humor me here lolol

either way, these are my assignments of characters. i need you to HEAR ME OUT (there’s explanations of songs under the list of characters) on these -

odysseus : soda

polites : steve

eurylochus : tim

zeus : dally

polyphemus : ……..bob

athena : darry

aeolus : cherry

circe : marcia

hermes : two-bit

penelope & telemachus : ponyboy & darry (these can be switched, doesn’t matter rlly)

calypso: sandy (…get it, cause calypso lives on an island)

poseidon : dally

tiersus : johnny (cause i HAD to include him somewhere)

song and character explanations under cut ~

song explanations :

the horse and the infant - i like to think that, while it was awful and so much worst than soda could of ever imagined, because of his constant optimism and general skills, he was someone many of his fellow soldiers looked up to. i’ll get into details when i get to luck runs out, but if we’re relating this specifically to epic, making him apart of the navy would work best (being all the time they spend traveling and at seas). anyways, therefore, overtime, due to his higher morale and just general skills, he gets a higher rank and a crew to care for. soda is rallying his crew for an attack, and thinking of who he was fighting for, ponyboy and darry.

now this is where it would differ from a greek mythology au, but just for the sake of making it easier on myself, this is the more realistic possibility. i like to think that being how in epic, this is the end of the trojan war, this would be a kind of flash forward, after soda had already been dealing w all this trauma. but, as i’ve mentioned, i like to envision dally‘s ghost (a vision soda has of him at least) as zeus, specifically before soda has to do something terrible to the enemy. dally is like, “you’re in a war man, just *do it*.”

for a less interesting but more realistic answer, you could say zeus was one of soda’s commanding officer or something but that’s less fun lolol

anyways, this is the beginning, as it is for odysseus, of soda completely losing his innocence.

just a man - (tw for child-related violence and war crimes) so, as it is in epic, you could picture this as an enemy leader’s son, and how this boy reminds soda of ponyboy in a way. this song is kinda self explanatory tho, soda takes this blow, and this guilt plagues his mind for the rest of the first act.

full speed ahead - so, with the vietnam war, there was an insaneeee draft process. and in relation to the story, those who were poor were more likely to be drafted than those who were going to college and able to pay tutition, being how they got an exemption from the draft. so i think the idea as tim of all people getting drafted and getting put under soda’s command (which is a shock to both of them) really interesting, being how we never really got to see their dynamic in the outsiders. so having tim, whose more on the ruthless side, as soda’s right hand and being more quick to violence makes sense to me. on the other hand, my favorite character headcanon, steve as polities. i think the idea of steve not giving a second thought to following soda into war makes a lot of sense, and being how soda had more of a responsibility on his shoulders, steve keeps more of his naiveness and “innocence” than soda does.

open arms - my stevepop heart loves this so much. over the time of war, soda became less and less like his normal self and steve knows that. he could always tell. so once they finally have time to themselves, he tries to remind soda of how life used to be, how there’s still good. the roles switch from soda normally being the optimistic one, reassuring everyone else, to steve doing the same for him. they mean sm to your honor :((

warrior of the mind - now, from a plot standpoint, i can fs see this as what soda pictures how darry would think of him now, or even how ponyboy would. soda kinda flashes back to their childhood, how both darry and soda were really close when they were kids, being how they both balanced each other out. but after their parents died, darry became a parental figure instead, athena-like you could say.

but ignoring plot, i think song really fits darry and ponyboy, espically with the “don’t disappoint me” and “he’s a warrior of the mind” because of ponyboy’s academic achievements.

polyphemus - now do i know how this would fit into the plot to be honest.. i just think the idea of bob (bob’s ghost if you will) or some soc showing up in soda’s path makes sense.

butttt once again, if you want something more realistic, you could make it someone on the enemy side.

survive - soda just seems like he’d be hella good with battle morale and strategy, what can i say? …also, as much as it breaks my heart, steve following soda into war and dying an early death makes sense but is equally as heartbreaking ;(

remember them - i think the slow fade-in near the beginning of the song gives very big soda energy. disassociating but then switching right back into gear (masking emotions for the sake of others) is something that comes natural to him. i also commented on this earlier but for as much as soda calls himself dumb, i think his street smarts are really good and being able to talk his way out of things or tricking people into believing lies is something he’s great at (which makes sense in context of the cyclops plot). plus the stupid decision of having mercy on…bob, a soc, an enemy, idfk, and then telling them his name makes more sense in the context of just losing steve and therefore making rash decisions because of this sudden lose.

my goodbye - soda seeming to “lose” darry’s positive view of him, at least in soda’s mind, because of all he had done and lost. this, of course, is simply what soda thinks darry would say if he was there. because of this, he pushes the “what would darry do?” mindset out of his head.

storm - not much to highlight in this song except for how soda is a badass captain™️

luck runs out - now of course, i keep mentioning this song as the beginning of this war au because while s.e. hinton technically said soda was drafted, i think it’s very possible that soda and his optimism view on life would easily be more swayed to propaganda to enlist rather than be drafted. plus, with becoming a soldier, a certain amount of money is given to you monthly (at least i think-). this, i think, is another pro to the idea of enlisting in soda’s mind because he wants to help better provide for his brothers.

but generally plot wise, soda taking on this positive mindset of “i can just go and ask for help” is almost a tribute to steve and what he wanted. but on the other hand, you have tim, who knows that not everyone is as welcome to help, especially after dally died from police brutality.

keep your friends close - not much to say about this either but for the fact that aeolous being cherry is very fun to think about. while the meaning of this lyric means very different things in the context of the outsiders versus epic, the line “keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” does really fit with cherry. ponyboy being the “enemy” that she quickly befriends and keeping him close. but soon, she starts giving info to the greasers, the socs in her eyes almost becoming the real “enemy”. might be wrong though, interpret it however you like, i just think it fits cherry!

also the “everything’s changed since polities” line really fits into how i think soda would grieve for steve while still at war. he has to stay strong for his crew but they all sense, *know* something’s off with soda, and put the pieces together that this is because of steve. without steve, soda doesn’t have as high of a morale on life in general, and therefore the crew doesn’t. which fits in with them (kinda accidentally) turning on him.

ruthlessness - now HERE ME OUT HERE, if bob is the cyclops, rather than dally seeing him as a “son”, him being like “you had mercy on a SOC.” but the “you had mercy on the enemy?!” also works. just in general, i think dally’s memory coming back to haunt soda, espically paired with dally also being zeus, is fitting honestly. while dally wasn’t always ruthless, we gotta keep in mind in this au, this is in soda’s mind. these “gods” or visions of people he once knew, in my eyes, are people coming back to haunt him in his most shameful state. no matter what dally would’ve really said, i picture soda thinking how disappointed the people he loved most would be in him if they saw him in that very moment. also, “ruthlessness is mercy upon ourselves” is SO dally.

puppeteer - now again, being how circe is a witch, it’s a bit hard to fit this into a realistic setting but i js thought having marcia as her would be fun bc paired with…

wouldn’t you like - two-bit as hermes, i just think i’d be hilarious. i like to picture this as soda and two-bit on two ends of a phone, and for whatever reason, marcia is there distracting the crew from their goal. soda on one line would be like “so do you know of a soc named marcia” and two-bit on the other end like, “OMG WE WENT OUT ONE TIME, this is how to scare her off”

done for - self-explanatory, not much to say here tbh. marcia’s just iconic.

there are others ways - (with my stevepop heart) if like to think that *right after* steve’s death, it would be pretty much impossible for soda to be “seduced” as well as the idea of pony and darry waiting for him would keep him focused on the end goal in that moment.

the underworld - i kinda like the idea of the underworld not being the actual underworld but a very dark and dangerous place, with the visions of the dead and soda’s past traumas coming back to bite him in that moment. the line between reality and fiction is a hard line to draw in that very moment. ALSO STEVE AND SODA’S MOM😭😭

no longer you - you know i HAD to include him somewhere, so here’s johnny finallyyyyy. i don’t really have much of an explanation other than being johnny’s quieter personality, him seeing everything in a way, him being tierras just makes sense.

monster - soda losing his mind finally and willing to do anything to drive these ghosts of the past out of his mind and get home to his brothers. self-explanatory :)

being how all the songs aren’t out yet, i’m just gonna stop here. thanks for listening to my yapping my boredom has created :) enjoy listening!

[learnfromali]

What's good, y'all? It's your boy, back with another LearnFrom post, and today we're talking about the one and only, Muhammad Ali!

Now, Ali wasn't just a boxer - he was a straight-up legend. He won Olympic gold, he was the world heavyweight champion three times, and he was a civil rights activist to boot. Dude was like, "I float like a butterfly, sting like a bee, and fight for equality!"

But Ali wasn't just known for his athletic prowess - he was also famous for his trash-talking. That's right, y'all, he could talk some serious smack. He once said, "I'm so fast that last night I turned off the light switch in my hotel room and was in bed before the room was dark."

But don't get it twisted, Ali wasn't just talking the talk - he walked the walk too. He stood up for what he believed in, even when it wasn't popular. He refused to be drafted into the Vietnam War, saying, "I ain't got no quarrel with them Viet Cong."

So, what can we learn from Ali's trash-talking and activism? Well, for one thing, we should always stand up for what we believe in, even if it means going against the crowd. And we should never be afraid to speak our minds and let our voices be heard.

That's all for now, my Ali-enthusiasts. Stay fly and stay true to yourselves. Catch y'all next time!

[aemiron-main]

Owens, Cancer, Peter, Regenerative Healing and The Cure

So, the mysterious Peter Owens has been haunting me lately. And now, I have a theory about him.

I think that Peter Owens was Owens’ son who may have had cancer, and that Owens’ involvement with HNL and Henward’s kidnapping/testing on Henward in the lab was likely connected to Owens trying to save Peter and find a cure for cancer.

Let’s get into it.

So. Why would Peter Owens have cancer and what evidence is there to support the idea of Peter having cancer?

Well, as far as how Peter Owens got cancer goes, Hopper talks about Agent Orange causing cancer in the children of Vietnam war veterans such as himself, which is what happened to Sara.

Hopper even namedrops “Uncle Sam” during that scene, versus Sam being named Sam Owens:

So, there’s a chance that Peter’s cancer was the result of Owens being involved in the Vietnam war, or Owens simply being exposed to some other chemical, or even just a genetic predisposition to cancer passed down to Peter (something we’ll come back to later in this post when I talk about Fringe.)

And regarding the other evidence to support Peter having cancer, Owens has So Much disease and cure and cancer imagery surrounding him, right down to talking about “stopping the spread” re: the gate and talking about replication all the time.

Owens’ connection to the supernatural is almost aways tied to references of “spreading” and “disease,” and he’s specifically focused on stopping things from spreading- much like cancer:

And he also talks about a "cure" in the context of a virus/disease spreading:

And Owens also has this scene where the other scientist is talking about pesticides vs Hopper talking about how Agent Orange was touted as a herbicide- which connects Owens to that Hopper cancer scene yet again:

Owens also refers to possessed Will as “son”- possessed Will, who currently has a “disease” replicating in his body and taking him over and killing him:

And that shot of Hopper in the stairwell after Sara died from cancer versus the shot of Owens in the stairwell and the two being paralleled- which makes sense of Owens, like Hopper, also lost a child to cancer:

And I also talked in this post about how Owens “gets”/understands what it’s like to lose a son. And Owens also talks AGAIN about “getting it,” and this time it’s SPECIFICALLY in the context of Will having a “disease” replicating in his body and killing him:

And the next scene RIGHT after that scene where Owens talks about “getting” what it’s like to have a son replicating with something inside of him, we get this shot of Nancy’s tape and SPECIFICALLY we get the line from Owens about stopping the spread AGAIN:

And to top all of this off, OWENS is the character who drops the word “cancer” and who compares the spread of the UD to cancer:

Owens’ son having died of cancer would also explain why he’s not willing to let Will die from the “virus”/shadow particles:

Especially with that “say that to me again” line from Owens- that’s not a rational, “here’s the scientific reason why I disagree with you,” or even “hey, killing kids is morally wrong,” instead, it’s an immediate emotional response that lacks context as he’s not even just like. being emotional and saying “hey killing kids is bad,” instead, he just gets emotional and makes a threat but doesn’t provide any specific reason for it.

That scene has always felt a bit off to me, like there’s something we’re missing, like we’re missing some reason why the other scientist should know not to say something like that to Owens Specifically. Especially since the scientists all shut up for a bit after Owens says that/there’s clearly some weight to his words/something that the audience isn’t aware of.

Which, that would make sense if those other scientists knew about what happened to Peter/him dying of cancer. After all, it would be an obvious dick move to suggest letting a young boy die of a spreading disease to a dude whose son died of cancer.

Long story short, the spread/cancer imagery is CONSTANT with Owens, and so are the references to him losing a son.

Now that we’ve established that the basis/subtext is there for Owens to have a son that died of cancer, that brings up the question of why would Henward be necessary for Owens to try and cure cancer?

Well, James and I were chatting awhile back about Henriette Lacks, after I’d mentioned that I thought there was a connection between the cancer references in ST vs Vecna’s regenerative healing, as Vecna’s regen healing seems to work a lot like cancer cells/might be what caused his strange appearance, as a lot of his skin seems to resemble tumors, with him even having what looks like random TEETH on his skin, which is something often seen in tumors.

And when we look at Henrietta Lacks, her cells, which were taken from a cervical cancer biopsy, were the first immortal human cell line that reproduced infinitely. Henrietta’s cells were used to study cancer treatments and how to stop the spread of cancer without having to test on an entire living person, and instead just being able to test on the cells themselves, as usually, human cells die pretty quickly after being separated from the person, but Henrietta’s cells did not, and instead, kept dividing. ST regen healing seems to act basically like cancer cells but with an even faster rate of growth/replication, which is exactly what Henrietta’s cells were.

So, if Henward had regen healing, and if Henward’s cells both a.) replicated like cancer cells and b.) replicated even faster the way that Henrietta’s cells did/were basically immortal even when removed from the body, then Henward would have been the perfect subject to use to research a cure for cancer.

This may also tie into Brenner’s claim that he was trying to help/cure Henward/Henward talking about how his parents wanted to cure him- if Henward’s regen healing was similar to Henrietta Lacks’ cells, it’s worth noting that the properties of Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells were the result of being infected with HPV. So, if Henward also had some sort of disease that caused the same sort of thing & made him a sickly child & if Brenner/Owens claimed that they could cure him the same way they planned on curing cancer but needed his cells to do so/to test the cure on/ro develop the cure. Especially since Henrietta’s own cancer cells are what killed her- so there’s a chance that Henward was at risk of the same sort of thing happening/that he didn’t quite have proper regen healing before the lab but DID have those cells (and then lab experiments/gettinf yeeted to the yellow UD kickstarted in the actual regen healing we see with Vecna).

Plus, yknow. The name Henry vs Henrietta… and the fact that Henrietta Lacks’ cells were taken without her consent vs Henward being kidnapped and taken to the lab, clearly without his consent.

So, again, somebody with regen healing is basically a prime candidate for being used to try and cure cancer.

But that same person could also be a path to near immortality. Because after all, like I said, regen healing cells act like cancer cells, and cancer cells ignore the signals that tell them to self destruct/they’re basically immortal, and Henrietta Lacks’ cells even moreso, as they replicate even faster and again, ignore those destruction signals. So, they’d basically be the key to immortality if there was such a key. If an entire person could do what a single cancer/Henrietta Lacks cell did (which is likely exactly what Henward’s regen healing does, or something similar), with some tweaking, there’s a chance they could become immortal/regenerate when injured the way Vecna does etc.

If Brenner ended up using this research to give himself regenerative healing/pursuing immortality for himself, it would explain how he survived the Demogorgon attack in S1, and it would explain why Matthew Modine is convinced that Brenner STILL isn’t dead. It would also give Brenner a motive for his experiments that goes beyond mere scientific curiosity, which would explain why he was willing to go to such extreme lengths for his research.

And if Brenner wanted to experiment on Henward’s cells for the purpose of his own immortality versus Owens wanting to do it to try and find a cure for cancer, it would explain how the two of them could have such opposing morals but end up working together, because even if their goals were totally different (immortality vs cancer cure), they both needed to take the same path/experiment on Henward.

After all, whether you like/trust Owens or not, based on what we see from him in the show, he DOES seem to have moral lines that Brenner does not.

For example, during NINA, he talks about how he’s compromised his principles/morals by helping with NINA & how he sees a traumatized little girl, something he’s clearly distressed by, unlike Martin. He also says that he’s only doing this because Martin said that it was the only way:

So, how does a guy like that, who clearly has some sort of moral code/who does genuinely seem to care about peoole like El and Will in a way that Brenner does not end up working for HNL/working with Brenner/experimenting on Henward?

Well, if it was Owen’s son’s life on the line… it would make sense for that to be the one thing that could get Owens to compromise his morals and experiment on Henward- after all, in that screenshot from earlier, Owens lists his family and his principles together- two things that seem to be equally important to him. So, if one of those things (his family/his son) was in danger, would he be willing to compromise the other thing (his morals/principles) to save his family? I think he would.

And to top all of this off, it would also track perfectly with the Fringe parallels (with Fringe being a huge source of inspiration for ST/constant direct parallels).

**FRINGE SPOILERS**

In Fringe, scientist Walter Bishop’s son, Peter, is dying of a rare genetic disease. Walter is trying desperately to find the cure, but fails, and his Peter dies. However, Walter has been using a window into another timeline to watch his alternate timeline self (nicknamed Walternate) *also* work on a cure for Peter- and the alternate Peter isn’t cured yet, but is still alive when Walter’s Peter dies. And one day, when watching Walternate work on a cure, Walter notices that Walternate found the cure, but Walternate was distracted and thought that his cure/experiment had failed. So, Walter went into the other timeline and planned simply on curing alternate timeline Peter, but ended up taking him/kidnapping him back to Walter’s own timeline, and keeping him there and raising him as if he was his actual Peter.

And Owens is EXTREMELY paralleled to Walter. Like. Constantly. Costuming parallels, dialogue parallels, entire scene/shot parallels. It’s literally neverending and constant. Go watch even 5 minutes of like any Fringe scene with Walter, and you’ll notice it. Both Victor and Owens are deeply Walter paralleled to the point of almost verging on plagiarism LMAO.

So, this would track with Owens kidnapping a child (Henward) to try and save his son/trying to cure his son’s genetic disease, just like Walter did (except the child Walter kidnapped was Peter himself, although Walter did also do experiments on other children, such as Olivia), and possibly even crossing timelines to do so, which has me staring at all of the Henry vs Edward weirdness…

This is also likely why Owens’ son is named Peter- it’s meant to be a reference to Peter Bishop (which, it’s also interesting that Peter and Walter have the last name “Bishop,” as there’s the Bishop chess piece & the idea of their last name being connected to chess is referenced in Fringe, which has me staring at Henward talking about how Brenner moves people around like pieces on a chessboard to manipulate them- which would make sense if Brenner was manipulating Owens and his son & leading Owens to believe that they were pursuing a cure for cancer when in reality Brenner was pursuing his own immortality/regeneration).

So, yeah! I won’t be surprised at all if S5 reveals that Owens’ son, Peter, died from cancer.

And what El says about Brenner not letting Henry go- if Peter died, it would make sense to let Henry go/for Owens to want to let Henry go, because he doesn’t need Henry anymore because he can’t save Peter anymore.

But if Brenner wanted to continue his research/continue pursuing his own immortality, it would make sense for him to not let Henry go, and would explain why it’s Brenner Specifically who is listed as not letting Henry go.

This would also explain why Owens doesn’t seem to be present in the lab during any of El’s flashbacks, not even back in 1979/any of the NINA memories- if he stopped working on the project after Peter’s death…

It would also explain why Hopper introduces El to Owens as if they’ve never met- because El hasn’t met him:

Especially since Sullivan refers to El as “Brenner’s little pet,” and doesn’t include Owens in that regard, and Owens’ bitchy line about daddy-daughter time/Owens not approving of what Brenner did to El/his relationship with her:

However, there’s also the matter of the Peter that Brenner asks for over the intercom:

And I think there’s a few options here in the context of this post:

1.) The Peter that Brenner asks for is simply another random Peter, not Peter Owens, but is delivering subtext about Peter Owens (ie, lab Peter died, delivering the subtext that Peter Owens also died, just in a different way).

This could also be a reference to the timeline weirdness that we see with the massacre, as Peter in Fringe is basically the cause of the two timelines colliding/opening a hole between the two of them.

2.) The Peter that Brenner asks for IS Peter Owens, working as an orderly in the lab. He may have died during the 1979 massacre, and so, then while that doesn’t explain why we didn’t see Owens at all in the flashbacks pre-1979 massacre, if Peter died then, it would explain why Owens is absent from HNL in El’s post-1979 HNL memories. And also, it may actually still explain why Owens was absent during the 1979/pre massacre NINA flashbacks- if Peter’s cancer HAD been cured/treated and he was simply working there or a patient receiving treatment there or BOTH, then Owens wouldn’t necessarily need to work at the lab anymore, as his goal (saving Peter) had been accomplished, and then Peter died during the 1979 massacre.

3.) Henry or Edward was brainwashed into believing that he was Peter Owens/Owens’ son in an attempt to get him to cooperate.

Especially with what I’ve talked about before re: The Changeling and other things and the idea of Edward believing that he IS Henry. If Henry wasn’t useful for whatever reason and they needed Edward instead, and needed Edward to believe that he’s Henry, it would be helpful if the actual Henry believes that he isn’t Henry and is, in fact, Peter.

This would also explain why Henward’s fake name for casting was “Peter Ballard”.

And while option 3.) does admittedly sound far-fetched, when we look at Fringe, Olivia (who is very similar to Henward/blonde child who got experimented on against her will) is swapped with her alternate timeline counterpart/has her alternate timeline counterpart’s memories implanted into her head (staring at NINA & those bts pics that show that Young Henward has a NINA suit in his costume wardrobe and also staring at the multiple versions of the Creel murders that we see/Vecna’s memories of the murders being different from Victor’s retelling), because one Olivia has powers that the other Olivia does not have, and in order to get the Olivia with powers to cooperate willingly/use her powers, they have to convince her that she truly is the other Olivia.

Which, that would also track with that line about 001 struggling with his powers at first until suddenly he came in one day and everything changed- especially since that dialogue is in the context of memories, specifically, sad/angry memories- so, if Edward had some of Henry’s memories of the Creel murders implanted into him and believed that they were his own memories/believed that he was Henry… and then Henry possibly being led to believe that he was Peter in some way/Henry even simply becoming a proxy for Peter in the sense of them experimenting on Henry instead of Peter (to test cures in case something goes wrong so that they don’t risk Peter’s life) even if he doesn’t truly believe that he’s Peter. Which, that means that they would have to give Henry cancer- or, mess with his regen healing to have the same effect, OR infect him with shadow particles which have been very cancer-paralleled, as we’ve seen with Will in S2.

Anyway! Much to think about. Admittedly that last bit is a fair bit of fun speculation, but overall, I really do think there’s some solid connections here regarding Owens, Peter, Henward, Fringe, and cancer. Also, I won’t be surprised if we get a father-son vibe between Henward and Owens in the lab, which may explain part of why Owens has so many constant Victor parallels, with Victor being Henward’s actual father vs Owens possibly being a father figure, especially if Henward was ever brainwashed to believe that he was Peter.

[boyrobott]

i fully get it bc i know what u mean about original astro boy manga being silly with it vs pluto being relentlessly sad. but i do think it's really important to say that pluto's themes draw on a LOT LOT LOT of stuff present in the original manga! like, the stuff about hate making a robot closer to a human/allowing them to kill a human despite most robots being physically unable to is pulled directly from the blue knight story. the original greatest robot on earth story that pluto is based off is about pluto struggling with not wanting to be a robot made only for killing bc he had a nice time hanging out with uran and doesn't wanna make her sad. epsilon still dies saving his adopted human son, and atom ends the story mourning for all the robots who got killed for goji to prove a point. the moral (which multiple characters say) is that what makes a robot OR a person strong is their love and humanity not their killing power, and it is both stupid and perpetuating the cycle of violence to force robots to hurt each other. the robot hate group man in pluto is inspired by the villain of a segment in astro boy tales part 2&3 where he literally is in a group wearing kkk hoods and does a whole pr attack about robots killing his son because he is campaigning to remove their rights.

and it's not just the stories pluto references! hell, in basically half the stories at minimum a robot is forced by a human to do a crime, the police go 'dang i guess we gotta take the rights of all robots away and destroy them for scrap :(' and atom has to find the human responsible so that doesn't happen (the third magician, electro, and his highness deadcross are some good examples). the plot of the story robot land is atom struggling with wanting to save a bunch of robots being beaten up and worked to the bone by their creator, but he can't because robots are still technically property and helping them escape would be stealing and therefore illegal. in the little intro comics tezuka drew in the collection, he literally says 'yeah this is about the vietnam war being awful' about like fully three different stories. and that's just off the top of my head!!

'what makes a person, where is our empathy, why do we quest for vengeance when it only sucks us into a cycle, have we lost our humanity' are literally the most important core themes of astro boy, which is why it's so so impressive for kids comics that are still broadly super super cute and funny!

legitimately sorry for putting a huge wall of text in ur inbox because i know it's unsolicited and probably uncool. but astro boy is super important to me and so is the idea that a story can be goofy silly child adventures and also explore dark and serious themes? so i had like. a moment when i saw ur post lol. i get it if u dont wanna read all this etc but i wanted to i guess encourage u to give the manga a second pass even if u aren't into pluto at all. there's an insane amount of stuff there that really really legitimately is that deep

Okay, may I just say, I'm absolutely loving your impassioned defense of the manga here. You're bringing so much ride-or-die energy to the table right now, and I'm loving it. But I've been slowly reading through the manga over the past few years, so I... kind of already know all this??? That's pretty much the whole reason I made the joke in the first place -- because there are so many similar storylines and themes between the original manga and the Pluto series, but the individual tones literally could not be more different. The fact that a grim dystopian anime about the horrors of war and the true meaning of humanity is saying the same exact things as a fun, lighthearted, campy manga series?? Sorry, but that's just hilarious to me.

I can definitely see where the misunderstanding came from, but I promise, you do not need to defend the manga to me, LMAO.

[sammwitch]

Purgatory isssss Vietnam and i will not be convinced otherwise!

in this essay i won't because i'm not american and am not equipped to root through the various generational traumas the vietnam war inflicted on america and how that impacted American Masculinity but like,,,,, it's there! it's super there. idk if this comparison is super obvious if you are american but i'm going to explain myself anyway

(before i start, i will be talking about the idealised and fetishised idea of the vietnam war, not the actual realities of the actual real conflict. this post is about how the spn writers are weirdo american men, not geopolitics)

eye mean,,, obviously the racism that runs through all of spn- there are creatures living alongside us who look like us and talk like us but are actually Dangerous Monsters Who Must Die- but keyed up to 11 because this is a land of monsters/non-humans/them-not-us

and as a part of that, we never see any child monsters in purgatory despite child monsters existing and also dying. because this is the Ideal vietnam which is only a wild battleground and not a place people, families and non-combatants live. only populated by savage non-americans who are hell bent on killing 'Our Boys'

benny fits into this too. being Other but also an ally. not someone whp can be entirely trusted at first and definitely in it for the personal gains that Fighting For the USofA could bring him, but through their shared experiences bonding. y'know, he's one of the good ones! like the (north? i think?) vietnamese allies america had on the ground

even washing all the colour out of the scenes until it's almost black and white??? like the footage that was broadcast to americans of the war?? i'm connecting the dots

purgatory not as something you beat but something you endure and then escape?? literally it is an idealised vietnam war were you don't have to confront that america super didn't win because the victory and horrors came in getting out

the way post-purgatory dean is treated like a Movie Veteran with his new brotherhood forged in blood and his thousand yard stare and his sullen drinking (all portrayed by jensen ackles who mustn't look any worse than slightly dishevelled or muddy in any shot) and that whole 'it was purer there' bullshit that i have definitely seen in other media portraying vietnam vets. they really gave him glam war trauma and it feels uncomfortable. it feels fetishy

not going to go further than "i think american men who didn't go to vietnam for whatever reason (including age! the lack of a big existential war to go fight in has really done a number on the self-perceptions of generations of american men) have a real chip on their shoulder about it and a resulting pretty gross mythification of the vietnam war because of it. maybe it's because they felt isolated from the Manly Men they idolised irl because of that lack of trauma?" when theorising WHY they did this because, again, not american.

TLDR later season dean winchester really was the writer's fetish doll to be The Most Masculine American Man and it's weeeeeeiiird!

[sugarywishes]

As I've been kind of ignoring them up to now with my questions, I may as well give them so love. So, what was the nature of the Emily Family & their relationship with the Afton Family? Did they have any members they liked and disliked, and naturally as time went along, how did Henry's feelings on them change in particular as he slowly realised the truth about his business 'partner'?

Alright, time for me to write about the most boring family in FNAF /j /j, answers below as usual! (Sorry for how long this took to get answered!)

Henry first met Barbara when his cousin had returned from Vietnam and brought her along (basically his cousin was a missionary and had befriended her family, and since yk, it was the 60s the Vietnam War was still going on, she felt super unsafe being there and he thus made a deal with her family to take her aboard for a while and return her once things died down, what they didn't know was he was from the U.S so she was pretty miffed about that.) She didn't speak English, didn't really like America and just wanted to go home at that point. Henry took it upon himself to try and cheer her up by spending time with her, and they pretty quickly fell in love :) Polar opposites attract!

Before Barb died, Henry was a lot more relaxed and carefree. As I said in his intro post, he was still kind of a party animal (although less extreme than college), and Barb preferred peace and quiet over loud music and wild dancing. She got pregnant and they were super excited to have the baby, Henry was hoping for a boy so he could make him his little clone (he would say that as a joke and it would get Barb mildly annoyed) she was hoping for a girl so she can do mom and daughter things with her. But unfortunately, she didn't get that chance when she died in childbirth, leaving Henry as a single (and very overprotective) dad.

And from there since Henry was still friends with William, Charlie and the twins would also become friends since they were closer in age (I mean they were all born the same year so 🤷) Also worth mentioning that Barb didn't really get a chance to know Will and Clara and Mike, she's only met them like maybe 4 times but she thought positively of them (because she didn't know about how kinda messed up they are...)

Now let's head back to Henry, for members he did like, well he did like all of them (to an extent, he only tolerated the kids because Charlie was friends with them and they're his friend's kids, if he didn't know them he'd suggest Charlie to avoid them) Deep down he's always been a little afraid of William, he thought he was a little off putting during college but thought maybe it was because he was shy. Turns out he was just like that and it would be awkward to cut him off now! For his relationship with Clara, it was also neutral/friendly. He only actually got to know her when she was miserable and living as an Afton, and it's been a little weird.

He used to like Mike's company when he was smaller, when he was in his teens he didn't really think that Mike would even want to talk with him since he might've been 'too lame and old school' for a teenage boy like him. With Elizabeth, he was more receptive to her since Charlie spent the most time with her, but he knew she could be explosive (sometimes it would result in her fighting with Charlie and he'd have to intervene and contact Will about it) he didn't really talk to Evan a lot (cause Evan was usually indoors in his room) but it too was also a little awkward to talk with him since he felt like he had to be very delicate with what he said towards him (in Henry's mind he basically thought of Evan as a baby/toddler, messed up mentality there bro)

Okay, going onto Charlie, she also got along with the Aftons, to the extent that she could. She knew from Mike that William was not a very kind father, but she half-heartedly believed the words he said because he was nice to her (of course he *had* to be, if he was cold and distant from her like he is any other kid besides Evan, Henry would probably not even talk to him anymore) so she thought of him as a cool uncle who let her do whatever she wanted (unlike her dad). She didn't really interact a lot with Clara however but Clara treated her with respect and Charlie gave it back too, so in her book, Clara was fine.

For the Afton kids, as I said she used to have a crush on Michael when she was younger 💀💀 but that's since passed. She doesn't really like him that much now considering he's a bully, but he was still nice-ish to her so she'll try and keep things civil between them. She's the closest with Elizabeth (cause yk, they're both girls /lh) and while being friends with her can be kind of exhausting, she still considers her her bestie! And for Evan, again she wasn't too close with him (because he was isolated a lot, he didn't get chances to play or talk to her at all either because of his own anxiety or Elizabeth not letting him because it's 'girls only!!') But she was probably the only kid his age who was nice to him, so it's warm but distant.

Okay now onto to the final part of your question!Henry's always felt a little perturbed by the Afton family but he chalked it up to them just being abnormal by his standards. By the time Evan's death happened, and the Aftons were shamed for being related to that accident, he kind of used it as an opportunity to cut them off, one; because the incident kind of fucked up business with Fredbear's, two; William was taking (in Henry's opinion) too long to grieve and too long go be away from the company so no money was coming from him, and three; to protect himself and Charlie from being associated with them.

So during the time he fired and basically irl blocked William and his family, he expected them to just leave town to save what little face they had left. So you can imagine his horror when his daughter is mysteriously found dead, he didn't immediately suspect William (he probably should've, considering Will never returned his keys to the restaurant...) and thought she was at the wrong place at the wrong time. It left him super depressed 😔

After a few years (btw in my rewrite he also made the Withereds' OG location and the Toy location) a bunch of other kids began disappearing within the pizzeria after being lured by someone in a mascot costume...so employees of the establishment were the top suspects (At this time Will and the rest of the family were in hiding so no one even thought of suspecting them), then a few more kids went missing around town, and now even more people were being wary of the pizzeria! By that time, Henry had become worried that someone was specifically targeting the restaurant locations, someone that he might've known. (Then he immediately realized it might have been Will, but that can't be, he hasn't been seen in a few years!)

Then William had come out of hiding to frame Henry for everything, gathered the parents of the missing kids and got them to testify against him, and thus got Henry arrested and sent away to a mental hospital. One can't blame him for being pissed at Will!

So yeah, by the time FNAF 6 occurs in my re-imagining, they hate each other so damn much 😭😭 should've just done old man yaoi like the other nerds in the Fandom /j /lh

[poindexters-labratory]

Hurricane William Afton Lore Dump Part 2

CW: discussion of the Vietnam War, American cultural conflicts, nihilism, moral injury, and mentions of drug use

Henry and William continued to work on Fredbear (Fred renamed) and Bonnie, planning out the course of the next few years of their entertainment/restaurant business, William learning business and economics from books (he didn't need to go to an expensive school to learn what he could learn in books he could find at the library for free (well, the library card was about 25 cents)), Fredbear and Bonnie were slowly coming to life. However, the world kept spinning around them.

History Bit: July 28, 1965, President Johnson would send out a national televised speech that he would send 50,000 American troops to South Vietnam. American troop occupation would peak in Vietnam in April of 1969, with over 540,000 troops present.

Henry knew at some point he would get called out to fight, but never knew how to bring it up to William. There was never a right time. Even when he eventually did get his draft call in 1967, he still didn't know how to talk about it, but he had to. William did not take the news well and they had a nasty fight about the frightening situation.

Will thought it was absolute bullshit that Henry had to fight in a place he had no business being in and potentially die, and Henry's only choices were fight in a war or imprisonment. Henry desperately tried to get it through William's stubborn English skull that this is what it meant to be American, and it was his duty and loyalty to his father and grandfather who were veterans to defend his country in whatever way he could, and if he died, then that's what happened. William couldn't do anything to change that.

William joined the anti-war movement soon after and Henry left to be deployed in Vietnam for a year. Whenever Will missed Henry, he worked on Fredbear and Bonnie by himself, so he was in that workshop just about every day.

William does not like things being out of his control. Restrained and infantilized is how he's lived his entire life up until now and his best friend may get taken from him, and he's still leaving him stranded in a strange place for a year. America was a scary place to be in the 60s.

A London teenage boy/young man in the 1960s could live a completely different lifestyle than his post-war era father and they could still have pleasant interactions. William watched people physically fight on the news over "destabilizing American traditions and values" because of the various movements taking place at that time.

(Timeline's video called "1967: The Counterculture Year That Changed the World" covered what was happening in the 60s between America and the UK and the differences between the two countries. That video really gave me a lot of information and insight. It's a 40-minute-long documentary.)

There's something interesting to say about William being English during the height of this cultural divide in America. This is a topic I don't see people in the FNAF fandom talk about other than the odd British joke. William Afton not being American should be a bigger deal than it is in this fandom. He doesn't hold the same values that the American population does around this time. English traditions didn't hold water to the intense American conservatism relating to patriotism, consumerism, and family values. He just so happened to find himself in rural, conservative Southern Utah.

This culture shock was tremendous and terrifying. Being a teenager in London meant being free from having the sort of national responsibility that William's father had thrust upon him in the 40s, and although Edward was bitter about this generational freedom, he wasn't opposed to William having fun and being stupid. Sure, there was conflict between generations, but this was violent. London was bright for the first time in years, hopeful, and the closest he's seen to this kind of fighting was between mods and rockers in the streets.

History Bit: Mods and rockers were an English subculture. Mods (short for modernist) wore suits and were very clean, listened to a variety of music, such as jazz, soul, blues, etc., and rode scooters. The rockers were the rival subculture of the mods, a biker subculture, or a greaser in North American culture. In 1964, there was a national moral panic involving these two subcultures clashing in physical fights within Southern England. William may or may not have been involved in one of these physical conflicts.

Suffice to say, William was a hippie in the 60s. He's always been rebellious, and hey, the hippie community was very accepting, the music was great, and the drugs, fantastic. He grew his hair out, started dressing more androgynously, and the year Henry was gone, he got even taller and matured, now 20 years old, almost 21. He started getting very close with Henry's younger brother, Quincy, who was his age. Michael was three and developing well. Everything was going okay, but he still worried about Henry every day.

Henry was not very pleased with him when he came back, spring of 1968. Having a bunch of people who have never been to war, shaming the efforts he made to stay alive everyday was not great to begin with, now his best friend seemingly agreed with them and looked like them and talked like them. This strain almost broke everything apart, but they held onto each other. They cared about each other, and the massive hug William gave him, crying tears of joy that he came back alive was an experience he wouldn't trade for the world.

Of course, there were still massive differences between the two friends, but it wasn't like they were anything alike in the first place. The differences made them endear the other. But there were some problems, especially concerning Henry's outlook on life after returning home.

Before his deployment, he tended to look toward the brighter side of situations. It's one of the reasons William stuck around for so long while he was facing his "teenage blues". Henry was logical, but he wasn't a cold person. Humanity was a logical positive Henry would always turn to whenever William was drowning in pessimistic dread, pulling him to the other side while his mind lied to him.

But war put Henry in a more nihilistic mindset if anything. Nothing truly mattered in the grand scheme of it all. War made him feel like the smallest possible thing on Earth. His entire life he's held a passive view on the world around him, that he couldn't possibly make a difference because he's just one nobody guy from New Harmony, Utah. His involvement in the Vietnam War made these feelings worse as he watched disaster unfold in front of him and he couldn't do anything about it.

William told him that maybe he couldn't make a difference to the rest of the world. But he did make a difference in Will's life.

Together, they worked in making Fredbear and Bonnie come to life, William charmed (and scared the shit out of) the bank's loan officer, bought and renovated a building in town, advertised, attended business and robotics conferences (and the odd art festival), watched Michael grow up and get a baby brother, there were setbacks and accomplishments, and finally, the day came. Summer of 1971, Fredbear's Family Diner was opened.

Intermission of William Afton Fun Facts!!

William's liking for rabbits came from having an imaginary anthropomorphic rabbit friend when he was little that looked like a shadow with very white eyes and teeth. It disappeared whenever someone came around. Probably unrelated.

He's always wanted to perform either in a circus or in ballet

One of his legs is longer than the other, causing some discomfort while running that got worse as he got older

Will knows how to tumble some, taught by Claire, who was a gymnast. Don't let him anywhere near a trampoline, he'll overdo it. This almost means he's done many backflips off the Diner's stage. Some have been unsuccessful, but most of the time, he lands them.

William can play guitar by ear. Very well.

He is very high energy, under-stimulated most of the time, so he is almost as rambunctious as his children. Making him a great dad to play with.

He listens to a wide range of music, having an insane amount of music selections. Black Sabbath, The Beatles, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Aretha Franklin, Three Dog Night, Janis Joplin, ABBA, Pink Floyd, Jefferson Airplane, Led Zeppelin, Elton John, The Animals, James Brown, The Mamas & The Papas, Jimi Hendrix and a whole lot more. He loves music. (Projecting)

His favorite movies Alice in Wonderland, Bambi, Monty Python skits, 101 Dalmatians, West Side Story, Aristocats, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Grease, The Rescuers, The Secret of NIMH, The Fox and the Hound, and The Sword in the Stone (he's a Disney adult)

Part 3 ->