#everything feels so deep when you think about characters people see as comic relief and nothing else

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

ur tags on the one post PLS share some of ur wayne analysis if you’d like

I covered the fact Wayne represents the Frogs' logos (with Emma being the pathos but I'm still trying to decide who's ethos. Bowie? Julia? Julia misquotes the Dalai Lama and talks about goddesses and crystals, so probably her?) but it's really noticeable how malleable a person Wayne is. In Ep04, while he sets himself up for being on the offense with Raj, Bowie, and why-ever they brought MK along, when it was obvious they were better off defending, he was like. defense it is. As he is a sports boy, it'd be assumed he's only good at one position (as most goalies couldn't just become a center fielder as a sub, since they don't train for the same things), especially a less "glamourous" position such as defense (in reality it does not matter, but people pretend offense players are better) He's an exceptionally good sport, which is not something we can say about all the other sports-based/jock TD characters.

It's also to note that Wayne is the first person on the team to call out MK on being a bad team player. Wayne doesn't usually look mad, but he did NOT look happy at MK refusing to huddle up and suggest there's no reason to think strategy. He's completely ok with Emma taking over and picking roles tho, so he's pretty damn comfortable with not always being the leader (as noted with Ep02, where he adapts to Emma's plan. have I mentioned those two are such team leaders for the Frogs? A million times? Oh sorry)

There's a notable subversion with their paired identities for Wayne and Raj. Wayne is the captain, while Raj is [one of the] alternate captain[s]. Essentially, Raj is Wayne's vice president. However, Wayne is a lot more reliant on Raj, than their team identities are. Throughout the season, Wayne asks Raj's opinion on everything (notably in Ep01, as one of his first defining characterizations), but Raj doesn't as often do the same. In Ep06, Raj is the one to immediately leave the catapult, while Wayne made no motion to be the one to separate themselves. He also didn't comment on Bowie calling the two of them in their "cozy", (which Raj defends, saying they're teammates, so) because that sort of attachment is so normal to Wayne he doesn't feel a need to react to people commenting on it, while Raj does. In Ep03, Wayne receives a [long] pep talk from Raj, but Raj never needed one himself going first of Emma's suggestion (or it happened off screen, but like, if it did there'd be the time for a joke where someone says "WE ALREADY DID THIS"). And also the bit in Ep06 where Raj explains Wayne has a way too stressed face when pooping (note: Raj?)

There's also the long-running plot point where Wayne is pretty concerned with what Raj thinks of him, afraid that Raj is afraid he's homo/biphobic, and that's the driving reason that Raj didn't come out to him like. Immediately. The fear of "well he tells me everything, if he won't tell me this, it's clearly something I did", but due to the 13 episode time limit of the show, Wayne didn't have time to make this insecurity about him and was just increasingly unsubtle, never really trying to force him out.

I know it's super easy and super fun to reduce the two to "omg sports himbos <3" but Wayne's got some emotional intelligence on him, and he is not a carbon copy of Raj, and it's much more than just the lack of a gay love interest. He'll always take the role of leader, but if someone else has a successful idea, he'll hop down and let them take the wheel. Paired with his leadership, friendly attitude, and general respect for everyone around him (not to Keith tho) I can see him making finale a lot more than I can see Raj making finale.

I think having the boys on separate teams and having Raj leave pre-merge could be really impactful. Wayne waits at the cabin for Raj to come back and tell him who left, but he just... never returns. Wayne wasn't at the ceremony, so he didn't even get to say goodbye. Wayne wants to throw the challenge but someone (Emma, Bowie, Julia, etc) tells him to snap out of it because Raj would be furious Wayne gave up on himself. And Wayne has to pick himself up off the ground and win for Raj. Like the Katie and Sadie micro-arc, except give Wayne more time to suffer within himself before being told to stop, as well as not axe him with no actual development. I think that kind of emotional rupture could change my brain chemistry.

[nikox400x]

Kung Fu Panda 4-All the budget went to the animation (spoilers)

Hey all, its me, the guy who everyday make a tour around this site but almost never talk. How are ya?

Two days ago something arrived to the cinema's screens, something that me and everyone were waiting for since 2018, the fourth film and the begginig of the new kung fu panda triology.

You know? When I sat on that theather seat with my friends to see what Dreamworks had prepared for us, I told myself; "Maybe that post I made a while ago throwing shit at what seemed like Kfp 4 was going to be was a bit hard, I hope I can come out regretting what I said that time"

And as soon as the credits ended, it was clear to me, I dont regret a shit. Maybe it was a little exaggerated, compared to what a megamind fan would think about the terrible sequel they made, but still: the film is crappy and boring most of the time. But why?

I'm going to explain some points.

1- Po? Is that you?

I don't know you guys, but i don't think the panda we knew in the end of the third film is the same as this one. Seriously, he share more comparisons with the Po from the legend of awessonless than the one from the films, maybe its a personal thing but it feels that way. At least in the beggining of the film feel like that.

And I don't know what he was thinking about when he decided to follow a thief he doesn't know at all and who tried to steal in his own palace, and that suspiciously know who is the chameleon, whose were her plans, her past, where she lived, where exacly they had to pass through avoiding all the guard inside her home, why the others thiefs of the city hate her so much... With Po's experience with criminals this is like a chef throwing water on a pan with boiling oil, it's obvious what is going to happen.

2- Zheng- Female Nick Wilde but without charisma or half of his intelligence.

I knew it from the first moment I saw Zheng's desing, the people who know me can corroborate that; her facial expressions, her tone while she talk, her animal race, her position as thief, her final when she is part of the justice same as the protagonist... it's clearer than water I think.

Everyone could say this is forgivable if she's smart, but surprise, she's not. This character is just an absurd try of this company for """"conect with infant audience""""(I don't know in what sense, I supose for the cute design, idk). But the point is, the supposed objective of the hollywood companies is give the new generetions better things than we got at their age, but what I see is laziness for write a decent scrip only for take an advantage of a known IP and make easy money. Even the children have quality standars, this is not the dragon warrior and of course this is not kung fu panda.

And talking about the dragon warrior, having our deep and lovely Tigress with her magnific development or Tai Lung back from the spirit realm... why in the hell this character exists?! Oh yeah, for being trending topic in twitter for three days. Yay...

3- The furious five and Shifu, for us : our pretty boys, and for Dreamworks: living jokes.

What made Kung Fu Panda what it is, is not the fucking panda, it's them. They're the inspiration for Po, their allies, the royale representation of kung fu and the ones which everything started with.

Po's a comic relief, and his mission is show his development in part using his humor, but the humor in this film barely works because of the lazy script. Something that even the talented Jack Black himself can't fix, beacuse his only role there is dublin his character, unlike the rest of the residents of the Jade Palace except Dustin Hoffman.

Seth Rogen (Mantis) himself even said that he wasn't even contact by Dreamworks in the first place, only for make a scream in the credits, that's sad beacause he really wanted to see Mantis on the screen. And I know and I understand that the five are expensive, but cmon, they could just simply change the voice actors and offset it with a good script but that's not the case of course. Their role in the film is being a counter for Po's constant jokes, for not to saturate the spectator with jokes, now that's not in there anymore, thank you Dreamworks.

4-The chameleoooohhn and her "motivation".

I can't say much, basically because out of her design she's nonsense. She says that because of her size, she was reyected for being a kung fu warrior.

Yeah of course but only one little thing, what about Shifu? Viper, a warrior without tips? Mantis, literally a dawn insect? Master Oogway, a TURTLE? The masters goose? C'mon even there's a fucking master chicken! Don't talk shit chameleon!

Her importance for the plot? Its almost a lie, the others villains had links to important characters; Tai Lung (with his link to Shifu's past), Shen (with his link to Po's past) or Kai (with his link to Oogway's past), all of them related to important characters. And her? To zheng's past and present I guess? But again, anyone know this character. She's like a villain from a Disney show, you know the type of villain who say a lot of things but at the end, she don't support nothing to the lore.

And her personality is like a mix of all the previous villains, and this sounds good right? HAHAH nope. Do you remember when as a child you mixed all the plasticines of all the colors to create the final color and you ended up with a color similar to poop? well that's exacly how her personality feels like.

5- Po's dads; the only reason they're there is because they ran out of characters to make the film.

The tittle itself tell everything, they don't do anything for the script in all the film, and their objective could be done since the start.

The script of the film except for the final looks like a draft which they didn't know how to complete, everyone who watch it can see it perfecly. The animation, the music and the backgrounds are the only things notable here.

6- Tai Lung and the cheapness nostalgia.

Fan service is not necesarry bad, above all if is used in a good way, they sold us Tai Lung as a miracle but his importance for the plot feels just like a Stan Lee cameo, I like Tai Lung I can say that. But this is too weak, Shen and Kai are only characters in the background who don't do nothing except being defeated or make facial expressions (I don't even joke that Shen would show respect to Po considering what we saw in the second movie, and Kai wasn't supposed to be destroyed as a spirit, what the hell is he doing here again? *sign* I'll to stop trying to make sense of this).

By the way, anyone else think that the dragon warrior role is understimated? I mean Shifu obligated Po to transfers the role to another one just because yes, i mean he only has been the dragon warrior for less than 5 years and now they want to replace him with a random. Everything just for at the end, he choosed a thief with at least 30 crimes registred and who was a traitor during the 75% of the movie.

7- The """""""""humor"""""""", except they forgot the parts where I must to laugh.

Seeing nonsense hits only beacuse yes stopped of being funny a long time ago, and no, I don't want to talk about the bunnies of the portrait because I would get sick. I had to go to the cinema drunk to endure the filler that the movie had, no joke, it was the only way to laugh at those jokes.

So I think about applying the same method as in any movie with bad jokes, ignoring the jokes. I tried to do the same thing but with the pace that the film managed, such a thing was impossible, the pace of the movie seems to be made for Tiktoker children with attention deficit. From the chaos in the quarry until Po takes the bitc... uhg fox out of prison, only 10 fucking minutes pass, all of that for what? So that you feel like the baseless information and the nonsensical plot that they tell us is of any use? they could simply make a non-canonical short and that's it, but no, yes or they were going to tell us a story written by rotten old men who spend the entire day watching Tik Tok. It's not going to be that the child who sees this doesn't get bored, we know that much today's children don't have many neurons as they say, but even to make movies for them you have to have a certain talent.

In some point at the beguining Po make a joke about the ausence of the furious five saying that at least he had them in cardboard posters, and this would be a good joke. Only if the stupid film could be prove that the franquise can do something memorable without the furious five, but again, that's not the case.

Don't have any respect for this movie, look what it had with you. I understand that it is enjoyable because of the animation but it does not go beyond that line, it destroys important things about the canon and spoils its teaching about the need for change by treating it in a terrible way.

Coclusion: KFP 4 is just another Po's adventure as Shifu says, it won't tell nothing to you or make you feel different, it's a shame but after Megamind 2 I imagined something like this. It's a dark era for film, expecially the animated one so like Scar said; Be prepare, there're worse things waiting for us.

Do you want something with real quality? You don't even need kung fu panda 1,2 or 3, for make it easy to this film let's take this marvelous example; kung fu panda: secrets of the scroll (2016). You'll say; "An animated short, this is not like-" Shhh Just watch it, you won't regret it.

If you think I'm wrong in something, just rewatch the film. And if still you aren't agreed with me, well, I respect you and I'm happy you like it. I wish I could love it as you do, but that doesn't mean that the movie isn't bad, because if you watch it with your brain on or remembering the previous movies it's terrible.

. Me? I've to write a story, I love you all. Except you, Dreamworks, I'm mad with you, expecially when you do this at the same day as Akira Toriyama's death :(

[missezramay]

ted lasso, post-finale thoughts.

I went into the finale thinking yeah, if the writing serves, I can accept any outcome even if it's not exactly what I want. Instead, I was hit with a plethora of mixed emotions I didn't expect to have. Confusion, anger, hurt, annoyance, small bursts of joy in between, and just deep sadness. Almost 20 hours later and I'm still incredibly dissatisfied and processing. For the most part, finales should provide a feeling of celebration and relief. I... don't feel any of that.

I'm just really trying to pinpoint why I'm so sad.

Of course everything inevitably has to come to an end. Of course Ted was always going to reunite with his kid. Of course it's not about winning or losing. Of course Tedbecca can remain platonic if that was always the plan. Of course that's the way life goes, but...

For a show (and this season particularly) that constantly encouraged us to 'believe' and 'hope' in the idea that 'everything will work out', all those 75 minutes did was take me on an unsettling, emotional journey for no concrete reason other than to mess with the audience (the opening scene was just adding salt in the Tedbecca wound I've had since S2). Because everything in a macro sense, "worked out". But the WAY it "worked out" does not sit well with me?? And it's supposed to? For a lot of people (on Reddit/Facebook, lol), it was enough?? Richmond not technically winning and Ted leaving like that without so much as a tear? What am I missing??

When I tell you I'm trying to embrace the good parts, I'm really trying. Yes to KBPR & the women's team, Yes to Colin kissing his fella, Yes to Rebecca & Mae & the guys owning the club, Yes to Roy becoming Manager.

So... why am I still so upset? Hmm, let's see.

The boys' musical number? The cutest. Ted didn't think so.

Nate's apology? Heartbreaking. Ted didn't bat an eyelash.

Rebecca begging twice for Ted to stay? Ted, absolute silence.

Beard staying/getting married in London to his toxic gf? Comic relief, haha, fine. Except Ted wasn't there as Best Man.

Don't even get me started on the huge disservice to the Roy/Keeley/Jamie triangle.

Now listen, I get that he misses Henry & Henry misses his dad. I'm not that cold. A father/son's love is important. It was always the catalyst for this show; for him to work on himself so he can be a better father unlike the one he grew up with. That's fine.

But on this particular week. His last week with his Richmond family. There was NO sense of him being sad to leave them. He can be sad about missing Henry but he can ALSO be sad about leaving. No, he just completely checked out. He let everyone pour out their hearts (Hannah's getting her third Emmy, mark my words) to him, and he just stone-faced the entire time.

THIS DOES NOT MAKE ANY SENSE TO ME.

The argument is that he was internally processing, he was overwhelmed, he was trying to distance himself so it would hurt less. Fair points, okay. But this is a television show, moreover, A FINALE. TV characters, while relatable, are heightened versions of ourselves, there so we can better process our emotions and learn to handle things better in our real lives. Ted deserved MORE dialogue and displaying MORE emotion than whatever this was.

We're never going to see him again. We're over here crying along with Rebecca, Nate & Beard, but he didn't sob once. Even though he spent three years building a family with them. I even thought, hey at least he left his legacy with Trent's book but newsflash, he wanted his name taken off that too! Complete erasure.

I just feel so robbed of better moments. Like there were nice moments here and there. But they could've been BETTER. Honestly, Nate & Rebecca's breakdowns were close to perfection, so much love there. But the lack of dialogue and Ted not reciprocating? Broke ME.

I just cannot. understand. this. choice.

Massive sigh. I'm just truly baffled by the way everything wrapped up and not getting the satisfied feeling that one half of the viewership got. Maybe I'm in the minority, but that means something. It carries weight. Also, for a "three-season arc" that was planned well in advance, why all the rewrites and parallels and fakeouts... it's just cruel. But as the theme says (and maybe this was a warning all along), yeah, I guess this might well be it.

This show has given us so much and the last season flailed for the most part. I don't want to disrespect the show by being negative and cynical (looks like I failed!!) or cast blame on anyone in particular. The cast/crew are amazing people and I'll be grateful for being a part of the journey but I'm just so sad and this feeling sucks and I will never get over it.

Going to miss them. x

[blackfilmmakers]

Gwiles is not a thing in their respective comics. They never dated and aren't even close friends in them. They had one crossover where Gwen kissed Miles after visiting earth-8, immediately apologized for it, said she didn't want them to feel pressured into anything, and they agreed they rather be friends. Dassit. They hadn't been in each others comics before that and haven't been in each others since. I think what's throwing is in the original atsv preview, Miles had one drawing of Gwen, and that's much more in line with how his comic character views her. He was not pressed. But they scrapped that to make it more awkward.

But Miles looking so gone on Gwen because he's mistaking unresolved trauma for deep interest in her would make sense given his age/everything he's been through/the theme of the films. And taking time to actually face/process his trauma looks like it's been setup to play a huge role in btsv.

Margo and Miles spider senses going off so specifically and having them shook also means something since the creators focus on it. The art book confirms Margo thinks Miles is cute and says she plays a bigger role than expected. Maybe just by being her confident/ brilliant/caring/funny/cute self, she helps Miles see what direct mutual attraction is like when you're talked to and treated like an equal (not a kid), don't have to constantly worry about proving your value, and aren't dealing with mixed signals. Maybe he helps her embrace the possibility of being fully present in a relationship with someone who listens to and values her, and helps her to stop isolating to avoid her trauma as well. Or maybe Miles puts the spider society behind him but he and Margo forge some other specific forever bond.

Either way, the black director knows the weight of the position he is in and is very protective of Miles, Margo and Hobie. There's often only so much we can do at times, but you can see the love for black history and culture in big/small places and interactions all throughout atsv, and places where it's a relief that a black person who cares has been present in the room to say not on my watch to things. While spiderbyte and Hobie weren't written to have a ton of screen time in atsv, every second was made the most of and they're genuinely well written/acted/drawn/animated and authentic. I also think the the writers and directors do really want to get this right, people are in for a surpise and many of the fears around btsv will be proven wrong. But given media's treatment of and white ignorance around handling black main characters, some vigilance probably doesn't hurt.

I don’t go here, so I’ll have to take your word on the comics thing

But I do think your take of Miles’ crush being a result of his trauma is plausible. Regular teen crush moments aside, the idea Miles puts so much focus onto Gwen he forgets about the others doesn’t sound like his character

But at the same time, my bar is low. We’ve had Black creators that still succumb to the stereotypes, despite all the good rep for Black stories they do. So I have to wait and see

[zukkaart]

10 characters | 10 fandoms | 10 tags

Thank you @fanfic-gremlin-ft-trauma for the tag ily 😭 and I love talking about my faves so here we go 🤸 *long-ish post*

——-

1. Sokka: A:tLA: Okayyyy so as someone who is Inuk she whole S/NWT meant so much to me as a kid and still means so much to me now but Sokka just hits on a different level because he’s the oldest sibling (as am I) and therefore charged with everyone else’s safety in one way or another. He also is the one who deals the killing blows bc the others can’t or won’t stomach it which I relate to hevily

2. Bolin: LoK: He reminds me of my husband what else can I say? They think he’s a pretty, strong, stupid, earthbender/ which to an extent- he is. But he’s just smart in different ways than others and genuinely has a heart of gold and just wants to give everyone endless love

3. River Song: Doctor who: we have the same hair so immediately yes. She also has one of the best and most heartbreaking arcs in cinema history and I will fight about it. She destroyed the universe to save her husband then said “I don’t do weddings” and honestly…I get it bc same

4. Castiel: Supernatural: MY SON DESERVED BETTER. He lost his home, his family, his faith, everything he had known for THOUSANDS of years because he fell in love with humanity Dean. He constantly tried his best and yes messed up but was always treated so harshly as if he didn’t have to LEARN how to have human morals and the only people he had to base off of was the boys who are in no way a good bar to measure that by

5. Amber: House of Anubis: oooh pretty ditzy blonde girl comic relief character- but she becomes one of the most fully fleshed out deep characters and ends up being the reason they solve most of the riddles and find the artifacts. She loves her shopping and texting but when the heat is up she always rises to the challenge and shows out. Queen of my heart

6. Flame Princess: Adventure Time: raised to be evil but falls in love and has to learn how not to harm people even though it 100% goes against her nature. And even after all that she is still treated like a villain by everyone but Finn basically. I have ASPD and I constantly feel like I also have to be something I’m not in order to not harm the people around me and the ones who let me be me are few and far between. She is me I am her

7. Sherlock: See above lol, he has ASPD (sociopathy) and so do I. Plus I’m studying to be a CSI. Seeing a character with my same illness shown in the real raw form and not like the “yeah they’re a sociopath but their character arc is learning how to be a good person!” Ew. They let him be cruel and clever and just authentically HIM. Of course he’s checked when necessary but ultimately no one ever tells him he needs to be fixed because of it bc they understand that part of him can’t be changed

8. House: kind if similar as above. I don’t super love the drugs but he takes no shit and dicks around because he knows he’s the best there is. Endless pranks, self destructive tendencies, smartest person you’ll ever meet, what more could you ask for? It’s also super awesome to watch a character/show that isn’t so focused on being “politically correct” that it forgets how to make good jokes.

9. Sejanus: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (book): People say Katniss is Lucy’s revenge but NO she’s Sejanus’ revenge, and so is Peeta. Sejanus was the one who hated the games, tried to actually help the tributes and districts and stop the games. He wanted revolution way back when Snow was a teenager and didn’t even live to see it. The only difference between him and Everlark is the fact that they had a whole rebellion ready to back them. He should have been alive to take the place of Coin/Snow and I stand by that.

10. J.B. Merlin: Bundle of Joy: this is so crazy niche if anyone knows it DM me immediately I’m begging you. An absolute icon this entire movie. The center of a comedy miscommunication trope. Has no idea what’s going on but refuses to let his son walk out on his baby (that’s not actually his but he thinks it is), immediately assumes the baby was named after him, then delivers the iconic line “I don’t care who the father is! I’M the grandfather” homie wanted a grandkid and didn’t care what he had to do to get one 😂 10/10 wholesome character

~~~~~~

Now for tags. Sorry if you’ve been tagged already! And if you haven’t please participate if you so wish

@avatar-lorra @judebellinghamswifereal @momos-servants @chitsangenthusiast @dancergirl131 @zukosasukelovebot (I think you’ve been tagged already but ily 🤟) @picnicbitchsokka @your-royal-momoness @oldpotatoe @bisexuallsokka

[oleworm]

I see you posting about the Passenger film a lot, and I recalled a quote I like, the one from the The Buried Giant, by Ishiguro.

"How can old wounds heal while maggots linger so richly?... I see how devoutly you wish it, for your old horrors to crumble as dust. Yet they await in the soil as white bones for men to uncover.”

I quoted it before, in a small comic for another character. And you know, I think you too like the characters who choose oblivion, pretense and illusion instead of facing their horrors straightforward. They stumble around as if through the fog that masks the horrors they don't dare to face, the horrors of their own making or of what was done to them (often both), the past that is always present like a hidden wound that has never healed but rots and poisons them from inside, a perpetual infection growing stronger. Trying to escape from the ingrown pain that forms their REAL character, they put on the mirage of faux identity, they take the misguided "revenge" on the world over the wrongs they can't fully conceptualize, they steal bits and pieces of others to stuff the deep wounds, etc, all to pretend that they are in control, that there is power and choice to their aimless wander in the mist of their life. When the fog disappears, unmasking the truth, all of their self-deceptions go with it, too. They collapse, their wounds now open wide and visible to all. I think that's why you like that guy's story, he feels to be of that very same kind. But perhaps I am wrong.

I’ve had to take some time to think about this message before taking up the keyboard and typing away at it.

You are right—I have a history of hiding wounds, of throwing dirt over the past. Of putting a cover on the unwashed bite because to bear marks of harm is a shameful thing. Life was never so dramatic as the stories, but again, we create them in the first place to deal with the less beautiful and interesting things. I am old enough to tell you, hah, that whatever is wrong always finds a way to get out and show itself. The cure can be painful, true, but better to snip away the rotten edges—deep clean the wound—than allow infection to grow and make a hole of you. Remember that we spoke of the Fisher King legend, and I did not know it? I read about it somewhere else. Perhaps, I did not wish to know it. Those who try to forget are those who remember all too well. Those who through action draw attention to the wound, and with our words deny.

When I notice this trait in others, I am delighted—so long as they are not real, suffering people, but only, like I said, part of a story. Don’t we love to see ourselves? Don’t we feel important, when someone has included us in an act of creation? With The Passenger, I was fascinated and disturbed by how things might have looked like from the outside. I was the one dressed in rags, who carried an undefined sickness that was solely internal. To be fair to you, I must confess: I have felt strange and happy since I watched it. You could call it relief, that not everything turned out as poorly as it could have been.

[sagesilentfire]

it's so weird I personally never saw/considered toffee as evil???? and had no idea that people hated him??????? I thought it was universally agreed he was the best and most tragic thing to happen in the series?????????

even after the rollercoaster that was comet I'm more inclined to believe he DIDN'T murder her (tbf she had it coming)

Oh, I agree with you. I don't think he's evil. But unfortunately, that doesn't erase how the writers, and a section of the fans, treated him. Maybe they were a vocal minority, but if so they were extremely vocal. Here's the breakdown:

The writers: I've explained at length how the writers screwed over Toffee. They change his motives from petty to deep depending on who they're talking to, they ignore all the mystery boxes they created regarding him, and if there's any way they want us to feel about his pointless, horrible death, it's either relief or a dull sadness that the magic wasn't destroyed right then. Not horror or righteous indignation. He isn't explicitly a tragic victim, he's barely even mentioned after, and never in a way that implies Star should feel guilty for murdering him. Explicitly, he's a faceless obstacle to be knocked over by Star after she levels up, and it's totally fine she literally melted him, it's fine! We shouldn't question the morality of our white savior protagonist, it's fine!

But the big one, and the one you were likely referring to, is the fandom. And when I made that analysis, I do admit to one cop-out: the fandom isn't like that now. Nowadays it's mostly dead, with the odd stubborn holdout (like me) posting in the tag now and then. A lot of us are Toffee fans, still posting because we liked the potential the show had and so we're imagining him as a character and not the plot equivalent of a bowling pin. But Back In The Day, when the show was still running, people celebrated Toffee's death. It was so cool that Star Vs. had the guts to graphically murder a character onscreen! Star was so cool, and here you thought this show was for kids! Her butterfly form is so cool! Yeah, so much better than that loser Steven Universe, who just talks about his feelings to the villains and solves problems with love and friendship! Never mind that there's a reason other shows don't do this, and that's because it sends a horrible message. Star should've taken a page out of Steven's book honestly.

But surely after the shock of this super cool and edgy death wore out, people started to see the tragedy inherent in Toffee's character? Nope! I mean, there were some popular analysis posts and such, but the fandom mostly forgot about Toffee, along with the writers. And while we were forgetting about that, Morningmark happened. I've talked about him before, but he's always been both a good barometer for the fandom's opinion of a character as well as a shaper of it. When he rarely goes against the fandom's majority opinion, the fandom seems to bend over backwards to make his headcanon everyone's headcanon. Even when it involves dubious characterization. I have already talked about why Morningmark is overrated, but... he just does not get Toffee, even after the show ended with Toffee kind of acknowledged as being right, even after the fandom slowly began to die. In his urge to make everything haha funny he just made it really flat and made Toffee stupid, boring, and evul, and since his comics were the only thing getting notes in the quickly-dying fandom, it made it very annoying to be a fan of depth and tragedy in svtfoe. Then he stopped making svtfoe comics and moved to making Belos stupid and other The Owl House-related crimes, and at least I don't have to worry about his dreadful takes on Toffee anymore, so that's great. 

And from there it was a short hop to the fandom we have today, where only people who got something important out of svtfoe still make content. Now, and only now, do we have the majority thinking Toffee's story, or at least what we saw of it, was the best thing to come out of svtfoe. 

Also, yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if Mina killed Comet and blamed Toffee. That would be a much better twist than the whole Moon bs.

[zepskies]

Hello my lovely friend!! 😘😘

I always get so excited when your comments come in!

Yep M.M. gettin' hit right in the chest from the outset of this chapter loll. But he's starting to see (even if he doesn't want to) that Ben may have some good in him after all. 🥲

He just made the good decision unconsciously because that’s how deep the reader has wormed her way into his heart.

Yep, she's gotten her hooks into him deep without meaning to! lol Exhibit A: he's waiting there in the hospital with everyone else, brushing off his near death by skyscraper crumbling on top of him, looking dusty AF. 😂

And I couldn't not have Frank and Loco return for closure in this chapter. Had to be done! But I love that you appreciated Ben's reactions in all of this. No, he does not handle his emotions well. When you can't bury it, explode it -- as the macho men say. 🙃🙃

[Butcher on his deathbed, still got it with the jokes]: He needs to recover anyway… who else is going to cockblock like he does? 😂

Right?? I couldn't kill off that perfect dynamic. (Funny how Butcher of all people ends up being the comic relief so often in this story. 😂)

Lol Frank and Loco are so dear to my heart. Their bromance is such fun. Reminds me a bit of M.M. and Frenchie. But Frank should abso-fucking-lutely be getting "Employee of the Year."

But the second 🙈 “You were right then, and it still held up now.” But everything is so different now. He’s different, the situation is different and I just wish someone was there to tell him that!

The reader would definitely have clued him into that...ya know, if she was awake. 😭 But at least he's realizing that his actions have consequences, intentional or not! Maybe next time he'll think before he blows up a skyscraper. 🤷🏽‍♀️

[Ben and the V24 decision]: He's really in an impossible situation, poor guy. But you got it exactly right! He's willing to make sure she lives, regardless if she ends up hating him or not. And that's love, is it not? Love can be selfless and sacrificial, but it can also be selfish.

But then Frank "The Solution" Cardoza, coming in for the win!! So glad you're as proud of Ben as I am for making the more selfless choice to "open up a vein." 🥹🥹

The conversation with M.M was interesting. It was fun to see Ben actually contemplate his actions.

I knew we needed to have that ultimate confrontation between M.M. and Ben. Both characters need it, in a sense, in order for them to be able to move forward in their respective growth arcs. For M.M., it's challenging Ben, seeing if this supe is genuinely starting to have a respect for human lives. For Ben, you're right, it's confronting his own actions and becoming more self-aware of how he sees himself. A hero? Or just another super-powered asshole?

Progress indeed. 🥰

I like that he got a few comments in to grace first ““You can fuck right off, sweetheart.”” And “You know what. I’m having a good day, so maybe I’m feeling fucking generous,” he said. His mouth edged into a smirk. “But I think it’s time we renegotiated our contract. Don’t you?” Brilliant lines!

Thank you, my friend!! I thought Ben and Grace needed one last tet-a-tet as well. 🤣🤣

Oh, Ben coming into the reader's hospital room cocky AF after donating his blood. 😂 She does realize how much he has to care about her to do that for her, she's just being a little scaredy cat. 😹

**But remember that little tidbit about the temp. super strength. It might just come into play in a future BMD-verse thing I've got lined up...

LOL Ben's save count is accurate AF at this point, isn't it?? 😂

““Come on now, baby doll. You’re tougher than that.”” He always pushes her and gives her the lifts she needs. That’s what I love about this relationship. They make each other better.

Awww thank you for calling that out!! That's exactly what I intend with these two. Yes, she's been pushing him to grow in her own way, but Ben does the same for her. He reminds her to recognize her own immense inner strength. 🥹

Hahahaa Ben's reaction to learning about Jon's death was predictable, wasn't it? But just docking Frank's pay a bit is pretty lenient, considering Ben's track record of retribution. 😂😂 Considering how he helped the reader, that's Ben's way of letting Frank off the hook for his perceived lapse in judgment (even though she really didn't give Frank much of a choice at the time).

All bens initial thoughts are spot on and completely valid but he takes the time to realise what the reader needs. He’s curbing his more selfish tendencies for her and again. Such growth and progress. It makes me happy.

I'm so glad, because it gives me such feels to be able to show his growth like this. 🥹

Buuut yeah, there's still more work to be done with him. 😂 "Telling instead of asking" her to live with him I thought was on-brand. lol But she's able to bring him down to her level a bit while realizing what he really wants, which she's learned painstakingly with him, cutting through the machoism to find the sensitivity underneath. 🥹

“I am, Ben,” you said more seriously. “I’m not playing games. This is real to me, and I want to be with you.”” FINALLY! Some progress on these damn feelings.

IKR? They're "saying" it without saying ittt. But they'll get there, I promise. 😂 The Epilogue will be a bit of a rollercoaster, not gonna lie, but it's also going to be plenty of fun. 😏😏

Thank you so much as always!! Can't wait to bring you the last chapter next week.

Break Me Down - Part 17

Pairing: Soldier Boy/Ben x Female Reader

Summary: You’re a private investigator by trade, but now you happily sit at a desk — leading a surveillance team at Supe Affairs. After managing to end Homelander in New York, Soldier Boy escapes custody. You are recruited for the manhunt, joining Butcher’s team.

Truly, you joined the S.A. for the right reasons. But after you become his accidental hostage, Soldier Boy will break down every single one of them…

AN: *Gives you a box of virtual tissues.* Just in case. 😘

Word Count: 6,000 Tags/Warnings: Macho angst ahead, hurt/comfort, major, major fluff…

Part 17: More Than Words Can Say

Mount Sinai Hospital was one of the largest private hospitals in the city. 

Fortunately, it was also the closest to Vought Tower, or what once had been the focal point of the superhero industry. It had been reduced to mere rubble and whatever dilapidated parts still stood. 

All the news outlets were covering the tower’s collapse, and speculating on what could’ve created the blast that made the entire city tremble—not unlike last year’s incident, when Soldier Boy killed the most powerful supe in the world.

In the hospital, M.M. walked through the Emergency Department until he found Yvette and her son, Devon. They sat beside each other on a single cot, now joined by Yvette’s husband Chris while she signed her discharge papers. She’d gotten off with a minor concussion and a bandage over her temple. 

“Just checking in on you guys,” M.M. said. Yvette smiled, but she asked about you. 

“She’s in surgery,” he told her. 

Yvette nodded, though tears welled up in her eyes. Chris rubbed her back and held his son’s shoulder. 

“Please call me with any news on her,” Yvette asked. 

“You got it,” M.M. said.

“And please,” she said, holding her son. “Thank Soldier Boy for us.”

M.M. paused at that. 

Seeing the family was well in hand, he returned to the trauma wing. There in the waiting room sat the whole team, minus Butcher, who’d been admitted to the hospital as well after the ED doctors didn’t like what they’d found on his lab reports. (But M.M. would look into that later. Hughie was with him now anyway.)

That left Frenchie, Kimiko, and Annie to wait for any news on you. Even Grace had arrived an hour ago. 

But M.M.’s attention was drawn to the dusty motherfucker standing near the hallway. 

Soldier Boy leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. The collar of his supe suit was undone to give his neck and chest some breathing room. He’d removed his gloves, and an empty gallon jug of water lied at his feet. 

He was covered in a fine layer of soot and grime, though he’d since washed his hands and face to the best of his ability. He was also flanked by his two hired men, Frank Cardoza and Lorenzo Rivales. 

Grace had run a quick background check on both, and as M.M. had learned, they were ex-Marines Soldier Boy had picked up in Colombia, while he was busy infiltrating a drug cartel.   

Fucking figures, M.M. thought, shaking his head as he watched the man. Grace stood and joined him.

“He’s not just gonna fuck off back to South America,” he told her. “You realize that right?”

She considered that with a tilt of her head. “Let’s just see what happens here.”

As if right on cue, your surgeon made his way down the hall and over to the waiting group. Ben pushed off the wall and went to meet him, as did Grace, Annie, and M.M. 

Annie and Ben eyed each other with mistrust and annoyance, respectively, but then he ignored her to regard the surgeon with a terse, expectant gaze.  

The doctor was a graying man in his fifties. He seemed to internally brace himself before he spoke, glancing at Ben first before the others. 

“We’ve repaired the damaged muscle around her right leg. The femur is broken. We also addressed the wound near her shoulder,” he said. “However, the rebar did nick her heart. She’ll need additional surgery to repair it.”

Ben sensed a but coming. He crossed his arms. “Okay, what’s the problem?”

The doctor gave a nod and a short sigh. 

“She’s lost a lot of blood,” he explained. “We’ve given her a transfusion, of course, but she’s in a delicate state right now.”

“So why’re you wasting time? Do your fucking job,” Ben snapped. Grace shot him a glance, but addressed the doctor herself.

“What are her odds, doctor?” she asked. Ben eyed her with a glare. She ignored him for the time being. 

“She needs this now. But, there is a chance she won’t make it out of surgery at this stage,” the surgeon replied. “The OR will be available in thirty minutes…so this would be the time to be with her, just in case she’s unable to get through this.”

“Excuse me?” Ben said. 

His tone was dark and deep with grit, and the doctor stepped back. No one dared attempt to hold Ben back, but Grace quickly thanked the doctor and urged him to move forward with prepping you for surgery. 

Loco shared a saddened look with Frank, who watched their boss with a deepening frown. 

Annie turned to Ben with a measure of sympathy, hidden underneath her irritation at his attitude and her worry for you. You were still her friend, and she felt guilty for how cold she’d been treating you lately. And she could see, at the very least, that this man cared about you. 

“Look, can you just calm down a bit? We’re all here hoping she pulls through,” Annie said. 

M.M. stood behind her, silent, supportive. But Ben just ignored her, and everyone else for that matter. 

He stalked down the hallway. And when he turned a corner, out of eyeshot, he growled and punched a hole deep into the closest wall.

Hughie perked up when Butcher finally started to rouse in his hospital bed. They had him on a hefty dose of morphine. 

He blinked his weary eyes, his head rolling over on the pillow. His lips quirked when he noticed Hughie, who was glaring at him. 

“Watching me sleep now?” Butcher remarked. “Pretty fuckin’ creepy, Hugh.”

“You’re such an asshole,” Hughie said. 

That was something Butcher couldn’t refute. He nodded. “I see they told you.”

“When were you gonna say something?” Hughie said. “When you fucking dropped dead?”

“Probably not even then,” Butcher teased. But when he took in the younger man’s face, all he saw was his little brother, Lenny. Butcher sighed. 

“Ain’t nothing any of us can do about it.”

“Fucking cancer?” Hughie said incredulously. “You could’ve gotten treatment.”

“Would’ve bought me a few more months, maybe,” Butcher admitted. That fell between them for a moment with stony silence. 

“It’s all right,” he added. “I’ve had my fucking time. Got to see the life drain from that golden cunt’s eyes…got to let my girl rest easy.”

Hughie didn’t buy that. Or maybe, he just didn’t want to. His eyes burned, both with emotion and determination. He stood from his seat and set out to find Grace. If there was anything that could help Butcher, she would know. 

While the others went down to the cafeteria for a bite to eat, Frank sat in the waiting room with Loco beside him and Dr. Baker’s briefcase on his lap.

He was sorting through its contents while Loco sat with crossed arms and slumping shoulders. He looked over at Frank’s stoic profile with a frown.

He was older, but not by much. They’d gone through one fresh hell after another together, and somehow, Frank always managed to pull their asses out of the wringer. It seemed Frank was trying to do the same for their boss. 

It was funny, actually. Soldier Boy wasn’t their first contractor. You were their first kidnapping though. Neither he or Frank had felt good about it when Antonio brought you back to the mansion in Medellin, but they’d agreed to do a job. Guarding you became part of that job. 

And yet, you had somehow reminded both Frank and Loco that they used to be respectable members of society. They used to have families, friends. They had once been soldiers. Good men. Maybe that was why they’d grown fond of you over the past few months. 

And Frank…well, Loco knew the man had his reasons for wanting to be done with this work. Loco couldn’t blame him; he was feeling tired himself. 

“Found anything good?” Loco asked in Spanish. Frank’s dark brows had drawn together in new interest.

“More than good,” he said. He looked up, but didn’t find Soldier Boy in the waiting room. “Where the hell did he go?”

Loco pointed to the reception desk. “Try asking someone.”

With a sharp sigh, Frank gave Loco the briefcase. “Guard that with your fucking life. Don’t let anyone from the CIA take it from you.”

Loco gave him a look of offense. “It’s like you don’t know me at all, bro. Fucking hurts.” 

Rolling his eyes, Frank got up and went over to the reception desk. 

“Excuse me,” he said. There seemed to be no one at the reception desk. Granted, it was late at night, and they technically weren’t supposed to be there. Grace Mallory had worked out an agreement with the hospital to allow them all to stay overnight. 

He didn’t have to wait too long though, as an on-duty nurse came over with a clipboard in hand. Her red hair caught his eye, along with her pretty smile. 

“Hi there. Can I help you?” she asked. 

Frank faltered, just for a moment. But he cleared his throat and met her eyes. 

“Did you happen to see which way Soldier Boy went?” he asked.

She gave him a wan smile and pointed down the hall, to the left. “That ‘a way. Think he had an argument with the wall over there.”

Frank followed her gaze and caught sight of the hole in the wall. He frowned. 

“Sorry about that,” he said. 

The nurse gave him a sideways look. “No worries, hun. It’s not your fisticuff outline in the wall, now is it?”

Once again, Frank didn’t know quite what to say to her slightly teasing smile. But he returned it, more reserved, but genuine. 

“Thank you,” he said, with a nod. Then he remembered then what he needed to do. 

And he took off brusquely down the hall. 

It took him a few minutes to pull his head together, but Ben eventually worked up his nerve to go and see you. 

You were still drugged out asleep, of course. He stood outside the large window of your private room in the Intensive Care Unit. He wouldn’t go in though. Part of him refused to believe it had gotten to this. 

And the reality, that this was his fault. He’d caused the blast that destroyed the tower. His fault he hadn’t gotten to you sooner.

“You are the reason I needed saving,” you’d told him once. 

You were right then, and it still held up now. 

So, no…he wouldn’t go in there, into your room. The truth was, he couldn’t. 

But Ben’s awareness prickled before he noticed, Frank had joined him. Ben tolerated it. While he wanted to be alone, maybe part of him (one he wouldn’t acknowledge) craved some kind of company. 

“You’ll get paid, don’t you fucking worry,” he said dryly. 

“That’s not the only reason I’m here,” Frank said. 

It felt like a confession. Ben didn’t reply though; he was focused on your pale face, covered by the breathing mask. Shallow puffs of air fogged the inside of it while your heart monitor clipped on.

“There’s another solution here,” Frank said. 

Ben gave him a cursory side glance. “She wouldn’t take Compound V. Not even to save her fucking life.”

“That didn’t stop you before,” Frank mentioned. 

Ben didn’t answer, but he’d been internally debating it ever since he’d spoken with the surgeon. 

“All right, get it over here,” he said. “The temporary stuff.” 

Frank rose a brow. He’d been curious enough to try testing the man. But now, he frowned.

“She won’t forgive you,” he pointed out. 

“What’re you, devil’s fucking advocate? She’ll get the fuck over it,” Ben snapped. 

But after his initial anger subsided…he knew his subordinate was right. 

“She’ll be alive to hate me,” he said, more honestly.  

Frank inclined his head. “There could be another way.” 

Ben glanced over at him. 

“She lost a lot of blood,” Frank said. Ben frowned.  

“They’ve given her fucking blood transfusions—” 

“Yeah, normal blood. A supe’s blood is stronger. Yours could probably heal her,” Frank said. “But, the only one who can break your skin is you.”

Ben eyed him in suspicion. “Who told you that?” 

“Read it somewhere,” Frank said evasively. 

Ben huffed in response, but as that realization truly sunk into his mind, his lips pressed together in new determination. He left Frank to start a brusque pace down the hall. 

He ignored the red-headed nurse calling at him at the reception desk when he shoved through a locked security door, into the OR unit. He searched until he found your surgeon and pulled him from the sink he was washing his hands in.

The man gasped with fright, though he tried to hide it looking up at Ben. “What the hell’re you doing?”

“I’m making a donation,” said Ben. He raised a blunt nail to his wrist. “You better hurry the fuck up, because I’m about to open a vein.”

It was morning by the time another doctor returned to deliver an update on your progress: the “treatment” was working. Your wounds had knitted closed within an hour following the blood transfusion, and you no longer needed surgery. They had also x-rayed your leg and found that the bone was whole once again. Even your broken ribs had healed.

Ben nodded at the news. He didn’t respond, and just started walking down the hall. Grace, Annie, and M.M. stared after him with mixed reactions of confusion and curiosity. 

“Where are you going?” Annie asked. She was exhausted; all of them were. 

The supe ignored her though. M.M. shared a look with her before he decided to follow the man. 

Meanwhile, Ben once again stopped in the middle of the hallway when he was out of view. He took in a slow, steadying breath of relief, his fists clenching at his sides.

“Congratulations. After today, you’re gonna get your statue put back up,” M.M. said.

Ben turned around to stare back at the man, schooling his face into a stoic frown. 

“Yvette and her son are going to be fine, by the way,” M.M. added, as he crossed his arms.

Ben paused slightly at that, filing that information away with secret satisfaction. 

To M.M., he merely raised a brow. “You got something to say, or are you going to keep wasting my fucking time?”  

“You think saving one black kid makes you a hero?” M.M. asked, point blank. “Taking down Vought. Saving her. What does that all mean to you?”

Ben frowned in irritation. “Why the fuck do you care?”

“Just answer the question. Be honest for once in your motherfuckin’ life,” M.M. said. “Do you really think you’re a hero?”

Silence fell between them. 

Ben didn’t know what it was about this guy. Maybe it was his persistence, or the fact that he’d pulled you out of the rubble and got you to a hospital in time to save your life. 

But Ben actually considered the question.

Killing Stan Edgar and Black Noir. Saving you. He’d done it all for selfish reasons. The kid…that was something else. His face stuck in Ben’s mind, how he’d trusted the superhero, like dumb kids were supposed to do.

But in that moment, carrying the tower on his back and knowing he was the only barrier between a mountain of hot rubble and this one kid…Ben hadn’t wanted to fail. 

And still. You are the reason I needed saving…

It wasn’t really saving the fucking day if he started it, was it?

Ben’s lips turned on a humorless smile. Still, he had saved the kid. And his mom. And you. For now, that was enough.

“Looks like I am,” said Ben.

But he met M.M.’s stare, briefly allowing him to glimpse beyond a wall of arrogance and pride.

And Ben walked away. M.M. watched him go in silent contemplation.

Grace intercepted Ben before he could visit you in the ICU. 

Christ. What the fuck now? he thought sourly. 

She gestured for a word, and with an annoyed look, he followed her down the hall.

“I’ll get to the point,” she said. “Butcher is sharing a floor with your girlfriend, down in Oncology.”

Ben raised a brow. That prick had cancer? Par for the fucking course, if he said so himself. 

“So?” he remarked. 

Grace sighed. She’d expected that reaction. “They’ve given him weeks, but the way he’s been pushing himself, more likely it’s days. Taking the untested Temp V long-term has had its adverse side effects…if you were to make another blood donation, I’ll make it worth your while.” 

So now his blood was some fucking wonder drug? Hell no, Ben thought. 

“You’re asking me to save the guy who’s double-crossed me, tried to hunt me down, tried to end me?” he said, with a dark, incredulous chuckle. “You can fuck right off, sweetheart.”

She grated at the sweetheart remark, but Grace leveled him with steely blue eyes.

“If it weren’t for me, you’d be on ice right now,” she pointed out. 

Ben’s lips pursed. He’d really like to snap this bitch’s fucking neck on principle…but then he thought about it. He could work this into his favor. 

“You know what. I’m having a good day, so maybe I’m feeling fucking generous,” he said. His mouth edged into a smirk. “But I think it’s time we renegotiated our contract. Don’t you?”

Grace stared up at him, and she inhaled a deep breath. 

“Fine.”

You slowly woke up in a hospital room, in a paper gown with an IV drip and a heart monitor. Which made sense, as the events of yesterday came back to you in a rush. 

But beyond feeling relieved to be alive, you also felt extremely well-rested. You didn’t feel like a building fell on you. 

What kind of masterful drugs are they giving me? You tried to read your chart on the wall, but you didn’t see any pain medication on there. 

Annie popped into your private recovery room. Her face brightened when she saw that you were awake. 

“Hey, hun! How do you feel?” she asked, lowering into a chair at your bedside. You wouldn’t know that this chair had been occupied by various members of the team over the past few hours, including M.M., Frenchie, Frank, and even Grace. 

“Great, actually,” you replied. But now you frowned. “I shouldn’t feel great.”

You remembered nearly being crushed under a pile of rubble. You remembered falling on a piece of rebar, and unable to move your crushed leg. You remembered the worry in Ben’s eyes… 

And panic stung at yours.

“Did they give me Compound V?” your voice shook when you asked. Annie calmed you down with a shake of her head and a reassuring hand on your arm. 

The door to your room opened once again. Ben’s frame filled up the doorway. When his eyes met yours, your breath caught in your throat. He was still in his supe suit, and with his hands resting on his belt, he strutted inside the room. 

M.M., Frenchie, Frank, Loco, and Kimiko came in behind him and at least looked showered. Ben looked like he hadn’t even done that much, nor slept all night.

“It wasn’t the V,” he said at last. “Just a little blood donation. Seemed to work like a charm.”

His resulting grin had a bit of charm in it as well. Your head tilted in confusion.

"Whose blood?" you asked.

"Mine," he said. His expression faded, slightly more serious.

You found yourself slowly smiling, though your brows still furrowed in surprise. He gave me his blood…instead of Compound V.

While you tried to wrap your mind around the gravity of that, you reached for the pitcher of water on the rolling tray beside you. You grasped the pitcher, but the plastic actually crunched in your hand. You gasped and moved your hand over so the water inside wouldn’t spill all over you.

Ben raised a brow. 

The room fell silent as all eyes stared at you. When the water finished pouring out onto the floor, you gently set it back down on the tray. 

“Seems you got some of his strength in the deal,” Annie remarked. 

“Great, there’s two of them,” Hughie quipped with a grin. 

“Well, that’s probably just temporary,” M.M. sighed. “Hopefully.” 

You couldn’t help but laugh, and it brought a slight grin to Ben���s lips. 

After a bit of well wishing, everyone cleared out of your room to let you rest up…except for Ben, Frank, and Loco. 

“What are you guys going to do now?” you asked of the latter two. Loco cracked his knuckles. 

“Got another job lined up in private security,” he revealed. “I’ve lost the taste for drug running. Nearly lost a damn toe on the last one.”

You laughed. “Well, thanks for doing one more job here.”

“Anything for el Capitán,” Loco said, giving Ben a respectful nod. “He pays exceedingly well.”

You raised a brow at Ben, who shrugged with a cocky grin. Smiling, you turned to Frank, who was sitting in the chair beside your bed. 

“And you?” you asked. Frank gave you a rare smile. 

“Going home,” he said. “To my daughter.”

Your eyes began to sting, but you tried to blink away the beginnings of tears. You nodded and squeezed his arm. 

“Give her a big hug for me. And thank you again…for everything,” you said, even though you realized that thanking your former guard keep was strange. Still, there had been no part of your kidnapping that was normal in the least. 

Frank hesitated, but he covered your hand with his. 

Though he caught the way Ben’s face tightened, and Frank let go of you. He stood with Loco, giving you and Ben a final nod. Then the two men left your room and disappeared down the hall.

Part of you felt melancholy, like chapters of your life were closing. But you also felt like new ones were waiting in the wings.

Your gaze turned to Ben, who stood near your bed.

He was looking over your chart to see if the doctors needed anything else before you were discharged. But your soft voice called to him, earning his attention. You beckoned him closer.

He went over and sat down on the edge of your bed, laying a hand on your thigh. You reached out for his arm. 

“Thank you,” you said. 

Ben scoffed, though a hint of humor glinted in his eyes. “For what? Saving your reckless ass for the millionth time?”

“For saving Yvette and her son,” you replied with a smile. “And yeah, all that other stuff.” 

Your hand slid down his arm and slipped into his hand. Your fingers curled around his palm. 

“Really. Thank you…” 

Tears welled up in your eyes again. You still couldn’t fucking believe he opened up one of his own veins and gave you his blood. He gave a public hospital his blood in order to save you. 

He could’ve easily slipped you V24 again, or worse, the permanent stuff. But he didn’t just save you. He’d respected your wishes. 

What you wanted to say next got stuck in your throat.

Ben had something hiding behind his eyes, like he was reluctant to show you his real emotions. But when he focused on your face, his hand tightened on yours. His jaw clenched, but he didn’t speak. He only let go of your hand to brush a falling tear from your cheek. His lips twitched at a smile.

“Come on now, baby doll. You’re tougher than that.”

You choked on a laugh as more of your tears slipped down your warming cheeks. “Nope. I’m actually not.”

“Hmm. Could’ve fooled me,” Ben said. You matched his grin with a beaming smile of your own.  

Slowly, you pushed yourself up and took his dirty face in your hands. You guided him down to you, and you pressed your lips to his. 

He allowed it with his usual demanding, fervent kiss. But then it slowed. He held your wrist to keep your hand in place on his cheek, and his thumb drew bath and forth over your skin. 

You parted from him, pulling back enough to see his face. There was so much you wanted to say…but maybe right now, it was too much. 

You met him with another tearful kiss.

Before you were officially discharged from the hospital, you had one more visitor. 

Grace was once again there to debrief you. This time though, Ben sat at your side on the bed, a silent statue who regarded the woman coolly. He seemed to be tolerating her presence with more ease than usual, and you wondered why.

“You’re going on medical leave,” she informed you. “For three months, and then a psychiatrist will need to clear you for duty.”

Part of you wanted to argue, considering you were completely healed of your injuries. But you knew you needed a break from the S.A.—from all of this. 

“Your mother and sister will be brought out of witness protection soon, after we determine that the threat is sufficiently neutralized,” she said. “You can return home today as well.”

You could finally go back to your apartment…though the thought didn’t call to you as much as it should have. You glanced over at Ben.

“Is this the part where you try to ship him back to Colombia?” you asked. 

“That was the agreement,” Grace said wryly. You frowned, trying to blink away the tears forming once again in your eyes.

You didn’t want to lose him, but you also didn’t want to give up your life here. You didn’t want to leave the S.A., or your family, or your friends. Ben put you out of your misery, however.

“We renegotiated,” he said. 

Your eyes widened. “What?”

Grace explained, “In exchange for his assistance in another case, he can stay in the U.S. on a trial basis. As long as he agrees to live within the law.”

You didn’t entirely trust Grace. Ben would be watched at every moment. That was a given, but considering he still didn’t have full control over his nuclear power, you were surprised Grace would allow him free roam within U.S. borders. 

“And, provided, he agrees to a relocation. Preferably not in a densely populated area,” Grace added.

There it is, you frowned. You shared a look with him, and you could see he wasn’t entirely on board with this. You had no doubt he’d agreed to her demands by lying through his teeth. 

You turned back to Grace.

“What if he becomes a contractor for Supe Affairs,” you proposed. “There may be some fallout after Vought’s collapse, and more of their records to go through. Other labs to clear out. Ben would be a lot of help, if he’s willing.”

You glanced at Ben again. He met your eyes, then Grace’s, and he nodded marginally. He was getting bored of the heat in South America anyway. 

Grace heaved a sigh. Ben’s lips formed a smirk. 

“Oh, relax. I just ended Vought. You’d be an idiot not to cash in on that PR,” he pointed out. 

“Need I remind you that you caused the tower’s collapse?” Grace said tersely. “And you did not end Vought. There will be repercussions to this, believe me.”

Ben’s face tightened, but you grasped his hand. 

“But he fulfilled the mission,” you said. “He took out Black Noir…and Stan Edgar in the process.”

“The idea was to arrest him, but I get your point,” Grace said. Her hand raised to cover her mouth as she thought about your proposal.

Eventually, she spoke. “If you can play by our rules, then we’ll contract with you. But until you get that atomic bomb under control, you can’t remain the city. Upstate is the best I can do.”

Ben chafed at being told what he couldn’t do. What the fuck was he going to do in Upstate New York? Slowly rot to death in dusty-ass suburbia?

You shot him a knowing look, raising a brow. 

“It’s a fair offer, Ben,” you pointed out. His lips pursed in annoyance. But he glanced at your hand in his.

Then he looked up at Grace. “Fine. But first, unfreeze my fucking bank accounts.”

Ben later led you out of the hospital. There was a car waiting outside, and he got in to drive, despite you offering. He must’ve been going on very little sleep, if any over the past two days. 

And of course, he’d refused to be seen at all medically, saying he was fine. You were still concerned about that destabilizing gun Black Noir had shot him with. 

“I’m fine,” Ben had claimed. “Just need some sleep, that’s all.”

You watched his profile for a moment, and a smile started to raise your lips…until you finally remembered something that felt like a heavy stone in your stomach.

“Um…” you said, earning Ben’s attention. You looked up at him. “My father’s dead…”

Good fucking riddance, was Ben’s initial reaction. Followed by a frown, as he now realized he would never get the pleasure of choking the shit out of Jon himself. 

Ben had been fucking livid to learn from Frank that you’d been left alone in the Tower with your father while it was coming down (and Ben was petty enough to dock that little slip up from Frank’s pay). Had that asshole lived, Ben wouldn’t have put it past him to try and take you with him after escaping the building. The mere thought grated on him. 

“Black Noir killed him,” you said, heaving a shaky breath. 

That cut through Ben’s thoughts. He glanced over, watching you fight some conflicting emotions. 

“…Punched a hole straight through his chest,” you added.

Ben hummed in acknowledgement. You turned to him with a raised brow and glassy eyes. When he realized you were expecting a bit more from him, his lips pursed.

“Well, he got a quick death,” he said. “Better than he fucking deserved, far as I’m concerned.”

You sighed and leaned your head back on the head rest. Your eyes closed. 

“Goddamn it, Ben.”

Ben eyed you with a deepening frown. “What the fuck do you expect me to say?”

“How about some decency?” you asked, as a tear fell down your cheek. “He tried to apologize. But I wouldn’t let him.”

He paused at that. While he thought you were being unreasonable, it begrudgingly dawned on him what you wanted, and maybe, what you needed. He sighed through his nose. Even now, you were a handful.

Ben reached over, taking your hand from your lap. He pressed the back of it to his lips, earning your mild surprise.  

“That’s not your fault,” he said. And he briefly took his eyes off the road to look into yours. “None of it was. You understand me?”

Your face softened. Though you tried to blink away your tears, a few of them still fell. You wiped at them with your free hand, while the other squeezed around his fingers, resting against your thigh. Despite how you were fracturing inside, warmth still kept you afloat. 

So you looked up at Ben, and you nodded. He seemed satisfied by your answer. He turned back fully to the road, but you kept a tight hold of his hand. He allowed it.   

“We’ll have to go to the safe house to get our stuff,” you said eventually, with a small sniffle.

“No need,” Ben said. “That’s taken care of.”

That confused you. Was he taking you to your apartment then? 

But instead, he drove you out of the city, and an hour upstate into Scarsdale. You’d never been there, but you knew it by reputation—as one of the most affluent towns in the state.

You were even more confused when he drove down a street flanked by tall hedges within a private community. He pulled into a circular driveway in front of an immense white house, with a red brick roof, colonial architecture, a manicured lawn, complete with matching fountains lining the front door.

Ben parked the car and encouraged you to get out with him. You followed him up to the front porch, expecting an old billionaire to pop out of the tall bushes at any moment to chase you away. 

“What’re we doing here?” you asked. His hands fell to the belt of his supe suit as he surveyed the stood, the door, and the walls for anything amiss. 

“I’m looking into buying it,” he revealed, as if he’d just told you, It’s pretty fucking sunny today, huh? 

“Our stuff is ready to be shipped out when the deal closes with the owner,” he added.

Your eyes flew wide. “What? When did you have time to scope out houses?” 

You’d only been discharged about an hour after the conversation with Grace. 

“I had Frank look into some shit. He found this one,” Ben shrugged. “Could use some work, but not bad.”

Our stuff, you repeated in your mind. This house…was he trying to recreate what the two of you had in Medellin?

And more importantly, was this his way of asking you to move in with him? 

Well, there’s not too much asking going on, you thought in annoyance. And yet, you blushed; the sentiment in itself was enough to warm you. 

You brought Ben back down to Earth by grasping his hands, earning his attention from the old grout in the tile.

“Ben, this place is amazing,” you said. “But I don’t know if I’ll be comfortable living like this.”

He frowned down at you. “What the hell do you mean? You could have anything you want here. It’s safe. Got plenty of room—”

“A bit too much room,” you said, holding up your thumb and forefinger a couple inches apart. 

He looked adorably grumpy. You smiled and squeezed his hand. 

“Did you really feel cozy and at home in that mansion with fifty rooms and nobody in ‘em?” you asked.

He didn’t answer you, and he didn’t seem happy either. You didn’t want him to take this as a rejection. 

“If we’re going to do this,” you said, “then can we start a little smaller? Somewhere that feels like home to both of us?”

Ben stared back at you in annoyance. “You need to broaden your palate.”

You just managed to stop yourself from laughing.

“You haven’t had a normal home in a long time, Ben,” you replied. Maybe ever, you realized. “How about you trust me?” 

He gave you a dubious frown.

“What about this,” you tried. “Let’s pick it out together! If in a few months you still hate the new place, we’ll try it your way.” 

“You’re assuming we’re gonna make it that long.” Ben was starting to wonder if this was going to work after all. The two of you were from very different worlds. 

You offered a cheeky smile. “I’m optimistic.”

He huffed. “Sure.” 

You reached up on your toes, and gripped the front of his suit when you leaned up to kiss him. His hands rose naturally to hold you, resting on your jean-clad hips. He followed your languid kiss, his furrowed brows relaxing when you touched his cheek.

When you broke from his lips, his eyes opened to find yours. 

“I am, Ben,” you said more seriously. “I’m not playing games. This is real to me, and I want to be with you.” 

But then you hesitated. You lowered back down to your feet. 

“But if it’s not to you…if you’re just passing time with me, until you get bored,” you said, “tell me now. Please.” 

It was Ben’s turn to hesitate. It was the please that got to him, along with your downturned gaze. He captured your chin between his fingers and raised your face up to him. 

“I’m not fucking around,” he said. “I want you to live with me.” 

Your smile was soft and bright when you took his hand. Ben wouldn’t admit it, but something in his chest stuttered to life then.

“Okay,” you said with a nod. “Let’s do it.”

AN: *squeals* It's happening! We've really gotten here, folks. How'd you like how it all wrapped up with Grace, M.M., and even Butcher?

But we're not quite there with these two yet...

Next Time:

“Why’re you nagging me like a goddamn wife?” he snapped.

“Wife?” you scoffed, crossing your arms. “You don’t even call me your girlfriend.”

But God forbid another man even smile in your direction. Ben was possessive, protective, and claimed with all but words that you were his. And yet, he wouldn’t say it.

You shouldn’t have been surprised that he was afraid of commitment, but you’d been living together for six damn months.

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[smhalltheurlsaretaken]

Do you have any thoughts about the clones situation? I only mostly hear about it from anti-Jedi people and how "being nice slavers doesn't change the fact that they are slavers", so I was wondering if you have anything to say or any post to recommend?

There's a perfect post by @trickytricky1 but I want to say a few more things. This thread right here is also pretty good.

The issue with the Clones is that it's pretty much impossible to examine their in-universe treatment without taking the irl writing decisions into account: namely, that most of what we know to be very, very wrong with the Clones' situation is barely acknowledged by the creative team, to the point we can pretty much assume they just don't care beyond what's convenient for a plotline. I mean, beside a few select characters Filoni is particularly fond of, the majority of the Clones are narrative props: they're here to be killed off to heighten the tension, to be comic relief, or to highlight a particular trait of the Jedi they're serving under - and of course, they're here to execute Order 66. I love them to bits and it often annoys me, but it's true. Just look at how little anybody irl seems to care about Cody, arguably the second most important clone in the franchise and the most important clone within the army: he barely got any screentime in TCW and was instantly sidelined out of the one arc where he had a chance to be the lead, he didn't appear in Rebels, and he wasn't even mentioned in TBB s1 despite his role in the squad's creation. Or consider how the Clones being overgrown children who should look only 20-ish and behave very differently from normal adults is never properly brought up - not even in Rebels where Rex is treated like a old geezer instead of the 30 year old he is, or in TBB, or with Cut whose adopted children are maybe five years younger than he is. We have to face it: the story never was and never will be about the Clones, and so the writers don't seem to think much about their condition a lot of the time.

Hence why I feel like when characters don't behave like they ought to regarding the Clones, it's often not so much that the narrative is telling us there's an issue, and more like the writers couldn't be bothered to explore that particular theme. I'm not just saying that in relation to the Jedi: Suu Lawquane marrying a 12 year old (who is supposed to look 24 but really look 50 because of the animation) is not framed as insanely wrong on all levels, for example. Also, we don't ever see Bail and Padmé speaking up for Clone rights. Realistically, given what we know of their personalities, would they have? Probably, yes! Their silence very likely has nothing to do with a moral failure that the audience is supposed to recognize, and everything to do with nobody irl thinking that would be a good storyline.

As for the Jedi's relationship with the Clones, what I always got from it is this: the Jedi were drafted along with the Clones, couldn't do a lot about the whole situation, befriended them just so Order 66 could be extra heartbreaking, and we weren't meant to dig too deep and find loopholes or what-could-have-beens or alternate ways it could have gone down, because Order 66 was pretty much written in stone. The Jedi were always going to die, as far back as ANH, before there were even Clones in the Clone Wars - and they were going to be friends with the Clones before the Clones were even fully people (think about all the nice interactions between Obi-Wan and Oddball or Obi-Wan and Cody in RotS, back when the Clones obeying Order 66 was that they really had very little will of their own). The more and more messed-up implications of the slave army came along the more the Clones got humanized for the sake of angst, but the beats of the store were already there.

I already went a bit into this tension between what we see onscreen and the issues the writers didn't feel like exploring here (on a post about Obi-Wan's behavior on the Citadel).

Now, forgetting all the irl stuff, are the Jedi actually slavers? I'd argue that they aren't. The Senate voted to have an army - it's a big plot point in AotC. The Sith paid the Kaminoans and fabricated the war. Jango sold his DNA. The Senate drafted the Jedi. ("A lot of people say, “What good is a lightsaber against a tank?” The Jedi weren’t meant to fight wars. That’s the big issue in the prequels. They got drafted into service, which is exactly what Palpatine wanted." - George Lucas)

That particular dead horse has already been beaten, but what were the Jedi supposed to do beside fight side by side with the Clones? Not fight? So Sidious could declare them traitors to the Republic ahead of schedule? Fight and petition for Clone rights (which, again, is an issue never touched upon in canon one way or another after Slick - whom I'll get to later - so we simply can't say that they never tried)? Like Sidious was ever going to let legislation hindering his plans pass? They were caught between a rock and a hard place, which was always the point of the war. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.

What's more, the majority of the Clones don't think the Jedi are slavers (see first posts linked and posts linked below), with the notable exception of Slick. The majority of the Clones we see love the Jedi, and we know it's not a case of blind hero-worship, because they are very quickly suspicious of Krell and don't hesitate to take him down.

I feel like Slick was a bit of a red herring, because he came along very, very early (s1ep16) - way before we had any indication of that the chips would be a thing. He feels a lot like a reminder that 'hey, this story is going to end badly' because the Clones will turn on the Jedi and kill them all rather than an actual exploration of the messed up slave army deal - because Slick is unequivocally characterized as a villain. He killed a lot of his own brothers, didn't deny that Ventress had offered him money, tried to frame a member of his own squad for his actions, and was perfectly ready to kill Rex and Cody for all his talk of loving his brothers. The post I linked goes into a bit more, but he's not a desperate innocent.

Finally, there's the problem that the majority of the Clones we see want to fight for the Republic. The cadets from Boba's Death Trap episode (s2ep20) are excited to meet Jedi and get to fight. 99 wants nothing more than to be a good soldier. The Domino Squad want to pass, and their episodes present them going off to the front like a victory - even when we already know they're marching to their death. Choosing to fight is Rex's whole arc in the Deserter episode (s2ep10):

CUT: Come on, Rex, admit it. You've thought about what your life could look like if you were to also leave the army, choose the life you want. REX: What if I am choosing the life I want? What if I'm staying in the army because it's meaningful to me? CUT: And how is it meaningful? REX: Because I'm part of the most pivotal moment in the history of the Republic. If we fail, then our children and their children could be forced to live under an evil I can't well imagine. CUT: If you were to have children, of course. But that would be against the rules, wouldn't it? Isn't that what somebody programmed you to believe, Captain? REX: No, Cut, it's simply what I believe. It doesn't matter if it's my children or other people's children. Does that meet with your approval?

Yes, it's incredibly karked from our perspective - you have millions of boys who were spoon fed propaganda about a Republic that doesn't care about them and that they barely know, and in the end their sacrifices amounted to very little... But - and I'm genuinely asking here - wouldn't denying them the right to find their identity in their role as protectors be demeaning too? Obviously they deserve so, so much better, but TCW still treats their choice to fight proudly as meaningful. And in the end, it wasn't entirely for nothing either: the Jedi and the Clones did save billions of people according to Hera.

What we were supposed to take away from the Jedi-Clones interactions in the Prequels imo isn't 'the Jedi were nice slavers' but really that they were the Clones' best and only friends.

Mace spends a lot of his screentime protecting them. We see most of the Council protecting or saving Clones at least once each. Really, the Jedi are constantly shown saving the Clones or caring about them: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Again, @trickytricky1 has some of the best content: this compilation vid is particularly great. I'm pretty sure Sidious gave the Jedi the Clone army (and not the droid army) because he counted on the Jedi's compassion towards the Clones and their eventual trust in them to work in his advantage (see this thread) - and heartbreakingly enough, he was right.

Imo, TCW and later Rebels - and even, to a lesser extent, RotS - always portrayed the Jedi and the Clones as close friends and the karked up circumstances don't change that. They don't have a 'nice slavers & their slaves' dynamic, they are friends.

There's a reason why the first TCW episode was about Yoda telling three Clones how unique and important they all are (see here or here). There's a reason why we see the Clones being so protective of their Generals (see Boil and Obi-Wan here). There's a reason why Obi-Wan so passionately condemned Grievous for having an army with no loyalty and no spirit (here). There's a reason we got this:

They were best friends. The entirety of Star Wars failing to address enough just how terribly the Republic treated the Clones doesn't take away from that.

That makes the whole Jedi-Clone story a whole other level of tragic, where the Jedi genuinely tried to know and care for their men because there really wasn't anything else to do, and the Clones were grateful for that, and in the end both the Order and the Clones were used and destroyed. No matter how badly some themes and plotlines might have been handled, I genuinely can't ever believe that we were meant to see the Jedi as slavers in this situation, as opposed to victims - albeit in a different way than the Clones - who were doing their best.

[gaelic-symphony]

From the CM asks

What's a random hot take you have about the show/a character/a plot?

Oh, goodness, just ONE hot take? I have so many! Hmmmm...to cause chaos and burn shit down, or not to cause chaos and burn shit down?

I'm gonna cause chaos and burn shit down.

The way that a large and worrisome number of people in this fandom (lesbians by and large not included) treat Emily is deeply, deeply misogynistic and terrible. Canon Emily is brilliant, refined, charming, highly competent, worldly, multilingual, fiercely independent and self-sufficient, calm under pressure, and self-assured. Fandom has turned her into this bumbling, incompetent chaos gremlin who is only there for comic relief (as much as I love you, Incorrect Criminal Minds Quotes, I am very much looking at you right now). Hotch stans are overwhelmingly the worst culprits of this misogynistic treatment of Emily, both before she takes over for him as unit chief (e.g. bending over backwards to find ways to justify him treating her like shit when she first joins the team) and after (all the "no Hotch no watch" bullshit). Plus, the very existence of Hotchniss as a ship feels like such disrespect for Emily as a character for two big reasons that go way beyond just me not shipping it:

I literally do not think I have ever seen anyone ship Hotchniss out of a deep and abiding love for Emily. That ship is full of Hotch stans who ship them together because they love and want to obsess and fangirl over Hotch. And like, there's nothing wrong with loving Hotch, but when everyone's shipping a ship out of love for him and not her, that creates a legitimate problem, similar to the problem with the specific way that some (although definitely not all!) Reid stans ship Moreid and Ralvez, because they're taking these really wonderful characters of color and making their stories revolve completely around a fan favorite white boy. And when a lot of these Hotch stans ship Hotchniss out of love for Hotch, they're just using Emily to live out their own fantasy and achieve their own sexual gratification. They're stripping her of her agency, her individuality, and everything that makes her who she is in order to make it easier for them to project themselves onto her. They're taking this strong, wonderful, complicated, beautiful female character--A CHARACTER WHO WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN AS A LESBIAN AND IS WIDELY ACCEPTED AS ONE IN FANON AND YES, THAT IS ACTUALLY SUPER IMPORTANT--and making her entire story revolve around a man.

I'm only half-joking when I say that it's lesbophobic to ship Emily with men. Because even though Emily isn't actually, technically a lesbian in canon, in a way, she might as well be. She is so deeply queer coded (and not just queer coded, but specifically lesbian-coded in the way she interacts with women vs. men) and so widely accepted as a lesbian in fanon, and it is so widely known that she was originally written as a lesbian, and Lesbian Emily means so much to so many lesbian fans who are already so starved for any representation at all, that Emily actually does feel close enough to being a canonically lesbian character that it is extremely tempting to say, "fuck ship and let ship, DO NOT ship this character with men, just let the lesbians have something for once in our goddamn lives!" And sure, everyone's allowed to have their own headcanons and their own interpretations of characters, but maybe there are some near-canon characterizations widely accepted in fanon that allow fans from marginalized identities to see themselves represented and better engage with the media they consume (e.g. Autistic Spencer, Lesbian Emily) that deserve a little more respect and deference than, say, headcanons about what kind of music a character likes? So when I say that Emily is a lesbian, I don't just mean that I headcanon her as a lesbian; I mean that she is a lesbian in the same way that Spencer is autistic, even though neither one of those things is actually, technically true in canon. And while nobody's saying that you have to headcanon Emily as a lesbian or Spencer as autistic in order to participate in this fandom, if you consistently create content that deliberately erases Spencer's autism or Emily's lesbianism, autistic Reid stans and lesbian Emily stans may understandably and legitimately take issue with your work for reasons that go much deeper than simply not agreeing with your headcanons.

Anyway, those are the reasons why I actually feel kinda justified in gatekeeping Emily Prentiss from anyone in this fandom who is not either a) a lesbian, or b) a non-lesbian sapphic who headcanons Emily as a lesbian.

Also, I literally do not give a single shit about Hotch beyond just liking him as a character and appreciating what he brings to the show, and I 100% stand by this statement I made in a conversation about Hotch girlies:

I also believe with every fiber of my being that this is how Emily feels about Hotch, too.

[eromarimo]

What’s your thoughts on an argument I’ve found that sannami is abusive ?? I personally think western fandoms way too seriously since most of Nami’s beating up Sanji was a comic relief not a real abuse, she only slapped seriously once, yeah it was wrong but their whole relationship isn’t abusive, I feel like western fandoms always always wants ships to be 100% perfect as if they are a wife and a husband came from heaven, that dose not make any sense at all but I’d like to know your thoughts about their argument.

Hi dear anon! ✨ First of all saying that Sannami is abusive is so ridiculous. Sannami is one of the healthiest ships on One Piece and has had development that could easily debunk that "argument"

Now ...(this might be a long post btw) I want to start this with somenthing that a japanese friend told me "some anime are not throught and/or designed for the western to understand" which I couldn't agree more!! Japanese humor is different from western humor.

In anime there are a lots of gagreels and one of the most common ones is the girls ir anyone hitting characters that are doing dumb stuff

Is not exclusive from One Piece and is not exclusive of Sannami at all!!

Is just a comedy relief and besides, Nami only hits Sanji when he is dragged in to Luffy's and Zoro's antics, the only times she hits only him had been twice in the whole story when he was being a pervert which again... IS A GAGREEL, "but I don't like that kind of humor" congrats! Neither japanese give a thought about western finding it funny or not, is the sense of humor that they have there.

Under other circumstances I would not go there and try to find deep shit on a gag but let's reason like these people that can't understand the difference between a joke a abuse.

If you want to take every gag or situation as abuse then you'll have this:

- Luffy throws his crewmates as ragdolls without thinking about hurting them.

What a bad captian!😷

Is a Gag...

Such an abusive brat!1!1

- Carrot and Chopper bite their crewmates when they get mad

Is a gag, besides they are animals, of course they bite!!

BuLliEz!1!1

-Yamato hid a child on her breast, DEPRAVATION!!

It was to hide Momo... Where else could he have hidden?

DEPRAVATION!1!1

-Nami hits everyone 😤😤

Nami hits everyone in order to correct them and even this hits are not meant to be serious or damaging

ShE iS AbUsIvE!1!1!

So according to these people, we only can say:

#mugiwarasoverparty

Do you realize how stupid all of the statements above are? It doesn't make anysense trying to take everything serious in situations that are not meant to be serious at all...

These moments are presented in ridiculous situations that are meant to make people laugh, abusive situations in One Piece are followed by moments of tension where NO ONE is fooling around and I want to believe that people knows the difference between a laugh and a serious situation that doesn't intend to make anyone laugh...

Now with the slap...

Yes, it was bad, yes it was uncalled for BUT it has to do more with how japanese romance is written (I'll do an essay about that in other post) basically the function of that slap in that moment of tension is to add more drama to the situation like a typical telenovela or a TV drama.

And last but not least:

The hits as gag are not exclusive of Sannami, is not even an argument to tear away the ship, is just another attempt to want to find a reason to discredit it but if you want to see that way, let's take a look over other ship where Nami hits this person more than she has hit any other character in the whole series shall we?

So Nami has hit Luffy basically since their meet, she even tried to drown him knowing perfectly well that he can't swim, when he has asked her why she hit him on an occassion, she said "just because" (he was fooling around) and this is barely on the east blue, there had been more and more times where she has hit him and there are more to come believe me...

So why in here no one is calling this abuse, toxicity, violence, etc, etc...

Oh yeah... Because... C'mon, take some air and say it with me... IT'S A GAGREEL!!

And when it's a joke for a ship and for other is "abuse" even if the actions are with the same purpose... I don't know sounds like someone is giving a biased opinion just to make a ship look bad because of lack of arguments on their favor 🤔

So... To finish this bibble, Sannami is not AN abusive ship, they are always supporting each other and there are more times of them showing support, comunication and mutual respect for each other's beliefs, feelings and opinion than this type of gagreel...

Sorry for this bibble and if you read it all... Here 🍊 take a mikan

[parachutingkitten]

This is, in fact, very helpful. This makes a lot of sense. Not that there's any argument that could get me to like Skybound on its writing merits, but I do at least get where people are coming from a little more.

I think my mental barrier comes from the fact that they never really finished the arc? Like he starts out thinking that Nya is the end all be all, and by the end of the season... everything still revolves around her. Like he literally gives up the fight once she's gone, cuz what's the point? And of course, that does inadvertently end up solving things, but it's also kind of proof he hasn't learned his lesson? He never apologizes to her. He never finds a larger motivation outside of her. So, I guess for me it's just that they turned up the self pitying downer qualities of Jay up to ten for this season and then left it unresolved, leaving him as a self pitying downer in my mind. And I'm not in the ninjago game to feel like a downer, you know?

But, I do see how if you can read in a character arc, that would be awesome growth. I mean the "I am a selfish jerk with low self esteem tied to a woman" to "I am a self confident and determined member of the team who has inherent value" arc, is technically there. Even if I don't personally see any of that growth this season, at the very least the starting point is there, and there is plenty of fandom content to be extracted from that.

And I do see people's point about the whole coping mechanism thing, and it is pretty cool that they directly address it in dialogue and stuff, but I'm not sure that Jay's actions for me this season really sold me on the idea that that's what the season is about. If anything, Jay's positivity streak in season 4 exemplifies the power of his jokey attitude and relentless determination more than this does. He's so bitter and annoyed all season long. And yeah, he's using humor to deflect, but in a much more sour, cynical way than usual. If this was about being nobly willing to stand up to adversity for your friends and being a selfless person, he would not be as whiny about it as he is. If you have a subplot about how humor can help carry you through hardship, could our protagonist not be a little more... positive?

idk, maybe I just don't like jay's delivery this season, and he's actually better than I'm making him out to be here, it's been at least half a year since I've rewatched it, but it defiantly feels like he's dragging his feet about having to do his job for most of the season every time I watch.

And while I do understand the appeal of torture angst, like... what's the point if he doesn't actually learn anything from it? I always think back to how episode 5 hammers in this "we need to punish you" angle SO hard, only to forgive him by the end of the episode before he's demonstrated any kind of growth. Like yeah, no one deserves physical torture, period, but just because you've endured some uncalled for hardship doesn't automatically make you a good person. And once cole comes to help him escape, he has realized that keeping vital mission information from the team was a bad thing to do, but we don't get any other kind of apology for being a dick or giving a girl who doesn't like you a hard time for not liking you, while you were being a dick. He hasn't even really gained any self confidence, because he's still throwing pity parties for himself up until he sees his parents.

I think ultimately, it just emanates a lot of "wow, we made our comic relief character do angst! It's so deep bro!" energy, which... is just not ever a vibe I want to live in.

Sorry, this has gotten very rambley. I get wordy when I talk about skybound, what can I say? Again, all of this is pretty subjective, there are an infinite number of valid interpretations of any piece of media, etc. etc.

What I'm getting from most of the responses is- It's a jay season. A lot of the Jay stans like it cuz it has some ideas about jay. Now, it hasn't really thought through any of these ideas, but the fandom is more than willing to do that work for it, because that's what fandom does. And I'm down with that. I mean, I have some very non-canon Pixal headcanons that make me like season 7 way more than I should, so I can relate...

Genuine question for all my Skybound people out there:

(If you know me) I obviously do not like the season very much, but I see a lot of people who do enjoy it saying they do so because of Jay's arc, and his great character development that season.

And as someone who has only ever hated Jay more after watching it, I am genuinely interested in what it is y'all are referring to specifically. Is it just that we got some more character background for him in terms of being adopted? Is it the stuff with him and cole? Is it just the fact that he gets a bunch of screen time? Is it the interactions with nya?

Again, nothing but curious intentions here, I'm just genuinely invested in the fandom perception of the season.

[archies-litterbox]

You know... tonight I'm thinking about how I and much of the rest of the fandom had alot of positive feelings about Wizards, even though it had its share of imperfections, in comparison to ROTT, which had such an overwhelmingly negative response.

And I think it's because much of the criticism of Wizards was centered around what we didn't get to see, while criticism of ROTT is largely centered around what we did see (and what we shouldn't have seen).

Two of the most popular criticisms I saw of wizards when it first came out were:

1.) The story was so tightly condensed that there was alot that didn't get to be explored.

2.) Zoe didn't get to have a larger role.

And I think both of these criticisms share one uniting sentiment: we wanted more. The audience loved what we did see, and we wanted to see more of it. We wanted more of Douxie's time in the spotlight/more of Camelot explored/more of The Pink-Haired Girl And What She Means to Douxie. It's INTERESTING and WE LIKE IT.

Since the show only had ten episodes, there was alot that had to be squeezed down/removed to fit in the time allowed, but Wizards spent the time it did have giving us amazing characters, compelling dynamics, and interesting lore expansion that the audience was ENTHRALLED by, to the point where much of the criticism of the installment comes down to: the audience was so intrigued/fascinated by this content that the fact that there isn't more sucks.

Now... cut to Rise of the Titans.

With its runtime of nearly two hours, it theoretically had the chance to do more of what Wizards, as great as it was, couldn't fit in: more of Douxie in the spotlight, expansion on his other relationships (like Zoe & ADP), compelling lore expansion, and smart utilization of characters & completion of character arcs for a satisfying ending.

And... it didn't deliver.

Firstly, let's get one of the big ones out of the way: it used a good ~10 minutes (?) of its runtime, which it could have used for doing something like 1.) a scene of characters who didn't get to interact much in the trilogy 2.) showing us why douxie and nari stopped running/them running at all 3.) my personal favorite, a scene of human jim coming home to his mom - and used it to give one of its side characters with the best character development I saw in the series... one of the grossest "comic relief" subplots I've seen in a long time. I would have rather Steve not been in the movie at all (like perhaps he heard arcadia was in danger and went to make sure his step-dad was okay) than seen that.

...Moving on.

What Douxie was able to do in the movie was good: he was VERY enjoyable to watch on-screen, and his big brother/baby sister dynamic with Nari was simply too precious.

But, like Wizards... it wasn't enough.

After finally getting his chance in the spotlight in the last installment, Douxie was sidelined and kept losing the people he loved left and right for what seemed to be for the mere sake of making him suffer (Nari dying as she killed Skrael/Archie getting stuck in the Hong Kong Trollmarket) when he'd already had to grieve Merlin in Wizards. He also doesn't use his most iconic item from Wizards: his spellcaster guitar. Sometimes, honestly, it seems like all he was there to do was 1.) suffer 2.) do spells (guitarlessly) to help people out and 3.) scream "NARI!"

(But Colin's voice acting DE👏LI👏VERED! Everyone's did, really. There were honestly alot of other aspects to the movie like voicework/animation/music that were really good and it sucks to see it dragged down by all the staggering missteps in writing.)

And arguably the worst aspect of that? His sidelining wasn't even unique to him; to me, every protagonist from the subsequent series' post-trollhunters seemed to be sidelined for the sake of Jim's spotlight.

Which wouldn't have been a problem... if it was used for any other confliction/crisis than him doubting being the trollhunter without the amulet, a question that was already answered in Trollhunters.

Aside from the fact that Jim felt strangely out of character, the whole ~confliction~ he had over being an amulet-less Trollhunter was redundant and felt unnecessary (I sort of wanted Merlin's ghost to show up and thwack him and say "WHAT DID I SAY!? WHAT DID I TELL YOU!?" and dip back out). In my opinion, a better confliction to explore would have been his connection to his humanity, which he'd just gotten back, or coping with what he'd done as a beast under the order's control. But instead, it badly recycled an old aspect of his arc that was already discussed in Unbecoming.

Besides Jim being what I never thought he'd be, an irritating and honestly sort-of unlikable protagonist, other characters were greatly underutilized as well.

...Especially Nomura.

First of all, they made the ridiculous decision to send two trolls with Douxie to Brazil in the daytime, knowing trolls TURN TO STONE IN THE SUN. But THEN, just for the sake of showing how deep Nari is under control, she pulls Nomura into the sunlight and shatters her when she gets petrified. It happens out of nowhere for complete & utter shock value.

To me, it seems like they brought in Nomura for the sake of having Nomura, and then they didn't know what to do with Nomura, so they killed Nomura.

And honestly, not knowing what to do with the characters and deciding to just nerf/kill them was this movie's whole thing.

But it's okay, because we have... the COP-OUT-ENDING-O-MATIC 3000! 🥳🎉

Oh, wait, sorry... the kronosfere.

[underwhelming party favor noise]

There's really no need to repeat myself on what it did - if you watched R*TT, my condolences you know what I'm talking about, and if you've read this far along, you're probably ticked about it too.

So, because of this little ball of SHAME AND BAD THINGS combined with Jim's edge-brood OOC-ness, not only did the movie give us underwhelming/unsatisfying/devastating-and-not-in-a-good-storytelling-way plotline and giving us so much that was... bad, it took away everything that was good - everything we loved. It was the second worst thing introduced in the story (the first is the entire garbage heap that is 7 kisses = MPreg (even though akiridions are projections from CORES)), and to be completely honest I WISH skrael and bellroc broke Nari and Douxie's spell before nari could say "kronosfere will make right"

(...AND the ninth configuration thing too tbh)

So... while Wizards spent the short time it had giving us something amazing, Rise of the Titans, instead of continuing to deliver on what Wizards couldn't fit in, squandered the potential it had as a finale and used its time to give us gross subplots/frustrating once decisions/underutilization, as well as to take everything else down with it at the very end with the Green Shame Orb.

And... yeah. Technically, it's not exactly two months post-ROTT anymore, because it's like 2 am on the 22nd, but I thought about this a lot felt compelled to share.

[orionshounds]

I’ve been knee deep in dsmp lore streams and I just want to ramble about it

Dream smp lore is so good, it’s so good!!! Not only is the story itself just fascinating, but how it’s presented so uniquely through the medium of minecraft of all things is just so cool. One of my favorite parts of the lore is seeing how everyone on the smp has their own “style” they present it in, and watching them find the way they find the most enjoyment in is so cool. Literally no two streamer’s lore stream quite like each others and it’s just incredible! It just speaks to the flexibility of roleplay as an artistic medium and really shows everyone’s individual personalities. 

Wilbur was dramatic as hell and wrote eloquent speeches. He started a drug operation under the guise as a country, and it lead to a revolution in which he was able to explore the spiral of a man who loses control of everything he had built. And after his arc and he wanted a break from the server? He created ghostbur, an amnesic comic relief with just enough touch of tragedy that he is still able to make heartbreaking monologues when he wants to.

Tommy is able to run around with his friends and cause as much chaos to his heart’s extent, but there is so much more than meets the eye. He is incredibly social and isn’t afraid to start conflict with a lot of people, bringing them into the roleplay. He doesn’t back down from storytelling either. His character goes through terrible situations and he fully explores the trauma that comes from those experiences. His character goes against the “stereotypical” trauma I see alot in media; instead of being shy or scared he’s reactionary, he’s angry, he’s violent, he’s depressed. I’m actually really impressed with the heavy subject matter this 17 year old teen has managed to portray (I’ve connected with it quite personally at certain points), while still being able to keep the light hearted fun that’s so intrinsic to his personality. 

Tubbo isn’t really interested in serious lore as much. Even in dire moments he tells jokes and just has fun. So, in his recent lore, he just streams as normal while putting mysterious writing on screen that he doesn’t acknowledge or have to explain, which I think is just a genius work around for him to participate in lore. He still has his dedicated lore streams sometimes, and when he is in the acting zone he has some of the most powerful moments out of everyone on the server.

Ranboo, while having stake in the greater smp lore, is much more character focused. He presents his lore through long monologues and fucking heart-wrenching voice acting. He loves working in themes of horror and causing a specific feeling in the viewer. So he chooses specific music as a themes for events/characters and creates visual queues in his overlays to draw out that desired reaction. He also values improve a LOT, if something unexpected comes up he just runs with it and he has made huge changes to his lore as early as 30 min before a stream.

Technoblade, while arguably one of the most powerful people on the server, prefers a more light-hearted yet dramatic approach to lore. When Dream was at his house looking for Tommy, Techno had no problem joking around and making fun of him for being homeless. He tore down an entire nation on the server and had so much fun doing it! He’s more of an antagonist than a true villain in my opinion. And lets not forget how dedicated he is to the game, he’s cracked at the craft. He spends hours grinding and creating farms on the smp, for amazing pay offs (his several vault reveals, the withers, etc), most of which weren’t even on stream!

Karl Jacobs is extremely social, so he created Tales from the smp as a way to involve TONS of people in lore while exploring the past and future of the server (it was also a way for viewers who weren’t that well versed in dsmp lore to join and not have to worry about it!). And through this premise, he took the opportunity to develop his own character on the smp; making an incredibly tragic story of a time traveler trying to save his home while slowly loosing his memories. Not to mention the beautifully shot cutscenes of the Inbetween and the Other Side. He includes so many people behind the scenes as well, collabing with other members on lore, hiring building teams and people to make intros and credit scenes, and promoting fanart and fansongs from the community!

Quackity explores his lore through heavily scripted events and amazingly shot cut scenes. While the way he expresses his lore comes at the cost of improv, the payoff of the visuals and story is well worth it! The shots he makes of the smp is downright gorgeous, no to mention he’s the first person to include irl footage in his lore (not counting facecams)! He’s not afraid of thoroughly examining his own character, being one of the only people I can think of that shows us “past events” leading up to something that has already happened.

Badboyhalo, Antfrost, Ponk, Skeppy, Captain Puffy, Punz, Awesamdude, Hannahxxrose all work together on shared lore and the payoff is amazing! By introducing the Egg, a constant antagonistic force that constantly pulls on character’s relationships with each other, everyone is able to stream together to battle for or against the egg! There’s also plenty of room for people to do individual lore that's more intimate to their respective character. They spend hours changing vines, putting up posters, slowly shaping the smp in a way that makes it exciting to watch streams to see just what has changed everyday. Because there’s so many people necessary to tell the egg’s story, it does comes at the cost of time (the egg has been around FOREVER). However, they all work together super hard and I just admire their commitment to the story they’re trying to tell!

And Sam! He has several different “Modes” his character is in (and an entirely separate character, Sam Nook) that he gets to explore lore with. He’s a terrifying warden, he’s a money motivated businessman, he’s a conflicted lover, he’s a traumatized victim of the egg, and just so much more. Through having so many different “roles” in the rp he gets to explore relationships and plotlines with a whole array of people. Not to mention he’s absolutely cracked at redstone and has some of the most impressive builds on the server.

And Puffy! So much of her lore is calling into question the morality of the server and really makes you step back and think critically about the characters. Her character also has, in my opinion, one of the most interesting relationships with Dream, the main antagonist of the entire server, which is just fascinating to watch unfold. Not to mention she’s one of the first people to start exploring the backstory of her character!

George doesn’t exactly do lore. In fact he’s slept through so much of it it’s become a meme. And you know what? That mad man took that and ran with it. He explains his absence in the story by having his character literally being asleep through it, creating mystery where there used to just be an absence. He’s able to goof off with his friends and have borderline nonsensical streams, then at the end sucker punch the audience emotionally by “waking up” and have the viewers question just what was real and what wasn’t?

The smp has the freedom for people who want more independent lore to be able to explore their character’s that way as well!

Hbomb, Connereatspants, and Purpled don’t have a lot of lore on the smp, generally only coming on to have fun with everyone, but when they do have their moments it unfolds in very interesting ways!

Sapnap, Eret, and Schlatt maybe aren’t as active as some other people, but when they are on they actively participate in lore and have lasting impacts on the story (Ex: Eret’s betrayal, Sapnap’s visit to dream in the prison, Schlatt becoming president).

Philza mostly does his own thing, improving the server or making some bomb ass builds. He has incredibly devastating roles in lore (killing wilbur, blowing up L’manberg for the final time, starting the syndicate with Techno), but he also has quieter moments that speak to the depth his character has, such as fishing with fundy or reminiscing about his dead son and how it went so wrong. Like Techno, he doesn’t like to take lore completely seriously, often laughing no matter what’s happening or teasing chat after something big goes down, but his character is solid with a lot of potential for future lore.

Foolish has only started on his character and its already super interesting. The hints at his dark past as a “god of death” and his current conflict with the egg are intriguing as fuck. Not to mention the MASSIVE builds he does for everyone, helping to progress their lore as well.

Fundy has a lot of freedom with his character to participate however much he wants in lore. While generally he’s a trickster who loves to prank people he has enough tragedy build into his backstory he’s able to break the viewer’s heart with a flip of a switch. Not to mention his recent, almost surreal, stream that explored his character’s disturbing dreams that may or may not predict the future.

Niki is very character driven, exploring her character's grief of losing her best friend and her anger of being ignored in the very country she helped create. She has incredibly emotional moments, and even though she’s on her own building an underground city she still participates in other lore via teaming with jack manifold or the syndicate.

Jack Manifold’s lore is VERY character focused, and while he’s described his story as a “B plot that occasionally intersects with the main plot”, the story he tells is still fascinating. Being pushed aside not taken seriously his whole life, his character develops into a fun cartoony-esque villain who begs to be taken seriously, that has the depth of a truly conflicted person who is torn between wanting revenge on everyone who’s done him wrong and just wanting a friend.

Last but not least, the man himself, Dream. The most fascinating thing about his lore is that absolutely none of it is from his pov. All we know about his character is only from what we see from everyone else’s povs, and in his case it leads to a very intimidating villain! Not to mention, mans owns the damn server and yet has made himself the main antagonist! He is the only character I consider a “true villain” on the smp. His voice acting and writing is downright sinister. I could write a fucking essay on how his character’s obsession with power has led him to the point he thinks himself an unstoppable god

Everyone on this server is stunning and I love all of them!!!!!

[thebroccolination]

I'm really proud of this. :')

And if you're curious about what went into the making of it, well then!

I wanted to make an edit based on episode seven, because I loved episode seven. Kawi's Nightmare Fuel Future was such an incredible midpoint, it still gives me The Writer Chills.

Because like. Ideally, the Midpoint of a story is the Point of No Return. And so is the Inciting Incident (Kawi going back in time) but the midpoint is the inciting incident turned up to eleven (Kawi living through a future where he's fucked absolutely everything up for everyone).

At the start of the series, everyone is separated from each other and miserable (Kawi is utterly alone, Max has some mysterious sad life overseas somewhere, and even though Pisaeng and Pear are engaged, we know he's hiding his sexuality from her). By the ending, they're all united in love and friendship. So what's the perfect midpoint between those two?

Everyone being connected, but they're all broken. Kawi has very a serious alcohol addiction, Pear has her Not Situation, Pisaeng's completely isolated himself, Kwang's also got a Not Situation, and Max seems to have lost his passion for activism entirely to help Kawi fulfill his dreams.

And ohhhh man, the way this show plays with destiny is gorgeous because, yeah, sure, you can easily make the argument that Pisaeng and Kawi aren't really soulmates in this story per se, but. They are so well-suited to each other, so perfectly attuned to getting past each other's walls, that nothing in their world really works or feels right unless they're together.

That's some intensely realistic soulmate stuff. It's not just the universe flinging them together; they have to earn it. They have to talk to each other and listen to each other, and respect each other to make their True Ending. Just kissing isn't enough. Neither is dating. They have to make their relationship work long term in a way that both of them are better people because of each other's influence. That's fucking beautiful, man.

There are timelines where they aren't together, yes, but those are the ones where things are always just a little bit worse. Where no one pushes Pisaeng to be honest about who he is and stand up for himself. Where no one knocks Kawi out of his self-deprecating, borderline misanthropic miasmas.

In their True Timeline, they challenge each other to be their best selves.

TALK ABOUT THE EDIT, KEY.

"Let Me Let You Go" by ONE OK ROCK is about someone mourning the loss of the person they love. They didn't treat this person well, and they know it, but they wish their person hadn't let them drive them away.

And whomst does that sound like?

MY BABY BOY.

I won't go frame-by-frame or anything, but since this was so much fun to make and I kind of went into a fugue state making it back in August, I'm gonna go over how I made some visual+lyrics decisions.

Kawi's alcoholism was ruinous, and I really admire how Waa portrayed it. In this timeline, Kawi immediately pours himself a drink when he gets home. His hands shake if he doesn't drink. In his original timeline, he couldn't afford to drink, so he likely had no idea how to handle his alcohol. The drinks he tosses back once he travels to the past start as a kind of comic relief until episode seven changes the tonal lighting from pastel to red.

I think Kawi's fame throws his deep insecurities into sharp relief. After he kisses Pisaeng in episode six while drunk, he tries to talk to him about it, but Pisaeng dismisses it, unknowingly setting up a toxic pattern where Kawi never gets closure and Pisaeng never takes a chance. This older version of him is much quieter and more solemn than the gremlin we've seen, riddled with frustration and addiction and the loss of everyone he can't hold onto. And as fame tends to do, it magnifies everything he doesn't have. Especially who. And why.

One of my favorite things about Kawi's character is that for most of the series, he sees himself as unworthy of Pisaeng. Right before he goes to this future, he drinks with Max and tells Pisaeng he has no idea why Pisaeng has feelings for him. He has no idea how to process, let alone repay, all the kindness and devotion Pisaeng keeps showing him. And even in this future where Pisaeng openly loves Kawi without hope of reciprocation, I think Kawi just can't bring himself to reach back. He can't help going to him, but he doesn't think he deserves him. Because Kawi traveled to the future before they'd talked about that kiss, it launched them on a mutually destructive road that teaches Kawi that they need to talk to each other. They need to hear each other out.

One of the smartest writing choices in this series was having Kawi gradually gain the memories of the timeline he's in. When Kawi finally finds where Pisaeng's hidden himself, we finally get to see this exhausted shade of Kawi slowly revive in his presence. The line, "I'm losing what you saw in me," is such a KawiPi-coded line for this timeline, holy shit.

And so is this. :'(

Even in isolation, Pisaeng still collects everything Kawi creates. He still supports his career in spite of everything they've done to drive them away from each other. And y'know, I wonder if Pisaeng enjoys Kawi's music because perhaps when Kawi sings and performs, Pisaeng can see the nervous boy in the soundbooth with his band recording their first track together.

Despite all of Kawi's faults in this Worst Timeline, I think he really did try. That's why I love that in episode twelve, he flat-out tells Pisaeng he doesn't want fame. In the end, what made him happy was sharing his life with the people he loves. Spending his days with Pisaeng in relative anonymity while other people sing his songs, hosting holiday parties in their home. Having this experience of keeping Pisaeng at arm's length for years and losing him for good is the perfect midpoint that completely alters his behavior for the rest of the story. It's so good.

And then my favorite part!

I did this on purpose:

You don't see Pisaeng's face until the end of the edit. \:D/

Go back and check. I made sure you can't see his face at all until Kawi reunites with him at the end. It's meant to be a kind of relief to actually see him again in the timeline where Kawi is determined to fix everything and treat Pisaeng with the love and respect he couldn't show in the Nightmare Fuel Timeline.

I loved making this edit. :') It hurt a lot, too! Because episode seven hurt a lot! \:D/

I posted it to Twitter and YouTube back in August, but I wanted to share it here with some additional thoughts because Tumblr's a good platform these long, rambly ravings. <3

Thank you for indulging me!

[ Kawi x Pisaeng ] "Let Me Let You Go" ONE OK ROCK

[ making-of notes in reblog ]

[chromes-corner]

If you’re still doing the character bingo Vampire and DE?

YESSS i never pass up an opportunity to be crazy about pixels on a screen :)

Vamp up first

oh vampire, a dear OG in the game’s history. he may not be the most emotionally complex or lore-heavy character, but he’s still a little skrunkly to many a player. i think what i like most about him is what fans have made him into. in the games, hes honestly just??? a guy. hes just a dude who loves his juice and annoys his tryhard sister. i like that he’s so simple, and i also like that like... the fact that he’s a vampire isnt really a HUGE impacting factor on who he is as a person. like hes lazy and apathetic and lowkey an alcoholic that JUST SO HAPPENS to also be a vampire. i think thats really funny. 

then theres the fandom side of him. in-game, i like that hes pretty two-dimensional, but god DAMN the fandom has some slappin’ interpretations of him. ugh ugh ugh UGHHHH I LOVE IT WHEN PEOPLE TAKE HIM AND MAKE HIM SO MUCH DEEPER!!!!!! like usually i hate it when an obviously static comic-relief character is put through the “edgy backstory” wringer BUT WITH VAMP ITS ALWAYS SO GOOD AND JUICY YES GIVE ME MOREEE

i also just love that according to his description, mans was content to just die in the oven because he was already drunk when he was baked. and his lines/delivery is kingdom is fucking GODLY. i want to BE him. hes unaware of everything. mans just out here having the time of his life and getting blackout drunk. god i want to hang out with him so fucking bad. 100% on my dream blunt rotation.

also im fucking in love with this “trivia” piece from the ovenbreak wiki

ok DE next

dark enchantress is a special case. like, deep down i know i have a lot of thoughts about her, but those thoughts are still kinda coalescing into introspection of who she is.

i cant help but feel like a lot of people interpret her wrong. DE isnt a wholly evil and morally bankrupt character (at least in kingdom, that is. ovenbreak is a bit of a different story bc of the context/lack thereof) and im tired of people treating her like she is!!!!!!!! shes probably like one of the deepest fucking characters in the game and grrr i wanna tear her apart and study her in a lab. i want to put her in  a maze with cheese at the end of it. i want to put a little brainwave sensor on her head and show her a selection of varying photographs and ask her what she thinks of each of them.

i just.... god every story update i hope and pray that she has a part to play in it. seriously the vanilla kingdom chapters are my fucking favorite because we learn so much about her in so little time. shes NOT this completely and utterly evil being just like white lily was not a wholly good and angelic figure. they both had their flaws but white lily when white lily was rebaked the flaws that she had were just amplified tenfold. or at least thats my theory on what happened there. DEs motivations are directly derived from those that she had as white lily, those being a desire to help cookie kind. its that whole right desire wrong reasons shpeal you always see.

okay but the one thing about her is why exactly is she waging war on cookies to “save cookies”????????? i dont exactly get the reasoning behind that. like i know she wants to rebuild the world in her image but i guess i dont quite get how that connects to her wanting to spread the truth about cookies. my only theory is that shes mad at the ignorance of cookiekind and that she wants everyone up in arms over the witches just like she is, but i still dont see why shes actively killing cookies to achieve this goal??? idk maybe i need to read into it more lol

quick mention i dont have much to add on to this but has anyone else noticed the design parallels she has with millennial tree? ok its mostly about the horns and the clothes but still im jus sayin fam

also GOD NEVER FORGET HOW HARD SHE WRECKED PVS SHIT IN CHAPTER 10

THIS IS THE ROAST OF THE FUCKING CENTURY. MANS DIDNT EVEN HAVE A COMEBACK FOR THAT SHIT BECAUSE ITS TRUE!!!!!! GET HIM GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

one day ill sort my thoughts out about her. its been a long week and my brain is fried so my analysis on her is about as deep as a kiddie pool but hey what can ya do

anyways DE my beloved pls come back and talk more shit about the ancients i beg of you