#from a moral pov it would be wrong because it's against everything i believe in and i don't want to encourage others to do the same

[stardustizuku]

Unfortunately I came across a very strange and misinformed video about Black Butler.

It’s not good. Don’t watch it. Unless you wanna ruin your day, in which case have fun.

Despite it all, I watched it. What left me wondering, however, was how off the mark the person who made the video was on, well, everything.

From their insistence that the Book of Circus Arc theme or point is non existent, to reading Ciel’s character so badly they genuinely thought the Green Witch Arc did nothing for his character development.

While baffled, it also made me think on how someone could read Black Butler so badly.

Sure, you can say that there’s no real way to read or interpret something “in the wrong way” but interpreting The Hunger Games as a pure battle-royale action story would make you believe it’s bad.

“Why are we focusing so much on how the capitol preps them?” Or “Why isn’t Katniss winning everything?” Or “I wanna know more about the rebellion” All questions that miss the actual point of the story - which is criticizing (not solving or ignoring) the way that media distracts us from violence via spectacle.

The same thing applies here. While there is no “right” way to consume media, there’s things that the author makes clear they wanna focus when creating a story. Things that, if you understand, make the story you’re reading actually make sense.

And in Black Butler there’s three things that you have to understand to properly get what Yana is saying.

Sebastian is the protagonist

Ciel and Sebastian’s relationship IS the story.

And that relationship is, fundamentally, a positive one.

A quicker version of it would be:

Black Butler is a love story from the POV of Sebastian, and you have to ship it to get it

- but that’s not entirely true.

You can still look at it as a complex but ultimately positive rship and get in broad strokes of what it’s conveying. It doesn’t have to be romantic. Although, it helps much more than a platonic framing.

(That said, interpreting their rship as father and son, still isn’t the best way to go about it. Mostly because by its very nature of “soul consuming” their relationship is extremely sexually charged. And hey, if you’re into that I don’t judge. However, if you’re desperately trying to interpret their rship as NOT romantic to the point you fall back on heteronormative patriarchal ideals of nuclear familiar as framing device, I don’t think this interpretation bodes with you)

Now, having all that ground work:

Why do I say these are the key components to understand BB?

Okay so, first,

1. Sebastian is the Main Character. The protagonist.

There’s a lot of people who wanna argue against it, claiming he’s either the villain or the antagonist. Both wrong.

He does not function as an antagonist. Even if, and an emphasis on if, you consider Ciel to the protagonist, Sebastian isn’t a narrative antagonist.

If you wanna go back to Creative Writing 101, be my guest. An antagonist is directly defined by the protagonist. It’s the opposing force. If the protagonist wants A, the antagonist wants to stop them from getting A.

Sebastian’s catchphrase is “Yes, my Lord”. He never opposes Ciel, in fact quite the contrary. By the mere fact they’ve created contract, it means that they’ve both agreed in the inevitable outcome.

People want to frame Sebastian as the villain, because Ciel having his soul taken by a demon, would be a BAD END in the context of their moral compass. They see Ciel as a frail victim of abuse, who’s being tricked by Sebastian, who wants Ciel’s soul.

Which is an. Interpretation. A bad one. But still one.

The narrative (and whether the narrative fits your personal moral compass and lack of critical thinking is irrelevant) treats Ciel as an agent in his own destiny. The abuse he suffered was the moment in which he had no control. It’s only after he meets Sebastian that he can rid of both his guilt and his despair, and do what he wants.

In this case though, it’s revenge.

The famous “Asthma” scene shows this. If Ciel is taken back to his past, he becomes helpless. Swarmed with pain and memories that make it so that he can’t even react. Sebastian is his saving grace. If Ciel didn’t have him, and the power he wields to rebuilt what’s broken, he would crumble once more.

If Ciel has a panic attack, because of all the pain he has, Sebastian picks him up and says “you are not a helpless child anymore, you are not a victim anymore, you have the power to do anything. So, what do you wanna do?”

Ciel’s answer is to kill them.

A proper analogy would be to say that, if Sebastian offers a gun, Ciel pulls the trigger. They are both at fault. Sebastian, strictly speaking, is not here to directly cause Ciel’s downfall, but as a tool Ciel uses to plunge into the abyss.

If, again if, you were to frame Ciel as a protagonist, Sebastian falls closer to the “Voice of reason” character. Not a literal voice of reason, but a literary one. If you have a protagonist and an antagonist exchanging ideals, the Voice of Reason serves to engage with the protagonist on their own ideals.

That said, Ciel isn’t the protagonist. The story quickly falls apart if you interpret it as such.

Things such as Ciel’s character arc being…shall I say odd?

It’s not that his character arc isn’t there, but it’s never lineal. His goals stay the same, the only thing that happens is that we start to peel back the “why”s of his goals. Throughout the series it’s never about Ciel understanding himself better, he knows who he is, he knows what he wants, he knows why he wants it. He doesn’t ever need to uncover these, but simply remember them. Because it’s always about the audience understanding Ciel.

He knows he wants revenge.

In the Circus Arc: He knows that he needs Sebastian because without him, the pain of the abuse he suffered would be too much to bear. But WE are introduced to it.

In the Book of Atlantis: He knows that with this new lease he does not want happiness and peace, he wants revenge. The one being told this is the audience.

In Green Witch Arc: He knows that their revenge isn’t for his family, the real Ciel or guilt. It’s because he wants it. He’s angry, he’s upset, and this is entirely for him. The one being told this is the audience.

Except. Not really. The one either discovering or remembering these key moments - is always Sebastian.

Sebastian is the one who reassures him that he now holds the power of a demon to override the pain. Sebastian is the one who remembers that to override that pain, Ciel wants revenge. And Sebastian is the one who discovers that that revenge isn’t built out of grief or guilt, but for himself.

We are witnessing it all, through the eyes of Sebastian.

This is why we have an extremely vague idea of who Ciel is, Sebastian does not have the whole picture.

If you haven’t been reading this manga with your eyes closed, you’ll realize we have a better grasp at Sebastian’s character than that of Ciel. We get a lot of insight on how he thinks and what he values through light hearted dialogue he has with the servants. You even see the character development in these little interactions.

Think about how when he first arrived to the mansion he magically created food with no regards to taste, but when he meets Bard he states that food is created to see whoever will eat it, smile.

That is character development, more than you will be able to see from Ciel.

Because Ciel’s character, while not static, doesn’t go from point A to point B. Mostly, cause it doesn’t need to. He went through that when he lost the real Ciel and got Sebastian. Everything we are watching is the falling out.

Now, given the fact that I’ve told you that it makes more sense for Sebastian to be the protagonist/main character, and that he 100% isn’t either a villain or antagonist in ANY of the interpretations you can get:

Do you believe me?

If you don’t, you’ll probably believe Yana herself.

This is from the first Volume, where Yana herself describes the process of making Black Butler. The primary idea behind the creation of BB was a butler as a “hero”.

If you go back to the introductory chapter, you notice that Ciel is barely mentioned. He’s simply the one to give Sebastian impossible tasks and standards that Sebastian must find how to overcome.

Ciel is properly introduced until the NEXT chapter. The second chapter has this formula too, introducing Lizzie as a problem to overcome. Although, to Sebastian the best way to “get rid of the problem” is simply to indulge her.

The issue here being that the problem isn’t as simple as a business meeting but something directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s past. Each time that Sebastian has to solve a problem, it chips away at Ciel. While with Lizzie he shows a persona, once he’s alone with Sebastian he acknowledges the toll it took on him. It serves to build Ciel as Sebastian’s master, and how some problems aren’t as simple as discarding a tablecloth.

The third and the fourth, are a unified narrative, with a similar premise to the first chapter. Ciel gets kidnapped and Sebastian must find a way to retrieve him without raising suspicions.

If the first chapter is to set up what Sebastian must do as a butler, the third and the fourth serve to set up what he must do as a demon.

The entirety of the volume, and up to Book of Circus Arc, is about how Sebastian tries to follow the increasingly absurd orders that Ciel has - it is not about Ciel trying to solve them.

That’s how they work, we follow Sebastian for the most part, because he’s the one having to come up with the solutions.

If anything, in early Kuro, where the emphasis was more on a slice of life conflict, Ciel is the antagonist. He’s the one creating problems for Sebastian to solve.

What’s more, in the second volume, the very first chapter is one from Sebastian’s POV. So far, we hadn’t gotten an entire chapter from Ciel’s POV. In fact, I would find it hard to point to a single chapter where Ciel is the POV throughout. The reveal of real Ciel and the flashback is the closest contender.

But once we move past early Kuro, and into Book of Circus, this set up changes.

It’s fairly easy to assume that Ciel is the main character, because from this point on the conflict of the plot sorta surrounded him. We spend a lot of time with him and with his story. The enemies start being people directly tied to Ciel and Ciel’s trauma. Rarely, if at all, we get to see Sebastian before he met Ciel.The framing device for the story, is Ciel.

This is where point 2 gets intertwined.

2.- Sebastian and Ciel’s relationship IS the story.

The story begins at the point where Sebastian and Ciel met. Who Ciel was before he met Sebastian, informs why he’s the way he is when he does. You have to know all he went through to understand why he’s a brat, why he lashes out. However Sebastian’s past doesn’t matter…because Sebastian himself doesn’t care much for who he was, before he was “Sebastian”. That’s also part of the narrative.

Unlike Ciel, he doesn’t seem opposed to revealing information from before the contract. He talks about how pets from where he is from are gross, he talks about how he knows how to dance because of other places he’s been to, and alludes to the life he's lived before.

Just that, to him, they're footnotes.

He makes allusions to a very bland, uninteresting life, up to the point he meets Ciel.

That’s why we don’t know more about his past.

As for why we focus on Ciel’s story…okay maybe we need Creative Writing lessons 102

I studied Dramaturgy for about 3 to 4 years. And something you notice is how play-writing is the quintessential story telling. It’s making it work with the bare bones of a story.

Some other mediums have more finesse, more depth, or more spectacle - all amazing things that work for whatever they’re created for. But understanding a play, how and why it works, helps understand the fundamentals of any derivative story telling medium.

Particularly, conflict.

Conflict is dialogue and dialogue can take many forms. A story, in its essence, is a dialogue between two opposing ideas.

Take Batman, for example, who embodies the ideas of justice and order. On his own, he’s not a well rounded character.

If you ONLY present him, in a vaccum with nothing else, you don’t have a character. You have a list of characteristics that you’re supposed to know.

You only know who he is when you have dialogue with another character.

I say Dialogue, but it doesn’t necessarily mean spoken language at one another. Dialogue can mean fist fighting, playing tabletop games, talking to other people about the other, or even just a competition. The idea is to simply to compare and contrast both ideas.

If you want an example on how tabletop games serve as dialogue, watch the video “Well, Someone Had to Explain the Liar’s Dice Scene” by Lord Ravecraft

Another example, were we to retake Batman, you have him fight Joker. Who’s the embodiment of chaos and randomness.

In the following picture, you get far more information than the one previously shown. While the Joke fights with daggers and fake guns, Batman only uses his fists. He doesn’t use the tricks that Joker does. His serious demeanor, contrasted with Joker’s glee at the dangerous situation. The fact that Batman has a deathly grip on Joker’s shirt, while the Joker doesn’t, which shows a desperation to catch him.

You are being shown, through a dialogue, who Batman is.

It’s so much easier and much more effective to explore a character through another character.

This is the reason why Shonen has a tendency to make incredibly good gay ships. If you want to explore Naruto’s personality, and his feelings of inferiority, you HAVE to have him interact with Sasuke.

If you wanna understand Hinata’s passion for volleyball, you have him enjoy himself the most with the only other crazy motherfucker who’s as obsessed with volleyball - Kageyama.

And I think that originally, Yana had this problem.

Sebastian was the protagonist, but she had little room to develop him as a character in the confines of the manor, dealing with random enemies.

She likely tried to create Grell as someone of the same stature as Sebastian. Someone who could be this other person to engage dialogue with and show or allude to his past a bit more.

The problem being that Sebastian didn’t care for his past. Or really, engaging with anyone. He sees everyone as below him, but when confronted with Grell who isn’t below him, he doesn’t wanna talk to her.

So you’re stuck in conundrum.

How do you have dialogue with a character, that as a character trait, doesn’t really wanna have dialogue?

Well, Grell also solves the problem. Because only the moment she gets him to start any semblance of a dialogue - is questioning why he’s serving Ciel.

And this is the moment when it’s perfectly cemented that the focus of the story is their relationship.

Why is Sebastian here? Why does he stay? What did he see in Ciel that made him want this extremely convoluted contract?

THATS the dialogue.

THATS the conversation we’re having in Black Butler.

We need to know Ciel because understanding who he is, let’s us know WHY /Sebastian/ is here.

Then slowly, with the introduction with the Undertaker, we find out Sebastian’s conflict.

Which is…

He’s scared of losing Ciel. It becomes apparent with the constant imagery of the Undertaker taking away Ciel and at some point even obtaining r!Ciel’s body, that he’s worried it might happen.

But he can only be worried that Ciel might be taken away if he wants to stay near Ciel.

And that’s his character arc.

Realizing that he actually likes Ciel, cares for him and the role he plays a butler that he doesn’t want this to end.

In the first chapters, he doesn’t feel a need to protect Ciel anymore than what’s strictly necessary. Just don’t die, that’s about as deep as his involvement in chapter 4 gets.

But by the Green Witch Arc, he feels a need to protect Ciel from ANY harm.

This is why I also said

3.- Their relationship is fundamentally a positive one.

In broad strokes, Sebastian to Ciel is the person who allows him to survive. He’s not worried about giving up his soul since he’s already dead. While Ciel to Sebastian, is someone who’s making him have fun. He’s slowly becoming more and more attached to Ciel and the life he has with Ciel.

Their relationship is not that of just a predator and prey, but also of master and pet.

In the terms that Black Butler itself would call: Sebastian is a wild wolf acting like a collared dog.

Ciel is aware that the wild beast will eat him at the end of the day, but if he clings hard to leash for now, he might just be able to have Sebastian maul his abusers.

Sebastian as a dog, currently finds that he enjoys being a chained dog.

(This is demonstrated in the Green Witch arc where he quite literally says, he doesn’t wanna be a wild beast and prefers to be a butler)

And much like the actual DOG Sebastian, Ciel constantly interprets his attempts to get close and protect him, as an act of aggression.

This push and pull of Ciel’s perception of Sebastian and Sebastian’s true motives is what feeds the story.

And the briefs interludes were that isn’t the case (what other people call the “plot”, but I would refer to as the connective tissue) such as Sullivan and Wolfram, the other servant’s past, the grim reapers and the like, serve as a parallel to Ciel and Sebastian relationship. Either to signify how they care for each other, highlight their weaknesses or fears, or explore how they feel.

It’s no surprise that Sullivan and Wolfram are parallels to Ciel and Sebastian. A sheltered sickly child who seeks the protection of a cold hearted machine that only knew how to kill, but who eventually found he cared for her genuinely.

Undertaker and Claudia’s relationship being heavily paralleled with them, even though we aren’t 109% sure what they had but heavily implied it was a romantic attraction from the undead supernatural creature and a Phantomhive.

Everything is a parallel.

That’s why, like the approach of the terrible original video, is flawed.

Trying to interpret Black Butler as action scene after action scene, with mystery after mystery with the only connective tissue being the mystery of who burned down the mansion - is missing the trees for the forest.

That’s not the point.

And if you’re too much of a prude to engage with gothic horror in its gothic horror game, I see little point as to why you even bother to engage with it at all.

A lot of people, including the person who create the video, simply refuse to acknowledge Black Butler IS the story of Sebastian and Ciel as a close and positive relationship, romantically and sexually charged. The reason for it being that they’re “put off” by it.

Part of me wonders how much that is genuinely true, and how much is just performative outrage. It’s like ignoring the fact that Cersei and Jami are in an incestous relationship and try to frame it as “platonic love”, because the idea of it is THAT off putting.

But regardless of that, if you don’t like the fact that it’s as canon as canon can get, I would reccomend you don’t engage with the story at all.

As I’ve explained, the entirety of the series is about them. If you refuse to see Sebastian and Ciel as, at the very least, a duo that cares deeply for the other - you aren’t reading Black Butler.

I have no idea what you’re reading.Perhaps your own biases and subconscious stigma with British aesthetic. At that point, watch the fucking British Royalty Gossip Magazine. You’d find more substance there.

Just don’t be like the person in the video, please? Don’t play dumb. Don’t ignore the fact that Yana is a Shotacon, don’t ignore the fact Sebastian is a hero, don’t ignore the fact that the entirety of the story is based on Sebastian and Ciel’s dynamic.

Because if you do, you are ashamed. You are ashamed of what this story is about. You don’t wanna engage with the text, you want to engage with yourself. You wanna project into Ciel whatever traumas and experiences you have, for the sake a vanity project, where you come out as the morally superior.

You don’t wanna talk about Black Butler, you wanna talk about how good YOU are. How you “don’t sin” by watching it “without all the gross unholy stuff”.

Which is the exact opposite of what BB is about.

So, if you don’t want to, save us all the humiliation fetish and leave.

[spqcebunsforever]

I guess I'll always love you even if I know it's wrong

Pairing: Hazbin Hotel Adam x fallen angel reader

Summary: Y/n see's someone she never wanted to see again but while seeing him all the feelings she wanted to keep bottled away end up showing up at the worst possible time.

WARNING: mention of a toxic relationship

Y/n Pov

I used to be an exorcist when I lived in heaven. I was a great one always getting a high number of kills every time we went down always trying my best. But I didn't care about the killings I didn't find them fun or rewarding the only reason that I had joined and wanted to be an exorcist was so I could be close to the commander Adam. For some odd reason, I had grown to want to be near him and want his attention I would perform well in training hoping that he would see and notice me. My day would only be good if Adam looked or even better said anything to me I had grown too long for his attention and when he started coming up to me and telling me how good I was doing in battle training and how I was one of the best that he had seen and how well my number of kills had been and that I should keep it up and I had a lot of potential. I couldn't have been happier and if he was in a very good mood he would sometimes even put his hand on my shoulder or back congratulating me and he would give me one of his smiles that sometimes I believed where only meant for me to see. I felt like everything in my life was perfect and nothing could ruin it I had never felt more alive and useful.

But then the dreaded day came when everything changed. I had grown close to another exorcist by the name of Vaggie she was very similar to me which made us connect better I thought of her as my best friend. While we were killing sinners I noticed that Vaggie had stopped and let a child slip away. I was just going to ignore the whole situation thinking everyone else would as well but that was before Lute Adam's second in command started attacking Vaggie making her lose one of her eyes. I couldn't stand and watch as my best friend was getting punished for something that I believed had been morally correct so I jumped in and tried to protect Vaggie but because I wasn't as strong as Lute she had easily overpowered me just like she had done with Vaggie. She ripped my wings off my back and I couldn't help but let out a blood curtailing scream as I hit the floor. When I looked back up barely conscious I noticed Adam was now standing next to Lute as she explained that we had both betrayed heaven and that we were traitors for letting a sinner escape and we should be left here to die. I wanted to scream and tell her she was wrong and Vaggie had only been doing what was right and that I was only standing up for her but no matter how hard I tried nothing came out of my mouth. Adam then looked me in my eyes I was pleading begging that he would see that we were in the right and that she should be the one left here to rot but that didn't happen he looked at me like I was nothing I was the gum that got stuck to his shoe I had never experienced that look from him before and I felt betrayed. He turned away with Lute and left me and Vaggie in hell we both became fallen angels and I was heartbroken.

But now here I was fighting against people who I used to fight with and call friends. I was now on the sinner's side and I couldn't have been happier now I knew that I was fighting for the right cause. I had killed a few angels by the time I saw Adam up in the sky shooting every sinner he could see it looked like he wasn't even aiming at this point just trying to harm as many people as he could not caring about the damage that he was causing. However, I kept on fighting just trying to do as much damage to the angels as I could wanting Charlie's plan to succeed and all my friends to get the chance to be redeemed like they deserved. While I was fighting I hadn't noticed that I had ended up moving to a spot that was nowhere near any of my friends I was shielded from everyone's view but before I could move and get back to the others I suddenly got pushed back by the force of wind making me fall over. I looked up and Adam was right in front of me smiling his wings extended but his smile was not the smile that I used to receive from him this one was more cold and eerie. "Well, Well, Well I wondered where you were you know I was trying to find ya this whole fight but fuck where you good at hiding almost like you didn't want to see me".

I stood up quickly and brushed myself off holding my angelic spear out and pointing it directly at him. "That's because I didn't want to see you and why would I". Adam stared laughing and then pointed at me "You are really trying to make me believe that you would use that on me sorry doll but you don't have the guts". I just continued to stand my ground "I've changed since the last time you saw me I'm not the little exorcist who used to hang onto your every word anymore". Adam just smirked and walked closer to me but I refused to move I didn't want to seem weak by moving back I wasn't going to let him view me as weak. "you mean you're actually going to kill me" Again he moved forward I just nodded gripping my spear harder "I mean just that". Adam then positioned himself right in front of my spear I could move forward by an inch and the spear would go straight through his chest killing him. "Well go ahead" he stood looking confident just staring into my eyes not even blinking. "I'll do this my own way".

Adam then just laughed then smirked. "You can't do it, you won't stab me, you won't stab me because you love me it takes a very brave and very cold person to do that Y/n and I don't think you can". I stared at him tears threatening to appear he was right I had him right where I wanted him and in one simple move I could kill him and end everything all the fighting and death but I couldn't because I would for some reason always find an excuse to love him and let him go. I let the spear fall out of my hand and I heard it as it clashed on the ground. Adam looked at me proud of himself as he was right and I had proved it to him. He grabbed my chin and made me look at him "No matter how hard you try to get away from me you'll always find yourself loyal to me that's why it was such a shame that I had to let you rot down here you would have made such a good exorcist but oh well what's done is done now I have to go and fight some bitches". As he flew away I fell to my knees and finally let the tears I had been holding in fall down my cheeks I felt stupid and dumb and the worst part was when he was holding my chin in his hand I couldn't help the little bit of blush that had come to my cheeks and the tiny feeling of want that suddenly appeared wanting him to hold me more and hold me closer and I knew he was right I would never be able to move on I was trapped but apart of me didn't want to get saved.

[nightfall-1409]

like its ok to wish that hunter did more to get crosshair out but i will say PLEASE stop saying that rescuing the literal helpless child from the child murdering fascists was somehow wrong of Hunter.

also like. can we stop undermining the very clear and obvious way that crosshair liked the power that he was given in the empire, especially over others, he was radicalized. he convinced himself that the war crimes were justified in the name of power. that is a far bigger problem and something that is going to haunt him far longer and requires a lot more to undo and forgive (and some people will never and should never do that, and others can't bc they are Dead)

to say it was all the effects of the chips, at this point in the series, its just not true. the events of aftermath specifically are 100% the chip. Everything after that is up for debate. We don't know when it was taken out, but at some point it was, and crosshair's pov is that it doesn't matter when, bc he likes where he's at. Had he not been abandoned by the empire on Kamino for so long, I doubt he would have ever changed, had Cody not deserted after confronting him about what it was the clones were doing, I doubt he would have ever changed. Had he not been forced to see Mayday's struggle and fight to bring him home and still after everything they both gave after everything suffered mayday died not in battle but because someone couldn't be bothered to even try to help him, I don't think he would have changed. I don't think Hunter could talk him out of it, and maybe he didn't try hard enough, or really, at all. Crosshair's version of loyalty, though, is blind, unquestioning, a soldiers loyalty. Obeying what they were doing, things that Hunter couldn't obey, and would have made him a monster to do.

But I can't imagine the disgust I would be forced to contend with if like, my family member came forward like "oh yes we're built to be soldiers, that doesn't mean preserving or protecting innocents, It means power and killing those who get in my way. its my purpose in life and i think you're stupid for not getting over the moral objections" like what do you even say to that. Hunter at that point had SEEN what the empire was doing. They both had, their home planet, (and head canons aside, all clones did in fact, in canon, see it as their home.) orbitally bombarded to secure power. How do you talk someone out of that, if fundamentally what your disagreement is on the value of life. You don't. Hence Hunter's demands in S3E5 to know what changed. What finally made Crosshair realize what he believed, about power and his purpose, was wrong.

Crosshair didn't want out. Crosshair was upset they didn't stay. He saw their purpose as being with the Empire. They escaped and ran and deserted. If they weren't with him, in the Empire, then they should die, like the Jedi, and Crosshair did absolutely believe that.

So this is all to say that. they are not equally responsible for what happened to their squad. Crosshair didn't have a choice at first— but once he did keep running right over that line. And a lot of us hoped that he was lying about the chip, that he wasn't entirely responsible for all that he did. But he was. That's clear at this point.

Even the whole chip matter— it's prolly really hard for Hunter to separate it. logically, he knows it was partially the chip at this point. But at that point in the story he watched someone he was incredibly close to nearly kill them all and at the time he had no idea why. If Hunter'd not grabbed Omega by the leg and tripped her she would be shot dead. If omega hadn't surprised Crosshair by shooting his gun out of his hand he would have killed Hunter. He shot wrecker, to use him as bait against the rest of them? Like, again, we all knew about the chip, but I can understand the emotional toll of such a thing bc he DIDNT at the time. The betrayal in that moment? How do you let it go?

But thats all fine! its interesting its character development and its the story they were determined to tell. But like. we can be honest.

Now if someone thinks that im wrong i'd love to know what exactly hunter needs to be sorry about, and why he's equally responsible that doesn't like either downplay the war crimes and murder and doesn't throw Omega like directly into harms way and under the bus.

[sflow-er]

To August anon 2

Sorry it's taken me so long to reply! I don't know if you'll even see this as I've decided not to risk the backlash of putting it on the main tag, but I hope you do.

[Earlier posts: August anon 1, August anon 2]

I want to curate the discussion a bit now that you've shifted part of the focus on Sara. I don't share your position of liking both her and August for being 'morally dark' people, and I fear it may be a bit jarring to any Sara fans reading this. So I've decided to screenshot your message and put it under the cut instead of replying directly.

We disagree on some fundamental things when it comes to August's and especially Sara's characterisation, and I doubt we're going to reach consensus. But that's okay! I'm just going to explain some parts of my POV below, and then we can agree to disagree. There are also a few areas where we seem to be getting our wires crossed (e.g. what we mean by 'understanding' the consequences) so I want to clear those up.

Most of this rambling essay was written before the S3 trailer came out, so I'm not focusing much on the glimpses we see of them in the trailer. But I am still using the spoiler tags just to be safe.

CW: negative take on Sara (but the anon actually likes her); couple of suicide mentions

Okay so... I'm going to start by clarifying a couple of things:

Understanding vs. understanding

Infantilising vs. taking young age into account

When I talk about August and the consequences, I'm not saying he lacks the intellect or analytical thinking to know/predict them. I'm saying he lacks the empathy and relevant frames of reference to understand them. I think we're just using the word 'understand' to mean different things - maybe internalise, empathise or relate would be a better choice for what I mean by it?

To revisit my previous example, August as an incredibly privileged member of the elite cannot understand i.e. relate to Simon's experience as someone whose ability to make his own reputation and get by on his own merit has been permanently affected by the video. As a very confidently straight man, he also cannot relate to Wille's experience as someone whose non-straight sexuality, a deeply personal and private thing that he wasn't even done figuring out, has suddenly been exposed to the world and potentially even some homophobic hate.

I'm not saying this to infantilise, defend, or excuse August. I'm saying it because to me, it partly explains why it's so easy for him to dismiss the harm to Simon and see his betrayal of Wille as just a matter of loyalty - the only moral code he knows - instead of something that would've been wrong no matter who the victim was. It's a thought pattern that stems from his upbringing and worldview, and it would have to be dismantled for him to feel proper remorse. Which I think would probably take professional help at this point.

(I agree with you that August would be extremely prejudiced against Boris. A glimpse of him googling therapy providers or booking an appointment for after graduation might feel more realistic to me - but I guess it depends on what the writers want to do with him. We already saw very quick progress with Wille in S2 so it's safe to say they can take some liberties.)

I still believe that August will lose his social status in S3, likely towards the end. But it's fair that you don't, and the trailer is certainly edited to support your position. If he retains his status, then you may be right about him remaining the same old asshole! If he does lose it, then my original point about him likely not being resilient enough to cope with the consequences still stands. He is very much the kind of person to whom suicide is the "proud" way out compared to the shame of losing everything.

Now, the age thing.

Respectfully, I think you may be ascribing too much meaning to August and Sara being of age in S2 (note that Sara was still 17 when she made the deal with August in S1). Eighteen is the age of legal adulthood, yes, but it doesn't make them fully grown and mature adults in the (neuro)biological, psychological or social sense.

[This feels like a good point to say that I am not going to try to account for Sara's neurodivergence here. I definitely don't have the insight, so if anything I've written below is in any way inaccurate or offensive to persons with AuDHD, please let me know!!]

Firstly, it's important to note that that the human brain matures gradually and unevenly. The prefrontal cortex i.e. the 'reasoning centre' only matures in the mid-to-late 20s, while parts that handle things like right/wrong, risk/reward, and emotional responses (e.g. the amygdala) mature earlier. This can cause teens and young adults to struggle with things like impulse control, assessing the long-term consequences of their actions, understanding others' emotions, and rational decision-making in situations that trigger a strong emotional response. Reason can get overtaken by emotion on a chemical level; sometimes the young person can't even fully explain afterwards why they did something they rationally knew was wrong all along.

[I don't think August was in a particularly analytical state of mind when he decided to post the video. He was an intelligent but emotionally unstable and empathically challenged 18-year-old who felt like he had nothing left to lose and the only moral code he knew (i.e. loyalty) was obsolete. He was also still stewing in the emotional turmoil of his humiliation and likely stuck in a negative feedback loop. It feels very plausible to me that he could be in a very bad place for a pretty long time and still function enough to plan his revenge (more on the revenge part below).]

Secondly, both August and Sara have also had some pretty traumatic experiences (Sara's bullying, August's dad's suicide, the influence of both their dads while they were still in their lives). These may have impacted their emotional and psychological development in various ways and created some thought patterns. Not to play arm-chair psychologist, but I don't think it's a coincidence August's decision to post the video is related to his family estate and legacy, while Sara's decision to make a deal with August is related to the threat of being sent back to Marieberg.

[This feels particularly relevant for Sara, whose bullying was brutal and long-term enough for her to have to repeat a year. The negative attention on Simon after the video probably seemed less severe in comparison, and also like a 'first incident' (in fact, she might have even felt like Linda was applying a different standard to Simon's ordeal compared to hers by immediately wanting to take them both out of Hillerska).]

[I vehemently disagree with Sara's idea that the damage to Simon was already done and it wouldn't have made a difference whether he knew who was responsible, but I think it matters to some extent that she didn't know the history between Simon and August. To her, the video probably seemed like something that was mostly between August and Wille. That idea was likely reinforced by August consistently dismissing Simon's side of it - and also by Simon seemingly moving on with Marcus and no longer being the talk of the school after Christmas. This kind of rationalisation may have even made Sara feel better about pursuing a relationship with August in S2.]

[I also think Sara probably felt like she had the right to be selfish after everything she'd been through. Simon's support during her bullying wasn't conditional; she didn't feel like she "owed him" any sacrifices. It was clearly Simon's idea to follow Sara to Hillerska, and she may have even felt like he was hovering a bit (I doubt S1E1 was her first time saying she was fine now and he didn't have to be there). Then, Simon started to keep secrets and even see Micke for reasons Sara didn't know, altering the terms of their relationship, while Sara was finally daring to dream of things she'd been denied for so long. Friends, a better future, even romance. To her, it felt extremely unfair to have to give all that up and go back to a school that was a nightmare to her but not to Simon. Especially when her and Simon's lives weren't as intertwined anymore and she finally felt like she was gaining some agency in her own.]

Thirdly (circling back to the point about maturity), it's good to keep in mind that both August and Sara are still in the high-school phase of life. A phase when most people are a bit selfish, and their past and current dramas and dreams for the future are everything to them. They haven't really acquired much experience or long-term perspective yet. So I really don't think we can call them that much more mature in the social sense than, say, Wilhelm and Simon. They are still messy teens living their messy teen lives, shaped by their upbringing and limited life experience, all the while thinking they are basically grown adults.

So am I saying all this to infantilise August and Sara and excuse their actions? I'm sure it sounds that way; hence, not putting this on the main tag.

But the way I see it, to infantilise them would be to say they weren't responsible for their actions or didn't know what they're doing. They are responsible, and they do know. All the factors laid out above (and also in my previous August posts) explain their reasoning and actions to some extent, but they do not excuse them. The fact still remains that they both applied their best judgment and deliberately chose to do the thing that they knew was wrong.

You're right that they took time to consider their decisions in S1, although I don't think we can know for sure exactly how long August takes. The timeline is a mess at that point; he is still at the Palace wearing the same outfit when the others make their statement, and I doubt he could've been there overnight. But he does take several hours in any case, and although he isn't thinking rationally at that point, he still knows what he's doing is wrong. In fact, he does it with the sole intention of hurting others, which makes it all the more reprehensible.

I just want to caution against labelling him as some evil, fundamentally unfeeling mastermind. He's just a very selfish and immature young man with a very warped view of the world, who needs to see some consequences for his own sake as much as his victims'. I think part of the reason we saw him turn so soft with Sara in S2 was to underline that he is capable of empathy and caring; it's just a matter of unlocking those emotions. They haven't exactly been nurtured growing up, so he is only applying them to the people he deems "worthy", instead of all his fellow human beings. That selective empathy is another thing he seriously needs to work on, alongside the lack of accountability.

As for Sara, she takes several days to consider what to do about the video, which makes her betrayal of Simon more severe. But as explained above, it's so much more nuanced than her not caring about him. (Or indeed her being some poor victim who didn't know what she was doing and fell in love with The Devil! Don't get me wrong, August definitely let her believe she was guiding him in a better direction, which may have even pushed some Micke buttons in her subconscious and/or memories of Simon's insistence that everyone deserves a second chance... But she still made her own decisions and is responsible for them.)

It's easy to forget that we do in fact see Sara aware that her actions are wrong even before the end of S2. She looks conflicted/unsure when she and August make out in S1E6, cries when Simon earnestly proclaims "I like you when you are you" and "I'm trying to be your friend again because I need you" after she has just betrayed him, and again looks conflicted when the siblings talk about loving the "wrong person" in S2E5. She did some very selfish things and hid them for much too long, yes, but I believe her regret is genuine. It will take some skilful writing to make her and Simon reconcile in a way that makes sense, doesn't feel rushed or reduce her to an archetype, and doesn't just magic away her leftover feelings for August (as those will probably take some time to clear out). But I do have faith it can be done.

So I think that just about covers what I wanted to say. This isn't a comprehensive essay by any means, and I'm sure it won't go down well with everyone. I also don't expect it to change your mind about these characters, anon, and that's okay!

I mostly just wanted to push back on the notion that Sara and August being 18 means all their bad decisions are now on par with bad decisions taken by fully grown adults and their character development is now set in stone. I highly doubt the show will end with them both proudly standing behind their poor choices - I can certainly see August doing that if he doesn't see any repercussions, but not Sara.

In any case, thank you for taking the time to explain your point of view on these characters, and sorry again for taking so long to respond!

[thecameronchronicles]

Guy Code

TW: angst. Fluff. Hints at smut. 

SUMMARY: Pope's feelings for you come through to the surface. 

WORD COUNT: 1100

REQUESTED

Pope has a crush on JJs girlfriend and when he cheats on her he comforts her and confess his feelings 

Guy Code

POPE'S POV

I paced long enough that the stone beneath my feet had become worn and tethered from repetition. The speech prepared with each pointless step became iterated in sporadic pronunciation only to ultimately return to a blank page within my mind. Everything conjured from an apology to a full-blown confession weighed in waves within my mind. Just as I convinced myself a clear conscience would free my inability to hold such feelings behind distant smiles, I was reminded of how she was JJ's ex. And yet, at the same instance in which I would recall that detail, I thought of the tears she shed because of him. 

Of all of the reckless and even heartless things JJ has done in his endeavors to numb his own emotions, this had been the most bone-headed. And yet any thoughts to console her brought me to the recollection once again that she was forbidden. 

And yet, here I stood. Outside her house well beyond an appropriate hour, before that door finally opened. 

"Pope? What are you doing here?" My hands hid within my pockets as if I could shield myself the same. And suddenly as my lips parted to speak, every single word from my repertoire disappeared. Even the most basic. Which left only the most unappealing of half enunciations causing her to furrow her brows at me. 

"Did you…need something?" But as she asked, the sniffle iterated was enough for me to clench my fists. I was rarely the type of man to exercise emotion. But she deserved to cry from happiness alone. She was sweet and kind and compassionate. The parts of Kiara I may have found rousing. Only she was no more pogue than she was a kook. She was simply a girl whose heart had been broken by my closest friend. 

"I..I just wanted to make sure you were alright." I finally managed to explain my presence as she offered a kind smile. But the soft nod offered had become weak after only a single bob. 

"Do you want to come in?" I paused. Although she was a mutual friend long before that title changed to JJ's 'anything', accepting this invitation still felt as if I was committing the ultimate betrayal. Even if JJ had been the first to draw blood over our friendship when I'd told him of my interest in her, I believed my feelings for her would fade as she would have been good for him. But I was wrong. About my feelings. About JJ. About her. And because of this, I nodded and motioned to follow her inside against my better morality. 

But the second I took a step forward, those words suddenly returned tenfold. 

"No…I just came here to see if you were alright…"

"I'm…I don't know what I am…But you came all the way here to check on me?" 

I shrugged, acting as if I hadn't spent the last six months waiting for this very moment to transpire. As if my thoughts didn't linger on knowing , for even one second, of what it was like to hold her focus in that way. The kind of mine she always held. 

"I'm sorry…About what happened." She became nervous, no longer at ease in her stance. 

"Did…did JJ talk to you?"

"He locked himself away in The Chateau after you left…"

"So he didn't tell you anything?" 

"Should he have?" She paused, kicking her feet on the cement porch leading to the front door kept ajar. 

"You're making me..anxious."

"Me?" She nodded, pulling her hair behind her ear. "You always do…" She confessed as I hesitated to act. 

"You should go…" I nodded, taking the loss before even trying for the win. And yet, as I turned to leave, my tail between my legs, I called back to her. 

"No….'

"No?" 

"You deserve better. I love JJ, but he…you don't deserve what he did."

"Pope-" I took a step forward, knowing if I let her interrupt me that I'd lose the courage to continue to speak. 

"Please…Just let me say this once before implode…" She smiled. A soft smile I simply wanted to kiss for remembrance. 

"You're…You're brilliant. Stunning. Funny. Talented in everything you put your mind to. Raw and genuine. Giving and compassionate. Inspiring and sweet. And…You deserve someone who knows that…Someone who reminds you of that so much you're tired of hearing it….I'm just sorry he hurt you…" 

"He didn't…" My eyes narrowed. 

"It should have. But he was right."

"Right? About what?" My curiosity piqued as I took a step forward, more desperate to know than to remain indifferent. 

"How you make me nervous. How I can depend on you. How I look at you…It's why…you are why we broke up. Not because he cheated…because I didn't care that he did…I guess a part of me kinda hoped he would." Before I could stop my steps, they were set in her direction. Her hips taken by my grasp before one hand reached for her cheek at the last moment before my lips collided with her own. 

The most perfect buss to satiate a need I desired since I'd first met her. A passion and need that had only intensified since that day. And I would remain as long as I could as if to try and convince myself this was reality. After spending most nights and daydreams constructing this vision, it was nearly impossible to differentiate from fantasy. At least it has been until she pulled me deeper against her. Enough until she came to a rest at the paneling of the house. 

"I-"

"Just kiss me, Pope…please…" That soft but breathless cadence made me submissive to her. Her touch electrified every nerve as I would remain here until she rejected me or led me further. I would have shed every ounce of myself for her if she would have asked. 

"It should have been you…" She breathed as my lips fell down her jaw and to the curve of her neck between her ear and her pulse point, feeling it restless beneath my kiss. 

"It is now…" She moaned to the feeling of my hands rising higher from your waist, just brushing the curve of her breasts from beneath. A tease of my thumbs enough to change her course of modesty.

"Come inside…" She bit her bottom lip, leading me over the threshold with interlaced fingers, as I looked behind one final moment before following suit. A smile beaming across my face for the dream made a reality before me. And any consequence welcomed but ignored as I allowed myself to bask in what I would treasure and adore. The girl who should have always have been mine…

TAGLIST: @hopebaker @drewspisces @penny4yourthoughts @magnificantmermaid @pickingviolets @lovedetlost @trikigirl271 @maybankslover @slut4tangerine @slvtherinseeker @obxiskewl @bluesongbird @slut-era @ailee-celeste @camilynn @sweetestdesire @onmykneesforrafe @jjmaybanksangel @phildunphyisadilf @mashdan0916

MASTERLIST

POPE HEYWARD MASTERLIST

MARCH MADNESS MASTERLIST

[mx-nii]

The following message is directed to darklina shippers, primarily those of which who have not read the books, those who excuse the actions of The Darkling in the books, and/or those who see the actions and simply accept/ignore them because “he’s morally grey tehe 🤭” or “he’s the same as Kaz Brekker” or “Ben Barnes is sooo hot”.

Let’s start this off strong: The Darkling is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, BEYOND A SHADOW (ha) OF A DOUBT nothing like Kaz ‘Dirtyhands’ Brekker, and here’s why.

Kaz is a criminal, there is no denying it, and we love him for it. Why, you may ask? That’s because Kaz has two things the Darkling doesn’t.

#1 lines he won’t cross. Kaz Brekker, a man who wants vengeance more than he wants oxygen, still has a hard limit. He’d never do *insert unspeakable things the darkling has done “for the greater good” (they were in fact NOT for the greater good but we’ll get into that later)*. And the reason for that is he actually cares about his friends, his crows. He CARES about their lives more than he cares about his vengeance. Even if he doesn’t show it, he’d never trade one of them for Pekka’s head. Instead, he’d work with them to kill him.

#2 he has an actual reason (now I know, I know: Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason- but he has one). We all know his traumatic history and how it affects him to this day. We know what happened to Jordie and how Kaz vowed to avenge his big brother. We’ve all read the same chapters, the same Kaz POVs. He was wronged and ofc, it’s a YA fantasy novel so he’s gonna kill the bastard, duh. He’s getting his pound of flesh, and some for Jordie too, and he’ll build his empire off of Pekka.

Now I know what you may be thinking: “THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE DARKLING!!” but does it really? Think about it here. Point #1, lines that won’t be crossed. Kaz has proven to have mercy even when it would have served his plan better to not (that part in CK when he threatened to kill a kid); but has the Darkling?

Let’s start a list:

the fold (and everyone inside). Sounds like genocide and world destruction to me.

Novo Kribirsk - again with that genocide.

Alina. Everything Alina. This includes, but is not limited to: grooming her, putting a collar around her neck to steal her powers and enslave her, torturing her and her partner, kidnapping her, sexually assaulting her, attacking her (x a bajillion times), threatening her, etc.

Genya - put a (I believe) 9 year old in the hands of a KNOWN pedophile to retrieve information, separated her from other grisha so she felt alone, manipulated and groomed her, mutilated her, etc.

Killed Botokin and Anna Kunya, and held orphans hostage.

These are specifics I know off the top of my head and I could get more if I did some research, but just rapid fire here: deaths of countless grisha who stood against him, what he did to Zoya, Fedyor, Sergi, Nikolai (not a grisha but he counts), etc.

All of these actions were supposedly to get to his goal of “a safe place for grisha” (We’ll talk about how that wasn’t what he actually cared about later) and he didn’t stop at anything. Never hesitated, nothing.

The real reason this was all for was because he has a MASSIVE savior complex. He may have wanted (past tense) a safe place for grisha but now, what matters more to him is being the hero. He wants more to be the one who saves everyone than to have everyone be safe. It really reinforces the whole “make me your villain” line bc he doesn’t believe he’s the villain, he wants to be the hero so bad- but he’s not. And he never will be, because somewhere along the line, he lost sight of the goal and started making bad decisions and now we’re here.

Another thing I’d like to add, you can like Ben Barnes and not like the Darkling. You have to remember that it’s a ROLE. I love Ben and hate the darkling. Simply bc they’re NOT THE SAME PERSON. It’s actually quite genius that he was casted bc a big part of his gig was seducing people to his side with his insane looks and charisma so clearly it worked a little too well.

Now to get to #2. He didn’t have an actual valid reason- not that any reason could warrant his behavior but he didn’t even have a fucking reason. He SAID he was doing it all “so grisha could be safe” but it’s a lie. It may have been his reason a few centuries ago but I guarantee it’s not his reason now. If that was his reasoning for ALL THIS, he would not HARM grisha to get what he wants. He wouldn’t KILL grisha for his goals.

In short, the Darkling does what he does because he has a MASSIVE savior complex. He wants more so to be the one who saves everyone, than to have everyone be safe.

[the-ravenclaw-werewolf]

Sweet. Just read the latest chapter. We are getting closer and closer. Now, who is the last character to get a POV chapter?

Also, which of the four houses of Hogarts would you sort each of the 40 in?

The next POV is Heine Wittgenstein from The Royal Tutor!

As for the houses, it took a while, but I think I got it!

(Houses are subject to change.)

MCS (WE): Hogwarts Houses

Gryffindor:

Spike Spiegel

Very reckless, both to his surroundings and to himself, but doesn’t back down when faced with the impossible. And his anti-hero fits since he has a certain disregard for the rules.

U-1146

A soldier through and through as he is willing everyday to put his life on the line for the sake of the cells and the body. He goes to great lengths to ensure everyone is safe.

Haruka Nanase

He is quite stubborn, as exemplified by his love of swimming freestyle and how firmly he stands for what he believes in, and he isn’t afraid to speak his mind.

Korra

Definitely hot headed, but will immediately fight those who dare to threaten the peace and even when she is at an all time low, she is determined to get better, even if she has to go it alone.

Mako Mankanshoku

She could be considered a Hufflepuff, but I believe Gryffindor is the best for her because in a world where people gain powers through clothes, she had rarely ever used a goku uniform and only used one where it really counted. She is willing to dive head first into a battle to help her friends.

Rin Okumura

Aside from having a hot temper, he stands up for what is right, despite being shunned from society and is willing to put his life on the line to save others.

Zuko

He would be a confused Gryffindor, but he is stubborn to a fault, still has a moral code, even when everything he was taught was proven wrong, and doesn’t back down from a fight.

Edward Elric

Is willing to go great lengths for his brothers and others, even giving up the one thing that was a part of him for them. He charges straight forward into danger and sticks to his ideals.

Emma

Was willing to face off into a world full of demons to ensure the rest of the children make it out safely. Even if it cost her something beyond repair.

Hufflepuff:

Italy

As a character, he is a peacekeeper. He runs from the very idea of fighting, especially from Britain. But he is genuine and dependable, even if he gets the directions mixed up, he does his hardest to please others.

Saitama

Now, Gryffindor seems to be a perfect fit, seeing that he is a superhero. But he is hardworking, as seen with his 3 year training regimine, and he is humble, to the point of where he would turn the mass against him just for the sake of the other heroes.

Yuuri Katsuki

Definitely a hard worker, exemplified by his dedication to skating. Not to mention he has a good heart, which serves him well as he continues through his journey of skating.

Naegi Makoto

Definitely kind to the point where he is a push over, but he is dedicated to his classmates and he works hard to ensure that everyone is safe and comes out unharmed. 

Kae Serinuma

Even though she can be an airhead at times, she likes to go with the flow and still has a caring heart to others. She also takes on chores and work in stride with no complaints.

Legoshi

Introverted and quiet, he tries to stay in the shadows, but he is dedicated to the tasks given to him and is fiercely loyal to those he cares for.

Chika Fujiwara

Yes, she does have a manipulation streak about her, but she doesn’t go out of the way to intentionally hurt anyone with it. She is also dedicated and patience, as seen when she is teaching Shirogane in everything

Ryota Suzui

Just like Makoto, he is a pushover. He also doesn’t like to take chances unlike his fellow classmates, but he has a good heart and is loyal to the point where he is willing to take risks.

Tohru Honda

Kind, thoughtful, loving, she is one of the best representations of a Hufflepuff, because even if the world tells her no, or even when she’s scared, she strives to help others around and show them unconditional compassion, even to the enemies.

Izuku Midoriya

While many people would put him as a Gryffindor, I see him as a Hufflepuff because his big heart is the core of his character. He cares deeply for others and has no problems when working with others, even if the other person is unwilling.

Shoyo Hinata

Just like with Midoriya, I see Hinata more as a Hufflepuff because he is kind and incredibly hard working to the point of where you need to tell him to stop. And come, you’ve seen Hinata’s feral stare. Not all Hufflepuffs are angels.

Tanjiro Kamado

I was so torn between this and Gryffindor, but after looking at his backstory, he’s more of a Hufflepuff. Yes, he is brave and isn’t afraid to go toe to toe with demons, but his end goal is to find a cure for Nezuko, which in turn created his new goal of protecting others. He is dedicated to his training, even if it hurts him and is fiercely loyal to his friends

Iruma Suzuki

Aside from his horrible life still, he likes to help other people and is willing to do anything for his friends and new family. He is hard working, kind, and can be depended upon.

Shigeo Kageyama

He has shown his willingness in fighting against the greater evil, but what really stands out is his heart and his dedication to others. He also works very hard, even when it’s tough on him, such as with the Body Improvement Club. 

Ravenclaw:

Heine Wittgenstein

He devoted his life to giving kids and others the education they need, both in academics and in life. He holds education to the utmost degree.

Satoru Fujinuma

Level headed and quick thinking, Satoru is constantly thinking the best and logical ways of preventing the murders in the past while trying to find the serial killer in the future.

Kobayashi

While Hufflepuff may seem like a good option, I believe she fits in Ravenclaw. She observes and takes mental notes about Tohru and the others, of both their relationships and their pasts. And she listens and imparts her own wisdom onto them when they need it most. And she is incredibly patient when teaching them about the human world.

Langa Hasegawa

He is both a natural and a faster learner when it comes to the world of skating, which becomes his main interest as he befriends Reki.

Mafuyu Sato

While others mistake his quietness for being shy, he can be quite blunt and is highly perceptive of those around him.

Tetsuya Kuroko

While considered average academically, he is insightful and is always carefully observing his opponents to come up with strategies.

Haruhi Fujioka

A little bit obvious for a scholarship student, but she would thrive with the Ravenclaws as she is both intelligent and observational.

Senku Ishigami

He takes pride in science, but not only that, he takes pride in teaching others about sciences, even though he might go a little overboard, that’s just him being passionate about the subject he loves.

Soma Yukihira

He is constantly learning new cooking techniques. And when one way fails, he looks for a better solution to it. Working in the restaurant business has made him innovative and adaptable.

Slytherin:

Levi Ackerman

Given his background, he had to learn to be resourceful and ruthless to survive. He is also quite adaptable and analytical, which aside from his strength, makes him one of the top scouts in the Survey Corps.

Satoru Gojo

Aside from his “pureblood” vibes, he is quite driven and ambitious. Plus if we want to go darker, he has kind of a sadistic personality when dealing with curses, especially the higher tier evil ones.

L Lawliet

He would fit into Ravenclaw, if not for the tactics he used during the investigation. He removes emotions out the equations, unless it is to give psychological report, and isn’t above tricking others to get the results he wants 

Kusuo Saiki

When his true personality shows through, he is a Slytherin. He always weighs the pros and cons while focusing on getting to his goal and is adaptable when things go awry. 

Nagisa Shiota

He had to learn to play the docile character in order to get by, especially as an assassin so his opponents would underestimate him.

Hanako-kun

Definitely represents the better qualities of Slytherin, but he is willing to use manipulative and underhand techniques, even if it's to protect others.

Ciel Phantomhive

Like L, he is not above trickery and deceit to get what he wants. Not to mention his main goal is to exact revenge on those who harmed him and his family, so he can be quite ruthless.

Killua Zoldyck

Gryffindor was the second choice, but given his profession, both as an assassin and a hunter, and given his lifestyle growing up, he would make an excellent Slytherin.

[mysticstarlightduck]

Happy STS!

Which OC has been taking over your mind recently? What excites you about them?

~ @tabswrites

Happy Storyteller Saturday! Thank you so much for the ask, @tabswrites!

Which OC has been taking over your mind recently? What excites you about them?

Cailean Telkerly from Enchanted Illusions, Ahren Ellara from Tales of Wilted Flowers, and Adaria Vytris from Realms of Loss. Lemme explain (:

CAILEAN TELKERLY -

Cailean is one of my favorite characters in that book, being the rogue with a heart of gold archetype that I really, really love in fiction! Since I've been working on his POV backstory a lot lately, I've gotten to know his history a lot better, which only made me love this character even more. I'm excited about quite a lot of things about him, from his intricate past to his personality. He is a classy and witty con man/thief who specializes in stealing from the nobility and overall big targets. To make a very long story short, he agrees to help one of the protagonists (Agatha) because he believes using this partnership will get him rich (and because they have a common enemy), but ends up really falling in love with her in the process (which complicates and screws up his "this partnership is strictly business" plan quite a lot), which leads to a very much "star-crossed lovers" situation sometimes. Plus, he is really adorable in personality, because even though he is a petty criminal, he is also a really good person deep down beneath the opportunistic exterior he carefully crafted throughout the years - and is someone very charmingly sarcastic at that. Writing the growth of his relationship with Agatha, from strangers to partners/friends to lovers, is really, really rewarding, especially given their vastly different worldviews and experiences (and how much they fall in love with each other).

AHREN ELLARA -

I really like writing about Ahren because of his complexity, and his character arc in the first book - which goes from a hesitant good character to a morally grey character, as he ends up doing the wrong things for good reasons (as he was led to believe he had no other choice). He's a really tragic character and a good example of how a chaotic environment and constant pressure can change even the most resilient of people. Ahren had everything, and in the matter of one fateful night, he lost it all. He would do anything to restore his family name and keep his cousin safe, even if it takes making not-so-great choices and morally convoluted deals. The impact of the losses he suffered and the hardships he endured turned Ahren into someone slightly bitter and paranoid, certain that everyone was "out to get him" and that he had to be ruthless before the world has the chance to be ruthless to him - having a "the world was never fair to me, why should I be?" mindset. He is a good person and tried with every fiber of his being to remain so, but eventually, it all becomes too much for him to handle alone, which defines a turning point for his character in Book 1. Overall, a very compelling POV that has taken over a lot of my mind these days!

ADARIA VYTRIS -

There's something I really like about her backstory and motivations throughout the book, they feel very specific and genuine to her. I love writing about underdog characters who beat the odds and decide to take a stand about a system that has wronged them. Adaria is also incredibly loyal and protective of her family, which is the whole reason she embarks on this journey in the first place - to save her siblings. Her relationship with them is also a huge part of why I love her backstory so much! Adaria is a very hopeful character, preferring to believe that one day the future will be brighter - and she will fight to make sure that happens. The odds were always against her - she was just another street kid from the freezing outer cities, probably destined to starve or vanish, like so many before her, but she wanted more than that world could give her, she wanted to be more. To live, not just survive. She decided to challenge her destiny, with what tools she was given and will do whatever it takes to ensure this future for herself and those she loves. Another thing I really like about her is her friendship with Kassien Vann, a knight from Sarythea tasked with protecting a weapon she sets out to steal - their relationship goes from rivals to hesitant allies and finally friends, I really like it!

[joseopher]

HOLD UP

NOVACAINE SHERLOCK AU

Sherlock = Tristan

Because he's a grumpy boy

Also because he's perceptive

He can see through things and find evidence

Became more bitter than cannon!Tristan due to his father's abuse

Is slightly different from the real Sherlock

More grumpy, quick to anger, became a detective to spite his crime syndicate family, thinks happiness is like cancer

Constantly has to go against the Caine Crime Family

But unlike Sherlock, he's completely against murder or anything morally grey because he's scared of becoming like his father

He may seem stone hearted but it's quite easy to pull on his heart strings and manipulate him

GETS MANIPULATED BY EVERYONE

Consulting detective

Has a negative/corruption arc

Ends with him becoming the very thing he sought to destroy

John Watson = Libby

One of Tristan's love interests

Like how Tristan dealt with abuse from his father, Libby dealt with abuse from her boyfriend, Ezra

Tristan and Libby bond over this in a bar one night and that's when they first meet

They eventually become detective partners like Sherlock and Watson

Would be a character foil to Tristan

Chooses happiness and healing at the moment when Tristan does not

Moriarty = Callum

1000% the worse love interest

"He is not the love of your life, he's literally just a guy! Hit him with your car!"

Endgame

The world's only consulting criminal, therefore Tristan's rival

Callum was bored one day and started up this organization on a whim for something to amuse him

Doesn't really care about the crime he commits

Toys with the police, killing people in really clever ways and watching the police flounder

Plot

Tristan pov

Callum sets up games, killing a victim, framing someone as a killer and planting evidence to create the story to watch it all play out

But one day a concluding detective (*cough* Tristan *cough*) sees through this ruse and actually manages to pinpoint that it's Callum

Callum cleverly finds a way to not go to jail but is intrigued

He begins setting up more games for Tristan

Tristan nearly gets him caught and his crime organization tore down

Obviously, that's the most interesting thing that's happened in a long time

Callum begins to play a new game, a more challenging one, he's going to try and make Tristan (who is excessively morally upright and paranoid about doing anything wrong) do something morally corrupt

Enter mind games between Callum and Tristan with Callum heavily manipulating Tristan

Due to Callum's manipulation, the abuse Tristan faces and some other hardships, Tristan eventually snaps

At this point, Callum is actually invested, he simply likes talking with Tristan, he cares about Tristan, he wants Tristan on his side

Tristan meanwhile is panicking and trying to keep his failing relationship with Libby alive

But stopping Callum becomes his top priority because in his mind it's Callum's fault everything is going wrong

Tristan also has to fight his growing attraction to Callum (“I love you. That’s why you can’t turn your back on me, even if you want to. You know my flaws but crave them; you lust for them. The worse I am, the more desperate you are to forgive me.”)

Tristan justifies doing more and more morally corrupt actions to catch Callum

Callum is delighted and continues his manipulation (ex. comforting Tristan when he finally breaks down in front of him)

Libby sees Tristan is becoming like his father and stops hanging out with him and helping him with his cases

MORE BREAKDOWNS FOR TRISTAN

More manipulation from other forces (ex. Atlas, Parisa etc. etc.)

Tristan embraces the lie of believing that being useful to someone is better than being alone even if he's being manipulated ("Maybe after a lifetime of being useless, Tristan simply wanted to be used")

He joins Callum's side

But he becomes far more morally corrupt than Callum

Not only that but he becomes violent like his father

And his and Callum's relationship is horribly toxic on both sides

Meanwhile, Libby overcomes her trauma and gets bubble tea :3

This is a tragedy, by the way, not happy for anyone but Libby

ABUSE IS WRONG GUYS AND WILL ONLY LEAD TO SADNESS

[piraticalwit]

just thinking about platonic love and dying inside.

I've been making jokes all week to hunter about how killian is very much like what do you mean you no longer think about me every second of every day and pine for my attention?? to starkey once he meets joe and puts a lot of priority on that relationship .. and while that is essentially true .. one thing i've always loved about killian is that he uses egocentric behavior to cover pain (even if he himself refuses to acknowledge it) and this really wouldn't be any different. In all verses (including ones where they are essentially, at the surface, nothing but 'crew and captain'), i think starkey is someone who grounds killian into this idea of who he truly is beneath it all. I think this becomes even more true in verses where Killian has lost Liam and his mother both. With his brother's death, he loses a lot of sense of self. He has always seen his life as an intense storm to be weathered, his sense of self and plans for the future often seem as if they are just buffeted around by the waves, and Liam's death is much like a lighthouse crumbling. Killian loses that hope of eventually making it to shore, of having any sort of direction, and with the loss of that stability and something to follow .. he essentially reinvents himself in an effort to survive. This bright, whimsical, imaginative boy (or young man) becomes something haunted and dark with a chasm where his heart used to be. The pain of survival scares him, seems impossible to navigate, and he becomes an essentially egocentric bastard to hide that vulnerability and weakness.

When he loses his hand in pirate verses, that should be the end of him as captain. His crew are some of the worst men out there and that failure to be able to maintain the confidence needed on deck should result in some sort of mutiny. There's no great opportunity to fuck him over than when he's half dead in his cabin, fighting a really shoddily done amputation. But Starkey, who has always been a loyal quartermaster, saves him. He cares for him, he helps him recover, he drags his ass on deck for a short time every day - does anything and everything the two of them can to help Killian maintain that image of insanely tough and ruthless. And it works. Hook never forgets that. The other man had every opportunity to abandon him to the wolves and he didn't falter for even a single moment. They stay captain and quartermaster, yes - but Killian forever sees him as a friend after that. He is the only man who sails under his authority allowed to question certain decisions or point out flawed thinking and even if it appears otherwise on the surface, Killian always takes things into account.

This dynamic is even more apparent in most modern examples. Though intimacy of their friendship changes through the various verses, there are a few where I truly believe Killian knows he can survive anything as long as Starkey is by his side. Literally anything. The rough part is that he is aware he feels this way, but no one else is (usually). I feel like maybe this makes their relationship seem skewed (even from starkey's pov possibly) because Killian can put on a great show of not giving a fuck and he tries to keep those moments where he does seek comfort subtle enough to where it could just be seen as a normal interaction from anyone else involved.

In the gang verse, starkey helps killian escape from a hellish situation. instead of leaving afterwards, he stays and helps the irishman build something that more than likely goes against very value/belief he's ever had. he helps killian navigate morally dubious (and just straight up wrong) situations (sometimes without him being aware haha), teaches him how to read and offers a safe place of knowing killian's origin story without judgment or pity. even when things start to fall into place that would allow the chance at a different way of life, killian is hesitant and though he makes up a list of other excuses .. the truth is that he is afraid cutting ties with his current life will mean the other man decides his purpose has been fulfilled and leave. but because he doesn't know how to say something like that, he pretends to crave the life of violence and claims he's not capable of adapting to anything else. but the truth is that he's afraid of being abandoned/losing the one person left that feels like true family.

the other verse that sticks out to me is killian's soldier verse and it's much like the same as above. i think, through navigating liam's death overseas along with sarah's together, the two of them (in killian's mind at least) forge a deeper level of friendship than had been there before. he sort of takes on the annoying little brother role and is he sort of putting his relationship with liam onto starkey? yeah. is that probably codependent or something? probably. does he care? no. he also goes out of his way to seem goofy and annoying in an effort to keep the other man from falling into any sort of deeper darkness. and much like the gang verse (and other verses), i think he fears being replaced/losing him completely.

[bonesandthebees]

kinda missed the train bc time zones but i just want to say that people angry at tommy for finding and using wilburs name (and comparing it to deadnaming? what? this is obviously so different) just cant appreciate the beauty of your writing

you write messy human characters in situations with questionable moral rights and wrongs, even if this was their first bones fic did they just forget the part where wil tried to kill tommy?

you write from one pov and work so amazingly with the unreliable narator prospects its so cool to read and so interesting to brainrot about

you write a lot of metaphors which is just something im obsessed with, especially the way youre so consistent with them, just like in stars with the sea and pillar, you continously describe wilburs most inner emotions as a bird in a cage and how the bird perks up at hearing the name wilbur while wilburs monologue is against it shows what was beaten into him and how he "wilbur" actually feels about it

also i know that a lot of people expected (and some wanted) a name reveal in the form of wilbur trusting tommy enough to tell him himself (i also expected this ngl) but looking at it, it feels so much out of character for glass!wil at least for a long while, hes nowhere near the amount of trust or even of knowing how much his training for the pythia was to be bale to tell anyone his name and in the situation hes in, kidnapped and in a group of people with completely different religion, i dont think theres space for him to get to that mental space in a completely healthy and right way

tommy finding out on his own and starting to use it on the other hand is just so much like glass!tommy, bc you can see how hes doing it bc he believes it wil help wilbur bc he knows how wrong it is that he was forced to foresay his own name, but also not telling the other deathlings bc he knows that the best way would be for wilbur to tell them himself

honestly im so glad it went like this bc it feels so justificating and deserving from characterisation and storytelling point, not throwing away all the built up trauma and messy relationships and all the mistakes that were made just for some quick and cheap comfort

instead of quick cheap hurt/comfort or angst you get a precisely and amazingly crafted deep and thought out story with deep and full chartacters that feel so human and its THE BEST THING EVER I LOVE YOUR WRITING SO MUCH BEE

and im sorry some people cant appreciate it and cant shut up about not being able to do so

lmao you get it i write messy human characters and also wilbur literally tried to kill tommy. this wasn't a breech of trust or anything they didn't have any trust beforehand.

kldsjfkld aaa you're so sweet though!! I'm so glad you like the one pov thing. It's genuinely my favorite way to write long stories now because it makes things so much more interesting to me. unreliable narrator is impossible to avoid when you only have a single pov going on and that's the fun part!!

so so happy you like the metaphors too. I definitely worry sometimes I'm overusing them, but I also like the consistency and the way it gives me a space to explain wilbur's emotions in a way that avoids just saying "he felt sad" or something. it makes it more interesting to describe and can be used in a lot of different ways so it's very fun for me

you see you get it!! there was no way he was gonna reach that place in a healthy way, at least not anytime soon. I know that everyone was expecting the soft reveal moment of wilbur telling tommy his name himself, but that's exactly why I didn't go with it. because subverting that expectation makes things a lot more interesting in terms of how it'll develop from there. it just makes the most sense with the characterization and everything to me so tysm <33

this made me smile a whole lot to read :D

[theothershin]

More Fic Writer Asks

(Using it for original works and fanfics, since OP said that's okay)

the last sentence you wrote "Raising his hands in surrender, Gunther said, 'Take me to Arthur.' " - Heroically Foul

a character whose POV you’re currently exploring "And so he was loved because he was good at operating the kingdom, but only we know his black heart and dark ambitions." - Preservation of Those Three: Tybalt Arthur Verrell

how you feel about your current WIP Confidant. I feel like I'll get this done in a year or two, and well. There'll need to be rewrites and edits, but not much. Excited to put my thoughts down and share it with the world.

a story idea you haven’t written yet What if Romeo left Juliet, and she decided to marry Paris, and discovered he isn't all that bad after all?

first sentence of the fifth paragraph of an unpublished WIP "But how to get to him?" - A Dream, a Heroically Foul side story

the word that appears the most in your current draft (wordcounter.net can tell you) More, been, and one. Not very interesting, but then again, I just barely began.

your preferred writing fonts Lobster for titles; Bad Script for chapter titles; Architect's Daughter for narration.

if you had to write a sequel to a fic, you’d write one for… Help, video game fandom Aragami 2. it's a very in-depth and detailed version of one of the quests in the game where you play the main character, Kuro, or Warrior, going mad with anger and the desire for revenge - but you have lots of freedom. I took away that feeling of freedom, to show that he was doing what he was doing automatically, out of obligation, rather than because he really wanted to. I would write a sequel and even prequel cuz the game has great moments that would be great if narrated.

start to finish, how long did it take you to write the last fic you posted? A little under a week, I believe.

what is the longest amount of time you’ve let a draft rest before you finished it? Years. Let's leave it at that, yeah?

a WIP you’d like to finish someday Previously called My Lord, now renamed A World of Shadows, and more names pending, the fic is for the fandom, The Saga of Darren Shan/Cirque Du Freak, by tween Master of Horror Darren Shan. In the original book, two sides are fighting a war, and the fate of both sides lie with the main character, Darren Shan(has the same name as the author), and his friend, Steve "Leopard" Leonard. Darren, warned that his victory would eventually cause him to stray from righteousness in arrogance, sacrifices himself to kill Steve. In my fic, he kills only Steve - not himself. It explores Steve's mentor, Gannen Harst, as he tries to deal with his friend's death, his allegiance, losing the war, and his own brother - all while Darren slowly begins to lose himself to the dark side.

a trope you’re really into right now Medieval power struggle. Yes, I know. I told my sister just the day before writing this, "They're annoying in real life, but..." and then realised that isn't true. Sure, they can be annoying, but they interest me. Look into the morality/psychology, especially when there's sour kings who've gotten the wrong hand and are right but also wrong.

a fandom you’re thinking about writing for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The lore is vast and endless, and in a story where the main character's personality doesn't already exist yet they aren't just a blank-looking person and there's space to build a unique personality for them and act on it, there's lots of space for a fanfic.

where do you get your inspiration? Everything - literally.

favorite weather for writing Spring weather - it's ample time to sit down and write, but the weather itself is lovely. The birds are chirping in the sky, and sometimes they swoop down for a few seconds to grace you with the sight of their feathers; the ocean waves(I especially would love to write by the waves) crash against the rocks and sometimes splash on your face - but that's okay, because it feels good, and the bright, warm sun dries your book - and the sounds of nature helps you think.

favorite place to write I'm generally not allowed to sit and write when we're out and about, so on my desk. There's the most privacy, and I've written there so much that there's a vibe.

talk about your writing and editing process It changes over time and depending on which story it is and what type of story it is. I write fanfics between my originals - in school, between chapters, during writer's block for a specific story - and for originals, I write them every chance I can. I write down ideas for them whenever I can and have the notes stored away. When the time comes, I take out the notes and pour over them, changing them according to what I believe should be different and so on... I write down most of the events(then gradually all of them) and write them out of order(choosing from writing prompts), then put them together and read them in order. Then I edit them in order.

if you keep them, share a deleted sentence or paragraph from a published fic I don't keep them, though it would be cool to be able to look back at it. I sort of keep originals, but I haven't published any yet.

the most interesting topic you’ve researched for a fic Prison. In my fanfic, Timeline, the main character goes to jail and rots away there until the end of his life.

in what year did you publish your first fic? 2021

when did you publish your most recent fic? 6 Jan 2024

do you ever worry about public reaction to what you’re writing? how do you get past that? Sometimes I worry, sometimes I don't. I write for myself. I got upset by some hateful comments once upon a time, and told my sister about it after following the criticism that they were saying, and she told me that they were wrong, and that they were only being hateful. I realise that since then, if the comment isn't nice, I block the comment and decide whether I'll adhere to it or not. I'm not a popular writer so I barely get comments and/or kudos, but when I do, it strengthens my resolve to be a great writer, but I don't let it affect me beyond that.

pick three keywords that describe your writing Messy but Organised

how do you recharge when you’re not feeling creative? Organise notes. Read stuff. Play games. Do anything but be creative.

besides writing, what are your other hobbies? Reading novels and non-fiction. Playing games.

are you able to write with other people around? No. I don't know why. but the words fly away from me.

your favorite part of the writing process When everything's clicking together and my creative drive is never-ending and I get into flow.

your least favorite part of the writing process When the creativity dries up.

how easy is it for you to come up with titles? Not easy at all. I do it as I go along, but usually I get the right one when I'm done writing it.

share a fic you’re especially proud of Talk, for the novel series The Demonata by Darren Shan. It was inspired by Zukos_Honour and it's simple, to the point and savours the slowburn-one shot feels.

[nambaa-shikkusu]

.

[eclairslein]

Why Technoblade is an unreliable narrator

I’ve seen a lot of viewers idolizing c!Technoblade and saying it didn’t make sense that Tommy left him in the end. I watch Technoblade’s streams, but also everyone else’s. I think there’s a lot of overlap in viewers who idolize him and those who don’t have any context other than what comes from his character’s POV. As someone who has watched all POV’s here is why I disagree that “Technoblade has done no wrong” “Techno helps everyone and just gets betrayed” and “Tommy backstabbed Techno!”

I disagree with all of these statements and I don’t think c!Technoblade is a victim despite his personal monologue insinuating that. Let’s start at the beginning.

Technoblade joined to help Wilbur and Tommy with the intention of taking down Shlatt. He preached for anarchy and chaos. Although he was clear about the from the beginning, the people he was allied with didn’t agree with that. Wilbur was driven to that point AFTER Technoblade had already been allied with them. Tommy NEVER wanted to “destroy all government” his goal was always just to take down Shlatt and return to his home. Technoblade ignored the wishes of his only two allies and continued to entertain the idea in his own head of completely destroying L’Manberg. That was never an agreement, he made that decision on his own AGAINST the will of his only friends, Tommy and Wilbur.

Technoblade, on the other hand, was keeping secrets from them. He had withers prepared before they even put Tubbo in charge. Behind all of their backs he conspired with Wilbur and DREAM to destroy L’Manberg just as soon as they’d won it back. That is betrayal. No one betrayed Technoblade because they never promised him anarchy in the first place.

This is where his narration becomes unreliable. In his speech he brings up making all the gear for his new allies and then them betraying him when they used that gear to take back L’Manberg. He called that a betrayal even though it was CLEAR FROM THE BEGINNING WHAT THEIR INTENTIONS WERE ( the beginning being when Quackity and the others joined Pogtopia to help Tommy and the intentions being stopping L’Manberg’s destruction by Wilbur and ending Schlatt’s administration ). Technoblade calling this a betrayal is delusional.

The second thing his character is unreliable about is his “retirement.” When Technoblade set withers upon L’Manberg he caused pain and destruction, but also ultimately committed crimes against L’Manberg. He also vowed to them before disappearing into the wilderness that he would continue to destroy the government. When the Butcher Army arrived at his doorstep asking to answer for his crimes he claimed to be in retirement. Fleeing from a crime scene and then not committing crimes for awhile doesn’t excuse you from the original crime. Butcher Army coming for Technoblade was not entirely unreasonable the way c!Technoblade paints it to be. Technoblade was a war criminal and a threat and it made perfect sense for them to pursue him. Putting Phil under house arrest crossed a line, but going after Technoblade was not unreasonable for L’Manberg to do.

As for Technoblade’s relationship with Tommy in particular this is something that c!Technoblade is completely deluded about. Pogtopia days, Tommy did consider Technoblade a friend. The one thing that changed that was when Technoblade worked with Wilbur and Dream to BLOW UP LMANBERG. The ONE THING Tommy fought for, at least at the time. Technoblade dropped Tommy as soon as he realized that working with Wilbur and Dream (behind the backs of Tommy and everyone else) would get him his personal goal of anarchy. He betrayed Tommy first when he made that decision.

When Tommy holed up in Technoblade’s basement, Tommy stayed because Techno told him that he’d help him get the discs back. But Tommy was clear with Techno the whole time that he didn’t want to do anything to hurt Tubbo. Tommy always said no to plans that would hurt Tubbo, Technoblade would brush him off constantly and say things along the lines of “we’ll work out the details later.” Tommy never budged on not wanting to hurt Tubbo, despite Technoblade’s constantly insisting that Tubbo is bad and didn’t care about Tommy.

Technoblade was breeding anger and feelings of betrayal in Tommy in trying to convince him his best friend didn’t care about him, the same thing Dream was doing the weeks before while Tommy was in Logstedshire. Convincing Tommy that he didn’t really belong in L’Manberg was the only way to make him pliable and useful to both Technoblade and Dream. By pushing on Tommy that he should leave his friends (L’Manberg) behind, they were turning him into a bad guy. A person only motivated my personal gain (the discs) and that cares for no one.

After threatening Fundy, Technoblade told Tommy that he finally had respect for him. Finally believing that Tommy didn’t care about his old friends in L’Manberg anymore and was solely motivated by the discs, he revealed his plans to destroy L’Manberg. Tommy never agreed to this and was frankly horrified that what happened between him and Wilbur was happening again. He had no where to go and stayed with Technoblade but expressed clear discomfort in Techno’s plans to destroy L’Manberg.

Now for what Techno calls “Tommy’s final betrayal.” When Tommy stands by Tubbo at the community house and leaves Technoblade. To show why this was completely justified on Tommy’s part I’m going to draw comparisons to one of my favorite works of fiction: Avatar The Last Airbender. At the end of Book 2: Earth Zuko betrays Iroh and returns with Azula to the Fire Nation. Zuko’s time there makes him realize that he cares more about doing the right thing and being the PERSON HE WANTS TO BE than staying with his family and hurting people. Tommy leaves Technoblade for the same reason Zuko leaves Azula. Tommy does not want to be the type of person that would stay with Techno.

Tommy and Tubbo were in a screaming match. After Tommy regurgitated line after line that Dream and Techno had been feeding him. “You left me to die!” and all that jazz about choosing L’Manberg over him. The thing that stopped it was Tommy saying “ Those discs were worth more than you ever were!” Everyone went silent. Tommy stopped everything and realized that he had become a deplorable person and he was saying things he didn’t really mean. Caring more about discs than his friendship w Tubbo was Dreams plan all along and exactly what Technoblade had been feeding him. Tommy dropped everything to stand by Tubbo because he was mature enough to realize that he was the farthest he had ever been from the person the wanted to be, and the closest to being the villains he had been fighting his whole life. Whether it was intentional or not, Technoblade was the person who drove him to become that person. Dream started it, but Technoblade finished the job.

Technoblade felt betrayed, Tommy left him. But it was the only thing Tommy could do and still hold on to the person he wanted to be. Tommy cares about his friends, Tommy has been with L’Manberg since the beginning and has always done what he could to save those he cared about even if it meant personal sacrifice. That’s who Tommy is. The Tommy that Technoblade wanted to be allies with was a person who would help hurt and destroy L’Manberg. Someone who cared more about discs than his lifelong friends. That Tommy never really existed, he was always uncomfortable with Technoblade’s revenge plans. If Technoblade really listened to Tommy, and cared about what he thought, he would know that Tommy could never be the cold heartless person that Technoblade could use to achieve his personal revenge on L’Manberg.

Ultimately, the Tommy that Technoblade needed to help him and/ or stand by and watch him destroy L’Manberg doesn’t exist. It goes against everything that has been established about who Tommy is and what motivates him. To stay true to himself, Tommy could not possible stay with Technoblade and become a stubborn, cold hearted, vengeful person.

That “betrayal” was the most mature decision Tommy has ever made in canon and I WONT STAND BY AND LET YALL SAY IT WAS UNJUSTIFIED JUST BECAUSE IT WASNT WAHT TECHNOBLADE WANTED.

Technoblade is a villain, just because he has a reason for wanting to blow up and destroy everything doesn’t make him a better person for it. He is not moral and never has been. His goal from the beginning has been taking something so many people cared about, L’Manberg, and destroying it because he, personally, is an anarchist. That is an ideology, but it is not the only one. Technoblade wanting to destroy L’Manberg is pushing his values onto others through force and makes him more of a tyrant than every leader of L’Manberg combined. He is flawed just like every other character. The difference that I see is that his character never reflects and admits any wrongdoing on his own part, only blaming others for not agreeing with him and ultimately leaving him.

[sugar-petals]

🌹 Sub!SuperM 18+ HC: Riding Their Faces

↳ NOTE. These guys... I swear. Bringing some heat to the dash right here. Enjoy the SuperMadness 👀

word count. 3.7k | bullet points | ot7

WARNINGS. ⚠️  all explicit, cum play, latex, hair & sweat kink, bondage, spit, brat taming, toys, breath play, ass fixation going strong, dominant reader, femdom, degradation, hardcore, veins kink, graphic language, strap-ons, crying kink, clothed sex, some crack

⌜ 💋  byun baekhyun ⌟

▸ strength: energy

not for the faint of heart. baekhyun thoroughly enjoys you giving it to him roughly; it’s the leader being led, how sexy is that

i spy with my femdom eye, baekhyun likes the bossy dommes who bring him to his knees — quite literally.

case in point: hates seeing you hold back. tells you to just bounce on him how you want it. no fumbling around, it’s gotta be hot and proper.

whatever you’re insecure about he hasn’t even noticed. the more confidently you’re taking your designated seat, the better. this shit’s gotta make him all loud and squeaky, baekhyun can’t get enough of your wild and demanding side. “don’t you dare move your hands!” — he’s already hooked.

yep, he’s part of the feral squad. and louder than the bass in jopping for that matter

small as hell face but the jaw is sharp, you can literally feel it, he fits between your legs so well

endless breath. put your pussy all over that nose, grind on it, cum all over him. society will thank you for suffocating a millionaire

like seriously the breath play is off the charts. if he’s into asphyxiation you’d not be surprised

meanwile baek’s naughty hips keep on bucking, like hello there, giving you a cheeky 69 invitation

such a cocky little shit, whiny byun all the way from those ruined orgasms he’ll be getting cuz you might just touch him with two fingers at best, you know how to keep him on his toes

swallows everything he’s like whatever, almost chokes because he’s so messy and greedy to taste you. damn baekhyun

does a “mmhhhnnn...!” sound all the time, this guy has pussy all over his face and is still more vocal than you no matter what you do

eats ass, all day if he can, knows the most shocking techniques, wants to get crushed by booty he’ll end up admitting it. no matter how big or small yours is. because remember, that face is small, everything is big to him

the type to cum on his stomach way before you do. groans a lot, then goes on even more intensely, how the hell did he just leak out five ounces of semen and still manage a whole tongue workout

slobbery and all over the place, those are tongue movements you can’t even think of in your wildest dreams

baekhyun is never content just making you cum once or just really lowkey, much less hearing you being silent. he’s a moodmaker, he naturally wants to hear you, and see you twitch like the world ends for goodness sake

brattiest tongue ever, always pulls out the taunting puppy licks, tries to grope you all the time, he’ll get a rough spanking later believe me

also gets his payback from you being crazy wet, as beautiful and cute his face might be it’s gonna end up damn ruined

not gonna lie his voice acrobatics will turn you into a waterfall that’s coming down on him

you can punish him for teasing by going raw with your hips, mochi is in wonderland, seeing stars. put his wrists in a spreader bar and go off is what i’m saying, YOLO

since baekhyun annoys the members by being so hyper in the evening, they appreciate you knocking him out for sleep. and indeed baekhyun dozes like a baby, probably using your ass as a pillow or something

you’ve drained the shit out of him and um watered the flower that is his face, so

another cupcake down, mission success, baekhyun certainly had his fill not to mention lucky you having to deal with his wildly talented mouth ahem, moral of the story annihilate him with your ass

⌜ 💋  lee taemin ⌟

▸ strength: steaminess

you will come (heh) to discover that none of his lyrics were a lie

yeah he’s busy hot boy shit for his gal

taemin has an all-soft and plush tongue that’s super pinkish. it literally feels so good, how to ever get enough of it holy shit

it also happens to be very long so buckle up, he wants to be deep inside of you, serve and please you

probably the most slow and agile movement in the group, tantalizing is the right word for sure

prefers kissing and sucking over just licking because he’s sappy, good on him and good on you those lips are heaven and need to be used by all means

once you go on the pill, taemin will eat his own creampies straight out of you, maybe even two at once, it’s taemin c’mon he’s above-average horny lord knows how much sperm he’s hoarding

loves drowning it seems

raunchy stuff aside, he always dresses up nicely or wears the fluffy sweaters you like the most on him. what an exclusive ride, the scent of the clothing turns you on even more he’s pulling all the registers taemin is so docile and giggly

most sensual style in the group, will edge and give you goosebumps first before the main course even remotely goes down, taemin thinks in several stages hot damn he calculated this 

his face heats up so much it’s crazy, then again kkoongie capitalizes on all the warmth from the radiator so you might as well be taemin’s personal heating alright. it’s fun seeing him sweat like mad, see his neck veins bulge... ugh 

is gonna be a provocateur and try to nibble on your folds, man he just wants to get slapped around you can see right through this brat’s rowdy plan

might even want his ass played with while you ride his face so prepare for some intense contortions, fingering, butt plugs, prostate massage, the whole array, gladly taemin is flexible

always pulls it off hands-free because he’s a pro and well yeah he’s always tied up how um totally surprising

and any challenge he will meet that i guarantee you

he has immediately apparent shinee concert stamina, longevity like his career, taemin can lend his face to your purposes for the whole night he doesn’t care if he needs to chuck it in the freezer afterwards

bonus: if taemin doesn’t at some point wear one of his glittery masks for sexy time, somebody is probably impersonating him and it’s not the real lee taemin i’m afraid

so many orgasms you’ll stop counting, one blends into the other, even if you’re not moving much, how does he do it

that being said gee can we just appreciate how beautiful his face is, everything about him, it’s gonna be so sexy and soft to kiss him to sleep oh my god

⌜ 💋  kim jongin ⌟

▸ strength: escalating

just how industrious is he? dammit kai is the rent due or something, this shit is not a comeback stage cool down

jongin is needy as fuck, he’s desperate to taste you especially in the morning when his lips are all plump

since then he’s skipped his skin care routine you do the bulk of the moisturizing you see

jokes aside get ready for whimpery kai thrusting his face right into you because he can, should you need something to hold onto, his thighs are literally right there

constant high-pitched moans, some during quick pauses, others stifled, kai are you okay he’s really going all out 

so thirsty

if you don’t put a harness on him for this you’re missing out, also you need something to hold this wild slutty motherfucker in place

rock-hard throughout, harder than a goddamn superm choreography

also: sturdy chin that can take a lot, it’s made to be sat on

does a lot of the work, very active, main dancer vibes you know, you can be lazy and just enjoy

most continuous style in the group, gradually getting more and more passionate and nervous — the second you thought it gets boring he goes off, have fun losing your mind and seeing him basically K.O. himself

if he wants to make you cum, rapid tongue jabs deep into your clit, and his hard breath against it, no fair play in here

absolutely has a thing for your shaking thighs, like what the hell he’s blowing a huge load the more you tremble, and he’s goddamn crying from pleasure every time woah

those big ole lips are an absolute treat, yeah i’ll say it again his face is meant for this

wants to be called all kinds of names wow jongin, it just spurs him more

kai. is. so. good. 

you can most definitely film your own POV cam, jongin can put on one hell of a show. just this time it’s not his eyes flirting with the camera, it’s his tongue getting a nice rough treatment oh yum

don’t get me wrong he can deliver a romantic version of this, but kai just likes you being tough on his face he can’t deny it

uses his hands so you can ride him even harder, all his teddy bears will be falling off the bed like dominoes

might one day ascend to heaven while giving head, wouldn’t regret it

can do it until complete exhaustion you guys just pass out

being such an oral workaholic do i sense a masochist streak in him there? 

fucking typical capricorn

⌜ 💋  wong yukhei ⌟

▸ strength: appetite

first off yukhei is hilarious

it’s called eating out and that’s exactly what he does duh, he’s not nicknamed foodcas for no reason — the restaurant is open my dear, and he just served himself five courses (you)

gets super sweaty, forehead and down the neck, a 6′0 glazed bun can you imagine

giggles a lot, makes the atmosphere relaxed, loves banter before and after, an allround sweet experience

though beware, this guy is hungry. most prone to open his mouth super wide he wants to eat all of you at once

don’t tell kun how nasty he is, much less leader baekhyun, promise me that

and especially nosy kai should not hear about what sexy shit yukhei is doing in his freetime unless you want to trigger a war 

that being said the wayv dorm is still the safest place to sit on his face, so. it’s a lawless land there, nobody gives a fuck anymore at this point. yangyang would not even blink if ten murdered someone in cold blood on the balcony, that’s how the atmosphere there can be best described

lucas being a far more harmless himbo still ironically fits into the environment being so sexually insatiable, just how often are you going to fuck? it’s only natural to lose the overview

he loudly pouts and complains when it ends, wants to go on and on, you need a lotta stamina to get with this guy this is not a warning it’s a fact — yukhei really wants to tire himself out and give everything

if you lower your thighs just a little you can feel his dangly earrings. kinda sexy but also a safety concern i know i know, he’s not gonna wear them next time 

noisy as heck, wants to do well, always goes the extra mile to be sure you are all happy and satisfied with today’s dining

his tongue is... big...

we’re not gonna talk about that giant bulge either, such a huge tent in those pants it’s a whole camping ground. anyway

what we’ll talk about. his super soft blonde hair, we’re talking salon quality soft, that’s amazing to feel against your legs, it’s great to pull as well, or to twirl really playfully

though there’s not much playful going down when the initial inhibition drops

he’s not made of glass you can really get those hips going

sliding down his nose when you’re all wet... damn good stuff.

lucas is the kinda guy that has you grunting and gritting he loves your reactions, and how aggressive you can get. usually he’s the reaction king but like this? he can get used to it.

totally into having that kinda frog perspective it’s a whole new thing, he’s such a giant now he’s below you, the sight is just superb to him

less likely to have toys involved, but rather a bunch of rope for his chest, his arms, his long ass legs. yukhei is a bondage insider tip y’all

stable as a block of metal. if you go a little too wild on baekhyun he’s probably gonna break his mochi neck but lucas is a different calibre, this mf is made of giant muscles galore, i can only say one thing: finish him

⌜ 💋  mark lee ⌟

▸ strength: speed

talks a lot, even occasionally curses — instantly apologizing, but you curse right back, so this becomes the cussing olympics at some point, taeyong would bury his face in the ground all his parenting efforts have gone to waste

mark basically chokes himself

he can’t control his spit by all means jesus... in his own words: must be the drip then

next to taemin and baekhyun here we have the third drowning victim, mark is in serious need of multiple tissues or towels afterwards but that’s exactly what he likes

mark’s slutty side is not to be underestimated i’m warning you

that’s a healthy young man right here

loves to do quickies to get you off during daytime, if you’re horny just tell him and he’ll find a quiet spot, might do it on his knees rather than you riding him sometimes for practical reasons 

all options open, mark is flexible af. if someone can promote with nct dream and superm at the same time that’s the result

so yeah you’ll experiment with positions and even outfits, what’s the most comfortable to wear? 

few people even remotely think about this. mark himself stays in his signature sweater but the glasses come off, you know very well he’s a nerd without them he has nothing to prove lmao!

the clothes will be cozy but don’t let that fool you yet alright

this guy has watched too much porn to just keep it light and cute

don’t get me wrong you can baby him ad nauseam for the more gentle femdom moods

but at the end of the day mark loves some intense shit, he likes feisty girls who aren’t coy and subby, the more perverted you are the better, in fact he enjoys being shocked with brazen attitude and getting orders on what to do.

loves it when you to take it all out on him, rough is good. mark lee’s face is the rodeo range of super m alright, just don’t break his glorious jaw or anything, he still needs it okay

but yeah mark’s face is tempting to ride hard not gonna lie

his tongue can go so fast it’s at the speed of sound, no, the speed of fucking light. mark goes crazy on your clit, wait a few seconds, boom five orgasms rain down on you. 

it’s like an anime swordsman just lifting the sword hilt, walking off calmly, and one minute later things are in shambles like how? mark’s sword tech is just epic like that

he’s a leo what did we expect, show-off

in the meantime, RIP to mark lee’s pants. they’ll be soaked with cum, gonna be a bitch to hide your clothes from taeyong who’s always eager to wash everything by himself

that aside, mark really enjoys the position, he doesn’t need much else to be honest, he goes “oh my god oh shit” enough for you to know

thank god he’s a rapper, otherwise his dang technique would be dangerous, he doesn’t breathe for half a minute or so

enjoys you really doing shallow thrusts, super fast and sloppy, loves how much you enjoy it

needless to say: breaks a guinness world record for most licks per second, it’s that mark lee flow

long story short his face is your favorite spot he can prepare for a daily session

all that practice on water melons paid off good job markly

⌜ 💋  ten lee ⌟

▸ strength: allround skill

you know a pro by how he’s offering you a tall glass of water beforehand

and by the way he’s chugging one himself

champion, a keeper

you’re guaranteed to love it, ten is amazing

takes his time, gets to know your every inch, figures out your soft spots in a matter of minutes to seconds

everything for his sexy mama, service sub right here

take him on a leash, grind on his lips, make him kiss your clit, he’ll respond by circling his tongue around obediently

chittaphon might be a little fidgety at the beginning, but the atmosphere is not as tense anymore after doing it two or three times. 

ten is actually quite good cracking lighthearted jokes and showing his more extroverted side, he always gets like that with a partner. 

you have an easy time with build-up conversations and communicating in general, same with aftercare pillow talk

that being said the degree of professionalism this guy is heading for needs a lot of talk in the first place. 

ten likes doing advanced things that aren’t just intuitively understood, you need to exchange yourself a lot

through trial and error you figure out how to incorporate sex toys into the little routine you have going on

the pleasure will be so intense you’ll never want anything else fuck

ten is also down for a lot of moving around, some athletic shit

you’ll go from bouncing on his dick to smothering his face back and forth pretty much, let’s see how fast you’re gonna bust a huge nut like that my bet is five minutes

those like “oh... ah—” moans are just angelic

since he focuses so much on your erogenous zones and always keeps his hands involved, ten is always guaranteed to have you breaking a major sweat

ten does not like to eat any fruits, they say. well that’s true, because he’s too busy eating you that is. boy can basically retire from citizenhood, he’s that busy between your legs. 

enough fruit juice for an entire week impending, don’t worry about his nutrients, this is also a form of diet.

uses his chin, his cheeks, the nose especially, the damn nose it’s perfectly shaped

wants you to really ride him hard, and fast, no holds barred at all, going so feral he’ll be squeezing his eyes shut

sometimes his hair gets in the way, it’s just so damn long. the result: hair ties for face-sitting, always on his wrist

among all members, buries his face the deepest, turns him on so much

always makes sure you’re both washed up, no impromptu sessions. ten is a hygiene priest and he’s right

the mattress is kinda bouncy and he always uses his favorite soft pillow under his head so you can definitely take mister ten lee to pound town like work your hips give it to him

in case he survives i send my congrats, you got yourself the right guy, terrific choice queen

⌜ 💋  lee taeyong ⌟

▸ strength: ideas

how much more religiously can he eat you out, he treats this like the best reward he can get

as you can probably tell by now, all the lee surname members are definitely a certain brand and clan of highly distinguished pussy eaters like, these guys are a fucking gang like... well taeyong is no different

reckless abandon oral, eats you like it’s the last day, even death fears lee taeyong when he’s in giving head mode

you might be showering together beforehand and be all shy and kissy like it’s puppy love. but that is all for naught when the tongue of god is unleashed and taeyong gets himself as messed up as he can

yeah i like the thought of god being incarnated as kinky taeyong begging to have his mouth spit and cummed in it just makes sense

very deep mumbles, very hard breathing, those veiny hands on your waist, he wants to make you feel good so bad, fuck he’s so sexy

intense facial expressions, need i say more

also um... he likes to be... threatened. he’s the student you’re the teacher, strict as hell surveying his every move, the more you yell at him the harder he gets, jesus christ he has a thing for you acting mad and shit

taeyong doesn’t even need you to pull off your underwear, he’s gone get through any type of fabric with that leaking mouth

let’s just say he likes to experiment with innovative techniques... anyway, taeyong is a nasty fucking freak, he’s a grade A hoe, you never know what to expect

one time he just licks like a shy doe, the next second slurping explosion 5000

imagine whipping his thighs with a riding crop while sitting right on that ultra gorgeous elven prince face like

taeyong is almost always getting super emotional. he sheds even more tears than kai, like at some point you’ll develop a crying kink because of him SOS

nervous as hell, shaky hands. that can easily be fixed sir let’s tie em up

has you moaning nonstop, he’s so engaged and so dead-on with his movements. don’t be surprised if this damned man has your eyes almost falling out

beware, this guy is into full-on sensual deprivation as well. blindfolds are only the start. 

you might end up with a whole lotta black latex involved, who knows, a whole gimp on him he’s down for that, he learned from ten what it is blame chittaphon’s vast kinky knowledge

even better: while you’re grinding on him, taeyong likes you pumping his cock with a fleshlight with zero mercy until he yelps in tiny oops

hell he might ask you to roughly fuck his face with a strap and then ride it, the mister likes double treats huh

then again: wants it to be degrading and dirty and intense on some days, and really wholesome and romantic on others

especially aftercare will be sweet and dulcet, you take care of him, pepper him with kisses for being such a dutiful boy.

looks pretty no matter what. maybe he’s born with it maybe it’s tyongbelline. yeah just how handsome is that face and hair like... t’yongreal paris in full splendor

long story short he’s an oral deity. i rest my case howdy and goodbye see you next time aye

superm masterlist

© submissive-bangtan 2017-2021. all rights reserved. do not repost or translate. all depictions fictional.

[jazzythursday]

I’m about to go into another very long Marvel rant/dissertation here— mostly for myself— that I started writing soon after the Loki Series finale so please feel free to just scroll past this, because honestly I think I kinda overdid this one. It’s jaded and overly dramatic even for me. You have been warned:

The last 4 Marvel movies/shows I’ve watched left me feeling so completely depressed and unsatisfied and hopeless about the future of popular entertainment and story telling in general, and I know I’m not the only one. The fact that fans are going into these experiences hoping for a good story and character arcs that make sense with prior characterization, and leaving feeling… empty is a very clear sign that their approach leaves a lot to be desired.

Infinite War had some valid reasons to end the way it did, because by having our heroes fall so much harder than ever before, it built up the tension and high stakes for the next film. But what does that do when Endgame leaves us feeling even worse? I wanted them to triumph and finally come together to be better. I expected there would be losses of course but not enough to negate the wins. Instead the characters were subjugated for plot, characterization was watered down, and we lost all the original Avengers besides Thor and Bruce (who was no longer even Bruce). Peter loses Tony, Thor’s previous loses are permanent, and so many other things that, in spite of loving a lot of the movie, mean I haven’t been able to stop being sad about it for literal years. And the amount of thoughtless destruction that seems to be at an all time high when it comes to character’s lives and disregard for properly exploring emotions just doesn’t leave much to be expected at this point. Far From Home was good. It was. I liked it a lot. The acting was wonderful and there were some really interesting themes they grappled with but I still walked out of the theater feeling like there was still so much detachment surrounding a lot of the decisions, a little too much thoughtlessness (that, and the gaping hole of Tony). I’m not going to talk about WandaVistion but I’ll say that I was invested until the start of episode 8, and finished episode 9 feeling drained and tired and sad.

Then we get to Loki, a show which has plagued far too many of my thoughts since I started watching it, and has crushed my hopes for ever truly being happy with a Marvel project ever again. Loki is a character who’s ostensibly felt alienated and unseen for most of his life, and that’s before finding out about his parentage. His first movie ends with his suicide attempt and subsequent fall into the void. His second takes place a year into working under Thanos and ends with him being taken away in chains (yes I know he’s the villain he’s done bad things etc. etc. but for the purposes of this I’m only focusing on his pov). Then his third involves his solitary imprisonment, his mother’s death, and his near-death (considering the likelihood that he was actually stabbed), although it does end on a lighter note with his acquisition of the throne. Then we get his redemption and reconciliation with Thor in Ragnarok, immediately followed by the utter tragedy that is the first 10 minutes of Infinite War, which I don’t think I need to explain.

So what I suppose I’m saying here (very very inadequately) is that after all of that, I can’t believe the proper story to tell in his first chance at being a main protagonist was one where he’s constantly degraded and beat up, convicted of things he didn’t actually do, given no focus on backstory or implied/established motivations, and labeled as a clown and a narcissist! His powers are weakened, he displays almost no recognizable mannerisms or competence, he’s held to a higher moral standard than every other character, shown no respect, and ultimately loses EVEN MORE. We’ve seen him lose and lose and lose and lose again. We’ve seen him die THREE TIMES, we’ve seen him redeemed TWICE. So who in their right mind thinks that the most compelling story to tell after all of that was to see him LOSE AGAIN?! And not only lose, but lose without any real triumph, dignity, or acknowledgment beforehand. Death to the author aside, reading the utter nonsense the team behind it have spread, it’s so clear that it wasn’t made in good faith. Whether in ignorance or true maliciousness, they just don’t care. They didn’t research. They didn’t try and see things from his point of view. They didn’t truly sympathize with him as a person while writing. They didn’t understand. And they truly, truly wanted him to fail.

I’m tired of feeling hopeless at the end of everything, of leaving the theater or turning off the TV wondering why I even bothered, why I even care when I’m just being strung along with as little consideration as an audience as my favorite characters. I wanted to actively see him strive to be better, not just be told he could be. I wanted to see him triumph over his demons, not forget them. I wanted to see him be the “master of magic” that every other damn movie has alluded to, and to use his powers effectively. I wanted him to be powerful. I wanted him to, if not win, then win on a personal level at least. I wanted to see him take agency in his life and PROVE EVERYONE WRONG! And, though it’s now bafflingly controversial to say, I wanted it to be told by an experienced and competent writing and directing team that knew and understood his character and were passionate about telling his story.

I would ascribe to the notion of “don’t like it, don’t watch” if I could but I care to much to not be affected by this obvious decline in quality and awareness. And I’m a relatively recent fan. I haven’t been waiting for Loki to get his moment in the sun for 10 years. I’M NEW HERE, and my heart breaks so much for fans of the original movies who have lost their love of Marvel or Loki because of the way it’s been handled. No one should fall further than they can climb up from, and I’m tired of watching loss after loss and never getting the release of gaining enough of it back. What’s the point of caring about these characters if the writers won’t? Of investing in a connecting cinematic universe if it lacks continuity? Of looking for clues and foreshadowing when there isn’t any and the only twists are random and pander to shock value? The way these pieces/characters are being created and interpreted is reductive and incompetent, and for once I’d like to watch something that feels crafted, inspiring, and gratifying to see to the end.

If some people like the Loki show we got, I have no argument against that, because my own opinion is just as subjective as theirs. Though, I’d like to think that if what I want is for the show to be better out of love for the same character, then what they enjoyed from the show can coexist in that. If anyone’s actually read up to this point, I have to admit I’ve forgotten mine. Mostly I just wanted to express my frustrations over how unfeeling and stale most entertainment, specifically from Marvel as of late, has been.

TL;DR: I care too much, waaay too much, Marvel cares too little, Disney doesn’t care at all, and I don’t know how to accept that.