#gimme all your 'irredeemable' characters

[bougiebutchbinch]

still baffling to me how certain fans heard shen jiu say 'Even if all of this could be redone from the beginning, in the end, the conclusion would remain the same. My heart is full of malice, my insides hatred and resentment. Today, Luo Binghe wishes for me to die horribly, and I only have myself to blame' and.... believed him at face value?????

When he was literally saying that to try and get Yue Qingyuan away from him so he wouldn't be caught up in his mess???

Like - 'Get far away, as far as you can. From now on, never again involve yourself with a thing like Shen Qingqiu.'

This man is an ex-slave overflowing with jealousy and hatred for everyone and everything including himself. He is desperate to be considered an equal with others, but still sees himself (deep down) as a thing. Even when others do see him as one of them, within his own mind, he is always lesser!! He thinks he's continuously being looked down on and has to scrabble like a rat to catch up, because that was his entire childhood! He values his pride above his own life and happiness because pride is the only thing he had left and even that was taken from him! The torment nexus is of his own creation, and it's tragic and beautiful! And he is a lying liar who lies to everyone including himself?????

He thinks of himself as doomed and irreparable! He bites every hand that feeds him for having the audacity to show him pity, but also wishes (as he says to YQY in that one scene!) that other people would show him kindness first. Even if (I think) he wouldn't know what to do with it and would mistrust it terribly!

He is just the most blatant 'problematique abuse victim who pushes everyone around him until they snap and start to despise him because he cannot fathom a world in which he is not loathed and seen as less-than human'.

And he absolutely could have a well-written and believable in-character redemption arc. He's a horrible nasty person who made horrible nasty choices and I think that if just a few things beyond his control had been, um, written differently (i.e., Liu Qingge; Yue Qingyuan actually explaining during the cave scene...) his whole life would've taken a different and much happier track. Despite, yes, him still being a self-sabotaging abusive cunt. That's the FUN OF HIM, dammit.

But alas, he is but a character in a novel within a novel, where he is tragically doomed by his own rancid personality! And that is fun too!

[spongebobafettywap]

I accidentally stumbled on your blog for JJBA content of all kind and sorta fell back into the rabbit hole that was current X-Men through it with the "Maz answers" tag.

And can I just say, scrolling down all that read almost prophetical ?

Like no joke, you and the fans/anons predicted :

- All the plotholes that would come from a Destiny retcon, which are now all canon, remain unsolved and made everything so incoherent

- The fact Margali would be thrown under the bus as Nightcrawler's only genuinely good parent to make his new one look better

- The incoherence of us having already seen Mystique pregnant with Nightcrawler, going through the general prenatal check ups and labor + her baby being born a mutant being the main reasons she lost her disguise and had to go on the run in all other versions

- The way this retcon makes Mystique and Destiny completely irredeemable and unforgivable as parents (but all is forgiven because plot needs to keep going)

- The complete power discrepancy between Mystique, Nightcrawler and Destiny and well as their dynamics not making sense anymore

- 20 years of stories about Nightcrawler's conflicts with Azazel and him besting him as his own game going in the trash

- The timeline breaking apart from this mess because Destiny was too old for this shit anyway

Every problem was brought up by you and fans here as far as a year before this retcon was made.

The only thing you guys didn't predict was the mind wipe because of how cheap a writer needs to be to pull something like that for a character (Mystique) that's immune to most telepathic interventions and mind reading

You guys need to be editors at Marvel honestly

Haha Anon thank you for the kind words towards me and the other anons. But honestly it's not like we were predicting something that is unheard of, Marvel is just so predictable with how it writes stories in general that you can come up with a story that you think Marvel would do and then in months or years down the line it happens.

Think of a type of event comic that Marvel would do, like say Galactus is killed and it's a murder mystery, or The Hulks all decide they need to fight each other. Eventually Marvel is gonna do it.

We were able to predict what they did with The Nightcrawler family because anything else would be way less likely. There's not really many stories that don't treat Margali like a joke, most of Kurt's interaction with his father and mother are limited and honestly the better interactions are between him and Azazel despite Mystique being a longer established character. Him and Mystique rarely interact in situations where the narrative would call for it in a good story. The times they do it's always the same Mystique betrays him in some way shape or form.

Destiny kind of just is a plot device really she's always used to predict future events or reveal the past. I tend not to like those types of characters in fiction if it's to the point where the visions they have is all their character mostly amounts to. Compare her to Vakaka from Bionicle who had visions of the future and possible futures but also had his own story arc of becoming the hero he needed to be, falling into his dark desires then returning to being a hero and eventually the wise elder.

Not saying Destiny needs to do that but she does need to be more than just visions and Mystiques lover.

Did you read how we said the 2nd intended origin for Nightcrawler would make way more sense as Rogue's origins? I wonder why X-Men fans seemingly forget that Mystique and Raven already HAD a child together. Is it because she's adopted? or is it because her an Nighrcrawler barely have dialogue where they act like siblings? Rogue usually gets the better interactions with Mystique in the end.

Anyway yeah Marvel just either does things for shock value which becomes predictable or they just keep repeating what they did before which is also predictable and at that point a lot of people tune out and move onto stories that are less gimmicky and have an actual narrative

[seijorhi]

Rabid.

The brainrot was real, guys. Hope you like it :))

Kyoutani Kentarou x female reader

tw blood, violence, implied minor character death, non-con, smut, nsfw

There’s blood splattered across the back of his hands the first time you make the unwitting mistake of catching Kyoutani’s attention. He usually can’t be fucked wasting time wrapping his fists; the skin across one of his knuckles is split and raw from his last job, but most of the blood isn’t his.

And the other guy got off far, far worse.

But he wouldn’t have noticed – it comes with the territory and he’s never really given a fuck whether there’s blood on his clothes or not – if it hadn’t been for that tiny gasp.

That soft, sharp little intake of breath, and like the rabid dog they claim he is, he snaps to the threat.

Nobody else at the table notices, and you seem to realise your mistake, freezing up the moment those honey brown eyes flash and zero in on you. Your throat bobs unsteadily – you look like a deer caught in headlights. Startled. Terrified. 

Kinda fuckin’ adorable, if he’s being honest.

“I– I’m sorry, sir,” you mutter, ducking your head as you set down his drink with a tremor in your hand.

Vaguely, he registers Makki’s choked snort at the honorific – nobody’s ever called him sir before – but he can’t really find it in himself to give a fuck that the two of you have drawn an audience.

Not when you’re still frozen, hardly daring to draw breath at his side. 

You’re new, that much is painfully obvious, but not stupid. You know who he is – who they are, and despite his reputation, he’s never been one to get off on fear or some fucked up version of a power trip; Kyoutani simply likes the feeling of lashing out, beating the absolute shit out of some asshole just because he can.

Because it feels good, gets his blood pumping.

Nobody would lift a finger to help you if he decided to take offence to your little slip up. And truthfully, he couldn’t give a shit – he’s used to people being on edge around him and it’s not like you’ve reacted any other way than how you’re supposed to. 

It’s natural for you to be startled, scared even. But not here, not with them. Here you should know better, because here is filled to the fucking brim with men like Kyoutani. Oh sure, they might be prettier, polished and charming like Oikawa, but you’d have to be a goddamn idiot to think the man hasn’t stepped over bodies he’s put in the ground to get where he is. 

At least Kyoutani never has to pretend to be anything other than what he is.

But a little blood in a place like this shouldn’t raise an eyebrow, and the way you’re staring at the table, eyes cast down and wide; Kyoutani can almost hear you cursing yourself out for your own stupidity. And it strikes him as he stares at you, drinking in every subtle shift in your body language, wondering why you don’t just tuck tail and run off like you so clearly want to, that you really don't belong in a place like this.

“Something the matter, Mad Dog?” a silken voice purrs, and he tears his eyes away from your trembling form to glance back at his boss, sitting at the head of the table. The brunette’s smiling idly, appraising the two of you and Kyoutani feels you stiffen beside him. 

You don’t dare open your mouth, don’t so much as twitch, not even as Kyoutani returns his attention back to you. By now the entire table has quietened down, most if not all of the gathered men staring at you and you – pretty eyes filling with tears, hands clasped together and trembling in front of your dress – look like you just want the floor to open up and swallow you whole. And somewhat selfishly, there’s a part of Kyoutani that wants to keep you there like that.

Not afraid, exactly. Just… there. 

He can’t explain it, doesn’t know why he hasn’t just told you to fuck off back to the kitchen, dismissed you with a grunt like he would have if any of the other servers had made the same mistake. He has bigger shit to worry about than some perceived fucking offence, but he finds himself pausing, drawing this little moment out for a lifetime before finally putting an end to it, “No.”

He jerks his chin, breaking the moment between the two of you to reach for the drink you’d set down before him, but still you don’t move, glancing between him and Oikawa like you’re afraid to move – as if you’re terrified that you’ve read this situation wrong and one wrong step and you’ll just make things worse. It’s so fucking endearing that he almost snorts, but it takes Oikawa’s voice, calm and level and almost kind to shake you out of your frozen state, “Run along now, cutie.”

You scamper off without a backwards glance, and if anybody notices Kyoutani watching you out of the corner of his eye while he nurses his drink, they have the better sense to keep their mouths shut about it.

And honest to god, it’s the last he expects to see of you. He’s not so stupid as to think you landed the job because you genuinely wanted it; people don’t end up in places like this because they have choices, they end up here because somebody somewhere along the line fucked up. 

This city’s filthy, full of irredeemable pieces of shit like him and it takes innocence like yours, chews it up and spits it out. If you were smart, you would have left after your little run-in with him, so why the fuck are you right back in their private room less than a week later, nails biting into your palm and resolutely refusing to meet his eye?

Oikawa’s busy rattling off a list of drinks he wants, but this time it’s Kyoutani who’s frozen in place, staring at you with a scowl that has you shivering even as you nod at the Oyabun. He knows Iwaizumi at least is watching him with some kind of morbid combination of curiosity and concern, can’t find it within him to care as you try and slip from the room, giving him as wide a berth as you can without it seeming rude–

Not wide enough. Before he even registers that he’s moved Kyoutani’s reaching out to grab your forearm – his grip not tight enough to hurt, just to stop you from running off on him again. And the little squeak that leaves your soft looking lips sends a ripple of something electric jolting down his spine, but you know better than to try and pull away.

God, he can feel your pulse racing beneath your skin, every terrified thump of your heart. It’s addictive, he thinks, the feeling he gets just from touching you. 

“Gimme a beer,” he grunts, waiting until you finally meet his eye.

The nervous little nod you give strokes some part of him he hadn’t realised existed. Kyoutani likes you like this; all timid and obedient. A little too much, maybe. 

There’s a sharp elbow in his side courtesy of Yahaba, and he reluctantly releases his grip on you, leaving you to scamper away once more. Cute.

Yahaba makes some snarky comment under his breath and he barely fucking registers it, fixated instead on the skin of his palm; still warm and tingling from your touch. His hands are rough, scarred and calloused, the skin over his knuckles split from another job last night, a little red and bruised – even as he tightens his fingers into a fist they sting just a little.

Guns have their purpose, he’s not against a knife if he’s feeling particularly fucking vindictive, but Kyoutani’s favourite has always been his fists. There’s something about the feeling of skin and muscle giving way beneath his blows, taking all that pent up rage and aggression and letting loose with his fists. It’s a kind of euphoria he’s never found anywhere else; not in women or men or drugs or alcohol. Nothing comes close to the feeling he gets straddling some pathetic piece of shit and beating the absolute fucking crap out of him.

Sometimes if he goes a few days without a fight, he gets a little jittery. Not like the tweakers do, it’s not withdrawal so much as… a building up of restless, rabid energy. He gets on edge, snaps more, lashing out over petty shit until some poor asshole makes the mistake of looking at him the wrong way and Kyoutani just fucking looses it.

He feels it now, that same burning itch under his skin. He’s never thought of his hands as anything more weapons, but touching you, the warmth of your skin, how smooth and soft it was–

Kyoutani wants to do it again. Wants to touch more of you. And he’s not so fucked up yet that he doesn’t realise how twisted this all is, how a guy like him doesn’t belong within a thousand miles of some sweet, cute innocent thing like you. But the world ain’t fucking fair; you’re here and for whatever reason Oikawa’s taken a liking to you and so whenever they’re at the club, you’re the one management send to make sure they’re happy.

And Kyoutani wonders, golden eyes burning a hole into your back as you hastily clear away their empty glasses, whether you realise that if any one of them asked for a dance or for you to get on your knees and blow them, you’d be expected to do that, too.

You might as well be on Seijoh’s payroll now, just be thankful that as far as that side of things go, they’re not the monsters that the rumours make them out to be.

Not that he hasn’t noticed Mattsun’s gaze drifting to your ass when you lean over the table to grab something, the older man shooting him a salacious wink when he notices he’s glaring.

Not that he hasn’t let his own imagination take hold, leaning up against the glass wall of his shower first thing in the morning. His fist pumping along his throbbing cock, wondering what it’d be like to see you on your knees, those pretty eyes full of tears, staring up at him as you swallow him down like the good girl he knows you are.

The thing is, he’s never made all that much of an effort to hide his feelings from the others. He doesn’t give a shit if it makes him the butt of their jokes, doesn’t care what they think about the way he watches you – his attention snapping towards you the moment you slip past the door, purposefully trying to avoid his gaze. Not that it ever does you much good. 

Oikawa hasn’t said shit, and that’s enough of a go-ahead as Kyoutani needs. It’s none of their fucking business anyway. 

You’ve managed to get under his skin, push him to the fucking brink when he goes more than a few days without seeing you. He knows you don’t want any part of this; that you’re still fucking terrified of him. Kyoutani’s never been one to chase after somebody who wants nothing to do with him – there are plenty of women more than willing to spread their legs for Seijoh’s big bad Mad Dog if he wants an itch scratched. There’s no good reason why he can’t get you out of his head, why you’ve sunk your teeth into him and refuse to let go – even when it’s clear that that’s so fucking far from what you intended with the blonde.

It doesn’t matter. At the end of the day, it doesn’t change shit; you’re his, whether you’re willing to acknowledge that or not.

And maybe he’s just living with his head up his ass, but he doesn’t quite realise how fucking inadequate this whole arrangement is until he needs a piss one night and ventures out into the club only to see some asshole trying to cop a feel and tug you down to his lap, his friends drunk and howling with laughter as you try to politely escape them. 

Distantly he registers that he recognises the piece of shit as some low level fucking drug lord who’s been all but sucking Oikawa’s dick trying to get a bigger piece of the pie, but in that moment, he honestly doesn’t give a fuck who he is.

Kyoutani just sees red. 

Nostrils flaring, steam practically pouring from his ears, he storms over. And adrenaline’s surging through him with every pounding beat of his heart, every synapse in his body’s electrified, ready to lay into this piece of shit for daring to lay a finger on what’s his.

He wants to beat him bloody, wants to fuck up his face – to whale on him until muscle and bone give way and there’s nothing left but bloody pulp where his head used to be. Him and his fucking friends.

But Kyoutani has his priorities, and he reaches you first, grabbing you by your elbow and ripping you away from them, a muscled arm curling protectively around your waist. And he’s deaf to whatever protests you have, to the excuses the pieces of crap in front of him offer up, can’t hear a goddamn thing over the pounding in his head as he fixes them with a snarl and all but drags you back to their room, shoving you less than gently in through the door.

“Stay here, don’t move until I get back,” he orders, and he loves you, he does, but when you open your mouth to argue, something inside of him tightens and snaps. He grabs you by the jaw, jerking your face up as he crowds in over you, golden eyes ablaze, “Not a fucking muscle, understand?”

He doesn’t wait for an answer, crashing his lips down on yours to steal the kiss he’s been waiting fucking weeks for before stalking back out. 

Kyoutani is beyond caring about ramifications, Oikawa’s always given him a fairly loose leash to do as he pleases and if this is what puts an end to that so fucking be it; he’ll take you and go. But he hears Iwa and Mattsun on his heels and neither one of them are trying to stop him as he storms back towards the drug lord and his little cronies, so he figures the boss ain’t too fucking bothered with what he’s about to do.

And maybe if he’d had a clearer head, he might’ve found it funny how quickly the floor clears when he vaults the couch, grabs the asshole by the front of his silk shirt and heaves him forward, sending him careening face first into a table full of drinks. 

With the taste of you on his lips, the memory of this piece of shit’s hands all over you, Kyoutani doesn’t hold back. 

The others are gone by the time he, Iwa and Mattsun return, it’s just Oikawa casually leaning back in his seat, you sitting rigidly in the one beside him, his arm casually draped over the back of your chair. 

Kyoutani’s eyes flicker tensely between the two of you – he’s still on edge, still not right. He needs something more to feed that rabid fucking monster lurking beneath his skin, and his Oyabun knows it. 

Oikawa smiles genially, patting your knee for just a moment (and oh, how Kyoutani hates the flash of jealous rage that rears its ugly head when he leans over and whispers something in your ear) before standing up.

“Mad Dog,” he says, eyeing him with a shrewd look he recognises all too well. “We’ll talk tomorrow.” He nods at the two behind him and without another word the three of them exit, no doubt to try and smooth over the mess he’d just made.

Leaving Kyoutani alone with you.

And there’s a part of him that’s pissed off, because this was always gonna happen, but fuck, he was gonna make an effort. He’d wanted it to be nice for you… romantic, or at least as romantic as somebody like him was capable of.

You deserve that much.

His blood’s still thrumming, remnants of blind fury and jealousy and possessive need still burning through his veins. The fight wasn’t enough to sate him; it should’ve been – he’d left them in fucking pieces – but then again you’ve been toeing this line for a long, long time, and Kyoutani’s patience only goes so far.

He should at least take you back to his apartment, try and salvage this disaster of a night, but he knows deep down he can’t make himself walk out of here with you without taking what he needs.

He’s still not entirely in control, breathing hard as he stares at you, watches you fiddle with your hands in your lap, refusing to meet his gaze. “Stand up,” he says, his voice a rough growl.

On shaking legs, you obey, eyes flickering towards the doorway behind him, and distantly he wonders what you’re thinking. You’re foolishly naive, he’ll admit that much, but he doesn’t think you’re stupid. You know where this is going, and you must know that there is nobody and nothing that’s gonna stop what’s about to happen. Not even you.

His tongue darts out to wet his lips, and now he’s the one to draw in an unsteady breath. “Strip.”

You blanch, eyes widening in pure panic. And there’s a part of him that feels guilty, that knows he’s scaring you right now and hates himself for it, but any chance of rationality winning out fled the moment he saw somebody else put their hands all over you.

“Strip,” he repeats when you make no move to start taking your clothes off. “Or I’ll rip that pretty fucking dress off myself.”

Kyoutani adores that little catch in your breath, the way you bite down on your bottom lip as you give in, meekly reaching for the zipper at your back.

You’re so fucking beautiful, every mouthwatering inch of you. Tentatively, you glance up at him after your dress hits the floor, as if you’re hoping that that’ll be enough, that he doesn’t want to see all of you. Any other time, and the sight of you in your matching set of lingerie might’ve been enough to calm him, but it’s not what he needs tonight. 

His scowl deepens, and you’re clever enough to read between the lines. Your bra goes first, pretty lace panties joining the small pile of clothes on the floor a moment later. 

Good girl.

His eyes darken as he stares, hungrily taking you in. Soft tits, nipples pebbling under the cool air, he’s dying to touch them, suck on them, mark them up nice and fuckin’ pretty. The gentle swell of your ass, smooth, supple thighs he can’t wait to get his hands on, and that cute little cunt of yours, all his. His to play with, his to tease, his to claim. Fuck, this is better than all the images he’s conjured up of you in the heat of the moment, stroking his cock to get off with his head thrown back and eyes squeezed shut. He wants to compliment you, tell you how perfect you are, how cute you are – trembling naked in front of him, but he’s beyond words right now, hanging onto his control by a fucking thread as his cock twitches in his pants, all that blood rushing south.

You look like you’re about to burst into tears as you swallow, taking in a quick, hitching breath. “Kyoutani,” you begin in a soft, tiny voice–

And that last little thread snaps.

He’s on you before you can stop him, spinning you around and roughly slamming your hips up against the table. There’s no time to be soft or gentle, no time to even take off his pants, he just shoves them down to his thighs and reaches for his cock.

Fuck, he’d wanted to eat you out, to stuff you full of his fingers and make you cum on them first, get you nice and stretched out, but he’s still too wound up. Kyoutani needs to be buried inside of you, needs to fuck you – he’ll make it up to you afterwards, he swears it.

He’ll treat you like a fucking princess, just be good for him now. 

And the scream that shatters that calm night air should tear at him – he doesn’t want to hurt you, not ever, it’s his job to protect you – but he can’t focus on that when your pussy’s clamping down around his fat cock, a dizzying heat enveloping him as your walls flutter and squeeze against the unwanted intrusion.

It feels like fucking heaven. Kyoutani’s hands are everywhere; your tits, your ass, squeezing reassuringly at your hip when a broken sob leaves your lips. And he’s kissing at your shoulders, nuzzling at your neck even as his teeth nip at the sensitive skin, desperate to be as close to you as he can as his hips draw back and he pounds back in, grunting like a beast in heat.

He fucks you savagely, your hips slamming against the table with every thrust – there’ll be bruises no doubt, but he’ll look after those too. He swears to fucking god, he’ll take such good care of you. You’re gonna be his girl. You are his girl.

It’s easier than it should be to drown out your agonised cries and pleas for him to slow down, to chase his own pleasure within your tight, wet heat, his cock ramming up against your cervix with every stroke. 

He loves you, loves the feeling of being inside of you – fuck, Kyoutani doesn’t think he ever wants to leave. His fingers find your clit and you cry out, a shudder wracking your body that almost has him seeing stars with the way your pussy tightens and convulses around him in response. He loses his rhythm as he nears his end, hips jackrabbiting into your poor, abused cunt as his balls tighten.

You’re slick now, cunt drooling around him as he fucks you hard and fast, lewd slaps echoing out with every brutal thrust. Kyoutani knows he’s holding you too tight, knows it’s probably hurting but he can’t fucking care when he’s so close and you feel so fucking good–

His teeth sink into your neck as that blinding pleasure takes hold; his entire body seizing up, abs tightening as his orgasm slams into him. Kyoutani cums with a hissed snarl, crushing you against him as thick, warm spurts fill your perfect little cunt right up. He fucks you through it, a slow, lazy grind of his hips against yours as he milks his orgasm for all it’s worth, pressing gentle, soothing kisses along your collarbone while you sniffle and sob pathetically.

“Love you,” he grunts quietly – truthfully – letting your exhausted body collapse back against the table. And it’s now he regrets not having taken you home to do this on an actual bed, just so he could lie you down somewhere soft afterwards and curl up beside you. 

Still, there’s not much he can do but try and comfort you as best he can, rough fingers running soothingly up and down your back as he waits for you to calm down. He pauses after a moment though, staring oddly at his hands.

There’s blood smeared across his skin, caked under his nails, splattered up his tattooed forearms. And Kyoutani can’t help the satisfied smirk that tugs at his lips as he leans over to kiss your shoulder again, his cock still stuffed inside of you. 

Most of it isn’t his.

And the other guy got off far, far worse.

[2hoothoots]

Norma Natividad for the ask meme.

YOU'VE ACTIVATED MY TRAP CARD

First Impression:

i was so on board with Norma from the first meeting. it's like oooh, you're mean for no reason and think you know more than everyone else in the room? yeah I think I'm gonna like you

Impression Now:

Norma is mean and petty and thinks she's better than you but also that she's terrible and irredeemable and MAN, I love her so much. both because I think she has a lot of hidden depth and room for development, but also because even at face value she's just really fun? she sees this random ten year old and Immediately decides he's a double agent and she's the only one smart enough to see through his act. like, it's so great and pathetic. Norma is great.

Favourite Moment:

I really like the scene where Norma brings Truman to the Heptadome. she's so pleased with herself, and then it turns out that she got everything wrong and it blows up in her face in spectacular fashion, and I think it's a perfect comeuppance for her haha. nice job with the consequences of your own actions, dumbass

Idea for a Story:

hmmm, it's tough to think of any because usually if I come up with something for Norma I just. write it myself because she's my fave lol. can I steal Cosmignon's answer? I'd really love to see the scene where Norma goes to Morris with the realisation that she messed up Big Time

Unpopular Opinion:

I feel like all of my Norma opinions are unpopular hahaha. people will say they want flawed female characters and then act like Norma's an irredeemable monster just for being an asshole to Raz

lol but as a more serious answer: I think it's mischaracterising to describe her as a bully? like, she's a jerk, but her motivations for messing with Raz are entirely because she's convinced he's the mole. she's not someone who goes out of her way to screw with people for no reason, or for some kind of sense of superiority, or whatever. her actions are premeditated, and you can see that clearly in how her attitude towards Raz does a 180 when she realises he's not the mole. I think understanding her motivations is key to understanding her as a character, and I think assuming she's just a bully undercuts a lot of her depth.

Favourite Relationship:

maybe a gimme but I love the Natividad sisters' relationship. I just find siblings really interesting! and I love the "slightly estranged but they still really love and care for each other they're just both too emotionally constipated to say it" dynamic there. honorable mention goes to Norma/Frazie because gay people

Favourite Headcanon:

I really like the idea that Sasha was Norma's intern mentor. I guess that's my second answer for the 'story idea' question, I would love to see that mentorship play out. I also think it's somewhere Norma's positive traits (because I promise she has them!) could really shine.

[shipcestftw]

AUs where YB(Peter) is Your Brother

the Your Boyfriend fandom is already a gatekeeping mess let's see how much hate this can generate lol

I haven't even played this game this is based on what I know about the character from the fandom. I know he has a sister in canon but I just ignored her lol

and yes, this is sibling incest au. Y/N doesn't have to be you in particular I consider them their own character and also nonbinary (they/them). don't like don't read ;D

Where YB is the older one (age difference is up to you!):

before Y/N was born, he hated the idea of having a sibling. his parents put the new baby in his arms for the first time and he said "Ew, no thanks! Can I go now?"

he warmed up to being a big brother over time

Y/N and YB's parents were lousy and neglectful and YB had to make them breakfast and lunch sometimes, which was often just cereal

this was the time he switched to being more protective big brother

he still gave Y/N piggyback rides even when they were getting so heavy. Y/N was like "Are you sure I'm not too big?" and YB was like "No! I got this!"

(violence/blood tw) one day some kids bullied Y/N in school. YB heard them crying, listened, and then was like "OK, I'll be right back." he comes back and happily announces that he talked to the bullies and they switched schools and won't bother Y/N again. Y/N was so happy about that! but they later found a bloody knife that YB told them not to worry about

where YB and Y/N are twins:

due to his sharp teeth and creepy nature, everyone jokes about YB being the evil twin. Y/N laughs, but never actually thinks he's evil

YB cried when Y/N asked their parents about having separate rooms

Y/N sometimes wakes up to find YB sleeping next to them. they asked him "aren't we too old to share a bed?" and YB responded with "no way! we're never too old for sleepovers!"

where YB is the younger one (again, age difference is up to you, though I imagined Peter's age is 8 and Y/N is a teenager):

the creepiest most yandere AU unless you interpret the older YB AU as darker than I described

YB is a shitty irredeemable brat of a child lol

I admit this isn't even romantic I was just writing this for a laugh

YB insists on holding hands when crossing the street, even when he's getting a bit old for that

Y/N could be relaxing on the couch, and YB crawls on his lap, gets in his face and goes "Gimme a kiss or I steal your hat!"

YB takes every advantage of being an "innocent little kid" to touch Y/N inappropriately. Y/N has to keep pushing him off.

YB gives back Y/N's phone after stealing it. Y/N's like "what were you doing with my phone?" YB says he "took some pictures, so you can always think about me~." Y/N is horrified to realize the nature of these pictures and smashes the phone with a hammer, now getting a cell phone with no camera.

YB hates seeing Y/N going on dates and will resort to tattling if it means keeping his big sibling at home all to himself

Y/N tried to have a date at their house but that was a mistake, because YB insisted on tagging along and being creepy/annoying/stopping them from being alone. the worst part was that the date totally bought his act and thought he was just being a "cute protective little brother," but YB would kick Y/N under the table or wink at Y/N and Y/N hated it.

[theraddestcowboy]

How does Kerrian deal with the genuinely evil people in Fallout? Like, Benny is bad, but he is not "let's torture entire cities to death because they like booze, but let's keep the girls as slaves to forcibly impregnate them" bad. It makes sense that Kerrian would spare Benny's life, especially because Benny's resignation to Death By Legion was so disturbing. But would he spare Caesar's? Cook-Cook's? Clanden's? Mortimer's? Saint James'? Or did he actually take them out?

Ohhh this is an awesome question, thank you!

The short answer is, almost all of those kinds of character’s fates, if they’re encountered, are left to companions or someone else to decide. So no, he didn’t take any of those people out himself.

The long answer is that Kerrian refuses to decide those things, for a few reasons:

1. hes 14 and i felt weird just having him murder people willy-nilly

2. He tries really hard to believe that it’s impossible for anyone to be a completely irredeemable monster, and doesn’t see death as punishment, instead seeing it as just an end. So you have to be actively doing a lot of pretty  horrible stuff for him to think you’d be better off dead.

3. He holds himself to ridiculously high standards and is terrified of making mistakes. He does not deal with it well when he realizes a choice he made was the wrong one

These two things make him address conflict by trying absolutely every option he can before resorting to killing, but when it does come to “this person has to die” he freezes up and refuses to do it, because he’s terrified that somehow it’ll turn out it was the wrong thing to do, and killing someone is kind of hard to take back. Which is why usually the companions have to be like “ok fine I’ll do it gimme the gun”

He’s got good intentions, but it becomes a fault when he lets horrible people get away to cause more harm because he couldn’t make a decision. (this is understandable because hes like 14/15, realistically he shouldn’t be put in situations where hes making these kinds of choices?????? Put him in school let him learn like trigonometry or whatever whys he running around out here with a cowboy hat on) (when he’s an adult it becomes a lot less of an issue, but he is still comparatively a pacifist. He’s just better at actually making that decision)

There’s only one time during New Vegas that he manages to get past all that and that’s because Father Elijah went out of his way to be the most horrifying greedy bastard that ticked off every box on Kerrian’s list of “Things that are wildly unacceptable to do to human beings” and then forced an ultimatum of One of Us Has to Die and now Kerrian has to find a Hallmark card for Veronica that says “Sorry I killed your dad”, which is REALLY hard to find

[murphystartedthefire]

I'll be honest - I didn't like Emori, but she started to grow on me at the begining of this season. Last episode was great for her. I don't know if you've been asked this already (probably yes), but could you make a ranking of your top 10 Memori moments? I think I know what's gonna be first, though 😁

Sorry for the delay but thank you for this ask!!! It is so hard to narrow down to a Top Ten, let alone rank them. So this is my best effort and very personal to my own feels (and I’m likely to change my mind on any given day):

-------

10) 3x13 Red Sky at Morning

The scene where Murphy, Pike, and Indra have a chance to take out the City of Light, but ALIE-Emori says it will kill her? And he has every reason to *know* she’s manipulating him and either way this is a world-destroying threat they need to take care of and meanwhile (not that he knows this) Monty is off in another location wiping his own mom out of existence, but Murphy is a soft boy who can’t bring himself to do it. And THEN there’s that crushing moment of hope where he thinks she’s back for a second but then realizes she’s still ALIE... it is pure angst and I love it.

9) 4x01 Echoes

Asking her to come back to Arkadia. Their main arc all season was about being on their own or part of a group, Murphy a lot more chill about returning to his people and Emori much more wary and distrusting. But it still ends with her agreeing to take that leap with him (the fact it’s another couple of episodes before they actually do is his decision). To me this was the I-want-a-future-with-you proposal scene prior to the other one, and I don’t know how to look at those big beautiful smiles and NOT want to give them the world.

8) 6x01 Sanctum

Speaking of smiles! I can’t get over how cute and joyful this scene is, especially coming on the heels such a dark time they had in season 5. It’s a fair argument that their post-breakup reunion was too quick and not fully earned. But in my Memori-shipping heart I just love to see them *happy*, teasing each other and acting like kids, embracing this second chance to be alive and loved.

7) 4x08 God Complex

I really should put this higher but on a purely subjective level it just... hurts too much to watch.  Murphy losing his entire shit and trying to get out of his bonds while Emori’s trying to resign herself to her fate and telling him not to fight for her. They are so desperate and terrified and thinking of *nothing* but saving each other. :( It’s kind of brilliant how “Gimme Shelter” totally establishes Memori as borderline villains (in the framing of that last scene more than anything) and then in the very next episode it’s just... I can’t even imagine not feeling terribly anxious and sad for them, while watching our usual protagonists become nearly irredeemable. And then Murphy screams and pleads at Clarke and it’s an incredible performance from Richard as we all know, but the scene leading up to it is underappreciated, I think.

6) 5x06 Exit Wounds

It was hard to get anything from S5 on here (and I’m tempted to just go with the near-sex scene in this ep, definitely the hottest Memori scene) but I do really appreciate this moment in the rocket giving us probably the clearest view of what happened to drive them apart on the Ring. Also season five had several Unfortunate Uses of Shock Collars but this was probably where it was put to *best* use as a symbol of where they were at emotionally. It’s a rare and really good thing on this show when the action stops for characters to have a human conversation.

5) 2x12 Rubicon

There’s a lot of great meet-cute/meet-knife-to-throat in this episode, but by far my favorite scene is when they open up to each other about their reasons for being rejected by their people -- Murphy owning up to his violent past and Emori showing him her mutation. It’s a risk of being vulnerable and judged in different ways, and the foundation of their relationship: they recognize a part of themselves in each other.

4) 3x16 Perverse Instantiation Pt. 2

This is a short moment but makes me feel so much! Memori have so many great reunions/hugs, but this one after she wakes up from the City of Light is just so emotional and powerful. Her devastated face! The way they cling to each other! They are truly everything in the world to each other at this moment and never want to let go.

3) 4x07 Gimme Shelter

This list has many tooth-hurtingly sweet moments about how adorable and precious Memori are together, but it’s no secret I also LOVED this episode’s reveal of how dark and cunning and ruthless Emori can be and how Murphy was all the way onboard with it. There is so much complexity to them that doesn’t easily boil down to ‘perfect misunderstood woobies’ or ‘irredeemable bad guys’. Emori especially had been shaped by her life to be very, very paranoid and self-preserving, and Murphy so quickly accepting and even *impressed* by that side of her is a lot more interesting than if the show had just straight-up vilified her, or alternately made her an angel whose goodness redeemed him.

2) 3x02 Wanheda Pt. 2

Cheek kiss! This will always have a place in my heart as the moment I started shipping them. I just really love how sweet it is, in contrast to the fact they just killed a person (albeit in self-defense). There’s something completely sincere and gentle in how they relate to each other. (You see that with Murphy’s puppy eyes in Rubicon, I guess this is when I felt it from Emori as well.) They approach giving and receiving affection in such an innocent way because they just haven’t had that in their lives. :(

1) 6x08 The Old Man and the Anomaly

HAHAHAHAHA (laughter turns into delirious sobs and falls off chair), your ask was like “I bet I know what’s gonna be first” and my immediate thought was “Not necessarily!” but then I realized I was just kidding myself. Can you believe. CAN YOU BELIEVE. JOHN MURPHY. GOT ON HIS DAMN KNEE. And they called back “survivor’s move”. And there were *tears in his eyes*. And the entire thing had an “oh shit” undercurrent because he is making the worst life decisions and it basically turned into a pitch for stealing bodies and becoming Gods together, but it was also... so genuinely more than that. And Emori got that, as evidenced by the end of the episode, when she rejected his literal Let’s Be Immortal proposal but accepted & returned the declaration-of-undying-love part. Wow.

[HONORABLE MENTION: the season 3 deleted scene which I left out because it was unaired, and “your home is with me” because I didn’t want half the list to be S4.]

[xxvainqueur]

ONE ( NAME / ALIAS ):   kels TWO ( BIRTHDAY ):   august 27th THREE ( ZODIAC SIGN ):   virgo FOUR ( HEIGHT ):   5′5″ FIVE ( HOBBIES ):   reading, writing, making jewelry when i’m not lazy (which is pretty much never since i always am), spoiling the heck out of my cat SIX ( FAVOURITE COLOUR(S) ):   purple, dark green, sunflower yellow SEVEN ( FAVOURITE BOOKS ):   anything by Chuck Palahniuk (especially Rant, Lullaby, and Survivor), most stuff by Stephen King (Insomnia and Under the Dome, in particular), literally every single thing by David Sedaris, anddd 99% of true crime books EIGHT ( LAST SONG LISTENED TO: ):   Gimme Three Steps by Lynyrd Skynyrd NINE ( LAST FILM WATCHED ):   Kung Fu Hustle (for the millionth time) TEN ( INSPIRATION FOR MUSE ):   Imma answer this for Remy because he was the first and thus the most special. Or something. I’ve always wanted to write someone bad. A villain who wasn’t afraid to do whatever it takes to get what he wants out of life, no matter who or what gets destroyed in the process. But I also wanted him to have faults in that evil facade. Not entirely someone irredeemable. Someone who, if the right person came along, could be brought to their knees by another. A character who’s using to winning but can still lose it all. Mostly though, I wanted him to retain the capability to bleed and hurt and cry and beg. So... evil but slightly vulnerable if one knows where to poke at. And that is why I made the sorta sociopathic, probably-still-has-a-heart-somewhere-in-there thing that is Remy. ELEVEN ( DREAM JOB ):   working for the feds. to be ridiculously specific, doing something for the Office for Victims of Crime (which is itself a subset of the US Department of Justice). the Crime Victims Fund is something I really, really believe in, so yeah. that’d be neat-o. TWELVE ( MEANING BEHIND YOUR URL ):   “vainqueur” is French for “victor.” (it’s also translated as “conqueror” and “winner.”) it’s what Remy, the ever-so-Frenchie one, has so far proven himself to be, as well as what he himself believes he is. i’ve thought about changing it since there are more muses besides him now, but since every single other muse ties into his story somehow, it still seems to fit. tagged by:  the always amazing @thatchergreene  tagging:  @sempiternitysanguinity, @brokcnsouls, @artful-deception, @mvstangsally, @forging-faces, @beautyinbl00m, @survivics, and anyone else who’d like to do the thing!

[fivesecondmemory]

🌴ask tag thing🌴

Thanks for tagging me @biggishjaz!! 

20 questions, tag your mutuals!

name: Sierra

nickname: none really.  How does one get a nickname?  do you pay somebody or…

height: 5’6”-ish

orientation: fuckin idk bi/pan I guess?

nationality: Murrican

Fav fruit: can I just write all here? Because fruit is bomb and you can’t put me on the spot and demand I pick one. Some kind of mango or pineapple or nectarine or raspberries or blackberries or that super awesome blackberry/raspberry mix I found last year, that was the best

Favourite season: Spring and fall.  Gimme those liminal months y’all.  

favourite flower: uuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh dark colored sunflowers? or marigolds? I guess?

favourite scent: Coffee grounds, the ocean, taxidermy (yes ok I am weird I knOW it)

favourite colour(s): deep green, on the yellow end of the spectrum, like moss that will completely blanket trees.  

favourite animals: oh god why y’all doing this to me?  Tigers and buffalo and snow leopards and hyenas oh my.  

average hours sleep: My body really likes snap waking up after about 7 hours of sleep.

🐱 or 🐶?: doggie!

favourite fictional character: ah shit man i have a lot that I really love.  Skinner Sweet is one of them because apparently I love irredeemable fuckbags (but I also love Pearl because she’s incredible so idk).  ……and Rick Trager from Outlast.  I am sensing a theme here.  All of the TF2 mercs (really all of the TF2 characters in general, Pauling is a badass).  Oh hey!  Characters that aren’t terrible: Henry Standing Bear and Mathias and Cady from Longmire.  Iiiiii really need to watch the last season ugh it’s gonna break my heart.  

how many blankets do you sleep with?: top sheet, blanket, blanket, blanket, sometimes blanket.  Or if it’s hot, top sheet.

dream trip: Back to London honestly.  Maybe next year if I can get my shit together after aLL MY TRIPS THIS YEAR FUCK ME

blog created: oh shit you expect me to remember?  Probably 2013 idk I deleted my first one.  Shoutout to the mutuals who still follow my dumb ass

number of followers: don’t know don’t curr, probably lots of bots.  I been around that long.

random fact: I cried blood once, it was metal.

Since I mentioned them I gotta tag the longtime folks @miss-perkey @hazardgirl and there are more but I think they might be locked out of their accounts now?  So @notveryopulentdesigns @cotino @sun-in-eyes and idk anyone else who wants to have a go, go for it 

[fixomnia-scribble]

Tagged again!

Because why not. I’m still waking up over a latte. Tagged by the lovely @bitter-stella. And tagging in turn @lissa612, @fearthefuzzy, @lizwontcry​, @cincoflex​ @raevingcaskettiva, because they might just play along.

11 Questions. Answer the ones you get, and make up your own to pass along

Is there a particular country you know a lot about despite never having visited?

Well, India, but that’s a gimme. One day I’ll go on the epic meet-the-family trip.

What elements (to you) make for a fantastic or compelling story. Is it about the character interactions? The action or adventure?  The over-arching plot line? What makes or breaks a story for you?

Believeabiity - in dialogue and action AND in narrative. I want to be able to hear the voices as I read, and be able to close my eyes and see the scene, even if it’s only hinted at in brief passages. That’s not to say that it has to fit into MY world. Not at all. Just make me believe it.

If you had to go back and re-do your degree, what would you choose instead? If you haven’t completed your degree, what are some areas you have considered pursuing?

Doing it now. I’d probably have switched to straight Crim long ago, and not taken Anth/Arch first, but the benefits are a) having two BA’s, and b) erasing the gutterball GPA of my first attempt at uni in 1993. Protip: if it is not the right time to attempt uni, or if you realize you’re not doing what you are called to do - save your time and money. It’s not going to run away.

What is your ideal breakfast and who would you share it with?

Oh! Either kedgeree (requires friends or family with a very specific palate) or good old Eggs Benny (just about anyone.)

Has there ever been a scene in a movie or television show that has stood out for you? (As in, it really made an impact for you.)

SO MANY that I cannot count. But this clip from Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos”, that I watched during its first broadcast on PBS as a small child, still sends creeping chills up my spine, as it did then. There was an electric moment when he spelled out “PTOLOMEOS” carved above the ruins of the Library of Alexandria, and I knew...I knew tragedy of the loss of that library, and felt the weight of the ages that it took to gather all that knowledge of the world, seas, skies and humanity in one place. Yes, I was a nerdling.

When do you feel happiest?

When I am so in flow with writing a scene that I am simply watching it develop on the screen with breath held.

What are your main hobbies, and how did you initially come across them?

Writing, because I couldn’t find any of the things I wanted to read. Crafts, because my mum is an artist and crafter.

What was your first fandom? First OTP?

Oh, X-Files, hands down. MSR 4EVR.

Name a character that everyone seems to love but you cannot stand. Explain what it is you dislike about this character.

I can’t think of any specifics that stand out, but I find myself looking on in horror as fans embrace utterly reprehensible, supposedly irredeemably awful characters because they find them “sassy” or “too bad’. I don’t mean badass. I love badass. I don’t love vindictive, self-serving, cruel and willingly ignorant.

Explain a situation when you knew you were in the wrong, and yet you refused to back down. Do you regret your actions?

Hmm. If I know I’m in the wrong, I can’t imagine not backing down if confronted. If I’m wrong, I’m wrong. I don’t recall any time in which I knew I was wrong but held the line. Unless it was maybe insisting that I hadn’t done something stupid that I actually had, as a kid...

Have you ever sent someone nasty hate mail? If so, why? What spurred you to do this? If not, have you ever been tempted to?

Oy. No. In fact I once mistakenly replied to an e-mail with a slightly raised-eyebrow response, intending it for someone else, and I was crying for days. I’ve been on the end of nasty notes written about me and would never, ever want anyone to feel like I did.

Well! On a nicer note, this has cleared my head for homework now. So here are my 11 questions for anyone else who wants to play along:

If you could get on a plane and go anywhere for an all-expenses paid two-week trip, where would you go and what would you do?

Summer or winter?

What is your earliest memory involving pizza?

What’s one thing on your “I’m never going to do THAT when I’m a grownup!” list that you have either stuck to, or believe you will?

Knitting or crochet?

Umbrella, hat, hood or nah? (Vancouver represent!)

Reading: sitting, lying on back, lying on side, on tummy, or what?

What’s one attribute of your mental or physical self that you’d like to be able to alter at whim?

Which continent are you writing from?

What are your favourite writing clothes?

What’s something you’re excited about today?

[laylainalaska]

My GotG thoughts

Also posted on DW.

I did not go in expecting to love it. I actually was lukewarm on the first one (which, by the way, I am totally buying so I can rewatch it now, because Netflix does not have it streaming, the jerks). I DID NOT EXPECT TO LOVE THIS MOVIE. AT ALL. I LOVED THIS MOVIE A WHOLE LOT. I also think the trailer for this movie (the first teaser trailer, the Fox on the Run one) might be one of the best trailers I've ever seen, because it a) took me from "meh" to really wanting to see this movie, and b) did not actually spoil ANYTHING! I went into this completely unspoiled -- in fact, far less spoiled than I thought I was after seeing the trailer -- and I'm really glad. If watching things nonspoiled is your thing, I think you will enjoy having that experience. Which means you will not want to click on the readmore, because ALL THE SPOILERS are here.

Okay, so first of all, the thing about this movie is that it managed to hit a TON of my favorite trope buttons in completely unexpected ways. Obviously the "found family" thing is a gimme (though I was surprised by how sold I was on it by the end of the movie given that I wasn't completely sold on it in the previous one).

But there was a bunch of other stuff too! First of all, I absolutely adore the trope of choosing the imperfect, painful world over the perfect fantasy built on top of a chasm of horror, and everything with Peter's dad nailed that so hard: being offered not just a perfect fantasy of a happy family, but genuine godhood, and noping out hard once he realizes what accepting that godhood actually means for the galaxy and for him personally. And I love the way the movie develops the theme of "everything you wanted was there all along" -- a bickering family that was nothing like he imagined (but he loves these stupid assholes anyway), and a flawed father figure who loves him enough to die for him. ... Everything with Peter and Yondu. OH MY GODDDDDD. THE FEEEEEEELZ. I have to remind myself that Yondu is VERY FAR from "parent of the year", and he knows it, which makes it worse in a way ... and yet, in the end, he was there when Peter needed him, and they got to have their moment, and ... just FEEEEEELS, ENDLESS FEELS, help. I also have way more feels than I was expecting about Peter, in general. I was kind of indifferent to Peter in the first movie, which I guess was one of the main things that made it hard for me to get into it. But I keep thinking about a piece of movie meta that someone (I think it was violent-darts) posted afterwards about how Peter's entire persona is basically "peacemaker" and "caretaker" -- he's basically the team mom, and watching this movie just impressed on me really hard about how much of Peter is wrapped up in loving people, and wanting them to love him, and just trying to make the people that he loves be safe and happy. And now I have about a billion Peter feels (though I think Yondu edged him out as my favorite, because I am such a total sucker for someone who has done terrible things and doesn't think they are a good person but manages to hero it up anyway). So there was that! But I also loved how this movie wasn't JUST Peter's daddy issues (though I enjoyed those) or even Peter and the Guardians' found-family thing. Every character had at least one important platonic relationship that got story development and its own little mini-arc: Yondu and Rocket, Gamora and Nebula, Drax and Mantis. I particularly loved that Drax and Mantis were explicitly platonic (in this movie, anyway - I guess it's possible future movies might go a different direction), because it started off hitting some unpleasant buttons -- childlike female character as potential object of sexual interest (Born Sexy Yesterday), but then it didn't go that way at all! And yet, despite the fact that the movie makes it very obvious he is not sexually into her, he still makes friends with her, and is willing to die to save her at the end. Ultimately, in this movie, the one and only romance (Peter/Gamora - well, if you don't count Ego/Meredith) is actually an incredibly minor part of the movie; the fulcrum on which the movie's emotional heart rests is friendship, found family, and adoptive parenthood. The movie's ultimate message is that your birth family may be total irredeemable dicks and there's nothing you can do about it, but you can still build a whole world with people who love you enough to die for you, and I just spent the last half of the movie wallowing in that so hard. (Extra bit of awesome: that Mantis and the Ravager first-mate guy, whose name apparently is Kraglin -- I had to look it up for the fic I wrote -- and even Yondu, posthumously, ended up becoming part of the Guardians, part of their new ship's crew. I love that it's not just the 5 of them; I love that others can be drawn into their family. Same thing I'm loving in S3 of Flash, actually -- that the "family" metaphor is explicitly drawn wide enough to include the "new" members of the family as well as the founding members.) And then there's all the '80s nostalgia stuff, which the movie cranked up to pure camp AND IT WAS AWESOME. The music! The cameos! (Best David Hasselhoff cameo EVER.) The whole aesthetic of Ego's planet, and Ego himself, which was total '70s/'80s stoner sci-fi (Rodney Matthews/Boston album covers/every paperback fantasy novel of the era) at its most psychedelic. THEY DIGITALLY RECREATED 1980s KURT RUSSELL FOR THE EGO FLASHBACKS. I CAN'T EVEN. Not all of the humor worked for me, but I loved that the movie was funny and entertaining and then it made those sudden left turns into massively serious stuff (the charnel house of dead children's bones; "I won't leave him behind - I won't leave you behind"; "He may be your father, but he wasn't your daddy") punch all the harder because it was such a sharp turn away from the humorous tone. Also, because it was willing to be funny instead of dead serious all the time, it came across feeling more human that a lot of epic sci-fi does -- even stuff like the video game warriors on the planet of the gold people (I don't think I ever caught what they were called), who react to winning and losing in life-and-death space battle just like teenagers playing a game, because that is essentially what they ARE. And this movie even ended up doing better than Marvel movies typically do with female characters, admittedly with an extremely low bar to clear, but out of 8 main characters (as I count them?) 3 of them were female, none of the three were "just" there as a love interest, and all of them got cool plot stuff to do and at least one important platonic relationship, including one lady-lady relationship that was a running thread throughout the movie. Low bar? Sure. But if you'd told me that GotG2 would actually be one of the best movies in the entire MCU franchise for female characters, I would not have believed you. And yet it was! Finally, let me leave you with the one original song on the movie's soundtrack, in all its campy glory ...

WHICH IS PERFORMED BY DAVID HASSELHOFF IN CASE YOU MISSED THAT PART.

[yelloskello]

so I generally avoid Tumblr Prose, but i’ve had this one chillin in my likes for a long time now because the premise seemed interesting to me. About five minutes ago I was like, y’know, i’m takin A Small Rest, i’m about to get up but not quite yet, let’s actually read it.

And mostly it left me disappointed. I got about halfway through, got bored, lightly skimmed the rest, unliked, and moved on.

Whhhyyy?

1) because i’m tired of Stories Where the Real Villain is Misogyny. Like. I’m so tired. I’m tired of ‘spooky men who go bump in the night’, i’m tired of ‘you can Only Trust Your Fellow Woman #radfemvibes’, i’m tired of ‘look at all this exhausting misogyny she has to deal with’. 

I’d rather just have stories with men who aren’t toxic in the first place, and women who don’t have to deal with misogyny at all. 

2) the prospect of this story was in essence ‘ruler chooses to marry the big bad evil guy in order to keep her throne’, aaaand they pretty much instantly established that he was barely evil at all and any concept of him being evil was, like, just a big misunderstanding and/or Assumptions. He’s good, actually!

Yawn.

A while back someone on tumbo was saying that the real underlying Best Ship Dynamic was seeing two flawed people find each other and, through their interactions with each other, becoming better people, and now I think all the fucking time about how true that is. Y’know why Zuko/Katara was so Good in Avatar: the Last Airbender? Because they were both flawed in their own way and their interactions made them better. They both were dealing with unchecked pain and trauma, and when forced together, they both managed to quell each others’ inner fires and help each other find peace. Zuko and Katara hunting down the man who killed her mom was basically an entire episode about just that. Their brief interaction in that jail cell in the earth kingdom? Probably more meaningful than almost any interaction she really had with Aang. They had common ground, and they grew from each other.

Aang was just like, pretty gorl tho, and katara wasn’t even really feeling it like almost the entire show.

This is why enemies to lovers is So Fucking Spicy. Because when they start out constantly at each others’ throats, they PROBABLY got some shit to work through and there’s room for growth.

BUT ANYWAYS

That’s what this story lacked. It sounded promising from the premise because, marrying big bad? Why, that’s like, the most perfect chance for him to grow to learn to not be so fucking evil! And maybe she’s flawed, too! Has her walls too high up! Learns to be more vulnerable! Learns to trust! Maybe learns to be, like, a LITTLE naughty or some shit!

And instead he was just Good Anyways and was basically kinda this bland Anti-Misogyny doll to call out the Other Sexist Men and make her feel more confident in her role as queen. Technically, she grew some - but it felt less engaging as a romance story because it wasn’t mutual. It was just basically him taking care of her.

Yaaaaawn.

I know we’re all fucking terrified of writing actual flawed characters because of the weird purity culture that permeates some circles of social media, but like. It’s so much more interesting to read. Find the middle ground between ‘fucking irredeemable, yikes’ and ‘kind of an asshole’. take consideration of the shit that a fictional story being fictional and kind of operating on a different level of morality, makes more palatable. Look at bad characters who WORK, study how they grow, and gimme THAT.