#gwen defense

[sneakyboymerlin]

This fandom has a very selective memory when it comes to any and all things Guinevere. See, the way I remember it, when they had no evidence to prove her innocence, Arthur defended Gwen despite thinking she used magic, because he defined the healing as an act of “kindness and love.” He defended magic to save Gwen.

Why would anyone remember that, though? I mean, it’s not that important. It’s only the first time Arthur ever, onscreen, not only shows sympathy towards magic, but defends it… to Uther, no less. And he does it to save Gwen.

[nightowl374art]

just some Gwen and Miles 42 thoughts

[punkeropercyjackson]

"Why dosen't Percy act and make himself look traditionally masculine and show it off?!"Because he's punk

"Why does Percy fight against Luke and the gods and the titans instead of joining them?!"Because he's punk

"Why won't Percy become a god?!"Because he's punk

"Why is Percy so against accepting power no matter what?!"Because he's punk

"Why is Percy best friends with Rachel?!"Because he's punk and she's also punk since she's a nonconformist and an activist

"Why are Percy's most important people Nico and Hazel and not an ultrapowerful romantic partner or better yet a harem?!"Because he's punk and they're younger minorities he's intergenerational friends with and they consider eachother found siblings with Percy as the pseudo-parent

"Why can't he be connected to the Mcu or Hp/Marauder's Era?!"Porque el es punkero!!

'Dark Percy' is just whiteness despite the name.All these ideas are just white people shit,like the powerhunger and misogyny is just normieisms and screams gringo suburdinates tryna feel rebellious and special so they project onto a fictional character who scares them with how punk they are so they can reassure themselves they're not what ACTUAL coolness is so they don't rather gotta try to BE like them.If y'all saw and read my selfship with Percy you'd hurl and shit yourselves💀

[fabdante]

The Party Animal and the Goth

Duncan tried to tell her before they showed up that this would be different. She should give it a try. It’d been years since the last party she went to with him (she’d been dating Trent at the time to, something Duncan further blamed for her bad time). Maybe she’d like it now. And Duncan wouldn’t leave her alone, he swore. No awkward hanging out by herself and the dog should they have one. And if Trent was there, Duncan would punch him just for her. Blah blah. All sorts of promises. Well. She wasn’t into it. Like she said she wouldn’t be. Duncan fucked off somewhere else. Like she thought he would. And she saw her ex Trent floating around and she was doing everything in her power to avoid any awkward small talk that would ensue the second he saw her again. Like she feared.  Of course the party was going to be that predictable. She should have put money on it. And there wasn't even a dog. Around midnight she’d gotten sick of the whole thing. But Duncan was off doing something (hopefully not someone) and Geoff found her. They talked. She mentioned maybe looking for DJ and leaving. But Geoff lit up like she’d just told him he won a prize and her night got a little weird. Instead of just saying bye or helping her find DJ or literally anything else, Geoff was instantly offering to talk her back to her dorm. So that got her where she was now, walking with Geoff away from his party.  What the fuck.

Summery: A classic 'Geoff walks Gwen home' story set in the year of 2013/2014, in which Gwen has decided to leave a party early and Geoff has decided he'll walk her home. (College AU, no camp.)

Words: 4,274

Rating: Teen (swearing)

Read Here!

[mal3vol3nt]

it is crazyyyy seeing ppl go all the way back to ITSV and trying to find things to hate about gwen even then.

like in atsv, she is a realistic portrayal of a traumatized teenage girl who doesn’t know what to do with everything that’s happened to her and therefore ends up leaning on and trusting the wrong people. she made mistakes and was more human, but y’all didn’t like that. people HATED her for her mistakes and went out of their way to portray her as some sinister person while simultaneously simping for and loving up on male characters who’ve made similar if not worse mistakes.

in itsv, she comes off as a badass who rarely slips up. this is mainly because we’re seeing her from miles’ point of view and he very obviously has a crush on her so…. like duh. point is, in that movie gwen is an extremely capable superhero who is pretty and a lil traumatized but it doesn’t interfere with what she’s able to accomplish in itsv. she doesn’t make many mistakes in terms of her abilities or her relationship with miles because throughout the movie she’s slowly opening up to the idea of allowing herself to get close to people. therefore, she doesn’t yet have a friendship with him since her arc consists of her cold exterior melting away so she can let him in as a friend.

by atsv logic, itsv-gwen is the far superior and should- be-likeable version for some people since she’s a female character who is badass and doesn’t seriously fuck up or have any perceivable flaws (beyond the flatness that inherently comes with). but nooooo. y’all still hate her from that movie too so like… she just can’t win. you don’t like her when she’s an idealized version of herself and you don’t like her when she’s a realistic version of herself. it’s crazy seeing people pick her apart in itsv when most of the time her actions, like every other character’s, were based entirely on the very intense situation of the damn collider. to pick her apart specifically for her treatment of miles (which i don’t even think was cruel or coming from a place of illogical underestimation considering lives were on the line and miles was a very, very fresh-off-the-bite spider) and not the other characters is insaneeeee.

like to use her actions in itsv, which i would argue were logical in the context of the movie’s plot and situation, against her to further prove that she as a person is undeserving of miles in either a platonic or romantic way reeks with a lil something…. something that starts with an m and ends with a y. idk tho it’s on the tip of my tongue…

anywhore i just wanted to rant. not arguing or debating with anyone cus i don’t got the energy.

[paleghostinthecorner02]

I'm in a Gwen Defense mood

[ghost-bard]

I've had this theory for a while now, and me n my friend (@nightshadetq ) have talked about it a bit as The Magnus Protocol continues, but I really don't think Alice's indifference to the paranormal/statements/cases ect ect is proof that she like. Has no idea what's going on, or will be in for a rude awakening.

[Note: this post is not free from spoilers up to episode 18]

I think she knows a decent amount of what's actually going on, and is trying to protect Sam (or her uninformed coworkers in general) from getting in too deep.

Other than Lena, who I assume has been the boss since Alice arrived, Alice has worked at the OIAR the longest, "nearly a decade" and has consistently told Sam not to look into anything, to not be curious, and to just do his job, and those moments are when she is the most serious, an odd departure from her typical attitude, very likely a coping or defense mechanism (or survival tactic) on her part.

We also have how she and Colin interact, and her conversation with Teddy in the most recent episode (18 as of writing). While yes, her and Colin's unlikely duo could be in part simply a fun dynamic, grumpy/sunshine, whatever, but we also don't really know what has happened within the last near decade of Alice working at the OIAR. The only person Colin likes is Alice, perhaps because she's the only one he trusts, or maybe they went through something together, that's mostly speculation on my part I'll admit.

What's more interesting is Alice and Teddy's conversation, the weight of Alice calling Teddy a liar, her saying to herself for Teddy to "watch himself" because she's worried. I would point out we have no idea how long Teddy worked at the OIAR, though in episode one there's a mention of "another four years" which implies he's worked there about that amount of time, and so Alice had still worked there the longest.

Honestly it would be weird if Alice hadn't seen weird shit pre-canon given how long she's been there, and that despite the jobs turnover rate hasn't quit despite everything, almost like she's obligated, to the job perhaps not, but maybe to the other people working, given we know that people can and have quit. Of course it could also just be the getting a new job is difficult and she has a younger brother to help out occasionally, but truthfully I find it a bit difficult to believe that being the only reason she wouldn't have quit by now.

Also interesting that the only thing Alice said in response to Gwen talking about Mr. Bonzo, where Sam laughs and thinks she's joking, is after she leaves saying "Curiosity will get you killed, best try and ignore it" wherein Alice clowning on Gwen is what I, at the least, would expect in response. Yes, she questions Gwen interacting with monsters, but she doesn't push her to talk about it, and in fact, gave her an out on what the Externals are.

Considering both Gwen and Sam didn't know about them until 1. Gwen asking Lena to let her "in" and getting work about/for the Externals, and 2. Sam just now being informed. Meanwhile Alice has a fake explanation on what they are, providing Sam with said explanation, therefore shielding him from the truth of the matter, and letting Gwen not have to talk about it, only for Gwen to then say what they actually are. So either Alice already knew what an External was, and lives by the "if you don't know about the real goings on nothing will happen to you" deal and tries to act the part herself, or someone who no longer works at the OIAR AND worked with Externals told her that that was what they were, which I'll admit is also a possibility.

There is also her seeing the drowning victim and her reaction to them. Her primary issue as I remember it was the dead body, given how she implies she hadn't seen a dead body since her parents passed. However, her having a negative reaction to a dead body doesn't mean she hasn't seen other freak shit. There is also the option that she lied about not having seen a dead body since her parents, and she (rightfully) still has an averse reaction to them, though I don't necessarily believe this myself, I am presenting it as an option.

Maybe I'm talking out my ass, but I really don't think Alice has completely avoided everything up until now, especially given how weirdly cagey she is about anyone (mainly Sam, but they have a history so maybe she feels responsible for him in some way) getting curious about what they do, or wanting to look into the cases they receive. If she didn't know anything at all, I don't know why she'd care about someone getting curious about their cases, or at least care as much as she seems to.

[qcomicsy]

I love how Gwen acts like any guy not giving her a good morning is a personal attack or something.

The face of someone about to internalize something that isn't remotely related to her.

[ninja-wolf-therapist]

I just want to say that normally I don't call characters from other cultures queer until people from that culture do because how tf would I know the nuance of that culture to call them queer, yanno? (Unless I'm going by sheer vibes and headcanon in which case it's not based in reality, it's based in desires. I'm a human, I can do that. The difference is that I'm not gonna push MY culture's stereotypes of queerness on them, I'm pushing my own personal agenda 🤷‍♂️)

HAVING SAID THAT, all Spider-people are queer. On the gender or romance spectrum, doesn't matter. There has never been a cishet Spider in all of creation. It is inherent to being A Spider. (Like all Bats are unhinged.) The spiders bite queers🤷‍♂️.

[cheritouu]

What did they put in that movie because why have I already seen it 3x and it’s still not enough… this is getting serious

[anghraine]

Meanwhile: I have so much I have to do, and so much I want to do, and suddenly my brain was possessed by an incredibly niche AU fanfic plotbunny.

It's not only for the Guild Wars video games (hardly the most popular series out there!), and not only GW1 fic in particular (the first game was on a far smaller scale than GW2 and had a much smaller userbase with maybe five fics on AO3). The fic concept specifically appeals to me as a way to unfridge Althea Barradin, an NPC I latched onto in 2005 out of all proportion to her screentime and frankly how well her lines were written. But it's not only that she's an underwritten GW1 character, or even just that she's one who only appears in Guild Wars: Prophecies—the very first GW game. She's actually only alive in the tutorial zone and is a mentor to PCs of one specific class that happens to be my personal favorite, mesmers (they're elegant spellcasters specializing in chaos magic, illusion magic, and other sneaky, unpredictable stuff).

There's a cataclysmic war crime committed against your people at the end of the tutorial, and a time jump to two years later, when you discover that Althea disappeared in all the upheaval and has not been seen since. You get a quest to discover what happened to her, only to find out that the answer is "dragged off and burned alive by the war criminal invaders." The worst resolution for my teenage pixel crush :( Anyway, you briefly interact with her ghost and gather her ashes to take to her father so both of them can find some kind of peace.

BUT

I sometimes think about how Althea's father (Duke Barradin) was originally next in line in the royal succession. He has already stepped aside for a popular war hero to become king instead when GW1 starts, and there's even a quest in the tutorial to make sure he and his people are faithful to the war hero king, Adelbern. At that point, Adelbern seems to be a good stabilizing authority figure after a lot of internal conflict, but he can be a bit short-sighted and self-aggrandizing in ways that become disastrous when his subjects are massacred in a massive magical attack that devastates the land and people (even GW2 acknowledges that this was so destructive that the aqueducts ran red with the blood of his people).

Adelbern is very obviously not equipped to handle the absolutely dire situation he ends up facing. He's already snapping under this incredible strain in GW1 and disowns his adult son (and it seems only child) for rightly questioning him, only to break even further when said son dies tragically. From what can be pieced together, he only went further downhill after that, becoming more unreasonable, absolutist, and desperate until he completely lost his mind.

Meanwhile, Duke Barradin—Althea's father and the guy who got skipped over for Adelbern in the first place—seems a far steadier and less egocentric figure. He gracefully accepted Adelbern as king before the game, and serves him with loyalty and discipline for the rest of his life, rather than taking Adelbern's ascension as a personal affront or holding a grudge or turning on him in the face of his own tragedies or anything. So I occasionally wonder what would have happened if Ascalon had kept to the traditional succession and Duke Barradin had become the next king, rather than Adelbern.

The cataclysm and invasion still would happen, but I think Duke Barradin would have been more resilient and less obsessed with his personal power and authority. He seems deeply fond of his daughter and I suspect wouldn't have disowned her over a tactical disagreement. Basically, from everything we saw of this guy, I think he'd have handled this situation a lot better than Adelbern—but this is such a niche scenario that requires so much information that I didn't feel like writing it.

But yesterday I was re-reading an idle post I'd made a couple of years ago that mentioned the concept in passing and suddenly realized that in that scenario, Althea would have been the heir rather than her canonical fiancé, Prince Rurik. Instead of tragic war victim Althea whose awful, awful death in an atrocity of war matters mostly because of how terrible her father and fiancé feel about it, she would be Princess Althea, the heir to a now desperate and struggling kingdom. We'd get Althea prioritizing saving her people above everything else, while Rurik gets the horrible death that illustrates the stakes of the war.

In a way, that would even make a bit more sense, logistically. In the game, Althea is a fancy illusionist strongly associated with her theatre just outside of Ascalon City, at this point the seat of Ascalonian power. Even after all this devastation, it took decades for the Charr armies to get far enough into Ascalon to seriously besiege it (before the remaining population was reduced to undying vengeful ghosts, too). It's not beyond belief that a warband could have reached the theatre, and it's also possible that Althea might have been in a more dangerous location at the time of the Searing, since lots of people were dragged off, including children. Just a bit odd in terms of where you would expect a fancy civilian noblewoman specifically to be, even a powerful and highly skilled spellcaster like Althea.

Rurik, on the other hand, is an intimidating warrior, and he's heavily involved with Ascalon's military, especially the Ascalon Vanguard that he himself leads. There's every reason for him to be fairly near the battle lines even without expecting the Searing. The fact that he's one of the main leaders of the Ascalonian military defense would hardly save him from being sacrificed in this terrible way.

(And this might still be a better end than the one he actually gets in canon, in which he's resurrected as an undead servant and forced to serve an evil lich until you kill him for good, freeing him. Getting reduced to ash by the Charr would at least spare him that.)

Despite a certain degree of pathos, though, Rurik was always a bit annoying IMO. He is a very archetypal honorable warrior dude, not as hidebound as Adelbern nor as blind to the reality of the threat they're facing, but his personal approach still tends towards an attitude of "if hitting my problems with my sword doesn't solve them, I didn't hit them hard enough." The PCs really have to handle anything that needs more diplomacy or subtlety.

Althea, though, is a very different kind of person—subtle, tricky, versatile—so I don't think a Princess Althea would necessarily be nailed to the same path as Prince Rurik is in canon. Mesmers in GW2 canonically use their powers of illusion to make themselves appear they're in a particular place when in reality they're skulking invisibly somewhere else, which could easily keep her from being an identifiable target where Rurik was striding around a snowscape with a giant flaming sword when he was killed. I don't think the premise requires Princess Althea dying the same way at all.

I can imagine, for instance, that the AU king might send a reliable, competent, and trusted figure like Althea to ensure the refugees get across the mountains, especially if he wants Althea "safely" out of the country. But as an illusionist, Althea could definitely take precautions that were not available to Rurik, and would be expected to do so.

So there's this whole "okay, if Althea isn't killed like in canon or even like Rurik is in canon, and I manage to completely unfridge her, how does her survival and the AU in general affect the GW1 plot? What is changed about the later canon revelations of what's going on in this era from Eye of the North and GW2?"

I don't have time for this and it's so incredibly specific that it's difficult to even explain to anyone else, but it's also possessing my brain ;_;

[doctorwhoisadhd]

who in the torchwood team would hate nardole the most.

[punkeropercyjackson]

Percy Hazel and Nico but also Hobie Gwen and Miles but also Kris Noelle and Susie(he can switch with Kris too and no that's not a typo)but also Willow Hunter and Gus but also Katara Aang and Zuko but also Kon Bart and Tim but also Rainbow Dash Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie(rich inner world)but also-

[number-1-harumi-hater]

“i am Gwency… child of… 🤨��🤨🤨🤨🤨”

[quietwingsinthesky]

do u even understand how important they are to me. look at this nerd shit.

bonus blurry gwen & jack

[asmidge]

On my fourth watch of Mallrats and man I ADORE TS. He’s just so cute?? I think I like him more than all the other nice guy protagonists in the View Askewniverse movies, the way he spends half the movie pathetically pining after Brandi and trying to get her back is so charming to me

The other nice guy characters like Dante and Holden treat their girlfriends so poorly that I love seeing TS basically crying and throwing up for the whole film because he wants to get Brandi back. He knows he fumbled and he wants her back SO bad. He’s so pathetic it’s adorable