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jo-harrington · 5 months ago

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Stranger Than (Fan)Fiction - Chapter 4: Reader Suggestions

Previous Chapter: Lore Dump

Summary: Things start to get a little strange when The Writer hits the dreaded Writer's Block and looks for some inspiration.

Word Count: 4.9k

Pairing: Eddie Munson/Fem!Reader

Warnings/Themes: No-Upside-Down AU, Fluff, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Chaos, SMUT?, Cockblocking?, Isekai, Mentions of FOI-compliant events and characters, Various References to Movies and Television, Probably a little more lore (just assume that theres gonna be bits of lore everywhere), Criticism of Fanfiction, Analysis of Fanfiction/Fandom, Meta Fiction

Note: This is more of a "filler episode" to establish some of the rules of Eddie and Reader's predicament than anything specifically plot-driven, until the end. You could say that I myself felt a little bit of Writer's Block...not necessarily because I couldn't get anything onto a page but that it wasn't happening for this story in particular. (Coincidental that it happened at this specific chapter. Almost like I planned it that way. Maybe I did.)

So please forgive me if anything feels a little rusty; I'm getting back on this bicycle after a few months of letting it sit in the garage. But I'm happy I get to take it for a spin again. We're in it for the Tour de France now lads! Or we die trying.

You can find my masterlist here.

Please do not interact if you are not 18+.

Enjoy!

You know, in a previous life, if someone told you that you'd be laughing in the face of a bloodthirsty, murderous vampire, you would probably think it was impossible.

That was, unfortunately, the reality you lived in right now.

Red, veiny, monstrous eyes. Sharp fangs. Hissing and roaring.

And you just snickering like an idiot with a death wish.

Probably because you knew it wasn't actually a death wish.

Your arrival in Mystic Falls was an interesting and exciting one. Mainly because of how normal it was.

It was a small town and everyone seemed friendly enough and you were truly ready for it to be a break in the action. Despite it being another so-called "modern" or "futuristic" setting.

Futuristic to you, at least. Still a bit stuck in your 1985 mindset, 2009 seemed beyond your imagination. More than the 90s had been, or 2004. Still not as bad as when one of the Writers shoved you onto the USS Enterprise so you could woo Bones McCoy. And certainly not 100 Trillion years in the future, at the end of the Universe with The Doctor.

Still, you were happy for a change of pace. So you chugged into town with your trusty Beetle like you usually did, until you made it to the large house on Maple Street that was the new residence of your supposed "college best friend," Jenna Sommers.

You liked Jenna, actually. She was sweet and funny and hated the hoity-toity elites of the town's Founding Families. She dragged you to all the Historical Society events just to have an ally, and those nights were always a hoot. You'd gossip about the mayor's affair with so-and-so, drink free booze til you saw double, and stuff your tiny handbags with their expensive hors d'oeuvres.

After years of traveling through various universes, and over analyzing your friendships back in Port Geneva, she was a breath of fresh air and someone you truly cherished.

She also set you up with her boyfriend's best frenemy--her words, not yours--Damon Salvatore.

And he seemed fine.

Great, actually.

A normal, sarcastically funny, suave, handsome sort of guy who took you out a few times and always behaved like a gentleman, and kissed better than anyone you'd ever kissed before.

Until this very moment, where the penny dropped, and he roared in your face with his fangs.

And you just laughed in his.

Because of course he was a vampire.

Of course you couldn't have a nice, normal thing.

Once.

Ever.

December 1985

If Eddie thought his life had been out of control before, it was safe to say that the moment he realized that it was being controlled by some Writer in another universe, it only got worse.

For a few days, there had been a break in the madness.

Well, there were some things that still fucked with Eddie's head.

Some of the posters on his walls were for bands he didn't like, his collection of exclusively DC comics became an array of Marvel titles, and his stash of porn...needless to say it was full of shit he'd never even thought about before.

He still jerked off to it, though. What else was he gonna do? Not jerk off?

But there were no out-of-body feelings, no wacky spectacles in class, no unexpected emergencies. The trailer even stayed clean for a whole week; it was a godsend.

"Does that mean it's all over?" Eddie asked when you'd arrived at his trailer for a night in.

"Unfortunately not," you sighed. "I don't know the ins and outs of it. Sometimes the story proceeds as planned. Sometimes you get long stretches of time where nothing happens. You've heard of Writer's Block? Maybe they're having trouble trying to figure out what's next for us."

"Why don't they just give up?" he huffed. "Leave us alone."

"Would you give up if you were trying to figure out some complicated plot for Hellfire?"

"Yeah, but that's different. It's just DnD. These are our lives that this asshole is playing with."

"And what if, somewhere, Agrithor the Invincible is real and getting mad because Jeff rolled a Nat 1 on a medicine check and now he has dysentery."

Eddie didn't know if he was cranky because you were right, or a little more in love with you because you had been listening to him rant about Hellfire.

"It's a learning curve," you continued. "It gets weird when you start to think of your life like a story someone is writing, waiting for the next thing to happen. Trust me. I learned that the hard way."

"So what should I do? Just go with the flow?"

"You need to, otherwise you start second guessing what's real and what isn't with everything."

"Hmmm..." He tilted his head from side to side considering your words. What's real and what isn't. A loaded statement in this predicament the two of you found yourselves in.

"So let's just enjoy our night in," you said with finality. "What's the plan? Fraggle Rock and fooling around?" You glanced around him to the setup on the coffee table. VHS tapes and cans of soda and a bowl of popcorn.

Eddie felt his cheeks getting hot with embarrassment.

"Speaking of what's real...I, uh, thought it might be fun for us to watch a few episodes of Port Geneva?"

You looked at him like he'd grown a second head; your brows raised in question, mouth dropping open in shock.

"I just...have some questions about things that didn't really make sense," he was quick to explain. "Continuity errors. Who better to ask than someone who was there?"

It took a second, but you broke down into laughter and you threw your hands up in defeat.

"You know what, as long as you order us pizza too, fuck it. Fine! Let's see what all the commotion is about."

That had been the last truly fun night for a little while--

His tapes were paused more than they played because you kept getting up to rant about scenes you disagreed with, or stories that the producers of the show simply got wrong, or key scenes that had been cut altogether.

Every time you'd get up and shout and talk with your hands and point at him to get him to understand...he loved you more and more...

--and Eddie felt bad for not taking advantage of the normalcy for as long as he could.

Because things started getting weird.

First Christmas had come, and it had been a joy.

Munson Christmases were simple affairs. More of a day for hearty food and relaxation than for any traditions or celebrations. You'd of course joined in, along with Granny Ecker, who lamented over Ronnie not being able to come home for the holiday.

Both Granny and Wayne had conspired to get you and Eddie under the mistletoe though, and had ooh'd and ahh'd when your lips met several times over the course of the night.

But Eddie looked forward to New Year's a little more than Christmas; he and the guys typically shot fireworks at the quarry and TP'd all of the jocks' houses in the middle of the night. You'd had similar New Years celebrations with your friends back in Port Geneva, so he figured it would be a treat for you to join them.

Except New Year's Eve never came.

On what was supposed to be the 31st, Eddie slept in, anticipating he'd be up all night with you and the guys. He got his backpack ready with supplies and walked out of his bedroom, only to find Wayne in the kitchen cooking.

"Did we have plans I forgot about?" he asked his uncle.

Wayne crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at him.

"You getting sick, kid?" he asked. "Don't know how you could forget about Christmas."

Christmas?!

"But it's," Eddie scoffed, "it's New Years' Eve."

Wayne opened his mouth to respond when there was a knock at the door, and after a beat, you walked in with several grocery bags in hand.

"Hey guys," you greeted cheerfully. "Merry Christmas!"

Wayne repeated the sentiment and motioned for Eddie to go and help you.

"M-Merry, uh, Christmas sweetheart," he said with heavy sarcasm as he reached your side. You shot Eddie a very pointed stare. "What's going on?"

"Just go with the flow," you muttered to him, leaving no time for explanation before you and Wayne started chatting.

So that's exactly what he did.

And truly, there wasn't anything wrong about having a second Christmas.

You'd baked cookies and he'd helped you decorate them; you kissed icing off the tip of his nose and then he'd serenaded you and Wayne with carols on his guitar while It's a Wonderful Life played in the background. He honestly had so much fun, all of his complaints and questions got put to the wayside

It was the fact that the following day brought yet another Christmas.

"Alright," he demanded when you'd arrived to make popcorn garlands with him. "What the hell is going on?"

"A time loop." You explained. "A request loop, actually. The Writer must have asked for Holiday-themed requests from their readers to get themselves out of their slump. Not the first time I've been through this."

"And everyone chose Christmas?" he scoffed. "Damn, these people are boring. Halloween is the best holiday, obviously!"

"Obviously," you laughed.

"Or April Fool's Day!"

"It must be December in their world too." You cupped his face in your hands. "Listen, request loops suck and they're boring. But trust me, you got lucky that it's just holidays. It could be worse."

So of course it got worse.

Because Eddie Munson could never get so lucky as fate taking it easy on him.

The requests didn't stop with Holidays--although, it had been a nauseating gauntlet of Christmases and Thanksgivings, with one Valentine's Day and a 4th of July thrown in for good measure--they extended to other things too.

Eddie had woken up one morning with the word "faucet" stuck in his head.

No rhyme or reason.

Just "faucet."

He suspected that The Writer had something to do with it, especially as he felt a strange anticipation to interject the word into conversation at some point in the day. Like he was compelled to say it in every sentence and every conversation, but none of them felt right.

Only when Dave had gone to get a drink from the water fountain and had stuck his entire mouth on the spigot did Eddie get any relief.

"Fuck Dave, you don't know how many germs are on that faucet?" he practically gasped as the weight on his chest and his mind finally alleviated.

It happened again a few days later. An insatiable need to talk about "root beer floats" all throughout the day, until the evening when he picked you up for a date.

It had been a great date, sure, but he hated root beer.

Finally, it was the word "alluring." Not one that was usually a part of his vocabulary, but this Writer seemed to want to teach Eddie a lesson by using some fancy word.

This time, the key word was said to you during a steamy make out session on your couch. Eddie's lips traveled down the column of your throat, sucking at your pulse, and he told you how alluring you were. Your moan was delicious, and no matter how true the statement was or how much he wanted to continue, he simply couldn't find the desire to.

The moment felt tainted. All of them did. No matter how funny or sweet or hot they were; the knowledge that he was just a puppet on the Writer's strings was a sour feeling and he just couldn't shake it.

You held him in your arms as he lamented about the lack of control he felt.

"I'm sorry," you whispered into his hair as you rubbed soothing circles over his back and shoulders. "I wish I could make it better. I wish I could make it all go away."

Eddie was just so overcome with emotions and feeling so unlike himself that he asked, "what if you could?"

You paused your movements and strained to look at him, confused.

"What...what do you mean?"

"I don't..." He closed his eyes and sighed. "I don't know what I mean."

Yes he did.

The thoughts had begun to form the moment the words exited his mouth, until they were a tempest swirling in his mind.

"Ok," you simply dismissed, and then continued your attentions.

"Actually," he couldn't stop himself then. He pushed himself away from you and stared directly into your eyes. "I...this all started because you came to Hawkins. So maybe...maybe if you tried to leave."

He immediately saw the heartbreak in your eyes, and he knew he fucked up.

"Do you want me to leave?" you questioned softly.

Everything inside of him screamed no. Of course he didn't want you to leave. In fact, he wanted the opposite of that; he wanted you to stay with him forever. He'd been willing to sell his soul to the devil just for the chance to have you, have someone who understood him the way you did.

He was just...so...tired.

So tired in that moment, he could only focus on his own desperation. His own feelings. He hadn't even thought to consider yours.

"I just...have you ever tried to leave?" he wondered. "You said you get in your car and you come to all of these worlds; that's how you travel into these stories. Have you ever tried to get back into your car and leave? Back to Port Geneva?"

"I don't," you shook your head rapidly, hands held up in front of your face as though you were trying to manifest a physical version of the idea just so you could conceptualize it. "I don't even know how I could. Or where I would go? How to get there?"

"You said that there were times when you got to go back."

"But I'd just end up there," you explained. "I've never decided on my own that it was time to go. I don't have a map."

"Maybe that'd be the end of it all," Eddie grabbed your hands in his. "That's the key to breaking the cycle. If you decided that you wanted to leave, if you tried to go home, the Writer would be compelled to give up and our lives could both go back to normal."

Your eyes darted between his, and you calmly repeated the question, "Eddie do you want me to leave?"

He hesitated so you continued.

"You said we were in this together. You said you'd help keep me grounded and I would do the same for you." You took a deep breath and repeated yourself for a third time. "Do you want me to leave?"

It was an eternity of waiting before he finally answered.

"No, of course not." You pulled your gaze away from his, your face crumpling in a way that made his heart ache. "I just figured...it was just an idea. And it couldn't hurt to try."

He tried to talk, tried to explain himself, and went on rambling for minutes on end. He even stood up and started pacing, hands running through his hair anxiously.

He cursed the Writer for doing this to you, cursed the Writer's Block for putting the two of you in this kind of a position in the first place. Cursed the Gods and Devils for making such an inescapable Hell in the first place.

He hoped the more he talked the more you'd see his frustration, his side of things.

Or at the very least, you'd try to fight him. Yell at him. Tell him he was wrong.

But you just nodded along, refusing to look at him.

It's a learning curve, you'd told him.

Because you'd been through this a million times before, lived this nightmarish life that he was now getting to experience for the first time. Shit, you'd even loved people before you'd come here and started having feelings for him.

Loved and lost and left. Whether you wanted to or not.

He thought he'd understood that. You had thought that he thought he'd understood.

But maybe he didn't. If he thought that getting you to go was the magic solution.

He realized, in that second that he stared at you and you stared at the floor, that this life wasn't the only learning curve for him.

And he wasn't the only one with something to learn either.

You both needed to adapt.

It's a learning curve.

He decided, with a soft kiss to the side of your head and a "see you later sweetheart," that it was better to leave and give you both the space to think and adapt, instead of just standing there digging himself into a deeper hole.

It would get better.

It had to.

But who knew what tomorrow would bring?

He was on a stage playing for a crowd of thousands.

It wasn't the biggest venue they played but it was the only sold out show on the tour.

They were all singing along with him, cheering. His friends, his bandmates, surrounding him and supporting him.

The lights were blinding, he was sweating, and his fingers tapped against the fretboard rapidly until it felt like they would bleed.

He played the last few notes of the song and then threw his arm up in the air with a flourish, all to the backdrop of their cheers.

He saw his face on shirts in the crowd, saw his name, heard them chant his name.

"Eddie...Eddie...Eddie..."

He basked in the majesty of it all, so far from his meek beginnings, so far from Hawkins. If he really thought about it, he didn't even feel like himself anymore. He felt like more.

It felt great.

It felt powerful.

And it was everything he ever wanted.

He pulled the earpiece from his ear and spoke into the microphone as Dave and Jeff threw picks into the crowd.

"Thank you guys...you've been great." He laughed as they cheered for him again. "Port Geneva is one of our favorite places to play. It feels like a little bit of home away from home. The best shows, the best crowds. The best food. Anyone else going to Bonnie's after the show?"

There was a roar of applause again.

"Maybe we'll see you there. It's the main reason we keep coming back here. I always get the Number 7 on Rosemary Bread."

There was a lone boo from the pit; he pulled the mike from the stand and took a few steps to the edge of the stage, eyeing the people for the source of said boo.

There was a couple; a handsome, conventional-looking guy with very neatly combed hair, who wore a flannel over a tee from their first tour. And a girl, pretty--main character pretty--with a hand-written poster in her hands...scolding her boyfriend under her breath.

Bingo.

"We don't like hecklers at our show but if you have a better order than mine I think you need to share it with the class," Eddie grinned at them. There was something familiar about the guy...and the girl...he just couldn't place where he'd seen them before. He shook off the feeling. "Come on, I won't bite."

"If you're not getting the Bonnie Special," the guy shouted up at him, "then you're not doing it right."

The crowd around them boo'd but Eddie stopped them.

"No, no," he chuckled. "I like a guy who knows what he wants. Very metal of you man. What's your name?"

"Patrick."

"Nice to meet you Patrick. I'm Eddie." The crowd laughed. "But seriously no Rosemary bread? That's ok. More for me."

He put the earpiece back in and turned back to the guys, ready to do what he did best: keep playing.

---

Once the show was over, he and the guys indeed made a stop at Bonnie's.

The little sandwich shop was overrun with fans wanting to meet them. He shook hands and signed autographs, as people snapped pictures of them at the counter, ordering a veritable feast to-go.

Then when they got their food and Eddie's hunger got to be too great for him to wait anymore, they were sped back to their hotel.

He wished his bandmates and their manager a goodnight before ducking into his room and bolting the door behind him. He took a few steps in and flipped the light switch on.

And there, sprawled out on the bed, was a different sort of feast.

The true object of Eddie's hunger: you.

You in perfectly paired, borderline scandalous lingerie, hair and makeup impeccable, staring at him with a mirroring hunger in your eyes.

"Hey rockstar," you greeted with a predatory grin. "Kept me waiting long enough."

"Wouldn't you believe it," he smirked at you and gestured to the takeout bag in his hand. "They were out of Rosemary bread."

"That's what happens when you shout your order to a crowd of your biggest fans."

"Funny I didn't see you there."

"How else would I know that you told them your sandwich order?" you teased.

"Didn't hear you either."

"I'll scream your name tonight," you batted your lashes at him. "You'll make sure of that, big boy."

Oh yeah, it was always a boost to his ego when he got you to sing for him, scream for him.

He tossed the bag onto the dresser--for later--and then closed the distance so he could devour you.

His lips went straight for your collarbone, hands exploring your curves, eager to make you squeal; meanwhile, you made quick work of his clothes. His belt was gone instantaneously with a sharp snap, your fingers made quick work of the fly of his jeans, then you reached up to shove his jacket from his shoulders.

God, he'd been fantasizing about you for years--knew your body better than he knew his thanks to countless hours wasted on the tapes from the adult section of Family Video--and it had been a surprise to see your familiar face in the pit at that very first show in Port Geneva.

Or maybe a gift from whatever god or devil was out there.

He'd sought you out after the show and it had been instant chemistry. You both couldn't stop fawning over one another, even though it might've been a little bit more awkward on your part. But you certainly weren't shy about it.

"The rockstar and the porn star," you joked as you split that infamous Number 7 at Bonnie's after your first night together. "A real power couple."

But now it was a handful of years later, and that's exactly what you were. Names forever entwined together in gossip magazines and on each others lips--not to mention the lips of every man and woman who wanted to fuck both of you, even though that likelihood was a big fat zero.

Yeah the sex was great, but it was more than that.

It was knowing one another. Caring for one another. Especially when you were both in an industry where there was little-to-none of either of those things at all.

You'd known for a while; Eddie had found out the hard way.

That's what kept him coming back to you, coming back to a small town with a venue barely-big-enough for the band's rising fame.

Because it was your home, and you were Eddie's.

Home.

It was exactly what he thought as you pushed your panties aside and he sunk into you, wet and waiting and oh-so-deliciously tight.

"Fuck," he swore against your mouth, "I missed you."

"M-missed you too," you panted right back, squirming beneath him, waiting for him to move.

Of course, Eddie was an asshole and let you wait. Let you suffer. Shit he let himself suffer, just to savor being this close with you.

He knew once he got started, he wouldn't stop until it was over.

So he'd hold out for that one last little bit, because he knew before long, he'd be leaving home behind once again.

He wasn't a man known for patience though, and before long he began to move.

He bucked into you, kissed you, squeezed you, lavished you with attention until you were one.

It was a crescendo of feelings when he got to have you like this, his lips spilling promises before he spilled himself inside you.

I missed you.

I want you.

I need you.

I love yo--

Eddie woke up with a gasp, heart racing and a wet spot growing in his boxers.

There was heavy pounding at the side door, someone slamming thier fist against it over and over again.

"Shit," he cursed. "Shit, shit, shit."

He jumped out of bed, and looked down at himself, wincing at the mixture of his embarrassment, his cum-full underwear and his rapidly-softening cock.

"Eddie, it's me," you called through the door and he froze in panic. "I know you just had a wet dream. Can you open up? It's cold out here."

How the hell did you know that?

He waddled out of his room and to the adjacent door and then let you in. You--coat thrown over your pajamas, feet in fuzzy slippers--pushed past him and headed straight for the kitchen.

"We need to talk!" You told him urgently.

"Uh," he called after you. "Can I, uh..." He gestured down at himself.

You pivoted on your heel, and then glanced from his face, down to his crotch.

Your face cycled through an array of warring emotions before it settled on bashfulness.

"Sure," you squeaked. "I'll...uh...make coffee."

Eddie locked himself in the bathroom for several minutes, listening to you bang around in the kitchen as he cleaned himself up and changed.

By the time he walked out, you were sitting at the little table, biting your nails, as two mugs sat in front of you invitingly.

"How did you know about my dream?" he asked immediately as he fell into the seat opposite you.

"Because I had one too," you said in an obvious tone.

He immediately felt his cheeks get hot, and he grabbed the steaming cup of coffee to take a sip, the scalding liquid not nearly as bad as the feelings that burned through him.

"I know...things weren't great last night," you stared once his attention was back on you, "but if shit like that's going to happen--"

"And what exactly was that?"

"That was our Writer finding their inspiration again," you explained. "Probably from one of those pesky requests. For an alternate universe. We can't exactly be...in other places. Yeah sometimes it happens, but when there's already an established world like this one...where I'm here in Hawkins...alternate universes happen in dreams."

"And are they always..." He waved his hand as he looked for the word.

"Pornographic?" The tension between you broke and two of you laughed, all worry melting instantly. "No...not always. But, uh, I guess it doesn't exactly bode well if our Writer found their inspiration for us in that AU."

Eddie swallowed hard and felt his face heat up again, for a different reason this time.

"It wasn't that bad," he muttered and you shook your head at him with a fond chuckle.

"No," you replied. "It wasn't. But, uh, I was kind of hoping you wouldn't see me naked without...I don't know, me being the one to show you."

The realization hit him too, that all of that...was all of that...was that all against both of your wills?

Sort of?

Kind of?

"It's ok," you assured him, seeing the conflict taking over his features. "I, uh...it happens a lot differently for us if either of us didn't actually want to have sex."

"Got it," he nodded, a little relieved that meant you wanted him just as much as he wanted you. But then he paused as he realized the implication...and what that meant for you in the past.

He was about to ask, to check and see if you were ok, but you quickly moved back to the original topic.

"If the Writer has found inspiration again," you began. "That means we need to be on the same page. We need to work together and support each other, because who knows what they have in store for us.

"There are a million types of stories out there. Daring adventures, fluffy romances, angsty heartbreaks. It's a bitch to deal with, honestly. We already know that this Writer wants us together, and they've already thrown wrenches into our relationship. With Steve...and Chrissy...plus the sheer unpredictability, if this dream was anything to go by...it's going to be difficult.

"So you need to be prepared," you said with a tone of finality. "We can't...you can't do what you did earlier. You've gotta keep your cool. There's no escaping this. For either of us. And you can't really fight it, but if you try to, there's definitely ways that it could make things worse for us. There's no way we can stop this until it's over. Until the story this Writer wants to tell is complete."

You reached across the table and covered Eddie's hands with your own.

"I know it's hard and I know it sucks for your world to be turned upside down," you told him gently. "But you need to hold it together. You need to listen to me, trust me. Otherwise there's no telling what might happen."

Your eyes were full of desperation, full of care, and as much as he wanted to question things--question everything--he knew now was not the time or the place.

So he assured you, without a hint of doubt or question in his voice, "I trust you."

Then he turned his hands so your fingers could twine together, and he squeezed.

"And don't worry," he smiled. "You can trust me too."

Next Chapter: Friends to Lovers

There is no taglist for this series, please follow the STFF Updates tag or check the series out on AO3.

#eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie munson fluff #Eddie Munson angst #Eddie Munson smut #stranger things fic #stranger than (fan)fiction #stff updates #stff

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monkeymindscream · 3 months ago

Note

everybody's favorite blue turtle with issues, Leo

How I feel about this character:

...very, very protective.

I like to think I'm pretty reasonable when it comes to how other people interact with my favorite characters. If they don't like them for whatever reason, that's fine, everyone has different tastes. If they have a different interpretation of the character, that's also fine. If it really bothers me, I'll go bitch to a sympathetic friend in private, and then move on with my life. If they put that character into Situations that aren't to my tastes, that's - again - also fine! It's not like they can hurt them, they're not real. If it bothers me to an intolerable degree, the back button exists for a reason! And again, going to bitch in private cures a lot!

Leo is - in more ways than one - an outlier in regards to the characters I usually fall in love with. I still haven't broken my streak of not bothering innocent people who are just enjoying interpreting a fictional character in ways that are fun or compelling for them (nor do I ever intend to), but a little bit ago I saw someone say "I don't like Rise!Leo >:(" and I gave an involuntary little gasp of pure offense. And then blocked them.

Not the pettiest reason I've blocked someone (I'll block people just because they harmlessly post in a tag about something I don't care about too often, it's never personal), but it was definitely the most... emotionally charged reason I've blocked someone in a while. The individual this person dislikes is fictional, but the offense I felt on his behalf was very very real. XD

So yeah I like him a lot.

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

Krang One (after Leo's an adult - I'm too tired to have to deal with people lobbing bad-faith attempts to police me in my inbox, thank you). I'm a proud slut for Enemies to Lovers (and then to sweeten the pot they basically end up as each other's archenemy by the end of the movie), and the compare/contrast ratio for how they're similar to how they're different from each other is just [MWAH] fuckin perfect. There's an immaculate dynamic here just waiting, you just have to dig a little.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

His brothers and April (as if there could possibly be any other answer for this question).

My unpopular opinion about this character:

So I know that this is going to come across as very biased considering my answer to the first question, but nonetheless: This turtle deserves a fucking break. And I don't mean in terms of all the trauma he gets put through (trauma is basically how fans show love, no one knows this better than I, by all means continue); I mean that the fandom is just really mean to him. He gets dunked on constantly.

If a post centers around Leo and doesn't involve something angsty, there's a 90% chance it involves Leo being used as the butt of a joke. And it's extremely common within that 90% for the post to involve him making an ultimately harmless joke himself (or in some cases, just acting like a bit of an airhead), and for one or more of his brothers to physically assault him for it in some way. And having them react this way is played entirely for comedy.

(In retrospect, I'm starting to wonder if this is the reason why I'm so protective of Leo.)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

More of what I wish hadn't happened: I wish they hadn't dropped the line at the end of season 2 about Leo being the leader now. I know it was because Nickelodeon was insisting that Rise uphold the status quo and have Leo become leader at some point (or at least that's my understanding of the situation), but I hate what that single line does to Splinter's character. And later Raph's. And what it turns the whole situation of the movie into. It's too long a rant for this post, but the short of it is that it turns Leo being a little dilweed (which was the intent) into the poor guy trying to cope the best he can (which is Depressing).

I reiterate, I'm very protective of this fictional turtle.

#muttering about turtles

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axelzp · 9 months ago

Text

Face it: how often is that "OC" you write or read about probably just an SI without metaknowledge? Same difference really, and if we're willing to love them, we can love SI's as well.

(Just gonna hijack this to recommend my faves):

Pound The Table

Marvel SI; setting where heroes begin appearing during the 90s

Limited metaknowledge, familiar with broad strokes and characters, but no real ability to predict the future

A NY lawyer (written by an actual lawyer), navigates the rise of heroics, further complicated by her history and relationships with a few of them, as well as her identity as Jewish, lesbian, and a mutant

Chains Adventurous - Dimensions in Time

Doctor Who: Season 2 onward, with ‘multicross’ elements from the SI’s previous travels

Near complete metaknowledge, albeit hampered by the future changing in a setting with a time travelling protagonist; not prepared for everything

Woman involved in a Jumpchain, a series of “Choose Your Own Adventure” type modules that see her gain power, abilities, items, and companions through traveling fictional settings; she’s seen some shit, gone through some shit, and is now traveling with the 10th Doctor and Rose, which ends up being very emotional draining for all three of them

This Bites!

One Piece, including various tie-in video games, spin-off manga and light novels, filler episodes and films

SI has near total knowledge of the series up to the end of Dressrosa arc, with no knowledge of film events

SI and his talking, Devil-Fruit empowered snail phone, take a spot on the Going Merry shortly before Loguetown, using their knowledge to manipulate and influence various pirates and Marines in their bid to help the Straw Hats bypass more serious dangers, only to find himself increasingly taking a revolutionary stance against the World Government; canon is pretty close up to the end of Alabasta, then everything afterward is the same but in very different ways (usually arcs begin going easier for the Straw Hats before swerving to just as hard if not harder challenges than canon)

Evil Eyes

Naruto, canon start

SI has knowledge of the series…the first one; no knowledge of Shippuden or past, other than glimpses from other fanfiction

Rather…disturbed man wakes up as Sasuke Uchiha in the aftermath of the clan massacre and proceeds to try (and repeatedly fail) to escape the plot, whenever he’s no doing a lot of internal monologue and narration (make or break of this fic, honestly), being consistently annoyed by the sensei he hates and the teammates he hates even more (story isn’t Sakura-unfriendly, so much as the protagonist is; it mellows out after a while), or figuring out ways to ‘jailbreak’ the magic system as best he can

Sublight Drive

Star Wars Legends/Canon, elements and events taken and altered for sake of entertainment

SI has rough memories of the films and sibling’s ranting, but no EU knowledge, including the Clone Wars series

An officer of the Separatist’s navy takes a chance to assume command of a fleet to turn around a pivotal battle, and from this and his previous actions, begins setting the course for the mad alliance of corporations, Republic dissidents, and the various military officers amongst them to turn the tide and stand a chance of winning the Clone Wars

Assimilation

Young Justice, expanded to include various other DC aspects and characters

SI has familiarity with DC comics and other animated series, but not YJ and the way it significantly changes various histories and character beats

Young man turned into shapeshifting mass of nanomachines escapes alien prison with fellow captive Starfire, arriving on Earth to eventually join the Team; canon goes off rails, man struggles with unclear nature and origins, and a romantic subplot actually reaches a relationship point midway though the story

Fate/Noble Shade

Fate/stay night, with various sequels in spin-offs such as Apocrphya and Extra

SI, or rather FI (friend-insert), has absolutely no knowledge of the setting, and is being guided through the narrative like a DnD campaign by the authro/dungeon master ‘luckychaos’

Local Canadian man becomes fused with ghost of a Persian assassin, and must navigate the Holy Grail War’s various interwoven schemes and gambits

The Most Evil Trainer

Pokemon X/Y, Kalos region, with some intense worldbuilding and expansion of the setting (like any proper Pokemon fic finds itself doing)

SI has knowledge of the original game’s plot beats and the setting in general

Pokemon trainer’s journey to win the tournament, become an Elite Trainer, and use the provided opportunities and resources to return to his world; internal struggle revolving around the friends, human and Pokemon, he makes along the way coupled with increasing involvement in the struggles and conflicts of Kalos

Caught Some Place in Time

Battletech, Draconis Combine planet, just before the Clan Invasion

SI has significant knowledge of the two settings (or rather, one setting and one out-of-context mech)

Man awakens in a bunker next to a Gundam SEED series GAT-X102 Duel Gundam, in a setting of rather more grounded mecha, on a sci-fi Imperial Japan planet; increasingly trips, falls, and survives various conflicts between gangsters, soldiers, evil space priests and an invasion of tank-born, honor obsessed clone soldiers

Gold Variation

Star Wars, roughly a decade before The Phantom Menace; a recursive fanfic, taking place around the same time the events of Fate Denied are occurring, though requires little to no familiarity with the original fic)

SI has limited metaknowledge, particularly muddled with the presence of another SI

Republic Judicial Force pilot w/squadron comedy, romance, and eldritch haunting whispers of a godlike monster from Star Wars Hell

The stigma of self-inserts is so harmful to the creative process. Relax. Admit it. Everything you make is derivative of yourself, always, no exceptions. You can turn the mirror into tinier and tinier shards or you can make it as big as you want to reflect as much as you want. At the end of the day it's always going to show you inside of it. Pretending otherwise is stupid.

#fanfiction #self insert #the make or break for me in self-inserts #is usually the quality and believability of any romance between the SI and an established character (their fictional crush)#and how the presence (or lack) of metaknowledge is handled #and I suppose how close to the events of canon the story chooses to stick (stations of canon as its called can be very dull to read)

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trutrustories · 3 years ago

Text

Okay, this will be probably long and with many errors (my english isn´t very good) But I saw several posts here on Lokius tag, talking about this ship as result of gay fetish, and about non existing chemistry and how this ship doesn´t make sense etc… And from what I understood there is tagged Lokius because of genuine interest to understand others point of view, so here is mine: I wil try to explain where my frustration comes from, and how I feel about Lokius, Sylkie, AND representation + some other things which I saw here somewhere. But first of all: I like Sylvie, I don´t hate sylkie shipers, and after so many years reading fan fictions, I don´t mind selfcest – I read weirder things. I have some issues with this ship (the mainlythe fact that it isn´t Lokius), but this is not one of them. Also, I am not about to tell anyone, they shouldn´t ship sylkie.Ship whatever. And I LOVED the show as a whole.

I just want to defend my standpoint, that Lokius does make sense, people shipping it does make sense and whether it will happen or not, (I don´t have my hopes very high, and I learned to be very skeptical in this regard ) it is more than just about crack ship, or fetish. I´m honestly blown away that people are still surprised that this ship became a thing :D First of all, let´s look at some romantic story telling and tropes: I mean the way they introduced them in the first two episodes set the tone for all series and how the heck this isn´t romantic? Somehow there are all these romantic tropes existing in a show. They´re just there. Just chilling between Loki and Mobius and large portion of audience can´t even see them. (and some of those tropes were used for Sylki as well, so you could actually see them side by side)

For example: 1) traveling to the apocalypsis 2) breaking law/rules for the other 3) literally changing for the better thanks to the other 4) arguing like old married couple 5) saying secrets, personal things to the other 6) sharing glances, touches, visibly being happy around each other - in case of Loki happier then we´ve ever seen him before 7) being completely themselfs around each other 8) One knowing everything (even the worst) about other and still accepting him completely 9) teasing, being comfortable and domestic around each other 10) one being literally enthusiastic FAN of the other 11) Mobius defending Loki whenever he has a chance 12) Freaking amnesia trope that they pulled of in the end??? (It could be different Mobius, but point is he suddenly doesn´t know him - and Loki knows more, in contrast with the beggining) 13) the jealousy in ep4 14) Misunderstanding - when Mobius thought Loki betrayed him and Loki (thanks to Ravonna) thought Mobius betrayed him... 15) witnessing death of the other and being absolutely broken afterwards 16) The goodbye hug with romantic music in the backround 17) Saving life of the one (even when it means problems for the other ) - like Mobius saved Loki´s ass at least three times when he was trying to stop others from pruning him. 18) sharing deep conversations about meanings of life, freedom and how it would be fun to make some chaos and ride that fucking jet ski!!! 19) Inspiring the other 20) looking for each other (Mobius didn´t believe for a second, that Loki would die in the Void and the way how in the last minutes of the series Loki run through all places they were together when he was looking for Mobius... and I could go on. Point is, even if they are not planning to make Lokius canon, all these things are used on a daily basis to describe romance in media and they are used here. On top of that it´s just very poetic and cute, that this drama queen and powerful god of Asgard who looked down on people would find his match in someone, who is so quiet, ordinary on the first sight, and basically is just human from 90s, who loves jet skis. Mobius can´t even fight. But is highly inteligent and he also happen to be as good manipulator, such as Loki himself. - That´s why they work together so well. Mobius sees right through him and once Loki understands that, he drops his evil persona. Almost nobody expected to ship it for real. But story itself and chemistry between them just made it probably the most exciting duo in the whole MCU. And I mean it genuinely. Third episode, even though it was beautiful and Sophie was great in it (and is literally dipped in bisexual colors), is the least favorite for a reason. And that reason being, there is no interaction between Loki and Mobius whatsoever. Lot´s of people though that series slowed down a bit. Even when in fact there was more action, then when we watched Loki and Mobius working at the TVA.

(and let´s just talk about evil!Mobius narative for a bit and how some people say he is manipulative and toxic for Loki: show itself explore heavy themes and one of them is in Loki´s line: no one bad is ever truly bad and no one good is ever truly good. And as a theme in a fictional world, it is working as it should, for the story. When Loki and Mobius meet, one of them just killed lots of innocent people and destroyed almost whole city. The other one is a part of fascist organization – and in the beginning of the series they both believe what they´re doing is right. They´re both bad, they´re both good, they´re both broken. And they are changing with the help of the other.) From all reactions I watched - and there was many of them, lots of people actually didn´t see dynamic between Loki and Sylvie as romantic in the third episode. So it´s not like Sylvie and Loki had unequivocally love story right from the start.

The only difference is that lots of people won´t see romantic tropes, when it comes to two men in a mainstream show – show that isn´t primarily about relationships and problems that queer people has to face. Because in super hero story and science fiction we have to warn audience, that they´re about to watch two man in love, right? At this point It´s just frustrating really. There were many M/M dynamics that used similar story line, as for example Lucifer, or X-files, or Bone collectors. - But unlike those M/M pairings, no one was making fun of people for shipping main characters in these shows. But when it comes to two men suddenly you´ll see from all corners of the internet: “why can´t it be just platonic?” “There is not enough platonic relationships” “why can´t two man just be friends?” (They can and they almost ALWAYS are) and “if you think there something romantic between them, you´re delusional” “fetishist“ “And for god´s sake just let them be friends, Loki needs a friend more then....” oh wait, but Sylvie is allowed to kiss him. Sylvie doesn´t have to be just friend. (And I must say, that I love Sylvie, I liked most of the interactions between her and Loki and I think she is a great character ((I hope we learn more about her in the future)) it just doesn´t work for me as well as Loki´s dynamic with Mobius. Maybe partly because of chemistry between actors, partly because combination of characters and they´re personality and also because I had two whole episodes to fall in love with the pair before Sylvie was even introduced.)

First of all: people can be friends and then evolve into lovers. Not only it is common romantic trope, but it is also the most realistic one. And those relationships are usually strongest. second: If people want to see Loki in a platonic friendship so desperately, why can´t it be a woman for a change? They were acting like chaotic siblings for most of the episode three anyway. The age gap aspect is also very funny. Owen is only about 12 years older (That is not that much. But I imagine, some people would get uncomfortable. But If it was man and woman, most of them wouldn´t even blinked. But two men, that has to be somehow automatically son and father figure dynamic) And If you want to dive into age of an actual characters, then good luck with that in a series about gods, variants and time travel. Almost nobody cares about age gap between Lucifer and detective Decker, or Bella and Edward. On top of that, it was heavily implied, that Loki slept with older, silver haired guy in Ragnarok, so it´s not like he would have problem with that.

Different standards are projected in a way how we see romantic dynamics between fictional characters depends on what we are used to, how are we perceiving world around us, what we are expecting to see and ALSO, what we would like to see, that much is true. When people are used to make no differences between heterosexual and homosexual pairing, then everything what happens to the characters is measured with the same meter. (Even though I experienced queerbaiting many times (( Once upon a time, Sherlock, Supernatural, Good Omens – the last one hopefully is not the case, but I guess we´ll see)) I also saw lots of lgbt shows like Queer as folks and Sense8.) And when we are not used to see it the same way, well… then it looks basically like that one comment under Castiel´s “I love you” scene on youtube, that said “what a beautiful friendship”.

If we forget about all that chaotic mess behind the scenes (all those articles and contrary messages) What is happening in a show between Loki and Mobius can be objectively considered romantic and what is happening between Loki and Sylvie in a series can be objectively considered platonic (until the kiss) and vice versa. And then to see comments about how absurd it is to even think they have chemistry, and about gay fetish - it´s hard to swallow. I read posts about absurdity of a ship and how there is absolutely nothing that would suggests romance. Well there is, actually. But whether creators are going to work with it or not, that´s something we can only speculate. They already made Loki officially bisexual. So why should it be so absurd to assume, that there is an actual possibility of romantic subplot between Loki and Mobius? Oh right… it´s Disney and Marvel we are talking about.

So on a subject of bisexuality: Bi people can date whoever they want. But It is a little frustrating, when there is so many heterosexual pairings in the mcu and disney but when there is a promise of lgbt character (speaking of endgame) we get one line about date from a man we´ll never see again. And when there is a promise of lgbt representation you can´t even blink during movie, or you´ll miss it (Star wars, Beauty and the beast). And then Loki said “A bit of both, I suspect the same as you”. And I won´t lie, I was happy. And I think creators made biggest step yet with this one line (which is honestly terrible, that “a bit of both” coming from Loki of all people, is the biggest step forward.) But they played it VERY safe. Obviously, both Loki, and Sylvie are bisexuals, and in three episodes, we had Loki flirting with female flight attendant, Sylvie talking about her relationship with POSTMAN and then they fall for each other. So the only thing that suggests they are really as bi as Lamentis 1 is that little sentence, that can be edited out, or easily overheard. It´s the bare minimum. And I think that frustration with how freaking slowly we´re moving into some progress is understandable. From all those great M/M dynamics I talked about, those, that could make great love story, nothing happened, because too many people “don´t mind gays but don´t need to look at them” or are scared for their children. In 2021.

It is not a fetish to wish for a gay love story in superhero movies/series. (But anyway, I don´t think there is anything bad about it. Some men like to watch lesbian porn, some woman like to read gay porn. AO3 wouldn´t be were it is today, without people reading and writing slash :D – but that has little to do with what we actually see on tv)

I´m not delusional. As much, as I love these two characters together, I know how little chance it has. I´m not delusional. I´m just in the future, old and tired, waiting hundreds of years for at least one of my OTP to finaly become a fucking canon.

#Lokius #loki series #LOKI AND MOBIUS #mobius m mobius #loki

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hartrathaway · 4 years ago

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Hii I'm interested in Hartley's story but I know literally nothing about him except that he was Wally's gay bestie in the 90s, what's his deal? Do you have any comic recs for him?

HI IM SO SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG!!!!!!!!

Okay, so really brief, his dealio is: born to ‘incredibly rich’ parents (we never get a specified ballpark, but Hartley states that he was ‘born with two silver spoons in [his] mouth’ if that helps context wise), Hartley’s deaf! His parents had him get cochlear implants when he was a child, which ‘medically healed him’. (His deafness has been treated extremely ablest by writers who actually remember he’s deaf, I need to warn you of this now.) He’s a music and sound waves guy, a former villain (it’s an on again off again relationship, but a lot of his character is defined by his time as a hero) and he’s very leftist. Gay best friend in the AIDS crisis turned Wally West from a midwestern conservative to a leftie as well. (Wally’s wife, Linda Park, was a major contributing factor, but we’re focusing on Hartley for this, so I’m gonna talk about him.)

I’ve got a mix of good reading from all over, so I’m gonna break this into sections, and do my best to describe which is which. (all my screencaps are from this website right here, because i do not own all the back issues and it would have taken much, much longer to do this post, and as such, some of them are not sized or formatted correctly) Click the read more if you’re interested! Please note: I am not a 100% authority figure on Hartley, and I know there’s a few stories I have left out (the story with Bart Allen’s first appearance is a good one that Hartley is in), but these are the gist of who is he, what he’s been up to, and what is the family drama.

So for New Earth (otherwise known as post-Crisis on Infinite Earths), is where Hartley actually becomes Wally’s friend, and is a hero! I’m going to focus on this section first. Unfortunately, due to being a minor character, a lot of stuff is broken into small stories, or things that are happening behind the scenes, so there’s no real issue x - y that’s gonna help much.

The Flash Vol 2 #31, #32 Quick summary: In issue 31, supervillain here is killing homeless people, Hartley has been helping these same people get up on their feet by helping them get squatter’s rights. They skip the fighting because a kid asks if they’re going to fight for a half hour and then team up, and go right to the team up. They get Linda Park in, supervillain ends up backfiring his powers. In issue 32, Wally, Hartley, and their pal Mason officially move to Keystone city. Hartley’s folks are in trouble while the three of them are trying to freeload (off of Hartley’s parents, his and his parents’ relationship is better now than it had been, for a multitude of reasons), Wally and Hartley rescue Hartley’s parents, we also meet Jerrie, Hartley’s sister, and all is resolved there. Yay, the family loves each other again!

(issue 31)

(issue 32)

The Flash Vol 2 #53 Special mention this is the issue where Hartley comes out and also has to inform Wally that Wally cannot tell who is a homosexual. Also Wally’s an IRS agent here, for shame Wallace. At least Hartley gets to cosplay Wally at the end, so that’s fun. Content warning for this issue specifically is some casual homophobia, just so you know that going in.

(issue 53)

The Flash Vol 2 #170 In 170, Hartley’s being contacted by his father to call in ‘a favor’ that Hartley owes him. The main plot line includes (one of) Wally’s ex(es) showing up, a former hero and teammate, Frances Kane, otherwise known as Magneta. A person has been found murdered at Keystone Motors, and supervillain Goldface begins rallying union workers (which seems to just be a poorly timed coincidence). The story itself (170 - 173) in and of itself is really fun, but I’m only going to talk about Hartley, or else I’ll be here all day.

(issue 170)

The Flash Vol 2 #174, #175, #178, #179 And here we get some drama! I’m grouping all of these together, since it’s all the same chunk of the story for Hartley, but since it’s the Flash, Wally’s center stage. In 174, the people who were living with the Rathaway family aren’t exactly big fans of Hartley. They know he’s changed his ways, he’s a hero now, but it’s just… something feels off. There’s loud music sounds, and bam! Suddenly Hartley’s there and oh boy is this gonna be a hot mess. In issue 175, we see some footage, and Hartley’s the lead suspect in his parents’ murder, considering that the footage has Hartley onscreen. 178 rolls up, and after Wally’s getting Gorilla Grodd taken care of (and that fight is a doozy), Wally gets to find out Hartley’s been arrested for the murder of his own parents, and Hartley confesses on-screen to his parents’ murder (Also Hartley’s got a beard now, that’s how you know he’s depressed.) 179 opens with Hartley being processed. Linda and Wally go to see him, and although Hartley confessed, he said “I think I did.” (emphasis is mine; in the panel Hartley says “I think I did.”) Joker? He’s got some Joker-fied people, and poor Hartley gets it too :( Hartley straight up nearly kills Captain Boomerang (it’s okay, Wally stops him), and surprise! Welcome back to Iron Heights Hartley. Gonna have a fun time :)

(issue 174; this is the least messy part of the panel, but it was intended to be that way)

(issue 175)

(issue 178)

(issue 179)

The Flash: Iron Heights Brief interlude from the main comic line, we’ve got a one-shot that’s taking place in Iron Heights. This takes place before Hartley gets arrested, presumably (since, y’know, they’re breaking in and all). Fun one-shot honestly, keeps me on my toes the whole time. Hartley’s a main character, and it’s less personal drama and very story driven. You don’t need this to enjoy Hartley regardless, but I enjoy it!

(The Flash: Iron Heights, which you can read here.)

The Flash Volume 2 #189, #190 189! Now we find out how Hartley’s parents were actually murdered! No spoilers, but we do get a prison breakout. This is where we get some origin story! Don’t read this first though, because you’re going to be spoiling yourself the plot of his arrest. In 190 we get more origin, including the way DC treated his deafness. (It’s ablest, and I’m still mentally grappling how you wouldn’t notice your child being deaf for two years, but okay Rachel and Osgood, you keep being bad.) The story goes on for now, with Hartley on the run from… well, everyone.

(issue 189)

(issue 190)

This is pretty much it for New Earth Hartley up until Countdown.

I don’t like Countdown at all. I’m much happier pretending that Countdown doesn’t exist (both because of how it treats Hartley for a multitude of reasons, and how Thad Thawne is treated leading up to Countdown). More happens with Hartley’s storyline in Countdown, but I hate it with such a passion that I wouldn’t recommend it at all. Countdown leads into Final Crisis, and I’m not a fan of either. However, should you wish to read and make your own opinions, here’s Countdown and here’s Final Crisis. Please note, Countdown’s issues are done in reverse order (so from issue 51 to 1, rather than 1 to 51)

And now I’m going to tell you the gospel truth:

I do like New 52 Hartley! A lot. Unfortunately, he’s not as much in the n52 Flash run as I would like (but I’m biased, as obvious by my url). What you need to know is that Hartley’s a musician now, like orchestra director, and he’s in a relationship with Barry’s boss, David Singh. (power move, honestly) Unfortunately, we don’t get a whole lot in the main line. Also at this point, the Wally West of New Earth hasn’t transitioned to the n52. Wallace West of n52 is an entirely different character, and that’s a whole other issue for another discussion. Wally West as we know him from New Earth doesn’t come back for a while. Wally and Hartley haven’t talked since before Flashpoint, and that’s a shame.

So read the Crimes of Passion Anthology he’s got please I’m begging you. The only downside is that the artist gave him a haircut.

(Crimes of Passion: Secret Admirer)

I haven’t read anything DCeased related, and while I know Hartley gets his time to shine and kiss David, I can’t tell you much beyond that. I’m pretty sure there’s other people who can tell you more, but it’s not me I’m afraid. (This is me saying guys, please tell me about Hartley in DCeased, someone tell me about my fictional lavender marriage husband.)

#Anonymous #ask #hartley rathaway #pied piper #pied piper dc #dc #(for my own records)#i'm biased and i hope the read more keeps the worst of this off of my followers' dashes #hope this helps!!!!

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imperiuswrecked · 3 years ago

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Still largely unfamilair with Namor, so please trust that I'm asking genuinely and in good faith: You've talked before how Namor being sexist is OCC, but I dunno-I know Early Installment Weirdness is a thing, but if we are still gonna give shit to Reed for 60's sexism, (see Life Story), Namor was the one who kidnapeed Sue and went "marry me OR ELSE" and even in modern stuff had "please, I know what you REALLY want" attitude. The guy obviously loves strong women who don't take his shit, but that's not the same as truly respecting them or women as a whole, if internet and Joss Whedon have proven anything. You don't see him pulling that shit on Jim Hammond.

Sorry this took so long to reply to, this is actually a very valid question that I have thought about before when looking more into Namor as a character and what I found myself asking is: Is a character sexist? Or is this character being written in a sexist way? The line between these question is very thin because fictional characters cannot actively chose their own fate. Who or why a character is being written by is important to consider when breaking down a character as is considering who the writer is. Literature/writing is not something that is created in a vacuum, so you have to consider when it was written, who it’s written for and by whom.

Namor has been around for over 80 years, he is an old school, literally one of the first, golden age characters. His character has vastly changed from his first appearance to his current. There have been many many writers who are sexist and it shows in their writing. I won't go out and say "not all writers" because let's face it, the majority of white male writers grew up in a world where being sexist isn't questioned and Namor is rarely written by a female writer. So first yes, there has been sexism in the writing.

So let us examine this; Is Namor a sexist character or was he written specifically in a sexist way that does not fully represent the character? The definition of sexism is: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.

Namor doesn’t hate/discriminate against women, he hates all people men & women, he hates surface people, he doesn’t get along with all the Atlantean people. He isn’t a soft and fluffy character, he is literally a giant jackass who doesn’t pull his punches or his words. He opens up to very few people. People confuse a character being a jerk or abrasive with them being a bad character. Namor only uses his people skills when it’s with people he likes.

The Susan Storm thing is just... bad. It’s terrible actually, and the you have to remember that Namor is being written as an antagonist 90% of the time, a rival for Sue’s affection from Reed. When Namor is with women who aren’t Susan Storm and thus isn’t being written as a alpha male love interest, he doesn’t constantly hit on them, sometimes he flirts but most times he doesn’t. Namor shows more respect to women than he does to men.

One example of Namor around a woman who isn’t a love interest, and he has to takes orders from, he slips up, ignores the chain of command and rushes in. He is reprimanded by Wasp and Namor falls in line because he respects her command as she is the leader.

Avengers (1963) #217-278 Janet van Dyne is leader of the Avengers, Namor joins in #262.

Compare Namor to a very sexist character such as Fabian Cortez and you can see they are two very different characters. As for the sexism of Reed in the early days, it’s just sexist writing, doesn’t mean Reed himself is, or he thinks less of Sue. Life Story is a terrible comic, I will say to find Reed fans who are more knowledgeable than I but just from what I read, the writer really didn’t know the characters at all, he even had Ben (a Jewish character) eating pork. Like that is a huge red flag that if he can’t even get that most basic fact down then he really isn’t a good writer.

The purpose of Fantastic Four: Life Story, is confusing because it’s not a retelling of their origin, it’s not a homage, it’s straight up rewrite to make it more “interesting”. It would have been better off as some AU no one would care about. If you want to read about Sue & Reed not being a couple and Sue getting with Namor then there are other what ifs that cover that better.

So to wrap up my thoughts on this subject; Namor in Fantastic Four books is written differently and if you want to see more of the character I would not recommend you read him there, because in those books he is meant to be Sue’s “dark temptation”. Reed is a character who gets a lot of hate for no reason, and most of it has to do with people who just don’t like him.

I hope I answered this to your satisfaction and if you have any other questions about Namor I would be happy to reply.

#namor #namor mckenzie #namor the sub-mariner #fantastic four #comic meta #imp answers #reed richards #susan storm #anti namorsue #notp: let it die let die let it wither up and die #ff: life story

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avelera · 4 years ago

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Part 2 of Let’s All Drag Joss Whedon (Finally) - Joss Whedon Doesn’t Accept the Premise (And that’s why he struggles with modern superhero franchises)

Part 1 - “Break the Cutie” aka Whedon’s just writing his fetish over and over and people are just beginning to figure that out

So apparently, Joss Whedon’s take on “The Justice League” was so horrible even WB’s own execs despised it, and we get some hints as to what they hated from the Vanity Fair article, “The robber on the rooftop—so goofy and awful. The Russian family—so useless and pointless. Everyone knew it. It was so awkward because nobody wanted to admit what a piece of shit it was.”

Now, I have a theory as to what went wrong here, and it’s the same thing that went wrong (for me) with Steve Rogers’ plot line in Age of Ultron, and looking back, in Avengers 1. It goes beyond Whedon just not wanting to continue any other creator’s stories (a gripe for another day) into the fact that AoU and even Avengers 1 feel a bit like, well, the movies that people in the Marvel Universe make about the Avengers. Not events that happened to the actual Avengers as seen in their own films.

It’s because when it’s not his own world, Joss Whedon just doesn’t accept the premise of other people’s fantastical worlds.

What do I mean by “accept the premise”? Another phrase could be “suspend disbelief” or “take it seriously” but what it translates to is being willing to accept even a ludicrous scenario as fact and go from there as a writer, arguably the foundations of writing speculative fiction. I can write for you a heart-wrenching story about a clown who is supernaturally stuck in his clown-car if I just accept the premise enough, because once the silliness of the premise is accepted, we can acknowledge it and move on to the seriousness of the character’s suffering and continue from there. Any ludicrous premise can be played straight if you accept the premise.

Young nerds may not remember, but for all the scattered success of late 90′s/early 00′s sci-fi/fantasy/superhero films there were ten times as many ridiculous failures that all felt like they were self-conscious to even be alive much less daring to subject you to a story about wizards or superheroes for goodness sake. It felt as if the creators themselves were embarrassed to be there. This all changed when films like Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man 1 stopped cringing away from the fantasy elements and accepted the premise that fantastical things are happening, that there are heroes in rocket suits and bat costumes saving the world and ok, now that we’ve acknowledged this is a departure from normal reality, we can actually deal seriously with the things happening in these world.

Superhero franchises like Marvel haven’t looked back from this decision! Yes our heroes are in costumes, but Captain America isn’t just a boy scout in spandex, he’s a man who suffered and lost more than most people can comprehend in the course of being frozen in ice for 75 years, and in films like “Winter Soldier” we’re going to deal with that immense suffering, the scars it leaves, and what happens when he discovers his best friend has suffered a fate worse than even he has.

Whedon didn’t want to accept Winter Soldier in AoU. Actually, he didn’t want to accept any of the individual character films in his story, he just picks up right off from Avengers 1 with a few scant nods to the intervening canon. In fact, he outright said he wanted the MCU to be loosely connected one-offs where creators like him could all do their own thing without paying attention to each other.

To me it seems obvious that this was in part because Whedon couldn’t accept Winter Soldier (and, IMO, was jealous of it). He couldn’t accept Cap/Steve Rogers being more than a punchline. He’s always making him into this golden retriever, boy scout, whatever. Tony Stark, for all that he gets better treatment as the “cool”, quippy guy of a Joss Whedon story, also has most of his trauma and PTSD dealt with in his own individual films tossed out the window in favor of him, yeah I’m gonna say it, basically bullying everyone with how smart he is the whole film and generally being obnoxious and unbearable.

The only place serious emotion is allowed to live in a Whedon story set in someone else’s world is when he gets to play out his “Nerd Guy and Battered Strong Female Character” love story, which for Avengers he twisted Nat and Bruce Banner into performing for his fetishistic pleasure. A story that made no objective sense for the characters, that at least Scarlett Johansson protested as not making sense for her character (and she was right) and which required absolutely tortured logic for some of the other characters, like Hawkeye suddenly having a family that was never alluded to previously in order to derail the burgeoning (and actor promoted!) love-story between Hawkeye and Black Widow.

Not that I’m bitter or anything.

My point is, I’m not surprised that given modern superhero films are built on accepting the premise of a superhero world where people where spandex but also feel really bad emotions that we’ve gotta take seriously for the story to work, that Whedon’s 90′s comic book era quippy detachment from all this “silly comic stuff” just doesn’t work. It’s great for the occasional humorous scene but it can’t carry a franchise and it clashes with other creators who are taking the characters, premise, and world seriously.

So while everyone is waking up, shocked, to this realization that Titan of Nerd Culture Joss Whedon can’t carry a modern superhero franchise that takes itself seriously, I admit, I’m kind of sitting here going, “You just figured that out??”

#joss whedon #joss whedon critical #mcu meta

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jcmorrigan · 3 years ago

Note

Pick your top 10 favorite Megavolt episodes (villain team ups included). Also, I think Megavolt would totally listen to Daft Punk.

Yes, he ABSOLUTELY would. I have headcanoned before that "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" is one of his favorite songs.

Anyway, here's my order with a brief explanation

10. Jail Bird - I just like the scenes of the Fearsome Four here (read: the four who aren't Negaduck) because it really proves they're honest-to-goodness friends despite all being unrepentant (well, barely repentant) supervillains. And it breaks my heart because the reason Negaduck is able to betray them so thoroughly is because they assume he sees them the same way.

9. Inherit the Wimp - Stealing people's energy was really a cool gimmick and allowed him to cause some of the most damage he ever has (intentionally, anyway). Also the slapstick is choice.

8. Duck Blind - THE APPEARANCE OF THE LIGHT SABER KATANA! Also, for his intro episode, it just pours all the fun energy into him that sets up his character for later. It's just a really good way to bring him into the story.

7. Dead Duck - I know it's a dream sequence in the end, but I love the idea of Megavolt managing to kill Darkwing and then becoming a celebrity over it instead of facing consequences, and THEN being defeated because Launchpad gives him a monologue that makes him feel guilty and that's literally all it takes. He's such a dork. Also the "Well, this just proves I'm not ANY idiot" scene.

6. Just Us Justice Ducks - The Fearsome Five was absolute MAGIC here. What I wouldn't give to go back to the 90s and experience it the way you were supposed to - by seeing each of them in separate eps, and then all of a sudden WHOA! THEY'RE ALL WORKING TOGETHER! ALL OF THEM! AND THE GUY FROM THE TRON SPLITTER EPISODE IS BACK AND A BIGGER VILLAIN! Also the same goes for the heroes - I love how the show deliberately played with Darkwing's self-made quasi-edgy loner personality to give him the arc of realizing that a hero team-up is what he NEEDS in order to save the day, and what you end up with is SQUAD GOALS.

5. Twitching Channels - This entire episode is why I believe Megavolt now absolutely knows that the world he lives in is 100% fictional. He is aware he's a cartoon character. The show basically says as much. I have never seen a fourth-wall break THAT BIG before and I appreciate the guts it took to write that plot.

4. Clash Reunion - LOVED learning that DW and Megs' rivalry goes back further than either of them realized, LOVED learning that Darkwing as an entity exists because of Megavolt (yes I know technically future!Drake inspired kid!Drake to become a superhero via time travel first but SHHHHH he didn't think to actually do it until Megavolt showed up). The humor is on point in all of these, but especially in this one - I love the sequence where Megavolt forgets he's a supervillain and everyone could've escaped if Launchpad hadn't reminded him. Also when he actually gets HAPPY that Darkwing didn't actually give up and instead is continuing their rivalry. I love the way their rivalry is written so much.

3. A Revolution in Home Appliances - I LOVE WHUMP. THAT SHOULD TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT WHY I LIKE THIS ONE SO MUCH.

2. Stressed to Kill - His partnership with Quackerjack is THE DREAM TEAM and this whole episode is those two just going around town causing chaos and being idiots. This is the most damage Megavolt has ever caused to St. Canard and it was BY ACCIDENT

1. The Frequency Fiends - Look, while I in no way call for the redemption of Megavolt (he's too fun as a villain), this is a WONDERFUL Enemy Mine episode. It was super fun to see him decide that yeah, Darkwing and Launchpad can be his friends today because they all hate the same monsters. It's adorable and it warms my little heart.

#megavolt #darkwing duck

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canmom · 3 years ago

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Martes de Cine 27 - So, Jodo then.

Hello Tokufriends! I am safely returned from Northern Ireland, and here to serve you some films in the next few days before I depart once again for the USA.

Tonight we’re gonna tackle a film I’ve been recommended for a good while by extremely delightful women: Alejandro Jodorowsky’s surreal occult epic The Holy Mountain. Which is perhaps a little timely, with a Dune in the air, and the recent announcement that Taika Waititi is adapting Moebius & Jodo’s The Incal.

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So, Jodo then.

I talked a little about this guy on the Moebius animation night, and that probably serves as a good introduction.

Alejandro Jodorowsky is a… challenging movie director and science fiction-occultism-etc. kind of guy. So what’s the deal? Let’s put it this way… the guy’s really fucking obsessed with talking rape and portraying most parodically extreme masculinity; he’s one of those occulty guys and there’s some… fascinatingly weird shit in his comics like The Metabarons. But he’s also friends with just about all the big names in the industry at that time, which means he’s worked with some really incredible artists, and along the way directed some really renowned films like The Holy Mountain (1973); but equally he is infamous for claiming to have raped the lead actress for a scene in his film El Topo (1970), though he later claimed this was just an edgy lie he made up to get attention as a foreign director.

I went on to talk about his (in)famous attempt to adapt Dune as a ten hour epic, a subject we will get to in a little while. Now, to be fair on the guy, I think he’s a big edgelord and the rape fixation thing is like... only part of that. But I figure let’s put that up front so we know exactly what we’re getting into!

Born in Chile, Jodo first hit the film scene at the Acapulco Film Festival in Mexico in 1968 with Fando Y Lis, where - in the long tradition of surrealist filmmakers such as Luis Buñuel (see Animation Night 17) - he got chased out of the theatre at the premiere by a crowd throwing stones:

When Jodorowsky's first feature film, Fando y Lis, premiered at the 1968 Acapulco Film Festival, the screening was controversial and erupted into a riot, due to its graphic content.[90] Jodorowsky had to leave the theatre by sneaking outside to a waiting limousine, and when the crowd outside the theatre recognized him, the car was pelted with rocks.[91] The following week, the film opened to sell-out crowds in Mexico City, but more fights broke out, and the film was banned by the Mexican government.[92] Jodorowsky himself was nearly deported and the controversy provided a great deal of fodder for the Mexican newspapers.[93]

Undeterred, he soon started on his next project, El Topo (1970), in which a gunslinger played by Jodorowsky himself wanders around doing acts of violence in search of enlightenment.

Described as an attempt to realise the effect of psychedelic drugs in film, El Topo was shot in a Mexican desert but first released in New York, a 'midnight movie’ at the Elgin Theatre, putting it in the company of films like Rocky Horror and Eraserhead. When denying his infamous rape claim decades later, Jodo described how he promoted it:

I had to break through using the only tool I had: shock through scandalous statements. This is how I did it: I dressed up as the mystical bandit character [the titular El Topo], I introduced myself in the interviews with a beard, a mane and a black leather suit, and I said things that purposefully shocked the interviewers. "I am an anti-feminist, I hate women. I hate cats. I've eaten human meat tacos with Diego Rivera. El Topo is a film where things really happened: that scene of rape is a real rape! I killed the animals (that in reality I had purchased dead from a local zoo) with a fork I sharpened myself!"

The claimed ‘real rape’ in question was of actress Mara Lorenzio, who to my knowledge has not commented (and given that Jodo is now a very established and esteemed director I certainly would understand why she’d be reluctant to dig that up) - her only other film credit on IMDb is a documentary on these ‘midnight movies’ and I cannot find a copy of. It seems the circumstances are probably not exactly how Jodo described them at the time, but that certainly doesn’t rule out all sorts of abuse of power taking place on set. I have sufficient doubt that I’m not in a hurry to screen El Topo.

In any case, Jodo’s edgy performance evidently fascinated the Americans, who dubbed it the first of a genre known as the ‘acid western’. In particular, it impressed extremely rich musician couple John Lennon and Yoko Ono, who were so impressed that they decided to give Jodo a large amount of money to make his next film, which dropped in 1973.

So that brings us to The Holy Mountain!

No doubt about it, Lennon and Ono got a pretty unique movie for their money. The way it’s been described to me, the film is a series of loosely connected vignettes which function as a sort of well-informed satire on occultism, cults and the like. The story concerns a young begger called the Thief, who ends up joining a small cult of eight people (each one associated with planetary and tarot symbolism) from various walks of life such as an arms manufacturer and a toymaker who indoctrinates children to war, who all now answer answer to a man named the Alchemist (once again played by Jodo himself). Their project project is a quest to reach the ‘Holy Mountain’, where supposedly they will learn the secret of immortality.

The film apparently draws primarily on two books, a 16th-century spiritual treatise called Ascent of Mount Carmel by John of the Cross and the 20th-century unfinished novel Mount Analogue by René Daumal. So it’s a film for wizards? Perhaps; or perhaps as it has been described to me a film by a wizard that sharply and amusingly criticises the aspirations of occultists and the whole idea that a guy can lead you to enlightenment by enacting various abuses. Whatever it’s about, it will no doubt - like a lot of things made by occultist artists, who certainly tend to have their finger dead on the symbolic pulse - be packed with striking, inventive images, compelling jokes and elaborate visual compositions. So I’m quite looking forward to seeing it.

Anyway, I was stuck for a while for a film 2 to go with this. The rest of Jodo’s filmography doesn’t generally entertain such a lasting impact or renown. The answer I decided would be the French documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune.

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To briefly summarise what happened next: as we discussed on that Moebius post, in the wake of The Holy Mountain, Jodo was asked to direct an adaptation of Dune by a French consortium who purchased the rights. What followed became something of a film legend: Jodo invited artists like Moebius, Giger and Chris Foss to America, and started preproduction - including vast amounts of concept art - for an absurdly maximalist movie that would span about fourteen hours. He had various... interesting ideas about who to cast:

Jodorowsky planned to cast the Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí, in what would have been his only speaking role as a film actor, in the role of Emperor Shaddam IV. Dalí agreed when Jodorowsky offered to pay him a fee of $100,000 per hour.[27] He also planned to cast Orson Welles as Baron Vladimir Harkonnen; Welles only agreed when Jodorowsky offered to get his favourite gourmet chef to prepare his meals for him throughout the filming.[28] The book's protagonist, Paul Atreides, was to be played by Jodorowsky's son, Brontis Jodorowsky. The music would be composed by Pink Floyd and Magma.[27]

Naturally nobody would fund something so outré, and the project collapsed, which I half suspect was his intent from the beginning - it did a lot after all to help build up his personal mythology. Jodo walked away just fine, directing several more films and becoming a successful author of French comics working with artists like Moebius and Enki Bilal on further spiritual science fiction epics; the artists weren’t all so lucky, at least in the short term.

Why return to it now? Well, if Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013) is to be believed, this project laid the groundwork for a lot of the imagery of science fiction to come in the next few decades, most notably Star Wars and Alien, whose bold designs then became cemented (and gradually diluted) in the impending era of media franchises; and there is a much less ambitious interpretation of Dune in the theatres right now. In any case, the production - this mad pursuit of an obviously impossible vision - is a pretty fun little legend in its own right, and the documentary seems to be a very well-regarded account of it.

So, what of Jodo then? He seems to be one of the people who realised that if you go all out playing a character - in this case, the “crazy visionary foreign director/wizard” - you can secure a certain niche in the whole celebrity apparatus. I’m sure his occultist beliefs are sincere - not my bailiwick but I’m advised he knows what he’s about there - but I’m also sure he plays it up a lot. And yeah, he might very well have raped someone and even if he didn’t, he sure wanted people to think he did. But, for all that he’s an enemy, his whole deal functions as a kind of unusually direct and unrestrained window into the fucked up psychosexual imaginary that is running our society so, much like his friends in the French comics milieu, it still ends up “fascinating”. (At some point I must finish reading and write up a post on The Metabarons).

Alongside those two, I intend to show the latest episode of Kamen Rider Revice, picking up from last week’s cliffhanger. Very diluted Toku in our Tuesdays these days, but at least there is some ;p

Toku Tuesday will be going live now at twitch.tv/canmom and films will be rolling in like 20 minutes or so probably!

#toku tuesday

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hatterstan-shameblog · 3 years ago

Note

Here is the first one

Second :D

And last..he's looking at you 👀💦

ALRIGHT you know WHAT—

There’s…a lot going on here. So much so, that I have decided to create

CONTEXT

for these three images that is

COMPLETELY FAKE

because I think it’ll be a fun writing exercise. kind of a cringe move on my part, but consider: i have fun making up ridiculous lies about characters who don’t exist in real life.

(which is how I’m treating these, by the way. yes, they are pictures of kaneko nobuaki, but for my purposes, they are NOT actually him. they are distinct fictional characters who are not real.)

so if you’re feeling adventurous skip below the cut and watch me break it down:

Image 1: Accidental “Date” Makes Cousin’s Wedding Less Terrible Than Originally Expected

The year is 1999. Your cousin (who you are not particularly close to) is getting married…on a cruise ship. Your mother insists you attend. You insist upon spending 90% of your time sipping margaritas on the deck and flipping through the latest issue of Marie Claire while trying desperately not to think about the fact that you are surrounded by nothing but open ocean.

One of the (very drunk) bridesmaids tries to toss you a beach ball because you have been, and I quote: like, a total bummer this whole time. She misses. It hits the person next to you in the face. Great. Awesome. You think: well now who’s being, like, a total bummer?

Luckily the person who got hit in the face laughs the entire thing off. He says your friends seem…’lively.’ You say that’s pretty rich coming from a guy who looks like a rejected member of ‘The Clash.’ He insists that he left them, not the other way around.

You slip into conversation. You tell him that you’re here for a wedding. He offers his condolences. You accept them. He says he actually likes weddings—something about two people making a life-changing commitment speaks to him on a soul-level. That and the open bar, of course.

You suggest he crash the wedding. He says he’s not sure if he can make it—there’s a shuffleboard tournament that evening that he would just hate to miss, plus the latest issue of Soap Opera Digest is waiting on his bedside table just begging to be opened. You say that’s perfectly understandable, but, if he suddenly finds himself caught up on the latest All My Children gossip, he can meet you back here at four.

Surprise, surprise: he shows up. He’s wearing the same shirt he was before, but buttoned up this time—and with one of the most hideous neckties you’ve ever seen, which he apparently borrowed from the kind old man next door. Instead of complimenting his attire (because it is truly un-compliment-able), you take the opportunity to mention that this is a Titanic-themed wedding. He says that having a Titanic-themed wedding on a cruise ship is “kind of fucked up” and you solemnly agree.

Everyone is very surprised and pleased to see that you’ve brought a date—even the bride, who tells you that you’re “just like Jack and Rose.” You agree, much to her delight…until you say that, if the ship goes down, you also won’t share the door and let him freeze to death in the icy water. He insists he’d be the guy who jumps off the ship and hits his leg on the propellor—that’s his favorite part of the whole movie, and it’d be an honor to re-enact the scene.

The wedding is…a wedding. Vows, toasts, pictures—and you’re sipping champagne through the entire thing. The two of you spend the evening getting completely wasted and telling everyone a different story about just who your ‘mystery date’ is. Highlights include: the captain’s unruly son whose been tasked with following in his father’s sea-faring footsteps; professional cave-diver who discovered a new species of slug and is spending his reward money on a nice vacation; head of marketing who gives all those clever names to the nail polishes at OPI; the guy who folds everyone’s towels into animal shapes.

You end up where you started: on neighboring lounge chairs, with a margarita, and talking to this stranger who has recently crossed into “acquaintance” territory. You chat about how “My Heart Will Go On” is actually a good song, and he promises not to tell anyone that you said that. He also says that this is the best Titanic-themed cruise ship wedding he’s ever been to, and he can’t wait until somebody decides to do Jaws.

Eventually, you both stagger back to your rooms with promises of seeing each other at breakfast. Unfortunately, you have the worst hangover of your life the next morning and even the thought of ‘breakfast’ makes you want to roll over and die, so you don’t manage to stumble out of bed until it’s time to disembark.

You see him at port, and you each offer each other a little wave before going your separate ways. Six weeks later, you get a Polaroid of the two of you together, sitting at the bar and laughing at something that must have been very, very hilarious.

You don’t remember most of what happened that night, but you remember it was not as terrible as it could have been.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Image 2: Extremely Weird Guy On The Street Has You Questioning Your Sanity

It’s 6:00 in the morning—a truly terrible time to be awake, but a necessary evil. Your flight leaves at 10, and since it’s an international thing, you want to make sure you get there in plenty of time to get to your gate (and maybe sample all the fancy perfumes you can’t afford at one of those high-end stores that are always in airports.)

The streets are mostly empty, save for a few random pedestrians and a handful of passed-out salarymen snoozing on the curb. The sky a rainy gray-blue as the sun tries to rise behind the springtime cloud cover—it’s no doubt going to be another dismal day, as is common during this time of year. Hopefully there’s not too much turbulence on your flight…

You stop at a crosswalk, waiting for the little walking man signal to show up on the light across the way. You’re soon joined by another person—a man in a soft-looking jacket who supplies you with a small “good morning” bob of his head. You respond in kind, throwing in a small smile for good measure. It’s nice that he too understands that it’s entirely too early to be having any kind of conversation, even if it is just a simple verbal greeting between strangers on a street corner.

The light changes, and you both begin your trek across the street. Your fellow walker is faster than you—or, more likely, has longer legs and, ergo, a longer stride than your own—and is nearly halfway across by the time you get your wheeled suitcase over the curb. He seems decent enough. You hope he’s going somewhere nice.

It’s then that you make the mistake of looking up. It would have been much better if you had just continued watching the white painted lines on the road and thinking about how it reminds you of piano keys—and how you hated the six months of piano lessons your parents forced you to take in the first grade.

But no. You noticed someone walking towards you, and you just had to look up.

The first thing you notice is a rainbow tie-dye shirt. The second thing you notice is that the rainbow tie-dye shirt is on a very cheerful looking gentleman, who seemed to be bobbing his head in time with a song only he could hear.

The third thing you notice—and this one’s the real kicker—is the large blue-and-green reptile sitting on his shoulder. It’s bulging eyes are hooded in pleasure as it’s red-pink tongue darts out to eat the green something—maybe a grape or a small piece of melon?—from the rainbow tie-dye man’s hand. It is nothing short of a spectacle, honestly, and you feel a piece of your sanity evaporate.

The rainbow tie-dye man continues on, uncaring of your confused stare at his strange pet. You even turn around to make sure that you weren’t somehow hallucinating, and sure enough, there is definitely some kind of creature draped over this stranger’s shoulder. It’s tail even sways in time with the man’s steps, which is both cute and confusing.

Because it would not do to stand in the middle of the street all day, considering the existence of rainbow tie-dye man and his exotic pet, you do the only thing you can do: turn back around and continue on your journey. You need a coffee. Maybe with an extra shot of espresso, after witnessing whatever the hell that was. Something to set you right again.

“Was that…?”

The other man—the soft-coat long-stride one—is speaking low enough as to not draw attention, but loud enough for you to hear as you make your way towards the sidewalk. His expression reads ‘concerned, but trying not to show it’ which you suppose is the polite and mature way of handling the situation.

“…an iguana? Yeah,” you answer him, “I saw it too.”

The man’s brow furrows. His mouth puckers into a small frown as he considers…well, something.

“…Okay, then,” he concludes, shrugging his shoulders, “Hell of a way to start the day.”

“Yeah.”

And you both continue on your way. He turns left at the next intersection, you turn right—but even though your paths may now be different, you will forever share an unbreakable bond over the fantastical sight you’ve witnessed today.

🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

Image 3: Near Death Experience At Open Mic Night

You are not a poet.

Well, not professionally, anyways. You’ve been known to dabble in the written word, often scribbling little snippets of rhyme in a notebook over your lunch break or tapping a verse or two into the notes app on your phone. It a kind of outlet, you suppose—a way to keep the creative energy that bubbles inside of you from boiling over.

It’s also worth mentioning that you are not a confident public speaker. Not since that unfortunate incident in the third grade where you forgot the single line you had in the school play and ran off stage, tears streaming down your face and—actually, no, you’re not going to think about that right now. Or ever again, hopefully.

So when your (tipsy) coworkers decide that it’s a good idea to push you onto the stage at the local dive bar’s open mic night—while shouting at you to “read the one about the night-blooming jasmine”—you freeze up. There are at least seven strangers staring at you, expectation rising with every passing second of your inaction. It’s nerve-wracking in the way that the third-grade incident was not, and you gulp against the nervousness that rises in your throat.

Shaking hands scroll frantically through your phone, looking for the requested poem—and after a few agonizing moments, you manage to find it. Your voice cracks rather embarrassingly as you begin to read, trying your damndest to get the words out right so you can slink back to the bar and drown the rest of the night in Chardonnay.

Everything is going well—or, at least, as well as can be expected—until you notice that the room is suddenly feeling very hot. That’s the last coherent thought you have before the room goes dark and everything falls silent.

Next thing you know, you’re staring at the ceiling. A man who you do not know is leaning over you, and his mouth is moving—oh, he’s probably trying to say something to you, but it’s very difficult to tell what he’s saying over the throbbing pain in the back of your head.

You ask him if you’re dead. It’s a possibility after all, that you’ve somehow died and landed yourself in some kind of special public-speaking hell. That’s what this feels like, anyways.

The man says no, you are not dead. You say ‘dammit’ in response. He tries to hold back laughter, offering to help you up by extending his hand. You take it and—ouch, ugh, ew, going from laying to standing is not a fun experience.

You thank him (albeit awkwardly) for helping you up, and he insists that ‘it’s cool.’ Passing out in front of an audience is not even remotely cool, but you nod and thank him again, anyways.

Before you’re able to converse with the helpful stranger any further, your coworkers have come to collect you. You are whisked away by someone from accounting, who offers to escort you home—an offer you gladly accept, very excited to leave the site of your failure behind you.

Safe to say, you never go back to that particular bar again.

#writings and such #thought you’d get me with a thirst post WELL I JUST THREW DOWN AN UNO REVERSE CARD BAYBEEEEE #‘he’s looking at you’ YOU TRYNA MAKE ME BLUSH CUZ ITS WORKIN OKAY???#fun fact: the second one was inspired by MULTIPLE real-life events #can’t wait to wake up tomorrow morning and regret this <3

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smp-live · 3 years ago

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Was scrolling through c!Wilbur crit blogs again and it got me thinking about why exactly I argue in favour of him so much so here’s a random ramble (that got long) about it:

Most c!Wilbur critics (at least, in the tag, not directly post-lore stream. The ones that do actual analysis on him) are like... really reasonable about it, actually, lmao. Like it’s mostly just calling him a bad person because of power hunger/manipulation/being a bad dad/whatever else. (Not talking about antis. I mean people who are really critical of him, but recognize that he’s a well-crafted character with nuance.)

Which I agree with! I consider myself an apologist, my writing and analysis leans really sympathetic, and I still agree that he’s a shitty rat bastard that I would run far away from irl. Even at the beginning of the story, he’s very morally grey, sometimes using underhanded persuasion tactics, doing ehh things like stealing, and it only gets worse from there.

But on the other hand, he’s... not that bad. Like I saw one person say about c!Dream, “My reaction to most critique of him is... so what?” and that’s how I feel about c!Wilbur, I suppose. Yeah, he tried to rig an election - but it was a last-ditch effort at not going full dictator, he didn’t follow through, and later on he - in part - decided to blow it up because they couldn’t get it back while being democratic. And yeah, he manipulated people - all in all, it wasn’t really really bad things, mostly to paint himself in a better light because of his insecurities, and people sometimes fall into manipulative language without even outwardly realizing that it’s a shitty thing to do. Of course, that shows a bigger underlying problem in their mindset and the way they interpret relationships and possession, but then that’s a different discussion - and definitely one that applies to c!Wilbur.

(Not saying he doesn’t ever intentionally manipulate people. I think that a. sometimes it might be accidental, (”If you wanna be President you’re gonna have to get on my good side,” mans was Not thinking straight,) and b. other times he falls into old habits/coping mechanisms that happen to be manipulation, (Tommy at Las Nevadas.) Other than the election and maybe some times in the early founding of L’Manberg, I can’t think of any moments where I’m like, “Yeah, he is Purposefully Manipulating here.” And even then, it just doesn’t strike me as a terrible thing. People manipulate, it’s a thing they do. That’s it. A morally grey action.)

And I think the majority of the reason I make more posts painting him in a positive light and don’t really discuss my critique of him is because it feels like the fandom has an overwhelming bias of hatred/crit, even if a lot of that isn’t, y’know, proper analysis of his character. I instinctively want to balance it out for this character I love/relate to, because a lot of what I see straight-up ignores the lighter side of his moral-greyness.

Like, a while back, I posted a couple clips from late-election arc, of Wilbur talking about how he feels about Fundy siding with Quackity and against him. And the way I initially saw it while watching was, “Okay. He feels betrayed by his son who disagrees with his politics - and thus, him as a person, because your politics are a reflection of your identity, especially in Wilbur’s mind - and it’s perfectly understandable that he’d want to vent about that in private to a close friend. On the other hand, he should be able to recognize that Fundy’s allowed to be his own person and shouldn’t be babied. Fundy is in the right, here, but Wilbur’s feelings shouldn’t be dismissed.”

But then 90% of the tags were just straight-up hate for c!Wilbur, going as far as to say that he should die again. (And this was after we found out how bad the afterlife was for him.) That fucking floored me. I just couldn’t understand how they took this nuanced character aching for ‘the son he knew’ back (hm. very similar to c!Phil, actually) and turned it into ‘wow. This suicidal man sucks and should maybe die.’ I was so close to making a post defending him before realizing - I was letting fandom bias against a character push me further onto the sympathetic side.

And that’s such a fuckin’ weird thing to have happen, because you’d think that exposure to negativity about a character would make you feel more negative about them? But without fail, every time I scroll through the crit tag, or read a critical post about c!Wilbur/L’Manberg, I maybe lean a bit more towards that side for a few hours before swinging back hard onto the apologist side. Because a lot of the critique, to me, is really just, “so what?” after I let it stew a bit.

Then there’s the whole mental health issue. Obviously it doesn’t excuse the shit he did - I know people who have been in the middle of breakdowns and the stuff they say still fucking hurts, even if they didn’t truly mean it. But recognizing that he needs help? That for pretty much all his time on-screen, he was depressed and paranoid, which obviously affects the way he acts? That’s obvious. And were he in the position to get professional help - which he deserves - everything would be much better off. That’s the root of my apologism, I think: He deserves to get better. He’s not inherently evil, or bad, just a fucked up little man who’s ruined his own life and needs help. I want to see him, specifically him, get better.

Narratively, his punishment has been extreme and disproportionate. Every mistake, every choice - good or bad - has led to suffering, on his part. Start a fun little rebellion, maybe to gain some power? War and betrayal. Declare an election to consolidate said power? Lose, and get exiled. Blow up a nation? Die, and even in the afterlife, he can't catch a break. Purely as a sympathetic human, it feels like he deserves to rest. Deserves to heal.

But even medicated and less anxious, or going to therapy for his neuroticism and depression, or whatever, he still would be quite morally grey. A lot of his manipulation, his power hunger, comes from this neuroticism; from needing to feel safe and needed, (just like Quackity.) Not all of it, though. He’d still have his unhealthy ideals about relationships and possession, for example. Less prominent, sure, but still there. Some people, I feel, discount how tied up with his mental illness it is, while others don’t really recognize that it’s also a personality problem. Like, changing those beliefs is changing part of who he fundamentally is, as a person.

Actually, I think the c!Wilbur apologist community, in general, tends to scapegoat his mental illness a little too much? Not in that we explain his actions with it or ask people not to villainize it, (although sometimes I feel that what we call villainizing mental illness is a bit excessive, but it’s not my place to talk about that as someone who doesn’t really relate to Pogtopia!Wilbur,) but in that we use it in discussions a lot. Which is fair, because it permeates every single aspect of his character, but even without it he’d have toxic traits? Like his possessiveness is not purely a byproduct of his mental illness, imo. Nor is his treatment of Fundy. It’s amplified by it, surely, but that little seed of it is there in the first place. Just as c!Dream’s abuse needs to be addressed as a central part of his character, c!Wilbur’s possessiveness does too - and also outside of the context of their mental health, because they’re both brought on by an internal personality flaw, some fucked-up belief, if that makes sense.

As I said before: c!Wilbur is a mess of a human being that I would hate if I actually met. (irl I would’ve been a SWAG supporter, based on policies, but since this is fiction, I was POG.) But because he’s a character, that flies out the window, and I can love him - not even just as a character, in the sense that I appreciate he’s well-crafted, but in terms of personality and all that shit, while recognizing he’s a kinda crappy guy. Because he’s a character. That’s the fun of it.

#Enderspeak #idk just musing and working out thoughts that got long but I actually kinda like #I think I'm gonna try to not let that bias sway me as much anymore. write more crit posts even if they're made with love in my heart <3 #I might have to stick a disclaimer on them though because each time I get a pure hate comment part of my soul shrivels #You can also tell I've been reading a lot of books/treatises written by old white guys recently because I feel like my opinion #on everything is needed and wanted lol #Also on the villainization thing: if someone who does feel okay talking about it could write a response with their thoughts #that'd be neat #Because I. don't know how to phrase what I'm thinking in a way that feels right & not like I'm butting in somewhere I don't belong #But I'm not saying it's a bad/wrong thing. Sometimes I just see a post of someone complaining and I'm like #''Is it really?'' but I don't really have a personal frame of reference to know so #take my words with a grain of salt - I will defer to those who know better #Actually take this whole post with a grain of salt I might hate it in a few hours #Update from a few hours later: well I don't disagree with what I said but it's a bit more extreme than I'd put it now so

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