#he made them a people who literally KNOW what happens after death bc they live like down the street from the gods

[lunarmoves]

Can't stop thinking of the scenario where y/n leaves the Pizzaplex feeling like Sun honestly wanted them gone, and Sun becomes obsessed with finding them and also leads a robot apocalypse. What would happen if y/n caught wind that Sun is looking specifically for them and seeing all that has happened with the robots takes that as "Oh no, I thought he tolerated me but turns out he dislikes me so much he personally wants to get rid of me himself" so they try extra hard to go into hiding out of fear of what will happen if they're captured and taken to him?

ohhh my goddd nonnie u are so big brained!!!!!!! thank u for sending this in bc honestly i have also been thinking about this au for a while LMAO. if i was strong enough i would write a 50k fic spliced into two arcs (im thinking about it so hard u have no idea!!!!!!) for this but alas.... /stares at my incomplete wips/ i am not </3

(added in from future shay: what have u done nonnie this became so much longer than i'd intended, u basically get the whole fic outline here. cw for death and murder n stuff, typical fnaf. also spoilers for a fic i may or may not write?? like. this is me brainstorming and shoving all my ideas here lol. literally all of them)

okay so... let us set the stage a little bc i can't help myself. arc1 of this hypothetical fic would of course involve the pizzaplex where reader and sun get "closer" over the course of like a year. maybe more. well sun feels close to you. you, on the other hand, do not. why would you? this robot has been so passive aggressive with you and though it seems like he's nice enough to you (in comparison to the other humans), you really don't like how he treats you some days. what he says about humanity as a whole. you can't help it! yeah humanity sucks sometimes and robots were built to be everything that humans aren't, but he can't generalize in the way that he does at times and forget that these are people!! with feelings and ambitions and dreams! 'superiority complex' doesn't even begin to cover his issues, gahh!!

(the fact that he's been treated like absolute shit, working in the daycare does not help whatsoever. the mean parents, the kids who don't listen to him, the staff tht does the bare minimum on him in terms of maintenance because he's the daycare robot and not one of the glamrocks. it grinds his gears)

i imagine the reader in this fic believes that robots are indeed sentient, which is why you try to get sun to recognize and acknowledge his own emotions/feelings (which he vehemently denies, even tho there are literal riots happening worldwide regarding robot sentience. he's lying to you. you know he's lying to you. but you don't know why he denies it so much. ((maybe this is the point where he catches feels for reader and is denying the fact tht he's crushing on a human lol)). the government is not happy about these uprisings, of course, and every day the news shows more and more chaos unfolding as robots get tired of the conditions they are in). but eventually, things boil over and you end up leaving. that, and it's becoming more dangerous, living in this area, with everything going on. maybe your parents are trying to convince you to move elsewhere. maybe there are other external circumstances. in any case, you leave. there is nothing at the pizzaplex for you anymore, sun has made that clear.

(and moon... well, moon has been quiet lately. too quiet. you don't know what happened to him, he won't even look at you when you manage to get some time with him when the lights go out after your shift)

((i imagine this is maybe around when they get infected. that makes everything even more complicated. if you thought sun was obsessive before, then that's nothing compared to a glitched out sun unforch. it just amplifies the more questionable aspects of his entire personality. and like, he doesn't even have vanny/afton commanding him bc as soon as he gets the virus? he kills both of them))

(((also im imagining moon and sun don't really get along in this au bc they have differing ideals/views. like to balance out sun's unhingedness, moon is significantly quieter and softer and deffo does not believe in robot superiority lol. if anything, maybe he has an inferiority complex pfft poor guy. doesn't help when he gets glitchtrap'd and wakes up with blood on his hands)))

okay so you leave, right? and a few weeks later, you see the news on your phone--the pizzaplex has burned down. you don't know how to feel about it. sure you've been friendly to the glamrocks and stuff, but you find yourself thinking about sun and moon. there's a mention of one death--a blond woman, who died from her neck snapping before the flames could reach her. you don't want to think of the implications of that. there's no mention of the glamrocks--of sun or moon or the dj. you're not sure if the news anchors are just excluding robots, but either way, it makes your heart sink. you take a moment to mourn. bc at the end of the day.... you did know sun for over a year.

not even a few days after that, there is a robot uprising in your city. it's... bad. you're at home, watching the news with your apartment half in shambles from your plan on moving back home with your parents. in my head, since utah is home to fazco (a megacorporation with hands in the development of a LOT of the robots seen in society), it also means it's a hotspot for robot riots and the like. fazco vehemently denies robot sentience because it would mean a loss of money in acknowledging their workers are people yk how it is. as such, there are maany protests and riots and stuff, from both humans and robots. it's a shitshow.

ANYWAYS you're at home and it becomes evidently clear that you need to get out of dodge as soon as you can. they were killing people. the robots, built by human hands, were killing. it brings about absolute chaos. in prior riots/protests there were never deaths. injuries, maybe, but never deaths. people start evacuating like crazy.

you catch a glimpse on the news that the violent uprising in utah caused a chainlink reaction to extend all across the nation. maybe even the world. you're scrambling all over your apartment with the tv on the news, doing your best to pack up the essentials. there's live coverage on the tv from a helicopter somewhere not far from your apartment complex. and you're able to catch a glimpse of bright rays and a cheshire, white smile on the screen--leading what looks like an army of robots--before it cuts out.

you don't even know what to think. the image is seared into your eyes, the blood that painted yellow hands and a crescent face.

you get the hell out of your apartment and book it as far as you can. communications are down everywhere--the thing about robots? they know exactly where to hit humans to cause a catastrophe. as such, your phone is useless. they've hijacked the satellites and took down certain powergrids. having a phone on you would only be a detriment, so you ditch it. there's only you now. you must survive.

and then there's a bit of a time skip to start arc2. in this duration, you're long gone from that city in utah, living with a small survival group. if you've read my summer camp au fic, this is where i'll bring in "OCs" such as vincent (a play on 2015 vincent) and jeremy (fitzgerald or the VR guy tht used to work for fazco), maybe michael if i really wanna au fudge everything. you all live day by day, trying to run away from the robots.

at this point, a majority of humanity has either been killed or has gone into hiding. i think while the robots don't want to eradicate humanity completely (after all, there are certain tasks that need humans n such), they definitely want to make them a minority. they are a little more than halfway through their goal.

it's very difficult to evade robot surveillance. there are drones everywhere. all cameras are hijacked. i'm imagining a kind of cyberpunk type world. you have EMPs and tasers that you can use to disable electronics, but they're made from scraps you and your group scavenged. and upon immediately using one, all robots in the area are informed of your presence, so they can only be used in rare and desperate circumstances. they are all connected to the same network, which means they can have a hive mind, at times. life is scary, in this regard. big brother is watching.

you've heard rumors of a human base underground somewhere--a place safe from robots with the proper defenses. accepting to any and all. the only tough thing was finding the damn place, but you've seen the clues in graffiti and hidden messages designed to trick AI (think: captcha). you and your group just wants to get to that damn base and stop living in fear all the time, being out in the open or crawling as stealthily as you can through empty streets.

the one thing sun used to emphasize to you? the way robots are more efficient. and that they are. you see it in the way a new metropolis shines like a beacon on the horizon. they've already built their own kingdom of sorts. and their ruler? you grimace as you think about sharp rays and wide, white eyes. you haven't seen him in ages--not since that initial broadcast. but you hear the whispered rumors and news. how he has created a robot haven--the celestial city. how he scorns humans. you blame yourself sometimes. maybe if you had stayed and tried harder to convince sun that humans aren't all too bad, none of this would have happened.

(a memory comes to you--of your time back at the pizzaplex. of you sitting atop the security desk and kicking your feet lightly as you entertain sun's... uniqueness. ambitions--that you did not take as seriously as you should have.

"okay, i'll bite," you said in amusement. "what would a robot takeover look like for you?"

sun cocked his head, hands fidgeting with a plush. "hmm. well. i suppose it would be a very quick thing, for one. hit hard and fast." he squeezed the plush. "take down comms. strike power sources. go for those in power first, then the weaker ones." he gave you a shrug and an unreadable smile. "from then on, carnage."

and you--silly silly you--just rolled your damn eyes at him like he was joking around with you and asked him about more hypotheticals. picking his brain, in a way. it was exact with how it played out in real time. you thought about this often, at the dead of night.

it was all your fucking fault)

and then, one day, the scout/informant of your little group--jeremy probably--comes back with some news. the celestial ruler--sun--has been taking human hostages. it's been happening for a while now, apparently, almost nearly as long as the uprising. jeremy pulls out some hazy photographs he's gotten from some of the other humans he exchanges info with. you look at them, the hostages.

after a minute or two of staring, you realize something.

they all sort of resemble you.

there's a clear pattern actually. your hair or your face shape or your eyes or your smile. some combination of them. but never actually you. you ask jeremy what it all means, and he hesitatingly says that it looks like sun is looking for someone. it's clear to everyone who it is as they all stare at you.

and you? you're panicking.

he's looking specifically for you. just you. you've never heard of the robots taking hostages, and you have no idea what he's doing with them, but it can't be anything good. especially since he keeps taking more and more of your lookalikes hostage. you think back to your time at the pizzaplex--so distant, now, that it almost feels like a dream.

he wants to kill you himself. you're sure of it.

now you're trying even harder to get to that underground base. you go completely dark, doing your best to evade detection--and i imagine there are quite a few close calls, definitely a few instances where your face is captured on camera or you have to use an EMP. until finally, you and your group manage to integrate into the underground human base.

'base' doesn't even properly describe it. it's a whole city, actually, with unsteady houses made of wood and cloth. it's the perfect place to hide.

you spend a while down there, occasionally venturing up when you're allowed to by the guards (it's rare, very very rare). the city has strict rules that must be followed to ensure it's not found. the ones in charge are constantly looking for news on the actions of sun and the majority of robots. they don't really keep the citizens updated--it would cause too much chaos, you think. but you hear whispers now and then. (the robots have expanded territory. france is completely gone. australia's still holding out. most of china and india have been taken over and their factories have all been transformed to mass produce more robots)

for the first time in a while, you think you can find peace down here. it was only inevitable that this would be ruined one day.

you wake up to chaos.

the underground is under siege. the robots have found you.

you run out of your makeshift house and have to dodge crumbling stone. explosions rock through the air, sending dust and debris everywhere. you're scared for your life--your only instinct is to run run run get out it's not safe! you don't know where your friends are. you don't know if they're alive. for a moment, you hesitate. and then you're bolting to try to find them. they had their own little homes not too far from you. you can find them. no man left behind.

you can hear bullets and the hum of energy everywhere. people are screaming and crying all around you. you see people dying before your eyes, impaled by beams of light or stray bullets. it's all you can do to dodge and weave towards vincent's house.

but before you can get there, something tackles you from behind. you roll across dirt, and find yourself pinned under a robot--a staffbot from the pizzaplex, you realize. except it looks--different. more high tech.

it seems to scan your face. and just before it can finish, you manage to grab a stray metal rod laying on the ground next to you and stab it right through the eye.

you scramble, getting as far away as you can from the thing. but-- you run right into the path of a crumbling building. it buries you halfway under thick wood, and something sears its way through your leg. you're trapped. you're trapped and there's no one around to help you.

and just when you're on the brink of passing out, you see him. standing in front of you a ways away. those same star-patterned pants and dangling cap. but he's different somehow, he looks different. you can't place it, your vision blurring into red and purple.

moon looks at you as though you are the last thing he wants to see. and then you faint.

when you wake up, you're in a bedroom. your leg is in a cast and there are crutches near your bed.

it's... the nicest room you've seen in a while. the windows are covered by thick curtains that let in a sliver of light. you have to blink a bit to let your eyes adjust. and then you get up, noticing you aren't in the same ratty, dirty clothes you'd been wearing for forever.

you try the door first. it's locked. there's a sinking sensation in your gut that gets stronger and stronger the closer you get to the window. and when you pull open the curtains, you gasp at the towering buildings, bright green and blue light, and flying drones.

you are in the middle of the celestial city.

you panic hard. and then you notice the camera in the corner of the room, looking right at you. big brother is definitely watching. you give him the bird.

you wallow around in the bedroom for a bit. you are hungry, you cannot deny. and there is only a glass of water for you set on your nightstand.

but eventually, the door opens of its own accord. an automatic lock, you suppose. and it swings open into a dark hall. you do not have any other choice but to follow. it's clear you are being summoned.

there are no places for you to run or hide. you travel down a long hallway and end up in a wide room with someone tall standing at the far end by the window. it's a scene straight out of a movie. you are not impressed.

the figure turns around, and you do a double take. it's sun--yet it's not.

he looks different. taller, stronger. with clawed fingers and rays that look deadly to the touch. his smile is sharper, his torso has all sorts of compartments and attachments. he was modded to all hell, just like that staffbot you saw earlier. it had to have been self inflicted.

he only stares at you, really. white eyes rake up and down your form, taking you in. you don't say a word, only look back at him. and then you flinch slightly when someone emerges from the shadows next to sun.

it's... moon. looking just as modded as sun. you're confused. when did they become separate? but honestly, you think it makes sense. they never really liked each other. it makes sense that sun would want to be separated as soon as possible--and they had the resources to do so. you just wonder why they're still working together. comfort in the familiarity, maybe.

moon doesn't meet your eye. you notice his is different--the red tinged with purple. sun doesn't look away from you. it makes you uneasy.

you don't know why you're here, but one thing's clear: you are not getting out of here anytime soon.

i'm honestly not sure how to end things, but in my head there's a lot of reconciliation that needs to happen. obv sun is so incredibly down bad for you at this point (and moon), but there are many issues that need to be tackled first.

sun doesn't understand why you're so wary around him. moon keeps avoiding you at every turn. there's still an entire revolution and remaking of society happening. you are constantly being watched by cameras in the building. i can't picture things as returning to normal--post uprising--but i also don't know how to end things on a happy note LOL, though i do want to instead of killing off reader or sun/moon. maybe it'll be a bittersweet sort of end, maybe reader finally gets through to sun. maybe eclipse will make an appearance (jk, idk how i would even do that, this might be an eclipse-less fic).

in any case, the next bit would be a lot of sun and reader connecting better than they had in the pizzaplex, a lot of sun trying to understand humans better cuz he's trying to court you-- and has long come to accept his emotions tbh. tho he's still kind of mad at you for leaving, so there needs to be a conversation of sorts about why you left before sun can really begin to understand how he appears to you. idk!

i also feel like moon isnt nearly fleshed out as sun is?? i dunno, i might have to think some more about him. i just know he's terrified of hurting you, esp with him still having the virus (and sun, but he has better control of it). gonna be a lot of work on your part to get him to be comfortable around you again. also, he doesn't like the fact that society has come to this. he lowkey resents sun, but he doesn't have anyone else. what's a bot to do?

also there may be a scene where your survival group tries to save you lol, maybe with an army that tries to seize control of the celestial city. which may work. this would be a bad end, i think, cuz there's no way sun's getting out of that alive.

anyways yeah. i rambled enough LMAOO whoopsie! i rly just regurgitated all the thoughts in my head. no promises that this will be a fic, i've got enough on my plate as is LOL

[scekrex]

Hey I was wondering if you could do Adam x reader where reader is a sinner who literally just spawned in the middle of an extermination so not only are they panicked about one somehow being alive, two the fact that they're body is basically completely different, and three that weird winged people are killing others. Adam sees reader and after a second or two of thinking and deciding that yeah they're cute makes up his mind and helps them. I hope you have an amazing day/night!

Thanks for request hun! I swear it was great writing it bc it was tricky to keep Adam as character accurate while also making him sympathize with reader. Here ya go, hope you like it xoxo/p

I’ll shelter and adore you more than anything

pairing: Adam x male!reader

warnings: language, mentions of death, low-key canon typical violence

note: not beta read bc fuck you I don't have beta readers

First it had all been black for a moment, a silent void that your soul seemed to travel through. Then there was light, at first it had seemed reddish, then it turned gold, the golden light transitioned to white and then you found yourself standing on solid ground.

What?

You reached for your head, your hands roamed over your skull, there was soft hair there, no sticky red blood, so liquid that coated your hair and made it all greasy. There was also no sign of your skull being cracked open even though that was what had just happened before the world had faded and turned black.

Your eyes roamed over your surroundings and panic and anxiety fueled you alongside confusion on why you were still alive.

There were winged people, they were fighting other creatures, in the hair, on the ground, all around you. Your body screamed at you to run away, to go seek shelter somewhere, to not get killed again. Which was weird enough because you had just died so why the fuck were you here and where was here to begin with. But your body didn't move, it felt like you were glued to the spot, as if your feet had melted and were now one with the ground.

A thing you noticed quickly was that all of the winged people wore black and white only, their wings matched those colors. But there was one guy, way taller than the others, he wore a purple robe with white details and golden sleeves, his wings were also golden. You assumed he was their leader.

You wanted to hide, from him especially, because if you were right and he was their leader, you were easy prey for them. You didn't understand what was going on, nor did you know where you were. Your arms reached for your legs, you tried to move, to get out of their view, to make yourself as unnoticeable as physically possible. But your body still wasn't moving. So you stood there, body violently shaking from fear and panic, what would it be like to die a second time? Would it be just as painful? Would you come back yet again and live through it all again?

“Fucking run you stupid bastard,” someone yelled at you as they rushed past your frozen body. All you could do was to look at them. Then your legs gave out and you collapsed.

Curled up into a ball your body was still shaking, vibrating even, and you felt hot tears streaming down your cheeks. That's it, you were going to die again, maybe even more painful than before. But most importantly: this time you were going to die alone, no partner by your side.

In the corner of your eyes you saw a shadow that was casted over you, a gigantic shadow with wings that were spread out, the winged creature was basically shielding your body from the few of the other winged creatures.

You saw how he leaned in, how his face got closer to your body, a dead serious expression was meeting your unsteady one. Fuck, he was going to kill you, wasn't he?

His lange hand grabbed your shoulder roughly and forced you to lay on your back, he eyed your face carefully before greeting you with a relaxed, “Sup?” You were too stunned to speak. You had expected this creature to kill you, to tear you apart until all that's left of you were little shreds. But instead he greeted you with a simple ‘sup’? Your body tried to get away from his touch, everything inside of you screamed to get away from him, that he was bad news. But you stayed, mainly because his grip on you was painfully firm, but you stayed. ��Y’know,” he continued as he raised an eyebrow at you, “It’s pretty fucking rude to not answer.”

A weak and quiet, “Hey,” was all you could get out and while clearly not the answer he had wanted - he made sure you knew that by sighing heavily - he picked you up bridal style. His golden wings were still spread, you supposed he held them up in pride, claiming you as his very own personal trophy. “Where are we going?” it was more of an instinct than actual knowledge you wanted, you were pretty sure you did not wanna know where the two of you were heading to. Most likely he was carrying you in your death. “Dunno, away from the fucking battle for now,” was his response as he walked away from said battle. Why was he being nice? Was he being nice or did he just carry you away to brutally murder you? But if that was his intention then why was he leaving the battlefield? Why not kill you then and there? “Why?” you simply asked, it was all that you could get out, you were too caught up in your thoughts to talk in proper sentences. He looked down at you and for a moment there was confusion written all over his face before he understood, a simple shrug was the answer. “You looked fucking lost,” the creature carrying you explained, “Fucking scared and alone.”

Adam sighed as he forced his eyes shut, you had reminded him of himself after Eve had left him. He was alone, scared even. And then he had crossed the pearly gates and the loneliness continued, he was less afraid but still as lonely, still as broken as he had been on earth. And while you had ended up in hell he couldn't just leave you there, not when you had been looking so much like him when he had died. Adam had died alone, no one should die alone. Especially not someone as gloriously holy looking as you. Because for a sinner, you looked too much like an angel. The wings were missing, obviously they were, no sinner would be reborn with angelic wings, but he could picture you with a pair and he hated himself for it. Because hell was forever and for the first time he didn't like the thought of that, because it included you. The first man didn't quite understand where the sympathy towards you came from, maybe it was just that he had seen himself in you, maybe it was because you seemed different than the others. Has God made a mistake? Adam shook his head, no. God makes no mistakes and neither do angels. But yet he questioned why you looked so holy, so angelic while being reborn a sinner.

The inner conflict Adam was fighting against himself was interrupted by two cannibals that were walking right towards you. Adam rolled his eyes, one hand let go of you and his wing came up to hold you up instead as he raised the hand that had been holding you only moments and a golden battle axe guitar appeared out of thin air. He twirled the shiny looking Instrumental weapon, then sliced their heads off smoothly, Adam's wing had covered your eyes so you weren't able to see it, but you heard it. Heard the blade slicing through flesh, heard their heads hitting the ground. And as surprisingly as the weapon had appeared, it was gone again.

One of the black and white dressed creatures flew towards you, seemingly targeting Adam. “Sir,” the female spoke with respect as she landed next to the guy that was carrying you. She eyed you, then looked at the tall man. “No fucking comment about it, Lute,” he warned with a low growl in his voice and the woman straightened her back with a nod, “We are done, we need to leave.” The masked man looked down at you, you looked so beautiful against his golden feathers, so holy, so untouchable. Yet you were a sinner and he couldn't bring a sinner with him to heaven. So he carefully let you down, the tip of his longest feather ghosted over your cheek, it wiped the tears away. “Promise me to stay fucking safe,” he mumbled as he stood in front of you. You looked up at him with curious eyes, “Where will you be going?” And it was just then and there that Adam realized that you knew nothing. Without him you would've died on the battlefield. “Heaven babes, me and those crazy bitches are going home,” he hummed and pointed to the woman next to him. “And we're currently in…?” Adam's face scrunched up and he bitterly spoke, “Hell.”

Oh. Oh.

So he was an angel? What did that make you? A demon? And yet he had protected you, shielded and saved you. Your eyes widened at that and the man in front of you chuckled. “If you ever see my ladies again,” he once again pointed to the woman next to him, “As for Adam, I'll let these cunts know about you babes ‘n’ they'll lead ya ass to me.” You repeated his name softly, deciding immediately that you liked the sound of it. “The one and only, it's not every day that you meet the fucking og dick,” a cocky grin was sent your way and it took you a moment to process his words. “The Adam? Like Adam and Eve?” That caused the first man's expression to sour immediately, Eve was seemingly a sensitive topic, you took a mental note. “Yeah. That one.”

Lute was once again the one to interrupt, “Sir we really need to go. The seraphims will question why we were gone longer than agreed.” Adam once again rolled his eyes and grabbed your shoulders again, more gentle this time, “Stay safe babes, we'll be back in six months.” And while you weren't entirely sure what he meant by that - because back for what? - you nodded.

[rillils]

STEVE & BUCKY'S LOVE STORY, UNABRIDGED SOMEWHAT ABRIDGED, part 2/3 (here is part 1)

picking up from where we left off:

some 65 years into the future, steve's plane is fished out of the ice, and they find him, frozen like a sexy hot-dayum popsicle, but still alive thanks to the same super serum that made him go from Smol to Lorge.

steve is thus brought back into the world, but it's a world he no longer recognizes after all these years; a world where all the people he used to know and love are long dead, and his own face has been turned into a tool for propaganda over the years. obviously, he has a hard time adjusting, and he turns to fighting again, joining this group of kinda possibly superheroes, aka the avengers.

lots of exciting new things happen, sure; but steve is still pretty miserable. until one day, a mysterious masked assassin dressed in bondage gear (but not really), and sporting one very shiny metal arm (!!!!), is sent to kill steve's sort-of-boss. and then to kill steve himself. oh no!!

in what is possibly the most gripping, most visually pleasing hand-to-hand fight sequence in the history of cinema,

(NO BUT SERIOUSLY, all jokes aside, if you've never watched it then please do bc it's!!! *shrieks* so fucking good!!!)

a fight sequence which also happened to unlock both steve's and an entire fandom's competence kink with that little sexy knife-flipping trick alone -- i know you know what i'm talking about, don't you lie to me babes--

as i was saying, steve manages to knock the mask off of his opponent's face. and who do you think appears before him? can you guess??

DING DING DING!!! EXACTLY!!! IT'S HIS LONG-LOST BAE BUCKY! who apparently doesn't recognize him??

confused and upset, steve fights to uncover the truth. turns out, the man is indeed the very same bucky he grew up with and loved. only, he didn't actually die in that tragic fall in the ravine; rather, due to the experiments performed on him while he was a war prisoner, he survived long enough to be found and captured by the enemy. who then proceeded to torture and brainwash him, using him as a tool for murder against his will, and literally putting him back in the freezer when they didn't need him.

which, as it happens, is how he stayed so young in the first place: he, uh, spent the better part of 70 years frozen. yeaaah, are the parallels paralleling or what, hmmmm?? preserved in ice like your mom's best lasagna from last week? plunging to a 'death' that isn't really a death? waking up in the future kinda screwed over? :D

ANYWAY

steve is even more devastated than before, now that he's learned that while he was asleep in the ocean, bucky was out there suffering. when he finally confronts bucky again (and it's fucking epic and also fucking heartbreaking, believe you me) steve is desperate to bring bucky, his bucky, back. knowing in his heart that his bae is still somewhere in there, no matter how deeply buried.

in the most critical moment(TM), steve chooses to stay behind, on a plane that's about to fucking blow up around them - just like bucky did for him all those years ago - because if he can't save bucky, then he'd rather die with him.

only, bucky is scared and confused af at the moment, and he attacks steve, because 1) he has a mission after all, he's supposed to kill this guy dammit, and 2) wtf is even going on here??? who IS this man, WHY does he keep saying that they've known each other their whole lives?? and WHY does bucky feel like he's actually seen him somewhere else before?????

AND HERE IS THE PIVOTAL MOMENT OF ALL PIVOTAL MOMENTS: for the first time in his life, steve refuses to fight back. like he literally drops his shield out of the plane and into the river underneath, in a very powerful and symbolic gesture, signifying his surrender: he's not going to hurt bucky anymore, no matter what. THIS FUCKER LITERALLY LETS BUCKY BEAT HIM TO A PULP, WITHOUT EVEN TRYING TO DEFEND HIMSELF, 100% ready to let bucky kill him if that's what's gonna happen here, because that's still better than living in a world where bucky's gone - a world where bucky will look at him and only see a target, or a stranger at best.

and then!!!!

no this is like, this is THE most romantic shit, okay, like you could try to convince me that it isn't for the next hundred years and i wouldn't buy it, because. BECAUSE.

at the very last moment, steve finally manages to break through bucky's brainwashing, breaking the metaphorical spell bucky was under. and do you know how he does that? i ask you, do you know how steve does that, my love?

by repeating to bucky the very same words bucky offered him way back in the beginning, when he proposed asked steve to move in together. till death do us part the end of the line, baby. romeo could NEVER

bucky, who was about to deal the fatal blow, freezes instantly, finally recognizing the man under him.

and when steve falls out of the plane, bucky jumps after him, instinctively saving his life instead.

but bucky can't stay. confused, wounded, vulnerable, and only just beginning to remember who he used to be and what was done to him, he slips away and hides from steve - and from all the other people who might be looking for him, and probably want him dead. you think this is gonna stop steve, though?? now that he knows that bucky is still alive, and that he remembers him??? now that he knows that bucky's not lost to him forever?? AS IF!!

(to be continued in part 3)

[legokingfisher]

Thinkin about post-Beatrix Imperium. All the dragons were released (as far as we know) so they had no power source left. And they ran entirely on dragon energy, it wasn’t a “most of our energy is from dragons, but we also do x y and z” situation, it was ONLY dragon energy. Theoretically they could go back to getting dragon energy from partnerships with dragons, but i highly doubt there will be any dragons willing to give them anything anytime soon due to Beatrix doing Literal Actual Slavery.

So, for the first months or even years post-Beatrix, is the city just kinda fucked? The last time we saw it, Percival and his teammates were in that area and he sounded pretty optimistic, but we didn’t even see the inside of the city, let alone any other citizens. It makes me wonder if there are many left, or if there was a sort of mass exodus because of what had to be severe power shortages.

And yes, Imperium is incredibly technologically advanced, so I have no doubt they’ll eventually create and implement new technology that harnesses other energy sources. But that will take time. What happens to the Imperian populace in the meantime? I seriously doubt there was any other kind of energy-harnessing/producing infrastructure to fall back on bc who KNOWS how long they’ve relied solely on dragon energy.

There’s also the option of copying or mimicking energy-harnessing tech from other regions/peoples who, you know, don’t rely 100% on a single energy source. But I feel like it would take lots of time and controversy for that to catch on with/be trusted by the average Imperian, because think about it. Even in the face of desperate need for energy in order for the city to Function, these people have had distrust and xenophobia hammered into their skulls from birth to death for what has to be multiple generations. So even if their scientists and engineers find a way to take a leaf out of other peoples’ books, (or even if someone decides to help them,) i really doubt it’ll be an instant fix. Exhibit A: Sora’s parents being distrustful of her after reuniting with her in s1, despite clear evidence of Beatrix’s corruption right in front of their faces.

And let’s think about those who did leave in search of like… homes with power and working amenities. They would be a relatively small minority in Ninjago City or the Crossroads or whatever else is Anywhere nearby. They would feel alone and distrustful of the world around them because it’s New and Scary, and even if the people are hospitable, unlearning xenophobia that’s seeped into every aspect of your Everything is not something that happens in a day. Plus adjusting to different technology and standards of living won’t help how emotionally charged things would get.

And let’s ALSO think about the people who stayed. What do their lives look like? Do they have any knowledge of how to survive without their technology or how to get by whilst it’s being rationed and in low supply? Probably not, or at least not very well. What’s happening to disabled Imperians? This power shortage probably has gotten people killed or at least made their lives worse/more painful.

It’s not ALL doom and gloom though, i suppose. Someone had to have made those differently colored outfits we see Percival’s teammates wearing. Someone had to have made or even imported those different flavors of tea he talked about. Imperians are persevering. But it can’t be easy rn. Beatrix really caused the collapse of a major world power huh. And for what? Nothing meaningful. An empty power-fantasy.

[olympiansowl]

I saw some people mad at Elendil bc he didn’t talk to Earien at the end of this ep but like…she isn’t a faithful and no harm would come to her bc of Pharazon’s politics. At the end of the ep, the only one in chains is Miriel, not Earien. Earien is also the love interest of the new prince who insulted her father, said he was nobody’s captain (and she was also present at that scene) and killed another faithful who happened to be her friend and her brother’s bestie, not to mention that she also has a huge role in all of the things they’re going through bc she was the one who gave the Palantiri to Pharazon…she literally helped him get his ass on that throne so no, she won’t need help or whatever to survive because she isn’t a faithful, she’s probably dating the prince and she helped the king get the damn scepter. And she also won’t be convinced to change her religion by her father bc if that was the case, she would’ve changed it after the sea trial. The only one who’s truly capable of getting something into her head is Isildur. And I want y’all to see the whole picture because Earien was mad at Miriel because of the southlands, but Miriel didn’t make anyone go. They volunteered. And I’m pretty sure that when someone agrees to go to war, they know that they might not come back alive, specially considering that 80% of them didn’t even knew how to fight properly. Miriel comes back and all of the things happens to her and now she’s a prisoner at her own city because of Pharazon AND Earien. Not to mention Valandil’s death and the orher things that happened to the faithfuls. Earien is a grown ass woman and she made her choice. She was, like Elendil said, promoted.

Do I agree with his parenting? Not really, I think sometimes he’s unnecessarily harsh, but his daughter helped usurp a Queen, who’s also his love interest, and placed power into the hands of the two craziest mf of that city. Kemen made a whole show out of the captain scene and she was still there, she also didn’t make anything to stop insults or whatever. She might try to help them out of some situations, but those situations wouldn’t be happening if she kept her mouth shut. And the “oh but he didn’t teach them how to be a faithful” doesn’t really work here because Valandil, one of their closest friends, was a faithful, and friends have a huge importance and influence on people when growing up because it’s when we get apart from our parents to build our own personality. Earien has hers. She isn’t a bad person, but she made dumb choices…and she might not know it because she doesn’t see the future, but her scheme is literally connected to the fall of Numenor. She gave Pharazon the palantiri, she helped him usurp Miriel, she made the others who were loyal to Miriel lose their jobs and swords, she’s probably dating that fucking devil (Kemen)…and she didn’t make it based on “my father doesn’t talk to me” and even if she did, I can assure y’all that it doesn’t justify her actions. Theo had a good mother and made shit choices. Isildur has the same father as Earien and isn’t out there trying to usurp anyone’s rightful throne. Tar Palantir had a shit father, a terrible one who forced his mom into marriage and shit talked him bc he was faithful, and yet Palantir was a sweet man who let people live in peace.

Also, at the top of the cake…Miriel wasn’t forced into marriage, but she might be on the next season since Cynthia said the civil war isn’t over. A civil war that is happening because someone thought it would be a good idea to usurp her. And another someone helped it. Pharazon accused Miriel of witchcraft and siding with the enemy because, guess what? Earien gave him the Palantiri! And she’s isn’t really questioning him on his new infos, which I find strange since Numenor is kinda of separated from the other places and doesn’t really get into their business. I’m sorry, but Earien has as much blame as any of the other two mf, with a difference that she isn’t yet corrupted. Which won’t take too long because in the appendix is said that only the remaining faithful weren’t corrupted by Sauron…Pharazon accused Miriel of witchcraft and siding with the enemy because, guess what? Earien gave him the Palantiri! And that caused him to exile everyone that follow this religion. And they should follow. I saw people saying that she shouldn’t be okay with her brother dying because of religions and magical things but like…it’s their world. They have that island because of that religion and at this point everybody knows that they will lose the same island because Pharazon decided that it was a brilliant idea to go and insult the gods even more than he already did. It’s because of this religion that her lineage, since she also came from house Elros, is able to live at least 200 years. She made shit choices and that’s on her. If someone pointed a gun at her head or threatened her or her loved ones, then I would understand her bad choices and feel more love towards her, but it wasn’t really the case. She made those choices because she thought it was a good path. And now everyone else is dealing with the consequences of hers, Pharazon’s and Kemen’s decisions.

[wosieposiecozy]

Finally got the balls to post this

Candybats rambles and HC and individual stuff. Turning these freaks into OCs fr

🦇🎀 Rambles under the cut bc talk of mental health, also note pink text is for things that are more personal to me/ based off my life. I project onto these freaks a whole lot, especially streber! The pink text range from silly to not so silly 🎀🦇

Enjoy!!!

-kevin is a nerd/freak, no way he's friends with Radford and isn't a nerd, bro def has a fixation on sonic the hedgehog but only owns 06 (he borrows other games from rad)

- streber is not an engineer but a theater prop maker, he enjoys the stage and probably was in a robotics club in college but engineering/ robotics was not something he wanted to go into directly. He dose prop commissions and is a teacher assistant at an elementary school.

-streber is great at math and calculations, but my boy can't read/spell well.

- streber likes to fidget with Kevin's hands

-kevin likes to just flop on top of streber. Streber likes the pressure. Kevin's like a cold weighted blanket, and streber is a heating pad.

- streber struggles with depression, it's been a year since Bob and while he's doing better, he struggles with not feeling anything sometimes, he's nervous on how his response to his trauma isn't like others. He kinda pretends it didn't happen and continues on, and only really thinks about it when he's alone at night. (Based on my own experiences with grieving a lost one)

- streber has mixed feelings about people who survived Bob, he never blamed them but he's just is extremely upset he couldn't get the same treatment from that monster. He stopped going to support groups and just dose 1 on 1 therapy.

- streber lived with his parents for a while after getting out of the hospital (the rats stayed with Leon 💪) , and kinda just wanted to rot in his bed, but eventually went to some sort of support. Mainly because of fears of going to the mental hospital (yes, again,based on irl experiences)

-streber refused to talk to news outlets regarding the incident.

- he fluctuates wanting to get a prosthetic arm to not wanting to.

-kevin is on depression and anxiety meds. (Literally hc he has the same as me, bro take them everyday or else bad shit happens!!! )

- Kevin doesn't talk about work when he's not at work, it makes him pissed, mainly because the most interesting thing is skid & pump, police, teens stealing, or killers/demons

- Kevin hates work and dose experience fear of "god, what I'm if I go into day and I die" but the anxiety of having to get a new job and change his norm over powers his fear of death.

- streber bites Kevin, like just a stress and comfort thing, Kevin is okay with it. Streber kinda bites his arm sometimes

- streber and Kevin rent out apartments, they don't live together.

-streber loves his rat children. We got Socrates🐀, motor oil🐀, and Mr. Girl🐀!!

- Kevin had a love at first sight kinda thing but didn't act on his feelings, mainly because he likes to get to know people first before asking them out and bc work has him in a choke hold.

- Kevin would like a pet cat but.... Work 😔

- they met because of Radford 💪 the real hero of spooky month's 18-30 year olds 🫡.

- streber became pretty good friends with Kevin at first then he fell for him, bro just loves cringe fail men (and women). Kevin was beefing with children, no way your gonna find a better boy failure /silly

- streber disassociates during slasher films. He still loves horror and Halloween as it was his comfort growing up, but Bob left a stain that will forever haunt him.

-streber's favorite horror movies are silent & psychological horror.

- Kevin isn't a huge fan of horror movies but he appreciates "Dave made a maze" & probably "Willard", he's like " Dave just like me fr!!!" (Go watch the movie, it free on Tubi 😎)

- both can't drive, streber takes the bus, Kevin takes his bike.

-I like to think they're both touch starved.

-kevin likes physical affection and wants to give it to streber but kinda forgets how to

-streber is very big on physical affection but isn't use to it

-

- freak 4 freak

-insert Kevin is a fan of young Sheldon here-

🎀🦇 Oki rambles over 🦇🎀

If you liked it, that's kinda epic

[arbitrarycategories]

Hey would you mind sharing what the real point of jekyll and hyde is that Hollywood missed? I have never read the book

You just made my night actually THANK YOU

Long so it’s under a cut :)

(you should totally read the book, it’s not super long and it’s actually really good)

okay tw murder and suicide and like. Violence I guess. It’s a psychological thriller from the Victorian era idk what y’all expect

Alright here’s the part where I admit I’ve never seen a Jekyll and Hyde movie but I HAVE seen various iterations of him in pop culture monster movies where he’s some quirky background character yknow?? The pop culture idea of this guy is kind of wild

First things first!!! Pop culture would have you believe that Dr. Jekyll has a wife or a girlfriend or some shit that Mr. Hyde wants to ravage or cheat on or whatever!! This is false because the only female characters in the entire book are a little girl who gets trampled to establish how Evil Hyde Is and a woman who calls the cops after witnessing a murder as she took a smoke break on a balcony. Neither one of them even has a name :) this is a book with NO BITCHES okay??? There’s barely even any men

Important Character round up!

Mr. Utterson the Lawyer (most of the book is from his viewpoint)

Dr. Lanyon (a friend to Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Utterson)

Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde (respected Chemist/criminal)

Poole the butler <3

And that’s IT.

Okay there’s also some parliament guy who gets murdered but like whatever. He’s just there to get killed. Bye.

So a very basic plot synopsis is that Mr. Utterson is the guy in charge of Dr. Jekyll’s Will. Because of this he happens to be sort-of-friends with Jekyll because neither of them really have many friends. They’re also both friends with Dr. Lanyon.

Mr. Utterson first becomes aware of Mr. Hyde as a person who exists when a friend (unimportant) of his tells him about this guy who trampled a little girl. Obviously this is fucked up, but the friend has more to the story. Bystanders didn’t let this guy just trample a little girl, they demanded compensation so that she could pay a doctor to help her. Hyde went to a door (which the friend points out bc he and Utterson are on a walk) and makes out a check under the name of Jekyll. And so Utterson is like. Huh what

He goes home and looks at Jekyll’s Will, and Hyde is the guy set to get all his stuff if Jekyll disappears!! And so Utterson is like well that doesn’t make sense for MY friend the Extremely Respected Chemist. So naturally he’s curious and goes poking in that polite Victorian way.

It turns out Hyde lives in Soho but is a FREQUENT visitor to Jekyll’s house, has a key and all the servants know him etc. nobody knows how he and Jekyll met and they’re all a little afraid to ask.

And then there’s a year long timeskip actually. Utterson asked and Jekyll said “yeah don’t worry about it :)” and then we just skip a year.

We come back because Mr parliament gets MURDERED in what seems to be a crime of passion by a certain Mr. Hyde. Like the fact that the guy killed was in parliament was a complete coincidence. I keep meaning to look up the guys name to see if he was a real guy who was just really hated or something but I never get around to it. Anyway. Hyde beats him to death with his cane.

OH YEAH. Break hang on.

HERES THE OTHER THING HOLLYWOOD FUCKS UP THAT I ALMOST FORGOT!!! Hyde is not Hulk!!! He’s not big he has no muscles he’s literally an itty bitty guy!! He’s described as “particularly small”, “little man”, “of small stature”. He’s tiny!!! Truly exemplifying that short people are closer to the devil etc whatever he’s itty bitty and super fucking mean like the worlds worst chihuahua given human form.

Alright back to PLOT

The police recognize Hyde pretty much from the witness description of him, and Utterson is like “well that’s easy I Know Where He Lives” but they can’t find him even though his neighbors all sell him out and they literally go to his place in Soho.

So Utterson goes to ask his good friend Jekyll, who he knows is close with Hyde, where the fuck his buddy is!!! And Jekyll is having like a full on nervous breakdown at this point. Jekyll swears that he’s “done with” Hyde and “he will never more be heard of”. He’s sweating and shaking and generally looking like he’s on drugs or something.

Hyde conveniently left a letter to Jekyll (wow!!) that basically said he had fled the country and thanks for being his friend this whole time :) Utterson has a lil convo with Jekyll where he becomes convinced that since all of Jekyll’s stuff went to Hyde if he disappeared that Hyde was planning to murder Jekyll but the heat from killing a member of parliament had scared him off so Jekyll is safe now. If what Utterson thought was happening was what was ACTUALLY happening this would probably be where the story ends. But NO. First bc Utterson hired a guy to analyze the handwriting on the letter from Hyde to Jekyll and the guy (literally named Mr. Guest) was like “yeah this is Jekyll writing with a different slant idk who he’s fooling” and so Utterson is now convinced that Jekyll is covering for Hyde for some reason

And SECOND because jekyll starts acting like a crazy person. Poole the butler shows up at Utterson’s house one day like “hey my boss is freaking me out and also his voice changed?? I think Hyde is living in his room and pretending to be jekyll”

So naturally they bust into his locked room with an axe. Like you do. It’s not his bedroom it’s like his chemistry room idk they just call it his cabinet but it’s Clearly Some Kind of Lab. Anyway they find Hyde’s dead body on the floor <3 he has pretty explicitly killed himself with cyanide.

They also find a couple letters, which make up the rest of the book.

The first one is from Dr. Lanyon (remember Lanyon?). Lanyon writes all about how Jekyll started acting like a crazy person and had him deliver a drawer (like, pulled out of a dresser and full of chemicals) from Jekyll’s cabinet to Hyde, who Lanyon has never met. The description is this part is actually really good, you can tell it’s Hyde who shows up to meet Lanyon even though it never says his name. This is the part where he mixes the chemicals like the worlds worst smoothie and then fucking Shapeshifts back into Jekyll right in front of Lanyon :) why did he Do this. At this point in the story we are hearing this from Lanyon’s letter instead of Lanyon himself because Lanyon fucking Died when it was still Uttersons pov and didn’t tell anyone what he had learned?? He thought nobody would believe him ig but he tells Utterson he has had a shock and will die within a few weeks and then he literally Does. Like what the fuck man.

The next letter is from Jekyll!! It is a confession of how exactly Hyde came to be AND WHY.

Look me in the eyes. THIS IS THE PART POP CULTURE GETS COMPLETELY WRONG!!!!!!

Jekyll, being a well respected Member of Society, wanted to expunge himself of all evil desires by splitting himself into two people, one who is good and one who is evil. He manages to make a chemical potion of some kind that lets him shift between two bodies. Here’s where the text will get you: Jekyll is an unreliable narrator.

IT DOESNT WORK!!!!! He claims that Hyde immediately felt more evil but was shocked when he switched back to Jekyll and didn’t feel any different than before. Jekyll is still just as good and JUST AS EVIL as before he downed his magic shapeshifting potion!! Jekyll didn’t invent a second, more evil form, he invented a mask he could hide behind that let him escape all accountability for his actions.

And you know the most damning proof?? The switch has started happening without him drinking the potion. He will go to sleep as Jekyll and wake up as Hyde, and it’s taking more and more doses to turn back into Jekyll. At the time he writes the letter, he is permanently stuck as Hyde, but the letter is from JEKYLL and laments the guilt he feels for actions done as Hyde. He condemns Hyde as if that IS a separate person!! But Hyde has the same mind and should that Jekyll does, just a different face, and Jekyll is lying to himself.

Anyway that’s what happens in The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. It’s all about this lawyer dealing with the most Batshit series of events a client has ever made him deal with <3

[mischas]

What do you think were the biggest missed opportunities when it came to the OC?

Lol my favorite topic (this is not at all exhaustive)

Not letting Marissa verbalize and process her trauma 1000% forever and ever amen. The show learns by the end of s1 that they can keep hurting her without much recompense. Oliver holds a gun to her head and bamboozles grown ass adults yet she shoulders all of the blame in the aftermath. Christ. Her father MOVES AWAY TO BE A BETTER PARENT BC HE CANT STOP SLEEPING WITH HIS EX? Please. How anyone came up with that and thought that was good writing I will never know. Marissa's SA'ed and nearly r**** by her boyfriend's brother and never says the words out loud or processes it because the shooting looms larger. Disgusting. Back in s1 Luke is more apologetic of his affair than Marissa's own mother is and HE'S the one who has to leave town? which leads me to

Getting rid of Luke made no sense. Instead of making Luke/Julie happen they should've had Luke/Marissa 2.0 happen. There was so much there to mine. Sometimes the show acts like they were a nothing relationship and other times like 109 we see they have deep-rooted love/fondness. Rushing RM (though they're my loves) after their 101-108 slow burn shot them in the foot since they were so uncreative later on. But then again TPTB were so reliant on the actors' mirrored personal lives that I'm convinced if they'd put RM off to s2 they would've butchered them thanks to the irl breakup. (This is still so insane)

Getting rid of Anna also made no sense. She was liked by the gen pop, she had good chemistry with everyone! What a damn waste

Seth/Marissa friendship!!!! It is so cute to think Seth is the one boy in Marissa's life that isn't falling all over her. They share the same music tastes, they have the same favorite book, they grew up privileged + depressed, they're neighbors, they're dating each other's besties, their families have a storied closeness, they've dated the same person, etc. It is SO insane how little they actually interact.

Not exploring the Jimmy/Kirsten dynamic more. I rewatched the pilot a few months ago and the hints to their history are so compelling. I remember thinking their tension was good enough to last several seasons. Cutting that out to uphold the sanctity of SK in s1 ended up being for nothing since s2 messed with SK even worse! So why!

Never utilizing Alan Dale well enough. Not only do they kill him for no reason, his death literally does nothing but give us an iconic coda and funeral scene. That's literally it. Having Caleb around while Kirsten goes to rehab is so much more compelling than having her go after he's died. And making us watch Caleb/Lindsay/Ryan for what seems like half a season is so unbelievably boring and ridiculous. Why are we supposed to care. This is taking away from Kirsten/Caleb material! which brings me to

Never giving Kelly Rowan much to do. What a goddamn waste. She absolutely kills her late s2 arc but then she leaves rehab two minutes into 301 and the Charlotte storyline mostly revolves around Julie. Jesus. People talk about the favoritism going on on that set with the younger actors (as they 1000% should and we should do it more), but there was some serious shit going on with elevating Melinda constantly and shafting Tate/Peter/Kelly forever. Especially Kelly. At least she was there and not essentially let go like Tate was (and Tate was a ~big name~ regular from the pilot!). But you can tell Kelly's got some feelings about how the show went for her and her screentime/importance.

Not cutting the Johnny storyline two minutes into filming 304. They had to know Mischa/Ryan D had no chemistry. We're supposed to believe Marissa's having some sort of emotional affair but there is absolutely nothing showing that to us. It's everyone telling Marissa she's got feelings for him, and Mischa doing her job well enough to convince us it's sketchy/complicated, but they have one (1) conversation in 306 that's mostly about Johnny's father or uncle that no one cares about. which brings me to

WE DONT CARE ABOUT GUEST STARS. stop spending so much valuable time on them. we just wanna see our s1 babes being cute and supporting one another that's literally it

[atopvisenyashill]

That whole era of the Second Quarrel onwards is so obscure when it comes to the succession and the tensions surrounding it. No reactions. No massive events or much about dynamics. I want to know about Viserys's coronation. I want to know what he felt about his own succession before the GC. And before that, I want to know if Baelon ever tried to mend fences. If Jaehaerys ever mentioned it again, and how. How Rhaenys made her life, now all but an exile, on Driftmark. What motivated Aemma and Viserys's marriage. WHEN DID JOCELYN DIE?!

LITERALLY OMG. Number one frustrating thing about F&B is we get pages and pages of stuff no one in the world gives a shit about - Maiden's Day, that stupid story about Jaehaerys fucking the writer - and nothing on the subjects that actually got most people into the damn series like the POLITICS or the MAGIC. all of THAT is completly glossed over or Gyldane (and Yandel for that matter) just go "Well Barth did say this thing but that's nonsense" and then no elaboration. drives me up a WALL because yeah sure maybe the long, pages upon pages of battles and fighting are not my cup of tea but a) they're perfectly well written and b) THEY MAKE UP FOR IT BY GIVING ME SEVERAL CHAPTERS IN A ROW OF CERSEI AND SANSA JUST CHILLING AND POLITICKING IN DETAIL. He makes up for that in F&B by giving me MORE Jaehaerys as if that's what I want!!!

There's a few eras in F&B I think are likely to come up in the main series or in dunk and egg which is why I think F&B is so frustratingly vague (and if they were kept vague for no reason….george what. george WHY). And I do get he wanted to give us more of what he was writing without spoiling later books but good lord i would actually rather wait longer for material that isn't 60% george going "well i can't tell them ALL of that, let's just wink at the audience." The Second Quarrel is one of those times that might be relevant later imo largely because there's just. NOTHING. NO INFO. NO EVENTS. Like you said, there are NO major events in this time period. the ONLY thing happening is politics and court intrigue but F&B isn’t interested in court intrigue unless it involves grooming a 12 year old girl and unfortunately there is only poor Aemma being groomed at this time so F&B says “too many old people they’re not sexy” and just gives us sparse details about marriage dates, birth dates, and death dates. We don’t even see how rhaenys and viserys feel about THEE QUEEN ALYSANNE dying!!!!!!!! She just. Passes. oh so sad. george i’m in your walls!

Unlike every other Targaryen child (Aemma, Viserys, Daemon, herself, even Aerea and Rhaelle to an extent) who is allowed to grow up at court surrounded by other Valyrians and members of the royal family, Rhaenys kids are denied this. With this move, as you say, Jaehaerys all but tells Rhaenys "get you and your fuckin kids the hell out of my city." Can you imagine being Rhaenys, newly pregnant, having been told for years by your father and grandmother that you will be Queen one day just to be suddenly and unceremoniously exiled from court and kicked completely out of the line of succession? Can't even begin to get into how deranged it is to do this to your pregnant granddaughter when she's mourning the loss of her father

WHEN DOES JOCELYN BARATHEON DIE. HOW DOES SHE FEEL ABOUT HER DAUGHTER AND GRANDKIDS BEING PASSED OVER?????? She is only a year or two older than Aemon, she could easily have still been alive and making a fuss during Viserys' reign especially after he names Rhaenyra his heir SO HOW DID SHE FEEL ABOUT ALL OF THIS.

Baelon and Viserys' coronations/weddings/big We Are The Royal Line Now Shenangians during this era are crazyyy right, because THE QUEEN OF WESTEROS is refusing to talk to the iron throne, can’t ride her dragon anymore, is losing her hearing and memory, and goes everywhere with Gael to the point that no one even attempts to marry Gael bc they know Alysanne will never let her go. THATS INSANE. They are LIVING SEPARATELY like practically pseudo divorced the way Doran and Mellario are, so is Alysanne just purposefully snubbing these celebrations and using “i’m old” as an excuse or is she passive aggressively riding a carriage all the way back to KL just to show up wearing velaryon colors to viserys’ wedding and then left again without saying goodbye before the banquet even started???

AMD BAELON. part of why i’m so turned off by him is bc we have no indication he felt even a little had but to be fair it has been pointed out to me that we ALSO have no indication he didn’t feel bad; we have no indication of his feelings whatsoever!!! for all we know HE could have felt this was unfair & had been in the middle of either brokering a marriage between his grandkids and her kids, or figured “hey we had this exact same issue with Auntie Rhaena, maybe I should build House Targaryen a second and third seat or even given Dragonstone to The First Born Girl as tradition from now on” like he really could have been trying OR he could have been cackling and rubbing his hands together and encouraging viserys to bed 13 year old aemma soon and often to ensure their line, and calling rhaenys a stupid bitch at court, like we just don’t know!!!!!

We get several “they never agreed on the succession” comments but how does that translate to ACTION. stop telling me dates and tell me WHAT HAPPENED.

[echobx]

do you think there’s any way rudy would come back for obx5 if the pates begged enough? i really don’t want him to after how the fandom has been treating him but idk

I don't think he's coming back to that set even if they gave him a billion dollars.

you see, that man loves storytelling. he loves creating and bringing characters to life. he said so, many times. and I don't know how fucking hard it must have been to have to watch and take part in this character assassination that has been happening slowly in s3 and then ultimately in s4. JJ and Rudy are so close to each other, okay, he made him to what we love. there's no way we could've had the same JJ with a different actor bc most of what makes JJ so lovable and relatable is in the way Rudy chose to portray him. I imagine he's quite hurt of it all. not being able to change anything and to be forced to continue bc breaking his contract with them would've actually probably ruined his career. so instead you gotta stick it out and hope for the best. Rudy never wanted JJ to die, but the way JJ was written from s3 on, he probably lost as much hope as I and many others did when we saw s3 for the first time.

I think the chance that Rudy would come back died the moment the producers forced jiara into canon at a point where the story wasn't ready for it yet. by now it should be pretty clear that I'm not a jiara fan, but if they had taken the time to build up this romance, to actually show them develop these feelings for each other over the course of s3, and getting closer and slowly but steadily breaching the gap from friends to lovers, then we would also probably not be here. but bc they didn't do that, we are left with s3 having moment after moment where both JJ and Kie feel very out of character. which would've been an easy fix if they had just given us one whole episode that shows what happened on the island, just one to see them actually get closer to each other, instead of nothing. bc where we left of in s2, there was nothing but friendship in between those two. s1/2 Kiara wouldn't have touched JJ with tongs, all right. and I just know that if they had lingered there a little, and actually given them time, then it would've made sense and it wouldn't have felt like it came out of thin air. and Rudy AND Madison would've been more on board with it. bc we know Rudy didn't like s3 scripts, like at all. and that's the dispute that started it all in my eyes, that he wanted to get a more consistent story for his character and was denied by the people that had always presented themselves as understanding and like a second family to him.

also, the way they literally gave JJ hit after hit and no time to breathe in s4 just to kill him off in the stupidest way- that's literally character assassination. destroying a character's whole story right before killing them off before they can learn to live with what has just happened to them. and like many people said, they could've killed him differently. they could've let him drown while saving Sarah, or just vanish at sea, keep it open and let fans hope, even if you don't bring him back, the hope will at least further speculation and therefore drive viewing numbers up for that last season. but the Pates are petty. that's more than clear with how they handled Drew (yes, I'm still not over that shit) so instead of being smart, they chose to be angry and stupid, and wrote him probably one of the worst death I have ever seen on television yet. (and it's not about the death itself and more so that it was unnecessary at this point. he didn't die saving Kie. he died after he had saved her. his death was literally for nothing at that point.)

and for the "fans" that keep on commenting weird shit under his posts like this one that I found on his post from 2020, yeah...

I hope these guys know that he can't stand them. I hope he actually hates them bc those are not his fans. those are bratty little babies who think they deserve everything they wish, and the fact that they got jiara to be canon makes them feel indestructible, so they will keep on being annoying and they will keep on harassing him and his gf and the obx channels.

tl;dr: no. I'm almost 100% certain that he will not return to obx5

[they-hermes]

Curious to see more if your combiner teams/combiner headcanons? Especially for the first five (Constructicons, Stunticons, Aerialbots, Combaticons, & Protectobots).

What kind of dynamics do you see between teams (both Con to Con combiner teams, and Con to Autobot combiner teams) and within teams? Who gets along better with others and how do the combiners feel about their components? (Only thinking platonically here)

I love combiners (especially the Stunticons and Protectobots) to death and there aren't enough combiner fans who truly care about the combiner and the components. Just interested in seeing sole of your headcanons for any/all of those five, if you want to share any!

ahhh combiner fans lets all come together!! this is a loaded question and im happy to answer bc i love combiners and their components! im gonna put em in a little g1 general continuity soup

In general for me i dont really like the idea of combiners being born together as a team i think idws approach where everyone had their own lives until they (by choice or force) became a combiner and learned to work together. also i dont like treating them as children/recently born bots even though thats literally what happened to the aerialbots/ stunticons/technobots. basically an outside force made them combiners instead of being directly built as one

the aerialbots are the only team where i see them referring to eachother as "brothers". i think they're close enough to consider themselves family. the others have more complicated feelings that range from "coworkers" to "tight knitted friendgroup" to "those people who i combine with"

between the teams the autobot gestalts are much more friendlier, Hot Spot and Silverbolt definitely get along, until hot spots energy tires silverbolt out. individually the protectobots are older than the aerialbots, but the aerialbots were a combiner group first so superion is older than defensor. the two teams work together a lot and have common goals. they'll even hang out together either separately or all together, like air raid and blades will spar a lot (and end up in first aids care)

(for idw i imagine rook and alpha bravo get along, for obv reasons)

the decepticon gestalts hateee eachother lmaoo. its a constant battle of 'wow these other freaks are so incompetent and stupid. good thing im the only normal one here' except they're all stupid. onslaught technically has the youngest combiner as bruticus was formed after menasor and devastator but he himself is only a couple of centuries younger than scrapper. motormaster is the youngest yet refuses constructive criticism even tho his combiner is clearly the most unstable and has subpar leadership skills that take a toll on his teams output. actually the rest of the teams dont hate eachother as much as their commanders do, blast off and dead end exchange maintenance tips, and vortex likes hanging around the structies for mindless conversations while they work

and for bot vs cons, they cannot stand eachother. the protectobots are the only ones trying to be nice; the aerialbots are assholes and the cons are worse. dont bring up hot spot or silverbolt around onslaught and motormaster respectively, or they'll both blow a gasket. the combaticons, built head to toe for war destruction and everything worse, cant stand seeing the protectobots act all peaceful and helpfull and shit, its disgusting.

as for the combiners... well they dont think much. see for the average combiner, it's hard to think that your arms and legs are separate people when you're trying not to get your face beaten into. they have some awareness, but very little, and dont know their components names. they can access shared memories and information, but thats about it. defensor hears about his components from the humans and thinks they're nice, superion thinks the war would be over by now if he didn't have to decombine and combine over and over again

[magpiesbones]

I’ve never read or watched bnha (mostly because fanservice give me hives) but I am adjacent enough and have friends who are obsessed with it and. FRANKLY. it is CRIMINAL that bnha has the Most Interesting Character Setup Of All Time and then wastes her.

I am talking about Todoroki Fuyumi, of course. She should, logically, be the main character.

She should be the main character, for ease of writing and plot, because she is THE CLOSEST to almost all themes while being enough of an outsider to allow for some exposition. She also lives a thematically insane life. And she’s a side character! At best! HOW.

like okay first off: she has been a failure since birth, and not for gender reasons but for OTHER REASONS inherent to her genetics. Fantastic setup to explore parental neglect. She has been the mother figure in a survival mode family since her mother was institutionalized. How old could she really have been, ten? Thirteen at the most? THESE THINGS FUCK PEOPLE UP. You could have explored the ways in which Fuyumi believes that because she is ignored, if everyone else tried they too could escape physical abuse, which is, you know, a fucked up way to think. Eldest daughter syndrome to the maximum. Not only that but she literally knows her father is capable of pushing her siblings so hard they die. This is fucked up knowledge to have. We could have explored atypical responses to abuse.

She has very close experience with the idea that actually not all Heroes are good people, yet still believes in the institution. Incredibly thematically dense there. We can also connect this back to her home dynamic— Heroism isn’t a flawed system, criminals just need to try harder, like her siblings maybe, and Not Get Attention. This could be INCREDIBLY GOOD.

I’m frankly unclear on whether or not Dabi is her twin or not. Either way, what better plot twist is ‘our father’s abuse made my brother a villain and almost killed him’ I think this would definitely fuck her up a little. Or a lot. More than she was already, you see. Also, the sheer amount of parallels you could make in this situation. None of them were ever considered because the mangaka thinks women are ineffective and More Background Of Characters Than Men, but the possibilities are endless. I’m envisioning a situation where she realizes that Dabi does the same shit as her father thus rendering the hero/villain dichotomy essentially meaningless, and/or confronts Either Of Them with this information. That would require Fuyumi to have had character development enough to confront someone, and bc she is Fawn Response The Character, probably unlikely.

I am Very Much Aware that Fuyumi has a quirk and the quirk is Ice, not very powerful, etc. but how fucked up would it be if SHE got all for one and kept it Very Much A Secret. Fuyumi is now pitted against her littlest brother and discovering her Inner Potential For Extreme Violence at the same time, something that has no potential at all for going very very badly. Please picture this with me: Fuyumi is making dinner for the brother who they BOTH know is pitted against All Mights Successor, whoever they may be, and he is telling her all about his quirkless friend who is breaking records at his school etc etc. and she knows that once he graduates their father will put him against her in the publicity battle to the death, which she has decided she is Very Very Mad About. However I honestly think this shouldn’t happen. Quirk transference should be treated like a Later plot twist after you really get Used to the idea that a quirk is Inherent and unchangeable. This should shake her DEEPLY and ideally she should learn About All For One after the Hawks Reveal (child trafficking).

I don’t know if it’s canon whether or not Natsuo has a quirk. If he doesn’t this effectively renders Midoriya’s character moot, because here is a MUCH closer way to talk about quirklessness in this society. What’s Fuyumi’s take on this as de facto mother. What’s Fuyumi’s take on this as abused child? lots to think about.

The whole Eugenics Thing that endeavor is doing is pretty glossed over in the manga to my understanding. It is however SO fucked up, first of all, and second of all. The Implications this has on Fuyumi as endeavors only child (Canonically) capable of bearing children. How powerful is her quirk actually? Is she as powerful as Dabi but with ice? Would she ever let her father know if she was (was she hiding her power deliberately or subconsciously)? Do we think he was arranging her marriage before Shouto was born and he had his own success. What are Fuyumi’s thoughts on this whole Thing. I think Fuyumi would have a VERY nuanced take on abortion rights and no fault divorce.

What does Midoriya Izuku have? Plot armour? The power of friendship? A heroics hyperfixation? Does canon have a singular consistent theme tied to Midoriya, In Particular?

I realize that most of the fandom fucking hates Fuyumi, sometimes more than endeavor (why?), but she seems to be someone both Very selfless (she’s a teacher (I think), presumably salaried, who still lives in her parents house with her underage and severely abused brother and the abusive father, despite having the means and the societal pressure to move out) and VERY aware of the Power Dynamics in that house. Whether or not she genuinely believes that her brothers could manage to make peace with their father or if that is a peacemaking tactic, she’s clearly got Some Thoughts about her duty, responsibility in general, et cetera, that would have been literally fascinating to explore. Storytellingwise, I think it would be fascinating if this started as a genuine beleif that she had some character development about and then began using as a coping mechanism until she got enough character development to actually experience anger.

Just HOW do you accidentally create a character with THIS MUCH potential and then completely ignore her except as (it sounds like) a minor antagonist to a secondary protagonist. When she is SO perfectly placed to be the protagonist, in a fun little antihero type of way.

[jilyandbambi]

the people who are pissed at Natalie's death and writing off the show bc it turns out the point of Yellowjackets wasn't some 3rd wave feminist #yas queen parable about rejecting societal norms and finding true freedom in the woods remind me of the annoying Intro to Womens Studies nerds who interpret the ending of The VVitch--y'know the movie where a malevolent entity uses starvation and grief to destroy the minds of an entire family so that he can isolate and sexually enslave the isolated & devastated eldest daughter for eternity--as a cathartic feminist metaphor.

people, the principal says it in the first minutes of the show: "all i know is that what happened was a tragedy. A terrible tragedy."

A. TRAGEDY.

because the Yellowjackets worked their asses off to get to Nationals. It was the biggest moment of their lives. They LOVED soccer. They were FREAKING PUMPED to get to Seattle and win the title. This was their DREAM.

because Jackie was a happy, perky kid from suburbia who was looking forward to going to college with her best friend. who found something to love about literally everyone but was doomed because you can't rally a starving team with a rousing speech and an ice breaker

because Shauna was going to go to Brown and grow up and find the confidence to be HERSELF instead of Jackie's best friend. And then she and Jackie have a fight and Jackie dies because of Shauna's betrayal, Shauna's jealousy, Shauna Shauna Shauna. Jackie will be a child forever because of Shauna, so how could Shauna dare grow up? She can't put her grief to rest because Jackie was never laid to rest because of Shauna. So Shauna comes out of the wilderness and marries Jackie's boyfriend and has Jackie's child and gets older year after year but never grows up because one night when she was 17 and scared she and Jackie had a fight and Shauna waited until the morning to say "I'm sorry."

because Taissa had a plan, had goals, had a future already mapped out. Nationals. Howard. Law school. Becoming a hot-shot NY lawyer. Because she got out of the wilderness and kept chugging along with The Plan because she HAD TO. But none of it is real to Taissa because you can't live and be numb, and Taissa has to be numb because if she lets herself celebrate the wins that she managed to swim while her fellow survivors sank, she’d have to remember that she too killed and ate her friends to get there. And Taissa--so distressed by what they did to Jackie she dissociated into amnesia--can't accept that, can't have that be who she is because it would ruin everything she wanted for herself. And then it's all ruined anyway.

because Lotte was a girl with psychic powers AND schizophrenia. She needed her meds!! Stopping treatment cold turkey is painful, disorienting, and SCARY, she needed support, she needed someone to tell her what was real and what wasn't because without her meds it was impossible for her to discern for herself. She needed support but got made into a god instead. And now a false prophet is all she knows how to be.

You get the idea.

The Yellowjackets didn't find freedom from society and the chains of the patriarchy when their plane crashed. They found starvation and guilt and loss and pain. The wilderness isn't a god of decadence and pleasure and ecstasy. It takes more than it gives. The team got to survive in exchange for slavish devotion and grief, and their childhoods, their dreams, their achievements, the people they loved more than themselves, the lives they’d been perfectly happy to keep on living.

They get rescued, go home, and grow into fractured adults who all, to varying degrees, actively make their lives worse because functionally, they're still scared, guilt-ridden kids lost in the woods who know no matter what that nothing will ever be okay again.

NONE OF THEM are glad that this happened. NOT ONCE does anyone say, "You know I'm grateful for this awful traumatizing experience because without it, I never would've [X,Y,Z]" NOT EVEN MISTY, who broke the transmitter so she could have friends for 5 more minutes. THIS SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

Yellowjackets is a TRAH-JAH--DEE.

[theoxenfree]

cort!! hope you've been doing well <3

this is really random but i remember you posted somewhere on your old blog you were reading this thing between us by gus moreno and i just finished it recently and was wondering about your thoughts!

finally answering this, sen! literally just finished the book after slamming it out in like a day.

first and foremost:

overall rating ⭐⭐⭐.5/5

fucked up rating 💀💀💀.8/5

MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS

overall, I think it was an interesting read and a fascinating take on the whole "possession" trope while integrating the inescapability of technology, grief, and struggles with cultural identity. those themes came thru consistently and potently throughout the entire story and I'm glad for that.

interestingly, I'm actually really delighted to have a protagonist like Thiago bc he never really grows from his experiences—only dissolves deeper into his grief and struggles, still blames himself, and I think his story was really the exploration of the opposite side of grief. usually, we read novels where the protagonists overcome their grief or, at the very least, learn to accept their lives as they were by the end—thiago just sort of continually spirals throughout the entire thing and sort of relents to the fact that he's going to die no matter what he does

I don't have a lot to say in regards to the cultural identity stuff bc it isn't something I can relate to on any level—but, moreno made sure this was a pretty significant focal point throughout the story, albeit quite spotty, and other reviewers don't seem pleased with the route he went with it.

I've read some people think moreno just spent a whole lot of time trashing mexican culture than anything else, but I do think that his idea was to write about a character who came from a "hard" background, who grew up knowing nothing besides that, and never really was given the opportunity to fully escape that. sure, vera is there, and he loves her, but I feel like a big point moreno tried to make was not only the significance of having vera come from a "easy" background (both parents, never having to struggle), but to have them culturally similar to sort of... idk really drive home that Thiago holds some sort of internal resentment towards her for that, and that he could never view himself as anything other than less than.

I could be completely wrong, but that's just sort of how I ended up interpreting it. some reviewers definitely didn't approach it critically, but even tho it was done poorly in some places, moreno really tried to give the cultural identity stuff complexity and I can respect the attempt there.

uhhhh

man, I am too tired to try to theorize about what the fuck was happening half of the time in the novel, but I do think: 1) this was more than a demon, but an interdimensional entity trying to make itself "real". 2) why it was trapped in a itza I have no fucking clue 3) probably the scenes of the beach and the table were easily the creepiest scenes in the book

it's fascinating bc Thiago does a pretty good job doing everything "right". he resists. he avoids. he runs. he destroyed the itza. tried to destroy the wall. tried to do the rituals that diane suggested. he's a lot more mentally robust of a character than he was aware of it and it took MULTIPLE deaths and possessions to finally get him to fully surrender; whereas he spent the entire novel believing that he was the weak one compared to vera.

one thing I'm thinking about is that this is technically a psychological horror—there are numerous times throughout the story where reality shifts, you're not sure of your head or your ass, and what the hell is going on. I think that's partially bc moreno may not be too familiar writing those sorts of things, bc I was confused more times than not BUT

in the beginning when thiago first met the cook at that diner, he drank the milkshake and it seemed to me that the diner actually existed. just like the possessions of brimley and jacobson actually existed, but, like, idk it makes me wonder how much was actually hallucinated vs real idk

gore was plentiful, somewhat gratuitous, but not really detailed enough to make me squeamish so it's whatever. tho, not-brimley's zipper mouth of teeth and Jacobson's eel eyes definitely put unique images in my head that are gonna hang around for a while. I really digged how moreno described the cook's real body bc as being fibrous, viscous, like some sort of bug covered in something—i think. it sounds and feels like it'd be gross and unnatural.

moreno's descriptive language was quite good imo. his imagery never really fell flat and he had this way of creating very specific, saturated images in your head that I really respect and is probably one of the biggest things I took away from his writing style. that imagery definitely did most of the heavy lifting for the story bc w/o it, the writing would've kinda just... a pissed off, grieving man whining the entire time.

one thing I did find jarring was how direct he could be with some details e.g. the scene where Jacobson throws Thiago into the grave and, like, hits him with the shovel and basically scalps him—it's so point blank that I'm like ?????

like, cool. I get it, but ???????

as a writer, I understand not everything deserves a paragraph of description to make it effective, but some elements could've been expanded imo

hands on hips

the ending was pretty bleak and it was meant to be bc this is, ultimately, a man who's been chased down to the point of being physically, emotionally, and psychologically exhausted and has completely surrendered by the end with a dim smolder left to fuck with cook just as a final 🖕🏻. fitting.

I felt pretty neutral about it tbh. not particularly impressed. not really able to say it was awful. it was kinda just "eh, that works, I guess. nebulous as hell, but whatever"

and, yeah!!! it was an okay book that was pretty easy to read and shred thru. not really making any of my lists for outstanding literature, but worth the time if you wanna read something sort of gory, highly atmospheric

what are your thoughts?????

[pinkberrypocky]

pmmm rewatch live notes: ep 5

this is the ep w the convo/fight between kyoko and sayaka and wough is there a lot to unpack from that. kyoko talks abt the food chain of magical girls and witches here which makes me fucking feral bc she's so right there is a food chain but she doesn't realize that she's not at the top. she doesn't realize that the entire being of magical girls and witches is cannibalism all for the sake and benefit of kyubey. just. ugh. kyoko thinks she's figured it out and sayaka is naive and in the dark but in reality neither of them understand what's going on. anyways also i think they should kiss. or at least hold hands.

When sayaka makes her contract with kyubey the lighting is red

Kyubey is entirely backlit and a black silhouette

Kyubey pulls a ball of light out of sayaka’s chest and she collapses in pain

Foreshadowing how the soul gems contain the literal souls of the girls and the bodies are just empty shells

Hence sayaka collapsed bc her being left her body

Sayaka is laughing and in a good mood the day after making her contract 

Not thinking at all about the weight of her decisions

Madoka is concerned and voices this but sayaka is determined to stay in her idealistic naive world 

Madoka, dispute being the most naive seeming, is actually the one out of the two of them who is maturely able to grasp the severity and reality of the choice to become a magical girl

Red lighting on the hospital building as sayaka approaches to visit kyosuke when he first knows his hand is healed

Why are there so many chairs around kyosuke’s hospital bed?

Maybe he used to have a lot of people cheering him on for recovery since he was a genius but they slowly left until only sayaka remains

Kyosuke apologizes for lashing out at sayaka and we see a yellow flower petal

Lots of yellow lighting and yellow flowers on the roof scene when kyosuke plays again for the first time

Kyosuke is a backlit black silhouette when he first takes the violin in his hands again

And all the people are like this when he plays again (him, his family, sayaka)

Sayaka says that kyosuke playing again is the happiest moment of her life 

And like yeah it sure it bc making the wish that allowed that is what made your life go downhill so fast afterward and led to your death

Kyubey reveals that he doesn't know who homura is and he can’t predict her actions

Kyoko is unbothered by things in an overconfident snooty way that is distinctly different from how mami tried to protect and how sayaka tries to stay blind to the truth 

Homura says “No matter how hard you try there is no thanks” ouch yeah no matter how hard homura tries to save madoka no one ever thanks her 

In fact they all curse her and say she’s the villain 

This is the reason that sayaka is a bad magical girl, because her whole reason for being a magical girl is to get kyosuke’s wish fulfilled which she is in denial about wanting thanks for 

Sayaka is a bad magical girl bc she doesn’t understand something which is so integral to homura’s experience 

Madoka is told by homura to give up on sayaka but we know that is not at all what she does

Because madoka is unable to ever give up on her friends or the people she loves her strength lies in the lengths she will go for her loved ones

Madoka asks homura if she’s given up and homura says yes

OUCH

Homura had to give up on the life with madoka that she yearns for and is now fighting for madoka’s life with no regard for where it will leave her

Yellowish orangish lighting as madoka meets sayaka on her way to begin her first witch patrol

Madoka asks sayaka to let her come with her even though she knows she won't be of any help and might even get in the way 

As long as it’s not a bother let me stay with you

Literally me fr

 Kyubey says he doesn't mind madoka coming on patrol w sayaka bc sayaka thought it through but his real reasoning is bc he knows sayaka is likely to get in an emergency and if madoka is there when that happens he can get her to make a contract

As they go into the labyrinth sayaka has kyubey on her shoulder and his tail in the shadow of her silhouette makes it look like she has long pigtails like mami did

Kyoko is jaded from the reality of the world while sayaka is still living in her delusion of an ideal world

Kyoko equates using grief seeds to eating witches

Calls it a food chain 

Kyoko instigates sayaka by asking her incredulously if she really believes in things like justice

She knows just what to say bc she used to be sayaka

And that’s why sayaka ticks her off so much

There is yellow lighting during kyoko and sayaka’s fight that barely filters into the alleyway 

It glints off of sayaka’s sword

When kyoko and sayka’s weapons come head to head in a stalemate the energy formed is yellow

Madoka can’t understand why they are fighting since they’re both magical girls on the same side and begs kyubey to stop them

He just uses this as another excuse to push her to make a contract

Shows her genuine concern for all living beings

Cries as she is about to make the decision bc she knows how much she is sealing herself in a miserable fate

When homura interferes with the fight there are water droplets frozen in time around her that go in slo mo which foreshadows her power being time manipulation

[horizon-verizon]

If anything TG and Sara Hess defense for Aegon II applies even more so to Viserys and Daemon. A product of their environment. They both grew up motherless (Viserys and Daemon were 7 and 3 respectively when Alyssa died) with no one in their lives telling them misogyny was wrong, and according to TG/Targs haters, their father groomed their mother. Viserys was wed to his 11-year-old cousin at the age of 15/16, by his grandfather, the king. Literally, the highest authority in his existence told him this was what he had to do. Daemon didn’t even consummate his marriage with his 1st wife because he didn’t love her.

Well...

Viserys was wed to his 11-year-old cousin at the age of 15/16, by his grandfather, the king. Literally, the highest authority in his existence told him this was what he had to do. Daemon didn’t even consummate his marriage with his 1st wife because he didn’t love her.

I'd keep it to this part instead of saying that these two didn't know what misogyny was...bc most men in Westeros do not think of misogyny as misogyny, so these two really shouldn't be hailed or made less accountable for whatever sexism they display. Motherlessness also shouldn't keep you/doesn't keep you unable to understand your own prejudices and biases. Women and mothers yes raise their kids on values or teach them how to regard others--as we see w/Alicent--but just as Aegon is accountable for his own awareness of others' needs or feelings, these two men are as well. Women aren't the default ones with the heaviest responsibility for their kids' moral upbringing; the offspring still can and have to develop their own moral compasses or even to just observe peoples reactions to any personal-sexual-boundary crossing action.

Plus, they had their father Baelon, who seemed the least woman-hating and most "respectful" example of a man...so yeah. IF Daemon or Viserys are the most sexist men of the time or at least cared nothing about the women on their lives, it's either Baelon wasn't 100% emotionally there to ingrain in his kids to at least be conscious of their advantage OR these two just decided--unconsciously and consciously, to act towards women as they did and live in their own privileges. Daemon still takes advantage of the fact that he can sleep with anyone other woman while married, even insult her home and house after all. Yeah it's understandable that he wants to be a part of his family's legacy building as most other noble men do, but it's not a good or totally justified thing. It's not uniquely evil, nor is it a good thing, basically. And Viserys continues to impregnate Aemma, leading to her death AND forces his daughters to marry to people they didn't want or when they (Helaena) was far too young despite what happens with Aemma.

But I think it is a complicated mix and pendulum of both, bc yeah Baelon was forever aggrieved of Alyssa's death, men are not typically child rearers and we don't have any details of how he spent time with his sons (no I do not think he was a deadbeat, I still think he put in time & attention more often than you typical Westerosi father but just not perfect or ideally present! Not always able to address the stuff his sons had difficulty understanding or feeling...ex, Viserys becomes too much of a people pleaser).